Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Watch out, David Cameron: my Tory friend is voting Ukip

We were out walking the dogs the other morning when my friend Deborah announced she was going to vote Ukip in the May local elections. I nearly fell over the poodle.

Deborah is the most 100 per cent cast-iron solid, loyal Conservative female voter since Margaret Hilda Thatcher. Why would she suddenly throw in her lot with Nigel Farage and his motley crew?

“If the Prime Minister thinks that people who hold views like mine are swivel-eyed loons, then I want to give him a bloody nose,” Deborah said sharply.

My guess is that she’s far from alone. Ukip posters are blooming in some unlikely windows. It’s no longer just alienated country folk; I’m told Fulham is now (ahem) a hotbed of Faragistes.

There is a sense that David Cameron has taken his traditional Tory voter base for granted. As Deborah said to me: “He has raped the nice ladies in hats and suits who turned up to do his flower arranging. On gay marriage, even his own mother was saying: 'I know, but he won’t listen.’”

Yikes. The truth is, Ukip is no longer just a protest vote for cranky Europhobes. People read about that comprehensive school in Leeds where all 314 pupils are being taught English as a foreign language and they see, with dreadful clarity, that politicians long ago lost the immigration plot.

Operation Trojan Horse, an investigation into an alleged plot by Islamic extremists, will focus on claims that religious hardliners tried to overthrow secular head teachers in Birmingham schools, and segregated boys and girls. While politicians and police bickered this week over whether a former counter-terrorism man should lead that inquiry, the rest of the population was simply slack-jawed with disbelief. How on earth had this been allowed to happen in our lovely, tolerant country?

Why was Santa Claus suddenly banned from handing out presents at Ladypool Primary School in Birmingham to delighted, mainly Muslim children? Last year, Vicky Hubble, the teacher behind the event, was told by the new head that Santa’s visit would be cancelled and there would be “no mention” of Jesus being the son of God.

The Prime Minister should stop showing his white, hairless legs in Lanzarote, put some trousers on and get back to deliver a stirring Easter message to the Deborahs, before they give him a bloody nose.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/10770366/A-12-year-old-mother-is-a-case-not-for-the-midwife-but-the-police.html

What a silky story!

So I’ll leave you with the words of someone who is far more popular: Eddie Izzard, writing in (again) the Mirror:

“A million food parcels. How did our Britain get to be so hungry? Our country, where even after the Second World War, we still had the ambition to feed our poorest people and build a better country.

“This government said it wanted to reform the British welfare system. Instead, it has broken it. The proof is here in the desperate families who have had to turn to their GP, not for medicine, but for vouchers to be able to eat.

“Instead of supporting the most vulnerable people in Britain during the recession this government has hit them with a wave of cruel cuts and punishments – sanctions, Bedroom Tax, welfare cuts.

“The zero hours economy it champions is not enough to put food on tables. It’s done nothing to tackle food and fuel costs.

“No wonder that today, 600 faith leaders, dozens of charities and 40 bishops are telling David Cameron he is failing the country’s poorest people.”

Perhaps you are not affected, like all those new millionaires on whom the Tories are relying. Do you think that makes it all right for this to be happening here?

You can use your vote to share your opinion.

Silly story Haystack...it would be hilarious if it wasn't the truth.

This is under Call Me Dave's watch.



A 12-year-old mother is a case not for the midwife but the police

The story of Britain's youngest mother and father shows us how parenting in this country has gone seriously wrong



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/10770366/A-12-year-old-mother-is-a-case-not-for-the-midwife-but-the-police.html

Britain’s starvation crisis won’t bother our new millionaires at all
16
Wednesday
Apr 2014
Posted by Mike Sivier in Children, Cost of living,

Britain’s shame: The front page of yesterday’s Daily Mirror.

So the United Kingdom now houses more millionaires than ever before – but at the huge cost of forcing hundreds of thousands of people to seek help from food banks or starve.

This is David Cameron’s gamble: That enough people will profit from the misery of the huge underclass he has created to vote him back into office in 2015, to continue his attack on anybody who takes home less than £100,000 pay per year.

Are you really that selfish?

Do you think this is any way for a civilised, First-World society to order itself?

No – it’s more like the description of the Third World that became prevalent towards the end of the 1960s: A country with low economic development, low life expectancy, high rates of poverty, and rampant disease. They are also countries where a wealthy ruling class is free to exploit the population at large who, without money or force of arms, are powerless to stop them.

Let’s see now… The UK definitely has low economic development. Neoliberal governments since 1979 have decimated our industrial base and the so-called recovery we are currently enjoying has yet to show any worthwhile results, despite the dubious rises in employment and wages that are making headlines this week.

Low life expectancy? Yes, we have that. People in lower-class residential areas are expected to live only a few years into their retirement, if they make it that far, while those in rich areas may continue into their late eighties. Sharp readers will recognise that, although we all pay the same amount into the state pension, the rich get more from it as they live long enough to receive larger amounts.

High rates of poverty? According to the Trussell Trust, the number of food parcels it handed out per year tripled from 346,992 in 2012 to 913,138 last year, with 330,205 going to children. Another 182,000 were provided by 45 independent food banks. The government says poverty is falling but bases its figures on a proportion of the median wage, which has been dropping for the last six years. This means government claims that worker wages are rising must also be lies.

Rampant disease? Perhaps we should not go as far as to suggest this is happening – but the British Isles have witnessed the return of diseases long-thought banished from these shores, like Rickets and Scarlet Fever, along with an increase in Tuberculosis. These are all poverty-related, as they are caused by malnourishment. You can thank your Tory government for forcing so many people out of work and diverting so much NHS funding into privatisation.

As for a wealthy working class exploiting the population – the evidence is all around us.

Look at the reasons people are being driven to food banks, according to the Daily Mirror article from which I quoted the food bank figures: “Benefits cuts and delays, the rising cost of living and pay freezes are forcing more and more people into food banks, experts have long warned.” All of these are the result of Tory government policy.

The government is, of course, unrepentant. I had the misfortune to see Treasury minister David Gauke – who found infamy when he signed off on huge “sweetheart deals” letting multinational firms off paying billions of pounds of income tax they owed us – saying he was not ashamed of the huge food bank uptake. He said they were doing a valuable job and he was glad that the government was signposting people to them. Nobody seemed to want to ask him: In the country with the world’s sixth-largest economy, why are food banks needed at all?

Of course, I’m not likely to persuade anyone to change their political allegiance over this. You all know where I stand and, besides, this blog is simply not big enough to make a difference.

Whilst not denying the unfortunate need for food parcels in Britain today, I feel sure that many of the 'claimants' are in for a free ride, there is always a route in for the not-so-needy but greedy brigade.
2517

cynically ask how many of these claimants have the latest mobiles, televisions etc ...... favelas in rio are also interesting in that respect

more fairly .... it is certainly very sad that so many at least feel the need for food parcels, but that is not de facto an indictment of uk society
assuredly, for where there are such facilities, demand will increase

if you go to some other location such as hamburg or paris, you would be amazed (horrified) by the number of beggars on the streets
no doubt the french and germans would look very much askance at "food stations" and ask why the need or somesuch

one also comes back time and again to what seem to be very silly sell and use by dates on supermarket foods .... God bless brussels no doubt
further, huge swathes of the population never learnt how to get the best out of almost giveaway items like cheap cuts of beef (eg short ribs) or lamb (eg breast) or chicken bones or pulses or even slightly spoiled vegetables

Why should people have to do it?

The UK is supposedly a first world country.

because the poor are always with us - matter of fact

before so berating our own society - the tory gov't seems somewhat unfairly to be the favourite target at the moment - have a look around the rest of the world including USA and tell us what you see

Indeed c, nothing to aspire to!


However, we don't need to join them.

I love this picture

Daily Mirror strikes again

The only problem is that the picture is not “Britain, 2014″, it is “America, 2009″ and Anne is crying over an earthworm.The only problem is that the picture is not “Britain, 2014″, it is “America, 2009″ and Anne is crying over an earthworm.

max - it may well be (i have no idea) that uk is leading the world in offering such widespread charity and should therefore be applauded ..... others that do little or nothing, are merely hiding from the fact that poverty exists in their own country

hays - if what you say is verifiable (try to supply x-ref), then it does indeed make one chuckle, though it could be said to be just an eye-catcher for what is a genuine problem in uk (and effectively every other country in the world)

Not only that Cynic but why have they grown so much since the Tories came to power????????????.

These so called poor have always had the latest mobiles, TVs etc etc, so whats changed so much???????, remember your a master at qouting the status quo and harping on about how things havent historicaly changed.

I know, looks like Max knows, Fred will certainly know, why have food banks grown and not through scroungers who can afford (silly Edwina theory), dont forget you only get 3 vouchers and have only 3 visits.

These vouchers are given out by Doctors, the Church and Charitys, you cant just turn up and help yourself.

Need for food banks is caused by welfare cuts, research shows
Created on Thursday, 10 April 2014 11:34
Category: Latest news

Report warns that as social security safety nets become weaker, charity provision could replace state-funded schemes

The government's welfare reforms, including benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax, are a central factor in the explosion in the numbers of impoverished people turning to charity food banks, an academic study has said.

The study, part of a three-year investigation into emergency food provision, was carried out by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, a Sheffield University researcher who co-authored a recently published government report into the extent of food aid in the UK.

That report in February concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear causal link between welfare reform and food bank demand in the UK.

But Lambie-Mumford's new study, to be published on April 9, says the rise in demand for charity food is a clear signal "of the inadequacy of both social security provision and the processes by which it is delivered".

The report warns that as social security safety nets become weaker, there is a danger that charity food could become an integral part of the state welfare provision, or even a replacement for formerly state-funded emergency welfare schemes.

Her paper will be presented to an all-party committee of MPs which meets on 9 April to finalise the terms of an inquiry into hunger and food poverty.

The inquiry will examine the rise of food banks, an issue that has become politically charged as ministers attempt to deflect criticism that austerity policies, including welfare cuts, have had the effect of compelling more people on low incomes to rely on food aid.

Picture pinched off private album on Flicker

https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenrosenbaum/4084466710/in/photostream/

well young sticky, i'll leave you and the boys to your soapbox oratory (enjoy enjoy) as i'm about to go out for most of the rest of the day


btw, did you have another look at TW?
and if someone is to be believed, you're a total arsehole (i never said that!) if you don't fill your boots with CHA even now :-)

Beginning to think Hays is really sick.

What a pathetic smallman.

God help him if anything toward happens to his family.

his comment about the pic was actually very fair

may catch up late this afternoon :-)