Election Losses
Posted: Sat 3 May, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts 2 Comments »“Gordon Brown says it has been a “bad and disappointing” election for Labour“
In light of the recent governmentary cockups – 10% tax rate, house prices going down, oil (and just about every other) price going up, fuel price exploding, multiple strikes etc. – is it really any surprise to see that people are finally getting sick of Labour?
And when we then get told that £50bn of our money is going to help out the banks (and is thus at risk of being lost, if those banks collapse in the credit crunch) while the 10% tax rate is abolished (as Ian Hislop put it on Have I Got News For You, “the government has taken from the poor and given to the rich”) it’s just another nail in the coffin of Labour.
A “bad and disappointing” election? Only to the people in Labour. Most of the people with any common sense see it as the beginning of a very well deserved end…
Selling Seeds
Posted: Wed 23 April, 2008 Filed under: Getting Organised, Green, Green Garden, Health, News 4 Comments »It’s good to see that apparently more and more people are buying vegetable seeds, and growing their own veg, particularly in light of rising costs and growing awareness of the environmental impact of various imported fruit and veg.
We’re doing this more and more now that the garden is getting a bit more sorted – so far this year we’ve planted:
- Three rows of potatoes
- Leeks
- Carrots
- Onions
- Bell peppers
- Chilli peppers
- Runner beans
- Peas
- Rhubarb
- Tomatoes
and - Parsnips
We’ve still got plans for broccoli/calabrese, courgettes, pumpkins, cauliflower, more leeks and parsnips for over-winter, and a couple more tubs of potatoes as well as gooseberries, blackberries and (probably) strawberries on the fruit side. And even then, as we get more organised next year we’ll do even more.
It’s just good to see people doing more for themselves in this way – I suspect it’s something that’s going to keep on happening. I certainly hope so.
Table Habits
Posted: Fri 18 April, 2008 Filed under: Charm School, News 1 Comment »One of the funniest things I’ve read in a while is here – about food-eating habits that people have.
While the article itself is fairly amusing on the subject, the comments underneath it are well worth reading in their own right.
Vulcan
Posted: Thu 17 April, 2008 Filed under: News, Thoughts Leave a comment »I’m so pleased to see that the last remaining Vulcan bomber has finally flown again. It’s taken fourteen years to restore it to this state, and to me it’s just a marvellous thing.
Seeing Vulcan’s flying is something I remember from airshows and holidays before – we used to go on holiday where a lot of the test flights and training flights were done, over the Bristol Channel – and it’s always been wonderful, in a similar way to how seeing Concorde used to be a wonderful sight.
Even on the ground, Vulcans are an impressive thing – but in the sky, well, there’s just nothing to match the sight. Long may this one continue to fly at shows and the like.
Doing the Maths
Posted: Fri 11 April, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »I’m quite amazed by the scale of the scam in this story, about a couple who claimed benefits for no less than sixteen children – all while living in what’s described as a “one-room property”. I don’t know if that means ‘one bedroom’ or was just a unit in a hostel, or somesuch, but either way it’s awesome to be claiming to have eighteen people living in that property.
After all, I assume that they were also claiming some kind of housing benefit for living in that property – so any decent piece of joined-up work would enable the Tax Credits people, or the Benefits Agency (or whatever the hell it’s called this week) to possibly think that the claim might be just a weeny bit fraudulent.
How were they able to claim for so many children? Because the Tax Credits Agency doesn’t (or, one hopes, didn’t) require parents to provide a birth certificate as proof that the children existed.
It’s the final paragraph of the story that drives me crackers, though.
After the case Sarah Bamford, of HM Revenue and Customs, said: “This case is the result of many months of intense and thorough work by a dedicated team of tax credit investigation officers, determined to see that these fraudsters were brought to justice.”
© BBC News website 2008
If the system had been in place initially, there’d have been no sodding need for the investigation, because they wouldn’t have been able to make such a massive fraudulent claim at all. Fucking jobsworth self-serving HMRC doublespeak dickwads.
Lunt. Yes, I said Lunt.
Posted: Wed 9 April, 2008 Filed under: News 2 Comments »I know it’s incredibly childish – but this story still made me laugh.
Flying Penguins
Posted: Tue 1 April, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Cynicism, News Leave a comment »I have to say, of all the April Fool’s stories I’ve noticed today, my absolute favourite is the BBC’s “Flying Penguins” story.
The footage in particular has been fantastically done – footage can be seen here on the BBC’s iPlayer until April 7th (There’s also a Youtube link for the same thing)- and it’s made me chuckle. The first couple of shots, particularly as they take off, is so good you start thinking “Really? Fantastic” and then the cynicism kicks in, particularly when you realise that the news has been released on April 1st.
Love it.
