Another Quango that can go.

The grandly sounding “National Family and Parenting Institute”.

A taxpayer-funded fake charity think-tank said yesterday that instead of offering tax breaks for married couples, the Coalition should pay out billions more in benefits.

Like we can really afford it right now.

Turn away now, if you are of a weak disposition. This ugly cow is it’s chief.

  Katherine Rake. *shudders*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another superfluous body that gets most of it’s funding from you and me via The Department for Children, Schools and families. Last year they received £8,8 million. 96% of their total income.

Reading through their literature, it would appear that all they are is just another lobby group sucking from the taxpayers teat.

There are plenty of genuine charities that could make better use of this money.

and finally.

Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: 'This is an organisation which was created by the Labour government and which has had no or negligible impact on the lives of families.

'This report is about protecting vested interests.'

Says it all. I rest my case

Quick quiz

Made I larf.

Power “Hungry”

I see NHS Medway are at it again. This time they want to restrict the building of fast food outlets.

Fast-food outlets could be banned from operating near schools in Medway as part of an effort to cut child obesity.

More meddling from the Righteous. Their justification is..

The obesity rate among Year 6 children for 2008/9 in Medway is 19.4%, above the national average of 18.3%.

Oh dear you might say. Something must be done for the sake of those poor cheeeldren.

But then in the same article this figure is quoted.

The statistics also showed the rate had dropped from 20.4% in 2007/08.

Huh?

I think this is power for power’s sake, and a desire to protect these Health Fascists professionals’* jobs.

It might be a better idea if they just got on with the job that we pay them for. Healing the sick.

I’m off for a burger.

* I use the term professional loosely here, very loosely.

Ciggy Busters. The follow up.

I missed this article on Friday in ThisisKent.

Angry bloggers and pro-choice campaigners have been setting the internet alight with their disbelief at Ciggy Busters, an anti-smoking film created by pupils at The Hundred of Hoo School.

I admit to being one of those Bloggers that found this stunt offensive and ill conceived. As I’ve said before. If I and like minded people went around pulling Burkhas off Muslims I would expect to be pilloried for it. And more than likely arrested.

And from another Blogger.

Blogger John Buck wrote in a letter to The News: "Smokers have reacted so strongly to these events as they are tired of being treated as third-rate citizens.

"Smoking is still a legal activity, taken by personal choice yet smokers are bombarded daily by the righteous who want to impose more and more restrictions.

"People I have discussed this issue with have compared the actions of these children to that of the Hitler Youth and I do not disagree."

And.

Phil Johnson, chairman of Freedom to Choose, the largest pro-choice organisation in the country, described the project as "highly irresponsible".

He said: "The whole thing was a totally, utterly, ridiculous stunt aimed at a minority faction of 25 per cent and it is sending out the wrong message to kids.

"It is the victimisation of a minority group. Whether we want to smoke or not is a freedom of choice."

And he ends with this.

"The disgusting thing about it is A Better Medway have been part funding the thing. What did they want to fund – civil unrest?"

I would hope that all those who took part. the school, Margherita Gramegna, the Police, and Better Medway all have a long think before they try another stunt like that one.

Oh and I haven’t forgotten you Rachael Noxon. Just because you have locked your webpage away. I’ll still remember your name.

Sssssh

In a previous post I explained about how I dealt with a telephone cold caller. Now as you may know, I’m registered with The Telephone Preference  Service which is supposed to prevent these cold calls.

In this case I’m following Bill’s advice and leaving them to their own devices, whilst I try to quietly type this post. I’ve used the excuse of going to the toilet. Mmmm. I wonder how long he’ll wait before he realises he’s been had.

The sweet smell of success

A knife-wielding thief scarpered after his victim sprayed him in the eyes with air freshener.

Well done that quick thinking man.

The thug, armed with a craft knife, got a shock after knocking on Arthur Whitehouse’s door.

Sensing the danger, the 70-year-old retired dustbin man grabbed the can and sprayed the masked man in the face with his trusty can of Wilkinson's 'Citrus Fresh'.

‘I would have dropped dead if I’d tried to fight him off at my age,’ said Mr Whitehouse, who lives in Cannock, Staffordshire. ‘So I used my air freshener – it was my quickest defence.’

This is the second time Whitehouse has fought off a would-be thief with air freshener, after a similar incident occurred when a hooded man attempted to break in, last year.

Still the downside is that the Police will probably be round shortly and arrest him for assault.

Law and order

I had to laugh when I read this.

Criminals have twice stolen the identity of the head of Interpol via Facebook, it was revealed yesterday.

If he can’t keep his identity secure, what hope have the rest of us?

Fraudsters used fake Facebook accounts in the name of Ronald K Noble to access secret information on the international police agency’s recent Operation Infra Red campaign against murderers, paedophiles, drug dealers and money launderers.

Mind you. Would you buy a used car from this man?

No. Thought not.

SOURCE

Then and Now revisited.

 

Home Security

Then: We could leave our houses unlocked.

Now: Double locks, security alarms, gated compounds, and we still get burgled.

Air Travel

Then: Even though we had an active campaign by the IRA, boarding a plane from arrival at the airport to sitting in your seat only took one hour at the most.

Now:

• Arrive at the airport three hours before the flight.
• Questioned at length during check in. “Did you packs these bags yourself” (No it was my Islamic Butler).
• Passport scanned at passport control whilst facial recognition technology scans your every twitch.
• Arrive at security and take belt, coat, shoes and just about everything else off.
• Take everything out of pockets and place everything in a little tray to be x rayed. hand luggage as well.
• Pass through full body scanner.
• Asked if I packed my hand luggage. (See above).
• Numerous announcements incessantly telling us to look out for suspicious packages. (We’re lucky if we can get non suspicious packages through. I.e, our luggage). And what is a suspicious package anyway. Does it have a sticker on it such as, “May contain Bombs”.

Smoking

Then: You could smoke almost anywhere. Except the lower compartment of a double decker bus for some reason. But fair enough.

Now: Well, I don’t know where to begin. I can still smoke in my own home for now. How long that will continue to be case is unknown. There’s bound to be some faked up study in the near future that will attempt to outlaw that last little essence of freedom.

Police

Then: Every village had a police house and a resident Policeman. Our Policeman was called Kevin, was 6ft 3ins, and built like the proverbial brick shit house. Kevin was by nature a sociable chap and used to wander around the village and chat to all and sundry. He was also very clever, in that he built up a mental database of who the miscreants were, and what was their modus operandi. Crime and antisocial behaviour were no problem.

Now: Kevin was moved on and the police house sold. The village is now awash with litter, vandalism, and no-one has a personal representative of the police to talk to. (Except a useless, brain dead, PCSO). The only police I see are going mach1 in their souped up Skodas.

Education

Then: I was taught the traditional way. In maths you learnt the tables. In English I was taught using synthetic phonics. For writing I had to write each letter over and over again. It worked for me. And all supported by discipline in the classroom.

Now: Teaching is now ruled by a fear of upsetting the cheeeeldren. Maths is a joke. My sister asked me for help with a simultaneous equation (New maths was being taught), and I solved it in six lines of working. Oh no. The new maths needed 2 pages of reasoning.

Spelling is now not taught by assembling words. Oh no, that is too demeaning to those who can’t straight away master the technique, so instead pupils are taught a basic vocabulary instead.

Politics

No I’m not going to go there, apart from saying that there are no discernible difference between the parties. Now I can’t get a fag paper between the coalition and labour.

Europe

Then: They were the Johnney  foreigners and we seemed to manage without them. In fact we enjoyed thrashing the french when we could.

Now: We’re seriously fucked.

Global warming

Then: No such thing. All the rage was global cooling

Now: This skeptic rages against the machine.

 

Ok, do I make myself clear? Or do I need to be carted off to an old peoples home, under the mental health act?

Sssh. Now he’s gone.

The pope that is.

One for the Golfers.

THE GOLFING NUN.......

A nun walks into Mother Superior's office and plunks down into a chair. She lets out a sigh heavy with frustration. 

'What troubles you, Sister?' asked the Mother Superior.. 'I thought this was the day you spent with your family.'

'It was,' sighed the Sister. 'And I went to play golf with my brother. We try to play golf as often as we can. You know I was quite a talented golfer before I devoted my life to Christ.'

'I seem to recall that,' the Mother Superior agreed. 'So I take it your day of recreation was not relaxing?'

'Far from it,' snorted the Sister. 'In fact, I even took the Lord's name in vain today!'

'Goodness, Sister!' gasped the Mother Superior, astonished. 'You must tell me all about it!'

'Well, we were on the fifth tee...and this hole is a monster, Mother -540 yard Par 5, with a nasty dogleg left and a hidden green...and I hit the drive of my life. I creamed it. The sweetest swing I ever made. 
And it's flying straight and true, right along the line I wanted...and it hits a bird in mid-flight !' 

'Oh my!' commiserated the Mother. 'How unfortunate! But surely that didn't make you blaspheme, Sister!'

'No, that wasn't it,' admitted Sister. 'While I was still trying to fathom what had happened, this squirrel runs out of the woods, grabs my ball and runs off down the fairway!' 

'Oh, that would have made me blaspheme!' sympathized the Mother..

'But I didn't, Mother!' sobbed the Sister. 'And I was so proud of myself! And while I was pondering whether this was a sign from God, this hawk swoops out of the sky and grabs the squirrel and flies off, with my ball still clutched in his paws!'

'So that's when you cursed,' said the Mother with a knowing smile.

'Nope, that wasn't it either,' cried the Sister, anguished, 'because as the hawk started to fly out of sight, the squirrel started struggling, and the hawk dropped him right there on the green, and the ball popped out of his paws and rolled to about 18 inches from the cup!'

Mother Superior sat back in her chair, folded her arms across her chest, fixed the Sister with a baleful stare and said... 
'You missed the fucking putt, didn't you?'

Then and now.

I’ve never had it so good.

I was just musing about what we have now and what I was used to in my Childhood.

So I’ll bore you with a few comparisons.

Breakfast cereals

Then: Half a dozen at the most.

Now: Whole shelves stocked with every texture and flavour that you could possibly imagine.

Entertainment

Then: The wireless. Driven by valve technology and the size of a microwave.

The Television. A minute screen housed in a, usually hideous monstrosity of a cabinet. Black and white picture  and only one channel available (BBC). And they only broadcast for a few hours a day.

Now: You can now receive radio on your mobile phone.

Televisions have now expanded to any size you can afford, are in colour, and have vastly better picture quality. Now I can watch squillions  of channels of utter crap, downloaded from a geosynchronous orbiting satellite. (Here I think my quality of life has taken a nose dive).

Cars

Then: My first car was an Austin Cambridge that was underpowered, heavy, and rolled more than a tea clipper in a force 4. It was so bad that when cornering, you turned the steering wheel half a mile before the bend. If you didn’t, you became street furniture.

Now: I have a car that is capable of twice the speed of the cambridge, it is also comfortable, safe and will last a few more years than the cambridge.

Shopping.

Then: Everything was bought from the Butcher, the Baker, and the candlestick maker, (You get my gist) and was a delight, as to the personal service experience.

Now: We have supermarkets where although prices are cheap, this blogger avoids with a fear akin to a stake shown to a vampire. *Shudders*. Luckily the other half likes them.

Kitchens

Then: if you were lucky you had an inefficient gas or electric cooker, a sink with, if you were lucky hot water, and a larder.

Now: Where do I start? Built in oven, fridge freezer, microwave, electric kettle, toaster, sandwich maker. Need I go on and add a “George Foreman grill”.

Communication

Then: Letters, postcards, telephone, and telegrams. Letters and postcards were extremely efficient as they actually arrived the next day, Often twice per day post, One post before 8am and the other before midday. Telephones actually had a dial and were sometimes a bit hit or miss, bur they did perform their function. Telegrams were the forerunners of E mail, but cost a fortune for a short message.

Now: My flabber is gasted, in how I can communicate with anyone I want, from anywhere.

Anyway. The point of this post is just to highlight the difference in life and to ask the question “Is our quality of life better”

In a tech sense it is, But in a social interactive sense we are failing.

Answers on a postcard Email