Author: siskinbob

Formerly employed by MOD and IBM, now retired

Waterlooville Relic To Be Renovated


A small glimmer of  goodness to shine out of the gloom of the enormous housing estate, being built at Waterlooville, is the 150 year old farm which is going to be renovated.

In the middle of the 2500 home Newlands Estate lies Plant Farm which includes Grade II Listed buildings. The developers are planning to turn the farm into a pub and restaurant.

It’s a shame that it has taken the building of this humongous estate to bring the farm under the spotlight but at least now the vandalism and thieving of building materials will cease.

Lets hope that the renovation will be tastefully done.

Brits Abroad


Should I be sad that the behaviour, that once stopped me from going to Spain, is still happening ?

Brits abroad have a woeful reputation for drunkenness, drugs abuse and violence whether it be while following our football teams around or when on vacation.

Once upon a time all you ever heard was about the lager louts in Torremelinos or Fuengirola. Well the net has spread much wider and now apparently also encompasses France, Cyprus, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

So in answer to my own question, Yes I am sad. On the bright side I now don’t let the behaviour of the minority stop me from enjoying myself and visiting these wonderful countries. What I do now is travel to the quieter parts or visit out of season.

A few years ago my wife and I visited Malia, Crete. The travel agent warned us that it was very noisy but should be OK as we were visiting out of season. She was right.

Although there were wall to wall bars and clubs with restaurants offering traditional English Breakfasts and Sunday Roasts we were able to eat traditional local cuisine although quite often the local dishes were at the back of the menus. Now that is sad.

Last year we visited Cyprus, renting a villa which was outside of town, Coral Bay, which to us looked like a mini Benidorm. We did not venture into Coral Bay preferring to go out into the local villages where there were fewer gaudy lights and loud music and definitely no English Pubs with Satellite TV and Karaoke.

So these wonderful countries are still out there to be visited, cherished and explored despite the best efforts of the rowdy minority to give us, the travelling Brit, a bad reputation. All it takes is a little effort to break out of the mould and away from the package holiday resorts.

And as a footnote, take a look at this article. Poor Richard Gaisford got himself a smack. Apparently from a bar owner who didn’t want the adverse publicity from preventing him from making money out of the good old English Lager Lout.

Yorkshire Ripper To Spend “Whole Life” in Gaol


At last a judge who upholds the law and reflects the views of the public.  Mr Justice Mitting has announced that Peter Sutcliffe will serve a “whole life” tariff.

This is the maximum sentence that can be handed down. I still believe this country needs the death penalty for which Sutcliffe would be a prime candidate. It is wrong that the friends and relatives of his victims know that he still lives when their love ones were taken away. It is also wrong that the nation should support him for the rest of his natural days.

Read story …. Here

Naive Young Lady


Siobhan O’Dowd says that she just published her  Moat Farcebook site just for her friends. Well how naive is that. Anyone who creates a group on Farcebook knows that they are inviting other folks to join.

Over 30,000 signed up to agree that Moat was a legend, a hero. So O’Dowd thinks hiding from the police makes Moat a legend even though he had killed and maimed people. She claims that they, the police, were stupid because he managed to avoid capture and , she even thought this was funny. Never mind the fear that the residents of Rothbury had to suffer while the police searched. And what about the other folks that have subsequently been arrested for aiding Moat.

Surely murderers are not legends.

Also in her naivety this silly young woman also says that she does not like the police because she is harassed by them.

In my experience the people who complain of police harassment do so because they are up to no good themselves and have been found out.

Moat is not a legend nor is he a hero.

The true legends, the true heroes  in this country are our lads who are members of the armed forces, who are risking their lives in Afghanistan.  Closer to home, the guys that should be respected are the various emergency services. The Fire-fighters, Paramedics  and Policemen who have to deal with the thugs, hooligans,  drunks dangerous drivers across the country.

Farcebook Inaction = Support For Moat


In my opinion Farcebook (Facebook)  & Mark Zuckerberg, by their inaction, have shown their lack of morality. In essence they are supporting the space wasters who have signed up to support murderer Raoul Moat.

How can they allow this blatant disrespect for the family and friends of the people he has killed and maimed. It beggars belief.

It’s this lack of apparent boundaries, the lack of degrees of acceptability which degrades our society,  allows the anti-social elements to rule us all.

Moat Support Page, Not Facebook – Farcebook


The  administrators of Facebook should hang their heads in shame.

Well done to David Cameron who has made his views known (Here) but where is the action. Its time our government took a stand when it is obvious to all that  action not words are needed.

Now is that time.

An indication of how low the morality of this country has fallen is that, apparently, is acceptable for sites such as Facebook to publish support for murderer Raoul Moat.

Facebook is supposed to be a Social Networking Site. Well as far as I can see  publishing support for a murderer is an antisocial action.

I am not suggesting that Facebook be the moral guardian of our nation but they must set standards of acceptability.

Good Luck Selina


Yes,  good luck to Selina Scott and her campaign to out the ageist element of the media industry. We have lost many of our most popular TV presenters from both the News and Entertainment sectors for no other reason than they have passed an unwritten but illegal age limit.

Have the same insidious rules been applied to their male colleagues ? No they have not.

Selina won her case against Channel 5 and the BBC has a case currently outstanding against them.

Lets hope the beeb and similar organisations wake up and realise that they are wasting the talent that is available to them and they are alienating their public.

(Read More Here)

World Cup Referee – Who Wants The Job


Poor Howard Webb. Who, with hind sight, would want his job this last Sunday ?

He was always, rightly or wrongly, going to carry some blame regarding the losing team. However, the Dutch resembled the Mongol Hordes being led by Genghis Kahn. Their brutal tactics should have resulted in more of their team being sent packing. The Dutch should think themselves lucky that some of their players aren’t being prosecuted for assault.

I guess Mr Webb will be striking Holland off his potential holiday destination list.

Since posting, I have read this article from the Mail Online. It makes and interesting read.

What Message Does This Send


The Good News is that the  “Barefoot Bandit” , Colton Harris-Moore, has been caught in Bahamas.

The Bad News is that some idiotic movie director wants to make a film his story.

What message does this send ? I am sure that there will be a queue of imbeciles lining up to see if they can outdo Harris-Moore and get themselves a portion of the notoriety and possibly money.

This guy is a tosser. They should lock him up and throw away the key. Give him the film director for company.