Category: News

Father of one’s fury after bank sends out abusive letter – Oh Really ???


So Steve Smith received a letter offering him a credit card account. The letter referred to him as F*** Off. The enclosed letter was addressed to “Dear Off” and included an application form with F*** Off printed on it.

Are we to believe that this 40-year-old schools examination officer has absolutely no sense of humour and can’t see the funny side to this.

So the Mail swings into glorious action again using words like Furious and Outraged. I did look to see if Mr Smiths 4 month old daughter was “traumatised” but surprisingly I couldn’t find the word anywhere in this article.

This really isn’t news.

Given all the unrest in the world and the financial mess that many countries are in, is this really the best the Mail can do.

Dale Farm – Getting Heartily Fed Up With All The “Poor Travellers” Press


Yes, I’m getting heartily fed up with the support that the Dale Farm residents are getting. Any suggestion that they are being treated any differently from you or me is just tosh.

Yes they own the land but they have to obey local planning and building regs just like the rest of us.

How many times have you seen reports about people who have ignored planning regs and built a house in the wrong position, with its roof too high or even twisted the purpose of the building only to be told that they have to demolish their pride and joy.

Its harsh application of the law but it applies to all.

So lets stop all the bleeding hearts whining that these folks are hard done by.

And lets trash the suggestion that this is a form of “ethnic cleansing” as I heard on the radio earlier today. Thats just laughable. I understood from reports that the Dale Farm residents were of Irish descent. I wasn’t aware that there were any Irish population purges taking place.

And just take a look at the “activists” that are jumping on the bad-wagon, directing things from behind the front line. One of the activists, Ellie – who was speaking to the BBC on her mobile – said she was standing up for the rights of “the brave and beautiful people” who are resident at Dale Farm.

These are the brave and beautiful people who police intelligence indicated were stockpiling “bottles, liquids and bricks”. All of which were used on the police this morning.

Dramatic scenes there were on the TV earlier today. Flames and columns of smoke all from two caravans that the residents had prepared in readiness to use as barricades.

And let us not forget that these “the brave and beautiful people” have turned down the “alternative bricks and mortar accommodation” offered to them.

The sooner the council have this site cleared the better.

Child abuser Lyons is set free – This is so wrong


No way in hell should this animal be allowed out of prison after only serving half the jail term behind bars.

This sends the wrong message to other potential offenders, never mind the message it sends to the victims.

Child abuser Lyons is set free – East Hampshire – The News.

Such A Waste


So the NHS computer system has been given the bullet. £12bn down the toilet.

I know some folks who were working on it since its inception. All said it would never work. It was too big and too complex to fly, another great British “white elephant”.

Jessops Gift Vouchers – A New Form Of Highway Robbery


I’ll bet many of you have heard this around Christmas and Birthday time ………

“You are so difficult to buy presents for. I never know what to get you”

Being a fisherman I had always said just buy me hooks, swivels, lures and so forth. Not fancy or expensive but so necessary as those are the consumable items that every fisherman is always having to replace. Anyway a couple of years ago I had a sudden rush of blood to the head and suggested that my family buy me gift vouchers.

Not just any gift vouchers but, as I am an amateur photographer, “Jessops” gift vouchers.

Why ? Because, I thought, I would let my family contribute towards  a large expensive lense for my camera. Big mistake.

When it was too late I discovered that these gift vouchers have an expiry clause. Perhaps I shouldn’t call them vouchers as the old paper vouchers did not have an expiry date or clause. However, Jessops have entered the modern, digital age. They now have gift cards. They look a bit like a credit card. The important thing to note is Clause 4 of the T & Cs printed on the back of the Jessops Gift Card and I quote.

The card will expire 24 months after the last time it was used to make a purchase or top up the balance. Any remaining balance will be automatically deducted.

However, as the recipient of the gift card, you cannot determine the trigger date. i.e the date on which the card was activated. At least not without going to a Jessops store to make a purchase. You cannot go to their web site and enter the card number to determine the validity of the card or the balance remaining.

I have over the last couple of years been given 4 of these cards. At no time was I informed of the amount on the cards until my son-in-law informed me that when he and my daughter purchased the latest card they asked and were told that there was indeed an expiry date. As a result I went to Jessops to find out what balances I had on the cards and to perhaps make a purchase. I was informed that the older 3 cards had expired.

The staff in the store rang through to another store to see if there was anything that could be done and were told that I would have to contact customer services but since they dind’t work at weekends, this being Saturday, I would have to come back to the store on Monday. Which I duly did.

I stood around while the manager made a call and was duly informed that nothing could be done and that I should contact head office and the customer liaison. On my return home I called these folks and was given the party line.

“The card states 24 months inactivity and the card will expire”

“No we cannot transfer the value of the expired cards to your current and valid card”

“We are really sorry that your grandchildren are being ripped off but there really is nothing we can do”

I am now in the process of contacting Jessops through their various e-mail links but will be writing to the CEO.

In the meantime I am writing this as a warning to anyone who might already have a Jessops Gift Card or maybe considering purchasing one of them for a friend or family member.

JESSOPS GIFT CARDS DO EXPIRE AND JESSOPS WILL KEEP YOUR MONEY

Lets Legalise Assisted Suicide


It is reported today that Assisted Suicide is being introduced by stealth.

The reason for this suggestion is that nobody has been prosecuted in recent times for helping someone to die. In the last eighteen months,out of forty-four suspects, for thirty-one the decision has been made not to prosecute under rules introduced by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Well I say brilliant, that’s good news. Bring it on.

It’s time that this government got its act together and took the next step. Lets formally introduced legislation to allow, in this country, the type of services that are provided by the Dignitas clinic in Zurich. There would have to be safe guards, that is obvious but lets remove the suggestion of criminality.

We are a nation of animal lovers and do not let our pets and farm animals suffer. We “put them down”. As a nation we are outraged when our animals are mistreated in any way.

Yet we do not, are not permitted to offer the same compassion to the “human animal”.

Instead we watch the terminally ill suffer, we prolong their misery with our drugs and our machines. I have seen this with my own eyes, experienced this with members of my own family. We tend to think of animals as dumb, that they do not know any better, do not understand and therefore it is better to let them die.

But think on. Because humans are the thinking being isn’t the enforced prolonging of life through the process of dying just a form of torture.

As a terminal illness progresses the patient quite often loses the ability to move, they can go through increasing levels of hypersensitivity and pain and more often than not they go through a total loss of ability to communicate.

The single act of “kindness” we offer is that the doctor or nurse can jack up the amount of morphine to a level where the patient is in a state of oblivion.

We like to spout off about preserving personal dignity. Where is the dignity in being taken to a drug induced vegetative state.

Legalise Assisted Suicide – Legalise Euthanasia

 

The press in this country are despicable.


The press in this country are despicable.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what your past is. As soon as you look like you are doing well for yourself, riding high, the press search long and hard to find the dirt. They delight in bringing you down.

Nathan Hageman committed a criminal act, went to court and was sentenced nearly 5 years ago. He’s done his time. Yet the Mail seems to think that his sentence wasn’t enough and that he should continue to pay for the crime for the rest of his life.

Yes it is awful what he did to another human being, regardless of whether that person was male of female. That doesn’t mean that he should be hounded and penalised for the rest of his life.

Maybe the press that we have in this country reflect the British psyche but I for one am sick of them.

My message to the press is

“Get off your fat arses, go out and do some real investigative journalism”

Red or Black liar could lose his £1m prize money: Real victim was his girlfriend | Mail Online.

UK has its coolest summer since 1993 – Climate Change, Environment


So thats what they mean by “Global Warming” – Our summers get cooler and wetter !!!

UK has its coolest summer since 1993 – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent.

‘Couldn’t be bothered’ Pc Michele Selby jailed


I am normally a firm supporter of our police who I believe, for the most part, get a raw deal. But this takes the biscuit.

This constable had a total loss of perspective and decided that delivering post was more important than apprehending a potential criminal.

That poor decision was a life changing one for PC Selby. She has lost her job and has gone to jail. Perhaps a bit harsh but compared to the sentences that have been handed out recently for looters and rioters I believe it is only right.

BBC News – ‘Couldn’t be bothered’ Pc Michele Selby jailed.

Disembowling at Southsea Common – A Normal Saturday Night In Pompey


Actually, when I first read the headline I thought it was an article regarding the loss of the bowling green which just goes to show that I should read more slowly.

So, on this day in 1782, between 20,000 and 100,000 people gathered for the execution of David Tyrie who had been convicted of treason. I bet Pompey would be really pleased to draw such a crowd.

And then the hangman forgets to bring a rope !!! Not a problem in a naval town back in 1782. After being hanged, drawn and quartered he was buried. Only to be dug up again and his body further cut up for souvenirs.

Sounds just like the Pompey of today. Nothing changes.

Disembowling at Southsea Common – Remember When – The News.