English Opinion

It has taken me until now to calm down enough to write about the vital 2009 Budget that was announced today. In effect, it is the fiscal policy that will dictate the British economy actions and events until at least November this year and possible May next year should Alasdair Darling, the Chancellor decline to revise the budget beforehand. I cannot help thinking that we are all in a quagmire that is none of our own doing and the incompetant, UNELECTED Prime Minister in his previous role as Chancellor has effectively dragged us into the worst economic period in British history since World War II.

Britain’s domestic borrowing this year will amount to £175 BILLION. Who can even envision how much money that is? Bearing in mind our 60 million population and relatively modest GDP in terms of that of other countries and you will see just how far this reaches. We will be paying for it for years to come and so will our children. The unborn will undoubtedly suffer because of a deluded idiot that has somehow managed to cheat his way into power (at least, if you believe the allegations about smear campaigns coming from emails sent by his closest former advisor, Damien McBride). 

I really begrudge watching the Budget and seeing Gordon Brown’s smarmy face smiling as if he actually thinks he is doing us a favour by announcing measures that will get us deeper into debt as a nation and ultimately lie firmly at his door in terms of blame. Although public spending has not been cut as yet, Brown has used it as a tool to beat the Conservatives with. Public spending cust have been announced, most notably from the NHS, but will not come in until AFTER the next general election, meaning that the Torys will have to take the flack for it when they get in. He is also applying a 50% tax to those earning over £150,000. I really object to this. I earn nowhere near that much (trust me I wish I did) but why should people that have worked bloody hard to get to where they are have their salaries cut in half when the government and banks are to blame for the mess we are in? I know the argument - they can afford it etc etc but that is not the point. Would you like it if some politician knocked on your door, demanded half your salary, blamed you for a national debt that he caused and then got on the phone to his buddy in Whitehall who happened to be fiddling his expenses for him at that very moment? No! A bit melordramatic maybe but  I am so angry right now a rant seemed the only way to go!

Oh, and before some Labourite starts to comment on how wrong and pro-upper class I am I would just like to say that this is MY opinion, I am not a Conservative supporter and actually voted Labour when I was 18 (for my sins), I am allowed to object to a government that is ruining my country, I am from a working class background and I DID NOT ELECT Gordon Brown as my leader! I wouldn’t put him in charge of a goldfish let alone a country. Brown kissed butt and stabbed people in the back to get where he is and no member of the electorate has ever elected him… hopefully nobody ever will.

Rant over!

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I absolutely adore Italy. The country is beautiful, the people are incredibly friendly, the food is gorgeous and I married my husband there almost two years ago now. We often talk about moving to Sorrento or the surrounding area because it is a fantastic country but we are both well aware of the natural lay of the land, so to speak. Hell, we could see Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that buried Pompeii, from our hotel room. Italy is located on two of the most volatile tectonic plates on the Earth’s crust… as nature proved again a few days ago.

The earthquake that reduced L’Aquila, a 13th Century city, to rubble measured 5.5 on the Richter Scale. The death toll currently stands at over 270 with a further 1,000 being injured and 28,000 being homeless as a result. They are currently being forced to sleep in tents with nothing but basic amenities because they have nowhere else to go. My heart goes out to them, especially those that have lost their entire families. People are still being pulled out of the rubble, with one rescued alive today, but the huge aftershocks are not helping matters at all… and neither is their PM.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi demonstrated today just how out of touch he is with the people of L’Aquila. His comments are absolutely astounding:

They have medicaments. They have hot food. They have shelter for the night. Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping.

Does Berlusconi have any idea what his people are going through, what it feels like to have lost everything you have ever worked for in just a few moments? Does he know what it feels like to sleep four in a bed in a makeshift tent when the temperatures dip below freezing? Does he know what it’s like to see your whole family wiped out? No, the priviledged leader has no idea. He only opens his mouth to change feet anyway but this time he has seriously insulted his own people in as callous a way possible. I hate to say it but he actually makes Gordon Brown look good.

My thoughts are with the people of L’Aquila and I hope they can rebuild their city and their lives in the coming months and years.

When I was at university studying for my degree, I was lucky enough to have a compulsory year at a college in America. I spent it at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was there from 2001 to 2002 and an awful lot happened that year both personally and in terms of the news (9/11). However, it was the most poignant year of my entire education. That is largely because I finally found out what it is like to have a loyalty and affinity to an educational institution. I hated high school with a passion. The two universities I have attended in the UK for my undergrad and postgrad studies were excellent and really gave me every opportunity to make something of myself, which I like to feel I have. However, the only educational institutin I feel loyal to was ironically the one I spent the least time at.

UNC will always have my loyalty and a special place in my heart… and I’m not entirely sure why! Unless you actually go to an American college or university I am not sure you can ever understand it. There is a different atmosphere and a different kind of spirit at UNC-CH to any I have ever experienced before or since. I may be English but Carolina Blue will always be a huge part of who I am and what I have done.

This is why I am still awake at 5.11am . I stayed up all night to watch the NCAA basketball final tonight and am pleased to announce that…

University of North Carolina beats Michigan State, 89-72!

Carolina absolutely dominated and were easily the best team in the entire tournament. They deserved to win. I’m just disappointed that I’m not with my UNC buddies in a bar somewhere watching it with them. I miss them so much. It may only have been a year but it formed much of who I am and I’ll always be Carolina blue through and through.

TARRRRRRRRRR!!! HEEEELLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Hi all. I know I wrote a post a few days ago but aside from that, I have effectively been absent for well over a month. This is because I hve been struggling to cope with my depression and anxiety. Actually, struggling to cope isn’t the phrase to use - not coping would be nearer the mark. I’m currently getting help on the NHS, the British National Health Service, but am no closer to getting counselling. Why? Because I have to do a computer program (CBT - Cognative Behavioural Therapy) first before I can get access to a counsellor. Now I’m sure that there is a reason for that but when you’re feeling like you want to kill yourself every day a computer really does not help at all!

I am slowly but surely starting to get back on my feet and deal with depression. Of course, the economic situation and uncertainty in the Uk at the moment does not help but I am starting to get back into a routine with a few aids and tools. Aside from medication, I’m finding that Yoga helps me to relax no end. I can just float away mentally for a few minutes and return more balance. This is only a temporary fix but it is really helping me to get through tough days. I’m probably going to be writing more on this in the coming weeks so I’m going to leave it there for now (if I’m ever stuck for a topic I’ll have something to talk about!).

Hey all - I’m back! I’ve been away dealing with my Depression for a month or so and feel an awful lot better than I did when I posted last. More about that another day though. Today I want to post about an amazing lady that died overnight. Jade Goody finally lost her battle with cervical cancer.

I posted some time ago when it was announced that her cancer was terminal, wishing Jade Goody and her boys all the best. However, she lost her long and hard battle for life at 3.14am this morning… on Mothers Dayl. If ever there was a cruel irony to her battle with cervical cancer this was it. She wanted to spend her last Mothers Day wih her boys but never got the chances to do so. She was just 27.

No matter what you think about Jade Goody or the way in which she has conducted her battle with cervical cancer in the public eye, you have to hope that her legacy wil live on. Although she was a reality TV star, it will be her untimely death at the age of 27 that saves more lives than any other event in recent history. Her public battle with cervical cancer has finally encouraged the thousands of women that had never had one before to go and get a smear. This will be Jade’s legacy and will undoubtedly and ironically save countless lives… despite the fact that Jade herself lost her life in the process.

Rest In Peace Jade x

The Labour government has yet again demonstrated just how much faith it has in our educational system… the very educational system that it was supposed to improve and make into the cornerstone of society. Now FE (Further Education) and HE (Higher Education) institutions have been told that they have to deter extremism. Short of actually coming out and accusing Britain’s universities of fostering an extremist minority, the government could not have made a more obvious attempt to control the minds of tomorrow!

Gordon Brown and his Labour cronies have decided to put into force a set of guidelines that will essentially regulate what students can discuss within the lecture and seminar halls. In other words, they are effectively developing “Big Brother” and using the education system tospy on ordinary citizens in yet another blatant abuse of the system.

The BBC said that “The guidelines will address how staff and students can create space for free and open debate and break down segregation between different student communities.” In fact, it will only heighten segregation if it is to put barriers in the way of education and single out certain lines of conversation as subversive and extremist.

I am all for stamping out terrorism. I abhor it and cannot understand why people feel the need to needlessly murder so many innocents in the name of a god that surely would not approve of so much bloodshed. Before getting into the Qu’ran interpretation debate though, I cannot see how restricting what students are talking about will help to stamp out extremism. Surely it will drive potential terrorists further underground because they will not be distingushing themselves from law abiding citizens in the classroom. Those hell bent on becoming suicide bombers will become terrorists no matter what but only by learning from past events and present occurrences can we move beyond them and learn from them. Restricting discussion is only restricting the civil liberties of people that will never break the law in such a way. If we haven’t broken the law then why are we going to be the ones that get punished yet again?

The news shows I watch every day have been all doom and gloom for some time now thanks to knife and gun crime, drugs, the government and the world economy but this week it’s seemed worse than it has been for a while. With the bank bonuses under scrutiny and allegations of fat cats lining their own pockets before thinking about us little people, the February Blues have well and truly kicked in. It’s become apparent that it’ll take a lot more than is being done right now to survive the credit crunch in one piece!

One thing I have noticed though is that the local communities don’t seem to be pulling together as much as they used to. Certainly around here the message from most people seems to be pull the ladder up Jack and sod the rest! I don’t like that at all. After all, in the good years we become more selfish  and introspective because it’s human nature to make the most of it while the going is good. When times get rough, people should be able to rely on each other.

As we head further into this “depression”, I think we all need to pull together as bloggers, readers and members of the world community to make each other smile, to offer tips that could help others out (saving money, how to find work, surviving on a budget etc) and to generally comment to form a community for support. Leave your comments, jokes, poems etc here and help someone smile if nothing else!

I picked up a newspaper at my local store today to see Jade Goody plastered all over the front because the doctors have officially told her that she has only months to live because they cannot stop the cervical cancer spreading. I’ve written about Jade before because she has chosen to make a documentary following her treatment and chemo so we can all see the brutal truth behind cervical cancer. Well, today I felt like crying for her.

Any time I read a story like hers, of a mother with young children that has no choice but to leave them via illness, I feel immense sorrow because I have a very close relationship with my mum. As I have said before, if fate had a different plan in mind, I could have lost her to breast cancer when I was 9 years old. Although I can’t fully feel her pain because I haven’t been through anything similar myself, my heart does go out to her but then I got angry… thanks to the ignorant woman behind me!

This lady had to be 50 years old at least and was loudly dismissing Jade of just being out “for what she can get”. She was denouncing the fact that she is in the newspapers as disgusting and in poor taste. I don’t agree with her one bit. In fact, I think living out an illness like that in the public eye is one of the most selfless acts I have ever witnessed for two reasons.

My mum told me how difficult it was to live with breast cancer in the village I grew up in. She knows what it’s like to have people cross the road to avoid you or ask all sorts of personal questions so they can gossip about you behind your back. Jade Goody is doing that in public, reading people commenting about her and speculating on how long she has left despite being scared to death of not only dying but leaving her boys behind to live their lives without her. She isn’t doing it to preserve her public profile or in a cheap publicity stunt but instead because she wants to earn as much money as she can for her sons and also to raise awareness for other women.

That is selfless because no matter how much she cares about the way people are judging her, and she most definitely does, she cares more about leaving a legacy for her children and helping to raise awareness about cervical cancer, one of the biggest killers of women out there. The lady condemning Jade Goody had probably never lost anyone to breast or cervical cancer or experienced it herself. My mum has experienced it and fully supports any form of raising awareness and I do too.

Please don’t judge Jade Goody… support her and do your bit to raise awareness of cervical cancer. I have written an article on Associated Content about the signs and symptoms of cervical cancer. If you are interested in finding out about them then please use the link on the About page of this blog to take a look at it. It is important that all women find out about it so they are aware of the signs and just how important it is to get checked. Help Jade save one life… even if it sadly cannot be her own.

I was shocked and saddened to hear the news that a plane has crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York in the early hours of this morning. I think many of us are trained to hear the worst after 9/11 when we hear that a plane has a crashed in a residential area but this looks like it is just a terrible accident. Continental flight 3407 flying from Newark to Buffalo Niagara plummeted into a single house after making a series of severe pitches and rolls. Apparently the crew had noticed a build up of ice on the wings. Although that report in unconfirmed as yet, there was apparently nothing to suggest mechanic failure occurred on Continental flight 3407.

Luckily enough, a woman and child were able to escape from the house in Buffalo that the plane hit but another person was not so lucky. There were also 49 people killed aboard Continental flight 3407, 4 of which were crew. I want to extend my condolances to the families of those killed because it was undoubtedly a real tragedy.

The second airplane that came down did so today at London City Airport. The British Airways flight from Amsterdam lost its front wheels as it touched down and made an incredibly hard landing that could have been so much worse than it actually was. None of the passengers or crew were badly injured or killed so we should all be incredibly thankful about that. The pilot apparently reacted admirably and deserves a lot of credit for landing the plane without extensive damage occurring.

It seems that the weather is not only affecting our ability to get to work and stay on the road but also now to stay in the air and indeed on the runway. Here’s hoping that no more such incidents occur in the near future!