English Opinion

It’s only a month into 2009 and already the year is really making some people suffer. The credit crunch is in full swing, people are losing their jobs, families are being kicked out of their homes, crime rates are up and there is seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. However, it really is difficut to judge just how bad this year is likely to be on the strength of a month.

In terms of my business, my writing work has not dried up at all, thank goodness! Having said that, I have been taking on extra work to try and get the bills paid and save a little just in case we should ever need it. With food prices remaining high, winter in full swing and the gas price cuts not coming in until February, the cost of living is still unreasonably high. I am making a concerted effort to be more frugal and will shortly be having a huge spring clean to find things to sell on the Internet to bring in a few extra pennies for our house fund.

Personally, this month has been a non-entity in terms of the fact that we are just keeping our heads above water, which I am sure goes for a lot of the population at the moment. Although I cannot see any improvement in the future and think that more jobs will go, more wildcat strikes will break out (which I plan to write about tomorrow) and believe that more homes will be repossesed, I think that 2009 is literally going to be about taking one day at a time, one week at a time. The world has changed for the worse so we have no choice but to do the best we can.

I hope January has not been too poor a month for everyone and also hope that February offers new beginnings. Good luck people! I think we’re going to need it!

Both the UK and the US seem to be caught up in major political corruption scandals at the moment and I have to say that it really makes you wonder how the other half live. Last week news broke of peers in the House of Lords taking money for making amendments to various laws and now Rod Blagojevich has been impeached from his role as the Governor of Illinois after trying to sell Barack Obama’s former Senate seat. Of course that has been an incredibly long saga but it just highlights how much money rules the laws we live by in many ways.

The House of Lords scandal and the Rod Blagojevich scandal both highlight the fact that our public servants are no longer serving the public at all but are, on the other hand, definitely looking after their own bank balances. Money has long ruled the world and will undoubtedly continue to do so. None of those involved in either scandal believe that they have done anything inappropriate or fundamentally wrong but they have. They have betrayed the people whose best interests they are sworn to look out for. However, there is a silver lining. The Senate demonstrated no qualms when they convicted Blaojevich and I hope the House of Lords will do the same. For the UK now and in the future, those 4 money-grubbing peers have to be shown the same moral standard and go. There is no way to make them leave their posts as yet, but hopefully there will be a way to do so in the very near future should they be proven corrupt!

As a former nursing assistant in a care home. I absolute hate all the news stories that come out about the lack of care in nursing homes. The news stories usuall generalise quite badly, tarring all care homes and the people that work there with the same brush. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen colleagues talk to residents in a horrible manner, which is completely unacceptable in itself, but I have never seen violence towards any of those in the care of the home I used to work in. To hear about the new story that has emerged today about the murder of 3 residents by a nurse is absolutely shocking and dispicable in equal measure.

Former nurse Rachel Baker was the co-manager of Parkfields Cesidential Home near Glastonbury. Under her charge, three elderly women died in suspicious circumstances. In fact, there were investigations into the deaths of 11 people in total but Baker was only charged with the murders of  Francis Hay, Marion Alder and Lucy Cox today. Although full details of the investigation have yet to emerge, Rachel Baker is believed to have misused controlled drugs to kill the elderly residents. Her husband, Leigh Baker (the co-owner of Parkfields), hs also been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Rachel Baker, if she is guilty of these charges, is an absolute disgrace to the caring profession. I’ve spoken a lot about child abuse in recent weeks but abusing the elderly is just as bad. When you are placed in a position of trust and have the lives of the vulnerable in your hands then you absolutely cannot justify harming, abusing or defaulting on their care in any way. Murdering them is something else though. It is a dispicable act that should never occur in civilized society. Regardless of her motives, taking someone else’s life is just plan wrong. We may hear Rachel Baker say that those at Parkfields had no quality of life and that she was on a mercy mission. We may not, but if that ever does leave her lips then we should not judge her any differently.

From experience, it is difficult looking after the elderly, especially when you see their health, both mental and physical, deteriorate to the point at which they are a shadow of their former selves. No matter how much you would like to take away their suffering, all you can do is make them comfortable and there is an incredibly rewarding feeling in that. You have to be made of stern stuff because it can be a heartbreaking job, but you know that before you take it on.

Rachel Baker had no right to take the life of another. She was trusted and responsible for the welfare of those women at Parkfields. I sincerely hope that the families of the women can cope with this major blow and eventually come to terms with it. I also hope that it will help to improve regulation and processes within the care home industry. With the elderly population growing, something needs to be in place to stop this kind of thing happening. After all, we all have to get old some day and I would not want to think I am putting the lives of my relatives in the hands in others only for those people to take it away

I’ve been surprised and even shocked at some of the marketing ploys that some companies have released in recent years to get a bit of publicity but I have to say that I think I heard about the best one yet today. It certainly made me smile. In fact, it made me want to book a holiday immediately! Activites Abroad, a company offering husky dog safaris, sent an email to their mailing list stating that they were offering chav-free holidays. Absolutely awesome!

Now for those of you that have no idea what a chav is, it is defined as: “is a slang derogatory term applied to certain young people in the United Kingdom. The stereotypical image of a chav is a white aggressive teen or young adult, of working class background, who wears branded sports and casual clothing (baseball caps are also common) who often fights and engages in petty criminality.” Basically they are the scourge of society at the moment. Chavs are renowned for causing trouble, drinking in the streets, perpetrating acts of violence and claiming benefits. It may be a stereotypical term but one that really is warranted given that the people falling into that category seem to revel in the description.

Activities Abroad have defended their advertisement of chav-free holidays as many have critisized the use of the term. Those that describe themselves as that and enjoy being labelled as such, and I came across plenty in my former job, would laugh about it. The company stipulated that they were standing up for the middle class, which also came under fire, but I want to kiss them all! I’m most definitely working class and am by no means middle class, but everyone has a right to a holiday without drunken teenage louts ruining it. The middle class frown on the behaviour of those youths and so do I. You cannot tar all teenagers with the same brush so teen-free holidays would be unfair on those that are just out to have a fun, relaxing break. However, why should we put up with the chav population when we work hard to pay for their benefits whilst they sit around doing nothing but smoking weed, drinking cider and beating up family men for bottles of wine?

A father of five called Mick Eccles was killed in Lichfield yesterday, which is very close to my home and not somewhere you would expect a murder to happen. He was beaten to death by chavs because he wouldn’t give them the bottle of wine he had just bought from the local off-license. One of those boys was just 15. It really is disgusting that these people think it’s OK to take a loving and hard working family man’s life for a bottle of wine, so why not label them? In fact, it’s about time that someone started standing up for the rest of us. Good on you Activities Abroad - keep up the good work!

I blogged some time ago on the news of the death of John Travolta’s son, Jett. I expressed my sympathies and condolance, along with my hope that the family would be left in peace to mourn. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. Instead, John Travolta and his wfe, Kelly Preston, had to deal with a vile and disgusting extortion plot… as perpetrated by one of the paramedics on the scene!

Tarino Lightbourne obviously has no decency or shame but instead chose to view the tragedy of Jett Travolta’s death as an opportunity to “earn” himself a $25 million meal ticket! He was today charged in the Bahamas over the extortion plot, none of the details of which have been revealed, and nor should they be. Lightbourne apparently took a document and tried to extort Travolta to get it back. Hopefully it will be returned to the family and Lightbourne will get put in jail for some considerable time. Trying to blackmail someone is bad enough but doing so after what would undoubtedly have been the worst day of John Travolta’s life is just plain sick. I guess some people will do absolutely anything for money, and his greed will hopefully see him lose his freedom for a while.

I just hope now that Jett can rest in peace. His last moments are absolutely none of anyone else’s business. I also hope that John Travolta and Kelly Preston can now grieve in peace.

We are in the midst of the credit crunch here in the UK and it seems that more and more people are being put out of work every single day through no fault of their own. Today it was announced that Corus, a premier steelmaker here, was to cut 2,500 jobs soon, thus forcing more people out of work. The rate of repossession of homes stands at one family every 10 minutes now and that may well get worse as we head deeper into recession.

In a few hours, we will all face another Monday. Most of us will get up as normal and go to work with the fear that we will be told we are no longer needed when we get there. Some will wonder how they are going to pay the bills on the minimum wage jobs they have had to take following the loss of their £20,000 plus a week job. Some may even wonder how far they can make the petrol stretch in their cars given that they haven’t got enough money to fill up the tank.

Gordon Brown and his Labour government are our “public servants”. We are counting on them to get us out of the mess that they and a few greedy bankers have gotten us into. We elected them to do what is right by us and apparently they are… by getting us into hefty debt and squandering our money on themselves.

This week may well be the week that we can read all about what our hard earned cash goes on when they claim expenses. Millions of our pounds every year are used to pay family members a wage that they do not work for, for furniture for their second homes, for expensive cars and luxurious hotels. The list could go on.

So spare a thought for MPs when you hear to work this Monday morning people! After all, the government’s privacy is about to be compromised and the British public is too stupid to understand why the public servants need second homes when they don’t even have one. Neither can we understand their cushy lifestyles when we’re making every penny do the work of two. Spare a thought for their corrupt ways when you are told that you are no longer needed because they will never be out of a job.

These are the people that are supposed to serve us but the only people that they serve these days are themselves. It makes me sick.

I’ve been ridiculously busy the last couple of days so apologies for missing two posts in the last three days. It’s highly unlike me not to write on here but our economic situation is a little precarious so I’m having to take on any and all work that comes my way and look for more. Keeping a roof over our heads is the most important thing at the moment and, being a freelance writer, I have the luxury of looking my own schedule so I’m working about 18 hours a day at the moment. Unfortuantely, all of the above means that I’ve missed some really interesting news items in the past few days so I’m going to write a little about several of them now! 

Mother Allowed 3 Year Old To Smoke

Thie news story really disturbed me. A mother has been charged and found guilty of child cruelty because her 3 year old child lit a cigarette butt and started to smoke it! Yes, the child was 3 and lit the cigarette himself before begging to smoke it. Kelly Marie Pocock’s excuse was that she didn’t notice her child do that but I don’t see how the court didn’t charge her for perjury as well! A family friend was so disgusted by it that she filmed the incident at Pocock’s Merthyr Vale home in Wales on her mobile phone. This was of course used as evidence and backed up by expert testimony that the child was smoking the cigarette far too easily for it to be the first time. The child actually had a habit! God only knows what its done to his tiny little lungs but for a 3 year old to be able to do that even once is absolutely disgusting and Pocock, age 24, deserved far more than the suspended sentence she got!

Jonathan Ross Returns

I was so so so happy last night to see Jonathan Ross back on TV! I’ve missed his Friday night show and apparently I wasn’t the only one. 5.1m viewers watched Friday Night With Jonathan Ross last night and no doubt more will watch the replay later. Of course, Ross being back on TV has dragged his critics from under their Mary Whitehouse stones again but for goodness sake people let it lie! Ross and Russell Brand were wrong to call Andrew Sachs and leave those answerphone messages and have apologised but enough is enough. After all, Sachs has benefitted off the back of it as well. He’s back on TV thanks to his agent capitalising on the publicity. For someone that was really hurt by the whole incident, he was awfully quick to sign several lucrative contracts!

Taleban Nursed Next To UK Soldiers

British soliders that are serving in Afghanistan complained to the BBC this week because they were visiting injured friends in the Camp Bastion hospital only to find that they were being nursed next to the very people that they were fighting… members of the Taleban! I couldn’t believe it when I read this. Although the UK troops have to treat every individual that is injured under the Geneva Convention, it just adds insult to injury to find the very people that are trying to kill you in the bed next to you! I’m not saying that these people do or do not deserve treatment because none of us have any knowledge as to why they are fighting for the Taleban. Some are brainwashed, some are forced to fight and some are sold into the ranks of the terrorist group. However, they should not be treated in the same hospital let alone the same room. I think that it’s an absolute disgrace to our brave troops, who very often do not get th respect they deserve in any form anyway. They deserve much better than this! 

Oscar Nominations Announced

I only have a couple of things to say on this… I can’t wait to see the battle between Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Oscars this year. Secondly, I love Kate Winslet and think that she is a fantastic actress, and throroughly deserving of Oscar this year, but please please please don’t make everyone cringe as much as at the Golden Globes. Be happy, be joyful but don’t forget Angelina Jolie and don’t sound as if your triumph is giving you an orgasm! Cynical I know but I really hate displays like that!

Karen Matthews Jailed For Kidnapping

Karen Matthews has been jailed for 8 years after being found guilty of kidnapping her own daughter, Shannon Matthews. You might expect the family to support Karen Matthews but they’ve actually come out in the media and said that they believe the sentence is not harsh enough. They wanted her to be sentenced to more years in jail and I agree with them. The police search and investigation to find Shannon Matthews cost over £100 million, which is money that I and every other tax payer in the land will have to contribute, and for what? For a selfish mother that had drugged her own daughter in order to get her hands on a £50,000 reward. I can’t believe that any mother would put her own daughter through such a nightmare! Well, to a certain extent she deserves what she got but I don’t think it went far enough. If Karen Matthews is capable of doing all of this to her own daughter then what else is she capable of?

Barak Obama Restores Women’s Rights

Barack Obama has taken strides for women everywhere and retored the woman’s right to choose within days of being in the White House. George W Bush invoked a global gag rule when he was in office as the President of the United States that halted the flow of funding to any institution that offered advice to women about or the facilities to perform abortions. This left many health facilities with a much tighter budget throughout the world so they were unable to offer the best health care to women. I understand that many people are against abortion but I am all for a woman’s right to choose. As a woman, I would absolutely not enjoy being forced into having my rapist’s baby. I would abhor being told what to do if my baby would have no quality of life as a result of genetic abnormalities, and I mean those far worse than Downes Syndrome. I would resent being old what to do with my body by men that do not know me nor care what I am going through because of what is “morally right”. Giving women the right to choose is morally right and I challenge anyone that says they know what they would do if pregnant with a rapist’s baby or as a result of incest. There is absolutely no way you couldknow until you are in that situation. As a result, I applaud Obama and the return of freedom, human rights and common sense!

Just a quick thought for the day today… It was announced that British Gas have released information that they are to slash prices of their energy services in February by 10%, which marks a huge saving on what we are paying for our gas at the moment. I have to admit that it does sound good from the information given at first glance because I’ve read little about it… but then I got to thinking…

Yes, slashing gas prices by 10% is a good thing so well done British Gas for being the first one to do so but isn’t it a little late? How many elderly people have died because they couldn’t afford to put on their heating? How many people have sat wrapped in blankets to avoid putting their central heating to good use because it was too expensive? These changes will come into force when the two coldest months, December and January, are over and done with. Coincidence? I think not! Gas prices fell slightly in December but now people will be cutting back on the heating as the cold starts to subside, you don’t have to pay as much for it.

Having said that, I suppose we have to take what we can get given the extortionate rates we have to pay at the moment and the fact that other providers are resisting the change. Good job I’m already with British Gas!

 

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

                              - Martin Luther King Jr.; August 28, 1963 

 

I only wish that Martin Luther King, the man instrumental in advancing black civil rights in the 1960s, would have lived to see today. I wish that he could see what his hard work and sacrifice yielded in the end. Unfortunately he did not live to see his dream realised but so many others did and, not to be too melordramatic, today is the day that the world changed forever. The most powerful man in the world is now a black man, and African American, and deservedly so. He doesn’t deserve to be President because he is black, no more than previous presidents merited election because they were white, but Barack Obama does deserve to be President because he is incredibly intelligent, hard working, honourable and has the best interests of the American population at heart.

Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States and I think he will be incredible in the role. I believe he will make history in more ways than one and I also believe that he will help to make the world a better place, far more than his predecessors have.  Now that George W Bush is finally out of office, I’m suddenly feeling hopeful. Although the world will not change overnight, I believe that I will be blogging in 4 years reflecting on the positive steps that have been taken by Barack Obama. If his inauguration speech is anything to go by then I think the world will be a better place.

His health care reform plans are long overdue. It comes to something when someone in the advanced stages of cancer has to go to a free emergency clinic just to get something to alleviate the pain. The rich in America that believe that their health system is the best in the world are right because it is… as long as you have money. If you don’t then you are basically left to fend for yourself and that is fundamentally wrong in a First World country. Everyone has a right to health care regardless of their bank balances. As such, I welcome his proposals and hope he can fend off the greedy pharmaceutical companies to pass a fairer system for all.

I also welcome his Presidency because I feel that he is far better placed to put the world economy back on track, end the persistant and wasteful wars, create a fairer and more equal society and at least alleviate some of the prejudices that still exist in society. Maybe I am being too optimistic. Maybe I am looking to one man for more inspiration than I should. However, the fact that he got elected in the first place, something that many African Americans thought impossible, shows that the world is ready for change. It gives me hope, which is something I feel the world has lost. Now is the time to regain that hope and leave the past behind. It’s time to move forward and contribute to a better world.

Yes, you read the title of this post right! The Royal Bank Of Scotland was today announced to have made a loss of £27 billion in 2008! When you consider that these people actually look after our money for us it is really quite shocking and it beggers belief that they would be allowed to do that job! Their announced losses were £7 billion but RBS lost a further £20 billion thanks to their disastrous takeover of ABN Amro last year. They are record losses and the share prices fell by 67% to 12p each to reflect this, but it is more apparant than ever that these people and their greed played a major part in welcoming the credit crunch with open arms. Considering that tax payers have bailed them out not once but twice now and the above figures are fact and not fiction, I find it a bit rich that the banks still won’t lend to business in desperate need of a financial boost to ride out the storm.

These figures were announced just before Prime Idiot Gordon Brown announced that we were to bail out the banks AGAIN so they could be insured against bad debt. We are to pay for their stupidity and greed yet again to get business moving again as a result of this “state insurance”. The idea is to get them lending again by providing insurance against bad debts so we would be paying for loans and credit lines for companies that fail in the coming years. Again, the banks get away with not paying a penny for their mistakes.

I understand the need for credit to get industry and businesses going again but the success of this venture all depends on Gordon Brown’s ability to encourage banks to start lending again and there is nothing to say that they have to at all. By law, they can do just as they please… and undoubtedly have in the past! Furthermore, this is fast becoming a time bomb. Brown is writing cheques that he is never going to have to cash. We are. We are going to be heavily taxed for years to come so my generation (I’m 27) and my children’s generation are going to have to pay for the mistakes of today in the years to come. That is not fair at all. Although something has to be done, Brown cannot keep announcing these initiatives, which incidentally keep failing to have the desired or indeed any effect, and adding more debt to our future tax bill without consequences.

And there has to be consequences in the next election or God help us all!