I look around the world and around me….

Over 25 years ago I spent nearly 2 years travelling the world; mainly West Africa and South East Asia, going through some of the world’s most deprived areas and I swore I would try to help. I wanted to be an author, to write about this systemic inequality that we all found so acceptable and this two-tier life of “us” and “them”.

Amidst all that hardship and suffering, I found pockets of civility, along with baffling hate and loathing of others, even among the world’s poorest. Right in there, was further inequality and all the usual trappings of human flaws.

Over the years I have gradually withdrawn from what we saw as the ‘norm’ of having a group of friends, going drinking every other day after work where we gathered and cracked cruel jokes that we saw as idle banter, in which we didn’t give a hoot about anything but just swung through life. I give as much as I can, in annual donation to worthwhile causes in developing countries, but knowing a lot of it probably never makes it to those in need of it. But ultimately, what is so saddening is the knowledge I have, that even if you help those in need, when they get out of being in need, they are no better. They immediately begin to seek to do the exact same things that contribute to the world being the way it is.

A few decades ago, I used to read about China and all the sufferings the Chinese were put through and how they were used as cheap labour, how many Western countries pitched tent there and destabilised them etc. The various Japanese invasion etc. Then came the era of industrialisation; they kicked out the foreign powers, believed in themselves, worked damn hard – selling us the millions of items that never lasted a week – and boom! China arrived on the global scene. Now, they want to be a super power and are starting to act exactly like those they condemned for decades. So, all the aspiration to be different was all just about ideals when they hadn’t arrived at that top table. No different from the every day human: the poor rant and rave about the rich and horrible treatment, but you get them out of poverty and all that happens is they become exactly what they spent their lives complaining about! ‘rich’! And then the reasons pile up: well, why shouldn’t I buy a big house? if I can afford 10 cars (even if only need 1) why shouldn’t I buy it? And so the cycle goes.

The most ill-treated groups in history, tend to become those that later ill-treat others, the minute they get into the ascendancy

Those who complain the most about stuff like racism, you visit where they originate from, and those are some of the most racist places on earth. Yes, perhaps it doesn’t matter and we should be better here in the west, because of past generations of colonisation etc. Such warped logic!

Nowadays, I just do not bother anymore. My gradual withdrawal from the typical day to day of keeping friends, going out, doing the same things as everyone else – and casually saying it’s just what life is – has been on, well before Covid and although Covid has now helped to remove the need to hold face to face meetings (with the usual pre-kick off banter etc), I simply struggle to relate to others now. You look at America; it only took a few months for them to talk away the horrors of Trump’s 4 years as President, the horrors of January 6 and his refusal to even attend the ceremony to handover to the incoming president – essentially disrespecting the entire institution and people of America, the very same who appear willing to do virtually anything for him! We are now in 2024 and he is probably even more popular and more likely to win the presidency than when he first did. Is that not truly reprehensible? What possible excuse can any human being have for that? What have they fallen so in love with? his tweets? his name-calling? disregard for civility? what exactly is the attraction?

You look at the ease in which we are all able to look the other way. Hundreds of school shootings but well, the constitution say you can own guns and that’s that! Thousands getting killed in needless wars and conflicts, we head to Taylor Swift gigs and carry on.

But we tell ourselves: well, life goes on. The show must go on. Ok. Then on our death bed at the ripe old ago of eighty-something we start to hope that there’s another life out there, a heaven, a second universe etc. Forgetting that we are really no different from those chicken and cows we had for dinner over the year. Life is simply temporary. We come through, it comes to an end at some point and that, indeed, is simply THAT!

We bulldoze nature and do whatever it is we feel we have to do. Someone starts a protest, becomes known, becomes a celebrity from it, in comes the millions and they are out of control. It was the same with Black Lives Matter and others before it. An idealist, wishing to change the world for the better, in comes the millions and suddenly you read of the salaries black life matter execs are playing each other – believing they worked hard enough for it – same for execs of charities etc. What follows is news of mansions they have bought etc.

It is what it is?

Oh dear!!

I can partly understand efforts to fix some of history e.g. if someone says they do not want to read books that try to place one group of people above the other. Things move on. Turkey (Ottoman empire) ruled an urge chunk of the world once, so did Egypt, Italy (Romans), Greece (Alexander the great), Britain, the Moors etc. It all moves on.

Fixating on songs such as Rule Britannia is just so unnecessary! It is a rousing song, a brilliant song, even if it comes with some unfortunate bits of it, possibly glorifying colonialism. The French national anthem is gory, has anyone really looked into the wording of the New Zealand rugby Haka that we all respect and laud as a brilliant battle cry?

I am all for modernisation and making necessary changes, especially if we say we are the ones to do better. But for goodness sakes! LEAVE ‘Rule Britannia’ alone!!!! There are tons of other more useful changes people can go and advocate for! Let’s stop the silliness!!!

Yes, this could be seen as old news but it’s still rumbling on in the Spanish courts. So, here’s my two cents…

Football is of course full of emotion and all that, BUT it is still a place of work. The players are at work. They are hired and get wages etc. And while representing their country at tournaments, it is still in a work capacity.

So, when Spain won the women’s World Cup and the now infamous kiss took over the headlines. The very simple question is: would any office worker expect the Chairman of the company to come and give them a congratulatory kiss on the lips for doing a good job?
He says he asked her if he can give her a little peck? Well, even if she said yes, as he claims, he should then have been fired, for putting that question to her!
One can understand if the coach did what he did, at the emotional height of winning the World Cup, but Rubiales was the head of the Spanish Football Association, so, a senior official who should be there as a stiff and formal presence, congratulating the players, not asking if he can give them a peck, which indeed turned out to be a full lip smacker!
What a joke the fellow is!
Yes, he eventually bowed to immense pressure and resigned, but goodness! Should have been sacked the very next day he claimed he asked her if he could give her that peck!
Women shouldn’t have to endure such nonsense at work, be it football or whatever.

It is one of those things that are simply impossible to comprehend, but the minute you take a peek that the amount of money that circulates around it, you know it is an untouchable topic, similar to gun control in America or the MAGA movement and other similar phenomena

We recently publicly lynched a Baroness Mone here in the UK for lying to the press about the profit she & her husband stood to make from rushed government contracts to provide PPE at the height of Covid. And yes, for someone in the House of Lords, she really should never have sought to profit from that situation. We also wonder why Boris Johnson continually lied while in government. WELL, we bring up our children in an environment where we tell them some lies are ok (if in good sport and to continue to propagate some idiotic notion of happiness at a certain time of the year – Christmas) while some lies ain’t. And we expect them to just toe that line. Well, some do. While others assume that provided you feel the lies are justifiable in your mind (same as for Christmas and Father Christmas etc.), it is ok. Can we really sit in judgement of that?

I mean, how far do we really, truly had to take the whole Christmas junk?!! Ok, there’s a Santa who slides around and distributes presents. Fine. But for goodness sake, with millions of hungry kids around the world, why go as far as to waste carrots and juice and cookies etc., laid out overnight for Santa??? Only to be thrown out in the morning, just to keep the charade going!???
And all for what exactly?
To manufacture happiness? Would the kids not have been ok without this charade?
Whose happiness exactly?
Then there’s the whole annexation of a Middle East story of a baby Jesus and all that, while we watch the Middle East in a bloody mess right now! What hypocrisy! Can the world not so something to have prevented all the mindless killings going on out there, including the years (and ongoing) of war in Syria (all these places e.g. Damascus, sit at the very heart of the Christmas story that we sing nativity songs about and try to dissociate from that reality). We want the ‘Jesus’ story but we wouldn’t want Jesus’ descendants who are now seeking asylum/refuge in their thousands due to the various conflict in that region…

But of course, we expect honest politicians and civil servants, from the same brood of kids we started out in life by deliberately telling all these needless lies to, just to progress what we call “tradition”!

Personally, I am not opposed to any of it (expect for the waste – I loath to see the pile of largely useless gifts that end up untouched a week after); if that is what keeps people happy, fine. Carry on with it. But do not then expect a Boris Johnson not to grow up thinking he can make whatever he wants of the truth. What is the truth anyway? And I’m sure he and others also think: who’s truth??

Christmas! That time of the year when we tell ourselves we’re doing enough. That we deserve all the excesses and that the rest of the world is not our personal problem..

It is the very reason the world will always be in a mess. We bring present after present out, roll around in glee. If you think about children in some parts of the world, but the real sad part of it all, is that had they been more fortunate, would they think about the less fortunate?

It’s just about as complicated as animals in captivity. We come up with excuses. If we don’t display them there won’t be revenue to pay their carers or feed them etc. They are not equipped for survival in the wild. Ok…..

Perhaps we can’t change the world, perhaps humans are what we are, but for goodness sake! piling a child with 5+ presents is not only excessive, it is wasteful and pointless. As a kid, I received tens and tens of needless, wasteful presents myself; not about hypocrisy. In comes the most potent excuse: culture, tradition..? out goes common sense! A marketing trick that will never lose its potency.

Doctors look for symptoms and try to prevent rather than cure. When you have a presidential candidate using gutter language, sounding like the most illiterate members of society, you’ve had you4 warning folks! There’s your symptom!

It all began as a joke pre-2016, with stuff like “crooked Hillary” and people laughed. It’s gone downhill from there and we’re now into ”vermin” territory. Language you expect from despots and language we’ve heard from awful dictators during awful eras of the past. Half of Americans find themselves in a helpless situation and every election cycle has now become such a worry!

The post-Brexit threats to British fishermen and all the needless petulance is needless..

If the UK is supposed to miss out on the wonders of the EU, there is no need for the EU to keep trying to exact revenge. The EU should just carry on and let us miss being a member, if that’s the supposed eventuality

I believe people should, if they show interest, be employed regardless of what they look like. And yes, that’s not presently the case. We all know that.

But for goodness sake!!!
What exactly are we asking for here?

A world where there are all types of people in equal measure everywhere, is not yet what we have, for so many necessary reasons.
I am certain that similar offices (to the BBC in the UK) in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, China are overwhelmingly packed with the majority population of those countries.
of course if others apply for work there, they should hopefully get given a chance

I recall the famous Chinese actress who regularly won every award in Asia, going to Hollywood stating there is bias. Well, of course there is bias, but did she previously speak up prior?

There is a tendency to push these items to the verge of idiocy!

Tolerance is not a one-way street! Sometimes we all just need to be more accepting of the environment we’re in!

I’ve seen many surprises go wrong over the years, with the recipient putting up a brave face and a phoney smile, just to avoid appearing ungrateful!

Personally, if I want to do something nice for someone, I choose to do it with them, rather than to them! Yes, boring and perhaps lacking that 5 second magic when (if the recipient isn’t pretending) the recipient beams with pleasure. I simply find it tiresome. Firstly, the recipients of our surprises tend to know it’s coming (and oftentimes have to pretend they don’t) – I mean, if you have given someone a surprise anniversary or birthday present for 40 years, would you stop now? – so, yes, they already expect it. Secondly, they miss out on the fun of getting the supposed surprise in place, fun that is sometimes even better than the eventual surprise. To cap it all, if it turns out to be something they’re actually not so keen on (or have received 6 of the same!), they still then have to smile and play along! Jeez!!
So, essentially the person(s) planning the surprise have all the fun and at the end, also exact gratitude and praise for putting the surprise in place!

However, different stroke for different folk as they say. I stick to my no-surprise approach and leave those who enjoy the surprise fantasy life to carry on with theirs. All good…

We can do better. Yes. But we are the best

We have and continue to do some awful stuff, but we are a lot less awful than most

Today’s society is awful. The ability to exploit others is exponential because of social media etc. Human beings are being smuggled all over the place and exploited. We have to find a way to break that cycle, via use of technology and not by dumping these exploited folk in Rwanda! It won’t stop more coming! Today, the Supreme Court ruled. We sincerely hope that the government and future governments can now take steps, using technology, to root out the individual who are behind illegal migration, so that the helpless can be channeled through legal routes, assessed and we return to a process that is just, fair and most importantly, humane!

We are not perfect, far from it, BUT when push comes to shove, we tend to find a way to try to do the right thing!

I was going to say that we need a return to decency, but in truth, struggled to find that decent era of the past!

Read Jen Psaki’s article this morning (Jen was White House press secretary when Biden became president) explaining that the new Speaker of the House of Representatives (Mike Johnson) is an election denying, Trumpist who is a lot worse than Jim Jordan, another Trumpist who nearly became Speaker last week. Jen is brilliant, but what exactly is her point? Can anyone who doesn’t support Trump survive in a political party that has decided to follow Trump? We have already seen what happened to Liz Cheney and others, they lost their seat. The Democrats lost their majority in the house, so, whose fault is that? If Mike Johnson is supposedly worse than Jim Jordan, why didn’t the democrats vote to keep McCarthy in? (it was 8 Republicans that removed him. There are over 200 democrats in the house. Just 10 of them (Democrats) could have scuppered the 8 who did McCarthy in). Yes, everyone can put all sorts of arguments forward, but seriously!!!??? Let’s stop being so bloody idiotic!!!
What exactly have the Democrats done in the last several years? Obama era, Biden so far. And PLEASE, the answer is not: well, they are less crazy or they are no worse than Republicans or they were frustrated by the Republicans!
It can’t be just about sounding less crazy!

There’s a refugee/asylum seeker crisis: what can be done?
Building a wall was clearly idiotic as it was never going to work; even if the US built a 100ft wall completely around the country (including water bodies), it will be breached!
What’s the plan? Where’s the plan? Can the countries bring fled by so many, for whatever reasons, be assisted? If we don’t want people trooping in, can we help the countries they’re coming from, to avoid the crisis (be it wars or economic hardship) that lead to their people seeking exits?
These are not just ideological issues and you want to see Democrats come up with REAL solutions and not just a less crazy disposition or kinder words etc.

Democrats will never get a one-party democracy, it simply doesn’t exist. It’s called something else! So, knowing there will always be an opposition party and potential to lose control of the house or senate and face frustrations to rolling out laws etc., that is how a democratic system is designed to work. You have to be able to get things done, within those constraints! It is what it is!
A government comes in and is immediately worried about not doing anything to lose the mid-term elections or are immediately worried about making sure they win a second term! Don’t rock the boat!
So, NOTHING gets done!
Yes, getting a black woman on the Supreme Court and stuff like that, which decent folk like Biden’s government would try to do, are all good, BUT why not go all out and actually try to do some big things that, granted, if they try and fail, they will lose the next few elections, but if they succeed….

Same problem in the UK and pretty much everywhere else. We complain about the rise of populism and an increase in intolerance, awful language and denigration of people etc., but talking about it is hardly going to solve the problem is it???! It’s a NO GUTS, NO GLORY situation. If populism is on the rise due to some people getting fed up with what they see as an uncontrollable rise in illegal migration, then FIX the problem! or at least put forward some ideas! Instead, it’s just talk!

You look at America, they have hundreds of thousands in their prisons. But they continued to use sentencing rules that end up locking more and more people up! Can a government not break that cycle??! Nope! It will rock the boat….

Here in the UK, we have poverty levels shooting through the roof, but we’re not creating jobs. Instead, we wrapped ourselves up in the Brexit matter, which nobody really understood but the point-scoring is more important

These supposedly ‘better’ folk do not appear to solve any problems either! They just sound better, say fewer crazy stuff, appear more humane, but at the end of the day, deliver very little, because they are not making bold decisions

Prisons are a very necessary deterrent in human society. To think otherwise would be naive. Unfortunately, but true.

When you look at some aspects of human behaviour and disposition, whether it is a mental illness or just evil as some would say, there is just no means of deterring some dispensation to commit crimes and we see the callousness with which stabbings occur daily..

But to continue to build more and more prisons, struggling to staff them adequately, leading to overcrowding, slim chance of rehabilitation, increase in reoffending etc., is sheer madness! We need to rethink the entire system. Non-violent crime should seek alternative deterrence e.g. lengthy unpaid public service (properly supervised to ensure such sentence is carried out) to free up prison space for violent crimes and allow for increase in prison staff to inmates ratio so that some rehabilitation can occur, to reduce chances of reoffending when released.

There has to be a different approach. Delaying sentencing as we now have it, potentially leaving violent criminals loose due to prisons being full, is likely risky

Yes, the BBC is not perfect and has been seen to be biased on occasion, but even with the likes of CNN trying to provide fair and balanced journalism, none come close to the BBC. A significant portion of the problems our societies face globally today, is down to what people read in press releases, websites etc. Journalism has gone from factual reporting to just opinions.

Without the BBC, all is lost! And as imperfect as the BBC is, they really do still make a very conscious effort to just try to report the facts as they get it…

I suspect there were black people prior to slavery, colonisation, apartheid, and the ongoing struggles in America!

Perhaps not as conveniently documented like other circulated forms of history, but hey, you want black history, go dig that pre-15th century stuff up. Mythology, you may well find those too. ‘Sango the god of thunder’ is popular one (similar to Thor), spread as far as Brazil..

I’m sure many (and not only black folk) may find it of interest as opposed to just the usual tales of woe, covering the last 500 or so years….

History should not be rewritten after the fact.

Black History Month!? Black people are probably not just a single group, under this all encompassing banner of BLACK!? I wouldn’t presume White History month is the history of Germans? Which folk rep White? It’s the same general error of saying I was just in Africa! while only visiting Tanzania! Well, there’s probably a bit more to Africa than just Tanzania?
My best guess would be that Black History would require a Chieftain from one of the countries in Africa, to provide some historical facts? and the loop in other bits?
Well, I’m clearly not an expert on the subject, but I am quite certain looking at say, history of Black people in the UK is not necessarily Black History (it’s part of it, but…)

Very few groups of people over the years have moved elsewhere and discarded their culture to solely and totally imbibe the culture of their host. It is the reason we see towns in the US, Australia, Canada and other places named after towns in the UK and it is the reason you see similarities in the culture of those countries compared to the place they migrated from. So, nothing new there.

The present challenge, which everyone is keen to blame on one thing or the other, is actually a very unfortunate set of circumstances, which in the UK for instance, dates back to the late 1950s and 60s when we needed a fair volume of cheap labour and we reached out to the colonised and previously colonised nations, offering them jobs here in the UK. They came in their droves, and you had families with both parents having to work round the clock to survive (setting aside all the other issues that generation faced, which is very well documented); their kids received very little attention as the parents were at work, round the clock. The children then had to attend schools where the discipline (usually corporal punishment) they were accustomed to back in the Caribbean and other places, no longer applied, and they found themselves in a very unfamiliar system, where the could get away with virtually anything – and the teachers were not at all used to dealing with kids from those circumstances – with little consequence. They were harshly measured against the existing system, which was in place for British kids who had a family support network (grandma & grandpa nanny service etc., which helped the parents free up time) and the immigrant kids simply couldn’t cope and didn’t measure up and the system gave up on them. It is such as sad & unfortunate situation. Yes, a handful of determined kids made it through and against all odds went on to achieve something in a tough system that simply wasn’t fit for purpose.

Multiculturalism in the basic sense of it, is not what has failed. It is the inability (dating back decades) of society and government to have recognised the predicament that immigrants being brought in, we’re going to face, and perhaps trying to find a system that would work for them. Instead, it appears it was easier to demonise them and society gave up on them. Today, we are facing the brunt of that situation yet again, with knife crimes etc., and again, the reaction appears to be the same, we haven’t learnt anything. We trot out statistics about how many minorities are in jail and commit crimes and how many parts of the country is now a cesspit and we demonstrate they are areas t where immigrants have settled. I have also been guilty over the years for a lack of understanding of why immigrants would litter or do things that were perhaps acceptable where they’re from, instead of immediately imbibing what we do here etc. It is all just such an unfortunate vicious cycle. We now have a major problem on our hands, even as more immigrants come in, be it legally or illegally. They will again face the same vicious cycle; those that secure jobs will be working round the clock, while their children run amock on our streets and we’ll start chalking up the statistics on knife crimes etc, yet again.

Kindness is probably the only lasting solution. I understand the anger of right-wing folk and others in the country who do not wish to spend another penny on hotels for refugees etc., but we must find some kindness deep down, to try to end this cycle. It is cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face, if we continue down this same old road yet again. It may be too late to impact the current predicament of knife crime etc., but why compound it? We must find kindness in our hearts, to try to deal with this situation, even if we cannot undo the past and that generational nightmare that has led to the kids and grandkids of the generation that moved here in the 1950s and 60s full of resentment and stuck in poverty, while we label them as drug-dealers etc. and bang as many of them as possible in prisons. One can only feel saddened by the situation. Is there a solution? heaven knows…..

Roughly 150 years after the sale of human beings was supposedly abolished, the trans-Atlantic trade in human lives is booming again! All the hallmarks are exactly the same!
First we dehumanise them: illegal migrants! —— yet, they have names, were born to a family, have blood flowing through their veins like the rest of us, feel pain etc.

Next, we follow the money-trail: angry population complaining about the £millions in taxpayer funding to house these illegal migrants in hotels, feed them etc., BUT hang on, the hotels are not owned by the illegal migrants right? So, who is the beneficiary of these millions being spent on housing and feeding these illegal migrants? (I am sure those beneficiaries will be donating money to our schools and colleges, hospitals etc.?). Just like the wealthy slave traders of old had educational grants and built playgrounds etc..

Next, we find that many of these so-called illegal migrants are being hired as cheap labour

Then we hear of Countries like France who have to be paid by Brits to stop illegal migrants crossing the channel in small boats. And countries like Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, demanding money, EU membership etc., else they will look the other way and let illegal migrants flood our countries out west. So, more money and favours change hands? —- known as trade?

No need to mention the people smugglers involved and the hefty fees they are said to be charging the migrants and the menial work those migrants are having to do, to earn such monies to pay the smugglers..

So, who said slavery was abolished in 1865?

Public sentiment is the same as back then. We say little, turn the other way. After all flogging and chains are not involved this time around eh? So, can’t be that bad…

Inside South Africa’s Operation Dudula: ‘Why we hate foreigners’

History clearly teaches us nothing as humans!
How anyone in South Africa, after decades of the operation they faced under apartheid, can seek to oppress others for whatever reason, is totally beyond me!

I must admit I didn’t finish reading the article (it’s on the BBC) as it was just too depressing!

But I presume it will be deemed wrong to call it racism? All human races can be racist and indeed what is happening in South Africa is exactly that! And it is ongoing all across the world! It is not just a white on black (using those colours broadly) problem. Yes, the most recent wide for of slavery via the Atlantic was a white on black crime that then morphed into the situations that followed in America and has continued to this day, there and elsewhere, but it was just opportunistic. It is clear that any group of people could have perpetrated the exact same crime on other groups. Not trying to absolve those who committed that travesty, but how in god’s name can one explain what black South Africans are now doing to black foreigners in South Africa?!!

Madness!!!

Awesome result for Coco! Splendid!!!

There is nothing simple about what’s going on in Ukraine.

It should never have ended up in a military conflict. The bloodshed is and must always be seen to be totally unacceptable. It represents a major failure by all those involved (Ukraine, Russia, the west..) to exercise diplomacy and zero tolerance to war and needless bloodshed

But we already know all that

Russia should withdraw from Ukraine and end the bloodshed. But Ukraine must at the same time, agree to tidy up: this isn’t about referendums as it is impossible to reach conclusions that will be fair on all those involved. Just imagine if you have a town with 80% Russia-leaning folk who own land, houses etc., with the remaining 20% Ukraine-leaning; a referendum or forced annexation will not be a permanent solution. At some point in the near future, conflict will resurface. Could it be possible to offer Ukraine-leaning folk in heavily Russia-leaning parts of Ukraine, a relocation plan that provides them with 5 x what they had, in a different part of Ukraine, to create an autonomous region where Russia-leaning parts (largely those places Russia are presently trying to annex) of Ukraine can self-determine. Yes, it could still end up in a mess later, but at least, end the needless bloodshed! If you look at similar arrangements made decades ago in splitting the likes of Cyprus, Kashmir also? there will always be underlying tensions regardless. It is difficult to see how Ukraine can go forward (not forgetting they were fighting internally prior to Russia’s current exercise and there had been past annexations e.g. Crimea) as a country, with the folk in those regions who only speak Russian and do not want to be part of Ukraine (well, at least some of them). Creating an autonomous region (rather than annexation, which is definitely unfair to Ukraine, whichever way you look at it, Ukraine shouldn’t be loosing parts of their land to Russia just because some of the folk in those parts wish to be part of Russia – it doesn’t work that way or the world will be in absolute chaos! I am sure there are many parts of several countries who want away. They simply can’t force annexations left, right and centre) that retains autonomy from both Russia and Ukraine but can regularly choose to align as they wish.

Either way, there will have to be compromise. Question is: what took so long????!!!! Why let thousands die before reaching such comprise??

All the injury and doubts! …. Well done KJT!!

With the ongoing Women’s World Cup doing great as we all hoped for (and England are very likely to win the final tomorrow! yippee!!), many have been discussing the matter of gender pay gap and asking for equality in female & female pay at the World Cup. Unfortunately, this is one of those instances where people fail to do their homework

Last year’s men’s World Cup generated $7.5billion in revenue and cost the organisers $1.1billion to organise it. The men (footballers) were paid circa 6% of the revenue. England’s men donate all their earnings from the World Cup to charity.

The ongoing women’s World Cup has generated $570million in revenue and cost the organisers $510million to organise it. The women (footballers) are to be paid circa 15% of the revenue.

Let us say FIFA were to set an equal percentage of revenue generated as payment to both men & women (in the name of equality), and say that is 6%, the women will not be able to cover the cost of their jerseys.

FIFA do not have some other means of earning revenue to pay players outside of what the product generates…..

If both men & women football events generate the same revenue and men get paid higher, then that would be a travesty

It’s the bonus paid by the respective football associations that should indeed be exactly the same for men & women and should be based on how far you progress at each tournament, meaning the England women making it to the final (and indeed, if they win) must be offering a higher bonus than what was paid to our men, who haven’t made it this far in a while. No revenge generation explanation for that..

And in essence, if we say it’s all about economics and some common sense (and not another attempt to put women in their place!), then, is it possible for women’s football to generate $7.5billion at their World Cup? Men say that will be 30, 40 years from now as it took men that long to get there. Well, the answer is NO! With social media and all the technology advancement today, and assuming roughly half the world have female kids etc., it will not take that long, if the right steps are taken, to get the women’s game to become a mega-money business! This should never be a matter of men versus women. It is business, it is economics. In the construction sector you often hear of resource shortages, but hey, women cannot thrive in construction. Why? because we use some macho, unacceptable aggression to freeze them out. There are thousands of roles and job positions in construction that doesn’t require male muscles carrying blocks and bricks up a ladder: we now have equipment for that! The training, skill and expertise needed to operate those equipment can be readily mastered by both men & women, if we create a conducive environment for all! It is that simple! Women’s football is not at the same pace and style as men’s (and as many have been pointing out, teams of 15 year old boys have been trouncing the elite senior women’s team when they played), but it is a product and one that is enjoyable to watch for so many, and as such, it can be made commercially viable

Behind the men’s game with its billions, you’ll find women who took these big name footballers to weekend camps and training as boys, so, the men’s game was not some total male product that men sorted!

Nobody attempting to tackle global indecency is going to survive being daubed a psycho! The reason being: worldwide decency is impossible to achieve. It is that simple. We can hammer Presidents, Prime Ministers and other Western leaders all we want, but the reality is that the best any of them can ever do, is to try to be partly decent on balance! (that is what the likes of Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and a few others are trying to be, but occasionally, you get the likes of Donald Trump, who doesn’t even wish to attempt to be decent; he just plays to his crowd and all else be damned). They will always have some dirty decisions to make, they will always have to do some things that ain’t decent. It is what it is. There are so many out there, who will readily hurt us all, if given the opportunity, and decency is not always they available option in keeping those folk from inflicting hurt on us.

Sinéad O’Connor was an imperfect but decent soul who took on what was simply impossible to sort out! But she did her best! RIP Sinéad..

If there ever was a situation that require one to listen to both sides, it is this!

We all caught a glimpse of how we would behave in a slight emergency during the early stages of Covid, when the elderly were forcefully shoved aside in supermarkets as people rushed to clear the shelves to boost their stockpile of toilet roll! We may now of course conveniently blot it all out of our memory and move on. However, the simple reality is that we cannot afford emergencies and clearly cannot cope with it, without certain anarchy! So, while these supposedly extreme brand of protestors such as ‘just stop oil’ or ‘extinction rebellion’ may be seen as a nuisance by many, do we really want to face a major crisis/emergency, where we again get to experience the true nature of human beings?

You know it is time to worry, when oil companies are the ones trying to explain how some parts of the world will suffer absolute anguish if wealthier countries just stop oil. What did we do for those countries when oil was/still is booming?! Not much! But in truth, parts of the world that do not presently have access to electricity or safe drinking water, are hardly going to lose much sleep about the importance of wind turbines are they? We presently have the ability to provide solar panels to provide electricity to every household in poor countries but choose not to – afterall, they are not our problem? – but some of these extremely poor countries owe the very little they have, to oil or industries linked to the production of oil, if you take Venezuela or the delta region of Nigeria or the likes of Equitorial Guinea as examples – yes, thanks to widespread corruption, they are still in brutal poverty but take away the oil industry and you might as well just liquidate those hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken folk – it may be very possible to just stop oil in Europe, but has anyone considered the wider implications for those less fortunate folk?

There is absolutely no doubt that the world must avoid climate catastrophe! We simply cannot cope. If a much less severe threat such as Covid demonstrated just how unprepared we are in an emergency, just imagine what the situation would be, if we hit 60 degrees Celsius and trains, planes, vehicles and our infrastructure crumble? People will be tearing each other’s throats out nevermind shoving the elderly in supermarkets! We do not have the infrastructure to cope with a major climatic incident of the proportion we are heading for, if nothing is done about the climate threat. BUT these arbitrary measures ain’t going to crack it! We need technology to help us replace dependency on the identified causative factors be it the heavy use of fossil fuels or other sources of harmful emissions. We need to look at the speed and volume AND RELIABILITY of the alternative sources and find replacement industries for those poor folk in countries who will face the main brunt of the collateral impact of stopping oil! It simply cannot be a forced, unmitigated reaction!

That said, it is perhaps also easy to see why some are calling for these drastic measures, if over the past 50 years, calls to begin taking this matter seriously have been derided and as is always the case with humans, we have to face a catastrophe before snapping into action – by which time, it is usually too late – you again only have to look at the Covid death toll. And then the denials and conspiracy theories set in! I mean, let us for a moment assume Covid was a hoax, well, SOMETHING took thousands of lives right? And if climate change is just doom-mongering by bored middle class folk, OK. But what if they are right?! Why don’t we give them the benefit of the doubt by actually finding less harmful (to the environment) means of carrying on with everything we say they are trying to restrict/impact?! If we can replace clearly less sustainable fuels and sources of energy with cleaner, more sustainable ones, while ensuring we create new industries to avoid causing devastation to those who presently rely so much on the industries that will be impacted, why not?! But to just plough ahead and ‘just stop oil’ without first figuring out how to properly address all the consequences for the less fortunate, the less influential, who are already suffering as it were, would be tantamount to yet another era of colonial thinking. But also, to ignore the obvious signs out there and just keep needling with tiny bits of ineffectual tweaks, while we continue to churn out these harmful, unsustainable energy etc., is also clearly not acceptable! Meeting in the middle AND then accelerating technology, creating replacement enterprise etc., should be the way to go. There are so many brilliant people on both sides of this argument, who are just wasting their brilliance on trying to be right, instead of trying to find less drastic, impossible to implement demands!

Are we doomed? Probably. Unless all the needless bickering turns into more constructive dialogue with much wider considerations. If we haven’t been able to address global poverty – but have instead ended up with poverty turning up in supposedly wealthy countries such as the UK – what realistic chance do we have with this colossal climate challenge, which requires worldwide solutions and not lopsided actions

It’s like printing loads of money that ends up like the Zimbabwean currency a few years ago, with a trolley-ful needed to buy a loaf of bread!

Of course it is tempting to a politician who grew up on a council estate and lived on social welfare, to grow up thinking that higher taxes for the rich is the solution to getting the poor out of poverty. No. It doesn’t work like that. The rich are too resourceful! They’re too well networked. They will simply move their wealth elsewhere, move their businesses elsewhere and the result? worse poverty! And they know that!

To get the poor out of poverty, you will indeed have to create more opportunities, more wealth! And what that means, is that the rich will always get richer! What we need to do, is to improve the minimum standard of living i.e. drag the poor out of poverty, accepting the rich will remain rich or richer. You don’t drag one down to get the other up! Sounds logical, but it simple ain’t gonna work! What you do is drag both up higher, so that the poor come out of poverty!

The above is the reason why socialism fails. It is the reason that the Labour Party in the UK – with their noble ideals – have been out of government for so long! The posh, public school (privately educated) Conservative Party folk know that you don’t help the poor by stifling the rich! It’s just simply not how that equation works! They are often accused of lining the pocket of the rich, but in truth, perhaps the only other half of the equation that’s missing, is to drag the rest of the population up! There is absolutely no logical reason for anyone in the UK today, to live below the poverty line. We just need to create more opportunities for the poor instead of treating them with disdain and labelling them as benefit-seekers etc. YES, we have fallen into the trap of over-dependence on welfare. We now have a whole generation of young people who believe they must receive government help with everything! Their rent, their holidays, EVERYTHING!

If we can have a government that blends Labour’s noble thoughts with the Conservative’s ability to create wealth and channel it all in the right direction, we will be back as a superpower and the poor will be comfortable (and not forced onto food banks), the rich will carry on lining their pockets and create more opportunities for the poor, and life goes on…..

If you look at some of the instruments of torture that humans have invented over the years and how cruel we can be to each other in the name of ideals, religion, politics etc., there is no limit to our capacity to be cruel.

The treatment of Russian sports men & women since the Ukraine war is another highlight of just how cruel we can be. Ok, few would disagree that Russia attacking Ukraine for whatever they say their reasons are, is not right and military intervention should never have been a step they ever get to. But these athletes did not make that decision, did they? Most of them owe their career to the Russian state funding them, so what do we want them to do? Many of them probably also fear reprisals for themselves and their families, should they speak up in dissent. And in any case, why should they? They are not politicians! They may not have all the facts they need to take one side or the other. Wimbledon’s decision to ban them last year was not an issue; sometimes there are consequences based on association and right or wrong, it was Wimbledon’s prerogative and they took it, albeit, a little bizarre, given they have now allowed the Russians back this year (while the war is still ongoing – so, what changed?) and in any case, last year, while Russian athletes were banned, it was still a Russian representing Khazakstan who won the ladies event.

The issue of ‘Reparation’ regarding the circa 4 centuries of transatlantic slavery is just so DUMB! The context should be more logical. It should be transactional. America for instance, needs to make up its mind. What is the use of the ongoing discrimination and hate? It is so counterproductive. If descendants of slave make us say 10% of the American population, then having those folk banged up in jail for dealing drugs may well make some money for those running those private jails, but for the overall economy, having those 10% gainfully employed, properly educated and treated equally and as humans, is a lot more profitable to America as a whole and would be a massive boost to their economy.So, call it reparation or call it whatever else you want to call it, getting those 10% out of perverts and out of the housing projects and slums, into prosperity, should not be a matter for debate! But debate it has been and remains, while they have allowed all sorts of daft prejudices to influence what really should just be a sensible economic discussion that really is a no-brainer! And it is exactly the same for the situation in the Caribbean, Africa and those old colonies. Who gains from those folk wallowing in poverty? Who gains from them embarking on these risky journeys where they fall prey to people smugglers and drown at sea in their hundreds?
we are much better off pumping money and incentives into their economy and doing it in a manner where individuals there will not be able to embezzle funds or move it abroad. It is very doable, but won’t be done!

Some of the language being used to describe these unfortunate migrants (regardless of whether or not some of them are purely economic migrants or opportunists or criminals mingling in etc.) has been absolutely inexcusable. They are human beings! Much as we MUST secure borders and enforce the rule of law, with migrants coming in via due process and not forced entry via small boats across seas, to think that using humane language will lead to more and more coming, is just an excuse. We need technological solutions and means to secure our borders, it words and certainly not demeaning words such as what Trump used throughout the years 4 years he was in office.
The entire situation has been most unfortunate! Our governments do have a job to do, to ensure the rule of law is seen to be in place, which includes not allowing tens of thousands to repeatedly bypass our borders, but the politics needs to avoid fanning the flame of hate – yes, it is easier and simpler to command votes by whipping voters up into a frenzy, but somehow, decency must come into this and we all should take a step back! However, there are no examples in our history of humans being able to take that crucial step back. Instead, we will seek to justify and carry on

We continue to build more prisons, bang more and more people up; they come out and reoffend almost immediately and the crime gets worse or more violent and we do not know how to sort it! It’s the same conundrum! Can’t appear soft on prisoners by providing rehabilitation which would include stuff that will appear to make prisons soft and we may lose the deterrence….

The state of today’s world is just so sad.

French tennis player Alize Cornet has been having a moan about top players receiving more tickets to get their guests to watch matches at Wimbledon. I can’t recall her complaining nor handing over some of her allocation of tickets (when she was a top player) to the less fortunate lower echelon players all those years she played at Wimbledon as a top player…

Pathetic!

The ongoing public anger in France is quite understandable given the nature what happened to the 17 year old boy – and while some may try to bring in some bizarre equivocation, what we all must remember is that the police are employed by the public, by the taxpayer! Their job is to keep us all safe and they (the police) are extremely necessary in today’s society both as a deterrent but also to enforce the law. But they must never, ever become executioners or judge, jury and executioner. If the boy – as the videos suggest – was at no point an immediate danger to anyone, why not just let him drive away and then, go and pick him up at his home the next morning? Afterall, they say he was known to the police, they had his details, they could also follow the car at a safe distance. There were so many options and none should have come near to what ended up happening!

The anger felt by anyone who has seen that video would be quite understandable and the resulting public display of that anger, via mass protest, is also quite justifiable, but such protest should be limited to public disobedience e.g. all workers refusing to go to work, protest marches etc., anything but actions that cause destruction to own communities; burning or vehicles, looting etc. It is very difficult to see what such wanton violence will achieve. It has never achieved much in the past and is highly unlikely to achieve anything now.
For those asking why the family of the dead boy haven’t urgent calm, well, I doubt that is top on their grieving plate right now! They are presently in unimaginable pain. Words cannot possibly adequately express what the boy’s mother, his friends are going through right now, seeing how cheaply his life has been snatched off him! It really is deplorable. But the rioting & destruction of property is most unfortunate

It’s not about superiority of cultures. I do not believe any particular way of life is superior to another.
But if you look at basic principles such as attitude to litter and littering for instance, just as one simple basic example. You wouldn’t have to enforce laws in the 70s or 80s in the UK with regards littering. It simply wasn’t done and it simply wasn’t acceptable. Today, there are so many who do not actually know that just casually rolling down your winder as you drive along, and tossing out empty cans or bottles or other rubbish, is not right!

There is nothing wrong with cultural influences, new culinary experiences, learning new languages etc. But ‘when in Rome, act like the Romans’ really should be the principle applied in each and every country, with regards basic ways of living.

If undefined, each country should seek to define some very basic principles e.g. secularity of the state, should apply to all who come in to dwell in a country. Intolerance is at an all time high today, because of ill-conceived concepts that seek to abandon ways of life in the name of being welcoming, whereas, the impact is actually the opposite. I am not saying some haters won’t continue to hate regardless, but you have a significant opportunity to limit intolerance and hate to an exceptional handful, if all-comers seek to imbibe the way of life of where they go, as opposed to trying to create mini enclaves to carry on living as they would where they were prior to arrival.

Not suggesting that people do away with their culture when they move elsewhere. It is about embracing, respecting, understanding and adopting the local culture and societal requirements of the countries people move to. It should be similar to cars: you wouldn’t fill a diesel car with petrol just because your previous car was a petrol one would you? You put the appropriate fuel in the new car, but it doesn’t mean you have to rip the seats out!
Significant mistakes – many of those are now impossible to correct – over the years and have ended up in the boiling pot situation we now have, with intolerance and populism now at an all-time high and we now have societies where we are prepared to spend staggering sums of money to kick people as a preference to spending a lot less to welcome them in! But nobody is prepared to listen to the reasons why many say they have had enough and are embracing hate & intolerance. Yes, it is perhaps too late to fix all the issues, but we should start by trying to bring in the principle of retaining and maintaining the British way of life in the UK, with all those coming in, being required to embrace the British way of life, so we all pull together in the same direction

There was once a World War daubed: ‘the war to end all wars’. Touch of irony perhaps?
if you look at the history of military conflicts, the result is damning. The USA is as divided as ever in 2023 and has been for a while now, with most of the same old debates that their civil war from over a century ago, was supposed to have settled. We now have neo-nazis thriving across Europe, and governments that are using words and saying things (e.g. in Hungary) that are very worrying and reminiscent of Germany in the 30s; be it hurtful words relating to Jews or general intolerance of those deemed different or foreign.

If Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine felt bludgeoned, could there have been a deal to pay those folk to relocate to Russia? If you try to repeatedly redraw the map of a country to satisfy those in it, who wish to be elsewhere, where will you draw the line? Quebec, Scotland…..

Was it ever likely that NATO would attack Russia? You do not need to be a genius to know the answer is NO!
Yes, Russia May well feel hemmed-in, if all the countries around them join NATO, but none of those countries nor NATO would ever contemplate attacking Russia. Ukraine was not the epitome of democracy nor tolerance either (remember several unpleasant scenes at football matches involving Ukrainian clubs over the years) but the ongoing war should never, ever have been allowed to start! And what looks like possible in-fighting in Russia (although it sounds like an uprising that will be quickly put down) is not going to help anyone either – a group of brutal mercenaries taking over any country is hardly going to a winning development is it?

Where is the UN? there needs to be a stronger organisation that says NO to military conflicts and with the wherewithal to enforce it via whatever means!

Imagine if REMAIN had won the referendum! Everything going on right now will be blamed on us remaining in the EU. Even now that we have exited the EU, people still seek to blame the EU or the remainers who are supposedly frustrating Brexit efforts.

The only really sad part of this is that many have refused to exercise any individuality, but have decided to get entrenched! Nobody should hold immovable views about most things. There should be absolutely nothing wrong in being a brexiteer who has now seen the aftermath and accepts it was a wrong move or a remainer who now accepts we did indeed have no choice but to exit the EU. Seeing the outcome and doggedly maintaining a stance just for the heck of it, is what’s ridiculous

If the remainers had won the referendum then Britain’s standing in the EU would have gone from bad to worse. If we were previously unhappy that the EU never listed, it would have been a lot worse after remaining. The French and Germans will continue to think the run Europe and side with each other – well, until the French come running for our help…

The reality was quite simple really. Those who wanted us to remain in the EU – and there really should never have been a referendum anyway, we should have simply had stronger leaders who could have exerted more authority in the EU to get what’s best for the UK (it should never have come to us wanting to leave the EU) – should have put forward a stronger case but we’re simply too surprised that anyone would thinking leaving the EU was a good idea, when it was clear that leaving the EU would NOT:

1. Immediately reduce the number of foreigners coming into the UK; which was a big issue for many who voted to leave the EU as they felt their benefits were at risk and assumed – wrongly – that net migration to the UK was not in our favour. But 7 years after the referendum, we are now in 2023 and net migration is still way too high and a lot higher than what we had in 2016!
2. Exiting the EU has nothing to do with people using canoes to cross into the UK across the channel. In fact, the numbers have gone up exponentially since we left the EU and we are still trying to find a solution. Many who voted for exiting the EU had assumed the minute we’re out, we lock up the border and happy days! errr… no
3. Mean we scrap all EU-era laws and move back to a magical British law! Many who voted for Brexit do not know that English and British laws are not radically different in several areas, from EU laws, which is why they were largely compatible! The few areas of difference are not so radically different. So, the expectation of so new era post-Brexit was just not real…

But can one really SOLELY blame the EU for this debacle? Worth remembering that for several years prior to Brexit majority of the UK’s MEPs to the EU were individuals who got elected solely for promising to get us out of the EU. So, they were hardly collaborating to make the EU a success! The sad reality is that the EU went from what it was supposed to be – a simple, minimal complexity union of likeminded European countries seeking to simplify trade, cooperate where it makes sense etc. – and not a single European country where a couple or so countries collude to start telling everyone else what to do! Departing sharply from simplicity to mandating everything, in the name of ‘rules’. But where the EU really got it wrong, is in the horrible attitude they took to Brexit. Yes, they may have seen it as a deterrent, but it really was totally counterproductive. They should have just said: “you want to leave? fine, here’s a red carpet and fast-track rout out! You have been disruptive over the past few years anyway and we’ll be glad to see the back of you! bye bye”. Instead, they showed their true colours and wished to punish! It was all so pathetic really. They could have taken the moral high ground..

Unfortunately, we have now created yet another permanent divide in the UK!
All for nothing really!
Leaving the EU was and is very necessary. Forging sensible ties with the EU and both sides being reasonable, is also very necessary

Could we have been able to get the EU to listen, while we remained within the EU? The honest answer is NO. But the way Brexit was sold and how it is still being sold, is simply not true either!

Well, we are truly doomed, when the reaction to those elected to lead the country telling so many lies is: “the others lie too”…

Yes, we all lie and we all do so very regularly; whether it’s to tell kids there’s a tooth-fairy or Father Christmas or that they are doing great, when they’re not. We come up with all sorts of reasons to justify lying and we often classify lying into ‘white lies’ or ‘tiny lies’ but the simple fact is, we all lie. BUT the difference here, is that we do not all put ourselves forward to take up public office!

Surely, when individuals put themselves forward to be elected into public office and place their hands on the bible to swear oaths etc. as they step into their roles, it is condemnation-worthy, without what-about-ry when they are caught spewing lies rampantly! The minute the overriding reaction is an indifferent reference to others in public office lying too, we have totally debased what should be a minimum standard of those voted in to represent & lead…

Shame on us all!

Who started it? How did it start? None of those questions matter, when it is clear it won’t be decided. Everyone involved knows that. So the question is: why has it carried on?

You can see where this is all heading right?
Next set of headlines will be:

AI to brush your teeth before you even get out of bed!
AI to do your laundry while you’ve still got your clothes on!
AI to end the war in Ukraine even before it started! (I suppose we all thought it had already started?)

AI to show up on your doorstep with the perfect baby for you, even before you thought about having a baby!
AI to change your children’s nappy even before they have done a poo!

…. and so on and so forth

Very similar to ‘Blockchain’ a few years ago, which quickly became to remedy to everything and the ultimate sales pitch:

Blockchain fresh flower shop! (where you can buy the freshest blockchain daisies!). You get there it will be as ordinary as any other bouquet of daisies…

Yes, advancement of tech and AI is all good. But for goodness sake! It ain’t here to solve every human ill! Ultimately, it will amplify it, as humans do with everything we invent: how can we use it to demonstrate superiority?! how can it help us win more wars! kill each other quicker and better. Instead of: how can we use AI to level up societies across the world, so that everyone has access to clean water, electricity based on the most efficient source they have e.g. solar in hot climes, how can we educate everyone and give all easy access to education etc. oops! that just socialist rabble right? I’ll shut up now!!

At what point is it sensible to accept one has been outmanoeuvred? You’re the Prime Minister and got forced to resign, promising to “be back” and plot from the back benches of parliament; then you resign as a Member of Parliament, promising to “be back” and now, plotting from your conservatory or kitchen table. Surely, the handwriting has gone past being just on the wall? It is now tattooed to your knuckles right?

Even if one were to subscribe to ‘never say never’, I believe at some point, not saying it makes absolutely no difference, it still is NEVER!

Couple of decades ago, this was a description solely for 3rd world despots. Leaders without dignity, who would cling on and on and on, until they got killed in a coup or exiled.

It seems the west have only gone and learnt the wrong lessons from those despots!

What has gone on in recent years and is still playing out right now, is simply unimaginable for western democracies! How on earth could we end up with outgoing presidents who refuse to attend the inauguration of their replacement? or ex-Prime Ministers who continue to incessantly plot a comeback without any care for the consequences?!
This was all supposed to be primarily a call to serve right?
Of course few are naive enough to think there are no perks to serving in government, but majority was ok with it. For all the crap politicians take during campaigns etc., I for one do not begrudge them some of the benefits and influence they hold when in office and after. But for an individual to think they are the only one who can, and to bring shame on the entire institution, just to get their own way, really is indecent!

You don’t have to be a saint to be good at what you do!
Nobody is perfect!
But many tried to crush him when he was down. He never came out promoting anti-vax, he never said anything. He simply wasn’t winning to tell whether or not he took the vaccination. And yes, perhaps he was selfish and his actions were not helpful as it may have assisted some of the daft anti-vax arguments, but certainly no reason to try to crunch him!

Anyway, he continues to confound his critics! Best tennis player ever! (easily). And I’m not even a fan of his…

Well done Djoko!

Today an old colleague reminded me of his reasons for always used to complain about income tax going higher and higher for him and those of us who pay £hundreds of thousands in income tax each year and are not obese, never ill, have rarely ever used the NHS, use private heath services that we pay for, send our kids to fee-paying schools etc. While you read of benefits cheats and today there was a main story about a Kuwaiti guy who fled to the UK and was granted refugee status with his 5 children and wife, but instead of getting a job, he led a gang of people-smugglers to bring people into the UK illegally. He is in a £500,000 house in North London, with the rent covered by the government (taxpayers) and receiving £3,700 in benefits per month. It is very clear that we need an overhaul of our entire system to ensure the UK’s generosity isn’t so rampantly exploited

It is not grounds for us to become ungenerous or for us to start hating on people coming into the country, but it is definitely grounds for us to really fund and upgrade our processes, to ensure it is robust and not exploited. Many of the thousands who spew hate and promote intolerance are very low income folk who pay very little tax anyway. Moaning about benefits going to refugees etc., is just a deflection. What the government should focus on, is how we can come up with a very robust system and new fit-for-purpose processes. If/when we stop people coming in in small boats across the channel, they will find other avenues. Finding deterrents such as the much ridiculed Rwanda plan, isn’t going to solve the problem either.

There needs to be a system where all genuine local UK folk who need benefits such as housing etc., must get it and it: they should never be left in a spot where they feel that people coming into the country to seek refuge are getting those benefits ahead of them. So, we need to fund this properly. Then we need to tackle poverty and get people working so that we don’t have so many depending on benefits.

The government’s focus on sorting illegal entry into the country should never the centrepiece of all this. It is very necessary and needful, it must be sorted, BUT it should not be the main talking-point. The focus should be on investing heavily in hiring case-workers and loads of immigration staff to ensure there is never a backlog and we are ready to whittle through applications speedily, sort net-migration (the legal migration) to keep that within reason and then, alongside all that, fix our borders to ensure people only come in through the due processes and not illegally – you simply can’t have a porous border where people, regardless of their plight, can just keep walking in, unless the world agrees to scrap all borders and we ditch passports and everyone just goes wherever they please (the world is clearly not ready for that! as we do not yet have universally shared cultures, values, norms etc.)

I do not believe the folk who moan about immigration see the number of elderly people in the UK who require care. You see them being walked along the streets and it is usually (99%) by immigrants who work for the NHS. How would those elderly folk survive without that service? So, it is ok for us to sit about and moan about the influx of migrants, but the stark reality is that those who need some of these specific services understand better.

The government just needs to switch their focus to where it should be. The deterrence is clearly not working. Why not invest in a robust system and processes that gets the cases sorted promptly, remove backlog, allows for better planning, so that when we need more nurses, we prioritise that, and when we have too many fruit-pickers we reduce visas for those. Tackling illegal migration should not be tied-in with that and as it were, has taken over and covered up the more serious matter of fixing a broken system.

Yes, perhaps easier said than done, but a sharif of focus, with a clear intent, would indeed be a good start!

Not “has become”. Is!

When the death of a celebrity is announced and there’s no mention of cause of death, the social media probe and gossip begin! Do the dead care? Probably not. But hey! If it’s suicide or drug overdose, society can quickly judge those as dishonourable death and promptly move on to focus on the children and rest of the family, who are now tainted according to society?! Madness!!

Phillip Schofield, a TV presenter, and yes, perhaps he was a hypocrite but he is not a priest! He does not lead weekly Sunday sermons about honesty! If he had sex with an underaged 15 year old boy and then helped the boy secure a job, well, if that is proven, then the law will take its course. So far, the boy didn’t even admit to a relationship and indeed when Schofield had to admit to it, he claims it started after he got the boy the job and at which time the lad was 18. Now, if anyone wants to dispute the veracity of that timeline and can get the boy to challenge it, that is indeed a different matter, but is highly unlikely, as Schofield most likely did only start sleeping with the lad when he was 18. Yes, a 40-something year old married man going around sleeping with an 18 year old whom he helped secure a job (and whom he first met when the lad was 15),while keeping it all from his wife and denying it when his employer investigated, is all not great optics for someone whose daytime TV shoe is supposed to portray an image of decency etc. But surely, you take him off the show right? Well, that has been done. However, similar to the “cause of death” analogy above, it is simply not going to be enough for our rancid society!

If society really care about the truth (and not just about embarrassing someone or casting the first stone…) we won’t have most of the leaders we presently have and we wouldn’t have the extremely degraded societies we presently have, where scams, frauds and thefts – without a moment’s thought of the actual impact on the victims – have become a normal, day to day occurrence. So, why do we care so much that Schofield lied? Answer: we don’t. People just want to see his fall from grace. It seems to cheer people up to see others destroyed. Pathetic really! If he hasn’t committed any crime, he has his own shame to contend with, or not. But seeking to destroy him is not out of sympathy for his ex-wife: it is unlikely she wants him destroyed. Nobody is perfect and Schofield probably didn’t preach perfection. And if he did, well, those who chose to follow him are probably now just embarrassed they were so gullible!

Those complaining that Schofield’s behaviour and choices may now impact their career negatively, should surly balance that against the fact that what they are now, and the years of success was largely down to him and his success on the show. In particular, those who only joined AFTER the show was successful, largely thanks to Schofield

Give it a rest!!!!

Hats off to you Jeff on your final Soccer Saturday! Legend!!!

Anytime the subject of illiteracy is opened, people get defensive and assume you are talking about university degrees! Yes, in the UK, we have erroneously made it all about university education and those with university degrees are assumed to be the ones capable of leadership and high positions of office. I am not saying this because I do not have a university degree, I do. But the reality is that there are many people out there without a university education, who are extremely well-educated; be it through their journey through life, travel, work experience and other forms of training etc. These are people who have opened up their minds to be educated and are highly educated but without a university degree

Yes, it is perhaps easy to assume that someone who has made it as far as to complete a university degree is unlikely to be an illiterate, but the same applies to those who have been trained through travel, work experience etc. An uneducated person is quite simply put, someone who has not had the benefit of robust training or indeed, education.

The world is being slowly take over by gullibility! Is it traceable to the sudden decline in literacy? Absolutely. If you looks at a large proportion of groups who believe that Covid was never real and was just made up or that school shootings in America are just fiction, you will find a broad base of poorly educated folk who are barely literate. Along with a few education puppet-masters who are manipulating then for political gain, money or whatever else

We are in perilous times!!!

Society rarely assess the wider impact of white collar crimes such as what Elizabeth Holmes and her Theranos buddy were found guilty of, because we do not see in front of us, the thousands of broke, poor individuals who lose their life savings in trying to make a few quick bucks investing in companies such as Theranos, only to find it all explode in their faces and off with their hard earned cash!
Holmes, smiling in photos taken on her way to court, holding hands with her parents and husband, like she is the one in need of protection and care, not those poor fools who have lost their money and even if she coughs up and they get bits back, after several years, it will never mitigate.

However, sending her to jail for the 11 years she has been handed, but letting her out after 12 – 18 months on an ankle tag to ensure she stays at home (and carting her off to Jail if she defaults) for say 3 – 5 years house arrest and a couple of years of unpaid community service e.g. cleaning the floor in a hospital, would be a lot more sensible than locking her up for 11 years, even if she only ends up serving 4 or 5 years. I mean, what is the purpose? punishment? as I very much doubt she would come out of jail after 11 years a reformed character. She simply didn’t see the impact or effect on the people who invested in her company and she is not alone in this. Thousands of startups seek public investment each year, many of them end up using all that fund to pay themselves huge salaries for as long as possible, caring less for the eventual fate of the business and investors suddenly receive a letter stating the business tried its best but didn’t work out and that’s that. In Elizabeth Holmes’ case, it is almost certain that her motivation was not to fleece investors; she was someone who sought the status of being reviled as some hot-shot genius inventor and wanted to be the next Steve Jobs and get talked about etc. It is also highly unlikely that she pocketed anywhere near the $450m or so that she and her buddy now have to cough up. No doubt she got paid $millions in wages but other than a net value based on shares in Theranos, it is unlikely that she was a billionaire in real terms.

Yes, deterrence is always necessary, so that other do not think they could get away with it, but many are anyway, they are simply not doing it at the scale she did or not based on the circumstances she was in. Some months in jail would tick the deterrence box and the rest under house arrest plus some community service should suffice. Nothing tangible to gain from locking her up for 11 years. Many politicians have been a lot more deceitful and caused a great deal more damage than she has and have not had to face the music..

An era where someone enjoys huge wealth and privilege merely due to the coincidence of birth, should be well in the past. BUT, is that not also true for the advantages – albeit not necessarily wealth or affluence- accorded a non-royal child born in the UK versus one born in Honduras?

Society must learn to be tolerant. I am not a royalist and quite frankly, fail to see the relevance of it, but when you see tens of thousands come out in support, even if they are no longer the majority, do their views not count?
It doesn’t matter what my personal opinion of the monarchy is, if so many people still derive such joy from a coronation, then they still want to be ruled by a monarch and that is indeed their choice and they are entitled to it

As for those opposed, their opinion is also valid and they are entitled to it. Some of their arguments are equally wonky. Are elected politicians any better? Some of them act like Kings anyway (or think they are; great example is Trump and he is not an isolated case). Human beings cannot exist without seeking to elevate some; be it pop stars or just ‘celebrities’ as they are now referred to, which could be anyone who appears on telly for 5 minutes, for whatever reason!
The royal family are a soft target for people to moan about, when they actually serve a much greater purpose than someone making millions for being an “influencer” on Tik Tok who is actively leading teenagers to a bunch of wrong choices in life!

If you ask the average Brit who think they are more British than others, why they feel so, they will state it is because of their lineage and the centuries of contribution their great, great great grandparents made to the country etc. Well, then perhaps the royal family are likewise entitled to their status as a result of what their ancestors did and the positions they held. An average Brit needs a holiday, ups and goes; these folk (royals) can’t just head anywhere. They can’t say what they think half the time, they have to exercise restraint all their life. Yes, some may say it’s their choice and they have so many perks, but you go and try living their life for a day! You’ll find it ain’t as easy as it looks…

I don’t see any need for hostilities. Whichever side you support (royalist or republican), it is what it is…

Way I see it, as long as some still clamour for it, what is the harm?
Some have been moaning about the display of wealth; well, ok. But is that not what various millionaires and billionaires do daily?

It remains a matter of opinion….

Perhaps when cavemen crushed each other’s skulls with rocks? or Ukraine today? Sudan? Countless wars in Europe? the era of the crusade? Spanish Inquisition?
the daily mass shootings in America?
And I won’t bother to mention those who have never been danger-free, through all eras, including the danger from some of those folk paid to keep them safe in America.

Guns don’t kill (the slogan of the feeble-minded): well, it just kills exponentially then? Well, perhaps the new one will be: A.I. don’t kill? But there may well be some truth to that. Last week I saw a demonstration of a special new technology that quickly and effectively extinguishes fire in burning cars. Technology should focus on noble innovation, but unfortunately, while you’re at that, someone else someplace else, is busy working out the next best weapon in a bid to take over the world. Then the race start for deterrence!

Few years ago, the buzzword was BLOCKCHAIN! Want to start a shoe-polishing business at a train station, just call it “Blockchain shoe polishing” and you’re in business! It seems the new buzzword is A.I.

Human beings. We’re our own worst enemies. Never mind the dangers of A.I.

What on earth is wrong with human beings????!!

A country like Sudan, where people are struggling to find food on any normal day, AIRSTRIKES?! How can they afford weapons, let alone use them??

Surely, this is the definition of insanity?!!!!!

What on earth can they be fighting for??

We can blame history all we want. Impact of colonisation with the lumping together of incompatible tribes etc. But for goodness sake!!!!!

Sudan’s got enough challenges without adding on a silly war!

Yes, soldiers have to follow commands, but there really must be an exception, when it comes to these sorts of mindless killing!

When people sit about criticising everything, we never take a moment to appreciate some things. This week a bunch of people trapped in Sudan, got evacuated back under perilous conditions! The men & women of our armed forces who risk their lives (yes, it is their job, but NO, they didn’t send the Sudanese-British fold who went off there, even with the obvious signs that things could kick off there!) to go and get people out! Many criticise the government all the time, but when these noble acts are carried out, we say it is just the basic minimum!

Today, the chairman of the BBC has resigned, because the investigation into the loan he allegedly helped Boris arrange, was not mentioned to the panel that interviewed him for his appointment. Yes, perhaps he should never have been appointed, BUT the reality is that anyone senior enough to get considered for such a position, is highly unlikely to be without any potential conflict of interest. Not coming clean earlier, is perhaps his only transgression. BUT most importantly, he has done the right thing in resigning and whether or not he made that decision or it was made for him, we should appreciate the ability of the society we are in, to bring people to account, no matter how senior they are. That is exactly what makes us different from those scary countries out there

Tucker Carlson, ex-Cable TV news guy released a video on twitter today, few days after his sacking and he spoke about “the truth”. It appears the poor fella confuses the word ‘OPINION’ with the word ‘TRUTH’. If you believe something to be true, and fervently believe it to be true, doesn’t mean it is true.

Before giving testimony, witnesses raise their hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But what is that truth?

Human beings have committed heinous crimes against each other since time immemorial. And we continue to do so. In all that time, there has been religion and the ‘thou shall not kill’ and the rest, but when someone picks up a weapon that has been made for killing, perhaps there’s a chance someone will be killed? But that seems to be a truth that many do not accept to be true.

We talk about the truth all the time. We want the truth. But whose truth exactly?

What really is the truth?

When someone says: “that is what I believe to be the truth”, they are usually lying. The truth is not what we believe to be the truth. So, what is the truth? And whose truth is it?

Of course the ideal scenario is for the planet earth to be a place where everyone can exist in peace & quiet. Unfortunately, at present, we do not have a universal agreement on all aspects of life; norms, cultures, laws etc. As such, to allow some folk to start practicing laws that are not UK laws in the UK, is not acceptable in any form. If I fancy the laws of a different country, then I will simply go and reside in that country.

The ability to debate is gone. Our politicians only wish to pander to one side or the other.

Yes, it is unfortunate that measures such as stop & search have been abused, leaving some groups feeling targeted and persecuted. If we can apply our laws fairly, it is clear that in the circumstances we are in today, such measures as stop & search are simply unavoidable. You only have to look at the number of stabbings each year….

The government should have taken a stand, 20+ years ago, to make it clear that our laws will be enforced and we will not allow the country to be overrun by folk intent on stabbing each other or harming others.

As for intolerance and the very human force behind it, that will remain for as long as parts of the world are left behind, forcing their people to seek economic relief in other countries. Intolerance will end, when it is clear that any different individual one encounter in society, is there as a preference e.g. on holiday, and not out of desperation.

The continued, mindless division of society into these crazy ideological groups is creeping into how we are supposed to perceive or react to someone charged with committing a crime….

Over the years many have resulted to blaming conspiracy theory spouting channels and news channels that no longer attempt to be unbiased or neutral, for the awful state of today’s society, where truth is a long discarded concept

If you’ve ever read a boring novel, you’ll know that it is rarely one that you save on your bedside shelf for a re-read. It’s the same with news; few will tune in to a factual, truthful channel that isn’t pandering to one wing of society or the other. Viewership dictates the value of the advertising slots or the merchandise (e.g. copies of publications sold) and truth and accuracy are no longer (or perhaps, have never been?) the measure. But never in history, has it become so blatant.

We naively expect pundits and commentators on TV to be objective and truthful, but if they are, we are bored. So, they get whacky and whackier, we stay tuned and keep watching. The more extreme they get, the higher the viewership. No different from 3rd century BC when crowds filled arenas to watch gladiators maul each other and get mauled right? Throw in the occasional lion or tiger, to draw in a few more spectators and the elite satisfy the peasants, everybody is a winner! Not much has changed over the centuries. It is society: we, us, you & I, that create the conducive environment for these situations to thrive. Be it the gladiator mauling of the 3rd century BC, today’s biased news channels who no longer attempt to put neutral facts out or indeed the harmful social media channels that bear a fair portion of responsibility for what their viewers get up to, but refuse to take any action to address hate, self-harm etc.

All these channels, magazines etc., are funded by us. No business thrives without customers. Society can never reach a unanimous consensus on anything and THAT, is what fuels those businesses and will forever do.

I know a chap who never owned a television. His kids never watched telly and they only had access to the internet to complete their school work, over very short time periods. They were largely oblivious to all the hate and madness out there, but such sheltering could also lead to naïveté. Seems to be a much preferred balance though…

Fix Africa, fix South America, fix SouthEast Asia! Outlaw wars! If migration becomes solely a matter of choice and not out of desperation or due to displacement, then the present feeling of intolerance will melt away.

It is naive to think discrimination or racism is solely from one singular race to another. It isn’t. Everyone has the tendency to discriminate. There isn’t a huge degree of intolerance towards folk on holiday as the host countries expect to benefit from their visit.

If Africa can sort itself out: eliminate corruption, drop archaic practices, educate all, mechanise agriculture, step up! Making it a continent nobody wants to leave, with only a few exiting for short periods to holiday around the world, the dynamics will change immeasurably. At present, sending people to Africa (e.g. Rwanda) is seen as an effective deterrent! That speaks volumes!

Same logic applies to the frequency mass migration from South & Central American countries to the US. If those countries can be transformed to safe, prosperous havens that nobody wants to leave, the value of their citizens will rise globally and so will their treatment when in the US, if it is clear they are only there by choice and not for survival.

There is nothing magical about this. We all know it is the only fix and it is very doable, but perhaps we are reluctant to improve those parts of the world? Perhaps we are reluctant to end wars? end displacement? Heaven knows why???!!!