Is reading a passport to success in life?

 

Anthony Burgess

I'm all in favour of reading decent literature and the best novelists, but I've never understood how reading is necessarily a "passport to a better future."

I've been an avid reader all my life and I have read extensively, the works of American, English, French and Russian authors. I do this, because I enjoy it and feel that I learn something from the experience. But if reading equates with success in life and a better future, then it certainly passed me by. If reading put money in your pockets, then I should be as a rich as Croesus, the King of Lydia.

The English novelist, George Orwell, seem to think that in England, the educated and qualified man, was always regarded with a certain amount of suspicion. In the British army, he might be regarded as what was called a barrack-room lawyer. But I also think that Orwell regards the English as generally being obscurantists, i.e. the enemies of intellectual enlightenment and the liberal diffusion of knowledge.

The writer Anthony Burgess, in his memoirs, described an encounter he had as a private soldier with a General during WWII. He was stationed at Newbattle Abbey, in Scotland. One day he was cleaning the toilets out when an elderly General with his entourage, stopped and spoke to him. He asked Burgess what he'd done in private life before he'd joined the army. Burgess told him that he'd just graduated with a Degree in English Literature from the University of Manchester. The General said to him, "Well private, it's nice to see you doing something useful for once in your life." Burgess says that there were private soldiers in the British Army who had PhD's. Most of them including Burgess, were put in the Education Corps, which entailed writing letters for illiterate British soldiers and reading letters to them from their wives. He recalled one wife telling her husband Bert, that since he'd been away, his stick of shaving soap which he'd left behind in the house had been more of a husband to her, than he'd ever been.

A senior nursing officer, who worked in an NHS hospital, once told me that the management were wary of recruiting educated people into certain posts, because they found them to be far too assertive and self-confident. When I asked her what she meant, she told me that they presented a challenge because they were always demanding their rights.

In a country like Britain, some of the top TV shows are the Great British Bake Off, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. That tells you all you need to know about the homme moyen sensuel and cultural taste in Britain.

In Defence of Free Speech.

 

Roy Chubby Brown

One of the things that I find so sad about these days, is that children aren't really allowed to play out.

 When I was a child growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, if you weren't at school, you got up in a morning and went out for the rest of the day. There were no mobile phones, computer games, or computers. You had to make your own fun and you had to make friends with the lads in your area.

 The only time that I was grounded, was when kids were disappearing across Greater Manchester. It became known as the 'Moors Murders', and Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, who carried out the child murders, became infamous. They got life imprisonment because they'd just stopped hanging. At the time, a crime like this in England, was almost unheard of.

 Many kids didn't have much but they didn't suffer from obesity, neurosis, or have a drug problem, or allergies. At weekends, there was the children's Saturday morning matinee at the cinema.

 For a person of my generation who has always enjoyed a great deal of individual freedom and liberty, the idea of trigger warnings, cancel culture, no platforming, censorship, and decolonizing literature, are all completely anathema. They say variety is the spice of life and its difference, that makes life interesting. If you disagree with someone's point of view or opinions, then the way to deal with that, is to challenge it and to tackle it head on.

 Not very long ago, I left a comment on Facebook about George Bernard Shaw. A young girl responded to this post and asked me why G.B. Shaw had not been "cancelled." I had to tell her that though there was "censorship", and some of his plays were banned, there was no such thing as "cancel culture'. That idea would really have been unthinkable to people brought up in Liberal England.

 When the authorities fined the music hall comic, Max Miller, for obscenity, it used to increase his takings at the box office. If you think the northern comic, Roy Chubby Brown, is beyond the pale, and many do, then don't pay to see him. There's no doubt that Chubby appeals to people’s base instincts, but sometimes, I think that in the interest of free speech, we have to raise our standard so other people can lower theirs.

 

Protestors demand the right to roam and wild camp in England!

 

Protestors on Dartmoor

Alexander Darwall's, legal action in the High Court, which led to a ban on wild camping in the Dartmoor National Park, is likely to be a pyrrhic victory for the hedge-fund dealer and Dartmoor land owner. His legal case, has once again, focused the spotlight on the inequitable nature of landownership in Britain. 

Dartmoor was one of the only places in England where you could pitch your tent and have a night under the stars, without having to obtain the permission of the landowner. Under Scottish law, people already have the right to roam and the right to go wild camping. In England - where 92% of land is still privately owned - and Wales, you don't have the right to roam or the right to go wild camping. If you don't get the permission of the landowner, you are committing trespass and can be evicted from the land.

The Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000, does give a legal right of access to mountains, moorland, heath's, and some downland and commons. Yet, rivers and tens of thousands of acres of forest and woodland, are currently inaccessible to the general public, despite the landowners receiving huge public subsidies from the British taxpayer. Countryside campaigners and ramblers, say that the public have the right to roam over only 8% of England.

The Treasury commissioned Lord Agnew to conduct a review into access to nature. The review promised 'radical joined up thinking" and a 'quantum shift in how our society supports people to access and engage with the outdoors." Agnew talks about "our society", but who's society are we really talking about? In a democratic society like Britain, the ownership of land is still concentrated into the hands of a few privileged people. Even in Scotland, half the country is still owned by just 500 people, few of who are actually Scots. But at least in Scotland, the people have access to the land, and the right to go wild camping.

In England, the Tory government, which is full of landowners and wealthy people, wound up the Agnew Review with little explanation, and refused to release the results. The Tory minister, for access to nature and rural affairs, is the immensely wealthy, Richard Benyon, who owns the 12,000 -acre, Englefield estate in Berkshire. Last August, around 150 protestors occupied Benyon's estate demanding that he open up green spaces to the public.

Last week, there was a protest march on Dartmoor, with people demanding the right to wild camp across the moor. In Wales, people are now demanding the right to wild camp on the Welsh mountains. These protests are likely to continue and to intensify, until the British government, introduces a right to roam law similar to that which exists in Scotland. What's good for the Scots is good for the people of England and Wales.

We can all thank Alexander Darwall, for throwing petrol on the fire and opening up the contentious issue of access to land and green spaces in England. The English people will not stand for being treated as feudal subjects and the government's position on trying to block a right to roam law in England and Wales, is untenable.  Anyone who knows anything about British history, realises that the ownership and acquisition of land in this country by private landowners, always was, and is, of dubious legality. Land was frequently expropriated from the "common people", or obtained by war and conquest, or granted to Royal favourites and cronies, after it was stolen from someone else. That's why the subject of land ownership in this country remains a sensitive and touchy subject to this day.

Do Women have a penis?

 

Adam Graham - Transgender Rapist

Adam Graham, 31, aka 'Isla Bryson', is the third Scottish transgender rapist to make the headlines in the past week. He was found guilty of raping two women with "her penis" and has been sent to a specialist unit at the all-female Cornton Vale prison.

Jonathan Mallon, 40, was sentenced to life in prison in 2014, on a conviction for rape. He targeted women in changing rooms and restrooms. On January 15, he began to identify as transgender and sought transfer to a women's prison. He's now begun to refer to himself as "Charlene", and has allegedly been bragging that he will be in a women's prison by spring.

Albert Caballero, 50, abducted and raped his care worker. On January 21, he began to identify as a "woman", demanding cosmetics and a transfer to a women's prison. Cabellero, now calls himself "Claire."

Katie Dalatowski, 22, a transgender serial child sex offender, was sent to Cornton Vale, after violating the conditions of his sex offender registration. He was sent to a women's institution, despite his long history of sex attacks against young girls in public facilities.

While these individual cases should not be seen as being indicative of the typical behaviour of transgender men, Home Office Data, does suggest that male sex offenders may be exploiting transgender rights. The proportion of male-born trans women in the prison system who are sex offenders, is between 60% and 61.3%. This figure, that was provided in a written answer by justice minister, Victoria Atkins, to Tim Loughton MP, is far higher than the figure of 18% of the general population held in male prisons who are jailed for sex offences.

What these figures might suggest is that men who commit sexual offences are more likely than others to claim to be transgender. Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, may well have opened up Pandora's Box with her Gender Reforms in Scotland if the Bill gets Royal Assent.

Cultural attitudes towards poverty.

 

"There but for the grace of God, go I." You never really know what's round the corner, and a catastrophe like homelessness, could hit any of us at any time. Most of us, are just a wage away from the gutter. The world can be lonely place for somebody who's got nothing.

Some English people look down their nose at the destitute and are contemptuous towards them. They're a bit like Dickens's character, John Podsnap, in his novel 'Our Mutual Friend'. Like Podsnap, they believe that Britain is the best of all countries in the world and that nobody who lives here could really be poor, hungry, or destitute, because there's so much help available.

I believe the Spaniards see things rather differently. Spanish law doesn't make begging in public places, or homelessness, a criminal offence, but there are prohibitions against using children and the disabled to beg. Perhaps, for both cultural and religious reasons, the Spaniards seem to think that in this life, you should show some compassion and kindliness towards the less fortunate, because it pleases God and may do you some good in the afterlife. The Bible command us to give generously to the poor and that generosity yields an amazing crop. Luke 6:38 says: "Give and it will be given to you."

Russian peasants shared a similar belief. They would often give bread rolls to chained convicts being transported on the barges to Siberia. I'm not sure that the Spaniard's have such a thing as the "Benefit Scrounger" or the "Sturdy Beggar", unless it refers to politicians.

The English travel writer, Richard Ford, wrote in 1840, that when he enquired of Spaniards where brigands hid, he was frequently told that, "It was not on the road that they were most likely to be found, but in the confessional boxes, the lawyer's offices, and still more, in the bureaux of government."

I was once having a drink in a pub with a Spaniard that I know, who now lives in England. He originates from Andalusia, traditional Spain. He ordered a meal consisting of scampi and when he got the meal, he asked me if I wanted to take something off his plate. I thanked him, but told him I had already eaten before I left the house. What struck me, is that my Spanish friend, couldn't eat that meal without offering me some of it, off his plate, which I thought was a nice gesture and to his credit. I once asked him what he thought of the English social way of life, and without a second thought, he replied that we didn't have one.

What I think he meant by this, is the lack of a communal or community way of life. It's highly unlikely that a Spaniard won't know who his neighbours are and I don't think they care much for eating or drinking on their own. They generally socialise with neighbours, family or friends. The Spanish have the longest average life span of any country in Europe. They’re also said to be the biggest users of cocaine.

Protestors demand the right to wild camping on Dartmoor!

 

Protestors on Dartmoor

In Scotland, people have the right roam and the right to go wild camping. In England, where people are treated like feudal peasants, by landowners, you can only pitch your tent if you get permission from the landowner. Unless you do so, you're committing trespass and can be removed.

Until recently, one of last places which allowed wild camping in England, was the Dartmoor National Park. Alexander Darwall, a Dartmoor land owner and hedge-fund dealer, brought a legal case in the High Court. Darwall, owns the 4,000 acre Blachford estate on Dartmoor, which offers pheasant shoots and deerstalking to wealthy clients. He argued in court, that there never had been a right to go wild camping on Dartmoor and won his case.

This legal case brought by a wealthy landowner and businessman, has effectively put an end to wild camping in one of the last places in England, where it was allowed without asking the permission of the landowner. On Saturday, hundreds of protestors from the Right to Roam campaign marched to Darwall's land in protest at having their right to wild camp taken away. In bringing this legal case, Darwall, may well have opened up Pandora's Box. The case will almost certainly lead to protest actions on Dartmoor and intensify the campaign for a right to roam law in England and a right to go wild camping.

It was mass trespass and direct action by ramblers in the Peak District in the 1930s, on land owned by the Duke of Devonshire, that opened up the countryside to walkers and paved the way for the UK's first National Park in the Peak District, in 1951. Many of these brave men and women who campaigned for the right to ramble in the English countryside, faced imprisonment and beatings from the Dukes gamekeeper's. What we now need is another peasants revolt. What's good for the Scots is good for the English.

UK residents now travelling abroad to seek medical treatment!

 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), have estimated that around 248,000 UK residents travelled abroad for medical treatment in 2019, compared with 120,000 in 2015.

Before we left the E.U., patients could get the cost of surgery reimbursed by the NHS if it was done in another country and the NHS were unable to do it in a 'reasonable' time, around six months. Clinics in Lithuania, Hungry, Spain and Poland, are all all reporting a rise in demand for elective procedures like hip operations. They claim that NHS waiting lists are "driving business."

NHS figures show that 7.19 million people were waiting for medical treatment in England in November, with 406,575 waiting over a year. Some people have launched GoFundMe appeals or are using crowdfunding to pay for urgent medical treatment. Gym instructor, Samantha Barker, 25, launched a GoFundMe appeal to pay for surgery in Romania, after learning that she would have to wait 65-weeks to get treatment in Malvern, Worcestershire. Barker told the Observer newspaper that she was suffering from agonizing pain brought about by endometriosis.

In Europe, surgical operations can be as little as half the price of the equivalent treatment in the UK, even after factoring in extras for post-operative rehabilitation. The Observer reported on Sunday that a grandfather of eight from Portsmouth, had travelled from Luton to Lithuania for a hip replacement costing £6,146. He'd been quoted £15,000 by a private hospital in the UK.

The Private Healthcare Information Network, say that the number of people in Britain who are self-paying for medical treatment, has increased by more than a third, compared with before the pandemic, with a 193% rise in those paying for hip replacements.

The so-called crisis in the NHS, has been largely contrived by successive British governments who have been privatising the NHS by stealth and through the back door, for decades. Countries like France and Germany have had to deal with such things as the COVID pandemic and winter flu, but have far better health systems, with more hospital beds per patient than in Britain, and more doctors and nurses per patient, than in Britain. A decade of underinvestment in the NHS, appalling waiting times for ambulances and A&E treatment, and elderly people left lying on hospital trollies, have led to more people turning to the private medical sector to get urgent medical treatment. Many NHS hospital trusts, are now telling patients, that they can jump the queue if they can stump up some cash to pay for their medical treatment.

The Observer reported that the number of Britons using crowdfunding to pay for private medical expenses, has surged in the last five years. As more people begin to pay for medical treatment and grow accustomed to doing so, we are likely in the long-run, to lose the NHS by default. The Americanisation of health care in Britain, will also be a boon for the insurance industry and will lead to a two-tier health service where those who can pay, get priority medical care, and those who can't pay, get relegated to the bottom of the queue.

Starmer chooses Davos over Westminster.

 

Labour Party leader - Sir Keir Starmer

The former left-wing Trotskyist, Sir Keir Starmer KC, who won't be seen dead on a trade union picket line, was asked who he would choose between Westminster and Davos. This expensive Swiss health resort, which is patronised by the rich and famous, hosts the annual meeting of World Economic Forum (WEF), which brings together global political and corporate leaders. Starmer told the journalist, Emily Maitlis, that he would choose Davos over Westminster.

In choosing Davos, Starmer is telling us what we already know about him. That this careerist and conniving opportunist, is in hock, and in the pockets of big business. We should never forget, that whoever we vote for in Britain, the capitalists always get in. When we go to the ballot box, it's a choice of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The name of the game, is who can manage capitalism better i.e. Labour or the Tories?

Muhammed Ali - The Champion of Racial Segregation!

 

Muhammed Ali

I liked Muhammed Ali and watched most of his fights. He wasn't a big hitter but he was a technical boxer who was very fast, good on his feet, and he had a tremendous reach. His jab constantly pummelled you.

Like most people he had his own flaws. He was certainly a racist who believed that black people should not have sexual relationships with white people and vice versa. He was against miscegenation, interracial marriage, and said interracial couples should be lynched.  In that respect he was no different than the KKK, or the segregationist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, or the Governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox.

Interracial marriage was illegal in Alabama until 2000. He called Joe Frazier an "Uncle Tom" and a "gorilla." Martin Luther King Jr, called him a "champion of segregation." Ali admitted to having addressed a Klu, Klux, Klan, rally in the 1970s, to preach racial separation. In later life he toned down many of his extreme racial views and did a lot of charity work. He fought a battle against Parkinson's disease for over 30 years.

In August 2009, he came to England, to open Ricky Hatton's gym, in Hyde, Cheshire. Hatton said: "We took him for a walk around Hyde afterwards the place came to a standstill. Everywhere you looked there were people pulling over in their cars just so they could get a glimpse of the man..."

In spite of his racist views, which many overlooked or ignored, people had a great deal of affection for Ali, who they saw as a boxing legend, which he was. Ali died of sceptic shock, in Arizona, in June 2016, aged 74.

Brian Souter charged with trafficking and immigration offences.

 

Former Stagecoach owners - Brian Souter and Ann Gloag

The founders of the Stagecoach bus company, Brian Souter, and his sister Dame Ann Gloag, 80, along with two other people, have been charged with human trafficking and immigration offences, following a police investigation.

The company which now operates buses, trains, trams, and ferries, was sold to DWS for £595m in March 2022. DWS, is ultimately owned by Deutsche Bank.

Sunak blocks Gender Reform Bill in Scotland!

 

Judge Lady Haldane

Rishi Sunak's Conservative government have blocked Scotland's new gender recognition law because of its likely impact on UK-wide equality laws. 

Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, says it it's "a frontal attack on our democratically elected Scottish Parliament and its ability to make its own decisions on devolved matters."

Recent opinion polls show that two-thirds of Scottish voters are opposed to gender reform in Scotland. A majority of Scottish voters oppose transgender people being able to declare their own gender without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Under the Scottish law, this is not required. Women’s groups say gender reform in Scotland is wide open to abuse by sexually predatory males, who will be able to access women’s safe spaces.

In the 'For Women Scotland' case, Lady Haldane, in the Outer House of the Court of Sessions, ruled that the legal concept of 'sex' can and does include more than biological sex. According to her ruling, which some women’s groups have denounced as disastrous for the female sex, 'women' includes both biological women and those trans women who have obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate stating their sex is female. Any, Tom, Dick, or Harry, can now declare themselves a woman under Scotland's proposed Gender Reform Bill.

In January 2022, the prison minister, Victoria Atkins, told Tim Loughton MP, that the proportion of male-born trans women in the prison system who are sex offenders, was between 60% and 61.3%. This is significantly higher than the 41% figure claimed by Fair Play for Women, and the figure of 18% of the general population, held in male prisons, who are jailed for sexual offences. What these figures show, is not that 'trans people' are more likely than others, to commit sexual offences, but that men who commit sexual offences, are more likely than others, to claim to be transgender.

Is drug addiction a medical or criminal issue?

 

As far as drugs are concerned, the two biggest killers of people in Britain, are two perfectly legal drugs, called cigarettes and alcohol. Deaths arising from the use of illegal drugs, are small in comparison to deaths arising from the consumption of fags and booze.

Personally, I wouldn't want a heroin habit or to be hooked on freebasing. I think drug addiction should be treated as a medical issue rather than a criminal issue. If someone is downing two bottles of whisky a day, the police don't come and kick their front door in.

There was a time when opioids were available to drug addicts on prescription. The 1926 Rolleston Report, defined drug addiction as an illness, and therefore the responsibility of doctor's, who could prescribe opioids to patients.

We already prescribe methadone to drug users and dispense drug paraphernalia to users at recognised clinics. There are also supervised injection sites. Most people will be unaware of this, but it's all done in the name of harm reduction.

Treating drug addiction as a medical issue, would help to eliminate the drug pusher, reduce crime, and would save money in the long run. In addition, treatment to help people to get off drugs, should also be made available.

Leeds to Scarborough for £2.

 

When I got a free bus pass five years ago, I went on a trip to Southport. I got a train to Wigan which was free because it's within the Greater Manchester zone. I then got a bus from Wigan to Southport, from Wigan central bus station. The bus journey is over two hours and goes through Skelmersdale and Ormskirk. After two hours on a bus, you're desperate to get off, because it is knackering. You've also got to remember that if if it takes three hours to get to your destination, then it takes another three hours to get back, so it doesn't leave much time for sightseeing.

Another thing to point out, is that if you have a few pints, there are no toilets on the bus. So, it's advisable, to do without, unless you want to keep getting off and on the bus. The best way to get to Southport if you live in Greater Manchester, is by train. Your train journey is free to Appley Bridge which is around 13 miles from Southport, and will cost you around £7.20, for a return a ticket.

Getting to Blackpool using the bus and train is just as gruelling. You get a train to Bolton which is free because it's within the Greater Manchester zone. You then get a bus to Preston, which goes through Chorley, and it takes over two-hours. At Preston bus station, you get the bus to Blackpool, which takes just over an hour. On my return journey, I got off at Chorley bus station, and then got the train to Manchester, which was far quicker and much more comfortable. The train station is just over the road.

The English National Concessionary Bus Pass, allows you to use any bus in England free of charge. However, during the week, you can only use it after 9.30 a.m. unless it's a bank holiday or a weekend. Some areas have now capped bus fares at £2 for a single journey. These areas include Greater Manchester, Liverpool, and West Yorkshire. In West Yorkshire, you can travel from Leeds to Scarborough for £2, which is a six-hour round trip. A standard single bus fare in London is £1.65 and you can use the same ticket on another bus journey, within one-hour of purchasing your ticket.

Starmer wants to put GP's on NHS payroll!

 

Labour Party leader - Sir Keir Starmer

The leader of the Labour Party, Sir Kier Starmer, says the NHS is free at the point of use. But people who use the NHS don't get it for free. We pay for it out of taxation whether we are in work or out of work. We all pay tax, in one way or another.

In muggins's England, prescriptions are not free for most people like they are in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Most people have to pay £9.35 per item. National Insurance contributions are just another tax. What funds pensions and the NHS, is general taxation, not what you've paid in N.I. contributions.

The stranglehold that self-employed GP's and their union the BMA, have on health services in this country, needs to be urgently addressed. Although British GPs are among the best paid in the Western world, with most earning more than £100,000 a year, and many working part-time, many GPs are now reluctant to see patients face-to-face and want to do virtual consultations over the phone or by Skype. What use it that? How do you test someone's blood pressure over the phone or examine their chest? There have been instances of GPs asking patients to cough into the phone. Doctors and nurses working within NHS hospitals, have no choice but to see patients face-to-face. Keir Starmer wants to put GP's on the NHS payroll, so they become NHS employees.

The system of medical regulation also needs looking at. Far too often, doctors are marking their own homework, and are investigating themselves. We've had instances where patients have been put on end of life palliative care, and their families were never told. The Gosport War Memorial Hospital scandal, that led to a police investigation but no charges, showed how over 400 elderly patients during 1987 and 2001, were given powerful opiates, often quite unnecessarily, to sedate them, which resulted in a premature shortening of life.

Whose interest does the General Medical Council, really serve? As the Irish author, George Bernard Shaw, famously said: "All professions are conspiracies against the laity."

Tony Soprano. Why are gangster movies so popular?

 

Mafia Boss - Tony Soprano

What a character Tony Soprano was. You wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him.

I remember watching the scene when Tony beat to death and strangled the 'made-man', Ralph Cifaretto, because he suspected him of killing his favourite race horse Pie-O-My. What a mess he made of him. He even killed his own nephew by suffocation. Even Tony's psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi, needed therapy after a few sessions with the Mafia boss.

I like Lorraine Bracco, but I don't think she portrayed a convincing psychiatrist. She showed far too much feeling and emotion during the therapy sessions. The late James Gandolfini, played a great part as a New Jersey Mafia boss.

I don't think Tony particularly enjoyed violence for the sake of it, but he knows that it's absolutely necessary to keep people in their place if you want to get what you want. Violence for him, is purely instrumental, and part of the business that he's in. His father, Johnny Soprano, was a capo in the DiMeo crime family. He knows that people have to be scared of you but also respect you. Tony is not a tyrant at home and doesn't really dominate his wife or kids. They don't know everything but they've figured out that they don't live their kind of lifestyle because their father runs a garbage business. They know he's a gangster and are slightly embarrassed by it.

I wonder if Tony's wife, really understood the type of man she was married to. If she did, she was taking chance when she cheated on him. It's not likely that she'd get "whacked", but I can't say the same thing for her boyfriend.

While I don't care for gangsters, murderers, and extortionists, or think that organised crime and its villains should be romanticised, there's something that appeals to many of us about the outlaw, and those that live on the fringes of society and don't abide by the rules of society or its laws. That's why a TV series like the Sopranos or a film like Goodfellas or the Godfather, are so popular. Perhaps there's a bit of villain or beast lurking in all of us. 

NHS Hospitals offering patients the chance to jump the queue if they can pay!

 

What a surprise. The Financial Times reports that millions of people in Britain are now turning to the private health sector to get medical treatment. It seems that if you can stump up the cash, and grease a few greedy palms, you can jump right to the front of the queue.

Many NHS hospital trusts, are now offering "quick and easy" health care services, offering patients the chance to jump year long waiting queues. Hospitals are offering hip replacements from £10,000, cataract surgery for £2,200, and hernia repairs for £2,500. If you're struggling to get an MRI scan, you can get one for between £300 to £400.

Figures show that 7.21 million people are waiting for NHS treatment in England. Many NHS patients, are being told that they can bypass long waiting lists, if they can come up with the spondoolies.  A teacher from the North East, told the Guardian, that she'd borrowed £350 for an MRI scan, and said that there were posters on the hospital walls where she had attended, advising patients that test results were 3-days for private and 3-weeks for NHS.

What a fucking farce. Successive British governments have been running the NHS down for years. The so-called crisis in NHS healthcare in Britain, has been totally contrived. Don't be fooled. Both France and Germany, have faced similar problems to Britain with COVID and winter flu epidemics, but have far better national health systems.

For years, it has been privatisation by stealth and through the back door. What we're witnessing is the Americanisation of healthcare in Britain. What is being created is a two tier health service where those who can pay, get treated and those who can't, get relegated to the bottom of the queue, and have to hope they can get adequate medical treatment. Already, 50% of dental treatment in this country is now being done privately. Many patients, even struggle to get a face-to-face appointment with an overpaid GP.

In America, millions can't get adequate medical treatment or even pay for their medicine, because of the high cost. Private medicine is about making a quick profit. It's not interested in cancer patients or those people who have long-term health or underlying health problems. If you get knocked down in the street, they don't take you to a B.U.P.A. hospital, but to the A&E. Do we want a healthcare system that is based on profit or one based on need? The more that people feel compelled to pay for healthcare, the more we risk losing the NHS by default.

We should not forget that both the doctor's union, the BMA, and the Tory government, initially opposed the foundation of the NHS. When Nye Bevan, Labour's Health Minister, was asked how he'd managed to persuaded the doctor's to support the NHS, he said, "I filled their mouths with gold."

High Court blocks right to wild camping on Dartmoor.

 

The right to wild camp on Dartmoor has been lost after a private landowner argued in court that the right never existed.

Alexander Darwall, a hedge-fund manager and Dartmoor's sixth largest landowner, brought the case against Dartmoor national park. Darwall, the owner of the 4,000-acre Blachford estate, offers pheasant shoots, deerstalking, and holiday rentals on his land.

Until the ruling by Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the high court, it was assumed there was a right to wild camp under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985. Darwall's lawyers argued that the right didn't exist across Dartmoor. The ruling is effective immediately and means Darwall can remove people off his land.

The ruling is likely to lead to increased demands for a right to roam law in England which already exists in Scotland, where people are allowed to wild camp. We could see a campaign of mass trespass on Dartmoor by protestors, similar to the ones that took place in the Peak District in the 1930s, which led to people being imprisoned and fights between walkers and gamekeepers.

Dartmoor national park are considering an appeal and some campers have vowed to continue to wild camp on Dartmoor regardless of the court ruling.

Electricians sacked after asking for union recognition.

 

Action by rank & file sparks has forced the closure of SSE HQ in Hope Street, Glasgow. The unofficial action came after Kirby Group Engineering sacked 3 highly skilled electricians working on the Scottish High Voltage Network. The electricians were asking for UNITE to be recognised by the major electrical contractor. 

Do Scottish Power, SSE and Kirby Group support blacklisting of union members? In the past, the Scottish parliament passed motions against awarding publicly funded contracts to companies involved in blacklisting.

An employment tribunal claim for automatic unfair dismissal for trade union activities has already been submitted and an Interim Relief hearing is set to take place at Glasgow ET on Friday 27th January. Expect more rank & file action until the workers are reinstated.

The problem of maths.

 

I never cared for maths as a subject. I'm so uninterested in the subject that I soon forget how to do something. The basic maths - addition, subtraction, division, percentages, I have always retained. To this day, I don't even have to think about the 12 times table to answer it. It was knocked into me at primary school. We learned it by rote.  For what I need, the basic maths as stood me in good stead.

I think there is such a thing as a literate and a numerate mind and people are seldom good at both. I've always read and get more out of the printed word than anything else.

Does it really matter if you don't know the second law of thermodynamics? How many people could have solved the maths problem called the Poincaré Conjecture, or have even heard of it?

A friend told me recently that his son who is a headmaster, and likes mathematics, couldn't understand a book that he lent him by the historian Christopher Hill, called 'The World Turned Upside Down'. I've read the book and couldn't understand why he found it so difficult. I suppose if you have no grasp of English history and don't understand certain concepts about political theory, economics, and social class, you might find it difficult.

A person might be a maths expert but their education could be deficient in many other respects. Most people don't really think, but generalise, or think intuitively. They find thinking difficult. They follow their gut instincts or what to them, seems like common sense, and politicians know this.

The former American President, Ronald Reagan, once said that if "you're explaining, then you're losing". It might seem an interesting angle on political communication, but I can see what he's driving at.

Donald Trump knew how to work an audience with his 'Fake News' and 'Let's Make America Great Again', but so did Hitler and Mussolini.

The Canadian philosopher, Marshall McLuhan, had the best antidote for this when he said, "Education is ideally civil defence against media fallout."

The Morant Bay Rebellion 1865.

 

The Morant Bay Rebellion 1865

Many British people today, may not be aware of the Morant Bay Rebellion that took place in Jamaica in October I865. It's unlikely that they will ever have been taught about this aspect of brutality that underpinned British colonialism, in a history lesson at a British school.

The colony's governor, Edward Eyre, ordered that brutal force should be used to suppress a rebellion by non-white Jamaicans who worked on the sugar plantations. Some 400 Jamaicans were killed, many of them hanged in reprisals, after the fighting had finished. Hundreds were flogged and homes were burned down in retaliation.

The actions of the governor, in quashing the rebellion, caused a major controversy in Britain that divided public opinion about the role of British colonialism. One of those who was executed by governor Eyre, was George William Gordon, a wealthy member of the islands elected assembly. He was the son of an enslaved mother and a Scottish slave-owning father. Gordon's crime, for which he was hanged without trial, was that he had agitated on behalf of poor Jamaicans and had been a long-term political critic of the governor.

Some people in Britain, like Charles Darwin, and the philosopher John Stuart Mill, who were both members of Jamaica Committee, denounced Eyre and called for him to be put on trial for murder. Gordon was embraced as a Christian Martyr and Eyre portrayed as a butcher and military despot.

Other famous people, such as Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, and Thomas Carlyle, came out in support of governor Eyre and raised funds for his costs and legal defence. Carlyle denounced members of the Jamaica Committee, as a small group of "rabid Nigger-Philanthropists."

Edward Eyre was eventually put on trial in 1868, but was acquitted. While it's clear that Charles Dickens never was a supporter of black slavery in the U.S. which can be seen in his American Notes, and his novel Martin Chuzzlewit, he nevertheless, believed in the racial superiority of the white man which was a view that was shared by many of his contemporaries, and the people of his day. What is also clear, is that for many people living in Victorian Britain, black lives didn't really matter and were of less value than white lives. This attitude still endures to this day.

Non-binary priest talks of his sexual revelations!

 

Reverend Bingo Allison

The Reverend Bingo Allison is a biological man with three kids. That is a fact. He says he had an 'epiphany' after reading the story of Adam and Eve, and discovered that he was "gender-queer" (whatever that means), and "non-binary". His chosen pronouns are 'they/them'.

 Bingo is the first non-binary priest to be ordained by the C of E. He says he feels that God has guided him into this new truth about himself and says Genesis 1:27, speaks about "from maleness to femaleness" as opposed to men and women.

To be clear, it doesn't say this at all. It says:

 "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

 Bingo says the history of Biblical interpretation is: "littered with the opinions of rich, white, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, neurotypical men assuming that everyone in the passages that they read thought like them and perceived the world like them." 

He visits schools, speaking with youths and encouraging LGBT+ people to join the church. He says his own little children have been lovely about it.

 I don't really have much time for churchianity, but many socialists have been influenced by the moral teachings within the Bible, such as the parables, and have often referred in their writings and speeches, to the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ.

But socialists are more concerned with social-class, democracy, and political and economic equality, rather than identity politics, which takes social class and equality and redistribution, out of the equation. They're not really interested in "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars." 

I have no desire to dictate to people how they should live their lives, but I still think that reality is worth defending even if some people choose to abandon it. There are some C of E people who think the Anglican church needs to move with the times, but I can't see what relativism, or the equality, diversity, inclusion, agenda, has to do with the Christian Bible. It's of no relevance whatsoever. Nor do I think that the scriptures ought to be made amenable or shaped to fit in with the whims, follies, and fancies, of social cranks and quacks, or the delusional, such as the Reverend Bingo Allison, who clearly doesn't believe in the teachings of the Bible at all and is really just a proselytiser of queer politics, dressed in religious garb.

 The Bible doesn't recognise 72 genders, or something called non-binary or "gender-queer." This all belongs to the realm of fancy and Don Quixote. It also doesn't recognise same-sex marriage and condemns sex between men. It seems to me that the C of E is badly in need of some level-headed people. No wonder the churches are empty. 

Are we witnessing the Americanisation of the NHS?

 

I recently watched an interview with Mark Lawson and the American horror writer Stephen King. The author, who wrote among other things, The Green Mile and The Shining, talked about his early life and I was struck by a remark that he made about healthcare in the U.S.

Before he became a successful author, King described the worry that he and his wife Tabitha had when it came to buying medication required for a sick child. He said the couple often struggled to find the money to buy the child's medicine.

We complain about the cost of a prescription charge of £9.35 per item, but in the U.S., more than 1 in 5 American adults cannot afford prescription drugs. Failure to pay medical bills, is also one of the biggest causes of middle class bankruptcy in the U.S.

In 2018, Donald Trump described Britain's healthcare system as "broke and not working." We all know that the NHS is facing unprecedented difficulties, but I wouldn't trade it in, for an American style health system, where a staggering 46 million U.S. citizens, nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, cannot afford necessary healthcare services.

Although she never said it publicly, the former Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, favoured introducing an American system of health care in Britain, but she was told that it would be tantamount to committing electoral suicide to say so. Nevertheless, the American healthcare industry has long had it sights on cashing in on the wave of privatisations and outsourcing within the NHS.

Labour's Shadow Health Minister, Wes Streeting, is in favour of more private sector involvement in Britain's healthcare system. In January 2022, he accepted a £15,000 donation from the hedge fund dealer, John Armitage, who owns Egerton Capital, which owns shares worth £834m, in the the U.S. health corporation UnitedHealth.

Girl facing jail for false rape allegations!

 

Eleanor Williams

I've just been reading an article about the rape fantasist, Eleanor Williams, a 22-year old girl from Barrow. Williams inflicted injuries on herself with an hammer and took photographs of her injuries claiming she'd been raped. These photographs were then posted on social media. She accused multiple men of having raped her and concocted stories about Asian grooming gangs, which led to serious racial unrest in the community. These allegations led to some men being imprisoned and had a devastating effect on their lives and their families.

The police say that cases of women making false allegations about rape, are rare, but they're certainly not unheard of. Rape is a serious issue and it's a crime that is mainly perpetrated by some men. We don't generally read about women raping men on lonely canal towpaths or when they're out walking. But why some women make false allegations about rape, is an interesting psychological subject in itself. Williams who was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and is due to be sentenced, is certainly an interesting psychological specimen for study.

SNP Equalities Officer resigns over abusive TERF TWEETS!

 

An equalities officer for the Scottish National Party's (SNP's) London branch, who said that he was in the "mood" to "beat the fuck out of some terfs (a derogatory term for trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and transphobes", resigned his position last October, after making a number of vile Tweets and violent online outbursts, inciting violence against feminists who don't recognise trans women as women.

Aspiring actor, and Edinburgh student, Cameron Downing, aged 22, (pictured above with Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon), wrote: " I fucking hate terfs and transphobes with such a passion they make me want to SCREAM!!!!!"

Downing - who wears mascara, lipstick, and paints his fingernails - had been the SNP's London branch equalities officer since August 2022, and had held the same position in 2021, said he was stepping back from the role for the sake of his own mental well being. He'd previously acted with 'Shoogly Peg Productions', working on multiple shows.

The author J.K. Rowling, who has received death threats from trans activists for saying that Sturgeon is a "destroyer of women's rights" and that trans women are just men in dresses, wrote: "Nicola Sturgeon's Scotland: A place where an equalities officer feels free to declare in public how much he wants to beat up non-compliant women." The Harry Potter author, denies being transphobic but believes like most people, that a person's sexual biology is fixed and immutable.

The SNP's Gender Reform Act, which is going through Holyrood, would make it easier for transgendered people to have their chosen gender recognised. There would be no requirement for a person to provide medical/psychiatric evidence of "Gender Dysphoria" and it reduces the applicable age for somebody applying for a "Gender Recognition Certificate", from 18 to 16 years of age. It also reduces the period that a person needs to have lived in their acquired gender, from two years to three months. Under the Scottish Bill, a man can simply become a woman, by self-identifying as a woman. Critics say the system is wide open to abuse by sexually predatory males who can self identify as women and gain access to young girls and women's safe spaces.

Although Downing apologised for the Tweets, which have now been deleted, the SNP initially denied that Downing had ever held an office bearing role with the SNP. The pressure group 'For Women Scotland' said: " The SNP seem to actively want mindless thugs in their ranks - as long as it is only women they want to hurt."

The Scottish Nationalist MP, Joanna Cherry, says she received a rape threat after she was sacked from the front bench for her criticism of the Scottish Government's gender reforms, but received no support. She claims to have been "cancelled" and 'erased from history", by her party in a scathing attack on its leadership.