Lib Dem leader says GP appoints have become almost extinct in parts of Country!

 

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, says face-to-face GP appointments have become "almost extinct" in some parts of the country and does constitute a national scandal. It's known that many people who live in areas considered "socially deprived" find it difficult to get to see a GP.

According to a Lib Dems' survey, people who are struggling to access NHS services, are turning to self-prescribing and do-it-yourself treatments. Many are also turning to the private medical sector to get urgent medical treatment or pharmacies, A&E, or NHS 111, if they can get through.

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, says between 300 and 500 people are dying each week unnecessarily because of the consequence of delays and problems in accessing urgent and emergency care. He said a bad flu season was compounding systemic problems in the NHS.

Dr Richard Van Mellaerts, the deputy chair of the British Medical Association's GP committee in England, said the Lib Dems' call for patients to be given the right to see a GP within a week, was "an impossible task" unless the decline in the number of family doctors was arrested. A spokesman for the Department of Health, said that official guidance was clear that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments alongside remote consultations and that in November, two-thirds of appointments, were face-to-face. They added, "As of September 2022, there are almost 2,300 more full-time equivalent doctors working in general practice compared to September 2019. There are also record numbers in GP training, and since 2019, we have recruited over 21,000 additional staff into general practice."

While it's often wise to question government figures and to treat them with caution, most of us are aware that much of the rot set in when many GP practices used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to introduce fundamental changes within their practices. Many GP practices ended the walk-in morning surgeries and replaced it with a triage system of evaluation. They said they were doing this to minimize the spread of COVID virus. Many GPs became reluctant to see patients face-to-face and started to offer virtual or telephone consultations to their patients. As COVID lockdown restrictions got lifted in all walks of life in this country and we embarked on a mass immunisation program in the UK, the GPs continued to use the COVID pandemic as an excuse not to offer face-to-face appointments to their patients or to reinstate walk-in surgeries.

Yet, you could still see a NHS hospital doctor or nurse face-to-face or an optician, dentist, or chiropodist. The GPs stance made no sense whatsoever and only increased the burden and strain on the NHS and the emergency services. Unless you're a GP, nobody seriously believes that a telephone consultation with your GP is really a proper doctor's appointment or that a doctor can make a proper medical diagnosis over the phone. We know from coroner's inquests that many medical problems have sometimes gone undiagnosed over the phone and often with fatal consequences. How do you examine someone's blood pressure or chest over the phone? There have even been instances of GPs asking patients to cough into the phone.

We're told that we mustn't blame hardworking GPs who are doing their best under difficult conditions to meet the needs of their patients. No doubt many are doing their best under challenging circumstances. Yet, in contrast to many doctor's and nurses working in NHS hospitals who have no choice but to see patients face-to-face, most GPs do not work excessively long hours or work shifts. Many are self-employed, work on contract for the NHS, and work part-time. They can afford to work part-time because they are so highly paid. Some do highly paid agency work as locums.

Average earnings for GPs in this country are around £110,000 a year (3.1 times as much as average earnings), which is much higher than the pay of a GP working in France, which is a country with a far better health system than Britain. Countries such as Australia, Spain and the Netherlands, pay family doctors around twice the average wage.

Starmer wants an elected second chamber to stop corruption!

 

David Lloyd George

"Lloyd George new my father, my father new Lloyde George."

Sir Keir Starmer KC, the leader of the Labour Party, says he wants to get rid of the House of Lords because it's too full of Tory financial donors, cronies, and is open to corruption. Although Labour have also given peerages to financial backers of Labour, Starmer says he wants a directly elected second chamber.

The press Baron, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, famously said, "When I want a peerage, I shall buy one like an honest man." How true is this? Under Lloyd George, the Honours list, became known as the "Lavender List." £10,000 could buy you a knighthood; £30,000 could buy you a baronetcy and £50,000 upwards, could get you a peerage. The honours scandal under Lloyd George, led to the passing of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act of 1925.

David Ross, the founder of Carphone Warehouse, has been tipped for a peerage. Ross arranged Boris Johnson's £15,000 holiday in Mustique in 2020. JCB Boss, Lord Anthony Bamford, donated £23, 853 to Boris Johnson's post-wedding celebrations that took place at his Cotswolds estate in July 2022. Lord Bamford has donated millions of pounds to the Conservative Party since 2001. His son, Jo Bamford, bought Wrightbus out of administration in 2019. In March 2021, he was handed a £11.2m UK Government grant to build hydrogen buses at Wrightbus which is based in Ballymena.

Many other Tory financial backers have been elevated to the House of Lords or have been given positions in government. Boris Johnson gave peerages to friends, family, and cronies, during his premiership.

Are male sex offenders exploiting transgender rights?

 

Transgender rapist - Karen White

Are male sex offenders exploiting transgender rights? In 2018, the feminist organisation 'Fair Play for Women' claimed that some 41% of trans-women in prison were there for sexual offences.

In January 2022, the Conservative MP, Tim Loughton, tabled a question about this in the House of Commons and he was told by Victoria Atkins, a justice minister, that the proportion of male-born trans-women in the prison system who are sex offenders, was between 60% and 61.3%. This figure 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.

An article about this in the Spectator, suggests that what the 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.

Irish teacher released from Dublin Jail!

 

Enoch Burke

Mountjoy prison in Dublin, is famously known as the prison where the British hung and tortured the young IRA lad and medical student, Kevin Barry, who was sentenced to death for an attack on a British Army supply lorry in 1920, that led to the deaths of three British soldiers. It's said that the British offered Barry his life in return for him betraying his comrades, which he refused to do, and therefore, Kevin Barry became another Irish Martyr.

The school teacher and evangelical Christian, Enoch Burke, who has just been released from Mountjoy prison after being confined for 107 days, for contempt of court, is fast becoming another kind of Irish Martyr. Although Burke refused to purge his contempt and also refused to leave prison on principle, he was nevertheless released from jail. He said that do so, would be in breach of his Christian beliefs and his duty to God. He told the Irish Times: "My only crime is that I had a religious belief and I would not sell it."

In September, Burke was sent to jail after he broke a High Court injunction forbidding him to attend the school he was employed at as a school teacher. He'd been suspended by Wilson's Hospital School, in County Westmeath, because he refused to use a transgender students preferred pronouns of "they/them."

On Wednesday, a Judge ordered his release from imprisonment because he felt that Burke was "exploiting his imprisonment for his own ends" and was becoming an household name. Mr Justice Brian O'Moore, said the court "would not enable someone found to be in contempt of court to garner some advantage from that defiance." He said the Irish taxpayer would not be "burdened with paying Mr Burke's salary at the same time as they are paying for his upkeep in Mountjoy."

While Enoch Burke does not accept that he's been lawfully incarcerated, his released from jail, still means that he faces the prospect of further incarceration or the sequestration of his assets, or other penalties, if he persists in ignoring court injunctions.

Britain's worst built school to be demolished!

 

Russell Scott School Denton

Government in the UK is said to be government by amateurs. This also applies to local authorities like Tameside Council, a local authority in Greater Manchester. During 2013-15, the council spent £2.7 million on the botched refurbishment by Carillion of the Russell Scott school in Denton. Now the school will have to be demolished and rebuilt.

Who, I wonder, was the buffoon at Tameside Council who signed this job off? Carillion had preferred bidder status within Tameside Council and was a "joint venture partner"' under the Building Schools for the Future project. In 2011, The council transferred all its facilities management to Carillion and the construction giant was contracted to build Tameside One, before it went bust in January 2018, almost taking the council with it. It was also contracted to provide school meals in the borough that turned out to be more costly than the money allocated by the government for each school meal. Tameside schools were made to pay the difference from their own budgets.

One of the people who didn't live long enough to see the demise of Carillion, was the Tameside Council Labour leader, and former postman, Kieran Quinn, who died suddenly on 23 December 2017, of a heart attack, aged 57, five months after Carillion issued a first profit warning in July 2017. Although Quinn didn't work for Carillion, he was one of the firms biggest promoters in spite of the companies dodgy history and its reputation for blacklisting union construction workers. It's known that many of the deals that were done by Carillion and Tameside Council, were done behind closed doors and only involved a small number of people.

John Bell, the Tory leader of the council at the time of Carillion's collapse, complained of a lack of scrutiny that made it difficult to know if Carillion was delivering efficiently or providing value for money. The same questions had been asked by the journalist, Nigel Pivaro, in the Tameside Reporter in August 2017. Pivaro asked if Tameside Council had put too many of its eggs in one basket in its relationship with Carillion, a company that it depended on, far too much. He referred to the problems at Russel Scott, Carillion's plummeting share price and its huge pension deficit. He posed the question that if Carillion went bust, could it take the council with it?

Although what has happened at Russell Scott is an absolute scandal, no one within Tameside Council, to my knowledge, seems to have been held accountable for this complete balls up. Indeed, many local contractors lost money by doing business with Carillion and Tameside Council incurred massive debts, yet no heads have ever rolled within the council nor did anyone finish up being prosecuted.

As far as Keiran Quinn is concerned, at the time of his death, he was hailed as a visionary, who had, according to the council's CEO, Steven Pleasant, a "brilliant, strategic and perceptive mind..." The day after it was announced that Carillion had gone bump, and that work had stopped on the Tameside One project, the council announced that it was "Business As Usual."

Ngozi Fulani's charity now under investigation.

 

Ngozi Fulani - Director of Sistah Space

According to reports, it seems that Ngozi Fulani's charity 'Sistah Space' is now under investigation. Fulani, who was originally called Marlene Headley, has also become the focus of much media scrutiny.

The charity organizer came to public attention when she divulged that one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting, Lady Susan Hussey, quizzed her at a Bucking Palace reception about where she came from. This caused Fulani some embarrassment and it was suggested that racism played a part in the incident. Fulani claimed that she was "traumatised" by Lady Hussey, who later resigned and apologised for her actions. Its now transpired that Ngozi Fulani's heritage is not African but British/Barbadian, and she's now being accused of "cultural appropriation."

Its not clear to me if Ms Fulani has ever tried to pass herself off as being of African descent. When she was asked at the Bucking Palace reception where she was from, I understand that she said 'Hackney', which is borough of London. Moreover, Barbados is associated with slavery which was both white and Black. Black slaves were used to work on the sugar plantations and in the 17th century, Cromwell, had the Irish sent to Barbados as "indentured slaves." Many of the descendants of black slaves living in Barbados will not know with any degree of certainty where they actually originate from. But it's a fair guess that many of their ancestors originated from the African continent.

Sinn Fein leader denies IRA man was a Nazi collaborator.

 

Sinn Fein leader - Mary Lou McDonald

Did the IRA seriously believe that if Hitler and the Nazis had won WWII, he would have given them an independent Ireland?

The policy was one of Britain's difficulties are Ireland's opportunities. This led to some people like the IRA Chief of Staff, Sean Russell, collaborating with the Nazis. Although Russell trained with the Abwehr in Germany and died on a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in August 1940, (Operation Dove), Mary Lou McDonald, the President of Sinn Fein, denied that he was a Nazi collaborator. In May 2020, she said that Russell was a "militarist" and not a Nazi collaborator, despite his links with the Nazis. In 2003, she spoke at a commemoration event for Sean Russell.

The IRA man, Frank Ryan, was also involved with the Nazis, but I suspect that he was less enthusiastic about his involvement with the Nazis. He died in Dresden in 1944, of pleurisy and pneumonia. He'd been handed to the Germans as a prisoner, after fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.

When Hitler died, the Irish Prime Minister, Eamon da Valera, sent condolences to the German government. Had Hitler won the war, I suspect that IRA men like Russell, would have been sent to the concentration camps and Ireland would have been put under the control of some Nazi sympathiser, like Oswald Moseley, or Lord Haw-Haw, the Irish American, William Joyce.

Following criticism, I believe that Mary Lou McDonald, admitted that Russell's involvement with the Nazis was "misguided."

Bailey and his 10,000 Dresses.

Should children aged between two and four years old, be used as guinea pigs in a social engineering experiment by the "gay rights" organisation Stonewall?

A transgender toddler, Bailey, is now the hero of a children's book published by Stonewall. In one chapter, entitled "10,000 Dresses", Bailey, dreams of dresses every night but his mother tells him that boys don't wear dresses. When Bailey says, "I don't feel like a boy" his mother replies, "well you are one, Bailey, and that's that." However, Bailey's dream does come true when he's shown living as a girl instead of a boy.

Academics like the Hungarian, Marxist sociologist, Frank Furedi, have warned that there's a danger in subjecting children to queer politics and dogma of this kind about transgenderism. Furedi, thinks it may well lead to children becoming very confused about themselves and having an "identity crisis' in later life. I think he makes a good point.

A grandmother told me recently that she was astonished by the encyclopedic knowledge her young granddaughter had about gender identities, which she'd mainly acquired from her school. I asked her what her maths and English were like, because I thought that was more useful to her than a headful of nonsense about multiple gender identities.

I no more believe in "transgenderism" than I do believe in the religious doctrine of "transubstantiation." Although I accept that some people do suffer from gender dysphoria or may be of indeterminate sex, and that gender is a social construct, I still think reality is worth defending and I have no intention of abandoning it, even if other choose to do so.

Trans women are not women i e. a biological female, an adult female human being. I also believe that we should be wary and sceptical when it comes to the ruinous nostrums peddled by either political, economic, or theological quacks.

Ayn Rand and McCarthyism!

 

AYN RAND 

The Russian emigre and author Ayn Rand, (Alisa Rozenbaum 1905- 1982), who wrote the pro-capitalist novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, also wrote the Hollywood screen guide for making good capitalist movies in 1947. She also helped the FBI "identity" the film 'It's a Wonderful Life', as a piece of communist propaganda.

Her screen guide was broken down into 13 Commandments: (1) Don't take politics lightly; (2) Don't smear the free enterprise system; (3) Don't smear industrialists; (4) Don't smear wealth; (5) Don't smear the profit motive; (6) Don't smear success; (7) Don't glorify failure; ( Don't glorify depravity; (9) Don't deify the 'common man'; (10) Don't glorify the collective; (11) Don't smear an independent man; (12) Don't use current events carelessly; (13) Don't smear American political institutions.

Although her novel The Fountainhead was adapted for film in 1949, and starred Gary Cooper, I doubt whether many films produced for the cinema have ever passed Rand's pro-capitalist test. But it did spell the end for an Hollywood actor like Charles Chaplin, who after returning to the UK after 21 years, was banned from re-entering the U.S. in 1952, because he was seen to have Communist sympathies which some felt, were reflected in his films, like Modern Times.

Rand did give evidence to the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947, during the McCarthy era. Chaplin was called before the Committee but refused to co-operate. Chaplin was signaled out for refusing to cross a picket line during a strike in Hollywood during 1945-46. He was criticized for praising the efforts of the Soviet Union during WWII, and he was smeared by the FBI over a sex scandal involving young girls. The Hollywood gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper, was also know to be feeding dirt and scandal on Chaplin to the FBI.

Personally, I regard Charlie Chaplin as one of the greatest comic actors of all time. If there's such a thing as a comic genius it was him. Similarly, Frank Capra's film "It's a wonderful life", starring James Stewart, is one of my favourite films of all time. I've watched the film numerous times and love it.

Although Rand has been politically influential in America, where her book Atlas Shrugged is regarded as the Bible of the American Congress and the emblem of the Tea Party, she never quite lived up to her own ideals. Despite her loathing for government welfare systems, altruism, and the "common man", in later life, as her health failed her, she finished up claiming social security and state health care.

I doubt whether Rand's vision of a dog-eat-dog society based on unfettered capitalism, will ever have any popular appeal but it will appeal to the rich and successful, who she portrays as victims. In the 1959, interview with the American news presenter, and journalist, Mike Wallace, Rand's self made personal philosophy, was criticzsed for its lack of morality and compassion.

Rowling sets up woman only support services.

 

J.K. Rowling

Children's author, J.K. Rowling is to set up a women only support service in Edinburgh for female victims of sexual violence. Rowling says that some women are afraid to report sexual violence because they may be dealt with by a "trans woman." She says the Rape Crisis Centre in Edinburgh is run by a transgender woman who has said that victims will be confronted if they express "unacceptable beliefs" about gender.

Ms Rowling has accused Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, of being a "destroyer of women's rights." Next week, Sturgeon will ask MSP's to approve her plans to introduce a gender self-identification system for Scotland. Critics say the system could be exploited by male-bodied sexual predators to gain access to women's spaces.

Daughter of Jan Morris says he was a "lousy parent."

 Jan Morris (left) - James Morris (right)

I've managed to obtain a copy of this Sunday Times article, by Suki Morys, the daughter of the writer and journalist, James Morris, who underwent gender reassignment in the 1960s, and surgery, and become known as Jan Morris.

Suki Morys says that very little was ever written or said about the effect that Morris's transitioning from male to female had had on her family and her mother, Elizabeth. She describes her father as a "lousy parent who was 'neglectful, bullying, and sexist" and who damaged all four of his living children in one way or another."

Suki says that although Jan Morris believed in "gender fluidity" he/she held extremely sexist views about women. Apparently, he/she believed that women should train as a secretary, get married, have babies, and then look after the family. Morris, she says, wasn't in the least maternal, couldn't cook, clean, or hug his/her children, and disliked the very idea of "family."

Suki doesn't say who did his/her cooking and cleaning, bit I think we can have guess at that.

Baroness Bra takes indefinite leave from House of Lords.

 

"Baroness Bra" - Michelle Mone

What a racket! The government awarded two public contacts worth £203m to a firm called PPE Medpro, to purchase PPE, after a Tory Peer, Baroness Mone, aka Baroness Bra, lobbied government ministers. They paid the firm, which had no previous expertise of procuring PPE, £122m to provide 25 million surgical gowns and £80.8m for £210 million facemasks. The surgical gowns were bought in China for £46m and the facemasks, which were also sourced in China, were bought for £54.6m, leading to a 50% profit margin.

None of the surgical gowns were ever used by the NHS, because they weren't fit for purpose. It also transpired that Baroness Mone and her partner, Douglas Barrowman, had links to the firm and profited from the government contracts.

The National Crime Agency, are now investigating PPE Medpro, and Baroness Mone is under investigation by the Lords Commissioner for standards. According to the Guardian newspaper, Douglas Barrowman and his wife, Michelle Mone, received at least £65m of profit from PPE Medpro, and went on a spending spree.

Opposition parties at Westminster are now demanding full disclosure about Mone's dealings with four key ministers - Gove, Agnew, Bethell, and Hancock. The government say that minister's had no role in awarding contracts which was the job of civil servants. Yet, an official has told the Guardian, that Minister's had made it clear that "politically connected people", should be given special treatment.

The Guardian reported that the couple have declined to say if the purchase of a jet, yacht, properties, wedding and honeymoon, in a five-star resort in the Maldives, were paid for directly or indirectly out of PPE Medpro profits. The newspaper also reported that the couple now appear to be selling assets almost as quickly as they acquired them.

The Ballakew Estate on the Isle of Man and their Eaton Terrace London home are now up for sale, along with their yacht, the Lady M. There's also speculation that the couple are planning to leave the country and to relocate to southern Europe.

Methinks the lady protests too much.

 

Like many showbiz marriages, the marriage between Harry and Meghan is not likely to last. Personally, I get sick to death of hearing all the trivia about them and the British Royal Family. What both of them seem to have in common, is that they see themselves as both entitled and as victims.

Although the couple live a cloistered and wealthy existence that sets them apart from the hoi polloi, they share a passion for wanting to transform the world and to make it a better place in which to live. Both of them also admit to having had suicidal thoughts. Although she's extremely wealthy and lives in an $11 million dollar house in the rich ghetto, of Montecito, California, where there are no sidewalks (pavements), Meghan Markle, perceives herself as a victim of racism and discrimination. She also thinks her mixed race children are also victims of racial discrimination because they've been relegated in the Royal Pecking order. Pictures of her children are extremely rare.

I don't doubt that racism and discrimination are very real, but in the case of Meghan, if she's a victim of it, then she doesn't to seem have done too badly for herself, in spite of it. She was a successful wealthy American actress and she managed to ingratiate herself with an English Prince, become a Duchess, and marry into British Royal Family.

Prince Harry, who has no profession or trade like most of his otiose family, is no longer a working Royal, and he sees himself as a victim, because he's the 'Spare' - spare heir to the British Throne. He also thinks his wife and kids have been overlooked and not given the respect they deserve.

Both of them now seem to spend their time suing newspapers or dishing the dirt on that dysfunctional family called the Windsor's and making money out of it. Its been reported that they will be paid around $100 million (£88m), for their Netflix, "docusery. Methinks the lady protests too much.

Will Starmer do a U-turn on removing charitable status from public schools?

 

Pupils at Eton College

By no stretch of the imagination are public or private schools, 'charities'. Their sole purpose is to provide an education for an elite group of children whose parents are rich enough to send them there.

Sir Keir Starmer has stirred up an hornets nest by talking about removing the charitable status from private schools. I think that Starmer is right to raise this issue of charitable status for public schools, but I don't I think that Starmer, is ever likely to end this racket for the middle-classes, because he's Tory-lite and too much of an establishment man.

Nor do I think the issue resonates that much with working-class Labour voters. They don't really suffer from the politics of envy or begrudge people becoming filthy rich. You will offer hear them say, good luck to them, or wouldn't you do the same thing if you were in their boat.

What they're more concerned about, is their own reference group, people like themselves, who they can identify with. They're likely to be more envious of the neighbour over the road who has bought a new car or who has put new curtains up. You will also find an inclination to resent anyone from their own social class who gets on or makes a success of their lives. They will often say that person has got above themselves.

The author and Old Etonian, George Orwell, wrote in an essay called 'Boys Weeklies', about the fascination that working class kids had with the lives of public school boy. Perhaps, this explains why so many working-class Labour voters, were so enthralled with that public school buffoon, Boris Johnson, who resembled Billy Bunter in many ways. I think he also said that 'Tommy', Tommy Atkins, the archetypal English soldier, wouldn't follow any officer, who didn't speak with plumbs in his mouth. He also said there was a "pew renter" asleep in every English working man.

All these examples highlight the conservative instincts and deferential attitude of the English working- class, who seem to need someone to look up to.

Who is looking after the patients interests?

 

How are GPs getting away with this nonsense of remote GP appointments?

Despite reported cases of people dying because they couldn't get a face-to-face appointment with their GP, remote GP appointments are on the increase. Many GP practices no longer offer walk-in surgery appointments, and sometimes cannot offer an appointment.

There have been reports of GPs asking patients to cough into the phone. How do you take someone's blood pressure or examine their chest by a video link or telephone consultation? When they ask a patient to stick their tongue out, do they tell them it looks heavily pixelated?

It's unbelievable that the doctors union, the British Medical Association (BMA), are also the regulatory body for the medical profession. In effect, they mark their own homework and are the judge and jury of themselves. Surely, there's a conflict of interest here. Who is looking after the patients best interests? It certainly isn't the self-employed GP's who've basically thrown many of their patients under a bus. Many GPs are not offering patients adequate medical treatment.

Last week, I was told by somebody that I know, that his GP practice referred him to A&E with a suspected water infection because they couldn't offer him an appointment and he was told he would be seen quicker at the local hospital. After a 4 hour wait, he was seen by a doctor. This is putting the NHS under strain.

Why does Bocelli receive bad reviews but is so successful?

 

Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli is one of the most successful recording artists of today. His CD recordings sell by the million and he plays to packed audiences. But can this blind Italian man really sing?

I'm not a music critic, but when I first heard Andrea Bocelli sing, I thought he sounded bloody awful and I've never changed my view on that. He's certainly not up to operatic standards in my view. I didn't care much for the Salford tenor, Russell Watson, but of the two, he's potentially a far better singer than Bocelli, but commercially less successful. Compare Bocelli to singers like Placido Domingo, Joseph Calleja, Franco Corelli, Guiseppi Di Stefano, Beniamino Gigli, or even Mario Lanza, and you can tell how inferior his voice is.

In this 2006 review, by the music critic Bernard Holland, he says that Bocelli "sings mostly in tune..." and he writes: "The critics duty is to report that Mr Bocelli is not a very good singer. The tone is rasping, thin and, in general, poorly supported. Even the most modest upward movement thins it even more, signalling what appears to be the onset of strangulation."

So what does this tell us about the musical tastes or lack of it, of the millions of people who buy Bocelli's CD's, and who attend his concerts, and rate him as a good singer? Are they just a bunch of Classic FM cultural Philistines with bad taste?

By all accounts, the great Italian tenor, Franco Corelli, praised Bocelli's voice when he first heard it in a master class in Turin in 1986, and he gave Bocelli private singing lessons. Yet, Holland says, that studio recordings can be enhanced and blemishes minimized and that even though it's a risky business putting Bocelli in front of a full orchestra unamplified, there is something beyond music that draws people to Andrea Bocelli, and that is talent in itself.

Perhaps, it's Mr Bocelli's personality rather than his singing that's the key to his success. In 1998, Bocelli was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. Yet, some do question, if he would have been as successful, if he hadn't have been a blind singer. Born with visual impairment and totally blind since the age of 12, Mr Bocelli is to be greatly admired for how he's overcome adversity and his disability to establish a successful recording career in music. Good luck to him.

Feminist protestor tells Sturgeon that women have been raped by 'Trans Women'!

 

At a recent Zero Tolerance conference in Edinburgh, on Tuesday, attendees were told not to discuss the "definition of a woman.'

Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was attending the conference to speak about tackling male violence against women and girls. Despite the best efforts of the conference organizers to stage manage the event, Alexandra Darroch (pictured above), a feminist protestor, managed to land a punch on Sturgeon when she shouted at her, "shame on you" and then proceeded to accuse the First Minister of "allowing paedophiles, sex offenders and rapist to self ID" as women. Darroch told conference attendees that some women had been raped by trans women, yet didn't give examples. Most of the other faint-hearted feminists in the room, looked on with dismay and remained shtum, as Darroch launched her rant at the First Minister.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, is designed to make it easier for people to undergo gender reassignment. Under the Bill, which is currently progressing through Holyrood, the minimum age of applicants would be dropped from 18 to 16 years of age. It also removes the requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria as a condition for acquiring a gender recognition certificate. The qualifying period that applicants need to have lived in their acquired gender, is also reduced from 2 years to 3 months. Critic's say that the Bill is wide open to abuse and will make it easier for predatory males to enter women's safe spaces to sexually abuse women and girls.

The author, J.K. Rowling - who sent her congratulations and a crate of champagne to Alexandra Darroch - has accused Nicola Sturgeon of being a "destroyer of women's rights." After Darroch had been removed from the room, Sturgeon apologised, and said that the organisation 'Zero Tolerance Scotland', did not seek to close down anyone's right to freedom of speech.

Is social class still a barrier to many in English society?

 

I recently read an interesting article in the Guardian, about class barriers in English society, by the journalist Jamie Fahey. One might well ask how many Guardian editors went to comprehensive schools?

Yet, newspaper journalism, wasn't always a degree profession, nor were journalists required to have had a university education. Charles Dickens managed to break into journalism after a relative pulled strings for him to get a job as a roving reporter.

Harold Evans, from Daisy Nook, near Ashton-under-Lyne, left school and got a job on the Ashton Reporter, and worked his way up to be Editor of the Sunday Times. This sort of social mobility is almost unthinkable today in a society that boasts about equality, inclusivity, and diversity.

British soldier convicted for the death of innocent Irish civilian!

 

A very rare conviction of a British soldier serving in Northern Ireland for the death of an innocent Irish civilian. The ex-soldier, David Jonathan Holden, 53, shot dead Aidan McAnespie, 23, when he was crossing a check point, on 21 February 1988. He was convicted of manslaughter, but as yet to be sentenced. The former soldier, claimed his finger slipped on the machine gun.

McAnespie, was on his way to a Gaelic football match when he crossed the checkpoint at Aughnacloy, County Tyrone. The British army considered McAnespie, a "person of interest" a potential IRA member, but he was unarmed.

Despite crimes of this nature, the British government are pressing ahead with legislation that effectively proposes an amnesty for British soldiers accused of killing or maiming people during the 30-year troubles.

Although the family of Aidan McAnespie (see picture above), welcomed the verdict, it angered veterans groups, who along with Conservative MPs, denounced the prosecution as vexatious.

What some might find curious, is that while Holden is facing a possible prison sentence for manslaughter, countless IRA fugitives who were wanted for terrorist offences during the 30-year troubles, were effectively amnestied by Tony Blair under the Good Friday Agreement in 1988. Many who were convicted of terrorist offences, were also released from prison. Holden is expected to appeal.

Does the benefit system make people risk averse?

 

The Government are looking into why there are so many economically inactive people claiming state benefits when there is low unemployment, record vacancies, and employers are finding it difficult to fill certain vacancies. They seem to think that the way the benefit system is set up, is making people risk averse.

There are many reasons why people may be reluctant to take jobs, but I don't think, that trying to live on just over £77 Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit, is one of them. This is what a single person over 25, would receive each week along with help with rates and Housing Benefit.

Rates of pay are an obvious factor. Some 41% of people claiming Universal Credit are already in work and that includes people who work for the DWP in their Jobcentres. Although, we have a National Minum Wage (NMW) in Britain, a great deal of the work available can be through agency's or temporary or part-time. It has become increasingly difficult for people to obtain decently paid, full-time, secure paid employment, but this varies in different parts of the country. Many people can be working on zero hour contracts and the NMW, for many workers, has become the going rate for a job, rather than a state guaranteed minimum wage.

The lack of employment protection is also another factor. For most people employed after 6 April 2012, the qualifying period for claiming unfair dismissal is now 2 years, unless they're dismissed for an "automatically unfair" reason. This means that employers can dismiss someone at will or on a whim, and there is little that you can do about it.

If you left your job voluntarily, and claimed unemployment benefit, you would have to show just cause or a good reason for leaving your job. If you fail to do so, the DWP could refuse you unemployment benefit for 3 months or even longer depending on the circumstances. If that happened your only option would be to try and claim an hardship payment. If you're sacked, you would have to show this wasn't for "misconduct" which is interpreted very widely and includes conduct that is reprehensible, blameworthy, and wrong. If you can't surmount this hurdle you will be refused unemployment benefit for a specified period.

People in receipt of benefits, may consider it risky to take some jobs because if they're dismissed or leave because they don't consider it suitable, they could finish up without any income, state benefits, and homeless, because that is how the system works to penalize people.