This will affect the wealthiest people in the land (less than 4%) and cost billions in lost taxes. Funny how the money can always be found to help the already rich.
Never vote Tory.
Toodle pip
Booze, news and views from a drunken opinionated fool who can't spell very well, may well repeat himself, and can't blame it on dislexia
This will affect the wealthiest people in the land (less than 4%) and cost billions in lost taxes. Funny how the money can always be found to help the already rich.
Never vote Tory.
Toodle pip
Where's The Sun outrage over this kind of stuff (albeit old). The odious Rod Little, still a current ' journalist'. Then again, so is the lying Boris Johnson and Dan Wootton. Hopefully all soon to change.
Not for the first time, the people of this country should take a lead from Liverpool and stop buying The Sun. They're stirring the cap with the BBC allegation and it's always been in Rupert Murdoch's agenda to destroy the BBC. Stop buying The Sun instead and stop falling for him dictating the news agenda.
Instead of the guessing game currently taking place (Huw knows who it will be), unless something illegal has been done, shut the fuck up. How about Boris Johnson not handing his WhatsApp messages over, despite being ordered to? Or George Osbourne and what he's been up to? Or closer to Murdoch, how about a Sun journalist and current right wing presenter catfishing (the least of his worries) that will shortly be exposed?
An extremely rare photograph of Leonardo Da Vinci with the real Mona Lisa, taken in 1504.
And if you believe that, l've got some magic beans to sell you. Looks good though.
Toodle pipI'm not a believer in any way, shape or form, and l'm heterosexual, but l respect and admire this message from The United Church. If more institutions in the world were so non judgemental, the world would be a much happier place.
Robert Jenrick has cartoon murals at a childrens asylum centre painted over because they are 'too welcoming'. A gentle reminder - these are children, in a foreign country, probably scared shitless, that Jenrick is punishing. What a fucking rotter.
Never vote Tory
If it's Wednesday, it must be wedding time for Linda and Shane. Congratulations, and a fine time was had by all!!
Mathew Street, Liverpool in 1977, in the days before everything became commercialised, and people, even in Liverpool, were that bothered about The Beatles, as new music was deemed more exciting (Eric's was thriving), and older music meant bands like Love or The Velvet Underground.
Obviously l am more of a curmudgeonly old git than l used to be, but images like these re-enforce the reason l prefer going to smaller gigs where the band are a lot closer, and the music is in your face.
And what's going on with the phone on the left? Now pass me my large slippers, it's time for a nap.
Toodle pip
Steve McQueen was a really talented, charismatic, good looking actor, and a real man's man, but not even he could pull off this outfit.
Toodle pipA sunset on Mars. We are the only humans that have ever witnessed this (albeit through a photograph).
This is what happens when the AI generated Prime Minister bot malfunctions. Therapists doing dentistry FFS. This is getting beyond parody. What next? Footballers performing heart surgery? Who says they are not in touch with the real world?
Never vote Tory.
Toodle pip
In what world do people hate the NHS? Apart from the corporate money grabbing privatisation fuckers in the Tory party who would happily put profiteering over lives any day of the week.
Never vote Tory.
An Arsenal fan is led away during the Arsenal versus Manchester United game in 1973. A very strong 'A Clockwork Orange' vibe, which was all the rage at the time (although it was released in 1971).
Toodle pipI've been enjoying Sky TV's series 'The Overlap' starring Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher, and the unveiling of the Gary Neville mural in Marsh lane (the road next to where l lived), Bootle, was pure comedy gold. Well played to whoever came up with that idea.
Toodle pip
Harrison Ford hasn't aged according to this load of crap from The Daily Mail. They think Karen Allen is unrecognisable at 71, but there is no mention of Ford aging as well. Who the fuck looks the same as they did 42 years ago? Sexist, ageist crap, and from a woman 'reporter'. Then again, it's endorsed by The Daily Mail, and l expect nothing less from them.
Toodle pip
I went to put some jam on my toast this morning, but soon changed my mind. I should start my own penicillin farm.
Toodle pip
“I was certainly not prepared or equipped to deal with shark-toothed journalists and the whole way in which the media spins stories.
“I was cleverly framed, I would say, by certain questions, where I couldn’t for instance rewrite the 10 Commandments. You can’t expect me to do that.
“At the same time I never actually ever supported the fatwa. I even wrote a whole press statement which, very early on, which the press ignored – completely ignored.
“They went for the one which was written by the journalist who originally wrote the story. And so I had to live through that.”
However he can be found here endorsing it (with a really annoying presenter). The thing is, l don't care if he thought that then, as everyone has the right to evolve and change their minds, hopefully becoming a better person as the live and learn. But the mistakes of the past should also be admitted, and then moved on from, not re-written.
Anyway, here he is in what to me was his peak.
I'm not in this photograph, but this is exactly what myself and my mates were like in sunny Bootle. Pretty much all we did every day was play football, either in North Park, or in a cinema car park.
Happy days indeed, but unfortunately l wasn't good enough to become professional.
This is an old Egyptian mural. I don't know what these people have got wrong with them, or what the doctors are doing, but it all looks a bit dodgy to me.
Matt Hancock is today giving evidence at The Covid Enquiry, and has said he is very very sorry.
My thoughts and best wishes are with him at this dreadful time.
I've been off work and watching the Glastonbury footage, while in the meantime, Mr Parrot has managed to pull out the kettles wires from where l unplugged and hid them, and naturally enough, bitten through them. I've ordered another kettle, but in the meantime, l've separated the wires, and have been dancing with death every time l make a cup of tea. Wish me luck.
Toodle pip
These magnetic sock buddies look fantastic, and l was tempted to buy some for Christmas presents, until l saw the $37 price. However, should you wish to buy some, look here.
Toodle pip
This was interesting, but not unexpected. By Michael Marmot in The Guardian (full article here).
In the meantime...
Unicef reports child poverty among 41 OECD (mostly rich) countries. It uses a relative measure of poverty: children living in households at less than 60% median income. On this measure, the UK ranks 31 out of 41 countries (1 is the best); the US ranks 38. Using the same measure, where people are relative to others, child poverty in England, after housing costs, rose from 27% in 2010 to 30% in 2019. The government prefers an absolute measure of poverty – one that bizarrely takes relative poverty in 2010/11 as the standard – because that looks more favourable. A better absolute measure is the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum income standard. Under this measure, 39% of children were in poverty in 2008/9; 40% in 2020/21.
Not only is child poverty high, and rising, in the UK; we don’t spend very much on young children. The same Unicef comparison looks at public spending on child education and care for children aged nought to five. The average for OECD countries is $6,000 per child per year. Norway and Sweden spend around $12,000, France close to $9,000. In the UK, we spend $4,000, limping along below average. The US is worse, at $3,000.
In our evidence to the Covid inquiry, Clare Bambra, professor of public health at Newcastle University, and I concluded that we entered the pandemic with “public services depleted, health improvement stalled, health inequalities increased and health among the poorest people in a state of decline”. David Cameron and George Osborne, the architects of a decade of austerity, looked at the evidence of the damage their policies had caused – and rejected it.
Toodle pip