Fantasy Land

 La La Land isn't it?  In a world where I am happy that you can be what you want to be, don't you find it strange that those whom I have no interest in and I am happy for them to do what they want, be what they want to be, etc etc don't actually really want that.  No they want me to go along with their fantasies whatever they may and to my detriment not theirs.

The general public that makes up let's say 98% don't seem to worry as little by little their voices get eroded so that we can accommodate other's.  I think we all originally thought that we should let people be what they want to be etc but the tail wags the dog in this country and stuff that never needed to be said may soon have to be.  

Anyway, these fantasists really need to get a grip because they've been pushing it for a long time now and I wonder if patience is going to eventually run out?  The give an inch, take a mile sort of attitude is one that will inevitably lead to a pulling up short.

I wonder if people ever think about the way they portray themselves and the way that they try and push their views onto others because it has got to a sort of turning point now where many people are fed up of having to walk on eggshells around their fellow citizens, where a word you use in common parlance suddenly has a different meaning and someone gets offended.  It's got to stop and the trouble is it's all been held in, contained inside and I worry that it will boil over at some point.  Worryingly, we aren't allowed to talk about it openly for fear of being branded as <insert hurty words here> that has got to brew over time and needs a vent.

I suppose the only thing to do is to watch it happen and then say "I told you so"

Do People Actually Think Before They Act Anymore?

 I wonder whether people actually think before they act at all?  Some make the most curious decisions and make the most inappropriate suggestions.  They then double down on a decision that will actually end in their own embarrassment or to their own detriment as they haven't considered any other position other than their own.

What I always enjoyed when I was at work 20 years or so ago was how someone would purse a course that was vainglorious, predicated on their own world view of the situation and their belief in the "justice" and right of their position.  Often the action were not the correct ones and furthermore they had ignored advice, fired a letter off before reflection or perhaps had reflected on it but ignored the obvious flaws of their argument.  It happens, you are convinced that your truth is the only way of looking at something.

In cases like this it was always a good strategy to take your time to analyse what they were trying to achieve by their actions and work out what you were going to do about it.  Seeking clarification sometimes works to reflect back the errors of their argument but not to provide them with any ammunition to solve the problem or have it used against you.  

I think it is Sun Tzu or Bonaparte who said something like "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" and for good reason.  Your position is made far stronger as they make mistakes, they cannot support their allegations, their arguments fall apart on cross examination. Never give up your own high ground, have all the answers, the documents and evidence to hand and know what you are going to do but don't let on. 

I find it particularly strange that they don't give up and potentially you can destroy their arguments time after time.  

For me it's such a waste of time and energy defending but if you know how they are thinking and what "Gotchas" they might have planned you can easily run rings around them and deliver the coup de grâce and yet still some fight on for some reason, vanity, too thick to realise their case has been destroyed very often by their own attitude and ineptitude too. 

I suppose we have to put up with this pathetic, ill advised, unthinking nonsense.  One of my favourite sayings I used to use a lot in meetings after fending off another ill thought through attack from these was to get the decision in my favour and ask the now failed opponent - looking seriously at them as they realised their case was dismissed "Don't you ever get tired of being wrong?"  If nothing else it made ME feel better after all the grief they had fired at me.  

Why Do People Act Like Complete Dictators

 Can't say what's happening at the moment but I have to question what the hell goes through people's minds?   I've got enough trouble as it is going on which I don't need and should not have to deal with without getting another crazy giving me a hard time which just eats into my time and into my schedule.

I cannot understand why someone who I have known for some time has turned into the Dark Lord of Mordor?  But there you go, I have to deal with this complete nonsense and waste more time and effort on it that it truly deserves.  

People - I'll never comprehend stupid decisions, making things more complicated and the like.

Ho hum. 

And the Chair Is Repaired Again

 Antique chairs hold many repairs and bumps, scratches, patina, patches and now my glued efforts.  So I'll leave it for 24 hours and hopefully that will fix it but I'm not confident as the wood felt very light and dried out to me but hey ho we kept these and sold mine!

It's the Spring Statement apparently - mini budget more like. As predicted it's everyone else's fault not our esteemed Chancellor.  The socialist experiment is collapsing and accelerating as we go.  Someone said some time ago that "you can't Tax your way out of the financial hole you are in" and this is so and perhaps will prove to be such,  When you are working from an ideological point of view and not an economic one you soon find your nose bloodied and blink wondering where that blow arrived from.

We pay the highest energy costs (electric) in the world.  We've gone all in on some stooopid promise that the faster we get to Net Zero the better off we will be.  At times like this I then like to remind myself of the following:

One million seconds is 11 Days.
One billion seconds is 31 Years.
One trillion seconds is 31 thousand, 710 years.

We bandy Billions and Trillions around without really thinking what these represent.  If just we were to go to Net Zero the expected costs are around £3 to £4 trillion.  

Socialism seems to promise great things but I do not know of one place where it has truly worked.  To make it work you need to oppress the masses and that's started here now and I'm hoping the whole thing crashes around them and that we won't go too far in blaming the population for it, it will be of their own making.

They are correcting things and in doing so making it worse.  If you only address the symptoms and not the root cause it will always be so.  Back to my days in business and not tackling the failures with a box of band aid and some iodine cream but getting to the root cause most often bad management and bad direction.  It was often the case that the way they managed brought out the opposite behaviour in their staff that they wanted.  These course corrections incoming start to swing the vehicle until it gets out of control and crashes.

I see some placards in the demonstrator's hands saying "Tax the Rich don't reduce our benefits".  The problem is that "the Rich" are no longer in this country.  As they are rich and are generally mobile you need to go and track them down to <enter favoured tax haven here> because they are unable to work in this country for fear of being punished and having their money taken from them.  If I were in that bracket, I think I'd be looking to do that.

I think we are mortally wounded financially and blaming Trump, Putin etc etc doesn't actually fix things it kicks the can down the road and as I've often said, you now own the problem and you have to get out of it.  I used to be thrown into the brown and smelly stuff all the time and had to make the best of it.  Very occasionally I'd have to tell management that it wasn't able to be fixed and they'd need to shut it down or get rid of it or whatever.  If you could rescue a situation then you'd have to demand the power and the authority needed to go and do it.  Once you had that, you could go and implement you plan and bring things back under control.  No excuses, no procrastination, no pampering to the Nay Sayers, just get in there and fix it.  Of course there'd be collateral damage but in the long term there would be benefit but potentially a lot of pain to get there.

If only our politicians had spines and brains.  They are downright dangerous unsupervised as they are at present. 

The Race To The Bottom

 We are on our way and when we get to the bottom we are going to dig to go further.  I was reading a report about my favourite pet peeve subject.  Climate Change and CO2 reduction blah blah blah etc ad infinitum.

It was about how the whole world is connected and how in general terms what ever we do in this country doesn't change a thing except make us poorer.  If no one else is doing what we are doing we are wilfully destroying our country in pursuit of the unreachable.  We contribute less than 1% and if CO2 was actually the temperature knob then it is barely noticeable almost trace background.  One good volcano and all your work is gone.  I like that people think that any benefit would only work here, in the UK!  The 99.1% from the rest of the world needs to do something?

So a bit like cleaner air zones.  It's flawed because like earlier this week Saharan dust was again present around the country and paying £12.50 for a car in a clean air zone did sweet fanny Adams to make it clean.  I recall a lamp post with a sign on in Lewisham (A South East London suburb) that said a Nuclear Free Zone.  Which was impressive, I imagine the war hungry nuclear powers making their bombs drop in the neighbouring borough so as to comply and not damage it!

There's this strange lack of understanding about science and how people grasp facts and figures too.  It is as if they think that things only exist within a country's borders.  They don't seem to appreciate that we can't change the temperature only in our own country, it doesn't work like that.  A bit like me proposing that double glazing window units be filled with CO2.  If it's that powerful then it should be able to assist heating your home right? (I know it doesn't) but that's the fragility of the argument surely?  CO2 is heavier than Oxygen and Nitrogen so unless it gets stirred around a lot can it really be higher up in the atmosphere to heat up etc.  I am over simplifying it for sure but the impact on our lives of doubling or tripling our energy bills and taxing us at the highest since WW2 is only destroying our way of life and no one seems to be looking elsewhere whilst we punish ourselves with this self harm.  We are all but in recession.  Rachel from Accounts will say and do something tomorrow apparently.

Our economy is getting smashed at the altar of the golden idols of public services and climate change and now talk of war again.  Does no one learn from the past, are we going to repeat the failures of the past which are well documented and available to see?  

I like that Pensioners like myself are potentially to be means tested for our pensions.  Something I have paid into the system for over 50 years!  These clowns are now looking at the private pension that I also put aside and wanting to do something about it?  They already tax it and want more.  Thieving bastards the lot of them.

The whole lot of them are pathetic and are just spunking money away on virtue signalling causes.  If they stopped and thought about it, they could make the country great again with a few subtle changes but no, they cannot think outside of the ideology and their blinkered philistine pig ignorance.  They should consider what the Laffer Curve is and think about the resistance that will come about by more un-audited, unhinged, crazy, no ROI analysed spending. It's a shame to see it all collapsing at the hands of these amateurs but maybe that's what is needed to jerk the country back onto the straight and narrow.

Antique Chair NOT Repaired It Seems

 A bit strange I have to say, the glue I've used on many other things just didn't seem to set and so this morning I've been left with a mess of old glue and part of the chair not glued up.  Perhaps the frost got to it or it's seen better days.  I suppose the last time I used it was about a year ago.

It just adds to my list of failures this past year.   Yet again, the driveway gates aren't quite opening up properly - some limit switch gremlin by the looks of it.  I can fix it but it is so fiddly and quirky.  Oh well, it's just the way it is I suppose.  I don't recall being bad at DIY in the past but recently everything I touch turns to poo!

Add to that I woke up deaf in my left ear and today is turning out to be a bit miserable.  I imagine it is a sinus issue and so I will attempt to sort that out too.

A few days away might fix things.  Anyway, I am out for a meeting tonight and hope that will cheer me up a bit.  Something needs to.  I am feeling pretty cheesed off.  Plus a friend died yesterday and I am "getting that age" where it appears to be happening more often.

I also have the "joy" of going to the Dentist and Hygienist in a few weeks and on this occasion I am not overly looking forward to it. I hate being pulled about and I know my Hygienist will be making my mouth bleed again! 

I'm a bit concerned that I am slipping back into a bit of a depression.  Hope that the sun comes along to cheer things up. 

Antique Chair Repaired

 Apparently it was a Jackdaw that came down our chimney!  Huge thing!

I managed to really hurt my hand as I tried to help myself up resting on a chair back.  I also managed to break the chair.  Today I have been repairing it and I don't mind but the constant attention and fussing I can do without especially as I am using very sharp chisels and knives in an attempt to take off decades of glued repairs.  The chair was pretty badly split too so I've tried to repair that as well.  I'm not hopeful but we shall see if my very strong glue has done its best.

As I said yesterday, it seems to be never ending and in repairing one chair I've found another that needs attention.  In fact they all do as they are very old and the joints are dried and cracked - much like myself!

I am still having real problems with motivation and getting things done.  It's a constant struggle for me these days.  At least the App is in late testing so that's something but yet again there's some weird change in the development that could set me back again!  It's ever easy is it?

I am annoyed just how much weight I've put on and I know I've been eating all the wrong things.  It's just difficult to keep discipline.  I need to get stuck in but I have meetings to go to and all that and it's just difficult not to hit too many carbs etc.  At least the spring blossom and greenery are beginning to lift my mood so I hope that I will start to lighten my dark mood.

Painting the Forth Bridge

 The expression "Painting the Forth Bridge" is a British idiom meaning a never-ending task, stemming from the fact that the Forth Bridge's original paint technology required continuous repainting, but now, with modern paints, it only needs repainting every 20-25 years. 

So once again, I've had to fix my driveway gates.  One of the posts suffered a lot during the gales and is ever so slightly loose in the ground.  I'd fixed that by driving metal stakes into the ground and also by tying back to a local tree and using a system of small pulleys.  Anyway, it's worked OK for a few months (the cold weather also affects the wood) and I've just had to go and put a new stake in as I can see where there was a gap through the recent high winds.  So that's fixed..... For Now!

Down the week I had to fix one of the WCs which had started to leak but instead of an easy fix I had to buy all new components and fix it.  Then the auto cupboard light needed fixing too!  The light fitting was fixed on and so the heat was ridiculous so I also changed the lamp for an LED one too.

Blow me down if yesterday, my partner said she could hear scratching from the chimney!  Yes there was scratching and I could work out roughly where so I opened the windows and doors blackened one half the room with the curtains and took out the baffle plate in the log fire and left the door open.  You then need to shine a light upwards (it's not the first time this has happened).  All that happened was the bird pooped on my torch!

Giving it an hour we realised that we may need to help things along so I started to undo the inspection hatch but I'm old and not as slim as I used to be so partner's son came over and loosened the screws.  Still nothing, we could hear it but nothing so I once again shone my working light up the hole.  I also started to cook some food thinking the smell might help.

I was suddenly aware of a dark shape coming out of the darkened area of the room (we have a doubled sided chimney).  Then on one of our ceiling rafters we saw.....  A huge Crow.  It flew across to another rafter/beam and then shot out of the window!  Greeting all his Avian friends in a chorus in the field at the back! 

I've managed to partially put back the inspection cover and baffle plate but will need the long tall assistance to put the rest back!  

So that's my week.  How has yours been? 

Another Funeral To Go To

 I dislike funerals and have never really got on with them fully.  I am not sure why but I didn't like graveyards as a child and had an over active imagination.  I was singing at Rye Church and we stopped the Church clock from ticking and the huge pendulum which was putting us off our A cappella singing of Faure's Requiem in Latin.  Just before we started and were getting changed into our Choir Cassocks and Ruffs there was a massive Thunder and Lightning storm and the rain lashed down.  Opening the door I always remember the rain had pooled around the grave opposite the door and the water was bubbling.  My nine year old mind was well and truly disturbed.

 I always remember my mother and I going to the graveyard where her father was buried and a gravestone fell over and hit her leg!  So I never liked them.  My mother always said that "They can't hurt you, they're all dead!"  Tell that to her bruised leg I thought.

And to this day, I never quite feel right at these things, so much so that I am thinking of getting an unattended funeral/cremation for myself.  My mother has arrangements to do that and I need to check whether anyone objects to it in my close family.  I think they may want to do something and it won't actually matter to me what they do really.  So in the course of writing this I may be changing my mind and seeing what others want to do.

Today, a member of my Lodge, I don't know how many of us will be there in total, definitely two from our Lodge will be there.  Then afterwards to a pub I haven't been to for about 40 years or more maybe.  It was always a nightmare drive to get to down very narrow country lanes but since they built the M25 access has been made a lot easier by the looks of it and just a few hundred yards off of a roundabout! 

Quite often you find out things about someone you never knew but that's not helping the fact that I dislike funerals.  I think it is probably mortality thoughts that affect me.  Having seen that prospect and being reminded of it quite often, it's probably that.

Anyway, being there, despite my dislike is the thing.  But how is this, I knew him and I know his wife but I have never met his children until today.  So that in itself is strange I often feel.  I don't think that is always common in these situations but you feel you know someone quite well and yet perhaps not that well at all , you were only part of the person's life story. 

 

Why All This War Mongering?

 Why, knowing what we all know about wars and the like are we even contemplating this?  Sure have a defence policy and decide what you want to do and then do it but, whoa big fella (that's our PM) why are you being the big kid and talking up feet on the ground and all that good stuff.  Didn't we used to have United Nations troops for this sort of thing?  You know, neutrals not NATOs?  Maybe I'm being simplistic here but all most of our European countries have done is fight a proxy war with the lives of another country and prolonged the agony and consequences of that war.  Likely a generation of men and women wiped out too.

Politicians talking it all up, spending trillions they haven't got to pursue something that only bankers and big business profit from and none of the lessons have been learned from previous conflicts where nobody wins.  

It's disturbing that they aren't even coming from a position of strength and heavily rely on the US who rightly ask why they should protect Europe, what's the point?  They've been posted over here for 80 years.  We have run down our services, introduced wokeness and we just don't have the numbers and the capability anymore.  

This little speck of a planet 4.5 Billion years in the making, hardly visible in the solar system let alone the universe and apparently blessed with life everywhere, still seeks to destroy itself and not operate for the good of man, the dominant species on the planet.  We argue over God (which is like arguing over who has the best imaginary friend) and if we don't get our way justify the killing of others in pursuit of a peaceful religion and because it will further our cause.

It's all futile, infantile and serves not to advance our innate goodness but to self limit ourselves and drag us back down to the primordial depths from whence we evolved.  The standards of living and health and many progressive impacts of abundant cheap energy have rapidly advanced us so that we live longer, healthier lives, the poor are being lifted out of poverty and the impacts of natural disasters are mitigated through progressive increases in wealth but once again our politicians wrestle defeat from the jaws of victory, if they aren't proposing war, they are taxing the very things that have brought us this far.  

Maybe we will all wake up together and stop this?  Maybe it will just fail of its own accord?  Whatever happens I wish these idiots proposing war and of course not having to feel the consequences themselves would wake up and limit their ambitions to get us all killed. 

Outrage - Really?

 It is amusing to me that we have headlines stating something like some foreign dictator doing what foreign dictator's do.  It's a bit like finding that there are groceries at the Supermarket and screaming outrage "How dare they sell all this stuff!"

I was looking at the news - I try not to but was too lazy to get up and walkaway when surprise surprise, Vladimir Putin hadn't agreed to a ceasefire or any other demands.  He'd moved a bit but everyone was surprised that he hadn't done what they'd expected him to do?  Has he ever done that?  A bit like our Ed Millipede telling the Chinese what to do or Starmer threatening Putin.  It's surely a time when you should quote those much loved (by me) words 

No Sh1t Sherlock!"

What's the outrage when you know full well what these people are like?  I like that the reporters stare directly into camera addressing you and report as if it is unusual behaviour.  I was too lazy because I'd fixed some PIR cupboard lighting and a close coupled WC with all new parts before I had my dinner!   

DIY - It's Never Easy Is It?

 OH says there's a leak in her bathroom.  On checking, yes there is, not a lot but enough to wonder why that should be as I only repaired it around 18 months ago when there was a similar problem.  Anyway, I know roughly what the problem is as it is a close coupled WC and there's every possibility it is from the doughnut (donut) coupling which I had replaced, maybe it just needs tightening up!

Of course not dear reader, of course not.  Tightening it didn't do anything so I took it apart, that's unscrewed from the wall after draining down, taking off the attaching wing nuts, turning off the water and disconnecting the feed pipe.

All looks OK perhaps the doughnut isn't seated exactly in the centre but it should take a small leak and so I reassemble and then I get the full Niagara coming out.  So what on earth can this be, it hasn't been flushed so there must be a leak and I have to drain it down, disconnect it all and then testing the cistern and testing it with a few cups of water I find that the seal must have gone underneath!  So it's the cistern flushing mechanism washer must have deteriorated.

I've only recently done the downstairs cloakroom and so I've hot footed to Amazon, and a new flush unit, filler unit and a new doughnut (it's best to do all at the same time - which I should have done last time).    Anyway hopefully that will arrive today and I can fix that.  Along with the downstairs cloakroom PIR detector and light fitting which I also need to fix!

It's never ending and I guess I just need to make a list of everything and tackle them one at a time which I would do except these two recent jobs have only happened this week!  Onward and upward.  

Nil Desperandum

 "Illegitimi non carborundum" is a mock-Latin phrase, meaning "Don't let the bastards grind you down," Often used at work along with many others such as “We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”  attributed to Konstantin Josef Jireček

And so we go on our journey with such mottoes as we shake our heads in disbelief at the liberal value system that isn't particularly liberal or that exemplifies and real decent values either come to think of it.

I see that in the US a District? Judge of some sort demanded that criminals (many vicious and pretty unsavoury) be returned to the US.  The plane, already in the air (or planes) completed their mission and these undesirables were repatriated.  What sort of person wants one or two plane loads of criminals in their country?  Such are this Judge's overblown authority that he should perhaps denounce Putin and send his troops back home, order KFC and Coca Cola to disclose their secret recipe and other such urgent matters.  

We have Rory Stewart.  He's quite different in opinion to me - opposite would be underplaying it, he's almost alien in outlook.  Often calling things out wrongly, sweeping victory for Harris in the US elections etc.  He has a sort of young puppy excitement about things and just sets off my spider senses every time I hear him or see him.  

There seems to be a new breaking awakening among the great unwashed. A slow realisation of how much poo we are in, how unbelievably bad our so called leaders are, how corrupt, how stupid, naive and how they lack any real experience of life, the universe, business, science, economics and they have a very loose grasp on the truth.  How so many can have lied about their past careers and have actually got away with it is beyond me.  Again, in "public" life it appears that you do not have to be meritorious, perhaps the opposite.  You don't have to have displayed competence in your particular subject nor understand the consequences of your actions.  In my real life experience, I'd have lasted less than a day if I'd have displayed anything approaching the low level of achievement these people think is acceptable.

Are we waking up to this?  A little too slowly I think we are.  I suppose everyone is sick to death of it all and so have been dulled and numbed like having your teeth filled, you don't feel the pain after a while and you get worn down by it all.  But, gradually the roar is beginning to build up and the hatred (for it is that) is beginning to brew up as both local and central government continue making our lives miserable.  Local councils are doing things at the dead of night, against their very own constituents wishes.  It's like a dodgeball game out there, dodging fines and cameras and the get rich quick schemes of the people who work for us, by our mandate.  I really hope that this May, people will heavily punish all the old established parties and give them a bloody nose.

Of course, some people are happy to be told what to do all the time and how to act.  Happy to be fined and ordered around like some unruly flock of sheep.  It's time that the public woke up as one and kicked the living daylights out of the system.  Any new councillors need to act hard and fast to tear down the nonsensical oppressive systems there before, save money by cutting away all the waste and nonsense of huge committees and running services based on central office policies instead of what is right for the people.  It's like living in 1960s East Berlin in some local towns and cities.  The financial crap they've managed to get into (some of them) is not punished, oh no, the people they represent have to foot the bill and have double digit increases imposed on them through mal-administration.  And no one gets sacked or goes to prison for it.

Yes, come on everyone, wake up, vote them out of office.  Get rid of traditional uni party and see what this new lot can do.  What's there to lose?  You can have more of the same or you can try out the new kids on the block who have talked a good game so far.  You can't really lose as everyone else has screwed up so far.  If they get in and make no difference then we are all in trouble.

Trying Hard Not To Laugh Out Loud

 Or am I?  I have to say that I've now started to just ridicule our leaders who strut around proclaiming utter nonsense but do so in an authoritative way, asserting their complete lack of knowledge about world affairs, economics and being so massively disconnected from the public that it really is just funny even though it is so serious.   

I have terrible trouble now not to just burst out laughing wen these caricatures, cartoon like, sitcom look and sound a-likes say or do anything.

Good old Kier Starmer made me chuckle when he "Warned Vladimir Putin"  Yep good luck with that old man.  I imagine Vlad would have to have asked for his 'Whos Who of Foreign half wits" to work out who was threatening him now.  Honestly, who does he think he is?  Who do Europe think they are.  Our glorious leaders seem to only want a war and yet they are neither prepared for it nor has it been planned.  No one actually has a plan for what they want out of it anyway?  Of course you'll hear the liberal wets stating that Ukraine feeds the world but I kind of doubt that it is really true.  Where do they think the manpower is coming from.  Would anyone follow these witless politicians into battle?  What for, what's the reason, what's the objective?  

This is no Sir Winston Churchill in charge.  Just look at what was at stake back then.  It's all words and no actions all mouth and no trousers as we used to say.  It's just a joke and it curries no favour with the public, it's just a spout of words and politicians vying for a Nobel peace prize (not).  

When you hear their measly mouthed, weasel worded statements, their inability to actually govern and manage but rather blame it on someone else.  Wouldn't happen in business, these are the sort of waste of oxygen types you'd sacrifice at the altar of the bosses and who you'd send on suicide missions into the cauldron of management transactional warfare.  They'd either sink or swim.  The former being the most likely.   Ideal cannon fodder.  Those who have climbed the greasy pole not by merit but happening to be there and brown nosing their progress.  When finally they take power they are woefully inadequate, what od they say?  The sort that would take a knife to a gun fight.  They are easily outwitted and confused by facts, have no idea of anything practical or that requires common sense and emit cognitive dissonance and they probably smell nasty too.

I hate being talked down to but I am now finding great joy and much hilarity watching them bury themselves doubling down on their mistakes and not realising how far they are digging their own graves, they're not shallow as they reach the bottom and continue to dig.  Watching Ed Millipede in China admonishing them about their use of energy (I think he still thinks coal and oil are made from fossils) as if the second largest country in the world is going to listen to someone who really cannot rationalise the damage he is doing to his own country by exporting all the work to, let e see, ermm, oh yes, China.  The man is a complete basket case. 

Just laugh for they will end up in a mess.  They all need to be investigated for lining their pockets and they all need to be held accountable for destroying our country and its people.  So ridicule is the weapon,  That and not listening to a word they say, opposing every sick policy they have that impacts us the people.  I used to enjoy the word "NO" when at work.  Try it, it completely befuddles people.  No explanation as to why, just say no.  Ignoring people is also good, I enjoyed that too.  Cutting them short when they wanted to tell you how they had missed a deadline, calling them out.  I wouldn't want to work for me even now.  I was a nightmare to deal with because I took no truck, no feeble excuses.  Anyone who messed around was subject to FAFO.  You didn't deliver on the day you said.  Come with me and let's explain it to the customer.  They didn't do it again.  The boss taking one of my team away without telling me was also thrown to the wolves and made to explain to the customer and if they wouldn't then they'd be made to explain it to my direct boss.  FAFO.

None of these so called politicians would be allowed to get away with this sh1t in a commercial situation.  Not one of them understands business, it appears the lie on their CVS and they have no cognizance of the impact of their actions until it smacks them in the face.

Laugh at them, ridicule them, take the mickey, poke fun at them, make them feel uncomfortable, hold them to task.  They can all go to hell in a handcart and no one will miss them.  No need to pay for comedy entertainment we've got the labour party.  The people of Doncaster ought to be super proud that they actually went out and voted for Ed Millipede as they now see their energy bllls double and possible quadruple so that we can live off Unicorn Farts and unreliables in the future.   So we should all ridicule Doncaster as well - it's gone downhill since I was last there Obvs.  

Disconnecting From The Matrix

 I enjoyed the Matrix films and the underlying messages and the more I think of it, the more I feel that somehow we ended up somewhere similar.

The constant push and pull of the MSM and if you have anything to do with X or Facebook indeed any social media you'll know that you are bombarded with messaging.  Here's an exercise for you.  Compare the headlines of an event and see the similarities in the way it is reported.  Look for common headlines and phrases within the article or report.  Ask why there are common phrases and headlines?

It's a complete assault on your senses and an insult to what intelligence we've got left after they've beaten it all out of us.  Do people think for themselves anymore?  Do people believe all that is fed to them?  The looks of horror when I mention the Covid debacle, the Climate Change Scam, the use of statistics and graphs to portray information that are clearly skewed to make a point and the use of percentages without backing data are some of the things that annoy the hell out of me but are held up as dogma or an axiom by those who accuse me of being "A Denier" which is pretty sh1tty way of closing down a conversation at the same time revisiting the horrific crimes of the Holocaust....

I feel that sometimes I am just p1ssing in the wind and I am also getting that awful problem as I get older of not wanting to argue anymore.  I try and discuss things in a scientific way but getting yelled down and also gang shouted down is also a bit tiring.

My friends, let's say 95% of them, hate Donald Trump.  None of these friends are American Citizens and none of them have been to or lived in the States.  They hate Elon Musk too, once again, I'm not sure what he has done to them either?  Surely they've all used PayPal at some time or other.  But here's the thing, they are convinced the planet is getting warmer yet they've lived as long as I have and our promised Mediterranean Climate has not materialized.  Far from it.  Whilst we don't suffer the cold winters of the 50s, 60s and 70s we don't have the heat of the 30s and 40s to contend with either.  

So why are they so invested into these things?  We are fed Trump and Musk hatred by our MSM.  We believe what we are told almost without any pursuit of the truth or attempt to understand the accuracy or efficacy of the data.  Let's take another truth that's been bent way out of shape.  Take Ukraine's President Zelensky, a comedian who came to power after the US got rid of his predecessor.  I'm not a Guardian reader but go and look at the headlines of that liberal left leaning paper and you'll see they were slagging off Ukraine for Nazi leanings and other underhand stuff.  It's all there on record and then, look at after the war and butter wouldn't melt would it?   So what changed from the short time it tool a sinner to become a saint?  

No one remembers the pre-war worry about the regime.  It's all a horse of a different colour again now.  It was also like watching "Drop The Dead Donkey" (If you know you know).  Blown up buildings with glass broken yet the cars in the car park hadn't been touched?  Stuff like that was all a bit strange.  Remember the Covid dropping down dead in the street films?  It was all too contrived, not believable and done for reasons perhaps to deaden your brain and make you take sides, frighten you and make you follow orders.  I'm waiting for our Government to "Make The Trains Run On Time"  which I believe was a sort of swipe at Benito Mussolini.  If we do manage it, I think I'll have to hunker down LOL.

Back on track with all this stuff going on, it actually "does my head in!" to go back to my Sarf London roots.  It does mess with my head as I feel half or more of the people I know are brainwashed with this torrent of propaganda and half truths wrapped up in easy 5 minute sound bites.  The TDS being shown is off the scale and do people really exhibit that sort of hatred or is it just somewhere to let off steam now we no longer have the Colosseum Gladiators, Feeding the Lions with slaves, Bread and Circuses?   We perhaps need our own 'Running Man' or 'Rollerball' to keep the masses entertained with violent outlets in the hope that after they have vented they will remain peaceful until the next gore fest?

So how can I disconnect from my own Matrix connection, break the cord and live a life without having the distraction of all this noise and bad stuff?  The temptation to go off grid is huge but you are still connected as your money is in the bank and your bills need to be paid and your credit cards (if you use them) identify where you are, what you spend your money on and so on.  Your mobile phone connects you to the grid too.

My mission has to be how can you disconnect and remain both connected and disconnected at the same time?  It's not going to happen but I do need to try and separate fact from fiction and try and move away from the small screen of scrolling doom, the propaganda machine emitted by my TV screen, the nonsense garbled out by the MSM and the constant pulls on my mind by all of these.  When none of these things existed, life was much easier and safer I feel.

Let my mind gymnastics begin! 

Running A Business In The UK

 You cannot seem to do it anymore not one that relies on people that is.  Not that it is the people you have to worry about (mainly) but the new rules and regulations.  Sold to everyone as help and assistance and growth in my world it is actually the opposite of all those things.

Strengthening the employees rights is all well and good but in strengthening those it weakens business still further.  In my business, I now plan to employ no one, no one at all.  The work, such as there is, would be done by me, my AI subscriptions and if I actually need people I will offshore it (onshore if possible but I'm not confident about that).

There are now penalties to employment that mean zero hours contracts are going to be banned, that worker's rights to various things like sickness and maternity pay are available immediately to all without any trial period or the usual qualifying period.  That sick pay is paid by the employer, not via the state.  National Insurance for employers has gone up, the threshold where these kick in has been lowered significantly and minimum wage has increased.  All at once, no phasing in and no consideration for the impact.

Small businesses and those who use lots of low paid workers including catering, hospitality and care homes, cleaners etc are all facing huge increases to their wage bills.  Larger businesses have already stated they will reduce headcount and consumers will see higher prices.  It will be interesting to see what happens to inflation based on that alone.

So, no employees for me then, it doesn't make any sense and the risk reward spreadsheet is looking a little less encouraging.  If you invest your own money that's already attracted tax into a venture and it fails do you get your stake back or part of it?  Of course not but make it a success and you pay punitive taxes for your trouble.

I see that Companies House is recording record company wind ups.  Not surprising really.  These changes appear to come on on the next Tax year which is less than a month away and so perhaps we will see something happening then?  Growth has contracted and if you look at the adjusted figures not the headline ones, the ones adjusted after the published ones you'll see that most are revised downwards.  One is to three decimal places and probably only there to show, technically, that we are not in recession.  

Luckily I am not in the position many small businesses are in.  If I were I'd have to be looking long and hard about ever taking on new employees.  A new employee could, I imagine, report for work the first day and then go on long term sick and you'd have to pay them for as long as that took and no access to compensation for the loss of money and productivity.  Who, in their right mind, is going to do that?

I cannot for one minute think this is sustainable.  You would never employ anyone.  Their simplistic view that AI can do everything is so short of the mark as to be laughable.  I wonder when they'll see the error of their ways?  When the economy starts to flat line and unemployment starts to become a problem I imagine.  "They" say there are a million job vacancies and they've molly coddled the work shy introducing sitting on your arse all day acceptable during the Covid debacle so now you can sit at home with a declared condition and get paid for the privilege of doing so, moves to tackle that are met with howls of derision.  Good luck with all of that then.

For my part, I just need to stop the thieving bastards pick-pocketing my money and falsely claiming that my pension is a benefit despite me having paid in for 50 years to earn it.  I am glad that I don't have to employ anyone for my business, other than sub contractors.  It's the cost of everything going up though that will impact us all.  

Time To Blame Everyone But Yourself

 I see Rachel Thieves is playing the victim and it's all Trump and world forces that are stunting growth and blah blah blah.

She has the most irritating voice (actually most of them do) that sounds as if she could tell you all the Tram numbers and all the stops and the frequency of journeys on each line including Bank Holidays!  There's nothing remotely likeable and everyone else is at fault apart from her over the economic downturn.  She might be able to add up but that's where it ends.  None of these lot seem to consider the world outside and its impact on us.  They don't seem to appreciate qite how it all goes together and they like to think that they are in charge and if the say something it somehow magically happens.

I recall working with an organization where the story told was one of riches beyond dreams, huge amounts of money could be generated by what was, back then, a rival for the accounting business we see today and online invoice and payment systems.  BUT and here's the but, no one worked hard enough to make it happen so blinded were they with the £ssss that they took their eye off the ball and delivered a bad implementation that didn't work and everyone was left wondering why.  If you want to make money, you have to actually put some effort in.

It's all down to you too.  All this "external forces" and blaming other people is wearing a bit thin now.  You have the power, you have control and if you did something and it's not working who do you think is to blame, somebody thousands of miles away?  They had a choice to free up bureaucracy, lower tax burdens and go for growth (that's what they said, but like previous socialists they think the way to do this is to tax their way out of a problem.  Time and time again, their answer has been to drain the citizens who work and give it to those who do not, or squander it on foreign wet dreams.

The level of insular naivety is off the chart with these people, none of them can hold an audience, they have little or no charisma.  When they open their whining mouths all that comes out is lies, deceit, lack of real world thinking and bollocks and bullsh1t.  Awful dregs of self righteous, snivelling, thick, not thought out drivel.  

When I was working these were the sort of people that I dismissed from meetings and sent them back to their managers with an accurate appraisal of their usefulness to the business.  Waste of Oxygen, like a four pack of beer without the plastic thing that holds them together, depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.  You can't do that sort of thing these days but none of them would have lasted more than a few minutes in my teams.  People knew what to expect in my organization and those who preformed well did very well and were rewarded appropriately.  Those who turned up, unorganized, to make up the numbers, were sent packing.  My meetings we have you delivered what you said? Yes or No?  There is no excuse, it is either yes or no, no maybe.  If you couldn't live in that professional environment you were sent back to your manager.

So to hear all the excuses coming out shows the calibre of these chancers (for that is what they are) and it doesn't stop there.  They are showing really bad management in committee and other areas of Government too.  Just look at the Assisted Dying Bill and how that is chaired railroading through something as important as that and not allowing interested groups to be involved, riding roughshod over people's concerns and taking away the safeguards.  They deserve to be sacked for treating this Bill in such light terms when it needs proper review and all thoughts and ideas reviewed.  Of 80 (yes 80) amendments put forward only 1 is accepted and put forward.   We deserve proper professional MPs not this shower of sh1t.