Bohemian Rhapsody. Muppet Style

I hope you like this one. I did

Climate Change?

I have been thinking this last week, since the hacked emails story came out, about other aspects of the environment that has been pushed into the background in recent months and years.

For example;

Deforestation, oil pollution, water and air pollution, not just CO2 in the atmosphere.

Why aren't they been talked about, they are causing ill health in people now.

I am sceptical about the causes of climate change, but i do believe in protecting our environment.

I would like the politicians to talk about those subjects in Copenhagen, not just CO2 emissions.

Flood Rescue Team News

Here is a news article from the RNLI website regarding a couple of lifeboat volunteers from Llandudno and Conwy.

Conwy RNLI volunteers return to North Wales after rescuing Cockermouth flood victims

Jobi Hold, an RNLI volunteer at Llandudno and Greg Donald, a volunteer with the RNLI crew at Conwy, have relived the devastation they witnessed after being called to assist with the flood rescue operation in Cumbria. Greg is a member of a newly formed group of North Wales volunteers who are trained in swift water rescue and can be called upon in a moment’s notice to respond to emergency situations.
As well as being a member of this new group, Jobi is also part of the RNLI’s national Flood Rescue Team, which the RNLI set up following its involvement with flood relief in Mozambique in March 2000.

Click Here for the full story

As you can see the skills of a lifeboat volunteer have evolved in the last 45 years.

Climate Change? 4

I have been watching a very interesting You Tube video on 'Plato Says' Blog.

It is called 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'.

If you have any sort of doubts about global warming and climate change check out Plato Says Blog

If you want to watch the documentary, Click Here.

If your Child is Scared of Monsters, Call this Girl

I just loved this video. What a cute, adorable, funny girl.

Look out monsters, you better stay away from this girl.



What Are you Gonna Do To The Monster - Watch more Funny Videos

What is the Worst Thing that could Happen at a Wedding?

Have you ever thought about what might happen at a wedding that might spoil the day.

Have a think about it then watch the video.



Clumsy Best Man Ruins Wedding - Watch more Funny Videos

Thank you again to a reader of my blog. Please keep sending them.

On A Lighter Note

How Drunk can you get?

I think this guy tried.

I was sent this by a reader of my blog. I hope you like it.



Worst Shopping Run Ever - Watch more Funny Videos

The Supeme Court

British Banks Win 'Stunning' Victory in Landmark Ruling on Overdraft Fees

High street banks won a 'stunning' victory at the Supreme Court today in a dispute over overdraft fees that lands a blow to thousands of customers who hoped to recoup charges.

That is the headline from the Telegraph today.

This story makes me wonder, is the new Supreme Court free from political interference?

The reason i am asking is that if the banks lost today they would have to pay back £1 billion and would of lost £2.6 billion in lost revenue. Now as we, the tax payer, own some of the banks we would of had to fork out more money to the banks to cover the lost revenue.

Another thing, i was just checking my email before and i don't know if it is just a coincidence, but i received an email from my bank with a change in my terms and conditions.

In the new terms and conditions there is a section about bank charges and how and when they will charge you.

It didn't take them long to send the new terms and conditions out.

Did the banks have prior knowledge of what the supreme court ruling would be?

Or did they have 2 versions of the new terms and conditions ready to send out?

Stop Eating Meat to Save the Planet

That is what Andy Burnham, the health secretary, is saying.
Read article here

This is a quote from the article;

Health Secretary Andy Burnham is urging the nation to stop eating meat in a bid to save the planet.

Speaking at the launch of a new report on how rising temperatures will affect the public, Mr Burnham said eating a more vegetarian diet would cut the impact of livestock on the climate - as well as improve health by lowering the amount of saturated fat consumed.

Ok lets go to Andy Burnham's Britain where the nation stops eating meat.

There would be no MacDonald's, Burger King and other fast food outlets, so there would be thousands more people out of work.

There would be no, or very few, butchers and meat markets, again more people out of work.

What would farmers do, they have a hard enough time as it is, and this would send them bankrupt. More people out of work.

That is just scratching the surface.

Yes, eating less meat means there will be less cattle putting methane into the atmosphere, but does Andy Burnham know anyone who is a vegetarian. I do.

I can tell you that if everyone went on a vegetarian diet people would more than make up for the reduction of cattle and their methane contributions.

In my world you can eat anything you want, as long as you eat it in moderation.

I have one thing to say to Andy Burnham and the government;

LEAVE ME AND EVERYONE ELSE ALONE

Let us choose what we eat and how we live. I'm a grown man who has more important things to worry about than what the government wants me to eat.

What i want from the government is make the streets safer, give my children a proper education, give criminals proper sentences for their crimes. The MPs work for us and not the other way round. We voted you in, and we can make sure we vote you out as well.

I want these politicians to look after the public, the people who voted for them, and not looking at it as way to fill their pockets with our money.

Climate Change? 3

Here is a very interesting article about climate change.

If what the article is saying is true then the whole world has been lied to.

It maybe that some of the quotes, from the emails, have been used in the wrong context by the people who wrote them. Then again they might of kept certain data from the public.

I won't be passing judgment just yet, but i believe there will be a huge backlash against governments and environmentalists in the near future unless they give the public more information.

I have found a website that has all the emails taken from the climatic research unit in East Anglia. There is a huge amount of emails to go through and i bet the people who took them haven't gone through them all yet.

Click here if you are interested.

This will definitely put the cat among the pigeons.

I wonder what will happen next?

A photo of the RNLI Flood Rescue Team

Adding to my previous blog about the floods in the Lake District. Below is a photo of the RNLI Flood Rescue team who went to Cockermouth.

Some of them are from Rhyl, Llandudno, Beaumaris and Conwy lifeboat stations to name a few. See if you can spot someone you know.

You can find the news story here.

Well done lads.

The above photo is from the RNLI website.

I hope people realise what the crews of the stations from all over the country do. They need all the support they can get.

The Floods

Above are two pictures from the floods that have happened in the last couple of days. It is a double blow for the residents of Cockermouth because they had a flood back in 2005.

I really feel for the residents of these towns, because i know what they are going through. I remember the Llandudno flood in 1993.

Remember this;

I was lucky, my wife, then girlfriend, and i were in a first floor flat, but our downstairs neighbour wasn't so lucky. We brought up as much as we could, but because her flat was below the pavement level, she still lost a lot of her belongings.

That was back in 1993, it is now 16 years later and there have been floods, somewhere in the UK, every few years.

I thought someone in government, either local or national, would of thought by now that our drainage system is inadequate.

Yes we will have the usual excuse of this being a 1 in a 100 year event, i heard today that someone said that the floods in Cockermouth are a 1 in a 1000 year event.

I have a question, How many 1 in a 100 year events or 1 in a 1000 year events can the UK have?

In the last 5 years alone we have had 5 floods in parts of the UK. The list below is from wikipedia

United Kingdom
In January 2005, flooding on the Rivers Eden, Kent, Derwent, Greta and Cocker as well as others in Cumbria, England, flooded about 2,000 properties and caused in excess of £250 million of damage.

The Boscastle flood, 2004 on the 16 August in Cornwall (Great Britain) caused much damage to buildings in the Valency river valley. Further flooding took place in surrounding valleys, and in the town of Camelford.

The June 2007 United Kingdom floods killed 6 people and devastated North, West and South Yorkshire with many road and rail closures, power cuts and evacuations with Sheffield the worst hit.

2002 Glasgow floods

2009 Cumbria and southwest Scotland floods

People have said that the reason for some of these floods is because houses have been built on flood plains and that the water doesn't have any where to go apart from the streets.

My belief is that the government has to build proper storm drains that can take the amount of water that comes down in these "1 in a 100, or 1000, year floods". Either that or build something that will ease the amount of water in the rivers after these storms, so there is less risk of people getting flooded out of their homes.

Finally i just want to send out my appreciation to all the emergency services who are rescuing these people in the floods, the fire service, the RNLI, the police to name a few.

My sympathies are with the wife and family of PC Bill Barker who died helping others in the flood. (See Article)

Climate Change? Part 2

I posted a blog a few days ago about one version about climate change (See Link), about this article.

I have just read this article in the Telegraph.

I am no expert in climate change like most of the population of this planet, but what i want is to be informed of the truth about what is happening or going to happen.

Is this planet in danger?

Will the planet heat up?

Will the planet freeze in a new ice age?

All we get is one side saying we are in danger of global temperatures going up about 10 degrees.

Someone else saying that global temperatures will lower, causing an ice age.

Another set of people saying that climate change is a myth and it is just another way of taxing the people of the world.

There are some genuine questions that i and many others would like answered, like;

Should we try and save more energy in the home?

Should we use our cars less? Although the way the fuel prices are going up we may have no choice.

Should we reduce the birth rate in the world? To reduce the amount of resources we use.

Is the earth able to to absorb the CO2 in the atmosphere anymore?

The public just want a straight answer from people who know.

We don't believe what the politicians say. Remember them saying that the fuel tax increase was for environmental reasons, yes i really believed that.

The more we get conflicting reports the less we believe all the hype surrounding climate change.

Will someone please give the general public the truth.

Would you want to send a Soldier a parcel, or would you send some cash to the government?

I have just been reading the Daily Post and i came across this article

(See Link)

The articles title is

Don't stop us sending parcels to troops says mother of Llywelyn Evans

Basically the government is asking all the people who send parcels to the soldiers to stop because the military postal service is being swamped, and it can't cope. They also say it puts the delivery personnel at extra unjustifiable risk.

What more risk than the soldier out at the front lines?

The government want people to stop sending parcels and instead make a donation to a "charity".

This is a quote from the article;

But now the Ministry of Defence wants people to donate cash to a new charity that will buy sports and other leisure equipment for troops instead.

Now i have a couple of things to say about that;

1. I bet every soldier loves a gift box from home, even if it is from someone they don't know. It must give them a morale booster to open a box and find some sweets, a magazine, maybe just a small toy and even a pack of cards. I'm sure they appreciate that people are thinking of them back home.

2. The Ministry of Defence wants the public to donate cash to a 'government charity'. Hell they don't equip our troops as it is, so why would we trust them to with our money. Would all the money donated go to the soldiers, or would a significant slice be cut from the money for 'administration purposes'?

Another quote from the article says;

An MoD spokesman said: “People often don’t realise the unintended consequences of their actions.

“The EFFMS, which enables families and close friends of service personnel to send packages out to theatre, can be swamped by the public’s generosity. All important personal mail can be delayed.”

One simple solution is hire more people.

If you want to help either way here is some infomation from the article;

Mrs Evans is appealing for donations of small Christmas cakes, puddings and biscuits to be left at Ty Llywelyn centre in Ffordd yr Orsedd or Ty Hapus centre in Ffordd Penrhyn, both Llandudno.

An awareness day for Operation Welly activities will be held at the Victoria Centre, Mostyn Street, Llandudno on Tuesday November 24 from 11am. A coffee morning in aid of Operation Welly will be held at Gloddaeth United not Reformed Church, Chapel Street, Llandudno on Saturday November 28, 10am-noon.

Or

To donate to the MoD’s Operational Welfare Fund go to bmycharity.com/V2/welfarefund or call 0207 463 922. Alternatively, cheques payable to the SSAFA Operational Welfare Fund can be sent to SSAFA Forces Help, FREEPOST, NAT 19507, London, SE1 2BR


If we can't get our boys and girls back home, at least lets give them a morale booster.

What Storm Toopers Do On Their Days Off

Just reading the Papers today and i found something that might interest certain people who love Star Wars.

Here is 2 pictures from the article.

If you are interested in seeing the rest click on the link below.

(See Link)

Climate Change?

I will say from the start that i have not been totally convinced with the climate change argument.

There has been so much in the news the last few years saying that the world is doomed if we don't reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and that governments are spending billions trying to tackle it.

You have certain scientists saying the computer models, that predict what is going to happen, say that in the next 50 - 100 years the world temperature will increase by around 4 or 5 degrees.

I have read that the computer models, that the scientists use, only use records from the last 15 - 20 years. Now a computer in its own right is dumb, it is only as smart as the person who programmes it. I'm sure that the data used can be interpreted in many ways.

The earth has been around for billions of years and the earth must of gone through several hundred, if not thousands, of changes in it's climate. What we are going through maybe one of those naturally occurring changes. Then again it might not be, I'm no scientist and i don't have all the data.

I do know one thing though. If you want to stop or ease the CO2 in our atmosphere,

'STOP CUTTING DOWN THE RAIN FORESTS'.

Even the people who don't believe in climate change must agree with that.

Trees and plants drink up the CO2 and give out oxygen. So will the politicians please use some of the money they are putting into reducing climate change and buy up the land where the rain forests are so people can't cut them all down. Give the land to the indigenous people who live in the rain forests.

I'm all for stopping pollution. Have you ever been walking, in a street, when a bus drives past and you get a lungful of exhaust fumes? If you have you know what i mean.

Like i said earlier, i haven't been convinced about the argument about climate change, but i am willing to listen to all arguments for and against.

The latest article i have found on climate change is in the Telegraph. (See Link)

Take a look and see what you think.

If climate change is happening, maybe we can get a decent summer for once.

Crime and Punishment

Why doesn't this surprise me.

Back in June this year a judge gives a sixteen year old boy a community service order for the rape of a 7 year old boy.

A week later he abducts and rapes a five year old boy.

What in the hell was this judge thinking letting a rapist go with a community order, which is basically letting him go free and do what he like.

You can read the article here.

The following is a quote by the judge, from the article;

"I have to say I have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever in reaching the conclusion that you are indeed a dangerous offender."

The youngster was sentenced to three years four months but with time already spent in custody taken into consideration he will serve two years, 359 days before he is assessed as being safe enough to release back into the community.

The judge admits that the boy is a danger to the public, but gives him three years.

Rape of any sort is one of the most serious offences to commit against another person, even worse if it is against a child, and he is sentenced to three years. Words fail me.

The police catch him, twice, get all the evidence against him and they send it to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS take him to court, where he pleads guilty. The first time he is up in front of a judge he is basically set free, and the second time he is up in front of a judge he is given three years.

Do these so called judges think that rape isn't a serious crime?

I want both of the judges to go to the families of these two boys and look them in the eye and explain why they gave this sixteen year old such short sentences.

I have said it before and i will say it again the judicial system needs changing, especially the judges. We need judges who know what it is like out in the real world, not in their pampered world they live in. Get rid of the costumes they wear and drag them into the 21st century.

I feel for the two families, especially the two young boys, whose lives have been ruined. With love and support i hope they get through this nightmare and live as happy as possible.

UPDATE:

I have just found this Blog by 'The Policeman's Blog' . It goes on about the same subject.

A Very Interesting Article about the UK

Politicians chose to put you in this mess
Policies can make Britain's financial and social problems worse - or better, argues Irwin Stelzer.

The above is the headline to an article, that in my opinion, is worth reading.
(See Link)

From what the article says, we can get Britain back on it's feet and working it's way back to becoming Great Britain again. It just needs someone with the bottle of someone like Margaret Thatcher to kick start this.

I know some people don't like her, but like her or hate her she had the bottle to go against all of the European commission and get a rebate for Britain. She went up against the unions and won.

Britain is now close to, if not, in the gutter. We need to look at every policy and make it work, by either changing it or getting rid of it and making a new one that works for all the people of the UK.

Have a read of the article and see what you think.

Where has all our Freedom Gone?

The headline below is in the Daily Telegraph today.
(See Link)

'Every phone call, email and internet click stored by 'state spying' databases'

In the week where we Remember the Honoured Dead who gave their lives in both World Wars, and the conflicts since, to give us freedom from dictatorships and to go about our business freely we find out the government is introducing this.

Here is part of the article;

Despite widespread opposition over Britain's growing surveillance society, 653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to access the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Now I realise there has to be a certain amount of security for the safety of the nation, but to let this information available to any department head in a local council is beyond a joke.

Now people will say if you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. Yes, but people should be able to email, chat on the phone, sell things on Ebay, buy things at an internet shopping site etc, without worrying about if the information is being checked by the department head of refuge in your local council.

We already have local councils using anti terror legislation to check if people are living in catchment areas for schools, no we have this.

What did all those people die for, in both World Wars, just to see the freedom that they died for be taken away by what is fast becoming like the old East German stasi government, where you say one wrong word and you were never seen again.

If all this information was just available to the security services, like MI5, and maybe high national government i wouldn't be that worried about it, but to give just about anyone in government, national and local, permission to look at the data with out a court order is very, very worrying.

I fear for My Country. I fear what else is coming we don't know about yet.

We have to wait and see.

Charity Bike Ride

I received an email from a reader of my blog asking me to advertise someone who is doing a charity bike ride through China.

After seeing what her charity was for i thought why not. If it helps her get sponsorship then why not help out.

The woman who is doing the charity ride is called Fiona, and the charity she is collecting for is called 'Women For Women.'

She also has a blog page. See Link. She also has a fund raising page at Just Giving.

I have a friend whose daughter has Cystic Fibrosis and i know how hard it can be, not just for the child but for the parents to.

All i ask is for you to take a look and i will leave it up to you.

The Search is Finally Over

There has been a lot of conspiracy theories about the identity of Oscar, from The Thoughts of Oscar blog.

Well i have finally found out who Oscar is and what he looks likes and there can be no denying this.

Here he is: -


















Sorry Oscar, I couldn't help myself.

I got the idea from seeing the google home page and it showing that Sesame Street is celebrating it's 40th anniversary.

I do remember watching Sesame Street when i was a youngster and i loved it, from Bert and Ernie to the Count (ha ha ha ha), from Kermit the Frog to Big Bird. from Oscar to Elmo. As i am writing this i have a smile on my face i loved it that much.

I have very fond memories of Sesame Street and the fun i had watching it.

I think about Sesame Street and i think of what kids are watching now. There isn't any comparison. You learnt a lot on Sesame Street about writing, the alphabet, counting. I could even count to 10 in Spanish because of Sesame Street.

Here's to the next anniversary of Sesame Street.

Crime and Neighbourhood Policing

I have just been reading about Amy Newlove, daughter of Gary Newlove and her question to Gordon Brown about why her fathers murderers were given such soft sentences.
(See Link)

The Prime Minister, speaking at the event organised by Key 103, a Manchester radio station, said crime had fallen but there were now more people in prison, which showed sentences had got tougher.

He added: 'I think, in the longer term, neighbourhood policing is the better thing for all of us. We want to see a visible presence of police on our streets.'

I have a point or two to say about what Gordon Brown said.

He says that crime has fallen and that there are more people in prison. Yes there are more people in prison, but Gordon you are letting other criminals out early so the new ones, or those ones you let out early who re offend return to the prison.

Crime hasn't fallen, it has just been reduced by putting certain crimes in a different category, and by using the crime survey and not the proper crime figures.

With all the crimes reported in the news, locally and nationally, the politicians must be hiding the real crime figures. I think it would be frightening to know what the real figures are.

What will happen when we have another murder like that of Gary Newlove. What will their sentence be?
There have been other murders like this before and there will be others in the future. It is obvious that there needs to be stronger sentences for these type of murders, and murders in general.

It doesn't help when we have this Human Rights, 'for criminals', Act, which only seems to help the low life criminals and not the victims and the innocent people of this country.

Gordon says 'neighbourhood policing is the better thing for all of us.'

Gordon i hate to tell you this, but we had neighbourhood policing years ago, but over the years there have been less and less police walking in our communities.

When i was a lad i saw a policemen nearly everyday walking through town and the surrounding areas, and we had a police station in nearly every town. Policing has become centralised, due to a number of factors. One being better communications, and less money, so they think they won't be needing all the police stations scattered around the country.

Now we have these PCSOs who we see out in our towns. PCSOs can only do a fraction of what a fully trained policeman can do. I would rather have 5 fully trained police than 15 PCSOs.

The police, the courts and sentencing has to be radically changed so the general public can feel safe in our homes and our streets again.

Bodycare UK 'bans Remembrance Day poppies'

That is the news headline in the Telegraph.

(See Link)

A spokesman for Bodycare’s parent company, GR and MM Blackledge, said: "Employees are only allowed to wear their uniform, and charitable pins would not be considered part of the uniform.”

The spokesman said the company did not differentiate between charities, having decided to ban all wristbands and charity emblems.

Is this spokesman a brainless idiot who just recites company policy.

Does this spokesman have any form of common sense?

Does this spokesman realise what sacrifice the soldiers of both world wars and who have died since?

Does this spokesman know what sacrifice really is, or is his idea of sacrifice, for example missing lunch, working late, missing a football match because he has to work.

I hope this guy, and the company, finds out how stupid they are. I hope people boycott this company until they change their minds on their employees wearing poppies.

The poppy is our way of showing the men and women of our armed forces, past and present, that we honour those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

If i ever meet this spokesman for Bodycare, i will take him to the nearest Royal British Legion and ask him to tell the old soldiers why no one in his company is allowed to wear a poppy.

Way to go to Kill off the Romance

I can't believe what i have just read.
(See Link)

Kissing was developed 'to spread germs'

'It isn't the most romantic theory, but scientists believe kissing was developed to spread germs which build up immunity to illness.'

What a way to kill the romance.
Sweetheart, i'm not kissing you because i love you, i'm kissing you so you need to build up immunity to some germs.

The only thing is that people have been kissing for hundreds, if not thousands of years. How did they now back then that they must kiss each other to help provide the woman an immunity for when she is pregnant.

Take a look and see what you think.

ASBO Youths to be Named and Shamed says PM

The Prime Minister says ASBO youths will be named and shamed by having their names published on the internet and by leaflet. (See Link)

Will it be a deterrent to those hardcore youths out there determined to cause havoc on our streets. In my opinion Not A Chance.

The only way to combat these youths is to have police patrolling our streets. The police also need to know that they won't be held back by any politically correct rubbish. There are times for the police to be tactful, and there are other times when they need to be forceful.

Having the police patrolling our streets is one thing, the other is the courts. When the police arrest someone, say for disturbing the peace or even assault, the police gather evidence and send it to the CPS, they go to court and they get a conviction. Then the magistrates sentence them to a ridiculously soft sentence, even though the same person has been in front of them before.

The whole system need to be changed.

The PM quotes;
''The consequences for committing anti-social behaviour should be clear.''
Mr Brown said he was renewing the Government's focus on crime in the weeks ahead as he promised to ''make life better for the mainstream majority''.

I have just one thing i have to say to the PM, remember what your party said twelve and a half years ago.

What you can't remember, here let me remind you;

'TOUGH ON CRIME, TOUGH ON THE CAUSES OF CRIME'

You're a bit late, you should of stuck to what you said all those years ago.