I am somewhat disappointed in the Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition's planned welfare changes. What they amount to is beating sick people with a stick and threatening to take away their benefits because ATOS is incapable of making a fair assessment of whether they can work. This is why so many people appeal and there is up to a 9-month wait for a tribunal hearing.
What I wanted to hear is that the ESA/ATOS system would be scrapped and the DWP would go back to relying on the opinions of the health professionals closest to the claimant who are best placed to know if that person is fit to work or not. ESA/ATOS treats people with mental health issue particularly unfairly, putting them under additional and unnecessary stress. - the coalition really has to ask the mental health charity Mind about this.
Ian Duncan Smith seems to have fallen into the Conservative trap of thinking that work is a cure-all for everything and worse still, that jobs for the unemployed can simply be conjured out of thin air in a recession. There is no incentive or requirement whatever for any UK company to inform the local JobCentre when it has vacancies. Some companies hardly ever advertise OR tell the JobCentre, they rely entirely on internal promotions and word of mouth if they need new people.
People who have a job simply have no idea what it is like living on benefit. A recent TV programme showing an MP living with people on benefit seemed to have little effect. Take my bank Halifax. They have just decided with no consultation or discussion to take away my overdraft. They didn't consider first what the effect would be or ask about it. Now they are expecting me to live AND pay back some of the overdraft and want to take nearly a third of my benefit income to do so. Their customer service is absolute poo. It has so far taken me over 2 hours total phone time to even get to a department who has a tiny bit of sympathy for this problem. They say blandly that yes, they realise what a disaster it is to lose the ability to pay direct debits and standing orders, or just to go and use my debit card to buy food, but I'm darn sure they don't.
In the end they agreed I could have some of my last lot of benefit to pay for essentials and I had to suffer the humiliation of standing in the middle of the bank with other customers around to tell my story to someone on the banking floor, and then being escorted to the cashier who was told in a loud voice how much she could give me and why this was being done. A little trust would have been nice, telling me I could withdraw up to a specific amount via my debit card in the ATM or over the counter without the loud accompaniment.
The overdraft level I am currently on was GIVEN to me by Halifax last year, it was just increased from its previous level. In the circumstances I was in then, I had no choice other than to use it. At that time, they were snatching outrageous amounts of money from me for every transaction if I went over my overdraft. Expecting that the courts would tell them that those charges were unfair, they switched me to a differently named current account but the charges are still very steep and I understand other customers who have been hit hard by them too, are considering another court action. Basically, Halifax charges BEFORE the change of account last December are responsible for me reaching the level of overdraft I am at now. So, when they call me back later in the day to have another discussion about it, I will remind them about that.
Banks need to take a very new and different attitude to customer financial difficulties. At present, this service is phone based. I can't go and talk to someone from the 'customer priority team' in my branch. I wouldn't even mind going to a larger branch a few miles away if they had one person in each big city or major town.
My stress levels have taken a major beating this week and it has taken every bit of determination that I would not give up and self-harm, but I can tell all of my readers that it has come very near it, to the extent of sitting on Hayling Island beach and considering suicide by drowning. Why should I let these heartless bastards win. They can't even run their own business - Halifax having been taken over by Lloyds TSB last year - what do they really know about running mine? Onwards and upwards.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Prime-ministerial spouse tittle-tattle
After the solid and stodgy diet of politics over the days since the election, now perhaps we can look forward to a little entertainment from No.10.
We have already seen inside the Cameron's kitchen, although I have to admit missing that TV program, but what can we expect as the media gets to grips with the Mrs' Cameron and Clegg.
I very much liked Samantha Cameron's elegant navy maternity dress, worn for the visit to the Queen and despite her determination to stay in the background, I am sure there will be more about Miriam Clegg's fashion preferences in the weeks to come.When she has been seen, she has looked very stylish. Samantha reportedly doesn't have a favourite designer label and admitted to having 'borrowed' a maternity dress. Very thrifty - will she be seen in London and Oxford's more up-market second hand dress agencies as her bump grows?
Please, please don't either of them make the mistake that Cherie Blair did in her first weeks as wife of the PM, by opening the front door in her dressing gown. I don't think she'll ever live that gaffe down. Miriam Clegg may get an unjustified rough ride for leaving for work without her make-up this morning though - she looked fine, but appearing without warpaint is a no-no for the celeb. watchers.
Both women are determined to continue their high-flying careers, Sam as creative director for Smythsons, a luxury stationery and luggage company, and Miriam (professionally Miriam Gonzales Durantez) as a lawyer, but it will be interesting to see what Sam decides to do post-baby - flexible and reduced hours perhaps.
One of the first headlines after the announcement that David Cameron would be the new PM, was an invitation from the White House for July. Now, Samantha is due to have her baby in September, so there might just be time to fit that in before a mid-Atlantic birth became too much of a risk. Perhaps President Obama will send Air Force 1 to collect them - I hear it is rather better equipped for such emergencies than your average British Airways jet. I am sure Samantha will get on very well with Michelle Obama who has trod a very careful path between family and First Lady in the first year of the Presidency.
An interesting bit of Samantha trivia is that she has a tattoo, a dolphin on her ankle - is that a first for a Prime Minister's wife or did Cherie or even Norma Major hide one away? Or, here's an exotic thought, maybe Maggie T had an anchor-chain-link tattoo somewhere in keeping with her Iron Lady title. I'll leave you with that one.....
We have already seen inside the Cameron's kitchen, although I have to admit missing that TV program, but what can we expect as the media gets to grips with the Mrs' Cameron and Clegg.
I very much liked Samantha Cameron's elegant navy maternity dress, worn for the visit to the Queen and despite her determination to stay in the background, I am sure there will be more about Miriam Clegg's fashion preferences in the weeks to come.When she has been seen, she has looked very stylish. Samantha reportedly doesn't have a favourite designer label and admitted to having 'borrowed' a maternity dress. Very thrifty - will she be seen in London and Oxford's more up-market second hand dress agencies as her bump grows?
Please, please don't either of them make the mistake that Cherie Blair did in her first weeks as wife of the PM, by opening the front door in her dressing gown. I don't think she'll ever live that gaffe down. Miriam Clegg may get an unjustified rough ride for leaving for work without her make-up this morning though - she looked fine, but appearing without warpaint is a no-no for the celeb. watchers.
Both women are determined to continue their high-flying careers, Sam as creative director for Smythsons, a luxury stationery and luggage company, and Miriam (professionally Miriam Gonzales Durantez) as a lawyer, but it will be interesting to see what Sam decides to do post-baby - flexible and reduced hours perhaps.
One of the first headlines after the announcement that David Cameron would be the new PM, was an invitation from the White House for July. Now, Samantha is due to have her baby in September, so there might just be time to fit that in before a mid-Atlantic birth became too much of a risk. Perhaps President Obama will send Air Force 1 to collect them - I hear it is rather better equipped for such emergencies than your average British Airways jet. I am sure Samantha will get on very well with Michelle Obama who has trod a very careful path between family and First Lady in the first year of the Presidency.
An interesting bit of Samantha trivia is that she has a tattoo, a dolphin on her ankle - is that a first for a Prime Minister's wife or did Cherie or even Norma Major hide one away? Or, here's an exotic thought, maybe Maggie T had an anchor-chain-link tattoo somewhere in keeping with her Iron Lady title. I'll leave you with that one.....
Monday, May 10, 2010
Gordon, going, gone
After all his embarassing key rattling to get Tony Blair out of No.10, I was not surprised by GB's reluctance to quit it. I imagined him squatting like a large warty toad on the bottom stair while poor Sarah Brown wrung her hands and begged him for permission to pack. Well, now she can.
Fact. Our electoral system is broken, and needs reform and updating at the very least so people who want to vote can do so and are not denied it because their polling station can't cope with the numbers. My polling station, by the way was an oversized garden shed in a pub car park - at the most it would hold about 10 people apart from the two officials.
Fact. Labour got fewer seats and a lower share of the national vote
Fact. Nick Clegg said all through his campaign that he would follow the will of the British peoplle in the event of a hung Parliament. So, why is he looking like reneging on that promise?
This is not the result I would personally have wanted, but it is a far better prospect than another 5 years of Labour, regardless of who is at the helm. Whatever David Cameron continues to insist, is Conservative policy, I believe that many of the more progressive grassroots members of his party now see electoral reform as an inevitable and necessary procedure because the British people as a whole want it.
Over the weekend, the money markets were on tiptoe, waiting to see what happened in those meetings between the Lib-Dems and the Conservatives. If GB had shown any signs of doing a deal with Nick Clegg, I think they would have reacted very badly.
As I write, David Cameron has upped the stakes, promising a referendum on electoral reform, albeit in a rather watered down form. What will happen tomorrow - I really don't know.
Fact. Our electoral system is broken, and needs reform and updating at the very least so people who want to vote can do so and are not denied it because their polling station can't cope with the numbers. My polling station, by the way was an oversized garden shed in a pub car park - at the most it would hold about 10 people apart from the two officials.
Fact. Labour got fewer seats and a lower share of the national vote
Fact. Nick Clegg said all through his campaign that he would follow the will of the British peoplle in the event of a hung Parliament. So, why is he looking like reneging on that promise?
This is not the result I would personally have wanted, but it is a far better prospect than another 5 years of Labour, regardless of who is at the helm. Whatever David Cameron continues to insist, is Conservative policy, I believe that many of the more progressive grassroots members of his party now see electoral reform as an inevitable and necessary procedure because the British people as a whole want it.
Over the weekend, the money markets were on tiptoe, waiting to see what happened in those meetings between the Lib-Dems and the Conservatives. If GB had shown any signs of doing a deal with Nick Clegg, I think they would have reacted very badly.
As I write, David Cameron has upped the stakes, promising a referendum on electoral reform, albeit in a rather watered down form. What will happen tomorrow - I really don't know.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Never mind the b******* Gordon
One way and another, the media has played a far bigger part in this General Election campaign than any other in British history. Today's huge gaffe by Gordon Brown, calling Gillian Duffy, a lifelong Labour voter from Rochdale, Lancashire 'a bigoted woman' has the potential to totally destroy Labour's slim chances of winning on May 6th.
Mr Brown has not done well in the two leaders' debates to date. He has been notably the one leader who has argued, interrupted and tried to cut across the other two party leaders, and then called them bickering children. He has consistently said that this election is about substance and policies, not style, then comes today's outburst, not to mention previous accusations of bullying by Number 10 staff.
The Labour party have reportedly been responsible for leaflets being issued, telling the most outrageous lies about supposed policies that appear nowhere in either Conservative or Liberal Democrat manifestoes.
Only this week, Mr Brown said on a BBC Radio 4 programme that both the other parties planned to cut child tax credits as if this was a policy directed at the poorest in our society. I can find no reference to removing this benefit totally.
With regard to benefits, I would like to hear something very specific from Mr Clegg. The Labour party were at one time working with the mental health charity Mind, to improve the process by which people with mental health issues apply for E.S.A., the benefit that is gradually replacing Incapacity Benefit. Recently they have come out with a new application form which is even LESS likely to result in someone with depression or anxiety being granted benefit, and MORE likely to start a very expensive and long-winded appeals process. The Conservatives think that work is a cure for such ailments and intend to put everyone back on Job Seekers Allowance. See this link for Mind's reaction to the planned changes.
Mr Clegg, to finally win my vote for the Liberal Democrats, please tell me that you are going to scrap the Government quango ATOS and return the decision of whether or not a person is fit to work to the NHS staff like GP's and mental health professionals who you are already paying to determine the appropriate diagnosis and the appropriate treatment. By doing so, and granting benefit to claimants on the basis of a written agreement that they are unfit to work, you will cut the work of tribunal staff and save claimants months of stress and worry which is hardly good for their condition in the first place.
My GP referred to ATOS original decision that I was fit to work as 'talking out of their backsides' - except she replaced 'backside' with a word beginning with 'a'. The eventual outcome appears in previous posts.
Mr Brown's indiscretion today will be a very clear warning to all other candidates of all colours that they are being watched 24/7 by all forms of media, and that bad news spreads virally via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. However, what is more worrying is that Mr Brown's attitude that anyone with the view that immigration should be cut, is bigoted. What I would expect that to mean after the election is that immigration issues will be shuffled under the carpet and talked down as less important than other issues on the agenda of a new Government if Labour have any part in it. Actually, Mr Brown it isn't less important, and I don't think I need to elucidate why.
BBC Report on 'the Rochdale incident'.
Mr Brown has not done well in the two leaders' debates to date. He has been notably the one leader who has argued, interrupted and tried to cut across the other two party leaders, and then called them bickering children. He has consistently said that this election is about substance and policies, not style, then comes today's outburst, not to mention previous accusations of bullying by Number 10 staff.
The Labour party have reportedly been responsible for leaflets being issued, telling the most outrageous lies about supposed policies that appear nowhere in either Conservative or Liberal Democrat manifestoes.
Only this week, Mr Brown said on a BBC Radio 4 programme that both the other parties planned to cut child tax credits as if this was a policy directed at the poorest in our society. I can find no reference to removing this benefit totally.
With regard to benefits, I would like to hear something very specific from Mr Clegg. The Labour party were at one time working with the mental health charity Mind, to improve the process by which people with mental health issues apply for E.S.A., the benefit that is gradually replacing Incapacity Benefit. Recently they have come out with a new application form which is even LESS likely to result in someone with depression or anxiety being granted benefit, and MORE likely to start a very expensive and long-winded appeals process. The Conservatives think that work is a cure for such ailments and intend to put everyone back on Job Seekers Allowance. See this link for Mind's reaction to the planned changes.
Mr Clegg, to finally win my vote for the Liberal Democrats, please tell me that you are going to scrap the Government quango ATOS and return the decision of whether or not a person is fit to work to the NHS staff like GP's and mental health professionals who you are already paying to determine the appropriate diagnosis and the appropriate treatment. By doing so, and granting benefit to claimants on the basis of a written agreement that they are unfit to work, you will cut the work of tribunal staff and save claimants months of stress and worry which is hardly good for their condition in the first place.
My GP referred to ATOS original decision that I was fit to work as 'talking out of their backsides' - except she replaced 'backside' with a word beginning with 'a'. The eventual outcome appears in previous posts.
Mr Brown's indiscretion today will be a very clear warning to all other candidates of all colours that they are being watched 24/7 by all forms of media, and that bad news spreads virally via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. However, what is more worrying is that Mr Brown's attitude that anyone with the view that immigration should be cut, is bigoted. What I would expect that to mean after the election is that immigration issues will be shuffled under the carpet and talked down as less important than other issues on the agenda of a new Government if Labour have any part in it. Actually, Mr Brown it isn't less important, and I don't think I need to elucidate why.
BBC Report on 'the Rochdale incident'.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
What are we voting for?
The long awaited announcement of the election date yesterday was about as exciting as a can of flat cola. Gordon appeared trying hard to look friendly and smiley, with his team of washed-out incompetents and pleaded incoherently for another term. In the one shot of Mrs Brown, I saw her scowling at the cameras and looking anything but happy at the thought of five more years at Number 10. I don't think she has to worry. Even if Labour were to get in again by a whisker, I cannot see him surviving as party leader and PM for very long. The knives will be out for sure if there is no overall majority or a thumping loss.
David Cameron and his wife were smiling and in the company of a group of young supporters. Point - what have his rivals done to tempt first-time voters to back them? Nothing Labour have said so far looks very inviting. Students have had a very rough ride under this Government, they are finishing their degrees in debt in many cases, and universities are seeing cutbacks. Is that fulfilling Tony Blair's education pledges? Don't think so.
Nick Clegg also appeared with his wife, both looking happy and confident. I wish I could predict that this election will see his party in power, but should there be a hung parliament, they may start to show their true skills. I think they may attract a strong protest vote in constituencies where the previous incumbent has been involved in the expenses scandal and that is no bad thing.
What did not really emerge yesterday were solid or exciting promises and policies. Both Cameron and Clegg have been rather woolly to date on what they stand for. The only solid electioneering I saw yesterday came from Plaid Cymru and the SNP, both of whom pledged their support for the parts of the UK they stand for. I think it's time for a little root around the manifestoes of the principal players to find out what we are likely to get from them, and more interestingly where there is convergence which may give a clue to what could happen without an overall majority.
Perhaps the parts of the UK the party leaders visited yesterday have a better idea of what to expect, but for the rest of us - many questions remain unanswered.
David Cameron and his wife were smiling and in the company of a group of young supporters. Point - what have his rivals done to tempt first-time voters to back them? Nothing Labour have said so far looks very inviting. Students have had a very rough ride under this Government, they are finishing their degrees in debt in many cases, and universities are seeing cutbacks. Is that fulfilling Tony Blair's education pledges? Don't think so.
Nick Clegg also appeared with his wife, both looking happy and confident. I wish I could predict that this election will see his party in power, but should there be a hung parliament, they may start to show their true skills. I think they may attract a strong protest vote in constituencies where the previous incumbent has been involved in the expenses scandal and that is no bad thing.
What did not really emerge yesterday were solid or exciting promises and policies. Both Cameron and Clegg have been rather woolly to date on what they stand for. The only solid electioneering I saw yesterday came from Plaid Cymru and the SNP, both of whom pledged their support for the parts of the UK they stand for. I think it's time for a little root around the manifestoes of the principal players to find out what we are likely to get from them, and more interestingly where there is convergence which may give a clue to what could happen without an overall majority.
Perhaps the parts of the UK the party leaders visited yesterday have a better idea of what to expect, but for the rest of us - many questions remain unanswered.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Poor old Gordon - not
I can imagine Gordon Brown at this moment is sitting locked in the loo somewhere in 10 Downing Street, biting his nails to the quick and squirming with embarassment in having made another gaffe.
As his party desperately try to say that the industrial dispute at BA isn't political, we hear that Unite, the union involved are the major bankroller of the coming General Election.
That is the election that Mr Brown has not yet announced and which the country awaits. Today he has also said that unless there is a clear majority against him (seats or votes is not clear) he intends to sit tight and not give up his position as our leader. One can imagine her Majesty screaming at the radio "Orf with his head" at the mere idea of not doing the decent thing and walking.
Face it Gordon, unless the country gives Labour a clear working majority, the position of PM that you pestered and harassed Tony Blair to get is not morally yours. I can see that there might well be a hung Parliament after the election, but a Labour majority? Surely, surely NO-ONE in the UK could be so stupid as to hand it to them. Vote Liberal for preference, Green, just not Labour.
It's such a pity that we no longer have the Monster Raving Loony Party any more. This has to be one election that they could win. Better still if we had a box on the polling form where we could vote for proportional representation along with the name of the party or candidate we support.
Please Gordon, get out of that toilet, flush away your doubts and tell us tomorrow when we may go and vote this Government into obscurity.
As his party desperately try to say that the industrial dispute at BA isn't political, we hear that Unite, the union involved are the major bankroller of the coming General Election.
That is the election that Mr Brown has not yet announced and which the country awaits. Today he has also said that unless there is a clear majority against him (seats or votes is not clear) he intends to sit tight and not give up his position as our leader. One can imagine her Majesty screaming at the radio "Orf with his head" at the mere idea of not doing the decent thing and walking.
Face it Gordon, unless the country gives Labour a clear working majority, the position of PM that you pestered and harassed Tony Blair to get is not morally yours. I can see that there might well be a hung Parliament after the election, but a Labour majority? Surely, surely NO-ONE in the UK could be so stupid as to hand it to them. Vote Liberal for preference, Green, just not Labour.
It's such a pity that we no longer have the Monster Raving Loony Party any more. This has to be one election that they could win. Better still if we had a box on the polling form where we could vote for proportional representation along with the name of the party or candidate we support.
Please Gordon, get out of that toilet, flush away your doubts and tell us tomorrow when we may go and vote this Government into obscurity.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tesco bans the pyjama brigade
Tesco in Cardiff has decided it doesn't want its customers coming in wearing nightwear and it has caused such a storm, it's made the national news.
I know how I feel about the subject, and I've made a Squidoo lens all about it - I would NEVER do this - sheer laziness and lack of self respect. Not only that, I'm thinking what if one of my favourite celebrities just happened to be browsing the aisles in the store and I bumped into them - I'd be so embarrassed. But, it seems that I may not be in the majority and BBC Radio 4's PM news programme had plenty of correspondence saying that it's perfectly OK.
I'll be interested to see if my local Tesco takes a stand on the subject. Rather than worrying about what their customers are wearing, I would rather they improved the standard of fresh food that they sell, pay their suppliers a fair price and cared a bit more about animal welfare. Oh, and made sure that their special offers are special for the customers and not a con.
When my local store re-opened after a rebuild, I thought I would at least give it a chance. I wished I hadn't. Whoever designed it, must have been standing on his head. You have to walk the full length of the store to reach basics like milk and bread - past all the new things they now sell that I wouldn't buy anyway.
One of the items on my list on that first visit was the particular type of tinned tuna my fussy cat prefers. I found single tins at one price and a 'special offer' pack of 3 tins which I expected to be cheaper per tin. WRONG! Believe it or not, it was nearly £1 more!
I took the two packs to the customer desk and I expected an apology for making a mistake and to be offered the 3-pack at a more appropriate price. I didn't get the response I expected and was virtually accused of wasting the assistants time - when I expressed some mild annoyance with her attitude, she said she would 'tell the duty manager'. I did expect that on a subsequent visit that the error was corrected - it wasn't.
I am tempted to visit in my pyjamas this weekend or wear a fluffy dressing gown over street clothes - perhaps then I'll get some proper attention to an outright rip-off.
I know how I feel about the subject, and I've made a Squidoo lens all about it - I would NEVER do this - sheer laziness and lack of self respect. Not only that, I'm thinking what if one of my favourite celebrities just happened to be browsing the aisles in the store and I bumped into them - I'd be so embarrassed. But, it seems that I may not be in the majority and BBC Radio 4's PM news programme had plenty of correspondence saying that it's perfectly OK.
I'll be interested to see if my local Tesco takes a stand on the subject. Rather than worrying about what their customers are wearing, I would rather they improved the standard of fresh food that they sell, pay their suppliers a fair price and cared a bit more about animal welfare. Oh, and made sure that their special offers are special for the customers and not a con.
When my local store re-opened after a rebuild, I thought I would at least give it a chance. I wished I hadn't. Whoever designed it, must have been standing on his head. You have to walk the full length of the store to reach basics like milk and bread - past all the new things they now sell that I wouldn't buy anyway.
One of the items on my list on that first visit was the particular type of tinned tuna my fussy cat prefers. I found single tins at one price and a 'special offer' pack of 3 tins which I expected to be cheaper per tin. WRONG! Believe it or not, it was nearly £1 more!
I took the two packs to the customer desk and I expected an apology for making a mistake and to be offered the 3-pack at a more appropriate price. I didn't get the response I expected and was virtually accused of wasting the assistants time - when I expressed some mild annoyance with her attitude, she said she would 'tell the duty manager'. I did expect that on a subsequent visit that the error was corrected - it wasn't.
I am tempted to visit in my pyjamas this weekend or wear a fluffy dressing gown over street clothes - perhaps then I'll get some proper attention to an outright rip-off.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Spelling matters
Even dear old Auntie Beeb is not above throwing in a few split infinitives - including in news broadcasts - unthinkable!
I enjoy writing for the articles site Squidoo and they have a forum in which writers are encouraged to post links to their latest work for criticism. Despite the fact that there is a 'sticky post' at the top of the forum section, every other lens seems to ignore the suggestion to spell-check before publication.
Some of the writers are asking for work to be reviewed that showcases their real business, yet they are willing to sacrifice their credibility for the sake of spending five minutes checking what they have written.
English, as a language has absorbed words from many different sources but more often than not, the original spelling survives. The Welsh, Irish and Gaelic-speaking Scots would expect anything written in their languages to be properly spelt so why don't English speakers have more respect for the written word?
One answer is that there has been a 'fashion' in education for too long, that has valued ideas and content more than style or correctness of grammar and spelling and punctuation. That tide needs to turn and soon. What's the point of a degree if you spell it deegree?
Saturday, January 02, 2010
New Year's resolution and my first whinge!
I resolve to blog more often and put my annoyance and irritations into writing rather than sulking and letting them fester. Then perhaps I can see more of the positive side of life than I saw in 2009.
You might think (especially if you are a bloke and more specifically if you are James Martin) that my first post of 2010 is just over-reacting to what was meant to be humorous. Well maybe and maybe not, read on anyway.
Celebrity chef James Martin was interviewed for the January edition of Waitrose supermarket's house magazine. I really like James. His TV presenting style, the kind of food he likes to cook and the fact that he loves fast driving and expensive cars. He's a hunky guy and has a lot of female followers.
According to the article, there is a particular group of his fans who he calls 'The Martinis' who turn up regularly at his events and have done for several years. These ladies are not immune to the ravages of time and their looks may well have declined since they first became his fans, but it is really not gentlemanly or very kind to comment on it.
The article also mentions that James had to pulp the first edition of his autobiography 'Driven' after he was sued by his stepmother so I thought he might have been a little more careful about what he said and his public image.
More generally speaking, it is very irritating when celebrities are dismissive of their fans in various ways. We put them where they are and they should show appreciation by at least not being rude. Sometimes their demands for privacy are downright unreasonable - not James, but how many stories a year break about some rock, TV or movie star or even footballers, in a scrap with a persistent photographer. Maybe they have now got enough money to go and hide for the rest of their lives and never make another public appearance, but they will get old - oh yes, and maybe they won't have been in the public eye long enough for us to remember them in another 20 years.
They will lose their looks - even the men - very few people are beautiful to the end of a long life without the need for a cosmetic surgeon's life and a lot of makeup.
Enough said. If James ever gets to read this, I think he is a nice enough person really to have at least a moment's regret for upsetting even one loyal fan, even for one moment. Am I one of the maligned Martinis? No. But I would crawl over broken glass to be on Saturday Kitchen with Mr Martin.
(James' book 'James Every Day' features in my Squidoo lens about the current crop of cookbooks)
Celebrity chef James Martin was interviewed for the January edition of Waitrose supermarket's house magazine. I really like James. His TV presenting style, the kind of food he likes to cook and the fact that he loves fast driving and expensive cars. He's a hunky guy and has a lot of female followers.
According to the article, there is a particular group of his fans who he calls 'The Martinis' who turn up regularly at his events and have done for several years. These ladies are not immune to the ravages of time and their looks may well have declined since they first became his fans, but it is really not gentlemanly or very kind to comment on it.
The article also mentions that James had to pulp the first edition of his autobiography 'Driven' after he was sued by his stepmother so I thought he might have been a little more careful about what he said and his public image.
More generally speaking, it is very irritating when celebrities are dismissive of their fans in various ways. We put them where they are and they should show appreciation by at least not being rude. Sometimes their demands for privacy are downright unreasonable - not James, but how many stories a year break about some rock, TV or movie star or even footballers, in a scrap with a persistent photographer. Maybe they have now got enough money to go and hide for the rest of their lives and never make another public appearance, but they will get old - oh yes, and maybe they won't have been in the public eye long enough for us to remember them in another 20 years.
They will lose their looks - even the men - very few people are beautiful to the end of a long life without the need for a cosmetic surgeon's life and a lot of makeup.
Enough said. If James ever gets to read this, I think he is a nice enough person really to have at least a moment's regret for upsetting even one loyal fan, even for one moment. Am I one of the maligned Martinis? No. But I would crawl over broken glass to be on Saturday Kitchen with Mr Martin.
(James' book 'James Every Day' features in my Squidoo lens about the current crop of cookbooks)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
I'm laughing for a change
A bit of an ironic laugh, it's true, but I thought I would share it with you all.
At last Gordon Brown decided to throw the towel in and resign. His cabinet colleagues decided it would be a worthy gesture to name a railway locomotive after him.
So a senior 'Sir Humphrey' went from Whitehall to the National Railway Museum at York, to investigate the possibilities.
"They have a number of locomotives at the NRM without names," a specially-sought consultant told the top civil servant. "Mostly freight locomotives though."
"Oh dear, that's not very fitting for a prime minister," said Sir Humphrey. "How about that big green one, over there ?" he said, pointing to 4472 Flying Scotsman.
"That's already got a name" said the consultant. "It's called 'Flying Scotsman'."
"Oh. Couldn't it be renamed ?" asked Sir Humphrey. "This is a national museum after all, funded by the taxpayer."
"I suppose it might be considered," said the consultant. "After all the LNER renamed a number of their locomotives after directors of the company, and even renamed one of them Dwight D Eisenhower."
"That's excellent", said Sir Humphrey, "So that's settled then...let's look at renaming 4472. But how much will it cost ? We can't spend too much, given the expenses scandal !"
"Well", said the consultant, "Why don't we just paint out the 'F'?"
At last Gordon Brown decided to throw the towel in and resign. His cabinet colleagues decided it would be a worthy gesture to name a railway locomotive after him.
So a senior 'Sir Humphrey' went from Whitehall to the National Railway Museum at York, to investigate the possibilities.
"They have a number of locomotives at the NRM without names," a specially-sought consultant told the top civil servant. "Mostly freight locomotives though."
"Oh dear, that's not very fitting for a prime minister," said Sir Humphrey. "How about that big green one, over there ?" he said, pointing to 4472 Flying Scotsman.
"That's already got a name" said the consultant. "It's called 'Flying Scotsman'."
"Oh. Couldn't it be renamed ?" asked Sir Humphrey. "This is a national museum after all, funded by the taxpayer."
"I suppose it might be considered," said the consultant. "After all the LNER renamed a number of their locomotives after directors of the company, and even renamed one of them Dwight D Eisenhower."
"That's excellent", said Sir Humphrey, "So that's settled then...let's look at renaming 4472. But how much will it cost ? We can't spend too much, given the expenses scandal !"
"Well", said the consultant, "Why don't we just paint out the 'F'?"
Friday, September 11, 2009
More tales from the benefit queue
Has the Department for Work and Pensions run out of money for paying benefits? I'm left wondering. For the second time in a month, my ESA has failed to arrive in my bank account on the due date. The last time it happened, I called the DWP and was told ' it's a national computer problem - we don't know why or what causes it'. They said they knew about my missed payment and had already manually rescheduled the payment. It arrived 5 days late.
I asked what would happen if I had no money whatever and could not fall back on savings till the money was in my account. "You can go to your Job Centre and get a crisis loan". Oh yes, more bureaucracy.
WHY is this happening? WHY are people who rely on benefits to pay bills and feed themselves, be treated in such a throwaway manner? What are the problems with the payments system and when are they going to be fixed - Yvette Cooper you should tell us, it's your ship and your watch!
I also received the paperwork about my ESA appeal. When I read what the so-called health professional said I was incredulous. Was this the same medical assessment I attended or did this report talk about someone else?
For instance, one part of the medical assessment procedure referred to my ability to squat and kneel. I can kneel and get up again only with difficulty because of pain in my knees. I demonstrated at that assessment that I could only kneel and get up by leaning on the furniture and not taking all the weight on my knees. I also said I could not squat or sit cross legged at all. In the report I was stated as having no problems with these movements.
On my original form, I had left a number of boxes blank - probably due to the depressed state I was in. The assessment did not re-visit those questions, it simply made assumptions about the answers.
Statements were made about my hypothyroidism which demonstrated clearly that the assessor had no detailed knowledge about this condition, its symptoms or its effects and therefore was inadequately qualified to make any accurate assessment of my ability to work. She was a nurse, not an endocrinologist, or even a GP. The vet I take my cat to would have done a more competent assessment.
The most telling part of the whole report was the part that replied to my challenge that the assessor was incompetent to do the job, that it was not necessary to have a doctor's qualification to become an assessor making judgements about someone's ability to work. How long before we return to having butchers as NHS surgeons to save money?
I asked what would happen if I had no money whatever and could not fall back on savings till the money was in my account. "You can go to your Job Centre and get a crisis loan". Oh yes, more bureaucracy.
WHY is this happening? WHY are people who rely on benefits to pay bills and feed themselves, be treated in such a throwaway manner? What are the problems with the payments system and when are they going to be fixed - Yvette Cooper you should tell us, it's your ship and your watch!
I also received the paperwork about my ESA appeal. When I read what the so-called health professional said I was incredulous. Was this the same medical assessment I attended or did this report talk about someone else?
For instance, one part of the medical assessment procedure referred to my ability to squat and kneel. I can kneel and get up again only with difficulty because of pain in my knees. I demonstrated at that assessment that I could only kneel and get up by leaning on the furniture and not taking all the weight on my knees. I also said I could not squat or sit cross legged at all. In the report I was stated as having no problems with these movements.
On my original form, I had left a number of boxes blank - probably due to the depressed state I was in. The assessment did not re-visit those questions, it simply made assumptions about the answers.
Statements were made about my hypothyroidism which demonstrated clearly that the assessor had no detailed knowledge about this condition, its symptoms or its effects and therefore was inadequately qualified to make any accurate assessment of my ability to work. She was a nurse, not an endocrinologist, or even a GP. The vet I take my cat to would have done a more competent assessment.
The most telling part of the whole report was the part that replied to my challenge that the assessor was incompetent to do the job, that it was not necessary to have a doctor's qualification to become an assessor making judgements about someone's ability to work. How long before we return to having butchers as NHS surgeons to save money?
Friday, August 21, 2009
Justice but not revenge
On December 21st 1988 I was sitting watching television in the small cottage I was renting near Knutsford to the west of Manchester. It wasn’t far from Manchester airport and the aircraft traffic was a ‘feature’ of the location, both low flying craft in and out of Manchester, and higher aircraft on the way elsewhere. The lower flying ones seemed about to land on the roof when the wind was in certain directions.
Later that evening, news started to come in of a disastrous air crash. A plane Pan Am flight 103 headed for New York JFK had come down on the town of Lockerbie near the Scottish border. Houses had been destroyed and many killed and maimed on the ground as well as the loss of all those on the flight.
In the aftermath, a plan of the route that the plane took to where it crashed from its take off at Heathrow was published. I realised that the Pan Am flight COULD have flown over me and I’ve always remembered that evening.
Looking at Wikipedia today, the flight information seems a little confused. It says that the take off was to the northwest and the flight then turned due north over Daventry in the West Midlands towards Scotland. That route would not have taken it over Lockerbie and would have been anomalous for a plane that had to check in with Prestwick air control before leaving Scottish airspace for the Atlantic crossing.
So, lets say that instead of crashing into a Scottish village, the bomb had been detonated earlier and it had crashed on me instead.
I would not have wanted my friends and relatives to prevent or speak against my killer spending his last agonising days at home. We put people in prison as much because they are a public threat as a punishment. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi isn’t much of a public threat in his condition. We have yet to see how Libya will deal with him, but they are keen to renew links with a world that has shunned them. They want and need to build their economy with western links and technology. Perhaps he should be under house arrest for his remaining days so that there can be no suggestion that he could possibly plot further atrocities.
There is another aspect too. If Al Megrahi had been kept in the UK, we would have had to care for him using NHS resources. There are British people who are dying because the NHS refuses them drugs which could help their condition – allegedly on grounds of cost. Isn’t it better that whatever care he gets now is paid for by the Libyan Government and his family and not out of our pockets?
I would like to say that I also support the compassionate release of Ronald Biggs. He had already been moved to a hospital outside the prison and was under a totally unnecessary 24-hour guard. He can’t walk and is being fed via a stomach tube. Does it really matter where he spends his last few days. He has now been moved to a care home close to where his son lives.
We are supposed to be a civilised society. There are British people languishing in jails in various parts of the world, including Islamic countries. Some of them have allegedly not had fair trials. If we are to ask honestly for clemency and humane and fair treatment for them, it is right that we let this dying man go back to Libya and that is something that America seems to have forgotten. Keeping Al Megrahi in prison in Scotland would not have brought loved ones back. Putting people in prison is supposed to be about justice, not revenge.
POSTSCRIPT
This last paragraph has been in the post since first publication, but it seems that commenters are not giving it any consideration or are just not reading the whole post. So I'm highlighting it. Unless the contents are personally abusive or obscene, I will publish all comments regardless of the point of view.
============================================================
I ask would be commenters to put themselves in the position where THEIR loved one is in jail in a foreign country and terminally ill. What would you really want to happen to them?
============================================================
Later that evening, news started to come in of a disastrous air crash. A plane Pan Am flight 103 headed for New York JFK had come down on the town of Lockerbie near the Scottish border. Houses had been destroyed and many killed and maimed on the ground as well as the loss of all those on the flight.
In the aftermath, a plan of the route that the plane took to where it crashed from its take off at Heathrow was published. I realised that the Pan Am flight COULD have flown over me and I’ve always remembered that evening.
Looking at Wikipedia today, the flight information seems a little confused. It says that the take off was to the northwest and the flight then turned due north over Daventry in the West Midlands towards Scotland. That route would not have taken it over Lockerbie and would have been anomalous for a plane that had to check in with Prestwick air control before leaving Scottish airspace for the Atlantic crossing.
So, lets say that instead of crashing into a Scottish village, the bomb had been detonated earlier and it had crashed on me instead.
I would not have wanted my friends and relatives to prevent or speak against my killer spending his last agonising days at home. We put people in prison as much because they are a public threat as a punishment. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi isn’t much of a public threat in his condition. We have yet to see how Libya will deal with him, but they are keen to renew links with a world that has shunned them. They want and need to build their economy with western links and technology. Perhaps he should be under house arrest for his remaining days so that there can be no suggestion that he could possibly plot further atrocities.
There is another aspect too. If Al Megrahi had been kept in the UK, we would have had to care for him using NHS resources. There are British people who are dying because the NHS refuses them drugs which could help their condition – allegedly on grounds of cost. Isn’t it better that whatever care he gets now is paid for by the Libyan Government and his family and not out of our pockets?
I would like to say that I also support the compassionate release of Ronald Biggs. He had already been moved to a hospital outside the prison and was under a totally unnecessary 24-hour guard. He can’t walk and is being fed via a stomach tube. Does it really matter where he spends his last few days. He has now been moved to a care home close to where his son lives.
We are supposed to be a civilised society. There are British people languishing in jails in various parts of the world, including Islamic countries. Some of them have allegedly not had fair trials. If we are to ask honestly for clemency and humane and fair treatment for them, it is right that we let this dying man go back to Libya and that is something that America seems to have forgotten. Keeping Al Megrahi in prison in Scotland would not have brought loved ones back. Putting people in prison is supposed to be about justice, not revenge.
POSTSCRIPT
This last paragraph has been in the post since first publication, but it seems that commenters are not giving it any consideration or are just not reading the whole post. So I'm highlighting it. Unless the contents are personally abusive or obscene, I will publish all comments regardless of the point of view.
============================================================
I ask would be commenters to put themselves in the position where THEIR loved one is in jail in a foreign country and terminally ill. What would you really want to happen to them?
============================================================
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Art in times of trouble
That, or something similar was the title of a TV programme I watched tonight while I enjoyed a simple supper of omelette and chunky potato fries (rustic oven chips to my Brit audience).
It made me think about how I value my eyesight, and how driven my own world is by the visual image, especially since a friend of mine is losing his sight. I cannot imagine a more visually driven person. Whenever he calls me his first words are usually, ‘Jenny, you just MUST look at this website” He is so disappointed if he happens to catch me away from my PC screen so I can’t instantly respond with equal enthusiasm to what has inspired him, or my PC is on a go slow and I can't get to what he is looking at fast enough.
I cannot imagine how I would respond in the situation that someone said the awful words "You are going blind", but I know I would be angry. Angry that medical science couldn’t intervene to save my sight, but most of all angry that there was so much of the world that I HAVEN’T seen - from places in the UK to active volcanoes in Hawaii, and so many works of art only ever seen as tiny pictures in a book or at best, computer screen sized.
A few years ago, as a birthday treat, my (now estranged) husband took me to an art exhibition.Monet’s paintings were on show in London and such was the enthusiasm to see them, the gallery was open all night. We went in at 1am and for me, time stopped. I had never realised that the canvasses that were so familiar to me were so HUGE. A couple of years later, we visited Monet’s home at Giverny where those paintings were born, and I had the same sense of wonder, all over again.
The art programme I watched showed paintings from miners whose work created over 50 years ago reflected their toil in the mines and their lives above ground. Images of chimneys, yes, and big families, smoky pubs and things you would expect, but also a wonderful one of two men with their racing whippets.
It also showed the paintings that were stored in the same mines during the war while London was being bombed and discussed whether money spent on publicly owned art is a good social investment. In the news this week was the story about paintings previously owned by banks who were bailed out by the Government. Certainly we have the right to see those works, since our taxes saved them from being sold to pay off some of the debts. A free exhibition please.
I'm not putting links to any images in this post. If you have to go and look for them for yourselves, it might make you remember them better.
It was a very different image that inspired and lifted me today. I am helping with my sailing club’s junior training week. A dozen or so youngsters from as young as nine are learning to sail in the sheltered waters of Chichester Harbour. My job today was to drive the club's 21ft launch 'Sinbad' which acted as a ‘mother ship’ and I was helped by Fiona, the mother of two of the children.
She didn’t have a camera on board, but I got some shots on my mobile phone of Eve and Ralph as they zoomed past us in a lively breeze. I realised later that I had just missed the shot I really wanted because Eve turned her head to look at her sail. The sheer joy of achievement in her expression will stay with me for a very long time, as will the happy smiles of the ones who came alongside us with the instructor, and swapped places with others waiting their turn. Those smiles stuck, even after the inevitable upside-down moments.
It is ironic that today’s society is so evil thinking that I can’t share those pictures with you all and really need to delete them after I have transferred them on a memory stick for Fiona, just in case someone wonders why I have them on my phone. What a sad world that I can’t keep them and let them brighten a dark winter day in the future when creeping age and creaky bones have put an end to my own active sailing.
It made me think about how I value my eyesight, and how driven my own world is by the visual image, especially since a friend of mine is losing his sight. I cannot imagine a more visually driven person. Whenever he calls me his first words are usually, ‘Jenny, you just MUST look at this website” He is so disappointed if he happens to catch me away from my PC screen so I can’t instantly respond with equal enthusiasm to what has inspired him, or my PC is on a go slow and I can't get to what he is looking at fast enough.
I cannot imagine how I would respond in the situation that someone said the awful words "You are going blind", but I know I would be angry. Angry that medical science couldn’t intervene to save my sight, but most of all angry that there was so much of the world that I HAVEN’T seen - from places in the UK to active volcanoes in Hawaii, and so many works of art only ever seen as tiny pictures in a book or at best, computer screen sized.
A few years ago, as a birthday treat, my (now estranged) husband took me to an art exhibition.Monet’s paintings were on show in London and such was the enthusiasm to see them, the gallery was open all night. We went in at 1am and for me, time stopped. I had never realised that the canvasses that were so familiar to me were so HUGE. A couple of years later, we visited Monet’s home at Giverny where those paintings were born, and I had the same sense of wonder, all over again.
The art programme I watched showed paintings from miners whose work created over 50 years ago reflected their toil in the mines and their lives above ground. Images of chimneys, yes, and big families, smoky pubs and things you would expect, but also a wonderful one of two men with their racing whippets.
It also showed the paintings that were stored in the same mines during the war while London was being bombed and discussed whether money spent on publicly owned art is a good social investment. In the news this week was the story about paintings previously owned by banks who were bailed out by the Government. Certainly we have the right to see those works, since our taxes saved them from being sold to pay off some of the debts. A free exhibition please.
I'm not putting links to any images in this post. If you have to go and look for them for yourselves, it might make you remember them better.
It was a very different image that inspired and lifted me today. I am helping with my sailing club’s junior training week. A dozen or so youngsters from as young as nine are learning to sail in the sheltered waters of Chichester Harbour. My job today was to drive the club's 21ft launch 'Sinbad' which acted as a ‘mother ship’ and I was helped by Fiona, the mother of two of the children.
She didn’t have a camera on board, but I got some shots on my mobile phone of Eve and Ralph as they zoomed past us in a lively breeze. I realised later that I had just missed the shot I really wanted because Eve turned her head to look at her sail. The sheer joy of achievement in her expression will stay with me for a very long time, as will the happy smiles of the ones who came alongside us with the instructor, and swapped places with others waiting their turn. Those smiles stuck, even after the inevitable upside-down moments.
It is ironic that today’s society is so evil thinking that I can’t share those pictures with you all and really need to delete them after I have transferred them on a memory stick for Fiona, just in case someone wonders why I have them on my phone. What a sad world that I can’t keep them and let them brighten a dark winter day in the future when creeping age and creaky bones have put an end to my own active sailing.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Weasel words to the front line
At this moment I have less respect for the British Government and our Prime Minister than I have ever had.
Gordon Brown's assurances that British troops in Afghanistan are adequately equipped stands starkly against statements of the most senior military personnel that have emerged in the last few days.
Mr Brown clearly realises that he is up against a wall here, and it would have been impossible for him to directly admit that he has ignored military pleas for more money and more equipment. However he could have at least said that he took on board what was said and would listen to the people who are in command in Afghanistan and also to the families who are bearing the grief of loss.
There are those too who wonder exactly what the conflict in Afghanistan is supposed to achieve. Some may even feel that this is a war by the 'Christian' western world on Islam especially since George Bush spoke of it in a term they find repugnant - as a crusade. I'm not hearing enough of what I would like to hear which is that the people of Afghanistan themselves want us to help them fight against extremists in their own country.
If Britain and America are to continue to have support for this conflict, they must clarify and publicise their aims and ensure that they are aims that are achievable and that the whole of our population can be comfortable with.
This is NOT expressing any lack of support for the troops themselves which is a very different thing. If our Government are going to ask our armed forces to go and engage in wars and conflicts for whatever reason, those troops have a total right to be properly equipped.
They also have the right to speak out if they believe that their comrades are dying unnecessarily because someone here wants to cut budgets, and so do the bereaved families. I salute those who have chosen to put their lives on the line for world peace and security.
I don't want to hear any more excuses and lies and face saving from our PM and members of the Government, I want to hear promises that they will do everything they can to ensure our armed forces in Afghanistan get the equipment THEY say they need.
Gordon Brown's assurances that British troops in Afghanistan are adequately equipped stands starkly against statements of the most senior military personnel that have emerged in the last few days.
Mr Brown clearly realises that he is up against a wall here, and it would have been impossible for him to directly admit that he has ignored military pleas for more money and more equipment. However he could have at least said that he took on board what was said and would listen to the people who are in command in Afghanistan and also to the families who are bearing the grief of loss.
There are those too who wonder exactly what the conflict in Afghanistan is supposed to achieve. Some may even feel that this is a war by the 'Christian' western world on Islam especially since George Bush spoke of it in a term they find repugnant - as a crusade. I'm not hearing enough of what I would like to hear which is that the people of Afghanistan themselves want us to help them fight against extremists in their own country.
If Britain and America are to continue to have support for this conflict, they must clarify and publicise their aims and ensure that they are aims that are achievable and that the whole of our population can be comfortable with.
This is NOT expressing any lack of support for the troops themselves which is a very different thing. If our Government are going to ask our armed forces to go and engage in wars and conflicts for whatever reason, those troops have a total right to be properly equipped.
They also have the right to speak out if they believe that their comrades are dying unnecessarily because someone here wants to cut budgets, and so do the bereaved families. I salute those who have chosen to put their lives on the line for world peace and security.
I don't want to hear any more excuses and lies and face saving from our PM and members of the Government, I want to hear promises that they will do everything they can to ensure our armed forces in Afghanistan get the equipment THEY say they need.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Ageist BBC ousts Arlene
It's been a bit of a stressful week as you will have seen from previous posts, and it was only listening to BBC's Broadcasting House this morning that I caught up with something the rest of the world knew about on Thursday.
Alesha Dixon is to replace Arlene Phillips on Strictly Come Dancing. Now Alesha was a worthy winner of the show in 2007, but she does not have Arlene's training or knowledge of dance, or her sharp eye of what works visually on the dance floor.
Ballet star Darcy Bussell will also participate in the judging, and will help competitors with training in the later stages of the show. No problems there, she's a professional dancer and I will respect her opinion.
Arlene Phillips caused a lot of controversy in the last series when audience favourite John Sergeant went out, but the show enjoyed a lot of extra publicity as a result. She can be a very acid and picky judge, but the world of dance is incredibly competitive and very hard work and she is an extremely driven and demanding person.
There was a rumour as long ago as 18th June that Arlene might be due for the chop, and she hinted strongly about it on her Desert Island Discs appearance on July 3rd. (not available on Iplayer due to some rights agreements with the family of show originator Roy Plomley).
The BBC have been widely criticised for this change and the reasons for making it seem pretty weak. The show and the judges were perfect as they, were and there was no justification to change a successful format.
There is more than a sniff of ageism about this although BBC 1 Controller Jay Hunt has denied it saying that Arlene was the 'obvious one to change'.
Well Mr Hunt, it is not obvious to me, or to the show's millions of followers and I don't expect Alesha to have the skills or the presence to shine as a judge, good as she was as a competitor.
Len Goodman, regarded as the head judge of the Strictly Come Dancing panel has said that he is sorry to see Arlene go. We have not heard from her nemesis Craig Revel Horwood with whom Arlene has had some spectacular disagreements.
Arlene will, thankfully not be leaving our screens altogether - she will be joining former Strictly competitor Christine Bleakley on the One Show as a special presenter and commentator on this year's programme. I think we may find out more about how this change occurred which may not be totally flattering to the BBC's image.
It isn't goodnight Arlene just yet.
Alesha Dixon is to replace Arlene Phillips on Strictly Come Dancing. Now Alesha was a worthy winner of the show in 2007, but she does not have Arlene's training or knowledge of dance, or her sharp eye of what works visually on the dance floor.
Ballet star Darcy Bussell will also participate in the judging, and will help competitors with training in the later stages of the show. No problems there, she's a professional dancer and I will respect her opinion.
Arlene Phillips caused a lot of controversy in the last series when audience favourite John Sergeant went out, but the show enjoyed a lot of extra publicity as a result. She can be a very acid and picky judge, but the world of dance is incredibly competitive and very hard work and she is an extremely driven and demanding person.
There was a rumour as long ago as 18th June that Arlene might be due for the chop, and she hinted strongly about it on her Desert Island Discs appearance on July 3rd. (not available on Iplayer due to some rights agreements with the family of show originator Roy Plomley).
The BBC have been widely criticised for this change and the reasons for making it seem pretty weak. The show and the judges were perfect as they, were and there was no justification to change a successful format.
There is more than a sniff of ageism about this although BBC 1 Controller Jay Hunt has denied it saying that Arlene was the 'obvious one to change'.
Well Mr Hunt, it is not obvious to me, or to the show's millions of followers and I don't expect Alesha to have the skills or the presence to shine as a judge, good as she was as a competitor.
Len Goodman, regarded as the head judge of the Strictly Come Dancing panel has said that he is sorry to see Arlene go. We have not heard from her nemesis Craig Revel Horwood with whom Arlene has had some spectacular disagreements.
Arlene will, thankfully not be leaving our screens altogether - she will be joining former Strictly competitor Christine Bleakley on the One Show as a special presenter and commentator on this year's programme. I think we may find out more about how this change occurred which may not be totally flattering to the BBC's image.
It isn't goodnight Arlene just yet.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
DWP and ESA - the final straw
This morning a conversation with the DWP and a look at my bank account knocked me back into depression and leaves me even MORE disgusted with the way that the ESA system treats claimants suffering from mental illnesses and breakdowns.
I was expecting the notification in the post that I hadn't got enough points on the medical assessment to be considered not fit to work.
I wasn't expecting a total ZERO score, based on the form I completed and the medical - it's just so nonsensical. Didn't they read what I said and listen? Even on the points where I KNOW I made it clear I had problems, there is still a zero score.
Next, I checked my bank account as my cash card was not giving me anything. I then found out that my benefit had already been stopped without any warning whatever. Good thing I still have some savings to fall back on, but will be a few days before I can organise to get it into my current account.
I called the DWP again. Apparently, they will re-start the benefit and backdate it but ONLY when I return the appeals form. Had they sent it out, as I asked yesterday? No. They say they have now. They have a two to three month queue for hearing benefit appeals, by which time I might just possibly be well enough to think about work again.
It is a very stinky and cruel system that withdraws benefits from vulnarable people, leaving them without any income whatever, and without warning. Had I gone through all this a few months ago, it might well have pushed me back towards the suicidal feelings I was experiencing at that time and could easily do so for someone else.
And then there's the council tax benefits section. Apparently the DWP managed to write to THEM before they wrote to me, so they were on the phone saying that I had to complete yet MORE forms.
At the moment I am drinking tea, later on it might be something stronger. I have a feeling it will be a sleepless night again, or I stay up and compose letters to Yvette Cooper, my MP David Willets, David Cameron and a few more blameworthy others.
I was expecting the notification in the post that I hadn't got enough points on the medical assessment to be considered not fit to work.
I wasn't expecting a total ZERO score, based on the form I completed and the medical - it's just so nonsensical. Didn't they read what I said and listen? Even on the points where I KNOW I made it clear I had problems, there is still a zero score.
Next, I checked my bank account as my cash card was not giving me anything. I then found out that my benefit had already been stopped without any warning whatever. Good thing I still have some savings to fall back on, but will be a few days before I can organise to get it into my current account.
I called the DWP again. Apparently, they will re-start the benefit and backdate it but ONLY when I return the appeals form. Had they sent it out, as I asked yesterday? No. They say they have now. They have a two to three month queue for hearing benefit appeals, by which time I might just possibly be well enough to think about work again.
It is a very stinky and cruel system that withdraws benefits from vulnarable people, leaving them without any income whatever, and without warning. Had I gone through all this a few months ago, it might well have pushed me back towards the suicidal feelings I was experiencing at that time and could easily do so for someone else.
And then there's the council tax benefits section. Apparently the DWP managed to write to THEM before they wrote to me, so they were on the phone saying that I had to complete yet MORE forms.
At the moment I am drinking tea, later on it might be something stronger. I have a feeling it will be a sleepless night again, or I stay up and compose letters to Yvette Cooper, my MP David Willets, David Cameron and a few more blameworthy others.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Depressed? Don't expect help from the DWP
Six months ago, a series of personal and financial crises sent me even further into deep depression than I already was. The illness behind it all is hypothyroidism, a condition which, if not adequately treated leaves you exhausted, mentally and physically and unable to deal with life at its best let alone its worst.
If some idiot at my local Job Centre had not given me incorrect information, I might have already been claiming the benefits to which I was entitled and had my previous GP had not been so totally useless my condition might have been better treated and things would never have got that bad. At least I had the strength to go and demand a referral to an endocrinologist and then the energy to insist I saw someone fully trained who made a change in my medication.
When I did get the right information from the Citizens Advice Bureau, which was to apply for ESA, the benefit that has replaced Incapacity Benefit, I was still struggling to deal with daily life. Just applying for ESA is an unnecessarily stressful experience. As a result of the incorrect information I lost two months of benefit and help with my mortgage which could not be backdated because there is a limit to backdating any benefits regardless of the circumstances.
The main form that you are required to complete is designed with two situations in mind.
1. You are suffering from an illness that makes you physically unable to work. You have to describe in minute detail how this affects every aspect of your life and is quite intrusive and personal.
2. You are mentally incapacitated to the point that someone has to complete the form for you.
There is nothing in between. The form simply does not deal with the whole spectrum of mental illness around depression. I made some angry notes on the form to that effect, but they were just ignored.
At some time later two things will happen. You will get called for a medical interview and a 'job-related' interview. The medical interviews, in my area at least are subcontracted to a company called ATOS who employ so-called health professionals to conduct an assessment partially based on what you wrote on the form.
The remainder of the assessment is anything but personal. They have a computerised system with a series of check boxes which they complete without showing you which boxes they ticked. They do ask you questions and also add some detail based on what you say. The outcome is simple. The boxes result in a score. If you don't score high enough, you are disqualified from ESA. I would advise anyone going to one of these medicals to get help from anyone you can, and know what they are supposed to do. Then, if they don't conduct the medical assessment properly, make a formal complaint to ATOS themselves and to the DWP.
More of what to do in a moment if you are scored too low to stay on ESA.
The other interview is aimed at trying to get you back into a job if you don't have one. The Job Centre gave me a leaflet for an organisation called the Shaw Trust. The leaflet claimed that they could 'get you access to training' by which most people would assume that they actually had funds to do this. Wrong. They have lists of other organisations which may or may not be able to fund the training you need, but it is very limited. What I would need, IF I was well enough to return to work is some very specialised very focussed training in specific software languages that have become the lingua franca of website development in the last few years. The Job Centre had already denied me this, so I'm not hopeful.
Now you would think that you would get the medical interview out of the way to establish whether or not you really were fit for work rather than putting more stress on you by forcing you to attend the job related one. No, the system is arse about face, a situation even admitted by the Shaw Trust.
At one of the job-related sessions the interviewer told me fairly bluntly that people with depression frequently did not tick enough boxes to stay on ESA. Therefore the sessions that I went through with them are now pretty well pointless, because once you are on JSA (the current name for unemployment benefit) a whole load of different conditions apply as to what training you can get. And of course you are then required to start a new claim for JSA with a whole load of new forms, no getting away with just going from one benefit to the other.
Moreover, you are then taken away from the people who were just getting to know about you and what you needed to get back to work and shoved back into the JSA system which is so overloaded at present it can't cope anyway.
I wrote a few months ago about the farcical situation of the Government announcing 'training initiatives' which just don't materialise at the delivery point. I can tell you that, according to a friend trying to get appropriate training from the Job Centre, those funds still are not available where and when they are needed. Still pie in the sky then. This was the previous blog post.
The alternative, which I found today that I am going to have to go through, is the appeals procedure for ESA. It is another stressful and upsetting situation which is anything but helpful for someone not properly recovered from depression and still getting their system back in balance on new hypothyroid medication.
What concerns me most is that processing these forms will result in a lapse of my benefits and even if they are re-instated and backdated pending the appeal, I may be without any income at all for weeks.
When I saw my new GP a week ago, she said that it could take another six months before I get my medication levels completely right and really start to feel well again. At least she is prepared to listen to me and not just rely on blood tests - more box ticking which led to the decline in my health in the first place.
There are very severe shortcomings in the way that ESA is being administered and my fear is that people who have been treated for depressive illnesses are being thrown into this back-to-work system far too soon and may relapse, possibly dangerously.
Before the latest economic decline, we were told that Incapacity Benefit was being replaced by ESA with the aim of getting more people back into work. Well Ms Cooper (Yvette Cooper is the new Minister for Work and Pensions) Mr Brown, there are even fewer jobs now and even less resources to help you get one.
Perhaps you had better just quietly adjust those tick-box scores and let a few more people stay on ESA where they should be anyway.
If some idiot at my local Job Centre had not given me incorrect information, I might have already been claiming the benefits to which I was entitled and had my previous GP had not been so totally useless my condition might have been better treated and things would never have got that bad. At least I had the strength to go and demand a referral to an endocrinologist and then the energy to insist I saw someone fully trained who made a change in my medication.
When I did get the right information from the Citizens Advice Bureau, which was to apply for ESA, the benefit that has replaced Incapacity Benefit, I was still struggling to deal with daily life. Just applying for ESA is an unnecessarily stressful experience. As a result of the incorrect information I lost two months of benefit and help with my mortgage which could not be backdated because there is a limit to backdating any benefits regardless of the circumstances.
The main form that you are required to complete is designed with two situations in mind.
1. You are suffering from an illness that makes you physically unable to work. You have to describe in minute detail how this affects every aspect of your life and is quite intrusive and personal.
2. You are mentally incapacitated to the point that someone has to complete the form for you.
There is nothing in between. The form simply does not deal with the whole spectrum of mental illness around depression. I made some angry notes on the form to that effect, but they were just ignored.
At some time later two things will happen. You will get called for a medical interview and a 'job-related' interview. The medical interviews, in my area at least are subcontracted to a company called ATOS who employ so-called health professionals to conduct an assessment partially based on what you wrote on the form.
The remainder of the assessment is anything but personal. They have a computerised system with a series of check boxes which they complete without showing you which boxes they ticked. They do ask you questions and also add some detail based on what you say. The outcome is simple. The boxes result in a score. If you don't score high enough, you are disqualified from ESA. I would advise anyone going to one of these medicals to get help from anyone you can, and know what they are supposed to do. Then, if they don't conduct the medical assessment properly, make a formal complaint to ATOS themselves and to the DWP.
More of what to do in a moment if you are scored too low to stay on ESA.
The other interview is aimed at trying to get you back into a job if you don't have one. The Job Centre gave me a leaflet for an organisation called the Shaw Trust. The leaflet claimed that they could 'get you access to training' by which most people would assume that they actually had funds to do this. Wrong. They have lists of other organisations which may or may not be able to fund the training you need, but it is very limited. What I would need, IF I was well enough to return to work is some very specialised very focussed training in specific software languages that have become the lingua franca of website development in the last few years. The Job Centre had already denied me this, so I'm not hopeful.
Now you would think that you would get the medical interview out of the way to establish whether or not you really were fit for work rather than putting more stress on you by forcing you to attend the job related one. No, the system is arse about face, a situation even admitted by the Shaw Trust.
At one of the job-related sessions the interviewer told me fairly bluntly that people with depression frequently did not tick enough boxes to stay on ESA. Therefore the sessions that I went through with them are now pretty well pointless, because once you are on JSA (the current name for unemployment benefit) a whole load of different conditions apply as to what training you can get. And of course you are then required to start a new claim for JSA with a whole load of new forms, no getting away with just going from one benefit to the other.
Moreover, you are then taken away from the people who were just getting to know about you and what you needed to get back to work and shoved back into the JSA system which is so overloaded at present it can't cope anyway.
I wrote a few months ago about the farcical situation of the Government announcing 'training initiatives' which just don't materialise at the delivery point. I can tell you that, according to a friend trying to get appropriate training from the Job Centre, those funds still are not available where and when they are needed. Still pie in the sky then. This was the previous blog post.
The alternative, which I found today that I am going to have to go through, is the appeals procedure for ESA. It is another stressful and upsetting situation which is anything but helpful for someone not properly recovered from depression and still getting their system back in balance on new hypothyroid medication.
What concerns me most is that processing these forms will result in a lapse of my benefits and even if they are re-instated and backdated pending the appeal, I may be without any income at all for weeks.
When I saw my new GP a week ago, she said that it could take another six months before I get my medication levels completely right and really start to feel well again. At least she is prepared to listen to me and not just rely on blood tests - more box ticking which led to the decline in my health in the first place.
There are very severe shortcomings in the way that ESA is being administered and my fear is that people who have been treated for depressive illnesses are being thrown into this back-to-work system far too soon and may relapse, possibly dangerously.
Before the latest economic decline, we were told that Incapacity Benefit was being replaced by ESA with the aim of getting more people back into work. Well Ms Cooper (Yvette Cooper is the new Minister for Work and Pensions) Mr Brown, there are even fewer jobs now and even less resources to help you get one.
Perhaps you had better just quietly adjust those tick-box scores and let a few more people stay on ESA where they should be anyway.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Still off topic, but angrier
Q. How many Members of Parliament does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. MP's don't screw in lightbulbs, they only screw the taxpayer
See here
A. MP's don't screw in lightbulbs, they only screw the taxpayer
See here
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Completely off topic
Sometimes you have to stop being angry for a moment and smile.
Read it all the way thru though cos it does have a point to make....
A young man married a beautiful woman who had previously divorced ten husbands.
On their wedding night, she told her new husband,"Please be gentle; I'm still a virgin."
"What?" said the puzzled groom. "How can that be if you've been married ten times?"
"Well, husband #1 was a Sales Representative; he kept telling me how great it was going to be."
"Husband #2 was in Software Services; he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me."
"Husband #3 was from Field Services; he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up."
"Husband #4 was in Telemarketing; even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver."
"Husband #5 was an Engineer, he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method."
"Husband #6 was from Administration; he thought he knew how, but he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not."
"Husband #7 was in Marketing; although he had a product, he was never sure how to position it."
"Husband #8 was a psychiatrist; all he ever did was talk about it."
"Husband #9 was a gynecologist; all he did was look."
"Husband #10 was a stamp collector; all he ever did was.... God, I miss him!"
"But now that I've married you, I'm so excited!"
"Wonderful," said the husband, "but, why?"
"You're with the Government.... This time I KNOW I'm gonna get screwed."
Read it all the way thru though cos it does have a point to make....
A young man married a beautiful woman who had previously divorced ten husbands.
On their wedding night, she told her new husband,"Please be gentle; I'm still a virgin."
"What?" said the puzzled groom. "How can that be if you've been married ten times?"
"Well, husband #1 was a Sales Representative; he kept telling me how great it was going to be."
"Husband #2 was in Software Services; he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me."
"Husband #3 was from Field Services; he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up."
"Husband #4 was in Telemarketing; even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver."
"Husband #5 was an Engineer, he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method."
"Husband #6 was from Administration; he thought he knew how, but he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not."
"Husband #7 was in Marketing; although he had a product, he was never sure how to position it."
"Husband #8 was a psychiatrist; all he ever did was talk about it."
"Husband #9 was a gynecologist; all he did was look."
"Husband #10 was a stamp collector; all he ever did was.... God, I miss him!"
"But now that I've married you, I'm so excited!"
"Wonderful," said the husband, "but, why?"
"You're with the Government.... This time I KNOW I'm gonna get screwed."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A country fit for heroes to live in?
This year will mark the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings. Every year, a number of those who took part and are still alive to remember D-Day make the crossing to France to see the beaches and coastal areas where they fought and where so many died for their country.
In a year when many of our D-Day veterans will have seen pensions and savings income cut and devalued, a few asked the British Government for financial assistance to make the trip and were turned down because 'it is not a significant anniversary'.
It now appears that they have backed down, and the MoD has agreed to help, but not before it was revealed that Gordon Brown had said he and/or his ministers would attend celebrations in Normandy 'if invited'.
There are huge security costs whenever senior Government members or Royal personages travel abroad, which is going to be far greater than the paltry amount that was being asked to pay a few ferry fares and hotel bills.
What could Gordon Brown have been thinking? How could he possibly imagine that he or any Government member have more rights to be in Normandy on 6th June this year than the veterans who want to travel to remember those who fought on the beaches, drowned trying to swim ashore or were shot or blown up in the water or on land.
A national newspaper has also stepped in to help fund the trip, but an offer of Lottery money was rejected. A representative of The Normandy Veterans' Association said that they did not want the Lottery Fund to take credit for funding the trip at the last minute after the Governent initially refused to contribute.
The sooner this selfish and inept bunch of politicians are kicked out of office, the better it will be for Britain and those who have defended our country and made great contributions to our proud history.
In a year when many of our D-Day veterans will have seen pensions and savings income cut and devalued, a few asked the British Government for financial assistance to make the trip and were turned down because 'it is not a significant anniversary'.
It now appears that they have backed down, and the MoD has agreed to help, but not before it was revealed that Gordon Brown had said he and/or his ministers would attend celebrations in Normandy 'if invited'.
There are huge security costs whenever senior Government members or Royal personages travel abroad, which is going to be far greater than the paltry amount that was being asked to pay a few ferry fares and hotel bills.
What could Gordon Brown have been thinking? How could he possibly imagine that he or any Government member have more rights to be in Normandy on 6th June this year than the veterans who want to travel to remember those who fought on the beaches, drowned trying to swim ashore or were shot or blown up in the water or on land.
A national newspaper has also stepped in to help fund the trip, but an offer of Lottery money was rejected. A representative of The Normandy Veterans' Association said that they did not want the Lottery Fund to take credit for funding the trip at the last minute after the Governent initially refused to contribute.
The sooner this selfish and inept bunch of politicians are kicked out of office, the better it will be for Britain and those who have defended our country and made great contributions to our proud history.
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