Dutch Bicycleman on the Isle of Wight

Vectis bus not for disabled?

2018-09-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

My wife is disabled, but has a very independent mind. Sometimes she likes to go places on her own, just to realise she is free to go wherever she wants to go.
But I always have to warn her that this is not a fact. She loves to travel, for instance by train and bus. That is already a challenge in itself, but I really had to tell her it is impossible to take the bus, line 8, from our home and travel to Newport directly.

This is the nearest bus stop, Seaview Lane. It's a few paving tiles big, a little space created in the middle of the shrubs. Two people can stand on it. The kerb is not lowered at all. No way a wheelchair can get up there.

The next busstop you can get to when you walk a bit further. It's called Nettlestone Manor. It's just a pole on top of a wall. The busy road is running next to it, no pavement at all. People actually get on the bus in the nearby bend in the road. There is an entrance to farmland over there. The pavement on the other side of the road is not lowered anywhere. The road is quite busy, being the main road between Ryde and Bembridge.

There is a next bus stop a bit further away, in front of the Isle of Wight Distillery. There is even a footpath, already out of reach for wheelchair users, but a barrier blocks it securely for them. We were once told this was to prevent horses, motorcycles and mopeds to get onto it. We explained to a councillor that this blocks wheelchair users to use a public path. It did not lead to any change.

So there is no option than to go to opposite direction, into Seaview. Above is the nearest bus stop, on Steyne Road, a walk/ride of 20 minutes. As you can see, there is no place where the kerb has been lowered to allow a wheelchair user to get on the pavement and get to the bus stop. I would say it's quite a jump with a wheelchair.
The distance from our house is no good of course. I can tell that I would be half way to Newport by car in the time it takes to get here.

A bit further from this bus stop, I can see the next one on Steyne Road. It would take no more than a few minutes to get there from this bus stop where I stood taking the picture. It has a lowered kerb, but I would say that the distance is obviously too far from our house.

Maybe you would think our situation is exceptional. It's not, I can assure you. It's obvious that the main thought while positioning bus stops is not that they should be available for everybody.
That is remarkable, I always thought that public transport should be for all.
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Creative with dog shit

2018-09-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

As a cat owner I miss out on a thing some dog owners seem to enjoy a lot.
It's the possibility to be creative with the shit of your dog. Like putting a flag on it.

The most boring thing is to just pick it up, put it in shit bag and throw it away.
There is already a little variety possible: put the bag somewhere or just throw it on the pavement.

I think the most difficult one is to create a slalom circuit. Probably nice for people in wheelchairs or mobility scooters to use. It requires a bit of thinking where you let your dog squat to do it's thing.
Another thing is to create a sliding circuit: spread the shit out so people can slide on it.

There are endless ways of getting rid of the shit bag. Putting it in a bin is far too simple. Why not hanging it on a nice spot, so everybody can admire your handy work?
Just look around and you'll see there are loads of nice spots to hang it.

If you are really into creating, how about the last picture I put on over here?
I'm not the most creative person, so I'm certain other people can make nicer arrangements, could make art.

Maybe we should start a competition: who is the most creative person with this material?

Enjoy!
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Winter Gardens and the lost Royal Victoria Pier in Ventnor

2018-09-15T09:51:00.001-07:00

Today we paid a visit to the reopened Ventnor Winter Gardens. We were looking forward to this because my wife and I both love a bit of history, especially from our island.
Soon came the disappointment: there was no way of visiting the upper floors. Nothing is done to make it accessible for disabled people.

We made our mood noticed to the Events Manager of the venue and she was very understanding, took her time to give us a personal lecture about the art deco building and it's history.
She also told us a lot about the pier that once was here: the Royal Victoria Pier. I found some pictures on the net: it must have been a remarkable thing.

The Winter Gardens itself had been a venue where the biggest names in pop and jazz history have performed. We have been given a list of the bands that once played here:
Moody Blues, Pretty Things, The Who, Zombies, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, The Tremeloes, Mr.Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Chris Barber and also forgotten bands like The Scapegoats, Nashville Teens, Heinz and the Wild Ones.

For some time the band in residence was Davy Jones and The Lower Third. It was the new band of Davy Jones, before that he was accompanied by the Manish Boys, but started with the King Bees.
The picture shows the band posing in an arty way, certainly instigated by Davy Jones himself.
A few months after this, he changed his name into David Bowie and went solo.

For some time in the early 80s the Winter Gardens had a skating rink, constructed of plastic and according to our lecturer not very well to skate on. It later became useful as the practicing room for a young musician, Mark King and his band. Later they became world famous as Level 42.

The pier burned down in 1987, after years of discussion the remains were removed in 1993. The Winter Gardens went through some troubled years. Was even sold for £1 in a very deplorable state.
But now it's restored in it's full glory. In it's restaurant you can have nice drinks and food.
Check the website: https://theventnorwintergardens.com/
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Future?

2016-10-10T05:46:00.001-07:00

It's 15 October 2021.

Theresa May is managing the Brexit as well as possible and maybe that is why the Conservatives have won the elections last year. She remained as the Prime Minister but reshuffled her cabinet a bit.

There is a constant flow of pensioners coming back from European countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece. The visas and permits to stay in these countries have expired and so they are forced to come back to the UK, often they have to sell property for a lot less than what the price normally would be.

There are already 600.000 of them and there are expectations that more than a million will follow. It has caused a housing problem. The Labour shadow cabinet has suggested that second homes and holiday houses should be used to solve this. The Tories have rejected this immediately, so the repatriates are forced to stay with relatives and friends.

A few weeks ago we received a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Amber Rudd that I should prepare myself to be removed from the country for the obvious reason that I am a European foreigner. Of course we made use of the possibility to oppose to this. I received a reaction on this that my case was being handled but that it would not have the effect for me to not send me to a Return Centre when my time was due. It would be possible that the decision had to be made while I was being prepared for being forced out of the UK.

We talked about this with relatives and neighbours, but nobody really knew what could be done against it. A neighbour said this all was impossible, it was so very not British. I reminded him of some history: concentration camps were an invention by the British during the Boer wars. They had been very efficient, I added cynically, one third of the inmates died. He tried to assure me things would not be like that nowadays.

A Pick Up Truck drove up to the front of our house this morning. In the back I could see the pharmacist and her family (Chinese), the cook of the cafe where we sometimes ate (American) and two women from the staff of the hotel in the village, who probably were Polish or Bulgarian or such. They all looked a bit cold sitting there unprotected.

Two men came to our door, their hair very short like military. They were wearing civilian clothes but had armbands on saying Assistant Police. They told me to get on the truck.
I asked them if I could pack some things first at which they reacted quite irritated. I had a three week period already to pack, they said but they agreed anyway. While I was busy doing this, one of the men was ordering me to hurry, "they didn't have all day".

My wife pleaded with the other man, saying I was her husband and her carer. He reacted that there were plenty of Englishmen who could do this too.
I had my things packed and I could quickly kiss her goodbye.
At the door she asked the men where they would bring me; they told her it would be the Deportation Centre of Colchester.

"But how do I get there to visit him?"
"You don't!"
They pushed me on the back of the Pick Up and I sat down next to the pharmacist on a blanket. My suitcase was thrown in after me and the men went in the car and hastily drove away. I fell over and before I could wave at my wife we were out of the street.
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Autumn on the Isle of Wight

2016-09-27T05:48:00.001-07:00

The summer season definitely is over. The population of our village is now back to 20% of what it was in the summer. The holiday houses and summer houses are empty, there are almost no cars on the street and the water of the Solent contains hardly any sailboats anymore.

We go to the pharmacy to get our yearly flu jab and coming out of it, we see an old lady wearing sunglasses and walking with a stick. We get into a talk with her about mobility scooters. She does not dare to go to far anymore, her eyesight is slowly disappearing. But she still likes to use it in the village. She is 91 and we admire her courage; we know quite a lot of people 20 years or more younger who don't dare to use a scooter.

The conversation gets to the post office. After it has been taken from us months ago it has been decided that we get a new post office situated in the pharmacy. We are very happy with that.
It was sad enough to see in the last years lots of good things taken from the village. Not only did we lose the post office, but also the lovely wildlife centre, the swimming pool, two restaurants, two pubs and the frequency of the visits of the library on wheels has been halved, just like the evening bus services. The nearest police station now is situated in Newport, not exactly in walking distance. Only the two churches remained and these are of no interest to us.

The three of us decide that the return of the post office is a good thing, especially for the elderly who often get their pension from it. The old lady tells us she should get on with things, get her flu jab.
"Bye, bye, I might run into you later", she says. "Oops, I don't mean that literally. Would not want to hurt you with my scooter." Laughing out loud she walks into the pharmacy.

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Tourist on our own Isle of Wight, 23 August 2016

2016-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today we made a lovely walk from Ventnor to Bonchurch on the Sea Wall. It was almost like we were on a different planet compared to being in Sandown the other day.

If you go into Ventnor, you get into the beach area with loads of little cafes and shops, even an art gallery. Nothing tacky, even the people on the beach looked different.

But our main goal was the walk to Bonchurch.

All the parking spots were taken, but the people must have all gone to Ventnor itself. The walk was amazing, great for people with wheelchairs or mobility scooters too. And very quiet. We hardly saw anyone. We spoke with an elderly couple about the weather and mobility scooters and they walked on; in Bonchurch we saw them again for a few seconds. For the rest: peace and quiet.

Must have been the best day this summer

The sky was completely without clouds, never saw this before this year. A sea without sailing boats or other vessels is a very rare view too for us.

Plaque on the Memorial

Memorial

View on Ventnor

A lovely path

Not just white cliffs in Dover

The rock is very brittle

Next year gone?

The white cliffs look wonderful, but the rock is very brittle. Pieces of the land fall down and this can make things dangerous. Not just for trees that eventually will fall down. We saw a plaque to commemorate the death of a 19 year old boy from Ventnor who got killed on this lovely path.

Bonchurch, pottery

In the pottery my wife saw a lovely clock. It would have been cruel not to have bought it for her.

It looks lovely on our wall.

A silvery sea

Walking back the sea almost looked like it was made of silver, the sunlight striking over it in an amazing way.

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Tourist on our own Isle of Wight, 22 August 2016

2016-08-22T08:48:00.005-07:00

Today we did what was planned for months: visiting the seaside town of Sandown.
From Seaview where we live it's only something like 20 minutes, but it is like you land in a different world.

The pier of Sandown

View from the pier of Sandown

View from the other side of the pier

We walked along the shore to the pier. On the pier it's quite a puzzle how you can get to the open air again. You have to walk through noisy arcades and Greasy Spoon-type cafetarias. In a wheelchair or mobility scooter the puzzle is even worse.

Fun on the pier

Outside you can't help but get shocked by the rude boards where you can make pictures of your children or yourself. I really thought humour like this was not done in these days.
Looking past them you can enjoy the view. The Isle of Wight is lovely.

Humour from a long time ago

Humour from a long time ago

Along the road named Culver Parade are traces of a great past. In the good old days the hotels in Sandown must have been packed with guests. It is very sad to see the state of these - once majestic - buildings.

A closed hotel

Another closed hotel

The closed Grand Hotel

It's better to look at the other side, the beach. At least when that is possible. Quite a big part of the beach is taken by cafes. A good thing that this is not the case everywhere. People still have fun on the beach with their children. The sea was a bit choppy, but that often makes the fun bigger for children. It's always nice to play with and in the waves.
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A Coat of Arms

2016-07-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

This is the Coat of Arms of the Amherst family. The first time I saw it, I was really flabbergasted. I originally come from the Netherlands where a big discussion is going on about Zwarte Piet, to be translated as Black Pete. This character is the servant of St.Nicolas who is the bringer of gifts to the children of the Netherlands in December. (Not at Christmas, but on the 5th of December, the eve of the Saints day of St.Nicolas.)

Black Pete fell out of grace by a lot op people, it is considered to be a racist thing. While the white man (St.Nicolas) is a wise man with a lot of knowledge, Black Pete is a dumbo. Because of being stupid he is supposed to be funny. Normally Black Pete is played by white people with black painted faces. A bit like the Black and White Minstrels, a music group from a few decades ago. They were not political correct, so their show on tv was abandoned.

St.John's House, Ryde

So to see this coat of arms in the Pearl Center in Brighstone on the Isle of Wight was a bit of a shock for me considering all this. I planned to write an article about it. I have found the Coat of Arms belonged to the wealthy Amherst family. I know they owned the St.John's House, near Ryde on the Isle of Wight. They probably owned the building where you can find the Pearl Center too. A pity I can't find any proof of this.

Pearl Center, Brighstone

The family Amherst has been a very influential family from the 16th century onwards. I can write a lot about them, but I discovered that an excellent article has been written by Nick Kingsley.
http://landedfamilies.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/121-amherst-of-bayhall-and-montreal.html
No need to repeat what he wrote.

It does leave me with the question: Should this image not be removed from the walls of the Pearl Center? I don't think it's something to be proud of.
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Teflon Man strikes again

2016-06-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

The last weeks have been very interesting for me and that is not an understatement.
Even if I had wanted to I could not have avoided all the turbulence that came with the LEAVE and REMAIN competition around the referendum of 23 June 2016 about the membership of the European Union. Even the fact that I had no right to vote in this referendum did not stop both sides bombarding me with propaganda.

The REMAIN side would hammer on about very gloomy expectations if it would come to a BREXIT; the LEAVE side under leadership of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Ian Duncan Smith of the Conservative party, and Nigel Farage of UKIP came with very optimistic stories, a bit like that a new Golden Age would come for the UK if there was going to be a BREXIT.

Boris Johnson

Some of the things that were being said by the Leave side were obvious lies and empty promises. Even I as a newcomer to the UK could see that.

Of course a new government was not going to put all the money not spent on the membership into the National Health Service.
Of course the UK would not have the profits of an European Union membership while not paying for it.
Of course there would not be free travelling for Brits in the EU, while people from the EU would need visa for the UK.
Of course the EU would not follow British rules in proceedings and such.
Of course leaving the EU will not stop immigration nor reduce the amount of immigrants.

It is hard to believe for me but a (small) majority of the Brits went for the empty promises and lies. So the United Kingdom is going to leave the European Union. The LEAVE campaigners must have not expected this. There is nothing to organise this. All they say is that there is no hurry.
European leaders are fed up with all the moaning and stalling and ask the British leaders to get on with it.

David Cameron

How did all this became possible?
For fear of losing too many votes to UKIP David Cameron promised the voters in the last general election that he would create a referendum about the membership of the European Union if he won. So there would be no need to vote for UKIP if you wanted this.

David Cameron won and kept his promise.
He accepted that the members of his government would campaign towards the referendum, so already allowing the country being led only half, The other half of his team was too busy with bickering in the campaign to do anything that would normally be their job.
I have the feeling that for most of these Eton boys this was no more than having a bit of fun. It would never come to a victory for the LEAVE side. But it did.

In the aftermath a petition has been started by upset people, lots of them voted LEAVE but saw this as a protest against David Cameron who had stated he was in favour of REMAIN. They never thought for a second it would come to all this. The petition is already signed by 4 million people but is swept aside as not relevant by David Cameron.

David Cameron made his decision clear after hearing the results of the referendum. He is stepping down as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservatives at the next convention of his party, in October. It is up to his successor to lead the UK out of the European Union.

From all around David Cameron is being praised. Like he has been the best leader of the Conservatives and the best Prime Minister ever. Firstly I was flabbergasted, but then I remembered my own little piece about his acting as a Prime Minister ( http://dutchbicyclemaninnorwich.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/teflon-man.html) and how he got away with lying three times about money that was stashed away to avoid paying tax. (This getting out through the Panama Papers.)
So Teflon Man did it again: nothing sticks on him.

The events around the referendum make me think of a cook who suggested that he will prepare a nice meal for a family. He creates the most awful meal possible and makes a terrible mess of the kitchen. The family is polite and say that the meal was very good.
The neighbours see the state of the kitchen and tell the cook that they expect him to clean up and replace what is damaged. The cook simply shakes his head: "No, the next person who will cook, will clean up."
And so...everybody cheers how great he is.

In the aftermath of the referendum a fight started about who will succeed Teflon man as leader of the Conservative Party and as Prime Minister. Not very surprisingly Boris Johnson withdrew himself as a candidate, so he is not getting his hands dirty either. It looks like Theresa May has to clean the kitchen. She was not in favour of a Brexit, but she is volunteering to be the next cook.
=========================================

4th of July 2016
Boris Johnson is having a good time, away from the fire that he helped to ignite.

Boris Johnson

But he can't help having an opinion when he sees a journalist; he tells the British politicians to move on as quick as possible. And drives away to more pleasant talks.

That is nice of the former cook, telling others to hurry in cleaning the kitchen. Still not volunteering to help cleaning up the mess he himself created.

In the meantime Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of UKIP. His ultimate goal in life - getting the UK out of the European Union - has been fulfilled. So he retires, for the third time.
A bit like a pop star or a football player. We wait for his next come back.

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage fits perfectly into the picture I described of the kitchen.
He is like a TV cook you really would not like to see in your kitchen, always swearing, drinking too much and being foul mouthed. Now he shouts out that they have cooked according to his recipe. He is ready to retire and write his memoires: "My Biggest Insults".
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Shit Talk

2016-06-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

The majority of dog owners nowadays take care of the shit of their beloved animals. But still some people don't do this; even the threat of fines is not enough to force them to do it. So I can understand that countries like Malaysia and Singapore have almost Draconian punishments. I do think this goes too far. But a solution for getting every dog owner clearing their own dog turds is difficult to find. It leads to a lot of anger for other people.

I've seen people marking dog turds with flags to show their annoyance.

I have been talking to some dog owners and most of them are outraged about the fact that they pay dog tax and have to clear the dog turds while horse owners don't pay tax for their horses and don't take care of the turds of their animals either. And a horse produces a lot more! It stays on the streets a long time while flattened out by cars. It makes it harder and harder not to step on it or ride through it when it really covers the street or the pavement.

There is a way to prevent horses to litter the streets. Maybe it's not comfortable for a horse; I don't know, there is no way to ask. But I think it would be very reasonable to demand from people who ride horses on the public road to use them.

The Horse Nappie:

I expect that more dog owners will obey the rules regarding dog turds when they are not confronted with piles of horse shit on the streets anymore. So there is a lot to gain with this.
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Waste and Recycling Collection

2016-06-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

Since the start of May 2016 we have a new firm emptying our bins.
Expectations were high: the whole procedure would become more green, there was going to be more recycling and more dividing of the recyclable materials. We were going to get two new bins: one for paper and cardboard and a black bin instead of the black trash bags we were using. These were often ripped open by crows, seagulls and foxes. They were too vulnerable.

Soon it was clear how the changes really were. The paper and cardboard bin was a little insert bin that had to be placed in the recycle bin. The thing was all shiny and new, but delivered a problem. No way it could be fit in our bin. It did not seem to be a big problem; I phoned the county council and the friendly civil servant assured me I would get a new recycle bin before the new service would start.

The next thing that amazed me was the fact that we had to start using the new garbage bin by putting bin bags in the new shiny bin. In these day we try to keep the use of plastic to minimum and here we are packing our garbage double. One thing is certain: no animal will get to the rubbish. Still I can imagine the scene of the dump with thousands and thousands of black bin bags. This is plastic that is not going to dissolve itself.

Today we saw the garbage trucks speeding through our street WITHOUT taking our rubbish. I had been careful: had placed the paper and cardboard out at the last minute, to prevent that it got soaked by the rain that had started earlier that day. I phoned the council to complain about it and after 30 minutes waiting to get connected I was sort of told off by a lady whose voice reminded me strongly of actress Jo Brand. I almost got the feeling this phone call was recorded for a comedy show where stupid people try to phone the authorities. Her story was that the bin man probably were called away.

Stupid me! Of course!

It's now months after my initial phone call to the friendly civil servant: the new recycle bin has not been delivered yet. The man who had to deliver the thing probably was called away too...
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An Empty Gesture?

2015-12-12T07:25:00.001-08:00

This year we decided not to send Christmas cards to anyone.
More and more people send their best wishes for a nice Christmas and an even nicer New Year on social media or mention them in a mail.
So no more need to sit together at the table and write the cards out. "How many left to do now?" Pfff.

Every year we would count the cards and there was always less than what we've sent out. What to do? Check lists? A bit like "Who unfollowed me on Twitter?" We never could be bothered to do that. If I'm honest it was more annoying to see people sending the same cards as they did in previous years, realising they probably bought them in bulk at Aldi's or Primark. Some cards would be too tiny or too ugly to hang them on the string. It always led to the discussion that we maybe should not send these people a card any more. In the end nobody would be erased from the list and on the contrary even more would be added, us being in a shame because we were certain we never had sent these people a card.

This morning a car stopped in front of our house and a woman got out. A man, maybe her partner, waited behind the wheel while she walked up to the front door. We waited for the doorbell; it never rang. The woman had gone back to the car and they had driven off.

The card was addressed to Alice and Ken. We know the names, they are the old couple who lived here till around Christmas last year. They were both in their nineties, she was seriously ill and he was her carer. That became impossible after a light stroke that struck him caused him to lose the feeling in his fingertips. The children of the couple decided they were better off living in a nursing home. The old lady died a few months later.

The sender of the card mentioned on the card was just Violet. It was obvious that this Violet never made the effort to visit the old couple in the last year and never tried to phone them. If she had done so, she would not have delivered the card in person. I think it is a bit strange to just put this card in the letter box; she could have tried to visit, but could not be bothered to do such.

The card was a Christmas card on which was added "a happy new year".
Why oh why did you decide to write and deliver this card Violet?
I'm afraid we'll never know.

One year later

A car stops in front of our house and a lady gets out, holding an envelope in her hands. She walks towards our front door and my wife gets to the door, asks her who she wants to give this envelope.
"To my friends Alice and Ken", she answers, "I live around the corner". She points in the direction.

My wife tells her the couple moved two years ago to Kent and that Alice died half a year later.
The lady thanks my wife and takes the envelope back into the car. It takes a few minutes before she drives away.

Maybe we will not get another Christmas card for Alice and Ken...
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A letter from Michael Moore

2013-01-04T03:25:00.000-08:00

I normally don't reproduce other people's material, but I think this should be read.
And it doesn't need any picture to brighten it up, that would only conceal the message.

Those Who Say "I Support the Troops" Should Just Stop, Out of Respect for the Troops a letter from Michael Moore

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

I don't support the troops, America, and neither do you. I am writing this as I have just learned of the suicides of two more of our active duty reservists who live here in the Traverse City, Michigan area. That brings the total number of soldier suicides (that I know of) in the past year, in this rural area, to four.

I am tired of the ruse we are playing on these brave citizens in our armed forces. And guess what -- a lot of these soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines see right through the bull**** of those words, "I support the troops!," spoken by Americans with such false sincerity -- false because our actions don't match our words. These young men and women sign up to risk their very lives to protect us -- and this is what they get in return:

1. They get sent off to wars that have NOTHING to do with defending America or saving our lives. They are used as pawns so that the military-industrial complex can make billions of dollars and the rich here can expand their empire. By "supporting the troops," that means I'm supposed to shut up, don't ask questions, do nothing to stop the madness, and sit by and watch thousands of them die? Well, I've done an awful lot to try and end this. But the only way you can honestly say you support the troops is to work night and day to get them out of these hell holes they've been sent to. And what have I done this week to bring the troops home? Nothing. So if I say "I support the troops," don't believe me -- I clearly don't support the troops because I've got more important things to do today, like return an iPhone that doesn't work and take my car in for a tune up.

2. While the troops we claim to "support" are serving their country, bankers who say they too "support the troops" foreclose on the actual homes of these soldiers and evict their families while they are overseas! Have I gone and stood in front of the sheriff's deputy as he is throwing a military family out of their home? No. And there's your proof that I don't "support the troops," because if I did, I would organize mass sit-ins to block the doors of these homes. Instead, I'm having Chilean sea bass tonight.

3. How many of you who say you "support the troops" have visited a VA hospital to bring aid and comfort to the sick and wounded? I haven't. How many of you have any clue what it's like to deal with the VA? I don't. Therefore, you would be safe to say that I don't "support the troops," and neither do you.

4. Who amongst you big enthusiastic "supporters of the troops" can tell me the approximate number of service women who have been raped while in the military? Answer:19,000 (mostly) female troops are raped or sexually assaulted every year by fellow American troops. What have you or I done to bring these criminals to justice? What's that you say -- out of sight, out of mind? These women have suffered, and I've done nothing. So don't ever let me get away with telling you I "support the troops" because, sadly, I don't. And neither do you.

5. Help a homeless vet today? How 'bout yesterday? Last week? Last year? Ever? But I thought you "support the troops!"? The number of homeless veterans is staggering -- on any given night, at least 60,000 veterans are sleeping on the streets of the country that proudly "supports the troops." This is disgraceful and shameful, isn't it? And it exposes all those "troop supporters" who always vote against social programs that would help these veterans. Tonight there are at least 12,700 Iraq/Afghanistan veterans homeless and sleeping on the street. I've never lent a helping hand to one of the many vets I've seen sleeping on the street. I can't bear to look, and I walk past them very quickly. That's callednot "supporting the troops," which, I guess, I don't -- and neither do you.

6. And you know, the beautiful thing about all this "support" you and I have been giving the troops -- they feel this love and support so much, a record number of them are killing themselves every single week. In fact, there are now more soldiers killing themselves than soldiers being killed in combat (323 suicides in 2012 through November vs. about 210 combat deaths). Yes, you are more likely to die by your own hand in the United States military than by al Qaeda or the Taliban. And an estimated eighteen veterans kill themselves each day, or one in five of all U.S. suicides -- though no one really knows because we don't bother to keep track. Now, that's what I call support! These troops are really feeling the love, people! Lemme hear you say it again: "I support the troops!" Louder! "I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!" There, that's better. I'm sure they heard us. Don't forget to fly our flag, wear your flag lapel pin, and never, ever let a service member pass you by without saying, "Thank you for your service!" I'm sure that's all they need to keep from putting a bullet in their heads. Do your best to keep your "support" up for the troops because, God knows, I certainly can't any longer.

I don't "support the troops" or any of those other hollow and hypocritical platitudes uttered by Republicans and frightened Democrats. Here's what I do support: I support them coming home. I support them being treated well. I support peace, and I beg any young person reading this who's thinking of joining the armed forces to please reconsider. Our war department has done little to show you they won't recklessly put your young life in harm's way for a cause that has nothing to do with what you signed up for. They will not help you once they've used you and spit you back into society. If you're a woman, they will not protect you from rapists in their ranks. And because you have a conscience and you know right from wrong, you do not want yourself being used to kill civilians in other countries who never did anything to hurt us. We are currently involved in at least a half-dozen military actions around the world. Don't become the next statistic so that General Electric can post another record profit -- while paying no taxes -- taxes that otherwise would be paying for the artificial leg that they've kept you waiting for months to receive.

I support you, and will try to do more to be there for you. And the best way you can support me -- and the ideals our country says it believes in -- is to get out of the military as soon as you can and never look back.

And please, next time some "supporter of the troops" says to you with that concerned look on their face, "I thank you for your service," you have my permission to punch their lights out (figuratively speaking, of course).

(There is something I've done to support the troops -- other than help lead the effort to stop these senseless wars. At the movie theater I run in Michigan, I became the first person in town to institute an affirmative action plan for hiring returning Iraq/Afghanistan vets. I am working to get more businesses in town to join with me in this effort to find jobs for these returning soldiers. I also let all service members in to the movies for free, every day.)

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
@MMFlint
MichaelMoore.com

Exchanging one risk for another

2012-12-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

My attention was drawn towards this article http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/21/britain-deploy-troops-gulf-cameron.
It all sounds very attractive: troops withdrawn faster from dangerous Afghanistan. The Afghan troops can handle things themselves, they will be able to fight off the Taliban/Al Qaida.
Being a bit older it has a very familiar ring to it: things went like that in Vietnam too. And half a year later the so called very able troops were smashed by the Vietcong.

Next interesting thing is the 2.5 Billion deal: selling Typhoon jets and stationing more military in the Gulf, the states of the UAE. It sounds very attractive, too good to be true. A nice flow of income and a nice friendship with the UAE.

The reality is a bit different. The jets and the troops are meant to give protection against a big neighbour. I don't mean Saudi Arabia but Iran. In the states of the UAE is a lot of unrest you hardly hear about in the UK and other western countries. The states are ruled by wealthy and powerful families, their heads - the emirs - are in fact no more than dictators. And the people want more democracy.

The problems are enlarged by the fact that the ruling families are sunnis while an overwhelming majority of the people are shiites. The shiites not only want more democracy - like I mentioned before - but even more freedom for celebrating their own holy days and holding their processions like they have done for centuries. The ruling families fear these celebrations because they often lead to riots and more demands for freedom and democracy.

Because the ruling families lack enough protecting forces often the Saudi army is called for help and they have employed an official militia with arabs from other countries. The militia is very provocative and has caused riots by itself. It has led to bloodshedding and even imprisonment of doctors and nurses who dared to treat the wounded. The story that has been made up is that the medics were hiding criminal looters and telling lies to the international press about was what going on.

5th fleet

The interests of the western countries here is a bit different than in the cases of the revolutions in Egypt, Lybia, Tunisia and Syria. Because all eyes are on big bad Iran. Everything is about protecting the region against this country. Because of that there is the American 5th Fleet in Bahrain. So it is important to keep the situation stable (like it is).

I see a big risk in this. The Americans and soon the British will be considered by the people as an occupying force with all the risks involved. As military who help to keep the ruling families in their power. So the people will go to to the streets to have demonstrations and even riots. Knowing that Al Qaida was born in this region (NOT in Afghanistan and certainly not in Iraq) I'm afraid that this will cause reactions from people who are related to Al Qaida too. We have seen what these reactions can be: bombs in western capitals.

So this nice article about a 2.5 Billion deal makes me worried.

Going to the Norwich Playhouse

2012-11-09T15:02:00.001-08:00

And yet another experience! Going to see a comedian, to see John Shuttleworth.
It was the first time for me to go the Norwich Playhouse. According to my wife there would be no problem going over there with the wheelchair.

John Shuttleworth

We were a bit early and decided to have a drink in the theatre bar. It was quite a struggle to get in because the entrance was narrow, there wasa threshold and there were people sitting very close to the door.
It was packed so we drank our drinks outside with the smokers. We were lucky it wasn't that cold and it didn't rain.

After the drink we had a bigger struggle to enter the Playhouse from the garden. Another threshold and an automatic door closer that made it almost impossible to enter. My wife had to get out of the wheelchair to be able to get in. Together we held the door open and took the wheelchair in.

After getting in my wife wanted to go the toilet. It was surprising to see the ladies' toilet down a flight of stairs and no way was she able to get there. We were discussing this situation when a nervous lady walked up to us. According to her badge she belonged to the staff. But she had no idea how we could get to the toilet or even to the theater... as another stair was involved. According to her she was new to the staff of the theater.

My wife already decided to forget the toilet. A ticket seller came to join our little gathering. He told us he had a solution for coming in. We had to wait a bit until things were not that busy. He left us and went back to his place behind the counter.
After a while he came back to us and explained to the nervous lady what to do and gave her a small torch . So she helped us to get out of the building and we walked around into a pitch black alley. Her torch didn't help a lot. A door at the end was openened by the ticket man. The lady jumped up and down a bit while we entered the side entrance of the theater.

Indoors the first thing that caught our eyes were the stairs. Even entering the theater like this meant that we had to climb down a bit to reach our seats. We managed and I was asked to put the wheelchair downstairs at the sideof the path. Later a woman with a zimmer frame was asked to do the same; she had to climb without it even more steps than us.

I looked around and could not help to make a remark about the theater. Only the most needed things have been taken care of. There is a stage, lights, seats and stairs leading to them. The walls have been left like they were after this storage building was changed into a theater. A few windows have been taken out and the opening have been filled with bricks. It was Funny that John Shuttleworth made exactly the same remark which caused a big laugh from the audience. It was a very enjoyable show and even while I could not grasp everything I had a few good laughs.

Indoor wall in the Playhouse

After the show we had an hour before the pubs would close (11 PM), so we went to the nrely opened Norwich Tap House which is pretty near. We had heard that one of our favorite types of beer is being served over there.

To get in the pub took great effort. There is a threshold of more than a half meter, so my wife again had to leave her wheelchair and we carried the wheelchair in together. The staff watched the scene interested.
While my wife visited the invalid toilet (with a difficult entrance for a wheelchair) I found that they really had Westmalle Double. So I ordered and we enjoyed it. A bit pricy, so we decided to enjoy it double!
And it also had to be the last one too. Taking the last sip my wife ordered a taxi and we struggled to get outside while the staff very interested looked at the scene again.

We were lucky again, no rain and the taxi came quick. The driver asked if we were okay putting the wheelchair in. It was not very easy but I managed while the driver patiently waited behind the steering wheel.
Interesting evening it was!
==============================================================

Struggling after curfew

2012-11-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

We were aware of the way the cutbacks in Norwich work.
After 12 PM no more streetlights in the neighbourhood.
But yesterday we were really surprised.

There is the luxury of the Fat Cat Brewery Tap closing it's doors at 12, so we don't have to gulp down our drinks at 11 PM. But we realise that when we go home after 12 the streetlights will be off in the neighbourhood. So like the law abiding citizens we are, we go home a little after 11 PM.
We didn't realise that the cutbacks were getting worse!
Reaching our neighbourhood at 11:40 PM we saw the street in complete darkness. We were lucky that it was not totally clouded, so the moon gave a little light. It's obvious that the County Council decided to turn off the lights at 11 PM!

We already made the City Council aware of the bad condition of the pavement on lots of the streets we have to use and the parked cars don't make things better. Things are quite difficult that way when using a wheelchair.
Yesterday we saw a car that had been parked ON THE PAVEMENT. So we were forced to walk on the street and without any lights that's a very risky business. People in cars will notice you only at the last moment. This already has been the cause for deadly accidents.

I keep thinking about the City Council and County Council as an organisation that sells you a product.
You pay tax and in return you get good roads and good lights on the streets.
Like when you go to a bakery and you pay money and you get a loaf for your money.
The City Council and County Council do things differently.
First they demand your money by council tax and then they do a very surprising thing.

Think of your baker asking the mouldy loaf back, opening the package and removing 6 slices.
Complaining about this didn't help, the County Council is not returning our 6 slices to us.
Instead they now decided it will be 7 slices!

What's next?

Serco

2012-10-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

My wife was really amazed getting a letter from Serco in behalf of the NHS.
This was completely new! The National Health Service was always fully capable of sending their own letters.
The letter my wife got was sent at a totally wrong moment. It made us think what this was about. Why is Serco sending these letters and what is Serco?

We found out at the website of Serco what this company is doing exactly. That the name is short for Service Company is obvious. (http://www.serco.com/media/pressreleases/index.asp)
And on Wikipedia you can find a wiki about Serco: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco
You can see that Serco is a division of RCA and RCA has been bought and split up before selling by General Electric. If General Electric still has an interest in Serco is not very clear.

Serco has a remarkable field of interest. They are exploiting nuclear power stations, prisons, electronic tagging devices, border guards, railroads (even involved in Abellio, a joint division with Nederlandse Spoorwegen), buslines, metro lines, traffic monitoring, drivers license bureaus, parking meters, speed camera systems, laboratories, education controls, leisure centers, waste collection services, nuclear weapons, naval bases, air traffic control, health care and so on and so on. Revenue in 2011 was 4,646.4 million pounds.
And they are slowly getting a grip on the health care in the UK (just like Richard Branson's Virgin company).
It's very disturbing to see that health care is seen as a way to make a profit.

And I think it's more than worrying to see how much power Serco has in the world. Imagine a world where Serco merges with for instance Facebook and you would have a controlling system over the people in a way George Orwell (1984!) could never even have dreamed of.
Of course that they are dealing with the health care in the UK and showing that they don't know what they are doing or should be doing is mere irritating. And is bad for the reputation of the NHS.
But what can we do?
=========================================================

A Reorganisation (part 1)

2012-09-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

Working for the Objections Department at the Tax Office meant working in a thorough manner. Most of our letters consisted of three quarters of legal humbug. But it had to be done that way because the next step might be fighting in court against the plaintiff. We were bound to strict rules regarding the time we were supposed to spend on a case. Officially we had 6 weeks after receiving a letter to handle the case so far that the decision was mailed. In some cases we were allowed to extend that time to 10 weeks. The customer (like the tax payer was called) was to be informed in time to do this. And only if he would say that he agreed it could be as long as both parties thought was needed.

This time schedule was difficult to maintain. One reason was the slow delivery of letters in the office: to register a case would often take 2 weeks for the system; to make the calculations by the central system would take 4 weeks. This was needed to be able to send a standard decision to the plaintiff and to the department responsible for collecting the right amount of money.

At least this was the best possible way, because often the computer systems didn't work and the civil servants couldn't do anything else on a day like that than drinking coffee and reading the newspapers.
Most of the systems were quite old. Even people with hardly any knowledge of computers are aware of the fact that systems working under MS-DOS are extremely old in 2008 or 2009. Because of cutbacks there was no money to improve things on a short term.

If you wrote a letter you had to give a reasonable time for the plaintiff to react, say 3 weeks. And in a reminder there would be a term of 2 weeks. If you count these weeks you'll see that the limits were slightly impossible.

In 2008 and 2009 Parliament reacted on complaints made by people to members. It was demanded that the pace of making decisions speeded up.

So a new system was introduced to register the complaints and objections. But NEXT to the already existing system. The workers was told that this double work was needed to make the management able to follow the whole procedure on different cases and to see if some workers needed extra guidance regarding their slow way of working. (Even in 2012 the management could not get any information from the systems. When workers got a review about their way of working the responsible manager would say that he had the impression that things went okay.)

The next step was to centralize the incoming letters. So letters would often get into the department on Monday, they had to be sent to the central post unit and the department would get them back the next week.
A lot better!

A manager came up with a brilliant idea. If you phone people you get a quicker response. Of course the workers were already aware of this, but the higher management considered this a breakthrough. The workers should be trained to phone people. So workers with 30 sometimes even more than 40 years experience were sent to workshops where actors would curse behind screens. After a few months the management calculated that a certain part of the job was been done with just a phonecall. A success!
It was never measured how much was done with just one phonecall before this training.

All this made the workers less happy in their job and we lost almost one third of the workers in the department because they escaped to other jobs in or out of the tax office. So we needed more and more support from other departments to help us out. Of course they also had their own jobs to do, so the work for the objections department was thought of as a secondary task. Things altogether went slower again.

At the end of 2009 the management decided to put more pressure on the workers. A task force of legal experts was sent in to bully the workers to work to a higher speed. Of course this led to a selfdeclared success and the bullies were rewarded with a bonus.

In 2010 a new system was introduced so things would improve, no more working with MS-DOS on this but with Microsoft XP, while the department still was using Microsoft Office 1997 for letters, spreadsheets and such. But the system did not work on it's own, it needed support from another new system. Both systems were very vulnerable and often workers were having days of drinking coffee and reading newspapers again.

The management had enough of this and had a brilliant solution: A REORGANISATION!

Efficiency at Barclays

2012-09-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

Barclays Bank has been in the news regularly in the last months and every time it was not exactly positive.
Libor scandal and laundering of criminal money were the most shocking things that popped up.
Here in this part of the city of Norwich the local branch is going to shut down.
So what to do with a small sleeping account in this bank? Cancelling the account is very logical.

We were near the biggest branch of Barclays Bank in Norwich so decided to go in and do this.
On entering we were stopped by a young man. He asked what we wanted in the building. So we told him.
He took us to a lady who was already talking to another couple. She was writing their names down on a pad. Our names were written down too and we were asked to take the lift to the first floor and wait in the waiting area.

The lift was nice and the waiting area existed of a few settees which were comfortable. Around the waiting area there were workspots where workers of the bank were talking to customers. When they finished with a client they walked downstairs with a notebook. It was soon clear that they had to ask who was next to be dealt with.

Working spot

They would come back and ask that person to follow to a workspot. Things went quite slow; in one workspot there were three guests, one had to stand because there were only 2 chairs for guests.
A lady next to us started complaining about the Bank. She was quite annoyed about how slow they worked.
I suggested internetbanking but she said she hated this. "If help is needed you get the helpdesk in Mumbai and can't understand any of the advice".

After some time a lady with a pad came up to us and asked if we were there. She also asked the name of the person who was standing in the workspot. He leaned over the top and shouted that he was already being served. The lady assured us that we would be helped soon.

Two people from workspots left after their guests were gone. They didn't return as far as we could notice. The 3 persons in the workspot next to us left and that worker went downstairs. She came back and called our name and we followed her. We explained what we wanted and within a minute everything was taken care of.

We took the lift again. Downstairs long queues were formed in front of the counters. The young man and the lady were still busy writing down names.
We went out and felt like having an icecream.
==========================================================

Steeple Chase with a wheelchair

2012-08-18T07:55:00.001-07:00

After having stayed in Norwich for a few months, I'm getting used to the poor condition of the pavements here. So I keep my eyes in front of my wife's wheelchair and try to prevent bumping into holes.
At least I can do that. It's impossible for me to keep the wheelchair completely upright when the pavement is really crooked, I'm in peace with that now. Sometimes the pavement makes you almost need to jump, but pushing a wheelchair, that's impossible. Try to do the steeple chase while pushing a wheelchair!

No possibillity to get off the pavement

Walking along I have noticed that cars are certain of getting good care. Wherever needed the kerb is lowered so the tires will not be damaged. It's really a priority.
Secondary in care is the way people in wheelchairs, on mobility scooters and with strollers are treated. It takes me quite some strength to lower or uplift the wheelchair off and on the pavement where the kerb is not lowered.

Blocking access totally

The people with cars have their own worries. The streets are often narrow (the city is old or wide streets maybe too expensive) so when they park they seek safety and so park their cars on the pavement.
That pedestrians are forced to walk on the road is not their problem. And of course the same goes for the people in wheelchairs and such.

The car is safe!

It causes dangerous situations. More than once cars have passed us by while honking for minutes. I wouldn't like to try to walk with the wheel chair after midnight. In the neighbourhood it's pitch black because the local government is trying to save 20 pounds sterling a year for every streetlight they don't use in the night. So the lights in the neighbourhoods are switched off between midnight and 5 AM.
So we are restricted to the house after midnight.

Blocking the pavement totally

My hope is that in the future the city council would do more about access to the pavement for people in wheelchairs and such. Maybe a member of the council should sit in a wheelchair and experience what the people do. Maybe car owners could consider the space for pedestrians and people in wheelchairs a bit more while they are parking their car. I do understand that they don't want their property being damaged, we can only hope that the city will provide more parking space where this is needed.
=====================================================

Teflon Man

2012-05-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Some people say that all the travelling and exploring of outer space only gave us one good thing: teflon.
It's almost hard to imagine that there are frying pans without this material. It's great that our food will not stick to our pans like in the old day. You had to soak pans to be able to clean them.

Former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok

When I, as a Dutch man, look at British politics and especially at the Government, I am amazed.
In the Netherlands the prime minister, ministers and even the whole Government will step down when something happens that can be named a scandal or wrong doing. Even when things happened in the past, this might occur. For instance: The Dutch cabinet of Wim Kok stepped down after the reports about Srebrenica were published.
It all happened years before, but they accepted responsibilty for the things that went wrong even when they were not even in power at the moment when more than 7,000 moslem men were slaughtered by Serbs.

David Cameron and George Osborne

In the United Kingdom we see David Cameron and his crew sticking to the power, while everything that can be blamed to them is gliding off them like their career is polished with teflon.

Rupert Murdoch with his wife

I have seen plenty of good reasons for them to step down. Let's see if we can remember them:

1. The scandal of the phone hacking by News of the World, the Sun, tv station Sky News and maybe by more of the newspapers of the Murdoch's News Corporation.
Murdoch's men were even hired by the government. I name Andy Coulson. He was hired after some pressure from George Osborne, who doesn't even have to appear in front of the Leveson inquiry.
Murdoch's men were put in high positions within Scotland Yard. I name the daughter of Neil Wallis, deputy editor of the News of the World. Wallis was later arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications. This only cost Assistant Commisioner John Yates his job. He will not be punished; it has been declared that "he made a poor decision".

Rebekah Brooks and David Cameron

David Cameron was a good friend of Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World, who got arrested a few times because of being a main person in the hacking scandal.
David Cameron had several nice conversations with Rupert Murdoch. It seems that for help on the buying of more shares in tv channel BSkyB Murdoch was promising good support for the Tories. (He has been a very important money contributor in the funds of the Conservatives since the days of Margaret Thatcher.)
It didn't stick to David Cameron!

Peter Cruddas

2. Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas told undercover journalists that for 250,000 a person can get real influence on government business. For that price you can enjoy a dinner with David Cameron at 10 Downing Street, which is public property, yet used for party interest. Cash for access this was named. It seemed normal policy.
It only led to the resigning of Peter Cruddas. The whole story was dimished by naming it mere boasting of this man.

Chris McManus

3. The failure of freeing Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara in Nigeria.
These men were taken by terrorists on May 12 2011. It was said that the British and the Italian government would work together on getting them free. Yet the Italians were informed at the moment the mission impossible already was taking place. Both men were killed during the liberation action of British forces and Nigerian military. The Italian government was furious. Nobody in the British government was blamed for this.

4. The scandal of the obligation for people getting an unemployment benefit from the State to work for free for supermarkets like Tescos and ASDA for periods up to 6 months. This with the threat that their allowance would be stopped if they would quit or get fired. When this became public knowledge the rules were adjusted a bit.
Nobody in the government was blamed for this either.

LibDem's Nick Clegg

This all makes me really astonished.
When somebody is being blamed it's just a person lower in rank in the system. And mostly nothing happens.
So nothing can happen to David Cameron and his crew?
I think they underestimate the common British people. They are fed up with it and show it. Not only were there some fierce student demonstrations but unions showed too that they are angry.
And the local elections of May 2012 made things even clearer. The Tories have lost 1/3 of their councillors in these regions. The LibDems of Nick Clegg lost even more, as much as half.
The next national elections will show exactly what the people think of all this scheming and dealing.

May 15 2012
Rebekah Brooks is arrested together with 5 others for perverting the course of justice. One of them is her husband, a friend of Cameron for some 30 years.
By now we know that Mrs. Brooks and David Cameron were texting on a very regular basis.

Andy Coulson

More news:
(Former) Communications chief of David Cameron Andy Coulson (former employee of the Rupert Murdoch corporation was hired without the normal procedures of screening. This never happened before in history with any prime minister.

May 31 2012
Andy Coulson has been accused of perjury yesterday. According to the police he has been lying under oath about his knowledge of the hacking of phones.

Lady Warsi

Lady Warsi, the co-chairman of the Conservative Party is under fire about dishonest claiming expenses.
She claimed having expenses because of having to stay in London. But she seemed to have stayed in the house of a friend for free. So there were no expenses. Now she states she payed someone else.
Her claims will be investigated by a parliamentary commision.

Lady Warsi is very important for David Cameron. She is a very outspoken lady. After losing the latest elections she declared that Labour was the real losing party for not gaining more seats. It was a real landslide, Labour gaining more than 850 seats in local councils.
She was parachuted in government by giving her nobility. After becoming a baroness she could get a seat in the House of Lords and so get into the government.

The dirt gets closer and closer to this government.

In other countries the coalition party (LibDems) would step out of the government and would stop supporting it. Nick Clegg is not doing this because this would lead to elections. Having elections in this period would be a disaster for his party. It would be swept from parliament.

June 4 2012
A bit of news again.
There are new developments in the Lady Warsi case.
She admitted not to have included rental income from a flat she owns in Wembley in her income in the Lords register.
More and more politicians ask her to step down from government while investigations go on about her falsely claiming expenses about renting a house while she stayed there for free.
The person accusating her is Wafik Mustafa, an influential conservative man who runs an Arab Network.

She apologised for not letting be known that she owned a business together with a relative. This company was involved in outreach events of the British High Commission in Pakistan.
David Cameron has asked Alex Allan to check if no ministerial code has been breached.

Jeremy Hunt

And then there are the problems Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, got in.
He had to handle the bid of Rupert Murdochs company News Corporation on BSkyB, taking this over from Vince Cable who had quite a bad relation with News Corporation. He was supposed to look at it in an unpartial way, but it has been proven that he had a very warm contact with the bidder. Even giving him important information without being asked.
This was initially denied in the House of Commons. More facts and messages to and from Murdoch showed up at the Leveson inquiry.
Within 25 minutes after being questioned, David Cameron could already tell Jeremy Hunt did nothing wrong in the process. This while most people are convinced that Hunt has lied to the members of the House of Commons.
The problems already caused the resignation of his special advisor Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

Maybe things now really start to move. Nick Clegg was being asked if he would support Hunt in the House of Commons. Clegg refused to tell the reporters he was going to do such a thing.
Without the LibDems supporting him Jeremy Hunt will not get through a voting about his functioning.

June 5 2012
Amazing!!!!
Even the celebrating of the Queens Jubilee can result in a scandal.

The stewards under the London Bridge

The pageant needs to be guarded, people guided and protected so private companies are hired to give safety. Because the police can't do it, caused by cutbacks and therefore shortage of policemen.
But the private companies want to do things cheap.
So the Work Experience Program came in very handy.
The firm Close Protection UK "hired" 80 jobseekers and persons on "apprentice" wages to do the work.
They were transported by buses from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth to London.
They arrived at 3 AM and had to wait under London Bridge till the morning.
Then they had to change clothes in public, putting on a sort of uniformed clothing. The women in this group were told that they could change in a bus. Because the bus was closed they had no choice but to change in public too.
This group of stewards had a work day of 14 hours without payment, working under the threat of losing their benefits if they would refuse or not delivering a good job.
After their long working hours they were brought to a swampy area where they had to sleep in tents.
For 24 hours they had no access to a toilet.

Molly Prince

The managing director, Molly Prince, denies that the group has been exploited. She stated that the clothing was worth 100 pounds. And she added that if her company will get in trouble because of this, it would result in the firing of hundreds of workers. And she will evaluate what happened.

Lord Prescott

Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott has questioned Theresa May, the Home Secretary, about the whole thing. Asks if no laws or employment standards has been breached.
Of course you can ask too if safety of the public wasn't at stake. The stewards were not qualified for this type of crowd controlling work. I don't want to think about what could have happened!

Theresa May

In a country like the Netherlands the Home Secretary would be declared responsible and there would be a lot of people asking her to step down. Again, I'm very interested what will be the result.

July 24 2012
It just became clear that Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have to stand on trial because of the listening in on phones and the messing around with texts on phones. Against Coulson there are 4 accusations, against Brooks 3. With them there are 6 journalists who worked for News of the World who will face charges.
So again: the legal threats are getting nearer and nearer to David Cameron. How can he ever be sold as trustworthy again?

Then there is the continuous ridiculous story about the safety for the Olympics. Company G4S was given a contract worth lots and lots of money. But more and more it became clear that they totally screwed up.
How can you train your staff handling x-ray scanners in 20 minutes? It's clear that you can't.
G4S was going to supply 10,000 security people. Only a fortnight ago they admitted they could only submit 7,000, so the military have to fill the gap by sending 3,500 personnel and they have already 1,200 extra close by in case it will show that G4S is causing a bigger gap. A good example of how you can make a mess by privatising security.
We already saw that during the celebration of 60 years of governing by Queen Elizabeth the "voluntary" security staff had to spend the night under a bridge and had to change clothes in public view.

December 1 2012
Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks will stand on trial because of phone hacking and bribery.

J.K.Rowling (one of the victims who spoke out)

Today and yesterday there was a lot of discussions about the Leveson report about the abuse by the Murdoch press. Leveson comes with propositions about having more control of the press.
David Cameron won't have any of it, is not going to do anything with the report.

The report

The victims are very angry: they ask why they had to go through all their misery again giving evidence to Leveson and his committee while the prime minister knew in advance he would not do anything against Murdoch and his newspapers. Now members of parliament are thinking about making a new law based on the report themselves.
David Cameron will get away with it. Like always.

I expect that Rupert Murdoch slowly will sell his British newspapers and will withdraw from the UK totally. In the meantime he already bought the Dutch tv rights on Eredivisie football (and is expected to buy the rights on the national team as well). And he owns a large part of SBS, so he can give the Dutch what the British are despising: Murdoch's way of giving the news.
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Darkness

2011-12-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

It was very surprising to see that the County Council of Norfolk did what they already announced last year.
Street lights are turned off in parts of the city of Norwich. About 4,000 lights are switched off. It was announced this would be between 12 and 5, giving a saving of £ 35,000. Keeping on a light extra is costing
£ 20 per night. Last night I noticed lights were off from 1 AM till 6 AM. It was a cloudy night, so pitch dark.

There were a lot of protests to prevent that this would happen, but the council has dismissed every complaint.
Predictions that streets will especially be dangerous for women have been rebuffed by statements that lights will be kept on on streets where there is CCTV. So these streets have double protection while others are kept totally in the dark. Should women restrict themselves to these streets? How to get into the neighbourhoods?
The streets in neighbourhoods are in the dark.

What happened to the 24 hour economy in the UK? Everything has to come to a standstill at 12 (or 1 AM)?
The government is going to decide for the people at which hour they should be in bed? What will happen if criminality really will rise, when people will feel less safe on the streets. Turning the lights on again?
I fear that will not happen. I predict more police on the streets, demands on harsher punishment. Should there be a curfew?

After 11 PM there is hardly any bus transportation. All pubs should close at 11 and people should have to rush home by foot when they don't own a car or can't afford a taxi. Going to the theatre will cause problems for these people for the same reason.
The Council doesn't care for people doing shifts that cause them to go home on nightly hours. Better paid jobs and people who own their own business mostly will not have these problems. So this will mainly hamper the lower classes.

It reminds me a bit of what my parents told me about the times when the Germans occupied the Netherlands.
The years 1940 till 1945. There were curfews and police was patrolling the streets and would shoot on sight. Shoot first, ask questions after a hit, was the policy.

I just saw a very significant article: Brasil surpassed the UK on the list of the largest economic countries.
Which will be next?
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It's the last day of the year 2011. I just read this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078947/Street-lights-dark-road-soldier-killed-Christmas-Day-accident-switched-save-cash.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
The first victim because of this stupid decision!
Does this mean that a life is worth £ 35,000?
It really makes you think!

January 4, 2012
A storm passed England last night. It happened to be the night that the good people of this neighbourhood are supposed to have their bins out. They are always emptied very early in the morning.
This time the wind decided to blow them over and empty them.
Normally this would have been a nuisance, but with the lights out it was really terrible. I could save our bins but the rubbish was already untraceable when I got to these bins and their lids. This morning I saw at the end of the street a garden filled with the rubbish of our bin and some more. The poor neighbour was trying to clear his garden. With some light I'm sure we had been able to prevent this at least a bit and the same goes for other neighbours. We only had a little torch.
There is still a lot of rubbish on the street, not sure where this came from. I'm certain it will not be cleaned by the city.
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2011-12-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

How Governments show they are busy with fighting the crisis

It was not hard to notice in the news that both British and Dutch governments were showing how determined they are finding solutions for the economic crisis.
The Dutch government is allowing the people to speed up on the highways; 130 will be the standard instead of 100 or 120. In the Netherlands on certain highways there was even a limit of 80 because of fighting the air polution. The right wing government of Rutte noticed that the air quality has improved so in their opinion there is no objection anymore to speed up a bit more. In my opinion the pollution will be at the same height as before the speed limitations. And it will be more costly to drive a car because of using more petrol. The only people who will really see a profit are stockholders of oil companies.

Another brilliant idea came from the Dutch minister of Education. People should be more concerned with their children in school. So they should be more busy to control childrens' hair on lice and help with reading in class and so on and so on. She gave herself as an example for the population. She is and was a very busy person so she hired a nanny who also helped out in the schools. People should put their children on the first place and maybe should even work less. The professionals already warned against this: parents should not interfere with the new methods schools are using for educating mathematics and reading. The only result would be that children will get very confused.
And this all is very contradictionary to what the economics in the government want: everybody should work more for less salary and work longer too. And mothers should not stay at home, no more kitchen subsidy for couples! Everybody has to get a job.

Lice mother

Both ideas don't help fighting the crisis at all. Only thing is that it doesn't cost the government a penny.
The common people will pay for it.

David Cameron and George Osborne

In the United Kingdom you see similar things.
Historic is the campaign that has been started about having a keen eye on your older members of the family during the Christmas period. People should report signs of dementia to their GP.
Does David Cameron think that common people are educated in health matters? I would expect GPs to become very busy with reports about people's parents and grandparents being a bit forgetful. If this really would be carried out loads of people over 50 will reported about. It's well known that at about that age memory is working less good. The elderly should be cautious celebrating Christmas with the family...

An elderly person

Another idea is : The Big Society.
It's all about a retreating government sold under the name of restoring old social networks and so giving people a greater feeling of safety and possibillities of getting help from their neighbours and family instead of from the government. More social control will get the streets safer and will get people of drug and alcohol abuse. Volunteers should take control in neighbourhoods and charity should take over from government funds. It's all based on the theories of Phillip Blond. He expressed his thoughts in the book "Red Tory".
This all should be subsidised by the government. The money needed can be found in dismantling certain government agencies and stopping subsidies in companies that work for the government.
My problem with this all is for instance that all depends on the common Brit, the wealthy will have no part in this. I can imagine easily how people get home dead tired from their underpaid job, having a fast meal and then have to go out to do their voluntary duties.

Phillip Blond

We here see the same as in the Dutch case: it's all on the cost and responsibility of the common people.
I do hope in both countries enough reasonable voters and politicians will recognise this and will vote against it or will speak out against it.
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When you are born being 10 pennies you will never become 20 pennies

2011-09-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

In the Netherlands we have an ancient song ("Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent, word je nooit een kwartje"). Translated into English it would be something like "When you are born being 10 pennies you will never become 20 pennies". I had to think about this when I read an article about poverty in the Netherlands.
In the article they came to the conclusion that in the Netherlands 15% of the children will stay in poverty when turning into adults.

Homeless in the Netherlands

Children's poverty has a bad influence for the social life of children; there is a chance of isolation. Poor children will never go on a holiday, will not join in schooltrips, will not give their friends in school a treat when they have their birthday, will not have a birthday party and will wear "funny" clothes.
What is even more important: poor children achieve less in school.
For the parents having a job is not a guaranteed solution for ending the poverty. Because of low wages and the high cost of living it's often needed that there are two persons in a household with a steady income.

I wondered what the situation would be in the UK.
I found alarming figures and I understand that Nick Clegg has intentions to fight children's poverty; at least there is a plan. The future will tell us how much really will be achieved while national cutbacks are still going ahead.

Poor neighboorhood in England

I will try to compare figures against each other.
In the Netherlands 6.2% of the population lives in poverty; in the UK 23%.
In the Netherlands 311,000 children live in poverty, that is 9.1% of the children; in the UK 3.5 million, that is 30% of the children.
The unemployment rate in the Netherlands is 4.1%, in the UK 7.8%.
Of the 27 countries in the European Union only 6 countries do worse in statistics about poverty.
These are: Croatia, Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Malta. Two countries are on the same level as the UK regarding poverty: Italy and Spain.

Foodbank in Norwich (UK)

In the Netherlands 15% of the children in poverty will remain in that after becoming adults.
I did not find a calculation of this for the UK, but other graphics and statistics make me believe this is more than 40% in the UK.

Foodbank in Amersfoort (the Netherlands)

Clothingbank in Amersfoort (the Netherlands)

I had thoughts about this, there should be a reason why there is less elasticity in changing from position in society. I can only think about the more awareness about your own class in that society. It's completely the contrary of the old American dream : newspaperboy that fights his way to become a millionaire.
It's really an absence of ambition and hope for a better future.
I do hope the program of Nick Clegg will bring a change in this, but again: I have my doubts.
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UK resembles Iran in this case

2011-08-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

In the summer when temperatures are getting nice, a common spectacle is a water fight between children. They will attack each other with water pistols, supersoakers and waterbombs (little balloons filled with water).
And it's not surprising that students do the same and even organise elimination competitions. They act like snipers in a sort of gang war that can take weeks. A person who is shot wet, is declared "dead" and out of the game.

Water fight in the Netherlands

Water fight in Thailand

It's not surprising either that throwing and shooting water at each other is popular in other countries too. When you go on the internet you can find loads of pictures of water fights.
The water fight can even be found in the Guinness Book of Records: in 2007 there was a water fight of 2,671 people in Spain.

Water fight in Thailand

You can even see water fights in reality shows. This is a picture of a fight on the final episode of Jersey Shore on July 31 2011.

Water fight in TV programme Jersey Shore

First it strikes you as odd that in Iran dozens of youngsters have been arrested by the morality police because of taking part in a shameful and corrupt event. Some were forced to go on TV and admit they had been acting against the law. Because of the water, niqabs were sliding down and the girls were showing too much hair and sometimes the forms of their body could be vaguely distinguished. The mullahs and ayatollahs probably never were young themselves. I think the youth should be able to have some fun. But we know rules are very strict in Iran.
I read that these water fights are organised on Facebook just like they are in other countries.

Water fight in Tehran, Iran

Water fight in Tehran, Iran

It really hit me as very amazing to read that in Colchester (U.K.) a young man of 20 has been arrested because of organising a water fight on Facebook. His arrest is based on a law dealing with heavy criminality installed in 2007. A second man was arrested but later released without charges.
It shows the danger of the super soaker for British society!
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