Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

I have no problem with people adopting innovative alternative lifestyles and respect their right to live the way they want. I'm f*£ked if I'm going consult their FB page to see what their preferred pronoun is today before addressing them. If it quacks like a duck and it waddles like a duck, it's a f*£king duck.

This the guidance for completing the questions on sex, (normally answered "yes please" by males or "not today thank you, I have a headache" in other cases), orientation (currently north-east in my case but will be west when I go downstairs in a minute) and gender (usually requiring a three hour search for your birth certificate just to be sure) in the upcoming Census.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censu...tionforthe2019censusrehearsalforthe2021census

As some statisticians and their dogs have pointed out, if you can put anything you like in the compulsory question on "Sex" and then not reply to the optional question on "Gender", then the whole thing is a waste of time as nobody actually knows what's in your trousers and the rest of the thing is pointless.

 

Daily Telegraph reader please sensible......wouldn't use the Daily Star in your old outside loo if there weren't any toilet paper available.

The world is falling apart with political correctness...it is totally going mad....every statue, every building, every school, every stately home, every leader from the past must be erased from history......I'm secretly hording every piece of DARK chocolate I can get my hands on....you could call it in future 'not very white chocolate'...but of course being white is something that we have to apologies for anyway....and I used to enjoy in the old days watching the 'Black and White Minstrel Show'....who used to be on the old black and white telly....oops you can't say that any more.....did you know you can adjust your telly settings so it only shows black and white....behind closed doors with the curtains drawn of course.

Just an aside....when my mum was in her eighties I had to buy her a new telly....She insisted that it had to be black and white...because colour ones don't look realistic...I found it very difficult finding a suitable telly....anything bigger than 14 inches was too big...she said......I bought her a colour one and tuned it for only black and white....and she never knew.

In the interest of political correctness I have to admit that when doing my National Service in Aden....I had employed a Dhobi Wallah to do my laundry....he did the whole landing of our block....that would have been between 30 to 40 servicemen....he charged each of us 5 shillings a week ( 25p today....but quite a bit back then 1961/62 )....I was earning only two pound five shillings and six pence in the RAF per week at the time....so I wasn't exploiting him in case the correctness police look back 60 years into my sad life and come knocking late at night.

 

notDistant.......So if what's in your trousers is pointless....then your a female.....

 

I've got a penknife in mine. It's a bit pointless as it's ancient but it definitely isn't female. I don't wear the pants outside of my garden though just to keep within the law. It was my dad's and is used for chopping the heads off plants.

 

I read the story of Mr Potato Head on the beeb news site last night with the newspaper headlines they always show. It was only in the Star and was front page,

I have no problem with programmes like the Black and White Minstrel Show because that is what was popular in it's day and people didn't give one thought to anything racial. It was seen as a light entertainment programme and that was all. I also used a Dohbi bloke when out in Bahrain back in the mid 60's. He was very well paid in comparison to others locally and he certainly didn't think he was being exploited. Average wage was only a couple of pound equivalent for others at the time and he got a whole shed load more than that. He also employed others which was good. Mentioning colour or race in context is not a problem for me. Using it where it isn't necessary is when I do. It is only the way out people who want to be offended who get upset at black and white TV sets and the colour of a chocolate bar. I also don't agree with expunging history just because the person being remembered has a shady part in their life. You cannot re-write the history and if they have funded something from the proceeds then it exists and to tear it down serves nobody.

 

Been looking at footage of that bomb being exploded in Exeter.....if that was a controlled explosion all I can say is I hope that I'm never around when an uncontrolled one detonates......the damage to property over a far larger area than they expected is going to be quite a bill....maybe send it to Germany.

 

It was a big bomb Plym, 2,000 lbs I believe, too corroded to be moved or defused safely. It had been covered with 400 tonnes of sand so I'm not sure what else they could do.

 

They could hardly stick it on a lorry and drive it through town to the countryside could they. If the people want to complain, and I understand they are miffed their properties were damaged, then if they find another one let those go and defuse it themselves. Bet they wouldn't be so keen then. It's not the Authorities fault the thing was there in the first place. Chances are a lot of people are still sitting on unexploded bombs and hopefully will never know.

 

They will never know any rate if it goes off......

 

10th anniversary of the clubs administration today.............just a distant memory.

 

Not really relevant now is it. Bad time in our history leading to the current decent owner and better football all around. Don't think we are likely to go down that route again anytime soon. Oh hang on another bid for a World Cup is on the table...................darn.

 

Filled in the census form today.....I see that they expect you to do it on your mobile, tablet or computer....if you want to do it with pen and paper you have to request that so that they can send you a copy.
I see that it was delivered by hand (some council employee on overtime I expect).....so no one coming around to collect it like in the old days and checking it out....but of course the questions were straight forward in those days....now it is far more complicated.....having established that I am male and married...my wife was still going under the title of Husband or Wife...and so many variables to choose from besides wife as well.

 

Hand delivery by the Council actually saves money for the taxpayer. Compared to postage they get paid peanuts to deliver it and if it is in working hours then it is not on overtime at all. As for the questions. There were two personal ones which weren't compulsory to answer. The rest were just standard straight forward ones. If you do not complete a form either by electronics or by written form then they will come around and insist you do one or the other. Just like the old days. To refuse response is to risk prosecution as it always was. I know because I have been one to knock on doors and advise they comply and when abused informed the person they will end up in court for a principal. The reason I knocked on the door was to try to avoid having to let them be taken to Court. Some people just need a nudge.

 

So....if Plymouth becomes a 'Free Port' what will it mean to the city....and the surrounding area.

 

I'll let you know if and when it happens. There has hardly been a fountain of info so far just sound bites.

 

Goods arriving in freeports don't bear the tariffs that are normally due and they aren't paid either when the goods are exported again. Tariffs would only become due if the goods were shipped out of the freeport to the UK. They are used to facilitate entrepot trading and are a bit like a giant bonded warehouse: a good example is Hong Kong. How that works in relation to the EU as the biggest nearby market, God only knows. I don't think goods necessarily have to landed in the freeport as long as they are transported directly to it but the lack of a major seaport or airport must limit the benefit compared to the other UK sites such as Southampton, Felixstowe or East Midlands Airport.

Usually though these areas get favourable tax treatment on investment and this could encourage manufacturing and engineering companies to set up down here to take advantage of lower wages and dockyard skills whilst being able to move stuff in and out without paying tariffs. We may need that as the it seems the Government is to scrap two frigates as part of the defence review and that the the existing maintenance facilities won't be big enough to accommodate the new Type 26 frigates or I think the Vanguard submarine replacements. Perhaps the Government will spend millions, billions more likely upgrading the sheds or perhaps they'll spend on the Tyne or somewhere to buddy up to their new voters in the North.

 

I do remember that back in the early 1960's... Aden was called a free port....having done my national service there...I can remember buying electrical goods...such as mini radios or battery operated record players at very reasonable prices because of no taxation....which was handy on my wages.....this was the beginning of Japan taking over the market place with such equipment.....I've still got a mini radio (in a leather case and with ear plug speakers) from those days....about ...3x2x1 inches in dimension and over 60yrs old...doesn't work any more....inside the printed circuitry was quite heavy duty soldiering.....but in those days it seemed quite revolutionary....I do remember a few years before that my parents having a battery radio.....it came in a small suit case and was powered by a very large Exide battery which was heavier than a 2lb bag of sugar and roughly the same size....so my Aden radio was light years ahead in design and to me rather amazing....and great to take down the beach which you could do 365 days of the year in Aden.

 

Oh another few worries for Plymouth. It's also rumoured that the Marines will be reduced in size and become a special forces type operation and the two amphibious assault ships which are based in Plymouth will be decommissioned. Apparently beach assaults are a thing of the past, as are mine hunters: that flotilla is rumoured to be scrapped in favour of autonomous drones (yet to be developed).

We may need that freeport.

 

Boris had his jab today. Apparently he didn't feel a thing even though we all know he should feel a little prick. With his ego though that's never going to happen is it............even though we all know he is.

 

Bet you spent hours on that one!!