Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

Maybe so but a file there will still be.

 

I was listening to Radio 5Live this morning where they have various discussions and people phoning in. They played an interview with the father of the 7 year old who died on the dinghy recently. He was telling how the boat became overcrowded and that he lost contact with the girl in the crush and couldn't move himself as he was trapped under the weight of people. He was heartbroken which any father would be in those circumstances. He went on to explain after composing himself that he had tried and tried to make an asylum appeal 14 times before he went for the water crossing option for him and his family. That is him, the wife and 3 kids. Several of his kids were born within the EU. He wasn't successful and was down for deportation back to Iran which he had originally fled.

Once the above broadcast was finished it was open to people phoning in with opinions. I was disgusted beyond belief with one particular bloke who rang in. His only opinion was that it was the man's own fault his daughter had died because if he hadn't chosen to break the law and become an illegal immigrant then his daughter wouldn't have died. Therefore the bloke phoning had no sympathy for them. I find that opinion and attitude totally shocking. Is that really how some people think in this world.

 

He had tried to get asylum in quite a few EU countries and he had been refused......He got married whilst in the EU and his children know nowhere else and have been schooled there....his children spent 7yrs living with relatives in Sweden....Belgium...France and Finland where also amongst the countries that they had tried for asylum.....and he had been told that Basra in Iraq was a safe place and that is why he was refused.....Why would they consider Basra was safe....it seems like a weak excuse to deport him and his family who had never been to Iraq.....He said that he had not felt safe because of the groups of militia there.....so he left 14 yrs ago.

 

Well this typical of the hard cases that lurk within the immigration statistics.

It seems harsh that children would have to be deported to Iraq who'd been born in Europe. But then, if the immigration systems grind so slowly as to allow that to happen, then if you aren't careful, having a kid will be the easy route to getting the right to stay.

We also need better systems that allow those in genuine risk to come to safety quickly and in a controlled manner.

Lastly, since we have a generation that don't seem willing to work, I don't see what's wrong with allowing a reasonable number of people to come here to work and to ensue they have decent working conditions while they are here. That would require that we provide the necessary health and education facilities to support them. At least then we'd be creating new assets in the UK rather than paying to have them set up in Rwanda.

I saw a Conservative, I think a junior minister, interviewed just after the Rwanda bill was passed. He again tried to make the point that the Lords and the Courts had been obstructing "the will of the people". That's irrelevant. The question is whether it's fundamentally right or wrong. A small child being crushed to death in an overcrowded rubber boat is fundamentally wrong.

 

Just been around the corner to do my duty and vote in the London Elections.

The hall was crowded because it's becoming more complicated and taking longer....first your ID then they spend time telling you how to do your voting....three large voting papers in different colours .....one to vote for the London Mayor.....one to vote for a local councillor for London.....and one to vote for another council member by voting for a party.....then you need to put them in the correct box of three according to the colour....you wouldn't believe how it confused people....I bet a few wrong colours went into the wrong colour box.

Of course all this was made easy to do with a 44 page booklet showing you every candidate and party etc....it started with index pages showing you what was on each page......one slight problem....no page past the indexing pages had a NUMBER ON IT.......(I know there was 44 pages because I counted them).

There where 12 parties to choose from plus 3 independents..... amongst the candidates for Mayor was.....Count Binface of the Count Binface for Mayor of London Party.........Brian Benedict Rose of the London Real Party.........Femy Amin...Animal Welfare Party.........Amy Gallagher of the Stand Up To Woke Party..... and of course Laurence Fox independent....couldn't even bother to give us a write up of what he believes.
Sadiq Khan's write-up never mentioned ULEZ or his pay by the mile ideas once...I wonder why.....if he gets re-elected again it will show how London has gone to the dogs.

 

I lose that argument "the will of the people". Which people would that be then because it certainly isn't my will and nobody has asked me anyway. Fact checking will find that it may be "the will of some people". Clearly that bloke on the phone in is one.

 

I see Boris Johnson had forgotten his voter ID when he turned up to vote. Isn’t that typical of the man and the Prime Minister he was?

 

Well the people whose will matters has been boiled down to small numbers of white working class voters in northern constituencies. They traditionally voted Labour but more recently have voted Tory in the expectation that their brown skinned neighbours will be bussed to the coast and pushed into the sea.

I think that’s a fair assessment don’t you?

The people that don’t matter are those who habitually voted Tory, wouldn’t use the Daily Mail even for the dogs to crap on and won’t vote Tory again until someone admits Brexit was the stupidest idea since the Pharoah decided to follow the Israelites into that funny hole that had appeared in the Red Sea.

 

I think he was just checking if he was recognised anymore.......

 

This global warming thing seems to be on hold in the south-east at the moment.

Early May and I've only managed to cut the grass twice....the first time it took three days because of the rain....the second time I did it in one day...but it was noticeable the lack of growth because of the cold weather.

The third of May and we are still having a boost of heating first thing....Mrs Plym finds it difficult to get ready for the day otherwise.

In past years we have only put the heating on no more than 50% of the time in the mornings during April....this year for the first time ever it's been on in May.

Okay Mrs Plym has been seriously ill in the last 9/10 months and needs the heat more....but even so it has been an unusual winter and spring....with well above average rainfall and so far only one or two days that I have felt able to sit on the patio.

 

Duplicate

 

It's a sign of aging when you start repeating yourself notDistant.

 

Ah I thought that was yesterday. It’s because if you start something on one device but don’t post it, in then appears as un-sent in your other devices.

 

What?

Anyway, Boris will do anything for a bit of publicity.

As for heating I still have mine on and in other years turned it off much earlier in April and occasionally by the end week in March. I have storage heaters so it is either on or off. We are not cold bugs in our house so it must be cold if we haven't switched off by now. As for the grass I have cut it twice so far and it needs another cut now. I feel obliged to cut it so I have stuff to put in the bin I pay to have emptied every fortnight.

 

Had to smile at a cartoon by ...MATT...on the front of the Daily Telegraph today.

Shows a picture of two MP's.....running like hell away from Westminster ....standing nearby are two horses.....one says to the other...."Something seems to have spooked those Tory MP's.....

PS....in case you hadn't seen the story earlier in the week...it is a take off... of those Guards horses that had been spooked and bolted through the streets of Central London......and of course the election results coming in yesterday.

 

Bearing in mind we have at least two lawn fetishists in the group (I no longer have a lawn), I thought I'd pass on some grass related information.

Someone I know well took part in the pitch "invasion" after the final whistle yesterday. He tells me that there may not be many more such opportunities so this was his first incursion. It is amazing how short that grass is and how level the surface. Just like a billiard table he says. And firm... quite unlike a lawn.

 

Unfortunately part of my lawn is comparable with the North Downs....not too far from here.
One area is at present also comparable with a sponge.
Wet enough for a snail to have met an untimely end......of course I don't spend quite as much as PAFC do on keeping it so pristine.....in fact I spend nowt at all.

 

Bromley...2-2...Solihull Moors........F/T.....Bromley win 4-3 on penalties.

My local team will be in Div Two next season.

 

For my prize of winning the prediction league.
The Wife and I are taking a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska on the Celebrity Cruise Line.
Cheers.

 

You didn't read the small print BC. The actual prize is a self drive canoe ride........