27 AUGUST 2025

Pump sorted - normal service resumed

4 AUGUST 2025

Castles on the Rhine

26 MARCH 2025

Tulips from Aiberdeen

2 JANUARY 2025

Windy, wet and frothy Sandend

JUST BLAME THE POLICE

Lancashire Police are being criticised for releasing sensitive information about a missing person's medical history.  However, it has been revealed that some media outlets were pestering the family for the details, some even prepared to pay a fee.

In consultation with te family, the details were released to keep the media away.

Perhaps the media should be lambasted for their lack of sensitivity rather than the police for trying to get rid of the circling vultures.

OH NO, I FORGOT, ITS THE MEDIA WHO WRITE THE STORIES AND WHY WOULD THEY CRITICISE THEMSELVES?

UMPA LUMPAS IDENTIFY AS NON GENDER SPECIFIC!

It has been reported that hundreds of changes have been made to Roald Dahl’s original texts. For example, in The Twits, Mrs Twit is no longer “ugly and beastly” but just “beastly”. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, references to people being "fat" have been changed to portray them as "enormous" and the umpa lumpas are now "gender neutral".

I am sorry but those of you whose feelings are dented by the use of certain words need to get a life.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE LANGUAGE IN MR DAHL'S BOOKS, I SUGGEST YOU DON'T READ THEM.

WHAT A PANTOMIME

It is being suggested that Pantomimes should be banned.  Apparently, they are not woke enough and promote gender stereotypes.  They are full of sexual innuendo and crude jokes and children should not be exposed to the kind of world where princesses need to be rescued by smiling princes and kiss frogs in search of a good looking husband!

They are not gender fluid (whatever that may be).  But hang on a minute...are the ugly sisters not usually men and is buttons not usually a girl?  That seems pretty gender fluid to me.  If the sexual content is innuendo, does that not imply that the interpretation lies with the individual?

My kids loved the panto, my grandkids loved the panto, I loved the panto.  It is entertainment for all.  It is a bit of escapism for an afternoon.  It always expression "Oh no it doesn't...oh yes it does"

Why do we continue to give a media voice to these people who want to get rid of fun, humour and laughter. 

Here's a simple solution. "IF YOU DON'T LIKE PANTOMIMES....DON'T GO.  BUT SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME TO MAKE UP MY OWN MIND"

HAVE A HOLIDAY ON ME, THE TAX PAYER

The Department of Work and Pensions has issued guidance for those claiming Universal Credit who want travel abroad on holiday.

Their advice...you can claim your benefit for up to a month or, if someone is ill, three months.

Hang on. In my niaevity I thought you got benefits to supplement low incomes, for disabilities and a variety of other earning related reasons.

So, if your earning so little, how come you can afford to travel abroad.

I PAY MY TAXES TO BE USED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COUNTRY (INCLUDING UNIVERSAL CREDIT) NOT FOR THE HOLIDAYS OF SOME INDIVIDUALS.

OBSCENE OIL PROFITEERING

Shell were first, and now BP are telling us they have made huge profits, £7.1 billion between July and September,  more than double the profit they recorded in the same time period last year.

That's 3 months PROFIT, not income!

In an environment where inflation is rampant, poverty is prevalent and people are concerned about rising utility bills, these oil companies need to have a really close look at themselves.

DO SENIOR OIL EXECUTIVES SEE WHATS HAPPENING IN COUNTRIES ACROSS THE WORLD WHILE THEY ARE RAKING IN THE PROFITS?

I'M A POLITICIAN GET ME OUT OF HERE

Ex Health minister, Matt Hancock has "volunteered" to go on the TV show "I'm a celebrity".  Pressure groups say he is a disgrace after what he did to the NHS and the number of deaths from COVID.  Do people really believe that Mr Hancock he was personally responsible?

He says he is joining to raise awareness of dyslexia, a condition from which he suffers.

Hancock has lost the whip and has been sent to the political naughty step.  Maybe he has made the decision to change career? Who knows.

WHAT I DO KNOW IS THAT MR H WILL EAT MORE THAN HIS FAIR SHARE OF BUGS AND BEASTIES OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WHEN THE PUBLIC GET THEIR VOTE.

SOME PEOPLE HAVE SHORT MEMORIES - PART 2

Before Sunak was made PM, there was a suggestion that Boris Johnson would return to power.  He was being supported by party officials who seem to have forgotten what he was like when he was last in office, only 7 weeks previously.

Don't they remember that it was they that had sacked him?  He was fined for breaking the law (that he had written), he is still being investigated for misleading parliament and he was constantly apologising or blaming others for his mistakes.

YOU JUST HAVE TO QUESTION THE THINKING, AND MORALS, OF SOME OF OUR POLITICIANS.

SOME PEOPLE HAVE SHORT MEMORIES

Rishi Sunak has just been announced as the new prime minister.  Opposition parties, particularly Labour, say that he has never been voted into the post and are screaming that an election should take place.

I seem to remember that when Tony Blair remitted office in 2007, Gordon Brown was foisted on us without a general election and remained Prime Minister until the 2010 General election.

AN EXAMPLE OF DO WHAT WE SAY, NOT WHAT WE DO

IT'S VANDALISM, NOT PROTEST - PART 2

Our friendly "Just Stop Oil" protesters decided to decorate an Aston Martin showroom in London by spraying orange paint on it's windows then followed the groups M.O. by glueing themselves to the street outside.

In another act of peaceful protest "Animal Protest" vandals entered supermarkets all over the UK and poured milk from the shelves, all over the floor.  How does this help animals?

The courts should take a stern view of these clowns and, as well as issuing an appropriate sentence, should order them to pay for undoing their stupidity.

THESE IDIOTS SHOULD BE MADE TO PAY FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

IT'S VANDALISM, NOT PROTEST

The latest staged events by, so called, protesters are nothing less than vandalism.

Two "Just Stop Oil" protesters entered the National Gallery in London and threw tins of tomato soup onto the painting of "The Sunflowers" by Van Gough then glued themselves to the wall.

The police freed them from the glue and arrested them.  Personally I would just have left them there,  stuck to the wall, with their tomato soup for sustenance.

DO THESE IDIOTS REALISE THAT THEIR "ORGANISATION IS AGAINST DRILLING FOR OIL, NOT AGAINST USING OIL TO PAINT PICTURES IN 1887?

MINI BUDGETS OR FISCAL POLICY?

The new Chancellor of the Exchequer  has, in three days, thrown out all the policies set by his predecessor and presented a completely different vision for the country's finances going forward. 

Every minister in HM government is dependent on their advisors and officers to set out options and advise them on the best way forward.

So, the people who advised Kwasi Kwarteng on his disastrous and ill fated fiscal policy are the same people that have devised Jeremy Hunt's attempt?

How come they didn't give the same advice to Kwarteng and save him the igmony and embarrassment of being sacked, OR did they, and he thought he knew better?

WE NEED ADVISORS GIVING BEST ADVICE AND POLITICIANS THAT LISTEN.

IT'S A TV DRAMA

Some commentators are getting in a tizz because Netflix are making a drama about the royal family - "The Crown"

Apparently the script writers are using poetic licence and some of the scenes are not historically correct.  The media are suggesting that this might undermine and have a detrimental effect on the Royal family.

Well feel free to set me straight but, isn't "The Crown" a drama and not a documentary?

How can the figment of someone's imagination undermine the establishment?  

It isn't real, it didn't happen, IT'S FICTION.  Do the same critics not want to live in Emmerdale because of the number of disasters, or in Midsomer because of the murder rate?

GET A GRIP AND RECOGNISE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACT AND FICTION.

TIME FOR SOME UNITY

There is no doubt that the UK is in financial trouble at this moment.  The cost of living is rising faster than a Gregg's roll, and inflation is reaching an all time high.

Now is maybe the time for our politicians to ditch their party loyalties and all get round the table to get us out of this mess.

Watching them bickering, arguing, mocking each other and trying to point score will NEVER solve our issues.

THEY ARE ELECTED BY US TO LOOK AFTER THE PEOPLE AND THE INTERESTS OF THIS COUNTRY, THEY SHOULD ALL BE WORKING TOGETHER TO THAT END.

U TURNS ARE US

Less than a week after declaring that he was abolishing the 45% upper tax rate, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, has announced a "U" turn.

Political opponents are jumping on the band wagon to mock the government and call for Kwarteng's resignation.  These are the same opponents that were howling about how unfair the abolition was when first announced.

I don't think it should have been considered but I, for one, am pleased to see the government recognise their mistake and rectify it.

RATHER THEY LOSE FACE AND U TURN THAN TRY AND BRAZEN OUT A MISTAKE

A HOME SECRETARY WITH SOME COMMON SENSE?

The new Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has written to Police Chiefs in England and Wales to tell them that public trust in the police had been shattered.

She said there is a perception that police "have had to spend too much time on symbolic gestures, rather than actually fighting crime".  She has told them that initiatives on diversity and inclusion "should not take precedence over common-sense policing".

WELL SAID HOME SECRETARY. LETS GET RID OF RAINBOW DECORATED POLICE CARS AND COMMITTING TO SERVE EVERY MINORITY GROUP ISSUE AS A PRIORITY.  CONCENTRATE ON PROVIDING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL!

NOT TONIGHT, YOUVE HAD A SAUSAGE.

A pro vegan group in Germany are encouraging vegan woman to withhold sexual favours from any man who eats meat.

They argue that eating meat results in men breaking wind, and that the methane they produce damages the ozone layer. Interestingly, they are not suggesting vegan men should do the same with meat eating women.

Maybe meat doesn't have the same flatulent result in those of the female gender.

IN ANY CASE, I FIND THAT A BOWL OF VEGETABLE SOUP GENERATES MORE WIND THAN ANY RUMP STEAK.