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It’s always nice for politicians to have an easy target & for the Americans right now there’s no-one easier than BP, it doesn’t matter how much money they can throw at the Yanks, they’re still going to hate them, which is stupid. Okay if you were going to pick a group of companies that could be hated even more than the banking system then the oil companies are a fair point to raise, the profits they generate are obscene & they’re forever involved in the less democratic areas of the world in their endless search for fresh supplies. On any level despising the oil industry is peachy, it’s like loving the addiction but hating the dealers & we can all relate to that, after all it’s our way of life that spawned them & continues to feed them although we intentionally ignore this because it spoils all the hating & resentment. Even amongst the oil companies themselves there’s always one that gets to be singled out for a special dose of hating due to whatever disaster it caused or was attached to, at least until one of the other oil companies causes a fresh disaster & claims the crown back that it is. Right now BP is right up there as demon number one & if the oil spill had happened anywhere else in the world I’d be right there hating the company along with everyone else, but I can’t do it, it can’t be done & shouldn’t be done, as much as I’d like to join in with the abuse it’s just not right. (continue reading…)

Remember your teenage years? The hormones, the first tentative forays into the mysterious world of girls that you still haven’t really got the hang of? The knowledge that it didn’t matter what you wanted to do or whenever you wanted to do it there was no way of doing it? & the discovery that any attempt to do anything wondrously grown-up whether it was drink or sex related came with its’ own embarrassment potential? Of course you do, we all do as we now laugh & wince our way across the adult landscape that’s now somewhat less wondrous but at least free to be explored, well I bring news, if you’ve had kids then your teenage years are coming back. This is not to say that they’re coming back in a good way, just that they’re coming back & with a special twist in the tail to boot, you may think you suffered enough at the hands of your parents to be entitled to occupy their exalted position in your own home bit it’s not going to happen. We aren’t the same as our parents & far more to the point the teens today aren’t anything like the teens we were, we didn’t have expectations without limits & although we were just as selfish & lazy we never expected anyone to approve of it, you might have had it bad growing up but it’s worse when they do. (continue reading…)

People get paid for working, in some cases for those lucky enough they get paid a lot, sometimes when compared to the majority it’s a hell of a lot. Normally this isn’t a problem least of all for those getting the money but now that the BBC trust has waded in the BBC is going to have to come clean about how much it’s shelling out at the top end. This does raise a few interesting points, the first being whether it’s any of our business to know & if it is just how much we need to know? Is this just an exercise in good management & transparency or a way for the struggling commercial channels to gain a few steps on the public sector? It’s certainly true that if we carry on in this way then the capacity of the BBC to deliver the current quality of programming is bound to be affected if asked to compete with those who can pay what they like. It’s also subjective as well, we all have our favored personas & those we can’t stand watching, will this be the criteria needed to judge who’s worth what? & if it is who gets to say so? At this rate the accountants may as well be booking the performers which can only mean a much steeper drop into the realm of awful TV that caters only to the lowest common denominator. (continue reading…)

Officially we should be pleased, compared to a lot of other teams that headed to South Africa with high hopes we’re looking pretty good, okay so we can’t seem to score & our last match is now vital but we haven’t lost yet. The Germans were looking sleekly prepared but it all went wrong for them, Spain came here as much feared but went down to the Swiss & who’d want to be France? It doesn’t matter though does it? We’ve been sold the dream again & only a commanding performance will do if the dream is to continue, it’s looking a tad wobbly though & the knives are being sharpened as I type. Of course we could just watch & enjoy the football & claim that it’s the taking part that counts but who wants to do that? Massive upsets are all very well but only if the other teams suffer them, we want no truck with plucky defences, we either want arrogant performances or last minute heartbreak, mediocre was not called for. We can push the USA result under a carpet, bad luck happens & football’s a daft game at times but Algeria? Oh dear me no, I wasn’t expecting an exhibition game but I was expecting at least two goals & a sight more confidence. It was sweet how often we seemed to pass to the other side but it’s not meant to be a sharing experience, I may have only thought we’d get to the semis but I did think we’d at least win our group. (continue reading…)

Why? I mean really, why? What’s the point aside from card sales & the like? Do we honestly need a whole bloody day every year to thank a bloke for having sex? Blokes in general don’t object all that much to sex & there has to be the possibility that some of the blokes involved actually enjoyed the whole conception business. Okay so there’s a bit more to fatherhood than just the sex although in too many cases there isn’t but even so, it’s not something that you should have to say thank you for just because the calendar demands it. It’s a funny way to handle gratitude, birthdays may be on the calendar but they’re there because that’s where they exist & not because some card company chose a day, being ordered to be thankful may be handy for the more organized among us but it still sucks. (continue reading…)

Ask any parent these days & they’ll tell you that they see a lot more childrens’ TV than they’d like to, across a plethora of channels there seems no end to the animated antics or contrived sit-coms. Along with each stream of adverts & the occasional episode of something that no-one’s seen there is always someone there, someone to link the shows & make it all chummy & inviting, & they’re all nuts. I mean nuts as well, no-one is really that cheerful that early & then cheerful all the way through the day as well, having to continually spout out banal nonsense & pretend that any of it actually matters would drive anyone normal into a fit of ranting & four letter expletives. Not these men & women though, they’re always there, ever ready to engage with what they appear to perceive as a mass of uninformed stupidity who sit mesmerized in front of TVs up & down the nation. No matter how trivial the programmes or lame the repeats they sing their praises as if they offer rare jewels to kings, I can see how a continuous diet of watching the parade of awfulness could drive them all nuts but that’s just it, they start as nuts. (continue reading…)

The recent revelations from across the world have rocked the catholic church & the resultant press has hardly put them in the best of lights, decades of abuse & the handling of it by the church has done the image no good at all. This will matter little to those whose lives have been blighted by the nefarious activities of people who they were brought up to trust but in a day & age where religion is polarised or ignored the institution itself must be quaking under the strain. It has to be said though that there seems to be a bit of an over-reaction going on, I see no reason for genuine shock at the sudden proving of a widely suspected problem. I’m fine with the outrage & the investigations & hopefully anyone still alive & guilty will have several books thrown at them but surprise? (continue reading…)

We all worry about the stuff our children may be exposed to while growing up, we study the news avidly & go out of our way to encase them in a woolly little world that bears no relation to the terrible, wonderful world in which they’ll be expected to live in one day. We do all this apparently for their own good yet I’m not convinced that it is, the fuzzy wallpapers full of dressed up animals is odd enough in its’ own right but the stories we tell them are far & away the screwiest form of literature ever. Happily ever after? What were we thinking of? Who do we know that lived happily ever after? Forever? Until some further tragedy overtook them presumably, it’s ridiculous & yes I know that they’re for children & not to be taken seriously but have you actually read them properly? Have you noticed how many of the cast are villains? This has got nothing to do with the fact that going to the woods in fairytales is akin to suicide although given the amount of bears, wolves, witches, woodcutters & attendant mad old bats in there it’s a wonder anyone lasted long enough to locate a cottage. (continue reading…)

Aren’t you sick of it yet? All the big parties chucking the dirt about & pontificating about standards whilst arguing about who’s been harder on their villains & whether this means that they have more or less corruption within their ranks. It’s pathetic, & pointless, we could change every MP tomorrow for squeaky clean newbies & the result would be a disaster, politicians are weasels because only weasels can get anything done in politics, the nice guys get creamed at the off. Like it or not we need the twisty little fibbers to knuckle down & salvage something from the mess we’re in so all our moaning about their untrustworthiness is just hot air, let’s all just accept that they’re crooked & move on, it’ll save a lot of time. This isn’t the same thing though as attempting to believe that the upcoming election really means anything & spending the next few weeks studying all the

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literature & flyers as if it’s going to make any difference, it isn’t, it honestly doesn’t matter who wins. We haven’t got any money, we owe shed-loads of money out & there’s very little left to flog off that anyone anywhere could possibly want to purchase, unless there’s a sudden surge in demand for call centre staff this situation isn’t going to alter much for a while, plus whoever gets in will be hated in twelve months anyhow due to the cuts they’ll have to make. (continue reading…)

It’s getting bad out there for the devotees of the hated weed, not content with banning them from the public houses & then all public places due to the perfidious nature of their offences the mighty denizens of the health militia are going even further. Now they’re seeking a ban on the dreadful habit from the parks & playgrounds of the country since the wind cannot be trusted to keep the cancer away from our children, not only that but if they can they will also stop anyone from smoking in a car, even if they’re by themselves.As smokers are now regarded as little more than lepers these days although without any need for sympathy there’s a fair chance that at least some of this lunacy will come into being, maybe we’ll have a tramp kicking day as well, it’s almost the same thing. Just give it time, as soon as the Greens figure out that smoking involves actually setting fire to something I’ve no doubt that a smokers’ carbon footprint is going to sky-rocket or that they’ll become the number one cause of Global Warming, it’s not a nice habit to have but please, give it a rest. (continue reading…)