Well, I'm Buggered if I Know.

Once again I am amazed by my fellow human beings and their capacity to be incomprehensibly stupid.

See, it's all about double standards. It's all about those who wish to be seen to be doing the right thing because they feel it paints them in a positive light. In my local boozer we have one of those care in the community types who collects glasses and makes a nuisance of himself for 37p an hour. He's rude and obnoxious, coughs over people and in their drinks, and has generally has a piss poor attitude to everything and everyone. You know the type - thinks he's King Kong when in actual fact he's King Mong.

The other week, King Mong as he will now be known, had some lager poured over his head because his incessant coughing, snivelling, and overall bad demeanour had pissed off one of the regulars so much that this was the only course of action left available to make the useless little twat bugger off. Now, I happen to think that pouring a beer over someones head is fairly tame. However, the person in charge at the time BARRED the well known regular for 'assaulting a member of staff'.

Now this would be fine if everyone who behaved moderately badly were treated the same way. However, it would appear that snorting drugs in the toilets or dealing the same in the car park and then walking in as bold as brass is acceptable behaviour. It would also appear that being drunk to the point of not being able to stand is funny, and that throwing furniture and glasses around is okay if you happen to have some tenuous tie to the manager and his or her family.

How easy is it to pick on some old bloke who had essentially had enough of a bloody irritant that he felt it necessary to chuck his beer over him? And why is it so difficult to keep a tighter rein on people who are plainly breaking the law in the same establishment? The power trip, isn't it? Pick on an easy target because you think it gives the impression that you are in control. I've invited David Blunkett down for a pint, because I'm sure that even he could see what an absolute mockery my local has become in terms of how those in the silent majority are treated.

How obvious does it have to be before you remove certain people from an establishment? The excuse often given is that they have to be caught in the act. I take this to mean 'I haven't got the balls to do the right thing because I know that it is likely to create a scene that I'd really rather avoid'. It has always been my understanding that the Landlord of a Public House can refuse to have anyone of his choosing in his establishment, and doesn't necessarily have to provide a reason should he do so.

That's the crux of it really. It's almost Nazi, isn't it? Pick on the vulnerable easy targets while your comrades enjoy themselves because you allow them to do whatever they like without exercising any control. A double standard of Biblical proportions in my book. 

Still, as long as it makes you look good, anything goes, right? 

More on that later.

Jesus Lives!

Okay.... So that's probably a load of  old bollocks, but it grabbed your attention, didn't it! 

I'm here to say that it's important to be decisive. I made a decision a few months back about a certain personal matter, and while it was quite difficult at the time, and lots of things have taken place since, the decision I made remains the correct one. 

It's a decision that will not be reversed regardless of how much time passes. For once, I listened to my head, and I'm jolly glad I did. There isn't anything anyone can do or say to change my mind. A change in the wind will not blow me off course.

I made my choice based on the advice passed on to me by friends whom I have known for many, many years. The advice offered from different people was almost identical in its content, and they can't all be wrong. I'm always one for having the courage to stand by my convictions, and let it be known that I realise and I understand that for me to change my mind now after some of the conversations and indeed events that have taken place over the last number of weeks would be hypocritical.

Essentially, those who have had shared in some of my experiences over the last few months know me and my situation well enough to know that too much water has passed under the bridge now, and what could have been is now irretrievable. 

What has occurred over the last months is a chapter in my life that as of this evening I am about to close. I am happy with the direction I have taken, because I still believe it to be the right one, and at some point in the future it shall be proven so.

Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about need not ask nor worry. What I'd like to say to those who do is this: This matter for me is now closed. This is the end of it, and I am not about to apologise if this is not the conclusion you were looking or hoping for. There is nothing for me to discuss with anyone, and I don't care how close to the middle of this any of you are. There will be no changing my mind. I will not be putting myself in a position that leaves me open to criticism from any side. What exists now is what must remain, and if you are not able to accept that, I'm afraid that simply is not my problem.

Anyway, now that I feel better for that, I'm off to enjoy myself.

And Furthermore...

ANYONE expecting me to apologise for holding the views I do is going to be sorely disappointed with this blog post. I may as well come clean and tell you what I think about a few things while I'm here, but don't expect me to be sorry for saying the things I say - particularly if you read into the things I post and apply them to yourself. If it's the truth that hurts your sensibilities, maybe you should be looking at your own failings before being critical of what you perceive to be mine. 

What I will do is offer some balance to my previous post, given as it appears to have offended a few people. I want you all to be assured that I am all for helping those who need it the most. I'm all for giving people who have recently been made redundant the help they need and deserve, particularly if they've paid their way for many years before times got tough. I used the words 'feckless' and 'mendacious' for a reason. If you read my last post and thought I was applying those terms to those of you who are desperately seeking employment you are just plain wrong. 


It remains a fact that there are feckless and mendacious people who pick up their dole money and other benefits without a care for the rest of us who have to pick up the tab. Is there something wrong with being unhappy with people who do that? Frankly, I wouldn't piss on those people if they were on fire. I stand by my assertion that people should not be given money for doing nothing. A common refrain from people who are unemployed or unemployable is that they 'have no experience', or that 'there just aren't the jobs out there'. I accept that times are tough and that work is not easy to come by, but at the same time I still believe that there is no excuse for turning down any form of employment if it means getting people off the dole. I for one would shovel shit if I had to - so what gives those unemployed who don't want to work the right to be picky? 

I mentioned yesterday how I believe that it would be of benefit to everyone if the long term unemployed were compelled to undertake some form of voluntary work within their own communities. I truly believe that this is something worth further consideration. It would get people back into working habits and offer structure to their day. Experience gained would look better on a CV than a blank space and communities would benefit from the help. I truly believe that it is not acceptable to be giving money to people who do absolutely nothing. In the same breath I believe that it is equally unacceptable not to help people who are genuinely trying to get themselves sorted out. I tried yesterday to differentiate between those who can't and those who won't.  The thing is, if you're reading this as an unemployed person, only you know which one of those two categories you fall into.

If you put the boot on the other foot, and you were working hard to make ends meet, how would you feel if you kept seeing the same thing over, and over again? How can it not rankle with you that those of us who work bloody hard for the things we have and want also have to pay for those who abuse the system? Again, only you know if you are one of those people abusing the system. It's hard to argue that, for some people at least, being on benefits is a way of life and we've all heard of the second and third generation claimants who've never worked a day in their lives. Is that fair and just?

I've been unemployed before. I know how difficult it is to take rejection after rejection, to have your hopes built up and then have them come crashing down again. What I've never accepted is that there is work 'beneath' me. Beneath my capabilities, yes. Beneath my qualifications, yes. But not beneath me as a person. I've never turned down the opportunity of work on the grounds that it was somehow 'beneath' me or that it would degrade me. Maybe that's what makes us different. Maybe 13 years of a carefree lifestyle where most of us were guilty of living beyond our means has left us with a raft of people who feel somehow that certain work is 'beneath' them. Maybe we're not ready to let go of the illusion created by an unsustainable standard of living. Maybe people just don't want to start on the bottom rung anymore. Maybe we live in a time where Labour's mantra of borrow, borrow, borrow and fuck the consequences is now biting us all on the arse? Maybe we've been left with a generation of people who somehow feel 'entitled'. I think all of the above is true.

I suppose I'll be accused of being all right wing and typically Tory. But what sickens me to the absolute core is the Labour Party's reluctance, no, their absolute refusal to accept any responsibility whatsoever for the mess they've helped to create. I cannot abide anyone of that persuasion who wishes to talk about matters of the economy with me. Even less so if you happen to be a long term benefit claimant who voted for them in the last election. Sadly, people who are losing their jobs now, and equally those who are trying desperately to find employment are reaping what was sown by Labour's profligacy. The good times were never going to last. Throughout history whenever they've been in power it's taken 20 years after they've finally been kicked out for the mess to be tidied up only for the easily led to be taken in by them again until the shit violently hits the fan once more.

You can't blame me for not wanting to have to pay for people who do nothing but take the piss out of those of us who try and do the right thing.

To make the point again: Those of you who are taking the piss know who you are, and if what I write offends you, there has to be a modicum of truth to it.

Feckless Feckers feck me the feck off.

IT is Almost a year since Nick Clegg decided that he preferred the taste of David Cameron's cock over that of Gordon Brown and I have to say that despite my ongoing support for the Conservative Party, I am somewhat disappointed that 'Call me Dave's' cuts haven't hit the feckless a bit harder.

So, what have we seen in the last eleven months? Seems we've seen plenty of people being hit bloody hard by the austerity measures introduced by the coalition, and yet it would appear that certain folk among us still feel it's acceptable to sit around on their arses all day while the rest of us work our tits off to make ends meet.

On the left here is a Job Centre. They have 'jobs' in them. According to the latest figures there remain approximately 500,000 vacancies in the country which are currently not filled. The figures for unemployment stand at around 2.5 million as of today. Why is there this discrepancy? Even if we allow for those vacancies which require specialist skills, a fair percentage could be hacked off the headline figure if we were TOUGHER on those who are quite simply too lazy to work. Those who can't be bothered should be FORCED.


I'd be the first to admit that when I was a younger man, there was a time when it was easy for me to sit around all day watching the telly, but eventually even I realised that it becomes very, very difficult to justify yourself to your family and friends. In that sense being out of work is almost emasculatory, because there comes a time that you realise that you're not putting in, and that other people are paying your way. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that I was relying on my peers to enable me to live from day to day.

I hear a great deal of bollocks about how certain jobs are 'beneath' people. There's no such thing as employment that is beneath a person who doesn't have a job to start with. Can we allow people to be picky? Can we afford to give people a choice as to whether or not they want to become gainfully employed? To my mind, that's what's happening a lot of the time. For those of you who like choice, or feel somehow entitled to it, my answer is this: Choose to work a menial job, or for every job you turn down, be it menial or otherwise, your benefits get cut incrementally until you are no longer entitled to them unless you're prepared to do some work for the betterment of the community in which you reside. It is my belief that our benefits system has allowed too many people to live too comfortable a life for too long, and that many of the people who have collected their 'entitlement' every fortnight for months, even years, are now almost unemployable. Quite what we do with them is a subject for another day.

The most irksome part about all of this is that I see many such people on my travels who haven't had a job for fucking ages but seem to be doing much better than me! I don't see them counting their pennies or watching their bank balances with the scrutiny they tell me is required for a person claiming benefits. Then we have these people banging on about how foreign workers come to Britain and take jobs that they could be doing if things were different. I'm of the opinion that foreign workers have a different work ethic that is plainly more attractive to certain employers. Maybe they'll work long hours at minimum wage? Maybe it's because they understand that getting paid for doing something is better than doing nothing at all; furthermore, it's nothing short of fatuous to suggest that foreign workers are the reason for your unemployment when you've used the excuse that the very jobs they undertake are somehow beneath you. Come to that, those foreign workers also add to the pot that pays your dole money, too.

I've heard some really redundant and half-arsed points of view just lately, and I am becoming utterly tired of it. The rise in VAT... The big hike in the price of a packet of fags... The Conservatives 'putting everything up'... EMA being cut... Tuition fees...  It's laughable in the extreme that some of the people saying this shit are claiming and living on the very benefits paid for by the TAXPAYER, and yet put absolutely nothing back in themselves. What difference does a hike in income tax make to you when any income you do have is totally fucking unearned and un-fucking-taxed? Why does it matter that you've seen a 2.5% increase in VAT when the money you spend isn't even your own? What fucking right have any of you lot got to whinge and moan about when it comes to the state of the very economy that your unmitigated indolence has squeezed and squeezed for fuck knows how long?  If you can justify yourselves I'm listening.

In some ways I suppose it must be quite nice being paid for doing nothing. What would I do with all the time that not working would afford me? I'd be able to socialise more. I'd be able to watch all the DVDs I have but I've never seen. I'd have more space available on my Sky+ hard drive. I spend enough time scratching my bollocks already, but even I'd be glad of a few more minutes a week to do the same.

Or would I?



As I get older, it becomes more and more evident to me that government past and present have not done enough to make benefits something that people get as a last resort. I don't apportion all of the blame to government, because I understand that the blame lies squarely at the doors of those who can't be arsed. I do believe that more could and should be done - mainly because it is my conviction that it should not be acceptable for someone to be given money for doing nothing. Why aren't we means testing these people? Why do we allow government handouts, our money, to be spent on Sky TV, new mobile phones, trips abroad, booze, fags, nights out and cars? Is it justifiable? I think not.

Long term benefit claimants seem to be masters of avoidance. They avoid having to work. They avoid having to pay tax. They avoid having to take responsibility for their own lives. They get free prescriptions. They benefit from the NHS in the same way that the rest of us do. It's little wonder they're called 'benefits'.  It amazes me how the mendacious always seem to profit from those of us who earn an honest living. I am even more amazed that little or nothing is being done to prevent it.