True

This is how it is these days.

When I was growing up my parents subscribed to The Reader's Digest.  I quite liked reading through the articles, trying out the word games inside although I would never have bought it in a shop.  Still, products shouldn't be entirely aimed at the young - a nice, gentle magazine for elderly people, I presumed I would fit into that category the day I started subscribing.  It would seem not.

I used to like having a browse around Borders, I used to like having a browse around Woolies.  Both shops stocked things I haven't been able to find anywhere else.  I noted that once Woolies went the price of stationery went up but perhaps it is just a personal niggle.  I miss finding that one thing in either of those shops that would be a treat to buy.

So this recession (misspelling of depression - with a deliberate small *d* there?) has its casualties and although they may seem minor it may not hit home until later when the little things that made life more pleasant (book shops, toy/stationery/everything else shops) are gone.  It is the small things that are pointing out how unfair the world is, how slanted towards those who have everything - looks pointedly towards the greedy bankers and their fat bonuses who are *still* making a fortune.

Maybe at some point things will even out.  There is enough money in the world for every single person to live a comfortable, happy life.  In fact, come to think of it, if the UK and US and every other country is in debt...who are we in debt to?  Who are we owing all this money to?  It can't be the banks, we had to bail them out with hard-earned and easy spent taxes.  So who do we owe the trillions to?

And all this rambling train of thought because I'm still pissed off that Woolies is gone!

"But they said I could!"

Now repeat the above in the whiniest voice possible and you too can be an MP my dear~

Having been somewhat in the red for the past few years (no he still hasn't stumped up properly, yes I'm still left paying for it all) I wonder if there is a possibility that for every bath plug and packet of sweeties I needed I could claim the money elsewhere. (Actually I have never needed to purchase a bath plug.)

You see while people are losing their jobs and homes and old folk are spending meager pensions on council tax there is one group who are doing very nicely thank-you-very-much. Those who smile and say "don't worry about it" for every rise in tax, who declare they understand the high cost of living have made sure that their nests are very comfortably feathered.

And what respect is left? Seriously, why should they get nearly all of the items they have claimed for? Certainly some are necessity, the office expenses etc. But it is about time that an outside source was made responsible for examining each and every stinky little receipt. And no, Mr. Speaker, your wife's taxis are not reasonable either.

Hats off to the people who made sure we knew just how corrupt our lovely government (and I mean every single MP of every single colour, who will defend their crime by saying that it was in the rule book as though that should absolve them of guilt.) This very government who chastise single parents for wanting to look after their children rather than take an underpaid job just to then pay most of it to the childminder. Who waffle on about a need for cut backs when there is a glaringly obvious enormous saving to be made here.

If you don't mind I won't be buying any papers over the next few days, I feel sick enough.

Is The Trough Not Empty Yet?

While our esteemed Members of Parliament seem to be able to gleefully exploit their expenses (or should that be renamed the pot of gold and be done with it?) without a care, I wonder - these people are allowed tax money to buy a second home plus furnishings etc. etc.... when I'd just like enough to buy one small home for me and my boys. And I know everyone would feel similar, particularly those who are having their homes repossessed because they bought into the Noo Liebour lifestyle.

Ah but then, that would be seen as scrounging and that is much different - isn't it?

There is nothing guaranteed in life but...

Death and taxes....

And now some smart plug in government has thought up a new way to get us to pay for their expensive pensions. Another purse crippling idea wrapped up in the concept of being environmentally friendly. Charging us for the amount of rubbish we throw away. (Hmm, don't we already cover that in our council tax, a good deal of which goes towards said pension fund.)

I get annoyed though when they announce we are to be charged more to encourage recycling. I can envision our lovely neighbours stealing about in the early morning dumping their rubbish in everyone else's bins. You know that is what is going to happen, there are enough dishonest people to make those of us who do take care with our rubbish have to lock our bins away.

Why don't they offer a tax rebate on the amount you have recycled during the year?

Instead of constantly lumping yet more and more taxes and costs onto the average taxpayer why don't they offer us a light at the end of the tunnel. This rebate doesn't have to be much but I would bet that it would make a difference, quick a large difference if people think they are about to get money from the government.

Alternatively why don't we just hand over all our earnings each month and have them hand back food vouchers to exist on.

Little House Quite Contrary

There is a housing problem in this country that no one seems to be facing up to. In our town and the town next to us, in fact in every town in West Lothian, hundreds upon hundreds of houses are being built.

Unfortunately these houses are now priced so far out of our league we will never get on the housing ladder and I don't know how people are able to afford these houses. Worse still, and in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, the houses are not worth the price they are asking for them!

So we are stuck in the frustration of renting hell.

We have been on the Homeswap site for nearly 2 years now. That is 2 years without promise of a move that would improve our lives significantly and we have lived here for 5 1/2 years now, it is like living in purgatory. You would think we were asking for £1million (actually that would be nice too, please.) Thanks to the right-to-buy scheme and the cooncils apathy in allowing single older people to remain in 3-4 bedroom houses the whole situation is stagnant and will remain so until someone somewhere has a bright idea.

That bright idea would be to make the system fairer. Amazing concept I know.

In Britain now, particularly in Scotland, the only way you can get anywhere in social housing is by not working, having no intention to work and never having had a job ever. That and the ability to fake illness (back ache, depression, stress anyone?) for points. And yes, that would be the points system they supposedly stopped using.

If you become a lay-about not only do you not have to worry about rent or council tax but you also get support to have as many children as you wish and to have enough money to enjoy yourself. Don't believe me?

How many people do you know that are truly struggling on benefits? If they are then at some point they probably were working and therefore don't fall into the professional scrounger league, they missed the training on how to get as much money as possible out of the system.

How many people do you know who work like navvies just to pay a mortgage? Indeed, Noo Labour punishes those on low wages particularly harshly.

It is a ridiculous situation. And what will happen next I wonder, or should that be worry? But for now my biggest concern is for the Hobbits, we need to move nearer their school, it would make life so much easier especially for them. They are missing out on so much and I really try to compensate but when Husband needs the car for work and we are stuck in this town it becomes really hard to see the positive side of anything.

Ma Cherie No More

One could wish...

I love seeing how Cherie Blair portrays herself, it just shows how far from truth these people get. She loves to think of herself as a role model for women but if I had a daughter this gurning freeloader is the last person I would want her to look up to!

I nearly wet myself laughing when she gave that lovely speech about juggling balls (presumably Tony's) and how hard it is to be a mother etc. etc. I will remember that when it is my turn to buy my sons a dodgy deal flat, oh that is right, in reality most people can't afford one home let alone buying ones for the kids.

She is doing her Superwoman/mother act again in the papers, and I have to admit, I didn't bother reading the article. I leave reading fairytales to the Hobbits' bedtimes. I would never have thought I could say this, and this is despite the fact I have supported neither party but at least with the Tories you knew you were dealing with swine. New Labour have brought pigs-at-the-trough politics to a whole new (low) level.

The past ten years have seen so many chances missed, so much opportunity wasted and so many lies told without shame. I cannot understand how anyone believes in them anymore.