Windows 10 to instal or not to instal, that is the question

Today Microsoft are giving away Windows 10 to those who already have Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 users. It is free for one year.  After which it is going to cost you real greens. However, the golden question really is should you or should you not change over. Personally I feel my fingers itching to get this because it is free, but I'm not going to rush to press the download button.  For a start I would be upgrading not clean installing which is a worry.  A rule of thumb for any sane person is never to buy anything which is new for there are always problems which need to be ironed out.  Although in this case it is free, in the long run it may not actually be as free as it seems to be.  I personally love to use a basic operating system for a few years four or five years at least.  Although Microsoft would have given Window's 10 to Beta testers you still have to be reserved.

Windows 7 is a good operating system, I use it all the time and use three different versions, professional, home and enterprise.  It is easy enough to go from one to another and in many respects it has been built with familiarity in mind.  Even if you had gone from windows 3.11 to Windows 7 you would catch on pretty quickly.  Whereas Windows 8 which I never owned but had seen in use on other peoples computers was never impressive.  Especially after giving it time and finding what the reviews were like, it became a highly unlikely option to ever update to this system.  So it goes with caution in mind should you upgrade to Windows 10?  Here are a list of reason why you might or might not change over:

• It's newly developed software so will have bugs. However, it is probably the most beta tested operating system ever so there will be fewer bugs as well.

• You would be one of the first to download it and therefore a cool dude who would be leading the pack. Yet I can't think there is also a little bit of stupidity in people who act in this way, like those who wait outside shops just so they can be the first to buy a new product. It's crazy.

• The software is new and therefore independent third parties have not had time to upgrade patches or new releases to be compatible.  It is necessary to think about your peripherals, printers, scanners, cameras etc.  In a worst case scenario they may not work at all.

• It is not known if you can uninstal Windows 10, or if you do install it whether it would leave your hard-disk in such an untidy way an uninstall is going to make things worse.

• What's the catch? There is always a catch as the saying goes there is no such thing as a free lunch, what are Microsoft going to get out of this are we all going to become the equivalent of Windows 10  heroine junkies, will there be a critical update in 18 months time where you have to put your hand in your pocket? Or worse a denial from Microsoft such a fault in the system doesn't exist but third parties are willing to provide the solution.

• At some point Microsoft will cease to support other Windows versions. However this is inevitable the only hope is when the date comes it is easier to convert to a different operating system because you had left it so long.

• Is Windows 10 safe, how secure is it going to be?  Well of big unknowns this could be one of the biggest. Have you heard the joke about making something idiot proof then along comes a 24 karat idiot who shows it is not idiot proof.

• Will it become like Windows 8 a useless piece of bloat ware which after a couple of years use makes your computer/tablet unusable?

OK these may well be depressive or fearful thoughts of what could happen, but whether you like it or not lightening does strike in the same place twice.

Well I can't help myself, I will not being going to install Windows 10, not immediately but will keep an eye on it and see what happens in about 7 or 8 months time. Keep an eye on youtube videos and on reviews and wait for the problems to arise.  Then make a more educated and weighted decision over whether to change or not change.

Crack the glass floor - the social divide

I was reading an article which makes the claim that stupid wealthy kids had more of an opportunity to get into well paid jobs than their smarter lower class equivalents.  This was the findings of a study by The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (SMCP), which has become termed the glass floor effect. It's interesting to call it a glass floor, a bit like the glass ceiling which prevents women from achieving higher success than they should. Glass must mean it is invisible but it's there, this glass however is probably toughened and even bullet proof. Such a glass floor or glass ceiling means social stereotypes remain valid stereotypes.  The parents of such stupid children have an advantage because of their social status and their money.  The findings are:

• They invest time and resources in their children's education.

• Better careers advice and guidance.

• Ability to move to the right catchment area to enable choice of school.

• Giving their children self confidence, making them resilient and guidance on how to lead.  

• The use of informal social networks to help their children into work.

• Help with unpaid internships.

In reading a press release it states there were a lot of soft skill sets which wealthier parents were able to instil their children.  When looking at these skill sets there are all basically psychological.  Self confidence, is perhaps one of the most valuable items an individual can have when needing to present themselves especially in an interview situation.  Without this what comes across is a train wreck of nerves. However, lower class and working class families do not always have this skill because they are so overly involved in making ends meet. The most predominant item on their radar is just being able to survive.  It is true there is a working poor in the UK, who just about live with the help of government subsidies in the form of  Working and Child Tax credits.  A support which is needed because wages are kept low, because labour is common in an employers market and because the skills needed to do a job are not what they have.  Being confident also means being able to be calm and collected when giving an answer to a question. Performance anxiety is more likely to affect someone who doesn't have self confidence than it does someone who does.

Lets also look at employers.  They clearly want the best employees they can get so they use the interview process and a cursory look at exam grades.  The first hurdle is to be shortlisted for an interview and this is what exam grades can help pass. As well as a competently completed application form. What an employer might look for is a set of grade "A" or grade "B" applications and then disgruard the applicants with grade "C."  They would not be able to see that perhaps some of those applicants who had these lower grades had a lot more to deal with in their family life than those who were advantaged enough to get higher grades.  Such as a manic depressive mother, or an alcoholic father or a parent with a disability and the child being a full time carer, or a large family with siblings where each child just does not get the time and attention needed.  Or being brought up in a household where poverty rules everything and forces choice on the family and especially children.  Opportunity is not afforded to these individuals because they do not get through the selection process. Whether they are motivated or not they must may not have the skill sets and the family support to raise out of their social class.  Some parents will even feel resentment if their children do better than they have done, get a better job or earn more money or get better grades. Their love comes with a barbed tail and spite veiled in what they say and do. Which is great for the self esteem issue as well.  They will deny such behaviours exist, but they would then be liars because I have seen it and experienced it with my own family.

Being lower class doesn't mean you are stupid, but it sure ensures you are at a disadvantage. When your peers think a good time is to sniff glue or get drunk, stealing is a socially acceptable act and rite of passage then the lessons you learn are dictators of your future.  The kids who fight against this  are considered outcasts and may even be bullied. For being different from the pack makes them an easy target. The in-group feel better about themselves and boost their own extraordinarily lacking self esteem. Working and lower class parents just don't have the time to help coach their children. They can't protect them and the bond which comes with small children is a lot easier to form than the bond which is needed to help a teenager become an adult. A teenager who is fighting against the system and fighting to understand who they are, where as those above the glass floor will have a lot more support.

Wealth brings opportunity and life chances.  Middle class kids are likely to have experienced holidays to farther places and had a diversity of life experience the working and lower class kids don't get exposure to, this can be seen in attitudes towards food.  The great frequenters of fast food chains are certainly not going to be rich kids. They will get the vitamins and minerals from foods they eat, so some will either have obesity problems or cases of malnutrition. Something again the more socially advanced families are sure not to have to worry about. Get a child from a working class family and show them a collection of herbs, then ask them to name them.  I bet the results would be startling when compared to the middle and upper classes.

This glass floor ensures not only is the country not run by the brightest people, it ensures the divide of the classes continues and continues in perpetuity.  For it is a strong family, especially one which sticks together where the glass floor which is really a glass ceiling is broken through.  This country we live in is not a meritocracy and this is a fact.

Virgin trains no luggage please

It is a known fact, no matter who you are, if you travel by Virgin rail there will be very little space. This company have designed their new Palomino to fit people on and the more they can fit on the merrier. In the older styles trains there are luggage compartments at the entrance of each car, there also happens to be a guards car so if there is no space near the seats luggage can be put here.  There is only one emphasis which Virgin has here and it is to make money. Unfortunately they now have a complete monopoly if you wish to travel by train from London to Scotland the greater proportion of trains will only be Virgin, either east coast or west coast. Although there exists National Rail Conditions of Carriage which you might expect there to be a minimum standard of luggage space provided, there simply is not.  These conditions indicate a passenger can take on a train a piece of hand luggage plus two items of luggage not greater in size than 60 x 70 x 90 cm however this is not the case.  Pun not intended. Were just a handful of passengers to take on their two larger cases of these dimensions then the train becomes difficult to endure. There are times it becomes virtually impossible to get off the train because of the luggage blocking the aisle.  I would of thought such times constituted a health and safety hazard but they don't because if they did the the health and safety inspectorate would of done something about it. Perhaps they have not received enough complaints.

So if you want something done just complain, the more complaints that flood this company, the more protests to MPs and other authorities the more likely eventually some one will think something has to be done. Maybe passengers will bus, drive and fly instead.

BB 2015 letters from home task

The letters from home task on BB 2015 for Monday 2nd July 2015 showed a clear divide between the posh and moralists house mates and those with higher values.  We saw Joel ruthlessly pick again on Sam eating her letter and
trying to justify it with a little presumptuous logic. It is funny how Joel had always included the phrase "the moral thing to do" when talking about decision but this time he chose a non moral decision.  Or is it rather the way he did it, without apologising for his actions but justifying them. Whereas we saw Harry pick a red ball and break into tears because she knew someone would not get a chance to hear from home. She ate Jack's letter, and was a right decision in light of Jack previously saying it didn't matter to him if he did not get a letter.  Of course Jack had made the earlier bartered money for some items, i.e. football scores and a cheap jacket and trousers.  After he felt the wrath of Chloe and of other house mates he realised it was a bad decision.  It was a time when it really did test Jack to see if he was true to his word and friendships were more important to him. He managed to reverse his decision which was good news. 

Then we saw Nick get his letter read to him from Danny.  Nick the second rich boy of the house, one who has never worked a day in his life and loves to be an internet troll.   I personally could not understand why Danny chose Nick after Nick had just bought himself a finalist ticket.  We saw Nick  justify to Chloe why he made the decision to swap his nomination place with her.  Regardless his selfishness had broken a social norm for then Harry gave Nick

her opinion on buying a ticket to the final.  Quite rightly
saying if he was not good enough to get through to the final on his own merit he certainly didn't deserve to be there.  Nasty Nick was on his own journey and he had to do the best for himself.  Yet it is the public viewing his actions who will make a decision on him as an individual. Such behaviour we repeatedly see with Posh well to do people who think they own the world and proceed to make money by immoral means.  This reminds me of Lord Freud the ex banker taking a ride in government on the backs of the Tories, he isn't even an elected MP. He certainly should not be in such a position.

BB has gotten more devious and evil as this series has worn on. However, house mates, Chloe, Danny and Harry have shown a moral compass lacking in others. Lets also not forget the easily forgettable Cristian who though not at all entertaining has spoken some wise words and shown he to is morally upstanding.  Each day now as BB creeps to the final things heat up, what dilemma is going to be next, just watch this space.

BBOTS fake Psychologist

On Big Brother's Bit on the side for 01.07.15. the guest speaker Anna Williamson was annotated as being a Psychologist.  She is not. The extent of her knowledge of psychology is achieving a diploma in counselling for which she has counselled children.  She has not been through seven years of study and then gained chartered status from the British Psychological Society and she does not have the authority to call herself a psychologist. Even though on the show Ryland jumped in with some pop psychology comments and Anna Williamson enjoyed the misleading notion she was a psychologist.

Perhaps it was BBOTS which got this wrong, and wanted to try and get viewers to see Anna as though she has some kind of professional validity. However, Anna is firstly a TV presenter and is so far from being a psychologist it is more likely that aliens actually exist. Channel 5 have been wrongly attributed a title to Anna and in doing so have demeanoured the hard work and professionalism of every real psychologist there is out there.  Every comment she has made on this show is no more than opinion and conjecture something of which we can all give.

Big Brother 2015

Yet again the devil incarnate in female form is on TV, yes we see Helen Wood twisting discussions as though she is the victim or being talked about. She speaks her mind they say, but hell with a mind and attitude like that she should not reveal what her mind is all about. For it seems she has an inherent paranoid streak when she thinks people are talking about her. Now talk about big ego or what?  The house is divided and unlike last year when she had three or four other housemates making her own cliche this year she doesn't and this year she is having to face more people being explicit to her face telling her they don't like her.  We even see Jack own up to talking to Joel and Helen thinking she owns every conversation in the house. Who the hell does she think she is? It is wonderful to see Brian Bello back for he is such a happy go lucky character and when he one BB it was purely on his beautiful personality. He didn't have a pass card given to him at the start of the show or the bookies voting him in like vulture Helen did. 

It is a pitty Marc can not be nominated this week around because he is included in the Legend's housemate group. The worst thing about this is that Marc has effectively now had two weeks where he has not been subjected to the likelihood of being evicted. Last week was a reverse call by BB to just put someone in the Bunker for a couple of days.  Marc has shown admiration for Helen and this may well be his downfall. He has acted the tosser and always will be the tosser, but now he is a tosser in the company of a psycho bitch who should never of been given any air time in the first place. But still she is here and still he is here.  Both engrossed in their own vanity just as many of the other housemates are, because BB is geared up really for the younger crowd and they love to see a bit of eye candy. However, Helen is a poke your eye out candy or my god I wish I didn't have to see you eye candy.  I will say this, whatever attraction the world sees her in now her full personality has been aired it shows beauty as being skin deep. In her case the skin is pretty thin.  You can see why Marc gets on with her, when they were born they had fallen into the tub which said obnoxious and both liked it so much it added more to her characters.  They are nasty bits of work.  Come next week Marc is definitely going to be up for eviction.

BB has again managed to bring discord into the show. It has cheapened itself by raising the social tendency to bullying yet again on a high profile. Helen is a bully and Marc is a bully these are the kind of people I would prefer to keep my back on and never view in my life. I love the show but not people like this who seem to get a perverse pleasure out of demeaning others.  BB 2015 shame on you.

David Cameron and the red head prostitute

Cameron was desperate for sex, because his missus just had another headache. So he walks out of Downing Street looking for a prostitute.

On the corner of Soho he finds three prozzies: a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead.
 
To the blonde he said, "I am the Prime Minster, how much would it cost me to spend some time with you? The blonde replied, "Two hundred pounds."
 
To the brunette he posed the same question, and she replied, "One hundred pounds."
 
He then asked the redhead the same question.
 
The redhead replied, "Look Dave, if you can raise my skirt as high as my taxes..... get my knickers as low as my wages... get that thing of yours as hard as the times... keep it as high as the gas and electric prices... keep me warmer than my bedsit... and.. screw me in private the way you do in public, then believe me Dave, it ain't gonna cost you a penny.

Wow says Cameron "economic fiscal recovery is working in the hand of Osborne."

The value of failure

When a lot younger than I am now, I used to go to school. School I must admit it was a drag, seeming nothing more than a glorified child minding service and in many ways this was true and is true also today.  The class sizes were ridiculous at secondary school (11-16 years age) they were in the region of 30 to 33 pupils each. The school was a state ran which probably says it all.  I went in it and came out of it having failed to achieve a single pass in any of the exams I took. The passing grade was considered to be a C.  Whereas I got 4 Ds and 2 Es, I was unlucky to say the least.  However, saying unlucky is probably something said when not understanding the value of failure. To pass something first time is wonderful, because it is as a result of an accumulated effort, it means you don't have to do the same thing again, you can move onto the next stage in your life. You're happy, elated and over the moon, if you were a cow you'd literally jump over that moon made of cheese, confidence effuses from you like sweat in the sahara desert. Everything momentarily changes and the future looks bright for the future signals opportunity. Whilst failing is a sad thing, it is a heart wrenching thing to feel down and not valued, it knocks self esteem for six.  The emotional down is as low as the emotional high as someone who is successful.  However, it is your personal mindset which determines where your life is going to end up.

In them olden days youth were judged by the number of O levels they had when leaving school.  If you succeeded in getting between 4 and 6 O levels a good job was awaiting around the corner. I had none, looking for work and getting a job was difficult. I ended up being unemployed for a year. It was the worst time of my life, nearly every penny of my benefit money was given up as keep money so I was a pauper.  My mother lived off state benefits and had no connections.  My step father was mentally ill after a break down from the burden of debt my mother put him into.  She then managed to kick him out of the house and get rid of him by divorcing.  He was a simple man and didn't know how to read.  When I looked around me and compared myself to others I had a lot of resentment and hate.  I could see people going to work in the morning and I knew I could do their jobs, I had brains but they weren't shown through passing exams.   I knew there was more to me than joblessness and depression.  Depression and poverty in a family setting is debilitating. It was a desperate time to say the least and there was no help coming from home or family.

When I tried looking for jobs employers asked for experience, but I had no experience so didn't attempt to apply.  Somehow as if by luck I managed to get to work in a shoe shop, it was from there my working life began. As for the term "career" this is a word I despise, because it assumes you have connections and gateways and opportunities, those who can use this term are a breed of human being outside of my own small circle.  Just like the term "apprentice" which must of been a word careers advisers talked about, I never heard of anyone who managed to get on of these posts.  If they did it was well known they to would of been on shit wages.  Yet even being an apprentice would of been doing something with my life, it would of meant being occupied and feeling good about doing something. The value of work is a boundless thing it is more than just the money gained at the end of the month.

Something happened to me because I still wanted to get a job in an office, I had enough of working with the general public of being forced to ask them if they would like a polish or cleaner with their shoes.  I hated targets and the atmosphere the British Shoe Corporation management.  It was clear, hit your target be good or we will sack you.  Only if all staff had a bad day and didn't hit their targets did they accept it had been a bad day.  Blame it on the weather.  Like come on, it's a shop, people choose to walk in or not, and certain ethnic groupings who walked in our shop were not going to purchase polish or cleaners at all, they could barely speak English. The thing that happened to me was always there. It was ambition, ambition to be recognised and accepted in society for not being a failure and it was as though failing exams and having a shit job is how you are measured. It was then over a period of about fifteen years or more I went to evening classes with no exam passes and ending up with a degree and a post graduate degree.  My education cost money, time and a long term perseverance which had been acquired from learning the lesson of failure.  At work I then learnt the lesson of dead man's shoes which hangs in the air like a solid cake which you could eat, except it is as hard as rock and you're likely to lose a few teeth if you do try and take a bite.

I come from a part of society which would call themselves working class, or common.  I am not technically a cockney but close to it. The mark of people from my group is how they speak and use the English language. There used to be a lot of slang in it but there is not so much now. As time has gone past when I hear people who take on a strong cockney like accent it makes me think they have chosen to stay where they are in life and not to improve themselves. They have accepted from a young age what they will be like and carry on down that same road, not changing or doing anything different with their life.  This is not to say some of them have not been successful, for they can be it's just they chose to stay in a mindset which they don't want to move away from.

To fail at anything is probably the most important lesson a person can learn from, it has such value and can be so character building I can not state in words adequate to describe.  Then what it takes is guts and determination to come through failure and learn and to still carry on despite everything else which pops up to pull you down.  A funny thing though is watching programmes like the X factor or Britain's got talent and hearing stories of people who have had difficult lives and how by being a  success at singing or some other talent they have their life will change.  These sob stories become a pain to listen to and in the back of your mind or not your shouting at the TV "come off it mate, get on and sing." It is as those such persons are doing the best to get the sympathy vote rather than to showcase their talent.  I dislike this very much.  In the same way, I would prefer to be judged for who I am and what I have made myself.  To be judged on my own opinions and intelligence which is something I hold in more esteem than the acquired status of those with silver spoons in their mouth.

Failure is important as it teaches a great lesson, a painful lesson and the best part of this lesson is moving out and away from failure and doing something about it, not wallowing in it like a hippo in mud.

A Short Survival Guide to the Open Planned Office

My experience with open plan offices has been getting on now for some 30 years and they certainly can be difficult places to work in. This may be because the original concept of the open plan office has been bastardised by employers, especially when it comes to cramming as many people in as little a space as possible to save costs. However, it could just because human being kept cooped up in small spaces go crazy. It's said there are two places you can learn the personality traits of an individual one at home the other at work.  For given enough time at work the full blossoming individual will shine out.  Perhaps more so in a pressurised work environment. It is fine for scientist who can sit in their little enclosed offices thinking of theories of personality and work behaviour but it's a whole different ball game when you are living it 7 plus hours every single working day.  The type of work done, the working hours, the people you work with and the physical environment all come into play, sometimes because one factor is good it can belay the effects of another poor factor, sometimes it just can not.

Mental strain - work place bully
Mental stresses can come in many forms, such as the relationships with work colleagues, or just plane having more work than you can cope, dealing with poor IT systems which act seem to have a mind of their own.  People have to get on as best they can in the workplace, I have experienced the effect of a workplace bully and at one point it felt like I could of left the job.  But by the same instance my job is my financial livelihood and getting a new job is not an easy task.  The best strategy is avoidance, be in a different part of the office as often as you can, take holidays at different times to the bully, keep your head down and try not to get noticed. Bullies also have their foot soldiers or sycophants and these individuals may even appear quite easy to get along with, perhaps out of the bully's influence they are, but again because of their association never tell them anything which can get back to the bully.  I have heard the phrase "psychological terrorism" used to denote bullies at work and this is true if you are a victim.  The research ultimate indicates there is only one way out for the victim and that is to leave the job. It may be a matter of thinking long term, considering whether the individual concerned will change job, in some cases they get promoted, others they leave, but it is while they are in your vicinity they are a danger. Management often do very little about them, if you happen to be in an organization which does do something then you will be very lucky. Try the waiting game, if it doesn't work move job.  Union reps are of little use.  Taking all that crap home can tear up your family, it's a tough decision but may be the only one.  Of course this factor happens when in a open plan office or not.

Mental strain - too much work
Having more work than you can cope with. Well why should this be any different in an open plan office to a secluded closed office.  At least in a place where you can close the door behind you the noise and strain of being constantly available to other colleagues will take it's toll.  Employee Assistance Programs will take the view it is you who has to change.  Perhaps in many respects it is, because it is how you view that ever increasing pile of paperwork, or should I say emails which have bottle necked into  your in tray.  The thing is as human beings are at their best to working when under a little bit of pressure but too much pressure and it is like the fulcrum of a see-saw has been breached.  You have to used your own mental strategies to keep calm, find relaxation techniques.  In finding these it is possible to lower your blood pressure and heart rate and give yourself a moment to think.  What an open plan office does is hit you with stimuli every minute of the day. This is usually in the noise around you so finding thinking space may be difficult to do.  Try and focus on priorities, however what is needed more than anything else is flexibility.  You can only do one thing at a time and sometimes doing that one thing if it is complex can be too difficult to do. In which case change the thing you were going to do.  When I have a large work tray of 2-300 items, I will try and identify those things which will cause me problems if they are not done and also try and identify those quick things which can cause problems. For example, it is quick to authorise someone's leave however if I leave the email request for leave that individual will either ring me up or sit at their desk getting frustrated, it adds a little tension to their day.  So by getting it done quickly it relieves their stressess and gives me breathing space as well.  Sometimes if I have too many high pressure items on me I will then get loaded with the one item which becomes the straw for the camel's back. The one item I know which to do properly will take hours and  hours of work.  Then, I do the best I can to pass the buck. Most times the buck may well stay with me, but if the caseload of bucks is too high then it is too high.  If I were telling the truth, I got way too much work to actually do now, it would take me a month to catch up with it but I don't have a month of extra time.  I don't stand around chatting about things, e.g. game on TV, the weather, my holiday, I get my head down and get on with it.  You'll find individuals who are like this do get more work done than the others.  As for moaning, do your best not to bitch. It gets you no where at the end of the day and is wasted energy.  It can pull other work colleagues into a bitching competition and before you know it half an afternoon has passed and nobody has done a thing.  Write a list, sometimes it is easy to forget what you should be doing your list can keep you on track and there's some self satisfaction when you start to see items ticked off the list, like its an achievement you didn't quite realise you should be patting yourself on the back as well.

Work Environment
In my open plan office there is in place this idiot thing called hot desking.  It is an idiot thing especially if there are tools you need to get on with the trade. Such as reference books pens, paper, the list can go on and on.  Effectively if you use lots of stuff you are either forced to carry these items from your locker to your desk each day or try and reduce the items.  Ultimately try and reduce them, if you can save reference material on your computer fine, however then ensure you have got a decent filing system and you know what folder you put it in. The worst thing which is inescapable from in an open plan office however is noise.  My current office has been built like a car park, once they have decided to sack all the office staff or another company takes over their roll they can then convert the building into car parking spaces. Noise and chatter in particular carries all over the place.  Now if your job is as boring as shit and once you learn it, it becomes just a matter of doing with it in a mechanical way this is fine, office noise may well not have an effect, however if you have to think then you are in trouble. Noise is a killer of concentration. Only last week two senior managers were sat behind me having discussions about their holidays, their memory and shoes.  In the meantime there I sat trying to unpick a very difficult piece of work which was like learning calculus. It just was not happening.   I have bought a supply of ear plugs and now also have ear muffs as well and I am unashamed that I put my plugs in and ear muffs on in the office in order to try and dampen down the voices around me.

It is as though the people around me don't give a shit about me, and in fact they don't they only care about getting their own work done, if they have tedious jobs this means they will talk a lot.  If they don't like their job they will wonder around and waste the day away having discussions with other staff members, they will appear to be the nicest people in the world. However, they are not good employees, they are in many respects taking the piss out of employers. These individuals run throughout an organization, whether they are clericals or high ranking managers. The company would improve in productivity if it sacked them. I heard it once that employers should sack ten percent of their staff every year. I would hope this applied to these lazy arses and they then gave other unemployed people a chance to do the job. There's a lot of individuals out there who would chop an arm off to be in work. So if someone is not doing their job why do we put up with them?


There, I'll keep it short because this is a subject I could write a book on very easily and maybe I should.

Politics of fear in the 2015 election

Sometimes the old sayings are the best ones, and one which comes to mind is "divide and conquer." The Tories over this campaign have divided and have conquered.  First was through the natural departure of their coalition partners coming up to the election. However, more than this they knew the most marginal and likely wins for the Tories was to target Lib Dem constituencies, it just made so much sense. After all it was the rising tide of Lib Dems snatching Tory constituencies which have them so much power in the first place. The conquering part came naturally and so they reduced the Lib Dem seats from 57 to 8. There is no doubt in my mind the blind-sided psychology of the Lib Dems is what put them in this position in the first place. They should never in a million years have got into bed with the Tories, their influence and power as a real third party came through the election of 2010 and in their own hubris they still thought they were different.  Yet together with the Tories they have ruled the country for 5 years and the electorate do not see the Lib Dems as different at all.  They were voted for in 2010 because their rhetoric was attractive and it had the sparkle of being something worth supporting, but by going into this coalition their uniqueness was lost. Their ideas, their morals which we all thought were common sense.  This move ultimately led to the incessant erosion of trust for the inevitable questions always is, why vote for Lib Dems when you are going to get a Tory government anyway? Talk about lost the plot how on earth can such a penny not drop? My guess is it was the allure of power and the self justification that by being in government they could put the breaks on the Tory administration.  What they failed to understand was, had they been out of government they would of still been able to put the breaks on a Tory administration, they could of kept to their principles and could have decided on bills on a vote by vote basis. Their unique attributes as a party would of shone through and they would of kept many more seats than the fifty they lost in the 2015 election.  Which reminds me of a film called Forest Gump and the line "stupid is as stupid does."

The question of Scotland again is a coup de gras against Labour and a divine example of divide and conquer. However, it added is the value of fear mongering. Historically the UK has always been four separate countries which were pulled together by internal war and strife.  England conquered Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland due to hunger and greed.  This was at a time when the population of the UK had very little say as democracy was less important then who your parents were and being royalty or aristocracy gave entitlements so the UK a fragmented land, pulled together and became a single country.  It seems with Scotland this was more of a default process after the demise of quick battle at Culloden in 1746.  The distaste of the English people has been a bad taste in the mouth of every Scot ever since this time.

Another advantage to the split up of the Scots from England is the belief they cost too much. The memory of revenues from North Sea oil is now in the distant past and that relates to a different era and a different Tory PM. Now we all know oil just is not going to last and it only has half a century left and the value of it has dropped through the basement tax revenues are certainly not so impressive.  It has been said, getting rid of Scotland would save England 7 billion pounds.  Whether this is true or not is of little consequence, for it is the vile attitude and an inbred racism towards them  Cameron stoked like an infectious disease. Tories don't like Scotland, don't like the Scots and anything to do with them because they are socialists and Labourites.  It was through Labour MPs in Scotland Tories had lost parliaments.  They know if you break a Scot in half like a stick of rock, you will see the words "socialist" inscribed through the core.  By losing Scotland effectively the Tories could be in power forever, they could build a nation build on their notion of business one where businesses profit but their social conscience is non existent.

A neighbour to hate is a little like the value of religion as an opiate to the people (Karl Marx), it is a scape goat as a neighbour to blame and hate is almost a natural human condition. Nigel Farage's UKIP party have used this principle to gain notice in the media and their diaspora of voters only gave them a single seat. The Tories used Scotland as a fulcrum to divide the labour party's power and simultaneously vilify the labour party and vilify the Scots.  The message was a vote for Labour would also be a vote for the SNP and condescendingly Cameron emphasised hatred because we all know what the Scots are like they want all of your money and to be free. You can't trust a Scot so you can't trust Milliband.  Cameron has a very juvenile way in talking to the public, why this comes on I am not sure but there is a blame game and their is division in everything he does. This is all a necessity to stay in power. He may think his party has the best policy for recovery but there is a pretty big failing he just doesn't understand.

Businesses make profit because it is the general public which supports them this is who buys their goods and services. If the population of the UK lives in poverty conditions they will not be able to buy those goods and services consequently profits and businesses will go under.   What happens is middle England becomes the goose, to serve middle England becomes everything for these are the people who have spare cash who can buy luxuries and services beyond the bare minimum.  It will take additional years for middle England to realise this and for their wealth to be equally hit. For the middle classes pay taxes and have reasonable incomes. But in a complex financial system which is like the oceans eco systems, when the poorer people of the UK are unable to make ends meet their income distribution in turn will not levitate upwards. Gradually Middle England will also become poor. Perhaps at this point socialism and Labourism will raise it's head and morality will kick in. The effects of another Tory government for another five years are going to be extremely toxic.

The Lib Dem patsys - useful idiots

The 2015 UK General Election has been a travesty result for Labour, a travesty result for Liberal Democrats another travesty result for UKIP and a wonderful landslide for SNP.  Unfortunately the Tories are still in government and now the country is going to be hit with the greatest number of welfare benefit cuts in living memory.  Child poverty will increase even more than it is at present and we shall see mass homelessness, increases in crime and destitution on the streets.  Not to mention how pensioners will feel when they are left suddenly realising their Tory vote has now put themselves in socially a vulnerable position.  So perhaps pensioners are the first set of patsys to take into account.  However, this is unlikely, for in my mind it is the Liberal Democrats who are the historical biggest losers ever. I had previously remarked how simple minded it was for the Liberal Democrats to be in a coalition, but Nick Clegg could not help it, perhaps it was a latent homosexual tendency which rose up when the though of political power and Cameron came to mind. They sealed their kiss in a rose garden at the back of 10 Downing Street for the world to see. It was a tragic civil ceremony and now the Lib Dems have got exactly what they deserve, their once historically high MP seat count has now plunged to the depths it used to be prior to 2010 and Nick Clegg made an exceedingly bad decision. He sold out from the start.

It is with a dose of happiness I can say and wave goodbye to the ignorant useful idiots of Vince Cable and Danny Alexander.  Vince because he should never of sold the Post Office at the monumental loss of between 5 and 8 billion GBPs.  He might of been doing this for the Tories but this was and incredibly bad decision to sell the country's jewels.  As for the sycophantic Danny Alexander it was only a few days ago he began to realise he may not have a job after the election. When he let lose inside knowledge of cabinet meeting discussions on welfare cuts.  Like he was not part of it, but he was because he now revealed it. I am so very happy Mr Alexander has lost his seat of Inverness because I cannot ever recall a politician who had succumbed to another party without actually being in that other party.  His ingratiation to the Tories was so servile and complete it can be recognised by the fact Georgie porgy Osborne said he would miss him.  Porgy as we know is an Eaton boy who has never really made friends with people, unless they happen to have a few million in their back pocket. Danny A will now be signing on the dole in a few days and probably he will learn something. But then again maybe not, his regret is now way too late. They couldn't help though following Clegg, who managed to keep his Sheffield Hallam constituency by a much smaller margin than he'd previously held.  I might of even said it was an honourable thing he did when he decided to resign as leader of the Lib Dems, but in fact it was not, because he should of simply retired and spent the rest of his time putting together jigsaw puzzles in a cosy room at home.

So it is the Lib Dems are winners of the useful idiot award for 2015. The electorate never wanted them to throw in their lot with the Tories, because it makes sense, if you want a Tory you might as well vote for one, why vote Lib Dem?  So the voters did.  What utter and complete saps.

Another royal baby - but it looks just like any other baby

It is with  disappointment UK news papers have one front page picture of a little baby, one which belongs to the royal family which is is said will be worth one billion pounds by the time it is ten years old. One which is born with a silver spoon in its mouth and will never in it's lifetime experience living in poverty.  Typically like a royal she may decide undertake a good cause, support some charity such as the anti landmine charity, she might speak to people who have lost family to land mines and be sympathetic, however she will not know what the life of the poor is like.  Royalty in this day and age should not exist it has no place in modern day living and no connection with the real people of the UK. It is a travesty which continues to focus the issue of privilege and social status above anything else. It shows in a public manner that inequality and prejudice will always exist in the country it will always live on.

So why is this baby such a big thing? What makes her so special? In my mind as with all royalty there is nothing special about rich people who did nothing to get where they are.  What is more pathetic is a country which kowtows to them as if they are special when they are not. They are nothing, they have added nothing to my life or done a thing to help me. They are stuffed so far up their own backsides they have never seen what is happening around them on the streets.  They are the privileged few who never have to aspire to being where they are, just lay back and procreate the planet, so why the hell do we pay them taxes and why the hell do they own land and properties which in reality should belong to the people of the country.

Yes, another royal baby, wonderful, sounds like another parasitic flea on the back of a dog.

Get screwed over have a chat with your Telecom provider

The most frustrating thing at this very minute is my blooming slow broadband. I want to kick the hub, scream at the ISP provider, throw the phone out with the rubbish. Then pull up the phone line as well wrap it up.  For you should not have to pay £16.99 to get  a phone line in order to get broadband.  The standing charge is exorbitant for something which is hardly used, ISP providers who generally are also telecom providers are milking the system.  They are monopolising access to broadband by making it a necessary condition households must have a phone line. Then in order to ramp up their profits they get a continuous stream of cash by ensuring the standing charges remain relatively high.  When the reality is, phone lines have been laid and upgraded and have paid for themselves many times over.

Probably the biggest culprit to this is British Telecom, the once nationally owned telecom provider is now so wealthy it is a constant revenues cash cow.  Speaking to BT has also been made an ordeal.  Call centres for repairs are based in third world countries where staffing costs are negligible andso is their understanding of English.  They just don't get what you say.  Especially when it is necessary to speak slowly and describe faults to them, this must be done repeatedly.  So phoning up because of a fault is a trial in itself. It gets to the point where you just cope with the fault, poor phone reception, poor broadband until it is critical and there is no choice in the matter.  Because you know this will take weeks to sort out and it will take hours of your own time.  Let alone money lost from taking time off work to be in the house for the phone engineers.  The strive for profits has made BT's quality of service actually non existent.  What BT does have is a great selling department where all the customer services staff are indigenous English speakers and based in the UK. Here they fully understand any request made are bend over backward to be helpful. It is important to have a good first point of call service for those who are in the switching process.  However, once they are hooked and have signed the contract it's all downhill.  The contract I signed up to with BT was set to last 18 months and it is now at the point of being completed and like an elector at the general election I have real power to kick them out and to shop around.

Another instance of crap service provision this week has been the screwed up account of a man trying to cancel his Sky package online.  Gavin Hackwood from Newport, spent 96 minutes in a Sky online chat trying to cancel his Sky bundle.  You might of thought it would of been easier, and in theory doing something like cancelling a subscription to any service should only be a matter of giving a short period of notice especially where the contract has already been broken. At one point Mr Hackwood stated to the customer service rep called Rachel:

“I have been on this chat session for an hour and we are no further forward. I have made you aware I wish to cancel which is all I am obliged to do under the terms and conditions of the contract with Sky… please cancel the account and stop wasting my time."

In reply she writes:

 “I am not doing this to annoy you. I made it very clear that I would need to go through this before I could make any changes to your account.” 

Sky and certainly this individual called Rachel who as far as we know is likely not to be Rachel but someone using this as a pseudonym for their real name. Unfortunately Mr Hackwood could not cancel his subscription until the story became a national news item.  What an utter and complete shame and embarrassment this should be for Sky who in reality should of offered a free service for a year and an unequivocal cancellation of the service with no hassle. This is certainly one provider I will not swap over to, as it would be going from the frying pan into the fire.

Before changing to BT my provider was ntl and before BT broadband it was TalkTalk who provided internet.  However, with TT the provider could only give a 2 meg line.  Time and again I asked them about upgrading, and repeatedly they said it was not available in my area.  However, it might be at some future date. The reality is TT were again stringing me along, I have never seen TT upgrading hardwiring. So it became a simple choice to convert to BT because in my mind it is BT who own the underground network of wires and fibres.  I had waited on TT to do something for about four or five years at the time.  Then moving over to BT was not as simple as I would of thought, even after getting a MAC code, which I had to do a second time.  It probably took about 4 months in all. Again this is unacceptable.  TT could not provide a service at the speed I wanted, I was also paying what I thought was an exorbitant rate for poor quality internet speed.  They must of been pretty sad when I left.  The thing was, their correspondence also stated when a customer leaves they should not cancel the direct debit. It will happen automatically and then I would get charged at the pro rata daily rate it was they provided internet.  However, TT took out the normal full month direct debit charge from my bank account.  They then sent me a credit bill and advised I contact customer services in order to get a refund.  However, this seems ridiculous because they already have my bank details and they should of automatically refunded any credit directly to the bank account.  I have vowed never to use TT again, but at the same time I now feel I don't want to ever use BT.

What I need to find is a small ISP provider which values every customer and can't do bend over backwards far enough for both loyalty and custom.  The question is are there any such companies?

Goodbye, bigoted, big, millionaire Tories who don't give a shit abou the tax payer

Over the next few weeks the media will be saturated with politics as all sides do their best to gain
votes.  Last night saw the one and only TV debate with Cameron, our now ex Prime Minster selling himself. Now some may question when I use the term "ex" well in fact Parliament has now dissolved.  All those  men and women (not representative) who sat in chambers and incessantly argued with each other officially have no power until the election is heard. However, and it is a big however, they still get full pay for the two months until the election has been re held.  I can't think of many jobs where the ex employee continues to get full pay when they are not doing any work.  In addition to this every part of the civil service, local and central are restricted in making statements which could be construed as political or sway the voting public this period is known as Purdah.


Regardless of the process in the run up to this next election, which is going to be a historic collection; it is during it and under pressure we see how the ex most powerful man in the UK reacts. We get to see his personality.   When under pressure applied in the form of cameras, audience and a looming election the stress of the situation may well show Cameron's cracks.  Patterns of Cameron's previous traits in his patronising attitude towards women, biting his lip, physical and facial tells of him holding in anger like a corked Vesuvius arise.  These are flaws in a individual who should not be allowed legally to have as much power as he had over the last five years.  He is like a child, if he didn't get his own way he would throw the rattle out of his pram.  However, something else which strikes is perhaps that Cameron is not the smartest man in the world for there seems to be an inability to put together the pieces.  Similarly Ian Duncan-Smith acts the same way when someone disagrees with him, when he is unable to tackle alternative view points or calmly rationally discuss them. The individual who keeps their head is the person we most look up to in any stressful situation. I don't view PM Questions as a particularly defining time because each leader has their gang behind them. A gang to heckle and grumble or cheer like good sycophants they are. Though saying this there have been odd occasions when Milliband did get under his collar, but not enough.

I've had angst over the devastating decision a love lorn Nick Clegg made to eat from the same table as the Tories.  When the two were put in office it was like two newly weds in the halo of happiness. 

It's true they were both happy to be there, but Nick sold his country and sold his party out when he jumped in bed with the Tories.  There were promises made in the Liberal Democrat's manifesto, pledges which amount to falsehoods. If a party doesn't stick to its manifesto which they are elected on then how can they be trusted? The people of Sheffield Hallam will make their view heard soon, if only the same students are about who accepted what Nick said on the last polling day, they will have a few memories and feel they have been betrayed. Clegg should never be allowed in the political arena again. Sheffield make  your vote be heard kick him in the bollocks.

Again when looking at Tory character failures, Osborne is yet another one who grinds incessantly on

the ordinary working class psyche. For there is not a time I have seen him on TV when I think here is a rich smug bastard who likes to boast and show off.  Here is someone who doesn't know what it is like to live in a world of poverty or who has ever experienced any aspect of it. There is also something of a rich kid nasty effeminate look about him.  You may have met or known the kind the bitchy man who comes across as bitchier than a woman could ever be.

In an interview which should of been with Osborne we saw Jeremy Paxman give a grilling to an unfortunate Chloe Smith.  After which

it was clear she would no longer have a political career.  She was very young, naive and ultimately took the fall for Osborne's U turn on fuel duty.  Yet it shows Osborne to be a weak coward for he should of been sat with Paxman not Smith.  Smith went on to get married and have a family, now well and truly forgotten except for her bumbling interview which has become the ultra political fail all can see on Youtube. She was like a little lamb who was put in a wolf's cage. Osborne would of cacked his breeks (as the Scots say) if her were there.

We can see how spoilt Osborne has aged with the weight of office.  Losing some of his porky appearance he even has a more gaunt face.  Perhaps (not) to do with his austerity plan, the plan which helps the rich become ever more wealthy and takes money away from the poor.  Well there are so few rich and so many poor. It's easy to see how Cameron and Osborne come from the same privileged backgrounds they might of shared the same shower at some time, Ossy would of been letting Camers flick a wet towel at his arse and probably liked it. Clearly these people have no empathy with anyone outside of their own class, therefore they should not be ruling anyone outside of their own class and certainly not the country.

It has been a constant drag since the Tories and Liberal Democrats got into office and the actual date of dissolution.  They managed to sell of one of the state's greatest remaining assets the Post Office. Typical of the nature of Tories when considering British Gas and British Telecom. As well as sell off the most successful profit making state ran business to date.  The East Coast Mainline railway service, which is now going to be ran by Richard Branson. Who as the West Coast travelling public will know likes to cram them in with restricted space and higher profits, not to mention hard uncomfortable seats and poor condition toilets.  Standing back as an observer the gradual decimation of the UK can be viewed. For it is the errors which are made that stand out most especially when at the time they are being made there is an outcry and good reason such initiatives should not happen.  Just as Tony Blair (Tory in red) brought in the Public Finance Initiative like a stone around the neck of a drowning victim. The PFI contracts for public organizations has meant they are continually overcharged by private contractors who they are tied to and can not break away from. Heard the story of the £10 toilet roll sold to a public nursing home? All because of a PFI contract.

If there ever was someone who would stab another in the back it has got to be Ian Duncan Smith.  His behaviour can be seen when he gets a grilling from the select committees. They have tried to make him accountable for the fiasco of Universal Credits.  Of which 400 million has been written off in ongoing IT costs. I saw Glenda Jackson ask IDS a question and it was disturbing to see how he talked over her and down at her.  It was outright bullying behaviour, poor Glenda was shaken.  Seems like he must of taken lessons in charm from the same school as Cameron.  Smith can often be seen lying, he debriefed his own department to push the blame of UC failures on Permanent Secretary  (to DWP) Robert Deveraux although a civil servant if there is one slippery character it certainly is Deveraux.  He is not allowed to make allegations or defend himself like a politician.  However after seeing his performance at a select committee his  unknown second name must be Mr Teflon, or to those in the know Teflon Man. However it is IDS who lies as the saying has now been changed to "lies, lies and damned IDS" the UK Statistics Authority will back this up. IDS is witnessed lying in nearly every interview, it may not be in what he directly says, although sometimes it is, it is in every nuance of his physical appearance. Body language, demeaning talk over, shifty expression. His claims of UC being a success are lies downright misleading lies. This is one welfare benefit if bought in the way the Tories want it to be brought in, will end up with masses of homelessness on the streets of the UK. Which will solve the problem for the rich who just want to buy up properties whenever they can. Especially the rich millionaires or corporations based overseas. It's such a shame the empty properties looking over the Thames Gateway are not lived in by real families.

The first past the post electoral system is unfair. We all know this, voting is not compulsory so those who do get voted in are a result of those who bother to turn up at the voting box and nothing else. There is a larger proportion of the population who do not vote than those who do, to an extent because of this politics in the UK fails. Each party now panders to the grey vote for they know this portion of voters do hit the voting boxes. They don't care much for advertising to the youth because the youth just can't be bothered. Politics is boring and politics is not on the  national curriculum yet another one of those very useful life things which should be compulsory.  If it were, then we might find the very irritating and unelectable didn't get elected as they did last time round.

Patsy is kicked out of CBB

Celebrity Big Brother is well on the way to finishing now. But I can definitely say it has been a pleasure to see Patsy Kensit leave, for I believe she has a mental illness. She thinks she is sound but her actual behaviour in the house was of someone who could not cope with conflict. She has got a anxiety disorder. No matter how much I think of her from thinking she was a hot chick in Lethal Weapon now I've actually got to see what she is like as a person her personality has a somewhat unctuousness to it. Yes, it may be a cruel thing to say, but I know for sure I would never be able to get on with her in real life. Thank god there is no chance of that happening. She is the kind of person who would be a pessimist and wouldn't even try to survive if her back was against the wall. She has come across in CBB as someone with no backbone, and dare I say it a victim like personality. Therefore she has been lucky in her career and her successes which must have primarily of been because of her looks in the first place. Put it another way, if she were ugly would she have been picked to be in Lethal Weapon? NO FECKING WAY JOSE.

Patsy always comes across as false, when she talks it is as if she always wants to be on people's side. As if she is pre-empting how someone else feels and does her best to agree. The producers of CBB have wasted a lot of money on this one.  Patsy did not have an opinion, but she did have an opinion except she never wanted to share it, or to give her view. She is the ostrich which sticks its head in the sand.  She was always afraid she couldn't handle it and CBB failed to give her psychological screening to find out if she was up to the job. For clearly she was not. I am so annoyed a person like this can be so big in the public eye, because if you take away the riches, the glamour and put her in a normal setting she would be the sad person you would never want to befriend.

Good riddance from CBB Patsy, and may I never get to see you on TV again because in all probability if I do I will change channel or turn the TV off.