Yvette Cooper needs to go

After watching an interview from the Daily Politics show between Yvette Cooper and Jo Coburn it is crystal clear, this woman does not represent her constituency and needs to be kicked out of her seat. The reason for this is the toxic subject of immigration. Jo reminded Yvette there was 66 per cent support for a BREXIT in Yvette's own constituency, but yet Yvette was on record multiple times as having supported the remain camp. In a typical back peddling exercise we see Yvette hop skip and jump backwards, doing everything she can to make herself look like she was trying to advocate means to tackle immigration, but at the same time was a remainer. The two views are contradictory. An MP should represent their constituency, so Yvette has gone against the opinion of her own supporters who were massively in favour of BREXIT. Yvette Cooper's seat as an MP is untenable because of this.

Yvette Cooper is MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, this constituency is in West Yorkshire but it is clear from her accent she is not from this part of the UK. Prior to 2010 this her constituency was Pontefract and Castleford where she became an MP in 1997, taking over from an a previous entrenched Labour MP Geoffrey Lofthouse who decided to retire at that time. Lofthouse's last election victory saw him with an eye watering 23,000 majority vote, which was 69.9% of the vote.  Effectively Yvette Cooper had began her life in politics with one of the safest seats an MP could hope to gain. It has been given to her on a silver platter, she didn't need to graft, to go out and talk to the public or do anything spectacular at all. All she needed to do was stand there like an scare crow and she would of been voted in because she was the officially elected Labour candidate. 


Yvette Cooper was actually born in Inverness yet does not have a Scottish accent. Her father went down the road of being a professional unionist, so no doubt had many strong union ties. Yvette was educated in Hampshire which again is a at least 100 miles away from where she is now as MP.  She did her PPE degree at Oxford, which suggests she was fortunately supported by her parents who forked out the financial spondoolies to help her on her career path. Cooper is not a Yorkshire girl in any sense of the word and cannot be representative of a constituency she probably had never visited prior to her being put on Labour's candidate card. The whole process of selecting Yvette Cooper has a resounding smell of nepotism from the ranks. It is ridiculous MPs are selected by parties and they have not actually come from the constituencies they represent and is false representation of the worse kind. Cooper should of tried her hand at being important in Hampshire not in Yorkshire. Infact the more details which are apparent from Wikipedia and other sources indicate Cooper has led a pretty privileged life, nothing of the sort which could be anywhere near understanding the hard working people of West Yorkshire.

So again the question is, why is Yvette Cooper an MP for a constituent she had no ties with? Why is she still an MP when she clearly went against the voting record of her own constituents in the BREXIT referendum? None of this adds up and begins to stink so bad it smells nearly as bad as the nepotism which is expected in Tory party politics. Cooper didn't go back to Alton in Hampshire to represent a constituency where she grew up for good reason. In 1997 East Hampshire polled Tory with a majority of 11,000 and 48% of the vote. So in reality this woman had a privileged upbringing in a Tory constituency and enjoyed the Tory life style as she grew up. Her political career no doubt had been heavily helped by family ties to the unions. For there is no way in hell she could of had any kind of career in politics in Hampshire.

It is a sad incitement of politics when politicians do not come from the constituencies they are in some way tied to. Yvette Cooper's case is a prime example of our own government now being overtaken by career politicians who have not held jobs outside of politics, who have no unique quality which marks them out as different and a character you can identify with. The fact is Cooper could of just as well became a Tory if she wanted and certainly in a place she knew.

Respect your elders?

There is a saying which gets pulled out of a hat now and again it is"respect your elders" and I will admit to disliking it to the point of vomiting. Respect is an odd concept. Because someone has a certain position in life it doesn't mean they should be given respect. There is for example a number of presidents in America who never had the respect of some of the public, or here, the Royal Family or even our own Prime Ministers. Because a certain office is held it doesn't mean the holder of said office should be given automatic respect. The same goes for age. I don't know why it was but I am sure this saying was said a number of times when growing up. In my real experience I have found older people as ignorant, racist and plain dumb as anyone else. Age should not confer an automatic status of respect. In fact such people who say these words do so in order to shut down a conversation or argument, as though they are magic words and to an extent rules. They are not. Hence it was with unsurprising when I saw a video of an elderly woman who was in dispute with a mother carrying her baby and didn't want her to sit on the seat next to her in a first class train department.


Mother and baby in first class row

The clip shows an elderly woman with the mistaken belief she can say what she likes to another person, additionally it shows snobbery if not racism. For in the early part of the video she says "you should respect your elders and betters" such a comment in certain circles would be like waving a red flag to a bull. What can certainly be said of the mother is how respectful she is to a bitter old goat who has spoken without thinking. The baby is the cutest little baby boy you could see, he is quiet and oblivious to what is going on around him. Had this mother been hysterical no doubt he would of taken on her feelings and felt afraid, in turn he would of cried and made the journey unpleasant for everyone. In my opinion this woman deserves a medal and the old girl should be fined for bad behaviour unbecoming of an individual who should know better. The mother kept calm and her behaviour was impeccable. The other odd thing which is noticeable from this video clip is when what appears to be an elderly man off camera interjects on behalf of the old woman. As though he has some business and say in the discussion. Again with dignity it is explained to him why the mother can take the seat. Unfortunately to say like the old woman he seemed to show an instance of stupidity and ignorance.

The word respect is used too much and should be banned from all use. Those who are old and would like this to be a baseball-bat-killer punch had better beware, because one thing for sure I have not and never will give anyone respect just down to their age. For there have been way too many instances I've encountered where elderly people don't deserve it and they certainly don't get it from me.

Not all Samosas are the same

One of the best somosas I ate was from an Indian Take Away. Happening to walk past the shop on one of those lets-have-a-walk days, I popped in and ordered a portion. The interesting thing was they also provided a piece of lemon and a small tub of sauce. The lamb somosas had just been cooked in oil so there was a little leakage but they were lovely and spicy. I also noticed the Take Away had a high star rating sticker in the window. This was about 30 years ago. I've not had a samosa as good as that one since. Even going back to the shop some years later to try and capture that same moment, only to be disappointed. The shop had changed, it's standards dropped and now the samosa was cooked in a microwave, there was no crispyness to it and it was even a little soggy. As is always the case with pastry like foods which have been zapped with radiation to cook them. Perhaps I slightly lie, because I have eaten very good somosas from Indian restaurants. However the thing with samosas are these are foods which you shouldn't get wrong. Everyone knows what they are and what they should taste like. So the reality is the standard should be high, exceptionally high. But it's not.

Yesterday the samosa inkling grabbed me by the throat and compelled me to order samosa from a food stall at my local market. The mobile food unit is ran by Nepalese people and is called Nameste, you'll find a few local nepalise men hanging around it at each lunch time. They are I assume ex-ghurkas because their old military base is up the road. Ever since the Ghurkas have been allowed to settle in the UK a great many of them have accepted the invite and come over. They barely speak a word of English and then stay in multiple occupied properties supporting each other as small communal units. Nepal is next to India and the share similar cultures. Spicy food and somosas being one of them. Unlike the samosas I'm used to which are kind of flat looking these were more small bulky pyramids. The did not have lamb in and it seemed the vegetable samosa was the only one they did. These to were microwaved so  again the instant disappointment radar comes on. Unfortunately the radar was right, they were packed with slightly spicy potato and peas but for some reason had a dry taste to them. Not even the small tub of lemon come spicy juicy stuff was able to take away the dry yukky-can't-eat-anymore reflex. The last two of the five parcels ended up in the bin. At this point I made a mental memo to myself, I'd eaten from this stall before and thought exactly the same thing. These samosas were not up to scratch and must be very mindful not to purchase them from this stall again. It's detestable throwing away food, I know I love it.

The quest for the perfect samosa will continue and the perfect one has to be one you get from a take-away experience. Samosas are finger food, they are to be eaten as a quick snack just to tide you over while going from one place to another and there isn't time to have a full meal or the need for a full meal. But of course, not all samosas are the same.