Goodbye Tony Blair.

Thanks for everything, thanks for giving us our dignity back.

Thanks for helping so many people.

Your a credit to yourself and to us.

All the best for the future.

"Sainsburys staff shamed themselves at a glittering awards party with a drunken night of debauchery and mayhem."
700 staff, many of them store bosses and regional managers had gathered for the event on Thursday evening.

That is what the papers are saying today after Sainsburys staff had a wild weekend away at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, South Wales.

It started with a champagne reception followed by an awards dinner.



A male and female,both bosses, both married, had to be dragged apart by security staff as they simulated sex on a sofa in the foyer. The pair started kissing and the lady (if thats what you can call her) lifted up her skirt as other guests looked on. Then when she lifted up her top, security staff rushed over to seperate them. They were not very pleased with this action.
One member of staff has said: They were going it like hammer- and -tongs on the sofa and they didn't want to be stopped."
The furious couple then set off two fire extinguishers in the reception.
They returned to his room where the glass of the fire alarm was later found smashed.

Other members of staff were urinating in lifts and stairways.
By the early hours of Friday morning, many of the Sainsburys staff were so drunk that they could only cling to the rails of escalators taking them from the basement suite to a guest bar for late-drinkers on the ground floor.


What happens to people when they go away? Now, I'm all for a good time and a laugh, but there has to be a limit, don't you think?
They are adult people and they should know better.
Apart from when they wake up the next morning with the splitting headaches and feeling sick. But also the fear and dread of remembering what they got up to.
That must be the worst of it all, those two in particular are married, so how do they explain that to their partners? Then they have to face their friends at work and that, to me, would be the worst. In fact I don't think I could have faced them. I would have handed in my notice and never gone back.
Then no matter how many years you have been there or how hard you worked whilst there, you would always remember how you left.

The shame of it all.

It's 12p.m. and geoff is still in bed. In fact I have just taken him up yet another cup of tea.
My god, it's alright for some isn't it?

I can't wait for my retirement!

I love watching police series on T.V. The Bill, New Tricks (my fav). But I had to laugh this morning.
I was watching Juliet Bravo.
There was two Sergeants and only one policeman on duty!!!

Don't think that will be enough police officers these days, do you?

Well, I've just had a funny experience.

On friday nights I take geoff out to the legion so he can play snooker with his best friend brian.
It also gives geoff a chance to have a drink as I never go out now and geoff is always driving so he cannot drink.

So, I drive to the legion, dropped geoff off and then went back to the bypass to drive home.
When I got to the bypass there was quite a lot of traffic on it so I indicated to join them and waited for a gap.
After a while this man in a white car pulled over to let me out. I put my hand up to him to thank him and drove on. The man in the white car then drove off very quickly. When suddenly, I saw this black car come up alongside me.
Now there was a speed limit on the bypass of 40 m.p.h. because they had been working on it. Everyone acknowledged that speed limit.
The man in the black car was still driving alongside me but I wasn't too bothered by this but I thought it was strange, as normally, they would just go speeding off.
I kept looking around, as you do on a bypass,when I looked to my right hand side expecting to see the black car alongside me again when I noticed.....The black car had disappeared!!

I looked around in astonishment.
Where was he?
Where did he go?

I know he didn't speed off because the car in front was the white one that let me out.
There was nowhere to turn off, it is a very long straight road.
He hadn't slowed down and gone behind me because there was a grey one behind me.

He hadn't crashed because we would have seen and heard that.

I searched high and low for him but I never did see him again!

So, please tell, if you can work it out.....where did the man in the black car go!!

Jim Gamble, is the Deputy Director general of the U.K.'s National Crime squad and is the senior officer responsible for tackling online child abuse.

In 2003, the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) was established, bringing together jim, law enforcement agencies and corporate partners including microsoft. The founding law-enforcement members of the taskforce are the National Crime Squad, the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the US Department of Homeland Security and Interpol.
The award winning VGT's mission is to prevent child abuse and deter child-abusers by using the very same medium on which they operate: the internet.

In january 2004, jim kicked off Operation Pin in the UK,USA,Canada and Australia. It centres on an internet site purporting to contain child abuse material.
However when they have logged on to this site, it tells them that their name and address have been reported to the police.

They are hoping that this is a deterrent. If they know that they have been reported to the police, they may not go to this site again.


However, Jim Gamble, it is reported has come up with a new idea of not sending paedophiles to prison but to get them the medical help they need.


Yet he has had great criticism with his idea. I really don't know why as it is obvious that they do need help.
If a crime has been commited you may agree that they should be imprisoned like any other criminal but in these cases, I do not think that prison is the answer.

What help do they get in there?

They need professional help from a psychiatrist.

But should they be allowed to walk the streets free? Surely they should go somewhere safe, for us and for them.
Perhaps in a special home for the time they have their treatment, and only be allowed to leave when they are cured.

If they could stop just one person from committing such terrible crimes then that is one person they have helped.

It will be a start and perhaps we could reduce the number of paedophiles.

When looking through the police blogs I have noticed a few that have not blogged for a long time.

The naked cop, last post.....feb 23rd

Another constable, last post.....just gone!

Dogeatsman, last post......feb 6th

Bobby slot, last post.....feb 5th

The chicken run policeman, last post.....march 8th

P C Potshot, last post....april 5th

Can someone please tell me where they are?


Thanks

My god the sun is shining after 3 days of pi....oh sorry, I mean persistant rain.
I have hung my washing out and now will do the garden. Which I may add, I do enjoy.

That's great but now Geoff is in bed with......man flu!!!

I'm going to buy a big bar of chocolate...and eat the bloody lot!!!

What a better way to end the Bank holiday!!

I don't think I have ever felt so down for a long time.
I am sat here watching the rain falling, and listening to it spitting at my windows.

It's a bank holiday and as always the weather is awful.

It's not that we had anything in particular planned but when it's dark and raining it's depressing isn't it?

Sorry to be a moaner.

I'll stop now!

I didn't have to think to hard to work out which 5 people I would like to meet in heaven.
But there was one person I thought of straight away.... .........God.
The reason for this is not because I am particulary religious because to be honest, I'm not.
But if he is there then at least I know he does actually exist.

This, of course, goes back to my other blogs.

Which do you believe, God or Science?

I have just read Dickiebo's blog and here is my 5 people I would like to meet in heaven.
They are not in any particular order.
Apart from the first one.

1 God
2 Harold Wilson
3 Marc Bolan
4 Princess Diana
5 Martin Luther King

The Perfect Murder: Panorama.

When ever you talk about the perfect murder everyone thinks immediately of "Jack the Ripper."
In 1888 he murdered 5 women, he has never been caught.

This makes you wonder how many more have been murdered and the murderer never caught.
Well, in fact since pre world war 2 there has been 150 unsolved murders.

In Suffolk one man has even tried to copy "Jack the Ripper." He has killed 5 women and he has never been caught.

Here is a list of the unsolved murders since 2000.
2001 Unknown boy River Thames "Torso in the Thames"
Victim.

2002 Amanda Dowler, Walton-on-Thames

She was 13 years old
when she was abducted.
A friend saw her walk
along Station Avenue
towards her home.
This was the last
confirmed sighting of
her.

2003 Shafilea Ahmed, Warrington Cheshire,

She had been missing for a week before anyone
had reported her missing.In Feb 04 she was found in the river Kent.

2004 Jenny Abbot Eastbourne .

She was 15 years old and was last seen
getting in a car.


2004 Alistair Wilson, Nairn, Inverness

He was shot dead at
home, after his wife
opened the door to his
killers. There appears
to be no motive.

2006 Jesse James, Moss side, Manchester.

He was shot. It appears to be mistaken identity
There are no witnesses.

2006 Tania Nicol, Ipswich, Suffolk "Ipswich Ripper"
Gemma Adams
Anneli Alderton
Paula Clennell
Annette Nicholls

It's hard to believe, with all the fingerprints and D.N.A. we have now, that there are still unsolved murders.

But what I find extradinary is that there are no witnesses to any of these murders.

I have just been through the blogs and,as usual, I always read Emmas.
Well, she has a test for us.

What Tarot card are you?

Now,to be honest, I'm not a fan of tarot cards. I'm not into anything spiritual or any of those things because it scares me.

However I had a go and filled out the quiz.
This is what they came up with:

YOU ARE THE EMPRESS


Beauty, happiness,pleasure,success,luxury,dissipation

The Empress is associated with venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure,luxury and delight.(??) You may be good at home decorating , art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance,of art or business.
While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the high.
Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so,the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

So, I may be good at decorating.......have you just read my other blogs about that?
I could not decorate to save my life!!
As for all the beauty, pleasure, luxury etc.......I wish!!
As for the anger.....well, you know what I'm like.

It's nice to read but what do you believe?

Anyway, I'll let you decide.

Phew, what a busy couple of weeks we've had.

The first was the election and you know the result of that.Then we had our living room decorated. Geoff can no longer do any decorating as he is not physically able, and it's no good asking me. I just cannot paint, and as for putting up wall paper, forget it. I have never done it in my life, and I will probably put it on upside down, sideways,or just back to front. I really should learn but then again, perhaps not!
So, geoff asked a friend of ours if he could paint our living room, and he agreed. Well, he's done a lovely job. The living room is now sky blue. It really cheers you up when you decorate, doesn't it? Well, I should say when someone else decorates!
We emptied the living room and my god, we were surprised at the rubbish we have kept all these years! Now we have decided, when we put everything back that we would throw out all the things we don't really want or need. Funny how you collect something "just in case we might need it someday" and of course, you never do, do you?

Anyway,we thought we would go away for the weekend to get out of his way.We decided to go to Western-super-mare on saturday and to Oxford (My home town)to see the family,on sunday.So off to Western we went. We booked into a hotel when we got there. It was on the sea front so the view was lovely. However, we still didn't see the sea.
We used to go there a lot when we had Becky our beautiful dog, but since loosing her, 4 years ago, we stopped going. You know what it's like.
So, saturday morning we drove down to Western and we did our usual, stopped for breakfast, at the Little Chef.We had a full english breakfast and it was lovely. I never eat breakfast so it was a treat for me.
Got to Western at midday and went for a walk on the beach, now the sea was just going out, in fact we were surprised we could see it!
Then we went for a walk in the town and saw a chinese restaurant that did a lunch special. Well, mention chinese to us and that's it. So in we went.. we had a lovely three course meal.
We were so full we had to go back to the beach to walk that off!
The day went and we went back to the hotel for a rest, and after a quick little nap we got ready to go out for the evening. Now, we had only taken a few things with us because we were only staying one night.
So I changed into my fav top (with the same pair of jeans I had worn all day!) and off we went.
We drove into the town, of course being saturday night it was packed, we walked around wandering what to do when we saw it. An Indian restaurant! Well mention a curry to us and that's it! So in we went.
We had a lovely meal and a nice bottle of wine.
Coming out of the restaurant, it was pouring with rain so we couldn't walk that one off.I thought I was going to burst.
We drove back to the hotel and just flopped on to the bed. We couldn't move!!
Sunday we got up and dressed and went down for breakfast. It was then we realised just how much we had eaten. I couldn't believe it.Normally I only eat once a day. Just the main meal at night. If we do go out for a meal we don't even have a starter.
Driving to Oxford we stopped for a coffee (Now that's what I do all day, just drink coffee) and believe it or not we had a snack.
We drove back and when we walked into the living room we were delighted with the decorating, the room looks so nice and fresh now.
Usually on Sundays we have a roast but, not wanting to cook at that time, we had a chinese takeaway!

Now, it's time to put everything back into the living room. It's all upstairs in the spare bedroom at the moment. I will be glad to get up and do some excercise and get back to normal!

Im glad we had it done but thank god it doesn't happen that often, I could not stand eating that much again!

Geoff said we would have to go on a diet. I readily agreed.

It must have been the sea air.

Even though we did not see much sea!!!

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while but we have been so busy with the local elections.

Here is the result of the Hagley ward:

Steven Colella: 1,160 (Con)
Christopher Scurrell: 997 (Con)
Annette Hulett: 214 (Lab)

We arrived at the Council House for the count at 11.00 p.m.
We left at 2.30 a.m.

Hagley was the last one of the night!


Although no-one was disappointed with the Hagley result because we know it is an Conservative area. Always has been, probably always will be.

However I loved canvassing and meeting so many nice people.

I loved it.

We had one really disappointing result, Geoff lost his seat, to the Conservatives.

However, never be put off, this happens in politics as you all know. You have your ups and downs.

We went out last night for an Indian meal and a booze up.
It was lovely and we had a great night.

I would willingly do it all again.

Socialism:
A political and economic theory of social organisation which advocates that the community as a whole should own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange.

On the 4th May 1979 Mrs Thatcher became Prime Minister.

Her one aim in life was to destroy the unions.

She started with the National Union of Mine Workers. (NUM)
They were the biggest and strongest union in the country.

1984-1985.

The miners strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry.

"The strike became a symbolic struggle, since the Miners Union was one of the strongest in the country.
The dispute exposed deep divisions in British society and caused considerable bitterness, especially Northern England and in South Wales where several mining communities were destroyed."

The National Coal Board wanted to close 20 pits with the loss of 20,000 jobs.
The miners could not accept this and the President of the national union of Mineworkers, (NUM).Arthur Scargill called for the miners to show their strength and they went on strike.
The strike began on the 12th March 1984.
The strike lasted for almost a year and on the 3rd march 1985 a special NUM conference was held and the miners had to concede defeat.

In July 1985, there were only 31 pits left in South Wales, with the loss of thousands of jobs.

The reason for the defeat?
Mrs Thatcher made it impossible for anyone to help them.
Please see below:


Mrs Thatcher was intent in destroying the unions because they were the only ones that could help us "working class" people. They helped us with the Health and Safety at work, and decent pay for a decent days work.

She knew how strong unions were so she set out to destroy them.

1. 1980. Secondary picketing was restricted and legal rememdies were given to employees from unions fpr refusing to join closed shops. Now closed shops required an 80% approval by the workers in the bargaining unit.

2. 1982. Union immunity from civil law suits was withdrawn and sympathy or secondary strikes were outlawed.

3. 1988. All remaining legal protection for existing closed shops were abolished.

4. 1990. The creation of new closed shops were outlawed. Union officials became responsible for unofficial strikes and the legal immunity for actions supporting unofficial strikes was withdrawn.
Remaining secondary union actions were made illegal.

5. 1992. The wages council abolished.

6. 1993. The automatic deduction of uniuon dues from salaries were mad eillegal without specific worker consent. Workers were given the right to join the union of choice.

7. 1998. The Natioal mininmum wage was brought in by the labour government.

The eighties were a real fight for democracy and socialism.......I know.....I was there.

I was on many, many demos, fighting for our rights.

The right to work, the fight for jobs.

Not to be paid low wages, not to be exploited by the employer.

I was also on picket lines until it became illegal for secondary picketing.

The best was when we and many thousands more joined Arthur Scargill and his miners on a march in london. That showed our strength.

Mrs Thatcher did not destroy the unions, they were too strong.

Thank god for that.

Come on then, own up, who watches them then?

I'm talking about "On the buses"
Thrusday nights at 10.00 p.m. on Men and Motors channel 131.

After that it's "Please sir."

Another great sit com.

Actually, I remember them when they first came on the t.v.years ago. We thought they were great.

This is a blog in response to one I have just read.

BLACK WEDNESDAY.

In British politics and economics, BLACK WEDNESDAY, refers to 16th September 1992.

When the conservative government of the day was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.(ERM) due to pressure by currancy speculators- most notably George Soros who made over $I billion from this speculation.
In 1997 the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion.

The trading losses in August ans September were estimated at £800m, but the main loss to taxpayers arose because the devaluation could have made them a profit.
The papers show that if the government had maintained $24bn foreign currancy reserves and the pound had fallen by the same amount, the UK would have made a £2.4bn profit on sterling's devaluation.
The papers also show that the treasury spent £27bn of reserves in propping up the pound: the Treasury calculates the ultimate loss was only £3.4bn.


When the RRM was set up in 1979, Britain declined to join. This was a controversial decision as the Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe, was a convinced pro-european.
His successor Nigel Lawson was also a believer in a fixed exchange rate, he admired the low inflationary record of Germany, attributing it ot the strength of the Deutsche Mark.

Although Britain had not joined the ERM, for several years the Treasury followed a semi-official policy of "shadowing" the Deutsche Mark.


At the same time, and in addition to open market trading of currencies, the Treasury's amin tool in attempting to control the exchange rate was through the setting of the value of Sterling. As a consequence, interest rates were set with consideration of the domestic demand and inflation environment as only a secondary consideration. This led to a number of years of lower interest rates than would have otherwise been the case, and hence to rising inflation.

Matters came to a ahead in a clash between Margarets Thatcher's economic advisor, Alan Walters and Nigel Lawson, when Walters claimed that the Exchange Rate M echanism was "half baked." This led to Nigel Lawson resigning as chancellor to be replaced by John Major.
John Major, who, with Douglas Hurd, the then Foreign Secretary, pressured Margaret Thatcher to sign Britain up to the erm in October 1990, effectively guaranteeing that the British Government would follow an economic and monetary policy that would prevent the exchange rate between the pound and other member currencies from fluctuating by more than 6%. The pound entered the mechanism at 2.95 Deutsche Mark to the pound.Hence, if the exchange rate ever neared ythe bottom of it's permitted range, 2.778 marks, the government would be obliged to intervene.
With UK inflation at three times the rate of Germany's interest rates at 15% and the "Lawson Boom" about to bust, the conditions for joining the ERM were not favourable at that time.

From the begining of the 1990's, high German interest rates, set by Bundesbank to counteract inflationary effects related to excess expenditure on German reunification, caused significant stress across the whole of the ERM.
The UK and Italy had additional difficulties with their double deficits. Issues of national prestige and the commitment to a doctrine that the fixing of exchange rates within the ERM was a pathway to a single European currency inhibited the adjustment of exchange rates.
In the wake of the rejection of the Maastricht Treaty by the Danish electorate in a referendum in the spring of 1992, those ERM currencies that were trading close to the bottom of their ERM bands came under speculative attack in the foreign exchange markets by currency speculators.

On September 16th the British government announced a rise in the base interest rate from an already high 10% to 12% in order to tempt speculators to buy pounds. Despite this and a promise later the same day to raise base rates again to 15%, dealers kept selling pounds.
Major currency traders like Goldman Sachs knew what the British government was trying to do and knew that the international money markets would eventually prevail against the efforts to prop up the pound.
This amounted to a major transfer of wealth from the government to the speculators, both individuals and investment banks.

By 19.00 that evening, Norman Lamont, then Chancellor, announced Britain would leave the ERM and rates would remain at the new level of 12%.

Just another example as to why no-one should vote Conservative in the up coming elections.

Well, it had to happen on a wednesday didn't it?

I got up for work wednesday morning, and after a cup of coffee and a ciggie, I got in my car to drive to work. This was at 7.15 a.m.

I drove to the end of the road and turned right, I then approached the small roundabout.Now, I have been doing this route for years, so nothing was abnormal about it, I approached the roundabout indicating to turn right, and stopped. There was quite a few cars around which was quite amazing really as normally there is no or just a few cars at that time of the morning.

I looked both ways and slowly moved away in first gear, and then.....THUD.

I had hit a young lady who was riding her bike.

She fell off and landed in the middle of the road, I slammed the brakes on and jumped out, running to her to see she was alright.

I helped her up and took her to the side of the road.
I asked her if she wanted an ambulance but she refused.
"I'm fine." she said.
"Just give me a minute."
She was still rubbing her leg and we looked to see if she actually cut herself but luckily she hadn't.
"oh my god," I said.
Are you sure you're alright. I'm so sorry."

At this I just burst into tears.

She stood up and walked around for a few seconds, I helped her as much as I could by holding on to her, but she then told me again that she was fine and she said she would ring her husband to take her home. I offered to drive her myself, she thanked me but said it was alright.

We started to talk about what had happened, and I explained that I had my visor down as the sun was shining straight in my eyes. I just did not see her! She excepted my explaination and told me not to worry about it.We then exchanged names and addresses. Her name is Jo.

About 10 mins later her husband turned up and of course he was concerned about her,but he could see that she was alright in herself.

She turned to me and smiling she said:
"please don't worry about it, you can see I'm alright."

"Thankyou." I said. "I'll ring you tonight to make sure."
The tears started again.

I walked over to my car and sat in it, to shaky to drive. I, of course sat and had a ciggie to try and calm my nerves.
After about 10 mins I put the engine on and drove very slowly to work.

I physically shook all day and could not stop thinking about her and how good she had been about the accident.

I told everyone at work and started crying again. They were so good to me, they calmed me down.

That night I rang Jo and asked how she was.

"I'm fine, really." she said.
"But my bike is a little damamged, I'll take it in to the shop tomorrow and get it looked at. o.k.? How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine too now,but I was so shook up by the accident, all I could think of was that it could've been a lot worse. I'm just glad you're alright." I said.

I ran my insurance to report the accident, and explained that no-one was seriously hurt.

The next day Jo ran me and explained that the tyre and the peddle on her bike was damaged and it will cost £50.00 to have then repaired.
I offered to pay it and she willingly excepted that.

"Thankyou. I will send you the receipt to prove it to you, and then we will say no more about it." she said cheerfully.

I just cannot get over how good she has been about the accident. Straight away she said she was fine and told me not to worry myself about it. But, of course, you do worry.

But I am surprised just how much this has shaken me. You drive every day and think nothing of it. I surpose you take it for granted. But now,I am thinking about taking a refresher course. It has really shaken me.

I don't think I will forget this incident for a long time.

Well, guess wot?

I have just been nominated!

No, no, not for twat of the year.

Anybody who has read my blogs will know what I'm talking about.


I have been nominated to become a labour councillor for Hagley.

It is a dominate conservative area.

So I wasn't surprised when we struggled to get the ten nominees I needed to sign that piece of paper!

So really, I am a paper candidate.

However, never be put off, I will spend April going around canvassing and try to get some more votes.

If you don't go around introducing yourself no-one will vote for you, they will never vote for someone they have never seen or spoken to.

My husband geoff is a councillor and I must admit I love his work.

So, although I don't stand much of a chance, I said I would stand as an councillor.

It will be fun.

Actually, to be honest, I am quite enjoying all the attention I'm getting!!!

Will let you know the result.

The election is on May 3rd.