Can't You Resolve This Yourselves?

Stef Reid grew up as a sports-obsessed child, dreaming of playing rugby internationally. But on the eve of her 16th birthday, her life changed forever. Severe propeller lacerations from a horrific boat accident left doctors with no choice but to amputate her right foot.

I didn't want to give up on my goal just because I was an amputee, but life is constantly changing and we have to update our goals instead of forcing them to work in a reality that no longer exists," she says.

And by ‘update our goals’ she means whine about what companies choose to sell. 

Now she's campaigning for big brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma to sell single shoes rather than pairs.

Surely that should be ‘as well as’ ? 

In part it's about cost - high-end running shoes cost around £200, and when she was competing she only needed one but had to buy two, meaning she wasted hundreds of pounds on shoes she never wore.

Well, maybe set up a swap with someone your size who needs the other one, and recoup some cost? 

But her biggest motivation - is the principle. Many of the big brands proudly display models with blades in their shop windows, but don't sell shoes individually for athletes like Stef.

Stef isn't alone. While she wears two shoes with her day-to-day prosthetic, many other amputees don't.

So she DOESN'T waste money on the other shoe after all!  

And beyond disability, thousands of people whose feet are different sizes are also affected by having to buy two shoes of the same size rather than two singles.

Oh, FFS! Why does the world always have to change things that have worked well for hundreds of years for every whinging minority? 

‘Queasy Anxiety And Increasing Frustration’ Is What We All Feel , So Why Should You Be Different?

Because with this useless bitch in No 11, we're ALL screwed!

  

There are more than 1.7 million children and young people in England’s schools who are recognised as having special educational needs and disabilities (or Send). When you factor in their parents and carers, it highlights the huge number of people who anxiously watch this area of policy. All of them know that the systems those kids depend on are dysfunctional and broken. And they are also keenly aware of something else: that whereas their experiences once tended to be ignored and overlooked, they have now crossed from the online world into Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, The One Show, Good Morning Britain and all the rest, as a huge conversation about the politics of all this gets louder and louder.

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing...nothing other than a determination to keep their hands firmly in the taxpayer’s pocket, that is! 

Late last year, whispers from the top of government began to circulate, about drastically restricting the number of EHCPs. Ministers, meanwhile, have refused to be drawn on whether or not EHCPs and the very clear rights they enshrine will survive their reforms at all.

Is no one investigating the reasons for the growth in these then? No?

Whatever the government’s answer to the Send crisis, the report says: “The solution cannot be to remove the statutory entitlements from a system which lacks accountability in many other areas and in which parents already have so little trust and confidence … The Send reforms must not be based on any withdrawal of statutory entitlements for children and young people with Send.”

Any project that rules out a conclusion from the very start before it's even looked at the issue is a waste of everyone's time... 

It feels as if there is a mounting realisation in Westminster that existing Send rights increasingly look like a precious wall of defence against the cruelty that would be let loose if Reform took national power. And I increasingly sense something else: a rising aversion to standing anywhere near anyone who believes in the modern myths of “overdiagnosis” or the idea that changes to the Send system ought to start with snatching away rights and entitlements.

Why would anyone believe that this would be a priority for a Reform government? 

Hang The Cost, Full Steam Ahead

Peak rail fares have been scrapped on ScotRail trains, meaning passengers will no longer pay higher prices for travelling on busy weekday trains.

Making people pay the same price for something that's in greater demand? Adam Smith must be rolling in his grave.

The Scottish government-owned operator said its aim was to get more commuters out of cars and onto trains.

Ah, I see. It's for Gaia so any economic nonsense can be excused. They've already rejected it once:

A pilot scheme scrapping peak-time fares, a policy championed by the Scottish Greens, was introduced in 2023 but ended in September 2024 after ministers said the costs of the subsidy could not be justified. However, in his programme for government speech in May, First Minister John Swinney announced that peak fares would again be scrapped.

Who said Scotland wasn't a deeply unserious country? 

Speaking at the launch of the scheme in Edinburgh on Monday, he said it would help people to move "from their cars onto trains", which would provide environmental benefits. He added: "This is financially sustainable because it's an investment in the rail network and it's an investment in the people of Scotland. "People in Scotland simply travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow on a daily basis will see their travel costs fall by almost 50%. That's a massive saving when people are struggling financially."

But how are you going to pay for it. John?  

How Will Raising The Tax You Pay Motivate Anyone?

Upcoming changes to stamp duty will "motivate" first-time buyers to buy a property, according to the Halifax.

So, it's going down, and making houses more affordable? No, Reader. Quite the opposite... 

The average price of a UK home ended 2024 close to the £300,000 mark, the UK's biggest mortgage broker said. Its calculations suggested UK house prices increased by 3.3% when comparing the end of the year to the start, although the average value dipped slightly in December. It means the average home now costs £297,166, it added. In April, house buyers in England and Northern Ireland will start paying stamp duty on properties over £125,000, instead of over £250,000 at the moment.

The only reason this might just 'spark first time buyers' is if they decide to buy now before it gets any higher - they will be those already intending (and able) to buy.  

Housing experts expect sales to increase over the next few months, ahead of the stamp duty changes, before falling away afterwards. Alice Haine, analyst at Bestinvest, said: "This will deliver a particularly heavy hit to first-time buyers who will not only need to raise enough money for a deposit but also enough to cover the higher tax bill."

And once that small pool has run dry, what then? 

We Can't Persuade The Buyers....

...so we'll go to the source:

Healthier ready-to-eat meals could cut EU emissions by 48m tonnes annually and save customers €2.8bn (£2.4bn) each year, as well as reducing disease, a report has found. Fast food and ready meals provide more than a sixth of the EU’s calories but contain far more salt and meat than doctors recommend, according to an analysis from the consultancy Systemiq commissioned by environmental nonprofit organisations Fern and Madre Brava.

So much for the labelling systems - given a choice, customers buy what they like, not what government says they should buy. Are you listening, electric car manufacturers? 

“Making ready meals healthier and more sustainable is a no-regrets policy,” said Eduardo Montero Mansilla from the Spanish Consumers and Users’ Federation, one of 10 non-governmental organisations that co-authored the report. “We can improve the health of people and the planet at affordable prices.”

The report explored the effects of making big food companies comply with diets from the World Health Organization, which aims to avoid malnutrition and non-communicable disease, and the EAT-Lancet Commission, which tries to reduce environmental as well as human harm. In both cases, they found that ready-to-eat meals would need to contain about half as many refined grains and two-thirds less meat, on average, as well as “significantly” more legumes.

So at least this will have one good effect if it's ever implimented - people will go back to cooking for themselves, so they can have food with meat and flavour.  

“We are currently living in a diet-related health crisis,” said Alba Gil from the European Public Health Alliance, which co-authored the report. “Our dietary habits shape our health, and therefore our future. It makes only sense that policymakers regulate the environments where we consume food to make it healthy and affordable by design.”

It only makes sense to people with a powerful urge to make others conform by crushing their free will. I thought we had a name for people like that?  

The NGOs called on the EU to require big food companies to comply with health and sustainability guidelines for ready-made meals sold in the EU. The report did not analyse how consumers would respond to such a proposal.

Because it already knows. It can see how they react in other markets!  

Go Woke, Go Broke...

Woke books that were bought for huge advances by 'inexperienced' editors have flopped commercially, insiders say. 'Ideological fanatics' allowing their politics to dictate professional decisions have seen profits slump, according to industry experts.

 Gosh, you’d really have to have a heart of stone, wouldn’t you?

Among the works responsible for huge losses is a hotly anticipated memoir by the actor Eliot Page about his journey transitioning. 'Pageboy' sold for a $3 million advance but has sold just 68,000 copies.

 Just sack a few woke editors, to recoup the money!

Other recent 'woke' flops are Carolyn Ferrell's, 'Dear Miss Metropolitan' described by the New York Times as 'a story of three young girls, Black and biracial, who are kidnapped and thrown into the basement of a decaying house in Queens.' The novel was acquired in a deal estimated to be worth more than $250,000, but has shifted just 3,163 copies since it was published in 2021.

 Blimey, that’s not that much more than if all her friends and relatives bought a copy…

Another example is 'queer feminist Western', 'Lucky Red' by Claudia Cravens which has sold around 3,500 copies despite commanding a $500,000 advance.

Its clearly true what they say about a fool and their money. But let’s face it, they had it coming: 

'We flat-out decided we weren't going to look at certain white male authors, because we didn't want to be seen as acquiring that stuff,' one senior editor told The Free Press.

When asked whether editors acknowledged they were 'discriminating against writers because of their skin color', the editor replied: 'I don't think it was worded quite as blatantly as that. It was worded more like, 'Is this the right time to be championing authors of more traditional backgrounds?' Often, the language was a bit opaque.'

The bank balance isn’t opaque, it’s pretty stark, isn’t it? 

A Culture Clash In The Wings…

Nearly two-thirds of bosses believe that workers will return to the office five days a week within the next three years, while a majority of company leaders think pay and promotions could become linked to workplace attendance, according to a survey.

Oh, OK, well. they are entitled to believe that. What do the actual workers believe, though? 

Multiple employee surveys in recent years have shown that most workers have no desire to return to their desks full-time, with some saying they would quit their jobs if current workplace flexibility was taken away.

Well, we're going to live in interesting times then, aren't we?  

I Didn't Think Columbia Could Spare $3.5M ....

...must less spend it on assuaging animal rights nutters:

Authorities said they plan to capture and move nearly half of the hippopotamuses in the coming months, with 10 bound for the Ostok Sanctuary in northern Mexico, and 60 destined for an as-yet unnamed facility in India.

“The whole operation should cost around $3.5m,” Ernesto Zazueta, the owner of the Ostok Sanctuary said.

Well, you know what you could do instead, don't you? Upwards of £5k a pop, and the food's better than Africa! 

Since the hippos escaped after Escobar’s death, the government has repeatedly failed to tame the booming population who have made the Magdalena River basin their home.In 2009 it tried culling the animals but stopped after a graphic photo caused national outrage.

A sterilization programmed remains in place but the hippos breed faster than local experts can find, catch and castrate them.

There's a lesson here for everyone, isn't there? 

How Exactly Does One Hoard Cucumbers..?

Asking for a friend, of course!

Fears are growing that vegetable rationing will spread as 'other stores prepare similar cutbacks' after Asda and Morrisons limited their purchases due to food shortages caused by bad weather. Perishables like tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber and broccoli have been restricted to just two or three per customer in a host of stores up and down the country.

Is it me, or does the word 'perishable' there imply you can't just stuff them in a cupboard like rolls of Andrex during first lockdown? OK, you can freeze broccoli, and make tomatoes into sauce. 

And if all you want to do is pop a chunk in your Pimms, you can freeze cucumber, but it's useless for anything else...

The crisis has developed in recent weeks due to soaring energy costs which have forced British farmers to switch off greenhouses as they desperately try to make ends meet - leaving a dearth of home-grown produce.

I bet the central heating is roaring away in all those refugee hotels, eh?

Meanwhile, a 'perfect storm' of flooding, cold temperatures and cancelled ferries have caused major supply problems on the Continent, meaning supermarkets have also struggled to access imported goods.

The MSM does love a panic, doesn't it? Is there a simple answer? Why, yes:

Olly Harrison, 42, who owns Water Lane Farm in Merseyside, told MailOnline: 'Shoppers are going to have to get used to the sight of empty shelves.

'People are going to have to start eating some items like tomatoes seasonally again, because at the moment, without help, they just can't be produced in this way. '

QED. 

Ooh, I Love These Articles!

 

A dishwasher expert has revealed the five things you should never do if you want 'properly' clean plates and a machine that doesn't break after a year or two.

My dishwasher is 20+ years old and still going strong, so I must be doing something right! 

Ashley says you shouldn't bother putting the tablet in the dishwasher dispenser as it is 'completely pointless'. He said the dishes will be washed just as well by throwing the tablet in the bottom of the machine.

Check! Used to faithfully add them to the compartment, but saw this advice somewhere else about 6 years ago and stopped. Made no difference! 

'By all means, scrape your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, but there's no need to rinse – it won't make your dishes any cleaner and it'll just use more water,' Ashley advised. 'Plus, by rinsing your plates clean before washing, you're showing a complete lack of faith in your dishwasher's ability to do the one job you paid all that money for it to do.'

Check! Well, I wouldn't want it to get a complex, or anything... 

Ashley also warned that closing the dishwasher between washes is dangerous. It doesn't give the seals a chance to dry out, which gives mould and bad smells a chance to take hold.

Oooh, I do leave it ajar after a run, to cool down, but otherwise shut it. Will take this on board though. 

Washing a half empty dishwasher is inefficient for several reasons. Ashley warned that you will waste money, water and energy as your dishwasher will use around the same amount of electricity and water regardless of how full it is.

Pft! If I'm running the dishwasher it's because it's full! Who runs it half-empty? 

The expert's final tip is to never put sharp knives in the dishwasher if you don't want to damage them.

Check! I'm doing OK. 

Ouch!

It's funny of course. 

At first...

Rebuild It? Knock It Down First!

I would be utterly ecstatic if my GP showed a fraction of the customer service of Uber.

Speaking today at the launch of campaign Rebuild General Practice, Mr Hunt called for Britons to always be seen by the same family doctor.

They would mostly like to be seen by any doctor, Hunt. Not by one who is still avoiding patients:

Pre-pandemic, around eight in 10 appointments were carried out in-person. But the figure currently still stands at around 60 per cent, despite family doctors being told to get back to routine services.

If people who work for you refuse to carry out your orders, you sack them. Get some balls, Hunt. 

Why Do They Need The Tail To Wag The Dog?

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said: “I would get rid of it (WFH) now. People have got to be encouraged back into the office.

“The infrastructure in London is desperately in need of people going back to the office — shops, small food outlets, restaurants, entertainment — all these things that make London vibrant are all flat at the moment.”

Make up your mind, I thought it was all the stabbings that did that?! 

Sir Bob Neill, Tory MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, said WFH guidance should go by January 26 “at the latest and earlier if hospitalisations continue to decline”.

He told the Standard: “The hospitality and retail sectors in central London are being crippled and, thanks to the success of the vaccine campaign, albeit that we have more to do there, we must be planning to move steadily back to normality as soon as possible.”

Why 'must' we be planning that? What if WFH is the new normal? What if workers aren't the only ones to benefit?

Ros Morgan, chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, said: “Work from home guidance has hollowed out the centre of London and meant that our businesses and cultural venues had a really difficult December — an option for office workers to come back would bring a much-needed boost to our capital. Central London stands ready to welcome people back — so let’s remove the barriers as soon as we can and help bring London back to life.”

Everyone seems to be forgetting that these services grew up in the first place to service a need - if the need diminishes because the working culture is changing, then they need to adapt to serve the new need or die out. Not demand that workers and firms regress to serve them up with a captive market.

That's not capitalism, and it's certainly not progress either.  

They've Rumbled You, Rail Companies...

The number of train journeys made by commuters in Great Britain remains at less than half of pre-pandemic levels, figures show.

...so what are you going to do now that your customers have realised how you've been treating them and aren't putting up with it any more? 

Are you going to lower your prices and improve your service to attract them back?

The rail industry is running a marketing campaign with the strapline “let’s get back on track” to encourage more people on to trains. It is aiming to create a “sustainable, more passenger-focused future” for the railways, particularly within the commuter market.

Hmmm, doesn't sound like it, does it? 

Andy Bagnall, the RDG director general, said: “Rail connects people to jobs and opportunities, helps tackle congestion, and leaves the air in towns and cities cleaner than other forms of transport, so we’re keen to welcome more people back onboard.

Nope, don't think that's going to cut it. There's just not enough eco-nutters to care... 

“Train companies are working hard to meet the changing needs of our passengers, including new flexi season tickets to give commuters more choice, while continuing to prioritise ventilation and extra cleaning, because as Britain recovers, every passenger delivers more than a journey.”

They've decided not to deliver more of their hard-earned money into your pockets, Andy. But I'm sure you've got a Plan B. What is it?  

But It Won't Be Them Paying, You Idiot!

Persistent shoplifters should be spared jail and instead retailers could pay for their rehabilitation, a police chief has said.

The costs will, of course, be passed on to customers. 

Thankfully, she's not really a 'police chief' in any normal sense of the word.

Donna Jones, an elected crime commissioner, believes short jail sentences for low–level criminals with drug addictions do not work and prison should be reserved for more serious violent and sex offenders.

She's elected. Which means, unlike the woke top brass, she can be unelected. Her obese backside can be evicted from the comfy seat she now occupies.

The Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner, who was elected as a Conservative ...

She fits right in, doesn't she?

Is This An Amazon Killer?

...when readers, publishers and independent bookshops shared their delight about the new books retail platform, Bookshop.org, launched on Monday, it was the result of some of the most exciting news we’ve had in publishing for aeons.

Wow! Things must be really boring in retail, is all I can say! What's new about this platform, then? 

Following its success in the US, Bookshop.org has arrived in the UK and promises something we have all been asking for – an ethical and transparent platform for buying books that amplifies the uniqueness of independent bookshops, with reading lists curated by humans rather than algorithms.

Who's been asking for that? Have you, Reader? If I want 'reading lists curated by humans', there's Goodreads.

Bookshop.org allows any independent shop to customise its own online store front, select books to recommend and, any time a bookshop directs a customer to the site through one of its links, it gets 30% of the sale.

Well, we'll see. But don't write off Amazon just yet. 

Why Should They Do Business With Stores That Treat Them As Biohazards?

Ocado's boss today claimed that lockdown means shoppers 'won't be going back' to rivals' stores as the online retailer's half-year sales smashed through the £1billion barrier for the first time.

...

Some consumer experts believe Boris Johnson's plans to make masks compulsory in shops could force more people online.

Well, yes! Of course. Why would you go to a store that treats you like a potential disease carrier when their own staff can be treated normally, and don't need to wear masks?

Britain's grocers are gearing up for a massive price war amidst fears unemployment could rise above four million.

Perhaps they can switch to delivery driver/store picker instead?

Next week Chancellor Rishi Sunak will deliver his plan for rebooting the UK economy.

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer called it the 'last chance to save hundreds of thousands of jobs'.

What are we supposed to be saving them for...? So the establishment can treat you like medieval serfs?

The World Is Changing...

Philip Pullman has called on publishers to stop damaging “the ecology of the book world” and start giving authors a fairer share of the money their books earn.

...and if you don't like it, there are other options.

“To allow corporate profits to be so high at a time when author earnings are markedly falling is, apart from anything else, shockingly bad husbandry. It’s perfectly possible to make a good profit and pay a fair return to all of those on whose work, after all, everything else depends. But that’s not happening at the moment,” said Pullman.

 Instead of whining, change the process yourself! It's not easy, but when is anything worthwhile easy?

The Society of Authors has set out a range of challenges for publishers, calling on them to “commit to paying authors a higher proportion of turnover”; to be more transparent about how writers, illustrators and translators are paid; and to draw from “a wider pool, not just celebrities, but writers from across society”.

Yes. More 'diversity'. That's what's needed. 

Well, I Think The Answer Might Be Written Down Somewhere, Kathleen...

Weekly, I have to feed six to seven people three meals a day. I do it on about £50 a week, sometimes £65, sometimes less than £30. It all depends what I have left in the bank after I have paid everything I need to pay.

Oh, you poor thing!

The only thing stopping me from cooking wonderful meals packed full of vegetables and healthy things is cost. I can cook, so can all of my children. I can’t afford to cook as I wish to do.

*stifles a tear*

Stuff I know will be eaten. Risk-free food I know won’t end up in the bin. When I have just £2 in my pocket, it’s not the time to experiment and find out whether my 13-year-old would appreciate a quinoa-and-aubergine bake.

Errr, hang on. If you're 'in poverty', you eat what you can get, don't you? Because you're hungry....

No, no. Mustn't let doubt creep in! Pray, continue...

It’s not a class problem. It’s a financial problem. We all want the best for our children. We just need to be able to afford to put the building blocks in place.

And what cruel capitalist corporation is paying you poverty wages, Kathleen? What unfeeling big business is preventing you from keeping body & soul together by not paying you what you're worth?

Kathleen Kerridge is an author of LGBT fantasy fiction

Ah. I guess that doesn't pay as well as you hoped? I don't suppose you've considered getting a proper job? No?

Didn't think so.

Women’s Work Is Never Done…

Think of your colleague on the next computer, or the person who lives in the house opposite. What do you know about them? Their immediate family’s names, probably. Pets, maybe. Jobs, interests, what they got up to at the weekend? Bar a few gaps, you could probably give a pretty good potted history of these acquaintances.

Yes, probably. They are, after all, my colleagues and neighbours.

Now what about your cleaner?

Well, for starters, I don't have one. And if I did, he/she would (presumably) be working when I'm not there.

So if I did have one, they'd be like my window cleaner or car mechanic - a professional I pay to do a job. Not a colleague.

It is a question that many of us should be equipped to answer, given that one in three UK families are now employing someone to take on their domestic labour…

Really? Gosh. I wonder if this is the cause of the rise in the Black Economy?

While there’s nothing inherently exploitative about domestic labour as a concept, the reality of gendered capitalism in the UK is that women make up the workforce in the majority of low-paid jobs: a staggering 90% in the domestic and care industries. Undocumented migration and cash-in-hand payments mean accurate data is hard to come by, but it is estimated that migrants made up 27% of workers in elementary cleaning occupations in 2014, disproportionate to their 13.1% share of the UK’s population.

Yup. Like I figured. It is.

Cleaning is work that women should do for free, so goes the logic, and so it’s left to those most desperate for jobs to pick up the slack – often at less than minimum wage and with no guaranteed hours.

Presumably this is, however, better than their options in their home countries? So why should we worry?

This presents a problem for high-flying feminist women who see the rejection of domestic labour as liberation from tradition and a chance to further their careers and ambitions. Why clean the bedroom when you could be sitting in a boardroom? But this individualistic model of equality focuses on women gaining power rather than feminists gaining influence, and it does nothing to improve the material lives of less privileged women.

Ah. I see. This is yet another paradigm shift in feminist policy making.

The unfortunate fact is that mess and dirt will always exist, and someone will always have to clean. The feminist response, then, isn’t to keep shifting undesirable domestic labour to one another but to challenge the perception that it should be negotiated between women alone. Only then can we really start to question why domestic jobs should be valued at a lower premium than any other labour, resulting in work that is insecure, inflexible and isolating.

They are valued at that premium because they are jobs that the unskilled can do. And as soon as the Roomba or its like can cope with stairs, and is cheap enough, they won't even have this. As I pointed out elsewhere.