2014, a time for caring for others - and a better way to give to the homeless

I haven't posted in a while, but I thought the start of the year was a good time.

I have read many posts about having to be responsible for your own happiness over that last year. For 2014 I suggest a new plan. Lets forget selfish lifestyles and concentrating on ourselves, the look after your own happiness because everyone else will. Lets all concentrate on everyone else's happiness - that way ours will be looked after for us and everyone will be happy.

We can go one step further - lets just concentrate on looking after everyone else - that way anyone who needs looking after is.

The most damning feature of our society is selfishness - the inability to look outside our own little worlds and in to the wider world. Lets have a society based on care and compassion rather than selfishness and consumption.

If you see someone homeless in the street, smile and talk to them - they will appreciate that almost as much as money. Don't give them cash (which can be spent on drugs and alcohol), buy them lunch - if they have a pet, give them food for the pet (most will feed the pet before themselves) and spend a little time talking to them - our time is our most valuable commodity.

With this in mind, I am trying to start a new scheme, and will be emailing the major supermarkets, fast food restaurants, media outlets and some famous and very rich people.

The idea is simple, there is good evidence that giving money directly to the homeless can cause problems. A number have drug and alcohol addictions that it may well be spent on. My Wife and I deal with this in the simplest way, by giving food.

But I had the thought, what if we were able to give a voucher for food, that way they could get more than one meal. Taking this further, what if these vouchers could be used in charity shops for basic clothing and bedding. What the voucher could be spent on would be limited, so it would only cover food and drink, and only the basic versions of those (no alcohol or luxury items). This would mean we could help - with far less chance of harming.

If we could get pet shops and vets involved then we could help care for their pets. I know a lot of people scoff at the homeless with dogs - but I have spoken with many, and the only friend they have in the world is their pet. I have seen them give water to the pet first on a hot day, and when given food tear it in two and give the bigger section to the pet. I have seen them shivering in the cold, with the blanket wrapped round their only companion to keep it warm. These are not the actions of someone using an animal to get money, but the actions of someone who truly cares for their companion.

To start all we would need is the various companies to provide till receipts that act as vouchers for their outlets. It would not cost them anything, and may make some money (with vouchers that don't get used).

Longer term, a joint scheme with a single voucher would be nice, where you can buy them from any participating store, and the money gets put in to an account to be drawn from when the voucher is used. With every year, any money from vouchers that have expired going to provide Christmas dinners for the homeless. This larger scheme though would require some staff, an account and would therefore have expenses.

To get this to work though, requires more than just an idea, it requires a following, It requires people that will use it and it requires businesses to get on bored. Please forward and share this, lets get a following - lets show that it will be used, and then it will be easier to get others on board.
I will post a link to this on Twitter (please retweet) and on Facebook (Please both like and share).

I intend to make 2014 about caring for others, please join me.

20mph for Westfield

The Lid Dem BANES council put a large provision for 20 mph speed limits in their last budget.

I intend to try and get an early chunk of this money put in to Westfield for the residential roads.

Westfield is primarily a residential parish with a large number of young families, and is one of the few places I have seen in recent years where children can still play in the street. I want to help protect these children and enable them to continue to use the open areas we have - so I am going to propose having the residential roads in the area converted to 20 mph.

Also a number of the green areas are becoming mud with people illegally parking on them, at the same time I am going to request that parking officers actually police these areas, while looking at the possibility of converting 1 or 2 to tarmac to create the extra parking needed to ease the problem.

I will post more as it happens

Gurkhas - Betrayed again!

To some degree I have been supportive of the necessary cuts to get our country economy back in line (I only hope they reverse some of them when things are better, but I know it is probably a mere pipe-dream). 

I even understand that cuts in the military are necessary (though as with most of the cuts, the choices in what is cut seems to be front-line services rather than dealing with back-room excess and wastage)

What is intolerable is that a single small regiment (3% of the army) have over 50% of the compulsory redundancy. How convenient for the government that the majority of the soldiers serving in this regiment do not have the right to vote in the UK. Even more convenient is the fact that the Gurkhas will be using a different system to calculate their redundancy pay so they will receive less money.

The Gurkhas have a long and proud history, for more than 200 years young Nepalese men have left their homes to fight and die for Britain. For years they revived less pay, and had no right to remain in the country they fought for when they retired. Now having won a huge battle to obtain the right to citizenship of Britain, they are now being made redundant.

Nick Clegg - our Valiant? Deputy Prime Minister was so loud in the fight to get them citizenship and equal pay, seems to be being as meek as a mouse now they are getting the sack as a result.

It is about time our politicians and the people of the UK recognised our Military Personnel. They fight and die for what we believe in, on distant shores far from the ones they love. They deserve more than to be used as mere puppets and cost cutters in a pathetic party political game.

Some redundancy may be necessary,  but let's make them equal and as few as possible. Look at the contracts the military make in detail, and get value for money rather than just throwing it away. Look at excessive bureaucracy and cut it down, then when we have cut wastage back as much is possible then we can look at redundancy's, though hopefully with the money saved only voluntary redundancy's would be necessary.

Outside of that, it is up to the people of the UK to support our service personnel, both active and retired, especially in these hard times - 

I put out a call across the UK, to all businesses - Give a discount to servicemen, both current and retired. Lets show them our appreciation and make them realise how proud of the we are!

I out a call to all Communities, actively support the family's and personnel in your community. Family's that live off base far too often lack the support that those surrounded by other military family's get - lets work together and make sure they all get the support they need.

Excuses for Riots

A large number of our politicians are showing that they are not much better than the Rioters them selves, as rather than just condemning the riots they try and twist them to their own political ends.

Link to Guardian

The original Riot in Tottenham may have started out from a legitimate protest (the full results from the IPCC has not been released yet), but no riot is excusable - and the spread of the riots was just Thuggery.

Various left wing social commentators are finding excuses for the Rioters, despite them committing inexcusable offences against their communities. They had no placards, they gave no protest and half of the ones who have been interviewed cant come up with a coherent excuse.

"We did it to show that we had no money today

"We did it to show the police we can do what we want"

when they pointed out the police wernt hurt but it was the shop keepers

"We did it to show the rich we can do what we want"

didn't they notice that most of the shops hit were small locally owned businesses.

We have brought up a generation with a large number of people that think that the rules do not apply to them, that there are no consequences and that they can do what they want. When looking at the causes of the riots we need to look at that as well, not only the current situation that led to the riots but also the failings of our society that led them to feel it was OK to do it.

There has been a bright side to all this though - the communities coming together to condemn the rioters and to clean up and rebuild. Both young and old coming out and helping each other and giving shining examples of true British spirit that haven't been seen in years.

Now if we can just build on the positive, maybe there is hope for our society yet.

London Riots spread country wide.

The side effects of the policy allowing young people to run riot has brought riots to the entire country.

For years we have pandered to our kids, allowed them to ignore the police and teachers and attacked authority figures that have stood up to them. Punishments have been reduced to meaningless in schools so our youth feel there are no consequences to their actions. The result is Riots, Mass looting and the death toll to several communities.

They are about to learn there are consequences, when no jobs or businesses return to their communities for fear it happens again. The scars will remain as no one comes to repair the damage, and the number of jobless and impoverished families will grow.

We need to stem the tide now, the government needs announce that they will name and shame those guilty, so they face the wrath of their friends and family. Any over the age of 14 need to be treated as adults in the face of the law with the consequences that come with it. We need to announce the punishments now to prevent further spread.

More importantly we need to take a long look at our society. We need to show our children that there are consequences when the consequences are minor, long before they get to this stage. Discipline needs to come back in to schools and respect for the police needs to be rebuilt. 

We need a society where common sense wins, rather than instant reaction. Where when a parent hears that their child is in trouble - they find out why rather than immediately believing either side. Then stand up for the side that is in the right. In 'The good old days' parents immediately believed the Teacher or Police - now they immediately believe the child. 

Neither is right, but it is the lack of consequences caused by the latter that have enabled the current problems to arise. Our society has had a habit of jumping from one extreme to the other, where the middle ground is needed, and hopefully after the dust has cleared and the rebuilding commences we will not see more knee jerk reactions but a constructive dialogue to rebuild a safer, fairer and stronger society.

Legalised Terroism

An Israeli General has come out against the terrorism Israeli settlers are performing against the Palestinians in the West Bank (Link).

What I ask is how can we continue to support a regime that refuses to step in against this and still claim to have a 'War on Terror'?

Israel has repeatedly ignored international law (the West Bank settlements are considered illegal under international law) and refuses to keep their citizens in check to protect the native population. Not only that but when the Palestinians strike back - they bomb them with advanced military weapons. We just sent troops to Libya to aid rebels fighting against just this kind of situation.

We cannot have one rule for our friends and another for those we don't like. Right is Right and what is happening in the West Bank is not right by any stretch of the imagination. There should be a call for international sanctions against the terrorist regime in Jerusalem.

We (meaning the UK/US/UN) created the problem when we created Israel after WW2, we then turned a blind eye during their wars of expansion (though they claimed it was to increase their area of defence).

We have ignored repeated bombing and retaliation, and the Palestinians being subjugated and trodden underfoot. Enough is Enough!

Yes what happened to the Jews in WW2 was terrible and must never be allowed to happen again - but that doesn't give them free reign to  terrorise others.

All it takes for evil to win is for a good man to remain silent - so lets shout at the top of our lungs that we as a civilised society will not accept this!

We need to bring sanctions against Israel and protect the Palestinian population. We need to force Israel to come to the table for discussions.

Please join the facebook group I just created to work towards this Bring sanctions against Israel!

Other Stories in the News

Hidden between the lines of the Hacking Scandal are a couple of important other stories.

University Charges

1/3rd of university's have been given the go ahead to charge £9000 but the fees office. Students will be in uproar - while failing to see the bigger picture. This policy is going to cost the government - not save. As students will be earning more before they have to start repaying. The numbers going to university haven't been hugely effected, so there will still be far more graduates than jobs.

We need to seriously look at the goals we set - with UCAS trying to get the school league tables based on university attendance, more pressure is put on schools to get kids in to university, rather than looking at what is best for the student.

We need to remove the fallacy that our society has created, that if you don't go to university you have failed and look at life skills and the job market. University should be for the academic elite, what ever their social background - not for everybody we can cram in.

As I have said before - cut the number of places - increase the entry requirements, and fully fund them all. Degrees become valuable again and the government saves a fortune.

Equality Commission

The equality commission want the legal definition of discrimination expanded to include religion, as the result of 4 cases going through the courts.

For 2 of the cases I agree, though I would like to see the details.

A British Airways Clerk was sent home for refusing to take off a necklace with a cross. I have to agree with this one, would they have done it if it was a different religion, and what she was wearing had no bearing on her being able to perform her duties.

A nurse was given a desk job for similar reasons - I would be interested in the details of this, as they did not stop her working, and it could have been on hygiene grounds, with no one being allowed to wear necklaces - if this is the case I don't have an issue, if it was just because it was a cross then it is a different matter all together.

The next two are more complex.

A relationship councillor was sacked for refusing to give advice to gay people. So he was being discriminated against for discriminating against other people. Unlike the earlier two, this has a direct effect on his being able to do his job - something he was refusing to do. If his religion had said he couldn't give advice to black people, there would have been no question about his being fired - why should gays be any different?

The last one is similar, with a registrar refusing to conduct same sex civil ceremonies.

The question here is one of where should the line be drawn - I have some pretty specific opinions on this. If the clerk was insisting on wearing the necklace visibly, where there is a rule that no one is allowed to do this, then she doesn't have a leg to stand on, as long as she would have been able to place the pendant under her uniform.

For the nurse, the same apples - though there would be a hygiene reason not to be allowed to wear it at all (but that would have to apply to everyone and all jewellery, including wedding bands)

For the last too, I see no excuse - if a job is going to make you do something against your religious belief, take a different job. If you were in the police, and your religion said you could not take any form of action against another member of your religion - you would not be allowed to stay in the job - letting a criminal go because they were of the same religion would not be acceptable. If your religion says you are not allowed to drive, you don't take a job as a taxi driver.

Religion shouldn't be an excuse to flout general rules - as long as the rules have sound reasoning and don't discriminate specifically. Equally the law should come first (if the law says you cant carry a knife, and your religion requires you too - British law comes first, if the law is fundamentally wrong, it should be changed rather than bypassed for a small group).

If you are not allowed to discriminate against someone because of their religion, why should they be able to discriminate against you.