What has become of our Society.

Reading the news today, I saw one of the saddest articles I have seen for one time. It was sad not just because it was reporting the death of a young man, but because his neighbours had heard him screaming for help and not one had gone to check what the problem was.

He had gotten stuck in a drain returning home, and yelled and screamed, his neighbours assumed it was a drunken game and ignored it - as a result the man lost his life. It is a sad example of what has become of our society, where young women are recomended to call fire rather than help or rape, as people will come to watch a fire and will ignore the other two.

The last 2 governments (Labour and Conservative) have created an attitude of "I'm all right mate" with in society, where everyone is more interested in watching their neighbours to report for some reason or another rather than helping each other. This is a trend we need to reverse, where people go to help someone in need rather than ignore it, or worse stand and watch.

I wish I could provide some fall proof plan that would cause society to change overnight, but that is not possible, fixing this mess is going to take years of work from successive governments that are prepared to look at and deal with the issue. I cannot see either the Conservatives or the Labour Party doing this.

Our best hope is a hung parliament at the next election, giving the Liberal Democrats some say in the governing of the country.

I call to every person that reads this, to talk about it with your friends. If every voter that didn't vote Liberal Democrat because they doing thing we can win voted for us, we would be in a good position to go in to opposition, if not rule. If every person that didn't vote because they think all politicians are the same, gave us a chance and voted for us - we would have a landslide victory.

Not all politicians are the same, but in living memory only 2 parties have run Britain, The Conservatives and the Labour Party. So talk to your friends, relatives and co-workers and give us a chance to prove you wrong and proved that there can be honesty and democracy in government.

BBC Sensationalism over landlord issue

I was saddened and disgusted last night and this morning over the BBCs biased and over simplified reporting of a complex situation.

BBC News Report

In Boston we have one of the largest, if not the largest transient worker population in the country, and this comes with various problems. Education of their children, Policing the extra people with a different culture and providing medical facilities to name but a few.

Rather than these large problems the BBC chose to focus on a narrow section of landlords that do not want migrant workers in their homes. Due to the race relations act, this is classed as racial discrimination, when in fact it is class discrimination - the same people do not usually want benefit claimants either.

As the race relations act pushes this underground it means that the estate agents cannot ask the questions they need to to find out what kind of migrant they are dealing with, is it a transient land worker or a full time professional, so a blanket comes down causing them to react to an accent rather than the form of employment - the race relations act is actually causing racial discrimination here rather than preventing it.

The BBC decided that rather than looking at the entire complicated situation it would focus on this narrow section and show our estate agents in the worst possible light (I would be interested to see the footage in full, rather than the edited highlights that are provided.)

Below is a copy of the comment I sent to the BBC, which reiterates some of the points I have made here and expands on some others.

I have just seen on line the article due to go out today on rentals for immigrants in Boston, and the article on line (so I am assuming the television article) is grossly oversimplifying a complicated situation.

Most Landlords and Estate Agents are not racist or trying to prevent genuine migrants from using their property, unfortunately there is a large quantity of transient migrant workers in the cause problems. The landlords that do not want these workers in their properties are the same ones that do not want benefits claimants in their property's and for similar reasons. When you look at one of the rental properties that are designed for migrant workers, they usually have too many beds, and mattresses under all of those and are in a bad state of repair.

Unfortunately the race relations act is a general coverall policy that leaves little room to manoeuvre for specific problems, as this issue is not so much racial as class based. Due to the legislation that is in place, it means that the questions that landlords and estate agents might want to ask, so that genuine immigrants don't suffer are not allowed because of the race relations act.

The lad who said it was OK to block "Muslims" was obviously in the wrong, as this is a direct attack on a specific racial group, and one that wouldn't be affected by the migrant worker problem in this area.

This is a provocative topic in the area, and one I am disappointed in seeing the BBC go charging in - hyping up with the current trend of over sensational journalism without having done the proper ground work first. There are a large number of racial issues in the area which need dealing with calm and care. Making sure that there is appropriate accommodation for the workers and dealing with the landlords that put 4 to a single bedroom would have been a far better target for your report rather than the landlords that are trying to care for their properties. Unfortunately a small number of these will be doing it for racist reasons but the vast majority will have seen what happens to these "Migrant" houses, where people frequently sleep in shifts whilst the others are working and don't want to see the damage that goes with it occur to their property.

Looking in to the gross government underfunding of the area, as the transient workers are not taken in to account. A situation that is stretching the local police force and education services to its limit. The potential closure of some local schools that are under performing, as the fact that a majority of their students do not speak English as a first language is not taken in to account in government statistics and the fact that they may be closed has meant that any funding is cut (and they are having to teach in the dining hall as the education board will not give them a budget for portacabins) so the children of the migrant workers and the children from the local area are getting a substandard education as a result. St Beads in Boston is officially the worst school in the country, but if you take a look at the make up of its students (which the government does not) the reason why is glaringly obvious.

These are far bigger issues than a few landlords (as most estate agents have landlords that are happy to take migrants as well as those that are not) not wanting migrant workers and the BBCs time and the licence payers money would have been far better spent looking in to these.

Lincolnshire's economy depends on these migrants as in general the British are not prepared to work on the land. It is a situation that would warrant an in depth report on the entire situation, taken from a balanced perspective, and that is what I would normally expect from the BBC. One that would help define the problem in all areas and help to find solutions, both with land lords and agents that are genuinely racist as well as those that are exploiting the migrants. Unfortunately the BBC seems to be following the tabloid press in to the realm of sensationalist journalism and if this continues it will soon be as pointless to watch the BBC news as it is to read a tabloid.

I would be appreciative if anyone that reads this and is in agreement with me contacts the BBC and tells them so, hopefully they will take a step back and do some responsible reporting and look in to the entire situation.

Having to steal to eat

I have just read a concerning article over a court case in the town I live in. An unemployed man, who had had his passport and other vital papers stolen from him was taken to court for stealing £12.54 in food and drink from Asda. At the time of the theft he hadn't eaten in 4 days . . . .

He was found guilty and fined £50 and told to pay Adsa a £15 surcharge for the goods.

The court case isn't what bothers me most - people cant been seen to be allowed to get away with theft, what ever the reason. The part that concerns me is that in our society we have a situation where someone needs to steal to eat. How can our government claim to be tackling poverty, when situations like this still occur.

There should be some way we can feed the homeless and poverty stricken victims of modern society with out them having to resort to theft. Even if it's just a can of discount beef stew in a disposable bowl (that would cost at most 15p per person). In 2008 there were just under 100,000 homeless according to government figures (which hide large numbers of people). That is under 5.5 million pounds per year to give a hot meal to each one every day - that is only 1.5 million over what the Prime Minister spent on travel last year.

The government has spent a fortune on it's digital britain report - concerned about getting high speed broadband in to every house in the country - shouldn't it be more important to get food in to every mouth in the country first?

Should Men be able to Sue over false accusations of rape?

There was an article in the Independent today, that leaves me in a quandary. It involves a man suing the woman who accused him of rape - as he has just been acquitted.

Independent Article

Understandably the women's rights groups are up in arms about the possibility of this happening, and the effect it may have on women coming forward after being raped - something that could become a serious issue.

From the other side, what happens to a man when he is accused of rape is almost as psychologically scaring as being raped - with the added side effect of anyone knowing that you were charged with it asking did he or didn't he.

Finding a line between the two may not be possible, to protect women and make them feel safe to bring charges against their attacker and at the same time protect men against false charges.

In the long run I think the only option may be to block any legal proceedings against the alleged victim but to keep the man's identity secret until he is convicted. Though far from perfect, it may be the only way to keep rapists off the streets - and though the occasional false allegation may harm some men - that is better than leaving predictors on the streets and at least the innocent would have a trial by jury to fall back on.