Sky Atlantic recently broadcast a fascinating, if worrying, documentary called In Real Life on the impact of the internet on today’s teenagers. In broader terms they also showed how Big Brother is well and truly with us at every click.
Archives for November 2013
And the Lord asked…what is a Balance Sheet?
The Age of Madness
Late in the year comes the strongest contender yet for dumbest idea of the year; the proposal that we should think about lowering the age of consent to fifteen is simply madness.
The UK already has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe so our youngsters don’t need any encouraging to get cracking even earlier.
Our pavements are so congested they should have pram not cycle lanes in parts of the country although some of the young mums would need wide lanes and HGV status.
The highly educated buffoon that suggested this argues kids are confused by overtly sexual images shown largely through music videos; this is because the music is shit so they have to get your attention somehow.
This is simple to cure…bring back song-writing!
In my day we had Kim Wilde in baggy sweaters wearing those woolly socks that went up to her knees and were obliterated in the wash on the fast cycle…okay I had some.
And look at Kim these days, still wearing those sweaters only this time on gardening shows…proving thrift is all.
Agnetha from Abba never needed to get them out or bump and grind like Pink because she could sing. And yet kids still ended up with the Silver Cross All Terrain 4×4 for Christmas; it has happened since Adam and Eve.
When we were at school sex education was crap and consisted of one film with two mongooses going at it like the clappers, whilst old Sister Pious Face tutted in the corner. I have never seen a mongoose shag since so am still oblivious to the linkage.
A more unfortunate consequence was that of my mate Graham being called Mongoose Magee for the rest of his primary school days, although I am not sure if that’s because the girl he fancied looked like one.
I learnt more when Muzz, the local stray dog, got caught stuck into his latest squeeze on the cricket field. That was not an orgasmic howl and it kept me away from girls for years.
Kids need to know how a car works before they get in and drive; likewise they need real education on sex…warts and all. Starting them off younger is not the answer.
Smoke and Mirrors
We all know enough to be suspicious of politicians of any party, lying bunch of crooked bastards that most of them are. In a few weeks Georgie Boy will present his pre-budget announcement and, if you believe what you read, things are looking up.
One thing you can be certain of though is that what you see is not entirely what you end up getting. A favourite illusionary trick of New Labour was PFI (Private Finance Initiative) which allows new schools and hospitals to be built with apparently no increase in Government debt. Magic?
The builds are funded by private money – as opposed to cheaper Government debt – but the state pays for its new assets on the never-never, forever and forever.
Osborne said he would end this shambolic waste of public funds but, in the face of trying to appear to reduce his annual deficit yet still give voters new things to coo at, PFI remains alive and well.
Small wonder all the recent fuss about the standards of care in the NHS; in place of doctors and nurses we have interest payments to the city financiers and cosy deals done that we all cough and drop for in the future.
How Many More Building Days to Christmas
At last work is due to start – so we are told – on Bradford’s Westfield shopping centre. Cllr Green has popped his head out from under the City Hall sand to proclaim all is well with his empire.
Out of the giant water-filled crater will spring the retail saviours of the city centre in the form of Debenhams, M&S, Next et al…but what will happen uptown as retailers surely vacate units they already reside in? Is there a plan?
And across town, the council now own the Odeon site yet as with the rest of the city, they appear not to have a clue what to do.
A Sign of the Times?
A survey this week on the levels of personal debt in the UK confirmed that most people have not got much idea about financial management.
This point was reinforced when we also discovered that the Co-Op bank was being chaired by a coke-snorting, rent-boy fan and holier than thou Methodist minister who you would not put in charge of the collection tin.
You might wonder how such people rise to positions of authority almost unchallenged. Well take a look around because you are surrounded by these invisible, inept ladder climbers who slither into positions of influence.
Councils are full of people who cannot believe their luck that people actually voted for them – they didn’t they just ticked the same political party box they have done for years.
This whole episode rather reinforces the fact that the great are actually not so good after all.
Simply because most of us have better things to pursue than a life in local politics as a lapdog for those on high, the good, the bad and the downright crooked will continue to jostle for positions of power and influence.
Rev. Flowers does appear to have taken this to new heights, albeit not holy ones.
And now witness the political fallout caused by an incompetent and useless Bradford Councillor as Westminster truly gets its knickers in a twist. Funny old world indeed.
Rise Up the 93%
News that the middle-class elite are increasingly all-powerful these days as evidenced by Sir John Major’s recent speeches on social mobility surely will come as no surprise.
It has long been apparent that those able to access the best schools inevitably have the best opportunities of future advancement in whatever arena they choose.
Of course this is not set in stone – everybody knows a Tim (nice but dim) – but the odds are stacked in favour of the 7% of kids who attend private schools.
Bradford – One Last Shot at Redemption?
Next year is a defining year for the City of Bradford; can it reinvent itself as a modern and vibrant city centre or will it be consigned to decades of terminal decline?
This week the local comic – Bradford’s Telegraph & Argus – re-hashed for the umpteenth time the “story” that developers Westfield will finally start building the long awaited shopping centre. No prizes for cutting edge journalism there.
Crucially as well, the fate of the Odeon will finally be determined after 14 years of abysmal neglect and negligence by a local authority not fit to run the local youth club let alone a city with half a million people.
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