Have you noticed that staff in hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, and other places, where employees face the public, hide themselves behind computer screens and get on with their “work” totally oblivious that you are there?
We waited for almost 10 minutes here in Spain in front of a desk while some employee who didn’t deserve to be employed, just carried on playing with her computer keyboard saying “una momento” while she really meant wait for ever! It’s the same total rudeness in the UK and it’s about time employers cracked down on it.
The other massive annoyance is when you are being dealt with my someone who gets a telephone call and then totally ignores you to answer the b….y phone. You have taken the trouble to go to an office and talk to a member of staff in person – why should you be pushed aside by some lazy person who prefers to sit at home and then gets preferential treatment?
Goodness knows what it will be like when artificial intelligence finally takes over. We will never get to talk to a real person again. You have been warned – and it’s still time to rise up against this growing trend, before we all lose the will to live!
PASSION FOR PALESTINE
Any right-minded person must be sickened by what has been going on in Israel – but how many of you are also sickened by the countless thousands of people marching in cities not just calling for an end to the war – which is reasonable – but in total support of the Palestinian cause.
I am no more in support of Jews than Muslims. Some successfully live in peace alongside each other, but sadly many are filled with absolute hatred driven by a religious clash– and it is this hatred which has got us to this dreadful bloodthirsty mess.
I would like all those who march in support of the Palestinian cause to think very hard about what Hamas, which has been born out of Muslims’ hatred of Jews, actually did in their totally depraved invasion. Some raped their female victim so many times they broke her pelvis. Other women were appallingly mutilated and there were even reports that babies were put in kitchen ovens and cooked alive.
We keep hearing about civilian casualties in Gaza. It is ghastly that children are being killed and seriously injured in this appalling conflict, But I wouldn’t mind betting there are many parents and other adults in Gaza who know only too well who Hamas are and where they are hiding.
Similarly, in Afghanistan there must have been many civilians who knew who the Taliban were and where they were hiding, but didn’t tell Americans and Brits over the 20 years they were there, so that the religious extremists could be eliminated.
And what happened – even before the last planes left Afghanistan down came the Taliban from their hillside hiding places and imposed the same old extreme religious nonsense, denying women any independence, education or meaningful jobs and forcing them back to covering themselves. And we’re supposed to feel sorry for them?
THE BREXIT DISASTER THAT NO ONE WILL ADMIT
Do you remember all those fantastic promises from the likes of Boris Johnston, Nigel Farage and Rees Mogg that Brexit was going to boost British financial institutions and the City and Britain would be more prosperous?
What a sick joke that has turned out to be. Since Brexit Britain’s biggest chip company, Arm Holdings, now lists its shares in New York, building supplies firm CRH and plumbing equipment company Ferguson also shifted listings to the US.
And now we hear that Tui, one of world’s largest travel firms, is considering quitting the London Stock Exchange in favour of a listing in Frankfurt.
Now, to be fair, Tui is German owned, and it is reasonable to suppose that it would favour being listed in its home country. But it has been on the UK exchange market since 1982, and a main listing since 2014. The company has denied that Brexit is anything to do with its deliberations, but it has said that having Europe as its financial base would help it deal with European financial legislation.
But financial experts say such a move would add to concerns over London’s ability to attract big businesses in the future.
One thing seems certain, Brexit hasn’t done the UK any favours, despite the Tory right wing trying to pretend otherwise. The fact is that Germany’s DAX is up 22% since Brexit day in 2020. UK’s FTSE is down -0.5% on the same period. And why would any company want to get dragged into the Brexit Britain mire?
We keep hearing that the only way Britain is going to get more money to pay for its ailing public services is to achieve economic growth. Well, if big business is pulling out I can’t see any magic growth tree!
MAKING OFFENDERS THINK TWICE
I would love to see every magistrate and judge in Britain take note of the way an American judge dealt with a nasty woman who came before him recently.
The woman went into a fast food shop and after an argument with a member of staff, ended up hurling a burrito bowl at the worker.
She was convicted of assault but was offered an unusual way to reduce her time in jail by the judge who certainly deserves a pat on the back.
At first she was ordered to pay a fine and also serve 180 days in jail, with 90 days suspended. But then the judge had another idea. He told her she could cut off 60 days in jail if she agreed to work at least 20 hours per week at a fast-food restaurant for two months. And she agreed.
Apparently the row was about the state of the burrito – the woman claimed it was nothing like as good as one she had a week previously.
The piping hot food burned the shop worker’s face and she was so traumatised by what had happened she quit her job. But since the court story broke the staff member has received $7,200 (£5,700) from crowd funding.
Can UK judges be this creative in punishments? It would be great if punishments were designed to make culprits realise the consequences of their actions. An obvious one is to make graffiti “artists” clean up the streets. Litter louts should be made to do the same and the same goes for those wretched individuals who avoid charges at tips by dumping lorry loads of rubbish in the countryside.
Shoplifters could be made to watch security screens in shops for months on end to catch thieves.
Have you any creative punishment ideas?
FAILING BRITAIN
Recorded cases of adults neglecting, mistreating or assaulting children in England have doubled in five years, police figures show.
Freedom of information (FOI) requests to 35 forces across show 29,405 cruelty offences recorded between April 2022 and March 2023 compared to 14,263 between April 2017 and March 2018, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said.
This is just the latest example of the appalling state Britain has become – failing in virtually every direction, from the NHS to education, social services to spiralling crime rates, lack of affordable housing to the endless lack of control on immigration, etc. etc.
