Christmas. What does it mean?

Normally I would be pottering around my garden even at this time of the year, but I’m not stupid, it’s just too darned cold. Put another way, I haven’t done any digging for a while because of the wet weather. I can’t stand it when after wandering here and there and digging all over the place, I end up with a set of built-up soles that seem as though they were more suited to diving to the sea floor than in trudging around the garden only to bring half of it indoors when I‘ve finished.

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, for all that it means to you. It’s sad, but even after two-thousand years, those who preach Christianity don’t appear to have learned a single thing. Now, I’m not one for preaching to anyone, but surely I’m not alone in wondering what has happened to those living in the centre of Christendom, the Israelis?

Despite the time of the year, the Israelis seem intent on wiping out those who live on the Gaza strip. Fair enough, Hamas should not have killed even one Israeli, but was it necessary for Israel to kill over three hundred in retaliation?

Israeli people live at the very heart of Christianity, and I find it very difficult to believe that they have any excuse for the taking of lives. Doesn’t the bible say, thou shall not kill? Now if the Jewish community cannot abide by the words of their own religion, then why is there all this fuss over returning to the land they claim as being theirs for over two-thousand years, are they deliberately seeking a war within the middle east?

As far as I’m concerned, nobody in this world owns any of the land on this planet, although most like to think they do. We are merely the keepers, human beings who are supposed to care for the world while we live. There’s simply no room for killing others for petty greed, this no matter who you are. Judging by the way the Earth is being treated, we humans don’t deserve to live on it.

I want to add here what I see as a relevant question: Why is it that most of today’s conflicts are either connected with religion, here it’s the Jews and the Islamic world, or it’s that certain people simply cannot live in peace together? Why then, do we celebrate Christmas, when it’s quite obvious that Christians do not believe in what they preach?

It’s more a belief in consumerism and what we can get out of it, rather than it’s religious meaning isn‘t it?

Support Israel and you support all this needless killing…. It must stop!

I wish you all a happy and peaceful new year 2009.

Bob, for and on behalf of Froggy….. .

Season’s greetings to one and all :-)

I guess that you don’t need me to tell you that Christmas is only just around the corner, although for some, you couldn’t care less for one reason or another. Many may not feel like celebrating, perhaps you’ve just lost your job, or your debts are getting way over your head. If this is you, then you only have the government to blame for your terrible predicament.

Talking of our glorious government, but then what’s new in this? Nothing really changes where they are concerned. If, like me, you came through the 1960s, you’ll have experienced the Beeching era, a period that saw the incumbent government party pay Beeching £24,000 a year to destroy our glorious railway system. Despite what many think of this, the railways were operated to give a public service to one and all, and not to necessarily make a profit at that.

Unfortunately, this is not quite how the government saw the situation. To these ministers, the railways were blocking the way forward for car ownership and the motorway system. If we really want to understand the truth about what happened, we have to understand that Ernest Marples, the Tory transport minister, had a vested interest in seeing the eventual demise of the railways. He was the boss of a motorway building company. Without the railway system in place, he could simply go ahead with his plans to develop a bigger and better road system, something that today’s motorists are experiencing to their cost, one where they are now forced to deal with the terrible congestion that clogs the very roads that were formerly built to make life easier.

Well, there’s no turning the clock back and what was done is done. Never the less, there is a similarity between the reasons for taking away a much needed public service, and today’s government ministers. Remember, on Beeching’s say so, they closed these railways and thereby put countless thousands out of work. Now, if I understand this correctly, the government firmly believes that unless a service can be seen to pay its way in society, it has to be done away with, right?

I don’t know about you, but I’d say that this country is in a hell of a mess at the moment, one where countless thousands will once again lose their jobs. To me, this indicates that the service given to us by our government is, to put it mildly, in a hell of a mess. Since by their standards, anything that doesn’t pay its way is deemed as being unwanted and certainly not cost effective, then our government should immediately give up their jobs and go back to doing something more suited to their talents, and running a country certainly isn’t one of them.

All government ministers and officials working throughout the city of London, are a complete waste of time and money. If something should be done to save Britain’s economic collapse, we should begin by greatly reducing the salaries of these vastly overpaid officials at the top. Have you ever wondered what sort of money these people receive for what they do, if indeed they actually do anything but delegate the work to someone else? Believe me, the total amount paid to such people could quite easily bring us out of the economic doldrums we’re in at present.

What the government did for the economy is a national joke, just like the thought that Gordon Brown has about the fact he thinks he‘s saved the world! Did he honestly think that we‘d all go rushing out to the shops because he gave us two percent off VAT? He should have made the lowest wage earners, like those earning less than ten thousand a year, go free of income tax, at least until the economy got back on its feet. These are the people who spend more money on the high street than anyone else.

Gordon, if you really do care about Britain, then do something more positive to help, and preferably before it goes completely to the dogs. You helped the banks, when it was their fault that they were all on the verge of collapse in the first place. Why didn‘t you bail out the general public instead? Now this would have been a potentially huge vote earner. After all, it was the taxpayers money you used to prop up the banks in the first place, so what had we done to deserve this kind of treatment from you and your government?

Of course, it all boils down to what happens to the rest of us during the current economic climate. As I see it, ministers like you won’t suffer any real hardship at all, and this no matter how bad the slump is. You’ll come up smelling of roses even if the Labour party gets kicked out of office, and all because every single government minister is far too highly paid for their own good. Now, if your income, and that of the rest of Britain’s ministers was at stake here, you’d do something about it quite smartly to change the situation, wouldn‘t you?

Mister Brown, you are a family man, well, be a real man and do something for us for a change. Britain’s economy hasn’t collapsed yet, and it’s full of families just like your own, but if you let things slide with your half-hearted gestures, it will be beyond helping.


Bob, your friendly gardener standing in for dear old Froggy…

A misguided society

Perhaps it’s just as well that my friend, Froggy has gone into hibernation, because if he knew the kind of thoughts, views and words being bandied about in our society today, he’d likely have a seizure and drop down dead.

I heard on the one o’clock news today, that our teens and twenty year olds are against pensioners, like me for instance, living until we reach a ripe old age. It’s as if once we finished working our codd’s off, so that we can hopefully retire gracefully, we’re not entitled to then draw the pension that we’ve rightfully paid into for the best part of fifty years of our lives. Do they really think that just because people retire that they are no longer of any use to society? Then they don’t really know me…

All that I can say to these people is this, god help you when you reach retirement age, because by this time, the government will have decided that instead of retiring, it’s your turn to die before you too, become too old and a drain on society. Oh, and by the way, it won’t do you any good for you to argue against it, because claiming that you still pay your taxes like everyone else around you, simply won’t cut the mustard.

I wish that someone would tell me just why it is that our elected government, in all its glory, keeps on taking up the ideas of other western countries that have proven not to work, but simply refuses to accept ideas that have been proven to work perfectly well? Do we really elect these three thousand pounds a week babbling idiots to run our country? Well, if I’m to be honest with myself, it must be true, because why else is this country in such a crappy mess right now?

Perhaps you are among those who disagree with me, but I’ll tell you this; It wasn’t all that long ago, when we had justifiable pride in our strong economy. Unemployment was low, especially following the farce that were the Thatcher years. Further, this country was filled will opportunities to make money, and this included opportunities for almost everyone. Now, well we’re deep in debt, the unemployment figures are growing quicker than pantomime Jack’s beanstalk. It’s such a misguided society that we live in.

Haven’t any of you wondered how it is that certain people were able to bring this country’s economy to its knees, something that should be against the laws of this land, and yet these known individuals have gotten off scot-free, and further, made themselves fortunes while we all now are having to suffer for it? Where it happened in the USA, they are going to take these same people to their high court and prosecute them to the full extent of the law. I really have to wonder, why is it that we aren’t doing precisely the same thing?

Those of you old enough to remember, will recall that the great train robbers were each given thirty-three year jail sentences for their part in it in the 1960s, and yet, when someone is responsible for taking billions by deception, they’re actually being allowed to get away with it. Perhaps it’s just me and I don’t understand the British law system?

Don’t you just hate to see David Cameron ranting about how bad the Labour party is doing, when he firmly believes in Thatcherism, and we all know where that got us, four million unemployed, businesses collapsing at over a thousand every week, strikes all over the place and a total collapse of our society. Let’s face it, if we voted him into office and he did nothing, as his words have frequently suggested, then those bad old days would return with a vengeance, you mark my words.

After all that I don’t want everyone to think that I’m being totally insensitive, because I really do care about what’s happening in Britain today. I know what it’s like to lose a job and have to face a period on the dole. I can tell you that it’s not a bed of roses, and if anyone thinks it’s easy to live on less than fifty pounds a week, it’s time you woke up. The British economy runs on the assumption that we all live on the country’s average wage, far from it in fact. I and a good many others like me would grab at the opportunity to be so well off.

Bob, standing in for Froggy and I don’t envy his task one little bit.

We didn’t vote for him…

Where do I begin… Well, first I think that I should let you all know that our dear friend Froggy has decided to go into hibernation. I have to admit that the weather has taken a turn for the worse with snow constantly falling throughout the day. Anyhow, he deserves a rest after all the hard work he puts in for his blog. With luck, he’ll be back again in the new year when the warmer days return….

From the title this week, you may have gathered that I’m talking about Gordon Brown. He’s always harping on about the good he’s done, but from where I stand as a pensioner, he’s done very little at all. There is also the small fact that he wasn’t voted in to office by the electorate to stand as our PM, no, quite the opposite in fact. He gained this prestigious position from his colleagues by default and this isn’t quite the same as being elected by common consent is it?

What really hurts people like me, it’s that only recently Gordon Brown announced to the media that he’d taken pensioners out of poverty. Now, I don’t know about you, but this statement is about as bad as the one made by Nick Clegg when he said that he thought that pensions were £30.00 a week. For Gordon Brown’s information, this country’s poverty line is set at £151.00 per week. Now he has promised, with his government’s wisdom, that he’s going to be giving us pensioners an extra £5.00 per week from Christmas, instead of having to wait until April comes along. With the £60.00 extra on top as a one-off payment, this still falls far short of the level that poverty currently stands by a good £21.00 a week. I guess that what he is saying is simply this; we should be damned grateful for anything we can get. This from a man whose ministers are on £3,000 per week. If this isn’t insulting, then I don’t really know what is?

Enough of my complaining, it’s likely that soon the whole country will be doing the same thing, especially if he implements his plans for the unemployed, single mothers and just about anyone else who dares to live off the fat of the land for free.

Yes, as if we hadn’t got enough problems already, he now wants to make changes that would have typically come from a Tory government lording it over this country. His own party’s economic gesture has done very little to boost the economy. Let’s face it, who on earth is going to rush out to the shop, or whatever, just so that they can save an extra two and one half percent on their purchases? Well, certainly not me. The shops are in such a dire way that they are offering anything up to fifty percent in discounts, so what difference will the government’s miserly amount make towards our economy?

This was a typical half-hearted measure, one that we have come to expect from a government that doesn’t understand how our economy truly works. They said it themselves, it’s the working classes that spend the money that keeps our economic growth moving along under normal circumstances. Of course, how could people with the level of their pay understand how the working classes live? The mind truly boggles…

Apparently, savers are now up in arms because the Bank of England is suggesting that it may lower the bank rate again this week. Who cares!! If they want something to truly whine about, just wait until this government implements its plan to deal with the unemployed. Why is it that whenever the country gets into some kind of mess, they blame it solely on the poorest? It has just been announced that the automotive industry is set to lose tens of thousands of jobs, and remember, this doesn’t include any other loses that we read about almost daily in the press, on television or the internet. Now he wants to force all the unemployed into jobs that simply put, do not exist.

The end result of this move will be catastrophic for society as a whole. Look at it this way, those who operate a business don’t really give a damn who spends their money with them, but it must be legal money that is. As I’ve already said, it’s the unemployed who also keep our economy moving forward by spending what little they get in order to survive. Savers don’t do a damned thing for the general economy, and if you think otherwise, think of this. If everyone saved, like you lot of doubters, the British economy would collapse over night. The government wouldn’t receive any taxes, apart from what it makes from your earnings, and let’s face it, if this was the case, Britain couldn’t afford to pay a government because it would be broke.

If these measures towards the unemployed go ahead, then the national crime rate will go through the proverbial roof. Can’t you see that if you remove a means to live from a person, they are going to fight back by any means at their disposal, stealing, cheating and robbing the rest of us blind. Imagine, you’ve just been shopping and someone sees that you have plenty of money. Do you think that they are going to think, oh, lucky old you? No! They damned well are not. They will rob you because society turned its back on them. If you are among those who doubt my words, then you are either naïve, stupid, or one of the many who simply don’t care and would rather take their chances when it happens; by which time your broken body will be lying at the roadside, while everyone walks past and totally ignores your plight, as they always do. If you understand the situation, then perhaps it would be wise to contact your local MP and put your concerns to him/her on this grave subject.

Well, that’s enough raving from me, I’ve got some interesting jobs that need my attention. Bye…


Bob, standing in for Froggy while he hibernates