4154 days ago
You may remember that last summer I spent a long while as the sole guest of a hotelier in Corfu called Spiros. I am back. He greeted me like an old friend and there was good news and bad.
The bad news is that I do not have his undivided attention. There seem to be two other rooms occupied this year. The good news concerns money. My rate per night has fallen from 35 Euro a year ago to 25 Euro this time. And as a bonus, Spiros has given up trying to quit smoking and so now buys his own rather than smoking all of mine. That is worth another Euro and a half a day.
Sitting in the pool this afternoon (all alone) I pondered the suggestions from our correspondents in the GNSH that is Stoke on Trent that after my experiences in Athens I should abandon Greece and book a holiday in the Potteries. I am assured that Stoke has a brand new bus station, is 30 degrees in the shade and has much else to commend itself. Truly it sounds like the new Athens of the North… well at least in terms of youth unemployment it probably is.
Hmmmm, shall I swap lounging the pool in 34 degree heat with an almost personal service of café frappes from Spiros for an afternoon trekking round the pottery heritage trail? It is a hard call. I promise that one day I shall go visit David and Chris in Stoke for a bit of welfare scrounger porn, but on balance for a summer break, I have to conclude that Greece more than edges it.
4191 days ago
Islamofascist terrorist Abu Hamza is currently rotting in a US jail and will hopefully not be returning to these shores any time soon. But the wife of Hookie and his seven kids still live in Britain. There is outrage in some quarters that Mrs Terrorist lives in a £1 million house for which she pays nothing – the grateful taxpayer picks up the tab. There is apparently nothing that can be done about it.
Predictably some bigots regard this as an immigration issue – they just want her booted out, preferably with her kids. While I very much doubt that the old bag has contributed anything at all to Society that is not the answer. You cannot just say we will boot this immigrant out because they are a scumbag parasite married to an Islamofascist terrorist (i.e. she has broken no laws but we do not like her) but we will keep that hard working Mr Patel from the corner store in. You cannot make arbitrary rules on a case by case basis.
There are vast numbers of immigrants in the UK who work damn hard doing jobs feckless Britain’s would rather not do (claiming welfare instead), and in many cases as entrepreneurs making Britain richer. I would welcome more immigration and have an open door policy.
The general issue here is welfare. I work damn hard and pay tax. I resent bitterly that much of that tax goes to folks who have never worked and will never work. I resent white chavs on the Jeremy Kyle show as much as I resent Mrs Hookie. There has to be a change
4302 days ago
For once West Ham are spoiled for choice. Andy Carroll, Mo Diame are fit and on fire. The starting eleven almost picks itself but – and I never thought I’d ever write this – there is competition among top class players to just get on the bench as an attacking player. Carlton Cole gets the nod but Maiga is back from Africa Cup duty and Wellington Paulista has scored three in three for the U-21s. It is an odd position to be in.
The last time I was at Villa Park was for that memorable John Lyall FA Cup Semi against Middlesbrough. The week after the great man died the crowd was asked for a minute’s silence. The ref’s whistle blew and you could have heard a pin drop. Suddenly someone shouted out “Johnny Lyall’s claret and blue army. For a second there was shock & silence. Then everyone was chanting along. It was truly emotional and of course we won the game ( Marlon Harewood goal). The video below recaptures what was a spine tingling moment.
After the game, I headed back to the station in a cab shared with three Middlesbrough supporters and my old friend Derek Musgrove.
4318 days ago
Apparently David Ward is a Lib Dem MP for some GNSH. I had never heard of this prize shit until today when he opined that Israel’s actions in Gaza could somehow be compared to the holocaust. It is a free country and this nonentity of an MP can say what he wants but coming two days before world Holocaust day this is offensive and factually just plain wrong. Actually it would be offensive and plain wrong at any time.
In the holocaust more than 75% of European Jews were rounded up and systematically murdered in Death camps. Gassed, shot, burned, often used for medical experiments, European Jewry was almost annihilated. That is a holocaust.
Israel operates no death camps in Gaza. It does not attack Gaza just because it hates Arabs. It seeks to take out military targets which folks, who do openly boast of their desire to inflict another holocaust on the Jewish people, deliberately locate in residential areas. Israel attacks military targets deliberately sites in residential areas because Hamas attacks civilians in Israel because it wants to kill Jews. Any Jew will do.
4327 days ago
An enjoyable evening at Real Man Pizza Company finally drew to an end. Zak picked up the tab. I hope he submits it as an RSH expense claim.
I suppose after my last 5 AM bender with Zak I should feel lucky to escape at 10.30 PM. We were joined by Richard Jennings of SpreadBet Magazine – he is the one on the right.
The two Northerners (some GNSH & Glasgow respectively) engaged in an act of macho bravado with an order of the Snaefell Diabola, the hottest pizza in the UK. Jennings was demanding water within seconds and wimped out after less than half a pizza. Zak claimed that as an Asian he was used to hot food. He managed one slice.
Perhaps you are more of a macho man than Zak Mir. Feel free to pop along and out it to the test.
