Dumbbin Men, Sorry Dustbin Men
I recently posted a blog about our refuge collection personnel and them not taking some rubbish and now we have another issue with them, I’ll get to that in a few moments.
Recently we heard news about one council in Somerset I think, which has stated that a dustbin must not have it’s wheels even an inch on gravel incase our employee’s stumble and fall, yeah I know ridiculous.
Well please tell our dustmen to stop leaving our bin three mile down the bloody road, OK an over exageration but my mother lives here also, could you imagine if she had to go get the bin, a 72 year old woman being forced to walk down the street to get her bin, because some dustmen can’t simply leave it where it was put.
When they don’t leave it down the street, it’s been known on a couple of occasions to block the driveway so when I come home I can’t get the car straight in.
I have respect for people that do jobs like this, it’s hard, you’ve got to endure all weathers and it’s not the cleanest of jobs but it’s the small things that matter especially with Christmas tip season coming.
PS we don’t recycle as much now, it all goes in the Black bin now!
Recession Time
Well finally Mr Brown is admitting we’re heading on into a recession following the lead of Mervyn King the head cheese for the Bank Of England.
Here are just a few radical ideas for our Government to save money and avert the current situation we’re heading for:
The current annual salary for an MP is £61,820. In addition, MPs receive allowances to cover the costs of running an office and employing staff, having somewhere to live in London and in their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency.
Taken from: http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/members/pay_mps.cfm
Ok so lets start making some cuts to help dodge the recession or at least ease the pressure on the public and lets cut some of those additional allowances, lets also have those MP’s give back, take a pay cut to £40k or £30k that’s more than enough to live on whilst the public are suffering to make ends meet on crappy £9k jobs, well if they have a job.
MP’d didn’t help with their recent second homes and extra cash for all the interior and such so give those second homes back to the public, cut the dead meat away and you don’t need big cars.
According to a document also downloaded from this website, Mr Brown earns some £189k per year with others like the Speaker earning £138,724. Most of these Salaries could be cut by up to 75% saving the tax payer some money, easing our living costs, fuel costs and so on. Surely the Prime minister could live on £70k a year?
Government Pay – PDF file from the above site.
These don’t have to be permanent changes but should take affect to help our economy save money until we’re in the clear again.
Companies announcing high profit margins like British Gas, First (Bus) and others should either be forced to lower their prices to help the public or should be penalised for imposing high prices on us when they don’t have to, this money would then go back to the economy. The Price of oil has recently dropped a hell of an amount but the reduction we pay for petrol doesn’t reflect this change, the price for us shot up, it should shoot down also.
Stop unessential road maintenance, There is a perfectly fine road near us that seems to be dug up every year, why? It would be cheaper for someone to asses if a road really does need doing once a year or not, don’t just blow money on it because you can.
Remember you work for us, it shouldn’t be the other way round! So we shouldn’t suffer for your lifestyle.
I’m all for charity, that’s something that starts at home. So stop throwing all that money and aid to other countries first, let the public decide if they want to donate don’t just use the funds because look at what all that money could of done right now. I’m not saying stop all together but just to be more conservative and Remember we also have poor, homeless, and dying people who can’t afford to live.
I’m not being heartless here, but if we can’t look after our own and then our country falls to pieces who will give these other poorer countries the money and aid? No one because we won’t be able to.
Red Nose and other fantastic charities allow the public to choose if they want to donate, let them carry on the good work.
Take the easy FREE ride away from illegal immigrants, either send them home or make them work to live here rather than handing it to them on a plate. And if there are immigrants in this country that want to work then let them, I have two friends that live here and they are not allowed to be employed they have to be self employed which is something to do with the visa or what ever it’s called that allows them to live in this country, because of this it can sometimes be hard for them to find work unless the employer is happy to pay them as a self employed person.
Prisons is another big waste, stop giving inmates such as easy ride. If they want a TV, a Playstation, or any other perks then make them work for it, don’t give them a free ride, free food, free accommodation.
An idea would be for the prison service to be like a business, make the inmates work, perhaps make blankets for the old and poor, grow and farm food which could be sold to Tesco’s, ASDA’s or even better, smaller businesses at a price which would let them compete with the bigger chains and still make a healthy profit because remember no work force to pay, the inmates are working for their wrongs and to get perks in addition to paying for the accommodation and staff needed to guard them.
For a days work the inmate could earn some privileges temporary or permanent. Inmates could do this in secure environments with money generated from selling products used to fund the prison system and help the public.
Shortlist:
PM Salary Cut.
MP Salary Cut.
Force energy companies with high profit to reduce costs and compensate the public or penalise them for unreasonable pricing.
Force other essential companies such as transport companies to reduce their costs for the public (based on high net profits and thus not penalising the small business and sole traders).
Stop thieving from the public with excessive speed camera’s, use speed camera’s to make a difference not to charge a fortune, i.e. put them where they are needed to reduce speed and accidents not just to make a quick buck. Take action on repeat offenders obviously if a fine isn’t a deterrent then do something that is, to protect life.
Stop thieving from the public with traffic wardens, reduce the cost of tickets, often these penalties hit the families and not the rich.
Reduce the amount of public money spent on foreign aid efforts, temporarily at least.
Either send illegal immigrants home or make them work to live here, thus giving back to the UK and not just taking.
Make prison inmates work for their privileges, they could produce products to help small businesses make profit, or help the poor and elderly live.
Summary:
The money saved on these few things alone may not steer our Country away from recession completely but it would most certainly ease the pressure and those monies could be used for the people and families that really need it.
Some of these could easily be done straight away and only have to be temporary whist we ensure our country stays on it’s feet.
Others could be more permanent and would maybe take a little more time to provision but still there are ways to make money and save money in addition to making costly services pay for there own.
There are no easy over night fixes and I realise this, but we need to look at trimming the fat and building the muscle that makes our nation, the UK, what it is.
A conclusive list of ideas and ways to trim the fat whilst saving money it isn’t, but a starting point it is!
Another Note:
Now that the public own shares in some major banks I’m hoping to see them starting to work for us and not just for themselves, they do of course have to stay profitable but they could still reduce the cost of such things like being overdrawn for a day, stop charging £20 to £40 for a letter when you do go over drawn, by charging those that don’t have the money your simple throwing them further into debt and poverty, this doesn’t help anyone, and you may loose a customer or even worse kill a customer.
Consider allowing a customer a grace period of maybe ten days, send them a £2 letter informing them they have X days to fix the balance and then they will be charged further, but give them the option to speak with a human because a few days may not be enough for someone who is getting close to financial ruin.
In the past I’ve had problems where I was expecting payment which arrived a moment or two late and a Direct Debit going out which sent me into Zero’s with a £30 charge for a matter of hours.
I know something was going through High Courts about this recently, I’ll be honest in saying I haven’t followed it much but I believe a High Court ruled that Office of Fair Trading (OFT) could decide on if the fee’s charged are fair or not. If something has changed on how they can charge then something positive is happening but if not then it’s now time for the Banks to do something because it’s right and helps people.
Well this was only going to be a short blog which turned out to be a little long so I’ll stop here for now, but will say there are other things the government and we could all be looking at to keep the country afloat
To Vee Or Not To Vee!
It’s amazing that you can spend a life time thinking you know someone and then them showing you a whole new side you’d never really imagined before it’s scary for some people and not for others but what’s scary is that anyone feels they should hide their true self in fear of prejudice from small and narrow minded individuals.
Recently I learnt something about a very close loved one, well we were close once but in recent years we had kind of drifted apart which I’m now doing my utmost to change, this person I hold dear to me and love with all my heart, we may not always agree or see eye to eye. I’m sure I irritate him sometimes as he does me but that’s what family is about and being able to be there for each other and when mistakes are had, being able to forgive them regardless, although sometimes a little time is needed.
Within the paranormal and the music world my brother was known as David Vee, was and yes talking past tense but no this person isn’t dead. I’d always kind of looked up to David with some things in my life being inspired by him (That doesn’t mean I always agree with everything he says or does).
We lost contact last year but hadn’t really seen or spoke much since he moved back to Oxford after dad died in 2005, I suppose I was dealing with things in my own way, so relations of any kind were maybe a little stretched at the time. I really wish he hadn’t moved back because losing dad was real hard he was my rock and when he died it was like reality hit home and I finally realised life as we know it, inevitably changes and no one lives forever including those you love dearly. I’m not sure I was the same after that but when I was ready to rejoin the living again, I could have really done with David there.
We used to go for coffee’s every week, something else I miss because that was the time we got away from everything and just chatted without the pressures of real life, because of the distance we live apart that’s now a rarity.
In March of this year Helen and I married, we tried to contact David to invite him but couldn’t get hold of him even through mutual friends. I was disheartened and worried at the same time because we wasn’t sure if he was even OK. I spent a little while tracking him on-line through sites like MySpace, Facebook and of course his own website.I could see the content was changing and he was active, the only two real new things were in a link on his links page and someone else’s name running his profiles “Tansy Tyler”.
Now I know David and if someone was running his profiles it would either need to be a partner or a real trusted friend and I knew he was always content with his choice in living alone and he’d never mentioned this person as a friend, ever!
So 2 + 2 did indeed seem to make 4, that link I mentioned was to a Transgender website and if you hadn’t guessed by now then this blog will become clear very shortly.
The wife and I were still worried so we took an emergency trip to Oxford (from Yorkshire), we had an old address for David, I also vaguely remember another place he lived. The address we had was probably the most recent, so we started there. A guy was outside the property, when we approached him, he seemed a little distant and perhaps odd especially when we asked for David Vee along with another alias ‘Moggy’ as some of his friends knew him. This guy wouldn’t tell me a thing, except to say David was at work and wouldn’t be in for a long time. We left our details in case David got home early.
The other location I knew of, we left for the time being and moved on to a music shop that I knew he frequented whilst in Oxford. The guy was really helpful and let us know where David was working and so off we went in search…………………………
20 minutes or so later we arrived at his work place and walked in, I think as we approached he seemed shocked and unsure of what to say, maybe stunned about our sudden appearance, I don’t know.
We went out into the alley behind his workplace for a chat where he confirmed my thoughts. David Vee was no longer and had in fact changed to Tansy Tyler yes that’s right and he then confirmed he was indeed having a sex change also, I simply replied with something along the lines of ‘yeah thought as much, I still love you no matter what but you should have told me sooner’ the words may have been slightly different but the context was the same.
From this point on in this Blog I shall now refer to David Vee as Tansy Tyler and refer to him as a her and he as a she.
I sincerely believe in equality although not always apparent with my sense of humour but my friends and family know different, just because for me personally something doesn’t work, doesn’t mean for others it can’t and doesn’t mean I won’t respect their choices and paths no matter how diverse it maybe.
Turned out she hadn’t received the communications we’d sent and for some reason the phone number I had was totally wrong even though she’d not changed her mobile in years. The wrong number would most likely be attributed to my fairly recent change of mobile and manually moving all the numbers over.
It must have been so hard, carrying this around her whole life worried about what people may say, think and do and now coming out is something I have much admiration for, as this takes much courage and strength.
Tansy now knows she has the support of the family, I’d already spoken with most of them before going to Oxford and informed them of what I thought was happening and they were all fine with it, so with Helen’s and my message of support also came that of our families.
Tansy expressed that it no longer mattered what people thought because now the dream she’d had her whole life was being followed and coming true. I’d still like to believe though that our support makes a difference and gives her some solace in knowing that she doesn’t need to be alone through this transition and we, the family are always only a phone call away and a few hours by car when needed.
I’ll be honest in saying it was (yes was) easy accepting this change for me because I’m a fairly open person but hard to say good bye to a few things like the name David Vee and saying she and her, it will also be hard saying good bye to the voice. I’ve always felt Tansy had a real nice and distinguished male narrators voice. But those are very small things in comparison and within time the change of title will roll off the tongue much easier and no matter what Tansy is still the same person deep inside. I suppose a vague and weak metaphor would be calling an apple, an apple all your life then learning it is in fact an orange, accepting that but getting use to just the name change.
So today I publicly say with great sadness good bye my Brother, David Vee and with much excitement welcome my new Sister Tansy Tyler.
To Vee or not Vee, that really is what the question was once!
If you have a friend or family member who is curious about transgender and have questions, then there is a lot of support out there for you, like wise if you’ve recently had news of someone’s intentions and your unsure of what to make of it or want support yourself. Medically you should contact your doctor who should as a professional give you some sound advice and details to seek further information. If you have a patronising doctor who doesn’t listen then make a formal complaint and get a new one, or to just save face move onto another source of information.
You can also try Google to find the information you wish.
http://www.transgenderzone.com
(Out with the Vee! In with the Tyler! Tansy Tyler October 2008)
If your reading this blog and have some useful links to help people then please just make a comment, I’ll check them out and if they appear to be suitable then I’ll set the comment and link live.
If you can’t get your head around it, then give it a little time before dismissing that person and remember that person for all intents and purposes is still the same person you know and love inside even if their choice wouldn’t have been yours.
If your about to go through this, or come out then remember you may loose friends but remember this rhetorical question, were they really friends?
Not everyone is as open to this sort of thing, some people fear what they don’t know, some people are just to narrow minded but you will find out who are your true friends and who really has love for you. If you don’t get the support you need from your family then seek out some communities where others have gone through similar experiences, I’m sure they would love to help you.
Finally, remember if someone cannot accept you, for you, then thats their problem and not yours!