White Dee: Assassin of DWP

We have a programme here in Britain called "Benefits Street", a cheap and tawdry show (though ive never watched it myself) about the every day lives of lazy good for nothings sucking the country dry by claiming benefits while drinking, thieving and generally dossing around being nothing. There are genuine claimants but these are not them. All they seem to do is hang around a street doing zilch (besides boozing and smoking). Like ive said, I don't watch it but ive read enough in the media to get a general idea of what these people are about: scrounging.
And now would you believe, we seem to have made a celebrity out of one of the morons in it, someone who goes by the name of 'White Dee'. Dear God it sounds like a monicker for an assassin! "Beware the White Dee! Shadowy hitman of the department of work and pensions!"
The odious looking woman is everywhere: radio, papers, television, magazines. Have we gone stark raving mad? Turning a bone idle slob into a celebrity, it boggles the mind it truly does. I realise this world has become obsessed with celebrity but to make one out of some benefit scrounger is lunacy of the highest order. And nothing short of obscene. Is this the way we are heading? Just pluck any old toe rag off the street and make them a star, depressing to think we have sunk this far.
The honest work hunters and genuine disabled ought to be very angry with this oaf, she is exactly the type of person that is giving all the ammunition for welfare cuts because as far as the government is concerned every person on benefits are like her so make no mistake, all of you claimants will suffer.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, should be applauding the awful White Dee. She is a pox on us all.

Have a good day all!

Benefits Street

LBC radio have made me mad this morning (and im usually a fan of the 6am show). They were discussing some ew television programme called 'Benefits Street', but I couldn't take it seriously because the amount of bile spouted forth was ridiculous. And let me first say, I don't claim any benefits so this nonsensical rubbish aimed at benefits claimants by pompous radio presenters shouldn't bother me, but even I can see that not everyone on the dole or on sickness benefit are useless scroungers like the one that sounds like are in Benefits Street. I wouldn't watch such garbage so im only going on what callers to the station said about the show.
I have friends on Twitter (I refuse to call them 'followers') who are genuinely disabled, and shame on anyone who would dare called them feckless scroungers. Dear God, I can feel my blood pressure rising with every word I type. Haven't these journalists heard about the tragic stories of disabled folk who have committed suicide because of these government clamp downs on sickness benefits? They ought to have, they've written the stories. Or do they think so little of them that the tales are forgotten as soon as they are in the paper?
Of course the lead swingers and scroungers exist. One only has to see the scruffy urchins swigging lager at 11am outside Weatherspoons on a week day to have proof of this (and these are not workers having a swift pint). Wherever you turn in life, from top to bottom, you will find chancers and the dishonest. Sadly its human nature. But my friends, its not all, how could it be? I don't know the figures of how many are claiming benefits, but are we seriously suggesting they are all cheating the system? Certain presenters on LBC radio seem to be doing so. Methinks their former tabloid urge to shock has completely taken over the rational part of their brains.
Its not as easy as benefits = cheats and the stories are easy to Google: tragic tales of folk with terminal cancer being forced to work due to ATOS passing them fit, disabled soldiers coming home from Afghanistan being denied Welfare assistance, and even working single mothers having housing benefit stopped because they earn £2 over some limit or other. The list is near endless. Are these feckless scroungers? No! Because not everyone is swinging the lead!
I never once imagined I would be speaking out on this subject, or feel so annoyed by certain attitudes toward it, because as I have pointed out, I do not claim benefits and am not in that 'world' but LBC radio have forced my hand. I cannot stay silent while ignorant bullies in mainstream media trample all over these poor people (the honest claimants not the lager louts). Social media has shown me that there IS an honest side to 'Benefits Street' and we, especially government and journalists, wold be unwise to ignore it. Or worse, label everyone as idle layabouts.

And Even Concrete Changes

His Masters Voice

HMV is set to go into administration after 92 years and bang goes another big name store that holds memories from my youth. As a young metalhead I used to hang around outside the Swansea HMV in the quadrant with all the other headbangers, clutching our newly bought heavy metal vinyl/cassettes and discussing our 'scene'. Truly great times when it was a joy to go to Swansea.
But times they insist on change, demand it with a stubborn fist like a barfly ordering another scotch. Like the water in our oceans, nothing stays still not even steel and concrete. Our town and city centers are vastly different to how they were in the 1980s and its not just fashion that is making the difference. I fear that all that is going to be left open are pound shops and mobile phone 'bars', which is a reflection of how cheap and lazywe have become as a collective society. (And if there is a kind way of being cheap and lazy, then this is the way I mean it. Im not condemning anyone for online shopping.) The 'hivemind' is targeted toward bargains, good things for less (largely due to the internet) and bricks and mortar shops suffer as a result.
There is nothing wrong with bargain hunting of course, as long as we remember that other things (shop wise) will get hit by it. We bemoan the fact that big stores are disappearing yet all we do is shrug our shoulders, pick up the mouse and surf on over to Amazon, Zavvi, Netflix, etc to merrily contribute to the death rattles of the high street. It seems we will miss them once they vanish for good but not that much.
Mr Jakes is no less guilty, afterall the convenience of Tesco online is difficult to ignore and its so simple these days. (Not to mention warmer/safer in the midst of the snow and ice we are currently experience in Britain.) But I admit I buy from the internet with a heavy heart (and lighter wallet,) my mind racing back to the times spent outside Swansea's HMV in the Quadrant with every virtual basket I fill. Oh so bittersweet.

Chief Whip? Or Chief Pleb?

the Good Ship Tory

A Conservative Chief Whip shouts this to police on Downing Street ~ “Best you learn your f**king place. You don’t run this f**king government. You're f**king plebs."
This foul, arrogant volley by Andrew Mitchell comes days after two policewomen were shot dead. Yep nice one Thrasher (the odious oiks nickname), thats done wonders to dispel the accusations that its clueless toffs in government hasn't it? I bet Cameron was thrilled when he heard about this. Really thrilled. Heh.
Talk about an over inflated sense of entitlement. It seems that with each new day the Tories are either doing U Turns or shooting their tootsies off (ruining their poncey loafers.) Do thy really believe they will hold on to power come 2015 when most of the population sees them as smug, rich and living in another world? Not a chance. (And Labour are not much better.)
Dai Jakes is a big fan of Twitter and liked what Gareth Morgan, assistant chief constable of West Mercia Police Tweeted: "Seem to recall from my school days (good comp) that Roman Empire collapsed without plebians when patricians were left in charge." Quite. Let us hope this pathetic little outburst against police officers who on the whole do a damn fine job, is what starts the Tory collapse. (Although in truth it started before this story broke.)

Make Mine A Stella

Stella ~ quite a transformation

Cards on the table here. Coronation Street is my favourite soap opera. In fact its my only soap opera, after having left the misery of Albert Square many years ago (one factor being that I hate cockney accents) and never been much for Emmerdale. I was also a huge fan of Welsh language soap Pobl Y Cwm and I must get back into that soon.
Anyway, Michelle Collins. Who would have thunk it? As everyone in Britain and their gerbil knows, she played Cindy Beale in Corrie rivals Eastenders but has just recently turned up on the Weatherfield cobbles. And bloody hell, she looks fabulous, really stunning! I can't believe the actress is 50 either, she looks like a really fit 30 year old.
Funny how when I used to watch her previous soap (Arthur Fowler was still in it back then), I used to think Michelle Collins/Cindy Beale a very plain looking woman. Not my type at all.
Fastfoward a few years, away from the London grime and into the Rover's Return however, and Michelle/Stella is definately my type. That is one bombshell of a barmaid and anyone who disagrees can step outside for a ding dong on the cobbles, as Norris looks on. First the sultry Carla and now sex kitten barmaid Stella. Oh to live in Weatherfield.