Do you ever get the impression people don't care?

[Lencoboy]

I've noticed tonight that the media appears to have piped down over the furore concerning those 2 Labour MP's distasteful remarks about Israel.

Looks like it's now slipped down the pecking order of the main headlines on the BBC and Sky News channels.

Contrary to what the Daily Express said yesterday, Labour haven't slumped in the very latest opinion polls, according to Wikipedia; they (Labour) may have been seeing a minute down-tick over recent days, but generally both Labour and the Tories overall have barely seen any statistically significant shifts in their respective opinion poll ratings during the same corresponding time period, with Labour (up until today) still remaining firmly in the lead.

But the Daily Express certainly have a statistically significant track record of both lying through their teeth and putting the fear of God into us over pretty much anything and everything!

[Lencoboy]

That got on my nerves in 2020. "Social distancing" this, and whatnot. Being told off for not wearing a face covering, and having no idea when normality would resume. Now they rarely even cast up Covid. But had this continued, oh man. Every shop out there probably would have suffered liquidation from a lack of in-store custom.

There's a worse pandemic than Covid, and it's called tobacco smoke. Honestly, I wish both my grandmother and mum had never taken up the filthy habit. My gran couldn't be alive now anyway, mate. She died aged 85 way back in the summer of 2004. And my mum passed away at the age of 69 around 5 months ago.

My gran and my mum were more or less the only two people I could open up to. Although I also used to count my younger sister, before she went loopy. Now it feels like there's a void that will never be filled.

I ditched my lawyer in September because he expected me to travel to West Lothian, but I told him my anxiety is too great. Then he assumed I lied about my mum's death just 2 days after it happened, so I just told him to get to stepping. He wasted my time for years on end and never spoke up in court about the various idiots that were messing with me.

But civil cases are ridiculously costly. Like, you can be made to pay a fee upfront for the initial consultation. Then it just goes higher from there. Steep hourly rates, estimated to be over 200 quid.

It's why so many knobs get away with screwing up your life. Only those with the dough can hope to succeed.

God, don't get me started on people smoking, especially those who sadly still persist in doing it around young children seemingly without a care in the world and coming out with the usual feeble excuse 'Passive smoking never did previous generations of children any harm', yadda yadda yadda.

My dad reckons it has probably always done kids harm in actual fact, but we didn't really start to become aware of it until the latter half of the 80s at the very earliest, and even then it wasn't taken really seriously until the latter half of the 2000s and beyond.

And yes, the media (for better or worse) barely seem to give Covid a look-in of late, despite the fact that it was a genuine threat in 2020-21, especially pre-vaccines, and daily briefings from Downing Street, daily numbers for cases, hospitalisations, deaths, blah blah blah.

[Peter A]

My mother had been buying the overseas fags, but I think she never really saved much if any money anyway. I spend a fortune on iced coffee, but if I try to give them up, I get migraines. Once a caffeine junkie, always a caffeine junkie. It's just as well I don't touch energy drinks.

It's probably because the milligrams they add is higher than what is in a standard cup of tea. I even tried making my own to save money, using the same method printed on the label. Sugar. Milk. Cocoa powder. Coffee granules. It is simple enough.

There's 35 grams of sugar in the Mr. Big Emmi coffees. And doctors say the maximum recommended daily amount for adults is supposed to be only 5 grams.

I don't drink alcohol. I tried cider. My head was left pounding.

I often wonder where the time went. It feels like only yesterday when my mum and I were going to the shops together by bus. The first week of September was just so bizarre. From the nurses delaying her dialysis to the overdose on pain relief that occurred. It was probably all done on purpose, because they wanted her to die in the hospice because of her AAA. It probably became more enlarged, which I reckon it would have if she never ceased smoking.

I guess an addiction is part of people's DNA. You cannot always just stop cold turkey. But I hate how people on X have stupid fetish videos for smoking. May their attitude be altered before it's too late to reverse their foolish ways.

But I cannot do anything about her murder. My sister has the proof in a log book. I never talk to her now, though. She cut off my older sister too, after telling various lies about the family. But I think it's a good thing she showed her true colours, I suppose.

These type of people are just awkward and vindictive shitbags.

[Lencoboy]

I've noticed tonight that the media appears to have piped down over the furore concerning those 2 Labour MP's distasteful remarks about Israel.

Looks like it's now slipped down the pecking order of the main headlines on the BBC and Sky News channels.

Contrary to what the Daily Express said yesterday, Labour haven't slumped in the very latest opinion polls, according to Wikipedia; they (Labour) may have been seeing a minute down-tick over recent days, but generally both Labour and the Tories overall have barely seen any statistically significant shifts in their respective opinion poll ratings during the same corresponding time period, with Labour (up until today) still remaining firmly in the lead.

But the Daily Express certainly have a statistically significant track record of both lying through their teeth and putting the fear of God into us over pretty much anything and everything!

Well contrary to the Daily Express's remarks about Labour being 'in crisis' and talking about them slumping in the opinion polls, they (Labour) still managed to claim victory in both of yesterday's by-elections, so the smear campaign from both the Tories and certain elements of the media basically failed miserably!

I bet the likes of the Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Sun, etc, will probably still no doubt be clutching at straws and still trying to find ways of 'bigging up' their beloved Tory Party in spite of yesterday's results.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well contrary to the Daily Express's remarks about Labour being 'in crisis' and talking about them slumping in the opinion polls, they (Labour) still managed to claim victory in both of yesterday's by-elections, so the smear campaign from both the Tories and certain elements of the media basically failed miserably!

I bet the likes of the Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Sun, etc, will probably still no doubt be clutching at straws and still trying to find ways of 'bigging up' their beloved Tory Party in spite of yesterday's results.

Despite Labour celebrating they need to look at the numbers.

Wellingborough:
2019
Tory = 32,277
Labour = 13,737

2024
Tory = 7,408
Labour = 13,844


Kingswood:
2019
Tory = 27,712
Labour = 16,492

2024
Tory = 8,675
Labour = 11,176

So they barely gained anyone in one and lost voters in another.

They won because the Tory vote collapsed. Reform contributed to the loss so they have another UKIP style problem caused by their lack of action in certain areas voters are concerned about.

[MyNameIsTerry]

God, don't get me started on people smoking, especially those who sadly still persist in doing it around young children seemingly without a care in the world and coming out with the usual feeble excuse 'Passive smoking never did previous generations of children any harm', yadda yadda yadda.

My dad reckons it has probably always done kids harm in actual fact, but we didn't really start to become aware of it until the latter half of the 80s at the very earliest, and even then it wasn't taken really seriously until the latter half of the 2000s and beyond.

And yes, the media (for better or worse) barely seem to give Covid a look-in of late, despite the fact that it was a genuine threat in 2020-21, especially pre-vaccines, and daily briefings from Downing Street, daily numbers for cases, hospitalisations, deaths, blah blah blah.

Like so many things; lead paint, asbestos, medical drugs, etc.

[Peter A]

I'll have to tidy up my flat, then apply for an exchange online.

[Lencoboy]

Like so many things; lead paint, asbestos, medical drugs, etc.

You forgot to mention the non-wearing of seatbelts in vehicles pre-1983.

Yes, it's a wonder so many survived without so much as a blemish, but then again I guess ignorance truly can be bliss, plus of course a lot of it was no doubt down to sheer luck at the time.

Not that people were/are inherently ignorant/selfish, just blissfully unaware due to genuine lack of knowledge concerning many things that are now scientifically proven 'hazards'.

[Peter A]

I still haven't called social services again. I last rang them up in October. They just said I can use delivery services for my shopping, even though I said the support could benefit me for meeting people, and actually doing things with people for a change.

They're just leaving me to rot. The idiots.

I pass the building all the time, as it's up at Gracemount in Edinburgh.

[Lencoboy]

I still haven't called social services again. I last rang them up in October. They just said I can use delivery services for my shopping, even though I said the support could benefit me for meeting people, and actually doing things with people for a change.

They're just leaving me to rot. The idiots.

I pass the building all the time, as it's up at Gracemount in Edinburgh.

There seems to have been a bit of a culture of bad management, hidden agendas and either laziness or overzealousness in general among SS pretty much ever since I can remember, even long before all this austerity and cutbacks lark. Ditto for certain elements of the NHS.

While all the cutbacks, etc have undoubtedly been a hindrance to all of these services over the past 15 years or so, bad management and elements of corruption has been a constant within certain elements of both SS and the NHS for basically eons now, and is a situation that unfortunately seems largely insoluble, even if large amounts of money were chucked at such services.

ETA, it does seem that throughout the near-47 years I've been on this planet, the general attitudes of SS, the NHS, and the police to a certain extent, I perceive to have gone from one extreme to the other; seemingly being too overzealous and having excessive powers (and often abusing them) in the 80s and 90s to being too hesitant and a growing sense of 'can't-be-bothered'-ness in the 2000s and beyond, even predating a lot of the austerity stuff from the early 2010s onwards.