So much for democracy !

Rob Layton

Blasted treehugers !
Rob Layton

If anyone needed their ears washing out it must be the good Old Labour Party, but we all know that they have selective hearing, they can hear alright when it suits them.

They listen when the fems tell them what to do, they go off like good little boys, to do as they are told.
What a sad bunch off losers they look to so many people.
I visualise most of them as frizzy haired, ear ringed, treehugers, who are to busy minding other peoples business to see the mess they have got us all into, and that's just the men.

What happened to their principles ?
So much for all the socialist rhetoric they used to spout at the conferences, it would be totally laughable if it wasn't such a sell out of everything that the Labour Party once held dear.

Better to lose elections: than your principles I say.

It wont sink in that the smoke ban has hurt them more than they dare admit, but pride wont win Labour the next election.
Yet another massive defeat at another by-election, resignations, and mutterings in the corridors of power and despite all the protests they still refuse to listen to a majority of people in this country that want a fairer way of implementing an anti smoking policy.

The smoke ban has become more than a fight for the nations health,
despite all the misinformation being put out about the numbers of people quiting smoking, people are incensed at the high handed attitude of these people who think they know what is best for us.
This has always been a battle about the freedom of our rights, and it will not go away !

This is not just a battle about a few people smoking, its far more than that, its an assault on the freedoms that people should have in this country of ours.
It starts with one freedom being taken away: and others start going as well.
You may not care about my rights, but you must care about yours.

Mr Brown can reinstate the 10p tax rate, do away with congestion charging, do a u turn on the new car taxes, even finish the war in Iraq but he will still be hurt, by the people that he has hurt.
This Labour regime will be seen in history as one of the hardest and vicious Governments of the twenty first century.
The people of this country will go out of their way to punish the erosion of civil rights that are disappearing every day.

In some ways I hope they don't listen to us about the smoke ban, as I for one enjoy watching their stunned look as they listen to the returning officer read the results, and tell them that they lost their seat.
That 'Deer in the headlights look' is worth all the dreary nights at home that we have had since this shower took away our rights.
Good riddance to em !

Rob Layton.

By Sky News
SkyNews - Friday, June 27 09:50 amPubs are closing down at their fastest rate ever - with those in towns and cities being hit the hardest.

Some 2 % of all city pubs have closed in the last six months, whilst food-led country pubs with outdoor facilities for smokers are reaping the benefits.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) believe the increase in pub closures to 30 a week - nearly four every day - comes down to a number of factors.

BBPA says these include the smoking ban, the economic credit crunch, increased beer prices and temperamental weather conditions.

According to a survey carried out by the association, 1,409 pubs closed during 2007, a sharp increase on previous years.

Pub numbers were down 216 in 2006 after a fall of 102 in 2005.

Rob Hayward, Chief Executive of the BBPA, said: "These figures show the stark reality of the pub trade today, in contrast to the hype surrounding the myth of '24-hour drinking' and extended pub opening hours.

"Pub closures at this rate are threatening an important hub of our social fabric and community history. What we need to stop the decline is support from Government and the general public."

BBPA spokesman Gareth Barrett said: "Obviously the rate is high at the moment but we are optimistic about the future.

"It does take time to get new customers in. We hope to see stabilisation and expansion within the next few years."

Research commissioned by the Publican revealed to Sky News online that more than half of licenses have seen trade drop since the smoking ban in England was introduced.

However, the credit crunch, not the smoking ban, was pinpointed as the primary reason for such a bleak year for many pubs.

The survey of a cross-section of 1,500 publicans, by market research firm CGA, found 52 % reporting a fall in business, while 38 % said sales were the same.

Only 10% said business was up.

What can one say ?
Rob Layton

What can one say ?
Nothing, is the answer.
Looking at the news: it goes from bad to worse.
This country is virtually on its knees, and what can we say, nothing.
They have gagged us with either political correctness, legislation or who knows what they are capable of, if we tell it ,as it is.

The point is; we all know where the problems lye, but if we speak up we are labeled 'Grumpy old men' (another form of gagging)
It seems the only people who are left unprotected by law is ,Grumpy old men.
It seems that everything that is right in society has been made to seem wrong, and everything that is wrong made to seem right.
if you believe in the Bible you could say another sign of the end times was upon us.

I suppose you could have called most of the prophets 'Grumpy old men' most of them were outcasts, Moses was for definite.
I suppose when Noah told folks about what was going to happen he got much the same reaction as we 'Grumpy old men' get today.

Grumpy old men are not prophets, but we have been around the block a few times, and we recognise better than most when we are being conned: because we have been conned so much by politicians in the past.
'Once bitten twice as shy' is the old adage, but some people have short memories and 'Grumpy old men' have long memories.

I wont stop going on about the smoking ban because this is a contributing factor to some of the ills that this nation is facing today.
A lot of people are facing financial hardship and worse in the coming recession that we are facing.
Part of that recession can be attributed to high fuel costs of which this Government take a massive amount in taxation.
If the truth be known, I say that the cost of this Smoke ban is only just being seen.

Unemployment is on the rise, with more forecast in the future, the cost of fuel has rocketed along with food price increases.
I tell you what I think, I think that the Labour Party is just scratching around trying to find other ways to tax us because the revenue has dried up from the massive tobacco taxes they used to impose on smokers.

Other countries within the EU have less taxation on tobacco, when this Government would not harmonise the taxation levels on tobacco to the same level as member states it realised it was on a loser.
People started buying imported or smuggled ciggy's instead of going to the corner shop.
Hence the less dependence on tobacco taxation as form of propping up this economy, as it did in the past.
What I believe they are not telling you is the massive knock on effect that this Smoke ban has caused.

Pubs are closing at the rate of 20 per day, the effects on communities who used pubs for meeting places for people in Rural communities is that they are being increasingly isolated by this and Post office closures, which are having a drastic effect on these communities.
The NHS must be feeling the pinch by now, along with the Service industries.
The unemployment rates must have soared which have to be funded from these previously once booming part of our economy.
And this is just a part of the trouble we face because a few grey faced unhealthy looking, miserable bunch of do gooders want to save us from ourselves ?

If you read previous articles on these pages you will see that this Non smoking lobby has fed people for years with miss-information regarding smoking and its effects.

Smoking is not to be encouraged; exactly the opposite: but trying to stop smoking by these means is not working, and look at the effects on Britain.
If things get any worse we will all need a fag to calm our nerves !
Is the smoke ban to blame for 'air rage' ?
That's another question, but millions of Grumpy smokers wont help your cause Mr Brown !

Rob Layton

The needs of women in prison
Rob Layton

Consider the fact that the statistics showing an increase in female violence rising yet again, and the news that certain charities are pushing for prison reform for women, I can make no sense of the reasoning other than these lobbyists are very vocal, or very influential funding in the criminal justice system to the tune of £36 million pounds a year.

One could be forgiven for thinking that this is just another instance of buying favours.
Rather than going easy on criminals the reverse should be the case for either men or women who commit violent crime.
I read somewhere that prison does not work aprox 61% of young males re offend within two years, I could find no data for women.
Considering that instances of Domestic violence are as high for women as men, I think this is utter madness.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has been urged to carry out reforms of women's

prisons set out last year by an official report.

More than 20 prominent charitable foundations joined forces to ask the politician to move forward the proposals, which would phase out most large women's prisons and replace them with small units holding 20 to 30 offenders.

The plan was set out by Baroness Corston in March last year in a
government-sponsored review, but no significant steps have yet been taken to introduce her recommendations.

The charitable foundations contribute £36 million a year to the criminal justice sector in the UK.Those who signed the letter to Mr Straw included lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox, whose has set up a charitable trust called the Antigone Foundation.

Teresa Elwes of the Bromley Trust said: "It is rare for charitable foundations to speak out together in this way but we want to encourage the Government to seize the unique opportunity offered by the Corston review and bring about real root and branch reform to the justice system for women."

It came after the number of women in prison rose to a record high of 4,505 last week.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "We are committed to improving the way we deliver services and interventions for female offenders and women at risk of offending, which is why we accepted 40 of the 43 recommendations made by Baroness Corston in her report last year.

"The Government aims to reduce the reliance on prison for low-risk female offenders by focusing on improving provision and interventions in the community.
However, where a custodial sentence is appropriate, we are ensuring the needs of women are understood and prioritised."

A quote for New Labour.
Rob Layton.

I have just discovered C.S Lewis
I found a quote that the New Labour Party would do well to heed.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C. S. Lewis

Disappearing compassion
Rob Layton

Is compassion and caring for our elderly disappearing fast in Britain?
New comedy thinks that Senior citizens 'smell of urine' and are the brunt of cruel sarcastic 'humour' if you can call it that

Thank God for blogs, I think somebody reads this blog, but I rarely get feedback, if I do it is usually to say I agree or disagree with the views I have expressed.

My stats would have mattered so much to me when I first started on Blog.Co.Uk
but now it just doesn't matter.

I have found a great way of blowing off steam here.
Whenever I want to blow off steam about maybe a shower of sh*t in a certain council that make an old lady carry her rubbish for such a distance along country roads, I have a way of venting here.

No words can adequately project my anger, and disgust at what our local authorities have become.
But here I can say that I think that these kind of people are unworthy to hold any kind of job in the Civil Services.

What kind of people close care homes for the elderly, close rural post offices that provide meeting places for the elderly in isolated rural areas ?
These are just two vital issues that really matter to people who deserve our respect.
Old age creeps up on all of us so fast that you will wake up one morning look in the mirror and realise these issues affect you !

Pubs are being closed at the rate of 20 per day, another meeting place gone.
Clubs are the same.
Churches have been closing for years to make room for culture centres, another meeting place gone.

All that our Senior Citizens have valued are fast disappearing.
Were the times they went through worth the sacrifice they made ?

Are we such an uncaring loathsome bunch of bast*rds that we can sit by and watch people like this lady be bullied by such a cowardly bunch of sickos ?

If we can sit and do nothing whilst people are being treated like this then we deserve all we are going to get.
Try and stop me thinking and believing that this country is being run by a bunch of maniacal, power mad, totalitarian bureaucrats.

Rob Layton

Brown Horses and Drinking Water
Rob Layton.

It seems Mr Brown has forgotten what the Bible says about leading Horses to water and not being able to make them drink.
Anyone with his upbringing should see that to bully anyone is not a good way to get them to do something.

And here is another attempt to bully people into not starting a life of smoking.
If these people who think these things up were not so bloody pathetic, they would be funny.
Hiding ciggy's under the counter and stopping selling packets of ten cigarettes will not stop any teenager from wanting to be rebellious rather the opposite !

Grabbing a crafty smoke behind the bike sheds was one of the things that attracted myself and my piers to smoke many years ago.
Mr Brown and his cronies threw down the gauntlet to many categories of smokers and this last attempt to stop teenagers will make matters far worse.
Rather than help to stop smokers this Government has done more to harm the cause of the anti smoking lobby than anyone in living memory.

Watch this video to see what young ones think about these stupid measures.
You may not like the language but this is what they think.