Dirty Robbin’ Bastards!

Well, it’s easy to decide what to winge about this week. I was so incensed by Gordon Brown’s budget that I wrote a letter to the Daily Mirror. Not that I especially like that paper, but I thought I had a better chance of getting it published there than in the broadsheets as they might find the letter a bit simplistic and to-the-point – I was going for succinct. I guess I could have tried the Mail or the Express but they are just too right wing and Middle England for me. Mind you, it’s scary when you start wondering if the Tories might be the lesser of two evils… Sod it! I’m going back to being an anarchist.

Old joke for you:
Q. how do you know when a politician is lying?
A. their mouth is open

Anyway, here is the letter:
“I was quite flabbergasted to hear in today’s budget that income tax is being cut by 2%, while only last night the government announced a poxy 2% cost of living wage increase for public sector workers as it’s all they can afford apparently. Mind you, according to the Bank of England the current inflation rate is a mere 2.8%, but where they get this figure I don’t know. Have they factored in things like council tax bills (up 4.7% in my area), house prices, petrol prices… I could go on.

I am sure I am not the only one that doesn’t mind paying tax as long as we know where it’s going and isn’t being wasted on bureaucracy (well, I can dream!). This tax cut is just a cynical vote-catcher in my view and is balanced out by the abolition of the 10p rate for low income earners and the usual increases in indirect tax increases elsewhere.”

Booker Prize – Not!

Well, my chilled out feeling didn’t last too long once I went back to work last week. It started okay with the news that we had got a Big Lottery grant and no apparent disasters had occurred while I was away, but then late4r on, a member of staff came back from a meeting and told me she was leaving at the end of the month. Thus I have to use my only space free of meetings this week doing shortlisting and interviews.

Oh well. I feel like I need a good complain as I haven’t had one for a few weeks, ,but I can’t decide which hobby horse to get on. I was going to complain about the council tax bill I just got today, then I found out we are in the lowest band. I can’t believe it’s over £900! It must be loads if you have 2 toilets! But I decided to keep quiet in case they decide to come round and re-value the house and we end up paying more…

I have managed to detract from boring old work and house-related chores occasionally to start my creative writing again. The stuff I already wrote for my book is still funny if I say so myself so I have decided to carry in with it. Only 100,000 words to go for a decent-sized book!

Anyone for mixed animal?

A different flavour to my blog this time . I am feeling chilled out as I have been away on holiday for a week in Istanbul and had a great time. Have a few days leave left so I am just enjoying the extra time to sort my life out a bit and taking the opportunity to do loads of internet shopping ready to have the bathroom done. The realities of work life are not set to return until Wednesday. Bliss!

As usual, we managed to have a laugh on holiday, particularly at the expense of the hideous clothes they sell everywhere. At first you wonder who buys them, and then you see the Eastern Europeans…and then there’s their favourite word which appears to be ‘Maximum’. This might not be funny out of context, but when you hear and see it everywhere it gets quite amusing. And let’s not forget the mixed animal! I almost died laughing when I saw this label in the Islamic culture museum, and then when I realised you could get kebabs made of it… mind you, have you seen how many kebabs exist in the world? And did you know they don’t all come on sticks or wrapped in bread? It was a revelation!