An open letter to The Right Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP, Lord Chancellor

Kenneth Clarke blames English riots on a 'broken penal system' | UK news | The Guardian:

'via Blog this'

Dear Mr Clarke,

I know the above article was a few days ago but it did make interesting reading.

You blame the riots on a "broken Penal system".  The article goes on to tell us that "75% of those aged over 18 and charged with offences... during the riots had prior convictions".

"That is the legacy of a broken penal system - one whose record in preventing reoffending has been straightforwardly dreadful."

I am on record as saying that I despise most politicians, I really do not have a lot of time for any of them as I firmly and truly believe that they are all a bunch of self serving arrogant out of touch, prats.

Points in case Margaret Moran who finally is facing 21 charges for expenses claims.  Then there is Sir Stuart Bell who it is revealed has not held a constituents surgery in 14 years, so why do they continue to elect him if he will not engage with them?

But you Ken Clarke, well I must also admit to having liked you more than a little over the years as you always appeared a bit of a rebel in parliament.  But, since the ConDems elevation to power and 'old' Kens return to front line duties you now also fall into the categories of self serving arrogant out of touch, prats.

Self serving, because I believe you will say anything these days to get back in to a position of power, only trouble is every time you open it you really do need to consider shoving a 'hush puppy' into it before actually saying anything..

Rape, forced to apologise over remarks
Prison sentencing forced to scrap plans
Expenses  Avoids paying full rate council tax

But having said all that I find myself agreeing with you that there is a "broken penal system"  Yes but it is just not the penal system that is broken, the justice system is broken too.  So are the people we charge with ensuring that we actually do have a penal system that is up to the job. But if the people that we elect are not up to the job how can we expect the penal and justice systems to be any better? We can't and it is really that simple.

Human rights laws are they to protect us all but all to often we find that in doing that they protect the dignity and rights of recidivist offenders.

You say that the penal system is not doing enough to stop and prevent reoffending.

Prisoners welfare groups call for more leniency and more rights for prisoners.

Prisoners and ex prisoners demand voting rights and radios and TV's and single cells!

When will you and they realise that there are some people on this planet who are career criminals, whether they are petty thieves or serial assaulter's, muggers or burglars or murderers or paedophiles; That is what they do and no amount of reform is going to change that.  No amount of rehabilitation is going to change that.  It is what they do and what they are.

We need to stop giving them second, third and fourth chances and we need to lock them up and throw away the key. The original article linked to this says it all, "75% of those aged over 18 and charged with offences... during the riots had prior convictions". 


The recent murder of a pensioner in Cleveland highlights this better than any other, although I must point out that the man arrested for the brutal bludgeoning to death of the 77 year old has not been convicted or gone to trial yet, but the person they were looking for and who has been arrested has convictions for kidnap, rape, armed robbery and indecent assault. (Read More http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/breaking-news/2011/09/01/new-images-of-murder-suspect-graeme-jarman-72703-29344197/#ixzz1XM36Gn4n).


Now I also understand that he has spent a considerable amount of time in prison, I believe his last sentence was for something like 15 years, but that he was let out after 8. Now I have found it difficult to find a lot of information on this chap trawling through the web today and I suspect a lot has been removed so that it would be difficult for people to do web searches for fear of prejudicing any upcoming trial and that is probably as it should be.

But, on the strength of what we do know as opposed to what we don't know He has numerous convictions for serious crimes KIDNAP, RAPE, ARMED ROBBERY, INDECENT ASSAULT.

Why was he out walking our streets?  This is where the bleeding hearts have got it wrong, no amount of rehabilitation is going to make these people change their ways and they will go to parole board meetings and meetings of reformers and with politicians and they will tell them as they wring their hands and hang their heads, "Yes guvnor I realise that I have been a bad person and that what I've done has been bad.  But, the crochet and knitting lessons that I have attended while in prison for the last 8 years have made me see the error of my ways and if you let me out instead of making me serve the other 7 years of my sentence I will be a good and model citizen, I will, honest I will..."

And you fall for it every single time. And we end up with murderers and rapists and child molesters and burglars out walking our streets reoffending in the knowledge that even if they are caught they will do a couple of years and be back out on the streets again.

The Justice and Penal Systems are broken because politicians and soft judges and do gooders have broken them. 

I recall sitting on the train from not long after the ConDems came to power and before I started blogging.  There were three teenagers on the train and it was a school day.  They were not heading to school they were heading to Southend and brazen in their talk.  The talk was about you, so at least teenagers were I guess engaging in some form of political debate, which on the surface one might think a good thing.  But, sadly, no, that was not really the case.  It was the morning that you were all over the news calling for shorter sentencing and no sentencing for some crimes.  They were full of themselves telling anyone who was listening as they shouted that they were off to 'Southend for a bit of trouble'.  A bit of 'shoplifting here and and see if we can nick from a car or two or maybe even nick one'.  We might find a 'ponce who needs a doing' was another comment.  And how they laughed when they said 'we'll be ok tho if we're caught cos fat clarkey doesn't want to lock us up no more'.  This sums up recidivists, they don't care and they see you and because of you and your likes they see the rest of us as jokes and victims to be continually abused, stolen from and beaten to a bloody pulp because politicians and do gooders want to think well of everyone and believe wrongly that goodness resides, somewhere in us all, when it is clear to us that in some it does not exist!
  

It is time that you listened to the rest of us and start locking these people up for life with no possibility of parole.  If we need to build bigger and more secure prisons so be it.  Build them in the middle of the Yorkshire Moors, The Scottish Highlands and in Dartmoor.  Beauty spots they may be, but they are also ideal places to dump our human garbage, because that is what these sorry excuses for human beings are, nothing but human garbage and they should be treated like all  non recyclable garbage dumped in the waste system, never to be seen or heard from again.......  

Yours Sincerely 

NHS an update - still no word from my MP

As you know I wrote to my MP last week asking her some questions about the booking system for NHS appointments.  I was going to say that I have not received a reply, but that is not strictly correct:

There was an auto reply to the email, which read as follows;

 HOUSE OF COMMONS
LONDON SW1A 0AA

Jackie Doyle-Price MP
Member of Parliament for Thurrock

Westminster Tel. 020 7219 7171
Constituency Tel. 01375 802029


Thank you for your email, which will be dealt with as soon as possible.

If you are a constituent living in Thurrock, please ensure that you have provided your full name and address. No emails will be answered unless a full address is provided. A telephone number would be appreciated but is not absolutely necessary.

Please note that there is a strict Parliamentary convention that MPs can only deal with matters raised by people from their own constituency.

I receive a large number of emails, letters and phone calls each day and I will try to reply as soon as possible. However, please note that all communications, including emails, are dealt with in the order they are received.

Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Jackie Doyle-Price

To be honest this is probably more than I actually hoped for and as it has only been one week I am probably being an impatient patient.  So I will curb my usual frustrations and see if a more formal reply actually turns up.

In the meantime and in regard to hospital appointments I can report the following;

My ire was irked at the fact that my Doctor referred me to some outfit called Fortis who would then make the hospital appointment for me at the audiology department to have my hearing tested.  

Fortis eventually sent me a letter only after I called them. But during the course of that call I discovered that they were making an appointment for me in a hospital that, if you do not have your own transport, is difficult to get to from where I live.  So during the course of the call they agreed to make me another appointment at a hospital that is only a hop skip and a jump from my front door!

They then sent me two letters, the one for the original booking and one for the new booking!  Banks charge anything from £12.00 to £25.00 to send you a letter so how much does Fortis charge the NHS for sending them?  I also note from the leaflet that I was given that Fortis appears to be owned by a group of local like minded GP's.  So that means that they are getting their £1000k plus fee from the NHS for providing  the basic GP service but now they are also charging the NHS to send out letters to patients for appointments.  Well on the face of it ok but then you discover that you still have to receive a letter from the NHS appointment centre and the specialists clinic, confirming the appointment, so the whole system is being duplicated.  Now I ask you,  "Is It Me"?  "Am I being a particular dumbfuck here or is it them"? 

The Labour government took us into bankruptcy both Economically and Morally leaving a note for the ConDems as they exited stage left informing them there was no money left.

The Condems took this note literally and started slashing all internal UK departments spending while maintaining the Department for Overseas Developments budget for Aid and Assistance elsewhere, including £295 million per year to India.  India is, if you aren't already aware, a Nuclear Power and has a Space Programme. For shits sake even America is now saying that it [sadly] can't afford to maintain it's own space programme, yet we give India £295 million pounds a year!

I'm losing the plot here..... NHS appointment systems, well update.  Last week Ishbel got a phone call at home from Orsett Hospital to say that the audiology department might be able to give me an earlier appointment if I phoned them, that was on Thursday, so three letters and a phone call.  Anyway I forgot to do this on Friday and now I wish I had forgotten yesterday, because I made that call............. and this is how it went.

10. 50 AM called the number got an automated system which I later discovered is named, "The Oracle" Now I am seriously looking over my shoulder to see if Mr Smith from the Matrix is about to take over my body and by the end of the 'call' I was wishing he had.

Do you remember that scene in The Matrix with Neo and The Oracle in the kiddies play area and she says to him, "The bad news is there is now know way that you can know whether I am here to help you or not"?  well, I have got news for you if you are in the UK and have to phone an NHS number that employs this system;

SHE ISN'T FECKING THERE TO HELP YOU AT ALL

No, she is there to make your life miserable and frustrated, she is there to deflect you from the people who are still probably sitting there drinking coffee and saying to each other over their digestive biscuits,,

"I wonder how many sad frustrated dickhead patients we have managed to feck up today, when they thought they would get one of us and we gave them this system, anyone for another coffee or herbal tea"

Oracle says, " You have reached Basildon NHS trust (or words to that effect) please speak the name of the department you require or dial the extension number now". 

Now I am a sad bastard when I get a hospital appointment letter, I scan it in to my computer, wasting space I know, and stuff the original in my 'manbag' that I carry around with me - Ishbel doesn't like this but that's another story for later- 

So, I already have the letter on screen and I am busy looking for the extension number  THERE ISN'T ONE (check all the other letters I have later NONE OF THEM HAVE AN EXTENSION NUMBER - SO WHY ASK THE FECKING QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me, I ask for,  "ENT"

Oracle, "I am putting you through to A and E unless you say cancel, you may also ask for the operator"

Me, "Cancel", then ask for "Ear Nose and Throat"

Oracle, "I am putting you through to elderly services department unless you say cancel, you may also ask for the operator " 

Me, trying to be clever as I become more and more senile and elderly by the fecking minute, "Cancel" then I ask for "Orsett Hospital Ear Nose and Throat Department"

Oracle, " I am putting you through to Orsett ward now unless you say cancel, you mat also ask for the operator"

The phone starts ringing and by this time it is 10.54 AM and the phone rings and rings and rings and rings and rings for two minutes and eventually is answered.

Female voice, "Hello, ENT emergency how can I help""

Me, "Uh, Oh, did you say ENT emergency"?

Female voice, " Yes, how can I help"?

Me, " Well I don't know if you can I phoned Basildon to get through to ENT Appointments, but your......"

Female voice, "Oh, you got the machine then...."

Me, "Yes, I have an appointment for ........

Female voice, "We don't do appointments, do you have wax in your ear"

I though she was being rude now, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt after all I am maybe going deaf (and clearly Fecking insane)

Me, "No, it was about an appointment and I asked for ENT appointments but it clearly is not impressed with my Scottish accent"

Female voice, "Well sorry, can't help you you will need to ring them"

Me, pleading in a whinny voice, "Oh can't you help me, can't you transfer me to the appointments department, please"

Female Voice then asks me who my appointment is with, I tell her and she informs me that she can put me through to Debbie the Consultants secretary, which she promptly does....

Long story short I  got through to Debbie and explained my tale of woe to her and asked if she could check and give me the earlier appointment that the phone call on Thursday offered!

She explained that she could not do that but she could transfer me to the "NEW APPOINTMENTS" centre.  I enquired if that was a "New" NHS appointment centre or a Fortis Appointment Centre and she said, "NHS"

So, anyway she tried to transfer me but the phone kept ringing, bless her she stayed on the line and then gave me THE EXTENSION NUMBER saying that it would probably be better if I phoned in the afternoon as they were normally quieter then! (That's probably because all we FECKING ELDERLY FOLKS are having our afternoon naps.

I thnaked Debbie for her help and hung up and do you know what I have not called the number, it was by then 11.14 AM. 

TWENTY FOUR MINUTES IS CLEARLY NOT A LONG TIME IN ANYONE'S LIFE, UNLESS OF COURSE YOU ARE STRAPPED TO A TABLE AND SOMEONE IS PULLING YOUR FINGER AND TOE NAILS OF WITH A PAIR OF PLIERS OR SINGEING YOUR BOLLOCKS WITH A HOT POKER AS THEY PREPARE TO SHOVE IT UP YOUR ARSE....

And that is what that 24 minutes felt like.  

Burt one thing I will mention and point out here, did you see that part of the conversation with Debbie from the NHS, here it is again;

She explained that she could not do that but she could transfer me to the "NEW APPOINTMENTS" centre.  I enquired if that was a "New" NHS appointment centre or a Fortis Appointment Centre and she said, "NHS"

So my original question to my MP stands, "Why are the NHS in this part of Essex paying a third party through the GP system, owned and operated by the GP's to organise NHS appointments while we still have a "NEW" appointments centre in the local NHS"?

We could get rid of one of them and give the money saved to bloody INDIA!!!!!!

Mr Fat: Your children are too fat -so you will never see them again

A story appeared in two papers over the weekend reporting that a married couple in their 50's from Dundee in Scotland have been informed by the local authority that they are likely to lose four of their seven overweight/obese children into 'No Contact' foster care or adoption.

Now anyone reading my blogs will know that I write on any number of things and one of the things that is close to my heart is being FAT.

In 2009 I tipped the scales at 23 1/2 stones [329 lbs]. Being a good Scot I did and do like my mince and tatties and was extremely partial while living in Scotland to a black pudding in batter, now partial to the odd sausage in batter these days. But, my diet was also fairly healthy in that a lot of salad was and is eaten and I never have fat filled fry ups, everything is usually grilled.  I also eat a lot of fish and seafood as well. To check out some of what I eat today you can visit my Twitpic page.

As a kid, growing up in Scotland in the 60's there were no Jamie Oliver's about to tell us what we were eating was unhealthy and there was not the proliferation of 'fast food' establishments that we have today.  A relatively poor household, there was always plenty of bread, proper butter, mince and tatties, stovies, full fat bacon, mutton pies, etc, etc.

The latter was best enjoyed hot with a full buttered roll.  You would break or nibble the raised crust of the pie, get yourself a nice thickly buttered soft morning roll, place the pie inside, squash a little (so that you could at least get it into your gob without suffering lockjaw) and bite into it.  The sheer unadulterated pleasure of this is hard to describe if you haven't tried it as you get this culinary rarity into your gob and your teeth and lips close over it. The melted butter and the fat from the mutton are beginning to dribble down your chin and you can feel it warmly coursing down just like the first offerings of water down a dried up river bed at the beginning of the rainy season.  And, like the creatures of the plains who so rely on that first beginnings of rain and who eagerly lap at it, you, while lazily chewing in rapturous abandonment of that first life giving mouthful of pie and roll, you are also busy catching the drips on your chin with your fingers, licking the greasy mixture of mutton fat and molten butter off of them to add to the ecstasy of the pie, ah, sheer heavenly memories!

So, was I a fat kid, with all that unhealthy eating, not particularly.  I know it is trite these days to say it, but back in the sixties we weren't sat in front of an gaming console, nor did we have computers, and we did not have 24 hour TV with Music videos and cartoons or Movie's that the kids can sit in front of and become desensitized to the real world. We had to go out and play and run about, additionally, back in those days the school curriculum whether it was primary (junior) or secondary (high) school they had PE /gym sessions a couple of times a week.  And lets face it if you had school dinners (which I had but only when free) they were far from the healthy options that every one harps on about today.

So while an unhealthy diet is clearly as bad for you as say smoking, it is not as bad for you if you are also burning off the calories that you take in each day, and therein lies the problem with modern society.

I know it is not the only answer but surely it plays a big part in it.  Everyone agrees that one of the most healthiest, dietary speaking, periods here in the UK was during and after WWII, crazy, I know.  But if you speak to the experts they will all say the same thing.  Here in the UK when rationing was the norm during and after the war people were eating little meat and lots of vegetables.  Butter, sugar and everything else was heavily rationed.  Car ownership for the working class was still a wet dream for most of the car manufacturers and so everyone had to walk or cycle to work as most of the factories were within walking distance of the 'social housing estates' of the day.  So every one ate healthily and exercised, win win all round.

Then came the end of rationing and the introduction of supermarkets with shelves laden with all manner of unhealthy foods.  There was little by way of Food Standards and manufacturers were putting all sorts of unhealthy things and not just too much salt, into packaged food.  Of course standards have changed today but most of what we buy still has too much salt or sodium or this and that and flavour enhancers or colourings or whatever.  I mean for gods sake if it needs a flavour enhancer, WTF are we buying it in the first place?  And if it was so pallid in looks to the eye without the colouring, would our senses not baulk at it in its original state that we wouldn't want to eat it any way?

British Gas Business - don't you just hate utility Companies

Below is a copy of a letter I sent by email to both British Gas Business and their Debt Recovery Company: I think it is self explanatory.  Question does any one else out there have these kind of problems with utility companies, do please let me know by way of comments at the end of the post,  Thanks - Tom 


Dear Sirs,

I am going to type as clearly and as carefully as I can in the hope that I am able to make my self as clear as humanly possible to both of you in the following written discourse in the faint hope that I will receive only one more communication from each of you informing me that the matter is closed.

I realise that it must be terribly difficult whether you are an employee working for a Utility Company or a Contractor/ Debt Collector working on their behalf, as they, the Utility companies, and BGB/ Centrica in particular, seem incapable of actual and simple elucidation to either the customer, or I suspect, you who work for them.

Having said that I must congratulate BGB for spelling my name correctly in the last communication, well done to you. But, Experto Credite must do detention for being unable to spell SECURITIES in their letter of 26/08/11.

BGB: You, Mr xxxxxx contacted me by way of a telephone call on Friday 26th August.  This was in response to my 'Dunderheads' email sent to  xxxxxxxx also of BGB on 25th August.

During the course of that conversation we established that the letter from BGB dated 19th August, and which prompted my email to Ms xxxxxxx, that had been addressed to me and xxxxxxx, was in fact nothing to do with a property that was previously occupied by xxxxxxxx and therefore the letter was in fact a red herring and wrong in that respect!

We established, that is you and I, that the reference number on the letter from BGB was in actual fact referring to a property that has a meter with the serial number  LxxE xxxxxx!

We also established that the letter of 19th August 2011, was to inform and give me a COMPLAINT REFERENCE NUMBER to a letter that I wrote to your organisation in SEPTEMBER 2010.

In my letter of SEPTEMBER 2010 I pointed out to BGB that I had received a bill for some £1400.00 for energy supplied to the property with the meter LxxE xxxxx.  I pointed out in my letter of SEPTEMBER 2010 that this was not an xxx account as I, I as in me Tom Stronach, Centre Manager since 1999, transferred that meter and supply to another tenant in 2001.

We further established in our call, according to you, that BGB had received a call from a Mr xxxxxx    xxxxxxx of xxx in January 2008 transferring a number of properties to BGB for billing purposes including the one in xxxxxx, under my purview, containing meter No LxxE xxxxx.

I pointed out to you, during our conversation, that this could not have been the case as neither Messrs xxxxx in the company would have transferred any meter on any property that they did not have a direct input into, and that neither gentleman had any involvement with xxx xxxxxx.  We then established that you say BGB received the transfer request in January 2008 but no invoice bill was raised until 2010, somehow I don't even find that strange.  BGB taking an an account and then not billing on it for two and a half years, why would any customer find that strange?

Since your call, and in the interests of fairness I have contacted both of the x xxxxxx in the company asking for confirmation that they transferred any meters to you at the time you allege that it took place, January 2008. Both have acknowledge that they did not at any time request British Gas Business to take on board any meter linked to any property at xxx xxxxxx.  And as I pointed out in my letter of 2010, WE DID NOT AND DO NOT CONTROL THIS METER, IT IS WITH A TENANT and has been since 2001!

So, in conclusion I hope that all of the above clears up this little matter once and for all and that you Mr xxxxx will write two letters.  The first to me with BGB's apology again for making a complete and utter cock up, whereby you have again seemingly hi-jacked another meter, issued a bill (two years after doing so) and expect the customer to roll over and pay without quibble, and the second to the attack dogs at Experto Credite putting them back into their kennel with a muzzle.

If I get one more demand from either party on this matter I will refer it to the Ombudsman to investigate on our behalf, AGAIN.

Yours sincerely

Tom Stronach


Utility Companies - they make you want to kill!