A Labour Lefties Definition of Slavery

Slavery, the definition of that for many people is;

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave. (See Wikipedia for full article, here)

But in the view and opinion of Dr Eoin Clarke, Founder of labour Left and Editor of the Red Book and The Green Benches , Slavery is actually citizens of the United Kingdom VOLUNTEERING to provide their time and energy at the many public events being held this year 2012.  Although I would have thought that with his Phd, he must have needed to do quite a bit of research to receive that, one of the highest academic honours, and of course DIAMOND JUBILEE, has almost become a staple of the daily lexicon over recent weeks, so one would have thought that Dr Clarke would have known and edited the blog by Labour MP Grahame Morris, that this is actually the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and not her Silver one as mentioned in his Blog'

This month represents the beginning of a bonanza of summer events across Britain that will excite and unify millions of people, whilst at the same time many will be forced to look on in dread. Either way the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, England playing in Euro 2012 and the London Olympics will propel the notion of our ‘national pride’ to the top of the media agenda. Whether people feel British, English, European or perhaps have more affinity with their region, home town, local community or even street is a matter of personal identity.

And this is what he stated this morning in a tweet in regard to Slavery;

Tweet 1:

Éoin Clarke ‏@DrEoinClarkeI am unsurprised to discover that unemployed & unpaid slaves were bussed in to work for the Queen's Jubilee. That's how we roll in Tory UK.

Tweet 2:

Éoin Clarke ‏@DrEoinClarkeI wonder how folk will react when we use bus loads of unpaid slaves (including many disabled) 2 work unpaid during our glorious UK Olympics?

For the record, again, I am a Republican and would gladly see an end to the Royal family, their extended family and the thousands of hangers on who lead a privlidged life but I bare no ill will to the people who are celebrating 'Their' Queens time as Monarch of our little set of islands and I hope that they all had a great time, even if the weather wan't perfect for them over the last few days.

And again, for the record. I think that the public funding of the Olympics is a national scandal, considering the state our economy is in and listening to all the horror stories about how much they Olympics are charging for tickets, the problems that are going to be created for Londoners and in other parts where events are taking place, is all a high price to pay, but:

No matter where and when this event, and others like them, take part in the world, to compare those, who unlike me, want to take part and help and assist, by VOLUNTEERING their services, to then compare them to people who have no choice, who were torn from family and country, chained, starved, brutalised, tortured and worked to death; is a bit of a stretch, even for a labour leftie.....

And for the record, again, I am not a member of any Political Party, just in case you were wondering..... And being Scottish I would still prefer the United Kingdom to be United and not broken up .... Proud to be a Scott Brit....

Sunday Dinner

Couple of quick recipes for you, but not much in the way of ingredient measurements

Braised Pork Chops:

Depending on how hungry you are and on how big the chops are, so this was for Ishbel and me:

4 small to medium pork chops, Ishbel likes the fat off I don't mind

2 or 3 small onions sliced

About a tablespoon of finely chopped fresh ginger

A handful of fresh chopped coriander ( cilantro )

nob of butter and Olive oil

A glass or two of red wine

Chicken Stock

Take an nice deep pan and add the nob of butter and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil melt down.

Add the pork chops on a medium to high heat and brown on both sides.

Once the chops are nicely browned add the onion, ginger and coriander and cook on a medium heat until the onions are soft and just beginning to brown too.

Once the onions have softened add a glass or two of good red wine and turn the heat up a little.  Once the wine starts to bubble add chicken stock and reduce the heat.

You can cook this on the hob on a very very low heat or in the oven at say 140 to 160 for an hour to an hour and a half.  Keep an eye on it and if need be add some more chicken stock as it will be reducing as it braises the chops.

Once ready served with veg of choice and mashed potatoes,  Today's mash had a table spoon (or was it two) of Southern Comfort.

Enjoy!


Rhubarb, Apple and Raisin Pie 

Don't suppose you need me to tell you how to make one of these, and I am lousy at pastry, even when I buy the damned stuff I end up getting holes in it or breaking it up, go figure, but there you go....


So, today I took

five stalks of rhubarb stripped of outer skin

Two large braeburns

Large cupful of California raisins

Two Tablespoons of cognac

Four tablespoons of Demera Sugar

Some grated nutmeg

Cup of water

Combine all the ingredients in a pan and reduce down until the fruit is soft, remove from heat and leave to cool.


While the fruit is softening line a pastry dish 

 Add the cooled fruit to the dish














Cover the fruit with some more pastry and brush with melted butter












Place in a preheated oven at 180, best not to use the fan, and bake for about 35 - 40 minutes


Remove from Oven and allow to cool, sprinkle with icing sugar, slice and serve, with fresh cream, custard or ice cream.

Mrs Pearce, aged 83 has a Complaint

While out for a walk on Saturday 2nd June I was walking along Deveron Gardens in South Ockendon when I bumped into Mrs Pearce. She is 83 and walks slowly with the aid of a walking stick.  I stopped to talk to her and she then started talking, complaining, and she had a right to, about cars parked on the pavements, forcing her into the road or onto what could be slippery grass verges.

Now Deveron Gardens is a street made up, primarily of single story small homes for the elderly , as you will see from the video below, two vehicles were parked right across the full width of the pavement.  This is not unusual and it even gets worse on Sundays and at other times when the Belhus Park Independent Evangelical Church has a meeting on - go figure that one for Christian community spirit - when they roll up to services and block the pavements in their posh cars!

So this is what Mrs Pearce had to say and she would like Thurrock Council to take a more proactive approach in dealing with offenders who block the pavements with their inconsiderate parking.

What say you Councillor Smith, Portfolio holder for Highways and Councillors Kiely and Johnson, ward councillors, what can you do for Mrs Pearce and the rest of us who are forced into the roads or on to slippery grass verges because of these people?

I shall send a link to this post to Cllrs, Smith, Kiely and Johnson and let you know, what if any response there is. buit should you want to email any of these councillors there addresses are:

ajsmith@thurrock.gov.uk

bjohnson@thurrock.gov.uk

akiely@thurrock.gov.uk

Now what did I do!!!!!!!!

I just can't win sometimes......

Missy Stronach went for her Saturday morning bathe, yes I do believe she bathes on other days too as sometimes when I face time her from the office and maybe it is getting close to lunchtime she is still in her goonie (dressing gown for the more discerning of you) or wrapped in a couple of towels, yes I know lunch time but what can one do or say .....

Anyway as she went for her morning bathe I went for my morning walk.  While out walking I was thinking of what I could do for Saturday Lunch which invariably turns out to be a late one and into an early dinner, but there you go.

I had a plan and had a look round the shops as I wanted some nice chicken thighs on the bone and with skin, some asparagus and some good seedless oranges but alas couldn't find anything decent in any of the shops or the market.

On the way home I bumped into 83 year old Mrs Pearce who was, quite rightly going off on one at the cars parked on pavements in the area, so I shall do a blog on that later.

I then bumped into 76 year old Alan who gave me a graphic description of his knee and thigh problems including the fact that he had just had the kneecap on his left leg 'washed out' don't know what was wrong but it sounded painful  but the thing is that both Alan and Mrs Pearce are still highly active and are out and about in the village and trying to keep busy, in fact Alan had just been to the motor factors and bought some brake pads for his large 4 x 4 that HE was just going to change......

Anyway, got home and Missy was out of the bath, I had been out two hours, and was 'putting her face on' I really don't like to see her without it, reminds me of a George Romero zombie, but who am I to judge (I will suffer for this later no doubt) and there we were then sitting at the kitchen table and I say,

Me "Think we might pop to the supermarket"

Ishbel, "Why" (We really don't purchase much from supermarkets)

Me, " Iwas thinking of getting some chicken thighs and doing a spicy marinade for them and then to serve them up with some griddled asparagus (no bloody ketchup Jules) with orange quarters sprinkled with brown/demera sugar and grilled, with maybe a broad bean and bacon salad"

Ishbel, smiling, "That sounds wonderful"

Me, "in fact I think I've changed my mind, how about fish fingers beans and chips"

WHaaaaaaaat was that look for, honestly I have no idea.

Update:

 So this is what I eventually made for Missy Stronach:

Chicken thighs marinaded in Sweet Chilli sauce cooked in the oven for 40 minutes with a side of char grilled orange with brown sugar melted on top

Char grilled Asparagus

Long Grain Rice and Peas