Tag: UK

It caught my eye… 2-2025

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Sometimes, the UK’s confusing legal system still appears to be able to deliver unbelievable mistakes.

This is 78 years old Gaie Delay who was jailed for 20 months in 2022 as part of a UK Government ‘crackdown’ on Just Stop Oil protestors. Last Christmas she was release due to medical issues and was to be fitted with a ‘Tag‘ to finish her sentence at home.

Due to physical issues, a correct size tag could not be sourced to fit her. After a number of days; 20 as it turns out, she has now been recalled to prison for those 20 days to finish her sentence! She must be a very dangerous criminal!!! Full story here and here.

With the rise of keyboard and voice operated devices, it seems that the art of handwriting is on a marked decline. I would admit to being one of those who does not write with a pen as much as I used to, though I still sometimes reach out for my lovely Waterman pen (a birthday gift from my sister a few years ago), to use it to write Birthday/Christmas cards.

One interesting fact I learned from this very interesting article (Long-Read) is that as today’s primary school children are not taught to write cursively (joined up writing to you and me) so they also struggle to read it. Amazingly, Finland removed cursive writing from its schools in 2016!

Having spent some of my secondary education years at a Roman Catholic school where penmanship was drilled into you – even the teachers (Nun‘s) used square chalk on the blackboards – everything handwritten had to be in the Italic script style of writing! It’s a shame to see it handwriting slowing disappearing. I’ll have to give myself some ‘Writing-Lines‘ to keep me using my Waterman, so that I don’t lose the physical and mental ability to handwrite something in the future.

I was sad to see that the British Council is facing a UK.Gov funding shortfall and may be forced to reduce its operations around the world. I think this organising does a tremendous amount of work on behalf of the UK and should be looked on as a good use of ‘Soft Power‘. One effect of withdrawing funding, will be an upsurge in the influence of Russia and China in areas where we once promoted our basic core values.

UK General Election 2024

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A bit behind with my blogging, again!

However, here’s a subject to wakes us all up!! So a lot is being talked about at the moment on what all the major parties will do for ‘us’ to win our votes in the up-coming General Election. There have been quite a few items on various media channels about how the state of the economy has been handled over the past 14 years under the various past Tory Governments.

One of the best reports that I recently ‘tripped’ over via Twitter, or should say X was from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. They have produced a report consisting of 13 graphs that show just what has happened under past Conservative Government control over the past 14 years, they explain a lot about why the UK is in the mess it in. You can also download the whole report here.

But here are the graphs for a quick peruse now.

UK Defence, Review. 2021

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There has been a lot of talk over the last few weeks about the publication of the latest UK Defence Review – 2021 (the UK Gov. View) and where it is trying to position the UK in a Post-Brexit world.

Some of the highlights include a reduction in the size of the standing UK Army, increased spending on ‘Cyber-Tools’ and a potential increase in the size of the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent; i.e. more bombs!

I have always continued to have an interest in the Royal Navy having served in it for close on 18 years, so it is a big part of my early life. They seem to have come out of it quite well when it is all said and done. Two new carriers to continue albeit with a possible change to the number of aircraft – though I still think we did not need them – but without, in my opinion enough support/protection vessels to protect them during fleet operations.

I tend to think that these will be used as ‘boys-toys’ by the current government and in-particular Boris Johnson and a way of flying a flag under the pretence that we are ‘as big as were 100 years ago’. That time has long passed!

Whatever the final outcome, there are still many differing views on how well the UK will emerge under the latest Defence review.

Here’s a selection of recent commentary…