When are we going to have some nice weather? I'm still depressed. Please. . . . . . will somebody say something nice?

 

Reference: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article264.html

It seems that yet another basic human right of democracy in this shit-hole called Britain has been removed by our traitorous Government, i.e., the right to appeal against any decision by a Government department, or a Local Government department, that we feel to be wrong or incorrect.

Let me elucidate. For nearly a year now I have been trying to get my Council Tax Band corrected. For the benefit of people outside Britain the “Council Tax” is an unfair system of local taxation based on Medieval principles that you are taxed on the size of the property you own and not on the size of your income. So a rich man in a small house pays very little, whilst a poor man in a bigger house pays a lot of tax regardless of whether he can afford it or not. Although the powers that be do not confiscate your cattle or burn you at the stake any more if you cannot meet their excessive demands, you are constantly reminded that you face a prison sentence for non-payment, even if you don’t have sufficient funds to pay.

My problem is that I am in Band B which is for houses that were worth £40,000 to £52,000 when you bought it. Band A is for houses that were worth less than £40,000. 12 years ago I paid £35,000 for my semi-detached house just after my neighbour bought his semi-detached house of the same size as mine. He paid about the same amount for his property. He was put in the lower tax band of A, which was correct, but I was put into the higher band of B. Therefore I have to pay more tax that him.

We are both “Old Age Pensioners”, both living alone, in fact we are in similar situations. When my solicitor drew up the conveyance documents, he neglected to inform me of the Council Tax situation. I only discovered last year that I have been paying a hellava lot more tax than I should for the last 12 years!

To cut a long story short I have been “bothering” (their word) the Value Office Agency for over a year now to be re-graded to the same as my neighbour and to have a refund of my overpayments, but with no luck. They argue that I should have appealed within six months of buying the house to change the tax band and now nothing can be done.

The crunch came today when I phoned up to “bother” them once again. I was informed by two separate people that I have no right of appeal under the present law, which has recently changed. The Assessment Officers word is final and binding. He says I have to continue overpaying and I have no right of redress. I was also informed by one of the little jumped squirts that if I persisted in trying to appeal against their decision I could face disciplinary action! Fined? Imprisoned? Maybe shot at dawn? Even a condemned man facing the gallows has the right to appeal; or has he now?

So there you have it in a nutshell. I must continue paying 12% of my weekly income to the bloody faceless wonders in power or face a hefty fine and/or imprisonment. Exaggerating? Not a bit of it, recently the Courts have already imprisoned a woman (82) and a man (79) for non-payment of Council tax. (Google it).

This is legalised robbery! Something the gangsters and hoodlums that govern this country are very familiar with.

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Many years ago I was a Unitarian, until I realised that religion is just a waste of time and energy; but that's another story.

I stumbled upon a news item about a Meeting House in Manchester that had been vandalised and this reminded me of a little story about our Meeting House.

We had several break-ins at the chapel once and various items where either smashed or stolen so the Minister asked the local Crime Prevention Officer (CPO) what we could do to prevent further break-ins. He came and looked around and suggested that we fit window locks, fit an intruder alarm etc. All the usual stuff.

He also suggested that we mark all movable items with an ultra-violet marker using the Chapels post code so that if anything was found the police would know where it came from. At this point the Minister said that because the Meeting House was in a remote part of the area and there was no post box or telephone we did not have a postcode. All the mail went to the Manse, about 2 miles away.

CPO: “Well, could you mark them with a cross or something?” (He meant the Cross of Jesus.)

Minister: “Oh no, we don’t use the Cross in our religion. Do you think I should use a Flaming Chalice?”**

CPO: (getting irritated) “You can use what the flaming hell you like, just so long as we know where the flaming stuff came from!”

** The flaming chalice is the Unitarian logo.

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Looks like this tree is a bit previous this year. It doesn't usually flower until the second week in April, when the daffodils are fading away. If you look you can see that they are still in the full flush of youth! (see inset).

I'm not sure what breed of tree it is; I always thought it was an almond, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's some sort of Japanese maple, but no doubt someone will enlighten me.

Practically all the bossom has come unstuck, but this could be due to all the high winds we are experiencing at the moment. It seems as if nature has gone haywire, the plants and flowers don't know what season it is! Could this be due to the "global warming" they keep promising us? I wish they, whoever "they" are, would hurry up with it because I'm bloody freezing.

I went shopping this morning in all that wind and horizontal snow and I was stopped by a brass monkey who asked me if I knew the whereabouts of a good welder.

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First, left me say that you don't have to read this post. I know it is very long and you would probably be bored out of your mind before you are halfway through it. I put it up for my own benefit just to let of steam. I feel a bit better now.

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I recently saw this article on the net:

Scheme To Help Keep Pensioners Warm.

Release Date: 21/01/2008

This weekend the consumer group Energywatch suggested that 4.5 million households (or one in six) in Britain now spend at least 10% of their annual income on heating their properties. As such the local authorities are working together to help vulnerable housholds save energy and reduce their bills. They estimate that approximately 2.5 million old age pensioners cannot afford to switch on their central heating now.

The UK has recently seen prices rise again at a massive rate. So despite years of good progress on improving the nations housing it means that the national fuel poverty figures are at their worst for a decade!

Nationally half of those in fuel poverty are elderely, with those on fixed income pensions being especially vulnerable to inflation busting price hikes. So the Council in partnership with the Marches Energy Agency, the Energy Advice Centre and local installers has developed a scheme to help the elderly reduce their fuel bills.

Shortly afterwards this other piece of crap appeared:

Good news for elderly people fighting fuel poverty...

Energy companies plan to offer free home insulation to low-income pensioners in order to help reduce the cost of household bills!

As it turned out this is just a load of bullshit, or "hot air" (pun intended) spouted off by our corrupt goverment to make it look as if they are actually trying to help pensioners.

If you did this in my house you would probably get frost-bite!

First, let me put you in the picture about my situation. I am single, and live alone. My income is my state pension which is quite low, and is the only income into this house. I do not have any "benefits" to supplement the pension because I am just over the minium requirement to get help with my Council Tax, which is too high in my opinion. I am not disabled, nor do I look after anybody who is. I have no dependants, ie., children, aging parents and the like, and I don't qualify for income support.

I have now used up all my savings to supplement my pension because of the spiralling inflation in this dump of a country. Therefore I have no money now if anything drastically goes wrong with the house and I need to get repairs done.

I live in an old house (it was all I could afford at the time) that has no loft insulation or even roofing-felt under the tiles so consequently if I light my fires or switch on any other heating the heat goes straight out to the atmosphere. So in the winter I cannot heat the house because it just doesn't stay warm. Before the increases in gas and electric prices I could just about afford to stay moderately warm, but now I can't put the heating on because even with the paltry "Winter Warmth Allowance" I cannot afford to "heat" and "eat"! If I did put the heating on I would be bankrupt in a very short while, so I have to wear a thick coat, hat and scarve indoors when it is very cold.

So you can imagine my joy when a leaflet from my energy-supplier dropped through the door. I wiped the ice off my glasses and this is what I read:

As an energy supplier we have a responsibility to look after our customers and the environment.

npower’s ‘Savings for Life’ programme offers you the chance to benefit from a FREE* insulation package which can include one or more of the following:
• Cavity wall insulation – with a Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA) 25-year guarantee
• Full loft insulation
• Loft insulation top-up (50mm-270mm)

Nearly 50% of the heat in a typical home is lost through its walls and roof. (Source: Energy Saving Trust)
By taking advantage of our FREE* offer on cavity wall and loft insulation you could not only save energy and money, but your house could be warmer too.

Did you notice that little red asterisk after the word "FREE"? When I saw that my heart sank. "What's the fucking catch" I thought, because I know that when something is offered for apparently nothing you finish up paying one way or another!

I scanned that leaflet from top to bottom on both sides, and then I found it right at the bottom of the back page, and it said:

* You do not need to be an npower customer to qualify but you do need to be a home owner. You, or someone you live with, must also be in receipt of one of the following benefits:
• Council tax benefit
• Housing benefit
• Income support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s allowance
• Attendance allowance
• Disability living allowance
• War disablement pension which includes either mobility supplement or constant attendance allowance
• Disablement pension which includes constant attendance allowance
• State pension credit
• Child tax credit where the relevant annual household income is £14,600 or less
• Working tax credit where the relevant annual household income is £14,600 or less

What's that? You can't read it? Neither could I, so I borrowed my stamp-collecting friends magnifying glass from next-door and this is what I saw:

"You do not need to be an npower customer to qualify but you do need to be a home owner. You, or someone you live with, must also be in receipt of one of the following benefits:
• Council tax benefit
• Housing benefit
• Income support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s allowance
• Attendance allowance
• Disability living allowance
• War disablement pension which includes either mobility supplement or constant attendance allowance
• Disablement pension which includes constant attendance allowance
• State pension credit
• Child tax credit where the relevant annual household income is £14,600 or less
• Working tax credit where the relevant annual household income is £14,600 or less

So with a heavy heart I realised that I was stuffed, thwarted, shot down in flames, call it what you will, yet again because I don't get any of those benefits to qualify for help, and I certainly can't afford to pay to have the loft done.

Perhaps if I leave the fridge door open it might warm the kitchen up just a little?

Er . . . Did you notice the "Donation" widget in the right-hand column? Just thought I would mention it. . . . .

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Gordon Brown is speeding through the English countryside with his chauffeur at the wheel on his way to an important address. Driving down a country road the chauffeur, who is distracted looking out the window at the view, doesn't see a pig walk out onto the road, and he hits it and kills it.

Stopping the car he jumps out, and Gordon Brown also gets out to see what's going on. The chauffeur, very distressed by what he's done asks the Prime Minister what they should do, and Brown tells him impatiently that they're in a hurry and he should move the pig to the side of the road and carry on to the meeting and worry about it later.

All the way to the meeting the chauffeur, who is a fairly good-hearted person, is worried about the family who owned the pig and wondered how they'd react when they discovered it. When they arrived at the meeting he asked the Prime Minister whether he could drive back to the farm and let them know what happened.

Gordon agrees before hurrying to the podium, and the Chauffeur drives back down the road.

Four hours later, he was stumbling down the road with his arms full of gifts. Brown, in a rage, demands to know what has happened to him, and the chauffeur explained. "I did what I thought was right. I went to the farm where I killed the pig, knocked on the door and gave them the news. Then they gave me these gifts, fed me the best food I've ever tasted and then sent me on my way."

Gordon seemed confused by this and asks his chauffeur, "What exactly did you tell them?"

To which the chauffeur replied "I really can't understand it either, all I did was tell them "I'm Gordon Browns Chauffeur, and I killed the pig."

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The new Farm Shop at Shenton near Hinckley, where you can buy Local Leicestershire food from farms near you. Click the picture for further details.

In the early 70's a local farmer decided to open a farm shop to sell his produce directly to the public. This particular farm produced vegetables and soft fruit of every description,. He had an orchard (in fact it was called Orchard Farm, in Orchard Lane) comprising of plums, pears and the most delicious apples ever. I know, I used to go "scrumping" there when I was a lad. You could buy logs and kindling for your open fire, and he would deliver with a tractor and trailer directly to your house if you hadn't got transport. He also reared hens, ducks and geese.

He cleared out part of the old barn and set up shop. It was an immediate hit with the locals, and even people from far away. It was great, the vegetables still had muck and creepy-crawly things on it, the eggs (oh those eggs, so tasty!) still had hen shit on them. If you wanted something that wasn't on the rickety shelves he would go out to the fields and dig it up for you; how's that for freshness and service?

This little shop was open like that for several years, never expanding, never "modernised". That is until old Jack died and his wife went into a care home. Jacks son took over the farm and the first thing he did was to demolish the old barn and build a modern shop with tiled floor, melamine shelving, and introduced a modern till that you needed a Phd to operate. The veg was washed and cleaned, as was the other produce. Needless to say the prices rocketed! He explained that it was to pay the staff; he employed two girls now, and to pay for the modernisation of the shop.

Then he started selling produce from other farms, near and far. Suddenly a new Range Rover car appeared! The tractor and trailer had long since gone, so no way was he going to deliver logs and other goods in that!

Before long the orchard was sold off to a local developer who has built about 20 "desirable country residences" on it. The shop still sold fruit, but now it had little labels on stating "Produce of South Africa". The veg came in on a lorry ready packaged and supposedly fresh.

The farm now is being subsidised by the Government NOT to produce anything, the fields are now lying fallow and the house and outbuildings are looking dilapidated, but no doubt some rich person will buy them and turn them into a mini-mansion.

The ducks, chickens and geese have long gone, and the eggs are now sold in little boxes marked "Produce of Poland". They don't taste the same as the old shit covered ones I used to collect from there in my little enamel bowl. In fact the eggs now taste like shit!

Nowadays you can buy any of the normal supermarket products there, jam, butter, wine and spirits, beer, postage stamps, and all the other trash you can get at Asco's! In fact it is run on supermarket lines, with checkouts and a cigarette kiosk now. What is the point? You may as well go to the local Hypermarket to get your groceries, and clothing, and electrical goods, and petrol, etc.

All is not lost though!

We have a new farm shop not far away now, it's not quite like old Jacks farm shop because of the Health and Safety and Food Regulations, but promising nevertheless. It is called "Shenton Farm Shop" would you believe and you can visit it here. I haven't been there yet myself, but several people have said how good it is. Let us hope that it doesn't turn into another SuperFarm Shop

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