Age of Concern

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

Age of
Consent?

This morning my daughter of almost sixteen dropped a bomb on me. She said she’d ‘Googled it’ and they were thinking of dropping the age of having sex to 14.

I thought I must be hearing things. So I ‘Googled it’ and discovered what she’d read.

On February 16th of this year (2012) the Telegraph ran this headline:

Drop Age Of Consent To 14, Says Academic
    -Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent, Telegraph Newspapers
    -16 February 2007.

She goes on to state what this academic report suggests dropping the age of consent to 14 with restrictions so that the 40% of 15-year-olds who admit to having had sex (not oral sex but full intercourse) would not be breaking the law. This is a good but radical article.

I look at my daughter -who is just over three months away from her sweet sixteenth- and wonder how I’d feel for her to be having sex now (legally), and it sends me cold. This is such an alien concept to my usually-rational parental mind that it screams out “NO!!!” in disgust.

It seems so long since I was a horny teenager, that I’ve buried those emotional realities by my parental concerns. As a dad I’m applaud by the thought of my teenage daughter being sexually active...

We’ve done the talks about safe sex and contraception -so I’m aware of what is expected of parents today.

The problem is, as a realist, I ‘know’ that the chances of her staying ‘virginal’ are almost none existent. She will meet someone that she wants to ‘sleep with’, (possibly) marry, and (eventually) have kids of her own to worry about. All of that above doesn’t make the any easier to accept. I suppose it’s just hard for a dad to let his little girl grow-up into a young woman.

Having said that, I would urge any parent to read the Telegraph’s article; it’s an eye-opener and a reality check for any mum or dad.

I love both my daughters and my son, and I know they’ll have to go through these concerns themselves what their time comes.

I just wonder if lowering the age of concern will make children more responsible than they currently aren’t (or than we were at their ages).
I seriously doubt it!

Not a midlife crisis!

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

Not A
Mid-life
Crisis! 

The world has become obsessed with age. Too young, too old, almost past it!

But who says that age is so important? And why?

What's the right age to start having sex? And when is it too old to want it? And how come you can never get enough between the two points?

Have we become obsessed by youth? Look around and tell me the average age of the Ad-Girls and -Boys. Or their models. Where are the older representatives?

No one wants to see where they're going, only where they've been. That's the thing.

I'm as bad as all the others. (Are you?) When I was young-er, I was quite vane. My hair teeth and complexion were all more important to me than anything. Smart suits, good shoes, impressive ties, sensible hair. That's who I was: Mr GQ. A god in a silk shirt.

Even my politics had a brand: true-blue Conservatism. (I aspired to be The New Statesman -the right honourable Alan B'stard MP -played by Rik Mayall.) My arrogance didn't quite reach the levels that Rik's alta ego reached, but I came close.
 

.: New Statesman title card :.
by @  Wikipedia.

However, life has a way of kicking you in the pants when you get too arrogant. And so it knocked me on my ass and out of my GQ phase.

I grew my hair long, sported an unkempt beard and lost all my self confidence. And as a result went looking for God. (And me being me, I didn't just find one, I found several.)

I'm compulsive and obsessive by nature and add that to a search for spirituality, and naturally I had to take it too far. My search put me on a path to the church -I wanted to serve the big G. I took courses at a local Methodist college on Pastoral Care and Islam and fell-out with the Christian faith.

I turned to Judaism, considered Islam and finally fell for Paganism. (Only because the latter didn't restrict my growing compulsion for anarchy.)

The arrogance of youth has been tempered by age but not fully extinguished. My arrogance these days connect to speaking my mind and looking how I please.

Over the past two years my hair has been all the colours of the colours of the rainbow and a few others: I was Goth with half-black and half-white. I hit emo with spiked pastel and vibrant hues. And finally, went retro with a punk half-Mohawk (which I currently sport), that changes colour once a month.

I do like to grab attention! Lol !!

Then, the other day someone asked me if I was having a mid-life crisis. I'm not having a mid-life anything! (I don't class almost 47 as mid-life.) Inside I’m still 18.

After I expounded how wrong she was, she walked awake nodding and muttering, "Thought as much!"

I don't care what anyone says, I'm not having a mid-life crisis. Inside I'm still young, arrogant and vane!

2xRecession

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

Double-Dip Recession -
Britain's Not Working

This morning (12/08/12) SkyNews headlines

MP Hosts World Hunger Summit.
"David Cameron is to host a summit aimed at tackling world hunger in the years before the next Olympic Games in Brazil."

While the Mail Online runs the headline:

Children as young as 8 are lending money to their parents as they worry about family finances

.: A Child's Perspective on World Hunger :.
(Feeding Starving Children)

From these two headlines you can see things are clearly not working in Britain.

When young children are having to bailout cash-strapped parents with their pocket money (Mail Online) Britain has hit an all-time low! (The piece goes on to explain that 85% of eight to fifteen-year-olds claim to be worried about their family's finances.) While the MP is lost in the Olympic headlights (SkyNews) of closing the Games. Things are definitely not good! 

When thing at home are so bad that Boris Johnson (Reuters UK‎ article) looks like a contender to the MPs job - due to all the positive press coverage since the opening ceremony.

"In the UK-wide survey conducted for Ladbrokes bookmakers, 71 percent of respondents said they would like him to become premier."
Reuters UK‎ article

(It feels a bit like Cameron is being sidelined by the Major's aggressive media campaign. He appears concerned that Boris is getting too many Olympic headlines - which puts Johnson foot in Number Ten's door - more than any other Tory politician.) I'm certainly asking, Has Cameron lost the plot? 

Homeland Britain is sufferings: We spent a wealth on the Games, so the world thinks we're not a Third World Country - when we clearly are. And although they were more than impressive as far as Start (opening ceremony), Games (massive Gold haul), and End (closing ceremony - that is said to be a match for the opening extravaganza) we have a country on the edge of poverty.

"PM pledges millions for Team GB at Rio"

says Independent article. (They go on to quote he's pledging lottery money to team GB - which could have been targeted at underprivileged children at home.) We all are proud of our team, but when millions of British taxpayers are funding waste and avarice (Banking Crisis), there has to be a time to say woah... And this is that time.

It was only back in May that The Sun Headlined with:

Charity launched to help feed starving UK kids
"A CHARITY has launched the first-ever appeal to feed starving children – in the UK."

Have the the starving children in Britain all been fed in the last few months? I think not! And yet we are spending millions on sports while our children starve.  It these Games so important for Britain, that children have to suffer?

I declare! Please Mr Cameron, stop wasting funds on making the country look good!

What is the point of a great shop window if the shelves are empty inside?

I ask you, is this right?

Tell Me I'm Wrong!

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

Tell Me
I'm Wrong! 

I'm getting old. I must be. All I see around me is heartache and pain. Idiots and morons.

Does no one care anymore?

When I was a lad we cared. We cared about music and girls... we cared about politics and fashion... we cared about life and death... we cared about freedom and justice... we simply cared.

Today... No one cares.

We don't care about the environment. At least, most of us don't. There are a few overbearing pop stars (like Sting) that bleat on about saving the planet while schlepping from continent to continent by their own private jet (using fossil fuel and emitting CO2 gasses like a madman). Other than these wannabees, no one 'really' cares.

We don't care about an over populated world. We have children younger and live longer. Teen can't spell condoms, let alone use them. We have the likes of Jeremy Kyle blaring on about sticking 'something on the end of it' and making a living from talking to these horny juveniles as though they care. They don't. Neither do we. What's it matter to the average Britain if some snotty-nosed brat is the father, or the other five possibles? I ask you, do you care? Really?

We don't care about education. Even those sodding degenerates that repose to be students don't really care about education. They just want to drink cheep larger and loaf about, saying pretentious crap like 'in my opinion' - then quoting some facile trollop's entry in an outdated tome, they haven't even bothered to read properly. "In my opinion, Einstein got it right hen he said, Go Go!" Bollocks. Total crap. They don't have the experience to have an opinion. What does someone know that's just got out of nappies? Bugger all.
 

.: Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park in London, England :.
by swisstrock on Picasa.

 Education is about learning, it's about informing. It's not about telling the student which bit of their learning will be on the test. We learn to discover, not to be marked on it. The pen-pushers have taken over our schools, colleges, and uni's - they want results, not education. It's all about pass rates, not whether Billy understands how algebra works - A+B=C (or A Boy is a Child, as we used to say) makes not the slightest sense to the average pleb.

We don't care about politics either. Or the country wouldn't have voted in a load of Tory twits and wet wallies from the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg promised to be better then he's being, and the country swallowed it! If we were fishes we'd be wrapped in paper and smothered in salt and vinegar. This was once a great nation. Now we're a third-world nation, with too many children living in poverty and squalor. Half the country's unemployed, most of the rest's under-employed and under-paid. What's this world coming too?

Now tell me I'm wrong? Go on, surprise me if you dare. Tell me I'm wrong?

British Shame to Olympic Gold

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

Will Olympic Gold Untarnish London's Image a Year after the UK riots?

With London Olympics 2012 in the spotlight, has the country forgotten the last years's riots?

1. The UK might me in an Olympic gold-rush, but it's only a year ago that London was in the spotlight because of rioters burning shops and using social media to wage a campaign of devastation across British TV screens.
   

   
   

   But why did it happen and will it reemerge this summer as predicted by British youths.
   
2. Summer Riots Could Be Repeated, Survey Warns
   

   2 days ago ... Summer Riots Could Be Repeated, Survey Warns ... 8:32am UK, Friday 03 August 2012. One year on ... Gallery: One Year On ...

   

   Sky
3. That was the question on my mind, as I watched the spectacular opening ceremonies on 28th July. It completely blew me away how London had re-vamped its image within just 12 months.
4. 

   This time last year was the riots all over the UK - A year on everyone loves London / GB cos we win some medals.. Moral of the story if trouble kicks off award medals and calm is restored !!

   
   
   

   Stephanie Usher Maddox

   
   
   

   14 hours ago
5. 

   Today is a year to the day since the London Riots and look how far we've come. From being completely ashamed of the future of the UK with scenes of greed, violence and utter pandemonium, to just experiencing a day of immense pride and patriotism for our little island of Great Britain. These Olympic Games have brought us back a sense of national unity and I hope it will have a positive effect on and teach all those kids I've spoken to at work about the Olympics, to be determined and strive to be the best you can be.

   
   
   

   Charlotte Anne Brady

   
   
   

   12 hours ago
6. We have become a proud nation, suddenly. And it doesn't seem to sit well with those who witnessed the devastation last summer.
7. A year on, Tottenham still struggles to shake off the legacy ... - inagist
   

   21 hours ago ... A year on, Tottenham still struggles to shake off the legacy of the riots http://t.co/ FkrKFia2 by guardian 23173182833...

   

   Inagist
8. That said, can it happen again as predicted?
9. 

   England Riots: One In Four Young People Believe Last Summer's Disorder Could Happen Againhuff.to/OMSYJN via @HuffPostUK

   
   
   

   stephen matthews

   
   
   

   13 hours ago

   ReplyRetweet
10. From the apathy that the youth of today show towards everything, it seems more than possible.
11. 

    The riots are inevitable and we can all feel them brewing already, I only hope this time people don't loot shops or burn businesses because that's what was wrong with the last riots and turned the people against each other.

    
    
    

    Patrick Brett

    
    
    

    3 days ago
12. With a reduction in police, and an influx of visitors to the country, and the trials of the looters in the news, and the world watching London (because of the Olympics), it would seem more than inevitable. It seemed absolute.
13. Get Ready For Riots As Police Warn About Cutbacks

    
    
    

    truthtube451

    
    
    

    a month ago
14. 

    Reading the Riots: 'I have no doubt the riots will happen again': youtu.be/IF_AC0n_zjk via @youtube

    
    
    

    Mohamed Sharaf

    
    
    

    an hour ago

    ReplyRetweet
15. However, we're now a week into the Games and not a peep from the dissatisfied youths. This could mean we are in the clear. But I hesitate to accept this wave of euphoria that is sweeping GB.
    

    
    

    But when the Olympics end, will we return to apathetic Britain once more? 
16. BBC to broadcast banned riots documentaries after Olympic Games ...
    

    1 day ago ... BBC to broadcast banned riots documentaries after Olympic Games ... The BBC will broadcast its two-part series on the Eng...

    

    Wn
17. Will the post-Games euphoria (over gold) wear-off? With the BBC planning to broadcast this documentary once the Games ends, will this euphoria spin into a media-fueled revamp of last years' riots? And if it does, will we once more see riots taking advantage of this media attention and notoriety?
18. 

    'Young people predict riots this year' if only cos '1 in 3 think sentences given to rioters last year were too "soft"'! t.co/krYoP0oE

    
    
    

    Patrick Ainley

    
    
    

    2 days ago

    ReplyRetweet
19. The 'soft' sentences handed out to 2011 rioters won't provide a deterrent for those so bore that the thought of a riot seems entertainment.
20. 

    You know last year riots was the most entertaining thing that happened that summer

    
    
    

    Chocolate breadstick

    
    
    

    11 hours ago

    ReplyRetweet
21. The question still remains... WIll we see riots in the UK this year?

from: Storify.com: cyberpunk65's Riot Article

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Britain PLC

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

Do They Intend to Privatise Great Britain?

---

21st century Britain is quietly been sold-off, part-by-part, to the private sector and no one seems to have noticed. Except you’re truly of course.

The problem of having public assets (or state-run ownership) is they are rich for the picking by the private sector. They are cash-cows, perfect for breaking apart and asset stripping.

This concept of deregulating public-owned companies was first put forward by the Tories in the late 70s and early 80s. When British Telecom, Water, British Gas and electricity giants N-power were all privatized. Along with British Rail and about half a dozen others. (Visit the Guardian's Comment is free for more about privatization during the 80s.)

The famous 1986 "Tell Sid" British
Gas Privatization campaign.

Now we have the slow but steady breaking down of the NHS, the Police, the probation service, and all aspects of the welfare state. The government seem obligated to deregulate the whole of Britain.

Once we have the devolution of Ireland and Wales (with their own parliament -like Scotland- then PLC Britain could almost be a reality.

The Nanny state will turn into the forgotten state. Or worse, just another satellite state of Europe or the US. PLC Britain will be as ripe for takeover as the public owned companies are currently. And just like the post-privatised state-run organisations, PLC Britain will inevitably be run into the ground with a loss for all British Tax payers.

PLC Britain won't be a utopia. Just ask the workers for any privatised company. There will be uncertainty and injustice which far outweighs those of present British justice.

If you want to see policing by the likes of G4S, and a government run like one of Lord Sugar's companies, and the NHS sponsored by Glaxo or Bupa, then keep supporting the present coalition. Or if like myself, you want a return to a Great Britain then vote out the deregulators of out one Great country.

---

UPDATE:

The new buzzword for privatization by the backdoor is 'outsourcing'. Whenever you see this word in the press connected to public owned companies, they're craftily making it easier to sell-off the public sector!



You have been warned!

Cyberpunk65

Remploy Workers - No Rights to Work

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

No Rights to Work

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Remploy - putting ability first

When all they want is to work it seems a disgrace that the disadvantaged should have another setback.

The staff of Remploy factories, across the country, are on strike today, due to threats of job losses. Remploy was setup to be a place disabled workers could find gainful employment with employers that took their disabilities into account: Under the scheme of Access to Work.

Now these same disabled individual find they longer have an access to work. Some of these workers have been working for two to three decades for Remploy.

Disabled workers have a hard enough time getting work, without their main resource becoming privatised. Some workers have been offered a pittance in redundancy and severance pay, but it will leave them poor and unemployable. When jobs are at their scares in nearly thirty years, the loss of this government-backed employment is a major loss.
The Remploy factories are going to be closed or be privatized. Those with New bosses could face a reduction in the severance pay -if further cuts in the work force take place at a later date. 

None of these disabled workers have a very bright future -that is why they are taking industrial action.



Support their strike 

Cyberpunk65

Ofsted Report - Colleges & Jobless

reblogged from i-thorts' i-Politics

OFSTED: Colleges fail Jobless

The watchdog, Ofsted, have warned (in its “Skills for Employment” report) that unemployed adults are been offered college courses that do not lead to work. Jobseekers are taking courses where the priority is not to successfully find work at the end the inspectors have warned.

According to the Ofsted report, the courses being offered to jobseekers were basic and simply wouldn’t lead to qualification that will help them back into work. Less that one in five are successful it gaining employment after taking these FE (Further Education) courses.

The report goes on to say that more must be done to get people on FE that lead to jobs – as finding employment is ‘non’ considered a high ‘priority’ with these courses. This comes in the wake of the Government pressing colleges into vocational training for unemployed adults.

see the OFSTED website for more info.

Ofsted | Courses for jobseekers are not leading them into employment

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UPDATE 12/07/12 15.45:

The Association of Colleges have commented, saying that the ‘Skills for Employment’ report only ‘addresses’ the Colleges’ own concerns. The trouble they have been having is arranging ‘work experience’ for students.

They also blame the ‘generic’ nature of FE for jobseekers. Stating that programmes (implemented by Jobseeker Plus) need to be more flexible.

Read AoC’s Colleges respond to Ofsted 'skills for employability' report