Editors note! I have hidden the start of this chapter as I don’t want to spoil the plot.
The problems I mentioned in my first post after the raid haven’t changed but have simply got worse. I have listed some of them below.
If the NHS was a ship, it would be named the Titanic.
With over 7.6 million waiting a long time for operations the problems withing the NHS continue to grow. If the country wants a workable health service, then it needs to start paying its staff better wages and resolve the “Over Management” that has crept into the NHS. It appears that there are more blue-collar staff rather than staff who are hands on. It also needs to solve the bed-blocking problem and Social Care should be separated away from the NHS and run by County Councils. Money should be transferred from the NHS budget to the various providers of social care. To give you an example, the Northampton Chronical & Echo reported that in September 2022 nearly a quarter of Northampton General Hospital capacity was taken up by bed-blockers waiting to be discharged. There simply isn’t enough being done to find alternative beds or care in the community for these patients. Many would need support of some kind, but they don’t need to be taking up hospital beds. Yet in November 2022 the BBC reported that the 51-bed Spinneyfields Specialist Care Centre in Rushden – run by West Northamptonshire Council – will close in early 2023 and will no longer care for people after leaving hospital. A Unison spokesperson said that ‘The plans to close a specialist care centre and make 56 staff redundant come at the same time we have ambulances queuing at the local hospitals because of a lack of beds and patients ready for discharge with nowhere to go.’
Community care needs to be supplied outside of the NHS and controlled by the County Councils up and down the country. Central government must supply the funds to do this. What we currently have is disgraceful and unless action is taken as a matter of urgency, the NHS will no longer be “fit for purpose”.
Desperate NHS pays up to £2,500 for nursing shifts.
The BBC reported in November 2022 that NHS bosses are increasingly paying premium rates for agency staff to plug holes in rotas. Spending on agency staff rose by 20% last year to hit £3bn in England. For many shifts, bosses have been so short-staffed they have been willing to breach the government pay caps for these agency workers, most of whom are doctors and nurses.
In chapter 15 of The Bedford Heist which covers the sorry saga of Covid-19 the author states in the paragraph on “Couldn’t Care Less About Care Homes“ it stated, Another worrying tidbit that I heard about some of the current care workers was that they were working two different 8-hour shifts at two separate care homes. This alone could spread the virus from one care home to another. Some care workers from overseas were also living in overcrowded accommodation where several immigrant families share the same Inadequate and cramped facilities. This must have added to the number of deaths in care homes during the pandemic.
What the government must do is to introduce new rules covering the employment of all staff in both our NHS hospitals and care homes within the UK. Anyone working in this sector must be registered with the NHS, along with being checked out and would be paid directly via the various hospital or care home, but the new NHS human resources division would be copied in on who was being paid and the hours they worked. If this were done, then a simple check could be made to see if there were any duplications. All staff would be paid via the PAYE system and only those registered with the NHS-HR could work in the care sector.
Some readers may remember that towards the end of 2021 thousands of care workers refused to take up the Covid-19 vaccination scheme and if they didn’t then they could not work in care homes. IMO these workers came via some very cleaver recruitment agencies and as I will explain in my next novel “The Bedford Revenge” due out in 2024, several thousands of care workers were scared to give their true details to the vaccination body as many were undocumented immigrants and couldn’t give a NHS number. It had very little to do with fearing needles or other meaningless excuses. It makes you wonder if the Government were aware of this large sector of illegal workers in the care sector and the easy way to get rid of them would be to make vaccinations mandatory. I will show in my next novel how these illegals are forced into labour by ruthless Human Traffickers and how me and my merry men will bring down Europe’s largest trafficking gang.
Currently, the NHS and care sector rely on agency staff and end up paying the agency a lot extra for the pleasure. These agencies should be put out of business as anyone wishing to work for the NHS or in a care home must be vetted and then employed via the NHS Human Resources division. This could not be done straight away but it could be introduced to start next April. To bridge the gap the Health secretary should offer a three-month tax-free contract to retired doctors and nurses. I can assure you that this would save the country billions of pounds every year and at least it would stop the double working that currently is going on.
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Expanding Mental Health.
Having witness the outcome of addiction, I strongly believe that all addictions should fall under the Mental Health Act. People suffering from addictions such as Smoking, Drugs, Alcohol, Gaming and Gambling should be treated as a mental health problem. If they do not get on top of their addiction, then they should be “sectioned” until they are no longer an addict.
Inmates.
I strongly believe that a prisoner should not be released until they have been clear of their addiction for at least six months. If they are not clean, then they will revert to their old habit as soon as they are released and will once again end back to prison.
The overcrowding and staff shortage is an ever-growing problem. The next Government must correct this problem if they don’t want the chance of prisoners escaping to rise.
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Drugs in Britain. In the UK we spend billions every year trying to fight drugs with little success. We need to seriously look at the way Portugal treats possession of drugs and class use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal, of course but now getting caught with them meant a small fine and maybe a referral to a drug treatment program — not jail time and a criminal record.
Great Britain needs to look at other ways to stop these drug barons and if an addict could legally buy weed for £2 then the drug pushers would go out of business. The quality of the weed would be better than the current illegal type and it can be grown in the UK. At the same time, you would deprive the drug gangs of easy money and could also reduce knife crime and gang wars. Sooner or later some country will have to take the lead by following Portugal but also make drugs available from a bullet/thief proof vending machine. Purchases could only be paid for via a debit card and limited to two purchases a day. For those that don’t have a debit card then they can buy a pre-paid card at several corner shops, supermarkets, or service stations. Once payment has been taken only the cost of purchase will be logged. No names or personal details will be stored. Apart from popular drugs the vending machine could also offer condoms and possibly the morning after pill.
We need to follow the same route we took regarding cigarettes where a warning can be given on the packaging as well as advice on how to stop. A drug user would need to keep the packaging along with its unique purchase number just in case he/she was asked by the police. If this was done, then it would take the money out of the game and should result in less gangs. Owning unlicensed drugs would still be illegal and stiffer penalties would be applied by the courts to any person supplying illegal drugs. If Britain can make this work and build the robber proof vending machine, then sooner or later we could mass produce these machines and export these around the world.
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Stop the Boats. In the December 2019 Conservative manifesto, it said that the illegal immigration problem would be sorted and promised to sort out this ever-growing problem, once and for all. This never happened yet Labour lost several Red Wall seats as the citizens were sick and tired of seeing an influx of Eastern European’s taking over their county.
“Stop the Boats” is still the current Prime Ministers pledge, but it will never happen unless some drastic action is taken. IMO the only way to stop the boats from making the deadly crossing is to allow migrants to register in Calais, France and then be kept in camps until the UK can put the migrants on a coach which will make the safe crossing via a ferry. Whilst in the Calais camp the UK authorities could run checks on the immigrant to ensure they didn’t have a criminal history. Employers in the UK can register their requirements and the border agency could link the two up. If migrants want to enter the UK, then the following rules would apply to all over 18s.
!/. They will have fitted an electronic monitoring (known as ‘tagging’) for a minimum of two years.
2/. On registration they will be evaluated on their use of the English language. If not to an acceptable level, they will be offered either free training whilst in France or by their employer in Britain.
3/. If they have a verifiable trade, then they will take priority over those that don’t. If they don’t have a trade but are looking for unskilled work, then their details will be noted and any UK employer looking for staff could be notified. The employer will need to supply accommodation and meals but would be allowed to deduct the cost (A maximum of 50%) from their minimum wage.
4/. The planning rules on temporary accommodation (such as static caravans) would be eased and the local authority would grant planning permission for a period of five years.
5/. Accommodation at the workplace must be single sex and if any migrant worker became pregnant, they would immediately be returned to their birth country or another safe country.
6/. If any migrant breaks any of our UK laws, then they and any family member will be returned to their country of origin. No lengthy appeals will be allowed.
7/. Entry into the UK would be solely for them alone and would not be a fast track into the UK for any of their relatives.
Once in the UK they will be held in Marquees or Yurts based on unused military sites or in ships in dry dock. Costly hotel rooms should not be a choice. I can hear some people saying that being held in a tent is cruel, yet a vast number of migrants would have already spent years in tents in one of the 22 migrant camps in Turkey which has much lower winter temperatures than the UK. The Republic of Turkey hosts over 3.7 million registered refugees and are paid by the EU to do so.
Unaccompanied children should be found foster homes in the UK until they are 18. They will then be offered a free flight to their country of origin or stay in the UK as a full citizen. Any adopted child will not have the right to invite family members to join them.
Any immigrant’s still trying to cross the English channel in a small boat would be met en route and be forced to return to France.
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Green Energy.
If we are ever going to reach Net Zero, then the country must invest more in solar power and wind farms. Firstly, the government must Nationalise the National Grid so that they can build the infrastructure to move power around the British Isles. The privatised power network has given £28 million in dividends since it was sold off in 1990. This money would be better used to upgrade the grid so that it can cope with the extra demand required if we are going to reach Net Zero. Currently when wind farms create more energy than the grid can handle, the National Grid pays them to shut down – at a cost of up to £62m a day.
This will mean that more pylons will cover our countryside but it’s a small price to pay to be self-sufficient and not be reliant on countries such as Russia. For those that object to pylons being erected near them then their electricity supply should be turn off. If they ask why, simply tell them that someone ten miles down the supply line didn’t want pylons in the field where they lived, so the Nation Grid couldn’t get the supply to you. They will soon shut up.
Solar power. I don’t like seeing good arable land being covered with solar panels as the world needs these fields being used to provide food. If the Government wants to see more solar panels, then a national scheme should be set up to supply solar panels on nearly every roof in the UK free of charge to the property owner. The homeowner would save money on their electricity cost and the surplus going back to the new national organisation that will finance the installation and servicing cost. The government could also start by insisting all newly built homes should have Solar panels fitted at the time of construction. There are currently companies who charge over the odds to supply private owners with solar panels. Some of them IMO are worse than Timeshare sales staff. Their sales pitch can be quite convincing and the tricks they use are to offer gullible fools a finance deal, but they won’t tell you that in many cases the interest charged includes a 2% commission paid back to the installer. These cowboys would be put out of business and the installers could be taken on by the new national (Not-for-Profit) company. The primarily photovoltaic solar panels (solar PV) should be made in the UK along with all the other materials needed to carry out the installation. The Smart Export Guarantee scheme which replaced the old feed-in tariff, should be set at 5.4p/kWh, so that investors can see a quick return on their investment. Once the initial installation cost has been repaid, the homeowner would continue to receive cheaper electricity, but the balance should be paid to their local authority who can continue to service the scheme and they could do a lot of good with the extra cash.
If the current governments target to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans is to be reached, then the program to set up charging points must be multiplied. There should also be a maximum charge set to car owners who want to charge their vehicle away from home. An answer to people who live in terraced houses (row homes to our American readers), or blocks of flats needs to be addressed. It pointless to own an electric car if you can’t charge its batteries. I hope that car and van producers can come up with a portable battery that could be charged at home and then placed in the boot of the vehicle.
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How gambling is ruining lives.
If you are concerned about the way those suffering from gambling addiction, then please email your MP and ask him/her to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to pass a new law to introduce a betting tax and with the money raised to supply counselling for addicts. State in your email that you have just finished reading a crime and fiction novel entitled The Bedford Heist where in chapter 29 it says that there should be a tax of 20% levied on any betting. This way, the William Hills of this world would have to declare their UK income and pay the 20% to the tax office. Punters would then know that if they were gambling a pound then only 80 pence would be staked, or they could pre-pay the tax when placing their bet. For £1 bet they would need to part with £1.20. Any overseas gambling websites should be blocked or follow the Australian way that requires overseas companies to collect goods and services tax (GST). This GST is different to VAT and will be placed on luxury items such as gambling, booze, cigarettes, etc. The USA introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 to give more weight to the Federal Wire Act of 1961. The overarching purpose of the law was to prevent gambling companies from partaking in “restricted transactions,” which means they cannot accept payments related to wagers using the internet from overseas players and if they did, they would run afoul of any federal or state laws already extant. The chapter went on to say according to the Guardian newspaper the Bet365 boss netted £323 million in a single year. The 2018/2019 year saw Bet365 customers stake £64.49 bn on sports over the 12-month period, a 22.7% improvement on the prior year. Just think what good the government could do with 20% of £64 billion every year.
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Booze in Britain. Having witnessed the damage drinking is doing to our society, the government must close all pubs and clubs by midnight (last drinks sold at 11:30 pm) and start charging drunks £50 for using a Drunk Tank and £100 if an ambulance is called to take the drunk to A & E. It was very noticeable during the COVID-19 lock down that crime rates dropped by a third and not one person was rushed to A&E drunk after a night out. I know of some youngsters who party at home on cheap supermarket booze and then drive to clubs and continuing the party until 4 am. The prison service should also be given extra funding to enable them to offer better detox services for alcoholics. No prisoner should be released until they had been free of their addiction for at least six months.
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Prisons have become dumping grounds for the mentally ill. Many prisoners are a danger to themselves but are no danger whatsoever to the public and therefore shouldn’t be in prison. With the NHS and local governments being under-funded for the last decade, mental health appears to be bottom of the list, yet if the mental health problem could be controlled or fixed, then it would be in everyone’s interest to release these sick patients back in the community, where instead of costing the taxpayer around £47,000.00 every year to keep them locked up, they could start to contribute to society.
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Austerity & Non-dom status. Austerity could only work if it applies to everyone. Austerity is a political-economic term referring to policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. Governments needed to raise more in taxes from the people who could afford to pay them most and this was the rich who pay a maximum tax rate of 45% on earnings over £125,140. Anyone earning (if that’s the right word) over a million pounds should pay tax at a rate of 80% for the next two years. The governments HMRC should set up a separate police force to ensure that everyone who owns a British passport or works in the country, is paying their correct taxes and a law should be introduced where advisors would also be responsible for their actions if they advise their client on a way to avoid paying taxes. All income should be included, including earnings from overseas, and the non-Dom system scrapped. Anyone holding a British passport should be taxed at the correct rate and if this were done then austerity could work for the very first time.
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UK Housing Crisis. The housing shortage is a problem that faces young people in every small village and town throughout Great Britain. If no one is getting on the property ladder then nobody is moving up it and, in the end, when people die, there will be nobody able to buy the vacant property and prices will crash leaving millions of homeowners with a negative mortgage. The government must build starter homes, even if these are for rent only, as many of the current private sector homeowners started their married life in rented accommodation and the low rents made it possible to save up for a deposit on their new home.
Depending on the tenant’s financial situation they could be offered an economical rent plus the right to pay double. If the rent is £500 per month, then the tenants could double that with the extra £500 being entered into a tax-free home deposit scheme which could earn interest. This extra scheme could only be used to pay the deposit on a mortgaged home. Any new social housing can be sold to the tenant, or we could see the same disastrous result as in the Housing Act 1980, which was one of the first major reforms introduced by the Thatcher government.
When the current government took over from Labour new social homes built in 2010-11 was 39,570 however in 2016-17 it had dropped to just 5,380. If the country is to ever solve the housing crisis, then it must build more social housing for rent. Recent figures released from the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that “the biggest decline in home ownership in the last 20 years has been among middle-income 25 to 34-year-olds. In 1995-96, 65% of this group owned a home, but just 27% did so in 2015-16. I hear some people saying that no new homes should be built on “Green” land due to dangers of overloading the sewerage system, so I ask them where all our children and grandchildren going to live. Social housing must be a priority for the next government (using brown field land if possible), and it must be done quickly as when the war between Russia and the Ukraine ends all construction and building trades will be tempted to relocate to the Ukraine for considerably higher wages.
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Get rid of Zero-hour contracts. In the UK there’s an ever-growing number of workers who are having to accept a zero-hour contract which is a type of contract between an employer (or its agency) and a worker, where the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum working hours, while the worker is not obliged to accept any work offered. Many companies, who are household names, offer many of their workers a zero-hour contract. It is alleged that Sports Direct has 90% of its workforce on such contracts. J D Wetherspoon has 80% of its workforce. McDonald’s has 90% of its workforce in the UK on zero-rate contracts which equates to 82,000 staff. Burger King Franchisees and Domino’s Pizza operations in the UK extensively use zero-hour contracts. The Spirit Pub Company has 16,000 staff on zero-hour contracts and even Boots UK have 4,000 staff on zero-hour contracts. Amazon’s US founder Jeff Bezos, 53, is the world’s second richest man who last year made £1.6million an hour, so perhaps he could afford to pay a decent wage to everyone who is part of the Amazon family.
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From a hero suffering from PTSD to homelessness and Prison. After leaving the forces sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) should be treated as a mental health issue and not criminal. Nearly 6,000 people sleep rough every night in the UK and many end up in prison which must seem like paradise to them. A warm bed, three meals a day and security may appear to be great for them but it’s costing the taxpayer £47,000 a year to provide them with a room. It would be considerably cheaper to care for these people in the community as the majority are not a danger to society but are a danger only to themselves.
If Jesus came back as a homeless person, would we tell Him that the Inn is full of needy migrants. Would we send Him to the stable? Have we not learnt anything over the past 20,000 years?
The UK needs to follow the successful Housing First scheme that has been set up in Finland. To learn more about this solution go to https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/how-finland-solved-homelessness.
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Children need to know whose boss. The Government needs to retake control of family life as by taking the Politically Correct (PC) route we are ending up with far too many unruly young adults. Parents should be taught how to control children as many are just being left to run wild. Most of these little porkers will develop diabetes and be on prescription drugs the rest of their lives. Far too many youngsters are playing war games on their x-box well into the night and this is not only affecting their schooling but turning many into dangerous young adults. I don’t normally agree with what China does but they have limited under 18s to just 3 hours a week to play games on their computers, More on how China can do this can be seen at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58384457
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UK aid to India.
According to the Daily Telegraph 14 Mar 2023 · Britain had sent £2.3 billion in aid to India since 2016. No wonder they can afford to send a rocket to the south side of the Moon as well as sending another rocket to Sun. What a waste of public money especially when millions are struggling to feed their families. If that wasn’t enough, India grows 40% of the worlds rice. They decided that in 2023 they would not export any rice and would keep it for home consumption. They obviously only care about themselves and sod the rest of the world. Maybe we should do the same.
Overseas aid has always been a tricky subject and I would hope that in future governments that money given in aid should fund a particular project such as birth control or building new hospitals and schools. Any money given for specific projects should be managed by the UK rather than sending millions of pounds of aid that can disappear within the country’s budgets.
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People struggling to pay their Mortgage.
Why doesn’t the government make it Law that if the borrower pays the interest on their loan/mortgage they could not be evicted. After all, any lender only makes money on the interest charged. It would save families being evicted and the local authority having to pay out for B&B accommodation.
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Prison and IPP.
As of November 2019, seven years after IPPs were abolished there were 2,223 people serving IPP sentences who have yet to be released and a further 1,206 serving an IPP sentence who are back in prison having been recalled while on licence. With over 3,000 IPP prisoners still behind bars it not only makes our prisons overcrowded but cost the state over £1.35 billion every year to keep them locked up. If you believe that these IPP inmates deserve a better deal, then please ask your MP to push the Home Secretary to find a solution to end this injustice.
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Muslim inmates & Halal meat.
If you are concerned about how halal meat is slaughtered then please email your MP and ask him/her to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to pass a new law to make this form of cruel slaughter illegal explaining that apparently, most animals are slaughtered humanly in the UK by stunning (electric shock to the brain) the animal first before killing the animal. Halal slaughter means no stunning and the animal throat is slit whilst it is still conscious. According to an inmate who was a butcher he told me that without stunning all the muscles (which is the meat we eat) tighten up due to the shock and you end up with very tough meat. The animal could still be blessed by a priest before being humanely slaughtered. If the government didn’t want to ban this cruel method, then an alternative would be to introduce a law that once an animal is slaughtered using the cruel Halal method then the carcass should be stamped ‘Halal’ on all sections of the carcass such as on the legs, shoulders, loins, etc and any packaging used in the supermarket or butchers shop should clearly state that the meat is halal.
This would prevent many UK shoppers unknowingly buying something that had been cruelly slaughtered which ends up as tough meat. Denmark who produces a large amount of pork that is shipped around the world have banned this cruel method of slaughter since 2014, prompting a furious backlash from Jewish and Muslim community representatives. If you believe that an animal doesn’t suffer then try creeping up on your partner or friend and hold a knife to their throats and see whether they relaxed or tensed up.
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Bullying in schools.
If you believe that bullying is a problem in schools within your area, then please email your MP and ask him/her to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to pass a new law on bullying in schools. The new law should be called Julie-Anne’s Law to tackle this problem that is ruining many children’s lives with some cases resulting in suicide.
Julie-Annes Law.
Children have always been bullied in schools but a seven-year-old girl who lived in Spalding came up with a way to stop bullies in her school. Julie-Annes mother was a school governor, and this helped her to set up her anti-bullying campaign in her school.
Each school year should be given a form so they could nominate the pupil they want to become that years Anti-Bullying Prefect. The headteacher will then let the pupils know who had gained the most votes.
If any child was being bullied, then they should tell the Anti-Bullying Prefect who would then take it up with the headteacher on a weekly basis.
The pupil(s) who was doing the bullying would be dealt with by the headteacher. A letter would be posted to the bullies’ parents informing the parent that if the pupil did not mend their ways, then they would be expelled for 7 days and if the bullying continued then they would be expelled.
The headteacher must make all pupils aware that any bullying of the named Anti-Bullying prefect would be treated very severely and could end up with permanent expulsion of the bully.
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Buying from far away countries.
Let the people decide. It would help our battle with climate change if the UK government insisted on any product or produce from overseas should clearly show the country of origin. Supermarkets and any listing on websites such as Amazon or other media must also make it clear to customers that they are buying something from overseas. If the customer can see that something was produced in a country that as a Human Rights record or comes from the other end of the world, then they can make up their own mind if they want to buy an item that has a large Carbon footprint.
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The BBC.
The good old BBC is in a mess and apart from the World News and Countryfile I watch little else as it isn’t worth watching. Government should take stronger control of the corporation and explore the possibility of allowing programs to be sponsored. The BBC should never carry advertising, but allowing something like the news to be sponsored would bring in much needed cash and perhaps we could then start watching better programs along with a reduced License Fee. The word “Our” BBC on their current promotional video should be changed to read “Your” BBC as you are footing the bill.
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Get rid of useless Quangos:
Ofgem. In 2016 Ofgem was keen to remove the Daily Standing Charge (DSC) but only a couple of small service provisors did so, with the rest continuing to stick two fingers up to this toothless Quango. This change would have resulted in users with low energy use paying less, while increasing bills for those with high energy use. Did I hear someone shouting, “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer”. Ofgem looked at this DSC again in 2022 but after pressure from the BIG service providers they dropped the idea. It does make you wonder if this quango is fit for purpose. Ofgem stated that all high energy use, including people with disabilities who need to run medical equipment or elderly people who are housebound and sensitive to cold temperatures, would be disadvantaged by an increase to the unit price of electricity. I can agree to this but most people with special needs have already turned the thermostat down to reduce cost but there is no way to reduce the DSC. It does annoy me when organisations use the “disability card” to try and justify unjust rate rises. Before Russia invaded Ukraine my DSC for electricity (via EDF) was 23.77p but from October 1, 2023, it will be increased to 50.71p. On the 18th of August 2022 Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy said: ‘Consumers are caught in a perfect storm of rising wholesale energy costs and picking up the tab for the collapse of energy firms after years of regulatory failure. This decision from Ofgem to take no action may be the right one if changes would have had a negative impact on vulnerable consumers, but the regulator must work with others to urgently look at how bills can be made fairer.’ If Ofgem were honest they would tell you that due to government placing the Energy Price Cap they allowed the increase on the daily standing charges so that the energy suppliers could still, make a profit and sod the millions struggling to make ends meet and are forced to make a choice between heating or eating.
A more thorough review is needed to support the many low-income consumers who are paying substantial bills because of the high daily standing charge, despite using less energy. As part of this review, it should also address the need for protections for vulnerable customers with unavoidably high usage, such as those who are housebound or who need to run medical equipment.
IMO Ofgem is looking out for the big suppliers, but Ofgem was set up to look after customers, to ensure everyone was treated fairly. Ofgem is not fit for purpose and its overpaid board should be sacked for not doing the job they were employed to do.
Ofwat
The Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, is the body responsible for economic regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. IMO they are as useful as a chocolate teapot. Ofwat was set up to protect users but it’s obvious to see that it’s doing a poor job when it comes to enforcing the Law. On the 25 Oct 2021 MPs vote to allow water companies to dump raw sewage into rivers and seas. Only 22 Conservative MPs rebelled by voting for an amendment to the Environment Bill, which sought to place a legal duty on water companies not to dump the risky sewage into rivers. Hugo Tagholm, who runs Surfers Against Sewage, commented: ‘In this most important of environmental decades, it is shocking that the Government recommended that MPs reject progressive and ambitious amendments that would protect water, air and nature.’
Thousands of gallons of clean water make the way to the sea around our coast every day. If the water companies cleaned up their act, then they could call on this natural event and store that clean water to cover the dry months which appear (due to climate change) to be getting longer every year.
To me privatisation of essential services should be re-nationalised as the country as gained very little from doing so. Next time you go to do a number two just think about where your waste is going to end up. You might come face to face with it when you take your next swim in a river or the sea.
On the 3rd of October 2023 the BBC reported that ‘Customers with 11 water firms are set to see money taken off their bills after fines of almost £150m were handed out by regulator Ofwat. The suppliers did not meet targets in water supply interruptions, pollution incidents and internal sewer flooding. Thames Water and Southern Water performed the worst and will have to return almost £80m. I bet that the CEOs of these companies will still pay themselves millions in bonusses in 2024.’
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Online reviews.
According to the Competitions & Markets Authority (CMA) it said that more than half of UK adults use online reviews before buying a product or service. Businesses that mislead consumers may be in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. However, there needs to be a body where customers can make their dissatisfaction known as there are far too many reviews that are rated as 4.5 out of 5 (or above) which are simply not true. It’s pointless having a Law if there isn’t a government department to enforce the Law. I recently sent a review to Feefo regarding a booking made over the phone with Hoseasons. I had booked a static caravan that was wheelchair friendly (WF) but when I arrived the WF Caravan wasn’t available. For this reason alone, I gave the review a two-star rating (2.0 out of 5). Feefo came back and said that the review didn’t meet their “Content Rules”. I did contact the CMA but I’m still awaiting a reply which will probably never come. I contacted ABTA but they came back and said that they were powerless when it came to refunds. Pretty pointless clients relying on the ABTA symbol, if they have no teeth. I contacted Hoseasons but didn’t get a reply, so I went online and issued a claim via the small claims court. Within 48 hours Hoseasons came back and offered a £250.00 refund. Never be scared to take a company to court. It really is easy and does get results. IMO there should be a website where you could send your rejected reviews could be sent and the Competitions & Markets Authority (CMA) could check it out.
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Millionaire Minsters.
In 2024 you will have the chance to vote but not everyone takes up this right. Many people don’t vote as they don’t understand the system. As a simple answer I can say that there are three sections you should consider. The Right Wing, The Center, and the Left Wing. The Right Wing of the Conservative Party made Liz Truss Prime Minister in 2022 but her ideas and shoddy right-wing cabinet sent shockwaves around the financial world and after just 49 days as PM she had to step down and make way for Rishi Sunak.
The Left Wing is usually associated with the Labour Party and in 2019 it was led by Jeremy Bernard Corbyn and voters made it clear that they didn’t want a left-wing government, especially with him as party leader. After a disastrous result Corbyn was replaced by Sir Kier Starmer who claims to be center of left. The vast majority of the Conservative party members are center of Right with last year’s debacle by Liz Truss and her right-wing cabinet proved that the Right of any party sends shivers down the spine of the international monetary market and Liz went after only 49 days as Prime Minister. Much of the current Conservative cabinet have never had to worry where their next meal or the rent or mortgage payments were coming from. The sad news is that they never will, nor will they understand how the ordinary citizens of this once great country struggle to get by. The danger with the 2024 General Election will be that in some seats the anti-conservative voter will vote either Labour or Liberal. This could split the anti-conservative vote in two and in doing so let the conservatives back in. To me if you vote Conservative, you should have a joint income of over a £500 k every year. Many who don’t have this kind of income suffer from a syndrome known as “Delusions of Grandeur”. I hope they will think long and hard before they vote.
A delusion of grandeur is a false or unusual belief about one’s power, wealth, talents, and other traits. A person may believe, for instance, that they are famous, can end world wars, or that they are immortal. In other words, stop believing that Multi-Millionaire Minsters will look after you better.
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For the love of Pets.
Owning a pet can be very enlightening and give the owner a reason to get up in the morning. The dog will need a walk, and this is a good way of meeting other people. A pet becomes a true friend who will never judge you and knows when you are down. People should be allowed to own up to two small pets irrespective of whether they own or rent a property. Keeping the older generation from becoming a couch potato will save the NHS millions.
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HS2.
The Conservative government had big hopes that the HS2 project would show voters in the North of England that they were serious about “levelling up”. With many constituencies changing from Labour to Tory in the 2019 general election the so called “Red Wall” seats will probably revert to Labour as they feel let down by the Tory party. With the cost this white elephant costing billions more than the original forecast of £37 billion, someone needs to investigate the rise to ensure that the taxpayers are not being ripped off.
Due to this disaster and the failure to “Stop the Boats” these northern Red Wall seats can’t be relied upon to vote Conservative next time. With many of these seats having a high BAME population the Tory party hope that having a PM and Home Secretary with Indian roots will give then the upper hand come polling day. Time will tell if they got it wrong.
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Private schools.
Labour has made it clear that private schools will need to charge 20% VAT. This would bring in Millions of pounds which could be spent on state schools. I’m not sure if this is good or bad as my son was dyslexic and I had no choice but to find the money to go private if he was to overcome this problem (which he did). I do hope that some provision would be made for those family’s that would struggle to pay this extra tax. Another thing that worries me is that many schools are registered as a charity. As a charity they would pay lower rates and gain several other benefits. Another part that concerns me is that a rich parent could donate to the charity, and they could then set this donation off against their annual tax return. Could the parent then tell the school to not charge a fee for educating his/her child as they had already made a sizable donation. I do hope that either the government or the Charity Commission is keeping an eye on this.
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Middle East War. (Added this so you’ll know when I updated this book)
I never like seeing the atrocities of war and it’s sad to see so much evil being done to other humans. The current Israel-Hamas war was unexpected, and one must question how Hamas got hold of all these missiles which were aimed at Israel causing a loss of over a thousand lives. Was Putin involved? He and his cronies are evil enough to do such a thing especially now that sanctions against Russia for starting the war in Ukraine, are hitting the pockets of his Communist country. He is getting a lot less revenue for his Gas and Oil supplies so a middle east war would be ideal as it would push the prices up and it would take the media’s eyes off Russia for a while.
I remember my wife telling me about one of the stories I brought back from my short time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia some 36 years ago. Apparently, we used to be given a set amount of money for our expenses and we soon found out that by eating out in Jeddah was a lot cheaper than eating at the hotel and we could keep the difference in our pockets. My wife re-told the storey about one small restaurant that kept open during evening pray time, so we could not only save selling time but make money. The food was good, and the owner catered for our Western palate. On our last night in Jeddah, he made us a very English steak pie and we celebrated our time spent with him. He looked sad and I didn’t realise at the time that he was a Palestinian and at that time he didn’t have a home to return to. We don’t appreciate how lucky we are. The world must find a way around this ongoing problem, and everyone should have a place to call home. We found a solution in Northern Ireland and the IRA are now a recognised political party. I pray to God that we can do the same with Gaza and stop this useless killing of innocent woman and children.
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I have mentioned a few (but not all) of the problems that UK citizens face daily. If you wish to help, put the Great back in Britain then you could send an email to your Member of Parliament (MP) or any Minister. If every reader took a few minutes of their time to send an email, then we may see a solution to these continuing problems.
You can find your MP’s contact details at https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/
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Until all these problems are dealt with, my team will continue to bring towns to their knees and in the end the government will have to take matters seriously.
I hope you enjoyed your time with me, and my Merry Men in Bedford, and I hope you will join me in 2024 with the launch of The Bedford Revenge, where we take down one of the world’s largest Human Trafficking operations. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BEDFORD REVENGE DUE TO IT’S SEXUAL CONTENT WILL BE FOR ADULTS ONLY.
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If you feel strongly about any of the above, then why not start a petition with either https://home.38degrees.org.uk/ or https://www.change.org/ which offer you a free way to start your campaign. I have used both in the past but prefer 38 degrees as Change.org is difficult to contact if you have a problem. In your message and you can copy & paste any part of the book providing you mention The Bedford Heist is available from Amazon Books.