In the meantime, it appears the Polish will sign as they agreed to do so in the event of an Irish ‘Yes’ vote and we all know that’s happened.

The Czechs have been dragging their heels but not the Czech Parliament which could, through the courts, force the Czech premier to sign.

That would mean the Lisbon Treaty would be accepted by all member states since Gordon Brown signed for us way back in 2007.

So what would the referendum do, show how many of us think the treaty should not have been signed? Seems to me the horse has bolted and no-one even knows where the bloody stable is…

“What would you think if you were forced to invest in a Company which always misses its targets, has unhappy owners and a huge unfunded pension deficit, has increased overheads in real terms for over a decade, has had negative cashflow for 20 years, can only make ends meet by both charging its customers more and borrowing more to pay the interest, cooks the books by missing out liabilities, has an appalling record on senior management expenses and an unqualified finance director of bizarre appearance?”

You’d be pretty pissed about it wouldn’t you?

Welcome to New Labour – if it was a Company, the Directors would be struck off…

Greed of businesses and individuals led to prices being forced down – that’s market forces at work – so we import more manufactured goods as it’s cheaper to make them in China and other eastern nations. Added to that, we employ too many people from overseas such as eastern Europe because they cost less.

What’s that got to do with gangs of youths?

They know from an early age there’s not much of a future for them so they disengage completely. This is because they get encouraged to do well at school with a view to going to university and thence professional life. The problem is a significant number of people are not interested in this route but there are few other opportunities. There used to be apprenticeships but they are no more, there are no jobs for apprentices to go to anyway – there’s hardly any manufacturers! Anyway, these kids can get up to £200 a day running for drug dealers. Bloody hell! That’s more than I earn in honest toil.

So what do we do? Prosecute more of them, give them bigger fines and more custodial sentences? Hardly going to work is it? Government has introduced more than 3000 new laws and that’s just New Labour but there are not enough policemen to enforce them. Probably just as well because the courts couldn’t cope with all the prosecutions and there’s nowhere to imprison them. I’ve skipped the fines part as there’s no-one to enforce payment of fines so there’s no point even thinking about that route.

What do we do? Actually, we send working parties off on jollies to see how other countries deal with the problem. Pathetic. Anyone thought about asking the gangs themselves? You’d probably find out pretty quick that they feel betrayed by society with no hope of ever getting involved and crime being their only option.

This is all because we can’t provide a fair society with opportunities for all and fair returns. How can someone be worth £2,500 per hour when playing football and £6.50 per hour when serving in a shop?

We usually get what we deserve in life and in my opinion we certainly deserve our ‘feral gangs’.

But, when you change the name of something you should be damn sure you change it for the better – Spotted Richard doesn’t really make the grade does it?

Richard is short for Richard the Third, Cockney rhyming slang. It’s got a number of meanings one of which is ‘turd’ (shit).

So, all of you sensitive souls who didn’t want to ask for Spotted Dick enjoy your ‘Turd and Custard’ and stop your meddling. After all, you know Jack anyway. (That’s Jack Shit, by the way, or bugger all basically)!

The phrase ‘It’s unlikely to kill you’ in advice leaflets could be replaced (in my case) with ‘You probably won’t die, it’ll just feel like you are, for days’. Mosts cases have been mild up to now, apparently, although how would anyone know this as some people are very stoic while others have an epi-fit over nothing.

I don’t know how mild, or otherwise, my symptoms were but I do know I don’t want it again and I’m no wimp.

I got 100% hit on the symptoms with the nausea/vomiting/diarrhoea being something to look forward to over several days although since I’d lost all my appetite there was nothing to throw pretty quickly

Nerves jangling, I couldn’t settle anywhere so never slept for about 5 days. I lost a stone – great diet! Things are looking up a bit now although I also got bronchial complications so I’ve got a course of anti-biotics to get through yet and I have no energy at all.

Tamiflu? Never tried it, too many nasty symptoms to risk nasty side-effects too. Besides, it’s not a cure – just alleviates the symptoms for a couple of days.

Looking for advice? Get plenty of paracetamol and ‘over-the-counter’ ‘flu remedies. Curl up somewhere warm and stay there for a week.

Enjoy!

Now, the Vale of York is a good, fertile area and we could grow a fair amount of food here except, of course, that major resellers, like supermarkets, would rather buy from abroad at lower prices so they can make more money.

The supermarkets may make more money but we lose out big-time. It costs more in global resources to ship the produce here, it has to be chilled and doesn’t last anything like as long after we buy it. I’m not convinced it’s beneficial to the countries who supply it either – their farmers must be on a pittance.

Just a thought, why don’t we grow more here and help the planet? Nah, that would be too sensible…

Many believe that he had little, or nothing, to do with the bombing anyway.

Chances are that his family received a cash payout while he took the fall.

The fact that there are lucrative oil deals likely in Libya only add to the speculation.

Seems likely we’re all being ripped off again – mushroom syndrome – kept in the dark and fed bullshit…

That’s a country that spends more than twice the amount per head than the UK; where more than 40 million people (two thirds of the UK population) dare not go to hospital because they can’t afford the bill and where the World Health Organisation rates US health-care system 37th while the UK is 18th.

In the UK we have a higher life-expectancy, more beds, midwives and nurses per head and only slightly fewer doctors. In the US patients trek to Canada to get cheaper prescription drugs. I know the NHS is not perfect, but I also know that a lot of people work damned hard to continually improve it. It’s available to all, free at point of delivery. The NHS has never let me down and it does not deserve this kind of abuse.

Still, most American citizens seem to have more in common with the Simpsons than normality. Their greatest accolades seem to be as fat bastards exporting their unhealthy lifestyles to unsuspecting countries throughout the World. Then there are the millions of their own citizens who can’t afford to access their own healthcare systems while the people who could treat them get fat on their excessive charges and they criticise us! Amazing!

Get real. The majority of Americans care not a damn for anyone else so long as they can get their cheap fuel and stamp on anyone who gets in their way. Sod the ‘special relationship’, Americans suck (to use their own expression).

Unfortunately, President Obama, who seems to be the most sensible American for decades, is probably on a loser here. He wants to do something really beneficial for the Country (and the World) and the American population will probably veto it because it will cost a couple of cents more in tax.

However, the World is changing fast. The Internet has arrived. HELLO! We can all make a statement now.

So, put two fingers up to the dipsticks in the good old US of A

However, that doesn’t mean I have to put up with repeated calls over the weekend from people who would like to ‘discuss’ the situation. There is no situation. I got a letter advising me on Friday. I’ll be paying it on Monday.

I’ve also cut up the card and I’ll be advising them of that on Monday too.

How things change. Two years ago when I last forgot the payment I got a letter saying ‘Perhaps you overlooked your payment…’ Friday it said ‘You have defaulted on your credit agreement…’

Well, for future reference:

• I refuse to deal with overseas call centres. If they can’t call me from the UK they can get stuffed.
• I will never discuss personal stuff like this on the telephone.
• I will not be ‘taken through security procedures’ on the telephone unless I call them.
• I refuse to have my weekend disrupted (8pm on Sunday would you believe) by anyone I don’t know.
• I am heartily sick of organisations like Barclaycard paying huge bonuses to arseholes who dream this kind of crap up.
• If I ever find out who suggested this procedure I will personally insert the card so far up their ‘Back orifice’ they’ll choke on it.

Well done Barclaycard – another satisfied customer…