AA Chief Says More Cycle Routes Would Benefit Drivers As More Riders Choosing To Bicycle Could Help To Reduce Congestion

The AA’s chief has said more cycle routes will help British motorists as they will ease congestion and save money, as the Government discusses cutting walking and cycling scheme budgets.

The motoring organisation’s president Edmund King said that drivers taking fewer short car journeys and cycling instead would decrease road congestion and spending on home fuel costs.

Edmund King said every motorist is a pedestrian and most cyclists are motorists, therefore it’s in everyone’s interest to level up walking and cycling infrastructure.

He said by creating new routes, as well as investing in existing paths and footways, they can create a safer, greener transportation network that aids all road users, and that maintaining the £4 billion funding for those projects will also enable motorists to save money on fuel or electricity.

According to AA research, their members are most likely to consider replacing one car trip a week with a bicycle ride, with 47 per cent considering the possibility.

Replacing car journeys with an e-bike ride comes in a close second with 41 per cent of members stating they would do so.

His comments came after a call on the Transport Secretary’s ‘protect and build’ on £3.8 billion of funding for active transport development in England ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget-balancing later this month.

The call in a letter to Anne Marie Trevelyn spearheaded by walking and cycling charity Sustrans was co-signed by Mr King alongside pro cycling and road safety charities, the Federation of Small Businesses, the CPRE and other campaigns.

According to research by Sustrans, walking and cycling generated an economic benefit of £36.5 billion in the UK.

In a new report, they urged the Government to improve pavements and cycle paths and introduce a voucher scheme for walking, cycling and wheeling equipment.

The letter co-signed by Mr King said that the AA, along with other signatories needed to stop pitting motoring against walking, wheeling and cycling.

It read that cycling and walking infrastructure unlocks housing developments giving people more choices in how they travel and connecting them to work and education.

He said that walking, wheeling and cycling also revitalise the high street with people walking on average spending 40 per cent more than those who drive.

The letter continued that they have to continue to invest in active travel programmes and infrastructure to give people a genuine choice to leave the car at home for shorter trips and better link them to public transportation, saving fuel costs for when they actually need it whilst also ensuring access to jobs and services for those without access to a car.

This chimes like an extremely good idea because there would be more cycle lanes and fewer motor vehicles. It’s good for fitness, air pollution and motorists sick of being stuck in traffic jams or trying to get around cyclists, but who’s going to pay for all of this?

And if this does happen, when is McDonald’s going to let cyclists in the drive-thru?

The problem is bicycles haven’t caught on as a transport solution, and if it’s raining there are no cyclists about. Oh, look, it’s winter, no cyclists about.

The other thing is that those people making these decisions need to tackle the issue of accountability for cyclists as well, especially if they use parts of the road, then why shouldn’t they have to pay something for it? What happens if a cyclist hits a car? There’s no insurance or identification on a bike either, running red lights and listening to music, all these problems need to be addressed.

The Reasons Tourists No Longer Want To Visit Australia

A shortage of nightlife, exorbitant airfare prices and the emergence of more affordable options have seen Australia become an afterthought for international tourists, with the country’s tourism board launching a new ad campaign in a frantic endeavour to lure foreigners.

Despite borders reopening to the world in February, the appeal of heading Down Under remains considerably lower than pre-pandemic levels.

There were 326,000 international arrivals during July 2022, 59 per cent lower than the same month in 2019 (790,360).

Over the 12-month period ending in July this year, there were 1.5 million visitors to Australia, down an incredible 84 per cent from 2019.

With growing inflation and cost of living mixed with a declining cultural pull, Australia is at risk of losing its place as one of the world’s most beloved travel termini.

Sydney’s contentious lockout laws proved a sledgehammer blow to the city’s international attraction, with Australia’s most visited metropolis all but closing at midnight.

The 2014 legislation, brought in after a series of alcohol-related violence in the Harbour city, implemented nightclubs and bars to stop any new customers from entering past 2 am within designated regions of the NSW capital.

Venues outside the lockout area would then impose their own lockouts, unable to financially afford to remain open with less foot traffic.

The end result saw many of Sydney’s most treasured bars and clubs shut their doors permanently, while the international destination of Kings Cross became an unrecognisable ghost town.

A 2021 Committee for Sydney report found that 68 per cent of the population thought less of the metropolis because of its lack of nightlife.

Timeout released its index for international metropolia and their after-dark offering, with the website ranking Sydney 47th out of 48, beating out only Boston in the US.

Sydneysiders cited several reasons for the dwindling state of its nightlife, including excessive drink prices, rideshare costs, aggressive bouncers, and simply preferring to remain local.

Dating apps have also affected patrons, with people less likely to go clubbing to find a boyfriend or girlfriend because they can just swipe right on their phones.

Women, in particular, say they feel less safe visiting venues in the CBD, largely to do with having to catch public transport to and from the metropolis.

Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moor said the lockout laws had a profound influence on its international marketability.

Even Australians are finding out that they can’t afford to live there because it’s become one of the most costly countries on the planet altogether.

Australia is a wonderful country and the people are also great, but it’s become extremely pricey. It also has a lot of red tape bureaucracy and silly rules.

Australia was once a fantastic country. It was fun, there’s sunshine and beaches but now with all this COVID folly, it’s really gone downhill.

The trouble is we have been suffering from too much government interference, and it doesn’t matter what country you live in, it affects all avenues of life. Our economy is whipped and now it’s destroying our spirit.

Australia isn’t the lucky country it once was. Now, it’s one of the most costly places to live and visit with new laws made on a daily basis with so many rules and regulations, policies and procedures, and now it’s been over-governed to the brink of madness, and it seems that at the moment you need a licence to scratch your neddy in Australia.

Australia is beautiful, but compared to other countries, it’s expensive to eat out, drinks are extremely costly, and far too often the service there is a lot to be desired, it’s also an extremely expensive place to get to from most other countries.

Edible Insects Are Being Considered By Aldi

Budget supermarket Aldi is contemplating trading edible insect recipe kits as the cost of living crisis hits families.

Bugs such as crickets are known to be an affordable and sustainable form of protein.

Now Aldi is considering whether to stock products by Yum Bug, which makes the insect recipe kits.

Yum Bug founders Aaron Thomas and Leo Taylor, both 28, are competing against other start-ups to get their products on the supermarket’s racks.

The pair were selected from hundreds of applicants to appear on Channel 4’s ‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’.

Hosted by Anita Rani, of Countryfile and BBC Radio 4 and Chris Bevan, of Britain’s Best Home Cook and Eat Well for Less, the six-part TV series sees suppliers compete in categories such as dinners, baked goods, treats and store cupboard essentials.

Products are given to Julie Ashfield, Managing Director of Buying at Aldi UK, who deliberates on factors such as price, packaging, shopper demand, and the ability to scale up, before whittling contenders down to just two.

The finalists are then given four weeks to address any feedback, before presenting improved products to Julie who determines which product will appear as a Specialbuy in over 970 stores.

Mr Thomas, from Islington, London, said they were on a mission to alter perceptions of insects as food, and that they were one of the most sustainable protein sources in the world.

He said that crickets are up to 70 per cent protein, which is three times the amount of protein found in beef. They’ve also got more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk, and the inventory keeps going, and they’re an amazing superfood.

He said that they want to take bug consumption mainstream and that if they were able to get in front of Aldi’s audience, it would be an incredible opportunity.

Mr Taylor said that he and Aaron had been cooking with insects for years, it began in 2017 at weekends experimenting out of their parent’s garage, cooking up all kinds of recipes and posting content online. He said they then sold their first insect recipe boxes out of their bedrooms in lockdown, and that’s actually when everything snowballed.

Aldi says the competition was part of its commitment to locally sourced products. It’s pledged to prioritise homegrown suppliers as it works towards spending an extra £3.5 billion a year with British companies by the end of 2025.

Of course, Bill Gates will love this. It’s what they want us to all eat, and you will own nothing, be happy and be a slave to the bourgeoisie elites, and consuming bugs has nothing to do with the cost of living or saving the world with carbon reductions. Its goal is a form of ritual humiliation. The masses eat insects and the civilised elites dine on steak.

While it’s true that in some countries they do eat insects, in numerous countries they do not, but now they’re endeavouring to make it a reality because some people are so determined on messing around with the food chain.

But this is how social transformation is exploited. On TV, in magazines and in the news, but will they really persuade everybody that consuming bugs is the best thing to do because we’re in a crisis? Of course, they will, they will just target the masses. They’re already pushing it into schools because if they get them while they’re young, then they won’t know any different. Our children don’t belong to us anymore, they belong to our governments, and if we’re not careful, next the governments will be getting us to eat each other.

I Have A Right To Live Here

A French migrant who sneered at the offer of a five-bedroom house has refused to rule out adding to the eight children who’ve already enabled him to claim more than £100,000 in benefits.

Arnold Sube is looking to move out of the three-bedroom property where he’s presently living in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, having blown his £15,000 savings on private rent within a few weeks.

He’d originally been renting privately after moving from Paris to study mental health nursing but had his £1,278 per month rent covered by the local council as soon as he’d lived here for the mandatory three-month period.

Luton Borough Council has offered him several five-bedroom properties, but the 33-year-old is holding out for more, despite threats that he might be made homeless if he doesn’t accept an offer shortly.

He told a newspaper outlet that he came here with £15,000 and he paid by himself but after a few months, he applied for a house on benefits.

He said that he loves working, and that he’s been working for the last 13 years, and that his intention was to just live and study while his family were still in France, but his wife couldn’t do it.

Mr Sube also refused to rule out adding to his family, which already consists of his wife Jeanne and child Mejane, 16. Fabian 13 years old and Analia, Prosper, 10, Dylan, nine, six-year-old twins Sharon and Stacy, and three-week-old Mary, saying you just never know.

The ex-warehouse worker doesn’t understand why numerous Brits look down on him and claims the French would be extremely welcoming of incoming UK families, as all his children will have jobs and pay taxes when they grow up.

He said that he wants to make a contribution to society. That he doesn’t like lazy people and that his father told him to work hard.

The NHS finances the annual £9,000 cost of his three-year degree.

The family received more than £100,000 last year in benefits and while they waited to move into their present home Luton Borough Council accommodated them for nearly four months at the town’s £160 per night Hampton by Hilton Hotel.

However, Luton Borough Council this week gave an ultimatum to the pair, either they accept a formal offer of another available four or five-bedroom property or make themselves intentionally homeless. They will then be required to find their own home again through the private rental market.

This man and his extremely large family are the reason why this country can’t look after its own. He and his family are a drain on this country and it doesn’t matter where they come from, it’s rather evident that he has no intention of working.

His earnings alone wouldn’t sustain his family, so he will likely remain unemployed deliberately, and he’s obviously working the UK system, he’s milking it, and to add insult to injury he’s hard-faced about it. No wonder they’re queuing up at Calais to come here because after reading about this man, they must think that the streets of Britain are paved with gold.

The only thing that this pair should be entitled to, is a trip for the snip.

Of course, I have no problem with people having large families so long as they can afford them, and if migrants want to come to the United Kingdom then they should have to prove that they can work, they have a job here already waiting for them, and that they can sustain themselves, and that if they can’t, then they shouldn’t be allowed in, but they do get in because our Government allows it to happen.

The Final 999 Call Of A 94-Year-Old Carpenter Waiting For An Ambulance

Ninety-four-year-old Kenneth Shadbolt rang the emergency services after falling at home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, in March and said he couldn’t move.

BBC listeners heard the harrowing 999 call of a dying patient waiting for an ambulance.

Kenneth Shadbolt, 94, rang the emergency services after falling at home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, in March.

The retired carpenter told the call handler that he was getting worse by the minute.

He said that he was laying on the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor because he’d had a nasty fall. Then he said that he felt terribly sick and that he was in terrible pain, and that if he had to wait another half an hour, he’d likely be dead, and that he had a headache, and then told the call handler to send the undertaker because that would be the best bet.

Then he said that he couldn’t move at all and that it was getting worse and to send somebody fast.

The call handler told Ken to take care and said they would send an ambulance as quickly as they could.

Tragically Ken was unconscious by the time an ambulance arrived five hours later and he passed away in the hospital.

Ken’s family said the failure of paramedics to turn up quicker disgraced our health services.

The call aired on BBC Radio 4’s ‘File on 4’ as it went on the frontline of the ambulance crisis.

Kenneth’s son Grahame said earlier this year that his father would never kick up a fuss, but even though he wasn’t complaining, he was obviously saying he needed assistance.

Grahame said he was alone, increasingly distressed, and vulnerable, and he had every reason to expect an ambulance in good time, but that it didn’t come and it was a disgrace on our health service.

His younger son Russell, 64, said that it was bad enough to lose a loved one but to think of his dad lying on the floor injured and terrified was so very hard.

He said they were brought up that you went to work, paid your taxes, and had faith in the NHS to be there when you needed it, but it simply wasn’t.

There were also several years ago, the harrowing calls of a pensioner who died waiting for an ambulance that never came, it was revealed.

Michael Green made two emergency calls for help before he passed away at his Stocking Farm home.

Nine months later, the family of the 74-year-old were still demanding explanations from the East Midlands Ambulance Service, Leicestershire Live reported.

In two distressed and distressing calls recorded by East Midlands Ambulance Service, given over to his family, he could be heard painfully begging for help.

Michael Green, who suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and pancreatitis could be heard telling operators that he’d been stuck in his chair for five hours with a table pressing against his neck and that he was passing out.

His family were unsure how the table came to be pressing against him other than to believe it may have occurred while he was attempting to reach for his phone.

This should never be happening in this day and age, and this probably wouldn’t have happened if the Tories hadn’t had this crazed idea for austerity and cutting our services to the bone.

This is so sad, but the problem is there are far too many people on this small island of ours, along with the illegals and refugees who are all using the system that we pay into.

When was the last time a doctor, dentist, hospital, school, or council housing estate was opened or built near you? Yet we have thousands of people coming to this tiny island of ours, but Boris Johnson told the refugees they could have access to all benefits and they could stay with a British host for six months, but now it appears to be longer. So, where are all these people supposed to live? And why are we, the taxpayers footing the bill while trying to keep our own families afloat?

The BBC’s Blackout Scripts Have Been Revealed

The BBC has reportedly prepared a string of secret scripts to be read out on air in case of blackouts amid energy shortages this winter.

A newspaper outlet said the scripts would advise the public to use their car radios or battery-powered devices to tune into emergency BBC broadcasts via FM frequencies and would strive to keep the public notified in the event of a major loss of power.

One script seen by a reporter allegedly warns that a blackout could last for up to two days, with hospitals and police placed under extreme pressure, while another said the government has said it’s hoped power would be restored after 36 to 48 hours.

The scripts are said to have been produced as part of the BBC’s role in broadcasting vital health and safety communications to the public on behalf of the government in the event of national emergencies.

A newspaper outlet has contacted the BBC for comment.

It comes as National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew said the firm may need to introduce rolling power cuts across Britain in January and February, should the country fail to secure enough gas reserves from Europe.

Talking to the Financial Times’s Energy Transition Summit earlier this week, John Pettigrew warned that Britain’s gas-fired power stations, which generate a considerable amount of the nation’s power, are encountering a significant lack of fuel.

According to a newspaper outlet, the BBC’s draft plan indicates that in a national blackout it would operate a reduced temporary radio service from the UK’s emergency broadcasting centre (EBC) in an unknown rural area.

EBC service would deliver periodic news bulletins on Radio 4’s FM and long wave frequencies and a music service, with news updates on the FM spectrum used by Radio 2.

The broadcasts are designed to keep the public up-to-date on important safety information, deliver updates on the severity and duration of blackouts, and encourage citizens to abstain from putting undue pressure on emergency services unless absolutely necessary.

In the event of a blackout, mobile phone networks, internet access, cash points and traffic lights are among some of the services that would fail.

The risk of blackouts recalls the 1970s when strikes by miners and railway employees forced Ted Heath’s government to introduce planned power cuts to preserve energy.

Energy regulator Ofgem has said British households should lower their gas and electricity use where possible this winter to help cut costs and decrease the chance of power cuts.

Ah yes, we’re back to the Blitz spirit where everyone will be crowded around in the cold and dark listening to the transistor radio, only we’re not waiting for the bombs to start falling, we’re just waiting for a blackout. It appears that technology hasn’t gone forward, it’s gone back to the forties.

And yet the government has pushed electric cars onto us, enforced a prohibition on new petrol cars and slapped emission charges left right and centre, yet there are going to be blackouts. It seems the last laugh is on us, and what about those ridiculous windmills that were supposed to be the solution to all of our energy needs?

The route that things are on at the moment, well, I can see our society utterly crumpling in the winter months because there’s been colossal mismanagement of our economy and infrastructure and it’s been criminal. Our country is ruined.

So, there could be an energy supply crisis, but they must have backup reserves, don’t they? With the extra loading for the millions of EVs and heat pumps, they were expecting to roll into our homes and roads. They wouldn’t have been encouraging people to buy into the green policy agenda if it wasn’t viable, would they?

PROMISES APLENTY

Well, things aren’t going extremely well in the Government at the moment. Liz Truss is hanging on by her teeth and now there’s a petition going so that Boris Johnson can get back into 10 Downing Street again.

The Prime Minister ditched her close ally Kwasi Kwarteng to save her own bacon, and now Conservative MPs are scheming to replace her. Oh, she’s in deep shit as the plot thickens, but the timeline of shit has been coming down the line, and now it’s a bomb that’s been tossed up in the air. BOOM!

And if they believed getting rid of Kwasi Kwarteng was going to buy Liz Truss some time, they were so wrong.

Of course, the Conservative party was never a great party, to start with, but now it’s just a shamble, and Liz Truss has desecrated their reputation of economic competence.

She did a U-turn on the policy on which she became Prime Minister and she’s thrown her best ideological pal under the bus. She’s also declined to answer any questions and she’s done a runner. She’s just got to go along with the entire Conservative party and let someone else have a go – it’s time for a General Election.

Liz Truss will struggle to reach Christmas, although some believe she’s only got days to go, but of course, who will take her place? Sunak or Mordaunt, do behave, but at the moment they’re the most sellable option, and when I say sellable I literally mean sellable, although I’m not sure they would bring much at auction.

And then there’s Boris Johnson with numerous MPs still considering him as the best choice because no one has his charm, and perhaps people will realise that they did kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

On another note, Liz Truss isn’t even pretending to care, that’s because she probably doesn’t care, and there’s no way she’s going to bring the United Kingdom back from the brink, somebody capable would have to do that and that’s certainly not the Conservatives.

There’s nothing aspirational or upbeat about Liz Truss or the Conservative party, come to that, but has Liz Truss done enough to save herself? I very much doubt it, and if she’s got nothing good to say, then perhaps she shouldn’t say anything at all, and she’s now seen as economically inept and to be frank a tad useless.

She sort of reminds me of one of those puppets you get at a pantomime, you know, the ones with the hand up their arse.

It does seem ridiculous to change the leader again, but honestly, Liz Truss is politically finished through her incompetent madness.

Of course, being Prime Minister is an extremely challenging job because it calls for strong, principled and savvy political leadership, which she is not.

I would like to find the correct words to describe Liz Truss but I just can’t because there are just no words for her, but then most of the Tories are the same, they appear to live in this continuous bubble of Alice in Wonderland, along with the Mad Hatter and his tea party.

Sadly though Britain is about to get a new Prime Minister, yep again! In the end, they will have had more Prime Ministers than I’ve had hot dinners, and whoever does take over from Liz Truss will have a thankless task on their hands, and whatever your political view, it’s clear that the next Prime Minister will be handed a hot mess.

It’s Only Been A Few Weeks Since We Had A Heatwave!

Christmas has come early for some, as workers reportedly started putting up Oxford Street’s famous festive lights on Monday, with ‘scrooges’ saying it’s too soon.

Shoppers were surprised to see the first light being hung 90 days before Christmas, with one pointing out ‘it’s not even October yet!’ With the UK’s heatwave ending just a few weeks ago and energy prices soaring, some felt the installation to be premature.

However, the 5,000 star-shaped lights won’t be switched on until November 2, the company running the favoured attraction has revealed. After that, the stars will illuminate the famous high street every night throughout the Christmas period.

And in a bid to manage their energy consumption amid soaring bills and the UK’s cost of living crisis, they will be on for a shorter period of time than expected each day.

The stars will also be eco-friendlier than usual in another sense, as they are comprised of 300,000 LED lightbulbs which are 75 per cent more efficient than standard bulbs.

According to Secret London, overall, their energy consumption will be cut by two-thirds in comparison to last year.

They’re also made from recycled polymer, meaning they’re 100 per cent recyclable.

Hadas Kulcsar, Campaigns and Events Manager at New West End Company which put on the light display, said they were pleased to be bringing back the Christmas lights to the world-famous Oxford Street this year, with a unique twist to treat those who’ve really made a difference in 2022.

She said that for many, this is the first Christmas without restrictions post-COVID and they want to take the opportunity to help people get back to celebrating the spirit of Christmas together. However, in the present circumstances, it’s also vital that they lower their energy consumption and help to foster a more sustainable Christmas in line with their ambitions to make Oxford Street a leading sustainable district.

She said the decreased hours of the Christmas lights were a great step forward to accomplishing this.

Preparations are underway for the winter season already despite most of England and Wales still being declared to be in drought and several water companies’ hosepipe bans from the summer continuing.

A video posted on TikTok of workers putting up the lights, which was captioned ‘not them putting the lights up in Oxford Street when it’s not even October yet’ has racked up 85,000 views.

In other news, clocks continue to go forward, time does indeed march on, seasons really do change and life is extremely brief. Although it is excessively early. But after having lockdown after lockdown, let’s celebrate instead of whining about it, and even if we can’t afford Christmas at least we can go and see the illuminations.

People have been poor before but we still managed to have candle lights, it was called rationing, and it was tough in the past, but the good news is, when you’re on the floor with your candles, the only way is up, but I don’t suppose many people are in the festive spirit at the moment.

To be fair over the years I’ve become a bit of a Grinch, but not this year, this year is going to be different because everything has been so tragic with all the lockdowns and people being sick and dying. So, this year I’m going to act like a ten-year-old, and I’m truly going to put the greatest effort into feeling some cheer and goodwill towards others, although by January I’ll likely be dragging myself up Everest by my teeth. Once more into the breach my dear friends.

Here Comes The Winter Of Discontent

Defiant union leaders are threatening to plunge Britain into a second winter of discontent with mass strike action that involves two million employees, bringing the country to its knees.

Amid the confusion unfolding in Westminster this week, the Prime Minister has been dealt another political broadside, this time by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in what could be the most militant showdown with the Government since the 1970s.

The alarming prophecy of mass strikes came as the TUC opened its postponed assemblage in Brighton and ahead of a crunch ballot on industrial action between unions, expected on Wednesday.

If the vote is endorsed, it would mean fundamental public sector employees, including teachers, nurses and junior doctors would be among those to join the mass walkout.

Some groups have already agreed to industrial action, with coffin makers at the Co-op’s only manufacturing establishment in the United Kingdom agreeing to walk out in a row over pay, bringing production to a complete stop, and the union representing teachers has indicated more than half of headteachers were in favour of striking amid simmering levels of anger and despair among school staff.

In an enraged attack against the Government, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady demanded the Prime Minister be sacked and a general election is called.

Addressing her last TUC congress before stepping down, she said that some say Liz Truss must go, but she believed they were wrong and that this entire wretched Tory Government should go. She said that the Tories are poisonous, that it was time for a transformation and that we needed a General Election now.

Miss O’Grady cautioned the TUC was already co-ordinating industrial action, adding that when workers are left with no choice but to vote for strike action for decent pay, then she said ‘bring it on’.

Among those due to be balloted are headteachers. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said the union members have told him they can’t continue to run their schools in the present circumstances, and neglect of pay and funding was eroding education.

Mr Whiteman said he’s never heard more outrage and despair from headteachers. He said schools had been caught in a cruel spiral, and that insufficient pay has contributed to a recruitment and retention crisis, and the failure to fund even the insufficient award this year means that heartbreaking cuts to services will have to be made.

He said fewer people and more infrequent services will lead to a deterioration of educational quality.

To be fair this country is finished, especially if this sort of thing keeps occurring, but now the workers are giving the Government a taste of their own medicine because workers have been exploited for far too long, working extraordinarily hard for very little pay, and let’s face it, the Tories have caused more devastation with their greed, and it’s far time it stopped.

There are going to be strikes, discontent, unaffordable energy bills, rising inflation, increasing National debt, and the future is not encouraging, but now, Jeremy Hunt can live up to his well-deserved nickname as he extinguishes the one remaining spark of hope in this grotto of despair.

If the electorate doesn’t hold the Government to account and the media doesn’t hold the Government to account, in time only anarchy will hold the Government to account and it’s already begun!

But things were finished a long time ago, only now there’s no pretence to it, especially with wage stagnation it was unavoidable. People can simply no longer survive the way things are going – the dam is going to explode, so we should all start preparing.

A 45-Year-Old Autistic Man Has Been Held In A Secure Hospital For 21 Years

Tony Hickmott was sectioned in 2001 and moved away from his home in Brighton. The man, who has autism, was held in a secure hospital and treated like an animal.

A whistleblower last year said that Tony Hickmott was the loneliest man in the hospital, but after a bruising court battle, he’s now expected to be reunited with his family from November 1.

A cheese roll and half a pint. These are the simple delights awaiting Tony Hickmott when he’s discharged from his secure Assessment and Treatment Unit after more than two decades next month.

Spending Christmas and birthdays in his family home, changing the channel on his own television and making a cup of tea for his dear mother are among the other freedoms he will shortly be on the receiving end of.

His new life will be a far cry from the conditions he’s endured at his secure hospital, where a whistleblower last year described the 45-year-old as the loneliest man there, and likened him to an animal because his only basic needs were fulfilled.

Tony Hickmott, now 45, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act as a young man in 2001 and transferred from his parent’s home in Brighton, East Sussex to a secure hospital more than two hours away.

The hospital, which is more than 100 miles away, hasn’t been named to protect his care and well-being.

Carers at the secure unit said he was left marooned in a locked room almost 24 hours a day in the hospital facility, enjoyed little freedom and spent all of his time in solitary confinement.

Tony Hickmott, who has autism, has been at the epicentre of a frenzied battle between his parents, MPs and campaigners and the local authorities to find him a safe and suitable home in Brighton since he was declared fit for release in 2013.

Tony Hickmott’s elderly parents have courageously fronted the struggle to get their son rehomed in the community, and he’s now expected to return to his hometown for the first time in 20 years in November.

Pamela, Mr Hickmott’s 78-year-old mother, conveyed her joy at the news that her son would finally be coming home after more than two decades.

She said that he was coming home and that she couldn’t believe it. That it would be a real home, and that they will have him back and that every day would be a bonus.

This is horrendous what’s happened to Tony, yet I bet nothing will happen to those people responsible.

This poor man has been locked up for no crime for half of his life. So, where is his compensation? I think it’s about time these authorities were sued because what they did to this poor man was cruel, and I truly hope that he enjoys his new life. There needs to be a review of social care, it’s a broken-down system and it’s a disgrace.

This is truly shocking and it shows just how damaged both the NHS and Social Care system actually is.

Margaret Thatcher sold off state care that was run like a normal hospital and replaced it with care in the community, and now there’s no accountability or inspections done, and also the Mental Health funding is so small it’s virtually non-existent, and it makes you actually wonder how much negligence really goes on behind closed doors, and as a country, we’ve become a disgrace, but then it’s all about money and Brighton Council Services should hold their heads in shame!

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