Is Working From Home Coming To An End?

A new survey has shown that working from home could lead to home energy bills being stretched by an additional £2,500 each year.

Experts suggest home workers will herd back to the office this winter to sidestep the extreme energy bills.

Energy regulator Ofgem reported on Friday its price cap would rise by 80 per cent to £3,549 per year in October.

A newspaper outlet said that bills were expected to increase again to £5,400 in January and even further to £6,600 in spring according to forecasts from energy analysts Cornwall Insight.

The average British worker is heading into the office one and a half days per week, meaning remote working will probably lead to an energy bill of £789 in January, compared to £580 for those going to work.

Sarah Coles, of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, described the horrible scale of the energy price increase.

She said even for those who consider themselves to be comfortable, this is a serious enough crisis that they’re going to need to find new solutions.

She said people may have to rethink how they use their heating, so rather than leaving it on all day, they concentrate on attempting to keep as much heat as possible in the rooms they’re using, through things like more drought proofing.

An official survey indicated that in May, it was revealed three in four adults in Britain were now trekking to work at some point during the week, up from two-thirds a month ago, but the data issued by the Office for National Statistics also discovered about a third of people were continuing to spend part of their week working at home.

The figures point to a change in certain kinds of public behaviour over the past two months, a period coinciding with a stable fall in COVID-19 infections.

Consultancy Advances Workplace Associates claim the average workplace attendance is 29 per cent across UK offices.

The Office for National Statistics said in July that 37 per cent of Londoners were working away from the office, compared to 14 per cent before the pandemic.

The Citizen’s Advice Bureau discovered that day-to-day energy uses could add greatly to monthly bills and that boiling a kettle three times a day would cost £8 per month or £100 a year, under the October energy price cap.

Also, running a desktop computer eight hours a day would cost £35.68 per month, but then you have to take into account the cost of people commuting into the office, not to mention lunch at the local diner or staff canteen, the odd coffee, social beverages after work, office attire, suits et cetera. Either way, commuting or energy bills will be a rip-off, that’s assuming the trains are even operating so that people can get to work, all extremely timely, don’t you think?

Energy prices have risen tremendously and are about the skyrocket even more because of this war between Russia and Ukraine, while Russia and China get richer and richer, but we in the West are facing a catastrophic winter where tens of thousands of Brits will die this winter.

But even if you don’t use this country’s excessive erratic public transport networks you’re still being bent over a barrel by costly fuel prices, and before anyone mentions cycling or walking to work, it’s just not a practical choice for most people, and energy companies are continuing to make billions in profit.

Is there actually an energy crisis or is it just the shareholders and executive greed at the expense of the taxpayer?

Malnutrition-Related Murder

A vegan woman convicted of murder in the malnutrition death of her young son was convicted on Monday to life in jail.

Sheila O’Leary, 39, whose family observed a stringent vegan diet, was convicted in June on six charges, first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, child abuse and two counts of child neglect, in the death of Ezra O’Leary.

Her sentencing in Lee County, Florida, had earlier been delayed four times. She displayed no feeling as the verdict was read out, and told the judge she didn’t wish to make a statement.

Her husband, Ryan Patrick O’Leary, remains in prison while awaiting trial on the same charges.

Investigators said the couple, who lived in Cape Coral, told them the family consumed only raw fruit and vegetables, although the toddler also was fed breast milk.

A police report said that the 18-month-old boy weighed 17 pounds and was the size of a seven-month-old infant when he perished in September 2019.

Investigators said the couple had two other children, ages 3 and 5, who were also underweight.

Amira Fox, the state attorney, said the two endured severe neglect.

Court records show that a fourth child had been returned to her birth father during an earlier malnutrition case in Virginia.

Doctors found Ezra hadn’t been fed for a week by the time he perished.

Sheila and Ryan, who have also been charged with murder and are awaiting trial, called 911 after Ezra stopped breathing.

Paramedics pronounced the toddler dead at the scene. They also examined the couple’s older three children.

The couple were charged in December 2019 after Ezra’s cause of death was announced.

No pictures have ever been released revealing what state the child was in when he perished, but prosecutors at Sheila’s trial described a skinny child who frequently cried, and that she decided to ignore his cries. She didn’t need a scale to see his bones.

Sara Miller, Assistant State Attorney said she didn’t need a scale to hear his cry.

The couple also had a three-year-old and a five-year-old who were severely underweight.

Their skin was yellow and one suffered such poor dental hygiene that their teeth were black.

Sheila also has an 11-year-old daughter from a prior relationship but her health was vastly better than that of the other children, due to her spending time with her father in Virginia and eating a proper diet.

But this wasn’t about veganism, it was about them not being fed at all. The toddler hadn’t eaten in weeks.

The child was being given food that even if the amount had been enough, he would have perished regardless.

We all want our children to be healthy, but a strict diet isn’t one of them, but there are aficionados out there that appear to learn from each other. The internet is inhabited by zealous fools who seem to link all types of useless studies to prove their point, and people who want to believe it, will believe it, and then they will spew their idiocy onto other people, it’s called the media and advertisement conditioning, and I wonder what Vegans will spin on this one? And what lame justifications they’ll come up with to try to shift the blame away from the Vegan lifestyle.

But the spin on this was that a toddler was being fed on a Vegan diet, but this poor child hadn’t been fed for weeks, so the article should have been focused on how this mother was starving her children and not that they happened to be vegan.

Postal Workers Walk Off The Job In The Biggest Walkout Of The Summer

More than 100,000 Royal Mail postal workers were on a walkout after unions rejected a two per cent pay rise in a dispute that could last until Christmas.

Letters won’t be delivered and some parcels will be delayed in what’s being portrayed as the biggest walkout of the summer so far.

Strikes are also set to take place on August 31, September 8 and September 9 after 97.6% of members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) voted in favour of industrial action.

The union has a mandate to continue the action for six months, meaning the walkouts could carry on until January, affecting the crucial Christmas trading period as well as the busy Black Friday weekend.

It’s the latest in a string of demonstrations across the country this summer, with bin strikes presently taking place in more than 20 council regions in Scotland and strikes scheduled over the August bank holiday on buses operated by London United.

Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU, said that there could be no doubt that postal workers are fully united in their determination to secure the dignified, proper pay rise they deserve.

He said that we can’t keep living in a country where bosses rake in billions in earnings while their workers are forced to use food banks, and he blamed Royal Mail’s adjusted operating profit in the year concluding March 2022 of £758 million and its decision last November to hand shareholders £400 million in dividends.

Strikers have been expressing contempt towards Royal Mail’s CEO Simon Thompson, with chants of ‘What do we want?’ Thompson out. When do we want it? Now’, ringing out on the picket lines in east London.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch also addressed a demonstration of postal workers outside the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in London.

Royal Mail said it has contingency procedures in position to minimise disruption and will prioritise the delivery of medical prescriptions, Special Delivery and Tracked 24 parcels on walkout days, but it said that items posted the day before a walkout, the day of, or on the days after might be disrupted and the company urged customers to send packages and letters as early as possible.

Mr Ward continued that their members just lost complete faith in the actions of the company, and the board and they’d lost confidence in the leadership and people will understand that when they see the way that the company have conducted itself.

Nevertheless, a mass general walkout is right around the corner because hard-working Brits have had enough of the most ineffective, directionless, cruel, self-serving anti-British political party of all time, and I’m in full support of any industrial action.

Boris Johnson is as useful as they come as he sits there in his nursey playing with his Crayons. What a useful fool he is.

Fed Ex, DPD, Hermes et cetera are going to be pleased, and rightly so because the Unions are going to send Royal Mail the same way as British Leyland, British Steel, British Shipbuilding, British Coal, the dockers and print workers.

It appears that everyone is being taken for fools and it’s time to rebel because enough is enough, and there certainly seems to be a threat of a general strike.

A general strike would bring the government and the country to its knees, and hopefully a new government, now that would be something.

People might think that they won’t suffer if they don’t get their post for a day or two, but they will notice when vital letters stop being posted through their letter boxes and it’s time to make a stand.

A two per cent rise is not that much in the grand scheme of things!

Instead Of Buckingham Palace, The Queen Will Appoint Britain’s Next Prime Minister At Balmoral

Reports indicate that the Queen will appoint the next Prime Minister at Balmoral instead of Buckingham Palace as she continues to battle mobility problems.

Boris Johnson has announced he will step down on September 6, when he will formally tender his resignation to Her Majesty.

Her Majesty will then invite the winning Tory candidate, either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak to become Prime Minister and reveal their name.

According to a newspaper outlet, the Queen, 96, had been due to trim her stay at the Scottish estate short to attend the ceremony but that plan has now been discarded. It would mark the first time in living memory that the so-called kissing of hands occurs outside of London or Windsor.

The newspaper reports that secret plans have been drawn up to relocate the ceremony to Balmoral as the Queen has been advised to avoid the trip back down south for comfort reasons.

It’s understood an official decision on whether she will journey back to Windsor will be revealed next week.

A source told a newspaper outlet that the Queen has now been advised not to travel, but clearly, no one tells the Queen what to do and ultimately it’s her decision, and as we saw she made a third appearance on the Buckingham Palace terrace at the Jubilee, she likes surprises.

There are some aspects of her role that Prince Charles could do on her behalf but the Queen is adamant that she appoints the new Prime Minister, but it may not be the best choice to make the Queen journey 1,000 miles there and back for a 48-hour visit when the Prime Ministers could effortlessly get to Balmoral instead.

The last Prime Minister to kiss hands with the Her Majesty away from Buckingham Palace was Winston Churchill who, in 1952, kissed hands with the newly appointed Queen at Heathrow Airport when she returned from Africa following the death of her father King George VI.

Herbert Asquith remains the only Prime Minister to take office on foreign ground after he was forced to journey to Biarritz, in France, in 1908 where King Edward VII was holidaying at the time.

The Queen doesn’t usually return from her Balmoral break until early October but sources have said she told aides she will make an exception this year and travel to London, and it seems that she’s still doing the best that she can do.

However, the Crown is much bigger than any one person, and it’s a symbolic position. Sadly, the Queen is unable to satisfy the demands of that role any longer and hasn’t for some time now, and that’s totally understandable given her age, and it’s time for her to step down and let the Crown go onto someone who can achieve the role properly so that she can enjoy the peace and quiet and retire on her remaining years.

The Queen is old and I believe that there’s more going on there than mobility problems, and it appears that the Queen is most content when at Balmoral and I no doubt the incoming Prime Minister won’t have any trouble travelling to such a beautiful place, but she should now retire to Balmoral and make Charles the King. She’s done her duty to her country, and at 96 there’s no shame in stepping down.

However, I don’t believe that the Queen will ever retire. She vowed on her Coronation that she would serve her country for as long as she lived, and I believe that she will because she’s of the old school where responsibility and hard work mean everything.

Students Receive Trigger Warning Over N-Word Use In Huckleberry Finn

A leading university has put a trigger alert on Mark Twain’s classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The 1884 book, a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, tells the story of a river journey by young Huck Fin and his companion Jim, a black man fleeing slavery. It’s been held up by academics as an illustration of anti-racist literature for generations.

But Exeter University staff described the representation of a slave as problematic in a number of ways, not least because of Huck’s use of the N-word throughout the book.

A newspaper outlet said that course directors on an American literature module at Exeter said it’s classic but controversial and warned that it featured scenes of killing, brutality and child abuse.

Academics said the book could be read as an innovative way of representing the indoctrination of children into racist doctrines, and it continued that the representation of Jim was problematic in a number of ways, not least because of Huck’s use of the N-word throughout the book.

The university said that you may wish to refer again to their policy on the use of the N-word in this module. Set in the pre-abolition south, it tells the tale of a river journey embarked by a white boy escaping an abusive father and a black man fleeing slavery, and that you should be mindful that this book also features scenes of murder, violence and child abuse.

The university said that students on the module would examine and discuss the importance of Twain’s novel including the public and critical responses to it.

However, this is all woke silliness. Some of us read this in junior school and it didn’t influence the way any of us spoke or dealt with other people, and we hear and accept the word frequently in rap music, so what’s the issue?

It was a book, written using the vocabulary of the time, but now it’s offensive and problematic.

Children have been reading this book for over a hundred years and appear to have endured it without trauma. It’s a novel that reflects the situation in the USA at that time, and it just goes to show how fragile and vulnerable children are of this generation.

The entire world has got to learn to stop apologising for its history and just learn from it and move on. Who invented all this woke stupidity? Millions of children have read the book without feeling broken, and you should hear some of the vocabulary children of today say, you’d need ear plugs, let alone trigger warnings.

Back in 1939, numerous men enlisted in the army. They endured horrific years of war and saw sights that no one should see and many died. There were no trigger warnings there that were given. Back then people had an inner strength and valued their country, unlike the woke brigade who are out to obliterate history and destroy our once beautiful country.

Now we’re taking a classic novel portraying a specific time period and then go through it, extracting all the parts that some people now find offensive. The result, you now have a book which bears little or no comparison to the original, you, in fact, have another book altogether.

If certain people want to deny history then that’s totally up to them. I personally would much rather read about the past and learn from it.

Soon we’ll have all these strong rooms where all these naughty books are kept, and who are all these faceless wonders, who suddenly decide what is suitable to read. If people don’t wish to read these books, that’s okay, but you’re not going to prevent me from reading a book or warn me about the content because I have a life, which most of these wokes do not.

No Fuel Available For M25 Drivers After Eco-Mob Smash Petrol Pumps

Eco protesters have blocked service stations and damaged pumps on the M25, enraging drivers at the height of rush hour on the UK’s busiest motorway.

Nine people have been arrested as they attempt to force the government to act now on fossil fuels by damaging petrol pups so that no fuel is available.

At least 32 activists from Just Stop Oil have blocked Clacket Lane, Cobham and Thurrock services, and also claim to have disrupted petrol and diesel reserves from regional depots since yesterday. The depots affected included Navigator, Grays and Kingsbury.

Police are at the scene and have arrested nine people on suspicion of criminal damage, and in a statement, Surrey Police said activists had reportedly damaged fuel pumps and glued themselves to the forecourts.

At present, there’s no fuel available from services on both sides of Clacket Lane and Cobham.

Just Stop Oil has carried out a string of measures in current months to try and pressure the government to take more action to transition to a low carbon economy amid the climate problem.

Protesters had previously barricaded roads and other fuel depots across the country, and last month various activists glued themselves to several priceless works of art in London’s museums.

Pieces targeted included Van Gogh’s Peach Trees In Blossom and John Constable’s The Hay Wain.

Activists are now facing the UK court system after previous actions such as these and repeatedly thwarting various areas of the M25.

Several protesters, who the group say acted peacefully, have been remanded in custody while they await trial, which will probably take months. This may be postponed even further after criminal barristers voted to strike from September earlier this week.

The group barricaded the entrance to fuel stations at the service stations, starting at 5 am this morning, unfurling banners reading, ‘Just Stop Oil’.

In a statement on the group’s website, Adam 53, from Gloucestershire demonstrated why he’d decided to disrupt fuel reserves today, and he said that in twenty years’ time, when his grandchildren point out that we knew about the devastation and suffering that the climate crisis would bring, he didn’t want to have to tell them that he just sat at home and worried about it. He wanted to be able to tell them that he did what he could.

The group added that this climate crisis was evolving as the worst cost of living crisis since the 1930s hit with millions being pushed into poverty as oil and grain companies make record earnings and starvation stalks the globe.

I can understand why people are protesting, but if they believe that damaging property will get the government on their side, then they’re so wrong because the government will just dig their feet in even further.

These people have convinced themselves that vandalising property will help their cause, but it won’t, and what they’ve done is shameful and dangerous, but then someone has to take a stand – at least they’re not being sheep, and it’s without a doubt that the United Kingdom is in a mess.

Most people blamed Brexit, but I don’t believe that the UK realised just how bad our politicians were until after Brexit, which demonstrated their lack of incompetence, capability and decency, and it seems that none of the players can produce anyone good because all of them subscribe to the same little conspiracy of values.

The missing point here is that our government want a Utopia – no oil, no gas, no cars, no aircraft, no powered boats, except human power. No lights, no plastics – it all sounds a bit like the Middle Ages to me and I’m pleased I was born at a time when I won’t be around to see it all.

False Widow Warning

Poisonous spiders are set to descend on the UK this Bank Holiday weekend with temperatures in regions of Britain predicted to be higher than in Mexico.

The intense heatwave has caused false widow spiders to reproduce and multiply across the British Isles.

They’re related to the black widow, the world’s most poisonous species, and are one of 12 spiders in the United Kingdom to have bitten humans.

According to the Natural History Museum, the false widows aren’t especially venomous and being bitten by one can feel like a wasp sting. However, there’ve been occasional instances where they’ve caused a severe sting and triggered an allergic reaction in humans.

The news comes after the Met Office predicted an approaching week of climbing and plunging temperatures.

The weekend is predicted to be warm across the United Kingdom with parts of the UK reaching a low 30C, leading to the possibility of another heatwave, and the warm temperature will enable false widows to increase as their hibernation period concludes.

False widows were first documented in the United Kingdom in the 1870s but reproduced in the 1980s in numerous southern counties.

According to the Natural History Museum, the species first established itself in Dorset, Hampshire and Devon, but can now be seen in Scotland.

Its name comes from the Latin name steatoda nobilis and can be as big as a 50p coin.

They have lustrous, black, bulbous bodies and frequently have sinister markings resembling skulls on their abdomens.

Nine schools were forced to close in London after infestations in 2018, and former Wrexham footballer James Gray was rushed to hospital after a false widow bit him in 2016.

In April 2017, the mother of five Gemma Hunter, 41, of Rossendale, Lancs, was told she could lose her foot after she was bitten by a false widow.

The attack left her with a 3cm deep cavity from the spider’s fangs, which became infected with cellulitis.

Ms Hunter said that she’d seen the spider before but didn’t think anything of it, and saw it on the top of her foot, and that it looked like a garden spider, and that it had a pattern on it and its two front legs were longer than the rest.

She said that she just lightly shook her foot, but it didn’t come off so she reached to brush it off with her left hand, which is when doctors believe that it bit her because she’d likely disturbed it, and it bit her twice in a vein.

However, a newspaper outlet said that deadly spiders were set to descend on the UK this Bank Holiday, so that’s okay, it’s just this weekend we have to worry about because I didn’t realise spiders knew about public bank holidays and a calendar.

Perhaps spiders are also busy making ends meet during the weekdays in this cost-of-living crisis, and they only have free time to bite when they’re off work. Perhaps they have access to the web, but then, clearly, COVID knew what time of the day it was. Well, then spiders must know about Bank Holidays. Intelligent little critters, aren’t they?

Perhaps we should all insist that a lockdown is executed until all spiders in the world are thoroughly eradicated, along with all viruses, fungi, criminals, human beings, and most of all politicians.

Maybe the spiders all had a conference and decided to raid our homes on the Bank Holiday, they’re extremely punctual you know. I hope they’re all being paid time and a half, and if they’re coming for the Bank Holiday, they’d better not use the M25 and Dartford Crossing, they’ll never make it in time.

It’s Will Behind The Wheel!

It’s been said that Prince William is determined to be present for his children as they grow up and is set to take on the morning school run when he and Kate move to Windsor with George, Charlotte and Louis.

A newspaper outlet reports that the Duke of Cambridge, 40, will take his three children to school when they start the new term together next month.

William and Kate have chosen the £21,000 a year Lambrook School near Ascot, Berkshire for the young royals. It’s just a 15-minute drive from their four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage on the Queen’s Home Park estate.

As revealed by a newspaper outlet earlier this year, the pair had set their heart on the favourably regarded co-educational school established on 52 acres of grounds to replicate their own happy childhoods in the countryside.

But their offices and charitable realm will continue to operate out of London, with the couple returning several days a week for work. To all intent and purposes, though, Adelaide Cottage will be their primary home, day to day.

And while there, both will pick up the school run. Kate has frequently been the one pictured taking Prince George to his present school, Thomas’s in Battersea, but a source told a newspaper outlet that both William and Catherine are extremely eager to do the school run.

It comes as it was reported how during meetings to discuss the family’s forthcoming plans in current months, Prince William’s own experiences as a grieving schoolboy have, once again, come to the forefront.

More than just a physical move from Kensington Palace, experts have suggested that William is sending a transparent message to the Royal Family that, while his children remain in their formative years, he considers his most important job as being a father.

One royal insider said that Prince William had forgiven his father and that relations between them are stronger than they’ve been in some time, but he’s been abundantly clear to all that he won’t replicate the way he was prioritised as a child.

The royal insider said that William feels Prince Charles’ undeniable work ethic had a direct impact on his upbringing, particularly after the demise of his mother, and far too frequently, his father chose his responsibilities over being a dad.

While the pair will spend most of their time now at Windsor, one source told a newspaper outlet that their headquarters at Kensington Palace will still be utilised.

But what’s unpalatable is that the Royals are totally tone-deaf to the struggles of ordinary people. Of course, we all struggle but some a little less than others.

Royalty is royalty and they are rich beyond our understanding, but maybe it shouldn’t be the tone-deafness of the Royals that we should be interested in, but the tone-deafness of our own government. The Royals are just there for PR purposes, and they do quite well, by the way.

Nonetheless, the media appear to be fanning the flames, and it’s all very subtle how they phrase things and use the words ‘friends’ and ‘sources’. And the media have found a cash cow in manipulating people’s emotions about the Royal Family because doing the school run is an indulgence for most dads, most of which have to work to provide for their families.

And it’s not very eco-friendly, William driving his children to school. Why can’t they walk like other children?

Perhaps once the Queen pops her clogs, the Royal Family should be wrapped up for good because let’s face it, it’s run its course and place in the world of today. Then at least we can get rid of these ridiculous entitled people that have absolutely no relevancy in this day and age.

A Million Households Are Likely To Miss Out On £150 In Council Tax Rebates

New figures show that a million households could miss out on the £150 council tax rebate to help with the cost of living.

Ministers have been cautioned that those who don’t pay council tax through direct debit risk being left out in the cold if they forget to apply by the end of the month.

The Liberal Democrats submitted Freedom of Information requests to every regional authority in the country, of the 155 that replied, there were 3,530,831 people who don’t pay council tax via direct debit.

Of those, 1,077,378 eligible for the rebate hasn’t applied, equating to nearly one in three who pay through other ways such as cheques.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told a newspaper outlet that this was a botched government scheme which will leave families and pensioners out in the cold and that it was evident from the beginning that payments were never going to reach some of those who need it most.

He said that now time was running out to protect people from catastrophic energy bills, and he said it would have been far easier to send money straight to people’s homes, now the only way to protect people is scrapping the energy price rise in October.

He said that we have a zombie Government refusing to act even when their own half-baked programmes are proved to be ineffective.

The Government announced the rebate in February for properties in bands A-D.

Families will also receive £400 discounts on energy bills in six instalments this winter.

Families will also receive £400 discounts on energy bills in six instalments this winter, but ministers are under pressure to go further as inflation hits a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent.

A government spokesman said they were encouraging councils to make payments without further delay and have given a host of options to do this quickly and securely, including bank account transfers, council tax account credits or a voucher-based system.

You can apparently get £150 back from the council to help pay your energy bills, which they have called a rebate, but you can only get the rebate if you pay council tax and your home is in council tax bands A and D.

You will only get the rebate if you’re the person who has to pay council tax for your household, and if you can’t get a rebate, the council might still be able to offer you financial support.

Wow, £150, that’s really going to balance the books for the year and transform the world.

If people don’t pay by Direct Debit then the council won’t have their bank details to pay them the £150, but saying that, it could always be credited to their accounts and thus knocked off their account the following year.

It was the easiest thing for councils to have done. All they had to do was subtract the rebate from the council tax bill instead of making it complicated filling in forms et cetera, although I guess that was the idea, to make it as difficult as possible so that some people would forget to claim, so there was more money to put into the council’s coffers.

And why is it just assumed that people whose council tax is E or higher don’t require any assistance? This is despicable because some people that live in social housing, particularly if they live in London have a higher tax band because of the location that they live in.

Again, this is the government assuming that because your home is in a high council tax band you don’t require help, and this is all just assumption by the government and we don’t need that because assumption is the mother of all goof ups.

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