Don’t Make Elderly People Choose Between Heating And Eating

MPs have been asked not to make the elderly choose between heating and eating by suspending the pensions triple lock in a Commons vote.

The mechanism ensures the state pension increases by inflation earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is highest, but the Chancellor wants to delay the earnings link for a year because last year’s increase of eight per cent was artificially boosted because of the impact of the pandemic.

Earlier this month, the House of Lords voted to keep the triple lock, but now the House of Commons will vote on the same measure, and Conservative MPs are on a three-line whip to reverse the Lords vote and limit next year’s pension increase to inflation or 2.5 per cent.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said that they can’t have a situation in which unforeseen cost pressures result in the poorest having to choose between heating and eating.

Former Tory pensions minister Baroness Altmann, who put forward the Lords amendment, ask if they thought it was right that Britain, with the lowest state pension in the world, could afford to cut taxes on banks and alcohol but can’t keep its promises to protect pensioners?

The Lords amendment would see pensions increase by around 5 per cent, to take into account the effects of the pandemic.

Baroness Altmann added that the Government was imposing a three-line whip, and she said that if only enough Tories were prepared to do the right thing and agree it’s right to cut pensions for millions of the most disadvantaged people in our country, with no other money, in the eye of a cost of living storm, could this pass?

Charities say that limiting the rise of the pension would hit older people because inflation had risen in recent months, causing a cost of living crisis.

With all the news we’ve had lately about MPs and their financial dealings, with their ratings at an all-time low, it would be great if they did the right thing for once, but of course, they won’t.

And politicians always ignore what British people want because they’re more involved in looking after boat people than their own citizens, and just because they don’t like the figures doesn’t give them the right to pick and choose when to honour the triple lock. What about next year and the year after that, if salaries and inflation continue to climb, what will they do then?

It seems that we can afford to house, clothe and feed thousands of new arrivals but we can’t afford a decent rise for our older people, and it’s clear that even an 8 per cent increase in the UK’s OAPs pension which is the worst in Europe, will not cover the rise in energy prices and inflation, let alone all the other price hikes, and if Boris Johnson and Priti Patel choose to rob OAPs of their promised pension increase again, more pensioners will die this winter.

And the Tories are going to lose a lot of votes if they abandon the pensioners and eliminate the triple lock, so let’s hope that there are some honourable men and women on the Tory benches who are prepared to stand up and do the right thing.

People who are living on the basic OAP should be paying no tax at all, but they do – a 20 per cent surcharge on almost everything that they purchase, it’s called VAT. And for those that can afford a little car pay nearly three pounds tax on each gallon of petrol and it seems that we’ve gradually moved from taxing the wealthy to taxing the poor, so where’s this Conservative fairness?

As Revenge For Brexit, France Is Allowing Migrants To Cross The Channel

Ministers are accusing France of letting migrants cross the Channel in retaliation for Brexit as Priti Patel braces for confrontation talks with her Paris counterpart this week.

The Home Secretary will meet Gerald Darmanin in the coming days after a record 1,185 migrants arrived on Thursday, shattering the previous daily high of 853 just eight days earlier.

However, the government fears that there will be no tougher response from Emmanuel Macron and the situation could get even more serious as he centres on the emerging presidential elections.

There are claims that the lack of enforcement on the French coast, which saw just 99 migrants caught on Thursday out of 1,284 who sought to reach the United Kingdom, is part of a Brexit punishment strategy and has become linked to disputes over fishing and Northern Ireland.

The total to have reached British shores since the start of the year stands at more than 23,500, almost three times the 8,400 in the whole of 2020, but one government source told a newspaper outlet that ministers are bleak about the chances of tougher action by France.

The source said that they don’t believe that the French are going to give them anything at all, and that with the elections coming up they think it will only get more serious and that it’s part of Emmanuel Macron’s Brexit punishment strategy.

A Home Office source continued that they were just part of a much bigger problem with the election, Northern Ireland and fishing and that they don’t want to be using French taxpayers’ money before the election.

Last week Boris Johnson pressed President Emmanuel Macron to close off the door to migrants entering French territory and attempting dangerous Channel crossings.

This month, the Home Office sent the first instalments of a £54 million deal with France to finance beach patrols, but migrant numbers have since soared.

Priti Patel emphasised that the migrant dilemma was a shared problem with France, and Emmanuel Macron’s government was understood to have opposed the introduction of her pushback tactic to intercept small boats and direct them back to the French shoreline.

Priti Patel said that last week showed that they must do more and that she wants to go further and faster, and that was why she would be holding discussions with Gerald Darmanin.

Border Force has been resisting requests to use the pushback strategy, citing objections such as weather and the size of the boats being intercepted.

The more we accept them and encourage them, then we help people smugglers make more money.

The trouble is, Priti Patel is always having crisis meetings and this will be just another meaningless gesture.

It’s not France’s responsibility to regulate our borders, much like it’s not our responsibility to control theirs. We’re an island and it’s our border and our responsibility. Priti Patel and Boris Johnson are just attempting to cover up their incompetence, yet again!

And if Priti Patel and Boris Johnson do nothing, it will only get more serious.

It’s astounding, when it comes to raising our taxes our government are all action, but when it comes to immigration, it’s all talk.

The Hero Bystander, 20, Who Died Trying To Save The Life Of An 84-Year-Old Pensioner

A man has been charged with murder and attempted murder after a double stabbing in Brentford in west London on Friday.

Norris Henry, 37, has been charged with the murder of Ali Abucar Ali, 20, and the attempted murder of Betty Walsh, 84.

Norris Henry is listed to appear before Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court on Monday, November 15.

Police said the woman remained in a serious condition in hospital with injuries assessed as not life-threatening.

Betty Walsh’s family said the pensioner is no longer on the critical list after undergoing a kidney operation following the horrific attack, and she was well enough to ask her family about the score from England’s 5-0 thrashing of Albania.

They said it was too early to say when she will be allowed to leave St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington.

The 20-year-old martyr, Mr Ali, was described as a hardworking man who’d recently won a scholarship after he died jumping to Betty Walsh’s defence.

A newspaper outlet reported that one witness said that they were going to get a kebab when they went out and saw the police arrive. The boy was on the floor drenched in blood and they were trying to give CPR, but he couldn’t be saved.

Mr Ali’s mother had rushed to comfort Betty Walsh’s family before she got the devastating news from police that her son had been stabbed to death.

Eldest daughter Bridget, 60, said she didn’t realise she’d been punched and didn’t realise she’d been stabbed until someone came to help her.

She said that Ali went up to ask what all the disturbance was about, challenged her assailant and tried to help her, but what occurred to him next was a tragedy.

A crowdfunding page has been established in memory of Ali and has raised approximately £7,000.

A friend wrote on the page that Ali was the most caring, humble, funniest of young men and that they don’t have a single vision of him without seeing his amazing smile.

Another wrote that they were grieving for the loss of this brave young man who could have saved himself if he hadn’t gone ahead to defend a woman in danger and that he was a star, shining in heaven now.

Marie Walsh, who described herself as Betty’s daughter, said that the lad was a hero and that he died trying to protect their mum and that he should rest in peace.

White Poppies On Remembrance Day Cause Outrage

A university has come under attack for including white poppies in its Remembrance wreaths because veterans fear it will depreciate the red poppy as a representation of the fallen.

Students and staff from Leicester University laid more than 50 poppy garlands across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in recognition of the local people who made sacrifices during the First World War.

The wreaths which were laid as part of a poppy pilgrimage included both red and white poppies.

The university said the garlands included white poppies to signify a commitment to peace and finding non-violent solutions to conflicts.

It comes after the BBC said it would allow its presenters to wear white poppies on-air if they wanted to do so, and in a statement, the university said that the red poppy, which remembers the horrors of the Western Front in the First World War, is a well known and well-established symbol of support for the Armed Forces community and Remembrance for lives lost in all conflicts.

And they said that some of the wreaths laid in the region included white poppies, which represented a commitment to peace in finding non-violent solutions to conflicts, but military figures have condemned the decision to include white poppies and that it’s an insult to those who lost their lives in battle.

Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, told a newspaper outlet that the white poppy was designed to undermine the sacrifice the red poppy seeks to commemorate.

He said the use of the red poppy was a means of showing respect and appreciation to British and Allied troops who gave their lives fighting for their country and was completely apolitical.

Richard Kempt said it was sold to raise funds for their propaganda campaigns and that it purports to commemorate all who suffered in war and so applies equally to Nazi stormtroopers and Islamic State murderers and rapists.

He said intertwining the hard-left political symbol of white poppies into wreaths of red poppies was a direct affront to our war dead.

Lord Richard Dannatt, former chief of the General Staff, told the newspaper there was room to remember the sacrifice of noncombatants in wartime but that the use of the white poppy would detract from the remembrance of soldiers that had fallen in defence of their country.

You can’t just change symbolic things that represent a generation that got us through some incredibly difficult times – times they have zero knowledge of and honestly wouldn’t cope if they had to.

However, men have been falling out there in Afghanistan and comparable places and should be remembered as well. Perhaps a different flower and a different colour for those that also served and lost their lives.

Generally, I don’t wear a poppy because I don’t need to wear a bit of paper once a year to show that I care, and it’s not just about World War I and World War II. We also have to remember all fallen servicemen in all conflicts like Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, and Iraq to name a few.

I’m not in favour of war by any means, but we do need to remember our fallen soldiers, and how we should really be remembering them is in our schools where it should be taught in history lessons. It’s okay wearing a poppy as long as you know why you’re wearing it!

The White House Conspired With The National School Boards Association

The National School Boards Association liaised with the White House and Justice Department before writing to Joe Biden, it emerged, with their vile letter complaining that threats made by parents against board members should be taken as severely as domestic terrorism.

The NSBA, in an internal memo sent on October 12, revealed that they’d held talks with White House officials before sending the letter. The association represents more than 90,000 school board members in 14,000 public school districts.

The memo, obtained by Fox News, states that, on September 14, members of a liaison group were notified there’d been a meeting with White House personnel and that the NSBA was planning to assign a letter to the President.

On September 17, executive directors for states were told by the interim Executive Director that a letter asking for federal assistance would be sent.

On September 29, the letter was sent to Joe Biden asking for federal assistance to investigate and prevent threats made over school policies such as curriculum, gendered bathrooms, and mask mandates.

The letter was sent after a combustible summer, which saw school board meetings becoming scenes of at times extreme unrest.

Loudoun County in Virginia became the epicentre of outrage, with people being detained after a showdown in June.

The NBSA wrote in the letter that those acts of hostility, violence, and threats against public school officials had increased and that the classification of those malicious actions could be the equivalent of a kind of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.

According to another email acquired by Fox, Viola Garcia, president of the NBSA, who wrote the letter, had altered the text to satisfy the White House, and according to an email from Chip Slaven, she worked with him, and the White House team for weeks.

Chip Slaven wrote to the NSBA board of directors, and in talks over several weeks with White House personnel, they requested further information on some of the specific threats, so the letters also mentioned many of the incidents that had been happening.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, responded on October 4, showing concern at an uptick in harassment, intimidation and threats of brutality against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools, and he wrote that threats against public servants were not only illegal, but they ran counter to the nation’s core values.

And he said that those who give their time and service to ensuring that children get a decent education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their job without fear for their safety.

The entire government is a Marxist sham and they need to be removed from power as quickly as possible, and those political educational organisations that profess to be working for the betterment of children are influencing them with groupthink
and need to be disbanded immediately, and it’s very scary times in the US, and it seems that if you’re not up there with their political beliefs then you’re an enemy of the state, and if you’ve not noticed folks, they’re after your children.

Schools have been blindsided by the pushback and they’ve spent the last couple of decades believing that it takes a village and the children belong to the community, not the parents, and children are being used like guinea pigs and all good Americans are paying for this.

People thought that communism would never come to America, well here it is and it’s coming for you all!

Being Rooted In Place

Only a fifth of people have said they intend to downsize in their retirement, with the top reason being that they’re simply too attached to their homes.

According to research by investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, those nearing retirement age are even less inclined to have downsizing plans.

Amongst those aged 45 to 54, only 17 per cent said they would move to a smaller house, while this dropped further to 14 per cent among 55 to 64-year-olds.

This is despite house prices rising quickly in the past year, with bigger homes benefitting most, meaning downsizers could have more money to buy a smaller home.

However, those moving from larger homes in the countryside or on the edge of towns might find the difference eroded by higher prices closer to town centres, and while 20 per cent said they would downsize, another 38 per cent said they wouldn’t and 42 per cent were uncertain.

People usually purchase a less expensive home in retirement and use the money from the sale of their old home to top up their pension income, help out their family financially or just enjoy their retirement.

Those in the best position to downsize are people who’ve paid off their mortgage, or a substantial chunk of it, as they can use the money from the sale to purchase their next home mortgage-free.

However, more people are now struggling to pay off their homes before they retire, and it can also be hard to remortgage once they’ve reached a specific age.

According to the Hargreaves Lansdown survey, financial worries also weigh on people’s decision not to downsize, and about one in ten didn’t think they would make enough money from downsizing, whilst almost a quarter said it would be too costly.

Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said that the financial reality might not be as positive as the fantasy, with the costs of moving taking a lump out of their proceeds, leaving them with far less than they expected.

However, the most quoted reason why the respondents didn’t want to live somewhere smaller was that they were too attached to their home, which 28 per cent claimed.

Helen Morrissey added when you’ve won the race for space, it’s extremely difficult to give up, and she said that massive house price growth makes the prospect of downsizing in retirement tempting but on closer inspection, it’s clear not many people are convinced.

Countless people have worked all their life whilst bringing up a family, so they’re not going to live in a tiny flat to pay thousands in service charges.

Their homes are where they’ve brought their children up and have all their memories. What they should be doing is picking on the elite with their many homes.

But then I guess the majority of people are going to be made to downsize shortly as there’s a dire need for bigger homes so that migrants can live in them and where they get permission to bring their huge families.

It’s more like forced relocation, and if you have a nice four-bedroom house that a family of migrants needs, then out you go!

We’re being farmed, and once you see what they’re doing you’ll realise that they’re going to be doing it everywhere, but why should the people of this country be made to sell up and live in a shoebox?

And why would anyone in their right mind want to move when their house is all paid up and done up, you know your neighbour’s et cetera, and you have a garden, honestly, why would you want to move? I can think of no reason whatsoever unless of course, you want to move to somewhere in the sun.

The Tower Of London…For Sale

A Beefeater who lives at the Tower of London has revealed estate agents asked if he would sell his home.

Spike Abbott, who guards the famous castle with about 36 others, said Foxtons sent a letter showing interest in his 12 Century house.

But the Yeoman Warder, 59, warned the London based firm that its for sale sign would raise a few eyebrows if placed outside the fort.

The Beefeaters are the oldest existing military corp and the oldest of the royal bodyguards in the land.

In current years the former soldiers have proved popular with tourists as a reminder of Britain’s antiquity, but they’re still tasked with guarding the fort.

Spike Abbott, who’s battling COVID, tweeted Foxton’s letter to the rightful owner of one of the homes in The Casemates, which lies in the outer fortification of the tower, and he wrote: ‘Thanks for the very kind offer @foxtons to sell or rent out the 12th-century property that HM Tower of London provide me with.

‘However, I think it may raise a few eyebrows when your sign appears outside my house @WappingLondon.’

He shared the post with a picture of the view from his house looking towards Tower Bridge.

The letter is understood to have been sent by the Wapping Sales and Lettings branch of Foxtons, and it said that they were valuing property in the area before offering a professional evaluation of the sales or rental price of the property in the current market with no strings attached.

It added that the estate agents would stick by COVID rules when calling for a valuation.

Mr Abbott is a former RAF serviceman who traded his wings for the traditional red Tudor uniform when he began working at the tower six years ago.

Formerly of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, he joined 36 other Yeoman Warders living out their retirement as full-time guardians of the fortress.

Yeoman Warders are descended from the ancient band of warders who guarded the tower’s gates and royal prisoners, as well as the Crown Jewels.

Now only ex-servicemen with at least 22 years under their belt can take on the position, which now also involves showing sightseers around the London attraction.

Mr Abbott joined the RAF in 1980 and was posted at RAF Abingdon the following year, where he worked with aircraft salvage and transportation.

In 1983 he moved to Germany with 20 Squadron working as a mechanic on Jaguar planes.

Estate agents do this all the time, often to browbeat and convince older people to sell their homes, and it isn’t unusual for an estate agent to sell a home, then the owner gets a flyer through the door to ask if you want to sell the same home you move into the week before. I mean, they must be moderately dense or something because you’d think that they’d remember the address to a property they sold a week earlier.

Estate agents put flyers through people’s letterboxes all the time, this is cold calling and blatant harassment, but countless buildings have been bought up in London and I guess you could banter about the Tower of London being up for sale. Can you just imagine the advertising? Luxury Apartments in London for sale at a historic venue with excellent panoramas over the river.

What he should have done was put the letter in the recycling bin, you know the ones that are painted red, saying ‘return to sender’ with a note saying ‘not known at this address’. Or perhaps he should have said that the house wasn’t for sale, but that they have a nice bridge with a lifting doorway if they’re still interested.

Natalie Elphicke Told Marcus Rashford To Stop Playing Politics

It’s been reported a Tory MP who told England champion Marcus Rashford to stick to football and quit playing politics when he campaigned for free school meals during the pandemic has a second job paying her £36,000.

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke apologised in July after criticising the Manchester United striker for trying to help deprived school children and mocked his missed Euro 2020 penalty.

She told a Tory WhatsApp group the 24-year-old, who picked up an MBE from Prince William this week, that he should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics.

However at the time she was herself spending time on a second job – the chairwoman of the New Homes Quality Board (NHQB), and she gets paid about £3,000 for eight hours work a month.

And it was revealed that 14 MPs, largely Conservatives, have been using a loophole in parliamentary expenses, to get the taxpayer to pay the rent on London flats while they let out properties they own for more than £10,000 per year.

The scheme is the latest discovery in the standards dispute that has overwhelmed Parliament in the past week.

It was brought in under reform of the system following the 2009 expenses scandal that endeavoured to make sure that MPs who owned property in the metropolis didn’t make a profit from the sale of homes whose mortgage had been partly paid off by the taxpayer.

Instead, they were permitted to rent a property separately to put them on a level with MPs who didn’t own a London base.

Watchdog the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) told a newspaper outlet that while there was a perception of personal gain, it couldn’t make MPs live in their own homes.

Those the paper said were using the scheme included former ministers John Whittingdale, Liam Fox, and Robert Goodwill, plus backbench Tory Philip Davies.

John Whittingdale was last week recommended as the chairman of a new alternative anti-sleaze committee before the scheme was abandoned in a dispute over former MP Own Patterson’s lobbying.

It came as former attorney general Geoffrey Cox faced fresh questions after it surfaced that he took out a £3,900 loan from the taxpayer to cover the deposit on renting a London flat, at the same time as renting out his own property in the capital.

In 2017 the Torridge & West Devon MP moved out of his own property in London and began claiming about £1,900 a month on expenses for another flat in the metropolis.

It appears that Natalie Elphicke didn’t want to fund free meals, she just wanted one, and perhaps she needs to stick to being an MP, although I suspect she’s pretty dreadful at that as well. What Marcus Rashford did for these children was for the greater good, but what’s she’s doing is essentially pilfering as much as she can.

Become an MP in 2019, get a second job in 2020 because you’re an MP and not because of your abilities, and because of her influence, she then gets another job. Did she apply for the job or was she offered the job, or was the job created specially for her?

MPs don’t play politics unless those politics are beneficial to their power struggle or bank accounts. Now it would be delightful to see an MP play politics with a good heart and no personal gain involved.

But it seems that most politicians are greedy and uncaring, taking advantage of their parliamentary seat, and then taking on a consulting job when they say they have so much work on as a parliamentarian.

The Millennial Baby Boom Is On Its Way

Retailers were given the good news by a Bank of America analyst who predicted that a millennial baby boom could be on the way, leading to a boost in sales for stores.

Millennials, those aged 25 to 40, now make up the biggest generation in the United States, having overtaken Baby Boomers.

According to Pew Research, approximately 72.1 million people are categorised as millennials, also known as Gen Y.

Robert Ohmes, the BofA analyst, reported that birth rates are on the up, more pregnancy tests are being sold, and more couples say they’re trying to have a baby.

According to data from Nielsen and research by Bank of America, sales of pregnancy tests have grown by an average of 13 per cent year on year since June 2020.

Between 2016 and 2019, the sales of pregnancy tests increased by an average of two per cent.

The data suggests that the surge in sales could change the pandemic era drop in births.

Live births rose 3.3 per cent in June 2021, the highest level of growth seen since 2013.

Ohmes said that it would likely trigger an increase in sales for big-box retailers such as Target, Walmart and Costco as new parents shop for diapers, cribs and strollers.

Ohmes and his team spoke to 1,000 people in October, and 11.3 per cent of respondents said they or their partner were expecting or trying to have a baby over the next 12 month period.

He predicted that Albertsons, Kroger, Dollar General and BK’s Wholesale Club would profit from the new baby boom.

The prediction of a surge in spending came as household debt hit a record high.

In a report, the Federal Reserve said that the total household deficit rose by $286 billion to $15.24 trillion in the third quarter of 2021, after levelling off for much of the pandemic.

Mortgage balances, which are the largest component of household debt, increased by $230 billion and stood at $10.67 trillion at the end of September, reflecting fast-rising home prices.

Total non-housing balances grew by $61 billion, including a $28 billion hike in auto loan balances as supply chain problems drove enormous increases in the prices of both new and used vehicles.

Although credit card balances increased by $17 billion, they remained $123 billion lower than they’d been at the end of 2019.

Student loan balances grew by $14 billion, coinciding with the academic borrowing year, and during the pandemic, countless households paid down debt and raised their savings, thanks to government stimulus checks and cuts in discretionary spending.

Some would say that it’s mad bringing a child into the world because since the pandemic started this has been the biggest and most catastrophic event since World War II and there’s about to be a breakdown of the global financial system.

But loads of people have perished since COVID 19 began and therefore it’s now the survival of the fittest, and in this natural selection people are going to leave the most copies of themselves in successive generations.

Some might not want to bring children into this world because the chances of them leading a healthy and happy life is probably pretty slim, and I do worry for the future of our children because there are so many things going on in the world that we just don’t have any control over.

However, if people were to stop having children, the generation of today would grow old with no family to care for or spend time with and they will rot away in their beloved government institutions.

I can also see there being a lot of abortions because numerous people won’t want to produce right now. After all, there are a lot of people under the age of thirty-five hardly earning enough money to feed one mouth, let alone two.

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