NEW YEAR REVOLUTION

The Last Laugh Looney Party has decided to continue with holding Prime Minister Bodj to account throughout 2020 to make sure he keeps his promises.  Otherwise there could be a French style revolution, complete with chopping off politicians heads 🤡

Bodj’s pledges in his election manifesto were typically not very specific.  Like all politicians, their promises always have enough wriggle room for them to be broken.  This is called Plausible Deniability, although you could call them downright lies.

These are some of the things that I intend to write about in this coming year in relation to holding Bodj to his promises :-

FUN

  • One of the things you can say about Prime Minister Bodj is that he certainly has a great sense of humour and I think this should be a theme for his term in office.  Bodj stuck on a zip line should set the tone for the new parliament and MPs should be given cream buns to throw at each other across the Houses of Parliament.   This should certainly be more interesting than many of the speeches they make.
  • BREXIT.   Former Prime Minister, Mrs Maybe-Maybe Not, famously coined the phrase “Brexit means Brexit”.  Except of course for her it didn’t.  Prime Minister Bodj added a deadline date to his Brexit, except it kept changing.  The latest deadline is 31st January 2020, but even if he keeps to that, nothing will change until the details are sorted out, supposedly towards the end of the year.  So expect Brexit to appear in this blog regularly in the coming months.
  • SOCIAL CARE.  This is the subject which is probably the most important to older people.  Sadly it’s the issue that politicians of all parties have failed to get to grips with for decades.  Its history is littered with Parliamentary Commissions, Green Papers, research reports, committee reports and reports on reports.  Proposals have been labelled as a “death tax” and/or a “dementia tax” and that guarantees that nothing will happen.  Now Bodj has called for an all party consesus, but there’s absolutely no chance of that happening.   So my recommendation is that older people forget about the Government helping them and sort out Social Care for themselves.

PACKAGING 

  • I don’t remember the word “packaging” figuring very largely in Bodj’s election manifesto, but he did refer to ridding the world of plastic which would be a jolly good start.  If we can get Bodj to wear gloves for the next year, no doubt he will come to realise that there is lots of other packaging that needs to be gotten rid of.

SMALL  PRINT

  • Unfortunately, small print didn’t figure highly in Bodj’s promises.  But I’m sure his advisors and civil servants will try and add as much of it as they can to Bodj’s “one line promises”.   As most old people don’t read small print, I will hold Bodj to the “one line promise”, without qualification.  So we expect to have “20,000 more police”, “40 new hospitals”, “instant GP appointments”, “a teacher for every child”, “prison sentences that last a lifetime” and finally “only a trickle of immigrants who will all have to be Nobel prize winners”.
  • MUMBLING.  This is a subject which I haven’t talked about before, but it’s one which excludes more and more older people from society.  Initially, I put it down to more and more older people being hard of hearing, but now I’ve concluded it’s not that, it’s the fact that young people talk too quickly.  And that people talk over each other on TV programmes.   And that background music is often louder than people talking.   And that rapping is completely incomprehensible.   And that people use more and more jargon words which are only understood by young people.   ALL OF THIS DISINFRANCHISES OLDER PEOPLE AND NEEDS TO BE STOPPED.   So I propose that the BBC loses £1 million of their Government grant for every 1000 complaints it gets about mumbling.   And ITV loses the same for each advert that older people can’t understand, which is probably most of them.
  • CLIMATE CHANGE.   This would seem to be one of the biggest issues the world has to face in the next decade.   Older people, with notable exception of Sir David Attenborough, seem relatively silent on the subject, presumably because they think they aren’t going to be around that long.   I think if they more clearly understood the subject, they would certainly be concerned for their children and grandchildren.   I will write more about this subject in the year ahead.

CLUTTER

  • This has been a big subject in my blog for the last few years and it isn’t going to go away in a hurry.   However much I try to dispose of clutter, more steps up to replace it.   So I need a radical solution and here it is :-

      Pile it all up outside parliament or politicians houses and gardens.  That            will give them something to do rather than endlessly debating issues                    where nothing changes afterwards.   

DOG FRIENDLY

  •  More and more old people have dogs as pets and they are definitely a             socialising influence as well as a guard against loneliness.   So expect             Coco to feature in my 2020 blogs.
  • SOMETHING ELSE ?   This is a space for the unexpected, because one thing you can be sure of is that something will crop up this year which forecasters didn’t forecast and the politicians didn’t pontificate about.  Nor did Google or YouTube or Twitter predict this the very beginning of the new decade.

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Pangolin Tangling

When a Pangolin gets frightened,

he rolls up in a ball.

He’s round and sound

and ever so tightly bound.

That’s all.

 

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Pangolin Dangling

When they are not eating ants

And there is not much to do,

Pangolins are just like

me and you.

 

They have no thumbs

to twiddle.

They can’t  think up

a riddle like “Hey diddle diddle”.

 

So Pangolins just hang about

and that’s why you often see,

if you look very carefully,

high up in every tree,

Pangolins dangling.

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Clutter Creative Solutions.

Another rainy day.

A day indoors with nothing to do.

An opportunity for de-cluttering ?

But you have to be in the right frame of mind.

 

If the rain was torrential and flooded your home,

you would move the valued things upstairs.

The rest left downstairs would instantly

be redefined as clutter.

 

If a house fire,

was your heart’s desire,

then all your clutter would go up in smoke.

But that’s no joke.

 

Or if there was a plague of mice.

They would eat you out of house and home.

All your clutter problems solved,

with just one infestation.

 

Perhaps you could profit from your surplus stuff.

Ebay everything in a one day sale.

Price it at a pound

and wait for the bids to roll in.

 

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The Great Escape !

This is the tail and trial of my annual Christmas shopping adventure.   Not my most popular thing to do, so I set out to get it over with as quickly as possible.   I left home at 11 o’clock to go to  Milton Keynes where the shopping centre is an enclosed mall with plenty of car parking.   A one stop shop, hopefully!

My first task when I arrive is to find a space in the usual outdoor location, which is nearest to the entrance to Debenhams.    The car park is full, but after only a few laps around, I find someone pulling out and in I go.     Now I need to locate a Pay and Display meter.     Where on earth could they have put them ?     There is a sign with an arrow, but I still can’t see a meter.     All I can find are a lot of strange red poles with  nowhere to put your money.    It just says cashless parking, pay by phone, which is all very well if you have brought your phone with you 😤

Looks like my shopping expedition is over before it’s started.   There are cameras everywhere to stop people escaping without paying, so I will probably get a fine for not managing to park there.

So I am back on the cris-cross grid of duel carriageways around the Shopping Centre, which is now full of cars, doing a few more laps, when I spot a multi-story car park at the Debenhams shop.   Only problem is I am just beyond the entrance …. so I do a few more laps to get back to the entrance again.   Finally, a friendly lady in a high-vis jacket, who is guarding the entrance, tells my I can pay cash once I am inside.

I drive up to the first floor entrance barrier, but it won’t give me a ticket, so I figure I must have to put some money in.  Only problem is there is nowhere to put your cash and I drop my pound coin trying to put it in any kind of slot that will take cash.   Then a ticket pops out and the barrier lifts up, so I realise you have to pay on the way out !!!

So I have broken into the first floor car park, only problem is that after a few more laps I discover they are all reserved for disabled people.    I consider breaking an arm or a leg, but decide that’s a bit drastic just to get a car park space😀

S I venture up to the second floor.   At first all the spaces appear to be taken.  I do a few more laps and low and behold I find six empty spaces all together.  Magic!    I pull in, turn off the car and then just as I am ready to go shopping,  a man in a high-vis jacket knocks on my window and asks if I want my car washed.    I explained I was only going shopping and he explained “You can’t park here it is reserved for car washing”.

So now I am off to the roof top car park.   It is pretty full with all the people who are not disabled and don’t want their car washed, but eventually after a few more laps,  I find an empty space.     After all this circling around, I have completely lost my sense of direction, so I wander through the car park looking for an exit to the shops, carefully leaving a paper trail behind me so I can find my way back to my car.

Eventually I find a secret door which leads via a host of escalators down to the shops.    PHEW !

SHOPPING OVER IN MINUTES I RETRACE MY STEPS BACK UP TWENTY ESCALATORS.

At the top of the escalators there is the cash machine, that takes real cash.  I put in my ticket and it says I have been there for over an hour, which I can hardly believe, so I have to pay £2.90 for two hours.    Since you can’t argue with a machine I reluctantly cough up the dough.     Having paid the machine it tells me I have ten minutes to get out.

I follow my paper trail and discover my car, now all I have to do is find my way out.   It should be no problem, there are signs everywhere.    Arrows on the floor,  signs to the left, signs to the right, in fact far too many signs !    I set off following the arrows on the floor, then after one complete circuit, I am back where I started.   I decide to follow the arrows on the signs saying exit and do a few more laps, but I am still on the roof!    They obviously don’t want you to get out.

I try a new escape plan and follow some arrows with a picture of a car and after a few twists and turns I come to the EXIT BARRIER.  Just one problem…… there’s a car in front of me and he appears to be parked at the barrier ?     I wait for a while as other escapee cars queue up behind me.    The man in the car in front seems to be having an argument with the machine.   After a further five minutes or so another driver goes over and asks what’s happening only to be told “ the barrier won’t operate and they are re-setting the system”.    This might take a while, apparently it happens quite often.

At last a man in a high-vis jacket comes to the rescue, no red cross parcels, but he does know another way out 😀    He puts a big red cone in front of my car, which is a bit annoying, then he helps the car in front to back up and squeeze though a gap between a lamppost and a parked car.    Then he tells me to “ follow that car down the tunnel to the second floor” .    That would’ve been fine if I didn’t have such a big car with sticky out wing mirrors, but by the time I manoeuvred past the lamppost the car in front was long gone and the escape tunnel was nowhere to be seen.

So I did a few more laps of the rooftop car park, only to find myself at the back of the slow-moving queue that I had just come out of.   After just another twenty minutes I get back to the exit barrier.   This time I am at the front, so I put my ticket in and the machine says ….  “timed out”.     There is nowhere to put extra money in, so I wait and eventually the man in the high-vis jacket reappears and tells me “ the system is broken and I will have to go down to the second floor.    He directs the car behind me to go through the narrow gap beside the lamppost, puts the big red traffic cone in front  of the car two cars behind me and backs me up so I can follow the other car.    This time I take off like Lewis Hamilton on the Monaco starting grid.  I am not going to lose that car in front, he obviously knows the way to the secret tunnel out.    After only a few more laps around the second floor we reach the alternative exit barrier and there is the helpful lady in another high-vis jacket, who I met at the start of my car park adventure.     She lets me escape without paying anymore cash for over staying my time in their lovely car park by just another hour or so.

What a great experience Christmas shopping in Milton Keynes is and now for another year I am ……

FREE AT LAST.

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Pangolin Wrangling

Pangolin wrangling is not with cattle,

that would be too much of a battle.

Pangolins prefer to wrangle with ants,

rather than have them in your pants.

 

They round them up

with their flapping tail

and huddle them into a wooden pail.

 

Sometimes Pangolins can spend all day,

chasing the ants that get away.

They see it as a matter of pride,

to find the ants wherever they hide.

 

Then they can eat them

at their leisure,

which gives them hours and hours of pleasure.

 

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LLLP FAIRY LAND

Christmas is rapidly approaching and our politicians have sent out all their cards — although they call them manifestos.   They are full of New Year resolutions which they will drop after a week or so.   They have also promised loads of presents for everyone, which will turn out to be empty boxes when you unwrap them.   I hasten to add that all these presents are being bought with our own money.

So just before you vote, consider these promises by the Last Laugh Looney Party if we are elected we promise :-

  • Everyone will benefit from a new national minimum wage of £100,000 a year.
  • We will introduce a one day working week —- one day.
  • We will train 1 million new doctors, 1 million new nurses and a billion new hospital administrators, so that just about everyone can work in the NHS.
  • We will build a zillion new homes, although none of them will be in your back yard.
  • We welcome climate change so we can have sunny days every day, except in Scotland where it will rain until they vote out the SNP.

All this will happen if you believe in Santa Claus🤡

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LLLP BUMPS

Sooner or later the the election party will be over.    Being showered with pre-Christmas presents will end in tears, whoever gets  into power.   Because the reality is none of them have the big ideas, the power or the consensus amongst themselves to change things for the better.    SPEND, SPEND, SPEND is the only the answer for a clueless bunch of MP’s.

It is our hard earned money they are using !   Better that we spend it ourselves to solve the problems as they affect us.     Not selfishly, but with regard to our immediate and future needs, and those of our neighbours and friends.

BUMP number 1 –  CLIMATE CHANGE.

The LLLP recommend that you – Move to high ground, reduce energy consumption as much as possible.  Wrap up warm in winter.   Tie everything down, the winds of climate change are coming.

Meanwhile the LLLP will send all MP’s during their summer recess to the seaside to sit at high tide and let us know if sea levels are rising 🤡

BUMP number 2 – GROWING NUMBERS OF OLDER PEOPLE.

The LLLP recommend that you – Accept that the NHS will not be there for you except in the case of dire emergency.   Exercise and eat well to stay healthy.   Liquidate assets to pay for future care needs and don’t assume the State will look after you, because it won’t, unless your destitute.   Downsize if you can.

Meanwhile the LLLP will send all MP’s for one week every month to do work experience in residential care homes, until they agree on a consensus solution to social care 🤡

BUMP number 3 – ESCALATING CRIME.

The LLLP recommend that you – Be alert to scams.  They are frequently aimed at older people.   The unwanted phone calls,  the stranger at your door, even the small print in too good to be true offers from “trusted” companies.   Stick to people and places you know.

Meanwhile the LLLP will require all MP’s to do home visits to everyone of their constituents who has been scammed and tell them what they are going to do about it …. and personally compensate them from their MP’s salary 🤡

 

THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF WORLD MOST PEOPLE WISH TO LIVE IN, BUT, IT WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE LIKE THIS UNLESS WE TAKE CONTROL OF OUR OWN LIVES RATHER THAN RELYING ON POLITICIANS TO RESOLVE OUR PROBLEMS.

SO WHY IS THIS A BLOG ABOUT BUMPS ????

BLOODY USELESS MP’S.  

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A Year of Confusion ?

We have dug a big hole for ourselves.

We might have been going in the wrong direction with Europe.

But now we have swapped it for no direction at all.

 

Our politicians have all been found out.

Their answer is to spend more money.

When we need to spend less.

 

Climate change we can’t control.

Values we don’t live up to.

Laws broken with no redress

 

WHAT A MESS !

 

The good news is most of us are living well.

It’s the news that creates the living hell.

So turn off the tele, stop the papers.

Unplug your phone, disable your computer.

 

NOW WE ARE GETTING SOMEWHERE 😀

 

Say hello to someone new.

Find something new to do.

But if you live like a hermit,

you probably need a permit.

 

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LLLP Umun Rites.

The Last Laugh Looney Party 🥳 will defend everyone’s rites, especially the rite to be STUPID.    They are pleased to see that all the other parties are learning from them  and doing stupid things too.

Here is a few fings  what we want :-

  • The rite to paint on walls everywhere, just like Banksy.
  • The rite to have what you want, when you want it.
  • the rite to be on TV in Gogglebox and other intelligent programs.
  • Why shouldn’t you go on University Challenge just because you haven’t been to University ?
  • the rite to global warming, it will save a lot on energy bills.
  • the rite to go to demonstrations and shout slogans just like MP’s.
  • The rite to buy people’s votes for the LLLP with there own 💰
  • there must be lots more rites that we want, but we can’t think what they are rite now.
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