Category: Uncategorized

Upset for Christmas at failing as a parent.

For many years I served my time keeping kids, families and communities safe, Firstly as a youth worker in Stockport then Manchester, and finishing my career with decades of social work, residential then as a senior practitioner and team manager in child protrction teams. I still can call myself a social worker, despite being medically retired from statutory services.

I grew up in a house where my own parents fostered children, kids that had survived interfamilial abuse, often at the hands of their own parents.

Even in the worst of instances, where the horrifying past of these children was solely due to the cruelty, and predatory actions of their dad or sadly at times mum,where the other parent turned a blind eye, to protect or gratify themselves, the children had love for them. They despite all, could forgive these people, even in later years, once they were old enough to make their own decisions rebuild relationships.

I however, can state now I never abused my children, I never treated them with malice or anything but the love and respect a parent should, yet, my children will not forgive me. They saw me broken through the pain and liss of losing my brother. They saw me losing my self respect and pride in myself due to multiple chronic illnesses.

Yes I was angry at the world, but not with them. Yes I lost my career and income, so couldn’t afford to spend hundreds of pounds upon them. But I was not as far as I can recollect cruel to them. I did not assault them, nor act inappropriately.

I would pick them up whenever they wanted. I couldn’t afford to take them abroad but spent most of the holidays with them and most weekends in Wales or other resorts in the UK.

I would get them what I could afford. I would buy them clothes, feed them, drive 50 miles to drop an inhaler off because their other parent forgot to order it.

They are convinced I kidnapped them, which if had been remotely true may, have caused a few issues with my career path?

I have been accused of over reacting, getting my daughter to hospital, in an ambulance, at the advice of the paramedics, where they kept her in for several days due a severe asthma attack, which almost led to her being placed upon a resporator to aid her to breathe, when their other parent refused to attend because she was at a party.

I agree after Rob died in 2019 at 35, it all was too much. I never knew grief could hurt so much, and yes for a while, change our nature’s. But it can.

Since my own near death experiences due to my heart and other issues. I have kinda come through it. I do still find tears welling when I see a pic or even realise his ashes are still sat upon his sideboard in my home. But now I am more me.

I will never be the active man I was, because now can I all too often barely move, camping is a lost art to me, as is walking or cycling. My badminton skills are only a distant memory, and hiking something I yearn for daily. But I am still their dad, I am still the man that loves them, was so proud of them, and now is beyond sad that they refuse to have any part in my life.

I am no perfect parent, but I always prioritised them when no one else would.

Even when I was lay in hospital not knowing if I would pull through, neither of them made any enquiry after me, never mind tried to contact me.

This is why I no longer see family as anything beyond related due to circumstance.

I still do grieve for my brother, but that now is compounded at the grief of losing being a dad.

So no fan of Christmas.

Honest government?

It’s not a political label that identifies and separates the good from the bad. It’s values, empathy, morality, respect and focus.

I have met so many people that would be offended to be called socialist, or even to be suspected of supporting old Labour, yet when you talk to them their values are completely in line with your own.
And beyond even that we all have differences, that’s how life is, but its how we challenge the differences that seem insurmountable, that can make things work.

I do believe we now live in a country where apart from one or two possibly, partially honest MP’s, the vast majority are corrupt and quite cruel even savage when sating their greed for money, popularity, or/& power.

That doesn’t mean we can’t have a honest MP, it means the ones with potential are almost always groomed by the more senior MP’s along with their masters, foreign and domestic.

For government to work in the UK now we don’t need to win votes, we don’t need to win elections, it doesn’t even matter what colour rosette the horses arses wear.

What we need to do is end how government currently exists. We need to rid all the old guard of every party. We need new laws stating, any politicion or public servant that profits in any way, financially, or materialistically will be prosecuted and imprisoned.

That any family member profiteering or giving contracts such as cartain MP’s friends and family did in the lockdown days will be imprisoned.

That any deaths due to politicians policies will be prosecuted and the individual ministers and worker charged as private citizens, so no more corporate manslaughter, it will be for instance when someone loses their life over pathetic or improper sanctions be investigated as murder and all those from the worker imposing the sanction to the minister setting it be sentenced for their complicity.

Any member of the government or public official that collude with corporations, business, individuals or foreign powers/royalty/government will be charged as conspiring against the state and treason. Both carrying life terms.

Anyone found to be enabling or covering up such behaviour will also be charged.

A free society can be free for the people living within it only if those in charge are held fully to account.

If somebody becomes an MP to gain power or profit then they should never be considered.

It truly is that simple. And needs to happen.

I know I will get so many saying it will never happen, and it won’t til we all get behind it and make it happen, in any way we need to.

Jonesy

Poppies as a weapon?

Every year without fail we are told that Islamic leaders are threatening poppy sellers, that they are burning poppies or that they are going to march upon the cenataph.

It’s not now nor ever has been true.

There is so much made up bullshit out right now.

Yes there may be individual muppets – black, white or Asian threatening folks, puffing out chests and thinking its gangsta to threaten some old bloke selling poppies, most poppy sellers however are ex forces (often special forces) and even though they may look frail or well aged, are just as likely to do more damage to their aggressors than the bullies could ever expect. None I have ever met would be forced out because of threats.

The chief of police in the Met is clear that this stuff is just devisive to divide the people, and is kinda suggesting by his refusal to condemn the peace march, despite not just pressure but actual threats from the prime minister, that a significant amount of this hate propaganda is actually coming from the government and their masters.

I worked a lot in Islamic communities, often dealing with things that were likely to inflame most people, yet never ever felt threatened by anyone. The biggest dangers I dealt with were white British drugs gang members tooled up with automatics, and even then, we parted on reSonably good terms.


It’s easy to lose yourself in propaganda, and it’s a skill used by all sides.

I base my views very much on my own actual life experiences. And to be honest 99% of my interaction with Muslims, with immigrants, with asylum seekers, with all people of all statuses and labels you wish to place upon them, has been positive and even pleasant.

There are twats, but the same goes for any group, religious, cultural, disabled….. you cannot judge people by their skin colour, their clothing, their hair or eye colour, their physical strength or abilities or even their social status/standing.


I personally like to have a utopian view of bikers, being one, but sadly too often that idealistic mirage can wane because of some few or individual prats, and even without that, the view of the majority of folk sadly is influenced as with everything else by the negative way we are presented as by media, fiction, TV and movies.


Use your own experiences of people to make judgement, and if you have none, well then go and make some. You might be surprised.


Most Islamic leaders and people realise what poppy’s mean. So many had relatives or even now, have elders that fought in the war, mostly, against the kind of fascism that is predominant now.

How ironic is it that Braverman and Sunak are using even promoting and quoting the very people that despise them due to their skin colour, (not their greedy cruel values) to divide the nation in some feeble attempt to keep this morally and in my view criminally corrupt government in power?


The establishment and even their masters own the press, the media and even this so-called social media. They are taught from birth how to manipulate people, especially the masses. People that speak against them have no voice, or are quelled by threats, sometimes even worse. So please don’t be taken in by this division.

Today I saw on someone’s profile a T-shirt spouting about how “illegals deserve nothing, yet veterans deserve everything” that may not be the exact wording but close (I tend not to take much notice of uninformed shit.

The thing is no human is illegal, their behaviour or presence may be, but if they are in the UK illegally they get nothing, no benefits, no homes, no school places, no legal work, no health care beyond emergency treatment. The people you are being led to believe are getting all these benefits in living in the UK are people with every legal right to be here, whether because they are (even after brexit) EU migrants, member of commonwealth states with the visas, members of families that are here due to birth or legal migration.

Illegal immigrants get nothing unless they claim asylum as is international and global law, and it is granted

As I said I worked in many communities, often with people that couldn’t represent themselves. I dealt with issues that defied modern logic including blood feud as laid out in the KANUN OF LEKE DUKAGJINI, or other traditional laws or codes. These were archaic cultural laws that saw men as the owners of women and their children.

I dealt with one of the first ever child protection cases dealing with such an issue, and for a short time had to be placed under protection. The case was complex and fraught with obstacles, which we folk educated and brought up in Britain had no knowledge of. It was an eye opener and had a semi successful resolution at least for the children. These were legal EU migrants with the right to remain and live in the UK.

It was however no more or less harrowing than some other cases where white British people, men and women were identified as the abusers.

So basically do not believe anything you are told in the press, you see on TV or films, or are preached at by wannabe politicians, and particularly if it’s about hating a group of people that are only different to you by accident or even gift of birth.

It is those people trying to hide their own failings that promote such hatred.

It truly is that simple.

Remembrance 2023

I RESPECT AND REMEMBER ALL MY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO HAVE FOUGHT AND DIED IN WAR. I RESPECT AND REMEMBER ALL THE SOLDIERS WHO FOUGHT, WERE WOUNDED PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY AND MENTALLY FIGHTING WHAT THEY BELIEVED WERE OR EVEN ARE THE OPPRESSORS. I RESPECT AND REMEMBER ALL THE CIVILLIANS AND YES ANIMALS KILLED IN WAR ON ANY SIDE.
I DO NOT USE REMEMBRANCE DAY TO GLORIFY WAR, OR SUPPORT AN OPPRESSIVE REGIME ATTACKING, DISPLACING, WOUNDING AND KILLING PEOPLE WHO’S ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE BORN OF THE DESERT.
Jonesy

Stand by Israel?

I do not stand with Israel, I do not stand with Hamas, I stand with the Jewish and Palastinian people dying due to a pathetic war, which again our country’s leaders and their mates are profiteering from.

Hamas reacted to, what is, not too far short of a century of oppression, of threats, of expansionism, of violence and death from Zionist leaders of Israel towards the people living in Palestine and Gaza.

I do not condone Hamas nor their behaviour, but understand it and question myself as to whether I would be strong enough of moral character to turn the other cheek, watching my friends, family and neighbours were having to endure conditions imposed upon them, soley due to them being born within the region. It kind of reminds me somewhat of people being oppressed, killed, starved and tortured in certain regions of Europe just prior to the settlement of Israel.

I certainly do not stand with zionists, of expansionists, of any people of any religion or culture that seek to oppress people, to condemn people, to destroy homes and take lives.

Let’s be clear too, by the British government stating they stand with Israel, and agree with their demands to forcibly displace millions of people, they are agreeing to ensure those people become homeless, and stateless, therefore agree that they will absolutely become genuine refugees with, under global Human Rights Law, the inalienable right to ask any country for Asylum.

So it seems many of you are upset now by people seeking to enter Britain unlawfully, but every single Palestinian will be a legal and official asylum seeker, true refugees, and can not be turned away
So it’s kinda make yer mind up time Sunak, Braverman, Farage and Robinson, oh and yes even you Starmer.

Validity or invalidity?

Validity or invalidity?
Every day this government and its minions, the vile beaurocratic drones of the very un-civil and cruel services destroy lives a bit more, mine included. My tipping point is beyond close.

When people can no longer live their lives due to their wicked immoral behaviour, do we just lay down and die? Or will there be a point where some of us fight back in kind?
Why should these disgusting excuses for politicians, for civil servants and public employees get to dictate whose life has value and whose does not.
It’s not just them though is it? We live in a society where suddenly it is acceptable to use people’s life challenges against them. To see their illness as weakness, and their inability as laziness or even criminal.

Why should people with disability and chronic ill health feel so criminalised and completely worthless because the media, the government and sadly their peers, including so called friends and even family identify them as such?
I am a chronically ill disabled person who tries to identify as a valid human. No more and no less.

On my good days, or rather the few manageable days, not actually good, not ever pain free, not remotely easy, I may go out, try to behave and act ‘normal’, maybe even to onlookers seem like I am almost happy, possibly committing the offence of portraying someone who on these rare occasions is guilty of presenting as enjoying life.

Sadly though there are too many people who know just how ill I am, some of these people that have even very recently tried to discredit me, by reporting to officialdom that I have dared to leave my house, that I have been seen smiling, that I have interacted with a few other folk face to face, that I have gone beyond the unwritten yet imposed barrier that should be recognised as my, imposed by their judgement, prison.

These people sadly were once counted as my friends, but then when we had a disagreement, at that point it seems, they showed their true colours.

They are people who are fully aware of my daily challenges, they know beyond doubt that I live in constant pain, that I cannot focus, often even to the point of holding a conversation without losing my point, they know I have had two recent and severe heart attacks, they know I had angina before that, they know I have uncontrolled diabetes, that i try to keep some control off through my dietary restrictions but more so insulin, they have seen the effects upon me of a hypo and know this same diabetes killed my young brother. They know I have crohns disease which can cause me to soil myself, means i at times need pads but also means i am on medication that removes any immune system I may have, that i have had to subject my body to chemotherapy drugs, and live with the detrimental effects of those.
These are people who know I have limited mobility, that I am physically unable to undertake the most basic of tasks. These are folk that also know I have neuropathy – nerve damage due to my diabetes, I have fibromyalgia and even say they understand this because they too or their partners suffer from it.
They are fully aware I have PTSD from holding my dead kid brother (he was 18yrs my junior and like a son).
They say they know and supposedly share the feelings of hopelessness, loss of reason and all too often the very real wish not to be alive any longer, that the all too often killer, depression brings with it.

These are people who know a lot about me, they are fully aware that illness stole my job, career my role, they often stated (when they needed something), how they recognised how hard things are.
They said they realised how illness steals your relationships, especially with family. They know I not only lost my reason to be here, but in doing so, I lost a very well paid career, had to give up a comfortable life style to survive on virtually nothing. To have my life dictated by what those nameless office workers decide I should be allowed to do, when I am not lay immobile in my home, unable to move or even reach the toilet.

These are people, one or two, who used to even call me “brother”, as did I them, a title you will hopefully realise I see as extremely important, and not throw away, yet, decided because I saw them for who they truly are, (one a supposed ‘man’ who actually bullies women, not his own partner as far as i am aware, because he is not strong enough to face other men even ones as weak as myself, he has issues with, ) to try to get me in some form of trouble with the government and their agencies by fabrication and lies.
They believe they have a right to behave like that to anyone more vulnerable than them, because they are told every day they are, through the press, media and so many TV programmes.

These people are not one offs, they are not an isolated example, in the old days, as in prior to the 21st Century, these turncoat betrayers would be seen as the lowest of the low. They would be the ones isolated by entire communities, their behaviour would not be tolerated, they would be seen as the low life vile bullying immoral scum they are, yet now people though observing their behaviour, stand by without comment or action. It seems the morality of society has changed.

We now live in a world where the weak and vulnerable are not only easy but valid targets. Where the ill and disabled are seen as useless, or worse as frauds.

My message to people like these is please feel free to live my life, take my pain, accept that as you are, as described in your medical files frail and feeble. Please take on the role of a person without hope, of someone relying on others every day to survive.

I once spent everyday supporting people, protecting the most vulnerable, investigating the most vile, from those who would physically, emotionally or sexually abuse people, even having to interact with those who are seen by most moral folk as repugnant scum, to ensure the safety of children, of families, of women and even men by identifying their abusers and finding ways, through the courts, through law, through signposting and even through physically going, giving them the means to transport them, to assist them to escape, helping them disappear even during the dead of the night to ensure they are taken to a place of safety where their lives would be allowed to continue rather than them being murdered, raped or beaten through cultural traditions or laws.

That was my role, that along with my family was my reason, my self worth my value, not ever anything material.
Before that I drove buses, transporting people to school, work, shopping, holidays or too see friends or family.
I have dressed as a dustbin for Keep Britain Tidy, I have worked in a sweat shop in Manchester, I even started out as a care assistant at 16 looking after folk that could no longer look after themselves.
Throughout my life I have tried to matter, to make a difference. At times I hope I may have changed lives, even saved a few, whether as a social worker ,a friend or through Volunteer Riders UK. I don’t know whether I have though, because how can you measure that?
Despite trying to live a moral and kind life, to walk a path that hurts no one, I as so many others am subjected to this oppressive bullying by people who it seems feel they have a right to destroy the lives of others.
What these people need to understand though, is that no matter how much damage they do, they will never take away as much as what living with chronic illness does.
Today I was supposed to be going away with the support of my closest and best friend, Kate, who also provides me with care, compassion and focus. We both have had a challenging few years in our own ways, but she has continued to make sure I get to live a little when I can.
My anxiety, however, has teamed up with my physical issues and left me unable to go. One of the last times I went away, my brother died. The guilt I carried for not being here before it was too late is immense and consumes me every single day.
So instead of going away, I am sat writing this on my sofa, having just had a hypo because I failed to eat.
Now I haven’t written this as a woe is me. I wrote this because it is scraping the surface of my experience of life as a chronically ill man in this country, a country where all disabled people are threatened and vilified by so many , from officialdom to friends, to even family.
I can only write about my own experiences, and sadly it is one of being subjected to bullying and discrimination daily. Often from those you once trusted.
I don’t want hugs, I don’t want sympathy or favour. I want you to read this brief extract and if you too are disabled, realise you are not alone, and if you are not ill maybe consider that those of us who are,may not be the waste of air you see.
Jonesy

Change, good or bad?

Final day of Notting Hill carnival ‘marred by serious violence’, say police: Eight people stabbed with man, 29, in a ‘critical condition’
Headlines from Mail online. August 29th 2023


No recognition that when a country is being governed by greed and cruelty, when there is a loss of hope for the current and future generations, when there is nothing for people to aspire to, when there is no food on the table, and the prospect of a winter without heat, stability or even for many a roof, there will be civil unrest, there will be increases in crime, more violence, more theft.


It’s interesting how desperate Braverman is to take Britain away from the Human Rights Act and laws where people’s freedoms are protected. How the government want “all theft” investigated, but not assaults, and definitely not corruption and theft by politicians.


The British people are being carefully manipulated by the press and media, more than TASS ever did in the height of the cold war. The spin and outright propaganda from government and the establishment puts even Goebbels to shame.


The problem is though, that it is not going to be middle class middle England BBC News viewers who will rise up. The so called enlightened, the “woke” the humanists, even those of us claiming to be socialists have been lazy, we have screamed our chants on social media, some even got out on the streets, but none of that has any effect upon a regime that just ignores the opinion of not just the electorate but the demands of the United Nations in regard to human rights breaches. That’s truly terrible when we realise it was Britain where people (our people, our forebears) spilled blood, fought and died for us and eventually the majority of the world to have those very human rights, Braverman, the Conservatives, all politicians and their masters (whether British, American, Russian or Israeli) wish to steal from us now.


The people that will ignite the change that is coming are those that have been put in ghettos, in slums, in no go areas, those raised on streets run by County Lines, those kids given hand guns at 9 years of age, the people who dare not leave their homes due to gangs, those people who have no hope of ever escaping their lot even for a weekend.
The revolutionaries of this century are not going to be fighting for anyone else, they are not going to be waving banners, there will be no factional flags to identify them, they will be those people ignored by everyone. Those people we distance ourselves from.


Your streets lined with CCTV and those few under resourced and under trained PCSO’s will not be protection.


Revolution now will not be about race, it will not be for equality or freedom, it will be those with nothing to lose, giving all to just survive. It will be a grab at the power with no intent to sustain it. No replacement ideology, no manifesto, just desperation.


We can sit typing away, just as I am doing now, in our little suburbs, our quaint villages, our country market towns, looking at the big political picture, criticising and shouting but within the limits of the ingrained fear of prosecution due to this surveillance culture.
We can pretend to hold the moral high ground, yet wait for others to bring about the change that’s really needed, we can buy into the bizarre rhetoric so many seem to spout about how demonstration and civil disruption is wrong and the protestors are our enemies, which as a socialist I cannot ever get my head around, our rights were gained only by demonstration, protests, and civil disruption. Yes disruption might make you late for work or may mean you miss a flight or other things, and there will be folk commenting about how ambulances and fire engines get blocked, but I guess they are not drivers themselves who have to fight the gridlock daily caused by infrastructure not fit for purpose due to corruption over development of Britain by often investors from countries our own government describe as oppressive or corrupt. Ironic. They won’t realise that the underhand stripping of NHS assets and the continuing privatisation means those very same ambulances are held in often 8 to 10 hour queues outside A&E departments that cannot even assess the patients never mind admit them.


If we wait, the fight to come will not be for our rights, it will be for our very survival. It is that simple.


If we wait, there will be no chance of positive planned change. There will be warlords, territories and vast locked down areas policed by violence, whether by gangs or government.
Scare mongering? Sadly I do not think so. I see daily the way people have lost hope, lost respect not only for others but themselves. I worked and lived in areas where there was nothing to strive to, where the only respect was for the biggest gun and most violent gangs.


A few years ago there was a move by a certain city to bring in reformed gang leaders from the most dangerous areas of the USA, to educate youngsters who lived in an extremely infamous estate.


The American ex-gang leaders stayed a matter of days. They left saying this particular area was far more dangerous than the Bronx or LA, because over there the gangs wore colours, you knew your foe, but here anyone could kill you without notice.
Has that changed?


I haven’t the answers, sadly my health and as the doctors call it my frailty means my days of marching and more are long gone. But my frustration, my concerns and even fears for those coming after me are all to real. I may be just some daft or mad old man renting on, or maybe I am just seeing what so far others seem blind to. You decide.

Questions in time?

Reet, let’s be clear, I have never questioned the existence of Covid19. I worked through the pandemic as best I could to save lives. I spoke to all kinds of people on the absolute front line, at times being the only person there for them to disclose to.
The virus was I truly believe as real as it gets, and it killed far too many folk, mainly in my humble opinion die to not only inaction and incompetence of the government and opposition MP’s, the failiure of the civil service itself and the transport infrastructure, the blatant government supporting and misinformation from the faux independent British press, but the insurmountable levels of corruption at the very heatt of this government and so many of their friends and supporters.
Now, however, I do have to question the so-called vaccines, the clauses the pharmaceutical companies insisted on to protect them from prosecution, and just what side effects all us guineapigs now are experiencing.
Before Covid, I was already living with chronic illness and pain. I had 4 years of exhaustion, of brain fog, of not functioning, and several symptoms I would rather not share here.
My medication list then was only slightly less than it is now, and to say I rattled with tablets and leaked with injection holes was an understatement.
Now, however, I cannot try to function for a single day without being completely off my feet and unable to undertake the most basic tasks for at least 4 subsequent days.
I would blame this completely upon my seemingly inoperable chronic heart disease, to which I am still awaiting a clear consultation in regard to prognosis, but without being too morbid, does not look extremely promising at this time, andante that has some part in my current complete shutdowns of all my abilities, however, so many other folk are reporting very similar experiences,and a good number of then have no history or ptevious presentation of any diagnosed chronic illness.
These folk have little to link them, except the majority either having had Covid 19, or for many more having had the vaccine.
I truly have no answers at present, but so many questions form in my mind.
The first question is, with the 20/20 vision hindsight grants us how can we trust any response from the politicians, their press puppets, or their civil servants?
That is one question I can with confidence supply an answer as clearly stare we cannot.
The second question is why it is now that politicians of all parties support the stripping of our rights, especially those involving the base tools of all democracy, the right to protest, demonstrate, and strike. Not to mention the attacks on our privacy and free speech.
Will we need to wait for hindsight to answer that and the other questions, when it will be too late to defend against this destruction of tye remnants of freedom that still exist, or will we as a nation finally find our voice and demand the answers and accountability from those who have chosen to stand against all the morality we should hold dear?
That I truly struggle to answer, and sadly, each day lose hope it will happen in time.
Jonesy
http://www.thejonesy.com

Language and oppression

Today, I was challenged about sharing a meme about fathers loving their children. I was told that the term should be “care givers” if I was to be PC.

The thing is, I am not that PC, as in i am a human being living in a world full of challenges for so many people. I live my life to the values I hope take all people into account, but there is a line betwixt language and culture.

I will not deliberately try to offend anyone by using language I believe to be oppressive, I will, however, continue to live in a world where my knowledge and experience are what I base my views upon. I am happy to learn from others, but am I hope realistic, and as such see the continual changes in what is supposedly politically acceptable and what isn’t as at times oppressive in itself.

If you wish to oppress people one of the first tactics you use is you stop them speaking out, and the easiest way to do that is to publicly discredit their use of language.

In this instance I shared a meme that fitted with my personal experience. It was not a comment upon gender fluidity nor any other topic. I have been for many years the target of parental alienation.


I am a father, not a care giver, because due to that alienation I gave not been able to provide the care I wished to give. I do not give a bloody damn about what the latest terms should be I am a father to my children, even if only currently in name only. So I may offend people by not using the correct trendy term, but they offend me by stealing the only value of my life from me.