vivweb01blog

Looks like we may have another strong candidate for this year's Lammy of the Year award …. Sadly, this one is a bit more serious in its implications than our current front runner for the title - the now ex-FS’s recent fishing misdemeanour ….and it's far less amusing, to boot. Rayner seems to have led a very complex life as far as her own personal housing is concerned. The latest high-profile issue, whether she was entitled to designate her newly acquired flat in Hove as her main residence in her dealings with HMRC, having told the local council there that it wasn’t,   appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.... Devoted followers of our deputy PM's antics will recall a previous row, again about housing, which surfaced in April 2024. At the time, she actually went as far as promising to resign if action were taken against her over the matter. The police investigation into her affairs stemmed from a complaint made by the local MP at the time, James Daly, that she ha...

  Editor's note: This blog first saw the light of day in late December last year after 5 months of Labour's incumbency (or should it be encumbrance ?). If anything, the prospects of  its leader securing a second term, or even surviving in post to seek one, seem even more remote. A notable mis-step (or should it be ' lammy ') in July  was a frontal attack on seven of his back-bench 'rebels', four of whom actually had the whip removed. Far from trying to bring them and their many 'potential rebel' colleagues onside in an attempt to save his premiership, as any remotely astute leader would do, he 'went for the jugular' in a (probably vain) attempt to frighten them all into submission. Even 'supersurvivor' Diane Abbott was not safe from retribution, having withdrawn her recantation over her comments on 'differential racism' and was re-expelled from the party at Starmer's behest. And "...Oh no, not another 'lammy'........

  I first published this blog in late 2023 when the realisation that vaping was harmful to teenage lungs was becoming more widespread, and the authorities were finally waking up to the fact that they needed to do something.  All the evidence that has emerged since then has tended to confirm our suspicions - i.e. that long-term vaping does impair lung function, and is likely to be doing so irreversibly. We should thus only be permitting the use of vapes strictly as an aid to stop smoking, and only for as long as is necessary to 'kick the habit'. If we fail to restrict availability, and don't manage to convince our kids as to the dangers, we will be condemning a whole generation to breathing problems in their middle and later years, with the serious burden that will put on our NHS as a result.  There are already reports of worried parents seeing real and lasting damage actually requiring hospitalisation happening to their addicted kids, and the recent legislation banning ...