vivweb01blog

Please excuse the rather hard-hitting question in the title of this blog, but needs must - this is potentially pretty serious, particularly if you're one of our many hard-up pensioners….. The Labour leadership is getting desperate now, and as we all know, desperation often leads to serious mistakes…this certainly would be a monumental one. OK, what's all the fuss about ? There are a number of evil rumours abound in the media (and not just the socials) that Reeves is now actively considering means-testing the State Pension in November as part of her 'Black Hole filling' project.  The Inter-generational Foundation think tank is reported to have gone as far as recommending it to government as a way of  "..distributing resources more fairly between the generations..". Starmer has already been challenged on why he has allowed the tax threshold freezes to bring some pensioners, who have the state pension as their sole income, into the basic rate tax net at ...

  Editors note: I first encountered this disturbing issue in May of last year, having fallen victim to it myself as an eBay seller at the time.  I've just  been caught again by the same 'querk' in eBay's returns system whereby a buyer's request on grounds of 'Not as Specified' or 'Item Defective' gives them automatic 'carte blanche' for a refund with the seller paying the return postage.  The only recourse you have as a seller is to accept the return and report the buyer for a fraudulent claim. And even then, eBay refuse to tell you what, if anything, they've done after the event. Needless to say you don't get any of your money back, and are left with an item that may have been deliberately modified or even damaged by the buyer. What's even more worrying is that there appears to be no mechanism for witholding or reducing a refund if the item is sent back in this state such that its resale value is compromised . Please note also t...

  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 rather amusing, but scathing, anecdote on the subject of having and bringing up kids last April.  However, since then the issue has become a rather more serious one for our country's future, with some interesting, and quite chilling, findings recently brought to light. These would tend to confirm a marked unwillingness to embark upon the 'reproductive journey' amongst our indigenous population (i.e. those who were born here). Perhaps our potential parents have looked at their ever-dwindling bank balances and rocketing tax takes...and seen the light.  And who could blame them given the prospect of even worse to come over the next 4 years ? Recently announced birthrate statistics have shown a marked downward trend in the course of the last 3 years, with the overall tally for 2024 at 1.41 births per woman in England and Wales, a record low for the 3rd year in a row. This is of course well below the replacement level of 2.1, and might suggest our pop...

  I first published this blog in February 2022, just before Putin's invasion of Ukraine.  A    report   last year of  the possibility of life existing on another planet in another solar system also presented a good opportunity for a fresh look at the question. This seems even more relevant now, given the increasingly fragile state of our planet's ecosystem and our own continuing descent into resource-driven conflict. Present idications suggest that our present society may not have long left, and all in all,  perhaps it's a fitting time to consider whether there might be a possibility of alternative accommodation for humans elsewhere in the universe.... The combination of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), CO2 and methane in the atmosphere of  exoplanet K2-18b in significant quantities is seen as a possible 'biomarker' for life there - although it does not by any means confirm the presence of life , it is certainly intriguing. At a distance of 124 light year...