You get what you pay for?

The question of if female footballers should be paid the same as their male equvilant, has been answered

Women's football team that announced equal pay with men's team goes broke

And it's been answered in the only way I was hoping for. No, sorry, I have no sympathy for this siuation at all. It was blindingly obvious why female footballers get paid less than men, and it was never about sexism 

 

Whoever thought this was a good idea, fully deserves the consequences

Lewes FC has issued an extraordinary appeal for £120,000 to survive the summer, warning that "the next few weeks" will shape their entire future.

The Sussex club, which became famous in 2017 as the first football club to pay their women's and men's teams equally, admitted they now face a fight to stick to that landmark commitment and even "to keep the club running".

I wonder who they are asking, for all this money? The fans? If the fans aren't paying to watch the wimmins, they aren't going to open their wallets for an appeal

Sponsors? If the fans aren't watching the games, there's no reason to invest money in sponsoring them 

The crisis comes eight years after launching their pioneering "Equality FC" campaign, which sought to "put an end to the excuses for why such a deep pay disparity has persisted in our sport".

Well you certainly achieved your goal. You put an end to those excuses by proving they are not excuses but actually reality

Former board member Barry Collins, who helped rescue the club in 2010, resigned in September 2019 with a scathing assessment.

"I joined a football club and feel like I'm leaving a political party," he wrote, adding that "the club has become overwhelmed by the single issue of the equality campaign."

I would have thought by now that the 'Get Woke, Go Broke' lesson would have been learned many times over, but it seems there are still unstoppable morons out there who think virtue signalling will somehow alter reality

Board member Joe Short confirmed there were no immediate plans to abandon Equality FC, whilst Collins warned: "If you can't pay your bills, you potentially face administration or insolvency."

And absolutely refuse to look actual reality in the eye... 

And I reckon there's another dimension to this. We're looking at Lews FC. The 'gender pay gap' there must be a hell of a lot smaller that your average Premier league club, and probably lower divisions too. I'm sure the wages are pretty low to begin with, and any increase in the female salary to match the males, can't have been huge numbers

 

With that in mind, consider the wast amount of revenue that would be required to have an 'Equality FC' in a serious club. And this is revenue that would have to come from existing sources, as they ain't gonna get more ticket sales or sponsorship by simply saying, we're paying the wimmins more, give us extra cash

 

TBH I don't know who Lewes FC are or what kind of money they make, but after reading this article, I'm thinking these players are only in it for a hobby, and I'm actually wondering why they are being paid to hobby about anyway

 

 

Disaster!

I had the worst weekend ever

 

Last weekend, the waste pipe from the bathroom sink started leaking, at about 10pm, and water was dripping through the kitchen ceiling

 

I spent the next couple of hours dismantling the pipe and adding sillicone to the joints to seal it up. That wasn't enough though. Whoever put the pipes in place some decades ago, had it all squeezed into a gap that is too small, so there was a lot of pressure on the joints. The rubber seals have perished as a result, and the screw fitting to the basin has stripped some of the thread

 

It needed a flexible pipe, so I bought one off ebay. Which turned up on Thursday and was the wrong size, so went it back

 

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early and went to the local plumbing shop for a flex pipe, then after a few coffees and a cigar, I removed the old pipe and replaced it with the new one, which was perfect

 

I ran some water through it to test the seals, and it started coming through the kitchen ceiling again 

 

F%$k!

 

The problem with these old terraced houses is, if you start tugging at pipes in one area, you can break seals further down the line, because they are so old and brittle. I figured I'd damaged the part of the waste pipe that goes under the floor and out to the drains

 

I removed the laminate flooring, the underlay and the necessary floorboards, to find the waste pipe is an old bendy lead pipe, and it was totally rotten. Not only was it leaking about a foot from the pipe I replaced, but also had been leaking nearer the outer wall, for what looked like a very long time 

 

There was also a bit of decades old gaffer tape wrapped around a kink in it. And half the diameter was clogged with disgusting gunge

 

So I removed the entire length of pipe and replaced it with new plastic pipes, tested it with water again and everything was working

 

Result! So I was re-laying the floorboards, while giving myself a pat on the back for a job well done, when I hammered a nail through one of the central heating pipes

 

I was piss wet through, the bathroom was piss wet through, and I was sat there with my thumb covering the hole, wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do now

 

After about twenty minutes deliberation (and considering just crying), I hammered the nail back in the pipe, legged it downstairs, opened the radiator drain valve, legged it back up again, removesd the nail and sat there with my thumb on the hole again until the pressure dropped

 

Once the central heating system was drained, I made a brew and a fag, then rang a plummer and fessed up

 

They're coming on Friday

 

Stupid, stupid schoolboy error 

 

Old manky pipe

This bit was taped up

New spanky pipe

Nailed it. I could replace this section of pipe, but it would push my abilities and risk further mishaps, so the plumber is going to make it all go away for me

 

Women

So I'm sat on the couch watching telly with the wife yesterday evening and she says:

Wife:     Why haven't you been for a wee yet?

Me:         I don't need one yet

Wife:     Oh...

Me:         Why? Do you need something from the bathroom?

Wife:     Yes. my cardigan

 

So when the program finished, being the dutiful husband, I went to the bathroom to get the cardigan

When I came out, she was at the bottom of the starirs, so I threw it down to her

She passed me on the stairs, going up, carriying the cardigan

 

Me:        Why are you taking it back upstairs?

Wife:       I need a wee 

 

Women 

In which I agree with Pink News

Or do I?

‘Keir Starmer’s cowardice has made Labour a party for no one’

Labour should have been a party for no-one since Blair / Brown were booted out in 2010. Thirteen years of Labour government showed us just what they were capable of. Somehow, nine million people still thought Labour was the party for them in last years general election, even though they were little different from the party we already had in government at the time, the so called Conservatives

 

If a left wing rag like Pink News can denouce Starmer though, he's clearly pissing off some of those nine million die hards

 

They ain't touting for Reform though, or any alternative, for that matter. Dyed in the wool reds aren't going to vote for reform, and they'll never vote Conservative, even though they have pretty much the same policies, or lack thereof

 

Maybe that's why the Lib Dems have popped up again, like some political protest vote, whack-a-mole

No one knows what Keir Starmer believes. That’s not just columnistic touting, either. YouGov statistics from April prove that the majority of the British public (60 per cent) has absolutely no idea what Keir Starmer stands for. It often appears that members of his own political Party seldom know what their leader is going to say when he stands in the Commons or takes to his podium at Number 10.

Kier Starmer believes he should be in power over us because he is better than us. Nothing more, nothing less

Since becoming prime minister, several of Sir Keir’s positions, which he claims to have firmly held since becoming Labour leader in 2020, have fizzled into nothingness at breakneck speed.

I don't actually remember him having any positions he firmly held, but I may have missed something. The man was very forgettable, before he got a taste of power

His immigration policies seem to be handpicked from the Tory playbook,

If you mean, 'Let everyone in, to hell with the consequences, and call anyone who disagrees, a racist', then yes, straight from the Tory Playbook (I suspect that isn't what they mean)

his budgetary decisions completely fly in the face of the 2024 manifesto, and Labour still seems to have no answer to the NHS’s woes.

His budgetary decisions are classic Labour: If it moves, tax it. They may be different from his manifesto, I don't know, but it could be seen coming by a mole in a hole

Nobody has any answer to the NHS woes, as the real answer is root and branch reform, but the British people have a hissy fit if anyone mentions anything other than more funding

And then there’s his treatment of LGBTQ+ issues...

Well this is an LGBETC mag...

This one makes my blood boil, because I was there. I was there during the 2022 PinkNews Awards when Starmer [...] deplored the Conservative government’s treatment of trans people

I'm not really sure what there was to deplore, considering the Conservatives treatment of trans people was pretty much to let them do what they want, no matter how depraved or batshit crazy it became

What a cowardly person you have become since I saw you proudly standing with us at that podium. What a fool I was for believing you actually gave a damn about mine and all trans people’s rights.

I've always failed to see what rights trans people do not have, that the rest of us do, but the sentiment stands. Starmer is a cowerd who will swing whatever way the wind is blowing, just to get and hold onto power

And yes, you were a fool for believing in Starmer. Along with 8,999,999 others

Through this endless flip-flopping, Starmer and his politically centrist chums have helped transform Labour into a party that once stood for something to a party desperately looking for approval; acting like it isn’t already in power.

Centrist is not the word I would have picked, but desparation certainly is. His party were not prepared for Government and have fucked up everything they've touched since getting in 

You only need to look at his statement on the UK’s Supreme Court ruling on the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman to see the destructiveness of favourability politics. Starmer’s statement that he no longer believes trans women to be real women was liked by literally no one. Progressive activists saw it as the nail in the coffin for any hope that Labour would escape the TERF chains wrapped around its neck, and anti-trans activists deplored it as too little, too late.

TERFs and Anti-Trans Activists. Well like I said, this is Pink News 

However, we have a Prime Minister who starts off thinking men can become women, then changes his tune when a court tells him no

 

The leader of our country needs a legal decision to explain biological reality to him. If he can't make up his mind what a woman is, how can we trust him to run the country?

 

 

I may have had a little more respect for him if he had stuck to his guns, but probably not

And so here Keir Starmer is, left to stew in the consequences of his failed tactic to just go along with whatever he believes the public think, a though he thinks being a man of the people means to blindly follow them wherever they go – even off a cliff.

Kier Starmer is definately not going along with what the people think, and he is not a man of the people. At most, he has changed his waffling a bit to try and stem the tide of Reform, but he firmly believes in his own superiority complex

The only leading off a cliff we will see, will be Starmer leading the country, by force if necessary, right off the cliff and into a sea full of small boats heading our way

All Labour’s commitment to following whatever they believe the public want has done has made it the Party of cowardice, and that is ultimately a Party that represents no one.

Yeah, but they're not following what the people want. That why Reform are becoming so popular. The people want a party that might actually listen to them for once
 

Maybe this is just what Starmer needs?

A new Covid scare

 

Unbelievably (or not), the Daily Star is once again reporting on Covid deaths and a new strain. Considering what the Labour Government are currently doing to us, I imagine Starmer would welcome fresh lockdowns and wall to wall blanket coverage of a new Covid strain on national TV and press

I reckon though, people are weary enough about Covid by now, that this won't even gain any traction

 

The language and tone haven't even changed since back in 2020/21

New Covid variant fears as UK deaths double in a week and cases surge around world

Deaths double, Cases surge, ring any bells?

The latest UK Government data shows 101 people died with Covid-19 on their death certificate in the week up to May 2, a rise of 65% from the previous week.

Not to belittle the 101 deaders, but that number is still vanishingly small, probably people who were circling the drain anyway, and once again, it's 'Covid on their death certificate'

It is the highest number of weekly Covid deaths the UK recorded since the end of January

It's also the first I've heard of it this year, and maybe last year too

it comes as fears grow over a new wave of the killer disease which emerged in parts of Asia.

Well my fear certainly ain't growing, but unfortunately I am aware that there are still people refusing to let this go, so I've no doubt somebodys fear is rising, but certainly only among people who can be safely ignored

Alarms have been raised globally in recent weeks over the spread of new Omicron subvariant known as JN.1, which has become the dominant global strain.

But is it deadly? Most of the later 'dominant global strains' were no worse than a cold

An official told local media: "As per the preliminary information available, the cases are mostly mild, not associated with unusual severity or mortality."

Then why are we even having this conversation?

India has recorded its highest number of active cases in a year and two people — aged 14 and 54 — died after testing positive for Covid, but they had underlying health conditions, officials said.

Oh no. Two already sick people have died in India. TWO!!

I'm not even goint to attempt to work that out as a percentage

And the fast-spreading strain has seen a fresh wave of the virus rip through other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Rip through. I'm wondering right now, as Kier Starmers policies rip through our once decent country, will he be begging to be able to resurrect Covid to deflect us from his own looming disaster(s)

 

The Coronavirus Act 2020 did eventually expire, but they've done it once...

What a waste

The following story is to be taken with a pinch of salt, and is in no way intended as any kind of verified truth

 

We're currently in Corfu (again). On Tuesday we got together with some friends who live here, to have a few beers and a general catch up.

We were joined by a Greek guy (We'll call him Yanis), who now spends most of his time working in construction in England. We don't often get to see Yanis, as when we're in Corfu, he's in England, and when we're in England, he works down south and we are up north

 

Anyway, he was telling us he is now working on a road building project that is attached to HS2. You may have been wondering why the costs of HS2 have ballooned out of control, and his story may provide some insight, but it's unverified and could very well be bollocks

 

The base of the road is made of rocks which are delivered in by many rock carrying trucks. They will prepare the bed, the rocks get dumped and then they fettle the rocks ready for the next stage of whatever material goes down

 

At this point, they need to be inspected. The inspector turns up and declares the rocks unusable, as they have been improperly prepared for the next layer. The inspector then says that the rocks cannot be fettled further, but must be removed and binned

 

The rock people then turn up again and collect the rocks to take them away to be binned. And by binned, they mean sold again to another part of the project

 

The rock people then turn up with new rocks for the road, which also have been paid for. The rocks are dumped and fettled and the inspector called in again. And the inspector declares the surface unsuitable and the rocks have to be removed

 

This happens on average, ten times before the rocks are declared good, and the next surface of the road can be added 

All the rocks are sold, removed and resold during each stage of this process

 

Now I've known Yanis for some time and I would not say he's prone to flights of fancy, but he does enjoy a beer or two, and some folk can be tempted to embellish their tales after a few scoops, and he's no different

 

Anyway, that's the story he told me. Make of it what you will

 

I'll be here enjoying the sun for another week