I’ve never been particularly religious myself, but this is what religion is supposed to be about

http://www.upworthy.com/muslim-america-rocks?c=bl3

Whenever someone associates Islam with killing in conversation I tell them off; I've known some very kind and friendly Muslims in my life, people I've done charity work with and people who've encouraged me in the charity work that I've done.

A few days ago I posted a picture on my professional Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AllanMcleodOnline) of a group on Muslim’s surrounding a church during mass so the Christians inside could pray in safety and a group of Christians surrounding Muslims so they could pray in peace. And here it is, the final proof that Islam is not about killing, violence and patriarchal dominance:

I've never been particularly religious myself but I will defend people who are if it makes them a better person.

Somehow ‘I told you so’ doesn’t quite say it.

And less than a day after i read about hospitals rating there own food I find this:

Tens of thousands of people are being allowed to die of thirst every year in NHS hospitals; how f***ing stupid

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/thousands-needlessly-dying-kidney-failure-034255251.html#dNt6Inz

How can hospitals be allowed to rate the quality of their own food:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hospitals-own-food-top-marks-231337423.html#mQlUSzB

How stupid: of course anybody being allowed to rate themselves highly will do so especially when they have a public image to maintain. I’ve seen the sorry state of hospital food on television documentaries and from working in care myself; and being subjected to that is the absolute last thing that will do any good and the last thing I would want.

Good food is a necessity to good health, which means nutritious food, not whatever can be crammed into microwavable packaging at the lowest cost. Considering the effect of food on mental health and the psychological aspect of immunity and recovery a need for good food becomes apparent.

Patients should therefore most definitely have the same right to good food as ‘government ministers, school kids and prisoners’ as the Campaign for better Hospital Food are putting it.

That being said let’s examine hospital funding and see how they make their money:

NHS rents rather than buys hospitals so as a result private companies which own our NHS hospitals can;

·         Charge for television privileges (£10 per day)

·         Only WH Smith stores not to sell books (I can only assume to pressure longer staying patients into purchasing telly privileges or magazine after magazine)

·         Car parking fees for people driving themselves in, visitors and staff

·         Only afford to bulk buy microwave meals rather than cook high quality and tasty food.

I can fully sympathise with people thinking the NHS is losing its perspective, especially when people are at times so bored if they cannot afford to pay for entertainment that they go out of there mind. I had a mate tell me about a 3 day stint in hospital and he saw on the other side of the ward someone who looked like he had been in for days: he looked like he was going out of his mind: well who can afford £70 a week just to watch telly?

People say you can’t put a price on happiness, well apparently you can; our NHS may be free at point of entry but the fee’s start going up as soon as that point is passed if you actually want the stay in hospital to be a comfortable experience.

Bood donation

Well I have once again just been to donate blood. I am still amused by the irony that I am a tattooed blood donor with a needle phobia. https://www.facebook.com/NHSBlood

Release Date for 'My Little Blue Book'

Ok people I’m going to be a bit more specific from now on.

The erotic fiction I’ve been working on; a collection of erotic short stories called ‘My Little Blue Book’ will be released on the 27^th September.

Hope you all enjoy it ;).

Surely this man was sacked for just doing his job?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ryanair-sacks-pilot-questioning-safety-tv-151507929.html#18Lq0c5

So Ryanair is preparing to prosecute a pilot they sacked because he questioned the safety record of the company on television?

Isn’t it his job to ensure the safety of his passengers while he’s on a plane? I think that it is absolutely disgraceful that that a company would sack someone for whistleblowing safety concerns. Unfortunately it happens every day, sacking whistle-blowers. The air travel company has been accused by pilots of encouraging them to carry a minimalistic level of reserve fuel in order to save money.

In a television documentary a pilot named Goss claims he received a ‘critical letter’ telling him he was using too much fuel and that a lot of pilots had safety concerns and little confidence in reporting systems.

Ryanair’s standpoint on this matter was clear however: openly admitting you have safety concerns is defamatory: goodbye. Didn’t we have a similar incident a few years ago where a doctor was prosecuted for openly claiming a heart disease treatment was unsafe? I can see a lots changed since then.

And…. Done!

The first draft of my collection of erotic short stories has just now been uploaded to my publisher’s website. ‘My Little Blue Book’ is well on track for its launch in the back end of September!!!

It will be available from Amazon and other retailers.

Social Services Charging Children for Services??? W.T.F.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/children-may-charged-care-123033060.html#5clH9lP

I think that this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. A British county council is actually considering charging older children for the care they receive. I think it is absolutely disgraceful to charge older children for access to social care, and absolutely stupid to charge parents for the use of social care. Yes parents have responsibility for children, however social services already has a certain level of stigma attached to it, parents being supported by them already feel as though there looked down on as inadequate and if they are going to be charged for access to services then they will be even more reluctant to seek help.

It's the economy stupid: why capitalism is reliant on a high minimum wage

You know I think it’s absolutely stupid claiming that increasing the minimum wage would increase unemployment: Which western nation managed to cope with the global recession the best? Australia; and what is the national minimum wage in Australia? AU$16 per hour or AU$20 for casual staff. When translated into British currency that equals £9.42 per hour for contracted staff and £11.79 for those of us on those highly exploitative Zero-hour contracts, quite an increase on the £6.19 we get over here in Blighty.

For American readers; there is only about a 10-12% difference between the Australian and American dollar so after doing a currency conversion check: if you American readers were living in Oz you’d have the equivalent of a $14.59 minimum wage if you had contracted hours or $18.25 if you’re a casual worker.

Poverty makes a recession worse because in a capitalist system there is a reliance on spending power to improve the economy, if people don’t have spending power then the economy can’t grow. So if an economy exists where poor people are allowed to exist it will always have a fragile economy, subject to crashes and recessions. This means that the rich need to learn that economic stability is reliant on money exchanging hands – not being horded in a bank account that is full beyond any possibility of it ever being needed, yes people should have a reserve and money for retirement, but not to excess.

All that does is take large amounts of money out of circulation, which means it’s not actively being used to support the capitalist system. This means that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way we view money: we need to look at money as resource first and not as private property. Don’t get me wrong people who work hard should be rewarded for it. But that should mean that NOBODY who works for a living is living in poverty. It means that keeping excess money once you’ve got it should be just as hard as earning it in the first place.

I think we’ve all heard the phrase that money is the root of all evil, well thanks to capitalism it’s the lifeblood of western if not global civilisation: and who ever heard of someone being able to buy and hoard dozens of times more blood than they could ever need from a blood bank and keep frozen somewhere ‘just in case’ while clinic operations ground to a halt: well that is what is being done with low minimum wages and excessive wealth in the hands of the top 1%, because people are suffering a level of poverty in the west not known for decades, and there are people going hungry while a very small minority receive each year more than some earn in a lifetime.

E.U. or not to E.U.

I’m probably about to say something that is going to alienate a lot of my fellow Britain’s: I’m pro-Europe.

In fact I’m not only pro-Europe I’m openly proud of my European citizenship: Almost as proud of my European Citizenship as my British Citizenship (I did say almost). I don’t support further integration of the E.U. and in a lot of ways I think it’s doing a bad job: I think if it becomes too integrated, i.e. into a United States of Europe then a lot of the advantages that it can bring will be nullified, for example if we have a social problem that needs solving one thing which can be done is to look at other countries which have had similar problems and think ‘who’s idea worked best’, which if were so integrated we all have to do the same thing cannot be done.

But when it comes down to it we need the E.U. Look what happened a short time ago when the British government announced a referendum after the next election: business leaders for British business were on the case condemning it immediately. Although my political viewpoint is leftist I do recognise the necessity of being pro-business, especially when the economy is in such a mess – so I cannot take the populist position of the E.U. as a good for nothing institution of money grabbers.

It does seem ironic, that someone who’s views are often referred to as ‘soft core euro-scepticism’ seems so adamant that we be in the E.U., I may not like the E.U. I do not but we do need a E.U., even if it isn’t this one. But yes the E.U. does have a redeeming virtue, and this is one of the things I’m so proud of my European Citizenship for: up until the 1940’s saying the nations of Europe didn’t get on was an understatement: in the last century Europe was the focal point for the only 2 world wars in human history and for centuries before that we sailed the oceans shooting from ship to ship – we hated each other. And in only a few decades we put aside centuries of hate and are now one of the world’s leading emerging superpowers, a leader in trying to stamp out disease and war and hunger throughout the globe, which is definitely something to be proud of.

So when the pro-Europe arguments from Britain’s political parties start should the referendum go forward please listen with an open mind to the pro-E.U. arguments before turning up to vote.

I agree with Ste

http://www.stephenfry.com/2013/08/07/an-open-letter-to-david-cameron-and-the-ioc/#

I totally agree with what Stephen Fry has written here, Russia over the past few months has become so militant against the LGBT community that I simply don’t think that they should be allowed to host any international event which could allow them to reflect themselves in good light. A message of solidarity on behalf of the LGBT community from the other governments of the world should most definitely take place in the form of saying stop by taking the Olympics elsewhere.

UKIP at it again

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ukip-bongo-land-mep-unrepentant-082840253.html#tpCJQH8

Perhaps this guy should go back to school. That’s where I learned what overseas aid is used for: A few decades ago we as a species did something we had never done before and have never done again since: we eradicated smallpox. We are only a few years away from sending polio the same way with a global vaccination programme. Should we cut that programme or keep it going? Bearing in mind before you answer that dear readers that polio is so contagious and the time difference between infection and the presentation of symptoms is so great that 1 case is enough to declare an epidemic. As long as 1 person has polio in the world everybody who hasn’t been vaccinated is at risk.

It genuinely frightens me how much support UKIP are getting right now, they’ve had so much bad press for not vetting there members properly and every so often someone really crosses the mark and the party has to disavow themselves of him- the other 3 parties might be out of touch in the UK but idiots like this are by no means the solution.

Fifty Shades of gray inspires people to put there bit's in toasters: not exactly safe sex

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fifty-shades-effect-blamed-uk-handcuff-mishaps-113107632.html#BaR55W8

Seriously: I simply cannot believe that people would be this hilariously stupid – On one hand I now know that when my erotic fiction comes out that I’m probably going to make a big wodge of cash from it, but on the other … you know what no … erotic fiction does not cause people to put their weaner in a toaster of all things – and I find it hard to believe the fire services assertion that most of these instances may have anything to do with reading erotica.

‘The fire brigade urged those using handcuffs in the bedroom “to always keep they key handy”’: No s*** Sherlock. If I recall correctly most handcuffs that can be bought from sex shops actually have a safety catch on them as well anyway.

Seriously sex toys come with instructions and people’s man parts and lady parts shouldn’t need to come with an instruction guide:

Point 1) Do not put you appendage in a toaster or vacuum cleaner ;)

Point 2) Don’t lose the handcuff keys

Point 3) If you ignore points 1 & 2 please be aware the fire service staff who turn up are NOT strippergrams