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<channel><generator>iloblog 1.0</generator><title>Throwing the toys out the pram Feed</title><link>http://rant.playpengroup.co.uk/</link><description>Everyone likes a good rant, and I am no different...&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Every now and then the world amazes me and I need to get it off my chest. My family is tired of carrying that burden so now it&#039;s your turn. &lt;br/&gt;</description><item><title>Special Relationship</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=19</link><description><![CDATA[ It is a matter of much boasting between the leaders of the United Kingdom and the United State that the two nations have a "Special Relationship", but no one ever says what that relationship is. Occasionally, especially under Tony Blair, the relationship was referred to as being like that of a lap dog and it's master but in reality ita seems more like that of a conman and his mark.
Theoretically the relationship is one of mutual support, mutual research, mutual development and intelligence sharing. Even around the time of the second world war Britain and America were exchanging 'special relationship' benefits... Sort of.

The benefits have pretty much always flowed one way. America tells Britain "you tell us a, we'll give you b". Britain smiles and thanks America for the kind offer, tells them all they know, then America decides that actually its to sensitive to share anything back, but thanks for saving us time and effort.
It happened with supersonic flight and the jet engine, it happened with nuclear weaponry, it happened with RADAR... And these days its happening with extradition, extraordinary rendition and, if Sweden is any guide, with internet data.

America fought for their independence, so let's be independent. The special relationship is a fiddle, and I've had enough if being fiddled by my own government never mind some one elses. America is not the global police force nor an international authority... It's planet Earth not planet America, let's not give them that power.

Grow a back bone, remember what made Britain great and recapture some of that empire spirit (except without the killing, invading, and racism obviously).  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:11:39 +0100</pubDate><category>Politics</category></item><item><title>Personalised Number Plates</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=18</link><description><![CDATA[  Whenever I see a car with a personalised plate my dyslexia goes into overdrive. It doesn't seem to matter what the letters and numbers, all I see is "I'm a Prick". 
 Today I was genuinely impressed, somebody had got a personalised plate that actually fitted. A new Megane was driving around Lincoln with the plate 'B19 COX' - and from what I could tell, that is EXACTLY what the driver was. Poor, Aggressive Driving, cutting people up, the lot. 
 Why do it? Has anyone ever seen a car with a personalised plate and thought "Wow, there goes an impressive person - I wish I was them"? No! They Think "Look at the moron, bet he thinks he's really impressive with his personalised plate". It's like Limosines. This is an imprtant note to any teenage girls - no-one, and i mean   NO-ONE   see's a pink limo with screaming girls hanging out of it and thinks "Oooh, who's the Celebrity?". 
 Do you know what makes it worse? I was so put off by the honesty of the plate, so surprised by the stupidity infront of me that I followed it. I followed it straight past the turning I wanted and didn't even realise untill about a mile down the road. I would insult him but his plate does it for me, so I will settle with this; 
   
 ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:56:45 +0000</pubDate><category>Society</category></item><item><title>A bit of Perspective, #RIPNigelDoughty somethings are bigger than football #NFFC</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=17</link><description><![CDATA[ As Nottingham Forest were due to kick off against Derby County (a game postponed due to the weather) I sit down to write my first entry in quite a while. My last post was not a positive one about Nottingham Forest, and like many supporters I have not been overly happy with the way Forest have handled themselves since the end of last season. Everyone has had their share of the blame, Players, coaching staff, and board. This post however comes with genuine bad news.    Whatever your feelings about the clubs current position... whether upset, angry, a Derby fan so thrilled or not bothered at all, there is one thing that everyone who knows the history of Nottingham Forest will agree. Nigel Doughty Was a Nottingham Forest Fan. He was a Rich Fan that stepped up to the plate, put his money where his mouth is, and saved his favourite club from administration. During his 13 year tenure as Owner (and until October Chairman) he made decisions that were not always easy, and not always agreeable to the fans... but they were always done to the best of his knowledge in the interest of the club. Some didn't come off, many others did.  As well as rescuing Nottingham Forest, he also rescued Child Line and funded a hospital wing. He was a true philanthropist, doing so much for the greater good. Never making a big deal out of his giving, and never asking for anything in return.  February 4th 2012 saw Nigel Doughty's life come to an end at the age of only 54. Whatever your thoughts of him as a chairman, as a person he was a great man that will be greatly missed in all the circles he moved in.  Our actions at this time should not be about Forest, or about politics. We should not focus on his mistakes (after all we all make them) but on his achievements, on all the things he gave to try and improve the world around him.  Members of the  LTLF  forum have created a just giving page for  Childline , a Charity close to Nigel Doughty's heart. Please take the time to support the charity in Nigels name.  To donate please visit  http://www.justgiving.com/NigelsMemory/  or text  OSXV98  followed by your donation in Pounds to  70070  (e.g OSXV98 5 to donate £5).    
 ]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:01:12 +0000</pubDate><category>Football</category></item><item><title>Nottingham Forest Flying Circus #NFFC</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=16</link><description><![CDATA[ First Blood was drawn and the board took the hit... Pleat went down without a fight. Then the retaliation, Beswick was sacked ending 15 years with McClaren. Would it help? The first test was at home against Birmingham.  An hour before Kick-Off a couple of hundred people with green scarves started their protest infront of the shiny new club shop/ticket office. Their noise was quelled during the game as Forest put on a confident start, taking control of the game, and going a goal ahead.  The Relief was short lived though! the last 20 mins saw Forest capitulate the way only Forest can. An out of nowhere equaliser saw the control slip from the reds, and the players be replaced by clowns.  We have thrown away leads before, we have thrown away bigger leads before, but loosing 3-1 was not in the fairytale. Chants against the Board and The manager rang out, Green Scarves were waved, and at the final whistle, Boo's followed by another hours worth of protests.  What the fans needed was a strong personality, a calm controlled voice to calmly describe how we were going to get out this mess... Failing that, at least a vague idea of what McClaren was going to change next. So we waited. Radio Nottingham waited. National Media waited. And Waited. Over two hours after the final whistle Doughty interrupted the crisis meeting with MArthur and McClaren to tell us all not to wait any longer. No one was coming.  Nigel was later to tell us via Radio Nottingham that he pushes a Customer Focus ethos into all his companies, so obviously us Customers would be kept in the loop... After all Forest have a great reputation for open honesty with it's 'customers'.  So How did we hear the next piece of news? A statement on the club website? an interview on Radio Nottingham? No, You're forgetting what a Circus Forest is... it was a  Tweet from Dexter Blackstock !   Steve McClaren was gone. 2-1 to the Board. 111 days in charge. What now? Has Nigel lined up a replacement already like he had with Billy? Well we'd have to wait... Customer Focused Forest we're keeping quiet.  Finally we heard from the Club... Nigel had made a decision, but not on the next manager... The Doughty Out campaign had claimed their main prize! Effective Immediately Doughty would have no input on the running of the club, and at the end of the season he would be our Chairman no-more. Board 2-2 Coaching Staff.  Where does this leave Forest? Who knows! How will the players respond? I guess time will tell...  There is only one thing for certain... Right now the club is a joke. Welcome to the wonderful world of N.F.F.C. Nottingham Forest Flying Circus  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:26:16 +0100</pubDate><category>Football</category></item><item><title>Heads Will Roll at #NFFC</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=15</link><description><![CDATA[ This could be an interesting challenge... I have decided to attempt to write this without taking into account hearsay and rumour... Wish me Luck!  There is an old song that goes along the lines of  "Nottingham, is full of fun. Nottingham is full of Fun! It's full of T!ts, F@nny and Forest, Nottingham is full of fun."  but it's not that fun being a Nottingham Forest fan at the moment.  Having reached the bottom three of the Championship the mood was bleak, a Green Scarf campaign started (more on that later), and everyone was to blame - including Robin Chipperfield at BBC Radio Nottingham. Then we went to Watford, It was an ugly 1-0, but it was a win... and a clean sheet. Optimism attempted to rear it's ugly head like a glint of sunlight breaking through the clouds.  "I'd Rather win Ugly then Lose Pretty"  we all said... and  "It was at this point we started our great run under Billy to finish 3rd" ... The fence sitters put their green scarves away and pulled out the red'uns again, pretending they never supported the campaign in the first place.  So we went to Burnley, thinking we can at least get a point out of this, and maybe, just maybe it will be the start of our upward push! Watford got us out the bottom 3, with a good wind Burnley can get us out the bottom half.  4-0 down at half time and even the most optimistic of fans could see it would be a struggle, and that the clean sheet wasn't going to happen our way. Colin Fray asked FormerRedsCaptainJohn McGovern (who had joined him in the commentary box) if he could go home, and many of the fans must have felt the same. Bright side, we drew the second half 1-1 (that's how they put a positive spin on it, right?).  The Green Scarf brigade were back in force, still not quite sure what or who they were protesting against, but knowing damn well they needed a protest. Arthur Out! Doughty Out, McClaren Out, Terry The Kit Man Out, Ball Boys Out, T!ts Out... some one was going to pay, just as soon as they could agree on who. Of course who would replace Doughty isn't important, what's important is he goes and takes his money with him.  Then it happened, not long after Finance Director, John Pelling said on the radio that David Pleat is not an employee of Nottingham Forest, and just advises the Chairman as a friend (albeit with commission on signings he identified) Chief Executive Mark Arthur announced that David Pleat had been sacked from Nottingham Forest. The sacrifice had been made, the mob had their head, and Forest didn't even need to loose a head that was actually connected.  As a casual member of the scouting team, David Pleat was directly responsible for team morale, keeping Lee Camp vocal, and defending crosses, so his departure will allow Keith Burt to step up to the plate and save our humiliation against Birmingham.  Will this cunning plan work? Only time will tell, but I would hazard a guess that it won't make much difference on the pitch, and may only cause a minor delay on renewed calls for Board/Manager/Caterers Out!  God Bless Nottingham Forest and all who fail... sorry sail in her.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:01:10 +0100</pubDate><category>Football</category></item><item><title>When is a Public Footpath not a Public Footpath</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=14</link><description><![CDATA[ Everybody knows military bases are fenced off, most people know they are guarded and that they are illegal to enter with out good reason... That, however, does not supersede the publics right to roam, and several bases have public footpaths cutting into them that the MoD has to honour. 
 
As a dog owner, I am very fond of public footpaths, as the impressive network gives me plenty of places to walk the dog surrounded by pretty views. I wouldn't class myself a rambler (other than in the context of talking), but I still like to explore every now and then. 
 
My house has plenty of fields behind it so there is always an option, but those options are slowly diminishing. 
One footpath used to go through what used to be school playing fields, however the school (Lincoln Priory LSST) did not maintain access properly, and the footpath has 'fallen into disuse' and been wiped from the map. 
Now they are being slightly more brasen about it. The old school paying field now has a building on it, so the school grounds have extended into a neighboring farmers field. There is a public footpath that runs between the old school field and the new school field, but instead of putting a gate in and not maintaining the hedge to disguise it, like last time, they have decided to just fence it off.  
Actually that's not fair, first they took the footpath sign down, then they put a shopping bag over the new sign when the highways agency replaced it, then they fenced the path off. 
But it's ok, because when questioned about his schools affect on the community the head teacher said "We are not part of that community". No, that's right, your local community is where the school gate is, not where your bulldozing through rights of way. 
 
So when is a Public Footpath not a Public Footpath? When it cuts through Lincoln Priory LSST!  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:38:43 +0100</pubDate><category>Society</category></item><item><title>Collapse of the Country</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=13</link><description><![CDATA[ The Conservatives can blame Labour, Labour can blame the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats can blame the voting system, the Green Party can blame Jeremy Clarkson, the Elderly can blame the kids, the Kids can blame whoever they F'Ing like innit bruv... Lets be honest, this has been a long time coming.  It started with someone being shot by a police officer in the Tottenham area. Whether that shooting was justified or not, legal or not, necessary or not, is yet to be proved but mostly unimportant now in the grand scheme of things.  Riot Rule broke out, and spread across the countries capital over three days... and now has split to other cities like Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds and Nottingham. The people causing this mayhem don't care about Mark Duggan, I'd be surprised if they even know he has been shot... This is not about Justice for the Duggan Family, this is far more desperate.  For many years this country has been suffering in silence. We have been slowly giving up our freedoms and rights, being asked to do more for less, and being gradually brought to our knees. We have been rolling over and taking it for many many years, and now all that is left is anger. No thought, no logic, no targets no blame, just anger in general.  Government has failed. We are close to creating a "1980" style nanny state, there is more red tape and wrapping in cotton wool then ever before. People are not empowered to do anything... You can't even organise a community celebration without jumping through a million hoops.  
Community has failed. People don't know their neighbours any more, there
 is no respect for others. This isn't an old man's rant about how it was
 different in my day - because it wasn't. I'm only 30, it was already 
gone when i was a lad.  Capitalism has failed. The world is split between the mega rich and the impoverished, and the money is held by individuals and not the states. Internationally countries are collapsing like domino's and we are not immune to this.   I am in no way defending the rioters... what they are doing is MASSIVELY wrong, and totally unacceptable, and the victims of the Riots are not the people that the rioters are angry at... But they say there is no victimless crime, this is a crime where EVERYONE is the victim.  Something needs to change and it needs to change fast... I take that back... EVERYTHING needs to change and needs changing a while ago, but that's not possible.  I do not envy the people that have to make the decisions, I do not claim to know the answers... but what I do know is we can not carry on the way we are, or more people will riot, some of them (ironically) will be in response to the riots that are currently spreading across the country.  Don't worry though... Britain is not alone in this... Countries all over the world are feeling as oprsessed and desperate, so it's only a matter of time before the 'violent protests' spread to the rest of Europe, America, and across the world.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:32:48 +0100</pubDate><category>Politics</category></item><item><title>Slow start for #NFFC before they get a chance?</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=12</link><description><![CDATA[ People seem very quick to criticise, especially when it revolves around their football team... But sometimes I think people go too far! 
 
The mens season has not yet begun (the womens super league has) and already people are bemoaning Forests performances, players, transfer activity and chances... Calm down people! 
 
Yes, pre-season gave us a negative goal difference and we only managed a one goal lead over non league Lincoln - but it's pre-season! Lets not forget we have a new management and coaching team that need to play around and learn the squads strengths, so they don't make mistakes when the points count. 
 
As for transfer activity, I'll be honest, I have been mildly underwhelmed with the middleborough old boys club... But we have made signings! We also have Findley finally able to play properly, and we haven't given them a chance yet!  
 
I am not a blind faith happy clapper, but it's far too early for the downwards spirals to start and the insults to fly at the board. 
 
Whatever people say we are not a big club, not really... And we never have been - that's what made our European wins so extra special. We are currently an established top of the table championship side with a new manager... Lets keep some faith and see how the season pans out before throwing the chairman out with the bath water.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:54:36 +0100</pubDate><category>Football</category></item><item><title>Hug a Hoodie</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=11</link><description><![CDATA[ Today a group of young adults were hanging around the Stonebow on Lincoln's High Street. They weren't wearing hoodies (it was too warm for that), they weren't skateboarding or laying Parquet flooring while jumping over dustbins. They were giving away free hugs.  The  Free Hug movement  started in Australia, and I have seen it on Youtube several times, but I have never seen it this close to home. I was actually quite chuffed to see it, and it put a proper smile on my face.  Personally, I was grateful to accept the hugs (and compliments on my moustache), but I was amazed to see how many people went out their way to avoid them. Not just avoid them but frown disapprovingly - too caught up in their own misery to share a little love.  Last night i was listening to random songs on the computer, and Sandi Thom came on with ' I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker ', and as I listened to the lyrics I realised how often I feel that way. What happened to the revolutionary spirit, trying to save the world to be a more caring place? I was born too late into a world that doesn't care, I wish I was a Punk Rocker with flowers in my hair... but for now the Handlebar Moustache is a good starter.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:57:28 +0100</pubDate><category>Society</category></item><item><title>My bodies 4am alarm call</title><link>http://iloapp.playpengroup.co.uk/blog/rant?Home&amp;post=10</link><description><![CDATA[ For a very long time I have been somewhat of a stress bunny, so much so that from the age of about 16 I have said I'll die of a heart attack by the time I'm 30. 
 
With that in mind, imagine my state of mind when, at 30 years and 7 months, I woke at 4 am with sharp and severe chest pains. 
 
It's finally happened, I thought. My time has come, only 7 months late. 
 
You know those times, like your first migraine, where you don't know what's happening you just know it blooming hurts so you decide it must be serious... A lot more serious than it is?  
 
It turns out my stress bunny nature has caused a hernia, that chose 4am to go insane. I spent an hour feeling like I'd swallowed a sword and it was sat sideways in my chest trying to force it's way out through my front. 
 
I suppose I should go to the docs and get this ache in my chest sorted, but for now I'm just glad it's not a heart attack... 5 months to go I guess.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:02:29 +0100</pubDate><category>Health</category></item></channel>
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