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Today we are very lucky to be able to speak freely about anything but one has to think about the ramifications of the subject matter.

It is so easy today to pen, voice or record one’s ideas and let those pieces wander through the ether.

Imagine a time when education was very limited and dominated by the church; to be brainwashed into what was thought was the right indoctorined philosophy. Anything that contradicted the learned in those days was seen as a slight and often carried harsh punishment.

I am not saying that we can go around shouting our mouths off about any topic we please. We still have very powerful Governments and leaders who will stop at nothing if the wrong information is leaked or an individual contradicts their actions in public but on the whole we are free to air our points of view.

The danger comes from speaking without factual knowledge. So to say all white girls from council estates are manipulators of the system to get a free house, benefits and Government handouts is wrong unless one has factual evidence to back this up but it is still a topic of worry, even if true, as it may embarrass some and evoke anger. Still, sometimes the truth hurts. In no way do I hold this statement as fact as I have not done a study into the possibility.

I love writing these blogs for instance. Not to show off my lack of skill or to impress on others my inane twitterings  but to unburden my small brain of the trivial subjects that could otherwise clog up the memory banks that could thus lead to mental complications and failures.

Also maybe one other person out there will enjoy the ramblings of a mad goose.

With this freedom comes responsibility and at times I think that the media has fallen short of the mark. False information or “fake news” is just as damaging as blatant lies. It can give false hope or empty despair. It is very much like being force fed information to a society of uneducated people who know no better about the facts or truths.

Let us not forget that one person with a differing view from the masses isn’t necessarily wrong and just because someone else says something is right doesn’t mean that it is. We all have free will and the ability to make up our own minds but we have to be given facts to debate not censured information.

I see so many young people ignoring their freedom of expression but complain when things don’t go their way.  On social media some think by copying and pasting anothers words it is in some way their expression. Why not rummage around inside their own minds and write down what they think or are we becoming a world of no imagination?

The point is one does not have to be able to write profoundly or with any genius but just have the ability to be honest and heartfelt. If one feels lonely, depressed, happy or frustrated then say so but don’t just regurgitate another’s prose just to appear intelligent or cool. Pen your own words and it might just surprise you how interesting and helpful it is, not just for you but for others too.

I am a great fan of social media if it is used the right way. I would love to create a Media website that forbid copy and paste, re-sharing, false news, inane photos and trolling. To be a free site advertisements would be a must to generate the income needed to run it and sadly that sucks but it would still be cool.

There is so much more to this topic than I have given credence to but touching the surface has left me happy for the time being and there is possibility to carry on with it in the future.

Feel free to add comments or express feelings as you feel fit but only the hardy reader will see this text line so I doubt any will.

One thing I will say is that we should grab this freedom with both hands as many folk around the world, even today, are still censured and limited in what the read, hear, watch and write.

Enjoy it while we can……

I meet quite a few people, as most of us do, and like to listen to their opinions about what they experience. Try it sometime.

Recently,  I have been trying to find people who actually like the job they are employed in and it is of little or no surprise that most do like their job but pressure, cutbacks and stupid unachievable targets cause them to dislike their positions. Politics!

This got me wondering why we have to live like this.

One answer is that middle management refuse to impart or ignore information that is bad for the company and workforce and make excuses for these failures and fudge figures.

Many people in more senior corporate positions say that they enjoy their jobs and work for great companies and I am convinced that the pictures that are painted for them are that everything is just fine and dandy.

For example; we have all experienced the announcement of an audit or a visit by an official. Just like magic all positions are covered, everything is where it should be or hidden away till after the visit and the image portrayed has little of no reality of what life is really like for a normal working day on the shop floor. As a result the findings from these visits recommends all is brilliant and the fuss and unrest is unjustified working-class hot air.

It is little wonder that nothing changes and even more cuts and savings are squeezed out of the already woefully inefficient coal face.

The middle management will never compromise their positions as they are the ones that assess themselves.  Okay we may hear or a few redundancies but these are often the troublemakers who actually want to make a better place  below them. Normally, however, it is the bully, inexperienced in doing the real job and incapable who are promoted, or moved to areas of least impact, that carry on in the company and it is these who give a totally wrong impression to the people at the top who could make the changes.

It is heartbreaking to watch and experience customer services continuing to be destroyed and the products and services becoming so poor that soon nothing will be fit for purpose. Don’t put the price up to mirror inflation but make products smaller, merge two jobs  into one, cut services back and use cheaper materials. This will be fine as the consumer will never know.

How about this as a concept? Make work lives a bit more comfortable by paying a bit more, employing enough staff to cope with demands, showing the reality rather than the “hiding under the carpet” policy and ditch some of the red-tape middle management that throttles our once prosperous businesses. Finally, does a CEO or Chairman actually need an income of one hundred times that of their coal-face staff?

A happy workforce, within reason, is a more productive one and the more efficient the production will result in higher standards and better services. This will equal higher profits.

But I guess the feathering of bosses nests has obscured these facts and it is this that which blights work today.

Potholes. These holes in our roads and pavements are so called because our early roads were made from, amongst other things, clay. At night people would dig the surface cobbles and gravel away to reveal the clay. They would then remove some clay so it could be taken home and made into pots. Hence the nickname being given to the mysterious holes that appeared in the roads. This name has stuck and it is what we call them still to this day but I doubt very much that anyone digs the hole to find clay today.

However, the state of our roads, cycleways and pavements is shocking and woefully underfunded. It won’t be long before we all have to drive a tough 4×4 or tractor but then the councils will leave the problem even longer till even the struggle to cope.  As for cyclists it can cause serious personal damage or even death if one hits some of these cracks or craters in the road.

Councils whinge that they just don’t have the resources to tackle and pay for the repairs, which may be true, if they spend huge amounts of their budgets on “jollies” abroad, “gold-plated” handshakes, futile schemes, injury claims from accident victims and the installation of ridiculous signs telling us how far a city in France or Germany is or whether a town has won “The Bloom Best Town Award” or other such nonsense.

Even when there are repairs these are so often just a “sticking plaster” cure and within a few weeks the problem returns thus putting the public at risk once again.

Cars have to be tested to a high standard to meet the safety requirements to be deemed fit to drive on our roads but if the very roads we are driving on are not fit for purpose then surely this test is in part redundant? If one has to swerve to miss a hole or has to drive through a hole then its only a matter of time before some serious injury or death occurs.

I do realise that the repair bill is colossal but a lack of investment over the decades by sloppy councellors have caused this massive problem and it is these very people who should be brought to task to fix the issue. Does an insurance payout for the loss of a loved one really compensate when it could so easily have been avoided in the first place. A burst tyre or damaged vehicle can be repaired or replaced that is true but what about the impact on being late for work, missing an appointment or being late for a flight?

We have seen a big rise in the number of vehicles on our roads but sadly the roads have not seen the same rise for their maintenance.

It would be impossible to address every problem immediately but more has to be done to make our journeys safer and less stressful.