OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Waiting in Vain (aka You Never Give Me Your Money....)

Well, I've still not had an official reply regarding my request for redundancy. I have worked out what it will cost them to be rid of my dissent under my terms and conditions (94.5 weeks' pay to be precise), and I do believe I will be refused because they are wanting to show savings within this fiscal year. That would obviously mean that anyone qualifying for more than 52 weeks' won't save them a penny. We'll see.

The boss and I had a clear the air talk and all's well there at least. He once again made his point and added that whatever I did would make precious little difference to the faceless number-crunchers crunching their numbers on their number-crunching machines. I told him I was fully aware of that, but it had done me good and possibly saved me from a heart attack under the pressure of having to keep my mouth shut. So, good, solid health reasons for fighting back. Fuck 'em.

I see Peter has aggravated an old knee injury as a result of his repeated ascents of that big hill in Edinburgh. I know how he feels. Peter's put a pound or two on. In the six weeks or so since I went tits up, the general slowdown and incapacity forced on me by my ankle/foot has resulted in half a stone suddenly appearing on a figure that hasn't been described as svelte since the early 80s. C'est la vie.

It's soooo annoying though. For all intents and purposes I am mobile again, however after too much driving or walking I am reminded that all is still not well and it is fucking frustrating. As Peter has pointed out, a good cardio-vascular workout gets the endorphins coursing through the body. Calories are burned, stresses are zapped and you feel good about yourself. Having to sit with foot up, surfing, watching, listening and reading is making me feel lethargic and pissed off.

[joke]I'll be going to Lourdes for a cure next.[/joke]

But sometimes, just sometimes, I realise just how lucky I am. In the first place I was able to take three weeks off work on full pay, I was able to be seen and 'treated' fairly quickly by the NHS and free XRays were available to ascertain exactly what my problem was. As I sit and think about these 'blessings', I realise that each and every one of them are available to me as a result of folk with Socialist principles who fought and suffered through the ages to establish what we have - flawed though it is.

Before I get castigated for not giving Liberals the due they deserve for the Beveridge Report which laid the foundation for the Welfare State, I need to say that I consider Liberals to be caressed by the hand of socialist tendencies also. (Small 's'). I know this much, there were no fuckin' Tories arguing for basic rights such as these. 'Nuff said.

Cheers lads and lasses. I've got a funny feeling I'm going to be utilising what our forebears fought for a lot more in the future.

I've got to admire the MP for Baghdad South after today's tour de force. He wiped the floor with those ill-prepared, puffed-up, wastes of space on Capitol Hill. I was waiting for the sucker punch. It never came. It was a disgrace. Love him or hate him, it was riveting politics. I'm listening to a US commentator on Radio 5 Live at the moment, and it sounds like they are gob smacked. I loved the way he pointed out that their intelligence stated he had had "many meetings" with Saddam, to which Galloway established that he had met him twice - the same number of times that Rumsfeld had met him.

Quality. It is lovely to see self-important politicians being made to look foolish by self-important politicians. Fratricide, yer can't beat it can yer?

I see Tony the religious has got his "Incitement to Religious Hatred" shoe-horned into the Queen's speech today. Fair enough. I don't have a problem with that. I happen to think that ALL religions are props for the inadequate and they have enough problems without people inciting others to hate them, consequently I feel hating them, and exhorting the killing of them is wrong.

I do think however, that any perusal of exhortations to hatred and murder over the years would show that there is probably a significant weighting towards blokes in robes castigating "non-believers" rather than vice versa.

What is worrying about this - and I'm with Rowan Atkinson here - is that laws already exist to deal with this type of thing.

Could OccupiedCountry find itself in the dock in a few years time? Does OccupiedCountry's ridicule of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the rest run the risk of the thought police of New Labour turning up on my doorstep, skull cap, fish-symbol and Koran in hand, inciting people to hate the non-religious with all the fervour of the Quivering Brethren. Time will tell.

I didn't go to Eastlands on Sunday. I let Dearest have my season ticket - it's too far a walk to and from the stadium for my bolloxed ankle/foot. The last time I did it I suffered for a week. So I missed the drama, the agony and ecstasy of almost making it to Europe, and the subsequent disappointment. Ahh well......here's to next season for Psycho's Blue and White Army.