Burning of the poppy...

Rememberance Day. Armistice Day. Veterans Day. A day for us all to pay our respects to the members of the armed forces and and civilians who lost their lives fighting for our country. As you all know, we remember this day by a two minute silence on the 11th November at 11am, and the vast majority of us wearing a poppy. So imagine my surprise seeing a group of protesters at Hyde Park setting fire to a large, decorative poppy and chanting during the nation's two minute silence. Disgraceful.




A group of 35 Muslims, part of "Muslims against Crusades" today burnt a poppy at protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This occured during the silence held at 11am. They held up posters saying, "Hands off Muslim Lands" and "Islam will dominate". There was also a flag raised with, "There is no God but Allah" written in bold writing across it. I can understand why they are upset, afterall we have bombarded their country with troops. We went to Iraq to fundamentally get rid of Sadaam Hussain for his unspeakable crimes and successfully felled him, as well as his ties to Al Qaeda and the weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. The Afghan war was primarily the war against Terror after the September 11th attacks. Perfectly legitimate reasons to go to war, well at least sort it out and do something about it. However stopping Al Qaeda was a much for diffuclt task. Their group is growing all the time and we know they are positioned all over the world. I hate to say it but I fear we have been short on getting to the bottom of this and we are in danger of a wave of fresh attacks. Today the Muslim protestors called our soldiers, the people fighting aginst terror for us and the world, and I quote..."Terrorists"...hmm

Despite all of this, the protests were completely and utterly out of order. Imagine if you will some British people in Iraq or Afghanistan, planning a protest against Islam and in the process of protesting, they set fire to their flag or a flag bearing Allah's name on it...if you can't set the scene, I don't blame you. That's because we wouldn't do it. It's not in our nature. Mind you, if we did, we would probably die there and then, where as in our country you can exercise the right to protest no matter who you are or where you are from. I thought the students destroying Millbank was bad but this just doesn't compare. It really does put it into perspective.

Since protesting earlier today, they have vowed 'not to stop'. That is just a very short summary of what they actually said.....take a look at their website for the full press release and reasons for their protest....it really is worth a look, believe me. I must warn you though, there are some graphic images on the site...

http://muslimsagainstcrusades.com/

The protest resulted in three arrests, one for assulting a police officer. I cannot believe this country allows protests such as this, especially on a day when we remember those who have lost their lives fighting for the country. The reason we are here today is because of those brave enough to fight. I cannot even find the words to describe my feelings on the events today, it is literally indescribable. A selfish event that should never have been allowed to take place. When it comes to things like this, this country needs to do something about it. The day is rememberance day, and all we will remember are the Muslim protests and the burning of the poppy - the symbol of this country's losses.

Ben x

The Holloway effect...

The inevitable has happened. Due to Ian Holloway making ten changes to his team last night, the issue is now under investigation. All I ask is why?

This happened last year when Mick McCarthy's Wolves travelled to Old Trafford for a league game and he made ten changes. They faced Burnley in a relegation cruncher the following fixture. Wolves were hit with a £25,000 fine for McCarthy's decision to this. Again I ask why? The Premier League have set a dangerous precedent with that decision last season and it looks as though the same could follow for Blackpool. Mind you, if they get hit with a fine of that magnitude, that's the whole squad's wages for a month, so they could be in trouble!

After the game last night at Villa Park, Holloway was questioned referencing the decision last year by McCarthy. To put it blunty, Holloway said if they fine him or Blackpool, he will resign...quite a statement Ollie. But knowing Hollway through the media as we all do, he always gives his honest opinion, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he did walk away. And who would blame him?

The aggravating issue with all this is that Ian Holloway is a manager of a football club, a club that has shone new light over the Premier League. Blackpool have been fantastic so far this season and let's be honest, they have exceeded everyone's expectations. We all said how great it would be for him to manage in Europe's finest league with his passion and brash views on football and so far he has not dissappointed. Why then are the Premier League investigating him and his decision? Ian Holloway is the manager, he makes the decisions and if he chooses to change his starting eleven (albeit ten changes) then he should be allowed to do so. He sees that game with West Ham as a vital clash so why should the bigwigs of the Premier League get involved? It does my head in with all the interference that goes on in football and it should stop. Keep your noses out of it and let them get on with the game.

For anyone that managed to catch the highlights or watch the game at Villa Park, Blackpool gave Villa a run for their money, they competed from start to finish. It was just their Premier League inexperience that let them down at the last hurdle. If Blackpool got a point from that game, or better still, won it and took home three points to the seaside, would they still be under investiagtion??? It wouldn't make any sense right??? And no doubt he will make another seven to ten changes for the game against West Ham.

The fans need to have more of a say with what goes on in football, and start speaking up in their millions. We don't do enough. We turn up to watch the game and have a grumble about it in the pub afterwards, but nothing is said or done publically.

My message to the Premier League fat cats is not to ruffle Mr. Hollway's feathers as there will be a backlash. He has made the Premier League more exciting and he is a joy to watch in his press conferences. If he says he will quit.....he will quit. So stay away.

Well I'm glad I got that off my chest...

All the best,

Ben x

Thoughts on today's events...

What a day it has been, both for me and for students. Well was it students or an angry mob who decended on Millbank and thought they would turn themselves into sheep pretending to be students. From what I have heard the majority were indeed students but the outcomes were ridiculous.



I completely agree with the right to protest and if I was still at university I would have considered joining the 52,000 protesters, but what turned from a silent protest to the gradual attempted destruction of the home of the Conservatives was just insane, what kind of people do that. They were hardly covering themselves in glory and if I was the tax payer paying their fees I would be embracing the Tory proposals. However there were only around 200 'students' who took part in this and the stand-off with the police. Maybe some randomers took this as an opportunity to try and attack the Tory headquarters and obviously had no idea what was going on. I am not a fan of the Conservatives, and I'll admit that I voted for labour despite the scrapheap they were turning the country into, I felt that they could turn it around (based on the grounds that they threw Brown into the River Thames.....well okay, got rid of him as their leader) but going to those lengths in a protest was just so unnecessary.

As for my day, I too wanted to protest. However it wasn't at the rise in student fees, but at HP'S laptop manufacturing. I have had endless problems with my HP laptop, although it is 2 and a half years old now and have had to restore it to it's original factory settings around 6 times in the last month. It isn't just my laptop either, our family touchscreen PC (Mum's farmville appliance) has also failed miserably revently and it has been sent away twice now for repairs. Their customer service is awful so do not buy HP from now on, buy the sauce by all means, just don't buy the laptops. I was mid-way through my last blog post this morning for the damn machine to spasm on me and reset itself showing my a lovely cross-stitch pattern on the screen before it dived into darkness. I guess it was the laptop's way of its' life flashing before its' eyes/screen. Well I was far from impressed and spent the next 5hours trying to narrow down my choices of a new one. I travelled over Somerset like a blue-ass fly all afternoon and eventually rattled down to a Dell and I have to say I am very impressed. I  did dwindle over a Sony, Packard Bell and a Toshiba before setting my sights on this beautiful machine. I might even take it to bed with me tonight.....sorry Amy!!!

All the best,

Ben x

The morning after the night before...

Good morning World. I am going to keep posting because I feel the need to and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me. But please try to anyway. Last night I watched a football match locally, I won't say which one but it was one of the most entertaining to watch.....however it was for all the wrong reasons.

The final score of the game was 4-1 to the home side and I witnessed one good goal, the rest were nothing special. The entertainment on offer which was advertised pre-match was a suspected broken leg, two mass brawls, a 'headbutt', stamping, two red cards, a player that must have graduated from drama school, and the most embarrassing refereeing performance I have ever seen, even worse than Stuart Atwell's 'ghost goal' award in the match between Watford and Reading last year. And no, I am not exaggerating...all will be explained now. I know you cannot wait to find out!

Well let us first deal with the two mass brawls, well that's two issues really, but I don't care, deal with it. A third goal was scored by the home side to make it 3-1 from a free-kick whipped in using the high-speed, gale-force winds to aid it on its way and it was flicked home by one of their players. One of the home side's players decided to give a bit of banter which resulted in him receiving a 'headbutt' from one of the defenders from the away side. I say 'headbutt' because it looked as if he did headbutt him, however it took a FIVE second delay and for the referee to look in the player's direction for him to be sent tumbling to the floor clutching his face. It was a poor attempt and one that would have been scored poorly by the Strictly judges. This then resulted in a mass brawl between players with a number of punches, kicks and strangling attempts going down in the penalty area. However despite everyone in the ground seeing every detail of this fiasco, and the fact that there were three officials, NO ONE WAS SENT OFF. I did notice that the match was being recorded so it will be interesting to see if there was actually any contact regarding the headbutt, and if not, I would like to find out which drama school the diving player attended because they are doing a hideous job and must be put right. The home team's manager referred to the 'headbutt' as something a 'pub player' would do and if anyone in his team did that, they would never play for the club again......interesting.....

The second mass brawl is a lot easier to explain but added further reason to call the referee an embarrassment. One of the away players danced past one of the midfielders and then player came in very high, and once he had been felled, started to stamp on the player. Now if that was me or anyone else in the world, you're hardly not going to react, so when there was a slight kick out to protect himself I wasn't surprised. However the referee had other ideas and sent the fouled player off for, and I quote, "violent conduct." He didn't even do anything! Then fortunately the player who committed the foul was also given his marching orders...ironically he was the player who had previously been 'headbutted' ten minutes prior to the incident!!!

As for the embarrasing refereeing performance...well where do I start? I'll pick out just a few incidents that jump out. The first incident would be that of the suspected broken leg received by one of the away players after a ridiculous challenge in the opening exchanges. Everyone in the ground saw the challenge and the murmors around me suggested a straight red....ohhh nooo, he didn't even see it, and yet he gave a foul...how does this work??? To give a foul he must have seen the incident right??? Clearly not...and the player was stretchered off and whisked away in an ambulence. Disgraceful. Soon after, the referee gave one of the most absurd clown-like decisions I have ever witnessed, worse than the 'ghost goal' decision. A midfielder was receiving the ball into his feet in the middle of the park with no one within ten yards of him. As the ball came in he lifted his foot, stood on the ball and fell over under no challenge from any other player. The referee decided that this was foul play by the ball and gave the player a free kick....ummm?! WHAT!? Yeah I know, sounds stupid but it's true. I'd love to be able to get hold of the recording for this game because so far it appeared that the supporters had paid their entry fee to see the referee and not the game. Embarrassing. If that wasn't bad enough, a cross was delivered a few moments later for it to be cleared by a visiting player, unfortunately due to the strong winds he fluffed his clearance under no challenge and is span out for a corner behind his own goal from 20 yards out, very unfortunate and clearly a corner. Guess what...? Yep, that's correct, the ref gave a goal kick...

All the best,

Ben x

Nutty Nick..

Nutty Nick...who is that? Where is he from? What does he do?

Well if you stop asking the questions I'll tell you...Nutty Nick is my pantomime character that I will start rehearsing for this coming week. As you may have guessed, being a pantomime and having the name 'Nutty Nick', I am playing the village idiot character. Apprantly I play it well...not sure whether to take that offensively or as a compliment...I do have a sturdy educational background and managed decent results...I guess I'm just a superb actor. The panto is Robinson Crusoe by the way, not sure if I can say a lot more about it as I don't really want to be sued by anyone...if that is even possible? I don't know, is it?

I am unfortunately currently unemployed hence why I am up this late and posting...who am I to think anyone will read these posts now at this time? I must be nutty...anyway, yes, I am unemployed. I spent the whole of yesterday applying for jobs online. Anything I came across that was suitable, I applied for. Next, River Island, Tesco, Debenhams, I don't really care what it is. If you know of anyone who needs an arse to run around at an expense, please forward my name? I would be very grateful indeed. Indeed - you'll notice over time that this is a word I use very often. Well I do in speech anyway, whether I manage to transfer that into a blog remains to be seen but we'll see. Time will tell...indeed. (Doesn't really fit in there)

I went to see Stuart Francis a couple weeks ago at the Colston Hall in Bristol. No, he isn't a friend of mine, he is that Canadian Comedian, the one-liner dude from Canada, hence the Canadian reference. He was very funny and I was suprised to see it wasn;t a sell-out...so if he is touring near you, go and see him. Definitely worth it. The guy supporting him was very good indeed, worth £15 if you have it to spare. Let me see if I can recall one of his jokes....umm...are any of them even suitable to share?! Hmmm...ah here's one: "Can bald people have hairline fractures?" It is genious is it not!?

One more thing...did anyone see Darren Fletcher swearing on Match of the Day a couple weekends ago? He said 'bollocking'...yeah that's right...I put on the subtitles and pretended to be blind for a second...or is it deaf...it's definitely deaf....duh...anyway I put on the subtitles and the BBC completely changed it...now is it just me or is it completely unfair that deaf people watching that did not hear the truth? It bugs me.

All the best,

Ben x

And we go

If you are reading this blog, thank you. If you read past the first two sentences, thank you. You are probably wondering what on earth my blog title means? 'Beginning and the occult'...well I shall explain...it basically means the beginning and the "knowledge of the hidden". It's latin apparantly...

Anyway now we have got that out of the way it is time to get the show on the road. I have only just subscribed to this site to share my thoughts on all sorts of issues, ideas and anything I fancy writing about really. Of course I have to be somewhat interesting otherwise the whole idea of 'blogging' would be pretty damn pointless. I might as well just send myself a letter in the post, and pretend that someone out there actually shares the same ideas as I do...

The idea of this post was to just introduce myself to everyone, assuming someone has got this far in reading this post...thank you if you have. The posts will get more interesting I assure you. Even if I get just the one follower who believes in me that will be enough for me...best get my Mum to sign up, if she can spare the time out of her busy schedule 'playing' Farmville on Facebook...is that the correct verb for it? 'Playing'? Can you really 'play' Farmville? I get invited for the bloody thing every day, it has resulted in me now having over 100 invites on my tabs which I just cannot be bothered to look at. I cannot be the only one who deems the whole Farmille thing as ridiculous? It's more of a pre-school thing surely is it not? And if so, why the hell is my Mum on it? I guess I'll never know. It can't just be my Mum on it...please tell me it isn't. The game even has levels...yeah that's right...the better you get at the game by trading cows and horses between your neighbours, the higher the level you are. AMAZING!!!!

Over time I will be discussing an array of issues...if you're interested?  Let me know your feedback or any issues you would like me write about to discussor debate, I'm up for anything...(please don't take that literally. There are some weird people out there). I'm going to post them all anyway regardless because I need to write it all down...one day someone will notice me right?

All the best,

Ben x