Shannon Matthews Revisited

When Shannon Matthews was rescued by the police, I had a right go at her mother, Karen Matthews.

Unwittingly I was surprisingly close to the truth when I joked about Karen fancying her chances as an entrepreneur.

It now transpires she was part of a kidnap plot to claim the reward money.

Even more shockingly the police have proved she was feeding Shannon - and probably the rest of her brood - a cocktail of prescription drugs for at least 20 months.

Temazepam, amitriptyline, tramadol and dihydrocodeine - with the dosages peaking during school holiday period.

In my earlier post I wrote, 'How she managed to get time for a social life once she'd got to four or five kids, while still in her twenties, is a puzzle to me.'

Well, I'll puzzle no more. But I won't be taking any of her parenting tips to heart.

It's quite clear the kids were viewed as an inconvenience. A nuisance. But they were a very reliable revenue stream. Worth keeping around!

Karen was making £400 a week in benefits. That's £20,800 a year.

Or, to put it another way, the after tax earnings of someone on around £28,000 per year - and that's before taking into account the various discounts or freebies benefit claimants can qualify for.

What a farce of a system. What a horrible woman.

This has been a particularly harrowing period for child related stories. I'd like to think the powers-that-be will be energised by these events and do something positive, but I'm not holding my breath.

Who Killed Baby P?

They did.

Suck that up Google, Yahoo, MSN, et al.

I can't recall ever being as utterly disgusted and outraged by a case as this one.

Not just for the horrific brutality inflicted on a defenceless child over an extended period of time, but for the shameless self-serving arse covering of Haringey Council.

Sharon Shoesmith, Clive Preece and co. can rot in Hell along with the bastards who did this.

There are very personal reasons that make me feel even more strongly than I might otherwise do about this case, but writing about them would be too difficult right now.

I feel like a volcano ready to explode. I hope there are lots of occupants of maximum-security prisons around England feeling exactly the same way.

Donald Findlay

I don't usually bet on anything other than cards or the odd sporting event, but I wouldn't mind having a few quid on Donald Findlay being involved when this case gets to court.

Simple Pleasures

I was in the pub last year regaling my pals with tales of the disastrous stag do in Liverpool, and my run in with the guys who prove there's more than one cunt in Scunthorpe, when one of them remarked that I'd likely carry an intense hatred for Scunthorpe FC around for the rest of my life.

He was right. Which is why this gave me a great deal of pleasure.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch.

Bobby Tait - The Original Mason In The Black

This little article appeared in the local free newspaper that pops through my letterbox each week. It's one of those pieces that leaves you unsure whether to laugh or cry.


The event is a Freemason organised night. The guy in the middle of the photo is ex Scottish football referee Bobby Tait. A man who infamously requested that his last ever game as a Grade 1 referee be at Ibrox, as Rangers played Kilmarnock, in the midst of a historic battle for the title between Celtic and Rangers.

With Rangers desperately needing a win to maintain their chances of winning ten league titles in a row - thus beating Celtic's previously unassailable nine-in-a-row record - the game was of monumental importance. Victory in the title race would hand bragging rights to the dark half of the city for an eternity.

With the game heading for a draw, Tait decided to add an incredible five minutes injury-time at the end of the match.

On top of his previous performances that season - including more timepiece malfunctions that cost Celtic a win at Tynecastle - one could only conclude Bobby Tait valued Rangers wins above his own reputation for honesty and integrity, and would do anything to see them win the title.

Alas for Mr Tait, Kilmarnock had other ideas and scored a last minute winner that crushed Rangers push for a new record.

He must have been devastated. What a way to end your career!

Since retiring, the Celtic rumour mill has been rife with reports of Mr Tait's after dinner speaking. With boasts about never having awarded a penalty against Rangers at Ibrox being the supposed highlight of his act.

Given that he generally speaks at Rangers supporters events, Freemason events, or, allegedly, Orange Order events - in truth almost interchangeable as bastions of Protestantism and Rangers - it's hardly surprising he is a popular guest. Though presumably he focuses on earlier highlights of his career.

There you have it. A supposedly impartial - unimpeachable if the Scottish press are to be believed - figure who openly boasts of his pro-Rangers bias throughout his career. What would Donald McVicar make of it all?

I also wonder what the bookies and fraud squad would make of it. After all, isn't match fixing - which appears to be what that Ibrox penalty boast hints at - a crime?

Articles on the Freemasons and Orange Order are ten-a-penny in the Scottish local press and nobody bats an eyelid.

To be fair they can be a source of great amusement. Check our the 'surprised' eyebrows on the dude middle-back in the above photo. Does make one wonder where Bobby's left hand is!

But there's a more serious point to be made. The Orange Order in particular is a closed club - Protestants only - with an anti-Catholic agenda.

Yet it receives the same polite and sympathetic coverage in the local press that a bowling club might expect.

Imagine visiting Alabama and picking up a local newspaper with similar coverage of a KKK meeting. Or visiting Dagenham and seeing equally sympathetic coverage of a BNP event.

After a fine lamb dinner and some excellent red wine, those present were in full agreement with guest speakers who stated immigration was a blight on the nation, and those annoying blacks should be sent back to where they came from.

£200 was raised for charity.

There would be outrage. Sky News and BBC24 would be on the scene in hours. Questions would be raised in parliament. The tabloids would be foaming with righteous indignation.

Never mind the charity money. Listen to what those loons are actually saying!

Not so in Scotland. Another example of that not-so-secret shame.

Speaking of charity money, am I the only one who wonders how a night that features three 'esteemed' guest speakers only manages to raise two hundred quid? Seems more than a little on the cheap side to me!

I wonder how much was spent at the bar?

Shannon Matthews Safe; Charles Darwin Spinning In Grave

Shannon Matthews the missing 9 year-old from West Yorkshire is safe. Which is obviously great news. I always get the feeling after 48 hours in these cases that if the kid hasn't turned up, the police will be looking at either an accident or murder.

So it's great news she has been found, apparently well after being missing for more than three weeks, and I am genuinely delighted for her family.

Yet it's hard to shake off the horrible feeling that her abduction opened a window into a society that shouldn't exist.

The family life of her mother, Karen Matthews, makes Shameless look like Brideshead Revisited. The statistics are mind blowing.

Age 32. Seven children. Five different fathers. Bloody hell!!

If the average British worker was as productive there would be no recession fears, no deficit worries, no trade gap. We'd be world beaters!

Should Karen fancy her chances as an entrepreneur, I'd suggest she looks into setting up an Internet dating site. She obviously has expertise in the meeting and mating market.

In a way you have to admire her inventiveness and time management skills. How she managed to get time for a social life once she'd got to four or five kids, while still in her twenties, is a puzzle to me.

It must really hurt for couples struggling to have just one kid they'd love unconditionally - marooned on NHS IVF waiting lists that measure in years - to be exposed to an alternative word where kids are produced on a production line, with little apparent regard for their welfare or the likelihood of giving them a stable upbringing.

On a more practical level, it must be galling for families where the parents both work but struggle to make ends meet due to child care costs, to witness a culture where work is a swear word and kids are utilised as a means of enhancing social security benefits.

It seems to me we've reached a point where flawed government policies, allied to a culture that really is shameless, has turned Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection on it's head.

If you are smart, motivated, and hard working, the odds are you won't have the cash, or more crucially the time, to raise a big family. This is especially true where the woman is keen to continue working. There aren't many Nicola Horlicks around!

Conversely, if you can't be bothered working, but think the world owes you a living, having loads of kids seems to be the fastest legal route to boosting your income.

The inevitable consequence of this situation is that survival of the fittest ceases to be the norm.

The smart and hard working will be out bred by the feckless, whilst simultaneously being screwed for an ever higher percentage of their income to fund the offspring of the benefit junkies.

All of which sounds perilously close to a Nazi-esque view of the world. Which makes me very uncomfortable, but I cannot see where else current trends are taking us.

I'm absolutely in favour of protecting the weak; a high standard of comprehensive education; free health services; and Gordon Brown's oft quoted desire to end child poverty.

However it's clear to me that current policies are not going to achieve that aim. There has to be a better way.

I've got some post-budget thoughts on the general economy, but here's a quick hit in the area of Child Benefit.

Currently child one gets a higher weekly allowance and all subsequent kids are paid at a reduced rate. Why not continue the taper so that child three gets less than two, etc? I'd imagine that by child four, condoms or The Pill would be a much more prominent part of the conversation with any prospective partners.

This could be kept revenue neutral by increasing the payments for kids one and two, so no stealth tax here.

I can't claim this as a perfect solution - and it has definite echoes of China - but it's a step ahead of current policy which is a licence to breed without any regard for the consequences.

Random Saturday Night Thoughts

JK Rowling should write more Harry Potter books.

K and I made a deal this week that she would do one of my housekeeping jobs, and in return I'd take care of E all Saturday. Thus enabling her to immerse herself in the final tome.

The result, I had a great time chasing the toddler around the local soft play area for most of the morning. Energy expended, she slept for hours this afternoon, and with K still ploughing her way through the book, I was free to hit the cash games for a few hours - and win. Everyone's happy! Thanks JK.

Thank the lord for Penelope and Monica Cruz!

I saw Mean Girls for the first time recently. Surprisingly funny it was too - until the wheels came off in the last 20 minutes as it descended into a schmaltz fest.

Previously I'd only actually known Lindsay Lohan for being a drunken cokehead, so it was interesting to see she actually has talent.

As a thirty six year old guy, there is a certain uneasiness that comes from watching a movie set in a school and thinking damn those girls look good. Mind you, Lindsay is seeing Calum Best so she obviously has an affinity for dodgy guys. So no harm done.

It's nice to have some more mature figures to populate my lustful imagination with. To quote from the article I linked to - 'together they have a combined sexual voltage that could overload the national grid'. Yes indeed - and to make things even better, Penelope is making a movie with Scarlett Johansson. Yum, yum!

Div kills two birds with one stone!

UK energy policy is a bit of a mess at present. The highest profile problem is environmental. I could write a whole post about issues of security of supply, but for now let's stick to the headline issue.

Another problem we have relates to law and order. The prisons are full. The authorities are releasing cons prematurely because there's nowhere to keep them.

Community service doesn't work. There's talk of bringing back a form of hard labour.

Fret no more politicians, for I have the answer. Giant hamster wheels. Let's get them hooked up to generators, and get those cons jogging.

Send them home at night too shattered for any nocturnal thieving, but let's not train them to sprint too fast.

Quelle Suprise!

So Glasgow Rangers are under investigation for corruption.

You'd expect this will come as an embarrassment to them, but it's hard to spot a red-neck through a sunbed tan. Just ask Tommy Sheridan about that!

Most will assume this has to do with dodgy transfers, but maybe it's internal affairs catching up with Andy Davis at last.

Al Qaeda Amateur Hour

When I was a lad my mum would often caution me as I left the house. 'Be careful crossing the road', she'd tell me.

Wise words when spoken to an eight year old. Twenty eight years later, it gets a bit wearing when I hear those words as I depart from a visit to the parents.

This thought crossed my mind amidst the blanket coverage of the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport, which follows close on the heels of an abortive attempt to attack the theatre district of London.

By coincidence later this month I'll be flying from Glasgow Airport with K, on a trip to...the theatre district of London. It's K's thirtieth birthday in July, and her treat is a trip to see the new version of 'Joseph'.

Our hotel is located under half a mile from the site of the intended bomb blast.

Has the events of the last few days put me off? Of course not! The only negative thought that crossed my mind has been that I might have got a better deal on the hotel if I'd booked later.

The fact is the people who stage these attacks are remorseless maniacs but also severely lacking in competence.

No doubt eventually they will get lucky and stage a more devastating attack in terms of loss of life and property destroyed. For now, the reality is we are dealing with an enemy so useless, their suicide bombers cannot even kill themselves, let alone anyone else.

Frankly they'd be a lot more dangerous if they gave up on trying to blow themselves up, and simply drove a 4x4 vehicle at high speed through the pedestrianised shopping areas of Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon.

With that in mind, I despair of the sanctimonious nonsense spouted by some people in reaction to yesterday's attack.

Terrorists thrive not only on actual damage inflicted, but on spreading fear of further attacks.

With that in mind, there's no more effective way of combating them than getting on with your business as usual.

Not ignoring them; but not letting them rule our lives either.

One of the natural reactions on some of the forums I frequent was to mock the ineptitude of the attacks. That was certainly my reaction.

Some berated that reaction on the grounds of what might have happened. People *could* have been killed or injured. Yes, but they weren't. It really is a load of sanctimonious nonsense to pretend otherwise.

If we live our lives by those rules, we might as well all become agoraphobic and lock ourselves in the cellar. At which point the terrorists have won.

Fortunately most people are more sensible than the panic merchants who promote this sort of thinking.

Reacting with humour and a degree of scepticism is the right approach, and it's one the terrorists will find extremely difficult to overcome.

Urgent Travel Warning

If you happen to be travelling in Russia and find yourself on the same plane/helicopter/automobile as the guy to the left. GET OFF.

Has anyone ever been so due an unfortunate 'accident' before they can blab?