I am a journalist, writer and broadcaster ... lately I've been concentrating on music, I spent many years as a music critic and a travel writer ... I gave up my last editorship a while ago and started concentrating on my blog. I was also asked to join AirTV International as a co host of a new show called Postcard ...
Manchester artist Elton, has two new books full of fabulous drawings. Enjoy this interview with him as we explore part of Manchester and it’s history in words and pictures.
Elton Darlo and me walked the same moribund Victorian streets of 1970s and 1980s rainy Manchester.
I was a young writer making my way in the metal clatter of the city’s Fleet Street of the North and Elton was a skinny pub bouncer at places like the Thompson Arms, a glass and panel halfway house under the bus station near Canal Street.
People like us were the young dudes then, dressed in Stacks and flares, roll top jumpers or tank tops. Hair bouffanted like Steve Marriott.
We smoked Bensons and Capstan Full Strength and swigged warm Watney’s with abandon to impress the girls.
Yep, people like us were slick as switch-blades. And as hard as nails.
We knew people too… both Elton and me were friends with George Best and Hurricane Higgins, the inarticulate drunken faces of Manchester’s sporting life.
We knew Quality guys like Dougie Flood, Jimmy Swords and Peter Tut Tut.
Drank with them in the Circus Tavern, the smallest and tightest-knit pub in Britain at the time. Deals were done there, people were set and ripped off there, threats and kickings were arranged in the fug of the back room.
I went to the Circus for the stories. And so did Elton.
Me, I was brought up in the woebegone ways of Moston, in a house near the Ten Ten Hell’s Angels HQ – Brown’s Dance hall was just around the corner too.
The Ten Tenners used to like to smash up Brown’s every other weekend or so because it was a honey-pot for squares and Mods on the pull.
Elton, was brought up near Belle Vue and eventually on the rough and rowdy shadow streets of Tower-block Alley, Longsight.
We were the tough-guy artists, one from the wrong side of Oldham Road, the other from the wrong side of Rochdale Road.
Dougie Flood lived near Rochdale Road in arrogant splendour in the mansion behind the trees.
Jimmy Swords lorded it in a Longsight tower block next to Oldham Road.
As the 80s headed for the 90s Elton and me both hit the road. I had the time of my life becoming an alcoholic journalist, travel writer and broadcaster.
Elton spun around the world going to LA, becoming a wrestling coach. But life got him too. He ended up homeless and with mental health issues.
Funnily enough we never crossed paths until a few days ago. And then it was on Zoom. I am in lockdown in Slovakia and he is back on the streets in our City of Tall Towers.
Elton is 72 now. I’m not quite as old as him!
I’m looking for a publisher for my book Ravine and Elton has just self-published another one of his own, this one about lockdown in Manchester in 2020. It’s a captivating collection of sketches in Biro and washes, Lowery-eaque in some ways but in others almost Scarfe-ian.
They can be brutal too, scratched in to the page with an earnest desire to capture a moment in pen and ink, an old and unusual medium to be working in nowadays. But it works.
Elton said to me: “It’s been a funny old life really… until my books started to come out my only claim to fame was really being an Elton John impersonator for a laugh. That’s why I’m called Elton … the Real Elton apparently got to hear about me and mentioned me once on telly, in the US. But that was it – oh, except when I was a sort of roady for Springstein… but that’s another tale.
“It’s strange really when you think, it took me until I was in my 70s and something like Covid to come along to get me noticed!”
Yep, Elton, after all these years I noticed you and your artwork.
Cheers
Leigh
This was recorded in Manchester recently by a friend of mine and Elton’s – street musician Sam Qureshi …
Prince Philip died aged 99, nine weeks before his centenary.
To mark his birthday the Queen was presented with a new rose named after the Duke of Edinburgh. The pink rose was bred by the Royal Horticultural Society and planted in the gardens at Windsor Castle last week.
This week also marked the Queen’s official birthday…
Poprad-based writer, journalist and AirTV International broadcaster Leigh G Banks remembers a charming and amusing few minutes with Philip in town.
Leigh writes:
“In 2006 the Queen and Prince Philip paid a whistle-stop tour to Central Europe and stopped off in Poprad. I was lucky enough to spend a short time with him and we chatted about many things – not least the health-giving powers of the small mountainside city which stands over an ancient thermal lake.
As the Royal Consort and I walked around a top hotel charged by the harnessed thermal qualities of the lake, he asked many questions and was impressed by the clean air, the bright ‘shark teeth’ of the looming High Tatras mountains. Finally, he looked me directly in the eye and said: “Do you think I could come and live here?”
It was obviously a gentle joke – but something about Poprad had caught his imagination.
Many people, particularly, in the UK have derided the Prince for his sometimes abrupt manner and his ribald sense of humour. Others have attacked him with unproven conspiracy theories.
These are not things to discuss now. All I can say is for those few minutes, I found him engaging, friendly, charming and funny.
Here’s a really healthy, exotic and summery recipe from Jessica Steen … try it – it’s magical and better than mushrooms!
By Jessica Steen
Today was a day of self care and love or REST. I get super sad when I come home from travelling – it feels like pulling myself out of where I am meant to be. So today I made some Truffle Fettuccine (made with truffles I brought back from Croatia) to make this I blended black olives, garlic, truffles and a little cold pressed organic rapeseed oil added this to a mushroom sauce- made from blended oat milk, cooked garlic and mushrooms and nutritional yeast threw in some courgette broccoli and fettuccine and garnished with a health dose of black pepper and Himalayan salt. I had a small portion in true Italian style and served it with some extra veg with a tahini dressing (literally just 3tbp spn organic tahini, garlic, 1/2 tsp maple syrup, black pepper and water down till you have the right consistency) I was craaaaaving that #trufflepasta backing in my life.
Many parts of Slovakia in the past two decades have benefited from a veritable wealth of success.
And now the little big country has reached fourth place in the world ranking of house prices.
A global house price investigation shows that – despite the devastating effect of Covid on jobs and businesses – the cost of a home has gone up by a staggering 15.5 per cent.
This is far higher than the bulk of countries – 55 in all – surveyed by global real estate consultants Frank Knight. The world-wide company reports prices grew by 7.3 percent on average, the most significant spurt since 2006.
The biggest surge in prices was in Turkey, 32 pc, next was New Zealand, 22.1 pc, followed by Luxembourg, 16.6 pc…
And then Slovakia – ahead of the US – at 13.2 pc.
Other V4 countries didn’t do too well, with Czechia and Poland under 9 pc. Hungary was 1.8 pc.
Massive financial stimulus to support economies during the pandemic has led to a boom in the real estate market around the world. But the bubble could burst soon.
To try and avoid this New Zealand has already removed tax incentives.
In the UK things are on the up too with homes in Wales shooting up by 11.9pc to an average of £190,345.
The South of England has fallen behind the rest of the country however. That includes Greater London, where average prices are only 3.1pc higher than last year.
The devouring of city centre properties over the past two decades is starting to hit a famine as people develop an appetite for big, rural properties with gardens.
This is a fundamental change in the kind of homes that buyers are looking for because of the pandemic and working for home.
However, according to Knight Frank, the growth rate of prices will slow down as the impact of lost jobs, the devastation of tourism and service industries and lost businesses hits home.
Earnings too in Slovakia are not keeping pace either. Bratislava for instance is the only region where people receive more than €1,000 a month. In Prešov that drops to around €770.
And when you consider the average price of a two-room flat in Kosice is €128,000 it is difficult to see how the market will develop.
#houseprices #slovakia #poprad #kosike #wages
Bob’s poem for the isle that caught him crooning in the moonlight in ’69
BOB Dylan says that ‘everyday memories grow dimmer’… and somewhere in his great archive of scribblings, there is a short tome which, to all intents and purposes, seemed to be relegated to his long-forgotten back roads.
It is a short poem dedicated to the 1969 Isle of Wight festival. A jotting which, as far as we know, neither Bob nor anybody else had taken any interest in for close on fifty years.
But one thing most people do know is that the Isle of Wight wasn’t one of Bob’s most memorable hours. Some would say it was a part of his career many would like to forget.
Including him.
Not only was it his first real live performance since 1966, it was supposed to be an inspirational family holiday to the heart of Tennyson country, a midnight outing for his new crooning country voice and a public revaluing of his once incendiary, but now fizzling, career.
Sadly, very little went right … his son, Jesse, was taken ill on the cruise from the US and Dylan and his wife, Sara, were advised to get him to hospital, as soon as possible. And the 17th century country manor house his family were staying at turned out to be ‘haunted’.
Maybe ther were skeletons out in the rain!
At the same time America was spooked because their wayward son had dumped them for a field in a farm in a place called Wooton. Bob had basically crapped on his own doorstep in Woodstock…
Raymond Foulk, of promoters Fiery Creations Ltd, said at the time: “The Americans are a bit upset at Dylan appearing in Britain and not in the States. We have already had many applications from America for tickets, and some people are chartering planes to fly over specially for the concert.”
Then there was apoplexy as it was rumoured that Dylan might appear at Hyde Park.
But on the night of his performance things just got worse. More than 100.000 people had crammed into the arena to see the troubled troubadour – and he turned up two hours late.
And far from being the wild bellowing Byron-esque poet of rock Dylan was a diminutive figure in a white suit (apparently because he thought he was going to the Isle of White). And he was humming a croon instead of coruscating the throng with his rasp of the desert and rattle of the mountains.
“Hello. Great to be here,” he said with a smile after his soft-shoe shuffle of an opener.
The performance ended shortly after midnight. Dylan had been on the stage for just an hour. After repeated cheering and whistling he returned to perform for another 10 minutes.
Then it was all over. Dylan was paid about £35,000. His set list had consisted of low-key understated performances of songs like She Belongs To Me, I Threw It All Away, Wild Mountain Thyme, Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn), Minstrel Boy and Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35. To many it was a disastrous performance. But somehow it had made such an impression on Bob himself that he wrote a poem about it all …
It reads:
Echo of the North Country
Hard ‘n tuff old land
Worn by weather rock ‘n sand
like folks who live there
Mong the broken stone
the gravel ‘n the grime
growing all alone
sweet as Celandine
flower like the girl
who waits
for a lover gone f shure
Fabled beauty he relates
Sends back love
And nuthin’ more
Two years ago he sent the words to be read out at the Million Dollar Bash — the event hich marked the 50th anniversary of the festival and was heard exclusively for the first time on Saturday, August 31.
Ashley Hutchings read out the poem as his band, Dylancentric, played the intro to their version of ‘Girl from the North Country’. He also noted that both the song and the poem were inspired by Bob’s high school girlfriend Echo Helstrom.
Echo, the Duluth native known to Bob Dylan fans as likely the prime inspiration for the 1963 song “Girl from the North Country,” died just before the event at age 75. Helstrom grew up with Dylan — then known as Bobby Zimmerman — in Hibbing, The two had a high school romance that earned Helstrom musical shout-outs from Dylan when he was still a teenager.
Helstrom’s relationship with Dylan, and her likely influence on his iconic song, was revealed in 1971 when writer Toby Thompson published the book Positively Main Street, a chronicle of his pilgrimage to Hibbing to explore Dylan’s roots. He spent intimate time with Helstrom, who said she was confident the song was about her and not a Minneapolis girlfriend, given lyrical references like the repeated mention of a “borderline.”
There’s no question Dylan was much taken with Helstrom, escorting her to prom and writing in her yearbook, “Let me tell you that your beauty is second to none. Love to the most beautiful girl in school.” Dylan even mentioned Helstrom in his memoir Chronicles Vol. 1, remembering that they’d listen to old Jimmie Rodgers 78s together.
Dylan and Helstrom were outsiders together, and a former owner of the Dylan-themed restaurant Zimmy’s told the Star Tribune that Helstrom relished the attention the high school sweethearts ultimately gained through music. “For her it was like sticking it in the eye of all the people in Hibbing who criticized them and were mean to them when they were kids.”
Slovakia health bosses have admitted that the country should be in the Covid orange tier on Europe’s travel map making holidays and business trips a lot easier.
Instead we are stuck in the red!
The Public Health Authority (ÚVZ) admits it has sent the wrong data to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
The government body had wrongly calculated the number of cases and positivity rate and sent it to the European Surveillance System..
Hopefully he data will be corrected in the next few days.
The misleading data has had an impact on travelling from Slovakia already. The Czech Republic, for example, sees Slovakia as red and high risk.
It means that travellers from Slovakia have to self-isolate after coming to the Czech Republic and then take a PCR test,
People coming from the orange-tier countries do not have to take a second PCR test or self-isolate at the moments.
#slovakia #traveluk #covid #borders
UPDATED: Mum’s ‘battle to save cancer victim daughter from doctors’
People have been re-reading this story from last year … the preservation society covered the story with a good friend of ours who was determined to help this mother and daughter who, no doubt, were living in hell.
The story, like so much on the internet, remains to be read now and in the future. So, it is only fair that a site like ours does its best to bring people up to date, not in an invasive way but positively.
The story, as it progressed, became tragic and convoluted and we were supplied with many documents and information as the convolutions became more difficult to follow.
There were also reports of Kylee being involved in a car crash.
So, to update people who have been returning to this story … Kylee seems to be doing well and getting on with life. We hope she is fit and well in the future.
Meanwhile, mum Krissy Gale Dixon, has continued to fight for what she believes is right and campaigns on social media over Covid-19.
A
mother who went on the run with her cancer-victim daughter to ‘stop
doctors killing her’ is finally re-united with her after almost a
year.
Kylee
Dixon, of Wilsonville, was diagnosed with undifferentiated embryonal
sarcoma in March 2018. Doctors recommended she underwent chemotherapy
– which campaigners were quick to point out is a derivative of
mustard gas. Then surgery.
The
teenager would die otherwise, medics are reported as saying.
But
her mother, Christine, aged 35, believed the treatments could
actually kill her and wanted to use herbs, vitamins and cannabis oil
instead. Kylee had also said that she didn’t want to undergo
surgery.
Christine
went on the run with Kylee for a week last June. Authorities found
them in Nevada and Kylee was put in the custody of the
state. Christine turned herself in a few weeks later.
Kylee
had been in care since then – and Christine was told she could have
no contact over Christmas.
This
was a double shock after authorities actually suggested that Kylee
was put in the care of her father, James Dixon, who had been facing
assault charges. These were later dropped.
Kylee
had originally been taken to Providence Portland Medical Center in
February 2018. She was in extreme pain and was diagnosed a few weeks
later with undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma, a rare liver cancer
that mostly occurs in children.
Scientists
are unsure of what causes the cancer, but know that the cancerous
cells grow early in development. It accounts for between two percent
and 15 percent of all liver cancers, according to the National Cancer
Institute.
Kylee
began undergoing gruelling chemotherapy at Oregon Health and Science
University.
Christine
said at the time. “Every single time – you literally feel your
kid’s life getting taken away.”
After
six months, she convinced doctors to discharge Kylee so she could
take her home, which is when she began turning to alternative
medicine.
But
then Kylee and her mother are said to have failed to show up for
scheduled surgery and Clackamas County Circuit Court demanded
Kylee be placed in the custody of the Oregon Department of Human
Services.
‘The
mother decided to treat the child’s cancer exclusively with CBD
oil, which is not a medically recognized treatment for the disease
with which child has been diagnosed,’ Clackamas County senior
deputy district attorney Christine Landers reportedly said.
That
was when Christine fled with her daughter. Seven days later they were
found and Kylee was taken into care. Christine and her supporters
called it ‘medical kidnapping’.
Christine
said this in a social media post: “I did what any good parent would
have done, I stepped in and intervened and fought for my daughters
life. Put it this way, if you knew your child’s life was hanging by
a thin thread, and someone pulled a gun out and wanted to end your
child’s life right in front of you, would you let them put the gun
to your child’s head? If you had the opportunity to stop them from
pulling the trigger, would you? “Again
I ask as a parent, where did I go wrong? I stopped them from harming
my Daughter, I also asked for a second opinion and got completely
attacked, hunted down at my home, lied about, was taken through an
illegal court system just to get threatened and for the DA to
threaten my life and my daughters life! Then to get hunted down
clear across the states, all because I knew my Daughter had a
fighting chance to live now, that I got her out of that horrific
hospital! And researched enough to find out the truth to save my
daughters life.”
Preservation
Society investigator and writer Sonya Webb has been constantly in
touch with Christine.
She
said: “This
is an
unbelievable,
but true story about a young girl and her mum. I cannot
understand what they had to go through on a daily basis.
“After
Kylee fell ill and was taken to OHSU, the doctors originally said
there was no cancer, but then said the following week that there was,
that it was very severe. She was found to have a mass tumour inside
her liver on 28th
February
2018.
“She
was given chemotherapy and fell into a coma. Her mother, Christine,
spent a lot of time researching the type of cancer Kylee had. Kylee
was diagnosed with lung cancer as well as the liver cancer; however,
after a course of antibiotics and refusal from Christine with regards
to Kylee having a lung operation, there appears to be no evidence of
lung cancer.”
Road through hell as Human Serviceskeep in touch with mum by email…
Following
almost nine very long, traumatic months apart, Christine has been
finally reunited with Kylee after a judge dismissed claims against
her, writes Sonya Webb.
16th
December,
2019
The
court hearing was moved to January without Christine being told why.
She was however, told that scans and pre-assessments had been booked,
but a date for surgery hadn’t been organised.
18th
December
Kylee
was reportedly removed from school by the Department of Human
Services. Again, Christine says she was not told why or where Kylee
had been moved to.
Christine
says she was eventually allowed a phone call with her, with both mum
and daughter, being warned they were not allowed to discuss the
location of Kylee, nor what had happened to her.
Sonya
says: “After emailing Senator Kim Thatcher in Oregon about this
situation, I received a response informing me that she felt something
was definitely not right and that she was working to get as close to
the bottom of the case.”
25th
December
Christine
and Kylee’s first Christmas apart. No contact was made on the day.
29th
December
Christine
received a letter from DHS stating that the scans would be carried
out on 30th
December.
1st
January
2020 – New Year, new beginnings
Christine
and Kylee were allowed a phone call. There were two other people in
the room with Kylee and she had to keep checking to see what she was
allowed to say to her own mother…
3rd
January
Christine
received an email from DHS. Why on earth was this terrible situation
always dealt with by email? Mind you, at least there is written
evidence, which in the long run was probably better.
The
email stated that the surgery would be going ahead, hopefully by the
end of the week as the doctor felt that the situation had gone from
‘medical urgency’ to ‘medical emergency’.
The
doctor talked through the post-surgery options with Kylee –
remember she is only 13 and did not have her mother with her during
these discussions – and said he would recommend further
chemotherapy.
6th
January
The
judge ruled that the surgery would take place. She also ruled that
Christine would be given the surgery date, and would able to see
Kylee before the operation, and also afterwards. In court, Kylee
stated that she just wanted to get it over and done with as she
wanted to be with her mum, her best friend.
9th
January
Christine
was allowed to see Kylee and give her Christmas presents. Christine
also gave her a Valentine’s gift, as she said she didn’t know
what the situation would be like later. Kylee looked incredibly
healthy, and not someone who had to have an emergency operation to
keep her alive!
12th/13th
January
There
were planned peaceful protests outside Oregon State Capital.
Christine had been warned that if any protests took place outside the
hospital, then she would not be allowed to see Kylee before the
operation.
Christine
was supposed to have had a phone call with Kylee on 12th
January
at 6pm EST. This did not happen, so Christine called DHS to check why
and to find out when surgery was going to take place. She left a
message but didn’t hear back. At some point during the night,
Christine got word from someone inside the hospital that Kylee had
been taken to the hospital.
14th
January
Kylee
was operated on – the operation took 15 hours – and yet again,
Christine was given this information via email! She was asked to go
into the DHS office, but not to have cameras or her phone with her.
She
had to go alone.
Christine
was allowed to see Kylee on 15th. She reported that Kylee was
extremely bloated, was very cold and looked very jaundiced.
Kylee had six IVs, one of which was stitched into her neck. They told
Christine that they couldn’t pull any blood! She managed to stay
with her for over two hours. Kylee only has a third of her liver left
and was very weak.
News
channels reported that Kylee was fine…
16th
January
Christine
was contacted by email AGAIN from DHS. They stated that they didn’t
know what was wrong, but they could only say that Kylee wasn’t
doing very well, and that they would be able to get an update from
the medics the following day. Christine was still not allowed to go
the hospital. Kylee remained in the hospital for a few days with
guards placed outside her room…
21st
January
Where’s
Kylee?
It
was reported to Christine that the guards were no longer outside the
room, and that Kylee wasn’t inside the room. No one informed
Christine of Kylee’s whereabouts.
Protesters
continued to protest peacefully outside the hospital and DHS
offices.
22nd
January
Christine
was doing a prayer vigil outside the hospital when Fox Channel 12
interviewed her. She was incredibly taken aback when the reporter
told her that DHS had been interviewed and reported that Kylee had
been discharged, was now cancer-free, and
was able to ring the cancer-free bell.
The
reporter looked quite shocked too as he thought Christine had been
told – DHS had said they’d been keeping her informed!
23rd
January
Christine
has said that there was no way anyone should be out of hospital 5
days after a serious liver op, having only spent time in ICU. How is
it even possible that someone can suddenly be declared cancer-free
five days after an operation? Surely, that only happens during a
follow up appointment?
25th
January
Christine
was finally allowed to speak to Kylee – but was basically only
allowed to say hello so she ‘could hear that Kylee was alive’.
27th
January
Finally,
Christine had some people in authority from the DHS on her side who
started listening to her and are willing to help.
29th
January
Emergency
court hearing
Kylee
looked incredibly well. What an amazing strong young teenager she is.
She gave Christine 3 visits with Kylee between now and the next court
hearing, the following Monday. Christine was very happy about this.
Christine was also allowed to go to the follow-up hospital
appointment with Kylee. The doctor reported that there was a 20%
chance the cancer was still there and offered chemotherapy. Both
refused, as was their right.
3rd
February
Kylee
is free!
The
judge allowed Kylee to go home to Christine. Charges against
Christine will be brought up at a hearing on 10th
March.
The
nightmare journey that Kylee and Christine have been on with regards
to the DHS and hospital is finally over.
But
this isn’t the end of the story….it’s just the beginning.
A
lot of things that have taken place over the past 9 months were never
made public, but they will. Not only this, Kylee is beginning to give
her side of things while she was away from Christine, and believe me,
it’s heart breaking, but what an incredible young teenager Kylee
is.
She
still has a long way to go on her road to recovery, but now she is
back with Christine, that can only help her immensely.
This
is not the end of this courageous battle that Christine and Kylee
have faced separately…this is just the beginning.
To dance with a stranger or to die in the plague … should we hasten slowly?
Here I endeavour to represent Josephine Bloggs who is trapped on a planet of disease.
I want to get out of my prison, and to have people come in and transform it to a home. I want to wander around the shops, handle the goods, eat in the carvery, sharing the serving utensils without a second thought.
I want to debate in ‘live’ meetings and to go on holiday and enjoy trying to speak other languages – to dance with strangers. I want to leave behind all things ‘virtual’.
I want my grandchildren to be safely placed in school without feeling they are being left in a battlefield.
I want to go out to work and socialize with colleagues who are working for the same cause.
I want to practise my chosen faith in my place of worship knowing that all other faiths are doing the same freely.
I want to get in the builders or the decorators, the electricians – to spend money or save money.
I want to save my business, be it big or small, by surviving and thriving.
To go to the cinema and be annoyed by the popcorn eaters or the theatres and stand on my feet clapping for encores. Cheer and sing at a football match.
Do crafts or draw a paint, or play bingo in silence – study in college or join groups. Make music.
I even want to see my GP come out of the inner sanctum, and to have the benefit of hands on diagnoses.
To somehow jump from a bemasked state of nervous optimism to some kind of normality.
I even want all of this here in the UK on June 21st.
SO what do I NOT want
I don’t want our leaders, of whatever political colour, to take us, like lambs to the slaughter, into another cesspit of disease and struggle. I am sensitive to their dilemma and to the needs of our economy and our jobs and businesses.
I don’t want to follow gently nor to fight vocally, with innocence and ignorance as our guide with false optimism taking us down familiar pathways.
When the final easing of restrictions comes – be it June 21st or a year hence, it should not be ratified until it is recognised that though the plague may have waned it is threatening to surge once again.
By moving with greater caution and continuing vaccination, until the great majority are covered, we may avoid a coming winter of isolation and all its evils.
There has been no smoke without ire in the UK for decades… smokers have been treated like lepers and forced to pay billions for the dubious pleasure of having a fag on a street corner.
Last year the tax rate on a packet of cigs was £244.78 per 1,000 plus 16.5% of the retail price.
That means, that on a £8 packet of fags, smokers pay approximately £6.40 in tobacco tax.
Tobacco tax is expected to raise £8.7 billion this year despite fewer people smoking.
Yep, that’s how much it costs to give yourself lung cancer, to have bad breath, a hacking cough, wrinkly skin, rotting gums and be forced to stand in the rain while you inhale your very expensive drugs indeed.
Do you know, almost every illicit drug is actually cheaper in the UK than fags!
Except for alcohol which is another stand – or rather fall down – and deliver method of ripping us off by ‘highwayman’ government after government in this mean and septic isle.
Smoking is bad for you, no doubt!
But it is a big earner for ‘fat cats in top hats’ and it is the ‘skinny tw*ts in flat caps’ who mainly foot the bill!
But – no matter how bad it is for us – we have a right to smoke a legal drug if we want to! We are already paying for any NHS treatment we need in advance. Smoking is like a massive insurance policy for those who do it!
Now Oxfordshire is aiming to become the first county in England to ban smoking outdoors … and they are doing it as the Government’s lockdown roadmap comes to an end.
The county, which wants to be smoke-free by 2025, will crack down on outdoor dining areas and workplace break spots.
So, in the last few months we’ve lost our freedom to go to work in our offices, our freedom to go on holiday, our freedom to go down the pub, our freedom to kiss and cuddle, shake hands, visit family, go to weddings and funerals, to travel and to face the world unadorned by a stinky piece of fabric .. the list of loss is endless!
We were conned over diesel cars and after we’d bought them we were told we’d have to swap them for electric cars with about as much charm as a dildo going off in a locked suitcase and about as much distance-chomping ability as a Zimmer frame!
And now they are trying to make you smoke behind closed doors – smokers are to become members of a secret society of cigs.
We are watching as another of our freedoms – no matter how unhealthy and unsavoury – disappears in a puff.
