Tom Jones’s murder ballad Delilah has finally been banned at the Principality Stadium, the Welsh Rugby Union has revealed.

The lyrics ‘why why why Delilah’ from  the 80s hit have been sung at the games for decades – not in glorification of killing your wife!

No, in glorification of a knock-about classic sung by a ‘boyo from the hills’.

But from now, the song won’t be played during the Six Nations again.

This comes as Charlotte Wathan – former head of Wales women’s rugby – alleged that a male colleague joked in front of others in an office environment that he wanted to ‘rape’ her.

Yes, Wathan’s claim needs resolving quickly and nobody, male or female, should be confronted with such insensitive, brutal and old-fashioned insults… but does that mean that a piece of pop culture should be banned from a sporting environment where it has existed for more than half century?

Yes, the song tells of the murder of a woman after she was caught with another man. But it is a power/murder ballad in the old tradition.

It was written  in December 1967. The lyrics were written by Barry Mason, and the music by Les Reed, who also contributed the title and theme of the song. It earned Reed and Mason the 1968 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

Do you find it offensive?

And then should Johnny Cash’s Delia’s Gone now be banned? 0r Sonic Youth’s Death Valley? Or Springsteen’s Nebraska?

Should we also switch off films like Double Jeopardy or Sleeping with the Enemy?

Sexism and misogyny claims about the Welsh Rugby Union have been known by the Welsh government after they were raised in the Commons last year, an MP said.

Labour’s Tonia Antoniazzi said the ministers should be asked what action they took over the allegations.

Ms Antoniazzi, the Gower MP, said she also raised the concerns directly with the Labour Welsh government after her speech in Parliament last March.

#rugby #welshrugby #PrincipalityStadium #tomjones #delilah

British fashion guru Paul Smith is said to have failed to explain why his goods were still on sale in Russia.

At least three British top-notch companies were still doing business with Russia despite the horrific war in Ukraine.

Paul Smith and lingerie brand Agent Provocateur still have stores open in Moscow, while Rolls-Royce has new cars for sale in the country.

RR claims it does not know how they got there.

AP argued it only runs stores operated by a franchise partner.

Chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood MP claimed that by refusing to withdraw their products, the brands were failing to stand up to Russian aggression.

#rollsroyce #paulsmith #agentprov #russia #moscow #ukraine #war #business

Nadhim Zahawi has been removed from Government after he was found to have committed a ‘serious breach’ of ministerial rules. The now ex-Tory chairman has been mired in a row over his tax affairs after paying a penalty to HMRC. Rishi Sunak wrote to him: ‘Following the completion of the Independent Adviser’s investigation – the findings of which he has shared with us both – it is clear that there has been a serious breach of the Ministerial Code. As a result, I have informed you of my decision to remove you from your position in His Majesty’s Government.’

#rishi #sunak #Nadhim #Zahawi #uk #tax

Russia is now at ‘war against NATO and the West’, a senior EU official has said.

We now could be facing the world’s worst fear, the potential road to oblivion for millions of people.

A new global war is looming.

The deal amongst Western leaders to send tanks into Kyiv to blast through the Kremlin’s invading forces has caused fury in Moscow who have threatened to escalate the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European Union’s European External Action Service, said Putin had ‘moved from a concept of special operation to a concept now of a war against NATO and the West’.

He will increase indiscriminate attacks on civilians and non-military targets and retaliate against the West, he said in Tokyo as part of an Asia-Pacific tour.

#WARNATO #WARWEST #WARPUTIN #WARUKRAINE

UPDATE: An air raid alert issued over Ukraine as defence units shoot down incoming missiles, How close are we now to nuclear war. What do you think?

Since Vladimir Putin crossed the Russian Rubicon by ordering tanks to rumble over the Ukrainian frontier last February, almost everything has gone wrong.

Little has gone to plan.

His madness didn’t work and the war – for that’s what it is – became a bloody ruinous and terrifying stalemate of counter attacks and dismemberment of life.

The one thing Putin has managed to do is reveal just how the Western world became like bleating rabbits caught in the headlights of horror. Frozen and about to get their heads knocked off.

Then Boris turned up in the Ukraine and signed a bomb to be sent to Russia, Switzerland, a long-held tradition of neutrality, moved towards allowing other countries to re-export Swiss-made weapons and Germany finally revealed their bollocks and agreed to allow their tanks to go to war.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, had been asking for tanks, which are the key to smashing Russian defences to regain its territory.

Andriy Yermak, his chief of staff, said: “This is going to become a real punching fist of democracy against the autocracy from the bog.”

Kirill Mikhailov, a Kyiv-based military researcher, told The Telegraph that deliveries of tanks on that scale could “change the course of the war”.

He said: “We’ve already passed the end of the beginning. What you need now is to be able to replenish the Ukrainians to the point where the Russians will constantly be on the retreat.”

 The tanks pledge has resolved major rifts  in the Western alliance over   sending tanks .

US officials had maintained that Abrams tanks were unsuitable for use in Ukraine because they are difficult to operate and maintain, require extensive training and need frequent refuelling.

 The White House and Pentagon were caught off guard by the strength of the German reluctance.

But following intense behind-the-scenes negotiations a transatlantic tank deal was made.

The Kremlin of course has downplayed the impact that western tanks will have, saying that the military aid to Ukraine would “burn like all the rest”.   

However, his display of solidarity by Western nations sends a powerful message to Putin that they remain steadfast in their support for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people.

This is not an act of provocation, as Putin would like to claim, but a reaffirmation that Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion must fail.

They already had the courage to prevail. Now they have the tanks too.

#tanks #putin #biden #boris #zelensky #ukraine

Leigh and Rodney unplugged! Diesel was a con – but electric cars are the biggest turn-off ever and the chaps reveal more about the reality of going electric.

Click to view video…

Night comes in like a disease in New Delhi. As darkness falls stray dogs dodge blaring traffic and a bear dances for its supper in a stinking alleyway. Then the lights go out.

Yes, the ninth biggest city in the world has just had its tenth power cut of the day.

And now the UK has followed suit…

In Delhi, they say the lights go out because the ‘golden office block’ in Guargon is draining all the electricity.  Only it and the Mercedes Benz decal suspended high above the city still fizz against air so polluted it chokes out the moon and the stars.

Twenty million of us, beggars and businessmen, travellers and tramps, the gullible and the gurus, scurry like cockroaches around the dark.

And now thousands of households in the UK are being paid a couple of quid to do exactly the same thing, sit in the freezing cold in the dark for an hour to save the nation.

So, when will Brits begin burning old tyres in streets for warmth too?

We think it will never happen – but is it really such an outrageous question?

After all, woefully unreliable figures say there are 1.77 million homeless people in India,  0.15% of the country’s total population.

In the UK figures are about as useful, the collation of facts about the homeless are very difficult to find because of the way it is recorded by the Office of Statistics.

The most recent annual count showed 8,239 rough sleepers were spotted on London’s streets between April 2021 and March 2022.

#POWEER #ELECTRIC #POWERCUTS #BLACKOUTS #DELHI

BY OUR SURREALIST WRITER and REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR ERIC LASTICK

Renegade outlaws sand-spurs of the Comanche trails…

THE OUTLAW RUN)

Old gun sling quarrel…Mr. Briggs of big at Bitter Creek. Perceives and executes, as old as it is new. Proves and their prices of nowadays praises…and of old dusty-bred oratory on bullet bands. Holsters leather brands  of Western Ward sons. Western hoofs, grooves. Courageous, you might say…though bitter the swallow of all who live long enough, to banjo & wisdom. Hearts replenish only if you will, yet where most won’t. Sings of sad, though stars seem in perfect alines, in linage of crimes, once again of our living, our breathing!

SPECTACLE: Now a gunfighter of four…or as one feel it. And gives you a boost to the next mapped out miracle moment. But it ain’t real. No, not at all; as the Dalton gang rises of the forward Tomb buzz. Look-like wings in circles. Circle may the fool. Roundups and saddle tight you–flight, all through the rain drenched and dark of night. Calls, hums and whispers—though never so clear, here at Bitter Creek. Swallows in strikes of sounds…and the willows of the perturbed.Morning may long be magic with a horse drawn steal. An open and shut range, until the next Marshall come-a-looking. Not to judge, but to see that the law lingers…and it trust much further than, the fear of a common scared and law abiding townsman. His lady close at his side. 

Dalton bullet vest sunny sweet in ones own mind’s one. Earlobes in the heat of the Comanche oversees—like waves of courses so cruel. Hollow canyon take us back to where simpler times…though the bitter of wind and rain follows a poor choice in six gun folly, careless shots to sacred still will quarters. Hears and listens of ancestors, high native sky!

(LONG RIDERS…OUTLAW REND)

Crazy spurs…and dust bend whiskeys…all black hatted. Terse eyed and know-ed—-too a last ”rob of a caboose.” Meet me at the pass of the notorious Younger James…train turnovers and notoriety, 1863. Hope-hold country fair—see’s side of roughed rove Missouri . Bold as it is cold travels. War torn Rebel’s in Grey coat. Tooth pull monkey wrench—go the bushwhack…and truth be known of a lieutenant H. B. Noggin’s, flag and binocular—these gun slinging savages on a hooping hell-firefight’s to his authentic gang…so– take heed, fine people. Better to man-up an iron horse. Draw a curtain past this hardened and crude large lasso of terror, that be known and reiterates”, say it well, the common’s man. Long and never short winded after a banker’s nightmare on the steals! Angry and dry stagecoach occupants are left with just the mere shirts upon their backs. Woman of loose leggings–as the James gang styles lady eyed— too the next town, with sparkles and new wealth deepening pockets.

” Will me a new day, away from the hoof-prints of this rough gang of thieves and wretches– and to that which survives…and those who lay dead. Yet not until the gun and bullet frame of Robert Ford strikes the back of Jessie James. 1870’s to never be the same…of a mixed message of the lore of the old west. Paint a fine print of this Missouri take. The stagecoach…and the bank, the trains last stop be of a burial 1876. A last stop to the outlaw line. The tripped and reads of the townsfolk…and eye of the outlaws museum. The bite down

of dust…spurs rust, and one more horse singles the coded soured dime which it stands.

(SAND MOCCASIN THE COMANCHE TRAILS)

Comanche stay the wolf. Red rider, red wolf…bare of extinction. Kiowa too, in vision quest–storied of Chief -ton ”Big Bow” Coy a wolf, mesh the Grey. Kicking bird chirps and distinctions of yellow wolf. Gold symbol to a renewed day. Wolf-en pal …mutual stretch at the curve trail. Tall the sky…strands of green, the morning dew. Slick the hillside. Light’s glare and raises of burnt orange mix with fog, held by last night’s thunderous electric branched mountain tie. Wolf and i, dodge the bolts of lightening. Wind bend air rush of the hour to dawn. Tangle web catch those frozen from fear. Owl centered…seeing the mood of late day. Wolf seek the shelter of the pack. Lone though, my mutual pal, say the Comanche. Surge, bite and claw—all through adversity of dense forests. Duel howls of the moon. Soon, a retrograde back to Indian river. A TRAIL, until home…as within no time a place for those speakers. Their calls to the Plains. Spirit reign…land us at Colorado station. A single train sit among this space. This place of the sights and it’s longest miles…pile of buffalo hides. Longhorn carcass, yet past this, medicine bags and riches of a simple stop in this rapture. Beautiful night to stop and take-in, this summer’s wind. Comanche read’s of signs, the message of this grand old west; as if our own front doorsteps! In this wild, walk forth Comanche, stay the wolf. Wolf and red man pass the pain and hardship of this great land—taken by the currents…it’s flows of Anglo gold. Riches for one. Wolf savage–yet bold, too save the very next red road. These trails and this path of mutual savior. Struggle set above this drink…and these waters…these steals. Press and forgotten on the reserves which are our homes. Tempered drive—too the path. A place called peace. Gains of freedoms, meet at Red road. Join star guides…souls who pass among the envelopes of hope. Comanche stay the wolf, my mutual pal. I call you friend—-with guide of the wolf, tomorrow we will surely separate to find our own, though this journey is to really see, and structure what needs doing. The unity of the wolf…and the red man—stretches of blessings. Memorials to all those whom have fallen. Future peace and unifying, this new day—-all along the Comanche trails.

We look at a world-renowned musician who is an unsung hero of the fight against diabetes

Roman Vitkovský – LOOK AROUND (Official Video) – YouTube

Roman Vitkovsky, who is quite famous nowadays, was a close friend for many years. He has had an incurable disease for decades …

The diminutive singer spent years as a house painter in Pittsburgh after moving to America hoping to make his musical dreams come true.

And finally he got a break into Hollywood two decades ago and his music appeared in some big movies. Now he gigs with a top Slovak band …

But he is in fact a real, good old fashioned travelling troubadour who is known to make journeys across the Spis region of this castellated and rolling country on the back of his lily-white horse to raise awareness about diabetes.

He slept round the campfire many nights on what sometimes seemed like an endless and lonely journey beneath the stars. Other nights farmers would allow him to sleep in the barn.

But almost every day, as he made his journey across the region, he would stop to perform at roadside bars and the Slovak equivalent of Slovak village halls and town squares.

A short film was made of his heart-felt journey for fellow victims of the disease which blights the lives of millions across the globe…

But Roman’s efforts went largely unnoticed.

Roman,  in his 50s, spent  lockdown in his isolated ranch-like home 50km from the tiny mountainside city, Poprad, where Andrea and I were living in splendid isolation ourselves..

He recorded this song on the spur of the moment on his phone… it is about coronavirus, it’s about isolation, it is about hope and all the other emotions we are going through. And it is about hope.

Here are the lyrics in both Slovak and English

Look Around

look around and see, what we become today

it could be brand new start, it could be all the end

the world we use to know, is falling all a part

everything has changed, every town is down

but I know god will help me

he all carry my through this days

I know he wont forsake me

so I’m praying for my brothers and sisters all out there

look around and see, where we have gone so wrong

that plague is coming down, like many times before

like many times before,  old wind was blowing dust

i’m praying to the lord,this time we ll make it right.

SLOVAK LYRICS

volny preklad textu:

Pozri sa okolo seba

k comu sme dospely

moze to byt novy zaciatok

alebo koniec vsetkeho

svet ktory sme poznali

sa cely rozpada

vsetko sa zmenilo

vsetky mesta su uzavrete

ref:

viem ze boh mi pomoze

prejst cez toto vsetko

viem ze na mna nezabudne

tak sa modlim za vsetkych bratov a sestry tam vonku

pozri sa okolo seba

kde sme spravili chyby

pliaga sa na nas vali

ako vela krat predtym

ako vela krat predtym

uz vietor vanul prach

tak sa modlim k bohu

aby sme to cele napravili

ARE CUSTOMERS BEING LIED TO IN THE UK’S NEW POWER GAME?

Did you guess how much your electricity bill was actually going up by?

Well, a major power company might have done just that – GUESSED your estimated usage.

The Society has transcripts of Eon customer services claiming their estimated bills are actually plucked out of the air while previous charges are ignored.

Yep … GUESS-IMATES!

Yet, the relatively new utility company, Eon-Next, seems to have turned a blind eye to the worrying comments from their staff – and have ignored offers to let them hear the recordings.

An initial official statement just said: “We know these are difficult times for our customers and we’d urge anyone who is struggling to get in touch.”

Since Eon Next took over Npower less than three years ago, it ranked bottom of the table of 17 energy companies rated in the Which? Energy satisfaction survey. It received a customer score of 51pc. 63pc of Eon Next customers did also say they  were satisfied. 

Its parent company Eon, meanwhile, came in joint 12th along with Sainsbury’s Energy, Scottish Power and SSE. All four suppliers had a customer score of 55pc.

However, in 2019 bosses bragged publicly that E.ON had completed the migration of two million former npower customers in record speed.

So, why were customers being told only weeks ago that ‘because it is a new company, certain infrastructure isn’t yet in place?

FIVE HOURS of recordings in The Society’s possession also reveal staff ‘making mistakes’ by telling customers:

1. Pre-payment meters cannot be changed for credit meters

2. Eon has not completed its infra-structure

3. Pre-payment meters can work out cheaper than other payment methods

4. Bills are ‘guessed’  at instead of being estimated

5. Records to base bills on are available … but ignored

So, just how DIFFICULT is it to make a deal with Britain’s major providers?

And what about the elderly and the vulnerable who are trying to cope with new tech and ever-present fears over money– how do they get things sorted?

Journalist and broadcaster Leigh G Banks spent weeks on the phone to the likes of E-on Next.

He ended up with demands for money he didn’t owe, had his electricity bill trebled by a new credit meter and was lied to or mislead…

Leigh said: “E-ON Next guessed at our usage of electricity – even though they knew exactly how much we used – and trebled the bill!

“How do the elderly, people on benefits and those on low wages get by?”

Leigh said: “We have full recordings of conversations with representatives who ‘spill the beans’ on what is really happening to their customers.”

These are the questions EON’s public relations office have refused to answer:

1. Has E.on Next at any stage in 2022 had a policy of NOT replacing pre-payment meters?

2. Was the infra-structure for replacing these meters in-place immediately after the takeover?

3. Why would customer service people tell customers these meters couldn’t be changed?

4. Does E.on have access to customer records of usage?

5. If not, why not?

6. Are bill estimates simply guesses?

7. Are bill records ignored?

8. If they are used, why are bills generally estimated at three times the reality?

9. What happens to the over-charges made?

10. How much customer money does E.on hold at any one time?

Eon however blanked these questions and replied: “As we have now responded to you many times and have sent you our formal and final statement, we will not be providing any further comment in relation to your query. Regards.”

Eon was one of eight UK power companies identified this year as having ‘minor weaknesses’ by power watchdog Ofgem. The companies causing concern were Eon,  Ecotricity, EDF, Octopus, OVO, Shell, SO Energy and Utility Warehouse    

Waiting for ofgem comment.

#OFGEM #POWERCOMPANIES #SMARTMETERS