Flash Fiction

Grandad, what are you doing with the laptop?
Making a Book

Won't your fingers get tired?
I'm going to use a mouse.

How can his tiny paws press those huge keys?

This is an audiobook of short stories (flash fiction) for your entertainment.
Postage is free in the UK.

It also makes an excellent gift.

Buy one of these and you are giving money to Alzheimer's research.

Just Click here

Slavery

"We must learn the lessons of the past" according to unelected inbred imbecile King Charles the Last.

The main lesson is that the royal family benefited from the slave trade more than anyone else in this country. If anyone should be forced to pay compensation it is certainly them and one in five of the rich bastards in the UK who also owe their fortunes to slavery.

The Bank of England made capital available for slave voyages and the City of London became the financial centre of the slave trade.

Politicians talk smugly about the abolition of the slave trade. They forget that British capitalism had to have a slave trade, and a massively profitable one, in order for it to be abolished. The profits of slavery were falling before abolition was considered.

The Kings School in Hampshire

The Kings School in Hampshire is appealing against the imposition of VAT, claiming that it is a school for Christians. It is not. It is a school for people with £8000 to spare. And such people will not enter the kingdom of heaven until they can push a camel through the eye of a needle!

Truth is stranger than fiction

We attended a Shoreham Wordfest crime-writer get-together yesterday. It was great fun. One writer who is also a lawyer was asked if something happened in real life which nobody would believe in a book.

Apparently, she said to a witness who had just told a remarkable and untrue story. "I put it to you that what you have said is a pack of lies." The witness's response left her speechless. The witness said "Yeah."

MPs assisted suicide bill.

Politicians will vote for assisted suicide because they will not spend the money on palliative end-of-life care. What a shower.

This is not an abstract debate. It is a direct threat to people who are old or ill. Call them worthless. Make them believe they are a burden. Then offer them assisted suicide.

I have received a reply from Becky Cooper MP which is available on this blog.

https://derekmcmillan1951a.blogspot.com/2024/10/becky-coopers-reply.html

Why not write to your MP? It could be your own life you are saving!

Netanyahu

Surely Netanyahu will not end the war ever. Without the war, he has no purpose. 

He clings on to power by virtue of the war. As long as he kills women and children in Gaza, the far-right fanatics will continue to support him.

Becky Cooper's reply

Becky Cooper MP replies:

Good evening,

Thank you for contacting me about the private members bill relating to assisted dying. This is a complex and emotive issue and I know there are strongly held ethical and moral views on both sides of the debate.

As a medical doctor and public health consultant I have spent 20 years helping people to be well and to access the best possible care when they are ill. It’s what brought me into politics.

I recognise the need to ensure everyone with a terminal diagnosis has access to high quality end of life care and to mental health services. Assisted dying is not an alternative to high quality palliative and end of life care but I believe it is right that we seek to minimise suffering and allow people a dignified death.

Any change to the law in relation to assisted dying must balance the need to have sufficient safeguards in relation to informed consent and protecting against abuse. It is my view that this Bill does provide appropriate safeguards and I will be supporting a change in the law to enable terminally ill adults to receive, at their own informed request, medically supervised assistance to end their own lives.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.
 

Best wishes,
Dr Beccy Cooper MP | Member of Parliament for Worthing West

Becky Cooper may be unique in realising the importance of palliative care. Most politicians just think that assisted suicide is cheaper than palliative care. Of course they are not going to assist suicide for MPs so it is not a "tough decision" for them.

Hampshire County Council

Hampshire County Council has blamed the cuts to services on the fact that we have the cheek to live longer. Assisted dying can't come too soon for them.

Puzzgrid

I use the soubriquet "Doomdark" from "Lords of Midnight" for Puzzgrid. It is similar to "Only Connect" on TV.

Apparently, I have submitted one "superb" grid.

More to come.

Puzzgrid

Altogether I have 3600 players but this is the one which has done best.