The next wave of change is already here at the jobcentre it seems...

Indeed it already seems to have hit, the DWP's latest round of attempts to get people into work that doesn't exist yet.

Currently, if you have been signing on at the job centre plus for more than 9 months, you'll be refferd to a company via a scheme called the "work programme". The aim of the work programme is to help people look for work, get into work and ensure that they keep the work too. A good idea i think everyone agree's... only, it's nothing like that in reality.

When i was placed on the work programme, i had to suffer my time with i2i (inspire to independance). For 2 years they did nothing for me apart from reffer me to the national career's service and one time sat me infront of a computer and told me to look for work (something i can do at home anyway).

After my time on the work programme it was obv going to look bad on the job centre's stats that so many people are coming back from the work programme with no jobs and actually, still no greater chance of getting a job having completed the two years time. So the job centre have had to react to this by bringing in some changes.

Now, for those who have completed 2 years on the work programme can be subjected to an apparent 6 month period (although i presume after the 6 months, there'll be something else) of daily sign on's for a 3rd of claiments. Half, myself included in this, have to have weekly sign on's and the rest... well, they just go back to the sign on's every two weeks and that's that.

This post work programme scheme that the job centre are running is already failing. Sure, it's different paperwork for your adverage claiment to fill in, but what good can become of it if the work simply isn't available.

The DWP are still trying to roll out universal-job match and universal credit, yet, both of these without significant change will fail, how many people sink on that ship... well... time will tell.

Assisted death - change the law?

It's no secret that every now and then on this blog, i'll touch upon a subject which is quite sensitive to people's opinion, people seem to sit either side of the fence and not many sit on it. This is one of those topics.

Recently a soap has brought forward an issue faced by many people world over. It managed to show both side's of how people feel about this issue and of course, brought the story into the news with some often very heated points of view. I reffer of course to corronation street and Hayley Cropper's fight against a terminal cancer, which sadly ended her life on monday 20/01/2014.

First of all, i must congradulate the team of people at the soap who have managed to carry the story, right from the scene's you saw above, through to hayley's departure which happend only the other day. The scene's we're perfectly written, showing the viewers both sides of the story, and of course acted to perfection too.

Currently in the UK the law states that taking your own life or assisting in taking somebody elses is illegal and should be punished accordingly. Now, i do also have to point out here that IF you are found by or reported to the police for trying to take your own life, VERY rarely are you sent to prison. The police if anything will send you to a therapy of some sort which should help you work through the issues and lead you to a better life.... but Hayley couldn't have done such a thing.

Hayley's life of course was only going to be filled with more pain and a loss of personality as the medication took a hold in order to try and ensure a pain free passing. An overdose of this medication is what we believe to have been used when Hayley decided that this was her time to go. But, where do you stand on this debate? Was she right to do so?

Personally, i believe that people should be legally able to take their own lives or, in the right circumstances, assist others in the taking of their own. Each case should be looked at for what it is and a decision as to legal or morally wrong should be decided upon the details.

If you're for assisted death or the taking of one's own life, then i presume you are not going to be going out and in any way, try to encourage other's to take their own lives, but would merely question why the law has to be involved on such an issue.... or is that just me? When a person is faced with a future that's going to hold no hope and no good quality of life, if  they chose to take their own life, should we not look at the circumstances and make our choices off that?

Some people are still set against it. We should die of either accidental death or of natural causes. I presume these people who think this, care little about the quality of someone's life and their ability to do thing's that we all take for granted.

Not that this issue will ever come to a public vote here in the UK, i mean, we all have an opinion, but rarely do we get to vote on issues like this, it's all decided for us in parliament and we just have to deal with their decision.

Whatever side of this you are on, try to see thing's from the other side... you may just get a little shock.

Fitlads.net - One gay website worth avoiding.

Since 2006 a gay dating/hook-up website has been operating a little part of the internet. During it's peak thousands of members would flock to the website's forums and chatroom in a bid to make some friends or of course, find someone good enough to get into your pants.

This is a little look at the operations of the website, which has since fallen from it's peak at being worth £100k, to a measily $24,030.87 (although this is dated from 2011). In company cash they have 1,662 GBP according to their last company filing which is dated 20th December 2013. So, yeah, it's not going well.

So, who is behind fitlads?

Well, still to this day not many people are sure of how this "friendship" started, i mean, i've heard that oposite's attract, but the website's previous duo owners couldn't be more different. The site was owned until august 2012 by "David & Joe LTD". Now, while fitlads.net will still show the david&joe ltd logo's on their website, the site isn't owned by that company at all, infact on many website's we've checked, David &Joe LTD has stopped trading.

David i've spoken to a few times in the past, he always seemed to be technical minded, but not too geeky to stop him enjoying a good chat with people about a wide range of topics. I do actually like David and i've not found a person who could fault his charicter, despite one review of fitlads.net calling him ugly and saying about how he'd be found in one of Manchester's gay bar's sniffing coke of a weekend.

Joe on the other hand, well, where to begin.

Joe seems to have not masterd the art of anger management. He has been known in the history of the fitlads.net website to delete random members because they didn't agree with his sense of humor or stand up for him when he made it into the press over his comments about Jade Goody. But Joe seemed to set the ball rolling on what will eventually cost the fitlads.net business dearly. Getting rid of members that pay to use the website.

Ok so, in 2008, the website was taken over by another company called Scotial Limited, and remains so to this day... but who is Scotial limited?

You may well be suprised to know that yes, both Joe & David are still taking the money from the website (Although Joe claims to no longer have anything to do with the website) and another man....

Peter Mcdougall. We can only presume that this is the same peter who claims to be in charge of the website's admin. Peter is carrying on Joe's legacy of taking paying members off the website as and when he choses, while always giving a claim that it was the other persons fault. As we continue, you'll soon see the Peter and his admin pals are never put under question. They can do as they please and you can either pay for the pleasure of watching them do so, or you can have adverts on your account... in either case, they will still read through your private inbox messages, view your pictures where other users would have to ask you for your permission, oh no, not the fitlads admin. They are also free at anytime to download this content and pass it on freely to who they like.

So, who else helps to run the admin?

"Rob" - Little is known about rob, i don't know of any one person who has actually seen his face. I presume him to be a fake person, someone who the other's can hide behind when they're too afraid to make it look like fitlads is just run by some people who haven't much of a clue what they're doing.

Paul Lloyd - or "fuggers" as he is commonly known on the website is one of them people who has craved the admin powers for a long time and now he has them, he will abuse them as much as he can. See, Paul think's his actions are clever, where him and his right hand man will try to anger certain members, to the point that Paul will have an excuse to remove them either from the chatroom, or of course the website in itself. He is, in my experiance, a nasty, perverted, bitter old queen, who has some very serious mental issues that at one point will need to be delt with, but won't be, because i'm sure he's "happy" just the way he is.

Together, this team are set in their ways. Change never seems to happen on the website and when it does, it's often reversed back because some of the older members will not like it and complain to the admin team, and the admin team might have to actually do some work for once in their lives, so... no change happens.

So, what made fitlads work back in the day?

As i said before, Fitlads.net was for some time becoming one of the bigger gay website's, for a while, it was actually a competition to the likes of gaydar.net etc. It's downfall has been the way the site has been ran. Advertising of the website was stopped and some staff even lost their jobs because fitlads was draining more money than a tory government would. Fitlads itself used to actually have a head office to speak of, now if you look up the company address on google maps, you're taken to a house in a street, where presumably one of the owners lives.

It's popularity during the day saw fitlads have it's own nightclub nights, It's members were happy to use the website because people could post content that was entertaining, debateable and sometimes down-right offensive... but the attitude of the admin back then? "if you don't like it, don't use the website". These days, sneeze in the wrong direction and you will be suspended from the website.

Why avoid fitlads then?

The website team again are saying "change is coming, we've got a new look website being worked on", so you would presume it'd be ok to upgrade your account for the £5 a month it'd cost, or disscounted if it was for a longer-term membership, but be warned. The admin team on this website will delete your account over the slightest thing that they do not like. If you publically state on the website about the admin team being able to go through your personal content, such as messages, as i did, you will be deleted and then told "you were involving yourself in a situation that had nothing to do with you and causing a disruption", even though the only thing you said was that going through personal messages is an invasion of privacy.

Be warned also about investing your money in the website, with the state of finances at the company, it is literally about to drop out of the business world at a moments notice and take warning, these people will take your money with them and you'd never see it again.

So, to finish off?

Click here to see the latest on the Scotia Limited business affairs.

Click here to see a rather interesting and more personal, but old review of the fitlads website.

Thank you for reading.

UKIP played with the gays, and lost.

Not even a whole month into the new year and UKIP have already managed to do their best to offend a minority. This has to be some sort of record right?

It's not so much the whole of UKIP, as much as, 1 member of the party, however i'm sure after a short time digging around you'd find other none-political minded people in the party who would agree with the members statement that indeed, Same-Sex Marriage in the UK did cause the bad weather.

How does this actually happen though?

Today, as a gay man myself, i'm here to tell you the truth behind it, and sort of, come-out for the community to confirm that it indeed was us that caused all of the bad weather. We are very sorry and are going to try and find some cheap bubbly champers to make it all up to you.

How did we do the rain?

Well, you know how theres got to be clouds for rain? Right well, a gay wedding is abit like an extreme version of a gay bar. Now 99.9% of all gay bar's these days will have a smoke machine. Well, the weddings are no different, infact, when you enter a gay wedding, you're actually handed a smoke machine yourself, it's diamond encrusted with your name and is pink too. Of course though, when the bitchy gay leaves the room to go outside for a smoke, some of the smoke from inside the club will make it out too, and at the end of the night, all the smoke leaves the room and thus, makes its way to heaven. Which of course is also part of our plan to kill off jesus, since so many people think that the gays get into bed and shit on the bible.

How did we do the wind?

At gay wedding's of course the music will be amazing, usually comprised of aqua's greatest hits, Tom's DVD of the step's tour will be played at some point during the night and the delightful sound of beyonce can be heard many times through the night. Now, when music like this is played, it is every gay man's duty to impersonate said singer and during these high times of wind that all the hetro's we're getting, i'm here to tell you the gay's were having a rough time too, with beyonce weaves flying all over the place. It was just awful.

Finally to all of this, you know us gay's are great for the fashion advice, so here's some. If you're in a flooded area, please do not panic. Put on your tightest speedo's, or your lesbian all-in-one and make your way into the streets, we've sent some sunshine, so let's have a beach party!!!!!

Also, please keep upto-date with the UKIP shipping forecast and weather updates as these should pre-warn you when the next round of gay wedding's will be happening.

Thanks for reading.

Power loss?

So it's becoming more apparent in the news of late that the UK may soon be put in a position of power troubles. Not enough has been done to ensure we have power for a growing energy market and as a result, the whole country will be put on alert for blackouts.

Some news agencies warn that it will be beinning during 2015/2016, some say it could be at some point during 2014, as a cold winter set's in and people turn on their heating to try and stay warm.

But what to do if this does actually happen to us? Is it going to be a good thing? How soon will the problems be solved?

These are all very valid question's and yet, have no solid answers. To me, this could be a very good thing to happen to us in the respect that during this time we will all have to look at our energy useage, way's we can save energy, invest in our own renewable energy proects and of course, during blackout's,you can't use energy, so cheaper bill's when they come in!

It would of course be a bad thing. The death rate would be one thing to go up, because people would be unable to warm their home's and unable to stay warm, could well freeze to death. People wouldn't be able to cook their own food, and could well starve to death too. This could make people look at alternative ways to stay warm or have some electric and if people are desperate enough, they could well do some very stupid things, such as the woman who storred petrol in her house, well, kitchen to be exact... and managed to ignite it all.

But what can we do ourselves during a blackout?

Now, before any of this starts, it is time to look into our own energy useage. Asking yourself do we really need to put the heating on, or would an extra jumper just do the job? We need to investin solar item's, like, solar phone chargers, which have recently become more available to the public. Torches, candles etc, these will help to have in during blackouts as you can ensure light will be available when its needed.

Blackout's aren't predictable usually, so you've never a good idea of how long you'd be without a form of fuel, so, if it was the electric that went off, for all of us, it means no lighting at night, for some it means no way to cook food and for a few of us, like myself, it means no heating too (where i live is a 1 fuel property). During the time of a blackout it's important to stay warm, layers upon layers of clothing will be needed if it's during a cold spell of weather. Item's like face/body wipes will be very hardy to have, after all, you'll not have hot water for long, if at all!

Alot of this you may notice is to do with preperation and it's something that i've been working at over the past few months and of course will keep doing into the future. While most of us in the country now use energy saving bulbs in our lighting, did you know theres something else that uses even less power? LED lighting! Yes, it uses alot less in some cases. But knowing thing's like this, can help us to keep our energy supply going for as long as possible.

Of course finally, we will all need a figure to blame. Do we blame the government's which have taken their eyes off the ball? Do we blame the energy firm's who have been too busy trying to pocket their profits, rather than trying to ensure that we all have an energy supply in the future?

Who do we blame?

The truth us, we need to blame ourselves.

For too long now people haven't been doing what they can to save power. While some of you reading this may well be offended, in your heated home, ask yourself, do you really need the heating on? Could extra layers of clothes do the job just as well? I mean, take for example the fact that people we're so slow to buy energy saving bulbs, the government had to ban the production of none energy-saving bulbs.

We still have time to preserve the bit of energy we have left, are you doing your bit?

The immigration debate comes around again...

For a little while now the great british public have been talking and yet again, the feeling is, we need to shut the borders and build up our own empire. I, on this topic, have remained quite silent upto now, because i have been amazed by the amount of brain washing that the media has on people, which is why alot of people are against immigration on the level that the UK is currently seeing. So, where do i stand on this.

I'm for immigration.

Why? you may well ask. Well, the simple reason is... it's a compliment that people want to come to this country. It bring's money into the country and it brings a different aspect to our culture. Alot of people at this point will probably already be throwing things at the computer screen in a bid to try and silence my voice, as many people do when it comes to this topic. There's very little "in the middle" on this, it's either a case of you're for immigration, in which case, welcome to the dark side... or, you're against it, in which case you'll feel you're on the majority side and should argue with those who see different, after all, it's clearly your country and you should rule who comes in and who doesn't.

Immigration works for me, because i tend to not like living in the UK (a clearly well kept secret of mine) and i have to wonder what the place was like where these people were, if they're coming here for a better life.

People are against immigration for many reason's, don't get me wrong, i can see their point, but topic's like how we should be keeping britan british, british jobs for british people etc, to me, just seem abit closed minded.

On the employment front, there's very few jobs out there at the moment as it is and immigration has been around alot longer than most of the jobs you'd find today, why's it only recently that you're botherd about who get's these jobs and if they were born here or not? Why didn't you care in the 90's? Maybe you'd preffer more for companies to leave the UK and find their "foreign" workers elsewhere, IE, a few years ago when many call centre's shifted over to india, from the UK.

On the keeping britan british, well please explain to me what is british these days? Long gone are the cucumber sandwiches in the afternoon with a cup of tea, the queen's speech at christmas is no longer the most viewd programme of the year, we don't say "jolly ho" to people we see... infact the only thing british that we seem to have held onto is the bad dental records.

When it comes to this topic, i think alot of people need to look at immigration for what it is. Stop being influanced by a media which is wanting to poison your mind, look into it yourself, you may get a shock :)