Luke The Lorry Driver's Ranting Blog Page

This is where have a good old rant about things, often politics, which I can't fit on to Twitter.

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Why I despise the Pope and the Catholic Church

In case anyone has been wondering why I'm so against the Pope and the Catholic church let me explain. I went to the protest because I disliked him and the church especially over their view on condoms condemning people to death. I came away from the protest filled with anger and rage and despising him and his church. He is without doubt a criminal. He ACTIVELY & personally covered up cases of abuse. If you'd been there to see abuse victims brave enough to speak tell you how they felt as an abused child, guilty, ashamed, tortured, that it was their fault and decades later still with no justice. The the priest from New York who saw hundreds of AIDS victims die in mental as well as physical pain because they were sinners in the churches eyes. The abuse victim who said that as a lonely ashamed 8 year old she'd never have believed 10,000 would march in support of her and all the others. The facts are there on the internet plain to see. Ratzinger is a criminal and the Catholic church is a disgrace and I'm immensely proud we staged the biggest anti pope protest in modern times. And in wonderful London.

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My Letter to the BBC Trust

Dear BBC Trust, I love the BBC, I honestly think your the worlds finest broadcaster, the service you provide is unrivaled and any respect this country still has in the world is in no small part down to the BBC. One of the reasons its so brilliant is because it provides services that cant be found anywhere else, due to not being beholden to viewer/listener figures and demands of advertisers. 6Music is one such service. It is a fantastic station that has really found it's feet. I believe when all stations go digital that it's listener figures will rocket. I bought a DAB radio for my truck and another for my iPod, both for this station alone, I listen to nothing else. I buy hundreds of pounds of music a year due to this wonderful station introducing me to fantastic new music, music that probably will never see the top 10 or get airplay on Radio 1. It's presenters are wonderfully knowledgeable and engaging. It quite simply is a living example of what makes the BBC great. Niche stations such as this should be protected at all costs. 'Quality over quantity'? They don't come better quality than 6Music. I understand that Mark Thompson has a very difficult job, but I'm not sure he's the correct man for it. You need someone who will stand tall and defend the BBC and all it stands for at every turn. In the recent interviews he seems unsure of himself and inarticulate. Finally, the people that will be alienated by the BBC if 6Music is closed are the people such as myself. Staunch supporters of the BBC that stand up for it and defend it. You need us in the difficult times ahead. Please save 6Music and allow me to continue loving and supporting the wonderful Beeb. Yours sincerely, Luke Vernon twitter.com/lukevernon

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Save the BBC

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better." Martin Luther King, So it turns out that my favorite station, the fantastic 6Music, is under threat, along with many other services. Why? To appease a possible Tory government and their News Corp cronies? To keep the disgusting Daily Mail happy? Why why why? The BBC is the greatest broadcaster in the world. Any respect the UK has left in the rest of the world is in no small part down to the BBC. It's news is second to none. Large swathes of the world have learnt English through it's world service. It's one of the only truly impartial broadcasters left. It's beauty is that it has something that caters for everyone. But that's sometimes the problem. The Daily Mail and it's idiot sheep like readers seem to think that unless they like 100% of it's output it's a waste of money and start whineing on about the licence fee. Take Jonathan Ross, he's effectivly been hounded out of his job by a media who have a vested intrest in a weak BBC. He has millions of fans, I'm one of them, and his pay is dictated by what commercial broadcasters can afford. Wouldn't the licence fee be wasted if they didn't produce programming that people wanted to watch? Why do people think it's better to line the pockets of people like the Murdochs than to keep a national instution going? If you think that in the UK everything should be commercial have a look at the US. The hideous right wing hate filled FOX News. It's shaped peoples opinion so much that it's now the number 1 news network in the US. Is that a good thing? Would you want to see that replicated in the UK? Who is FOX owned by? Ah yes, News Corp. Who do they own? Sky News, the Times, the Sun. They also have David Cameron and the Tories in their pockets, like anyone with plenty of cash seems to be able to. They want the destruction of the BBC. Why? Well because it's hard to charge for second rate content when the BBC is around. We cannot and must not ever let the BBC be destroyed. It's as important to this country as the NHS. They are two of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. The BBC (and possibly the NHS) are simply not safe under the Tories. I know it's not ideal but if you want to preserve the BBC then you must vote Labour. We will only realise what we've lost when it's gone. When a news network is simply a campaign tool for a political party. It's given us some of the greatest TV ever made. It's radio output is amazing. Just think back to some of your favorite progammes of all time and count how many were made by the BBC. Think of how the iplayer shows that it's still ahead of the curve. We must never let it go. And to the BBC - you must stand up and fight these bullys. The people are behind you. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=278123313911&ref=nf&v=info

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VOSA Victimisation

So it seems that VOSA, the Vehicle & Operator Servies Agency, were out in force at Dover docks yesterday pulling trucks going in, yes, trucks leaving the country. Guess which nationality bore the brunt of this exercise that was squarely aimed at revenue raising and nothing whatsoever to do with road safety? Yep that's it, the Irish. I'm English driving for an Irish company and VOSA are perscuting us. Say for instance a Police force decided to stand on a corner and search only black people, there would quite rightly be an uproar, yet VOSA are allowed to carry on their discrimanatory policy every day. They point to the amount of law breaking foreign trucks they stop, but they don't stop British trucks so what are they comparing the statistics against? I was sat on the channel tunnel train the other day opposite 3 British drivers driving British trucks. I didn't talk to them, just sat and listened. It was shocking. Their law breaking was extensive. They talked of one collegue who had worked over 50 hours in 2 and a half days, yes, over 50 hours. They talked about their route, via the southern section of the M25, past Leatherhead, a busy VOSA checkpoint. If I'd gone the same way I would have been pulled, possibly fined for some non-existant mechanical fault, and sent on my way up to hour later whilst they carry on unhindered. I know drivers who drive Irish trucks that get pulled 2 or 3 times a month and fined for nothing. They effectively make up issuses with the truck if they can't find an hours problem. What other nationality has to put up with their trucks being MOT'd several times a month not to mention the delays they cause. How come they don't have to compensate us if they find nothing? I mean companies will often be penalised by their customers for being late because of this. Although that would only give them more reason to make things up. Ways to try and put a stop to this? Firstly, if a VOSA car drives dangerously to try and stop you, and believe me they do, I've seen it myself several times, then drive on. If they call the Police to stop you then stop and make a complaint about their driving, it's all on camera. Secondly, appeal or let every fixed penaly got to court. They will win some but in my opinion most could be picked apart by a competent lawyer. They costs and clogging up of the court system from VOSA's incompetance would soon change things. Which brings me to my last point, VOSA have a high opinion of themselves but basically they are really not very good. They have to make things up because they'd never find much otherwise and of course they have to cook the stats to make Mr Big Bad foreign truck look evil so they have a reason to stop it to raise more revenue. As I said at the beginning it ceases to be a road safety issue and becomes a money making exercise when they stop trucks leaving the country. I'm all for enforcement, but not this way.

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Labour must win

The British voters face a very stark choice at the next election. But in my opinion there is only one real choice. As the title suggests I believe Labour must win the next election to avoid the prospect of the country being run by a man who’s opinions can be bought so easily by newspaper owners and the wealthy.

I think Labour WILL win the next election.

I’m not a member of the Labour party, indeed I’d vote Tory if they had a decent leader. I think they could do a better job. I disagree with things they do, i.e sacking the drugs advisor. But on this occasion they are by far and away the least worst option.

The idea of a Cameron/Osborne government genuinely scares me. I believe under Cameron’s respectable centre-right middle England appealing veneer lurks a dangerous right wing leader who’s opinions and policies can be bought for cash and/or tabloid popularity. Take for instance the fact he took the Tories out of the mainstream Conservative grouping in the European Parliament to join a group of right wing lunatics. How about the fact that one of his close advisors and biggest financial backers, Lord Ashcroft, is not even on the electoral roll and now facing questions regarding his donations as his business intrests lie almost totally outside the UK in Belize. How about the fact they are threatening the future of the BBC (anything to do with News International?!). How about the fact we risk isolation in Europe under Cameron. An Anglophile French minister even called the Tories plans re Europe ‘Autustic’!

I’m hoping that in the end British voters will be able to see through Cameron to the people who would really be running the country if he won. People like Lord Ashcroft, like James Murdoch, like Paul Dacre, like anyone with a big enough bank balance. That country is one I wouldn’t want to live in. It would be a massive backward step for the UK.

Gordon Brown may not be the perfect leader and he makes mistakes but he’s the best option we have at this point. If he won the pressure would be off and he could really get to grips with the problems facing us without pandering to tabloid editors.

So please see through the media hate campaign and make up your own minds.

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Google and it's plans for World domination

Is it me or is anyone else concerned at the direction Google is heading in? Are they hoping to take over the world? Microsoft always recieved a lot of flak for being too big but Google seems to be going even further than they ever seemed to want to. In my opinion Google are going to harm their image, and ultimately their business if the continue as they are. I am certainly alarmed at their ambitions. Take their free satnav. Great everybody thinks, prompting a dive in TomTom's and Garmin's share price, but does anybody really think it will be a viable alternative to 'real' purpose built satnav's. I've read that it'll be great as the maps are always up to date as they are not held on your phone. What happens when you run out of signal, no maps or satnav? I've also read how 'in America' Google track GPS enabled phones to get real time traffic info. TomTom do this already and have been for a while with their Live connected units and IQ routes. Operating systems, search engines, phones, satnav's, digitising books, Internet browsers, when excatly are they going to stop? When will some regulator do what they did to Microsoft and step in? (I'm not saying they should by the way). I don't think they are going to survive this over ambitious expansion intact simply because of the damage they will do to their image in the long run if they continue to try and dominate everything.