The Problem With British Railways
The commuter. A species so elusive until a time known as 'rush hour', when they all emerge from their burrows and board the trains they're dependant on. The problem is that British commuters are getting pissed off with the transport they rely on, and that might have something to do with season tickets increasing in price yet again with no visible improvements in the often crappy service they receive. Souther Rail is by far the worse culprit of this negligence towards customers, which unfortunately for me happens to be the network operator responsible for my new house's nearby station. In recent weeks this rail network has not only reduced its timetable by around a third, but also has threatened industrial action, and has the worst train in the country, that was late every day for a whole fucking year. That's every day for a full year at peak times. How the fuck can you justify raising fares whilst this bullshit is still happening?
The main problem arises from the fact that the British railway network just isn't competitive enough. I'm one of the biggest capitalists you'll find, and so I find it bemusing that the British railway system has got to such a flawed stage that a monopoly always arises in any one location. If I want to travel from Brighton to Chelmsford, which I regularly do, then I have no say in who I choose to travel with. This means Southern Trains can still make a profit out of me despite their god awful service because there's no alternative. I've seen very rational cries for renationalisation on the railway network in recent weeks, and you have to say that's a fair assessment considering how network operators only care about their profits. Operators like Southern Railways just won't repair or upgrade the network unless it favours their business. This is a huge problem as the British rail network is still clinging on to the golden age steam, with many areas heavily underfunded on an already outdated network. This is a suicidal approach on a national network with an ever increasing passenger demand. There is some positive news to come out of this debacle, with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, launching a bid to buy the network for TFL, who have always been decent in my experience, despite being expensive to travel with. It's a shame we still have to force competition when operators go tits up, but this is a step in the right direction, and may just be the competition we need to be seeing from railway operator. Maybe this will be the move that will hopefully lead to my trains running on time. Wishful thinking I suppose.
A Shit Olympics?
I love the Olympic Games, I really do. I find myself often being gripped by sports I've never even watched before during this two week sporting extravaganza, and the 2016 edition is no exception. There is one big 'but' in all this sporting excellence though. You see for me the Rio Olympics are the first time political incidents and a negative backdrop have got in the way of the sporting spectacle. No matter how good the athletes are performing there's always that thought in the back of your mind that Brazil is a cash strapped country; a fact that the Brazilians haven't done a great job at covering up if I'm honest. Wherever you look there's green pools, an underwhelming opening ceremony, and venues that feel outdated. It's also a poorly managed event with constant doping scares, athletes dropping out over health scares, most notably in golf where there is nowhere near the world's best competing for what should be the ultimate achievement in sports. Even today American swimmer Ryan Lochte was held at gunpoint by citizens. I'm not suggesting that this is a new issue facing the Olympic Games by any means, but you can sense that negative public reaction with the poor attendances and constant controversies that seem to be creeping into every event. You have to feel sorry for Brazilians, who have the spotlight on their country coming off of London 2012, which in my absolutely non biased opinion was one of the best executed Olympic Games of all time. The worst part about this predicament is how every major broadcaster and governing body is pretending all is well. By all means let the sport and the quality of competition and gamesmanship do the talking, but the IOC has dropped the ball here big time. This global organisation has chosen a country clearly not suitable for hosting a world spectacle just two years after hosting a football World Cup. We're now seeing the consequences of this ineptitude, with a whole host of problems still persisting throughout the games, and many more will surely arise in the final week. The 2020 Olympics will be held in the much more suitable city of Tokyo, but after the Rio failures who knows where the 2024 Olympics will be held. Zimbabwe would be my vote.
Black Lives Matter Infects Britain
You know that game 'Pandemic' where you create a virus to infect the world? There's always people playing that game that come up with satirical and entertaining names to call their created virus. Well the Black Lives Matter movement is one of the those satirical pandemics infected various areas of the real world. How the fuck this movement became such a big thing in Britain is just beyond me. There's no denying that America has big issues with police brutality, and so naturally there are going to be groups opposing that very matter, but here in Britain police brutality is a rarity. Surely these British protestors understand this, and in fact they are trying to shoehorn various other weakly linked issues to satisfy their narrative of oppression. The protestors are also complaining about how refugees are being treated in foreign countries, which is apparently a relevant issue on British shores. However as with the American organisation these protests are built on lies, substituting fact for a biased narrative. If we look at the statistics we find that roughly 10% of police brutality deaths are ethnic minorities. Would you like to have a guess at the number of ethnic minorities in the UK? Well it's 13%; so if anyone is being discriminated here it's white people. Statistically and factually this is the most stupid protest in the history of the human race. I mean why the fuck are you shouting 'hands up don't shoot' in a country famed for having police officers that don't carry guns? That's like protesting against the legalisation of alcohol in Saudi Arabia.
But the worst thing as always with Black Lives Matter protests is the notion that this apparent inequality is an excuse for such moronic and thuggish behaviour. What's even more bizarre is that these protest are not in response to recent events. They're protesting the five year anniversary of the London riots, which is certainly not a fucking good thing to commemorate, especially glorify. And why the fuck are we protesting on something that happened five years ago that hasn't been repeated? Because 'muh oppression' that's why. What I hate the most, apart from how idiotic this facade is, is that these imbeciles haven't grasped that protesting and being whiny little bitches isn't a human right? When I watch these deluded morons being twats I almost wish there was a real issue with police brutality, because there is absolutely no excuse for this level of childish and selfish behaviour. Until police brutality does become a thing here in Britain, which I'm hoping it doesn't, then I'm sure the good people of the UK will treat these terrorists with rightful suspicion, and won't be taken up by a narrative that has turned present day America into the latest race war.
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