Runnin On Empty

It may seem madness that as we start 2025 the DWP have already announced some of its plans to ramp up its intimidation and fear mongering of disabled claimants  and this is going to include using social media. They've stated they aim on hiring  teams of people to search social media for claimants and look for posts so that they can build a case against them. We're not talking organised  criminals fleecing the system of hundreds of thousands here although that's what they are leading the public to believe with one breath,  but in another they state they will be looking at peoples posts to see if they're  doing something they've perhaps said they cant do on a claim form, or any activity that could show they aren't as ill/disabled as they have stated. Now there's a huge problem with this...... Firstly as we all know, people can create false lives for different reasons, photos can be photo shopped,  someone bed-bound that never leaves their room can create...

  May is M.E awareness month, after 33 yrs of living with it & campaigning I kinda hoped we'd be somewhere by now where awareness wasn't needed, and I wouldn't be here again boring the pants off you, but unfortunately that's not the case,  there's still alot of ignorance surrounding M.E (No we're not a little tired)  and there's still no treatment and no cure, so here I am once again  to hopefully give those of you unfamiliar with the illness a very brief insight that I hope will help, next time you hear it mentioned. M.E known by it's medical name Myalgicencephalomyelitis (Yes I know, let's just stick to M.E)  is still classified by the World health Organisation as a neurological disorder, It's often referred to as a        "lingering death"  because quite frankly  that's exactly how it feels. The illness is a complex chronic one that affects the whole system,  physical and also sensory, from a whole body exhaustion, ...

Originally I was looking to write a piece for M.E awareness month in  May, in fact I started writing it three times and then deleted it (no mean feat when your primary symptom is exhaustion?) but I just kept getting frustrated by it all, and as I wrote I kept thinking what's the point? 31 yrs in,  still campaigning, still ranting, still writing and still have M.E? The injustice to M.E sufferers continues, I believe those with Long Covid are being treated in a similar fashion, and the  DWP have already been told not to accept Long Covid as a disability?  Maybe they need to refresh their brain cells as to what disability actually means?   "A physical or mental condition that limits a persons movements, senses or activities" you only have to type into a search engine "Explain the word  disability" for a whole heap of explanations to pop up and yet the DWP have a ( secret not so secret) list of illness they've been told  not to cla...

                                 Social media (Do we have to?) some of you may have seen a recent post about me contemplating or rather constipating over deleting all my social media accounts? This was posted in a moment of absolute loathing at Facebooks decision to change how we run our pages, which I wasn't aware of until I went to post the normal way and couldn't. It had come without warning, so thinking it was a browser error? Windows update error? Whatever error? I used time I'll never get back trying to sort it, only I couldn't of course because some pre-pubescent genius at Facebook thought it would be a great idea to change everything and make navigation and use like a challenge off the crystal maze. But  there was no prize, just a blood boiling frustration that was in danger of seeing my head explode (Not much to see there then?)       I very much have a hate/l...

If you're someone that has trouble getting motivated, then check this out...or look away now?  Since lockdown Electronic muso Helefonix aka Helen Meissner has not only taught herself music production, but since her first release "Liberation" back in August 2020 she's gone on to release Two EPs a number of singles, been all over the papers whilst also permeating the airwaves via various radio stations including  BBC three counties where legendary presenter Mike Naylor has been super supportive of her sound. Another super supportive has been   Cambridge 105 where h er track "Joyride" has been in their radio chart for nineteen weeks and at number one for over half that time, plus it received a record breaking 4703 votes in just one week leading radio presenter Tim Willett to call it the anthem of lockdown, she's had a name change from MidLifeMix to Helefonix, won the Clouzine Best Electronic dance EP and is just about to release her third EP Orchestral ...

Lights off, candles on and the sound of  folk and roots duo Oka Vanga aka William Cox & Angela Meyer float across the room. I'm instantly lost within the mystical music and vocals of  the Wicken Tree, which is the first track off their new album "Dance Of The Copper Trail" It follows on from "Pilgrim" their award winning debut Instrumental album in 2014 & their 2015 EP release "Tales From Eyam" which after much persuasion from Wil, saw Angela introducing her alluring vocals.  The same has to be said for this new album Co- produced by Mark Tucker & Angela Meyer & worthy of a mention . If you're lucky, you'll often find two or three stand out tracks on an album, I was on my sixth when I gave up.  Ashes To The Wind, The Devils Tide, My Sweet Guitar...and they  kept on coming. its a great album start to finish. From  guitar to mandolin to double bass (Oliver Copeland)  and a fiddle (Patsy Reid) to die for.  When it comes to musici...

Ever since the N.I.C.E (National Institute for Health and Care  Excellence) debacle over delayed publishing of the new M.E guidelines I've struggled to write this article, in fact I've buried my head and done everything possible to avoid it and I didn't know why? Until now that is, and while what I'm about to say is  incredibly hard to write, I feel I owe it to myself and the M.E community and to all those still uneducated and unaware of the magnitude of abuse dished out to sufferers by the medical profession, media and wider community. For many sufferers the abuse also came from family members and  so called friends and in many cases still does. I have suddenly realized, as an M.E sufferer of over three decades that I have become conditioned to the abuse, the government deemed it acceptable and therefore the rest of  society normalized it  and eventually I accepted it too. I'm not sure when exactly, there was no definitive moment, facing physical...

Some of you may remember that back in June, I went on a writing spree.?.....yes another one, I've lost count of the letters and emails written over the past thirty years in the very pin head size of a chance that someone, somewhere,  would see sense and  stop the abuse and manslaughter of  the sick and disabled. I also raised a number of specific concerns, the treatment of Sick and disabled under the present Government  via D.W.P, increase in Mental health and pushing people over the edge under the present  system which is ultra disablist despite their spiel.  I also criticized the loaded questions both on paper and also at assessment stage that are impossible to answer honestly and fairly  and yet people are forced to do so ?  As for  Myalgicencephalomyelitis (M.E)  I stated that  while M.E has been recognized  as a complex chronic disabling illness with multi symptoms & listed by the World health organisation as a ne...

I do like an artist/band that takes a risk and doesn't give a shit whether it's popular or not, whether it will get radio play or not, they just make the music they want to make and you can either love it, leave it or bog off, and that's one of the reasons I have time for  Helefonix , she doesn't fit in, she stands out, having released what seems like a copious amount of offerings including Singles and E.Ps since  bursting  onto the scene Tada stylee only last year I was keen to hear her latest, the 11 track debut album  "Nature's Grace", you never  quite know what you're going to get with Helefonix other than it will be different and I have to admit the first thing that sprung to mind on opening track "Dawn Chorus" was "What the Fffffff?" There were birds, lots of them 9.09mins to be precise, and not of the two legged, large chested gobby variety, I suppose the clue was in the title but then I'm not the sharpest of beaks ? I re...

I have to say I'm not really surprised  by the latest Football debacle  and news of this European  Super League, the club owners have got away with far too much for far too long so this has  been an opportunity waiting to happen.  I fell in love with football as a young whippersnapper before girls went to games let alone played, in junior school there was a boy I fancied that was a Celtic fan but he wasn't ready to be interested in girls, in fact he'd pull that face that little boys pull whenever girls are mentioned, the one that says "I'd rather eat worms than talk to you"  I'd watch  as he and the rest of the boys gathered to talk football on a Monday morning before class began and so I hatched a plan to follow Celtic too in the hope he'd like me, sadly it didn't work but h aving spent Saturday afternoons watching Football on TV with my Dad & Grandad  I  went on to follow my home team Watford (Graham Taylor will always be the best Manag...