My take on Spring Budget 2023

​Last week Wednesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt addressed to the House of Commons. Delivering the budget regarding the state of the UK economy. Read more about what is included in UK Spring budget 2023

So with further ado, here is my opinion about Budget 2023

My take on Budget 2023

Like previous Conservative budgets under previous chancellors, a typical budget that I am not quite convinced. The only good thing I am happy is that fit to work test (work capability assessment) is scrapped completely (👍). But benefit sanctions will remain (👎).  Read my previous blog post in 2021 regarding the benefits system & how messed up is it. 

The inflation to be down by the end of the year 2023 & avoiding recession. I hope that is the case but again, I am not convinced unless if that does really happen (inflation to fall from the current level 10% to 2%). I’ll believe it when I see it (since the economy is still the only country in G7 not to return to pre Covid levels). 

With the cost of living crisis, it is not only the factors that caused the UK to be in the bad situation financially & economically due to the war in Ukraine & the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. It is all because of both things: Brexit (the UK out of the European Union) & the 13 years of the govt’s austerity policy. Plus the the rise of food banks & that is very sad. 

Also. Apprenticeship for 50 years & over. Basically, the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt wants people in the specific age group to return to workplace. In other words, the Conservative government here in the UK wants you (if you are in the age group 50+) to work until you drop with the “returnership” scheme. So the fiscal measure that is included in Spring Budget last Wednesday is just not wise. Especially that it will not solve the economic woes for the British economy with people aged 50 and over to keep working & not even to have the pension at all. Other than just keep on working until the person is weak or have passed away. That in my opinion is not right. Work is not everything and it is not compulsory (& that is why we have got the welfare system). Now there may be some who would want to keep on working and there may be some who does want to retire & does not want to work. So the government must better carefully of how they really want to achieve the goal of getting everyone back to work. In fact my friend talked all about it in his blog about the policy detailed in Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget. 

And lastly, “Brexit pub guarantee”. No wonder the govt continues to not fully understand that there are shortages particularly in the hospitality sector all because of Brexit effects & yet they keep on boasting as if there is a “Brexit benefit “. So that’s all. My take on Budget 2023

US Black History Month and Florida

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This month February is the annual Black History Month in the United States of America. 🇺🇸

While today is the last day of February, I want to talk about US state of Florida and why Ron DeSantis (Governor of Florida and prospective Republican presidential candidate for next year's presidential race to the White House, banned the teaching of African American History at schools in Florida. 

Florida governor claimed of why he banned the teaching of African American history on the school curriculum is because he does not want "indoctrination" all in the name of fighting against anything that is "woke" and "cancel culture". As a Brit with African descent, I have a lot to say about the outrageous and racist ban on the teaching of Black History in Florida. 

Ron DeSantis is a racist, unmindful and ignorant politician. I really do not understand what he is trying to achieve. Out trump Donald Trump regarding race? Well I know for sure that he (Governor DeSantis) he is no different than Donald Trump and certainly, he is no better than Trump. 

Look up at these studies that are considered to be part of American history in schools 

- AP European History

- AP Art History

- AP Japanese Language & Culture

- AP German Language & Culture

- AP Italian Language & Culture

- AP Spanish Language & Culture

And yet AP African American studies are banned in Florida? That is really disgraceful. 

So yeah. Mr DeSantis. Not only a racist but also ignorant. If he does run for the president in next year’s presidential election, you can certainly predict and expect that African American voters won’t give him a vote. Not only in Florida but the rest of the country in other 49 states. 

And finally, my initial reaction was like “wow, unbelievable”.  Ron DeSantis (Florida Governor & future Republican presidential candidate for 2024 election) shows his true colours. Racist colours. Shocking but not surprising given the Republicans (particularly pro Trump faction) & Donald Trump are indeed racists. 

My World Cancer Day blog message

​Today is World Cancer Day. I have few things I want to say on this occasion. Especially that I am trying to find time of writing bogs since I have been busy in my personal life. 

My World Cancer Day blog message

Nearly 7 years ago in March 2016, I lost someone who used to be my teacher & classroom tutor in year 11 (final year at the secondary school) from 2010 to 2011. She passed away due to ovarian cancer. ♋️

And recently few weeks ago, I lost a relative from my family side (my dad’s side) which I never got a chance to meet. She passed away due to breast cancer. Stage 4 and I have known about for awhile since one of my auntie (half sister to my dad & sister to the one who sadly passed away) first told me about it in October 2020 & that I prayed for my late auntie for the speedy recovery and to fight off breast cancer. 😔

Cancer is an awful disease & that it can end anyone’s life short.

So all I want to say is please do make an awareness about cancer and please do make a effort of finding a way to cut the risk of getting a cancer so that you can change your lifestyle for better. Even if you have lost someone that you know (family relative or friend) due to cancer in any form or you know someone who has cancer. Do everything you can to make an awareness.  Here are an infographics which I found useful information from the WHO. 

After all, we do want to live in the world that is cancer free. RIP to everyone who have passed away due to cancer in all forms. 🙏

God bless and do take care of yourself.

And if you want to know more information about cancer & how to prevent a risk of getting it, here are the links below. 

Useful information

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cancer/

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/index.htm

First blog post of 2023 (Happy New Year)

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Happy New Year Everybody. 

2023 has finally come as of 13 days ago. Nearly two weeks (14 days) since the start of this new year on New Year’s Day. 

I hoped you had an wonderful holiday throughout the festive season now that Christmas is already over for now until later in the year. 

So what’s new? Nothing much other than I do hope and pray that this new year can truly be a happy new year for me. After all, 2022 was not quite a good year. Read more about it on my blog post when I published on Christmas Day. 

As for New Year’s resolutions? Don’t get me started on that. 

All I can say is be specific of what you really want to do in this new year 2023 and just go for it. Don’t be all talk. Don’t bother thinking of creating a New Year’s resolutions that won’t be deliverable & that you would easily forget the next day or so & therefore, break the promise of wanting to reach a goal in terms of making a plan & executing it. What New Year’s resolutions requires is action & if you are not going to be able to succeed in making a specific goal come true in the New Year, don’t bother wasting your time and energy of creating New Year’s resolutions.

Read more about my blog post last year 2022 about it as this is the 4th time talking about the same topic. 

Finally, here is the fact about new year’s resolutions. Especially if you have been waiting to make one now that the first month of the year is here given in my own point of view, you shouldn’t wait for January to kickstart the new year.

Fact: they (new year resolutions) are mostly not achievable and that it is undesirable. 

No wonder there are some people would wait until January to start a goal/priority for the new year and then next thing, not putting it into action by gaining results of what is his/her specific goal for this year.

So that is all I can say about it. Once again, Happy New Year everyone. All the best for 2023 and beyond. 🥳🎉😀🙂🍾👏🥂

Travel to the EU post Brexit becomes more complicated

​Since today is the final day of 2022 (Happy New Year in Advance) I thought I would want to talk about travel to the EU from the UK post Brexit & the introduction of European Travel Information and Authorisation (ETIAS). 

Why I am talking about Brexit? It has been two years since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31st December 2020 when the UK left the Customs Union & the Single Market because of the fact that the UK left the EU on 31st January 2020

It is nearly two years since I talked about the effects of Brexit as I wrote on January 2021 & it is still clear to me that Brexit is not worth it for everyone and businesses affected by the policy that benefits nothing. Read more about the effects of Brexit 

I like to reiterate my points that I first talked about it in October 2021 given I know the differences between travel to the EU pre Brexit and post Brexit. Since I visited two EU countries: Spain in 2018 and France in 2019

Pre Brexit = UK passport holders were EU citizens until 2020 with the benefits of freedom of movement & the rights to live, study and work in the European Union unlimited. No passport stamp. 🇪🇺🛂

Post Brexit = UK passport holders are third country nationals like every single non European nationals (Japanese, Chinese, Canadians, Indians, Singaporeans, Australians, Americans, etc). No benefits of the freedom of movement. Only visa free travel to the EU up to 90 days (3 months which is limited) & passport stamp. 

Read more about post Brexit travel to the EU that I previously published back in October 2021. The link is here up above.

Which brings me to the introduction of the ETIAS which will soon be launched in the New Year. 

What is European Travel Information and Authorisation (ETIAS)? 

Like America’s ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation), Canada’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation), Australia’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) & New Zealand’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation), ETIAS is US style visa wavier travel system for visitors from non EU countries (including the United Kingdom). The countries that has visa free travel with the bloc of 27 EU member states. It is not a visa and it will be the system that will keep in check & having applications to be processed in order to allow anyone from third countries to enter the 26 countries in the Schengen Area plus 7 non EU nations like Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Vatican City, Monaco, San Marino and Norway. As the applicant (he/she) does not have a criminal record for example & following the rules by understanding that visiting Europe up to 90 days is leisure (holiday/vacation), business (temporary), etc & the validity of ETIAS application for the person travelling to the EU27 is three years. 

Furthermore, the ETIAS was meant to be launched this year 2022 but it has been pushed to the year that we will soon enter (2023). 

So what it means for British passport holders (regardless who voted in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Remain or Leave) including myself? Well in my opinion, it is another example of why Brexit continues to show that it benefits nothing to the UK. €7 (£6) ETIAS fee to enter any country in mainland Europe? Sometimes I really do despair for what this country have really become since leaving the European Union. It really makes me wonder why there are still no positive of being outside the European Union. Good thing that I didn’t voted for Brexit. 

For those who voted for Brexit & complaining about being in queues (non EU queues) at European airports & being happy with blue passports, should really suck it up & accept the fact it has consequences. I am not going to wish anymore energy about it but you do understand what I am coming from. 

So that is all I can say about it. 

Enjoy yourself on the final day of 2022. Stay tuned for more blog posts that I will release in 2023. Happy New Year. 🙂😀🎉🥳🎊

And if you want to know more about ETIAS. You can go on this website

And also click the link for the website for UK citizens (myself included). 

So yeah. Take care & goodbye for now. 

Five Guys? No thank you

I want to tell you something. Based on my own experience which unfortunately, it was not a good one. 

Earlier this month, I went to this particular US fast food restaurant. Five Guys. I went to the Five Guys branch in Charing Cross.

All my life, I have always known the likes of McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King & Subway. All American fast food chains that I know of but not Five Guys until this month. 

I always like to try new things but if there is something I don’t like, i’ll not try it again. With Five Guys, that is the case. 

I couldn’t believe when I ordered hot dogs, chips & bottled drink (coke), the total price was so ridiculously expensive. I never been to any of fast food restaurants where prices for the menu is overpriced. Good thing that I will not go there. Knowing that I wasted my money for that. & the taste of chips is tasted so different. So much of salt. 

At least there aren’t much of many Five Guy restaurant outlets in Central London. 

£14 (£14.25) was a total amount for hot dog, chips & coke (Coca Cola) at Five Guys Charing Cross restaurant branch. 

If it was an ordinary restaurant that is non fast food restaurant then okay but since it is a US fast food restaurant, the prices at the Five Guys menu aren’t decent. You will never see the likes of McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway or KFC behaved like this.

So I will not recommend anybody to go buy a meal at Five Guys. It is an absolute rip off.

Read more on the fact why Five Guys is so expensive ridiculously. Five Guys? No thank you.

My Christmas 2022 message

Season Greetings

It is 25th of December today. Yes, It is Christmas Day. 

This is my third time as an blogger, writing my third Christmas on this blog. 😀🙂😁🎁⛄️✨🎄🎅

I would like to wish you everybody especially my readers Merry Christmas Everybody. Happy Holidays whether you are celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah. 

Today blog posts, I am going to split into three separate paragraphs. My personal life, the UK & the world.

Let’s start with my personal life outside blogging.

My personal life

This year for me personally has been tough year. Mixture of good and bad. Overall, it is not quite bad year like 2020. However it is not good year either. 

Anyway from the circumstances in my personal life not writing much blogs as often to not getting job (yes, I still have not got a job which I will not go into details about it) & me losing my court motion case to Barclays in February this year & my legal challenge against Travel Unravel (which they keep spreading lies as if they didn’t defrauded me in January 2021 which is now nearly two years) up to this day are still taking so much long to the point that I now already lost faith in the judiciary & that I no longer give a damn about it. 

I even thought about ending it by contacting the court. Anyways I am not going to go anymore details about it because I find it frustrating when I talked about it. Read more about my legal challenge as I recently published few months ago. 

The UK

Apart from my personal life, this year generally, it is really an tough & difficult year for the UK. Three Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss & Rishi Sunak to the death of Queen Elizabeth II & the current situation with inflation & cost of living crisis which already, the UK is in recession and two Christmases ago, I know nobody wants to hear about Brexit but unfortunately, I have to because I already know from day one that Brexit was never going to benefit the British economy & still, it is not benefiting the economy of the United Kingdom. 

Even the September mini budget delivered by then PM Liz Truss & then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have made it worse.

Read my 2020 blog post about the UK - EU trade deal which it does not benefit British businesses. Just read the recent news. the Brexit policy is nothing but a policy of isolation and disadvantage. There are no Brexit benefits. None. I am still waiting for the positive benefits. But since as someone who voted against Brexit in the 2016 referendum, it is very obviously there won’t be any of positive. In addition, two Christmases ago (Christmas Eve 2020). 

The announcement of the UK - EU trade deal = TCA - Trade and Cooperation Agreement). Everyone knew that it was & still is no better than the EU membership. 🇪🇺🇬🇧 The EU trade deal with combined combination of hard Brexit (UK out of the Single Market & The Customs Union). No wonder a month ago, Brexiteers like Nigel Farage hated the idea of the Swiss style deal with the EU which it would mean freedom of movement since we know Switzerland is not EU member but does operate in the Single Market. 

The World 

And lastly, the world. Apart from climate change, famine, conflicts,  inflation and the cost of living crisis worldwide. Given we are already back to normality due to two years of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine have been on the news throughout 2022 & the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still going. I first talked about it earlier this year in February. My first blog post about Ukraine & my second blog post about Ukraine 🇺🇦 

So what is my this year Christmas message?

My Christmas message is simple. Be grateful. 

Be grateful that you are happy to be alive. Be grateful that you have got family and friends especially in this festive season. We all have one life and we have our own different challenges in our own lives but we find a way to overcome problems and situations. In the last couple of weeks, I have been giving Christmas cards to my own friends and family (particularly everyone I know) so that I don’t have to think anything else negative & that I can do something positive that is good for me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. 

Anything I can do to take any negative things off my mind & not always thinking about it too much. In other words, not letting it bother me so much. Furthermore, a friend of mine (he goes by the name of Action Jackson aka UK Ambassador of Happiness) messaged me on WhatsApp just to wish me “Merry Christmas” after I messaged him with digital Christmas card (e card). 

He told me that I am an messenger of love and cheer. A polite compliment from my friend. I am indeed an messenger of love & that I always spread love and delight. I am also a shining example of courage and love, standing tall. 

For that, I am grateful that I am alive and well. I am grateful that I got my blog & my readers who do read my blog posts. I am grateful that I do have people in my personal life (family and friends). 

That is the spirt of Christmas. Gratitude = Feeling grateful. Whether you have opened your Christmas presents or not, regardless be grateful this year, you have moments in your life that are positive & that you will have a wonderful & prosperous new year ahead. For that here is my friend’s song “Happy 365” by Action Jackson. Check this out

And finally, last week I received my Christmas present from my friend who is an blogger (Roger Tichborne) & that is the mug of his band the False Dots. I received it at the Mill Hill Music Complex. 😀🙂

The Burnt Oak Boogie mug. Go and listen to their song. The Burnt Oak Boogie by the False Dots I am also grateful for that too. 🙂😀

So as an blogger, I do have the duty to write blogs (even I am not writing regularly like I was before although I am trying my best to get back to writing it on the daily basis. Even my friend Roger who is an blogger wrote on his blog post stating where are bloggers in Barnet Well I say that I have been busy in my life but hopefully, in the New Year I’ll make an effort to return to write blogs regularly on the daily basis. I hope and pray that it will be the case). 

I have many things that will soon be published in 2023 so stay tuned for that. Even some of my friends wanted to know when will I make music again. I said it is not an guarantee but I will try to make a effort to make it happen. I even first talked about my original music early last year in 2021. I have got a lots of things that I do want to see happening in the New Year 2023 including me going on holiday which I have not been out of the UK since 2019 when I last travelled outside the UK and it was France. 

So yeah, that is my Christmas 2022 message. 

Once again, I would like to wish you everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Have a blessed day and throughout the week in the festive season in the run up to the end of the year. 

All the best for 2023 and beyond. Take care and god bless you.