While I know that most people out there are under 75 years old just a few do come into this age bracket. Free tv licensing was introduced by Gordon Brown in the year 2000 and was due to be removed this Spring by the BBC. It was temporarily reinstated due to the coronavirus. All eligible pensioners received a letter informing them that their tv license was now free but it seems that from the 1st August they will have to pay. Several things come to mind on this subject. First of all, how many meetings and how many people did it take to come to these decisions and therefore how much did it cost. Also how much did it cost to generate and post all the letter to around 3 million people. The next point is that unlike Sky tv, Netflix etc etc, there is no choice with bbc tv, if you have a tv in your home you have to pay the license at £153 per year. Now I haven’t even started on my rant about the quality of programs and the appalling tv during lockdown. I’ll leave that for another day.
In Amsterdam lockdown has, like in most cities around the world, closed businesses and stopped welcoming tourists. One of the largest industries in Amsterdam has been for many years that surrounding sex and brothels. In coffee shops you can smoke marijuana and drugs are freely available and prostitution is offered from shop windows. Residents who are not involved in any part of this trade have realised during lockdown that their district is really rather nice without all the tourists attracted by what was on offer. They can see how poorly their own needs were met with no regular family bars and restaurants and they have decided they do not want to go back to how it was before. They have started a petition and have collected 30,000 signatures and are hoping to restrict new permits to a more diverse selection of businesses. The locals are also hoping that plenty of the sex industry businesses go bust and new ones not allowed in.
If you’re looking for your next book to read the Trump’s niece is about to have her book published on 14th July in which she promises to tell all about Uncle Lone Ranger Trump. It’s title ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.’ Much of her information came from Auntie Maryanne Trump the POTUS’s sister, a retired federal judge. The niece, Mary accuses him of academic cheating and shocking behaviour around women on multiple occasions.Nothing new here then. If this isn’t your type of bedtime read the Princess Meghan is also working on her new book to be released in November – just in time for Christmas, whoopee. It will be titled Misunderstood and is described as a pioneering biography. Already sounds like a fairy story. Her previous grim fairy tale Finding Freedom is reduced on Amazon but doesn’t yet have any reviews. I’ll have to start work on my memoirs. Time for my bedtime read. Good night. 😴💤😴