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20-09-15 Another week waiting for stuff to turn up, so no real news. Stuff is moving forward but it is still slow so I thought this week I would go political. Probably not my best idea but I dont really give a shit and Im bored. So lets nail my banner to the wall and annoy people. This is a very interesting time politically in this country. Though it wont mean a thing to anyone in the USA, Aus or basically anyone outside Britain. Actually I dont think the Scots give much of a toss either. I am a bit of a lefty, no not a communist for those of you in America, but my political leaning is socialist. I am a working class bloke, blue collar, always worked in an industrial workshop type environment. My Dad was an east end Jew and a toolmaker for Ford. My Mum was an immigrant from the west of Ireland. So naturally I am English through and through... For some reason though my dad was a raging Tory. I just didnt get it, and still dont, he would never have dreamed of voting labour. We both worked in the same environments. When I started working at Matchbox in the early 70s I worked in the same kind of workshops with pattern and tool makers. All apprentice trained for five years, I was not I hasten to add. I went to art school, but having a tool maker dad meant I knew machines as well. Even though we were all clever blokes we were still thought of as just factory workers (see the giant chip on my shoulder). We had to clock in and out, if we were 5 minutes late we lost half an hours money. If you had a day off sick you did not get paid. If you worked in the office though and had a little cold and came in later or phoned in that you didnt feel vewwy well you still got paid. This got brought home to me when a pattern makers daughter of 18 started work in the office straight from school. She went straight on to staff, with all the benefits. And we wonder why no one is interested in engineering anymore. Anyway I belonged to probably two or three unions over that time (memory fades) and do not regret it and I worked with a lot of very skilled people. Most of whom are probably retired now. Most of them came out of east London, were hard bastards and socialist but cared about their politics. They cared about looking after those less fortunate than us, those that did not have the same opportunities, looking after the sick, the old and those that had fallen on hard times. I have been ill since I was 18 so I know the NHS is a fantastic thing. I fear for it now, as even when times are tough it is an organisation that people depend on. In truth if it did not exist I would likely not be here. The world banking crisis was not caused by the unions or the normal working men and women or people on benefits, immigrant or asylum seekers. It was caused by greedy people who fucked up yet we have had to bail them out. Please dont think I am against rich people, this could not be farther from the truth. I have rich friends who work a lot harder than I do and they are very generous and caring people. There is nothing wrong with working hard and earning lots of money for it. Getting back to politics, as we all know Jeremy Corbyn is the new labour leader. Now he is very, very left and I think this is a good thing. I do realise he doesnt stand a hope in hell of winning an election but the other three candidates wouldnt have either. So as we have a very right wing government it seems to me that there is a backlash, and that is good. No point having a Blairite rightwing labour leader, we need a lefty to shake things up a bit. Yes some of his ideas and policies are nuts but old Cameron is rattled. He even has a new Buzz word, Security. Every speech, tweet, interview he and other Tories use the S word over and over. One interview had 14ish S words in two minutes. Cameron is evil, I would rather stick pins in my testicles than vote Tory. On TV at the moment the BBC refers to Corbyn as the left wing labour leader. But as the BBC is meant to remain unbiased shouldnt it also refer to Cameron as the right wing tory PM. I do realise there might be the odd one or two of you that actually like old Dave and vote Tory and so you should. We should vote for the party that we feel will make our life better. Why is it though we all think we are middle class these days. The working class seems to have disappeared. No one admits to being working class. Hold on, if you get up in the morning and go to work you are working class, the clue is the work bit. Everyone I know thinks they are middle class, but by its nature middle class people want to vote tory. I have nothing in common with someone like Cameron or for that matter New Labour. I meant new labourites are or were just left wing tories. The labour party needs to be left wing. Ok I guess it may be completely unelectable, I am a realist after all. Obviously I have had to make this rant very short. I have left out lots and please, I am not opening up a debate. I just fancied winding up a few people. And soon you will be able to put dislikes on facebook, which will be great. I want lots and lots. As long as you still like my model cars I will be happy. Ah yes a bit on model cars. Got my photo etching last week, great I thought now I can get on with my Bentley and Talbot. But no, some div (me) did it wrong so we need new photoetching. Hopefully it will be right this time. It goes to show someone as wonderful as me can really be stupid. The rally track is nearly done, cant wait to get a car round it. Also could not resist making a sidewinder version of the Cheetah and it goes very well (it has our PU tyres on it as well). This is the first Cheetah I have actually got to run well round our track. Not for production yet though. The Chap 2 is coming along I reckon next month could be very busy. The PU tyres are actually on the accessory page at last, the pic shows tyres before and after trueing and glueing.