Nothing!

Well, I know this blog is called whats annoying Jack?, but to be honest there's not a lot bothering me right now!

As many of you will know, that is because my beautiful girlfriend Katherine has given me a beautiful son, who we've called Bobby.

Biased or not, he is absolutely brilliant and he is very alert already, making his mum and I very happy!

Robert (Bobby) Samuel Wilson was born on 16th March, 2012, and he weighed in at a very healthy 8 lbs and 12.5 oz, just 2.5 oz less than his mum weighed when she was born, and perhaps a few less than his dad...

I would also like to use this blog as an opportunity to congratulate Andrea and Tim Parks on the birth of Elijah Ryan Parks! We knew they were due shortly after us so it's great that he has arrived healthy as well!

So to all mums and dads, past, present and future, I'd just like to say either keep at it, congratulations or good luck, because for me personally it's been a hard journey to get here but Bobby has made it all worthwhile and no mistake!

And that's why nothing is annoying Jack!

Holiday Season

How odd that the ONLY thing that annoys me about the holiday season is the fact that people call it the holiday season nowadays and not Christmas! So infuriating!

Merry Christmas!

Art...

What an odd thing to be coming back to a long blogging absence to be annoyed by you might say, but seriously, what is our government playing at?

I was listening intently to the Stephen Nolan show this morning, as I'm sure many of you do, and this doll called Rita something or other came on to say, and I quote (I think) verbatim...

"Art is the only thing that will get the world out of this"

The "this" she referred to was the mire that is the world we live in. The chaos in the middle east, the financial crises that engulf the western world, war, famine, injustice. She referred to everything and more being "solved" by simply appreciating Art? Now I love art, don't get this article confused with an attack on art because it simply is not, I love it. (When they re-opened the Ulster Museum on Stranmillis I was one of the first through the doors on the re-opening day) and apart from the painting being horrendous the rest of the exhibitions were great. (They have now put better paintings in THANK GOODNESS!)

But I do have a problem with someone who thinks Art can solve all our problems, and to hell with the costs. What a completely looney idiot! She went on to say that Art is reflecting people back on themselves, so they can learn from and move forward from their mistakes. Excellent idea Madame, I must remember to pack my statue of Col. Muammar Gaddaffi executing one of his own people next time I travel to Libya. I'm sure when he stands back and appreciates the grandeur of my design, he will instantly see the error of his ways, apologise and make way for the next elected leader.

Then I can wake up and have my cornflakes.

Rita, if anyone sees this who knows you, I hope they hit you a quare slap! Ridiculous notions and ideals will not save the planet, however much you "appreciate" art!

The above part is just the scene setter for this rant by the way, I'm getting to the point now. The Newry and Mourne council have just spent £50,000, yes FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS on a stupid statue of some fishermen for Kilkeel. Now I'm no fiscal expert, far from it, but are they mental? What councillors are making these decisions? If I had 50K sitting around I wouldn't be putting it in a flipping well art exhibition. Surely the Newry and Mourne council have better things to spend money on?

A country on it's knees financially, cuts going every which way, hitting everyone, and here's the councils throwing money at some la-tee-da notion of Art improving the state of the tourist industry in Kilkeel? I doubt it very much. When they decide on their next topic I will submit my tender and design them a wee plaque that says this...



"NEWRY AND MOURNE COUNCIL. MONEY WASTERS EXTRAORDINAIRE SINCE 2011"


Oh, and because it will be etched on 24 Carat Gold and decorated in Diamonds and Rubies, it will automatically become "Art" and will cost them £200,000 for the priviledge. Which given their current run of form with their finances I imagine they will think is fantastic value.


The Lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum, burnt it, and built a monstrosity of a housing development on it.

And even now, they are suffering from negative equity. Fantastic.

The state of this country!

I can't actually understand where it all went wrong with this country, was it destined to happen no matter what government we had or is just "not-so-new" labour making a mockery of our taxes?

Answers on a postcard

Jade Goody

Let me start off by saying I wouldn't wish what she went through on my worst enemy, and my heartfelt and sincere sympathy goes to her sons, 3 and 5 years old, who now have to live without their mother. Heartbreaking.

I do however, find headlines such as "Our Jade" and, pick of the bunch, "The Princess of Essex" a little too tongue in cheek for my liking because I feel that they are so exaggerated that it's embarrassing for the people who felt the need to write them. Princess of Essex? Seriously? This girl was as thick as two short planks, racist and naive, a loud mouthed tube who the nation loved to laugh at and/or be disgusted by, and yet, when she has to undergo a brutal, debilitating illness that takes her young life, suddenly the whole country thinks she's a national treasure? Well I'm sorry but no way no how. David Cameron should have scoffed in the faces of whoever it was who quoted him as saying she was an "inspiration to all young women out there"- was he being sarcastic there? She must inspire all the Vicky Pollard wannabes to crave fame at any cost and be completely susceptible to manipulation by publicity "guru's" such as Max "Mercenary Genius" Clifford.

I think it's fair to say I never liked Jade, or what she represented as piece of Broken Britain, but she did gain my respect somewhat with her cervical cancer campaign to get the screening age lowered. I hope it's successful and she is allowed that little legacy as testament to all she went through in her short life.

However, it was after this that some people dared to suggest that she could be compared to a "Diana from the wrong side of the tracks"! Say what? Now Jade Goody was many things but she was never another Princess Diana. I draw no similarities at all, but I do think it interesting that Diana died as a direct result of the Press following her every move, whereas Jade died HOPING the press would be following her every move and paying good money to do so.

So who are going to follow the coffin in the 21 car cavalcade that has been arranged for her funeral? Surely only the likes of royalty ever need that many cars to fill with mourners? I was thinking they could have a new reality t.v show called "how much did YOU love Jade?" and get random members of the public to perform like ignorant idiots to deem which one wanted to be at the funeral most? No? Just as well, because I imagine that those 21 cars will be full of utter losers trying to gain column inches for themselves simply by being there. I feel bad for her husband Jack also because he has to mourn not with family but with a bunch of strangers, most of whom never met let alone liked his short-lived bride!

In summary, the whole nation's "grief" shows us much more about the curse of Celebrity on our social structure as it does about a poor Essex girl who found fame and fortune but alas all that she ever dreamed of couldn't keep her alive one minute longer than if she'd still been poor and unknown.

It makes me sad. :(

The New President

Okay, first things first, I'm not slating Barack Obama, he seems a nice bloke, but I do have a few concerns over his election and now his forthcoming term in Office.

Firstly, the headlines proclaiming him as a Saviour of America are very annoying. He may well be a very charismatic, gifted orator, but it will take nothing short of an absolute miracle to get America and the rest of the worlds Economies out of the mess they have been allowed to get into, not to mention the two wars they continue to fight.

Yes, he could save them BILLIONS of dollars by pulling US troops out of Iraq, but he has already said in pre-election interviews and debates that he personally feels another troop SURGE is needed in Afghanistan, so where there will be a saving, there will be another loss.

Secondly, all the people who said his election was a victory for democracy, was it really? I'm sorry but you can't hide the fact that there were more black people who voted than in any other time in their history (there was another black candidate before Obama, I can't remember his name, he did not gain many votes) so you cannot say that in many of the so-called "Swing" states this didn't influence the result? Come on. Yes, people voted in their millions, but people who otherwise wouldn't have bothered voting for a Democrat WHITE senator put their considerable weight behind a BLACK senator.

It was a result of a feeling of oppression that clearly still runs very deep in the African American psyche that they felt they had to vote now or lose their chance of a black president for another 4 years minimum. The fact that they got a candidate who was both Eloquent and Charming was a bonus. I honestly think that he could have had half his charisma and still been elected.

He was also helped, let's not forget, by the low-level his opponents set him. John McCain, an all-round decent bloke but ageing faster than the speed of sound and his inept-but-loveable sidekick Sarah Palin, who truly it appears, was the result of putting lipstick on a pig and a pitbull and then letting them mate. She was, to put it mildly, horrendous. As a politician she lacked experience, as a person she lacked charm, and as a candidate for the vice-presidency she lacked overall appeal.

McCain would have had a fighting chance with nearly anyone else. Democrat cynics rightly (for once) I feel picked up on the fact that she was picked almost solely because they wanted the feminist vote. Poor timing given that in a straight sprint there will always be more racists than misoginists!

Again, he wasn't exactly replacing Abraham Lincoln either, it was George W Bush Jnr. OFFICIALLY the most denounced and hated president of all time by many accounts, and officially with the title of Lowest EVER approval ratings for a president leaving office. Then there was the itch factor, the fact that a republican had been in office for 8 years, so many people will just have fancied a change and voted democrat whether it was Barack Obama in the hot seat or not.

All that aside, I very honestly have to wish him well for us forthcoming presidency, really I do.

I hope I'm proved majestically wrong and that his term will be remembered as one of new hope and promise, where old mistakes were righted and new policies greeted with cries of approval from all around. But I feel I will not be reading this is 4 years and thinking I was completely mistaken, because I think there is far too much pressure being put on President Obama's shoulders right from the start, stirring though his Inaugural speech may have been.

JK

Robert Mugabe!

Talk about not wanting to just give in!

He's obviously been beaten in the polls in Zimbabwe, and yet he hangs on to power just that little bit longer, I mean why bother? If he just leaves, they may not even exile him.

I imagine he probably doesn't want to die alone in Saudi like Amin did years after he was forced out of Uganda.

His regime has been a terrible injustice on an economy which wasn't exactly healthy before he came to power and is now almost beyond repair. Britain, credit where credit is due, have offered an aid package of £1 billion providing he is removed from power first, but to be honest this is the biggest guilt payment I've seen in ages, if they hadn't sanctioned and helped the minority white government to bully the black people for so long then they wouldn't have voted in such a controversial figure as their President.

As far as the European Union were concerned, the biggest threat Mugabe posed was to Travellers, not to the many people killed under his regime, so no action was ever taken to try and remove him from power. His open hatred of Homosexuals and his virtuoso rascist ranting was enough to warrant sanctions from America and The EU, but not his orchestration of random murders of white farmers, or at the very VERY least, his tolerance of these acts.

Let's hope he moves out of the Presidential Palace imminently, and without incidents of violence.