It makes me so flipping angry.

I find I get more annoyed as the weeks and months pass and perhaps there might be some correlation between the angrier I get and the older I get, but I really do get annoyed at times and no doubt the blood pressure jumps upward as a result.

I often get reprimanded by Mrs F during the times I spend shouting loudly and waving my arms about wildly at some news or current affairs item on the television or something I read in the press. I vent my anger with shouts of lock them up, bring back the birch, who wrote this rubbish a two year old, bring back debtors prison or my current favourite; deport them to Chad, though why I should expect Chad to accept the waifs, drop outs and general dross of the society I do not know. My fury cover a wide spectrum it is not just to law breakers that I vent my anger, but also seemingly nondescript other groups or individuals who unwittingly fall foul of my sensibility.

Here are a couple of recent examples of the sort of thing that makes me angry.

A recent newspaper item claimed that a third of students canvassed for a national poll, and here I should explain that we are talking about university students in the age range 19 - 23, are unable to name the leader of the Labour Party whilst 34% of those canvassed could not name the leader of the Conservative Party and just under 50% did not know that Nick Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrats. The article then continues to put a journalistic twist on the story that the leaders of the three main parties and by default the political parties themselves are much of a sameness, or are so nondescript that can the students of today be blamed for not knowing some of these basic facts. However my interpretation of it is that there are university students studying for degrees or higher, and are by default within the top 25% academic group within their age range, should damn well feel ashamed for not knowing who the leader of the Labour Party [who is of course also the Prime Minister] is by name or in fact the names of the leaders of the other two main political parties in this country and it leaves me stunned.

Let us consider these are the students who in a couple of years from now will graduate and then be looking for the first step on the ladder for high level employment with high level incomes to match. Some will remain in academia for life and return later to teach a new generation. It makes me wonder sometimes who we are educating and is it all worth it. Perhaps many of these should now be weeded out of university and sent post haste to the job centre to find employment more suited to their level as it is clear to me at least that some of these student are wasting their time and tax payers money at university.

About two years ago, maybe a little longer, British Gas wrote too many of their domestic customers and informed them that the price of domestic gas was likely to rise over the coming years and offered to lock in customers who chose a fixed monthly payment over a fixed term [three years I think] regardless if the price of gas or in fact of British Gas prices rose. Those who chose to would only pay the agreed fixed monthly price regardless of any price increase over the agreed period. I had such a letter but after looking at the terms and conditions and taking into account how much I already paid as a monthly payment I decided not to take advantage of this offer and should prices rise then I would just have to weather the storm so to speak. Undoubtedly however there were those who no doubt like me also read the small print [perhaps many did not] weighed up the pros and cons and decided to take advantage of this offer and lock themselves into an inflationary prove fixed term contract in an attempt to offset any price rise to to either inflation or production costs.

A few weeks ago British Gas announced [against all the odds] that they were going to reduce prices for many domestic users by on average up to about 7%. Now for me and other customers who did not lock themselves into the fixed price agreement this was indeed both surprising and welcome news. However it was not long after the announcement on the morning news when the moaning and complaining started from those who had elected to take advantage of the fixed price contract and now saw themselves not benefiting from any potential price reduction. It seemed to me watching the news that every few minutes some more e mails, texts or phone calls to the television studio were read out from disgruntled customers wanting to know if they would get the reduction in price as well. I heard myself shouting at the television that had British Gas announced a 7% price increase would these same people be bombarding the news studio with e mail and phone calls wanting to ditch their fixed price contract and pay the extra increase..............of course not, so what made them think that they should be allowed to ditch the fixed price agreement and receive the price reduction. They had the choice like everyone did and they chose a course of action if as it transpires that was the wrong choice, though luck and stop moaning and take some responsibility for your own actions.

I know when Christmas is really over when I start to read stories about individuals who are in debt due to overspending during the festive period. A very recent example has been a young couple in their thirties [well they are young to me] with two children. These two sad specimens plus their children were produced on a morning television programme and, I assume, hoping for some sympathy from the viewing public re told the sad tale of how they are now £58,000 in debt, this being accompanied from time to time by one or other of the children crying. It seems that in October this couple received a letter from a bank offering them a fantastic credit card at fantastically extra low rate of interest should they wish to sign up. The couple did and received the new card and started to spend. A few days later they received another letter from another bank asking would they like to have a credit card with an interest rate so low it is a wonder why the bank required repaying at all, the couple agreed and continued spending, why not they informed the viewing public Christmas was coming and they had children.

Whilst out shopping with their new credits cards they were offered a store card from a well known high street department store [for the benefit of any new readers from Chad it was Marks and Spencer] and so took that with no doubt a special low rate of interest..............the story goes and on like this and the couple saw no harm in spending all this money, not their money of course this being credit to be repaid with interest. The point to this and what made me apoplectic with rage was that the couple saw none of this as their fault. Now they were £58,000 in debt they had come to the television studio to complain about the Government who they saw as the culprit; in essence they were now £58,000 in debt due to the fault of the Government.

The argument runs that the Government allows banks and other financial institutions to offer individuals these credit cards so by default it is the fault of the Government that they were £58,000 in debt and what was the Government going to do about it. It was it seems nothing whatsoever to do with them taking on these various cards, signing a contract and then going on a spending spree . When asked by the interviewer that did it not occur to either of them that they were only really using money in advance of repaying it with interest, it was not really their money they were only in essence borrowing it, the couple looked at each other rather blankly then looked at the interviewer and shrugged and repeated that it was not their fault, that they should not be held to account and the Prime Minister should be the one who accepts responsibility, the child continued to cry. I was about to throw something at the television when Mrs F entered the room and stopped me.

A local news item caught my attention. A motorist had been stopped by police for speeding, he was just prior to being stopped [and after being followed by a marked police car] driving at 58 mph in 40 mph speed limit and that at the time he was also using his hand held mobile phone, a note to our reader from Chad, it is against the law in Great Britain to drive whilst using a hand held device such as a phone. After being stopped and interviewed it transpires this motorist already has 6 penalty points on his driving licence showing that he had been stopped at least once before if not twice for other motoring offences. After being cautioned and then informed that he will be reported for offences relating to the Road Traffic Act this person then begins to complain about the strong armed actions of the police, how the police would better spend their time catching criminal and law breakers rather than waste their time harassing good and honest motorists like himself and that politicians should do something about this waste of police time and resource.

I would say to this individual that the police are catching criminals and law breakers, they caught you. You are a criminal and law breaker and deserve to receive a spell in prison just as much as a burglar for example. You were exceeding the prescribed speed limit, so you were breaking the law; you were also at the time driving whilst using your hand held telephone, again you were breaking the law. You already have 6 penalty points on your licence which shows you have also broken the law before, so you are in effect a habitual criminal. yes the police are doing their job; they are catching criminals like you.

The attitude of it is always the fault of someone else makes me so angry..........................