Pat Regan

Sunday, 3 August 2025

In Pictures: Birkdale Car Boot Sale 2 August 2025

Once again, the hard-working Southport Crafts team ordered the sunshine, which arrived in abundance for this latest Birkdale event.

https://southport-crafts-and-events.jimdosite.com/

Saturday, 26 July 2025

In Pictures: Heatons Bridge Car Boot Sale

Although dark clouds threatened rain, the showers held off and the sun shone on the event at Heaton's Bridge today (26 July 2025).

More photos from the day below.

NB. We are back at Heatons Bridge on 9th August.

https://southport-crafts-and-events.jimdosite.com/

Thursday, 24 July 2025

Car boot sale Saturday 26th July at Heatons Bridge Inn

Open to the public from 11.00am to 2.30pm

Heatons Bridge Inn
2 Heatons Bridge Road
Ormskirk
L40 8JG

Free public admission & parking

Our outdoor car boot sale is situated in the beautiful surroundings of Scarisbrick.

Either come along as a stallholder to sell your items, or a customer and spend time at our sale.

Have a drink in the Inn and a walk along the canal. A perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Located on the field behind a wonderful, friendly and traditional country pub, Heatons Bridge Inn. Right next to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

Please note: No food or drink at all to be sold at the sale, unless you are registered with a local authority.

To join us as a seller please come along at 9.45am and once you have paid for your space you are all ready to set up.

WhatsApp: 07548262061

Email: cregan192@yahoo.com

https://southport-crafts-and-events.jimdosite.com/

Wednesday, 16 July 2025

UK SENIOR CITIZENS UNDER ATTACK FROM OFFICIALDOM

The campaign group, Silver Voices, are leading the fight against this unacceptable and misleading situation. Their viewpoint is as follows…

TRIPLE LOCK AND STATE PENSION COME UNDER RENEWED ATTACK

In a coordinated campaign, the state pension and the Triple Lock updating system have come under renewed attack from those who argue that the state pension cannot be afforded and is unsustainable in the long term. The attacks are highly selective and biased and pick on older people as the scapegoats for the current economic crisis.

The supposedly independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has led the way with headline-making comments such as the Triple Lock is costing three times more than the original estimates, and that pension, health and other age-related spending make UK public finances “unsustainable in the long-run”. Of course, the Triple Lock has cost more, as we have been through an unprecedented pandemic, and energy and cost-of-living crises, through which the whole population, including pensioners, have had to be supported. £70 billion was spent on the furlough scheme to support working families through the pandemic but this impact on the economy is never emphasised.

The OBR states that the cost of the state pension has risen from 2% of the economy to 5% today and is projected to rise to 7.7%. But the 2% is based on the situation just after World War Two, over 70 years ago when most people died by the age of 70, and the 7.7% projection is for the early 2070s! So, they use a timeframe of over 120 years to justify their weak arguments when we have known for decades that the UK population is ageing. Even by 2070, using this OBR projection, we will be spending less on state pensions than most developed countries do today (e.g. France 12%, Germany 9.8%).

Piling in against the Triple Lock has been the notoriously anti-pensioner Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), with a rather sneaky suggestion in a recent report. The IFS suggests that the Government should set a target level for the state pension as a proportion of average earnings (currently 30%) and dispense with the Triple Lock once that target is reached. The Report does not specify what that target should be but the retiring director of IFS, Paul Johnson, has let the cat out of the bag by suggesting it should be only 31% or 32% before the Lock is scrapped. If the Government set the target at half average earnings (£340 per week) we might just be willing to discuss the end of the Triple Lock!

What has been most worrying is that the majority of media outlets, including the BBC, have carried these reports uncritically, and speculated about the end of the Triple Lock, possible means-testing of the state pension, and accelerating the rise in the state pension age. This has all the hallmarks of a Government-inspired campaign, softening up the public before hard decisions are taken in the Autumn Budget.

Of course, Silver Voices will be battling on your behalf to get over the alternative case, including:

• Of course, the costs of the state pension are high in total because there are 13 million older people in the UK past retirement age, but the state pension for each individual is remarkably low compared to other developed countries (two thirds of older people are still on the old state pension of £176 per week)

• Most other developed countries choose to invest far more of their economy into providing a state pension which ensures a dignified and longer retirement. The state pension should not be regarded as a burden on the economy but as an investment that every civilized society should make. Supporting the state pension to make it affordable, is a political choice

• We have all paid for our state pension through national insurance and tax contributions throughout our working lives and those younger people criticising pensioners today will need the safety net of the state pension even more than our generations, when they eventually retire

An interview with Dennis Reed in the i newspaper covered some of these arguments. The link to the article is on our website media page, but you need a subscription to inews to read it.

Our defence of the state pension in the face of these attacks has led to hundreds of new members. Why not forward this newsletter to some of your close friends and encourage them to join on the link below?

www.silvervoices.co.uk/join-us

Only Silver Voices can be trusted to oppose attacks on the state pension and the Triple Lock!

16 July 2025

…………………..

The UK Government’s ongoing assault on pensioners is a dark stain on our country. Our nation’s elders deserve proper respect and the full support of their elected representatives, not the disgusting distain and brutality we are currently witnessing.

Public apathy is certainly not an option today in Britain. This blundering, U-turning, government is playing games with the lives of millions of elderly people and also the disabled. They get away with it because the public let them.

WAKE UP UK!

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

SYCAMORE – WRECKING PAIR JAILED - but it's part of a larger problem!

Two – Tier UK Law – totally screwed up when it comes to the natural environment.

TWO MEN BEHIND ‘SENSELESS’ FELLING OF SYCAMORE GAP TREE JAILED FOR MORE THAN FOUR YEARS

Two men who carried out a “moronic mission” to fell one of the most loved and photographed trees in the UK have been jailed.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were each given prison sentences of four years and three months for an act of criminal damage that caused the Sycamore Gap tree to crash down on to Hadrian’s wall in Northumberland on a stormy September night in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/15/sycamore-gap-tree-felling-men-jailed

WHAT A DISGRACEFULLY LENIENT SENTENCE, WHICH PROVES HOW SCREWED UP THIS COUNTRY IS WHEN IT COMES TO LAW AND ORDER.

With time served and good behaviour these two SYCAMORE - HATERS may well be out in about 2 years or less.

One example of a much larger problem

Across the UK, countless cowboy odd jobbers with rusty vans and chain saws blissfully ignore essential UK wildlife regulations and do the SAME THING every summer during bird nesting time.

They don't just get away with excessive eco-destruction on a NATIONAL SCALE, but they also get applauded and PAID to wreck hedgerows and fell wildlife – rich trees by terminally – stupid ‘neat and tidy’ garden owners...

Moreover, many councils mount controversial tree - felling operations that damage fragile ecosystems, while at the same time telling the rest of us how ‘environmentally conscious’ we must all be. As always – DOUBLE STANDARDS STINK!

The felling of the famous sycamore has prompted calls for tighter legal protections for trees. This is not only to help prevent similar crimes against nature but also to help the public appreciate the true value of trees at a time when many of our woodlands are seen as 'obsticles to remove' by our profit - driven authorities and greedy housing firms hungry for new development land.

Activities that can harm birds

These activities can affect wild birds, particularly during breeding season:
trimming or cutting trees, bushes, hedges and rough vegetation
renovating, converting or demolishing a building
creating disturbance, i.e. noise, lighting and vibration
taking actions to prevent problems, i.e. shooting birds or removing nests

In the UK you’re breaking the law and may be fined or jailed if you:

Intentionally take, damage or destroy a wild bird’s nest while it’s being used or built - intentionally take or destroy a wild bird’s egg - disturb them while they’re nesting, building a nest, in or near a nest that contains their young - disturb their dependent young.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wild-birds-protection-surveys-and-licences