I've been collecting my sponsor money in for a week or two. I've got most of the money off my colleagues and family and I've had a couple of big donations. Ex-vbCity Leader Edward donated £20 and vbCity owner/administrator/all round nice guy has donated a fantastic $100! Thank you both for your generosity.
A quick reminder of what it's all about. I did a sponsored diet (no small thing for me, I like my food) in aid of the RNID - Royal National Institue for the Deaf. Deafness is a disability but it's not one that is catered for. Deafness is more common than you think - you can't usually tell that someone is deaf just by looking at them. School children are usually taught French or German as a second language at school yet there is more chance of meeting a deaf person in this country than a French or German speaker.
British Sign Language (BSL) is recognised in the UK as an official language and has a similar legal status to other indiginous languages such as Welsh or Gaelic. However, a deaf person is unlikely to find an interpretation service anywhere. My father-in-law is profoundly deaf (he can't hear at all) yet his consultant at the hospital can't sign. His GP can't sign and his social workers can't sign. If he goes shopping or to a restaurant, chances are nobody can sign. If you go to the council office or some other public building, you can find interpreters or at least posters and leaflets written in all the main minority languages - Gujurati, Punjabi, etc. You will struggle to find a sign language interpreter.
The RNID do good work on behalf of deaf people of all ages and campaign for changes in the law and policies to accomodate the tens of thousands of deaf people in this country. The RNID was responsible for setting up the TypeTalk textphone service in conjunction with BT which allows deaf people to use the phone.
Anyway, I've gone on enough about it. If you want to donate, there's still time. I've got to send the boys round with baseball bats to collect the rest of the sponsor money off my work colleagues. Paypal me - wonkotsane@vbcity.com - GBP(£), USD($) or EUR(€).
Ok, the election is upon us so it's time for a quick round up of the other thre parties.
Labour
Well, they're headed up by Tony Blair, the man, the legend, the war criminal. The very fact that he took the country into an illegal war should preclude him from election because she should be facing trial. The war was clearly illegal - he knows it, we know it but what can you do when he's pulling all the strings? They started off well - the economy picked up, etc. but since then the Chancellor has turned into a party stooge and thinks like a politician instead of the Chancellor. Immigration is out of control, taxes are out of control, constitutional issues are out of control. Utter waste of space - it's like "Mad" Margaret Thatcher all over again.
Lib Dem
I prefer Lib Dem out of the main parties but that's partly because they aren't the other main parties. They have some good policies - a lot of the good stuff from the Conservatives and Labour but not so much of the crap. One thing that does worry me about them is that they're republican and I'm a monarchist. Their support for regional assemblies concerns me as well but I look at it in a positive way - they are open to the idea of devolution and they plan to hold referrenda. The Lib Dems will also abolish council tax and replace it with a local income tax. The idea of a tax based on what you can afford rather than the value of your house sounds like a good idea to me. I will be voting Lib Dems.
UKIP
This party is a joke. A complete non-starter. I only mention them here because I will enjoy ridiculing them. Their entire reason for being is to try and take the UK out of the EU. They believe (really believe) that the country is ruled from Brussels. They believe that joining the Euro would mean we would have to give away our sovereignty. They spout utter drivel constantly aimed at their key voting targets - elderly people who believe them when they say the country will be run by the evil Germans and dirty French if we stay in europe and middle aged people who they can convince that it will be just like decimalisation (remember how we got ripped off by all those English politicans, most of whom are now dead or retired? It'll be the same you know?). When they aren't brainwashing pensioners and the uneducated masses, they enjoy nothing more than telling us how much money we pay into the EU whilst conveniently forgetting to mention how much we get back from the EU both in cash and preferrential trade. In short, they are a joke and a vote for UKIP will (and always will be) a wasted vote.