Tom Pride is on fine form, with two pieces exposing the Tories in different ways:
1)A selection of especially vile opinions expressed by Tories.
2)The story of a supposedly undecided audience member at a recent TV debate who was actually known to be a Tory.
My final link is to a picture that tells more than many words, and segues into the rest of the post.
This is the graphic I have linked to, with grateful acknowledgement to Team4Nature.
ON NATURE
I decided to do a very brief (words wise) post about nature because I received some important information that required sharing from Team4Nature, and having been out for a walk yesterday I have some pictures to share that fit with the topic.
Therefore, on the principle that one picture can speak a thousand words, here are some of the best from yesterday…
This is from Thursday, as is the next pic.
A white butterfly enjoying itself among some green leaves.
As usual, before getting to the main part of the blog I have some links to share…
First of all, a story in the Mirror about housing benefits profiteers (i.e. big landlords) accompanied by a link to list of 20 of West Norfolk’s worst offenders in this regard:
Shocking but not in the least surprising to anyone who knows anything about destructive Dave the debate ducker and his mate Gideon is this story about the effect of Tory cuts on the disabled from the New Statesman.
Now, some political dynamite from Vox Political in the form of story about how the Labour and Green party candidates were omitted from 480 ballot papers sent out to voters in Hull.
Katie Hopkins has been at it again, and is the subject of another petition on change.org demanding an apology to the autistic community for her latest offensive remarks. Please sign and share.
My last story is of a good outcome to a horrible event. The people who attacked and almost killed Malala Yousafzai have been jailed for life, and here is the story courtesy of BBC News.
THE WALK
This afternoon I went out for a walk, which turned out be full of glorious spring sights. The first camera moment came within minutes of setting forth, as I was crossing over the upper Purfleet, in the form of this Moorhen…
The Great Ouse rarely fails to provide some decent opportunities for pictures, and here are some from today…
Neither Hardngs Pits nor the Nar provided much of interest, but the parkland areas (the Walks and the Recreation Field) certainly did…
Opportunities to photograph the South gate with no traffic interfering are not common.
The loco pulling a goods train.Tree sculptures, at the Tennyson Road edge of the Recreation Field.
A front-on view of the loco showing a couple of trucks as well.
Between Tennyson Road and Bawsey Drain there were a few small things of interest…
Bawsey Drain provided two examples of a mother duck taking her little ones out on the water and some small birds of the beautiful but frustrating (because they are so hard to capture on camera) variety…
I took the way home that leads via two ponds and a section of river to the Railway Station and thence home. This last stretch provided some further duckling pictures and as my final shot of the day a blackbird…
As I often do I will start this post with a links section, before moving on to the main part of the post. I will also be sharing some high quality pictures – enjoy!!
LINKS
Given the title of this post I am in this section dealing only with the non-autism related links that I wish to share – the others will be handled as part of the other section. First of all, courtesy of the Independent, a truly appalling landmark that this government has ‘achieved’ – one million food bank users. Next, through Huffington Post comes a story about Faith Schools. As someone who is a part-time minimum wage worker, I would not necessarily expect the London School of Economics to have much to offer me, but this post from that quarter is a devastating indictment of what this government have done to wages in real terms.
I have a great interest in science, and this article concerning discoveries about the element Lawrencium and its place in the Periodic Table is well worth reading.
All except those who would murder folk whose beliefs differ from their own will find my next offering shocking but sadly unsurprising. It comes courtesy of Padraig Reidy.
A survey boat named the Humber Guardian has been moored in the Great Ouse lately. The boat is owned by Briggs Marine, and I was reasonably encouraged by what I found on their website.
There is a campaign going on at the moment to get the Sun to show Katie Hopkins the door. This is because her latest offering would have made Hitler blench. For more details, here is an article in the Independent.
Tomorrow is the last day on which people who are not already registered to vote in the General Election coming up on May 7th. 38 Degrees are running a campaign to get as many people registered to vote as possible. The process is very straightforward. I provide two options:
My final offering comes courtesy of Tom Pride and provides further grist to the mill of those of us who (like your correspondent) reckon that another five years of Cameron and co will be unendurable. Enjoy this catalogue of horrors!
A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE
Before moving on the main part of the post, here are some pictures for you to enjoy…
This picture and the next four are from framed maps that can be seen in The Crown, East Rudham
The first of four shots of Humber Guardian, mentioned in the Links section.
LIFE WITH ASPERGERS
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the back end of 2006, by when I was already 31 years old. I got involved with Asperger East Anglia very soon after that, and out of that came what is now the King’s Lynn Asperger Support Society (KLASS). The group was originally established as local support group under the aegis of AEA, but when they lost their funding to run such groups in October 2012 we decided to keep going as an independent group. Since then, we have had no funding at all. In 2013 we were able to use King’s Lynn Town FC‘s community hub as a meeting place, but then they changed the times at which they were available ton the public in January 2014, and since then we have had no formal meeting place.
Perhaps the area in which I have personally been most affected by having Aspergers Syndrome is in the world of work, where I went eight and a half years without having a paid job, until I got my current job at James and Sons in April 2013 (merely by going in to work on Tuesday I will officially make it two years in this job). Initially my job was for 12 hours per week, and I was therefore still on jobseekers allowance (yet another thing the Tories are consistently dishonest about is the number of people who have jobs but still need benefits to get by as the amount of money these jobs bring in is so little).
I have not directly run in to the kind of treatment that has caused Kevin Healey to be in a long-running dispute with twitter. Kevin is still trying to get twitter to protect him properly, and as part of that change.org have a petition running on his behalf – and I urge all of you to sign if you have not already done so, and share as widely as possible, starting now.
My twitter account is growing steadily, helped by the fact that I always have good photos to share, talking of which, here are a few more…
Stonework from King’s Lynn Minster
What can neurotypicals do in the way of autism acceptance? You can find out by reading the wise words of Autism Mom.
I am nearly at the end of this post, but one more thing I wish to do is signpost another blogger with an Autistic Spectrum Condition who has recently signed up to follow this blog, David Snape.
My very final words concern something very important to me: research. Ignorance is so often the father of prejudice, which is why I take part in research projects at every opportunity. I want more people to know about Autistic Spectrum Conditions and to appreciate the abilities that many of us possess. For those who have made it right through to this stage I have two final messages:
First and most important, I have been helping with a research project by an American. If you have Asperger’s Syndrome and are a social media user (and would be willing to answer some questions about these things), Rocio Watkins would like to hear from you. She can be contacted by email: rwatkins11@apu.edu
For bird fanciers there is an excellent and informative piece about the Himalayan Griffon courtesy of Phuket Birdwatching.
I provided links to several views on the Tory plans to extend Right to Buy to housing association properties, but I think this one is also worth a look on left futures.
The Guardian has an excellent piece about disability rights, focussing on the work of Lee Ridley.
The latest news on activities by the Tory Department of Dirty Tricks comes from Mike Sivier of Vox Political.
My final offering is an excoriating piece about a horrow show officially known as The “Gay Conversion Therapy” conference. John P Ointon, whose blog Notes from the North is a regular source of good material and who has reblogged me on a few occasions (so he has good taste alround!) provided this savage (but very amusing) account.
Butterflies
I am not suggesting, let alone stating, that these are the first butterflies I have seen in 2015, but they are the first that have been around long enough for me to catch them on camera. I have used one of them as a basis for the very latest version of my twitter thank you message. Most of them are of brightly coloured butterflies, but did also get a pure white one…
The white butterfly – these are almost as numerous as the brightly coloured ones but move much faster.
Here specially for you is that thank you message!
Of course, it was not just butterflies in evidence on this walk. There were lots of other photograph worthy sights, some of which I will conclude this post by showing you…
The only picture not from today – this was at the bus station yesterday morning.
A wall of purple flowersA single purple flower up close.Mother and child.
A sensible sign, sadly being ignored by far too many.A last butterfly shot, from the end of the walk.
Before I get to the main meat of this post I have some links to share.
LINKS
First of all, here is a very interesting and important blog post from Paddy-Joe Moran. Next, courtesy of 38 degrees comes a short video. Cosmos Up produces a variety of interesting stories about a wide range of subjects, and the one I have chosen to share concerns oceans elsewhere than on our own planet. There are actually two outcomes that will be decided by a votes counted up on May 7th, the second being the vote for Britain’s national bird (my choice is pictured below)
My next story comes from the Independent and concerns tougher penalties for dog walkers who do not scoop when the animal poops – excellent so long as the get enforced – see if you agree by reading the article. This section ends with a splendid graphic, which is shown here, but as it is not my own I have also included a link to the original.
SPRING
Today, for the first time in 2015, I am making use of the ‘outside study area’ of my flat…
The ‘outside study area’A close up of the picture on my outside table – still in good condition after a winter outside.
The cricket season is under way, although England are in the West Indies for a series starting later this afternoon. A certain K P Pietersen started his season for Surrey by hammering 170 at The Parks yesterday. I suspect that it will take several more innings of similar magnitude before the England selectors display any inclination to take the slightest bit of notice of him.
The comparison between yesterday and today is shown up well by these pictures taken along the same stretch of the Great Ouse…
The next four pictures you will see were taken yesterday.
TheseThe next three pictures were taken today.
I have some more splendid pics to share with you to finish this post…
The survey boat the features in the next three pictures was around yesterday.
This morning a letter was printed on the front of the Daily Telegraph. Appended to a few lines of body text about why they would be voting conservative were the names of 100 business leaders. Even if this had been entirely genuine, it would have been no more convincing than a letter to the Daily Mirror signed by 100 prominent trade unionists explaining why they were voting labour. However, it was not very long before it was discovered that the letter had been drafted in Tory HQ, and that a sizeable portion of the signatories were already known Tories, in some cases even Tory peers. As the day progressed, this was compounded by somebody noting the presence in that list of a 100 of a number of Mrs Cameron’s cronies (yes, they really are that stupid/ arrogant).
Various people made suggestions through the day about other selections of 100 people with a linked trait who could sign a letter about why they were voting labour (disabled people, and food bank users were two suggestions).
This letter was intended to boost the Tories and harm Labour, but I suspect that like the now legendary “Road to Recovery” poster that started the year its effect will be the reverse. The letter (unsurprisingly since it came from Tory HQ) was riddled with factual inaccuracies, as well as the problems already documented with the so-called signatories. It started out as a non-story given ridiculous air-time (“100 rich b**t**ds are going to vote Tory”) and un-ravelled from there.
Frankly, the use of this kind of tactic suggests desperation. To end this little section I have a couple more links to analyses of this story…
http://wfdrc.tumblr.com/ The online hub of a campaign to save a vital resource for disabled people in the Waltham Forest area.
The first set of pics from today…
Mike Rosen’s name on the cover of a book is generally good sign, and this book is even better than that suggests.
GENERAL ELECTION 2015
While I thoroughly understand and respect those who wish to vote for a left-wing alternative to labour, I urge care. By voting for a small left-wing organisation you may just end up helping the tories. In my own constituency I am faced with only two remotely palatable choices, labour or green. The fact that labour have selected an excellent candidate in Jo Rust, and the fact the only time this seat has been occupied by anyone other than Henry Bellingham since 1983 was between 1997 and 2001 when labour held it have been sufficient to sway me. I will vote labour and I will do so with a song in my heart, and I want to see a huge turnout at the ballot-boxes in King’s Lynn because that is how we will do our part to ensure that we are not saddled with another five years of Cameron and his cronies.
Here in plain text is my personal voting history in general elections…
MY GENERAL ELECTION VOTING HISTORY
1997: Labour and celebrated long and hard as the government that had been in power all my conscious life was finally booted out.
2001: Socialist Alliance – I was in a rock-solid labour seat at the time and could afford to vote to the left by way of protest.
2005: Respect – see above
2010: Liberal Democrats – my worst ever mistake in a general election, but at the time it seemed sensible. The labour candidate who had been parachuted in from Leicester then torpedoed his own credibility with a speed to rival that of a Ukipper and the only other possibility to unseat the sitting Tory was the one I voted for. Five years of betrayals later I can say with certainty that I will NEVER make that mistake again.
2015: Labour – with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. We have an excellent candidate in Jo Rust, labour took this seat in 1997 (the only period since 1983 when the MP has been other than Henry Bellingham) and can therefore do so again.
Having reached this stage you deserve some more pictures…
Another vote that will be settled on May 7th – that for Britain’s national bird. Here is my candidate.
Some good links, including to a Tory candidate who showed who not to deal with the EDL – and a corresponding link to how to do so. A stack of splendid pictures from yesterday.
Another multi-part post – a links section, a section on King’s Lynn in the morning, a brief East Rudham section (I will be doing another post on the architectural features of a Norfolk village theme) and a section on King’s Lynn in the evening.
https://www.voteforbob.co.uk/ A campaign that I have been involved with since it began. I have contacted my Labour, Green and #FibDem candidates. Both the Green and Labour candidates are on side (the Green virtually had to be, and no one who knows Jo Rust would expect anything less of her) while the #FibDem has not responded as yet.
A somewhat late start meant that I missed the 9:25 bus so had to get the 11:55. In the interim I took a walk, divided by a stop at my aunt’s to water the plants and check that everything was OK. It was obviously going to be a splendid day for photography but I did not yet realise quite how splendid. Up to leaving my aunt’s house I had a few decent pictures…
The Great Ouse beyond my Aunt’s house provided the first clue as to how good the day would be, when “Cormorant Platform” provided some excellent pics…
Heading back towards the bus station I crossed the Nar, which provided these crackers…
Walking through the parklands to the town centre I collected some more fine pics…
Even the bus stations and the bus journey were not complete blanks…
Decorative brickwork is a regular feature of the houses on the way out to the hospital (yes that was shot through the window of a bus)
Although I am preserving many of my East Rudham pictures for another post, some belong here…
This rabbit was too far away to produce a really excellent picture but as the local landowner goes by the name of Mr McGregor I could not resist including it.
Because it was bright and sunny outside I got off the bus early, in Gaywood, and walked through the parkland to get home. This last little outdoors session provided a shot of Britain’s national bird to be, my best capture of flying aeroplane to date and some splendid shots of local landmarks…
Even after I got home there was one more classic moment – “red sky at night: shepherd’s delight”…
For those interested in birds, a vote is being taken to decide which will be Britain’s national bird. There is a shortlist of ten, from which I have voted for the Blackbird. For more details and/or to vote visit www.votenationalbird.com. Below is how I introduced this to my twitter followers…
Yesterday afternoon I felt like varying things a bit, so I decided I would follow Bawsey Drain as far as possible, and did so until it hit the Gaywood River, at which point I followed that waterway until I reached Wootton Road, whence I headed back into town, via the Gaywood Clock. I finished up by walking through the parkland to Seven Sisters, past the South Gate and down to the Great Ouse via Hardings Pits, following the river as close as is permitted until reaching Devil’s Alley, which I diverged down as it was necessary to check in on my Aunt’s house and make sure all was OK. Having finished there I returned home by going down St Margaret’s Lane to the river and heading along the bank to the Lower Purfleet, which I followed into the heart of the town before crossing the bridge into Baker Lane car park and arriving back at my flat almosgt exactly three hours after departure.
My candidate for Britain’s national bird was much in evidence, as these pictures show…
There were many other birds in evidence as well, some of which I did justice to…
Of course, I also spotted some interesting architectural features…
For my penultimate set of pictures I am going to focus on the Great Ouse…
To end this post, although it came in the middle of the walk I will feature Gaywood’s principal landmark, a clock that is also a war memorial…
aspiblog 
