sjdean on the blog

The Western World has been far too gung ho at various times. We've gone into sovereign countries without request, to establish regime change, thinking that we know best for the country. We are like Team America: World Police. But the current Russia/Ukraine conflict seems to be completely different. For a start, Ukraine are actually requesting our help, and all we're doing is giving the president a standing ovation while Putin bombs hell out of the country. How on earth did we get to this point? I can understand Putin's concerns over NATO, as it has shown itself to be a little bit bigger than a peace keeping defensive alliance. But his concerns fall mostly on deaf ears as I suspect it is just a smoke screen, he didn't want NATO because he can diplomatically chip away around the states of the former Soviet Union. To what purpose though? Land Grab? Resources? Civilisation? I'm not quite sure what his end goal is and his strategy ridiculous. Call me an idealist, anythin

First things first, the racial abuse received by these players, by some young players, is down right depicable, nasty, heartless and cruel. Disgusting behaviour and I hope that those responsible are brought to justice. While I don't like kneeling for BLM (and what good has it done?), it doesn't mean I condone racism, and those responsible need to be prosecuted. There's no place for it. The game felt like a bigger loss because we played so well. I finally saw England play with fluidity and motion, it was a dream. I thought we lacked the prowess in the box with Kane largely absent and wingers unable to pass anything into the box.  Defensively we were very srong and contained Italy for much of the game, unfortunately Pickford, instead of tipping the ball round the post, allowed it to hit the post and bounce into the path of an Italian player.  Saka had too much repsonsibility - talented player, but a bit light weight and very easily dispossesed.  Can't fault the penalty ta

I've talking to a lot of people recently about taking responsibility. For all my life, I've done nothing but take responsibility where I needed to it. If I did something wrong, said something wrong, acted badly, it was my fault. I'm the one who did it. No one drove me to it. I think these people talk more about taking responsibility for your life, that when faced with toxic situations, instead of wallowing in abusive relationships, you're the only one who can do anything about it. You're the one who has to leave. You're the one who has to find the confidence and ego. It has a hard thing to do when you're surrounded by people telling you how crap you are. It would be nice to have grown up in a supportive environment and being given the encouragement to break free. What strikes me about people who talk about responsibility, is their total hypocrisy. They caused the problem and are now expected me to take responsibility for the damage that they've caused. I

One of the mantras in the Church, is to stop, and ask, What Would Jesus Do. The Death of George Floyd was tragic and a total abuse of police power. It needs a full investigation and an independent and multifaceted enquiry that will prevent things like this happening again. The officer has been arrested and charged and we hope that he has been charged with the right crime. As far as I am concerned Floyd was in the custody of the officer, the officer and his companions had a duty of care towards Floyd. Instead they treated him like a piece of meat. The after effects however has seen people rioting and looting, I have seen women punched, assaulted and abused by dangerous thugs - black and white. The justification for this, is often "Black Lives Matter". They do. But so does every life. My life matters. Your life matters. The BLM crowd will say that responding with "All Lives Matter" is to shift focus away from BLM. They come out with such statements as would yo

The world seems to have gone insane. We have the CoronaVirus, Covid-19 and the world is in total panic and meltdown the likes of which has never been seen. The scale of the panic, does not seem to be justified based on the numbers alone. There's something more we're not being told, there's something being engineered here, and Im not sure what. Let's clear up any misapprehension however. It is serious. It is a virus. It kills. However the problem is, is that we have to look at it in context. Seasonal Flu, every year, causes between 291,000 to 646,000 deaths world wide. So far, we're upto 8,000 deaths world wide., or approximately 2%. We have completely destroyed the world economy for something that has so far, caused 2% of the deaths that a good year of Flu causes. We can argue that the extraordinary measures being taken is reducing the number of cases and the number of deaths. That may well be. However I would still like to see some extrapolated data to see

The UK Government has decided to ban the sale of new diesel, petrol and even hybrid vehicles from 2035. But in our attempt to show off our green credentials, will it really solve anything? The technology and practicality in electric cars are still too far behind what they should be, that Im not sure we should be setting an arbitrary cut off point of 2035. That should be an ambition, not a target. One size, doesn't fit all. Unless you can afford a £70k on a Tesla, then for many people, Electric vehicles are simply too impractical. We enjoy holidays on Coast, yet many second hand electric vehicles have appalling range - for only nine hours of charging, you too can travel 120 miles! Then there's space requirements. What if you're an avid camper, someone who plays in a band or simply needs an SUV to transport equipment? The roads are already congested, simply moving to electric, isn't going to improve congestion. Local authorities want to get Petrol and Diesel cars ou