Ron Sydenham

As it appears to be pensioner bashing weekend and pensioners seem to be the ones wholly responsible for the dire economic state of the country, I thought I'd apprise you all of some facts and figures. Between April 2024 and March 2025, the cost of keeping asylum seekers in hotels was £2.1 billion. In 2023, £15.3 billion was spent on foreign aid. As of August 2025, there were 740,000 people aged between 16 and 24 years old receiving Universal Credit. The benefits bill for people aged between 16 and 64 in 2024/25 was £123 billion. In this decade (2020s), our annual net zero transition costs are estimated to be £125 billion. UK quangos cost the taxpayers between £376 - 391 billion per year (2023/4 figures). MPs' expenses (not salaries) are in the region of £130 - 150 million a year. The UK has committed to give the European Space Agency £1.84 billion for the period 2022/27. Since 2022, the UK has committed to give Ukraine £21.8 billion. The UK continues to give money to the EU under the Brexit divorce. As at March 2024, there is still £6.4 billion outstanding. 'Free breakfasts' in schools cost the UK taxpayers an estimated 1 billion per year. I'm sure I could go on. But it's just too depressing. The spending is out of all control, and rising. The interest on our national debt rises daily. And we're governed by socialists who love spending everyone's money but their own. As do all governments and councils. But, of course, it's all the fault of old age pensioners. Rolls eyes. A lot. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

So the minimum wage just went up and the government is very proud of itself. Here is what they are not telling you. Your wage goes up. Your tax goes up. Your National Insurance goes up. HMRC takes its cut before you see a penny of that £1,500. Now your employer is paying more for every single person on their books. They are not absorbing that. Nobody absorbs that. So prices go up. The coffee you buy on the way to work costs more. The lunch you grab costs more. The haircut costs more. All of it costs more because the people serving you are now on higher wages too, and their employers did exactly the same thing. So you got a pay rise, and everything got more expensive at the same time. Almost like it cancelled out. If they actually wanted workers to keep more money they would cut their tax. That's it. That's the whole idea. But that would mean the government collecting less. So instead they raise the minimum wage, taking a cut on the way in and benefit from the price rises on the way out through VAT, and call it a historic day for working people.

I came out of the chip shop with a meat & potato pie, large chips, mushy peas & a jumbo sausage. A poor homeless man sitting there said “I've not eaten for two days.” I told him, “I wish I had your will power! I took my biology exam last Friday. I was asked to name two things commonly found in cells. Apparently "Blacks and Romanian Gypsies" were not the correct answers. A fat girl served me in McDonald's at lunch time today. She said, “Sorry about the wait.” I said, “Don't worry dear. You might lose it eventually." In the forecast! The TV weather girl said, she was expecting 8 inches tonight. I thought to myself, "Fat chance with a face like that!" An Irish boy stands crying at the side of the road. A man asks him,“What's wrong?” The boy says,“Me ma is dead”. “Oh bejaysus,"the man says. “Do you want me to call Father O'Riley for you?” The boy replies, “No tanks mister. Sex is the last ting on my mind at the moment.” Years ago it was suggested, that an apple a day kept the doctor away. But since all the doctors are now muslims, I've found that a bacon sandwich works better ! Japanese scientists have created a camera with such an immensely fast shutter-speed, that it is now possible to take a photograph of a woman with her mouth shut. I had a Trivia Competition in the bag until the very last question....which I got wrong. The question was, "Where do women have the curliest hair?" Apparently the correct answer was Fiji. A woman has a medical at the doctors. “You are grossly overweight,” he says. “I want a 2nd opinion,” she exclaims. “OK. You're bloody ugly as well.” That should more or less cover everyone !!

When Walter Smith gave Paul Gascoigne a week off at Rangers FC, he had just one instruction: Stay out of the papers. So Gazza headed to London, where he stayed with Chris Evans and Danny Baker. On the very first evening, he decided he fancied doing something a bit daft. They jumped into Chris Evans’ chauffeur-driven Bentley and headed into the West End. Near Marble Arch, they pulled up in front of a double-decker bus and brought it to a stop. Gazza got out, climbed into the driver’s seat, and somehow talked the driver into letting him take the wheel. Before long, he had the entire bus singing: “We’re all going on a summer holiday.” Still not satisfied, he handed the bus back—only to spot some road workers nearby. Next thing, he’s in a hard hat and ear defenders, having a go on a pneumatic drill in the middle of Oxford Street. “I hadn’t realised they were so heavy.” Then he stopped a taxi driver and offered him a signed England shirt in exchange for a turn behind the wheel. The driver agreed. Chris hopped in the back, and Gazza set off—eventually pulling over to ask a passer-by for directions. “You won’t believe who I’ve got in the back of my cab.” The man leaned in to look. “It’s Chris Evans!” He stared for a second, then replied: “Nah, it f****** isn’t.” “It’s a wind-up.” The following evening, they went out again. Chris was in shorts, slippers and a T-shirt. Gazza? A dressing gown—and nothing else. Driving around, drinking in the back and shouting at people, Gazza suddenly spotted Noel Gallagher’s house in Hampstead. He told Chris he knew Noel and had been there before. Chris smirked. “If you know him so well, go and knock on his front door and ask him to come out to play.” Gazza got out. The car drove off. Now he’s standing outside Noel Gallagher’s house in just a dressing gown, knocking on the door… alone. No answer. It was getting cold. He asked a passer-by if he could come in to warm up. “Certainly not.” “I’m Paul Gascoigne. You know, Gazza.” “Never heard of him.” He then spotted someone watching from an upstairs window across the road. Gazza waved and mimed making a cup of tea. The man just laughed and waved back. By now, he had no money, no lift, and was starting to worry. Eventually, Chris Evans rolled back into the street in the Bentley—crying with laughter. Some of the papers did end up picking up the story. But when Gazza returned to Rangers, fearing the worst, Walter Smith wasn’t exactly furious. In fact, he was almost impressed. “By Gazza’s standards that was a quiet week off.”

This is Molly. She was finally found a week after her human fell down a 180-foot waterfall while hiking together in New Zealand. Her human was badly injured and rescued by helicopter, but Molly was missing. A week later, Molly was found at the base of the waterfall and reunited with her human. 14/10

@babybeginner Hold on lads, I got an idea

Roger Daltrey from The Who is absolutely right and has none of that Brexit is to blame nonsense from Sky News.

OK, apart from giving away the Chagos Islands, recognising Palestine, 13 Ministerial resignations, having full confidence in Morgan McSweeney, Peter Mandelson, Sue Gray and Lord Alli, blaming the far right for being an island of strangers, 16 policy u-turns, having no operable warships, smashing the gangs, approving the chinese embassy, spending 17 seconds laying a wreath in Southport to rush back to a drinks party, appointing an anti muslim hostility tsar, raising income tax, Inheritence tax, National Insurance, capital gains tax, council tax, Value Added Tax and mansion tax, increasing welfare spending and the minimum wage while freezing tax allowances, cancelling the a303 widening, scrapping jury trials, speaking like an unexcited deaf man, Why is Keir Starmer such a cunt?

@byMorganWright 💔

Hi everyone. My dog passed away this morning & I’m not in the right headspace to be online & talk to people at the moment so… I’ll talk to you all when I’m able to. Life is just so cruel. Here’s my girl:

@MJTurnerPhoto 💔

📷 One last moment in the world we shared 📷 It is with the greatest sadness that I share the passing of Molly, my canine soulmate. On her last day, I carried her up High Rigg in Lakeland to have one last look at the hills and valleys she'd walked for most of her life🐾

“Animals are not here for us to do as we please with. We are not their superiors, we are their equals. We are their family. Be kind to them.” - Ricky Gervais

Pete Wicks faced criticism when he said ~ “I prefer dogs to most people. Dogs never let you down or gossip about you, give me a dog any day. At least dogs don't take offence when you say something they don't like! At least dogs aren't two faced, they either like you or they don't and they're usually a good judge of character.” RT if you agree with him ~ I certainly do.

@6littlered67667 💔

My Marshmallow died today. He was 14 years old. I’m heartbroken!

@shouq_al90149 💔

Our baby crossed the rainbow bridge today… she was 14 years old. 🌈🐾💔 Fourteen beautiful years of love, loyalty, cuddles, and memories I will carry in my heart forever. She wasn’t just a pet — she was family, my shadow, my comfort, my best friend. The house feels so empty tonight. I keep expecting to see her in her favorite spot. Losing her feels like losing a piece of my heart. Please don’t scroll without sending a little love her way. 🥺🐶 She gave us a lifetime of unconditional love — she deserves to be remembered with kindness. Run free, my sweet girl. Until we meet again. 💕

Imagine when you get to heaven and God says "someone has been waiting for you!"

Folks over the past 2 days I’ve driven across Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire & I’ll honest I’ve Never seen Britains Roads in such an apalling condition; this morn outside Spalding en-route to Peterborough I had to drive round 3 people fishing in one👇🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

@Fat_imyy 💔So sorry 💔

@LAbradorClub11 ❤️‍🔥

Wild elephants in Thailand set up roadblocks to steal sugarcane from passing trucks. One notorious male nicknamed “Fatty” walks into traffic and forces drivers to stop. He reaches his trunk into the trailers, grabs handfuls of sugarcane, then lets them pass. This highway robbery has been happening for over 20 years and park rangers can’t stop it.

@TheBritLad 🙌

Raise your hand if you stand with Sir Jim Ratcliffe. And you think Keir Starmer is a w@nker. 🖐️