Tag: facebook

False Allegations Against Wiltshire Hunt Sabs About Drone Fly Zones is Unapologetically Reversed By Illegal Hunt Supporting Facebook Group

Due to my real job making regular home deliveries I get to know when folk are away on their holibobs, and when they plan on returning. I could, if I wanted, start a “residents watch” Facebook group for burglars, to ensure those pesky homeowners don’t return early and cause good honest thieves to be inconvenienced while ransacking their homes!

But I’m unlikely to, really, aren’t I? Because, even if I had no moral standards, someone is bound to grass me to the police who would force me to shut down the group, and perhaps rightfully arrest me. Perplexed by the audacity and with a lump in my throat, I’m driven to rant about a Facebook group which Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs today made us aware of in a post, for the group is not so unlike the bizarre scenario of my introduction; different context, same concept; you can’t make up vindictive stupidity on this level…..

The group is called “South Coast Sab Watch,” therefore I presume there’s regional others. Alas, it does what it says on the tin, and condones and promotes illegal hunting to boot. So, let’s just run through the concept here, shall we, so there can be no mistaking? It’s a group for criminal hunters, whether they genuinely believe the baloney they’re maintaining the natural balance of the countryside, or have a sadistic fetish for animal cruelty (as disgraced former Prime Minister and lockdown party animal, Bojo, enlightened us about,) to keep a beady eye on self-organised non-profit collectives out in the field attempting to curb and highlight their illegal activities, and to inform police of said sab groups, if they were ever to incriminate themselves in the pursuit of such.

Is it just me, or can anyone else see a slither of hypocrisy here?! Reminds me of security guards at a factory I once worked at where smoking was banned, who would prowl the site at night looking for staff smoking, with fags on the go themselves!

It’s been drawn to our attention because of a disagreement over CAA rules when the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs flew drones over a SSSI watching the notorious Tedworth Hunt. The South Coast Sab Watch claimed it was illegal to do this in a statement on their group, and wasted the rural crime team’s time with the matter.

The hunt sabs responded, stating “Drone Assist, which anyone can check, confirms that the Kings Play Hill SSSI is not a CAA “non-fly” area for drones at all.” Seems it was perfectly legal to do this, and as a result, the sab watch group fact checked, and updated their post to admit they were wrong and the sabs were right, there was nothing illegal in what the sabs did. They apologised, but only to the followers of the group, not the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs who deserved the apology, which kinda suggests their motive is driven by hateful vengeance; tell us something we don’t already know!

“We hear the same stupid nonsense from the Beaufort who don’t understand the difference on the maps between barred areas (red areas) and areas where you can fly with caution (yellow areas),” Wiltshire Hunt Sabs explained. “What is an offence, the illegal hunting of wild animals with a pack or dogs on ANY location.  Also what can be an offence is the disturbing of wildlife on an SSSI which is exactly what a pack of dogs  and a bunch of horses chasing them through the SSSI constitutes.”

It’s laughable, should you like laughing at the idiocy of a knee-jerk reaction from barbaric snobs so desperate to twist a narrative, but I’m like, hey, is no one mentioning the elephant in the room? Probably not, it’s likely they’d much prefer to be on a big game hunt for some ivory. Look, being the hunters were so quick to pick a potential mistake from the sabs in their surveillance of them, before checking the facts, doesn’t it look rather obvious they’ve something to hide? On a discussion about CCTV in Devizes, a point was made that this is not big brother, if you’re not doing crime then you’ve nothing to worry about; surely it’s the same thing here?

But, more to the point, if they weren’t suspected of illegally hunting, on the grounds many hunts have been caught in the past illegally hunting, and promote and condone it on their social media, the hunt sabs wouldn’t have needed to fly drones in the first bloody place, you utter, utter numpties! For crying out loud, how stupid can you possibly get?!!

It’s with great curiosity as to the defective mind of a fox hunter which caused me to browse their group, where there’s shockingly blatant posts to admit to and pathetically justify their illegal and barbaric activities.

Starter for ten, they love to highlight this wonky idea that they do what they do in order to maintain the balance of nature in the countryside, which poses the question how this is relevant to what they claim to be doing; legally chasing a tea towel garnished with the fake scent of a fox , that will not affect the balance of nature, only cause disruptions for residents. Ergo, they inadvertently confessed to committing crimes against the hunting act.

They home in on our affections for the lovable creatures like hedgehogs, to play with our emotions, claiming badgers are the reason for their apparent decline. Again, in the decade of my nocturnal outside job, it’s not the hedgehog I see in decline at all, in fact there’s an abundance of them, but rarely do I see a badger these days, and I could count the times I’ve seen a fox on one hand. When I do, they’re generally running for their lives, and I futilely plead to their fleeting shadow not to tarnish all humans with the same Basil Brush; boom boom!

Another post called to arms the might of the hunters when millionaire farmers set out to protest in London later this month, against having to pay their fair share of inheritance tax. Not to open another Pandora’s box here, it simply took to mind they are planning to join in the fun whether they’re wanted there, or not. I mean, does every farmer agree with fox hunting, or will they be like the unwarranted gatecrasher at a party? Humm, I could only answer this one with speculation. History repeating though; when farmers protested over fuel rises in 2002, it was hijacked by pro-hunters who changed the objective to suit their whim.

But what amazes and disgusts me most in equal measure, is how social media groups promoting illegal activities and creating falsehoods against those campaigning against it are allowed to continue. Police should shut them down for spreading misinformation, surely, as they would if they were condoning a different crime.

Again, it seems it is up sab organs like our hard-working volunteers of the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs to call them out. Well done once again to Wiltshire Hunt Sabs, you got them lying, hook, line and sinker! As we move closer to the Boxing Day incongruous pageants, we need and support them as much as we can, so find them here and buy them a coffee. 

Don’t Impress Them Much, Online Rants at Glastonbury Line-Up!

Image: Czampal

I’m laughing, not at the Glasto lineup, but the incalculable comments of negativity it has encouraged in Facebookland. It should be said though, most disapproving remarks appear on shares of the post and not the original, and most of them were posted this morning when most ticketholders are likely at work, funding their forthcoming adventure to Pilton. Now they’re homebound, online anticipation and positivity has risen above the seething armchair critiques……

Then there is this ‘old photographs of Wiltshire’ Facebook group I recently joined, where a picture of the Barge at Honey Street was posted today with the caption, “The Barge at Honey Street, near Pewsey.” Some aging, caps-lock permanently stuck on gammon responded, “IT IS NOT PEWSEY IT IS HONEY STREET!”

If caps-lock usually implies angered shouting, and the nearest large village to Honey Street is Pewsey, perhaps it suggests how nonsensically negative and overreactive your average Facebooker has become, and how much it exists for aimlessly irritated and amateur critics to vent their general disgust over first world problems. It says more about them and the tenet of Facebook than the thing they’re mocking. This much ado about nothing is amusing though, that’s why I like this particular social media platform….

Glastonbury Festival released their main lineup poster today, and my gut reaction was similar to the priceless online onslaught of negativity in the comments. Being honest, it’s not inane, it’s not the best lineup we’ve seen, but I restrained myself from passing comment, considering it’s an age test; the older you get the less headliners you should expect to know at an event self-professed to be a festival of “contemporary” performing arts. No one online considered it might not be Glastonbury which has the problem!

And secondly, for the simple reason I’m not going anyway, and haven’t attended for twenty-four years. I wonder how many of those feeding negative comments to the pitchfork assembly are going themselves. I hope and pray it’s not many, for Glastonbury is not the place for decomposing strident and pessimistic cynics…. like me, for example!

Glastonbury is and will always be an experience, you go to Glastonbury for going to Glastonbury, not whoever happens to be on a stage you’re passing. Yeah, it’s held some massive names in the past, pre-broken Brexit Britain, but does anyone commenting have an inkling how much and how hard it is to organise something on this scale? How much work goes on behind the scenes? Far more than typing your grievance in a text box, rest assured.

I can now count the acts I’ve heard of on the annual Glastonbury poster on my fingers, even less ones I’d actually like to see, this lessens with every year Father Time takes from me, it’s an old dog new tricks scenario; I’m content with shit happens. Most of the names I’ve heard of are through my daughter’s playlist, with a sprinkling of classics like Cyndi Lauper, to whet the appetite of grumpy old bastards who might yet turn up; it’ll all come off in the wash!

I shouldn’t scratch my Uncle Albert beard and tediously spin a yarn of how I once failed to see the Mad Professor at the dance tent because of my genius navigation past the Pyramid Stage while Pulp was playing. A band who, being I was a ‘raver’ and they were ‘indie’ I wouldn’t usually beeline, but finding myself unable to gorge further through the masses, was forced to watch them, and forever became a fan through unexpected circumstance. But if I did, it would surely serve a purpose to illustrate a tale of the unexpected. Digest new things, you never know till you try. To moan this act doesn’t suit your whim is to misunderstand the concept of Glastonbury, or festivals in general. You need to open your eyes and ears to new things not just relish in the nostalgic era of your individual youth. But more importantly, the arts and entertainment industry at its knees, need you to do this more than ever before.

Yet, in this ocean of boiling ageist whimpering which is the comment section on Glastonbury’s Facebook lineup post, which one could summarise as a multitude of disgruntled whingers unlikely to even attend, who cannot accept they’re past it and are whinging for the sake of whinging, one gen-z’s unintentionally amusing comment reversed the status quo, by calling the lineup, “a load of old dinosaurs!” (Assuming they meant the acts listed and not the other commenters!) They win the internet today for standing against the grain, still bleating bollocks, but for precisely the opposite reason to everyone else, thus proving if you can’t satisfy everyone, why bother trying with anyone? Who the heck is SZA and how did they get listed above PJ Harvey? I might have to sacrifice a cute furry pet over this atrocity!

Though, in this, you should note the universal appeal Glastonbury promotes and always has. I recall the nineties when attendees foamed from the mouth at the thought Robbie Williams got up there to do his thing; youth today would hail this classic, as they would’ve done for Led Zeppelin. Because should a change of tide wipe you out or this upset you, there’s a billion retro festivals, eighties nights, tribute acts, et al, which are more niche, and likely kinder on your wallet too. Maybe take some time to research them rather than jump a bandwagon?

Yep, if Shania Twain is the calibre of Elton John or Springsteen now, a tear will undoubtedly trickle down my wrinkled cheek, but it is not my cheek Glastonbury needs to appease, neither is it the witch hunt of unsatisfied grumpy old keyboard warriors. Key here is the simple notion; Glastonbury is so much more than a main stage and congested campsite. Don’t fuss over mainstream or contemporary things if they’re only going to engulf you in flames of irritation, think of your blood pressure.

No buddy, saunter them there Somerset fields and find the bizarre, outlandish, the upcoming, the amateur, the underground, then, and only then will you understand the true ethos of Glastonbury.

Or simply retire, watch it on the telebox; you can fast forward. With a cardboard cup of Lidl cider, and undercooked hotdog. Stay home where you can take a piss behind the sofa without queuing, and maybe start a blog where, like me, you can hypocritically rant your niggles without spoiling a Facebook post! What have we becomeeeee?!

Trending….

Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward “E”) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy tunes…

Burning the Midday Oil at The Muck

Highest season of goodwill praises must go to Chrissy Chapman today, who raised over £500 (at the last count) for His Grace Children’s Centre in…

For Now, Anyway; Gus White’s Debut Album

Featured Image: Barbora Mrazkova My apologies, for Marlborough’s singer-songwriter Gus White’s debut album For Now, Anyway has been sitting on the backburner, and it’s more…

Love Devizes Issues? The Local Facebook Group Which Banned a Covid Community Support Page

On the day the first Ukraine refugees arrive in Devizes, and government shockingly announces its intentions to set up concentration camps for illegal refugees in Rwanda, it seems Devizes Town Councillor Iain Wallis has played his small part in the hypocrisy, by banning the Facebook page Love Devizes Covid19 Support from his large and influential group, Devizes Issues.…..

Love Devizes Covid19 Support was set up at the beginning of the pandemic, its ethos to enable “the people of Devizes to support, inspire and strengthen one another,” has seen volunteers running needed shopping and prescription trips for those self-isolating, manning advise phone lines, has advised and assisted with the vaccine rollout at the Corn Exchange, and has been a pillar of support in our community.

As the focus on the pandemic is gradually easing, the group has partially turned its attention onto the Ukraine crisis, extending a warm hand of advice and support for those entering the Devizes area, fleeing war-torn zones, and those taking in refugees. It continues to support the community too, helping to create and promote the Devizes Living Room, a social gathering group which meets in the Shambles.

The Facebook group not to be confused with many others of similar names, has come under scrutiny of bias and censorship beyond its set out rules and regulations; heck, I was banned and so too has the Devizine page for hinting Boris Johnson may not be the deity he’s made out to be! So, yeah, I’ll confess some bitterness, because at best what Devizes Issues has done is create a worthy forum of local matters. It remains open to political debate on local and international matters, and encourages members to participate in such discussions. Though it appears more and more the group will not tolerate anyone disagreeing with admin, but to outright ban a community group created to help those most in need is seriously counterproductive to the reason it exists, surely?!

Admin, Councillor Iain Wallis has not given comment reasoning the ban at this time, but I would encourage the group decides its precise purpose and not pose as an impartial community group when quite clearly it holds an agenda, for whatever that reasoning is, intended to block community support groups. Holy Moly, the issue in Devizes is the Devizes Issues; it’s all getting a bit Jackie Weaver out here!

Trending…….

One Of Us; New Single From Lady Nade

Featured Image by Giulia Spadafora Ooo, a handclap uncomplicated chorus is the hook in Lady Lade’s latest offering of soulful pop. It’s timelessly cool and…

Large Unlicensed Music Event Alert!

On the first day of advent, a time of peace and joy to the world et al, Devizes Police report on a “large unlicenced music…

Winter Festival/Christmas/Whatever!

This is why I love you, my readers, see?! At the beginning of the week I put out an article highlighting DOCA’s Winter Festival, and…

Devizes Winter Festival This Friday and More!

Who’s ready for walking in the winter wonderland?! Devizes sets to magically transform into a winter wonderland this Friday when The Winter Festival and Lantern…

Facebookland, Really?

I’d always imagined a virtual reality internet, but honestly, with Facebook, sorry Meta, (which incidentally sounds like the name of a hard rock magazine,) announcing it will create one, has to bring about an element of slight concern. It’s not just since Zuckerberg has made the billionaire club his liberal stance has warped into the ultimate conservatism, rather judging by the content and actions of users on Facebook, they’re best hidden behind a screen.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook, addicted to the bloody thing, can’t keep my fingers off it. I check it at breakfast, lunch and tea. I check it on the loo; if I liked your status today, I probably didn’t actually read it, rather I accidently clicked it while rescuing my phone from the u-bend. I check it night and day, and when I’m asleep my dreams come over as a newsfeed.

Like many others my initial reaction to the news was jaw-dropping, I was held in awe. The more I think about it, though, I beg you consider, your Facebook feed, in reality……

If an actual place, Facebookland would be, best guess, an irrelevantly violent place, with a lot of obnoxious bigots. Think how many people’s comments you read make you wish you could punch them on the nose, praise be the day you could do it.

As soon as you arrive in Facebookland numpties will be thrusting dishes of food in your face, not offering you any, rather just to show you what they’re eating. “Look at what my wife made!” They’ll bellow, “look at what I got at Nandos;” for crying out loud.

Cats and other pets will be everywhere, doing cute stunts, and people will demand you watch them. The skyline will be filled with billboards of misinformation and propaganda in block capitals and primary school grammatical errors. Every book or newspaper will be in emoji, everyone will be shouting, few people somehow liking, but not really listening, because they’re too busy doing their own shouting.

Opinionated keyboard warriors you can punch, Facebookland would resemble a Tekken tag team tournament more than real life. I’d give Greta Thunberg about thirty seconds in there. Endless chains of people, stopping you to ask if you know what time Lidl is open, can you recommend a carpet fitter, or asking if you know what the handbrake light on their car means. If anything, the internet has lessened idle chitchat between strangers on the street, and you want to head back into a virtual realm where it perpetually occurs? You’ll be late for work every morning.

Late for work because fifty people stopped you on the street to thrust a photograph of a renowned philosopher in your face, only to ramble off some supposed inspirational quote you doubt they even said. Late because you had a dying need to discover your Star Wars bounty hunter name, by melding letters from your postcode with the name of your first pet, and returning home to find someone ransacked your flat and emptied your piggy bank.

No need for a police force, face it, everyone is a cop, everyone is a robber. Power-hungry group admins acting like bouncers at the door of a nightclub, spammers saunter town like chuggers, eavesdropping your every word. Whisper the word trampoline, I double-dare you, and a hundred frenzied trampoline salesmen will mob you.

My last Facebook Messenger request was a message from a total stranger who felt the need to tell me her “vagina was very beautiful.” For reasons of account privacy, I ignored it, I get similar messages racing through my spam filter daily. Another one said, “I’m naked, without my clothes,” which in itself is either presumptuous, assuming I don’t know the definition of the word naked, or they have devised some ingenious method of being clothed and naked simultaneously. Imagine these in real life, it’d be harder to ignore. You’re walking with the wife, and a woman saunters up to you to tell you her vagina was beautiful; where do you look?

Alongside this constant red-light district, life for the beautiful would be an endless building site, where wolf-whistles and chauvinistic taunts ring out perpetually. There’s a cathedral of far-right knuckle-draggers and a flat Earth theorists beach café; are they the kind of Facebook users I really wish to bump into on the street?

Child free too, Facebookland, teenagers all live separately in Instagramville and Tik-Tok Town, twerking and kicking each other’s doors. The entire day spent in the park choregraphing a Kayne West move, where bikini-clad chicks are pranked by a twentysomething so-called magician, else trying to craft a diamond sword in a pixilated universe, while a Superman skin is kicking the butts of innocent bystanders on an urban street.

Guess you’ll find me at the gig, where I don’t need put my beer down to clap at the end of the song, just fire off a handclapping emoji. And every so often, people ignore you, because they’re busy checking their real self in some far-off realm called reality, where everyone lives in a plastic box floating in the ocean; it’ll never catch on, least not until 2030.

And we’ll eat, imaginary humus and iceberg lettuce, drink nettle tea and be merrily, liking each other’s status updates in real time, remembering those sadly passed over to the other side, Twitter Island; we had to let him go, by the end he was talking in hashtags.

And you thought a holographic Abba concert was annoyingly cutting edge.

Trending…….

Snow White Delight: Panto at The Wharf

Treated to a sneaky dress rehearsal of this year’s pantomime at Devizes’ one and only Wharf Theatre last night, if forced to sum it up…

Chatting With Burn The Midnight Oil

It’s nice to hear when our features attract attention. Salisbury’s Radio Odstock  picked up on our interview with Devizes band Burn the Midnight Oil and…

Devizes Issues or The Ministry of Truth?!

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

1984 by George Orwell

As the jollity of a carefree leaflet campaigning outing, for the new Conservative Wiltshire PCC candidate, Philip Wilkinson, and backed by Danny Kruger, is brazenly and shamelessly shared across the popular Facebook platform Devizes Issues, anyone with a questioning opinion is immediately thrown out the group; including me!

Allow me thus, to throw my toys out of my pram in dismay, the best way I know how! Oh, the calamity, the drama! The only real issue in Devizes, is that even social media is a predisposition.

Yes, I shared the “almost” parallel Orwell quote above, after my comment was deleted, twice, expressing the anger felt by many Wiltshire residents as to why money is ploughed into the candidate’s campaign, while taxpayers could face a £1.4m bill to hold another election, because of the Conservative Party’s impertinence in running a previous candidate who had a criminal record making him unable to stand. I figured it was a genuine and just thought, considering the circumstances.

Hardly a big secret, heck, you all know the story; Conservative candidate Johnathan Seed pulled out of the first election after hit and run, and drink driving offences the party carelessly assumed could be brushed under the carpet, came to light. And rather than the cost effective and democratic process of simply going with the second choice, Lib Dem candidate Liz Webster, it’s been decided a Police Crime Commissioner couldn’t possibly be anything less than a tory, so the whole shebang would have to be rerun.

Meanwhile, Wiltshire Police launch an investigation into the scandal, which is, to-date, still in progress. Yet the election goes ahead on 19th August, when I ask you, them, and everyone of Wiltshire, if you think it right not to wait until the inquiry has concluded prior holding a new election? With such a shocking revelation, how can any of you trust a Conservative candidate ever again, if it was discovered the Party knew of the convictions? And furthermore, what kind of madcap, totalitarianism is this, which dismisses such an assessment as a thoughtcrime?

I personally don’t want anyone who stands for a party which allows criminals to run as a Police Crime Commissioner, there’s an irony there sky-rocketing over some serious heads!

Ever a poor imitation of the original, The Devizes Issue, and named in such a way to narrowly escape trade descriptions if it was a product rather than a Facebook group, Devizes Issues has a 12.9k audience. The Facebook group is perhaps the second most popular general page for Devizes residents, initially set up by local Facebook users disgruntled by the original group’s ruling of no political subject matter, but run under the iron fist of a local Conservative town councillor, I and many others have often criticised its naturally right-wing bias. My argument thus; call a spade a spade, if you intend to have a group for local Conservative thinkers, then call it something which relates to this, but do not disguise it as general local group, for that is deceitful.

Ha, nearly as deceitful as fox-chumping Mr Seed, see a pattern evolving here?

Now I’m advised, if I get the chance to interview Philip, I should take it. In other words, that’s my way out of room 101, and back into what is, primarily, a great and informative Facebook group. Day-to-day it provides an endless stream of informative local matter. Such a shame so many have been pitilessly shoved out of it, including many opposition councillors, MPs and candidates, simply for arguing a contrasting opinion.

The only element incomparable to Orwell is it’s far from the bee-all-and-end all of local social media. There’s more than one way to skin a cat; if you rely on me sharing Devizine articles there, you may well have to change your habits by ensuring you’ve liked our Facebook page, or followed us on Twitter, for the time being. There’s a thing, I think the heat is getting to him, he just needs a big, teddy bear hug!

Because of my local social media diplomatic immunity, I get a response from admin, an honour most traitors to the Tory line are not bestowed. I’m told, “he [the new Conservative Wiltshire PCC candidate, Philip Wilkinson] is a good man and has sympathy that he has had to refinance due to the previous election. Philip should have been the candidate last time and wasn’t, it’s a mistake but it can’t be changed. We have to move on and make sure people get a fair choice.” Yes, Conservative Party; pay the cost of the re-election, then we can move on.

An opportunity I would be honoured to, and welcome, as I have interviewed previous PCC candidates. A process which, I might add, is counter-productive for Devizine, as any one-party candidate I do interview tends to receive angered social media comments condemning my reasoning for allowing a platform to a party they personally don’t like, and any previous interviews I have conducted with other party’s candidates and independents is long forgotten. It must also be noted, the majority come from, coincidently, a conservative ethos, when in all actual fact, Johnathan Seed was the first PCC candidate I interviewed. So, stick that in your pipe!

Because, and please take heed Mr Wilkinson if you are reading this, the assumption seems to be my comment was an attack on you, when it never was about that. The point was if the Conservative Party are at fault, should they not cover the £1.4m bill to hold another election, rather than squander cash on a campaign.

And neither is this article an attack on you, or anyone else. Rather it is a shame, I believe, when political bias has to get in the way of a relationship otherwise built on pacification, by those who feel the need to pettily censor local social media. It’s not the Daily Mail, anyone with a Facebook group of over a thousand “likes” is not Rupert Murdoch; there is no need for political bias, the town is a guaranteed Tory haven anyway! The result turning Seed’s way despite all the well-publicised dishonour and humiliation is proof of this blind voting; if they splodged a blue rosette onto a lobotomised potbelly pig, Wiltshire would still vote it in.  

Unless, no… unless they suspect the tide is turning! We live in hope.