What a difference a day makes...

Who knew that 24 hours could change a persons life so dramatically.

Thursday night i decided to visit the RAF Careers website to see if recruitment had started again for my chosen role, RAF Police. They weren't hiring at the time so i decided to go to the page for RAFP and there it is, a change in entry requirements. This came like a sledgehammer to my head, literally. I stared at it for a few minutes whilst i came to terms with it in my mind that i would no longer be eligible for that role.

Since the GMP recruitment freeze i have resigned myself to not joining the job i would ideally like to do. I had to make decisions, think long and hard about it, came to a conclusion and now this. I don't know whether its anything to do with the cuts, or they just realised that the entry requirements were just a little too low. Now they are high enough to be just out of reach.

Friday morning, i decided to go to the gym, work on my fitness because god knows i need it. I turned my membership to an unlimited monthly deal so i can get into a routine without having to pay each time i go, get to the point where i have no money and then stop my routine. I was getting that motivation to get myself into shape and get to where i need to be.

I have decided to still look for a career within the armed forces, with the Army now looking like my most likely destination, with one career standing out amongst others that i would be qualified for which is a Dog Handler. Its heavily involved with the security aspects of the Royal Military Police e.g. conducting patrols, searches and detection. I was always looking forward to the extra 3 weeks training within the RAFP to be a police dog handler, and was always something i wanted.

Let's hope the entry requirements don't change, at least till i'm in.

Woof.

Fight for your cause...

Over the last few weeks we have all seen and heard about the highly publicised rise in tuition fees for university students, potentially tripling students debt in the future. Being a former student myself, currently with around £8,500 debt which slowly climbs each year, i can understand peoples frustration at what seems like an insult to the people who struggle financially each year.

What i don't agree with is the way that the unions and students alike have gone about "protesting" their cause. They are always billed as a peaceful protest and that they will peacefully march along a proposed route agreed by both the police and local authorities and in a perfect world it would all go smoothly.

As we have seen almost all of these "peaceful" protests descended into violence and disorder. Students wanting to fight their cause, and i wont say it was just a small minority because i don't believe it was, damaging and defacing government property and national and historical monuments, most notably the statue of Winston Churchill and our own national flag. This is pure shameful violence that carries no positive message that will possibly change the governments mind regarding the introduction of the higher tuition fees.

Think of it this way. Go to your local high street, find the biggest shiniest bank there, go inside and ask the prettiest woman behind the counter you can find for a loan, for your important university fees, with a microscopic interest rate that they will allow you to defer in times of need, and that after 25 years they will write off. You can try the bank next door but they will probably laugh you out of the door as well.

We should feel privileged that we live in such a developed country where we get free primary, secondary and college education, and that we have such good universities available for us. We don't live in a third world country where education is a luxury that few are blessed with and, contrary to belief, we are actually lucky to have politicians like David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband who don't go round the country chopping peoples hand offs just because we didn't vote for them like Robert Mugabe.

I hope that every single person responsible for the disturbances, violence and damage are arrested and are dealt with severely and may start to think twice about the way they put their points and views across.

As my mother-in-law always says "You catch more bee's with honey than vinegar."

Respect

Today we saw the jailing of a muslim woman for attempted murder of her local MP. Roshonara Choudhry was a "stand-out" pupil who was highly respected by her peers and colleagues alike, who dropped out of her english class and apparently became a radicalised muslim, which i believe is a term that is thrown about way too much. She carried out the attack as a retaliation for Stephen Timms apparent involvement in the governments decision to invade Iraq and later Afghanistan. She

After a trial, where she didn't attend in person but by video link, she was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. She has committed a serious and violent crime and the jail term reflects that, maybe a little longer than it would have been if the crime was against a general member of the public, but still a justified sentence.

The one thing that has really annoyed from the trial were the supporters outside the courts claiming that the sentence handed down was unjust and that it was a slight against Islam and Muslims living in the UK. These people are the reasons that their a tensions between our communities, these are the excuse single minded people in this country, like the EDL and BNP, need to cause friction between two communities that could live side by side like anyone else.

ALL of the Muslim people i have ever met have been some of the nicest people you could wish to come across, they cant do enough to make you feel welcome and at ease. There is no doubting that it is a disciplined religion and can could come across as harsh but Abu Dhabi & Dubai were some of the nicest places i have seen and some extremely polite and welcoming people, and you can see the respect the people have for the laws and traditions of the country and religion.

Respect is the name of the game and people need to show a lot more of it, on both sides.

The Age of Coalition.

On May 6th i did something i had never done before... voted. Politics never inspired me in the past to do anything other than say "My vote wont make a difference". With that in mind, and my new found interest in politics i promised myself i would vote and that i would vote for whoever i felt grabbed my attention during the campaigns.

I liked Gordon Brown. I think he was dealt a shoddy hand but handled himself, Bigot-gate aside, very well and always with a sense of dignity. David Cameron never appealed to me, the Conservatives in my eyes were always the "Richer" party. I was always told of how the working class family disliked Thatcher and the rich got richer and the poorer got poorer. Nick Clegg was always an outsider, never in the spotlight and most people wouldn't have recognised him in a identity parade.

With predictions of a hung parliament months before the elections opened, i felt my vote would now count more than ever, i felt enthralled by the chaos and media frenzy that accompanied the general election. It was something that entertained millions of people and sparked into life some amazing scenes on voting day. The constant coverage on TV made it feel like a life changing moment, one of those "Can you remember where you were?" moments.

With the obvious hung parliament, David Cameron needed to form a coalition with one of the smaller parties, which left the Liberal Democrats in a very powerful position. Nick Clegg who was the under-dog from day one, now had both of the larger parties fighting for his allegiance to form the next government. He was the deal maker, the person who had the say in the next government. He chose the Conservatives, who held the largest share of the votes but fell short of the majority needed for a single party government. Under the terms of the coalition, this would put Nick Clegg as the Deputy PM, the first liberal since David Lloyd George during WW1 to hold any position of power within the british government.

I voted for Nick Clegg on polling day and i am glad he now holds a position within the cabinet because i think he has the attitude a modern politician needs, i think he is approachable and dare i say it, quite honest. Cameron, has endeared me to him a little more with the compromises on key policies.

I liked the whole experience of the live TV debates, campaigning and Media coverage surrounding the election and also the uncertain days after it was declared a hung parliament. It sounded so exciting when a lonely man, in the middle of downing street, declared that "Her Majesty, The Queen, has asked me to form a government and i have accepted". I am also a proud believer in our monarchy. I hate it when people question the "point" of them being around, i think them being here is great for our country and a reminder that what our country was, and still is, like. I am a proud believer in tradition and wouldn't change any of it.

One thing on voting day that really got at me was the people who complained about not being able to exercise their democratic right to vote. The polls were open for 15 hours, 7am - 10pm and one woman that had been to the polling station on 4 different occasions left because the queue was too long. I mean, can someone of your age be that stupid? Stay in the queue. You don't walk round the supermarket, fill your basket, get to the checkouts and because the lines are too long, walk away and leave your shopping do you? Use some common sense and queue up like everyone else. I can understand some peoples frustrations when they have actually stayed in the queue for hours and got nowhere. But when push comes to shove, they are rules that this country has followed for decades, and i wouldn't change them.

So now it is time for David Cameron PM & Nick Clegg D-PM to show the country what they can both do and pull us back up to the heights this country was once at.

Smithead Creative

Chris Smith (Smithead) is one of the most talented illustrators and designers i have seen in years. He was always producing brilliant pieces even in the beginning of our course and has gone on to secure himself a position at a interactive design agency in Manchester.

Check it out here.

Yes lad...