It seems like it was just yesterday when we last had a general election, and here we are with a new one on our doorsteps.

This time, it seems the Conservatives have a runaway lead and nothing will stop him. Which, well is pretty similar to last time.

However one difference this time is that many mainstream media outlets do not seem to be following the usual "purdah" rules for impartiality. If you look at political editors for the BBC and ITV, you will notice a whiff of... something.

Slippery Boris

It cannot be denied that Boris Johnson is a formidable opponent/politician. Mostly because unlike most, he seems to have absolutely no scruples and there probably isn't anyone who he hasnt lied to or betrayed so far.

All across the Muslim world, Muslims are being oppressed - either by other Muslims, or by Non-Muslims.

Even in places like Turkey the hardcore ultra secularists are still just waiting to get their revenge on the religious people who currently have the power.

Palestine is always an easy cause and it has been going for a long time. The people need resolution.

But unlike before when the Arab street at least felt sympathetic, that seems to have changed. Instead of the leaders making atleast some statements in support of the Palestinians due to fear of the people, the people too often support their dictatorships against raising any voice.

I have done a few small updates to the site - the previous 1 column layput didnt work well so I reverted that and made that wider.

I also recently purchased a laptop with a poor quality screen. It helped show some colours were not visible on eg the forum page or the recent posts page. Using a darker shade of background colour now, though it looks garish.

On the bigger front, much closer to being able to move to a newer codebase (move from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 ) for the website should I choose to do so.

That leads to the question of whether there is any value for this place continuing to exist.

It is not being used, so its only purpose is as a historical archive - there are cheaper ways of managing that.

Education has been a hot topic in the media recently. The question of what should be taught when has been a major concern since the effectiveness of some parents in Birmingham who opposed the changes that are to be brought into the Relationship and Sexual Education (RSE) curriculum, which includes normalising alternative or non-binary family structures.

One of the major arguments arguments brought in support of the change is that children will be taught what exists in the real world, so they will be better prepared. The argument goes that homosexuality exists, is real and many children will have parents that are homosexual, so the children need to be taught about it in order to prevent discrimination.

For those of you that have seen the first two seasons of "Resurrection: Ertugrul" on Netflix and stopped there (instead of watching elsewhere), season 3 has now been added.

For those that haven't seen it, you sould seriously consider watching season 1.

This post is a bit behind the trends because most people went crazy on the show last year, but season 3 has only just now been made available on Netflix.

It follows the story of Ertugrul, the son of Suleyman Shah and Osman, the father of the Ottoman empire and covers an area of Muslim hstory that many people have not read too much about. It is a dramatisation, but unlike most Turkish television, it is not ashamed about muslim heritage and is proudly sharing its story.

Recently Venezuela has hit it big in the media. It is currently experiencing financial hardship leaving many people without food, it has a president with an authoritarian streak and the opposition leader has sworn an oath of presidency saying he is the legitimate president.

Quite a bit going on there.

Are people in Venezuela starving and in need of help?

Yes. The local currency has crashed.

Venezuela has the typical problem of a former colonialist state - its economy had been rigged to provide for the needs of the coloniser. Unlike a self sufficient state, it had to historically rely upon importing its needs, while exporting its main product. Historically this was coffee. These days it is oil.

Over the past couple of weeks there has been mass media attention to the case of Shamima Begum, who along with a couple of friends left to join ISIS in 2014.

At the time she was a 15 year old and is now 19. In that time she has talked about two of her children being killed and has recently given birth to a third.

The whole topic has brought up a lot of emotion, mostly because it seems Sajid Javid, the home secretary decided to make it into a political power play, just like he did his canceled holiday over Christmas to deal with the UK being swamped with about 10 migrants.

Well, the new year has started. Either less than 24 hours ago or more than a three of months ago depending on how we look at it.

The previous year was an eventful one, but it was also one where this website went from deep sleep to hibernation. or from hibernation to a comatose state.

Now the question is where we go from here. We can either stay where we are.

Or we can get new blood, new writers and release some new content.

I dont know about others but I would enjoy reading the following:

A south African chain has taken down (but helpfully so far not deleted from Youtube) about the "Legend of Big John".

The advert can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBI_3vyUfdc

Do you find the advert offensive?

It has now been a few weeks since the earthquake and following tsunami which struck Indonesia.

There are many places with appeals for Indonesia victims and survivors - many will need long term support to be able to rebuild, others may never recover.

If you can afford it, any little that you can give will help.

You will have your favourite method of donating, but for those that don't I will provide one link:

https://pennyappeal.org/appeal/emergency-response