THERE is much to heed from the wit and wisdom of The Inbetweeners, the late Noughties TV series that dared to show teenagers in all their puerile glory.
I still can’t even look at a gentleman carrying a briefcase without stifling the urge to scream “Briefcase w****r!” at him.
YouTube/At Home With The BuckleysJames ‘Jay From The Inbetweeners’ Buckley’s F-bomb-laced council tax outburst had my attention[/caption]
GettyCouncil tax is the new Dick Turpin, robbing us in broad daylight each year on the streets where we live[/caption]
So James “JayFromTheInbetweeners” Buckley’s F-bomb-laced council tax outburst on his The Buckleys podcast, which he does with wife Clair, had my attention.
James is the latest citizen to have been informed by his local council — understood to be Chelmsford, Essex — that he will now have to pay to have his “green waste” removed.
In a deliciously expletive-fuelled rant that would make his preposterous alter ego blush with pride, he seethed: “What do you mean you’re now charging?
“Don’t f***ing start that s**t. We were always f***ing paying for it, it’s called council tax. Why are you fing taking more money off me and doing less?
“And everyone up and down the country is saying the exact same fing thing — what the f*** is going on?”
Hear hear!
With one unfiltered flare-up James, 37, who, despite his generous facial furniture still resembles the infantile gobs**te he famously portrayed, has turned this spotlight on one of the most egregious public swindles of our time.
Council tax is the new Dick Turpin, robbing us in broad daylight each year on the streets where we live. I’m sure you are painfully aware of how much your bill rose this year.
I know I am. Haringey Council whacked mine up by 4.8 per cent.
I was lucky. Some councils begged the Government to allow it to screw even more out of people than the supposed five per cent rise threshold.
Windsor and Maidenhead Council went as far as to ask for an outrageous 25 per cent before that was over-ruled and they had to make do with fleecing locals with a mere nine per cent rise.
We particularly hate council tax increases because all around us our streets seem to be getting ever more pot-holed while our bins increasingly overflow with crap.
But we are stuck, beholden to cough up with the threat of a three-month jail sentence if we stop paying then refuse to clear our debts.
So the rises will increase and, with a Labour government at the helm, don’t be surprised if they go up even more, despite them flirting with the idea of freezing rates when they wanted us to vote for them.
Yet it doesn’t have to be like this.
Yes, many councils and their often ludicrously paid chiefs are utterly incompetent, which has not helped their financial positions.
A quarter could go bust
But the reason every council is grasping for every penny it can get is ultimately down to one enormous and ever-growing cost: Social care.
Local authorities have been charged with handling social care since the late 1940s when the NHS was set up to deal with the cradle-to-grave medical matters for the then-50million people living in Britain.
Back then the average life expectancy was 66 for men and 70 for women.
Fast forward to 2025 and that has now rocketed to 79 for men and 83 for women.
GettyWe particularly hate council tax increases because all around us our streets seem to be getting ever more pot-holed while our bins increasingly overflow with crap[/caption]
Of course, the longer we live, the more meals on wheels and home visits we need and the more residential centres need to be built.
The list goes on and on, hoovering up more and more cash, up to 70 per cent of some councils’ budgets.
And in an absurd state of affairs, town halls’ social care policies are mostly dictated by Westminster, so councils are forced to pay for and administer policies they have precious little power to control.
It is hard to see this faltering system continuing without a wholesale collapse of the entire local government structure.
Indeed, a recent Local Government Association survey revealed that up to a quarter of all English councils could go bust by the end of next year.
One way to avoid this would be to make social care nationally funded.
Take the revenue- raising responsibilities for it away from councils and just let them get on with administering it.
And collecting James Buckley’s lawn clippings.
MOLLY IS TWO MUCH
MY heart goes out to poor old Molly-Mae Hague. She’s been having an absolute mare.
As she admitted: “I haven’t done one social, fun thing. I haven’t a life.”
Well, Molly, I hate to break it to you but I’m not surprised you’ve had a bummer summer – someone has been having all the fun by pretending to be you.
That’s right, an exact replica of you has been spotted having a whale of a time enjoying five-star trips to Dubai, Paris and St Tropez over the past few months.
This devious doppelganger was also spotted lapping up the luxury at Wimbledon, gadding about with stars like Rebel Wilson in the VIP suite.
And on Thursday your lookalike was spotted at Manchester airport with a carbon copy of your fella, Tommy, heading off for yet another holiday.
That should have been you having all those larks, not someone who looks and sounds exactly like you.
If I were you I’d get on to your lawyer and issue a cease and desist letter to this outrageous imposter . . . whoever she may be.
HAD a maddening experience this week with Yodel, who failed to deliver a parcel three straight days in a row despite claiming it was “out for delivery”.
By day four they gave up and insisted they could not find my address despite the clear road sign and a gigantic number on my door.
They then insisted I send them one of those bizarre “what3words” phrases to identify my apparently invisible abode.
It took every fibre of my being not to reply with the three words: “Yodel F***ing Sucks”.
Cruz that meant to be, Becks?
cruzbeckham/InstagramCruz Beckham posed aboard one of the two yachts his warring family are currently on with a giant bulge in his shorts[/caption]
CRUZ BECKHAM looked like he’d gone from nepo baby to nappy baby as he posed aboard one of the two yachts his warring family are currently on, with a giant bulge in his shorts.
It was one hell of a sight for sore eyes, but then Beckham minor went a step further, ribbing his old man by aping his legs akimbo Boss underpants ad, inset, by striking the same pose in a pair of £410 trunks.
Brother Romeo summed up everyone’s reaction, commenting on the shot with a simple, “Jesus!”
I bet Brooklyn was itching to pile in with a cheeky quip of his own until he remembered he’s in the middle of some tedious row with his folks.
I like that this ubiquitous family are always taking the mick out of each other.
It makes their endless social media humblebrags easier to stomach.
HELP YOUR SHELF
POPPED to a local shop near work the other day and was somewhat surprised to see “top shelf” titles among its magazine selection.
And there was me thinking the traditional jazz mag had been all but wiped out by the onslaught of online porn.
Some of these titles looked a little on the dated side, but there were enough on display to suggest an industry still, ahem, hard at it.
And then it occurred to me, with the market having suddenly entered a state of flux, these publishers are simply playing the long game.
Because, as of July 25, porn sites are obliged to gather details of, er, “users” in order to verify that they are old enough to view adult material.
The move has resulted in a huge drop in visitors, as many shy away from officially registering their carnal proclivities. One site, XHamster, has reported an 85 per cent slump in UK traffic, with the firm declaring: “Our userbase has essentially vanished in a day.”
Expect long queues at the newsagent in the coming days.
lI’M glad The Naked Gun reboot is getting rave reviews as I saw a trailer during a trip to see Superman and it looked abysmal.
But I was never worried that Liam Neeson wouldn’t be able to muster the comic timing required to follow Leslie Nielsen’s brilliant Frank.
Not a year goes by when I don’t play the clip from Ricky Gervais’ brilliant Life’s Too Short, where an exquisitely earnest Liam decides he wants to get into comedy.
If you’ve seen it you’ll know how hilarious it is and, if not, Google it, then hold on to your sides.
Another woke warning
Classic ITV comedy-drama Minder has been given a trigger warning over ‘outmoded and offensive’ language from Arthur Daley and TerryRex Features
ANOTHER day another “trigger warning” slapped on a TV show millions once watched without taking any offence.
This time it’s Minder’s turn, with delicate viewers warned the Eighties show, left, may contain phrases that could cause them to self-combust with fury such as, er, “pull a bird”.
People always get hot under the collar about these warnings but personally I’d like to see more – as many as possible in fact.
The more woke warnings a show contains, the more I know it’s something I’ll enjoy watching.
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