Impartial advice….

I’m beginning to think there is no such thing as impartial advice. In this day and age who can you believe about anything? On a typical day when I start to read the paper, I realise that I am being manipulated into making decisions that ultimately line somebody else’s pocket.

Everything is about money.

This thought process started years ago with me when I was first married and wanted nice places to take my new wife for weekends away. I bought a ‘hotel’ guide which I (naively) thought would be an unbiased review of hotels on which you could rely.

On looking through the guide I realised that there was a review of the hotel round the corner from where we lived. The pictures were unbelievable – it looked as though the guesthouse was in the middle of open countryside, having cropped out the quarry and the tip which sits just in front of the building.

The obvious thought process then follows – if this review is so inaccurate then it throws doubt on all the other hotels in the guide.

To be in this particular guide you have to pay a fee. Simple as that – there appeared to be no checks on authenticity of photographs or quality of service.

A new hotel opened recently in Buxton within ‘the crescent’ which is a wonderful architectural listed building. The hotel has a spa and a pool and by all accounts will be a popular place to visit. The hotel opened during lockdown…. yet managed to get a number 3 position in the top ten UK spas in a review in The Times newspaper.

How can that possibly be accurate? Nobody had been …?

When having been in business for a few years, I remember being contacted by an awards company who led me to believe that through hard work and quality of service, I had been nominated for recognition by the industry. When following this up (in my over excitement) I signed up for sponsoring the dinner and buying multiple tickets for the event.

This was just a money-making scam.

I was recently contacted by a company who offered to award me ‘Best Knotweed Contractor’ in the UK. When I quizzed him on what standards this was based, he stated out right that all I had to do was pay the fee and I would get a small silver cup and a mention in his magazine.

What gradually dawns upon you is that – NO – YOU DID NOT WIN A POPULARITY CONTEST – you were suckered into paying out money to win a fake award that means absolutely nothing.

So, apologies to all you ‘winners’ of various awards that you so proudly present on ‘Linked-in’ – ‘what an amazing night’ – ‘congratulations to the team’ etc. etc. …. it’s all bollox.

I’m convinced this goes on at every level of contact that we have with social media…and in fact any media.

Buy this ….and you will look like David Beckham, wear this…. and you will smell like Brad Pitt, drive this…. and you will save the planet.

There is soooooo much misinformation out there that it is impossible tell what’s really going on.

I was quietly having a coffee in my local cafe the other day when an elderly lady passed me a pamphlet titled ‘SAVE THE PLANET’. She wanted me to join a protest against fossil fuels and to sign a petition against the use of glyphosate.

I told her that I was actually a user of fossil fuels and that I ran a weed control company that used glyphosate.

She then told me that she actually never drove.

She had never learnt to drive.

She had never actually left Glossop in her life …but was convinced that cars were bad.

She then went on to tell me that Japanese knotweed wasn’t really a problem and that Himalayan balsam was good for bees.

She was aiming to do a sit in protest on the Tesco petrol station from 8am on Saturday with a group of her friends.

In The Times this morning I read that one of the leaders of the protesters camping out on the M25 campaigning for insulation for social housing …. ‘Iives at home with his mother …’ ????‍♂️

What the f**k are we supposed to do when the world has idiots like this claiming to own the moral high ground when actually knowing NOTHING about what they are protesting about.

Seriously it just makes me want to build the wall higher round my garden and retreat into solitude.

The truth is out there somewhere ….but until then ….

Just leave me alone.

 

Mike C