Tony Porter Ponders: Has Keir a clear idea on anything and the OASIS ticket scammers

Never thought I would say this, I agree with Sir Kier Starmer PM, OK I don’t, he agrees with me, unknowingly. As soon as vaping became popular, I have been saying it is dangerous. I banned vaping in my Market Street shop before 2016, I agree they are great to help get people off cigs, but all these flavours & bright packaging, no, sorry that’s not good.

We all see kids, in uniforms, vaping to and from school, at weekends and often I feel like I am following Ivor the Engine when behind a vaper. Nobody knows the long term affects of vaping, but there are growing cases of various ailments caused by the habit.

Chemicals being made into a gas and inhaled into the lungs, what could possibly go wrong? The new policy is to stop people smoking and, maybe, vaping in beer gardens and outside venues, for example nightclubs. I agree if there are people eating alfresco, but fear this is another draconian idea to pander to the lefties. I am old enough to remember people smoking on TV panel shows, Call my Bluff for example I saw a repeat last week, and upstairs on buses.

I was glad when the latter was banned, I don’t have an issue with smoking and vaping on buses being banned these days, but outdoors? Is this just a way to reduce the opportunities for us public to socialise and have a few drinks? How long before we have instant fine machines giving us a ticket for swearing on the streets, even in our own houses?

We have been warned that Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP will HAVE TO make ‘Big asks of the British public’ and things will get worse before they get better. Labour and Keir seem to be on a path of self-destruction by upsetting many voters and a good deal of the population to boot. There are those who will not hear a bad word said about Labour, though that says more about them than anything else.

I have yet to have a customer who has expressed any positivity in them and their fifty plus days in the job, and we talk politics a great deal in the shop. Apart from one, who wishes they hadn’t, I have not had anyone say they voted Labour, most say Reform UK got their vote. Maybe I should start a regular section, ‘Who has Kier Upset this Week?’.

It was not maybe, but definitely that Oasis are back, an alleged £20m divorce settlement can concentrate the mind I guess. A tour for 2025 and the fans went crazy, sadly so have the scammers, again.

Genuine fans, not me, have been wanting this for years, tickets were going to be made available online then the waiting begins. Sad thing is many are not fans, but folks who just want to make money on the back of this event.

Ticket touts have been around since tickets, I bet even at the Rome amphitheatre, but with modern tech why is it so difficult to stop these days? Up to £6k being asked for on resell sites how is this possible, surely you fine any sites that sell them above the original price, close them down if they reoffend it can’t be that difficult, can it?