Getting the bums rush

I reckon that the bloke in the mid-foreground looks like Prescott.

Wonder what he is up to here?

PowerPoint strikes again

I have sat through some piss-poor PP things in my time. This takes the prize for worst of all. Not the actual content but the subject.

History matters - or does it?

I’m reading about a drive to get people to realise that history matters.

Something that I would support. But only if I could be assured whose version of history is accepted. Even before the revisionists and apologists, there is more than one version of the same set of facts. Go to Waterloo (the battlefield – not the railway station) and it becomes clear that the idea that the forces under Wellington were not the winners. Seems the guy Napoleon was. Maybe it has to do with the majority of visitors being French who are more likely to buy the ghastly figurines of the man checking his wallet than of Old Hook Nose.

Still on the theme of revision of military matters, we have it nicely illustrated in the blog of An Englishman’s Castle.  As someone who had a service involvement that exposed me to the more brutal and licentious side of soldiering, I was always struck by how close Kipling got to matters military. He had it right. I cared not about his place in the events of the time and did not see him as some apologist or public relations man. Seems that I should have. He wrote about what went on. He did not use his access to give him a right to judge or condemn that, as a civilian, he did not have.

So, on the strength of just a few mouse clicks, I am less enamoured of this ‘history matters’. Lurking in the background are my reservations on the drive to grant blanket pardons on all those soldiers shot at dawn during the first World War. Now that Prescott has claimed to be interested in William Wilberforce, where will the story of slavery end?

Yes. I’m all for paying attention to history. But, it is going to be history as I learned at my mother’s knee and none of this new-fangled stuff.

Things are getting ...... better?

Just as the sun is having a neat and much needed pick-me-up effect, I get the Friday Report into my mail box.

This gathers in one place all that is risible about UK today - saves grumpy old men cruising the web looking for things to grump about. It really is doom and gloom time. Not all the two minute silences in the world can raise spirits despite the way this government throws them about. Our calendar of two minute silences is as long a public holidays in Italy.

Flavour of the day is, of course, the 7 July 2005 bombings on public transport in London. Yes - a year ago. Cue two minutes silence. So, what has been done in that two years?

Not a lot it seems. We - the public that the government and police are supposed to protect - know little more now than we did on 8 July 2005. The victims are trying to help by getting a public inquiry going as the police do not seem to know what questions need answering. Tony is fighting against this - doubtless he will cave in as he did with Bloody Sunday but he needs to know where the skeletons are buried before he can draft the terms of reference needed to get a good result.

The flavour of the way things are going is encapsulated in the story of one man's fight for compensation. With the experience gained in wandering the legalistic limitations, he should take up spread betting.

Three hundred of those injured in the bombings are still waiting for their much needed (and let's face it, paltry) compensation to be agreed.

"Danny Biddle who sustained many injuries, had to decide whichwere the three most severe as that's all the compensation systemwill consider. 'It's like going through an Argos catalogue, picking the most expensive things,' he said. Both of his legs, an eye and his spleen added up to just £118,332. According to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority system, the loss of an eye is worth £27,000. They then take 70 per cent off that if it's your second worst injury. Danny put the loss of his legs first. So that was £110,000 for his legs, £8,000 for his eye and £332 for his spleen. He's still waiting for the money for his spleen. Dewhursts the butchers would have shown more sensitivity"

Don't rely on Dewhursts Danny. They went broke a long way back.

Of course, the report is more than the bombing. Nothing there to make one believe we are really living in paradise.

Beware

I rather like the concept that bloggers are an added fillip to MSM (Main Stream Media). Not all of the more established media are happy at the great unwashed demonstrating that there is nothing so very skilled about what they do for their large expense accounts and liquid lunches.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG

A note of caution!

Not so wild West

Hearing the Today interview makes me think that there is not such a big fire under all that smoke about Hopalong Prezza. Not his usual blustering so he is either very well briefed for once or singing from the authorised hymn book.

WEA

Workers Education Association. A noble organisation set up to give working class people a decent education (in accord with Labour party dogma)

Nice to see how well it did with Prezza.

My Christmas present - advance warning.

There are some things that one just has to have.

Any cost, any sacrifice. Legally or otherwise.

I've just worked it out that I have over 100 walls suitable for this calendar.

Go people!!

Is it 'cos I is old?

About four of so months ago, I tidied up my desk space. Amongst items put away was a Leatherman combination tool. Something like a penknife but with more 'blades'.
Came to pass about 3 weeks ago, I needed something that was part of the range of things on the Leatherman. Looked everywhere and could not find it. Racked brain but no memory as to where it had been tidied away to. After accusing all and sundry of hiding it to get me into an Alzheimer’s flap I accepted it as lost and set myself to buy a new model when my birthday came around.
This morning at about 3 a.m. I woke up. Got out of bed and went into the attic storeroom. Opened the cupboard where my - now sadly redundant - brief cases are kept. Picked up one, opened one of the pockets. Bingo - my Leatherman. Absolutely no idea how I did that. I'd reconciled myself to it's loss.
Sitting in bed wondering what was happening to my brain. Had mislaid a spare set of reading glasses since going on holiday. Suddenly I realised they were in the bag where I keep my sketching bits and pieces. Found them where I visualised.
So, the bit about the Leatherman was spooky. To then go on and have almost a repeat performance with the glasses was even more so.
I'm off tonight to see if I can get this thing to work in advance. Winner of the 3:30 race on Saturday anyone?
I've tried doing a Google to see what it might be about but I'm lost for the search phrase.

Why bother?

Lying bastard Blair is quite open about not showing the slightest interest in integrity of his government. He will know which allegations are with some foundation and will decline to act upon them. As a legal sort of bloke himself and husband of someone who cannot get respect in Malaysia, he is a true power in the land with his Emperor-type powers.

Much snide comment is made about how he models himself on Dubya. This situation would not wash in USA I'm pretty sure so let us hope that George B. does not follow his poodle's attitude.

Dear Fred - brother

This guy so closely reflects my own thoughts, fears and opinions that is is almost as if I have a doppelganger or clone. Handy though - he writes what I would wish to express and does it so very much better.

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Get your John double here!!

7th July revisited

As we draw near to the first anniversary of the London bombings there is a volume of analysis. Why did it happen. who was really responsible, what was there to be learned, what has been learned, what progress is there towards a reassurance of 'Never Again'?

I've tried to find a blog that stays somehere in the middle of the road. There are many that call for ritual slaying of all who follow Mohammed - just as many as those who claim it is all 'our' (i.e. infidels or kaffirs) fault. Best I can offer is here guested.

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Somewhere to start trying to understand and, hopefully, resolve things. We sure as heck need to do something - this question of immigration and religious freedoms is costing too much time and adrenalin

BBC priorities

Lot of annoyance in the military community about the way that the BBC reported the football results as compared to the deaths of two soldiers in Afghanistan. Those views are expressed in very basic English.

Mr. Bell does it smoothly though

LaLa land comes to London

This comes from a senior police officer.

The 7th July 2005 changed London forever and has brought about a new reality for everyone. It was the first time in London that we have experienced multiple & simultaneous home-grown terrorist attacks that were indiscriminate in nature and resulted in mass fatalities and casualties across all communities. So as we reach the one year anniversary of the enormous tragedy of the 7th July 2005, it is important to reflect back on the innocent people that died or were injured that day and all the other people and communities that have been affected in the aftermath. Much will be written over this period about the bombings, policing and the subsequent impact on the Muslim community. As a British Muslim serving as a senior police officer in London, I bring both a personal, professional and community perspective to this debate. Importantly, over the last 12 months, I have had time to reflect on what happened, including the high profile incidents at Stockwell and Forest Gate, and to consider the various reactions and responses. Article continues.........

I am amazed at this from someone appointed to be a guardian of law and order. His duty is to deal with matters as the law requires. He is entitled to have a personal opinion but it should stay that – personal. His publication of these feelings will be seized by extremists and used to further justify to themselves the twisted thinking they pursue.

Someone better than me at invective has responded

Balance of the mind

One occasionally hears the term "whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed" in legal areas.

I cannot think of a better example of what can happen when that balance is disturbed than the literary efforts of a survivor. He lays the blame for what took place with politicians. Leaving aside the accuracy of his conclusion, just how does that square with the extreme measures taken by those who have, thankfully, gone to their grave in matchboxes.

I say 'thankfully'. Had they been brought to trial we would have had a stage for others of a similar turn of mind as this Aussy writer.

All working for ME!

I am conscious that I get good service from my GP here in Jockland. Even without the sad experience of just how bad things can get that I had when living in the South. However, there is a damn sight more to it than I had imagined.

Leprachauns strike again

I suppose that a lot of us who have been close to "justice" as applied in either of the Irelands find it amusing and frustrating in the same measure.

What is in my Guest's blog shows just how bad things have become in this world of Human Rights where Human Duties or Human Responsibilities are not to be spoken of. There is nothing about this which makes it particularly Irish. I can see the same outcome in, say, Leicester or Leeds.
Reports and events such as these must surely only lead to the situation where Human Rights are scorned in their entirity. Sort of guilt by association.
Anyway - read it and weep.......


TODAY'S GUEST BLOG

Human Rights debacle