Welcome to MY world

It struck me that we were being somewhat parochial in this expenses/allowance scandal. Whilst we knew all about a 50P chocolate bar we had no information as to how foreign onservers viewed the odd half million evasion on a property transaction.
I went looking and found this from Germany. It was written by a Brit - from the Grauniad no less - but the supposition it was drafted for German consumption could make it somehow 'foreign'

Back in the early 50s, I lived in Gibraltar. The Spanish town of La Linea was just a short walk over the border. I used to go quite often; it was cheaper than Gib, seemed a little more 'foreign' than home where the police dressed just like Dixon of Dock Green and the ladies were nicer there. When the season came around, I started to follow the bull fights. Then, it was just as one now follows football. There were the stars that one followed. Some bull breeding estates were better than others and their bulls were star attractions.
I became a fan almost by accident. My girl friend suggested we go. This involved sandwiches, leather wine bags and sitting in the warm afternoon sun whilst a stylised ritual went on.
My first encounter did not create any great feeling one way or another. I could have left then and never been conscious I was missing anything. However, in the second duel the matador got just that bit careless and the bull had him. Old suit of lights was tossed some 10 or 12 feet into the air and it was almost as if the bull watched and caught him on a horn to the midriff. The man was dead before the bull dropped its head and let him slither to the ground.
The custom is that one of the other fighters has to come into the ring and finish things. As the bull is by now quite aware of how the man will react it is doubly dangerous and not a lot of time is wasted in despatching it.
I saw that it was not a totally one-sided ritual and was a regular visitor. I saw one or two more serious injuries or one of the lead-in players was caught or perhaps a horse rolled over. We all did silly things in our youth; I would not want to go now. As for banning it, that is a matter for the countries where bull fighting continues. I am told it is fading away and I'm in favour of that.
But I do still remember those sunny afternoons .....................

Well may he smile! The pressure is off him while we all fulminate about MPs on the make.
He was under some pressure for his proposed solutions to the banking fiasco. 'Some' because I was never convinced that his opponents were making the maximum effort to oppose.
Now, he has merely to mutter that all is in hand. None can get onto his case as they all have their own skeletons falling out of every cabinet door and the wish is to keep things quiet.
Now his PR advisers have taught him how to smile, he is well ahead even despite what the polls say. The Conservatives surged ahead in a short time but we should remember the old adage "what goes up may come down" If there are many more Sir John's with their gross profits on property dealing then the boy David may need lessons in smiling.

I feel like emulating Sgt Joe Friday in seeking just the facts. The facts of what the boys and girls are getting up to at Westminster. It all comes so fast and packaged in such volume from the Telegraph that the full enormity of it takes a while to assimilate and process.
So, thanks to Private Eye for clarifying just what the entitlements are. It does seem from these revelations that the whole thing was a well planned theft right from the start. Well up there with bullion robberies from Heathrow or breaking into London safe deposit boxes. It does seem a shame that the media now making profits from extended sales of chip wrappings were unable to spot these preparatory acts at the time.
Well, now we know. I still find a lot of mileage in Nadine Dorries' claim that the monies advanced were never really expense claims at all but were a salary-enhancing allowance by another name. Whatever. The current problem is how to get better controls. Sweeping up after those who have torn the backside out of the system is all very nice but we should have the mechanism to get it right and then merely have to monitor it rather than have secret squirrel letter writing from the money seekers to the money issuers. Overall, there has to be a sanction that we can be assured is free of cronyism. The woman Kirkbride seemed to have support from Cameron and Brown seems to waver from outrage to understanding depending upon who is spotlit. Just as it is deemed that we send our democractically chosen representative to Westminster, we should have the ability to call them back if they fall from the standards we expect or the course of action that was manifestoed. I'm not advocating anything new here - I think it is known as Recall?
The situation regarding second homes is quite easily solved. The idea that a pied de terre needs a duckpond - still less a duck chateau - is a nonsense. Allowing Members to purchase property and then letting them refurbish or extend it prior to filling it with goodies at our expense is a recipe for fraud even before one grants them exemption from the charges we have imposed on selling such places. No - put them into rented furnished accommodation. There would be a rental range and the Government would pay rents directly. Occupying as a tenant a property owned by a fellow MP would be a no no. That covers the standards of second homes and the costs. If a landlord wants to redecorate or change something he is free to do so but any additional rent has to be within the agreed scale.
Digital cameras and all the other toys? MPs should have these issued from a central store. Known costs, economy of scale and greater efficiency. Staff - employed by the Government. Vetting to include checks that they are not some second cousin twice removed of the Member. Establish secretarial pools that are kept busy all the time and we would not need so many.
Running things this way would remove most of the grounds used by MPs to disassociate themselves from the rates and taxes the rest of us have to sustain.
If all this avoids us having to endure the teeth of Esther Rancid MP - it will be well worth the effort!

Edited for a neat quote:

Robert Mugabe starves his population to death. Nothing. The Janjawid commit genocide in Darfur. Nothing. Gordon Brown bankrupts the country. Nothing. Then someone buys an unnecessary trouser press. Pandemonium.

These mash-ups of a classic film are all over the place. This one appeared within an hour or two of the game ending. I think the fact that one, with time, gets to know the actual film clip adds to the fun.

Adolf with One Ball was the ogre of my youth and the way he is portrayed here is, so far as I can recall, just how I visualised him back then. We seem to have lost that ability to identify the leader of an enemy nation as an individual; I never saw Saddam in any form, just his country.

Though I moved away from Kent with little sadness, it was more my reverse apartheid* stance that led to it. We had a lot of experience of other counties in more than 20 years of taking self-catering holidays in England and Kent was up there as a place with much to recommend it.
So - let me direct you to a link that asks for some small piece of action on the part of individuals that will benefit many. Oh and yes, the blogger deserves support!

Online petition supporting Kent & British Food

By Chambers @ The Chamber

We have received the following from Frazer Thompson (of the English Wines Group) and thought there might others of you who would also want to add your names to the No 10 online petition "We passionately support Kent business and the need to support local products and services. Sign our petition and you can not only give the Government an even bigger headache, but also support our County's fantastic Food and Drink businesses! This isn't some Nationalist scheme advocating isolationism - just a way of ensuring that our food and drink culture starts to become embedded in our thinking and for our obsession with price to be tempered by our awareness of the economic, environmental and social benefits of local sourcing and our pride at the quality of our local produce. KCC have been fantastic supporters of this cause and we'd like that attitude to spread. It starts with HM Government... Sign up now please! Click this link then respond to confirm as instructed. Any help you can give to passing this message on would be appreciated http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/British-produce/ So, there you are daughter-of-mine. I've passed it on! * Reverse apartheid. Laws and social convention forbid me telling people I do not wish to know or have around me to Go Away in direct and forcible manner. I therefore keep myself away from them. Here in Scotland there is much less need for such personal action.

The current spat about who might be a designated poet has awakened thoughts I had when my life required some knowledge of poetry. There were a number of poems back then where I felt that the sentiments ascribed were maybe not of the best.
So, maybe I was right? Someone has undertaken a blog on that very point. Starts off like this:

Would WH Auden have won the professorship, in 1956, had the sleepy electorate at Oxford been apprised by a hail of anonymous lettres de cachet alerting them to the fact that the poet's most famous love poem:

Lay your sleeping head, my love,

Human on my faithless arm.

was addressed to a 13-year-old schoolboy? Who would have won that year, had the "paedo-poet" been drummed out? Harold Nicolson was his rival for the professorship. But, hold on, wasn't he the complaisant husband who was happy to have his wife, Vita Sackville-West, diddle other poets' wives? Meanwhile, of course, Harold Nicolson did a lot of extra-marital same-sex diddling of his own. It was not merely immoral but criminal (as was Auden's love-life) by the brutal laws of the day. In 1956Lord Montagu had just got out of clink for committing the "crimes" Auden and Nicolson more discreetly got away with.

Seems that soldiers are the same the world over.

A former member of the Chinese army takes a positive route to solving a problem in exactly the same manner as I would one of his English army counterparts.

One of the members of Parliament has spoken out about allowances. She blogged the fact that she was advised these were not so much refunds of necessarily incurred expenditure as allowances to take note of the fact that MPs were under-paid. This got up the nose of Tory Party Office and she had to remove her blog.
It was archived and is still available; well worthy of time to read it. Here is just a taste

"Just park a couple of facts for a moment, which you may not agree with but are factual.
The first is that MPs have always been encouraged, by whatever means possible, to draw down their ACA allowance in full. This is because it was upped in place of an appropriate pay rise.

The rules surrounding the ACA were deliberately sloppy in order to maximise the opportunity that MPs had to draw.
This was always felt to be the safest political method to remunerate MPs, rather than face the media backlash of a pay rise.

Parliament is in chaos. The public are angry. The Telegraph has upped its circulation.
There are 650 members of Parliament. In any walk of life, in whatever profession, you will find people who are dishonest. It will always be thus as long as we are all human!"

Back from the week in Oban. A very wet week; every day torrential rain at some times and sun at others so visit planning had to be flexible so we got gardens to coincide with sun and were under cover in the wet. We had a extremely good house to stay in with every luxury one could wish for. All in new condition so any day when we decided to give up early and catch up on the newspapers was made enjoyable.
I've called this 'Another milestone'. This in recognition to our conclusion that weeks away are not the best use of our time, energy and money. The hassle is just too much for us to really enjoy. We knew most of what we would see in Oban and were able to cherry pick. We've agreed that the future will be long week-ends. What we would have spent - energy and money - on a week will go for 2 or 4 day stays. Like our Norma birthday trip to the Dales which was quite perfect. Just the one suitcase jobs. Long haul holidays went after the Two Old Farts in A Canyon tour of America. Keith's wedding in Frankfurt I regard as out last European holiday and I have no eagerness to travel down to the Big Wen after my trip a few weeks ago. Three or four hours in the car will do me and that still covers a lot of ground we know and can choose to match the need.

So, here we are on the West Coast of Scotland. About 8 miles outside Oban in an area we know reasonably well. We are in a very swish house sharing with Keith and Katrin and Katrin's brother. All over from Germany.
They are heavily into the tourism bit. Every night three sets of computers are researching mightily into where to see what, how to get there and what the weather will be. At the moment, fact and forecast are for wet windy weather so it has to be a set off as to just what rain will do on the days play. I find the concern with weather a bit amusing; it will be what it will be and the forecasts are really just that - forecasts. Here, one has to decide on going out or staying in with the papers and a good book. The old adage about there being no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing is very apt in my way of thinking. We are not so worried about where to go and what to see as we covered them in a number of previous visits so it is a case of sorting which one we will favour. This area is a gastronomes paradise with special attention to stuff from the sea; we will eat well but not, I think, too much of the vegetarian stuff!
I have spent as bit of time looking at the new search engine www.wolframalpha.com. Not a Google sort of searcher but ideal for aspy types such as myself. As an opener, I input my birthday as a search term. Amongst the results I got Time difference from today (Monday, May 18, 2009): 75.76 years which can be broken down to 3952 weeks and six days or 27,670 days. It was a Tuesday. That sends me off down nursery rhyme lane

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

So, just how many of those 27,670 days were full of grace? Was there any especial week amongst 3952 of them? And, given the modern-day vocabulary, should I be glad I was not born on the Sabbath day?
I'm not so sure about this Grace thing. One for Google rather than the newcomer. One hit was this

Definition: Grace is God's unmerited favor. It is kindness from God we don't deserve. There is nothing we have done, nor we can ever do to earn this favor. It is a gift from God. Grace is divine assistance given to humans for their
regeneration (rebirth) or sanctification; a virtue coming from God; a state of
sanctification enjoyed through divine favor

I'm fairly happy with that. It seems to suggest that it is a gift and that chimes. Sure as hell, I've certainly not sought grace but at least I am not graceless.
What was, just a short while ago a stay and read day has turned into a OK for a drive day but still a bit wet. Food beckons. More fin or shell to be attacked.

No, no - not what you may be thinking!
The Wood family starting from me has a fascination for toys. The kids toy chests were always over-flowing and that continued into adulthood. A toy is anything that is desirable. Shiny. Heavy. Well constructed. The main criteria is that whilst they work, they are almost totally impractical.
I today saw what must be the toy par excellence. It makes expresso coffee. When you may be out in the wilds where everyone demands such a treat. Beautifully made and presented. Makes a very good cup.

And I know a man who has one!
This makes my son the King of Wood toys.
For the moment anyway ....................

I was talking with someone the other day and he used the phrase "Just a dog after all". That was about the end of that conversation. I thought of 'just a dog' I shared things with.

There is more intelligence in those eyes alone than any 'just a dog' commentator has in their whole body. Brighter and a lot more fun than half a dozen Essex Girls.

This is something I could watch all the long day.

Comments from politicians and their Civil Servants re police being called in to investigate what a MP (Damien Green) had been getting up to.

David Cameron said “Does Gordon Brown think it is right for an MP who has apparently done nothing to breach our national security - and everything to inform the public of information they're entitled to know - to have his home and office searched by a dozen counter-terrorist police officers, his phone, blackberry and computers confiscated, and to be arrested and held for nine hours?”

Ken Clark said “Outrageous... There is no crime, this is an abuse of police powers, this is President Nixon's America - harassing a political opponent of the government. It should stop”

Harriet Harperson “We have got to be sure that whilst MPs are not above the law, that actually they are able to get on with their job without unwarranted interference by the law”

Nick Clegg “This is breaking with centuries of tradition about the independence of Parliament”

I’m sure you get the drift.

So why has the Met Police been asked to investigate the leaks about claims made by politicians?

I will merely record the opening paragraph of a news report. It does not leave me speechless - just that my observations might lead us down avenues we do not wish to travel. Just one snide aside - this happened in the North East where the impression is of cloth caps and headscarves and dour family relationships.

How noisy can sex get before it is illegally loud? A jury in a forthcoming case in Newcastle Crown Court will soon have to decide this challenging question.

The concern about DNA records leaves me cold. First off - let me state my position that if one leads a straight life, there can be no worries about who knows what about me. Having knowledge is one thing. Making use of it is another.
If a trace of my DNA at a crime scene meant that I would straight away be found guilty I would have concerns. The way things are, I have ample opportunity to refute the finding or to put forward an explanation as to why its presence was innocent or mistaken. No difference there so far as evidence is concerned. If a witness says that he saw me do such and such or heard me say whatever, that person is heard and it is up to me to deal with it. DNA speaks out to the same end but in a different manner.
I suppose many of the objectors have a overall Civil Rights motive in being agin' it. Fine. But, just as your freedom fighter is my terrorist, your Civil Rights are my oppressor. If someone does something to my detriment I want them identified, found and dealt with. All means short of torture should be permitted and utilised in that process. I have faith in the DNA association such as to accept that it is unlikely that two of us have the same DNA - known instances aside.
Defence counsel of today are well versed in dealing with such evidence. Contamination opportunities are rife. Repeated assertions of even a faint possibility of some forensic mishandling will lead a jury of laymen (laywomen - or is that something else?) to give the benefit of the doubt to an accused.
Yes - I may well be banged up for a long period prior to trial with all the risk and unpleasantness that may entail. Yes - I will be put to expense. There will be little mental stress if I know I am not the man they want. There are civil remedies open to me if the close detention were capricious.
Into each life a little rain must fall. I could well suffer very similar trauma from a traffic collision that was not my fault. The same sort of suffering might arise from the conduct of a spouse or from an employer. In the latter case, I might well be the cause of my own inconvenience.
On balance, I'm for retention of DNA records. There is, in my mind, a case for it being recorded at birth as a matter of course. If my remains were found in some state as to deny normal identification, DNA records could bring closure to my family and friends. When the time comes that my confused and tired brain directs me to wander abroad, I can be made known like a well cared for dog.

Gathering and presenting evidence from a four year old girl of serious sexual assault some two years previously is a tremendous challenge. The youngest witness I ever had to deal with in this respect was a six year old girl assaulted by her father. One has two pressures; not to add to the trauma and to ensure that the best evidence is presented in the best way. The molester must meet just desserts, the child must not be harmed.
My concerns were re-ignited by the case of Baby P's sister. The investigators of today have the technical resource of cctv both at interview stage and at court. However, at the end of the day one has to remember that the duty of a defending counsel requires him to ensure that prosecution evidence is tested. How far should he go? Might any temerity on his part open an appeal process - I would imagine there would be far greater resistence to subject the child to another bout of questioning should a retrial be considered.
I was, therefore, interested to read this comment on the process.

I got directed to a deviant art site. Really fantastic work there. Just an example.

I've held off on the debate about immigration rules for Gurkha troops. However, I suspect that the Brown-beaters have now boarded the bus to Outrage City as the story allows them lineage beyond any likely to be generated by the right or wrong of the actual immigration rights debate.

In my time I was stationed in close proximity to Gurkha troops. I was in a military police unit that was 85% Gurkha troops. I undertook a number of investigations involving them. I cannot say there was anything different about them in their make-up. They seemed to have a similar ratio of good and bad. Fat and thin. Good parents and not very efficient parents. So - nothing unusual there. They had officers who would not accept that Gurkhas could or would do anything wrong and saw them as paragons of virtue; this level of support was far in excess of that normally experienced with British officers and their British troops. There has been much said about the level of bravery in action. Our current troubles have demonstrated that bravery in other Nationals and Regiments is far more common than might be imagined. I do tend to think that there is a level of amok higher amongst Gurkha troops than others. My analysis of citations (In the old Indian Army) (Modern times but not complete) does suggest that they tend to rush into situations that are desperate.

They were recruited under terms that got them out of Nepal and into the British army. Their terms of service differed from British soldiers. There was no promise of resettlement in UK at the end of their period of service. Their pension was less on the basis that the cost of living in Nepal allowed them a commensurate life style to British pensioners for less. Now, there are a number who wish to retire here. I can see no reason why they should receive any special treatment. They were fully aware what they were getting into. Maybe they see it as unfair that they should have risked their lives in our service. They were fully aware what they were getting into. They may think that living in UK is their right. They knew what etc. etc. I can sympathise with their wish to leave Nepal but why here? There are considerable Gurkha communities in Hong Kong and in Brunei that they could join. There is talk of a debt of gratitude - where does this end? Think of those who supported the British cause in the colonies we have now surrendered - are we not grateful to them?

No - I think we have gone soft in our modern times. Do they have grounds for coming here? Yes, but individually no more than any other immigrant.

There are a real mass of reasons that I find this law report amusing. A wife of seven years standing handcuffs herself to her husband in order to gain more of his attention. As the survivor of more than 50 years of marriage, I cannot see her reason for such desperate measures. Then, when he attempts to free himself, she attacks him so violently he has to call for police assistance. She ended up in court.

The reporter than inserts this observation " It seems unlikely the marriage can be saved." Well, he does seem to be very perceptive there. Another small giggle comes from his name - Gary Slapper. Shame the story was not about a wayward wife aka old slapper.

Mind you - he was somewhat lucky with the handcuffs.

There seems to be no depths to which human beings will not sink. The initial set of events - the death of the boy Peter - was horrific but the same man has now been found guilty of even worse behaviour.
The girl was not identified and there has been no disclosure of her parent's identity. I would conclude that she was a sister of the boy we now know as Peter. His mother, the partner of the killer and rapist, has been found guilty of a lesser charge connected with the sequence of the multiple rapes.

We will hear repeated calls for the crucifixion of the social care workers who are already in the Hall of Blame for Peter's death. That is understandable at first take but it does seem they were trying to brush out floor waters with a rake. The work load we have had disclosed must surely mitigate against even half-way protection. A phrase I have found telling was 'Social workers do not kill children'. For all we can know, the workers may well have had events on their work load where the risks were more apparent and gave priority to these. In the case of Peter and, in my conclusion, his violated sister, there would be no parental suspicion as to what was going on in a house of horrors but I see these events as another example of where we are in parenting. We have all forms of swift communication and surveillance but still failed these two kids. Punishment of the two involved here will do little to correct this - those involved right now in child abuse and neglect will just say 'they won't catch me' and continue their evil ways.

Just a small image of what I mean - how did the parents allow this to happen? Why did the photographer or bystanders not intervene? It may seem amusing but it illustrates just what I mean by negligent parenting.

The media today is re-focussing in the little girl Madeline McCann. It is the second anniversary of her disappearance. We have seen a computer-generated update of the initial Missing Person photograph. As a media cynic ('there is nothing they will not do to increase sales'), I have the idea that if the parents had not initiated this fresh outburst of activity, then the Media would have. We do not seem to hear whether anyone has counselled them that the child has been murdered; I think it would be a kindness for some scientific exposure of this possibility.