And now for something completely different

These two luscious items are really BBC newsreaders and presenters. Fiona Bruce - her with the legs - does quite serious work such as Crimewatch. Natasha the dancer is a relative newcomer having paid her dues in a number of positions in smaller companies. She has been adopted by the BBC bosses as as figurehead for their dumbing down agenda. She appeared in a Dance Competition where a 'face' is matched with a professional dancer who teached their partner the basic moves and then works out a performance. This is judged by professional judgers and a home audience. Each week the bottom pair are voted off. Natasha won her series of the show. She went on to present a number of award ceremonies and these somewhat illustrated her tendencies.

Fiona is a long term lady. Very professional. Very cool - almost remote. Much loved by those who mimic - one had her saying "There's never a hosepipe ban when I'm in the room" The photgraph here shows her performance in the charity money raising show to save children in need. She and a number of fellow presenters did a replay of Queens' Mama Mia.

Ok, that is the personalities. My blogging these minor earth shaking matters arises from the fact that for the past couple of nights they have been together presenting the main evening news programme. Intentionally or otherwise, this has developed into a battle of the divas. Fiona chose a skirt in place of her normal trousers and Natasha went to town on the make up and figure-hugging clothes. Most enjoyable. For my money, Fiona smashed her into the corner, dragged her out and beat her up again. It was that sort and magnitude of victory.

Out Damned spot

I have had to switch on the moderation feature in Comments. Sorry about this but I refuse to allow spamming adverts and the moderation seems to be the only way that I can keep them away from you, the readers.

Please be assured that my oversight of Comments before they appear will never result in any true Comment being withheld, altered or otherwise messed about. I know the requirement to copy some incomprehensible set of code can be a pain in the nether regions. If any one of you finds this as annoying as I do, contact me on my email (j.wood999@btinternet.com) and I'll make sure the Comment gets placed.

I had a number of emails from readers of my blog about the ethics question on children born with a disability. Most prefaced their communication with something along the lines of not wishing to comment publicly on such a minefield. I have to respect their reticence but can say that those who wrote supported the idea that such measures were appropriate in severe instances.

I experienced a sort of coincidence or alignment with my blog the day after I posted it. Whilst enjoying some retail therapy (it's not just ladies and shoes you know!) I was served at the check-out by a young woman who displayed the symptoms of what I know as cerebral palsy. If that is now an unacceptable description, please forgive me. Also, I am not being
condescending when I say that she was extremely good at what she was doing. She made conversation, helped with the Ali Baba trick of plastic bag opening and was quick and accurate at what she was scanning. When the time came to pay, I realised my wallet was still in the car and told her things would have to wait whilst I got it. This did fluster her and she became animated but told me what I had to do. I got the wallet and paid. I felt guilty at having disturbed her but the thought came to me that this lady was one who might not have got out of the delivery room alive but here she was leading what seemed to be a full, happy and productive life. So, who are we to theorise? I do not want to identify her save to say she was an Asda employee and they are to be commended for giving her an opportunity to contribute. For those outside UK, Asda is the English arm of Walmart of whom I have read criticism over employment practises so even better for them.

Nice idea

Whilst basic meditation requires that one allow the mind to go blank and see what happens, there are themes for those who have advanced a stage or two. One I found for today is,

"What do you have to do? Pack your bags, Go to the station without them, Catch the train, And leave your self behind. - Open Secret by Wei Wu Wei"

Ah, would that I could. Buddhist version of the soldiers' "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile" I suppose. Wei's words are meant only as a starter.

Can one get all one's 'things' into a neat package? Just how does one empty oneself so that only the physical departs? Where is the train headed? Johnny Cash had a song about leaving which included the words

"You can give my other suit to the Salvation Army. I'm moving on"

Wei's words indeed but the idea is not wholly his.

I'd like to move on. Footloose. No responsibilities. No bits and baggage.

Suffer little children.......

There is a move afoot to consider the ethics of allowing children born with serious disabilities to die immediately after delivery. I'm not going to get into this too deeply. There are people's religious beliefs involved. The sanctity of life must be highly regarded. What I do remember is that when I was young, one did not see so many people with - forgive me if this is the ' wrong word' - disabilities as are about today. The story told was that such infants were not resuscitated or given care but allowed to breath their last in the peace and quiet of the delivery room. At the time, I reasoned just what time and attention was required and how the lives of the parents developed. I was especially aware of the effect upon siblings. Just what love and time and attention they were deprived of. They were entitled to this just as much as the child that lived on.

Modern times means that much more can be done for kids with disability. At some time, the parents will be unable to care and will die. What then? The stories one reads about children who are different are uplifting but often reveal a life that one may consider as sad. For my money, if there really is a 'better place', then it must be reasonable to allow them to progress to that 'better place' rather than have to exist in this cruel world on earth.

From the horse's mouth - sorry lady

Mrs Welcome to the World and I have lived in Islamic countries throughout the world for a longish period if it were all added together. Some were more strict than others. An almost universal comment that arose whenever friendly discussion turnd to the respective benefits of lifestyles was the Muslim claim that their women were safe on the streets.

As a sort of policeman I knew this was not exactly the words of The Prophet. My wife was well used to lewd comment from local menfolk and the occasional kindly intentioned check for lumps in her breasts by passing cyclists. None of this did we take seriously although I did once have to ask the Benghazi detectives attached to my unit to deal with a particularly heavy-handed fondler.

So, from the guest blog, have things got worse or are people beginning to be open about this facet of Islamic mentality?

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It is not easy being a woman!

Good for a laugh

I like the idea of using satire to communicate. There is a new web-based publication that, if it keeps on track, will have to be added to my news gatherer.

Where is the Exit?

My guest blog today is from a doctor describing just what goes on. Supporters of the NHS will squeak and remind us what the Minister said, As if that is Gospel. What is written in a guest blog is corroborated by a senior GP.

Go read. My living will says that I wish no resuscitation, no artificial nourishment and no replacement of fluids. That should do it. Even if in coma, I would rather they gave me the dignity a dog gets rather that what a service commended by all the world and free at the point of service

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They wouldn't buy this if it were the script of a horror movie

Getting our minds above our belly buttons

There has been some discussion about the dumbing down at the BBC and on television elsewhere. We see more and more programmes that are cheap in content, profitable in that viewers are required th use premium rate phone lines to compete and meretricious in tone. The general media – newspapers and magazines – have concentrated their coverage on what is intrusive, exploitive and sometimes even fabricated. The sort of product established by Hello and OK or what are known in America as check-out magazines. This sort of 'entertainment' has crept into the quality papers from thje red tops. We see competitions where a fabulous 2 week holiday in Barbados is the prize. All one has to do is answer just one question. “Is the holiday on offer for A – 2 weeks, B – 14 days or C – a fortnight”
This dumbing down is insidious. My wife watches some sort of CSI – Wherever each based it seems in any major city throughout the whole of America. If not, it is good Old Norman the master joiner with the workshop bigger than Victoria rail station. If ever our local carpenter is stabbed with one of his own Stanley chisels, she would be a natural for leading the investigation. I try to point out to her the incredible mistakes in these CSI scenario but she fails to see that they have been, in those words now famous, sexed up.
I am convinced that this process is having a detrimental effect upon us all. There was a convicted murderess Myra Hindley. She and her slightly mental partner abducted young children, tortured them to death and then buried them in wild places up on the moors. A later reincarnation of these two was Ian Huntley and his partner Carr. Huntley enticed two young girls into his home and there murdered one during a sexual act and killed the other to stop her screams. Huntley was a serial sex-offender involving young girls who came to police attention many times but was never taken to court. Hindley acted with clear intent of killing. Huntley knew exactly what the outcome had to be the moment he closed the door. His perverts paradise as school caretaker would collapse if either girl left that house alive. Two characters well deserving the death penalty we gave up. The manner of their offences truly horrendous. Scary to the parent of any young child.
Yet, within a very short while, what purported to be Hindley jokes started to appear. The least offensive I will show here involves her being asked if she would like to go out from the prison on a holiday as part of her psychiatric treatment. She replies that it would be nice but she would not want to go to the moors because of 'all them kids getting under her feet'. I am sure a few of you are saying, “Well. What is so offensive about that?” At the time this witticism appeared there was a great furore. The story was repeated when Hindley died. Almost total lack of any response.
Last Christmas we had the Huntley joke. The BBC had already drawn criticism over a programme they sent out. The other Huntly story was the question “Why does Huntley not like Christmas?” The sought after answer was “Because he cannot get the smell of Holly off his fingers”. Holly was the given name of one of his victims. This appeared in a number of blogs, forum, web joke pages and elsewhere. Generally, it met with stern condemnation. I've seen the joke repeated just recently – doubtless part of our run up to Christmas. No reaction from those who were all for banning and punishment just a year ago.
I just wonder what the relationship is between dumbing down and what seems to be our acceptance of what would previously have been the unprintable. It extends to the four letter words. The F-word was hardly ever used when I first mixed with adult men. Now, it is introduced as an advertisement and T-shirts are worn by young girls. The C-word was even less heard. Just loiter at the edge of a road rage exchange and see how they are now assimilated into everyday vocabulary. Very obscene and racist chants are heard at football matches regardless of the presence of young children.
I'm sure I come across as 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'. Yes – well maybe. I'm seeing and hearing things I would prefer not to. My Army years removed any suggestion of prudery. I'm seeing the effect of dumbing down on those around me and general standards of public life. It is as if my wish to see some hot young film star in her bikini comes up as a raddled old prostitute in stained and holed knickers.

The broad umbrella of the Church

I am not a believer in the sense of going to Church on Sundays in my best suit and my own personal missal under my arm. I know many will say that this observence is nothing to do with the true Church. My disbelief goes further. I've noted on here that I had a now-deceased Aunt who would nowadays be described as some sort of Christian fundamentalist in the style of the Taliban (or, even, a Jesuit). She had a great influence in my childhood and I could pray, sing hymns, quote from the Scriptures, pontificate as well as any faithful in the last year at Seminary.

The er - scales fell from my eyes when I joined the Army and saw just what went on outside my Aunt's upper class Victorian lounge. The world was not a happy place - I knew that but had not realised just what went on in the big wide world. I got to that question I suppose we all ask sometime. "If my God is the God of love (or insert definition to suit), how does he permit (such and such) to happen? Where is the Love in that? Why does a shepherd allow one of his flock to be treated in this way?". An age-old philosopher named Epicurus has put the ultimate problem into words, Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent (meaning He is weak somehow). If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how comes evil in the world? This is, of course, the Big One when it comes to things the clergy must know. I'm being tested, I'm being punished, I'm sure you have heard them all anyway. I once had a very long discussion with a Jewish rabbi on the lines of suffering as a means of spiritual growth. My Catholic contacts had the quick answer along the lines of 'have faith. Believe' when I put the final question to them. It was the non-resolution of this question that led me to put religion on one side.

This is a preamble far longer than intended about something that has just been decided here. It concerns a young woman Helen Percy. A "It does not matter whether you gave your consent or not. It is still adultery" She went to an tribunal. She had been punished and male ministers known to have extramarital relations were allowed to remain in office. Now, this is where things get very spooky, Low down and dirty. The kirk's response to the tribunal was that 1921 C of S Act states "It receives from Lord J C as divine head, the right and power subject to no civil authority to legislate and to adjudicate fully in all matters of Church discipline" In other words 'Foxtrot Oscar the World'

I live within 80 yards of a Church of Scotland church. I hope that I can resist walking that short distance with a can of red spray paint in my hand. 1921 in Scotland when it comes to religion is like the Dark Ages and I can understand the safeguards built into the Act. But, just what sort of twisted, out of date, unsympathic mind allowed this to be used as a defence in 2006? I do not know what this case will do to the image of the Church of Scotland but for me it reinforces my attitude to organised religion.

Just in case there is anyone out there who worries about my state of disbelief, let me add that my early grounding was sufficient to cause me to realise that one must have a set of guiding principles in place of any 10 Commandments. 'This I will try and do. This I will not do". I formulated my own. Amended and expanded as I went through the school of life, hard knocks class. A couple of years ago, I went off on a Buddhist retreat. Given what that religion has been through, I thought it might have answers about a God of Love protecting us. They live by 10 precepts. Same number as Commandments but set out without reference to coveting my neighbours arse. This is they.

• The ten precepts
  I undertake to abstain from taking life.
  I undertake to abstain from taking the not-given.
  I undertake to abstain from sexual misconduct.
  I undertake to abstain from false speech.
  I undertake to abstain from harsh speech.
  I undertake to abstain from useless speech.
  I undertake to abstain from slanderous speech.
  I undertake to abstain from covetousness.
  I undertake to abstain from animosity.
  I undertake to abstain from false views.

These almost exactly reflected my Things I will do and Things I will not do. I cannot put hand on heart and say I achieve every one of these, every day,in every way. I do try. If there be anyone reading this with a problem regarding religiosity, I commend these ten simple sentences to you. They work far better after discussion and expansion with a learned Buddhist but work straight out of the box as well.

Peter Tatchell & Gay agitprop (spider bait)

This article has me quite in a quandry. I am trying to isolate just who it is that I detest the more - Tatchell or the Iranian.

The Pink one condemns the M.U.Slim was-leader and gives a death toll over a number of years. 200. Very much less than Saddam Hussein would have destroyed had anyone the temerity to fart in his presence. This is not to be flippant. PT says what a horrible person the man is and how he deserves tho most serious punishment. He then goes on into his usual diatribe about how the war/realignment/search for wmd/oil exploration was unjustified.

Off you go Peter. I just HAVE to use something stolen from elsewhere. "Get out. Don't let the door hit'yer where the good Lord split'yer."

Raymond Chandler

Ran out of new books to read so attacked the library walls. Just flicking through the pages of the first Raymond Chandler book I picked up, my eye was caught by a passage I used to know from way back. About detectives and their manly requirements. Seems I still fit the bill? Moot point is the 'common man' reference. If he is talking in terms of numbers, then I am not the same as the majority of the blokes out there. Thank God.

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness."
— The Simple Art of Murder; the words mean streets were an inspiration for the title of Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets.

Now - here's a funny thing (big hairy rapists)

Sorry if the title upsets feminists, maleimists, LGBT people or whoever. I'm still trying to attract spiders.

The rapists bit comes from the report that the Pitcairn Island rapists are to have their own newly-built island prison and prison staff. All at a nice few pounds. My understanding is that the act of rape is not viewed as a serious crime on the Captain Bligh of the Bounty-connected island. Sort of porch sitting I suppose with the attendant social classification of Daddy Uncle. So, what is being done to improve the sexual mores of the half male population that will not be incarcerated? Reckon the vagina robbers have the upper hand anyway as no approach exists to the island other than in long boats crewed by island-born men.

Reference the spiders. My traffic meter tracked someone who visited whilst looking for some form of high (and scary looking) maths. Obviously, I've been using words without knowing their meaning. Duh.

This goes off into the blue on a wing and a prayer.Blogger has been rubbish this last week. Thinks just disappear. Others stick in the 'Publishing' page. Hitting 'publish' to get out results in multiple publishing of the same item some five or six hours later. If I knew what and how to do it, I'd migrate elsewhere.

Talk of knowing what to do reminds me of this week's University Challenge. I was having trouble with something on the new video camera so contacted #1 Son for clarification. The email was about 2 pages long. The reply was about one word long - RTFM. Yes, well. If you are going to cheat by reading the manual................

Another report down the loo hole

Came out today. B.Liar gives it the status of best report almost ever. Oh myGod - that report deemed inferior on WMD, got us into a shed load of troubles. But already, huge chunks of it are deemed unsuitable for much beyond cat litter.

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Read all about it!

Baiting spiders - use my skin tight flimsy pants

Since I was cruelly fouled by the morons of TalkTalk, the readership of this blog has not recovered from my unwonted absence. Here is my attempt to get things going again by baiting the trap. Anything from now on that has the word Spiders as part of the title can be ignored by the reader of this page.

Google, Yahoo, O2, BT. Dailt Telegraph. Times. Graunidad. Dark skinned temptress.

Shut that door. Graham Norton. Motor bike with one exhaust. Duncan Norvelle. Chase me. Kenneth Williams. Sandy and this is my friend Julian.

Ladies with large chests. Lesbians with moustaches. Snoggi knickers. Soggy knickers. Huntley. Carr. Dr Shipman. Village people. Queer Queen. Straight or GLTBT.

That is about enough of that for now I think. Making me feel quesy.

Don't use THAT word

Yet another example of the blinkers worn by Old Dobbin at the BBC.

Just about every word from the dictionary about demonstrators is deployed. Except the one that starts with M and ends with uslim. If they leant over backwards trying to avoid this word in all the places where it would be correct, they would find themselves in a different post code (XIP code for them as don't live on the island).

Every day, in every way...

Things get worse. The guest blog today is from someone with a nice turn of phrase. Good points presented in an interesting manner.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Who died and named you God?

Spider web - Mk 2

I am sometimes joshed a bit when I pick up my Times newspaper. General opinion of those who make remarks loud enough to be heard is that it is an old fartys paper and there is 'nothing in it'

Go see what is written. All human life is there.

Spider web - mk 1

Penis Size: A Scientific Study
Further to this, this.
METHOD: To study the effect of penis width vs. length on female sexual satisfaction, 50 sexually active female undergraduate students were asked which felt better, i. e., was penis width or length more important for their sexual satisfaction.
RESULTS: None reported they did not know, or that width and length were equally satisfying. A large majority, 45 of 50, reported width was more important (p < .001).
CONCLUSION: Implications are discussed, including the fact that the data seem to contradict Masters and Johnson about penis size having no physiological effect on female sexual satisfaction.
[Yeah, I know, but that post title is going to pull in so many hits.]

No comment required

Go read - I've written about this already some while back.

Then exercise the eyeballs here.

Roll on the day when the Lord shall say

"Heaven and Earth

Close order March!!

Little Old Sparky

This is exactly the sort of thing I covet. Apart from using it as the designer intended, I'd make a few quid leasing them out to those persons who seek domination and punishment. Lay the todger across the arms - GO!

Even charge for those who want to come to a Kentucky BBQ.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Christmas is coming.

Little Old Sparky

This is exactly the sort of thing I covet. Apart from using it as the designer intended, I'd make a few quid leasing them out to those persons who seek domination and punishment. Lay the todger across the arms - GO!

Even charge for those who want to come to a Kentucky BBQ.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Christmas is coming.

Honour amongst thieves

The Times reveals:LABOUR’S chief fundraiser has implicated Tony Blair as the key figure in the cash-for-honours scandal, a well-placed source has revealed.
Lord Levy, a close associate of the prime minister, told Scotland Yard detectives last month that he was acting on the direct orders of Blair when he secretly obtained £14m in loans from businessmen to fund the party.
He has been questioned twice in the past four months after it emerged that four businessmen who lent Labour money were also recommended by Blair for peerages. The honours were blocked by an official watchdog.
Levy’s potentially incriminating testimony could prove crucial to the decision to question Blair — the culmination of a seven-month inquiry. Police hope to interview the prime minister within the next five weeks.
A prosecution source said: “Levy told the police that everything he did was for the top man. It wasn’t for anybody else, just for Blair. That’s why the PM has to be interviewed.”

I can see B.Liar with walnuts in his cheek to get the right accent saying "Levy. He sleeps with the fishes" Mind you, if he has to reprise Brando, I'd prefer to see him and the Big Mouth From do that bit from Last Tango. You know, the basis for the butter brand "I can't believe it's not butter"

Singing from the one hymnbook

Secretary of State Peter Hain is at the centre of a religious policing row after he appeared to agree with a statement that Catholic officers in Northern Ireland could be exempted from duty in Protestant areas. During a broadcast of 'Any Questions' on Radio Four Mr Hain also said it was a "regular feature" of policing in Northern Ireland that Catholic officers could be removed from situations where they were considered to be at risk.
Hang on one cotton-picking moment! I don't care what religion, if any, a Police Officer has. I expect all officers to fairly enforce the rule of law everywhere. I totally refute Hain's idea that Roman Catholic officers can get an opt-out of Protestant areas. If we follow that logic, can Protestant officers also get an opt-out of Roman Catholic areas? And what about atheist officers - shouldn't they also get an opt-out of any area where religious proclivities exist?This is SO silly. There should be no opt out for ANY Police Officer based on their religion. This is a form of institutionalised policing apartheid.

So, what was all that fuss about the Muslim pc who was removed from Israeli Embassy?

This is nothing to do with which policeman goes where. It is a heavy-handed and obvious way to try to get more left-footers into the political wing of PSNI. How many more political wings are there to be - Sinn Fein seem to be doing OK in holding the ring.

Just after we went to aid of civil powers, there was a problem with law enforcement in Belfast. No one was being put to process anywhere. Big hush-hush meeting at Knock discovered that almost universal RUC attitude was that if the people in Nationalist areas were excused the law, RUC would not enforce the law in Loyalist areas. Basically - they never did until we pushed joint-patrols down their throat.

Policing by belief could bring this situation back methinks.

Retirement. Yeuk.

Bit of a lazy day today. Late wake-up, late breakfast, easy get lunch and dinner; maybe eat out. Get in that easy chair that, together with what passes for television entertainment, guarantees attack by the narcoleptic virus. Then, warm drink, dipped biscuits, up the wooden hill. And why not? I have contributed to the common good in excess of my share and now live in retirement 1. Must have been satisfactory – I have the multiple pensions to prove it. There will be no more pensions regardless of Government brou ha ha concerning inclusiveness for oldies.
When my time came round many colleagues made the identical prophesy that I would have so many things to do that I would not have the time to do them. I'd already insulated myself from the instant boredom that I saw as retirement by setting up such a number of projects, surveys and committees that the company deemed my part-time presence was vital so I was able to enter the world of consultant which was also a job title paying far more than hum drum part-timer.
The clean break came about a year later and retirement – aka terminal boredom – was looking me in the face. The Final Journey to USA meant that much time akin to office hours was spent planning and then undertaking that two week round up of old stamping grounds. I had looked at Retirement communities in Arizona. Bans on children except at very limited times, speed mods on golf carts, gated – my dreams. Sadly, reality did not match aspirations.
The idea of running to catch up with commitments has not materialised. I am a dedicated potterer just dodging from one thing to another. I had never looked forward to retirement. As an adrenaline junky, how would I survive? Well, the human spirit is great and adjusts. Retirement Rules OK

1Interesting link here. Oldies. Calderdale. What to do for them. Calderdale was killing ground for Dr Harold Shipman who sent more than 150 people off into early after-life with his magic morphine needle.

Leadership - the Neu-Labour way.

My background as a leader was unorthodox. My service role was such that I could tell the guys what to do, when to do it and maybe even venture into how to do it but, as investigators, once beyond my door their individual decisions had priority. Management was there expressed by reviewing the results of their work and debating if it could be improved and, if so, where and how.
My civilian being was much the same. The abilities needed from the post clerk through to the resident engineer in a large and complex office were so different that one managed 'x' individuals or small groups rather than the department as a whole.
The thing I did try to do was emphasis that they worked for me and not some knucklhead who accosted them on the stairs. Any mistake they made was my fault in that I had not foreseen what happened and managed it away. I would never accept the “I did not know what to do (so did nothing” mantra. At the very least, they were expected to contact me with the situation. Most mistakes would be dealt with inside the team but if they had done deserved some official disciplining or additional training, that is what happened.
This self-aggrandisement is to show what I mean by being in a leader in a management position. Firm, not very democratic, individuals responsible for earning the rewards one receives. Why is this latter-day Drucker emoting?
We have an Education Minister. Of all things that he might be tackling in the abysmal education system kids of today's Oliver Twist society, he decided to focus on faith schools. We have a significant number of these where parents may be comfortable that their off-spring are receiving training in the subjects and manner deemed appropriate to their religion. So, scattered around like berries in the bush of education, we have little knots of 100% Jewish or Muslim or Catholic or Protestant schools. Roaming in the undergrowth, we have pellets of those of no faith, really minority religions and those whose parents are not sufficiently committed as to care how their children are dragged up/raised. So, the bold Alun proposes that faith schools will have to have 25% of the school population made up of these minority or unaligned children. Good idea I hear you say. With the knowledge we have of the wider world today, what could be wrong with Jew alongside Muslim, (Belfast) Catholics singing from the same hymn sheet as (Belfast) Proddies. Buddhists alongside dreadlocked Rasta kids. There are such people as devil worshippers whose children have to have an education regardless. Thankfully, someone saw the light. I suspect it might have been the Junior crystal interpreter to the wide-mouthed frog that is POTUK's wife. Despite her penchant for using her legal training to defend wacky individuals and ideas, she feared that her highly lucrative gossip tours to America might be put under threat by pressure of work in her day job.
Here again we see the traits of our rush-to-legislate political masters. Do not bother with anything that might gather information to formulate a policy that works as it comes from the box. Pass a law. Being in a hurry will excuse flaws in the wording or impossibilities in the execution of the new rules. After the climb down comes the excuses. Here it seems the spin is that the law was really intended to bring all parties to the debating chamber where they would come to agreement on how to attain the government's aim. This against the background where the media has been full of reports about the tremendous objection by RC and Protestants. This brings us back neatly to the Machiavellian attitude of my opening words. The Army in Germany decreed that we all had to learn German to improve relationships with the locals. I volunteered to go on the first such course. I had no personal wish or professional cause to use any German and was challenged by my boss who knew of this. “Why volunteer for something you will hate?” Reason – “I'll certainly hate it but would hate it a damned sight more if actually ordered to attend”
We now have another Comedy of Errors on the running order. The Producer is Fcukwit Hewitt and the cast is self-selecting even as I write. She was telling Bedtime Stories aka Gobment policy and suggested that there be an extra tax on drink to deter the rise in binge drinking. Apart from the fact that the caravan-dragging imbecile is our Health Minister (no don't laugh. It is cruel to mock the afflicted), tax matters are very very much the preserve of Gordy Brown as Chancellor. With fine Scots "See You" manners, he has had his deparment administer a swift kicking to her bed pan area. Obviously, the far from fair Patricia has not learned to ensure that Brain is switched on before selection Drive. What else might one expect of a Health Minister? One has only to look at the state of our Mental Health Services.
As a method to deter binging, it stands even less chance of success than other moves against the demon drink. In the shurly sum mistook orficer arena, one has to remember just how desperately our horoes fought to introduce 24 hour access to booze. Never mind righ hand not knowing what left hand is doing - here we have disassociation between index and ring fingers of the same hand.
On the subject of brains, I have been cogitating on the equation that looks something like Politicians - brain power of :: Pointers short haired - brain power of. Answer is abysmal :: awesome.
Yesterday, I treated my dog to a new toy. Ended up with a squeaky toy something like a dachshund. We played with it for a bit and then I left her to it. I heard her trot out of the kitchen and then a rattling in her toy box. She then came to me with two toys in her mouth. The new one plus an almost identical red one she has had for some five years. It had lost the squeak and she had given up on it. She remembered exactly where the twin was though!
When she goes swimming, it sometimes happens that the stick thrown into the sea is waterlogged and sinks out of sight. This is a winter thing mainly. She used to swim out and then get upset because she could not retrieve for me. I either had to call her off - which she resented - or throw a stick that was sure to float. Today I threw the first stick - one I had doubts of. Sable stood at the water's edge and watched the splash area. Sure enough, a sinker. She looked at me and, I swear, laughed. You cannot catch me with that she was very clearly saying. The average politician would have sold the new toy for a pittance and drowned alongside the wet stick.

Confirming my opinions

Doesn't it feel nice when you get something right. What I said is confirmed by others. What a big head you have got Granddad

Down amongst the dead men

I was doing a troll around the darker depths of the Web this morning to see what was happening in the bottom feeders blogs. I came across the TalkTalk blog purportedly written by the Boss himself, Charles Dunstone. The back numbers don't even begin to describe how things were in the outside world. No mention of the rubbish that graduated to the call centres despite the vaunted 4 weeks of training. Nothing about the deliberate lies told by these agents as to routers/modem being 'in the post' whilst those answering email and running the web page were positive there would be a six week delay.

Commenting on the call centre performance reminds me that it is not only TalkTalk that fails in this respect. I had to try dealing with the O2 use-the-word-lightly service staff. Both are somewhere off shore - maybe India. Obviously the people who sold this sort of outsourcing came up with the line that English is an official language in India. Maybe so but it is not a required language. Those who do learn, inherit the version of English used by their teacher. The rythms are all wrong - every single sentence ends with a questioning tone so that one cannot determine if being asked a question or told something. Pronunciation is weird to say the least . Peter Sellers in Goodness Gracious Me mode. That is when they speak it. They have the same problem understanding English.

I found the answer last week was to tell the agent to write down what I said and then read it. I told her she should write down the answer and if it looked good, to read it to me. She had to refer something to her manager and I directed her to write down what she had to say and we agreed this before she put me into Muzak Hell.

It seemed to work but on a call charge structure where I was paying high rates I found it very frustrating to know that my meter was running to such little benefit.

I notice Dunstone has not updated his blog since 1st September 2006. Hopefully, he is off ether whilst waiting for a broadband TalkTalk line at home. That should allow him to describe what sort of Christmas he had in his very next posting

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Training to be a Neu-Labour spinner!

All Armies are the same

This is from an American - major in full time service. Seems even the world's elite have the same sort of problems. How long can we remain elite?

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Pound for Pound!
[Capt B]

Quantico, VA -- "Battlefields seldom change," I thought as I walked the perimeter of the Marine basic course and observed the deep foxholes, outposts, barbed wire, fields of fire, wet, alert young warriors, ankle-deep mud and always, the smell of gunpowder.

Continue reading "Pound for Pound! "
Here, John Glenn, Chuck Robb, and my cousin, former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, learned the basics of leading men and winning in battle, as did California's Governor Pete Wilson and tens of thousands of other patriots who joined up to serve with America's finest. None of the Vietnam-era presidential hopefuls passed through this crucible; they all dodged the draft to serve a high priority -- themselves.

At Quantico , Marines learn not just to kill, but to lead, to think and to absorb standards that stick with them for life. Character is forged in an environment where perfection is not good enough, where duty, honor and country are forever grafted onto their belief systems. That's why so many Marines lead the way in almost every pursuit in this land.

There's little difference between the current crop of Marines and the "Devil Dogs" I first met as a ten-year-old shoeshine boy in 1940. Then, too, they were sharp, salty and proud -- and they liked to keep their mahogany shoes glistening, which was good for business. They were not in the Corps because it was a job. They had joined up because for them, it was a near-religion, a compelling call to serve their country.

As I watched the kids who still have that calling dig in, I thought, "Nothing has changed since before Pearl Harbor ." The faces are still young, the minds eager, the bodies rock hard and the equipment clean and serviceable, though worn and old...very old.

The big difference between Marines and the Army, Air Force and Navy, is the Corps runs on the smell of an old oily rag. They're the poor cousins of the other, richer services. Col. James T. Conway's total annual budget for putting almost 3,000 officers through basic school is a lean $967,031 per year. The Army's "kiddieland" at Fort Bragg, built to baby-sit serving soldiers' offspring (71% of the family-oriented U.S. Army is married), costs five times as much; a month's per diem (hotel and food) for 300 USAF fighter jocks in Italy -- who are too princely to sleep on cots in tents as Marines do -- is about $1 million a month; the cost for a headquarters in Naples to deal with ex-Yugoslavia is $8 million a year, and boy, do the staff weenies there live high on the hog.

The Corps gets only six percent of the defense budget. This pays for 12 percent of the active forces, 23 percent of the active divisions, 13 percent of the fighter/attack aircraft and 14 percent of the total reserve force.

It doesn't take a whiz kid to figure out this is one hell of a lot of bang for the defense buck. Marines don't waste defense dollars. They're into lean meat, not blubber. Quality of life to leathernecks isn't pampering and frills, but a resupply of ammo on the high ground.

Defense Secretary William J. Perry knows his budget will be halved by the year 2000, leaving us with a broken defense machine. The Pentagon has got to trim now to be able to fight later.

Perry should find out how the Corps can do so much with so little, and ask: Why do Marine pilots sleep in tents next to their planes while Air Force pilots live downtown in plush hotels? Why does the Army have 200 major generals for only ten divisions? Why do Marine sergeants serve as navigators aboard Marine C-130 aircraft while majors do the same job in the Air Force? Why does the Corps have one officer to every nine Marines when the Air Force ratio is 1 to 4, the Army 1 to 5 and the Navy 1 to 6? Why does the Pentagon have more people now for a force of only 1.6 million than it had in 1945, when the force was 13 million?

The Corps is one hell of a defense bargain. Pound for pound, in these days when cost-effectiveness is so critical, the Corps provides by far the best value at the best price.


"If we do not protect our troops, why should they protect us?" - Major Frank Stolz

"Demonstrate to the world there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine."
-- J. N. Mattis, Major General, U.S. Marines Commanding General's Message to All Hands, March 2003

History revisited.

"When people look back on this time, I honestly believe they will see this as one of the finest moments of our century." Who said that? Well, a clue. It wasn't Churchill. On a scale of one to ten it was the man at minus twenty - this idiot whose career is highlighted here. Given his ability at mendacity he will put on his mock-Cockney accent and say that what he said was perfectly correct; it was just that it was only three years into the century. I cannot be bothered to deep research the writer of this article but the question that comes to mind is 'where was he when the poodle first ran to POTUS for puppy training?' What he has written today is interesting. It shows how politicians can suspend knowledge in the pursuit of self-aggrandisment. It was not, I hope, one of my prejudices but I had felt that for things such as dodgy assistant screwing, drunken driving into creeks at a place I cannot spell and almost everything that Tricky Dicky did, one had to rely upon Americans. No more. We have our own grown variety. I'm told one can find many strange plants in a sewer.

Press censorship

So, the commercial tv news producer has been barred from MOD support in Iraq. Whilst they may go independently and face the risks as did Terry Lloyd, this ban goes further. Individual soldiers will be punished if they speak to the isolated journalists. We have seen in the front-line TV reports from Afghanistan just what a soldiers' life is and heard from the horses mouth about the difficulties they face in terms of supply and back-up. Meantime, the self-imporant Ministers, Secretarys and even the POTUK himself will spin, lie and disambiguate to suit their own agenda. They saw what happened to Clarke at the Home Office when the cat of real truth got out of the bag.

There is another reason for this banning. Last week the ITN evening news programme did a series of reports on what happens to wounded and ex-soldiers. Traumatic stress mishandled, no attention to housing needs, medical treatment of wounded - all came under the spotlight. Grown men have admitted crying at the remark made by a down on his luck ex-sldier "We were proper people once". None of it was good for the government already on the back foot re the way in which the NHS was treating our wounded. This vindictive school bully attitude of the gobment does it no favours.

I care not what happens in Iraq. They had their chance and wasted it. It is the wrong venue or arena for any Global War On Terror. The blind coalition is being led by the blind incompetent and corrupt Iraqi government of today as to what is really being achieved. The whole damn place is not worth the life of one more soldier - nay, any injury to one soldier. No, better yet - not worth the life of an Army explosives detector dog. Everything the war touches it spoils. The premise - whatever it was in the way of WMD, regime change, AQ, oil, Democracy, keep terrorism out of USA, Middle East stability, von Rumsfeld's tight trousers, you name it, has been proven wrong. State a very short term date for leaving - something on a calendar and not in the mind of a duplicitous politician like B.Liar. Tell everyone what this date and time is. Then, with bands playing and flags flying, all troops and NGO together with private contracters move to departure points. Locals told to stay away. Do not even look on. Tell them that if they fail to do this they will be shot down there and then. Say it, mean it, do it. If the trouble that ensues looks to cause the rest of us any problem, well, surely we have long range missiles. Use the place for demonstrating to people like North Korea what real nucleur bombs can do. In the coalition homelands, make it very clear to dissidents that they are here on sufferance. Their demands, opinions and desired life styles are nothing to us. If they are scared to live in Syria, go to some other Arab state. This option would apply to anyone who stepped out of line. If there are indigenous people who want to change their beliefs to anything contrary to what Britishness or American means, they also should choose a new country to go with their new beliefs.

Longer re Short

I think I may have written here about Clare Short, the serial resigner. I had wondered if she knew she was committing political suicide when she suggested that voting for (Neu) Labour was possibly not such a good idea. It may well be that she was fully appreciative and just did not care. Her political life was going nowhere and she may well have known of a better place where life would be sweeter. Factors sometimes found relevant by those who attempt or attain suicide. Read the guest blog and see what you think.

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A better life than freewheeling in Westminster

I need to live longer

Almost every day it seems, one of the things to which my slightly demented brain has given credence, appears to have a truth in fact. Established by learned professors with much study and financial expense. I think my ideas on what is called Stress came to me one day whilst seated in the Smallest Room.

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Does Stress exist - she does not think so

Rant.

this poem from a comment to an Observer article, by a poster styling themself as ''sbsmith'', October 22, 2006 04:41 AM.

Thought it was good, so am reproducing it here.

Liars you lied in word, in deed, & by omission:
you blamed Saddam for things that you had done & failed to do - the Shia insurrection,incited, left to founder – ‘sorry son!’with VX, sarin, stuff for nuclear fission -you armed him, supplied anthrax by the ton,you egged him on to fight Iran, then ditched him...& now you cannot find the smoking gun? too long past their use-by-date. ‘oh? fine!’(don’t bother to say sorry: just resign.) you lied about ‘eviction’ of inspectorsw whom the UN ‘withdrew’ - you wanna bet?phials, anti-poison-gas injectors,antidotes to dangers to be met,& posters: how to cope with radiationwere hailed as ‘proof of clear & present threat.’duty-bound to free a captive nation?(ever think of rescuing Tibet?)oh. it’s unfair to hold you to that line...don’t bother to say sorry: just resign. there’s some bad bastards, but it’s no use fretting -ex-Soviets Belarus & Kazakhstan.our ‘hatred of dictators’ could not threaten Suharto, Burma, Saudi, Pakistan.adjust the odds, it makes for safer betting; where standards are too high, let down the bar.For Chile we strained the rules, left Pinochet in;Somoza, Marcos, Franco, Salazar,we backed; who claimed their right to rule divine,& never did say sorry, nor resign.Afghanistan: ‘we’ll never walk away!’you left them unexploded cluster bombs like food parcels - they go off every day! -to add to 20 million Russian mines.& all the billions that you said you’d pay keeps war lords ruling as in former times.the bulk of it is mis-spent, gone astray,they don’t add up, the economic sums.‘damage limitation?’ not this time.don’t bother to say sorry: just resign.you lied about the poison factories; lied about their nuclear capacity;on links to Al Qaida came a freeze -‘Bush yes, Blair no (gulp gulp)’; it took audacity...‘45 minute standby’ - there’s a wheeze -‘imminent threat!’ in coping with this facet we might have bypassed other forgeries -‘uranium from Niger?’ sheer mendacity!you’ve been found out, you’ve overstayed your time,so do what Denis Healy said: resign you lied. you said it wasn’t about oil. you bellowed this until your face turned blue.& yet, available to any literate child: what Goldstein said to Bush’s cronies (whom,cringe-making, blatant, we will not imbroil)‘after the war the inverse will be true.’I quote the Wall Street Journal - your blood boil? mine does. we all could read it! so could you. maybe you did; it chanced to slip your mind? don’t even promise. do it now. resign.

This I perceive as Truth

Robert Orben
"I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way back home."

Are you worth saving?

There is an official study that has established each of us is worth just over £1.4 million. This is used to determine what, say, road improvements are undertaken with a view to reducing accident death. Roadworks cost £3 million and estimated to save two lives? Tough.

This is just a calculation of death costs. Doubtless there is another annexure that values most forms of disabling accidents. Just I have not found it.

And we have a medical costs watchdog recommending - nay, imposing cost controls on vital medication proven to extend life or life's compos mentis

Christians have Prophets too

A quote

Here is the means of showing that the immigrant communities can organise to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’. , Enoch Powell, April 20th , 1968

Nerd is a state of mind

Small experiment

Try this. See if the link below in the Guest bit actually works. Be nice if so as it would allow wider dissemination of some things that listeners from deepest whereever do not get chance to hear.

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I've kept it just a straight address rather than a link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/newsquiz

Heard over the garden wall

This comes from a blogger rather than an official document so .... well you know what I'm getting at. Only the Bible claims to be Gospel truth. However, it does suggest that what we hear about turning things over to Iraqi control does have a number of yes but, no but about it. This was written by a NYT staffer after Mr Bush's video-conference day or two ago.
Details of the blueprint, which is to be presented to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki before the end of the year and would be carried out over the next year and beyond, are still being devised. But the officials said that for the first time Iraq was likely to be asked to agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks intended to stabilize the country.
Although the plan would not threaten Mr. Maliki with a withdrawal of American troops, several officials said the Bush administration would consider changes in military strategy and other penalties if Iraq balked at adopting it or failed to meet critical benchmarks within it.
Frustration is growing among senior American military officers and civilian officials in Iraq and at the Pentagon with Mr. Maliki for his failure to move decisively against Shiite militias and on a wide range of other fronts. Even the implied threat that the administration would reassess its presence in Iraq may not be enough, senior officials said.In Baghdad, Iraqi leaders have been watching the discussions carefully and expressing uneasiness over the growing political pressure in the United States for a troop pullout.Tensions between Washington and Baghdad reached a new point on Monday when Mr. Maliki, who took office in May, used a telephone call with Mr. Bush to seek assurances that the United States did not intend to oust him. The White House said after the call that Mr. Bush had pledged full support for the Iraqi.
Mr. Maliki’s government has already announced its own set of benchmarks, including the establishment of a mechanism to disarm private militias. This week, the government removed commanders of the special police commandos and the public order brigade, both widely criticized as being heavily infiltrated by Shiite militias, in the first broad move against the top leadership of Iraq’s unruly special police forces.But the surge in violence in Baghdad and other places recently has prompted consideration of even more far-reaching steps. An American official said that one proposed plan was to give the Iraqi Army the lead role in domestic security, downgrading the role of police units.The Bush administration has emphasized building up the police this year so that they can take on the main role in providing security in many cities. The move would be another acknowledgment that the increase in sectarian violence in Baghdad and elsewhere has exposed deep problems with some police units, which have been blamed by Sunnis for carrying out sectarian attacks.
The decision about how far-reaching to make the blueprint is likely to be influenced by what Mr. Maliki and his ministers say they can reasonably accomplish. But American officials are discussing if they should specify whether Iraqi officials deemed incompetent or corrupt should be replaced, one official said. Officials are also considering a timetable for the Iraqi Defense Ministry to have in place systems for paying, feeding and equipping its units, jobs that are still overseen to a large degree by American advisers and by contractors, some of whom have not performed well, officials said.
So. that is the extent of the problem admitted by the Americans. If this is a route map to withdrawal, I'd echo the old Irish joke about the local asked for directions to another town started “If I was going there, I wouldn't start from here”
So what is it to do with me – an old and decrepit Brit? Well, our useless POTUK Billy Liar has tied us in with the destiny of the Americans in Iraq. He will play it strong here but he dare not risk upsetting that nice Mr Bush lest it destroy that understanding which caused him to lead us into this quagmire and kill so many mother's sons. Brit, Yank and – lest we forget – innocent Iraqis.

Wow! That's amazing

Seems that the Home Office bored with losing track of illegal immigrants, failing to appreciate just how many of them there really were, declaring people as violent and dangerous just before these people disappear off the official radar, have decided to go into the world of the bleeding obvious.

They have discovered that where race is a feature in a murder, nearly half the victims are white. And the point is? Confusion for those who go on about the poor blacks who are being offed left right and centre. Disgusted from Berkshire loses his bar room debating favourite about the murderous blacks. Does it matter who is killing whome in what proportion? Murder is murder regardless of whether the victim is black, white or khaki. Some action here by the Home Office would be nice. Old figures but I doubt there has been any disparate changes.

My daily reading encompasses some 200 blogs and almost all the online newspaper media. I am now coming to the conclusion that I will never understand what today's life is all about. To appreciate all the sadness, prejudice, ignorance, false pride and bitterness one would need to be a one legged, black, single parent lesbian mother of a disabled child, member of a minority religion, unemployed, child minder free individual living in a damp and dirty flat on a high rise sink estate. Everything seems to be about one of these multiple personalities. Oh - or maybe add ex-captain of England footer team and soon to be ex-wife of a Beatle.

Grass is greener on the other side

Guest thingy today is regarding a couple who plan to move from one side of a river to the other. From England to Scotland. Not exactly Mexico to Texas perhaps but they think they will face the same cultural and economic gains.

I went through the same process some five years ago. The cliche comment, I suppose, is And Never Regretted It. For us - cliche or no, it is the plain truth. I came here because I thought devolution would soon lead on to independence. From time spent working and on many holidays at the very top right hand corner of England, I knew I could endure any problems that London-based friends recounted to me.

It is just the quality of life. Nothing political. No 'we wuz robbed over the oil' sympathy. The choice and range of food is stupendous. I have no need to rail against Tesco; we shop at farm shops where the produce still has the earth on it or is that dark colour that properly treated meat has. No supermarket red lights there. I have had need to try the medical services both at routine GP and blue lights to A & E. Far far more satisfactory than the GP I had who communicated by speaking to his wife in a mix of Arabic and German and she then spoke to me. I knew enough of both to frame my questions but I was almost unique. My visit there to A & E at the time the ticker went slow kept me on a trolley for 5 hours with no more than 2 aspirin.

The people are very friendly. Within a year almost every tradesman in the village knew us by christian and surname, where we lived and recognised my dog as well. The chemist knows my weaknesses and medication better than I do. The GP recently gave me prescripton at a very elevated strength to short-circuit a deep deep depression. The chemist would not let me have it until he had checked with the GP that there had been no mistake and we both knew what might be a side effect. Dahn sarf, all one might expect was that the assistant in the chemists would wave the bottle of Night Nurse roughly in the direction of the trained person and that was all they cared.

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Mind you, I suppose coming from a wooden hut in Northumberland where even the frost freezes, Scotland will be an improvement

Lazy day's work

Feeling sleepy all day. So, just going to send you straight to the gueast blog. Make of it what you will.

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Dimwit Blunkett and Madonna and and - oh - just Google anyone you do not know

Our gobment - Part (the whatever)

So, I see that Claire Short has resigned again. (Link here for those outside B.Liar's Empire re this lady). She is becoming a serial quitter. I don't go along with the treachery bit; she has for a long time been a bit of a loose cannon and she certainly does not keep her feelings and opinions hidden.
Her Labour neighbour (rhymes at this hour!) makes his point from self-advancement motives as for sure the Party will send the heavyweights up to assassinate her when next they canvas for a General Election and he hopes they will come and show themselves in his fiefdom. I'll put my bigotry into the background beyond mentioning that he is Asian and she is a potential subject for veilling. The points she makes sum up the disaster that the latest NewLabour policies – should that be Thoughts for Today? - have inflicted upon this country. In fact, I think she would be a damned good leader of the Tories instead of that wet and slimy face flannel Dave.
In the context of governance, it seems as if the chickens are coming home to roost. I see it more as the vultures gathering. The National Audit Office has pulled out the plum that was farming controls and subsidies. Never mind the dreadful figures of money lost; the rate at which this Government is throwing away money makes this a small sum in the overall scheme of things. Just look at the reasons given and just see where the pounds poured down the plughole. For an even more eye-watering example of planning and control see what happened to the billions – yes billions of £ and not $ we normally see associated with that sort of sum – sluiced towards the National Health Service. All intended to improve patient care. When it got out to the Health Trusts they spent the majority on staff – more of them and better paid. I suppose there might be some vestigial improvement to me in a bed of pain and confusion to know that I would have three consultants arriving in their Rolls Royce cars very soon. Mind you – hardly any nurses on the wards. The 'patient benefits' did not reach down to the front line troops.
Ah – money for troops. Another funny story. Emperor Tony said that the elements of the British Army in Afghanistan would have all that their commanders asked for. Rumours of under-manning and shortages of fighting tools were not true and just idle talk from each of the 600 guys engaged there and their extended families back home. The Parachute Regiment has just swapped duty to be replaced by Royal Marines. One of the problems was that our grip on the country is so tenuous that resupply and troop movement has to be by air. We have no large cargo aircraft (the planning to fight Russia did not call for them) and helicopters are better suited for the task anyway. Beauty of a Marine unit is that it has it's own helicopters and do not have to rely on offcuts and leavings of the RAF. However, the spending limits imposed some while back are still in force and the gobment have ruled they can take more men or more choppers. Not both. They have taken the men. So much for Bullshine Blair's posturing when in the spotlight.
This apparent disaster to properly budget and then to control expenditure amazes me. The time overruns are incomprehensible. The best I did as a civilian was the preparation and control of an annual budget of about £5 million. On my own. Preparation included new work as well as maintaining what we had. This entailed co-ordination regarding what numerous departments wanted from me in the year ahead, getting estimated costs for those, deciding what would be essential work on the fabric and plant equipment of a large building and satellite offices, what would be nice work to have done. What gobment legislation would require. Having got this I was required to cost it to 10% plus or minus and set a time scale overall and individually. Then followed a Spanish Inquisition before my own Directors who focussed only on money and not physical requirement.
Having got authority to earmark the moneys required, I was Project Manager when the work started after detailed examination was made of that operation. The Finance department gave me monthly reports as to how the actual expenditure was comparing with estimated. Any overspend beyond +/- 10% led to a determined assault upon the globes in my private parts. Similar beating ensued if there was an underspend as my Budgethad tied up monies that could have been better employed elsewhere. The gobment has vastly greater resources far more qualified than I so why does it get into such a mess? Yes – the scale of disaster will be more but the basic principles are the same. Do not give large sums of money to teenagers as they head out to party on down.

Just one small detail re the cost of the NHS (Admired throughout the World). There is a drug which can slow down the progress of Altzheimers effecting old people. A review committee has decided that this medicine will not be made available in the first onset of the disease. Maybe a little later would be OK. So, the period when one is best lucent has to be shortened and it is only when things are desperate to the extent that the patient has totally lost functions and carers are most distressed that the NHS may extend this period of suffering prior to inevitable death. Now - where did I hide that Colt .45 revolver - better check it before I qualify for the helpful drug.

Heritage - what bloody heritage?

I am, I think, quite aged. I have bits of memory that go back to 1938 and quite good recall of things since 1940. Mind you, this morning sometimes gets a bit hazy!
What I have no difficulty with is the way I was brought up. It was very much a case of 'children are seen but not heard'. My parents were above the normal age for parenting when I was born; my father considerably so. As an only child I had the full benefit of their attentions in ensuring I knew and complied with the standards of that time.
I learned that truthfulness was at the top of everything. This might be moderated by considerations of what was permissible in the way of conversation. 'That lady is fat' was possibly true but not permitted from even the youngest child. I was taught respect for my elders. How to approach them, speak to them – after being spoken to – and how to exist alongside them. My parents counted as elders and there was no relaxation due to familial relationship. Aunts and Uncles had to receive the same respect and consideration. Transgressions resulted in physical punishment. The punishment came first directly after the offence. No debate, no discussion.
I knew that provided I had said where I was going, I could be away all day playing in the woods and fields that surrounded our house. I was introduced to a shotgun at an early age – 10'ish or so. The rule was that if you shot it – you ate it. All adults could be trusted – almost implicitly. The police were regarded as friends and one was encouraged to say Hello when seeing one in and around the street. They always answered and often chatted with a young citizen.
Religion was of much significance. Just as important as knowing the tenets of one's own faith was recognition of other faiths and some understanding of what they believed. There was no clash over a person's choice of religion; that was respected.
Schooling was most formal. The idea that one would cause the slightest annoyance to one's teacher was totally absent. Avoiding school was not even considered. One did as one was told. There was little discussion as to why we learned what was put to us no matter how abstract it might seem. Most learning was by rote. Spelling bees were frequent. Reading aloud was common and we all knew our multiplication tables up to twenty times twenty. There were no exemptions from games and sports – all competitive – and those with sick notes still went onto the field and were chivvied around.
Around the age of twenty, I was conscripted into the Army to do a compulsory two years of service. I will not drag on as to what that taught me other than to say it must have been the best finishing school this side of Switzerland. I learned to be loyal and to understand what the loyalty of others meant to me. I became completely able to operate as a single unit with few resources as well as a team member. “Can do” became a watchword that was used to evaluate my personal and team performance. I saw foreign countries and observed how they operated. How the inhabitants inter-reacted and how they treated us – sometimes unwelcome in their land. From these experiences I gained some strong opinions – yes, maybe only just short of prejudice and bigotry.
Now, the world of my youth has gone. I cannot think of a single thing I have described that has survived. All swept away. I've gone back through the archives of the newspapers of those days and certainly there was violence, crime and social injustice. However, the spread of those olden days in no way relates to the parlous state we are in today. This is not just an immigration thing; the changes were wrought by those I would have to consider as 'one of us'.
However, those changes were to some extent benign. Just as people get the Government they deserve (and isn't that appropriate right now!), the community developed as the majority voice decided. I could regret it without understanding it or approving it. I adopted what I named 'reverse apartheid' where I did not aim to exclude people from my personal space and environment but I exiled myself from them.
However, I am now being reviled and threatened by people who are but fairly recent incomers to what was my land. They seek to implement massive change – indeed, the aim is to take the country's principles away and introduce a Islamic paradise. This is being carried out not just by obvious hotheads and terrorists with bombs and threats of chemical warfare on the streets of London. Muslims we might regard as 'nice old guys' are demanding rights and concessions that empower them but remove from me attitudes and conduct I have known and practised for over seventy years. Our smiley-face government has no experience of the attitudes that these disrupters have as their basic drives and cannot accept that there is a hidden agenda. Human Rights For All is the cry. Most of the things I have seen demanded conflict with what I regard as my Human Rights but I'm am told to grin and bear it. The status of refugee is, to me, clouded. Why seek sanctuary here when they have already travelled through three or four countries where, it seems to me, peace reigns? Having made the decision to travel to England as a 'nice' place, why set about destroying everything that has made it 'nice over the years?
Answers on a £10 note please.

Heal thyself

Given that I might end up in this situation myself, I find this rather amusing. Problem is that if I do need such a visit, I'll have forgotten what this is all about!

Want us out - hell. They want to kill us

Just a small addendum on the idea floated by PM B Liar that the Iraquis want us there. The poll detailed here showed that, never mind us leaving, but 60% of a sample of them polled were happy with deadly force being used against us. Sure - the government might claim they want us but only for their own selfish reasons. Most of them would disappear in a ball of smoke and fire the day after we left. Turkeys don't vote for Christmas!

We live in interesting times

I seem to have an amplitude of things buzzing around inside my; apologies if these include something not of interest to you.
There is a terrorist trial running here right now. A British man (Ugandan Asian convert to Islam in UK) admits plotting to 'kill as many innocent people as possible' in the UK and USA by targeting skyscrapers and major financial institutions in New York and Washington and setting off a dirty radioactive nuclear device in London. He is on trial with others who plead not guilty. I have sufficient experience of legal procedures to know that these claims will be amplified but right now all we are told is that plans for the operations were found on his computer. It is accepted by the prosecution that there is no evidence of any vehicles being obtained, specialist knowledge re bomb making or constituents of any such device. So, something like a Power Point on my computer as to how I might seduce Charlotte Church.
It is clear that the trial will be followed by a number of Muslims. Some of the 'peaceful' variety as well as would be fundamental activists. They may lack knowledge of how our legal system works but could have that Islamic tendency to kick off at the slightest imputation. I have to say that the way things have been reported, this Muslim is not getting a very fair crack of the whip. If this guy – even including those on trial with him – has the nous and ability to co-ordinate the attacks on two continents as he planned we should engage him in community service punishment at the Wembley Stadium project.
Jack Straw's attack on the veil still chunders on. The latest in the fall-out concerns a classroom assistant (some sort of glorified milk monitor I think) who insisted on wearing the face covering when at school.
She was involved with young children. Her employers agreed that she could wear the veil in the public areas and staff room but required her to uncover when in class on duty. She refused. Her husband confirms it is a matter of her personal choice. I suggest her suitability to be involved with young kids is clearly in question when she insists on appearing like some Trick or Treat Halloween character. She was on the radio this morning. Yes – she speaks English. It is not the sort of English I would like any child of mine to assimilate. Her pronunciation of many words was dodgy at best, emphasis and pace was quite wrong and she sounded muffled – maybe she had a blanket as a veil? To balance we had problems with English women wearing a Christian cross where it might be seen by the general public. This details treatment of TV newsreader and presenter Fiona Bruce but news is just breaking of a British Airways edict re their female staff. They have said that crosses may be worn but must be invisible. It seems that their dress code which refers to religious symbols does not ban Sikhs with turbans or the religiously significant kara bracelet. Why one may not display crosses signifying a Christian religious belief in what is still (OK maybe only nominally) a Christian country is beyond my understanding. Or acceptance. It think next time I check in with BA I'll take one of those life size crosses as carried by penitents at Easter in Spain or doing Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem. We seem to be fighting a war on terror overseas whilst the people whose aims coincide with those of the terrorists are doing so well and winning in this country. Just as bit of light relief, see this.
War on terror leads me into the CGS of the Army and his remarks about the way this Government is treating the British Army. One small section of his initial interview was given undue prominence. Doubtless, it gave the soldiers a lot of good morale 'bash the government' feeling but I just wonder what it has done for his service future and the ability to ever again draw attention to anything. He will be a marked man. There is a minority view that he was wrong. This based upon the fact that the Government is in charge and soldiers should not get involved. Erm – Cromwell anyone? It could well be that the gallant soldier (holder of Military Cross which does not come stuck to a Mars Bar) has tried to raise the matter privately and been routinely ignored. In the background is the controversy whether the Attorney General gave dodgy answers to the 'How legal is the Iraq War?' question posed by last CGS.

Trust thy neighbour?

Reading the Financial Times (as one does!) I saw that Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists has published new research which shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone . This is a contentious finding in the current climate of concern about the benefits of immigration. Professor Putnam said he had delayed publishing until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it “would have been irresponsible to publish without that”.

The drive of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.” He considers that his conclusions have validity in Europe also.

I rather welcome ethnic diversity, so long as it is legal and controlled. I totally oppose multiculturalism I deem as evil.

Read this

If ever you should think that things in your life are getting heavy, read the blog I've guested. The human spirit is apparently indestructible. One does not have to be Muslim to gain strength from one's religion either.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
A brave family. Long may they remain so.

An enemy within

Writing in the Guardian guardian.co.uk/commentisfree > Michael White gave his opinions on Ruth Kelly’s suggestion that there be a re-balancing on government attitudes to those British Muslims who proclaim that they are the good guys.
[quote]For a politician treading on eggshells I thought Ruth Kelly behaved with suitable delicacy in this morning's speech inviting mainstream British Muslim organisations to accept publicly that they do pretty well here. To encourage them she plans to ''rebalance'' government support towards faith organisations that actively combat extremism in their midst - rather than merely "pay lip service" to the proposition.
But then I thought Jack Straw, who represents a lot of Muslims in Blackburn, also showed appropriate sensitivity when raising the question of the veil last week. He wasn't telling anyone what to do, merely seeking public debate. Myself, I've got used to all but the most severe veils. It's dark glasses worn indoors that spook me: you can't see their eyes. Clearly not everyone agrees. Straw's article proved divisive - even at cabinet level where such divisions can exist because there is no official policy on the veil - unlike in France where Salman Rushdie's insensitive assertion that "the veil sucks" prevails.
In today's Guardian the playwright David Edgar, raises Voltaire's standard of tolerance, rightly insisting that liberals must defend things they don't approve of while inadvertently illustrating the difficulty of sustaining consensus in practice: he catergorised pornography as "harmless". After watching this particular debate for 40 years I no longer think it is, do you?
But as ministers review the implications of last year's 7/7 bombings, carried out by British-born Islamists, it is clear that Whitehall has decided that its multicultural emphasis on tolerance rather than integration in the French sense (which has problems of its own) has failed to nurture the moderate majority in the current struggle with radical Islam.
[/quote]
I think that someone has overlooked the effect of tribalism. Loyalty to the tribe is everything – it over-rides family ties and all personal opinion. There will be polite lip-service to saying what we want to hear but is as if they were speaking with fingers crossed. We saw just how quickly a topic spreads amongst Muslims at the time of the Danish cartoons and the remarks of Herr Pope. Did anyone appreciate the depth of feeling and the tendency to issue murderous threats amongst “those nice people from Somalia who run the vegetable stall”?
The communities secretary's specific reference to Muslim refusals to join the marking of Holocaust Day suggests she may have the umbrella organisation, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in mind, though there will be others, struggling no doubt to maintain unity between its conservative and liberal wings - like many organisations, religious and secular.
Kelly said today "it isn't about preferential treatment, it is about equality." She cited laws and international action, Kosovo for instance, which gives the lie to claims that British foreign policy is hostile to Islam, despite Iraq. We can have differences over policy and politics, not over "non-negotiable values" like the rule of law and freedom of speech, she said.
[quote]Personally, I think Kelly's pitch a useful contribution to the debate. Knowing what Islamists are currently doing to other Muslims (much as Christians used to do to each other in Europe) there's an unanswerable case for more mainstream Muslims, living in security in the west, to speak out more openly for a less oppressive vision of their faith.
They don't have to be "on our side." Our side is strong enough to thrive on diversity and difference. But, allowing for all sorts of difficulties they must have in reconciling conflicting loyalties, they owe it to their own young generation to have the courage of their own quiet convictions.[/quote]
Yes. But how would we monitor the real feeling that is hidden inside the home or mosque? I see it as similar to the pet dog that would ‘never hurt anyone’ that suddenly and for no discernable reason, savages a kid it has grown up with.

From the horses mouth

As things are at the moment, we have all sorts of people trying to explain Islamic values. I spent some 14 years in total in Muslim countries and find it hard to recognise some of the explanations. My memory is of a gentle and counsiderate people loath to offend or condemn.

In what I see as a partial vacuum of explanation, I offer the guest blog from a Muslim woman in an Arab country. Some of the ideas are strange ("As women are not allowed to raise their voices in prayer if men are in earshot") but if they are accepted by those directly involved, why should I condemn?

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Maybe this is a better insight?

Thank God (or Allah)

Just imagine this happening in UK! The riots would have exceeded those following the cartoons and comments made by Herr Pope

NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - A couple caught having sex in a Kenyan mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have been sentenced to 18 months jail for what the judge called an "abominable" affront to religion.
Peter Kimani and Jennifer Wairimu pleaded guilty to the charge of having sex in a place of worship after being caught on October 3 at the Abubakar mosque in Gilgil, about 60 miles north of Nairobi. Neither is a Muslim.
A worshipper heading for evening prayers found the couple having sex after investigating what the prosecution described as strange noises emanating from a dark corner of the mosque.
Kimani and Wairimu both pleaded for clemency at Monday's hearing, saying they were too drunk to know where they were. Kimani told the court he thought he was in a lodging house.
John King'ori, senior magistrate in nearby Naivasha, dismissed their plea.
"Having sex in a mosque is a most abominable thing to religion and only a custodial sentence can add justice to this," he said.

Nice people

I still cannot get over how friendly people up here in Scotland can be.

Our pharmacist set up a scheme where he will look at minor injuries or other health concerns and advise on what if anything needs to be done. Saves the aggro of making appointments and wandering of to the medical centre on the outskirts of town. One needs to register with him for this.

I went into his shop and told one of the assistants that I wanted to sign up. She trotted off - I thought to get forms. Within a couple of minutes she was back and said, "That's OK" I asked her how she knew who I was and she just laughed and said we had lived in town for three or four years.

We get our prescription medicine from the same chemist. In the package is a form to request further supplies. Drop the form into the shop, they take it to the doctors and collect the prescriptions. All we have to do is collect the drugs some two or so days later. I lost my form and had to ring the doctor's receptionist to see what had to be done. She asked what medicine I wanted and said she would deal with it. I realised I had not told her who I was and gave her that information as we were ringing off. "Yes. I know" she said.

I must really be some freak of nature to be universally recognised.

Oh! No!

Just what you do not want to see stuck up on the door of the refrigerator!