The Poppy Appeal

The usual nonsense regarding the do’s and don’ts and the rights and wrongs about the annual Poppy Appeal has begun in earnest as we approach Remembrance Sunday. Well, in that comic the Sun at least, where they choose to berate the stars of Celebrity Strictly Come Dancing and big-up the X-Factor contestants – read about it here.

As I said last year, however, please ignore all the political correct rubbish that is spouted about the poppy, and, as it states here – wear it with pride.

PS. If you have found this site by searching on X Factor can I take this opportunity to plead for you to please, please, please vote to get John and Edwood (Jedward) out (or at least not to continue voting to keep them in). This is our national pride we are talking about here.

The Troubles

So, another 21 policemen have been injured trying to keep Nationalists/Republicans and Protestant/Orangemen apart in various cities during the Northern Ireland marching season – read about it here.

Some claim that these “parades” are representative of Irish culture. While it is true that some marches commemorate such things as men lost in the battle of the Somme in the Great War, most celebrate various victories/atrocities dating back to the 17th century such as the Battle of the Boyne and the Siege of Derry. Strange “culture” that.

So, while places like South Africa try and heal their wounds through bodies like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Northern Ireland continually rubs salt into very old wounds by marching to assert “control” over various parts of Northern Ireland or to remind “the other side” of past defeats.

Good idea! Perhaps we should declare our right to march through Berlin twice a year – the 8th of May and 11th November would be good for me. And we could perhaps stop off at Waterloo and/or Agincourt en route……..I’m sure our old enemies would welcome us with open arms.

Why do we allow such things to carry on in a supposedly modern and secular democracy?

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Stupid

Ostrich Mentality

Some people really do like to bury their head in the sand and pretend that all is well with the world. Well, it ain’t!

Can you believe that the most complained about TV Advert during 2008 was an ad for Barnardos, the children charity? The ad was purposefully designed to shock in order to highlight domestic abuse and the impact on children. It stressed the need to break the circle of violence. Read more about it here.

You can view the ad on You Tube here (warning – if you live your life like an ostrich and bury your head at the first sign of trouble you WILL find this advert upsetting):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b1Y1CrNWgU

Surely it is better to bring such things into the open; to talk about them; and, maybe to be more aware of disturbing behaviours in kids that might point at a need for help. Help which may save them from abuse. But no. In this country people seem to be more than content to bury their heads under their duvets. If they cannot see the monster under their bed then the monster can’t get them…….

The fact that nearly as many people complained about a car ad featuring a dog because they were concerned about the animal’s welfare just goes to show that there is something wrong in our society. We hide ourselves from child abuse but stand up for the poor down-trodden animals.

Something is wrong. So very wrong. Let’s live in the real world and change it for the better.

National Shame

This Government’s treatment of the Gurkha veterans is nothing short of a national disgrace (read about it here).

These brave warriors from the kingdom of Nepal have served the United kingdom with honour and distinction for more than 250 years. In the First World War alone some 200,000 Gurkhas fought across the globe, suffering 20,000 casualties and earning over 2,000 bravery awards. In all conflicts since serving this country since 1857 there have been 26 Victoria Crosses awarded to Gurkha soldiers.

My own uncle, then an RSM in the Royal Marines (serving onboard HMS Belfast) fought alongside the Gurkhas in the Korean War and could not speak highly enough about his comrades in arms.

And yet, our Government refuses to grant the veterans unconditional equality on pensions and residency rights with other British Army veterans claiming that we would be inundated with veterans draining our resources and over-burdening the NHS. So, while we continue to turn a blind eye to illegal immigrants, have given carte blanche to members of the European Union and seem unable to stem the steady increase in economic migrants and political refugees, we seem unable to look after our own. Unable to look after those who were prepared to and indeed have sacrificed everything in the service of our Queen and country. Shame on you Gordon Brown. Shame on you Britain.

Please follow this link to the Campaign for Justice being lead by Joanna Lumley and sign the petition.

UPDATE – GOOD NEWS

Ministers defeated in Gurkha vote

The rules on Gurkhas entering the UK were changed last week The government has lost a Commons vote on its policy of restricting the right of former Gurkhas to settle in the UK. MPs voted by 267 to 246 in favour of a Lib Dem motion that the government should extend an equal right of residence to all Gurkhas. Earlier Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said the current policy, announced by the government last week, was “shameful”. Gordon Brown said earlier he wanted justice for the Gurkhas but any policy change had to be affordable.

Swine Flu

So, that old “butterfly effect” again! A pig sneezes somewhere in the ruins of Tenochtitlan and a brief Mexican wave later we have a pandemic of swine flu and a further risk to the global economy as up to 30% of the workforce dies, goes sick or stays at home to tend their loved ones or through fear of mingling with the great unwashed.

So, will this be just another damp squib like Bird Flu, SARS and the great Ebola scare of recent times, or, are we really on the verge of finding ourselves living out an episode of Survivors for real? Hell, and it’s not as if our Texan buddies need an excuse to shoot the odd Mexican that strays across their ranches at the best of time.

Conspiracy theorists are already claiming that the virus is man-made. Sceptics might also claim that it is a useful distraction from some of the world’s more pressing political and economic travails. For sure, anything that keeps Gordon Brown off our news screens is most welcome.

Well, Cancun may well be off my holiday destination list for the time being. And, I might hold my breath for as long as I can next time I am flying. But, I won’t be rushing out to buy bottled water, tinned peaches and a shotgun and holing up in an underground bunker just yet……

Recycling Madness

A red sticker appeared on my grey household waste bin this week stating that I could no longer use my HOUSEHOLD WASTE bin for:

• Paper
• Cardboard
• Plastics
• Glass
• Cans
• Textiles

I already have a brown bin for my garden waste and compostable goods.

This begs the question – what on Earth can I use my grey household waste bin for?

My grey bin used to be collected once a week. It would often be full. I am sure that I will soon be advised that my grey bin will only be collected once a fortnight. And, frankly, this will make perfect sense for it will be empty. It will be empty for I am not allowed to put anything in it which might pass for the normal definition of  “household waste”.

My problem is that all other “bins” are collected only once a fortnight and that the single “bin” that I have for each variety – blue for bottles,  jars and cans; brown for garden waste; red for plastics; green for paper and cardboard – is insufficient for my demand. 

I live in Cheshire for heavens sake, my two weekly consumption of wine means that the blue bin is overflowing even before I get to the empty tins of chopped tomatoes with basil and chick peas. It takes me two hours to cut the lawn so you can be sure that the brown bin is full. And, just a single Sunday Times complete with magazines and other inserts is sufficient to fill a green bag.

And, I resent the fact that I have to further damage the environment by washing everything out before inserting it into each of the multi-coloured bins (all of which clash terribly with the kitchen decor!) just in case the bin man was to get his hands dirty…….

But at least the cat is happy – he won’t have as far to go to get his fill of mice, rats, flies, wasps and other such vermin.

And, why do they make all of the recycling bins out of plastic? How on Earth will we dispose of them when they have worn out?

Seriously though, can someone tell me what I can put in my grey bin?

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Bag for Life

Electric Cars

So, Grumpy Gordon Brown wants us all to buy and drive electric cars?Indeed, he is willing to incentivise us up to £5,000 to make his dream of “Electric Cities” come true – read about it here.

I don’t think so.

You would have to pay me more than £5,000 to fund the disguise I would need to wear so as not to be seen driving one of these Noddy Cars, or, to fund the therapy costs if I were to be discovered. Well I guess I might consider a Tesla Roadster (0 to 62mph in less than 4 seconds and a top speed of 130mph) but I am not sure that Gordon’s generosity would bring it within my price range (>£87,000), and to be honest, I have only just ditched the Audi TT as impractical.

Now I recognise that the technology is improving but it would have to improve a great deal more to pursuade me out of my Q5. In particular there are some well-publicised downsides:

1) Charging – at the moment it would seem that it would take me a couple of hours to charge my electric car, which is a bit of a bugger if you have forgotten to plug it in overnight. It would easily spoil your cornflakes as you attempted to rush out the door on your way to that career-making meeting in the morning.

2) Range – at the moment it would seem that I would struggle to drive to the pub at the bottom of our road without recharging

3) Speed – and I certainly wouldn’t be able to outrun the police and their pesky breathalysers on the way back from the pub

4) Safety – and because they are so slow you are sure to be mown down by a Polish HGV driver texting while driving and the typical electric vehicle offers as much crash protection as a St Christopher medal i.e. limited to the power of prayer

5) Environmental impact – electric cars may have zero emissions but until we get the national grid and the power stations sorted we will all die as a result of the additional coal that needs to be burned to generate the additional electricity required

6) Sexism – not to mention that we would have stranded women drivers all over the place. It is well known that the fairer sex is incapable of changing a fuse on a plug.

7) Urban v Rural strife – yet again Gormless Gordon seems to be favouring the cities over the countryside with his Electric City dream. This is all well and good if you live in a city, but, I don’t. It may be more help if they invested in a sensible rural public transport infrastructure. My nearest bus is two and a half miles walk away, it only comes on Tuesday and Friday, and doesn’t go anywhere I would like to go, except Waitrose.

So until the technology, the performance, the infrastructure, and the design improves you will just have to eat my exhaust emissions.

This post was sponsored by Shell International.

The Leader of the True Faith?

I would like to apologise to my mother-in-law and any other devout Catholic that believes that the Pope’s word is the voice of God. But, are we really to believe that God wants us to live according to the rules of the current Pope?

I am struggling with the concept that the words of the man Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, should be listened to by anyone.  Far from being a man of God or someone who loves his fellow man, he seems to be a man intent on returning us to the Dark Ages. His words seem intent on alienating all non-Catholics, women, homosexuals, and readers of Harry Potter. And, now he seems to be doing his best not to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa.

The world according to Pope Benedict XVI:

• If it isn’t Roman Catholic then it isn’t a proper Church
• Vatican says that little green men are part of Creation
• “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
• Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the Harry Potter books as “subtle seductions,” capable of corrupting young Christians
• Condoms are not solutions to AIDS, they make it worse

Next he’ll be telling us we can’t eat fish on a Friday!

Oh well, roll on Nostradamus and Peter the Roman……….

It Makes You Think…….

COWARDS!

“Police officer shot dead in Ulster attack”

“Real IRA says it killed soldiers outside barracks in Antrim”

Caesar:
“Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.”
Julius Caesar (II, ii, 32-37) (Shakespeare)

Let’s hope so (Middle Man)

EVIL!

“Ten killed in German school shooting”

“Ten dead as Alabama gunman goes on rampage”

Albert Einstein:

“The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil from the spirit of man.”

As an amusing yet poignant aside, I like the cartoon in today’s Times:

Let’s Start A Revolution

My mate, Smithy, recently sent me this:

This is unbelievable, but true!

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 600 employees and has the following employee statistics .

29 have been accused of spouse abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

9 have been accused of writing bad cheque’s

17 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have done time for assault

71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year

Which organisation is this ?

It’s the 635 members of the House of Commons, the same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us inline.

What an outrageous bunch we have running our country – it says it all. And just to top all that they probably have the best ‘corporate’ pension scheme in the country!!

Now, I won’t and can’t vouch for the accuracy of the data but even if it is only half true it is still pretty damning. And remember this is post Jeffrey Archer who, I am sure, would have driven the statistics up. It also omits statistics such as two of them, at least, are former terrorists (or traitors if you like) and the surviving members of Tony Blair’s Cabinet, including the chief honcho himself (Gordon Brown), should be convicted for War Crimes, collusion in torture, and plain stupidity, etc. etc. etc.

It does make you wonder why they were elected and why on Earth we follow their lead. It also dillutes the UK’s moral stance in the world when we look down our noses on the developing world and smaller nations and talk of corruption and other crimes.

It’s as simple as this. Unless there is a revolution and Jeremy Clarkson is appointed President I may need to think of emigrating and joining the cult of Obama…….