More Dead Soldiers

For the first time in many months, today we had a cortege of seven hearses passing through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett. The bodies of another seven dead soldiers were repatriated from Afghanistan and in the early evening a huge crowd of families, friends and strangers lined the main street of this town to honour more young men who died in that accursed country. We are told that the men fighting over there keep up their morale and keep themselves sane by sticking together as a band of men. They fight not for Afghanistan nor for their country but fight for each other. There is no doubting their bravery and their abilities. Nor, for that matter should we doubt the qualities of the Americans. All these soldiers have been lumbered with fighting a war of politicians making and with little prospect of achieving a successful outcome. In the last week we have lost one soldier every day and currently British losses are at three times the rate of the Americans - is it just because of poor equipment?

One of our tasks is to train Afghans to have an effective army and police force. This seems very unlikely ever to happen. The forces are corrupt and often drug addicted and President Karzai seems unlikely to end the corruption that keeps him in power. But then that is how Afghanistan works and nothing we do now or in the future is likely to change that. This country is a medieval basket case and that's how it will remain.

We should get our troops out as soon as possible.

/

Hostile?

As the FTSE 100 index plunges again below 5000, what can any of us do to try to preserve our savings and retirement income. I know that the poor bankers will have to be helped just to make sure that they get their £1 million bonuses to keep the wolf from the door. But the rest of us with more modest living standards are struggling and could yet see the value of all our investments fall through the floor.

At the same time, I was more than a little worried by suggestions today that many British companies are looking like ripe targets for American take-overs. At the top of the list is BP, of course. Exxon-Mobil may want to buy this. A bid from Emersons is on the table to buy Chloride. Astra-Zenuca, Balfour-Beatty and BAE Systems are all, apparently prime American targets. There has been talk in recent months about doing something to clamp down on the sale of our family silver after Cadburys went down the drain. Lose control of these important companies and our manufacturing business moves yet further down the slippery slope. And we need manufacturing now more than ever if this country is going to survive as anything other than an olde worlde tourist destination. What is Business Secretary Vince Cable going to do about it? Top priority is bank regulation but protecting our businesses from hostile takeovers is next on the list. And all take-overs are ultimately hostile.

/

The End

Today the England World Cup fiasco was, mercifully, ended. The England Team were defeated 4 - 1 by Germany. They should have been defeated 4 - 2 since a definite 100% goal by Frank Lampard was disallowed by the Uruguayan referee because he believed that the ball had not crossed the goal line. TV action replays showed that it was one yard over the line and a goal. This was a shocking decision and makes the argument for electronic checking of decisions yet again. But it does not change the fact that Germany were so far ahead of England in their play that they absolutely deserved their win. This England side would struggle against Ipswich Town on a bad day. They wouldn't, of course, because the circumstances would be different. The England team are always overwhelmed by the weight of expectations. In the build up to the World Cup there was so much talk and writing about this great English team that was the strongest ever and the best team in the world. They are a favourite to win and will be watched on TV and supported in South Africa by millions of people. The team cannot fail. These men can play football. Wayne Rooney is a great player but in the four matches in South Africa he was nowhere. The players may be over-paid prima donnas but at base they are poorly educated working class kids who have had no training in dealing with the pressures of expectations. I know they are ridiculously over-paid but whether they are paid millions or 2½p the pressures are there We can add in lots of other things which make things worse, of course. Preference given to playing for the Premier League clubs that pay there wages. Playing for England comes a poor second. The lads don't like being away from home for extended periods. They are isolated from the partying and booze culture of modern football. Every failure needs a new manager, even more expensive than the last - and he must have a foreign accent.

In spite of all this the England cricket team today beat Australia for the third time in a week. This time they had a major old-fashioned batting collapse in the middle of their innings but still did enough at Old Trafford to secure this third win in One Day internationals. Three wins in a five match series is a win for the series. We seem these days to have a fine cricket team. I hope they stay this good.
/

Smart Phone Or A Lavatory?

I read the other day in Money Week that someone has estimated that by the end of 2010 more people in the world will have access to a smart phone than will have access to a clean lavatory. It is reading things like this that make you realise that the world is totally mad. I have a mobile phone - is that the same thing as a smart phone? But I don't feel a desperate need to have such a thing. It is convenient to ring people when I am out on the road somewhere but that is all. I certainly would not put it above the possession of a clean lavatory. This last week we have seen people queuing over-night in order to buy the latest complicated phone from Apple. Priced at nearly £400+ this device can operate as a phone, take picture, connect to the internet, etc, etc. What is the point? And those geeks desperate to own one should be certified. And to cap it all, apparently the device doesn't work terribly well as a phone if you hold it wrong. This is like buying the Ferrari that you must not take out in rain. If it gets wet, it stops. Earlier this year Apple brought out a tablet thing which seems to me to combine all the disadvantages of all the things it claims to be. It is a lap-top with limited capacity, it is a mobile phone that is too big, it is gadgetry gone mad. I tried to find a meaningful review of the device now that it has been around for a few months but it seemed that the only people commenting were those who queued to buy the latest over-priced gadget from Steve Jobs' company. Perhaps when 2050 arrives and, as predicted everyone in America works for the government and lives in California, Apple will become a local cottage industry and everybody else can forget about it. Mind you, I think I will be well past caring.

So I will just keep calm and carry on.

/

Gone With The Kitchen Sink

Everybody is in Canada this week-end - except, of course, those in South Africa watching football. When I say everybody, I mean the chattering and waffling classes. They are all there for the G8 and G20 summits. Why do we [they?] need two meetings? Not only that, the meetings are being held 130 miles apart. In these days of terrorism the security implications of having one set of meetings in Huntsville [G8] and then moving all the players in this group to the following G20 meeting in Toronto will be quite serious. The Canadians have shut down Huntsville completely and banned everybody except the delegates from going there. I suppose that if we have to have two meetings at least we will only have to pay once, I hope. I am slightly sceptical since I am sure there is a Sir Humphrey Appleby somewhere who can explain to me why we have to pay twice. Actually, for the conferences, it's the Canadians who have to pay and I have just read that this extravaganza is costing them $1,000,000,000. This is a staggering some of money. Much of it is for security, of course, and surely this is not helped by having two venues. In addition the government has spent money on a fake lake to impress the visitors and this small fake lake is only a few miles away from Lake Ontario - a stretch of water that covers some 7,500 square miles. The problem with all these vast conferences is that too many people attend - hence the potential for achieving anything meaningful is minimized - and the host government sees it a virility test. Only a real He-man country could spend on this vast scale, it seems to suggest. It may be better to assume that it is driven by some politician's belief in his own greatness.

Another thought that meanders its way through my mind is that the attendees at the G20 who are not allowed to attend the G8 may feel slighted. Surely, they will feel that the G8 will organise a secretive stitch-up before getting them involved. And David Cameron is having a meeting "on the edge" to discuss Afghanistan with President Obama. What that will bring is anybody's guess. Both leaders, whatever we think of them in their jobs, have been lumbered by Bush and Blair. Somehow they have to cobble together an exit strategy that doesn't look like too serious a defeat. But whatever, the killing of our young men must stop. Another worrying thing is that recently sacked General McChrystal may have been right about the uselessness of the White House staff responsible for running this war.

But with all this going on and the football and the cricket - England have beaten Australia twice so far this week - and the tennis at Wimbledon that produced the most extraordinary game of tennis in history, when John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68 in a game that lasted for more than 11 hours and smashed every record in the book for marathon games, you may have missed the story of the week. Thieves in South Africa broke into a police station and stole everything - desks, tables, chairs, cupboards, doors and, yes, even the kitchen sink. I believe that this can only be a serious embarrassment to the police The police station at Carletonville, west of Johannesburg was being refitted and was being guarded by a private security company. I think they may well struggle to get a recommendation from a fully satisfied customer for their efforts on this job. The Department of Public Works had "failed taxpayers" said an opposition spokesman. The government minister concerned said that he was still gathering the facts - no mention of the furniture. At least the police will not have to travel very far when they set up their scene of crime offices.

As Richard Littlejohn would say as he highlights UK police failings, "Mind how you go!"

/

Strains In The Coalition?

Ever since the Election six weeks ago and the formation of a coalition government, there has been continuous sniping and niggling and suggestions that the alliance is under severe stress and etc. etc. I have to say that the BBC is the chief source of this rumour mongering but many of the newspapers are all too ready to join in. I sense that many of the general public - those who have jobs and work for a living - are in favour of this alliance and its attempts to tackle the astronomical debts. But whole armies of people are wheeled out in front of TV cameras to say why they think its wrong to cut back on the orgy of spending. Tonight's Question Time was a case in point. It seemed a highly biased audience suffering from serious levels of economic naivety. There was criticism of the limits put on housing benefit. It has, as far as I understand it, been fixed at £400 per week max. I think that is perfectly reasonable. Why should I and others be asked to pay taxes in order to shell out more than £400 per week to a family of the work-shy and bunches of immigrants. No immigrant should be able to get any benefit at all until they have been here for some years and contributed to taxes. Even then I would want to know why they were here and not working. We have had more than one story of non-working immigrant families with six + children who have been getting £1500 per week plus in housing benefits - and then demanding that we should give them even more for bigger houses so that they can knock-out a few more kids. Meanwhile they kit themselves out with new cars and 50 in screen TVs. It should stop - now - at once. A limit of £400 per week is generous. It would meet the mortgage payments on a house of over £300,000 and, again, I don't see why we should support payments way above this.

All these people who think that we should carry on chucking money at public services should tell us in the clearest of terms who pays for it and how. It is no good to make the simple statement that somebody else should pay.

I am not anti-state but I am anti-handouts to the workshy and the shirkers. If they won't work, ultimately they should starve.

Today, we had another burst of nonsense about the rise in the retirement age. All that the government is proposing is to bring forward by ten years the proposal by the previous government to raise retirement age to 66. I retired when I was half way through my 68th year. Raising the retirement age to 66 makes little difference. There are many above the age of 55 who have effectively retired anyway because they have no job. There are others who carry on working past 65 anyway. It is yet again a collective blindness. But there are two problems. The miniscule state pension - almost the worst in Europe. And the guaranteed pensions of public sector employees. Public pensions are unaffordable. If public sector workers want generous pensions, fine, they just have to pay for them. A report at the week-end suggested that public sector workers got paid more, worked shorter hours, had more holidays, retired earlier and had pensions paid for by the rest of us. It's got to stop.

I have no doubt I will feel some pain from this government's austerity measures but I think that what they are doing is right. One day, we may be able to stop spending the £44 billion per year that we lash out on interest payments on the public debt and spend it on something useful. After all that gargantuan waste costs more than out annual defence budget.

/

Emergency Budget

Many year ago I visited South America a few times. In those days, all these countries were military dictatorships. None was all that good. They all had galloping inflation and the man in charge changed quite frequently as power moved from army to navy to air force - and back again. One thing they all these countries had in common was the demand that all visitors and locals arriving in their countries should fill in a baggage declaration. This was a form handed out to all passengers as an aeroplane approached the airport. Everyone gave their names and origins and destination in the country concerned and were asked to declare the contents of their baggage. Everybody wrote "papers, personal effects and clothing" - or words to that effect. Generally it was true. On arrival we would pass through customs, hand in the forms and a chalk cross would be scribed on our bags. Sometimes they asked that the bags be opened. What happened to all the forms, I asked, my colleagues in the various countries. I was told that they were all filed away in office blocks somewhere. What happened after that, I asked again? Nothing was the answer in 99.99999% of cases. The whole thing was a pointless bureaucratic exercise that kept people employed. They may not have earned much but they had jobs

I feel we have lots of similar pointless bureaucracies in the UK. Here the exercise is filling in forms and giving government employees "targets". Filling in the forms checks to see if the targets are being met. The priority becomes the filling in of the forms to prove to central government that the targets are being achieved. The work is improved by collections of quangoes that examine and advise and report. In many cases the total disappearance of these quangoes would not make any difference. Our new coalition government brought out its emergency budget yesterday and it set out some pretty dramatic cuts to expenditure, There are many in the country and in teh Labour opposition that oppose the cuts on the basis that these will depress the economy. This will not do. We have debts so bad that we will pay £44 billion this year in interest payments. That is waste, pure and simple. Money down the drain. And even with the cuts the debt will not fall. All that the programme will achieve - even if all goes well - will be to cause the debt to rise more slowly. By 2015, we will be paying over £60 billion in interest payments and we will then owe over £1 trillion. To let thing carry on is a recipe for national ruin. I disagree with the government in their decision to ring fence certain departments - in particular the NHS. The NHS accounts for 20% of government expenditure, wastes lots of money and is swamped in bureaucracy. However, when anybody talks about cuts the unions come out with claims that CUTS will mean fewer doctors and nurses. Never will they suggest that cuts will mean fewer bureaucrats. They are probably right to avoid such a suggestion because the NHS would work perfectly without doctors, nurses and patients.

The government will have to cut spending in some departments by 25%. The trouble is, that in some cases it will not be enough. We need to tackle the matter of benefits and tax avoidance and evasion. These together could save us tens of billions of pounds. Why are 8 million people economically inactive - ie not working, not looking for a job, sick, disabled, etc.?

All of us will lose something via this budget. I hope it works. I hope that the coalition holds together and that the two parties will benefit in the long run

/

The 300th Death

When I made my previous posting I knew that I would not have to wait too long before we received news of the 300th death of a British soldier in Afghanistan. I switched on my computer this morning and there was the expected headline. Only 8 hours have elapsed. Even now I don't know what to say. The event was inevitable. As yet we do not know the man's name - his family will have to be allowed priority in grieving. We know only that he was from 40 Commando, the Royal Marines. Luckily or unluckily, he died in hospital in Birmingham and we were told that he was "injured in a blast" on 12th June. I assume that "injured in a blast" means a roadside bomb. Another nasty statistic that I found in The Observer yesterday was that our death rate in Afghanistan is about three times higher than that of the United States forces. Is this because of the continuous slaughter by roadside bombs and that we are less well equipped to deal with them?

The Prime Minister commented on this "desperately sad news." But what more can he do? He is not responsible for getting us there - although the Tories did support Blair's military adventures - and like President Obama, he is looking for some means of getting us out. Mr Cameron said that we were there because "the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country". But, of course, they never will be. Once we leave, as I said before, they will revert to medieval chaos.

The same news report that told us of this 300th death gave news of a helicopter crash on Kandahar province that killed one US soldier and three Australians; with another seven Australians seriously injured. How many more will die before the Killing Deserts of Afghanistan are finally abandoned?

/

The Dead of Afghanistan

On Friday, we were told via the BBC that the 299th British soldier had been killed in Afghanistan. So it is only a matter of a day or so before we will hear about the unfortunate man who becomes number 300. It is all a sad waste of men's lives. Why are we still in Afghanistan? Our original alleged purpose in going there was to capture Osama bin Laden. That has now been forgotten and I know of no new reason for being there. It is consistently claimed by politicians that this is the front line in the war against terrorism. This is quite unbelievable. If anything, in our steadily Islaamifying society, our presence if Afghanistan makes things worse. The American and British governments say that they want to establish a stable government in the country before we leave. That is an absurd idea. We will not. We may set up a pseudo-democratic government but once we leave the country will collapse into the medieval chaos that it has always been. Indeed most Islamic countries are on the edge of chaos the whole time. But Afghanistan has form.

We should leave as soon as possible and let them get on with it. If they want to carry on a medieval battle of warlords, let them. But we should not keep a single British soldier there for longer than is needed for a dignified withdrawal.

Afghanistan was engineered by a collection of third-rate politicians with no experience of war; men devoted to sabre rattling nonsense who were not fit to run a twopenny raffle. Men for whom I have little more than contempt. George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and, of course, our own Tony Blair - the last a poodle and poser with few redeeming qualities.

The First World War was another pointless conflict engineered by useless politicians and generals who waffled on about a war to end all wars. Ha! Ha! it did that. It lead to slaughter on a lavish scale and achieved nothing. And, less we forget, in 1916, men from Accrington in the East Lancashire Regiment - the Accrington Pals - fought on the Somme and in 20 minutes on July 1st of that year, 235 men were killed and over 300 injured. Losses in WWI were counted in the hundreds of thousands and if we had lost a hand-full fewer than the Germans, we had won. It was politicians who had experienced or at least remembered this slaughter who embarked on the policy of appeasement. They were pilloried for it but they were better men than these idiots who have got us into Afghanistan.

May I express my regrets in advance to the family whose son becomes dead soldier No 300.

/

England Expects

The World Cup continues in South Africa. Yesterday the England team played against Algeria and somehow managed to serve up one of the worst performances by any England team - ever! it was a 0 - 0 draw and the score matches the excitement. So awful were they that there is many a Coca Cola Div 2 side that could have beaten this lot. Why? They can't really be this bad. For what it's worth, this time I do blame the manager. I do not agree with Capello's approach of naming the team at the last moment. What is he purpose of this? Can he not make up his mind? Does he draw the names out of a hat at the last moment as they come through the tunnel? There should be a core of players who, he believes, will always play - unless they are injured or banned - and they should know that. And they should understand how he expects them to play. He did finally plump for David James as his goalkeeper. This he should have done from the start. But what does Robert Green do now? The manager has made it clear that he has no faith in his goalkeeping skills, so he may as well go home. If he is ever used as a substitute he will, again, be a bag of nerves. That would leave us with only an untried young player as back-up - and David James is not only the oldest player in this tournament, he is the oldest player ever to make his World Cup debut. As one newspaper commented, you have to ask about the state of English football if your first selection goalkeeper is older than the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Yesterday, England looked as though they would never score a goal if they played non-stop for a week. I think that the manager has turned them into an unhappy, big bag of nerves. At least David James didn't seem to suffer from that problem but that is what it seemed to me was the affliction of all the other players. It was noted that a bird perched on the top of the Algerian net for most of the first half yesterday and was never disturbed by any excitement around the goal area. The England team were booed off the field - much to the consternation of Wayne Rooney - by supporters who have spent thousands going to South Africa to support them. Somehow the £5 million Capello has to transform them into a proper football team for next Wednesday's match against Slovenia. They have to win this or they are on the plane back home. I am less than optimistic.

USA were robbed yesterday in their match against Slovenia. They were 2 - 0 down and recovered to 2 - 2 before their winner was disallowed in the final minute for fouls in the penalty area. But USA were more sinned against than sinners themselves and the goal should have been allowed. That would have put them top of their group and almost certain to qualify.

The referees are a variable quality lot. But I suppose these days nobody wants to be a referee and subject to much abuse.

Football is a simple game and we expect so much of our national team. But as in so many walks of life these days, we pay vast amounts of money to people whose job serves no purpose at all or is vastly over-rated. Perhaps, if we paid less they would work harder and perform better.

England expects every man to do his duty.

Simples.

Up The Cup

I have been quiet again for about 2 weeks. There have been many events worthy of comment but somehow I have let them pass. The football World Cup is now well under way in South Africa. England has played their first match and - as we should have expected - they were less than convincing against the USA. In fact, they were pretty awful. An uninspired 1 - 1 draw was the conclusions of a game that had the excitement of watching paint dry. The American goal was the result of a simple schoolboy error by the goal keeper, Robert Green, who fumbled a rolling ball that bounced from his hands and trickled unstopped over the line into the net. He was defended by his captain Steven Gerrard - as he should have been - but perhaps something more reassuring than "It wasn't his fault" was needed. It was his fault. However, in mitigation, it seems that the balls being used in South Africa are rather troublesome and more than one goal keeper has made a bad error. The rather different characteristics of these balls has been known for six months and the more professional teams - Germany, Brazil, etc - have been using them in preparations before they set off for southern Africa. Our team is not so much professional as expensive. They cost a lot but they behave like amateurs. I suppose that most of them will be glad when this fandango is over and they can get back to league stuff and collecting their salaries. Favourites for the semi-finals? Germany, Brazil, Holland and ........... one other, I don't know who yet.

The other worrying problem that our expensive manager - £5 million per year - has to deal with is injuries. Why do our players seem to be almost permanently injured. Until the Incident of Beckham's Foot, I had never heard of a metatarsal. Is it that they play too much? Possibly. Poor lifestyles? Yes, very possible. Poor diet? Again probable for some players.

Soon, the nation will be able to take down the flags and that over 10 Downing Street will be flown at half mast. Better all this than having to face up to the horror of national celebrations, if by some sporting fluke they actually win the cup and we have visits to Downing Street, rides in open topped buses and more flag flying.

Someone suggested all these flags with red crosses on them made the nation look like one big field hospital.