Death of the Harriers

Today the government have sold 72 Harrier Jump Jets to the USA for £180 million. It is a good deal for UK taxpayers says Defence Minister Peter Luff. Who is he? These aircraft will be used by the Americans as a source of spares for their own fleet of Harriers. I don't doubt that it is a good deal for them. It will provide a pretty hefty source of spare parts which they would otherwise have had to buy new from the British manufacturers. And since every company makes lots of money from selling spares I think the total cost would come out at much above £180 m. But is it a good deal for us? I think not. These aircraft were supposed to be suitable for use until 2025 and they are virtually irreplaceable. They have proved themselves to be remarkable aircraft with a tremendous record in operational service and a unique capability of vertical take off and landing. Now we have got rid of our aircraft carriers and their aircraft and in a few years time [2020] we will have the two biggest aircraft carriers that we have ever built - but with no aircraft. Is this a programme for the defence of the realm or just for wasting money? Selling the Harriers will save us £1 billion per year says Mr Luff. He may be right but I suspect that he is not and some time in the near future we will come to regret not having these Harriers and the Ark Royal.

Incidentally, why is it taking so long to build the new aircraft carriers? Or have we just slowed down the building programme - at extra cost, of course - in order not to have them sailing around for too long without any aircraft. Pretty vulnerable things aircraft carriers without aircraft. Is it all true or is just a MOD joke?

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No More Honey

I have provided this blog with nothing but stunning silence for the last few weeks. I am not quite sure why; there have been plenty of things to write about. I have come to life again today following my reading of the death of Shelagh Delaney. She died just 5 days short of her 72nd birthday and was suffering from cancer. Born in Salford, she truly was one of my contemporaries - both in time and place. She is most famous for her first published play — A Taste of Honey. Set in Salford in the 1950s, the play deals sensitively with the subject of homosexuality. It was accepted by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and became a success world-wide. It was performed on Broadway with Angela Lansbury as the mother - which seems an extraordinary slection. Mrs Dale in kitchen sink drama - shock. Perhaps, I am being unkind. Angela Lansbury has had a very varied career but I can't get Murder She Wrote out of my mind.

A Taste of Honey was made into a film with Rita Tushingham and Dora Bryan and really did create the atmosphere of post-war Salford. I could almost see L.S. Lowery's matchstick men running across every scene. It was a moving film and one that I can remember very clearly even though it was fifty years since I saw it in a Leeds cinema. The play was produced at the Theatre Royal, Stratford - not on-Avon but Stratford with Bow in the Borough of Newham in the East End of London. I went there in 1963 with my friend Keith Mills, to see Oh What A Lovely War. The Theatre Royal was then an extraordinary place. Before the Theatre Workshop took it over it was virtually derelict; abandoned in an area that seems mainly one of bomb-sites. You could take the tube to Stratford and then you walked across this desolate landscape - interestingly, the pavements seemed to have survived - until you reached the theatre, which was not far from the tube station. The building had been semi-renovated by the members of the cast of actors and off stage staff and had an odour of new paint about it. It was not a big place and had a wonderfully intimate atmosphere which was boosted by the actors appearing in the auditorium. I remember that visit so well and I will say it was one the most enjoyable visits to a theatre that I have ever made.

I was sorry to hear of the death of Shelagh Delaney. She never produced anything quite like that first play which she wrote in just ten days. There was something there that she just wanted to say and perhaps she never felt quite that inspiration again.

Rest in Peace.

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Crisis in the Euro Zone

I have posted nothing for six weeks. It is astonishing to everyone of my age just how quickly time passes by. I have had a dose of flu which kept me depressed and withdrawn for over two weeks and then I have been in the North of England, where I was visiting mys sister in hospital. Now things are getting back to normal. But I have not been oblivious to what has been going on in the world. I have enjoyed watching the Rugby Union World Cup even if the England team were an embarrassment on and off the field. I find it extraordinary that men paid substantial wages, playing at the highest level, think that getting pissed out of your mind and indulging in partying in the middle of the night is suitable behaviour for preparing for matches where you are out to beat the world. Alcohol is bad for athletic performance at any time and drinking to excess is not an option in the careers of serious athletes. If they want to go binge drinking week after week, they should give up international [and club] rugby and go away to become piss artists. Anyway. it's all over and done with now. The right team won and Wales played a blinder even if they came away with nothing — except a lot of experience and the makings of a team with a great future.

Now to other matters and the great Euro fiasco. As every day passes the farce that is the European Union becomes ever more apparent. Many years ago we used to get Brian Rix on TV with Leo Franklyn, Larry Noble and the rest of the team from the Whitehall Theatre in uproarious farces that were hugely enjoyable. The great Euro Farce is bigger, repetitive, costly and much less enjoyable. I have long been of the view that if the European Union did not exist, we would not need to invent it. The whole thing is a bureaucratic monstrosity that needs to be put out of its misery so that Europe and the World can move on and try to rebuild the world economy.

But look what is happening. The politicians have been talking and talking about the problems of debt —in particular, Greek debt. Vast meetings of politicians, bureaucrats and media men get together over and over again to talk about something which is insoluble. It is a catastrophe, a debacle, a disaster, a mess, a flop. How many more nouns meaning catastrophe do we need to use before the message sinks in. Greece is not the only problem country but it is the worst at present. Last week after another marathon session, another bundle of sticking plaster was brought out to stick over the cracks and give more breathing space while EU leaders went round the world with the begging bowl to get someone to lend them more money. Why do so many politicians believe that borrowing more money is a means of getting out of debt? In this latest plan 50% of Greek debt would be written off — it should be noted that this would not be a default. A novel bit of thinking that but in the Euro zone such new speak is the norm. The reason they have decided this will not be allowed to be called a default is because they think this will avoid anyone having to pay out on CDS insurances against Greek debt — which could double the losses. Whether the losers will accept this is quite another matter. Greece would sign up to yet more austerity measures which would allow the EU, by some means or other, to lend them more money. This would not eliminate Greek debt. The economy would contract, the Greeks would have a torrid time for years to come and by 2020 they would still owe 120% of GDP. It is a non-plan. It is meaningless. It is absurd. The EU should start at once planning for the dismantling of the Euro and re-establishing national currencies. Money is the means by which we carry on day-to-day life and commercial exchange, but in Europe the Euro has become not a means of facilitating trade but an enterprise of itself. The cost in useless meetings alone is astronomical. Sooner rather than later the Euro will collapse. Greek is a small country with 0.16% of the world's population yet it is causing economic paralysis world-wide. After the politicians thought they had agreed another slight of hand that would help paper over the cracks yet again, the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Papandreou, announced to the world — without telling his Euro partners — that he was going to put the latest plan to the Greek people in a referendum. This caused shock and horror. The EU politicians do not like referendums because the people keep giving the wrong answers. The right thing to do is never, never ask the people to give their agreement on anything. At this moment it seems very likely that the Greek people bogged down with riots and unrest will say "No!" and then, not only will the latest rescue plan be dead, the Euro will be on life support — and more and more millions will be spent talking about it. If by some means or other the Greek problem is overcome, then the much bigger problems of indebted Spain and Italy will rear their ugly heads. And the latter country is run by a man who is incompetent, treated as a joke by other Euro leaders and is probably corrupt. Not a scenario for an easy solution to the insoluble.

As all this nonsense continues the pro-Europe lobby in the UK goes on and on about how important it is for us to be "at the heart of Europe." They are clearly deranged. Crackers!

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