Archive for April, 2008
A Ticking Clock
April 29th, 2008 | 
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It will be 4 years this June since I moved down to Somerset to look after my parents because then in their 80s they had reached the stage where they could no longer live at home unsupported. There was my hairy canine friend and Buddy Jack who died in November 2006, Pop passed away on the 9th April 2007 and on the 4th April 2008, I had a major health incident with my Mother.
Thanks to a good Para-Medic team and the A&E at Taunton Hospital, she came through and after a night spent there, I was able to bring her home. She returned there last week on a planned admission to run some tests and procedures and is still there but the truth is that in some way, the game has definitely changed, the final countdown has now started and 87 coming on 88 in August, is a fair enough age if this is her time. For me it is time to start planning my future moves for after her passing.
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A Syrian Reactor
During this week an interesting tale came to light over the Israeli bombing of a nuclear facility in Syria which had up until now been shrouded in mystery. The guts of the story was that the plant in question was designed by and supplied by North Korea and its purpose was to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons as it was unsuitable for electricity generation and too large for just research purposes.
St George’s Day – some Thoughts
As we see our freedoms and rights to rule our own destiny given away by Gordon Brown and the hapless David Milliband in return for some “pay-off” by Brussels for them personally but, the enslavement of all UK citizens in the process, it is time to remind ourselves just why an “Albatross in a tartan waistcoat” and a slick smart boy with apparently little love and affiliation for the country that gave his family shelter and sustanance are disgracefully wrong in every respect.
Both these low life “chancer’s” should resign from public life and office, immediately because clearly, they are not “Fit for Purpose” in terms of elected representatives bent on representing their constituents personal needs. They seem only concerned with their own personal prospects and future career prospects within the EU bureaucracy, shame on them, I say.
Ugly Minister pledges 10p tax inquiry
The ugly Minister in question is Yvette Cooper but, she is married to Ed “So What” Balls who wants to be the next Leader of the Labour Party and, is not that unhappy that “Gordon” has gone tits up so quickly even if, rather surprised at the speed that he has.
The most interesting aspect of this comes not from it being these two sad persons with their between them, a predilection to spending on average, £6,000 per week on ‘expenses’ travelling to Yorkshire with their side by side constituencies and one common home there + an “uncommon home” in London on top of which both, as members of the Cabinet, being paid £120,000 pa. each as salary – nice work if you can get it and wouldn’t we all living off a ‘proper job’. No, it is to do with the ‘substance’.
Sorry, I still want a Referendum
Although a topic that to many will seem very boring, the EU Constitution will just not go away and frankly, that is quite correct because it should not. The more that comes to light such as the apparent “back-door” promises made to the Irish Government on Corporation Tax rates that France wants unified right across the EU because they are totally uncompetitive in France.
But back to the Republic of Ireland who by their Constitution, must hold a Referendum on the EU Constitution however this merely illustrates just what a decidedly dirty deal this EU Constitution is for the whole of the EU apart from France and Germany who feel that they should control all things EU, France because she takes most from the CAP, Germany, because she pays most to the CAP. I must be frank and question as to exactly why 25 other EU countries should “bow down” to these two derelict outfits.
Ronald Reagan – Some Quotes
It is obviously an Election Year in the States and I have an Uncle who lives there who is a staunch Republican and “Nuncky” as he is now known due to a typo in an email, sent me the following quotes from Ronald Reagan which I thought quite amusing.
Although some are distinctly American, the majority would be as true in any democracy in any country and I’ve put the ones I like best in bold – enjoy.
What Advice Would I Give Gordon Brown ?
The Daily Telegraph has a comment feature called “Speakers Corner” which is one suspects, a reasonably unmoderated section, to a large extent. They pose questions and people mail in often, very vociferously !
One of the ones today was: “What advice would you give Gordon Brown?” and what a hoot were quite a number of the responses ! I of course being of a sober and subtle disposition was quite restrained in my suggestions:
No to 42 Days
I just couldn’t resist this graphic because whilst I suspect that Jaqui Smith is a genuine person even if not the sharpest tool in the box, she has become in some strange way the very image of a besieged Gordon Brown Government. I am sure to her family, she is “just trying to do her job” but, having come into Cabinet at the “fag end” of a failing administration, somehow her face and body language, illustrates it all so perfectly.
It is obvious that since the events of 7/7 when British born Muslims blew themselves and over 50 other people with them on the Tube and a bus in London, the spotlight of suspicion has fallen very heavily on the British Muslim community within the UK and in reality, that is not unfair given that large numbers of them live in virtual ghettos and barely interact with the “natives” of these islands.
A UK Property Crash
There is much comment currently in the media about a “property crash” which in most ways, must surely now be inevitable to some degree and probably, not a totally bad thing. I can remember reading someone many years ago describing the key moment of a “confidence trick” as; “That moment when even sensible people suspend their scepticism and buy into something that in hindsight, they would never have under their ‘normal’ circumstances.”
What the writer was describing was people “wanting to believe” that something was true when experience should have told them better. I am sure that as Chancellor, Gordon Brown truly believed that he had banished “Boom & Bust” from the UK economy but of course he hasn’t and most likely, it can’t be done anyway there are too many other forces at play and beyond the control of a politician.
Bye Bertie…
Perhaps caused by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s announcement that he would step down next month and he being connected with Tony Blair on the Good Friday Agreement although quite amazingly, John Major who started it all, is never mentioned, Charles Moore wrote an article in Saturday’s Telegraph about the GFA.
I always find Charles Moore as a journalist interesting to read but whilst I can empathize with his feelings on this matter, which were essentially that the extremists from both end of the spectrum were “given preference” whilst the moderates were ignored, I cannot agree with him.