2008

Well the New Year has crept in amongst us. Let's hope that it is a good year. I imagine that there is every possibility of a General Election being called. We will then have to make our choices based on the current crop of venal, self serving and similarly undistinguished gutter scrapings on offer. I can't think of a single politician currently in the house whom I'd either share a drink with or more importantly buy a drink for. My father used to say that this was a question to ask when voting for some-one, I have found nothing in his argument that that doesn't hold today. The latest pronouncement that the Government are going to bring laws to stop payment for sex. Is this original thought, no! Governments and Legislators have gone through these puritanical turns throughout history. Any time you over legislate or try and ban a pleasure be it sex, drink or stimulants you simply create a huge market that has to be fed, into this vacuum step Organised crime vis Prohibition in the US. I applaud the thought behind it regarding the prevention of exploitation and trafficking of women but the method being suggested is truly ludicrous and will bring in yet another series of laws that have been promulgated by this motley crew of malcontents and wishy-washy lentil steamers that will almost immediately be held in contempt, be impossible to police and be ignored by the populace.

On a separate matter, why are we still contributing millions of pounds to Zimbabwe? Mugabe has made it plain that he views us as the erstwhile Colonial Oppressors and the root of all that ails his country. It has nothing to do with the policies of land reform that have resulted in profitable, foreign currency earning farms being handed over to the political and military elite that he relies on to maintain his power. The Uk has handed over some £62million since 2002 for just humanitarian projects. This money has been supposedly administered and controlled by the EU. In reality 90% of it goes straight into Mugabe and his cronies pockets.

Zimbabwe

We sit here with our troops at risk in Afghanistan, Iraq and goodness knows where else. The reason we supposedly went into Iraq was because Saddam had clearly identified WMD ready within 45 minutes. We all now know that this was an absolute load of tosh, the reason we went in was to effect a regime change, so that Bush Jnr could finish daddy's handiwork, so that Haliburton could get all these contracts and make vast sums of money. If we went into Iraq on the basis of a regime change then why aren't we doing the same in Zimbabwe where you have a country that could be the granary of South Central Africa, a tourist paradise but is in fact a basket case with inflation running at 7000%, an oppressive regime that sees torture and murder as adjuncts to the way it runs the country. This year World Food Programme will have to import and feed the starving populace. WFP will probably have to use vehicles that are provided by Mugabe and his thugs who will charge a fortune and also control who the food gets distributed to. Thus food will become political currency. There is a forthcoming summit in Lisbon and despite there being sanctions against Zimbabwe and it's corrupt rulers, no doubt some way will be found and Mugabe and his cronies will turn up in Lisbon. Why do these governments that throw our troops into harms way in such a cavalier fashion ignore Zimbabwe. Surely it cannot be linked to the lack of oil!