Christmas and all that

Well Christmas Day is almost over and it has been a success. We invest so much into these days and they often fail to live up to expectation. All the meal came to gather at the right time, everything worked smoothly, I remembered all the bits and did sufficient vegetarian roast veggies(I know it sounds like an oxymoron but it isn't,I roast a whole batch in goose fat for the carnivores....mmmm yummy). If the meal fails or the meat is burnt then it effects the day. If the presents that have been bought don't elicit the right response from the receiver or it doesn't work, the wrong batteries have been bought or (more so these days) they are too complex for an adult to deal with and have to be handed to a tech savvy 8yo. It's all pressure on the day and when it works and you have a good, relaxing, stress free day it is really special.

Here's hoping that anyone who reads this has one of those. I also hope that it has been peaceful for all our troops deployed around the world. Keep safe ladies and gents in whatever inhospitable corner of the globe you have been deployed to. Thank you for your hard work, dedication and enabling us to sleep safer in our beds at night.

Sometime

It's been a while since I sat and placed metaphorical pen to paper in the ether. In my defense this was in part because I was actually using genuine pen and paper to berate my MP. There is a link on the Royal British Legion's site for The Broken Covenant in which their is discussion about how we as a nation have broken the covenant that exists between us and our Servicemen and women. Whatever your view on the wars that we are currently involved in we should never lose sight of the fact that we as civilians have the luxury of debate. The squaddie has none. He/she has signed the dotted line, taken the shilling and must troop off to whatever foreign clime deemed by the British Government to have caused offence or be in need of our assistance. I would urge anyone who peruses this rambling to have a look at the Royal British Legion site, whatever your view of the merits of the war in Iraq or Afgahnistan remember that it is the people in the uniform who are on the frontline that guarantee us the right to express those views. Consider this, Pakistan have this week insisted that You Tube block certain feeds, China blocks some of the BBC content, Zimbabwe doesn't even allow British journalists to report from there, we, within reason have pretty much unfettered access to all manner of information, news and content. We also have the right to express ourselves freely, again within reason. These were hard won freedoms, won by servicemen in uniform putting it all on the line. Support or don't support the war BUT ALWAYS SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!

Christmas Eve

Well, it's Christmas Eve and am sat here reflecting on the year, considering next year and missing work. I am one of those lucky people who gets up each day and looks forward to work, I find it hard not being at work and I doubt that I'll fully switch off over the next 10 days or so that I have taken as leave. It's been an interesting year, discovered the delights of blogging, continued my exploration of the "wild side" and have clocked up air miles like it's going out of fashion. I have ranted about politicians, the way our troops are being treated, the self serving nature of those in power and the dumbing down of our society. It seems that we are deliberately rushing headlong to a society where mediocrity is celebrated, excellence is denigrated and poor performance and stupidity are never criticised. Any form of risk is being squeezed out of society and the result is that we are producing a nation of wimps. We are encouraged to bare our emotions and if you don't do this then you must be bottling it all up and this is bad, what happened to the stiff upper lip and grin and bear it? I for one don't want to gush with emotion all the time, I don't want people to see my heart on my sleeve and I don't feel as though I am liable to explode at any moment.

Enough of my ramblings, may I take this opportunity to wish anyone who stumbles across this blog a Very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Taxes

I see that the lunatics in charge of the asylum paused briefly in their headlong rush to tax every facet of our lives when they decided not to impose a tax on the amount of bins you use.

It would be an interesting exercise to see just how much our tax burdens have gone up since 97. I don't think that the other crew would have been any better but at least the taxes wouldn't have been so hidden and pervasive. The tearing open and plundering of the pensions is perhaps the most cynical exercise they have carried out and to crown that achievement, look how many pensioners of failed schemes and mismanaged funds get nothing. The elderly are often left in a pitiful state by the bureaucracy, having to suffer means testing, there life's savings are taken from them to pay for care. Imagine being old with bad teeth, you'll never get to a dentist on the NHS. Taxes should have been going down, we were going to have fewer civil servants, a better health service and better schools, remember "Things can only get better". Show me where things have got better? We have a Parliament making decisions on English matters filled with Scots, a Military being put in harms way by these people-not one has dragged on a uniform. High members of the Government travelling around advising on democracy and voting who basically disenfranchised 150000 people at the election he was in charge of in Scotland.

Is there a solution, probably not however:
Let's have a Parliament where English members vote on matters pertaining to England. Matters of truly National consequence open to all members. Let's have a requirement that at least some members of the Minister of State for Defence have seen the elephant. Let's have people accountable for their decisions, when an NHS computer system doesn't work and costs billions then heads should roll. When Junior Doctors cannot be sure that they will get a post while we strip trained people out of nations that can ill afford to lose them, someone should pay! When we insist on building our own version of an Attack helicopter at considerable extra cost than buying it off the shelf so that a safe seat can be protected from job losses some one should be called to task.

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!

Diatribe about the Military/Civilian covenant

News headlines about yet more of our troops being killed in a friendly fire incident. I don't take the populist view and blame the pilot, until a case is proven. I do feel that yet again it is an example of how badly let down our troops have been let down by our politicians. We had the example of the Sergeant in the tanks having to give up his body armour at the start of the war and dying as a result. We have troops patrolling in snatch Land Rovers and being destroyed by IED's, other nations forces in their armoured vehicles being uninjured in the same instance. There are insufficient helicopters to support the troops in Helmand, not enough vehicle kits for the weapons, troops in bases running low on basic ammunition. The Government that we elected have failed these brave young troops consistently. Since coming to power the troops have been regularly placed in harms way, they have been expected and required to pull this Government's fat out of the fire. As this happens they then reduce the number of troops on the ground by cutting the number of infantry battalions, the very troops you need most. This has a number of effects, firstly it increases the amount of time the others have to spend in the field and this then increases the number who leave on their own request and thus we increase the spiral of pressure. As far as I know, no member of this cabinet has ever drawn on uniform and stepped into the line of battle, they penny pinch with the troops. If a family wants to send a parcel to father, mother, son or daughter in combat zone they have to pay for it, no reduction in postage, all the aggravation in regards to taxation of troops serving overseas, the recent furore regarding awarding a separate medal for service in Helmand. The final breach in this covenant is that when our troops get injured in the line of duty they are shipped back to the UK and get stuck in Selly Oak Hospital, no slur on the hospital or the hard pressed NHS staff but why do we not have dedicated Military Hospitals, the answer is that this Goverment got rid of them! So, we have under equipped troops, underpaid, over stretched and undervalued by the Government.

These same politicians are the one's who are voting an increase in their already generous allowances and salaries, why do we continue to put of with this? We need to hold them to account, will we do this the next time we go to the polls? If the Government can tear this most basic of covenants apart is it any surprise that they are also going to sneak in the European Constitution without a referendum. No wonder so many people are quitting this country and emigrating to Australia, New Zealand etc.