No particular title Pt ll

I am sat here having imbibed a few cocktails and feeling mellow.

It seems that this government and indeed many around the world are starting to move their sights and the sights of various NGO's, partial agencies and the rest of the dross funded by me the hard working tax payer to target my elixir of choice- to wit alcohol. Like any pleasure(Gov't speak "vice" therefore highly taxable) the various Politicians see it as an easy target. It provides huge amounts of revenue and they can tax it up the kazoo and know that we will continue to imbibe. Also like any pleasure the adage of "too much of a good thing does you harm" applies. The current "binge drinking" purge is actually nothing more than the press climbing on a band wagon. Pause for a moment dear reader(Jane Austen moment) and consider your youth, think how shedded you used to get! Are the teenagers/youths any worse than we were, I doubt it.

I send out a plea to all, we know you are going to tax our vices, be it booze, baccy or sex but please don't tax them 'til the pips pop. Let us enjoy them, life is too short to go without some buzz!

No particular title

For a change I am on here with no particular rant or rambling to vent about.

Puzzling over the whole benefit that we as society accrue from the exam system and schooling system that seems to celebrate and promote mediocrity. There is no place in it for losers, they are all winners. I wonder how that equips youngsters for reality, the stark and harsh reality is(especially at the moment in business), if you aren't at the top of your game and winning, then you will lose. Sometimes even if you are doing well, you lose. Life is harsh, it isn't always fair, good guys do come second, good doesn't always triumph over evil. The mark of the individual is how he/she deals with that reality.

I guess the nub of what I am saying is that, given the alternative, you just have to stick your head down and soldier on. Never, ever give in. You may not reach your objective but you can stand there and say "I gave it my best shot".

Undignified Scramble

Interesting being sat here on the sidelines watching our politicians scrambling about trying avoid losing their place at the trough. Many are using the Nuremburg defence and some commentators are coming out with statements like "well, it's the system that's at fault". That's very true, it is the system at fault but ask this- Who created the system? We elect our MP's to go up to London and represent our interests, they sit there and are required to promote the bedrock upon which we as a society continue to exist and hopefully evolve. They should by default be set higher standards of integrity and their own moral compasses should have told them that it is wrong to claim for a mortgage that you have paid off, a duck pond in your home in France, an extension so your brother can live with you or a 42" plasma TV. We the electorate have a right to expect that of them, they have a duty to meet that standard. That's why they put themselves up to be our elected representative! Now, human nature being what it is there will be some that slip and I take no issue with that, I do however feel that the venal, money grabbing that has gone on under this system with not a voice of dissent, a murmur of disquiet from any of the those with their snouts firmly buried in the trough means that we need a thorough cleaning of the pig sty. Brown you numb nut call an election, call it soon and let we the public decide who deserves to stay.

The latest debacle

It just get's funnier and funnier. If you wrote it as a script for "Yes Minister" it would have been binned. Maybe reality TV does have it's place! Imagine the wife of Ken Follett, wealthy author feeling afraid and she has to get us, the tax payer to make her feel secure.

Doesn't it just warm your heart the a nurse's salary has been spent making her feel safe, or three nurse's have been used to furnish Keith Vaz's home or another way of looking at it 150000 bullet proof vests. The galling point of all of this is, they all say "it's all in the rules", does that make it right? Especially when they wrote the rules! It cannot be right to claim £25000 pa to furnish a home when a reasonable wage is less than that. Why should I pay for a Flat screen TV when I haven't bought one myself.

If I claim from work I have to show invoices and it has to be a justifiable business expense, heaven only knows that the Revenue will scrutinise it all and disallow and possibly fine me if not legitimate. MP's, we make our rules and you don't even have to show expenditure for £250 or less.

Let's just flush the whole sorry lot down the nearest drain and start again, bet Fly Blown Brown is clinging on just to milk every penny he can get before he has to call an election.

Politics

Oh how the mighty have fallen. I find it intensely amusing that the prudish Jacqui Smith has been hoisted by her own petard. She has presided over a Home Office that has introduced and attempted to introduce all sorts of rules/laws regarding the nations sexuality and hubby has been sat at home enjoying the dubious delights of porn. I wonder if she was around as he was salivating over the delights of which ever pneumatic starlet was performing, oh wouldn't it be just the icing on this cake if it turns out that it was gay porn that he was indulging in!!!! Is it a sacking offence-No but the judgment and the lack of care and attention to detail hardly meet the standards expected of a Minister of State, especially one at the heart of our legal system. Small wonder that there are so many absconding asylum seekers and illegal immigrants in the country if she can't even be bothered to check her expenses claims. That should be a sacking offence-incompetence and lack of care destine her for a career on the back benches. 22K for staying with her sister seems exorbitant as well. This government has introduced more legislation and more criminal sanctions than any other in history when you compare like with like in terms of time in office. What odds for a Labour victory next election? Brown will out on his ear and hopefully some of the sleaze buckets that inhabit the present cabinet and back benches.

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.

Hiatus

Haven't written to this for some time. As with many of us, reality takes over and we have to get out and earn the filthy lucre. In my quiet moments I have had pangs of guilt for not posting. It has been an eventful few months with the horrors of Mumbai, attacks in the Philippines, the Menezes trial,the credit crunch, more of our troops being killed on active service. There have also been some remarkable triumphs, the way that the population of Mumbai rallied and refused to give way to sectarian violence, the people who have refused to crumble under the strain of economic woes, the Help for Heroes organisation and many other examples of the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

The pundits seem to believe that the US economy will start to turn round mid next year and the UK will follow some 6 months later. I am sure that if the bunch of barely functional idiots that we have in charge don't actually start to do something rather than cancel public spending projects that benefit us all but especially our National Defence then the recovery will be delayed and prolonged.

I saw on US TV that one area of the economy that isn't suffering is the Sex Worker, I don't believe that for a moment. What I would imagine is that a. There will be more competition and b. People will not spend the money they used to when times were good. In my opinion the only recession and boom proof industries are Funeral directors and toilet paper manufacturers. There may be some others that are safe like alcohol, tobacco and condoms( the vices, guilty of two and an anti smoking nazi)but again like the sex worker industry people reduce consumption and go for a blended whisky rather than a single malt, a new world offering rather than a bottle of Petrus.

Here's hoping that any and all who read this have a Happy Xmas a Peaceful New Year and best of luck in weathering the economic storm.