Famine in the Horn of Africa

Seeing the images of starving people, children, emaciated, dying upsets me, makes me angry & causes me feelings of impotence at not being able to help the situation.
I hear the news on BBC Radio 4 say its due to climate change & poor harvest yields but I have my doubts on this. Its my belief that there is sufficient food available. This line, this rationale, is put out by the same people who caused the present crisis throughout the world by their greed & speculation:The bankers.
Now however the bankers have, I believe caused this crisis, this famine by their gambling on the food & grain harvests & supplies. Thus; they have sent the price of grain rocketing sky high whilst they, the affluent bankers, make a handsome profit & the poor subsistence farmers of Eastern Africa can't afford to buy the grain.
Hence we have a famine.
Have you ever seen a poor banker?? I thought not.

Too soft?

My maternal grandfather (God rest him) was a wise old Irishman from Co Westmeath Eire. His (& mine) claim to fame was that his brother John, was a celebrated author & playwright whose pen name was Brinsley MacNamara. Anyway enough of that. My point here is this: He had a saying that he used when he felt that someone was being taken advantage of & it was..."(so & so) would stand for the three card trick".
You know, I think that that applies to me.
I'm too soft, a mug I let people especially family walk over me. They get away with blue murder, they & others are all too ready to give their opinion on what I'm wearing, reading my choice of music etc etc. Where as I never pass any opinion on any of those topics to others. Maybe I was brought up to well mannered, or I'm shy, I don't know.
What comes to mind is my sister in law, who. upon reflection as a paranoid persecutary personality (but is that justification?) openly mocked & criticised a book I was reading to my face in front of others. (the book was one of a trilogy about Julius Caesar & his relationship with Marcus Brutus, the Roman Civil War etc. A lot of the story was poetic licence granted, but I enjoyed them greatly.) I stood & tried vainly to explain my reasons why I liked the book & so forth, but these also were put down. Now I think I should have told her-"Look ******, stop being such an ill mannered arrogant snob & fuck off.
In fact I think there are lots of people who rile me & I should tell them exactly what I think,maybe tell them to shut the fuck up or to fuck off.
I'm tired of being taken for a mug, a fool and..."standing for the three card trick" So.......

Aching and sore all over!!

Against my better judgement & after weeks of 'persuasion' from Kate I finally got round to sanding down the floorboards in the front & rear lounges.
So....Along with Jim-my next door neighbour we I shared the cost of hiring a sanding machine, an edging sanding machine & various sizes & grades pf sandpaper. Jim sanded his rooms on Friday, and the plan was for me to sand our the following day. The scene was set then on Saturday morning for the job to begin. I tried, God I really tried to procrastinate, postpone & generally avoid beginning the job, but after dropping the car at the garage for a minor repair, returning home I found Kate had my work clothes, & cup of tea waiting telling me " OK love you ready?"
So the torment began. The sanding machine weighed  like Mr T, & like the aforementioned man of steel it had a mind of its own! It was the devil to steer as I attempted (using all my limited strength) to push it back & forth along both lounges. The noise was horrific-(fortunately I had some ear defenders) but the dust... a sandstorm in the Kalahari desert must resemble my home! It was bloody everywhere. (as I type its still in my ears).
The edging sander was/is a complete waste of time as it is heavy. It was so ineffective that I ended up using my electric hand drill with sander attachment to do the edges of the rooms & the bits the large machine left undone. The jobs were finally completed after the best part of 11h rs-with a break of 30 minutes for a sandwich at lunch time. So there we were at 850pm-showered, knackered, aching and gasping for a beer.
Upon reflection that people was the final blow & the cause of my present pain & discomfort.
Today & now every bone & muscle in my 58yr old body aches & is crying out. Pain grips me tighter than a Scotsman holding a £10 note.Waling is a torment, I'm walking around like John Wayne with diarrhea.
Kate says that I can varnish the floors next week!! But I seem to recall that slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833! I don't think Kate realizes this, & to be honest, I ain't brave enough to tell her at the minute. Give my body time to recover & I'll varnish the floors. And then??-?I've gotta paint the hall way & the stairway to the loft conversion.
But for now I can't even think about that torment, my mind is occupied with the struggle I'll encounter in climbing the stairs to bed. Bring on the Paracetamol !!
Good night from a sore and aching Birmingham

Phone hacking, resignations & public enquires

The phone hacking outrage has not yet it appears, reached its conclusion and sadly (for some people affected by it) the repercussions continue.

Paul Stephenson, the Police Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has resigned, whilst the arch demon in all of this Rupert Murdoch  claims he "has never felt so humbled" & yet he denies ALL KNOWLEDGE of the scandal & refuses to accept any responsibility for it. Instead, he throws hundreds of people on to the unemployment lists, whilst he & his silver tongued son glibly talked their way through the latest House of Commons enquiry. The bullshit however was brought to a pragmatic climax when the hero of the hour threw a custard pie at Murdoch Senior! Brilliant. Only then did Murdoch's child bride throw a punch at the poor assailant-Great street theatre!!
I feel for the average copper struggling to keep law & order on the streets of London. How their morale must have suffered by the slur that has been levelled at them in the bribes stories. The scapegoat in all of this is their boss Paul Stephenson who courageously put his head on the block & resigned his job.

 I can't help though reflect on the banking crisis. I ask you...how many bankers have resigned their jobs as a result of the debacle in the financial sector??
While I'm at it how many politicians have resigned as a result of the Iraq war?
On a lighter note I think that we should have a Commons enquiry into the number of Commons enquiries!

The News of the World, phone hacking etc...

So this weekend will see the last ever (supposedly) edition of The News of the World. Quite honestly its not a loss to either the greater world of media nor to the UK.
Since its its inception that 'newspaper' has not given its readers 'The news OF he World', rather it illustrated numerous  stories of women being assaulted,  photos of boobs & backsides in equal measure & celebrity gossip. It was/is in short gutter press.
But the nail that finally sealed its fate was the disgusting, callous phone hacking. It appears as though Andrew Coulson et al apparently sanctioned the hacking into of the mobile phones of the families of deceased soldiers, the phones of at least 2 murdered teenagers and God knows who else in a wicked attempt to gain a story at any cost. The editor & his staff also apparently paid money to the Metropolitan police to obtain tip offs of juicy stories.
It appears to me that the motive for the unforgivable actions of Coulson et al is quite simply money. It sold newspapers to those sad people whose sole purpose in life is to immerse themselves in the misfortune of others & who gain some perverse satisfaction gazing at the naked breasts of some celebrity.
Silent on the whole issue so far is Rupert Murdoch. I will say no more about that.
I wonder though just how wide spread is this unruly action-the phone hacking? Consider: Rupert Murdock's news empire  (News International/News corporation) has tentacles in every continent-Its my belief that very soon we will hear that there has been phone hacking in the United States.
But for the present all is not lost; to those sad individuals who morn the passing of the rag, I say this in way of 'reassurance': I predict that the 'newspaper' will be relaunched-it'll be  a Sunday version of its sister daily rag-'The Sun'. So the sad perverts still win.
For me though, I have lost all faith & confidence in all newspapers.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham

Last night/early morning I have the sad misfortune to pay a visit to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital's accident & emergency dept with one of my close family. I feel now that I must comment on the service that we received & observed whilst there.
Everything that is excellent & praise worthy about the UK's National Health Service was in evidence last night. Patient care was & is  magnificent. Staff-from the cleaners to the consultant in charge of the department were courteous, professional, empathetic & kind. Nothing was too much trouble. We we made to feel as if we had actually paid big money for the service. My  family & I were offered refreshments, accorded total privacy in a clean, clinical yet relaxed environment.
When my family member was transferred to the ward where overnight stay was arranged, the standard of care did not lessen.
Birmingham and The UK should be rightly proud of our National Health Service. We must not allow any government to dismantle it and/or sell it off to the private sector.
Thank you NHS & thank you to everyone at Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

A solution...??

 If any of you guys out there have a spare 15-20 minutes going spare on Wednesday afternoon I urge you to tune into BBC Radio Five Live-check it out via the wonders of the Internet.
You'll hear what sounds like a cattle market. Bedlam, a bunch of moronic hoodlums shouting the odds at one another & getting paid very handsomely for doing so. Frequently Cameron when asked a question says something like " I refer the question to....." God alone knows what he's on about, but it seems to me that's it a way the bastard has of avoiding answering the question.
So.... how about this suggestion: In an attempt to prevent this I think that at the\beginning of 'PMQT' goats-at least 6 should be released on to the floor of the chamber of the House of Commons. Members of Parliament-especially Cameron are then to be FORBIDDEN to referring to them EVER.
Can you imagine it-all these goats milling about the chamber of the house? Nibbling at the fixtures & fittings of the seat of Government. Wonderful! All the twats who are supposedly the representatives of the people paying no heed to the them with the goats periodically butting the odd MP. Brilliant!!

Bombardier of Derby.

Bombardier train makers in Derby have been making trains, rolling stock etc not only for the UK, but for the rest of the world for almost 100 years.
They put in a tender to make trains for 'Thameslink' -London's light railway. This tender was worth apparently £1bn for the company & would have secured jobs for not only the City of Derby but also for the various component manufacturers scattered around the UK.
Sadly, in the face of similar tenders from Germany & France, Bombardier lost the contract. It was awarded to Siemens-a German company. They will now have the contract to make the trains & rolling stock for Londons' railway.
Crazy. Totally crazy.
In awarding this contract overseas Bombardier have been been forced to make 100,000 of its employees redundant-not to mention those from the component companies.  The Honorable Vince Cable- the Coalition business secretary has quickly 'leapt to the defence' of Bombardier employees by blaming the policies of the last Labour government! What a cop out!
In Germany & France apparently they have some sort of a law that compels companies to chose tenders submitted by companies from their country especially if the tender is for good to be used in their own nation. But not us, O no.
While I'm at it I must comment on what the leader of Her Majesties Opposition  has said about the scandal: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. As leader of the Labour Party,  Ed Miliband, is about as effective as a chocolate fireguard. A waste of time. Ineffective. Why hasn't he launched into the ineffectiveness & impotence of the Government in its sacrificing of British jobs? Why??-because he is a closet Conservative.
The whole situation stinks.
Cable, Cameron & Miliband should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Wimbledon 2011

I not a fan of tennis. Never have been. I have memories of it when I was a kid of it being a game for Toffs. All that strawberries & cream served throughout the games not to mention the strange scoring system. I hate the bloody game.
But now its over for another year-thank God! What seals my dislike for the game is the rewards gained by the winners of this sport of toffs. The winners of the women's & men's singles each net a prize purse of (wait for it....) £1.6million GBP.
Now that is totally immoral &, in my opinion unjustifiable. When we consider that there is a famine going on in the Horn of Africa with thousands trekking miles for water & dying daily, how can we in the west live with ourselves? Its shameful. Western decadence at its worst. And its not limited to tennis alone. All sports appear to be dominated by money, money, money.
I used to as kid go to watch Aston Villa FC, & I still look out for the results of their games but there is no way I could live with myself knowing that the shower of shite who call themselves 'professional footballers' take home sometimes in excess of £200k a week.
Today I feel saddened.