Month: October 2007

It is no wonder the Government is worried about the level of innumeracy in Britain when its own statisticians and civil servants can’t count. We could have told them there are more immigrants than they thought, we trip over them everywhere. This particular statistic is important, and the looming problems more so, but the really important problem is that our Government is totally incompetent, frighteningly so. I believe they are in such a hurry to be loved, they rush to the microphone with some new idea without previously discussing it, getting other opinions, and then thinking again. These days it seems there is little they can get right. Our last Chancellor was supposed to be the best since God knows when, but now we are finding he had feet of clay – maybe they still are, his record of being positive, commanding, and foreseeing, as all PMs are supposed to be, has still to be proven. U turns don’t help.

This idea of charging for rubbish collection by weight has been on, off again and is now on again. They recently quoted that we were on the verge of a stupendous fine from the EU for not recycling enough. If it’s just us, why has the government not found out why we are so much worse than the rest of the EU, who, presumably, are able to adhere to the EU directive? If they told us that initially, we might be able to advise our masters how to achieve it, obviously they don’t know. Time and again excessive packaging has been highlighted, but no action. What really aggravates me is that they haven’t thought it through, before talking about it; it is as though they want the public to tell them the answers to problems it has. I aired them in a previous article.

With all subjects, there is always the ridiculous and I am never quite sure if the BBC doesn’t post items with tongue in cheek Like, having us all with a population of pet worms, chewing their way through the most repulsive garbage to produce compost!! They forgot to tell us what flat and small house residents were suppose to do with the worms’ progeny, and the compost. My Sophie would run a mile.

Different strokes for different folks. In N Ireland we are used to that. Each successive Government, since the start of the Troubles, has thought up schemes for getting rid of us, and applying different rules to us rather than the rest of the UK. In fact we are generally hard working, pleasant and a generous people, apart from a very few, who look upon criminality, shooting, arson, and the odd murder as enjoyable diversions – it’s the excitement, you know, and there might of course, be some financial advantage.

Westminster has no domestic political link with another nation except in having an arrangement with Eire affecting the running of Northern Ireland which, I personally take exception to. Westminster is contemplating requiring residents here to need a passport to get onto the Mainland, as it is proposing to tighten its borders against illegal entry, as it did in WW2. Isn’t that a contravention of some right or other?

There have been a number of agreements to bring about stability, all are contravened by both sides. A bad flair-up with the police by a unionist faction, the UDA, caused a Minister in our Assembly to withdraw £1m development fund intended to help the UDA get back to normality. At the same time, 32 Orange halls had been burned by the breakaway IRA group, the Continuity IRA, and 9 men were arrested for failed attacks on the police, together with almost daily sectarian shootings on both sides, She, the Minister, didn’t make the same stricture in the case of the IRA.. In N. Ireland politics is passed down through the generations by word of mouth, song and in the genes, and has absolutely nothing to do with religion, but a lot to do with history. It is gerrymandered by everyone who thinks he can get away with it, including the government. At elections the cynical, and prophetic joke is ‘vote early, vote often’. When I first saw an election in Ulster, a man was pointed out to me and it was alleged he voted several times, impersonating people he knew didn’t vote, by changing his appearance. If nothing else, living here keeps one interested.

Years and years ago there was a slogan, ‘Buy British’, which ran for some time and was, indeed, heeded by the public, and I believe, if we would pull our heads out of the sand and look, we are in a worse state than we ever were except for the period round the General Strike in 1926. It was caused by serious problems in the coal industry in ’25, and also a large down turn in industrial production in ’26 with many of our markets being served from abroad. It is all in Google in detail.

They are sacking nearly a thousand workers in a factory in N, Ireland, because the whole machinery of the factory will be transported to an Asian country where they will produce the same products for a quarter or less, of the price. What happens here, and probably elsewhere in the UK is, in looking for industrial growth, the Government builds a factory and then offers financial inducements to someone, generally from abroad, to use for tooling and to employ a workforce. Our workforce overcomes all the teething problems and increases production, generally with in-house innovation. Then comes the day when the contract with the Government is completed and the company has fulfilled its responsibilities in accordance with it, and is now free to take the machinery, and the know-how elsewhere, where labour is cheaper. This has been going on for as long as I can remember, and the DeLorean Car was an extreme example.

We buy things we need or think we need, often the latter because it is such good value. Our houses are full of replacement tools, machines and gadgets from Asia when the European counterparts have worn out. The result, as we all know, is that we have no manufacturing base, and in consequence, no machines and workbenches for our youth to learn and gain real experience on, not just classroom experience.. It is a an ever tightening coil of circumstances until one day the Governments of Europe, not only the UK, will discover they haven’t anyone to teach the skills adequately, and all we are capable of is a bit of agriculture and buying, if we still have the money.

When the 900-odd job loss was announced a NI Minister said something like, ‘we would have to turn our attention to Intellectual Properties (Ideas and patents) as the way forward because we were good at it,’ or something along those lines. Rubbish!!

For a start, about only 5% of inventions, new ideas, call them what you may, ever have a hope of being examined by an entrepreneur, and about 2% ever really justify all the work. Think how long it takes to concoct a new medicine, have animal trials, pass government standards and receive approval to place on the market for general consumption. When I retired I designed a trolley for handicapped people with a power socket for a radio, or computer etc, an angle-poise lamp, a rise, fall and tilt desk top with a curb on three edges, casters, a cupboard, and drawer as an extra. Hospitals were interested in the variety of prototypes, but for them to purchase it it had to be tested and passed safe. That took so long, the government had time in about 82, to cut back, none were bought and the prototypes were given to a hospice. Another case; an idea, costing tens of thousands to patent Worldwide, was offered to a company, who liked it, but hadn’t the authority to go into production, it was passed up the line for the same treatment until it went to America where it stayed for too long, but nothing happened. In the end I think the inventors then went on their own, and lost a fortune. I write this long spiel to show how one cannot base the economy of a country purely on new products.

It is my fear that there will be a considerable reversal of fortunes in the next few years. If there are thousands of repossessions, there will be a drop in spending generally, sales will drop, equity will drop, and those who bought properties as an investment will be disappointed. Welfare will rise, taxes will increase because commitments have been entered into, but income from taxation will have fallen per capita. Some papers say we must tighten our belts; that is not the solution, that is a consequence. We must regenerate our trades, our exports and reduce our imports from Asia. I’m aware I criticise the EU, but it is my belief they will be in difficulties too, and if they are, their remedy will be like ours, We will all have to support Europe, manufacture within Europe and buy from Europe, and most of all manufacture in Briton and Buy British. But again, I can’t see it happening, or, if it does, it will be far too late. Watch for the red Dragon.

Apparently, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has discovered something parents have known for years, children born late in the year can be placed in classes which can be too advanced for them, by the date which determines the school year and the dates of examinations. They have carried out research and discovered that this affects some 5.5 percent of girls and 6.1 percent of boys doing GCSE. They then go on to say this it is ‘overwhelmingly’ at the age a child sits the exam, that matters. I would not have thought these percentages were definitely accurate and even if they are, other factors such as the quality of teaching, the help at home and their child’s natural ability will collectively have more than 6% effect.

I am reliably informed that in the past some Eleven Plus exam results were modified for children, so the idea is not new, merely the response. My daughter was roughly a year younger than the average of the class and her reports did not take account of the face, instead of being praised she was said to be capable of even better her. I lost two years by living in Africa, which affected my self opinion, but not my final outcome.

Reading the article, I wonder, for example if they were taking results across the board, rather than over a period of, say 22 years, when the same teachers were teaching a specific subject in selected schools chosen for the sample,, and whether the same percentages were appearing in all the schools, or in fact, some schools fared better because the teachers were better to a greater degree than 6%..In addition they say, in effect, that adjustments must be made for those affected, when it comes t0 selection for further education.

The Minister for Education stated the condition was unacceptable from equality and efficiency aspects and had to be changed. The Minister for schools said the matter was already being addressed. A pilot scheme at 500 schools permitting children in this situation to sit their Key Stage tests separately when the teachers think the children can give a better account of their abilities. This strikes me as a hammer to crack a nut. If this philosophy is to ensure equality, that all children get the same chance, they will have to take into account absences through illness, and make teachers take exams and be graded so their effect can be included in the extra school time to allocate, All this on top of Diplomas? We need to encourage good teachers, not burden them with so much bureaucracy; they leave and get a less irksome job in the Civil Service.

I give up! When the parents actually move house to get a child into the school of their choice, I don’t think they will even consider the date problem. If they did, I suppose it is possible they might just start to consider artificial insemination., to be sure of hitting the exams at the right time.

Yesterday a film on TV, gave me pause for thought. The film, Cross of Iron, with James Coburn leading, was an old one I had seen long ago. It was so well directed, and was about a small element of the German Army, retreating before a hoard of Russians. The scenes were realistic, bloody and at times horrifying in the explicit portrayal of war’s sheer uncaring brutality. What caused me to think was a remark Sophie made, she said, ‘is war really like that?’ She is in her 80’s, lived through being bombed out in an air raid on Belfast and the Troubles, still intelligent and bright, and yet didn’t appreciate what war is really like for a soldier. I’m assuming she is not alone.

Only twice in my experience of war did I mildly discover the type of horrors our soldiers have faced and have to face. My father, who was twice wounded and gassed, when I was 8 years old told me of his experiences and forbade me to play ‘soldiers. At the time of Dunkirk with other boys and old men, all in the LDV, we awaited the arrival of German paratroops on the Sussex downs. The London Blitz; fire watching in Docklands; guarding blockhouses in Whitehall with the Grenadier Guards, as a Home Guard; and serving on convoys in the Navy, while having their moments, were not like the training I received in single handed combat, with detailed emphasis on killing, and avoiding being killed, by an ex-regular, training the Home Guard. It was horrifyingly graphic,

The other time was during the Northern Ireland Troubles, which from my perspective wasn’t a down-trodden under-class, fighting for their rights against a corrupt regime. It was two corrupt, criminal factions, making a fortune from protection rackets, theft, drugs and murder, some supported from afar, and trying to bomb the Westminster Government into surrendering us to a United Ireland. As I have already written, for my part, this came to a head when they were gratuitously shooting women and old men who had a tenuous link to the military and were considered ‘soft targets’, for young boys to shoot out of hand without being caught. My adrenalin rose to a very high level then and still does to some extent, when I think back. It was playtime, excitement, with no political or warranted outcome of their actions. As I have said, I joined the police reserve and several evenings a week relieved one proper policeman to police. If I had been in a life or death situation of confrontation I would have killed if it was necessary, my adrenalin was the driver.

Assuming that a large proportion of people are like Sophie, with no true knowledge of war in its brutal sense, I have written this to show the shades war can take. When a shooting war comes down to close combat, it is the adrenalin and the urge to survive which carries a soldier through the experience, and it is one no one should be subjected to. It seems to be part of the human psyche, not an animal instinct. The existence of turf wars among children in inner cities points to the fact.

Wars are not started by the man in the street, only insurrections. Wars are started by politicians, leaders and in the past, by kings and princes, like the others, for their own aggrandisement. War can be engineered by commercial pressures, or self interest, as was the Iraq war. What have the Iraqis, or we in Britain or Europe gained? More like what have we lost? It was all about oil. WW1 and WW2 gained nothing, on the contrary, and now we hear Bush, sabre rattling again. If Iran did fire off a nuclear rocket, surely Iran would be annihilated by Russia, Britain and America? It is oil again

Save the World? To do that our leaders must get their priorities right first. Let’s start by saving the soldiers.

Diplomas, already? I smell a rat! If the government fails to get the results it has boasted it will in GCSEs and the rest, then we change the goal post yet again and introduce Diplomas on a graded scale. When I was doing first year algebra, the teacher used to say you can’t mix apples with pears. So we won’t easily be able to compare results across the board in the future as we used to be able to and vaguely can today, so here we will have another educational conjuring trick – ‘con’, by the way, is short for conjure!

In the 30s I sat University matriculation, which was accepted as a yardstick of ability, not just as a university entrance qualification. Since then there have been the High School Certificate, GCSE, A Levels, the Baccalaureate in some schools, and now Graded Diplomas are being proposed. The dictionary definition is ‘ a document conferring some honour or privilege, as a university degree, etc.’ – inferring a standard equivalent to an honour or degree, not just a yardstick. Anyone who has sat on an employment board, or in fact attended one, will recognise the value of a record of ability, often overvalued against experience. The problem for the people interviewing, under this latest change will be the need for a guide through the ramifications of educational history to sort the relative merits of the various school-leaving certificates that they’ll be faced with, including the Diplomas, The latter seem as if they will be able to be cobbled together, by the pupil, from a random selection of subjects under the heading of diploma. Where standards in the 3 Rs will come into the reckoning is not clear.

I have always subscribed to the principal of ‘if it ain’t bust, don’t fix it!. I bet if you took a poll of grammar school and secondary school teachers concerning the need for another change, you would get a resounding ‘No!’ This idea seems more complicated, which means more paperwork, more time and, for what end? All we need is to know, is the young person reasonably bright, educated to the standard required, and capable of filling the job or college place she or he seeks. Marks in properly set exams should tell us that, irrespective of the overall structure of the examination system, so why change it again? In the Navy, we were simple lecturers, teaching the hardest, the most disparate, and in some cases the desperate, crafty men. We permitted them to take written material into the exam room. We did not allow talking. The exam questions ran from easy to very hard, with more questions than could be answered in the time. The students were made aware of our strategy, which was basically that time spent looking things up was time wasted. We marked the papers and then gave the best 95%, and graded the rest down. This system had to be and was simple and foolproof.

I have been a technical teacher in the Navy, Soph was head of department in a secondary school,, and we are appalled that another pointless change is being engineered which will make little difference in the long run, whether teaching standards continue to fall or not. In some cases I think the syllabus is of a higher standard than necessary, perhaps driven by the higher standards of the universities. When I employed graduates, I found their knowledge of advanced design was considerable, and their knowledge of basic principles lamentable. The scope of a university is a guide to the aspirations of the teaching staff. Human nature being what it is, I suspect it is more interesting and rewarding intellectually to teach and experiment at the cutting edge, rather than with bread and butter issues. If I am right, perhaps a new look at standards and how they are fairing and why, instead of possibly finding ways of hiding deficiencies when they become apparent would be more praiseworthy.

The lottery of the voting system. The theory is fine, and it is probably as good as we’ll get, but when push comes to shove, have you noticed that the wheels come off? I’m not writing about the shambles of the Scottish election, I leave that to all the real commentators, but the fact that Brown won’t allow the Labour MPs a free vote on the EU Treaty, something vital to us, as nationally it is a worry and disenfranchises us, When we vote, we have, mathematically, if not in theory, about a 1 in 3 chance that the bloke we want will get in, The problem though, is when he gets in, (it’s about 5 to 1 he’s a he),  he will have to do as he is told, even if you and a whole crowd of your mates have written to tell him to vote against the Government motion. They are supposed to be our representatives, using their judgement as to what we would collectively wish, not jumping through the Whip’s three strand hoop. We in Bangor in Northern Ireland, have a Lady MP, yes, she’s titled. Unfortunately for her, she is the single MP representing what used to be the largest party here, the Unionists, so she is leader and whip, has a free vote, and represents us very well. The trouble is Labour has an unassailable majority.

Statements on population growth. If you are in anyway despondent, easily depressed, or of a very serious and critical disposition, I suggest you read no more.

There seems to be a certain illogicality in official statements, giving the appearance of fact, when they are merely extrapolations, and everyone knows extrapolation leads to infinity. I’m really talking about the future, but criticising the statement that our population will expand until we are 70 million by 2030. Yesterday, I said, ‘don’t believe all they tell you’. The dichotomy is that only a couple of days ago we, who are over weight, were told we will all die early as a result. Another aspect not accounted for is, if our economy collapses, as it might, with this exceptional personal debt, all the immigrants and their expectant wives etc, will hoof it off to where the grass is greener, they are only here for the prosperity. My generation amd I are in our 80s because we were born into scarcity, lived with rationing and exercised per force almost continually for the first 30 years of our lives. I believe the numbers of the retirees will drop at an ever increasing rate, (exponentially), from here on, because each successive generation has had it softer, exponentially, until, 50 years on, we have, generally, little exercise, a totally different diet, and a totally different environment. In the 1900s, up until about 1980, no extrapolation would have predicted a life as most have it today.

The most worrying aspect, in my mind, not immediately, but a lot sooner than people think, is the vast changes in the world. I believe change, which if you consider geology, biology, and intelligence, which are clearly exponential progressions of some sort, will not only be moving forward at an annually increasing rate, but the effects of the rape of the natural world are also increasing annually at an alarming rate. Our wild life, in my lifetime, has diminished incredibly. Strange viruses, and illnesses, some through man’s intervention, have not only affected man, but the natural world. My own amateur, perhaps stupid theory, is that in any naturally growing thing, it contains elements with memory that pass experience from ‘parent’ to ‘offspring’ and this is the way the natural world has evolved cumulatively. Camouflage is one case, as is the level of science and the advance in man. Dinosaurs existed for far longer than later species which have also become virtually extinct. But man, in the changes he has wrought, has outstripped the ability of the rest of nature to adjust itself to his meteoric development and greed. We should not be worrying about population inflation, but about the environment, about the greed so prevalent, the disparity between the disgustingly rich (hundreds of millions that they haven’t a hope of spending), and the very poor indigenous population, not the beggars from Eastern Europe and the strictures of the EU. I repeat something I have written previously, I knew, factually, of a husband and wife begging team, in the 30s, who owned a terrace of 6 houses.

Don’t believe all they or I tell you in any form until you have checked it
out!

When one reads a headline, ‘Britain is sickest nation in Europe,’ in one of the few broadsheets left in the country, with one of the largest circulations, you could be forgiven for considering it more than hyperbole. At the height of the Troubles in Ulster, friends of my aunt tried to stop her visiting me in case she was shot. I was in the RUC and hadn’t been shot at, I am not aware that there was more than one case of a visitor being actually injured in the 30 years of the bombing and shooting. I have always been convinced that the hooliganism of the football fans abroad is the work of a few dedicated trouble makers, egged on by the indigenous hard men, and promoted on film and in the press sensationally.

From what I read, and see on TV, I suspect a large part of the knifing, brutality, and theft is gang warfare between rival packs of children of Afro-Caribbean ancestry, located in inner-city areas, but not as one could assume from the press, as being general. In reporting, ‘man bites dog’ is newsworthy, and not the reverse. In Ulster, daily we are presented with crisis and injury, from a kitchen fire to road accidents or occasionally a shooting left over from our past. In the 65 years I have lived here, I have found little to cause me to consider much outside the norm, if one excludes the effects of people wanting a United Ireland, the hard way. I believe this is true of most of Britain.

Some of the statements in the article are vague, but on the face of it sensational. For example, they state that the number of women dying of alcohol related deaths has doubled, but not from what figure to what figure. If it was one last year, and two this then the rise would be 100%, They say England is the only European country to have a rising alcohol consumption, and quote that Europeans drink 10,95 litres per person, while we drink 11.37, a matter of 3.6%. I don’t believe a national survey can be accurate within 5% let alone that much. I wonder if the drinking habits of the Eastern European immigrants affected the result. The article raises the matter of our obesity level, that doesn’t make us out to be sick, in the way the title implies, merely a bit silly where diet is concerned, and we are going to fix that aren’t we? – Or are we?

I write because I find so many aspects of life so very different to what I was brought up to, so many statements I disagree with, but I try not to write for the sake of writing, that would soon be sussed out by my readership. My Grandmother had a saying, ‘If you haven’t something worth saying, say nothing’ Jimmy, my father -in-law went even further when it came to Ulster politics he used to say, ‘Whatever you say, say nothing,’ Journalist are paid to write, and they will only be read if the product is sensational, amusing, or instructive. .It is easiest to be sensational. My mother-in-law told Soph ‘don’t believe all they tell you, dear!’, that is good advice in all circumstances.

I think we believe too much of what we read and are told without being sceptical and looking deeper. We are not sick, odd, definitely, but not as odd as the continentals, who else could be? I shall sleep tonight in the knowledge that the Irish, the English, the Welsh, and the Scots are a great bunch, and not as some would portray us all.

Tackling the wrong target seems prevalent. I wrote yesterday that the Scottish scheme of diet change by free school meals was unlikely to succeed. I read that drug offences have risen by 14% after the policy of down-grading Cannabis by reducing it from class B to class C. Young mothers are complaining that motherhood is destroying their social lives. Youngsters are killing, stabbing and warring.

Writing purely from personal experience and common sense, a large part of the problem rests with the parents. I know what it is like to be part of a single parent family, a latchkey child and not to have the same standards as other children, but I was part of an extended family, with strong bonds, strict discipline, and concern. Today, it appears that there is not the same training in behaviour at home, less responsibility taken for the child’s actions, and the extended family is so geographically extended it has reached a point where they only meet rarely, instead of supporting one another in a crisis. A lot of the problems are exacerbated by the fact that to enjoy the living standard the parents seek, they have to cram too much into the day, and some things suffer, like discipline, diet, exercise, and child care. When parents regret having had children, because their social lives have become a problem, and the husbands are not pulling their weight, the system collapses and mayhem is the natural result.

The corollary must be that parents are targeted, made to take and understand the need for responsibility. The child must take responsibility for misdemeanours, as well as the parent in extreme cases. The parents should be targeted concerning their child’s obesity, child’s drug habit, and general behaviour in school and out of it. I think the corporal punishment restrictions are too widely applied, and it is no wonder many teachers are finding maintaining discipline to be more than stressful in the face of 30 to 40 hard nuts. If you have read my blog, you will know that I was caned more than most for less than needed, but I only suffered discomfort for a short while. In those days we took corporal punishment in our stride, no worse than getting soaked on the way to school, it was part of our lives and accepted.

It is a Catch 22 situation. Take a possible scenario, a single parent with two children, one of whom has stabbed a ten year old classmate, is charged with irresponsibility, and the stabber is taken into care; either the parent gets a slap on the wrist, as she has no assets to cover a fine, and she is needed at home to look after the other child, or she is locked up, and the second child taken into care as well, and will therefore be punished for the wrong of the sibling.

A switch like this basic theory would be difficult, even impossible, to apply, would be resisted and words like Nanny State would appear in the press. More professional brains than mine would be needed to lay out the parameters, set the legal limits, the social implementation, and the publicity, but if we are not to be faced with ever increasing incidents in crime, drugs, and general lawlessness, something has got to change, and I believe that to be the attitude of the parents.

If you are a Plump Lump you are in the spotlight! I wrote about obesity the other day and now it has taken over from Global Warming as the Flavour-of-the-Week, and is throwing up the most amazing reactions on TV and in the Press. Scotland’s attempt by giving free meals to school children for six months to make them eat sensibly, has Christmas in between, for a start, which will be a stumbling block to the calculations in the records. While I would like to see it succeed, I believe it is destined for the same result as Jamie Oliver’s school meal project, they are both aiming at the wrong target, the kids emulate their plump parents, and eat the same stodge at home.

If you hadn’t read it in the press, you would be unlikely to relate obesity with Firemen, but in fact, getting heavy weight people out of buildings is setting them the same problem as with nursing, and they are being called out in emergencies having nothing to do with fires, and are suffering physically. As a designer of structures I had a figure per square metre to cover pedestrian loading, on floors, stairs, foot bridges, in lifts, etc. Play equipment, maybe lifts, and other areas could now be all under designed, if 30% of the population are obese.

We Are Losing Out Indigenous Birds.. The numbers have hit an all time low. Turtle Doves, Skylarks, Yellow Hammers, Linnets, Wagtails, are all about 60% down, while Grey Partridges are down by 87%. Intensive farming, autumn sowing of cereals, including the use of agrochemicals, the loss of field margins and hedgerows are the main culprits.. I think I heard recently there was a move afoot to get rid of Set-aside as a subsidised policy, This would further cut the bird population. Like the wild life of the world, soon we will only see our birds in zoos, those who approve of zoos. People in suburbia are no longer having bird tables in the numbers they did, they haven’t time to clean up the droppings or bird-watch.

Aggravation comes in so many forms, is often self induced, and always counter productive, while in some, downright dangerous. The one area most afflicted is driving a car where one forgets the basic law of checks and balances. The old saying concerning a cold in the head, ‘it will take a fortnight to cure, otherwise fourteen days’., has a parallel in driving, ‘no matter how you drive, any journey will always take the same time within a minute or two.’ We have all proved this, but, short of time, we still race and brake, people hoot you unnecessarily and sometimes we hoot, all to no effect, except a rise in blood pressure. There is also Road Rage. Is a minute saved all that important? I was just hooted at, that caused this outburst.

Short cut through a cottage. While we are on about motoring, lorry driver’s satellite navigational aids are making life difficult in some areas. Apparently some aids suggest a narrow lane in Greater Manchester as a short cut, and a number of properties have been damaged as a result, Progress?

Cats kidnapped as punishment. Cat owners received letters that their cats would be relocated because they were killing birds, using gardens as a toilet and digging up lawns. A total of seven cats have been taken, and the owners received letters saying the cats were imprisoned 25 miles away as a punishment.

Gordon Bennet was an expression of surprise and horror I have heard and used, and must admit often wondered where it came from, there seemed no logic. The Daily Telegraph has put me out of my misery at last. It is among 53 other words updated in the Oxford English Dictionary(OED), and is a euphemism for Gorblimey, from a novel, ‘You’re in the racket too,’ by John Curtis in 1937. Now I can sleep at night!.

Decisions can be as simple as ‘when to go to bed’ right up to ‘Should we go to war?’ A little way up the list we have to account for our decisions, like ‘was it wise to have thumped the scrum half when the Ref was looking?’. I read that Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, was alleged to have decided to spend over £21,000 of public money, on personal, legal battles with the press. It concerned printed libellous statements, which he wanted redressed. I was under the impression that if one was libelled and went to court, your assertion was either upheld or was thrown out. If it was upheld you were given damages, unless the matter was specious. In this case I would have thought that long before a sum of £21,000 had been reached, somebody in charge of the public purse would have asked questions. The prime one being, ‘Why was it a public instead of a private action.’ If damages had been received, to whom would they have been paid?

The man in the street is worried about much wider ramifications, where decisions have been made in the public arena, that to seem unnecessary. A prime example was the introduction of managers to the Health Service, when Matrons had been the backbone of the hospital system, and successful.. Old duffers, .who have worked in large organisations, carrying high responsibility and handling large sums, think in any technical situation, the professionals are the people to make professional decisions, The outcomes of almost all problems in a technical environment inevitably have a high technical bias, not merely bookkeeping, so technical decisions take precedence.

It is my experience that promotion from outside an organisation, rather than selection from those in house who have had on-the-job training, is counter productive. It is then, that promotion from outside and the employment of consultants must become the rule’ because the pool of experienced technicians has dwindled with time. The Civil Service is a case in point.

In industry serious mistakes are not tolerated, but It seems that in government circles, public employ, and government management, anything goes there is little or no accountability, until the press gets hold of it. It is demonstrated by the current cases, concerning, the managers responsible for hospitals that had a high number of terminal cases from some alphabet diseases. Initially the managers were to be paid golden handshakes when they were forced to offer their resignation, and it was only rescinded after public acrimony. This is only one instance of many, where mismanagement, inefficiency and bad decision making, including repeated U-turns of policy, have gone without more than a smack on the wrist from the Accounts Committee.

Who is given the powers to make such idiotic decisions? The electorate is probably facing years of rising taxation, falling equity and, financial instability, which to some extent is as a result of, and the general outcome of, the questionable decisions to open two fronts of battle, against professional advice. Where is the accountability? I don’t think Britain, for many years, has been anywhere in the International good-guy league, and the bombers only needed an excuse to change our whole way of travel, and in some cases life expectancy.

We, as individuals, whether we think it or not, are usually accountable for our own decision, registered by the outcome, in both material and social ways. Why, on the larger stage, where people think in billions of our money, is this not required?