The Old Gaffer

(Further to 22.11.07, A Number of political Comments,) Identity Cards are still going the rounds and also another product of immigration. I propose to try to analyse the need for them more deeply, as I feel they are an expensive aberration.

The Government seems intent upon pushing ahead with universal ID, paid for by the individual - the cost, allegedly, about £60 each, or about £3.6bn. If you are making that number, in this day and age of sophisticated invention, it is reasonable to expect the outcome would cost a lot less, especially when the banks are scattering them like chaff, What is more, we know the day they are issued, a way of circumventing them will be in hand. Am I wrong in doubting what they tell me, and in fact this is all just another hidden tax? Logically, if these cards are sufficiently secure and efficient, as the government implies, the saving in man-hours, and overheads in checking for and dissuading the miscreants will be so large over time, that the original cost would have been absorbed and should never have been a charge on the individual

A number of types of information suggested to be placed on them is, name, address, date of birth, National Health number, bank and part bank number, Blood group, finger print, and possible eye recognition and DNA. Whether this is accurate isn’t important, all I want to look at is the principle. Who needs them, what is needed and what is dangerous? The police require an ID for ‘Stop and search’ to be simple and speedy, when they are looking for illegal immigrants, criminals, or dealing with the speechless. They would help with over-the-counter fraud only if secure, but that is the 64 dollar question. To use them instead of passports would devalue existing passports which would cause annoyance and confusion at docks and airports, to those holding passports they had paid for. The current system seems as adequate as we need. If my friend could be defrauded of £20,000, with only the information on a driving licence, need I say more?

Let us, just for ease of approximation, group the population by age, roughly guessing the numbers in each group. Those who need cards least, the 0-7s (5m) and the 76-86s (4m). Most of the former will be on their parents’ passport, and the latter will have driving licences and bus passes. Most immigrants will be below the age of 40, so we can take say 90% or 23m, out of the groups between 44-75s (25m), many also will have passports. We are then left with the 8-42’s, (26m), of whom a large percentage, say 50%, 13m, will, today, have passports.. Secondary school children and further education students could be provided with college passes, but I suspect this would be unacceptable to some. So, with this system of assessment, we could avoid having sophisticated ID cards with only a small risk of fraud in 45m cases out of 60m. Clearly this is not scientific, but even if it is only a ballpark figure, it means we have 60m cards when the risk warrants only 15m

Looking at it another way, makes it clear that ID is needed to check probably for about 500,000 possible illegal immigrants and criminals. This is arrived at by supposing we have 2m immigrants currently in this country, say the proportion crooked is 20% That is inordinately high in any society. Now add 100,000 criminals on the run, again excessive, giving a total of 500,000. So we would be having 60m ID cards, no matter who paid for them, to check for some 0.8% of the population, if indeed that number, without any guarantee that the system will be totally secure. One other question does cross my mind, just how many people are stopped and searched in a year, not counting repeat searches? I can’t remember when I last saw a policeman on a beat.

Mohamed. I find the story of the teacher, the little Islamic boy and the teddy, totally incongruous, by being made highly political. The boy is probably a 1st or 2nd generation immigrant. The teacher is clearly a political innocent, dedicated to teaching and wants to interest her class in her experiences in the Middle East. It is a story of love, the love of a young woman for her profession and her charges, the love of the children for their teacher and their affection for their friend by naming the bear after him. Ironically, if we had no immigration the opportunity of making an international incident, and seriously stressing a kind woman would never have arisen. As to blasphemy, probably one of the most religious countries, Ireland, hears profanity in all quarters, from multi-conditional exclamations like, ‘Jesus Mary and Joseph,’ or perhaps to ‘kick the bejasus out of them, to the common English phrase, ‘Jesus Christ.’or just ‘Jesus!’. I do not seriously believe the Islamic international representatives have no knowledge of just how rife blasphemy is in the Christian world. They must realise that to us it is just a Christian name like any other in an everyday context. Not a heinous crime with a strong possibility of being punished by lashing.

Nationalism. I know it’s laughable, but I have only just realised that for 65 years I have been a government sponsored immigrant, sent here to Ulster in the Navy and staying here. Now I do, things fall into place, my English accent, although modified, is still remarked upon. You may know you are with them, but don’t kid yourself you’ll ever be one of them. This doesn’t stop me feeling an overall nationalistic adherence to the United Kingdom. In my mind it is Britain, which, technically it ain’t, but should be for the British, run by the British. Those who come here should abide by our culture, meld with it, not try to reform it in their likeness, or in their specific interests, or indeed underline their own nationalism and beliefs demonstrably. Many of us resent the loss or the dilution of our own culture, even to the point where legislation is introduced to stress the differential between us. In making comment a crime, in some circumstances, racialism becomes rife, even if not acted upon. When we are told immigrants are here to provide much needed labour, which we interpret as cheap labour, an excuse for paying low wages to enrich a few - short term - at the expense of the majority in the long term, we find streets peppered with beggars from abroad, people who are either here illegally, or here to fill a job but are unemployed. Why are they still here? There presence is an incitement to some for resentment if not racialism. We are told our social services and our housing are under threat by this influx, if so, why is it not stopped and to Hell with the EU. Other countries manage to slither round or ignore the EU Directives, why can’t we? Indeed, why do so many, especially politicians, want us to lead the world, when we seem unable to keep our domestic affairs in order?

I only come across immigrants in the DHSS, shops, on the telephone, and even of course the beggars in this outpost of Europe! My problem is I can’t understand what they say. The number of times I have had to put down the phone, ask for several repetitions or walk away to seek another cashier is growing exponentially, and I am beginning to feel like a stranger in my adopted corner of my own land.

Who would be idiot enough to be a teacher today? With everyone jumping on the Educational bandwagon, with ideas, theories speculation, and shortages, is it surprising that those who know, and have no vested interest believe standards have dropped? There have been 13 articles on education in the Daily Telegraph inside 4 days, not including the chaos in N. Ireland, by changing the system to accommodate the reduction in pupil numbers in an education, segregated on religious lines. This is our last year for the eleven plus. Lower standards seem predictable.

From the 20s to the late 40s, we heard little but praise for the British educational system. Daily, people with academic qualifications, or in government, none old enough to have experienced education prior to 1939, or even 1950, are theorising, criticising a system which parents were proud of and never considered excessively stressful. We had the eleven plus, and there was tearful frustration with homework, but no apparent traumatic and mental injury as portrayed. They stopped teaching by rote, in the 60s, now they want to put it back. They have not taught grammar properly since the system was modified decades ago, and a modern language teacher has to make up the English deficit of grammar, to be able to teach German.

Corporal Punishment. I was caned more often for less than most. I took it as part of growing up. Some caning, and or hitting with instruments, like the right angle corner of a setsquare, was totally uncalled for and in some cases administered by a sadistic instinct, this applied especially to the caning by the prefects. When I look back to about 1935, I was caned often in Primary School, but only twice in Grammar School by the teachers. It would seem I had learned my lesson by then. .My relationship with the prefects was on an entirely different level. I was caned at home, and don’t remember resenting it, it was probably deserved. The other day I came across that wonderful programme related by David Attenborough, about the life of elephants being recorded by dung-trolley cameras. The adults chastised a newly born baby from day two. All creatures in the wild chastise. Why was reasonably corrective, corporal punishment, especially in the home, made a serious crime because a few abused the system? It has made teaching and classroom discipline so much harder, especially in districts where for various obvious reasons home discipline is absent. If toughies want to show off in class, and they have an inexperienced teacher, they can even assault the teacher because they are too young to be given a custodial sentence, and this then becomes the breeding ground for the lawlessness that appears to be the problem in most of our towns and cities. In this and other statements, I am not postulating an untried theory. I am comparing one good regime with another, from my own experience.

According to a USA professor, ‘Formal teaching at 5 can hinder child development, it is too academic and puts them off reading.’ Has she not seen the effects of TV and the PC and taken this into account? The home is where reading is sponsored today, and adults now read far less than they used to. Exams and testing in school have become a political football. Private Schools are about to opt out of the national curriculum because the heads believe government interference has introduced ‘fashionable causes’ such as parenting and racial equality at the expense of more pertinent education. Excluded and disaffected pupils, aged between 14 and 19 will be sent by the government, to new schools for high quality practical learning. If the teaching system at these schools is expected to be so successful, why does it need new schools, surely the new system would benefit all at much less expense and there would ultimately be no excluded and disaffected pupils. The Tories want to adopt the Swedish school system, by which multifarious organisations will have a hand in running the government-funded schools. Can you imagine the bureaucracy that will engender? The other day a school was evacuated for fear of a gas explosion, but the register was on the computer so, presumably, checking if all were out of the school was difficult if possible.

I haven’t included all I read, it is very repetitious, and also, at times amazingly quirky. Like the article about robots being developed for work in nursery schools because the toddlers treat them like humans! The researchers seemed surprised that the children’s reaction improved with time. Someone should introduce these researchers to the ‘Learning Curve’. I can just imagine, with the kids sleeping hours on end at home, and playing with their robot buddy a lot during the day, it could be they would sooner stay with their buddy than go home. I thought education was based upon action and reaction in an intellectual environment. Would robots not be a little stultifying?

The computer age has been a bane, for my generation, the over sixties, vulgarly referred to as ‘The Wrinklies’. We use it, some badly; it is used against us, it is unreliable and open to a level of crime in £bns per year, when we only think in thousands. We were brought up, and brought our children up with the adage ‘Look after the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.’ So when a young person deprecatingly says, ‘Sure, you can get nothing for a fiver, these days!’, it is unsurprising that those of us who, in the 40s to 50s were paid £5 a week, have the ‘vapours’ and faint on the spot.

For starters, we, who toed the line, were politically correct and, indeed uncritical, now, from bitter experience, believe nothing our politicians tell us, there is always an underlying agenda we know nothing about until later, and a lot is rhetoric to gain political advantage rather than to improve the future. Just watch PM’s Question Time on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, these proposals can also be rescinded at any time. This is how some of my generation are now viewing the promises Brown made concerning the security of savings since the Northern Rock debacle. I have related the case of a friend who lost her driving licence, only to discover the information it carried had been used to open an account and purchase in her name £20,000 worth of goods. Our savings are therefore no longer secure for many reasons, and my generation is still entrenched in frugality, and saving for a rainy day.

Because I have not the energy to do the research, I cannot give book and verse on the cost to the tax payer of honouring Brown’s promise of securing the top £30,000 in any savings account, if the wheels really do come off. The Northern Rock support will give some idea. Don’t go away with the idea it is in £Bns, it’s an unimaginably Hell of a lot more, I imagine! (That garbled statement shows how confused and worried we wrinklies really are.) As a result there are those considering reverting to the tin box under the bed, but they have forgotten the computer hacker. He will have been checking the accounts in the Inland Revenue records, banks and building societies, of people randomly closing accounts, and then passing the information on to those interested in looking under beds, when the oldies are asleep. When I was young there was a phrase that covers this, it was the name of a novel, ‘Catch 22′.

It has been said surgeons are overpaid. This is ludicrous, in the light of the earnings in the entertainment industry, the sporting industry, spec builders and entrepreneurs. Today stress is greater generally than 20 years ago. Never more so, it seems, than in the medical sphere, with spurious targets, a public more prone to self abuse in one form or another, new and more virulent diseases, and government intervention creating constant change from the tried and trusted procedures of the past.

Standing on the sidelines of hospital treatment in Northern Ireland, the overall quality of skill, consideration and compassion, given generously by hospital staff has been of the highest, indeed exceptional. That is not to say that I have been pleased with the overall care. Waiting time has gone through the roof. In my case, 9 times longer than it would have been in Scotland, with the result that the surgery had to be considerably more severe than it might have been. Sitting in waiting areas, I observed the constant, weekly pressures the surgeons and staff were under, across the board. My reading of it is that the medical profession is generally fair, but under extreme financial pressure and staff shortages.

Some professions suffer more stress than others. Surgery and medicine are high on the list because they have to deal with emotion as well as health. Most doctors today are put under such constant stress that they become bone weary. Either the government is lying when it says it is increasing annual funding, year on year, ahead of inflation; or there is mismanagement of those increased funds, and/or that disease is overwhelming the DHSS. Within my circle I see no sign of an increase in illness. Don’t let us kill off the doctors and medical staff, giving them heart attacks. Assess their income, and the winnings a golfer can accrue with only 4 rounds of golf, and decide who is doing more for society. We are being hoodwinked into paying extortionate sums for our pleasures at the expense of essentials. There is only so much money to go round and next year there will be a lot less.

I started to write about our political scene before I heard of the loss of personal information of half our population. The loss didn’t surprise me as I have been preaching that Government, from top to bottom, is computer illiterate, vulnerable to the computer technocrats, and thinks big is beautiful, when in fact in computing big is dangerous from a number of aspects.

In the past, many of our politicians were drawn from the ‘landed gentry’, those with inherited wealth and often from a family with political antecedents. Like the retired to day, they had time on their hands to allow them to think, criticise, and in the case of the wealthy, if inclined, actually to go into politics. Today, politicians are recruited, could be foisted on a constituency, if elected sit on the back benches, possibly still with a career elsewhere, until they are placed in office, still inexperienced. In office they are playing catch-up and too busy to think and criticise.

Politics is applied man management on a big scale and being a minister it is also on a small scale, and is not learned over night. Rising through the ranks in any big industry, one soon learns that to succeed one requires a pervasive sharp, incisive wit and a listening ear. A sense of humour is essential in smoothing relationships and getting the best out of people, providing it is not perceived as patronising. Control and discipline are a given. An essential element is also a cynical mind which can easily sort the wheat from the chaff. Some people are serious by nature, others morose. They can’t help this, and it is impossible to gauge whether they are less happy than we are, but it can be an impediment to promotion, and if promoted, a barrier in relationships.

I believe the attributes that apply to good government, should be wisdom, probity and fairness and must be taken for granted. No matter how amusing a politician is, if he isn’t patently honest and competent, is impetuous, doesn’t treat his underlings with the respect they warrant, makes and acts on his own ideas and policies without reference, he will have failed. If he appears to be academic and humourless, he will only appeal to some, who are similarly inclined. If he is spontaneous when he should ponder, and ponders when action is needed, he will soon lose face. Senior politicians should, above all, give respect to the opinions of those they have placed in office, anything else is a prescription for chaos. As I have said before, if you want the best you must pay for it dearly, but ensure you are getting value for money. Politicians are not God, in spite of what they appear to think, they are the servants of the public. My problem is that I don’t believe all they tell me, there is severe mismanagement through change for the sake of change, legislation on a total front without proof of success, trying to achieve the unattainable in the time set, and making rash statement to appease disapproval. Those in control should never seek to be loved, if it is not spontaneous, it will never happen, to court it by legislation is another prescription for disaster and chaos.

Identity Cards. With an influx of foreigners in an uncounted million, or probably an awful lot more, some form of check is essential, but on the face of it, forcing 60M residents to purchase, totally unnecessary cards to be able to check on 1.67 % seems not only ludicrous, it is a criminal waste of money. I realise the problem is that criminals are so pervasive, sophisticated and competent, (the better ones - or worse - coming from Russia, I am told,) that they will subvert any system we put in place. By the same token, if the government is to go on repeatedly playing into their hands, what is the point of such an expensive system with so much personal and useful data being included and then given to the criminals? The banks etc are constantly spraying junk mail and making TV viewers sit through endless adverts for cards. Why can’t we harness them to provide cards on the submission of two photos and two or three pounds, they will have achieved their desire for us to run up more debt, and we will have something which, while not fool proof, only partially fulfilling the need for checks, will be better than what we have today. I personally wouldn’t mind a discreet tattoo, if that would help, somewhere easily accessible, like cattle behind the ear? Although, please, no hole in the ear. On second thoughts, even that wouldn’t work!

Some will think this arrant nonsense, but it is my rubbish, based upon my own experience, not someone else’s regurgitated. I have been blessed, and it is a blessing, with a very vivid visual imagination. From childhood I have never seen the pages or the script of a book, when reading I have been at the cinema, visualising the scenes and the action in detail, and where there was not enough detail my mind supplied the rest. Hanging, the electric chair, decapitation and all the rest, were vivid in my mind and horrifying, and even now to a jaded mind, they are vivid and unpleasant.

These thoughts, at 4 in the morning, were spawned by trying to find a solution for two serious problems of today, both random and mindless, terrorism and unprovoked, vicious attack. Since I was 17 years of age I have envisaged my demise, many times, in circumstances of war, in its broadest sense, and the most horrific was the training I had at 17 in hand to hand bayonet fighting. That experience was so graphic, so personal, so savage, I have never really got over it, and I used to think of the poor troopers in WW1, of the Desert Rats, in North Africa and Italy, and the combatants on the German retreat from Moscow. I can’t speak for others, but I believe, people in war avoid discussing their reactions, most of which they subdue to a low level, as there is no alternative. I have had to face the possibility of imminent death only twice, in an air raid, and on convoy. In one case I was so concerned for the welfare of another, and in the other, my own welfare; the incidents were over before I had time to be petrified. Killing remotely, that is, dropping depth charges, shooting with any weapon, even being a dedicated and committed suicide bomber, is impersonal. Being shot, torpedoed, bombed, or even attacked, unless you see it coming, is unanticipated and therefore the reaction is post firing or explosion. Being a possible target and aware of the fact is something one can accept equably, as it is part of the job and taken into account, not a constant source of anticipation.

I have said before, aggressive action is accompanied with a rise in adrenaline levels, which provides the incentive, the fearlessness, and the excitement. Excitement, in my limited experience, was the goal of most of my early wartime escapades, such as wandering around during air raids looking for the action. In joining up there is a level of that too, entering a world one has read about in jingoistic prose, and possibly spurred on by publicity and rhetoric - a push from the rear.

Currently on TV there is a level of aggression in films and cartoons for all ages, that is well over the top, beyond reason, and excessive. To the critical mind, mindless aggression is being substituted for story content and quality of production. The question is, ‘is it influencing the unimaginative, and being replicated in life?’

To condense this, it takes boredom, a desire for excitement, possibly a chip on the shoulder, an aim, spurious or valid, an applied incentive from an outside source, be it a theory, a strong individual in the group, or someone with a motive, to create a fertile environment for aggression, and even more dangerously, action. The training and the rhetoric will provide the excitement, indoctrination coupled with a dedicated leader, real believer or feigned, will take the sheep to the slaughter. The basis for the training and the ultimate action will come from a party which has an agenda of its own, the ability to subvert intellectually, a persuasive tongue, and enough reason and valid elements to fool all but the cynical.

I therefore believe, while it is necessary to watch for the bombers, it is the lines of communication and the prime movers, who need to be identified and removed by any means, nothing barred; we have to go down into the slime to find them and in the slime we must deal with them. They are randomly killing innocents for their own reasons, which probably are unrelated to the rhetoric. Taking the history of the Basque separatists, the killing of the innocents will achieve nothing.

During last week, as part of the Festival Of Remembrance, Jeremy Paxman presented a fabulous programme on WW1 and Wilfred Owen and his poetry. Brought up by my father who, while being a conscientious objector in 1914, in WW1 he nonetheless served as a stretcher bearer and in consequence was wounded twice and gassed, I was therefore taught the futility of war. I served for nearly five years in the Royal Navy in WW2 and was later so incensed by the cowardly actions in the N. Ireland Troubles, that, with a large workforce, at 50, I joined the Ulster Constabulary as a part-time, night time copper. With all this experience, I have never seen the purpose of war, nor the justification; too many innocents, including the soldiers are hurt, injured or killed, at the behest of one or some, with a different agenda.

Resulting from my own angst and the programme, I had an urge to break into poor verse, with no intention of equalling any real poet. Being computer illiterate I am too fearful of posting the verse, in verse form, in case things go wrong as they tend to, so please excuse the way it is presented.

WHY CAN’T WE STOP IT?

We the populace, we the tribe are fooled Day on day, by spurious anecdote. Our ardour encouraged but never cooled As fictions they scatter as fact. They quote Of the purity of war that hideous maw, That sucks up our men to be never more, With a jingoistic appeal to us To battle for them. It was ever thus

The drums roll, the flag is run up the mast With fake reason and digging up the past So stressing our invincibility, Our National pride not culpability. They dress us up and march us off to war For a purpose so subtle, we never saw That under the verbiage there lay a game Of personal ego and commercial gain.

It’s not just our lot, it’s across the world, That untruths are told and flags unfurled. How is it so that we men in the street Never see the real aim, when they entreat The rest of us, here and abroad, to arm To kill and maim, merely destruct or harm Those we know not and often can’t see, Civilians, children, soldiers, you and me?

Let us wake up and see the real reason. Oil, land, political egos, not treason. Their man in the street is like you and me, Couldn’t give a damn, just wants to be free. So why are we killing, so offhandedly? Suicide bombers, once innocently Passing time, now steeped in dire hate, Killing in numbers in many a state. Not for religion, some reason obscure That teaches not love, that clearly is sure.

So let us wake up and stop it right here. It achieves nothing good only spreads fear.  Apart from a few, we all are losers Dancing to the tune of a few misusers.

For a long time I have been preaching that Councils can provide a better service to the Electorate than centralised control. Having worked as a consultant engineer, in contracting, for the Admiralty, for a Housing Executive, and also in Local Government and the Northern Ireland Civil Service, in a mid range capacity with large designs, contracts and workforce, I have experienced the difference. Since about the late 60s there has been constant reshaping of government in all areas, and not necessarily to the benefit of the areas served. Local government has had its teeth drawn and been left with little responsibilities for the services that really matter to the individual, other than those like recreation and cleansing.

In the past, small councils, rural or town, have suffered from insufficient expertise in depth, due to their size. They have often been too open to influence from the ‘Old Boy Net’ and vested interest. The larger councils with greater departments, greater staff, used to be able to give departmental staff training, advancement, in-house expertise and loyalty. If you have to import experience, you lose continuity and above all the personal relationship between departments. In good councils, if there is a problem, it usually can be sorted verbally and face to face. I suspect that huge councils like London have to be split up, with the result that they lose the common touch with the electorate. City councils of the size of Belfast retain them. In a good council, the minute an employee steps into the street, while he might not be aware, he is registering council business - the state of the roads, drainage in storms, lighting and so on, and in parks as well - his pride is at stake.

Central Government is remote and impersonal. often it employs consultants for technical work, at considerable cost, as, with the current general promotional policy, it no longer has technicians trained in-house by coal-face experience, to enable them to monitor the consultant. The principles of civil service senior advancement require movement between departments, similar to Ministerial changes, This is not a prescription for continuity, there is no knowledge in depth, or a build up of the ability to refer current problems to past, local history, as there was in councils. Memos replace verbal intercourse, and protocols and decisions small, or even of significant and costly size, can, across the board, be handed down to departments for execution in a memo, without reference to the effect they will have locally in execution. The management of a council is generally housed in one building, and serves the needs of the geographic area. Because of its size, the civil service, is broken up into large separate units, even in any one function, and is a crude, cumbersome, fit-all tool, not always able to adapt to local conditions.

Local government is more adaptable, offers cheaper and simpler opportunities for the trial of a management theory, without affecting many people. If the public, en masse or individually, feel aggrieved, they can see their local representative on the council, or call at the City or Town Hall and speak to someone. Until the changes took place, the local government workforces, from journeyman to manager, were brought up through the system, knew it backwards, knew the history of the areas in which they worked, and could respond quickly and efficiently in any situation. Take a simple example, designs from a kerb line to a road bridge over a river, were conceived, designed, smaller ones even built by the council, with the larger schemes let to contract but supervised by the experienced council employees. This system gave valuable training to those coming up, This was replicated throughout the departments of the councils. In spite of the standing jokes about council workers, most had pride in their work, and those in the community with limited skills were given work and retained their self respect, The problem is it takes decades to build up the knowledge and the skills, and to pass them on.

In our current, divided society, my experiences in Northern Ireland show that in spite of a candidate being clever, even handed and worthy, he may not be elected, because of voting along ethnic lines and tactical voting, This can leave the minority without representation, and is something which will have to be addressed if we are to have a United Kingdom. How it is achieved equably is the problem, but addressed it must be. We should start now to do away with carpet central government, but not go back to the plethora of councils of all sizes, but to councils covering either large areas or large populations, not both, and not gargantuan councils like the LCC.

Low Emission Zones (LEZ) - the latest hidden taxation and congestion solution, except it is promoted as something more worthy.. Do you know that in another ruse to save the World politicians have put pollution limits on vehicles? Do you know how it applies to your car? I certainly don’t for mine, yet councils round the country, starting with London, are proposing to make areas of their towns and cities LEZs, where one is prohibited entry on the pain of a £100 fine. It could never be deemed fair, and, indeed, especially unfair if there was not adequate public transport, and to my mind there isn’t. Add to this, ambulances, school busses and a high selection of common vehicles used for daily deliveries don’t qualify either, and will also be fined. This is Class A chaotic thinking, especially taking into account the lack of adherence to the theories of how to save the world of the greater populated nations. The whole thing is out of proportion to the level of the problem and the level of the fine is extortionate and irrelevant where saving the earth is concerned, as it will be used for another purpose. Globwarm has become an excuse to raise taxes and perform other actions, without going through the proper channels.

The waste of computer generated junk mail has more than one effect. It creates vast recycling, wastes the subscriptions of charities unnecessarily, annoys the recipients and wastes their time, and it wastes valuable raw materials. A purchaser’s, or a subscriber’s name is placed on appropriate lists, two things happen thereafter and several don’t that should. Not only does the original computer regurgitate correspondence, catalogues, or begging letters containing free gifts, your name and address has been bartered for inclusion on a like computer, and so the rain becomes a deluge. I accept it makes sense to re-canvas to offer more goods, in the hope of tantalising purchasers again, that is the firm’s business, but, nonetheless, should be limited after a few repeats, in an effort to save waste.

Reminding the generous people that you are still helping charity is reasonable, but to repeatedly re-canvas to the point where the small donation has been used up in the expenses of printing, gifts and postage several times over alone, never mind the running expenses, shows a complete lack of supervision of the conduct of charities and the fact that the money donated goes mostly on salaries and management. If donors were less gullible and more street wise, this sort of misuse of the donations might stop. It is clearly producing a profit of some sort, but whether net income is balanced against a sensible yardstick of expected return for promotion, rather than to cover all outgoings and only some help to the legitimate recipients, should be crystal clear to those inspecting charities. Computer canvassing requires legislation, for all our sakes, the charities, us the recipients of totally irrelevant material, and waste disposal.