Month: February 2008

I have already referred to the fact that we are paying 31 billion, in interest on our National Debt, not internal debt. For years I lived with the national debt after the last war, when we owed the Americans and others for helping us. I vaguely remember that in or around about the 70 and… Continue reading 29.02.08,Are we getting value for money? Part 2

On the 13th or February the Daily Telegraph had a list of how taxpayers money is spent. The total came to 589 billion, and they were as follows, Social Protection at 159bn, Health 105bn, Education 78bn, Other Expenditure unspecified 62bn, Public Order And Safety 33bn, Defence 32bn, National Debt Interest 31bn, Personal Social Services 26bn,… Continue reading 27.02.08, Are we getting value for money? Part 1

On the BBC Political Show today, there was an item about the controversy between the government, and the bus companies concerning the supply of bus passes to everyone who is 60 or over years of age. The government has set aside money to cover the cost, while the bus companies can see problems of inequality… Continue reading 24.02.08, Universal Bus Passes for the over 60s.

Sophie and I have subscribed to some charities over many years long-term and also one off. Now we are on a mailing list which is passed from charity to charity and we are receiving junk mail and presents for which we have no use, but overall costing a fortune to purchase, wrap and post, so… Continue reading 22.02.08, Charity and Homeland.

My experience stretches for nearly 90 years, and I see those past times as individual periods. From the end of the First World War until the middle of the 30s, was a time of overcoming the horrors, and retrenchment of the values we had had before. From the mid-30s until WW2, there was a new… Continue reading 21.02.08, The Portcullis and Drawbridge Psychology

When a boy throws himself off a bridge to fall 20 feet, because he is being attacked; when we hear daily of murder, stabbing, and children with machetes, and other children stoning ambulances, it is time to take stock. Before World War II one rarely saw an article in a newspaper about murder, to the… Continue reading 17.02.08, Analyse Crime to find the Causes?

If I were a schoolteacher I think I would pack it in, buy a rucksack and go walkabout. It is incredible that we have two members of Parliament, called secretaries, to deliver one message from the Cabinet, the culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, and the school’s secretary, Ed Balls, telling schoolteachers and the parents that the… Continue reading 15.02.08, Culture Classes.

Curry Concerns I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that 9000 Curry houses were short of staff, and the staff that was needed had to come from Bangladesh. Sophie and my daughter have both taught themselves to make various, incredibly nice curry dishes, using a spice recipe that they got from a restaurant in… Continue reading 12.02.08.

Stoning firemen just for fun. A pastime created by bored young people, during the troubles in Northern Ireland, seems to have spread throughout the UK. It was really very simple, all you needed was some bottle crates, some old whisky and gin bottles, to steal some petrol and tear up a few rags, make about… Continue reading 12.02.08