The Old Gaffer

My response
Reading the comments in the post below, no one could doubt the quality of thought, the determination of ideal, and the sincerity with which those ideals are held. I have taken a census of relatives and friends who have been senior officers in the army and have served in war situations, and it is interesting to find that in general they have the same outlook. They are not prepared to accept that there could be change; is currently every country must spend a vast sum of money just in case someone decides to invade them, or that nations together will act as policeman on any nation that might have reprehensible intentions

To me, this is the mindset of not only the army and the politicians, it is also that of the population at large. This I believe is where some change must be wrought to overcome this mindset, in the face of such carnage, useless expense, and ultimately in down grading the lives of so many for so long. When you consider the way the advertisers can make people believe, in many cases, boasts that are clearly based on a miniscule of fact and blown up to gigantic proportions in order to sell a product, when one thinks of the cost of advertising, manufacture and distribution, it is evidently a paying proposition. I therefore believe that there should be inaugurated World Wide Web sites in every language, and in many guises, showing the futility of war, in all its facets. In particular the waste that is so unproductive. People Power is sometimes mobilised, but never on more than parochial a scale. What I am proposing is that groups of people in every country should form to persuade their countryman that their leaders must find an alternative to war, and combine with other countries to sustain this theory to a level that even the thought of going to war, when other solutions are eminently possible, would be an anathema. . Surely it is the responsibility of the members of every nation to question the validity of the ideal, the mindset, set out above, and insist that their leaders search every avenue to avoid resorting to war. As I have said in my proposal there are unscrupulous people with their own agenda that conflict could well ensue. It is for this reason that I propose a worldwide police force of military capability, subscribed to, in every sense, nationwide.

I fondly believe that although I shan’t see it, the Internet will have such influence in the long run, that what I suggest not only is a possibility, but so obvious it will become a fact.

I wonder if anybody in the government has sat down and questioned this absurd urge placed upon us to drive 5 miles less every day to save the planet. The logistics alone are impossible, and at what point does one make a decision not to go somewhere, because it is more than 5 miles longer than you have allowed for the day. Who’s going to sit down and map out their mileage to achieve this? I know that it is a ruse to make a point, but it is so pettifogging and muddled, I believe the point is lost.

Reality in filmmaking
So many of the films that are produced these days are divorced from reality, not because the story is unreal, but because its interpretation by the director includes bizarre, impossible features. Okay, if you want a fairy story then it should be couched in that environment, not in an everyday one. These martial art pictures are fair enough, you know the hero is going to be able to, not only leap vast distances, but is also going to be able to nail half a dozen of his own kind in a matter of minutes.

The other day I was looking at Notting Hill, and in particular at that section in the story where the hero has parted from his truelove, and is walking down the street to the tune of a song which says, that it snows when she has gone. To my simple mind this was one of the greatest piece of filming I have ever witnessed, because the hero not only walked full-length of the road, he started in sunlight went through all the stages of rain hail and snow, with barely a break, surrounded by a very lively street market. When I thought about it I realised that it must have taken days to choreograph so that it was so seamless, which in turn made it so very effective.

When you are, as I am, responsible for somebody’s health, you have long hours a night to watch old films you have seen before, and very often it is the duplication which causes you to see things that you would have missed the first or second time. The opening sequence of, ‘ Once upon a time in the West’. Where there is a thug sitting waiting for a train, in order to kill one of the passengers descending from it. The sequence follows the route of a fly creeping across this man’s face slowly and aggravating him, until at last he catches it in the barrel of his 6-gun. To me that was pure genius, what with the time that it took to choreograph and film, and the incredible delay in the viewing of what one knew was going to be a stand-off, slowly built up the suspense.

A lot of our lives today are governed by economy rather than skill, and the quality of the goods, the choices we have, and the speed with which we now rush, doesn’t allow the sort of quality of expression and product that I have mentioned above. You have to be as old as I am to be able to draw comparisons; they say comparisons are odious, believe me, if more time was given to the aesthetic rather than the throughput, I think the quality would rise rapidly

On the BBC news I think I heard, although I have not been able to verify it, that this figure quoted, so unbelievable, as the cost of maintaining soldiers in the Middle East, I doubted my hearing but it was repeated at the time. I in no way believe that I have the answer to anything like those in charge of the army, I can only postulate my own views, from a basis of ignorance, tinged with commonsense. Perhaps what I am suggesting is already in place, but it is not being published to the same extent as the military condition.

As I understand it, the infrastructure in Afghanistan and Iraq has suffered considerably as a result of the wars, and the insurgents are consequently hard to riddle out. I gather the population in these places has been suffering from a severe lack of quality or even a basic infrastructure to a point where there is practically none. In any process of renewal one has to start at the most advantageous point, and then work out. I understand that attempts have been made to bring the basic necessities in some areas of the population, as the military clear the way. The only way of winning over the hearts and minds of people in such dire straits is to make their lives at least a little more than bearable. It therefore seems reasonable if we are spending a third of one million per soldier, that amount of money in the eyes of the resident population would be staggering if it was applied to the infrastructure. That also applies in this country. The logistics of carrying this out are immense, but it would seem that if companies that are involved in agrarian and simple manufacturing, were encouraged and financially supported, while being protected, in the way areas were protected in Northern Ireland, thus generating jealousy, greed, or just pure necessity, it would be more persuasive as a tool.

From my own experience in war and local uprisings of a serious nature, it is wrong to speculate because one is never in full awareness of all the facts. I therefore accept that what I have remarked here could be written off as nonsensical rubbish, but one of the advantages of having one’s own blog, is it allows one to make statements like the above, if for no other reason than to generate a debate.

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Illumination.
You can just imagine some civil servant, dying to impress his superiors, waking up in the middle of the night with ‘The great idea!’. He had decided, either here or in Brussels, that those little clear, candle light bulbs used for wall brackets and hall chandeliers are a serious waste of energy even if they were only 40 W, and had to be abolished and replaced by some ugly, un-aesthetic, white energy-saving monster that would have no place whatsoever in all the fittings, in all the lounges and halls across the nation. In my case it will affect approximately 17 40 W bulbs, and the fact of all that energy that I am wasting is keeping me awake at night, not to mention the fact that I’m going to have to decorate the walls, and the reception rooms, when I buy new light fittings to replace those now obsolete.

Would somebody for God’s sake tell those in charge to take a grip, and crawl back into the real world, get advice from someone with commonsense, and one hopes the sense of the ridiculous, before we all go raving mad

Education
There is a battle of words in our house over what I wrote yesterday concerning education, and in particular homework. I’m sure she is right, because she was a highly regarded schoolteacher, with excellent examination results. But then you see her aim was to produce high results in her own field, not taking an overall picture of education per se, and the needs of the individual for his or her future, depending upon the type of future, and his or her ability. School by its very nature has to take account of the wide differential in the ability of its pupils, and steer a course, which will suit all but the highly gifted. I think it is accepted that there is a need for more than just the three Rs, that aesthetic, an awareness of the world, with its population and of its history, is essential, coupled with basic physics in this new world where physics has taken over in so many fields. I was amazed the other day, to find that small children at private preschool classes were being taught French songs by rote, probably taught with an overlay of a regional accent. Everything a child learns in its early years, by its very nature is a form of rote, and when I see adult counter assistants, adding the price of two articles on a calculator, I realise that education has failed the modern generations. We were taught to add long columns of figures, tricks for doing other calculations in the head, because that would be the basis upon which our financial dealings in the future would be conducted and we would be assured of fair dealing. I feel that it is essential that some university’s think tank gets to grips with what is necessary, for the lifestyle, the intellectual ability and the aesthetic of school leavers, so that their time at school is used to the best advantage for them, not for league tables, or the advancement of the careers of some teachers. Teachers by their very nature want to do the best for the children, and in most cases do, but they are operating in a narrow field, taking into account only their own requirements, leaving someone else to decide the overall value of the education being offered. Then we might do away with homework, and stop anything beyond an additional 12% of learning being added to the daily life of our schoolchildren. If this extra time is essential, why have such long school holidays, when the students are ultimately bored to death? Their free-time is valuable for their development in other fields beside school work.

You will probably have noticed if you are a regular reader, that I am sticking to my promise to only write when I think I have something worth saying, and this applies to the last few days when the news, its reasons and its outcomes, have been predictable.

Yesterday
I have been housebound for nine months and yesterday a new door open for me that let in so much light I was nearly overwhelmed. When I was first handicapped, away back in January, I never knew of the existence of a thing called a Rollator . It is, in effect, a small collapsible truck with four wheels, a seat, handbrakes on two handholds, and one can walk pushing this thing in front of one, so that the body is supported by the arms, not cantilevered, and when one becomes fatigued one can put on the brakes, the thing is now totally rigid, and then one can sit down and rest, and the day is not over. In a while one can get up and go on doing what one wants to do. Yesterday I went shopping the first time in all that time, I was out of the house, mixing with the public, and having a totally new perspective. Those who are handicapped will know what a revelation that was, to those who have never been handicapped, take my word for it, it is the best thing that has happened in all that time, and my life has changed.

A new review of cooking.
I’m not going into a whole spiel like one of these cooking programmes on TV, but I personally believe that while I may not be original, by necessity I have discovered a way of improving the variety of the food that Sophie and I can enjoy, easily and cheaply, because I have a lot of spare time, and we have carers who help us with our meals. We have found that buying ready-made meals is not all it is cracked up to be, because the bulk can often be vegetables with little choice of what they are, and the food is not cooked to our taste, which is mainly circa 1940. I address this not only to the handicapped, but to the impecunious and the busy.

There is a shadowy manufacturer called Auntie Bessie, who provides one with mashed potato that can be readily made in the microwave, and Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, and onion rings that can be heated and a quality that is acceptable even to the critical. So now, we buy large portions of meat, preferably when on offer, such as a leg of lamb, loin of pork and so on. I cook these separately, allow them to cool, and then slice them, make small packages enough for a meal for two, wrap them in foil and freeze them. So periodically, merely by heating a few vegetables, heating the Auntie Bessie products in the oven, and heating our plates in the microwave, along with additional gravy, I can make a very respectable roast dinner. With this level of success we then widened the horizon and included a kilo of mince, a kilo of beef pieces, and a roast chicken, and then we had, the ingredients of Irish stew, boeuf Bourguignon, mince and potatoes and veg, spaghetti Bolognese, and many other versions. I think if you calculate not only the cost savings, the saving in time of the system, you will find it is to your advantage, the quality of the food is better than you will buy, the variety on offer is greater, and coupled with other simple foods that are home-cooked meals, food becomes more than just a source of nourishment. I strongly suspect that I have stumbled upon the way in which restaurants operate, if I have, I now understand why they can offer the variety they do.

I have said this before, and whether it is wise to repeat it is arguable, because I think you will know what I am about to say, but it seems that we are unable to do anything about it. In my view our political system had lost its way

It is we, the populace, who provide the finances for the running of the country and in consequence expect a reasonable return, and a minimum of flummery and waste. The opposition collectively, is not there to fight its own corner; it is there to keep a check on the way the country is being run and to highlight mismanagement and waste. What is actually happening is that Parliament seems to be more interested in its own function, and what is more its individual reputations, as a result of a feeding frenzy of mass media, than it is in its true function. You only have to listen to PM’s Question Time, to realise this is the case. The continuous stream of change in every aspect of our lives, almost on a daily basis is a clear signal that the statement is correct. In all my adult life from the end of World War II when I was demobbed, I have never seen such a disruptive and insecure method of government, with its constant carping, with the total mismanagement of the more unimportant aspects of parliamentary procedure, which has been pounced upon by the media and has totally devalued the system as a whole, when it could have been handled just as fairly and without the razzmatazz. This was clearly a political ploy which certainly backfired to the detriment of us all, and now we are having more of this nonsense being splattered across the world and demeaning our way of life. Is it any wonder people are no longer bothering to vote because all they will get is a rubber stamp of what they have just had, only the colour will have changed?

Education
There is no shadow of doubt that university education, as my generation knew it, has been turned upside down for several reasons. There seems to be a universal expectation that a university education is the right of every citizen. The effect of this is that more and more universities were built or converted from being technical colleges to accommodate this increase. To sustain these extra colleges they had to reduce the quality of the acceptance standards to keep up the level of the student population for funding reasons. High-quality teachers, again of my generation, complained bitterly that standards were dropping and nobody paid any attention, and it took the credit crunch to bring it home. Now the government is being forced, through financial stringencies both for the universities and the students, to go back to the old system of forming technical colleges, albeit on a hand to mouth basis. The question I asked when I saw these students being trained as brickies, was whether anybody had done an analysis of how many bricklayers the building industry, including those laid off, in its current downturn, would be required on a year by year basis in the future, or are we just training from the sake of training, rather than have these youngsters doing nothing? It’s all money, our money, and panic measures are currently prevalent.

Regional accents
Again, when I was young, shop-girls in haberdashery departments of some of the bigger high street stores, developed what they thought of as an upper-class accent, which in fact was taken off by comedians on radio. In the 60s we had the social revolution, which applauded the maintenance of regional accents. In those early years before the 60s, regional accents were not totally removed, merely honed a little at school by teachers with university accents, or by the imitation of them. The refined regional accent is a pleasure to listen to and more importantly, easy to understand by people with an entirely different background. I am convinced that I am not alone in finding reporters on television and radio, at times impossible to translate, or am I again showing my partiality for my own outmoded upbringing?

Skye television
I think it’s fair to say that because my mobility is reduced I tend to watch television more than the average person, so therefore I would be more subjected to realising the number of repeats, and the paucity of quality that is now being offered repeatedly, not just occasionally by Skye. The quality and popularity of a television product is the way in which it becomes part of the viewing panorama, and so when a film dated anything from 1945 is offered, it is reasonable to question why the title had never previously been heard of in the passing nearly 65 years, and why it was suddenly being offered now? The answer is obvious of course, economy, but I notice that my bill is not being dumbed down, but raised.

Let us have a referendum. Even before the expenses scandal the population was losing its trust in the government and politicians generally. Currently we are being badgered daily by the main parties, including the government, with ideas and policies that seem to be valid for only about a week, before they’re either rejected or changed. And yet we are going to be faced with an election to decide which of these parties is going to rule us for another four years, when they all seem to be much of a muchness. Vast sums of money have been wasted in millions on projects that never came to fruition, and judicial enquiries that never produced a result. So let’s try and change the system. Let’s have a referendum which asks whether we want to maintain the current first past the post system, or whether we would sooner have a Prime Minister whom we trust, to form a coalition government. Perhaps only for the one term, but then it might catch on, with politics you never know.

First of all we would need free publicity, and as ITV seems to be short of advertising, a nationwide publicity stunt, promoted by them would probably please the advertisers. In the initial instance there would be a national probe as to whether people want the first past the post system or not. This would provide an opportunity for the various parties to show their mettle and reason for that system. The alternative is obvious. If it turned out that the survey showed that voting for the PM was the best idea, then it would be up to another survey, in conjunction with a poll taken among the MPs, to select the eight best candidates for election. To prevent gerrymandering, the actual vote would be a postal one, with the main parties delivering the voting paper while they were initially trying to uphold the first past the post system. The referendum would give the public the opportunity to still vote for the first past the post system rather than a PM.

I know that it is totally daft, and will never happen, but I firmly believe that what we need now is a period of two or three years of sensible, considered, government, by people who are not constantly fighting the next election while in government. Put an end to change for the change’s sake, and crazy expenditure, and get down to improving the infrastructure, and considering more about our hopes and requirements, rather than trying to be the world’s policeman, and in the case of prime ministers, world leaders. In effect let us retrench.

The hidden world of the DHSS
The average man in the street even in a lifetime barely scratches the complexity and the store of help that is there waiting for use. Become handicapped and a whole new world opens up to you. It always annoyed me when people used to complain and still do, about the quality of the DHSS, when they haven’t a clue of the incredible complexity and difficulty of running such an enormous department, with so many different individual sub-departments as the DHSS has. The degree of concern, help, assistance and equipment, offered by the DHSS with goodwill and care only becomes apparent when you really needed it. For those who are handicapped the level of help offered in their own home, and the equipment to make their life more simple and bearable, is unbelievable until you are actually on the receiving end. If you get on to the government website as I have had to do, you will be amazed at what is on offer, sometimes for some people totally free, and for the rest of us just very little cost. In saying that, I exclude the cost to the individual or being placed in a care home, as it is government not DHSS policy.

The logicality of international foreign policy
Ultimately, at the behest of the USA, a large proportion of those countries with the facilities, have been induced into fighting wars that were not about the original problems presented by the UN, but about America’s foreign policy especially when it comes to oil. Hussein did a lot of sabre rattling with his fiction of an atomic arsenal, and we were suckered in. As an individual I find it strange that the world isn’t openly and even militarily up in arms against Pakistan for harbouring and apparently doing little about the terrorists clique within its borders, who are creating havoc and murder to a monstrous extent elsewhere, when on the face of it all they are receiving is remonstration.

I haven’t posted anything from a few days because I’m sticking to my resolve to do that, if I have nothing worth saying, rather than gabbling for its own sake, which is a heinous crime.

Getting a grip on the lawyers
I have been absolutely staggered recently by the amount of money the government spends on legal wrangling in the courts. Not only do they go to court to appeal, when that’s turned down it appears they go again. It does no one any good except the barristers. They are talking about tightening the belts of the civil service, which at the upper level would seem to be pretty fair, but at the bottom would be excruciating for those affected. In effect lawyers are as much part of the civil service today as they ever were, because a lot of their work is associated with claims related to government policy. To me, it is logical therefore, like dentists employed by the government in the the National Health, that there should be a scale of charges for legal teams that is reasonable but not excessive.

Voting with our cash
We are told that competition is a good tool to aid the economy. On more than one occasion I have suggested that the government should have a National Bank operating in competition with the current ones, and divorced from the Bank of England. The purpose of which would be to allow us to shift our money from banks that are dependent on the stock exchange profits to keep those senior members in a style to which I would love to become accustomed. First of all the government doesn’t need to make a profit, as long as it pays its way adequately, and as it would be lending at sensible rates of interest, carefully, circumspectly, and with the interests of not only the bank customers, but those in industry, who need the money which they’ are now not getting to expand, and then thus help the economy. I strongly suspect that the rates of interest on loans would drop, providing that the system is run properly and tightly, which would then mean that people like myself who are saving for that awful day when I get booked into a home, will get a better rate of interest. If that happens, there will be two results, firstly, old Gaffer’s like me will shift our cash to the new bank, and as this is in competition, then suddenly, but not surprisingly, the banks who have not been giving loans will see the error of their ways