I wonder if all prime ministers today are as pigheaded as the last two we have had, who make parlous decisions without the money to support them, ignore the real professionals, the highly trained people at the workface, and go ahead, willy-nilly, with their own agendas. Blair’s agenda was his ego, he thought he had the potential of being the greatest politician ever. Instead his reputation has been ruined by so many of the decisions that he made in the latter part of his office, which have been paraded time and time again. I’m sorry to say the current incumbent is of a different cut, he not only wants to be loved, I suspect his agenda is driven primarily because of the fact that Labour are probably going to lose the next election, is in the forefront of his mind. What drove me to write this was his incredible arrogance, in the face of empty coffers, and the advice of the medical profession, to go into a vast screening programme, when the Health Service is so underfunded they are closing local hospitals, against the wishes of the electorate, are understaffed in various departments including maternity. I could be wrong, but two or three of the decisions that have been made in the last few days, like the screening programme, are being aimed at the elderly because we are a large, Conservative voting wedge, with more time to vote, and are more likely to vote, than in any other section of our apathetic community.
Parental control. I think the nanny state is reaching gargantuan proportions, and instead of encouraging parental control to be a reflex action, is wasting our money bringing out new legislation to control the lives of the youngsters across the board. I read that the government is proposing to legislate for a classification system for video games, in the hope that this will reduce the violence in our young people. Where have they been? We have classification of films, and legislation up to the eyeballs about carrying knives, guns, being abusive, threatening, and violent, and yet our TV screens depict levels of shooting, or beatings, that would both be totally impossible for anyone to survive, and the hero walks out unscathed. All this legislation seems to have been ineffectual, because my tired old mind tells me that every week the level of violence in our streets is increasing. In my view it would be cheaper and quicker to legislate that parents are responsible for the actions of their children, and if they, the children, contravene the laws of the country, and by their age are outside a proper level of appropriate punishment, then the parents should be severely punished. You only have to look at the effect of parking fines over the years, to realise that adults, not children, take punishment seriously.
On a lighter note, when I want a belly laugh, I switch on Nigella Lawson, and watch her with her little shaky head movements, the flick of the eyes and her little grin, as she climbs in and out of a taxi to do a bit of shopping, sits in a corner of her house eating what she has just cooked, smiling the while. I find it very difficult to eat and smile, it makes my cheeks ache. After the programme I just marvel that she can get away with it, and people watch daily. I think her producer uses the same script every week, just changes the ingredients.