Category: General

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

This morning I was thinking that if I hadn’t anything worth reading I shouldn’t write just for the sake of writing something, and instead I started to reminisce about yesterday, Sophie’s 89th birthday. We were inundated with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the great pleasure was that everyone was enjoying themselves and even the tiny ones were amenable and well-behaved. It was a wonderful day. Then I thought about all those children who give the police and the authorities generally so many problems. The government has come up with all sorts of systems, that don’t seem to have worked, and yet they and we know that the fault lies with the parents negating their responsibilities, or in some cases incapable of fulfilling them. It was then that I thought of the crazy idea of a postgraduate course in parenting.

One must assume that as the children grow up they learn from their elders, in general terms, what parenting is about. I am suggesting that fining the parents for the misbehaviour of the children will be counter productive, because you can’t get blood out of a stone. Hence another method must be sought that might be effective and would not be excessively expensive. I suggest that when a child misbehaves in a serious way, the parents are given a lecture and the child a reprieve, on the understanding that if it offends again the parents will be forced to attend classes, on the pain of incarceration if they fail to, and these classes will be designed to point out the parents inadequacies, and the overall effects to the environment as a whole, of their children’s behaviour.

I realise that this sounds a little weak, but it is no worse than what is happening at this stage, and if the right professionals set the course, and a trial area, or areas, were used in some of the worst areas to evaluate the scheme, it might be better than sitting wringing our hands and doing nothing. The one thing we do not want is incarceration of the young in the University of the prison. What we need by both the parents and the children is a sense of their responsibility to the rest of us, as we undertake responsibilities with respect to them,

I have never understood exactly what a Business Secretary does, and always felt that this was chicanery to induce into the Cabinet someone who has not been elected other than by the PM. There is an appearance, by the way in which Lord Mandelson issues statements, on behalf of the Prime Minister, that might even put the Prime Minister on the spot. I also believe that the Prime Minister’s makeup is reserved rather than bombastic, and it would not be at its best with a random set of questions. The one thing that I do not believe we need, and neither does Gordon Brown, is open debate, if it is of a knockabout variety that we are faced with week after week at Prime Minister’s Question Time. The American habit of having face-offs on TV, are being proposed here, not for the first time. I find them extraneous and confusing, because each of the contestants is doing its damnedest to avoid prickly subjects for himself, and doing his best to entrap his opponent in something similar. TV debates have a lot to do with personal egos, personal presentation, rather than subject matter. Often they devolve into people trying to shout one another down, and as far as I’m concerned, a waste of time because they are not answering the questions that I would like to ask. I suspect that the initial questions have been provided to the protagonists beforehand, and it is only when the debate is open to questions from the floor that it begins to liven up, but often those questions are not the ones we want answered.

Going back to Lord M, I wonder what the legality is in Parliamentary procedural terms, to have someone as influential as the current Business Secretary would appear to be, having all the appearance of being more than the Deputy Prime Minister, and one could be confused as to who was sitting on whose lap when it comes down to the pecking order.

The Norwich North bye-election has been very enlightening in many aspects, but before going into that, I propose to examine the attributes, the psychology and the personality required by a good leader. The first necessity is that a leader must be absolutely confident in their own ability and judgement, while at the same time accepting that they are not omniscient. Their situation is a lonely one, in most cases, and because they must judge those working with and for them, there will always be a barrier across which it is unwise to tread. They must be sufficiently experienced to be able to make these judgements fairly, without prejudice and without favour. It is important that they respect the people they are working with, because this attribute commands respect in return. Clear thinking, plus original and lateral thinking are paramount necessities, uncluttered by self doubt, but taken slowly and carefully, together with accepting other peoples views, if worthy. An insight into what makes people tick is a valuable prerequisite in man management. A sense of humour, and a sense of the ridiculous help, and an easy, no-nonsense, manner is essential. Using these yardsticks when viewing our current leaders, it is surprising how many seem to fall short in the essentials.

I think everyone was surprised at how often David Cameron went on the stump. To me it showed a lack of faith in the ability of the candidate chosen and her entourage. It also demonstrated that he was not certain of his own competence to achieve his ends, where one visit should have been enough. I believe this has shown a serious psychological weakness. Bomb-basting on the floor of the House has only gone to strengthen this conclusion. If you read Chloe Smith’s blog you will see that she is keen to stress that her age is an advantage rather than a problem, because she is fully aware within herself, that it is a disadvantage. With the incredible variety of subjects that have to be dealt with by MPs in the committees, and with respect to voting, experience would seem essential. It was interesting the way the local electorate took umbrage at the way Gordon Brown had treated their previous member of Parliament, and voted by not using their feet.

In effect, this is an apology to my MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, and Margaret Ritchie, MLA, Minister for Social Development, in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Recently, on more than one occasion, I have written about the qualities of the Citizens Advice Bureau, while berating the advertisements for financial assistance so prevalent on television. My problem is the fact that I do not surf the net as a hobby, but use it more as a tool, and clearly, ineffectually.

Am I the only person who has previously never heard of Directgov, the website of the government information service? Margaret Ritchie, in reply to a letter from my MP, kindly sent a vast list of the various departments of government set up to help people in financial difficulty, and the level of funding they receive. When I read the letter I was suitably dumbfounded that I had not managed to discovered on the Internet any of these bodies. If I had gone to Directgov I would have found all the information I wanted not only on a national basis, but on a parochial basis.

I write this, because I am aware that there are a lot of people of my age, and probably a lot younger, who are not particularly computer literate, in the way the government and local authorities expect us to be, when they send vital information of our day-to-day requirements on the Internet. I know I have gone over this ground before, but Directgov is so far-reaching that it should be drawn to everyone’s attention, not just the 175 people who read my blog daily. I trust that someone will pick this up and broadcast it more widely. I have used it now to discover a number of departments of government that I have wanted to contact, but previously had had little success.