Category: General

When I retired we thought I would fix up a towing van but it was beyond it. we went looking for a replacement, and finally decided on a motor-home, telephoned the character who had tendered for the repair of the caravan. I told him what I proposed but he said what I needed was what he could build for me, provided I bought the basic vehicle and designed the layout. I had proposed to buy one with the big overhang but he said they were susceptible to damage from shop sun-canopies, Wanting all the prequisites of a luxury machine, Sophie and I spent hours standing or sitting on bits of newspaper, checking we could get it all in .  Apart from the stress of driving the basic van from its depot to our house on a winter evening, in the dark, at the rush hour, everything was great. We soon found its merits and its problems. Shopping meant tying everything down before we could move, and having to park on the outskirts of town because of the height barriers at every car park. But on arrival at a site there was no jacking, just open the long door, turn the front seats round and make the tea.

We met some extraordinary people all over Europe. There were the scroungers who visited just when they thought the bottles would be out, ostensibly to welcome us to the site, There were others who insisted on telling us their life story, blow by blow and strong hints, just short of outright rudeness, couldn’t shift them. There was the lady in Vienna, incredibly endowed, who stood beside the swimming pool slowly and deliberately rubbing some form of unguent into her bare, pendulous bosom while her head was rotating like a lighthouse to see the effect it was having on the assemblage.

Above all though was the man we met on our way to Graz having just left Vienna. He was a ‘lu-lu’! We had just turned off the motorway and were heading for the mountains, but unfortunately, two lorries preceded us and, as is their wont, they drove nose to tail, so it was a case of pass one, pass all, or stay put. For several kilometres the road precluded even a peep and then there was a long straight stretch and I started to pass. In the distance a white sports car appeared but he had ages to slow down so I kept going, passed the lorries with room to spare, and then we could relax with an open road and scenery to drool over, but nonetheless the on-coming car had to flash us, I assume he owned the road. About half an hour later I saw a white car right up against the back of the van and it appeared to have no notion of passing, and then, without warning, it swung out, shot in front of us and braked so suddenly that if my reactions or my concentration had been in the slightest impaired we would have been into it. In truth, the sudden halt was so fierce that the fridge door flew open and the contents came up the van to find us. I remonstrated but he took off. We cleaned up, took off ourselves only to find him round the next bend going slowly. We came up behind him and he did the same thing again, but I was ready this time. There were more instances but to shorten the story, twice he got out of the car and shouted abuse at us in English because we had caused him to slow down on his way earlier, his was the sports car I had seen. On the second occasion he then stepped up to the window I had open beside me and before I could gather his intent, he had the keys out of the lock and said he was going to the police to report me. We were stunned. Not only were they the keys for the engine, the back door and the water tank; the house and alarm keys were also on the ring,

I must admit it took a minute for me to gain my composure, because by now he had disappeared. We were in the middle of nowhere, ostensibly without keys. When the pulse rate had died down and the adrenaline had subsided, Soph got our spare set of keys and it then took us an hour to find the police station, the area was so remote. We told our tale and it took another two hours to get out of there and on our way once more. We did not go to Graz, we were too worried he would be waiting to break into the van if we parked it, instead we went to Salzberg, but we had to go right across to the Rhine before we could find someone to replace our keys.

I told this tale to Ted, Sophie’s brother, and he said there was an elderly woman living near him, in Cheshire, who had been driving too slowly to please another driver and he had stopped in front of her too, and taken her keys, but he had thrown them into a nearby garden. I think any comment on both occurrences would be hyperbole of the highest order.

Criticism often says more about the critic than the person or idea being criticised

Every now and again it doesn’t do any harm to examine the reasons for what one does, in other words being self-critical. This then caused me to think of criticism in the round, and one of its attributes is that it is judgemental. I therefore wondered if I had a right to be judgemental about politics, about politicians and their reasons for the way they conduct themselves. I’m not really a political animal, and I’m certainly no politician, but I generally preface my comments with a get out clause, like, ‘it is my belief’, or other phrases to provide a context within which I write. When I listen to political speeches, or read the utterances of politicians, I wonder whether some of them are as self critical as they should be. For example this business of leaking purely to find out how acceptable future legislation is likely to be, can be a search for criticism, and thereby to legislate in such a way as to avoid criticism while achieving the same objective, – or, of course, abandoning the project altogether.

I’m sure at some point you have met a ‘know-all’, someone who is so assured of their own tastes, their own knowledge and their own position, they will correct someone’s statement, almost as a knee-jerk reaction, whether justified or not, and character assignation has become second nature. Most of the time, and especially in the matter of taste, the critic is making a personal statement, not just a criticism. The strange thing is that the criticism doesn’t have to be spoken, it can be done purely with the eyes raised to the heavens, with an oblique tilt of the head, or the raise of a hand like a defence. Done a few times it is amusing, on a regular basis it becomes a bore, and depending upon the person subjected to it, it can be quite damaging.

When I was 17, working for an august Company in Westminster, I was allowed to dictate my own letters. Fifteen years later, having run large contracts, including running an amateur in-office newspaper, I entered local government at which point I was put under the control of somebody only one step ahead of me in authority. In that job I had to write letters, but I had to get them approved by this other person, who made a point of invariably changing some part of the syntax, rather than the contents. I suppose this is a form of criticism, but really I think the man had a need to justify his position, which in turn showed a lack of self-confidence. As criticism, according to the thesaurus, can be interpretation, what I have written here in this paragraph is interpretation, and could be totally wrong, my letters might have needed the syntax changed, perhaps, I was too big headed.

In all of my career, apart from my first month in the navy, I think that the elementary school I went to in London, held a few teachers who were more speciously critical than anyone else I came across, and demonstrated it on the seat of my pants, or palms of my hands. As an adult I believe they were bored, frustrated and disappointed with life, and we were handy. In the Navy, in those first days, the old retirees who had been brought back to fill the ranks were reliving the treatment they had had metered out to them in the late 20s, ‘when men were really men’.. They simply couldn’t be pleased. It was unbridled criticism taken to its vicious limit – it wasn’t pure chance two men were in jail for trying to stab the same Chief Petty Officer, on different occasions.

All the same, it’s really quite amusing to sit with a pint in a pub, and criticise to your heart’s content about everything.

The puppet masters who have been working George Bush, have surpassed themselves, they have actually got him believing he is a world leader, to the extent that he has chaired a summit of some 16 nations to discuss the subject, global warming, that he is wriggling to avoid tackling. The problem is the people who put him in office, with their large subscriptions for his campaign, have interests which are contrary to those best suited to saving the world. He’s not alone in this of course, irrespective of the carbon emission per capita, the bigger nations are loath to sign up, with the problem that presents. Across the world we have large nations, with impoverished residents, who are doing their damnedest to avoid being drawn into the debate on CO2.

There are a number of aspects concerning this subject which are not made clear. To the best of my knowledge there has been no statement of what is an acceptable level, in tons per capita, or the CO2 we are striving for.. That alone would be a useful yardstick. There was an American politician, as well as some here, who was urging us all, not only the USA, to change to these energy-saving light bulbs within a few years, I think it was ten. When they first came onto the market I bought four and put them into one of those hanging brackets – the modern-day chandelier. They didn’t fit, they looked hideous, they were dust traps, because the tubes were pointing upwards, and overall I don’t really think that they gave off the amount of light they were credited with. So taking this American’s idea, without a total redesign of the nature of these lamps, with the different sizes and shapes that would be required to accommodate them into the average domestic fitting, one of two things is going to happen. If they don’t change the design either the individual will not buy them, or he will be placed in a situation where he has to change the light fittings throughout his house. The second situation, one which I believe will never come to pass, is that they will require to redesign the lamps so that they fulfil the placement for the fittings currently in houses across the land, and representing taste stretching across not decades but at least a century. What I believe and is obvious, is that when one takes into account all the light fittings across the world, the manufacture and supply of new systems, coupled with the removal and disposal of the old fitting and the installation of the new ones, with all the redecoration that will involve, I believe the Carbon emission saved by the new bulbs would be dwarfed by that generated, even if the customers of the electricity companies ever did ultimately accede.

I wish that our politicians would stop haranguing us for their own ends, to appear to care, to appear with it, and sit down and think of the parameters that are involved in the implementation of what they’re proposing. It is no wonder that the populace as a whole, are apathetic and have totally lost faith in most of the people who purport to rule them.

What follows here is not new and probably echoes your views, but because those in responsibility are shying away like they did with the Iraq question, even with such a small audience as I have, 200 readers per day, I feel I must reiterate.

Greed is not necessarily about money or possessions, In family circles it can be about the pecking order, love, and can be forged by jealousy. On the wider stage it is about self-aggrandisement, pride, reputation, approval, and of course wealth, and this greed is never more demonstrated than in politics. With regard to the problems in Burma, the Junta is fearful of losing its status and all that goes with it. India’s politicians are fearful of losing their oil source and consequently are sitting on the side lines, with their own status intact. Russia and China, with governments not in the democratic mould, are bound to either do nothing, or even obstruct any censure, because they are seen by the rest of the world as being in almost the same category as the Junta. With such vast power being wielded, and the failure of the UN to control insurgency, hope for the solution many of us see as appropriate and just, is small.

As a teenager I was sent to the Christian Science church Sunday school, and was taught that matter didn’t exist, everything that occurred, occurred in our own minds, and was a figment of our own thoughts. If you analyse that, you will realise that there is no way that you can disprove it, theoretically. Practically of course it’s a different matter. Some of this teaching has stuck with me, and I practise it when needed. If you ever go for an operation, which is going to be rather unpleasant, especially in the case of the preliminaries, the surgeon or a nurse will say to you ‘concentrate on something else,’ because they know that this will reduce the traumatic effect of what they’re about to do. I have found in my own case, if I have severe discomfort for one reason or another, that clearing the mind totally, and preventing thoughts from taking hold, can be very beneficial, to the point where the pain no longer registers. At times like that I think of my mind as a room with many doors through which thoughts can come, and as soon as a thought tries to come through a door I mentally slam the door on it. This may sound absurd, and possibly you think it is rubbish, but I can assure you, it is often a help to me with insomnia.

For years I was very sceptical of faith healers, people who laid hands on you, gave you potions, and were looked upon by a lot of people as charlatans and quacks. There is no shadow of doubt that many of the people practising are not doing so under the control of any association or society, and the skill is not determined by anything other than being passed on by word of mouth. However, in one aspect I have had my mind changed. Some years ago I had a ganglion on the back of my hand, I went to my doctor to ask for an appointment with a specialist or have it surgically removed, but he said that this was not possible as it was on a tendon and this would be too risky. A lady I know, who is a practising healer, with people prepared to fly from one end of the United Kingdom to the other for a single consultation, offered to help me. She placed her hands some two to three inches above the ganglion and concentrated on what she was doing. As time went on, and I am talking only minutes, I felt the heat penetrating my hand, my hands tingling, and sensed that there was some form of energy literally flowing through my hand. All the time this was going on I was sceptical, I thanked the Lady, she went on her way, and then three or four days later the gangly started to diminish. Within a week it had gone completely and never returned. Once when I had a serious operation and the pain was considerable, she came and did the same for me. The surgeon who had operated and my own doctor told me that it would be very painful afterwards and that I should lay in a supply of painkillers. On the first day home their forecasts were fully justified, but the lady came and put their hands over the area once again, and within 24 hours I needed no more painkillers, even when the wound was being dressed. If you have read this blog to any extent, I believe that you will have found that I am a pragmatist, and not given to flights of fancy.

When it comes to potions, which Sophie believes in, I am more sceptical. The faith healing prescriptions, based on herbs and natural chemicals from the earth, diluted out of all recognition, seemed to me to cure on the basis of belief rather than any effective chemical reaction in the body. The fact that there are shops all over the world selling these things, and I believe that Chinese medicine in rural areas has a similar basis, would seem to substantiate that there is something in it. As a pragmatist with a scientific background I can only put it down to self hypnosis, as the amount of the product as a percentage of the whole potion is so small, and I cannot see how it can have such dominance. The corollary of this is the poisons and other substances which have an effect on the body, should be damaging us quite considerably as we come across them in our daily lives in much greater quantities. I personally cannot align these two concepts.

Over my long life I have seen the effects both good and bad of religion. I have seen people whose lives have been enriched because of their strong religious beliefs, and there have been those including my mother, who suffered for them. So it is not up to me to criticise what I don’t understand. We must work on the principle that if you think it does you good it probably will.

If you are of a queasy nature, I suggest you move on to the next paragraph as I am giving some lurid descriptions. I have previously mentioned that I have had skin cancer on my ear, and that it will be 30 weeks between the time I first reported and the time of my operation. I have now had the operation and what has come out of it is that it should have been attended to long ago. If this had happened, it would not have become infected, my wife would not have had to patch it every night for all those 30 weeks, to avoid staining the pillow, and I would have been saved considerable discomfort in consequence. But the greatest concern turned out to be the amount of ear I lost during the operation. Instead of a short incision and a small amount of flesh cut away, they had to take out a large piece of my ear, shaped like a portion of pie, and the rest of the ear stitched up so the loss was not noticed.

Now the operation is over, I can say that the end result is probably no worse than it might have been anyway, the quality of the work by the surgeon was unbelievably clever and excellent. Strangely, I look back on the experience with interest. I discovered an approach to the work that I would not personally have ever imagined. But this does not excuse the nightly torture and the considerable discomfort, brought about by the delay. I have since discovered that the delay was caused by the fact that the Northern Ireland health service is short of skin grafters, and the surgeon who operated on me was just one of the few.

I mentioned this condition to a doctor and he said that there existed a much more chronic problem which was not being addressed and this was back pain. He said that if a back pain was attended to by physiotherapists within days of it having been discovered, it could be relieved and quite possibly cured, but a protracted delay could cause the condition to become a permanency. This is something to be catered for immediately, as it would probably save money in the long run, and would certainly be beneficial to the patients, overall.

One other matter which did come to light was the stifling effect of the legal profession, its advertising and its insidious influence on the way the health service is run. The day after the operation, the district nurse came to me to carry out the first change of dressing. She was kind, careful, gentle and extremely professional. It took her 10 minutes to clean up and then rewrap the ear. It took a further 10 minutes to fill in three forms; on one she circled a series of items, on another she filled in a series of boxes, and on the third form she wrote what seemed to me to be a small essay. I suggested to her, and to the doctor that I mentioned in the above paragraph, that this was due to the advertisements that encourage people to take legal action on the basis of no return, no fee. She agreed with me, but the doctor enlarged the scope by saying that this was required because of the legal implications when it came to the DHSS audit. We are too short of the quality of nursing that this lady provided, to waste her time as a clerk. It struck me as being totally counter-productive and therefore a waste of money. I know it won’t happen, but I believe we do have to trust somebody, and I prefer to trust the medical profession, than I would trust either civil servants controlling the health service, or these lawyers who to my mind are ambulance chasers. If the proposition’ is taken to the next stage it seemed reasonable, that in order to curtail the activities of the lawyers, we sign a waiver which basically states that we understand the risks we are taking and that we will not under any circumstances go to law as a result, but have the right in unreasonable circumstances, to refer to an arbitration Board set up by the DHSS.  A lot of people will say we are giving up our civil rights, but better that on a percentage basis, than the 100% waste of time of valuable skills.

Filling leisure time in retirement.This is not the first time I have written concerning the aged. I have been very fortunate, I have a number of interests, I still have most of my health, and I still have Sophie. So many of my friends are no longer here, or in homes, and so I have seen what can happen to those of us whose resources have been seriously reduced. In consequence I want to stress to those in their 50s and 60s, that before they retire they should expand their interests, if they haven’t already got a number. I have seen the effect on people who were so wrapped up in their work, so dependent upon those people they worked with for company, and I mean in a general sense not necessarily within a company, that when they retired they were lost, no idea what to do, with all that free time twelve hours a day, seven days a week.

Some of us, myself included are not totally gregarious, we like the company of others, but we like time to ourselves and so it is necessary for the individual to take this into account, to decide whether he is a good club man, is a joiner, prefers his own company more than being in a group. This type of man will need to find interests that are fully individual, or those that don’t require constant association. Sports clubs are great, or should be, providing one doesn’t become too involved. Some charities, like taped newspapers for Blind people, are both interesting, and useful, and bring one in touch with other like-minded people. Individuals must make their own choices, within their own opportunities, and it is a chance to test maybe unsuspected interests and talent. Some outdoor pursuits are essential, even if is only walking; one’s health, and by the same token mental stimulation are needed to keep the brain alive and inquisitive

Thinking about this, I researched the trends over the period between 1991 and 2002 of lending by public libraries which included audio and visual. The borrowing of audio and visual, was the only category to increase, and that by 100%. The trends all followed a similar pattern for children’s books, adult non-fiction and adult fiction, by the fact that the first five-year period was diminished by a lot less than the second period, and adult fiction had dropped, overall, by 41%. I under took this research because I have found that among my friends and relatives, while a lot of them surf the Net, and watch documentaries on television, a lot fewer of them read as much as I and Sophie do, and most used to do 40 years ago. Clearly the electronic age is partly to blame, plus the fact that a lot of families have two wage earners, so life moves faster and there is less urge for relaxing pursuits like reading and board-games as there was years ago. The corollary of this of course, is that retirees might have fewer interests outside the computer and television, with which to occupy their time. Whether this matters or not, may not be discovered until too late. Perhaps those soon retiring, while they are still employed, might wish to make a concerted effort to at least try interesting pastimes that they might take up once they do retire.. Evening classes, short day or weekend courses, and other forms of adult education were a great source of interest years ago for adults wanting to broaden their horizons and to meet people.

I will be posting one or two essays about the changes Ireland has gone through since I first came to live here, and want here to drew attention to the tremendous changes that have happened to our holidays, be they just a day out, or six weeks on the continent. My daughter’s experience makes the point. At one time I had a motor home, we could get up and go off whenever we wished, stop in a lay-by and spend the night – certainly not the world, but Europe was our oyster. Last summer my daughter travelled no more than 40 miles, they parked in a public car park, went for a meal, and her partner who wasn’t feeling well, went to bed while she took the dog for a walk. It was late in evening but being summer, still daylight. Something awakened him to find that young men were not only trying to smash the motor home, they were proposing to set light to it, with him inside. Fortunately someone came at that time and he had no need to face the thugs on his own, they ran off. We are told we live in a free country, but parents fear for their children, adults have to be on the qui vive, even young children are stabbed, and the elderly are beaten in their own homes.

We live a couple of miles from the seashore, and we find now that people no longer seem to regularly take their children to the beach to make sand castles, and play as we did, and my children did after me. I’m not sure if it’s because they worry about the quality of the water, or because they spend holidays doing those things in the hot, sunny climes abroad. I was a married student, our holidays consisted of days spent on beaches, using public transport and returning home every night. There were times when the holiday beaches in Ireland were packed, the seaside towns full of holidaymakers, and people enjoying simple pleasures and contented to do so. We didn’t look for haut cuisine, we had never heard of it, the food in the boarding houses and small hotels that most of us frequented, was akin to what we had at home. There is no shadow of doubt that with grants, the quality of the bed and breakfast sector has improved out of all recognition, and is generally value for money, in my day it was Hobson’s choice. I think one of the reasons the people no longer go to places like Hastings, the old Victorian resort, is partly to do with public transport. When it was plentiful, and relatively cheap, it was nice and relaxing to climb into a train with a suitcase or rucksack and head for a seaside resort. That was basically the choice, we went where the transport dictated. In the 60s and after, when the aristocracy were opening their houses and offering entertainment as well, the car came into its own

Now there is another influence, which is yet to be evaluated. That is the effect of security, and the possible increase in air flight taxation, the cancellations, the lack of refunds and all the other ills and frustrations that could well bring the holidaymaker back to Britain. If climate change also has an effect that could well be the case. The one thing is certain, in my day you had to find out that the water was clean or not, which it generally was. Now Big Brother is putting out flags to frighten us off, because our water usage, both in quantity and method, has outstripped the infrastructure. Advertising, TV and the tourist boards tend to give emphasis to the obvious resorts, like the Lake District, or Killarney. Thus as a result in the high season they are so crowded that you often can’t find a place to park within walking distance of one of the renowned views. Not all of us though are able to go off-season. This phenomenon of pockets of crowds is another which the car has introduced since about the 70s.

I don’t call myself an old gaffer for nothing, I yap on about the past mainly because today is so stressful for the young people growing up with their young families. We had time to potter, put on hiking boots, take a rucksack, take a train and go and stay in a glorified hovel for a long weekend and climb mountains, or walk along the coast, without a care in the world. No parking problems, inexpensive and no pressure. So it wasn’t too hygienic, I’m no worse for it! People today can afford so much more than we could have, at the same time in our lives, but I just wonder if the things that they are spending money on are making them any happier or is it giving added pressures, through decisions, increased financial worries, and even socially.

On the 21st of September, 07, the Daily Telegraph published an item which stated that The Inland Revenue, which I assume means Gordon Brown, are proposing to levy inheritance tax backdated for seven years. I am hoping that this is yet another flag being run up the mast to see who salutes it. To even propose such a scheme, shows a complete disregard for the peace of mind of the citizen, a dishonest approach to legislation, and a contempt for all things honourable. It also encourages spending while you have it in case it is ripped off you on the quiet, the opposite of current Government urging. I don’t know if the levy of taxes is comparable to legislation, in other words it requires an act of Parliament to rescind it. If it hasn’t it should have. In one breath Brown is wanting us to bolster our savings, so we thought, for our good, but in fact it would seem that in another, he feels he can make what amounts to fresh taxation retrospectively, on a whim whenever he likes. The fact that he is having to furnish a war which was achieved by sleight of hand, and at the same time back up the banking system, has presumably placed him in this situation, The nation as a whole, and pensioners in particular, have to make serious decisions about inheritance tax. If their savings are inadequate, and they require sheltered accommodation, the government can force them to sell their home to make up the difference. For those who can just about afford to meet the crippling charges of possible incarceration in nursing homes, they need what little savings they have to enable their children and grandchildren to get on to the housing ladder, which by government neglect, is making it virtually impossible. When tax is levied, long-term judgments have to be made, with something like a rolling programme, although we’re not aware that that is what it is, so that we can budget for most eventualities, and meet most of our needs. To suddenly turn round, having effectively previously given a firm decision on future taxation, to change that so radically, can only be considered despicable, deceitful, and uncaring, almost a form of theft,. It does cross my mind that it is an electioneering ploy, ‘frighten with the threat of a big stick, and when you withdraw the threats on alleged consideration, people think you’re a lovely feller.’

Removals People even younger than I am are moving house on a regular basis, from the old family house, to a smaller house or flat that they can manage as their health and their strength diminishes. A friend of mine told me he was moving and that made me think of my own experience of moving. I don’t say this is standard, but from my own experience that is the advice that I gave to my friend , We have moved twice, and each time I have had things stolen. When we moved to 15, not only my campaign medals, but those of some relatives were stolen from a drawer. I didn’t discover this for some time. At the same time I had some quite valuable Chinese warriors in a box, about a year later I went to look at them and they had obviously been dropped and smashed. Of course I couldn’t prove this by then. In the second move the whole thing was totally bizarre, I was standing in the garage, surveying from a distance and this is what I saw. One young man came out of the house and walked in a strange, surreptitious, manner carrying something in his hand, to the drivers door, climbed inside the pantechnicon, and clearly secreted something, and then went back to unloading. Halfway through they decided to have a tea break. The whole time, the Foreman stood with his arms outstretched across the entrance door to the pantechnicon. I later discovered that some of the boxes had been opened, some of my audio equipment was missing, one of the men I heard say ‘most of this stuff is rubbish’, how did he know? I lost a special fluorescent, colour matching light, that I had especially built for doing oil paintings in the winter. The problem is that it is only later when you need something that you discover all that is missing. It is our experience that workmen and delivery men can be honest and can be thieves, it’s a risk one has to take – a toss up. In consequence of all this, if there are items that you value, I suggest you box them, tape the boxes with gaffer tape, and number the boxes and list the contents separately, and not write the contents on the box which is what I foolishly did.

To continue from R.T 37. I have been interviewed by over a dozen councillors, who were not so much interested in what I knew as what I professed to know by all the letters after my name. I have been interviewed by professionals who presented me with a vast technical problem to solve, containing inherent traps. Thus it is often the people who are doing the interviewing who know less about the subject than those interviewed. I’m amazed that the interviews were not just conducted by the head of the section seeking a recruit, the technocrat in charge of that section, and the head of staffing. why so many? Is it something for them to do? Which then begs the question, Why so many councillors? I realise there are differing political divisions to be catered for, and that representation at grassroots level is paramount, but how often have you referred to a councillor for help? Do we need so many?

I find it interesting that the route to becoming a MPs in the government, starts with interviews at grassroot level, in the constituency and we finish-up putting our money where their mouth is. We demand people who take responsibility for our health, our finances, and our dealings in legal matters to have been properly trained and qualified. Most of them carry insurance should things go wrong, and we trust them implicitly, but when you consider what is generally involved with our dealings with these people, compared with the responsibility that we put in the hands of the members of the government and even local authorities, it must seem very odd that they too are not trained in the work, and don’t carry insurance against mismanagement. In effect they have a blank cheque, and they expect us to trust them with our lives, our way of life, our international dealings, and a large portion of our income. I can only speak from my memory, but I believe when I first became interested in politics, there were not the vast mood swings, sweeping changes in policy, and a self interest which seems to tie their hands in circumstances where their conscience should have been their guide. Above all, I do not believe that they are as professional politically, as they were many years ago, and as they should be today.

To be politically aware, one is required to have studied the history of politics, in effect, learning by others’ mistakes, have an innate ability to analyse and criticise intention, legislation, and productivity, both in implementation, and success. Politics should be slowed down to a speed which allows these attributes. To rush headlong into agreements, actions and legislation, without careful thought of the parameters that are involved and the outcomes that can be predicted is a recipe, as we have discovered, for not only loss of life, a waste of money, and the complete destruction of our financial balance, but it takes us into areas from which it is very difficult to recover. I’m not only referring to the wars in the Middle East, but the changes that have been wrought on infrastructure, the health service, and the well-being of the nation as a whole. Not everyone will agree with me, but joining the EU may have enabled some people to improve their commercial position, but we have lost so much that should never have been tinkered with. And it is only now after all these years that those in charge, if one can say that, are beginning to realise that many of the things that we had lost, including closed borders, and our weights and measures system, our indigenous products which are produced for local consumption, but have been outlawed, are only some of the minor pinpricks in a vast array of mismanagement.

I have recently mentioned that as a helmet diver, it was necessary for me to learn that the various parts of my body my thumb, my hand, my outstretched fingers, and my outstretched arm, enabled me in black waters to take measurements, something I could not have done as easily just using metrication. The whole of our life, like this example, was arrived at over centuries by attrition, and in a matter of just years was taken from us to some extent, merely to conform with the EU and save traders having to put measures and cash in two versions instead of one. At the change over people like myself, using complicated formulae, for some time had to work in Imperial measure to be sure of accuracy and merely change the outcome. Politicians today theorise and then implement, on the basis of some knowledge, the amount is problematical, in spite of protestations by those who have more experience – the Dome is a case in point. Advisors, some call them spin doctors, have to provide a continuous input to justify their existence, otherwise there would be no reason for them. Legislators in Brussels, too have to justify their salaries, their staff, and their expensive lifestyle, which I suggest prompts them to meddle rather than sit reflecting. I plead with our politicians to take more time, consider more deeply, and then only act by consensus, when everyone is satisfied and has heard all the arguments.

In thinking about the subject I came to the conclusion that the motor car was responsible for our lack of choice today when we go shopping. I was thinking about a complex in a town just outside Belfast which had a huge parking area, one Tesco’s shop, 15 to 20 small shops, and a restaurant. The small shops were what actually required the large parking area because they covered so many different aspects of shopping, from computing, a watchmaker’s, food shops, garden shops the list is almost endless and there was very little duplication. One day Tesco’s bought up the area and is in the process of building a vast complex of its own, and almost overnight all those little shops were closed down. I know of one young man, who held all the merchandise necessary for computer printing, together with other aspects as well. He had to pack up and find somewhere else, and was hardly established there, when it too was bought up and he had to move again. The trauma that this must have caused him and inconvenience it caused to his customers is not hard to imagine. The people who frequented the original complex have never recovered the ease with which they could satisfy so many of their needs just by walking round a few shops. Now those shops are scattered throughout the area, those that haven’t closed forever, and now we have to use the car to go from place to place to get the same or similar articles. If people hadn’t cars, there would be no supermarkets. But the change doesn’t stop there.

When shopping was mainly to smaller shops scattered throughout a city or a town, the merchandise was decided upon by the owner of the shop, with the result of this, the owners’ tastes varied from individual to individual, so the stock of similar shops varied, and choice was consequently increased. Now we have a reverse of that, with a consequent reduction in choice. Chain stores, generally have central purchase, it is this that enables them to be so competitive. The taste therefore, is ultimately settled upon by a small group and the outcome is what you are offered, and is what either suits them, or they think suits you, and that is all, and all you can select from. The next change that has happened is the era of the label, that little piece of advertising you’re carrying about on your clothes for two reasons, one is it is there you can do nothing about it, the second is that some feel that there is a cachet to be achieved by purchasing and wearing a ‘name’. This approach alone must inevitably reduce choice, as fashion has overtaken commonsense. Yet three more aspects of the reduction in choice are, cheap imports, buying on the Internet, and TV advertising. If you are advertising, with low prices, as a result of cheap imports, and mass production, you can’t offer a wide range and make the same profit. The same constrictions must also apply to Internet shopping. In my own case I have discovered that to a great extent my taste is not catered for, because I have never belonged to the throwaway society, so I tend to buy things that will wear well and last a long time.

Some people buy by these inverted auctions on TV, where the price starts high, with a fixed number of products on offer, and as people bid the number of articles available is reduced and so is the price. This again is a case of limited choice, but is also accompanied by small print which advises that there are additional costs to be paid, including telephone charges, packaging and transport. I have not used the system, but I understand that the items are not ultimately quite as cheap as they would appear at first sight.