Overkill....

Is it just me or is the never ending coverage of the doctor who was killed in Afghanistan starting to grind? What makes this female a special case for such coverage? Is it her professional qualifications, her good looks, her middle/upper class background or is it simply that the death of your average everyday squaddie is deemed less important by the news editors and the public? If I hear one more inane comment regarding how 'special' she was I will vomit. How do you think this sort of saturated coverage effects the families of the soldiers killed, why is their son/daughter not as 'special' as this Dr? Answers on a postcard please....

Getting more for less or How do you sell a pig in a poke?

The continuing mantra from politicians and senior police officers appears to be 'more services for less money' they espouse this view at every opportunity and no journalist (not even Paxman) has ever called them on it. A simple question like "Can you explain how we get more for less" would suffice because once this thread is pulled the whole idea unravels. No money or less money is just that, it means you cannot do  what you could do when you had more money, for example why not try the 'more for less' approach at your local car dealership, that £12,000 loan you were hoping to get is not available and the bank manager has decided that you are only good for £8,000. Although you want the £12,000 car you will have to use £8,000 to purchase it, the car sales man will usher you down to the smaller cars he will not afford you the chance of a 'more for less' deal. You cannot get more for less, more importantly you can't get better public services with less cash. You cannot cut bin men and road sweepers and still expect that your refuse will be collected 2 weekly and your street sweeped. The army of night shift cleansing Dep't personnel who pour onto the streets of our major cities on a Friday and Saturday Night after the clubs close will not be there, the dayshift will start to remove the detrious from the streets leaving shoppers and commuters to trudge through the vomit, condoms and discarded fast food containers on there way to work and whilst shopping. More for less does not work it can't work once again we are being sold a pig in a poke.
Society is going to change for the worse the gap between the haves and have not is going to grow even wider and become more ingrained in our society. The coalition have been left a mess of that there is no doubt, the Big Society is a lot of nonsense as many commentators and Union spokespeople say this is shoring up the cuts in public services through voluntary work. It has disaster written all over it.

A fellow Blogger speaks of how we all have a part to play in the big society of how it is a community failure that a youth becomes criminalised or abuses drugs or alcohol, I disagree with this idea, surely individuals have to take responsibility for their own actions  at some point in their life, I believe that society should absolutely provide care and protection and guidance to people but at what stage does the states responsibility end and the individual assume control. The term community can mean any number of different things to different people, what is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. Who decides who is part of a community or who is excluded? it is normally the socially excluded that are identified as needing some form of control or behavioural adjustment. Who am I as a member of my community to impose my beliefs or ideals on another, is this not what social welfare policy is intended to do? One could argue that the punitive measures built into social welfare and child protection allows for the recipient to 'shape up or ship out'.

It seems for to long people who have failed to live in a way in which society expects have been allowed to go on with their lifestyles and the blame is everyone else's, where in the past the welfare agencies were able to re establish contact and offer additional services this will no longer be the case, this is where the major change in our society will come. Watch as the crime rate soars, more people are criminalised and the Gov't tries to put the burden onto 'Big Society', that's our 'Big Society' but not in the leafy lanes of driveways of the Eton Boys who are in charge at the moment, they are talking about us not them. Lloyd George said of the welfare state. " Welfare is the ransom that property must pay in order to ensure it's continued survival"

Silly Billy's

The recent media reaction to the poor performance and subsequent failure of the English Football Team to make any way in the World Cup has not sat well with me. The media appear now to be lashing out at the FA, Capello ( the manager) and the players. There is a drive in the reporting that borders on the ridiculous which led me to leave this post on relation to an article on The Times on Tuesday 29.06.10.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/international/article2578791.ece
'The only thing that the English players can get the blame for is a poor performance, that's it nothing else. The media seems happy to direct the scorn toward the players not just for the performance ( or lack thereof) but also to the fact that the oh so stupid individuals who through blind faith and ignorance paid out their hard earned cash on this foreign adventure in the arrogant belief that England would come top of the group and easily sail through to the semi finals. The fact that these fans have done so is not the fault of the FA, Capello or the team it is their own fault that they are now left in S.A whilst the under-performers get jetted home in 1st class. The media would be better spent covering real news and not covering for the fact that sports fans are a silly lot.'

Afghanistan

I was pleasantly surprised to hear David Cameron opine that he wanted British troop out of Afghanistan by the next parliament. This is great news and I believe the first moves in a long term strategy to have us sever our lap dog ties to the U.S Military machine. It does strike me as strange that it is a Conservative P.M that is keen to have us out whilst Brown and Labour seemed happy to stay glued to the U.S coat tails. The talk of victory is now a thing of the past and the words being used are 'workable outcome' and a 'better Afghanistan'!! I have no idea what that means and people and the Taliban will see it for what it is..defeat. The lie that it is in our national interest to be in Afghanistan may have been the case in 2003 when the Taliban were in control, but now the threat has moved to Pakistan and the threat of a Sharia Government having control of the Pakistan nuclear arsenal is very real and terrifying. What is clear is that once again the Afghanistan farmers have proved that they are not only exceptional poppy harvester's but when handed a Kalashnikov assault weapon and some plastic explosive they are extremely able and tenacious fighting men.  They can now add the imperial forces of the U.S to the list including Britain and the Soviet Union; other empires also sent away with their tails between there legs. There will be many families torn apart by the continued deployment of Nato troops in Afghanistan as the casualties continue to mount. This really has become our Vietnam, if only the New Labour Government had had the same bottle and gumption as Harold Wilson had when he told the U.S the he was not involving British troops in the subjugation of Vietnam.

Isn't it simple? We are being had!

The now taken as read policy of cutting public services due to the massive debt has never been questioned by the many commentators or media outlets. This sudden rush to make the public services the whipping boy during the last election and the on going threat it poses to the nations future totally mystifies me. Has every one forgotten about the banking industry? The country did not suddenly fall into this uncontrollable financial nose dive overnight. The attack on the public services began being voiced only once the privatised banks had been bailed out with public money and we lesser beings were told that it would be the end of western civilisation if the banks were allowed to fail. Our very own Thunderbirds stand-in told us so, as did the 'Great Leader' of the time Mr Broon. If they had told people that as a result of giving Sir Fred and his like a hand up out of their gold-plated gutters we would be doing so at the expense of those in society most in need of help and assistance then I feel we would perhaps have taken our chances with the end of civilisation. Our newly elected (just) P.M is quite clear the cuts are going to change the way our society operates, well it's not David! it will change the way society operates for the most needy, for the rich and richer life will continue happily thank you very much! We've thrown the baby out with the bath water and it ain't coming back.