Author Archives: johnengland55

Insurance Rip-off

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It has always struck me as unfair that, up to two years after a motoring conviction is “spent”, (meaning that it is no longer current for criminal law purposes) the motorist is penalised again by his insurance company.

For example, if you are caught speeding in a 30 mile an hour zone you will normally (depending on how far you exceeded the speed limit) receive a fine and a 3 point endorsement on your licence.

The endorsement is current for 3 years and if you accumulate a total of 12 points within that time you will face a ban. However, after 3 years the conviction is spent and has no relevance to any future legal proceedings and you can even apply to have it removed from your licence after 4 years. Why is it then that, at insurance renewal time, insurance companies always ask, not whether you have any current convictions, but whether you have had any convictions within the last 5 years?

This happened to me recently when I declared that I have a speeding conviction dating back to October 2010, just under 5 years ago. This conviction has been spent for nearly 2 years and in the eyes of the law has no relevance to any future offence that I may be stupid or careless enough to commit. Why should insurance companies be allowed to, in effect, treat the conviction as though it were still current and increase the insurance premium accordingly?

Frankly, this is nothing short of exploitation and extortion by insurance companies and it is surely time that action is taken by the financial authorities to curb their greed.

Tales of the NHS

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Two news stories concerning the NHS caught the eye last week.

The first was the proposal that ex-smokers should receive e-cigarettes on our National Health Service to help them overcome their cigarette addiction. In other words the already overburdened British taxpayer (that’s you and me) is being asked to subsidise people who voluntarily started smoking and now want to give it up.

This is wrong on a number of levels, not least the fact that a smoker having given up his 20 cigarettes a day (at a cost of £7 per day or £49 per week) is now well able to afford his own darned e-cigarettes!

The second was the suggestion that doctors should be punished for over- prescribing antibiotics  without giving due thought to the needs of the patient. I understand what the critics are getting at but it would be very hard to prove and also seems a little harsh on our overworked doctors. That said, I don’t doubt that there are some doctors who prescribe medicine to certain bothersome patients just to keep them quiet!

It reminds of the story about the doctor who rings his plumber in the middle of the night complaining that his toilet is flooding. The quick-thinking plumber tells the doctor to throw some aspirins down the toilet and then to give him a call in three days time if the symptoms haven’t cleared up!

What’s in a Name?

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Earlier this week a list of the top twenty UK baby names was released and, in spite of myself (being neither an expectant father nor knowing  any parents-to-be) I couldn’t resist the temptation to have a peek, if only to see if my apparently antiquated name is making a comeback. It isn’t, but the list still made interesting reading.

Top of the list for boys is Oliver followed by Jack and Harry. All good solid names with a nice British ring, although I was a little mystified by name number 11, Noah. I’ve never met a Noah nor even heard of one other than the famous captain of the Ark. Why would you call your son Noah, unless you are a student of the Old Testament or have an interest in boats or floods? Numbers 4 (Jacob) and 13 (Joshua) also seem to reflect an interest in the Bible and number 14 ( Muhammed) is indicative of the ever-changing face of modern Britain.

As for the girls, Amelia is top which surprised me a little since the only Amelia I can think of is the famous American pilot and adventurer, Amelia Earhart, who in 1932 became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and who later disappeared whilst attempting a round the world flight in 1937. Second and third are Olivia and Isla followed by Emily and Poppy, two fairly traditional and pretty British names. Number 19 is Chloe which brings back memories of a family cat but other than that the girl’s top twenty produces nothing too out of the ordinary.

Baby names, on the whole, seem to be a reflection of the times and seemingly consign many of us, far removed from the top 20, the Johns, Davids and Peters, the Elizabeths, Marys and  Annes to the scrap heap of pre-history.  We must try not to take it too personally!

A Good Book

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It occurred to me recently, as I was enjoying a good book (a Ken Follett novel, as it happens), how comparatively little people seem to read these days. Of course, with the ubiquity of the internet and the ease of finding information, listening to music or watching films online there is probably less of an incentive for people to read for pleasure.

That’s a shame, since to many of us, reading is a great source of pleasure and relaxation. Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid user of computers and the internet and, like most of us, I cannot really imagine life without the internet, sad though that admission may be.

However nothing beats the sheer thrill of escaping into a good novel, briefly leaving the real world and using one’s imagination to enter another dimension. A book can be anything you want it to be, educational, thought provoking and stimulating. It can make you laugh, make you cry and scare the living daylights out of you. When I read “Jaws” by Peter Benchley back in 1975 I didn’t dare take a bath for a week! Mind you I was a student then and times were hard!

Police Cuts

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It was reported earlier this week that a Gloucestershire woman in her 80’s was attacked and punched in the mouth by a young male whilst out walking her dog. The cowardly thug, clearly expecting no resistance, got a shock when the woman grabbed hold of his testicles causing him to fall to the ground in agony, allowing the woman to make good her escape.

It was fortunate that no serious injuries were incurred, at least on the part of the woman, although one could obviously have wished for greater harm to the young thug.

The main cause for concern other than the sickening attack on a vulnerable member of society is the knowledge that our government, carrying on the policies of its predecessors, is continuing to cut down on the funding of law enforcement by actively closing down local police stations and taking police officers off the beat.

Whilst public spending cuts are understandable, further budgeting on the police (not to mention the courts) is misguided and ill-advised. Until there is an urgent review and a reversal of this policy there are likely to be more crimes of this nature with some having a less happy ending than that of the heroic old lady from Gloucestershire.

Hubris and Schadenfreude

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It is somewhat satisfying when the swaggering playground bully gets his comeuppance and is forced to receive what he has been dishing out to those who he appears to regard as his inferiors.

The Greeks had a word for it, “hubris”, meaning excessive pride or self-confidence leading to nemesis or inevitable downfall.

It can apply to all walks of life. Even to cricket, apparently.

There’s another interesting word on this subject although, this time, German. That word is “schadenfreude” meaning pleasure derived from another’s misfortune. A sensation felt, I think, by many an Englishman following the events of the past weekend!

Last of the Dambusters

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The news that Squadron Leader Les Munro, the last surviving pilot of the famous Dambusters, had died earlier this week in his native New Zealand at the age of 96, provided a poignant reminder of a time that now seems like aeons ago.

In fact, it is just over 72 years since 133 RAF pilots and crew set off in their Lancaster bombers from RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire on the night of May 16th, 1943 to bomb the Moehne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany, names firmly engraved in the memory of many a post-war British schoolboy.

Of the 133 airmen only 77 returned and whilst the mission largely achieved its objectives it didn’t cripple the German war effort as was hoped. The raid did however capture the imagination of the long-suffering British public and provided a massive boost to morale and national prestige after nearly 4 years of war and suffering.

There are now only two surviving crew left from the raid, old men now of course, and the death of Squadron Leader Munro is a reminder of how much we owe to all of those airmen both British and Allied, and of course to Roy Chadwick, the designer of the Avro Lancaster and Barnes Wallis ingenious inventor of the famous bouncing bomb which caused such damage to the dams.

Crisis in Calais

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Many of the last week’s news headlines related to the ever-present and, seemingly ever-worsening migrant crisis in Calais where thousands of people, mainly young men, are attempting to enter the UK illegally via the Channel Tunnel.

It is undoubtedly a serious and sad humanitarian crisis and one cannot fail to have sympathy for those people fleeing war, oppression and torture in their own countries to seek a better life elsewhere. However, not all migrants are political refugees and many are clearly opportunity seekers who see the UK as a soft touch where successive governments have handed out taxpayers’ money, housing and medical care to all and sundry.

The present government, at last, are showing a more sensible approach and are seeking to reduce benefits and, at least partially, to close the door. It is a difficult problem, of course, and as a civilised nation we should not (and must never) turn our back on the suffering of others. That has to be balanced with a tough and pragmatic immigration policy where those seeking to enter should be individually screened and interviewed and each case decided on its merits.

The fact that thousands of potential immigrants are seeking to force or trick their way into the UK is a sad indictment on the lack of policy and direction of both the United Nations and the European Union. If the United Nations had done its job in taking action in the world’s trouble spots then half of these humanitarian crises would not exist in the first place. The only utterance made by the UN last week on the escalating crisis was the less than helpful criticism by a politically correct spokesman/person of our prime minister for accurately describing potential immigrants as “swarming” over the barricades at Calais. Apparently, this was akin to comparing the migrants to insects!

The UN and the EU should cut the rhetoric, stop prevaricating and do something about the crisis and accept that it is a world problem and certainly European rather than just something to be resolved by the UK and France alone. In the meantime, we should continue to tighten our borders and deliver a message that the UK, whilst fair and civilised, is not El Dorado and those found to have entered illegally (and without passing all tests for political asylum) will be fed and briefly accommodated before being shipped back to whence they came.

That is undoubtedly politically incorrect and some might say it is brutal or ultra right-wing but it is not, it is common sense, pure and simple.

Macho Men

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The hunt and slaughter of a lion, lured from the safety of his reservation in Zimbabwe earlier this week, cannot fail to have moved all right-thinking, decent folk. The fact that the lion, with his distinctive black mane was a well-known tourist attraction, had a tracking collar and even had a name, Cecil, seems to have made it worse.

The hunters (if we can honour them with such a title) lured the lion from his sanctuary with an animal carcass towed by a truck and once out in the open he was “fair game”. He was shot by an arrow, staggered on wounded for 40 hours and was then put out of his misery before being skinned and his head removed as a trophy.

Aside from the fact that lions, like so many creatures on this beautiful planet of ours, have been hunted almost to extinction by mankind, the sly calculating manner of Cecil’s slaughter is the part of the story that causes the most outrage.

The two local guides who charged the American trophy hunter $50,000 for the pleasure of the kill are now facing justice in the Zimbabwe courts and it is possible that the hunter and executioner will be extradited from the US to join them.

In an ideal world the punishment would always fit the crime and in this case if these three heroes really do fancy themselves as macho men and hunters how about dropping them off in the middle of Isis held Syria (armed of course – let’s give them a fighting chance, which is more than they gave the poor lion) and see how they cope.

That would be a better test of their machismo.

The Champion’s Reward

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It’s an unfortunate downside to human nature that whenever somebody does exceptionally well in his or her career, job or sport doubts concerning the legitimacy of that person’s achievements are never far behind.

A case in point is the controversy surrounding Britain’s Chris Froome, the winner, for the second year in a row, of the gruelling Tour de France, the toughest test in cycling or, as many experts say, in any sport. During the Tour Froome produced some outstanding performances causing some French commentators (bad losers perhaps) to allege that those performances, like those of the disgraced Lance Armstrong, a few years back, were too good to be true.

Why were they too good to be true? What if Froome is simply a superb athlete at the top of his game taking what his skills and efforts deserve? What if this is simply a case of cycling, like the proverbial dog, having been given a bad name through the behaviour of Armstrong?

Common sense dictates that the only way to settle the matter is for Froome and his team to be as transparent as possible (which they apparently have been) and allow the sport’s ruling body to carry out whatever investigations are deemed necessary. Then when the all clear is given,  cock a snook at the doubters and say “I told you so” or preferably something a little stronger. I, for one, would be pleased to assist with the exact wording!