Author Archives: johnengland55

Minority Rule

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It’s frightening to realise that a minority political party representing a fraction of the British electorate could effectively render the country defenceless. That is the nightmare scenario facing the UK at next month’s general election.

With two major political parties it used to be the case that the party with the majority would form the government and for the next  5 years would effectively rule the country according to its election manifesto. However, with an increase in the number of minority parties that is no longer the case, as the last 5 years of coalition government have clearly demonstrated.

In effect, the party supported by the largest proportion of the electorate will not be able to put their policies into practice. A clear indication of this was provided yesterday when the Scottish Nationalist Party (the SNP) announced that in spite of the fact that both major political parties, Labour and Conservative, wish to maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent the SNP do not. If the SNP do form part of a future coalition government they have made it quite clear that they will end our nuclear capability.

Unfortunately for the majority of the UK electorate, who clearly do wish to maintain a nuclear deterrent (and imagine trying to hold off somebody like Vladimir Putin without one) the danger is that the SNP, with possibly 5 or 6% of parliamentary seats, could end up being king-maker and coalition partner to a weakened Labour party and thus achieve their aim.

So, not only do the SNP wish to lead Scotland to independence and break up the UK they also wish to emasculate us. If that doesn’t convince the undecided on how to vote on May 7th then nothing will.

Lessons Not Learned

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Saturday, April 4th, saw the 47th anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, an event that always resonates whenever I visit Memphis, or Atlanta where Dr King is buried.

Martin Luther King along with Ghandi and Nelson Mandela was undoubtedly one of the towering figures of last century’s struggle for equality and basic human rights, a struggle in the first two cases certainly, of peaceful protest.

It is therefore both sad and depressing to turn on the television and learn of yet more atrocities committed in the name of race or religion such as the weekend’s brutal slaughter of over 148 people, mainly young students, at a university in Kenya.

Has humanity learned nothing from the actions of these great men?

Never Too Old

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I heard an uplifting story (in more than one sense!) earlier this week about a former US fighter pilot who recently set a record as the world’s oldest active pilot. Pete Weber, from California and a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War established his record in the presence of his 70 year old son who videoed the whole flight.

To those who know Pete, the achievement was evidently no big surprise since he has always been something of a daredevil. He even turned up four hours late for his own wedding due to engine failure which caused him to crash land his plane in a corn field earlier that day! His bride’s irritation, no doubt tempered by relief, soon abated and they are still happily married 72 years later!

It just proves that, body and spirit willing, you are never too old to do or try anything. Better to regret a failure to succeed than a failure to try at all.

As for old Pete, there’s a saying that old pilots never die they just fly higher! Let’s hope it’s a good few years before he makes his final flight!

I Was Like!

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I was listening to a group of young Americans the other day which, actually, isn’t all that surprising since I’ve been in the USA for nearly a week now! In fairness, I’d like to clarify that statement slightly since I wasn’t listening in the sense of making a conscious effort but in the sense that I had no choice. The sound of conversation, as with most groups of people, particularly young (and dare I say, female) was fairly noisy.

The debate, lively as it was, seemed somewhat straightforward and simple consisting principally of a mere three phrases, namely “omigad, Iwaslike or aresum!” sometimes one or two at a time and sometimes all together but in no particular order. To add further variety an occasional “really” was added either as a question or as a point of emphasis. A clearly versatile word, it can be placed at either end of a sentence or inserted in the middle.

Such conversations seem to be best spoken loudly and quickly and at a high pitch. I have no idea what any of it meant and I’m not overly convinced that it was, in fact, strictly English but the users seemed to be able to understand one another, despite the fact that they all spoke at the same time!

Next time I’m, like, in a similar situation I must try and join in. Really, aresum!

Paying the Price for the Minority

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It’s unfair isn’t it how, so often in life, the innocent majority regularly pay the price for the actions of a culpable minority. The first time that most of us experience this is at school where the whole class are detained in the classroom, and prevented from going out to play, due to the actions of a naughty boy (it was usually a boy, wasn’t it!) who refused to admit responsibility for his act of mischief.

We were reminded of this in the most horrific way when a German airliner crashed into the French Alps on Tuesday killing 150 men, women, and children. The tragedy was caused by the direct actions of the co-pilot who, for whatever reason, seems to have deliberately crashed the plane into a mountain but indirectly these innocents were killed as a result of 9/11 and the legislation that followed.

On September 11th, 2001, the deaths of nearly 3,000 people were caused by Islamic fanatics gaining control of four commercial airliners and, as a result, it was decided that henceforth all doors leading to the flight deck would be made ultra-secure. An unfortunate consequence of this undoubtedly sensible and logical move was that on Tuesday, the captain of the German airliner was unable to open the door and gain access to the flight deck once he returned from taking a short break.

Similarly, tragedy occurred at the Hillsborough football stadium in April 1989 when 96 innocents were crushed to death against barriers preventing them from seeking the safety of the football field. Indirectly, they lost their lives as a result of the actions of a hooligan minority whose violent actions in the 1970’s and 1980’s caused the authorities to order the construction of cages preventing fans from invading the pitch and attacking the players and one another.

How terribly tragic and sad. Sometimes it’s difficult not to despair of humanity.

The Truth, at Last

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I enjoyed, if that’s the right word, hearing a former apologist for multiculturalism in Britain admit last week that it had been a failure. He said, in a television programme presented by him,  that the policy, carried out extensively by Tony Blair’s New Labour government had not just failed to bring different races and communities closer together but, conversely, had led to greater segregation culminating in atrocities such as the July 2007 London bombings by Muslim extremists and other outrages across the country.

The man concerned was Trevor Phillips, the prime architect of multiculturalism under Blair. He concluded that they had got it all wrong and that it was, after all, acceptable to admit to racial stereotyping and indeed necessary if society is to come to terms and deal with its undoubted differences. He admitted that it is alright to tell the truth and to state racial facts such as, most London pickpockets are Romanians and most victims of murder are black and most of the perpetrators are black also. Of course, he was only saying what anybody with a slight degree of common sense and honesty has always said.

Phillips said that this overriding desire to force multiculturalism on the British people had backfired and in some cases had led to suffering and even death. He gave several examples, one being the case of the poor black child, Victoria Climbie, systematically tortured to death because none of the social workers had the courage to highlight the abuse because the child’s guardians were black. In other words, political correctness and the fear of being accused of racism trumped the life of a child.

Similarly, he admitted what we all know but rarely say (although this blog has referred to it on more than one occasion), that the UK child grooming scandals are the result of sexual and violent crimes committed overwhelmingly by Pakistanis on young white girls. Again, he stated that the fear of accusations of racism prevented authorities (politicians, police and social workers) over a period of as much as ten years from taking action to prevent the commission of the crimes. Yet more innocent lives ruined because of political correctness.

At last, a politician and a decent one at that, with the courage to speak the truth and the courage to (finally) put truth and common sense above political correctness. It helped that Trevor Phillips is black because I suspect that the liberal, left-leaning media would have been outraged if the programme had been presented by a white man. Still, at least it’s a start.

Defenceless

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It is widely agreed among politicians, historians and military experts that the world is now a far more dangerous place than at any time since the height of the Cold War back in the early 1960’s.

The Western world faces not only the ever-present danger of Islamic fanaticism but also the threat of a resurgent and brutal Russia under Vladimir Putin. Add to the mix the threats of rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, to name but two, and the danger becomes clear for all to see.

The British response? We fail to commit ourselves to the minimum Nato target of an allocation of 2% of our gross domestic product (GDP) towards defence but do, however, commit ourselves (the British taxpayer) to spending 0.7% of our GDP, some £10 billion, on overseas aid.

Nobody could begrudge the giving of money and aid to alleviate poverty and suffering, but when that aid goes to countries with larger defence budgets than our own (and in the case of Pakistan, a far bigger army) you have to question our sanity.

A Man’s Game

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After a week of headlines of multi-millionaire footballers diving, spitting at one another, harassing referees and generally behaving like the cheating, spoilt brats that so many of them are it was refreshing to welcome back international rugby over the weekend.

I’m currently reading the autobiography of former England rugby captain Will Carling in which he describes how, the evening before an important rugby international against Ireland in 1991, the England players relaxed by watching the Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie, Predator.

During the following day’s match England forward  Mike Teague took a nasty hit and lay motionless on the pitch with blood pouring from his head.

Carling, full of concern for one of his team’s star performers, ran over to see how serious the injury was whereupon Teague, according to Carling, “looked up, blinked twice” and, staggering to his feet, quoted a Schwarzenegger line from the previous evening’s film,  “Aint got time to bleed!”. He was now fully focussed and, staring at his opponents, muttered another line from the film “Pay-back time!” England went on to win the match.

A bit of a contrast to the so-called elite players of the round ball game, I think you’ll agree.

Bad Losers

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Evidently Francois Hollande, the French president, has vetoed Belgium’s proposal for the issue of a special two euro coin to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo on June 18th.

You may consider the attitude of such a staunch supporter of the European Union to be somewhat surprising, particularly when the allied victory freed Europe from the tyranny of the French dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte, and led to over 50 years of peace on the continent. However, Hollande feels the coin might undermine European unity and would “risk engendering unfavourable reactions in France”.

Of course, the real reason for the President’s snub is that Bonaparte was defeated by a largely British force led by the Duke of Wellington and the fact of the matter is that, in spite of centuries of practice, the French have always been such bad losers.

I suggest that instead of leaving it to the Europeans, the British government should order the striking of a two pound sterling coin to commemorate the battle. On one side of the coin would be an engraving of a charging British grenadier and on the reverse a troop of fleeing French cuirassiers. That would really irritate his eminence, the French president, wouldn’t it!

Stadder’s Simple Land

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It’s always somewhat embarrassing when you realise that the lyrics to that catchy pop song you’ve been happily and loudly singing along to actually bear no resemblance to the original and that you have, in fact, totally misheard them. This was brought to mind the other day when I was playing “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, a big hit for the Monkees back in 1967 and a favourite in my collection.

As a naturally unworldly 12 year old I was convinced that Mickey Dolenz (oh yes, a lifelong fan, I can easily name all four members of America’s answer to England’s Fab Four!) was singing about a bloke called Stadder.

“Another Pleasant Valley Sunday, here in Stadder’s simple land”…………. certainly sounded plausible enough to me.

How was I to know, at that age, that the Americans had butchered our language and Dolenz was actually singing “here in status symbol land”! How was I to know, a mere child, that Americans pronounce status with a hard “a” instead of the soft (and correct, of course!) “a” of English pronunciation. Status is pronounced Stay-tus as in Stay-tus Quo not Stat-us Quo – I quite liked that band as well! Sad, I know.

I’m sure we all have our own stories to tell on this subject and another that stands out for me is a song by another excellent American band actually called “America”. They had a big hit in 1971 with a song called “A Horse With No Name” (I’ve got that in my collection as well) although I was convinced, when I first heard the song, that it was called “A Horse With No Mane”! You can see my logic though, every horse has a mane but not every horse has a name so why bother to sing about a horse without a name!

Anyway, going back to the Monkees. That band have mixed memories for me and I can well remember, a few years back, an ex-girlfriend of mine telling me that she was ending our relationship. I asked her why and she said it was because of my obsession with the Monkees. I told her that I didn’t believe her. Then I saw her face………..!