Author Archives: johnengland55

Smelly People

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I saw a poster the other day which, bearing in mind the name and aims of this blog, I thought quite apposite –
“Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it the most never use it.”

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of being stood or sat next to somebody, usually on public transport, who smells like they are strangers to soap, let alone deodorant. The question is how should you deal with that situation? Clearly you could move if there is room or if there are alternative seats but, what if you’re on an aeroplane and the flight is full?

A couple of weeks ago a man, booked on a Dallas to Paris flight, was refused permission to fly because his body odour was so unpleasant that several passengers complained about the smell.

It probably happens more often than you would think. I think I was sat next to his brother on a flight to Atlanta earlier this week!

Never too Old

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Amidst all the gloom of wars,  oppression and killer epidemics came an uplifting and heart-warming story in the weekend’s news. Appropriately enough, it concerned a heart surgeon who, on Saturday, completed the 21 mile cross English Channel swim.

Cross Channel swims are always impressive but rarely newsworthy since, whilst it is not an everyday event, several gifted athletes and enthusiastic amateurs seem to manage to do it each year. However, the reason this particular swim caught the world’s attention was that the swimmer, a South African called Otto Thaning, became, at the age of 73, the oldest person to complete it.

It must be hard enough to manage such a swim at any time and at any age enduring cold waters, fighting strong currents and dodging super-sized freighters plying their trade in one of the world’s busiest shipping channels. To do it at that age is truly mind-blowing.

Mr Thaning, who trained as a heart surgeon under  Dr Christian Barnard (the man who completed the world’s first successful human to human heart transplant in 1967), actually completed the swim back in 1994 so he knew what to expect but that hardly diminishes his achievement.

When interviewed, Mr Thaning said “My wish was basically to promote the idea that people over the age of 70 can do things like this if they look after themselves and work hard”.

What a man and what a great philosophy for life.

 

Pie in the Sky

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Today, September 5th, is the anniversary of the final break-up of the Soviet Union or USSR in 1991. The Russian leader presiding over this long awaited event was Boris Yeltsin, a man who (not least because of his alcoholism and eccentric behaviour) often seemed one of the more human leaders of what Ronald Reagan called the “Evil Empire”.

Following the Soviet break-up, and clearly in one of his more lucid moments, Yeltsin said “Let’s not talk about communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky”.

Such a pity that millions had to lose their lives before that truth was finally accepted and articulated.

To Recline or Not?

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Last week, two commercial flights were diverted due to air rage arising out of the use of reclining seats. Actually, one of the incidents involved the use of a rather ingenious device to prevent the seat in front from reclining but the issue is still the same.

Flying is a stressful enough experience for most people these days, what with increased security, endless queues and the attitude of some of the officials but the problem of reclining seats seems to be one of the most common sources of friction. What can you do if the seat in front of you suddenly launches back causing the television screen to smack against your face, your plate of beef curry to overturn on your lap and your red wine to splash on to your nice white shirt? And should you recline your own seat without first communicating your intention to the passenger immediately behind you?

These are vexed questions and there seem to be no clear guidelines other than those of common sense and courtesy. If food and drink are being served then it is clearly selfish and thoughtless to recline your seat and many is the time that, to avoid confrontation, I have simply asked a member of the cabin crew to ask the person in front to put his or her seat back up whilst I enjoy my meal. After we’ve all eaten and most of the passengers are ready to sleep(particularly on long haul overnight flights)it’s alright, I think, to recline your seat but it’s always nice to politely indicate your intention to the person behind.

On short haul flights of up to 4 hours or so the easiest solution would be to just use planes with fixed seats so that reclining is not an option. Some airlines already do this and maybe it should become a universal practice. If people still want to recline and sleep then they should have the option of paying more to be seated in a special reclining section. Mind you, it’s easy for me to say that since, as a regular traveller in cattle class, I am lucky enough to be able to sleep in any position!

Unless something is done about the use of reclining seats the problem of passenger rage is not going to disappear and will simply remain as just another irritant of air travel. As for the fiddling pain in the butt who sits behind you, kneeing the back of your seat, shaking your headrest and pulling your hair? Well that’s another story!

Abuse of the Innocents

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The dark side of political correctness reared its ugly head this week with the release of the report into the sexual abuse, over a 16 year period, of at least 1,400 children, in Rotherham (a town of some 250,000 people) and the failure of officialdom to protect them due to the colour and racial origins of their tormentors.

Social workers, local politicians and the Police, in an appalling breach of trust, all turned a blind eye to the brutal beatings, torture, rape and gang rape of children (all said to be white or of mixed race and some as young as 11 years old) for fear of accusations of racism.

It was clearly felt preferable to allow the abuse to continue rather than bring the perpetrators to justice. The report confirmed that those perpetrators were gangs composed mainly of thugs and paedophiles of Pakistani origin. Similar gangs, incidentally, to those convicted of organised sexual abuse in other UK towns and cities such as Rochdale, Derby, Birmingham and Oxford – and those are just the places we actually know about.

What kind of country have we become where even the protection and welfare of our children is subjugated to the paranoia of political correctness? God help us. God help our children too, since it would appear that we are no longer capable.

What do the English think?

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The Scottish referendum is only a few weeks off and in the midst of the usual reporting from the “Yes” and “No” camps came a report last week on English views on the future of the United Kingdom, the possibility of Scottish withdrawal and the position of England within the Union.

It appears that although the majority wish to preserve the Union many of those questioned by pollsters want the English to be more vocal on their wishes instead of perpetually remaining the silent majority. We have, of course, heard much of Scottish independence, even though the Scots already have their own Parliament, and some talk about further Welsh independence even though they too have separate representation in the form of their own Assembly.

By contrast, the English have no separate representation with neither their own parliament nor assembly despite the fact that they are by far and away the single largest entity within the Union and therefore the largest financial contributors. Instead, English MPs sit at the UK’s Parliament in Westminster alongside Scottish MPs who are all able to vote on English matters while the English cannot vote on theirs. This seems to be both unfair and anti-democratic.

A further grievance is the fact that English citizens pay the NHS £8.25 for their medical prescriptions whilst the Scots get theirs free of charge and Scottish children receive free university education whilst English children and their families pay thousands of pounds each year for theirs. All of this is despite the fact that England bears the lion’s share of the cost of running the Union. This cannot be right.

Even if Scotland decides to stay in the Union, and I hope they do, some English politicians are now talking of setting up their own Parliament just like that of their northern neighbours. And why not? After all, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Preventing Genocide

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The West, led by the USA, is surely right to provide aid and protection for the hundreds of thousands fleeing from Islamic extremists in the newly established Caliphate (Islamic State)in northern Iraq and Syria.

The extremists have made clear their desire to cleanse the world of all who fail to follow Islam and for them the slaughter of innocents is merely part of their Jihad, their holy war against non-believers. Over the last few months Christians and other minorities in northern Iraq have been given an ultimatum, convert to Islam or die and thousands have indeed been put to death for failing to convert. Such genocide is nothing new and it was only a hundred years ago that the Turks began the extermination of over 1.5 million Armenian Christians in what is still known as the Armenian massacre.

Few politicians in the West have the courage to speak out openly about the alarming spread of Islamic extremism since, of course, any criticism of a minority or foreign culture, no matter how heinous, usually leads to accusations of being racist or right wing. They should put those fears aside because the threat is real and the brutal beheading of the American journalist James Foley, evidently by one of several British Muslim extremists fighting alongside the ISIS terror group, was a stark reminder of how deep and close to home the problem is.

To take action against these fanatics is not to victimise Muslims since the majority want no more than to live in peace just like the rest of us. The fact is that many Muslims are equally concerned by the actions and policies of the extremists within their own religion but they are too frightened to do anything about it.

Islamic extremism is without doubt the single biggest threat to world peace and security and, quite frankly, anybody who doubts this is either living in denial or is away with the fairies. The threat is real and constant and we underestimate it at our peril. We must ensure that those who govern us do all that they can to protect us and that we also – preferably through the United Nations – do all we can to prevent further acts of genocide from occurring anywhere in the world.

Youth Club Closures

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Last week it was revealed that over the last 2 years some 350 youth community centres and youth clubs in Britain have been closed down through lack of funding. If this is true then it is surely a misguided and foolish policy by both central and local government.

Evidently one club in a rundown area of Manchester, the Hideaway Youth Project, Moss Side (which opens 5 days a week and has 900 members) is in danger of closing down if it doesn’t raise £50,000 by March of next year, the year it should be celebrating its 50th birthday.

How sad that so many youngsters from broken families in deprived areas, with little to do and little chance of finding jobs are going to lose one of the few areas of stability in their lives. These clubs mean so much to them and as one member said, when interviewed, they represent an escape and a refuge, a place that youngsters can call their own. Another said that the club keeps him and many others off the streets and out of trouble. It makes sense as any policeman, social worker or criminal lawyer will vouch.

Surely, it can’t be beyond the powers of government to raise the money to not only prevent the closure of the clubs but even to set up new ones? In the short term it can only benefit the youngsters and in the long term help to make them valuable members of society rather than just another statistic of social deprivation and decay.

Punishment?

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Earlier this week the European Court of Human Rights turned down a compensation claim by 80,000 UK prisoners for the loss of their “right” to vote in the 2009 European elections.

Voting rights, colour television sets and access to mobile phones. And there I was thinking that prison was meant to be a punishment. How foolish of me.

Flexible Bureaucrats

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I recently received one of those official looking large brown envelopes in the post with a notice at the top stating “Important. This is not a circular”. I took a sharp inhalation of breath and thought “Oh no, here we go again. Another bl***y parking summons”.

I opened it and saw that it was indeed motor-related but, instead of parking, the letter inside stated “Bus Lane Warning Notice” advising me of the precise time of day that I wilfully drove my car from the permitted car traffic lanes over to a bus lane, adding, for the avoidance of any doubt, that it was recorded on a CCTV camera.

I carried on reading, waiting for the final paragraph advising me of the fine payable when I came to the next paragraph, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO TAKE ANY FURTHER ACTION WITH REGARDS TO THIS NOTICE as payment is not required on this occasion”.

My initial grimace turned into a smile as I continued reading that this was a new regulation and the council were giving people two months to get used to it before hitting them with a penalty of £60 for each infringement following the end of the two month trial period.

If I had been charged I would have argued that I had no choice but to use the bus lane since an accident ahead of me had blocked the usual car traffic lanes. However, that’s not the point and Sheffield City Council deserve praise for showing some imagination and flexibility in these regulation-obsessed times.