Author Archives: johnengland55

Raising the Stakes

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Matters in Syria took a serious turn this week when the Russians began bombing rebel forces, who, since the conflict began, have been receiving aid from the West and particularly the USA in their struggle against the government of President Assad. This undoubtedly raises the stakes in this troubled country and in the Middle East as a whole.

It’s bad enough that the region is witnessing Arab groups turning on one another and Isis destroying everything in its path but now we have the potential for conflict between Russia and America and the danger of a return to the Cold War.

The opportunistic Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, has said that his planes are merely bombing the same targets as the West but that has been shown to be untrue. If the Russians were just to bomb Isis, as the West is doing, that would be welcomed because Isis, with its religious fanaticism and evident disdain for everything that decent human beings hold dear, is an obvious global threat.

Isis are seeking to fill a void in Syria and, unlike the Syrian rebels, have a far greater agenda than the mere removal of the brutal President Assad. It seems apparent that Putin’s aim is to keep Assad in power and for Syria to, in effect, become a client state of Russia. If this is the price to be paid for the destruction of Isis then most of the world would probably breathe a sigh of relief.

However, as the fighting intensifies the real losers in this tragedy, the Syrian people, who want nothing more than to live in peace, continue to face the stark choice between death and the seeking of refuge in any country that will take them in. When will their suffering end?

The Curse of the Body Builder

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I recently read that there is now a serious illness, occurring mainly in young men, known medically as muscle-dysmorphia or more colloquially as “bigorexia”. It is an obsession that can evidently compel young men to constantly seek to build up their muscles and (in their opinion) improve their body shape. Once they have reached the level they were initially aiming for  they then start all over again, never happy with what they have achieved and always wanting more. It drives many into depression leading in some cases to suicide.

The idea that we can “improve” ourselves by obsessively spending three or more hours a day lifting weights, taking vitamin-filled drinks and using steroids to look like the Incredible Hulk has always struck me as absurd. Youngsters always want role models and people to look up to but why try to look like a comic book figure?When I was a youngster I was quite happy with Steve McQueen, George Harrison and Tony Currie (a 1970’s footballer who played for…..oh never mind!) none of whom had arms or chests that looked like they could explode at any minute!

It’s all so sad, why can’t we human beings just be happy with who and what we are? Fair enough, we should all watch what we eat and we should take regular exercise to keep ourselves in trim. We can even highlight our good points by wearing make-up (well, women and a certain type of man can!) and by dressing in clothes that we think will flatter our form.

I don’t know the answer to the problem but clearly a considerable number of these young men are insecure or have low self-esteem for one reason or another. Perhaps we should ban so-called “beautiful people” from appearing in the media and feature instead more realistic-looking role models.  Get rid of the Beckhams, the Vin Diesels and the Stallones and in their place feature more normal looking people like Ben Stiller, Ed Sheeran or Rowan Atkinson. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean!

Busy Time for Lawyers

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I recently read an article in the Sunday Times about there being a big increase in matrimonial breakdown following the summer holidays, a fact that every experienced divorce lawyer has known for years.

When you think about it, it is hardly surprising since there is so much expectation attached to holidays, particularly summer holidays and sometimes those expectations turn out to be unrealistic and unfulfilled. What should be a sun-kissed idyll often turns out instead to be a battlefield with fights over activities for the kids, arguments over finances, where to go, where to eat and so on.

However, the time that lawyers look forward to with most relish is Christmas, though this anticipated pleasure has nothing whatever to do with Christmas cheer and goodwill to all men; in fact, far from it. Divorce rates positively soar come early January with the inevitability and predictability of the New Year’s Sales. The post-holiday return to work sees the creation of a revolving door to the divorce lawyer’s office with filing cabinets full to bursting!

The reason why this happens is really quite simple. For most of the time, some couples just muddle through and go about their daily existence with no real dramas. However, joint time off work can often be a game changer. Suddenly, they are thrown together for two weeks at a time, often for 24 hours a day. It’s too much and all that spare time simply provides ample opportunity to analyse the relationship and conclude that, actually, we don’t really like one another!

It’s all very sad of course and particularly so that a marriage, initially based on love, so often ends up being picked apart in a court of law.

Still, look on the bright side, at least it’s keeping somebody in work!

No Care for our Heroes

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On Saturday it was reported in the Independent newspaper that “Britain’s oldest POW is now living off handouts”. I read the story and was horrified to learn that ex-World War II soldier and Nazi prison camp survivor, Robbie Clark, aged 97, registered blind and in a wheelchair, is surviving off charity handouts and is in danger of being evicted from his home by Brent Borough Council, north London.

Evidently, Mr Clark used up his savings of £50,000 in paying his £960 a week care bill and now the council have said they will only pay a contribution of £451 a week, meaning that he could be forced to live in a care home, a prospect that the former prisoner of war views with dread.

Why, I wondered? Even in a country that generally treats its ex-military with indifference and scant respect , how could this happen?

I decided to visit the website of Brent Council and there discovered that, of its 63 councillors, 1 is Liberal, 6 are Conservative and 56 are Labour, the party whose new leader is an avowed socialist and who refuses to sing the National Anthem. Further, the Council boasts on its website that “Brent  is the second most culturally diverse borough in the UK”.

Now it makes sense, an ex-soldier of the detested former empire? Certainly not a priority and certainly not diverse enough for the politically correct rulers of Brent Borough Council.

Never mind that, we should expect nothing less from a socialist run organisation proud of its ethnic and cultural diversity.  We should be more concerned about what it says about our country as a whole. A country that expects  its young men and women to risk their lives in time of war but then, if they are fortunate enough to return, is not prepared to look after them in old age and infirmity.

Rubbing It In

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I was working in Miami last week, specifically Miami Beach, where the streets are lined with pastel coloured Art-Deco buildings and the beautiful people walk along Ocean Drive pausing only to sip their margaritas and admire one other. Being far removed from such glitterati I was sat in a plain old bar drinking Budweiser with my head buried in a newspaper but that’s another story.

What struck me about my visit was the fact that, strategically located near to the beaches, are sun cream dispensers supplied by the city medical authority, enabling folk to apply factor 30 sun protection free of charge (as if they cannot afford to buy their own!).

No doubt the prominent location of these dispensers serves as a useful reminder to the forgetful. I imagine that, if you spend half the morning sculpting your eyebrows, removing unwanted body hair and putting on your designer make-up, a little thing like sun protection is probably easy to overlook. I’m sure that the local women struggle too!

On a serious note, since skin cancer is one of the fastest growing diseases of the modern age (described by many experts as an epidemic) the move makes sense, if only to save on medical bills. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this idea catches on elsewhere.

As an additional service, applications are now being accepted for the job of rubbing in the cream on the young and beautiful of Miami Beach. Apparently the queue begins somewhere in New York!

Remember the Few

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This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and tomorrow, September 15th, was the day when the tide of the summer-long battle of 1940 finally turned, causing Germany to abandon its plans to invade Britain.

September 15th, known as Battle of Britain day, was pivotal to the struggle because so ferocious was the British (and allied) defence of these islands and so heavy the destruction of German bombers, particularly on that day, that Hitler was forcefully persuaded to reconsider his strategy.

So, as you go about your daily business tomorrow, pause for a moment and spare a thought for those brave young men of the RAF (the average age of a Battle of Britain pilot was 20) who fought for the freedom of their country and who, in many cases, made the ultimate sacrifice.

At the time, Winston Churchill was moved to say, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. We still owe them and we must never forget them.

Symptom of a Greater Problem

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Our news channels continue to be dominated by the Middle East refugee crisis with heart breaking images causing distress to anybody with a conscience and outrage on social media (as if that is going to help solve the problem). Meanwhile, opposition party leaders gain television exposure, wringing their hands and appearing close to breakdown as they urge our government to take in yet more refugees.

This humanitarian crisis is often referred to as a European crisis but it is not, it is a world crisis and, according to many experts is the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. The whole world therefore needs to get together to assist and take in as many of these poor wretched people as possible and as quickly as possible. This includes other Arab countries, particularly the oil rich Gulf States, who don’t appear to be doing that much at present to help their fellow Arabs.

This will help alleviate the immediate crisis. However, the refugee crisis itself is not the problem, it is a tragic symptom of the problem. The problem is the continuous unrest in the Middle East, the savagery of the Assad regime in Syria and the psychopaths of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. These problems must first be dealt with if the area is to gain stability and it will not occur through Western bombing raids and drone strikes alone.

The West, sooner or later, is going to have to brace itself for more direct action because this crisis is not going to go away. I quote, not for the first time in this blog, the great 17th century politician, Edmund Burke, who said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” He was right back then and equally so now.

Sugar Tax

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Like many of us, I’m not a believer in the Nanny State and feel that people should be able to live their lives and regulate their behaviour without recourse to the State, subject, of course, to compliance with the laws of the land.

However there are occasions when a government does need to take action for the protection of the more vulnerable members of society and a good example of this seems to be the proposal by celebrity chef and food campaigner Jamie Oliver for a “sugar tax” on soft drinks.

This, of course, is in response to the country’s obesity crisis, particularly in relation to children.  A problem shared with most parts of the western world, it has to be said.

Oliver’s argument is that by raising just an extra 10 pence in tax on a can of fizzy drink a further £1 billion a year can be added to NHS coffers to combat the illness and disease (diabetes being one of the biggest concerns) caused by consuming too much sugar. Naturally, the big food and drink industry corporations have objected to such a blatant attack on their profits but then they would do wouldn’t they?

In an ideal world parents should be trusted to pay attention to the dietary welfare of their children and most parents do this perfectly well. However, some parents are not so responsible and some, whether ill-informed, uncaring or just plain stupid, are causing untold damage to their offspring by allowing them to eat and drink whatever they want without thought for their health and well-being.

Plastic Killer

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This week the results of an investigation by oceanographers and other marine researchers into the effects of plastic waste in our oceans were published in the  journal “Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences”.

The investigation revealed that nine out of ten species of seabird across the planet now have some sort of plastic rubbish lodged in their stomachs. Whilst the plastic doesn’t usually kill the birds outright it can have an effect on reproduction and when death does occur it is usually slow and painful.

To illustrate how bad the problem has become (and how bad it’s going to get, unless  checked) the journal revealed that, 50 years ago, in 1960, it was discovered that plastic was present in the stomachs of 5% of seabirds examined worldwide.

By 2010, that figure had increased to 80% and by 2050 it is estimated that 99% of seabird species and 95% of individual seabirds will have swallowed plastic of some sort or other, whether plastic bags, bottles or other  waste thoughtlessly discarded by human beings.

It’s not just seabirds either, since whales, dolphins, turtles and countless other species are and will continue to be similarly afflicted.

I know this blog has touched on this subject more than once over the last couple of years but, frankly, it is a subject that needs to be repeated and emphasised time and time again. When are we, and more particularly our politicians, going to realise what we are doing to our beautiful planet and when, finally, are we going to do something about it?

Excess Alcohol Leads to Hangover Shock

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Some incredible news last week, following the publication of the results of two linked Dutch and Canadian investigations  into alcohol and hangovers.  In fact, I was so shaken that I had to sit down and drink a glass of whisky just to steady myself.

The co-ordinator of the two investigations, a Professor Joris Vester, examining the results and relying, no doubt, upon  years of study and experience, concluded that “the more you drink the more likely you are to get a hangover”. Like I said, incredible.

Incredible that it took the examination of thousands of participants, not to mention the cost of the investigations themselves, to reveal what any small town drinker could have told the learned professor for free!

The second conclusion, and in fairness, one that is perhaps not so obvious, is that, scientifically at least, there is no such thing as a hangover cure. So, all those sure-fire cures such as a pint of water before bedtime, a greasy breakfast or some hair of the dog are mere placebos at best. But I reckon that most drinkers could have told him that too.

It seems to me that the obvious scenario with alcohol is either not to drink it at all or to know your limit and stick to it. Recognise your “full” sign and either switch to water or go home to bed and avoid any necessity of finding the perfect cure for your hangover! Common sense really.