Category Archives: Current Affairs

Scottish Independence

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I recently read that the Scottish Nationalist Party are planning to hold a referendum in 2014 on the proposed secession of Scotland from the United Kingdom. The reason they have chosen 2014 is that this is a big year for the Scots being the 700th anniversary of  their victory over the wicked English at the battle of Bannockburn.
It is thought, probably accurately, that nationalistic feelings will be running high and there will be more chance of success for the Nationalists. Fair enough, I don’t suppose it would have made much sense holding the referendum on the anniversary of  defeats such as Neville’s Cross or Flodden Field! Actually, it does provide food for thought though and maybe we should follow their example and hold our own referendum on Europe on the anniversary of the battle of  Waterloo!

One further thought occurs to me about a Scottish referendum. What if the Nationalists are successful and they break away from the union? In the absence of the English who on earth are they going to blame for all their future problems?

In all seriousness, the possibility of the break up of the United Kingdom is not a pleasant one. England formally united with Scotland in 1707 and together with the Welsh and Irish they created one of the largest and most influential empires the world has ever seen. England may well have been the most populous member of the union and the senior partner but nobody can possibly deny the huge input of the Scots, Welsh and Irish in the building of that empire. It was a British Empire not an English one and it could not have been built by the English alone. The British flag, the Union Flag (Jack) is one of the most beautiful and recognizable flags in the world and it represents so much of what is good and great about these Isles. It would be sad if 2014 saw its destruction.

Strikes

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This country like most of the world is in the grip of the worst financial crisis in living memory and a crisis that, showing no sign of abating, could well prove to be the worst in the history of the West. It seems that all economists and politicians, irrespective of their allegiances, agree that we will all have to continue to tighten our belts and take some pretty serious medicine if the country is to have any chance of pulling through.
Many in the private sector have experienced loss of business, loss of income and a general fall in living standards. Perhaps most worrying of all, they have seen their pension policies, upon which they have planned their retirement after years of hard work, dramatically collapse in value so that many of those policies are virtually worthless. The public sector are out on strike today because they don’t like what is happening in the world and they don’t like what is happening to their pension policies.

Let’s face it, none of us like what is happening in the world but we have no choice in the matter. We simply have to endure it and hope that we can all pull through as unscathed as possible. The public sector (unlike the private) are striking because they can. They are also striking because they are misguided and because they believe, erroneously, that they should be immune to what is happening to the rest of us. They need to join the real world. Times are hard and we have to adjust accordingly. Striking will only make matters worse.

Government Incompetence

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It almost beggars belief that, for a period of two months in the summer just gone, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) relaxed its security checks at UK ports of entry potentially allowing all sorts of  undesirables to enter unmonitored. So bad is this latest governmental cock-up that Home Secretary Theresa May, has had to admit that she has no idea how many foreign nationals escaped those security checks before they blithely entered the country. And this, at a time when the world, in general, and the West, in particular, remain at great risk from the threat of global terrorism.

The whole purpose of immigration and security controls is, of course, to screen those who wish to enter the country by firstly examining their paperwork and then, if necessary interviewing them to ascertain whether or not they pose a risk to national security. This was not done and we need to know why not and who was responsible. Of course, ministers are rarely personally to blame for such faux pas but ultimately they must take responsiblity for the incompetence of the civil servants working beneath them.

This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in recent years though it usually happened on the watch of the previous bungling Labour government. Sadly, the present incumbents seem to be no better. Oh dear, if only we had an alternative!

Pigs in a trough – The News of the World scandal

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The closing down of the News of the World, amidst much wailing and gnashing of teeth, is, of course, the biggest news story of the day. There are many fine journalists in this country but there are others who are perfectly represented by the 1980s television programme, Spitting Image, as pigs fighting over food in a trough.
 Any journalist suspected of involvement in the telephone hacking referred to in the press and any policemen alleged to have taken bribes should be investigated as quickly as possible. As usual there will be calls for a public enquiry, no doubt because it is in the interests of certain politicians for this course of action to be taken. It is the wrong course, however, and, irrespective of the embarassment to those in authority, a criminal investigation should be undertaken immediately with those found guilty facing the full weight of the law. Their victims deserve no less.

Foreign Aid

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Well, it’s July 6th and the first topical blog for common sense. Right on cue our Prime Minister has stated that yet more hundreds of millions of pounds of UK taxpayers money will be given away in foreign aid, this time to Afghanistan. This follows hot on the heels of pledges of £1.4 billion in aid to Pakistan (which recently spent a similar amount on the purchase of two squadrons of fighter planes from China) and several hundreds of millions of pounds to India (which is currently spending billions of pounds on its space exploration programme).

Aside from questioning how each recipient is actually going to spend our money are we not also entitled to ask how on earth the Government can actually spend money that it says we haven’t got? We are constantly being warned of the necessity of austerity measures and a general tightening of belts as cuts are made in the funding of vital public services such as Health, Education and the Police.

Something doesn’t quite add up does it? If the money is there then shouldn’t it be spent on relieving poverty and suffering in our country, shouldn’t it be used for example so that more police can walk our streets or so that poor old Mr Smith who has paid tax for the last 50 years can be admitted to a care home without having to sell his house. Charity begins at home Mr Cameron and in so saying we are not demonstrating “hard heartedness” as you recently stated. No, we are simply showing some common sense.