Clean up for Auntie?

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These are not good times for the BBC.  The once venerable institution seems to be lurching from crisis to crisis and the sad thing is that most of its current difficulties are undoubtedly of its own making.

The scandalous withdrawal of the Savile expose by the Newsnight programme a few weeks back and then the subsequent outrageous allegations of paedophilia made against an innocent public figure on the same programme were quite mind-blowing. The first was at the very least an act of gross incompetence by management and the second was an extremely poor piece of “investigative” journalism that quite simply beggared belief.

Any decent journalist – in fact any trainee journalist – knows that you should always check out your source and investigate fully all aspects of your scoop to avoid not just claims of libel or slander but also the possible destruction of an innocent man’s reputation. The fact that the innocent victim in this case, Lord McAlpine, has settled quietly rather than destroy the BBC in court is to his credit. However, no matter how the settlement has been reached, let’s not forget the other innocents in this story, those responsible for forking out the damages for the Corporation’s incompetence, namely us, the BBC licence payers.

This week saw the 90th anniversary of the first BBC radio broadcast and one cannot help but think of the early aims of the BBC to “inform, educate and entertain”. The BBC still does an awful lot right and is much respected both in this country and in many parts of the world. Many of the BBC’s dramas, documentaries and current affairs programmes are of the highest quality and the fact that the beleaguered director-general of the BBC, George Entwistle, was forced to resign following a savage grilling by his employee, John Humphrys, on the Radio 4 Today programme, is to the eternal credit of the BBC’s ethos. Can you imagine such a thing happening in China, Russia or in fact almost anywhere else in the world?

What is needed for the BBC is a weeding out of the incompetent, complacent, arrogant and politically correct management who have led the Corporation to this sad state of affairs. Replace them with a determined, focused, disciplined and responsible management hierarchy capable of leading a team of good quality enthusiastic  journalists and within a short period the recent disasters will be consigned to history. Don’t  let’s give up on Auntie just yet, she just needs a bit of a clean-up and face lift and all will be well once more.

Employment Quotas

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At last , some sense on the subject of employment quotas!  Women and Equalities Minister, Maria Miller, has publicly rejected the idea of quotas for women in British company boardrooms and has stated her opposition to the European Commission’s plan to force large companies to ensure that 40% of their executive directors are women. As the Minister said, “Women want and expect to reach the top on merit, not because of political correctness, but because of economic reality”.

I’ve always thought that the whole concept of quotas and targets for the employment of different classes of people is both patronising and misguided. If somebody is promoted to a position of authority just because they are, for example, female,  black, disabled or whatever how are they going to receive the respect of their peers who have achieved their positions on merit?  The only thing that matters is whether you are good enough. English law already provides protection against discrimination whether on the grounds of sex, colour, race, religion, nationality or disability. This is vital in the public sector and none of the above should ever be a bar to anybody seeking to advance themselves.

In the private sector it’s a different ballgame since market forces and rules will always apply. If a company or individual is not good enough then neither it nor he will prosper. Any commercially minded employer wishing to compete in the market place will want to employ the best available staff. He will not be interested in what sex, nationality or religion his employers are just as long as they are good at the job. If an employer has six vacancies and the best applicants are all women, for example, then he’d be a fool not to employ them.

Excellence is the only thing that matters and if your staff are not as good as those of your rivals then pretty soon you are going to struggle to be competitive and stay in business.  It’s pure market sense, it’s common sense and in the dog eat dog world of big business there’s no place for sentiment or political correctness.

Primitive Justice?

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More unusual news from the USA. No not that President Obama was re-elected, but instead, a throwback to bygone times and maybe something that could catch on over here.

A woman driver in Cleveland was recently filmed driving her vehicle on a sidewalk (pavement) in order to get past a school bus that was offloading children. She was ordered by a judge to stand at a road junction wearing a sign stating “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus”. Well, it’s difficult to argue with the sentiment and many would say that the punishment ( ritual humiliation in front of her local community) fits the crime.

Of course, it’s no more than a journey back in time to when petty criminals in Middle Ages England were put in stocks and had rotten fruit and vegetables (and worse!) hurled at them by their peers or, when women suspected of witchcraft were placed on ducking stools before being immersed in the stagnant waters of the village pond.

The European Court of Human Rights would have a thing or two to say about it now but wouldn’t it be great, for example, if local louts were made to stand in town centres with signs proclaiming “Only a cowardly thug would steal a handbag from an elderly lady” or “Only a drunken low-life would hurl abuse at innocent people trying to enjoy their Friday night out”.

Better still, erect some stocks outside the Houses of Parliament for errant MPs, a notice hanging from their necks stating “Only a grubby little parasite regarding himself as being above the law of the land would fraudulently claim thousands of pounds a year in expenses in the arrogant belief that his crimes would not be detected”.  It won’t happen, of course, though more’s the pity!

Child Benefit – Helping the Needy

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Much of our recent news, apart from predictable speculation on the identity of the next president of the USA, has focused on the payment of UK child benefit.  Evidently the Government has decided that payment of these benefits should be means tested. Well of course it should, isn’t that what the welfare state is all about?

Why on earth should people who earn enough money to pay higher rate tax receive welfare benefits? If you are fortunate enough to earn a large wage (the Government’s starting point is £50,000 a year) then you don’t need a handout from the state. This has got nothing whatever to do with socialism but everything to do with common sense.

The whole purpose of the welfare state is to look after people who are not able to look after themselves whether through age, infirmity, or a genuine inability to find work and please note the use of the word “genuine”. Those are the people who need and deserve state benefits and if it is true that some Tory backbenchers are opposed to this principle then they belong in the Dark Ages.

As I have said before in this blog, one of the prime responsibilities of a civilized state is to look after and safeguard the needs of the weak and less privileged, not to continue to line the pockets of those with no need for it.

The Turning of the Tide

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Today is an important day in the history of this nation which 70 years ago, during World War II, was literally fighting for its very existence. On November 2nd,1942 British and Allied troops were engaged in a battle that would see the tide of war, which for over three years had rolled against Britain, now turn in her favour. That battle was El Alamein (October 23rd – November 4th, 1942) and so important was the victory that Prime Minister Winston Churchill was moved to declare “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning”.

Prior to this victory in the desert of Egypt the British and Allied forces had known defeat and humiliation from Dunkirk to Singapore and in the North African campaign had regularly suffered at the hands of the German Afrika Korps led by the brilliant Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, known as the “Desert Fox”. Churchill decided that something had to be done and so changed the army leadership, appointing General Alexander to overall command with General Gott as commander of the 8th Army (later to be known as the “Desert Rats”). Sadly, General Gott was killed in the plane taking him to his new command HQ and by default, General Montgomery took his place.

Bernard Law Montgomery, born in London in 1887, was a charismatic, inspirational and often controversial figure, a fine tactician and  meticulous organiser who exuded confidence in everything he did. He inherited a demoralised army who appeared to be more in awe of the seemingly invincible Rommel than their own leaders. This was all about to change as Montgomery declared, upon taking up his new command, “There will be no more belly-aching and no more retreats”. He was true to his word since, in his first action as commander of the 8th Army,  he was to achieve a defensive victory against Rommel at Alam Halfa in early September 1942.

Following on from this Montgomery (known as Monty to his men) made plans to go on the offensive and demanded men and materials from the Government to make this possible. He planned his campaign thoughtfully and methodically,  insisting upon having an overwhelming attacking force, superior in numbers and equipment to the enemy, before risking the lives of his own men. This attitude came about as a result of the slaughter of World War I where Montgomery himself had been severely wounded. He was determined never to waste lives unnecessarily and once, when told by one of his soldiers that his most prized possession was his rifle, Montgomery responded “No, it isn’t. It’s your life and I am going to save it”.

Before beginning the attack, Montgomery ensured that there was complete ground and air co-operation and co-ordination. He insisted that his RAF counterpart be based in close proximity to his own HQ and that he be kept fully informed of what was going on. So it was, that with air superiority guaranteed and a large force of fully motivated soldiers newly equipped with freshly delivered American Sherman and Grant  tanks, the attack on El Alamein (codename Operation Lightfoot) began with an almighty artillery barrage on the night of October 23rd, 1942.

Fighting their way through dense enemy minefields, sometimes 5 miles deep,  the British and Allied troops, under fierce fire the whole time, achieved what Montgomery referred to as the “break-in”. Now followed the second stage, the “dogfight” when Rommel (who had just returned from illness) threw everything he had against the Allies in a powerful counter-attack. This had been predicted by and planned for by Montgomery and when Rommel failed to drive the Allies back Montgomery launched the third and final stage, the “break-out” (Operation Supercharge) on the night of November 1st.  By November 4th it was all over, the enemy was in full flight and the battle won.

The effect on the morale of the army and the public at home was enormous, church bells were rung and people unashamedly celebrated the first piece of really good news that they had experienced in over three years of war. The last word belongs with Churchill, who after the war had ended, stated “Before Alamein we never had a victory, after Alamein we never had a defeat”. Victory was still a long way off however and came at a terrible price before its end  (in Europe at least) in May, 1945 when Field Marshall Montgomery (later Viscount Montgomery of Alamein) personally accepted the surrender of the German northern armies.

We’re all Americans Now

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Isn’t this a lovely time of year? We may have lost an hour of daylight and there’s a definite chill in the air but how beautiful the countryside looks with the leaves of Autumn showing their colours of copper, bronze, auburn and gold. There’s a mist in the morning and frost on the ground and soon it will be time for bonfires, fireworks, parkin and the celebration of Guy Fawkes. Guy who?
There’s a celebration in the air, that’s for sure but it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Guido Fawkes and his Gunpowder Plot comrades, those brave, reckless young men who decided that they’d had enough and planned to burn down the Houses of Parliament back in 1605 – now there’s an idea! (memo to Thought Police – it’s a joke!). No, if you look around you, in the supermarkets, shops, hairdressers, cafes and pubs all you can see are large orange pumpkins, witches on broomsticks, skeletons in black capes and cobwebs hanging from the walls and ceilings. All that seems to matter is the great American festival of Halloween.

Halloween, another celebration of consumerism, excess and bad taste far removed from the pagan festival of All Hallows Eve established, incidentally, about two thousand years before America even existed as a nation! Still, it doesn’t matter, we’re all Americans now, totally enraptured and in love with everything they put on our television and cinema screens. Penny for the Guy? You must be joking!

Nuclear Catastrophe

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Fifty years ago this weekend the world stood on the brink of nuclear oblivion as the USA and USSR squared up to one another over what is now referred to as the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that had the crisis of October 1962 ended differently the world’s history would have terminated on October 27th, 1962. Our planet really was that close to Armageddon.

After the end of World War II an “Iron Curtain” (as Sir Winston Churchill put it) came down between the forces of the West, led by the USA and the forces of Communism led by the USSR. Those two nations became engaged in a nuclear arms race and by the turn of the 1960s had accumulated enough weaponry to destroy each other (and the rest of the world) several times over. The period, known as the Cold War, was a time of great tension and the whole world watched nervously as these hugely powerful nations squared up to one another.

The crisis occurred when the USSR, in retaliation against the USA’s placing of nuclear weapons on the territory of their near neighbours Turkey, accepted an invitation by the American’s sworn enemy Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba, to place nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. This was a step too far for the Americans who hitherto had not been exposed to the same sort of direct threat of nuclear attack that they had imposed upon their enemies. The crisis escalated when the American President, John F. Kennedy, demanded the removal of the missiles and placed US forces on the highest possible alert for war. Negotiations proved fruitless and when an American spy plane was shot down in Cuban airspace the world held its breath and nervously awaited the descent into oblivion.

Fortunately, it never occurred because the Soviet leader, Nikita Kruschev no more wanted war than Kennedy and the USSR agreed to the removal of the weapons in return for a secret agreement by the Americans to remove their weapons from Turkey. The crisis was over and twenty seven years later , in November 1989, the Cold War was over for good with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up of the Soviet Union.

The question is have we learned from this and, perhaps more importantly, is the world now a safer place? The answers are not too encouraging because although the USSR is no more and Russia and America along with China have a reasonable dialogue and mutual respect and understanding their nuclear weapons remain. Worse still, there has been a proliferation of world wide nuclear capability with nations such as India and Israel joining the club and the very real possibility or probability of rogue states like Iran joining them. Add to this the relentless spread of world terrorism and the threat of Al-Qaeda then it is difficult to say that the world is a safer place than it was fifty years ago.

All we can hope is that those former combatants, Russia and America, and the rest of the civilized world, for that matter, remain committed to peace. We must hope too that they remain vigilant and do all they can to prevent the type of weapons that so nearly destroyed the world all those years ago from falling into the wrong hands now.

Protecting Children

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Sky News featured a story over the weekend on the alarming rise of gang-related child abduction in India, one of the world’s so-called emerging nations and one of the fastest growing economies.  Evidently the abduction of young Indian children has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated one child being taken every eight minutes. That works out at just under two hundred a day or a staggering fourteen hundred a week. Investigations have revealed that, once enslaved, the children are used as either cheap labour in one of the country’s thriving factories or as prostitutes.

The Indian government, not surprisingly, are extremely concerned by the situation and questions are being asked as to whether or not the police are doing all that they can to safeguard the welfare of their children. A national register has been set up with the idea of posting on it a photograph of every child in the country to assist in tracing anyone unfortunate enough to be abducted. It seems a good idea but how effective will it be in a country of over one billion people and with wide scale poverty among the lower classes, many of whom undoubtedly slip under the State’s radar?
Abuse of children has always seemed to me to be the worst type of human abuse since children are naturally so vulnerable, trusting, innocent and weak. Any State that cannot look after its most vulnerable members can barely refer to itself as civilised and I’m not singling out India here. Closer to home we have been faced with a barrage of tales concerning the late Sir Jimmy Savile and whilst, initially, there may have been doubt at the allegations made against him one year after his death their sheer volume can only lead one to the conclusion that here was a man of at least questionable behaviour but more likely, as many have claimed, a paedophile. I just hope that the investigation, and there will undoubtedly be a national enquiry, is calm and well balanced, concerning itself only with truth and fact and does not degenerate into a witch hunt.
In the meantime, all any of us can do is to educate and alert our children to the dangers of the world, to warn them against the wiles of some adults, not just strangers, and to encourage in them the use of common sense. We mustn’t overdo it though because there is still a lot of good in the world and a sizeable majority of people are undoubtedly thoughtful, decent and kind. It would not be right to bring up a new generation of untrusting, hard-faced, bitter, cynics. No, that’ll come soon enough with middle-age!
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Going it Alone

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Scotland is a beautiful country with many fine people who have, over time, done much to make the United Kingdom what it is today. I have always felt that, sharing the same island, we are all better off together. At times the United Kingdom may appear to be an uneasy marriage but a marriage it is and I find the possibility of a divorce both a cause for sorrow and concern. We have a unique position, we British, because we wear not only the hat of the United Kingdom but the hat also of our native country within the Union. I have never had a problem in calling myself both British and English and find no particular ambiguity in using either term. It seems that many Scots and in fact a significant number of Celts, let’s be honest, find it difficult to do the same.
As a Briton I want to maintain the Union because that has made us so much of what we are today. With our Celtic cousins, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, we created a great empire which, whatever some of our politically correct leaders may tell us, was largely a force for the good. Our statesmen. explorers, inventors, doctors, lawyers and engineers came from all corners of the British Isles and the Scots have always punched well above their weight within the Union. I say all of that whilst wearing my British hat.
 As an Englishman however I am tired of the constant whingeing and whining that emanates from across the border. Within the Union, Scotland undoubtedly has it good with the average Scot  enjoying many benefits denied to (though subsidised by) the English such as free medical prescriptions and free University education for their youngsters. Yet still they complain.
Perhaps our politicians should take a harder line with Alex Salmond, the Scottish Nationalist Party leader,  and spell out to him that actually Scotland needs England a lot more than vice versa. They should tell him to be careful what he wishes for because independence could well come at a heavy price and that price could be economic ruin for Scotland. Next time the English won’t bail out the Scots as they did prior to the Union of 1707 when the disastrous Darien Venture  virtually bankrupted Scotland. No, next time Scotland will be completely on her own.
Maybe our government should take pre-emptive action by saying –
 “Actually Mr Salmond, we are sick and tired of your agitating. Forget about a referendum, we’re abolishing the Union here and now and we are throwing you out. Take your politicians away from Westminster and return them to Edinburgh. With immediate effect all Scots are dismissed from jobs in the British Government , the Civil Service, Trade Unions and the BBC. Pay up your proportion of the national debt, build a nice big secure border between our countries and just SHUT UP!”
Of course it will never happen but it would be worth it just to see the look of righteous indignation on Salmond’s face.
In all seriousness, I have  a feeling that there are enough wise Scots who appreciate what we British have done and continue to do together and they will do all they can to preserve the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Let’s hope so, if only for the sake of their country.

Fiction or Fact?

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According to yesterday’s Mail on Sunday the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, presumably taking a breather from his attempts to reform Britain’s declining schools, has declared that we need to take a tougher stance on Europe and to tell Brussels that if we had a referendum on continued membership he would vote to leave. There were no actual quotations from Mr Gove personally and most of the viewpoints attributed to him came from interviews with “friends” and “a well placed source” who gave testimony as to what Mr Gove told them. In effect this was either a non-story placed on the front page to sell copy or alternatively it was an authorised leak to convince us that the Government are, at last, going to get tough on Europe.

If it was an attempt to sell newspapers then fair enough, the fall in newspaper sales caused by universally obtainable online news would justify almost any attempt to boost sales, even stories based on hearsay. However, if it was a deliberate leak to try and convince a sceptical and disenchanted public that the Government is actually going to stand up to Brussels then that is a different matter. There is no doubt that the Conservatives, who in power seem no better or, at times, no different to New Labour, are losing support at an alarming rate.

Perhaps the Prime Minister’s colleagues and advisers are finally beginning to realise that they need to do something about it and they now realise that continued membership of the European Union is of concern to a sizeable proportion of the electorate. Let’s hope that this is the case because the continued defection of traditional Conservatives to UKIP is going to do neither party, nor the country as a whole, any favours since neither one will be strong enough to form a government come the elections in 2015.