Sporting Glory

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As an Englishman I was very disappointed along with millions of others at how dismally our rugby union team performed at the World Cup in New Zealand. It was typical of many England performances over the last few years, boring, predictable and unimaginative.

A team without leaders, playing with fear and showing an appalling lack of discipline – both on and off the field, unfortunately. Play hard boys by all  means, but after you’ve won the trophy, not before. Common sense really.

The British Isles’ sole survivors in the competition,Wales, have shown themselves to be everything that England are not, skilfull, fearless, imaginative, intelligent and not afraid to give youth its head and with spectacular results. I truly hope that they can go all the way and bring the trophy back home with them.

I’m sure the whole of England wishes them well just as Wales and their cousins north of the border have always done whenever England have reached the last stages of the competition. Crikey, was that a winged porcine creature that I just saw shooting past my window?!

A Revolution in Education?

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It looks as though the Government is at last taking a positive step in sorting out our shambolic and  inept education system. At the weekend it was reported that Sir Michael Wilshaw, the headmaster who tamed a tough inner city comprehensive school, is to become, as the Sunday Times put it, “the standards enforcer for England’s schools”.  It’s about time too, and in fact probably thirty years overdue but let’s be thankful that somebody in power (in this case the Education Secretary, Michael Gove) has accepted that something has to be done to try and create an acceptable system of education for our children.

Wilshaw has undoubtedly performed wonders in introducing discipline (now that’s a word you don’t hear much these days) to his school, imposing high standards of behaviour, banning mobile phones and insisting that all children, irrespective of their background, wear school uniforms. The result is that the children are evidently happier because they have structure in their lives (something that any good parent will tell you is absolutely vital) and their academic achievements have rocketed with seven pupils from the last academic year gaining places at Cambridge.
Of course he faces a huge task in trying to replicate his success on a national level and I just hope that he has the support of the teaching profession and perhaps more importantly that of the teaching unions. That support will prove crucial though the early signs from the liberal and ostrich-like leadership of the unions are not encouraging.
He deserves and needs the support of all of us, or at least those of us who care about the future of our children and our country, those of us not motivated by the politically correct liberalism that for so long has been choking the life out of this country. He needs to keep faith in what he has done so far and raise it to a national level. He needs to do to English education what Rudolf Giuliani did to New York, transform it against all the odds adopting the same policy of zero tolerance that the former New York mayor did. For him to succeed there has to be a complete sea change in this country’s thinking so that words like duty, respect and discipline once more become a regular part of our language and lives and more importantly of the lives of our children. He has to succeed; the consequences of failure are too dire to think about.

The Ship is Sinking

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Europe is trembling, the Euro is crumbling and the economic crisis is getting worse by the minute. So, what does the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso propose to do about it? He proposes greater integration and a further surrender of individual State’s powers to the European monolith. He feels that if the European Union had even greater power it could get us all through the worst recession in living memory. That’s always the stock answer of these European bureaucrats, isn’t it? Let’s throw more money at Europe, let’s give our unelected rulers more power and all will be well. Except it won’t.
Getting closer to Europe and surrendering further State power is akin to being encouraged to climb aboard a sinking ship rather than the opposite which, as the departing rats will tell you, makes no sense at all. But common sense is in short supply in Europe. I just hope our government stands firm and resists Barroso’s exhortations because if not we will be in considerably deeper trouble than we’re in already and the problems faced by Greece and the other spongers in the lower levels of the European Union will become ours too.

Incidentally, remember when, a few years back, proposals for the UK to join the Euro was part of a national debate and the newspapers and our television screens were dominated by vociferous and “enlightened” liberals telling us that we had to join. We had no choice, they whined, and anybody who disagreed was a “reactionary” or a “little Englander? Well, where are you people now? You’ve gone very quiet haven’t you? Do you have any comment to make on the Euro crisis?  Have you got anything at all to say? Thought not.

Only 100 Days To Go!

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Yes, it’s that time of year again where, with just over two thirds of the year gone, we are urged to forget about the remaining third and plan instead for – and I can barely bring myself to write the word – Christmas. You know what I mean, with our bodies barely free of suntan lotion, restaurants, pubs and clubs are urging us to “Book now for Christmas”, “Book your Christmas Party Here!” and “Book now for Christmas, we still have some places left” (Well, you’d bloody well hope so at the start of September, wouldn’t you!).
How sad, depressing and irritating, in equal measure, is all of that? Talk about wishing your life away. It’s as if September, October and November don’t exist. Let’s just skip Autumn and go straight from Summer to Christmas, shall we?

I think it’s about time we showed some resistance and made a determined effort not to even mention the C word until the beginning of December. We should certainly not allow any C advertising or booking of C functions until December 1st. We could even urge our government (or better still the European Parliament, since they don’t appear to have much of a connection with the real world) to pass an Act banning all reference to C until December.

Yes, that might do the trick although once the C season has passed and we reach January 1st we will all be urged to book our summer holidays and forget about the intervening months from January to June! Oh dear, I suppose it’s the price we have to pay for living in this consumer age.

Here We Go Again

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Can you believe that with all that is happening in our world a woman in Suffolk is being prosecuted for placing a gollywog doll in her window? Actually, that’s a stupid question, of course you can believe it since nothing surprises us anymore in these days of rampant political correctness and nanny state interference in almost every area of our lives.

The woman concerned has been charged with racially aggravated harassment (whatever that means) because the doll evidently upset her neighbour, a black woman. How can placing a doll in your window constitute a criminal offence unless, of course, it was accompanied by some abusive wording or something else personal to the neighbour? If that was the case then we could perhaps understand why legal proceedings have been issued. Honestly, why has this case gone to court? Is it really that serious? What would happen if a black woman placed a white Barbie doll in her window?

Don’t get me wrong, I find any sort of racial prejudice as abhorrent as the next man (or woman, sorry!) but can’t we just exercise a bit of common sense here. Couldn’t the police just have a quiet word with both women, find out what the problem is and then simply suggest to the doll owner that she might like to place it somewhere else in the room. No, probably not, that would be too simple wouldn’t it?

Dangerous Hand Luggage Revisited

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You may remember, early last month, my story of how I was prevented from taking my tennis racket on to a flight departing from Manchester on the basis that it was “an offensive weapon”. Well, a few weeks later, I flew out of Manchester again (minus my tennis racket, of course) in the company of a gentleman who I shall  not identify other than to call him Fred and tell you that he is 80 later this year! Since the majority of his flying was in the rather more gentle and civilized pre-2001 era of air travel Fred was not familiar with modern airport security and so I gave him detailed instructions of what is and isn’t allowed in hand luggage these days. Once we’d checked in and picked up our boarding passes we moved on to security satisfied that we would sail through without any difficulty. I went through the x-ray no problem but the beep went off when Fred tried to pass through. He was asked to go through the full body scan, evidently the most detailed scan of all and the one where you stand by the machine perfectly still with your hands above your head.

He passed it without any further delay and on we went to the departure lounge where, to his horror, Fred discovered that he had inadvertently brought along his pocket Swiss Army penknife having forgotten to remove it from his trousers! The question was, how on Earth did he manage to get through security and that all-singing and dancing modern scanner?

Anyway, the problem would be returning home from Spain since neither of us had hold luggage in which to place the penknife. So, on the day of his return Fred decided that he would take the penknife through airport security and explain to the official that  it was no more than a grooming tool containing, as it did, a pair of scissors, a nail file and a tooth pick. He was indeed stopped this time but the Spanish official, evaluating the risk and displaying a little imagination allowed him to travel with the penknife in his pocket.

So what does this tell us? Well, perhaps Spanish officials (or at least this one) are more lax and easy-going than their British counterparts and are capable of exercising a discretion based on common sense. More significant and worrying though is that the top of the range and no doubt extremely expensive Manchester scanner didn’t pick up the penknife. Various questions therefore arise. What else would the scanner fail to detect? How good is UK security and how much of it is just for show to give the appearance that the authorities know what they are doing. In short, how safe are we?

Fish and Chips – Our National Dish

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If a foreigner asked an Englishman to name his country’s national dish the chances are that he would answer “fish and chips”. Up until a few years ago that was almost certainly true but following the collapse of our fishing industry in the late 20thcentury our eating habits have changed. How can this have happened?
Well, by the late 1950s the British fishing industry was buoyant and fishing ports like Fleetwood, Hull and Grimsby were booming with the latter said to be the largest fishing port in the world landing greater quantities of haddock, plaice and halibut (to name but a few species) than anywhere else on the planet.

Now, however these once great ports are mere shadows of  themselves and where once there would be hundreds of boats lined along the docks their place has been taken by pleasure craft and the odd inshore fishing vessel. Today the main business in many English fishing ports is the freezing and processing of fish caught by fishing fleets from other countries.

It’s hard to believe that this was allowed to happen and almost harder to believe how it happened. Over-fishing undoubtedly caused a reduction in fish stocks leading in turn to a drop in catches but that could have been dealt with by a system of fishing quotas, limiting the size of catches. The main reasons for the decline were the Government’s failure to back the fishing industry in the Cod Wars of the 1970s (a dispute over the size of the Icelandic fishing grounds) and then in the same decade, the surrender of British fishing rights in return for entry into the European Economic Community. Yes, in a clandestine deal the British Government gave away our exclusive right to fish our own waters to our new European partners. At a stroke the fishing industry was decimated leading to mass unemployment in British fishing ports and a severe restriction (authorised by the European Commission) in the size of British catches.
Matters were and continue to be made worse by the absurd European Union’s Common Fisheries policy, a policy that enforces rigid quotas but which at the same time forces fishermen to discard any fish not included in the quota for that particular fishing trip. This means that a boat authorised to land cod and haddock, for example, must throw away any other fish caught in their nets. Thus millions of tons of perfectly edible and valuable fish (already dead in the nets in most cases) are dumped at sea every year to rot at the bottom of the ocean. In a country where many fishermen are struggling to make a living and in a world where millions of people are dying of starvation it is an absolute disgrace and it almost defies belief that politicians can allow such a scandal to exist.
Of course we still enjoy our fish and chips in spite of the fact that a big increase in price, over the years, has been followed by a corresponding decrease in size. To the average Englishman the taste of cod or haddock and chips cooked in beef dripping is still a mouth-watering prospect but for many the bitter aftertaste of the betrayal of our fishing heritage is the taste that lingers the longest.

Criminal Britain

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The recent and continuing London riots, now in danger of spreading elsewhere just as they did back in the summer of 1981, are a reminder of just how close this country is drifting towards anarchy. Look at any town or city in Britain and it’s the same story, violent crime on the increase, weekend city centres resembling scenes from the Wild West, youths vomiting on street corners when not attacking innocent passers-by and one another. Drug-fuelled burglaries in the suburbs and streets full of litter. This is the reality of modern day Britain, a country where criminals walk around with impunity (not to mention immunity) and where a policeman pounding the beat is, in most areas, a rarity.
This is a country where most crimes remain undetected and unsolved and where, when perpetrators are brought to justice, the punishments meted out by the courts are totally inadequate in relation to the crimes committed. A country where victims are punished should they despair of the lack of State protection and dare to take the law into their own hands by offering resistance to those who would harm them or their property.
This is a country whose people have been repeatedly let down by successive governments of both major political parties and where the State has consistently failed in its primary and fundamental duty to protect its law abiding citizens. This is a country whose rulers seem to think that the rights of criminals are more important than those of their victims.
This is a country where respect, responsibility and common decency are alien concepts to many people. How can this have happened? How can a country once renowned throughout the world for its democracy, its sense of fair play and the doctrine that every Englishman’s home is his castle have slipped so far? Why, seemingly, have we allowed the lunatics to take over the asylum?
Of course, every country in the world has a problem with crime to some degree or another and violent crime is nothing new. Prior to the mid-19th century and the founding of the modern police force violent crime was rampant but at least in those days the law abiding citizen had the option of legally carrying a weapon and defending himself should it be necessary. Since the mid-19th century we have benefitted from the protection of a national police force, an organisation generally respected by the majority and feared by the (criminal) minority. Not any more, there are too few police, there certainly aren’t enough to be a visible deterrent and the courts are a joke rather than a deterrent to most criminals.
The fact is that respectable people, the majority of us, no longer feel safe on the streets or even in our houses. Barely a day goes by without a newspaper report of yet another violent crime being committed against an innocent person. Well, you know all this but the question is what are you or what are we going to do about it? Probably nothing except shake our heads in dismay, have a moan over the dinner table or at the pub and then order another drink and pretend that it’s gone away. But it hasn’t and it won’t. Whatever our politicians say, crime is getting out of hand and is increasing year by year with fewer offences being detected. Up to date statistics (so we are told) reveal that more crimes are being solved but take away motoring offences, the vast majority of which can hardly be classified as crime, and we are left with a radically different picture. No, those statistics are simply produced by our political masters to try to convince us that the police really are making headway. They are not.
So what can be done? Well, let’s consider these for a start –
  1. Increase the number of police. Not to fill in forms and endless reams of Government sponsored paperwork, but to actually patrol and walk the beat. You know, like real policemen. Isn’t the main function of a police force, to protect and serve? Let them do just that.
  1. Improve police morale. Put an end to the ridiculous witch hunts where allegations are made of  “institutionalized racism” and other “isms” dreamed up by woolly jacketed, woolly headed, bearded politically correct idealists. This country is one of the most fair minded and racially tolerant in the world and whilst some prejudices will always exist I don’t believe for a moment that our police force does anything but reflect the rest of British society.
  1. Stop picking on the motorist. Many motorists, and don’t forget most of the adult population are motorists, dislike the police because we feel picked upon. There seems to be no shortage of police to hand out tickets for speeding and parking but when our homes are burgled we wait hours and hours for them to visit us, if they bother at all.
  1. Eradicate political correctness, a cancer slowly choking the life out of the United Kingdom. We are all equal and deserve to be treated as such. Treat all people and in particular all criminals the same, irrespective of race, colour, religion, sex, age, political belief or economic status. This means ending reverse discrimination too. There must be no no-go areas anywhere in the United Kingdom (we are a democracy remember?) and the police should not be afraid to question or arrest any person suspected of breaking the law irrespective of his or her colour, nationality, race or sex.
  1. Punish criminals in such a way as to ensure that they don’t feel inclined to offend again. I can’t offer any quick solution here but I’m sure there will be many suggestions. For example, in the case of serious crimes shouldn’t life imprisonment mean just that?  Deterrents have to be realistic. Institute a policy of zero tolerance and leave the criminal in no doubt as to the consequences of his actions.
  1.  End the obsession with the rights of the criminal. We should be more concerned with the rights of the victim. Protection of the innocent law-abiding citizen is a priority and duty of a civilized state. We can look at the criminal’s human rights once we’ve settled the rights of his victim.
  1. It is quite clear that due to our ineffective education system many youngsters are brought up with no idea of this country’s rich history, heritage and traditions. Is there any wonder that many of them have no pride or sense of belonging? Is it not our duty to ensure that in all schools children are educated in and brought up with a truthful and complete schooling in British history, tradition and values?
  1. The introduction of some sort of community or civic service should be considered very carefully. If our education system is incapable of teaching values of pride, respect, responsibility, discipline and decency then maybe this will do the trick. Some may think that this is a retrograde step, a reactionary measure and an infringement of liberty but what is the alternative? Nothing else seems to be working does it?  Perhaps dissenters should reserve their opinion to the next time that their house or their neighbour’s house is burgled or the next time they face abuse whilst taking their wife out for a meal on a Saturday night.
The majority of people care deeply about this country and its values, values based upon freedoms and democracy that have developed over many years. It is still a wonderful country and it hurts to see how it is declining so terribly. We need action and we need it urgently. Inaction is no longer an option. If we feel strongly about these matters then those who govern us must be left in no doubt as to the strength of our feelings. Tell them to act now before it’s too late. Enough is enough.

Dangerous Hand Luggage

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A really offensive weapon!

I recently flew out of Manchester on an international flight, though this story I’m sure could apply to virtually any of our airports. I was travelling light and took a small bag (just about within the limit) and a brand new tennis racket in its pvc case. I checked in without problem and then joined the long queue for Security. As somebody who normally flies in excess of 50 times a year the queues don’t bother me at all because I want every passenger and his/her bag to be thoroughly screened if it means we all fly safely.

When I reached the front of the queue I took off my belt as requested and placed it along with my bag in a plastic tray which then went through the x-ray machine. At the other end I waited for my bag and was about to pick it up when the Security officer came over to me and said he had some bad news. I asked him what the problem was and he said I couldn’t take my tennis racket on the plane since it was classified as an offensive weapon (obviously he’d never seen me play tennis!). At first I thought he was joking but he clearly wasn’t and he said that I would have to check it in to the main hold which would mean going all the way back to the check-in desk and then renegotiating Security.

There is never any point in losing your temper or having a go at Government officials because they are simply doing their job and so I politely asked how this could be and he said it was a recent directive from the Department of Transport (or whatever it’s called these days). I told him I couldn’t believe it and the sympathetic look on his face told me that he shared a similar view. I shook my head in disbelief and off I went contemplating the awful incident the officer’s vigilance had just averted – Captain to passengers “There’s no cause for alarm ladies and gentleman but the man in seat 7A has got a tennis racket….Omigod, he’s taking it out of the case…”

I checked in the offending item, rejoined the queue and, would you believe it, this time I was asked to take my shoes off even though no such request had been made when I first went through some 20 minutes earlier. You see, that’s the other thing, there is no consistency. On a number of occasions I’ve flown down to London Heathrow to catch a flight to the USA and have been surprised at how, for example, I have been asked to remove my shoes even though it wasn’t deemed necessary in Manchester. Give them the benefit of the doubt though, maybe it’s just a random request. Most bizarre of all though is to land in the USA and then go through a full screening again even when I’m actually leaving the airport. What on Earth is that all about?!

Of course we live in dangerous times and we need the full protection of the State to keep us safe. It’s a vital job and I really am grateful but can we please show some consistency and a little common sense? As for the nameless bureaucrat who deemed a tennis racket an offensive weapon, well wouldn’t it be nice if he could explain his decision and at the same time explain how I was allowed to proceed with two alloy bicycle handle bar extensions in my bag which really would be a nasty weapon in the wrong hands. Also, why was my travelling companion allowed to carry a safety razor in his hand luggage? Whilst were on the subject, how come passengers are allowed wine in glass bottles and those in Club Class and beyond are actually allowed to eat with metal knives and forks? Clearly, somebody needs to get a grip of this.

European Crisis

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The crisis continues?

As the European financial crisis escalates and yet another bail out places greater strain on the euro and the Union in general isn’t it odd how quiet the usually vociferous pro-European groups have become? You know, those people who laugh scornfully at any who dare to show opposition to their European dream and deride them as “Little Englanders”. To many, the crisis has been a long time coming and has seemed as inevitable as a rainy day in Manchester.

The whole concept of modern Europe was founded on the idealistic dreamings of liberal intellectuals who were convinced that totally contrasting European nations could co-exist happily in a one-size-fits-all federal Union similar to that in the USA. They were convinced that despite the obvious differences between the lifestyles of the European nations a common policy could exist for all and square pegs could be driven into round holes. Not surprisingly they can’t and the predicted collapse of the euro followed by the collapse of the Union itself should surprise nobody.

I’m sure that there will be many future references to Europe in this blog but for now let’s just watch the crisis develop. First though, perhaps we should look at the history of this country’s involvement in Europe and see how we have arrived at this point. It seems that the whole exercise has been one of deceit, duplicity and totally undemocratic behaviour from former Prime Minister Edward Heath onwards.

In 1975 we were given the chance to vote in a referendum on whether we should stay in the Common Market, as the then European Economic Community was known. We were asked whether we thought it a good idea to trade with our near-neighbours without the presence of trade barriers and other restrictions to free trade. Most of us voted “Yes” because we felt a free market could only benefit our economy.

After a while, without even a cursory nod of the head to democracy, the limiting word “Economic” was dropped and we were now part of the European Community. Even more sinister was the  transformation to the European Union and a system far removed from the collection of sovereign states engaged in free trade. Next came the proposals for a European Constitution so that the Union would resemble the USA with the UK having a similar role to play as, say, Alabama in the USA.

Were we asked? No we were not, in spite of the promises of various leaders across the political divide. Maybe there would be no point because as in the case of Ireland a “No” vote is deemed unacceptable and you will simply be asked again and again until you produce the right answer as Ireland, of course, eventually did.

There can be no doubting the fact that the European Union is undemocratic, is corrupt on a massive scale and the bureaucratic bungling and inefficiency (eg. the Common Fisheries’ Policy) almost defies belief. It cannot last and even though the economic price of its failure will be a high one many will see it as a price worth paying. The sad thing is that a European Common Market with no trade barriers and free trade still makes sense but political union? No, it is and always was a step too far.

PS. At least we managed to stay out of the euro and a big thank you for that is owed to Gordon Brown who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, resisted the pressure of his boss, the then PM and European-President-wannabe-Tony Blair.