There’s a saying that goes around media newsrooms, “you just couldn’t make this up!” and nothing sums this up better than the morality play of Sir Fred Goodwin, until very recently the CEO of The Royal Bank of Scotland.
Like many of his banking colleagues in the USA and UK he has earned a fortune during the fat years and we only really came to evaluate the morality of this system of reward when the house of cards came crashing down around our ears.
This man is the perfect example of the banking Gordon Gecko whose creed was “Greed is Good”.
Goodwin was known as Fred the Shred, because of his ruthless and supposedly successful style of management. He was rewarded with huge payments and dividends but unfortunately, and at the cost of us all, he wasn’t succeeding, in fact he was failing on a scale never before seen in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter.
This was not just failure, but epic disaster, the Perfect Storm of a financial cataclysm. It has resulted, lest we forget, in his bank posting the biggest single one-year corporate loss in the UK’s history. For the record ponder the numbers, he lost us £24 billion in the last twelve months.
There is, apparently, another £350 billion of questionable debt on the same bank’s books. We, the people, have underwritten all of it under the new loan guarantee scheme.
All of these facts were known to the government when the panic button was hit a couple of months back, when, to save our entire banking system, the government had to step in with just hours to spare.
When this quasi-forced nationalization was being consummated the men and women who run the nation’s Treasury had to quickly do some hiring and firing. They realized that the country could not countenance the survival of the senior management who had been, at best, inept, or at worst criminally liable for the disaster that had befallen us.
It transpires that the government ministers responsible for these transactions had sight of the relevant contracts and allowed certain pay offs to take place. Amongst these was the lifetime pension pot for Sir Fred Goodwin in which he was to receive nearly £650,000 (nearly $1 million) per year for the rest of his life with, commencing now, at the age of 50.
The Minister who allowed this is Lord Myners, who is now calling on Sir Fred to not take the money. Goodwin refuses to do this or pay any money back. The Prime Minister and many others in government have also insisted that Sir Fred must not get this money in these circumstances. Remember these are the same people who rubber-stamped his deal in the first place.
It seems as though the crime Goodwin is guilty of is not getting his hands on the money it is getting caught receiving the money while the cameras are aimed in his direction.
This is epic hypocrisy by the most inept and injudicious British government ever.
Of course Goodwin should never have received one penny, in fact he should never have been in a job he was clearly not capable of doing. But he was in that job and he did negotiate a deal with those ministers and they all signed it willingly. There is no justification for a country to break a contract of its own devising. This would be both illegal and amoral. Of course a government could change the law retroactively to stop the knight getting his pension but that would be an act of petty venality that even this bankrupt leadership couldn’t justify. If that kind of thing is to be allowed we have entered a very dark tunnel indeed.
On his own behalf Goodwin wrote to the City Minister Paul Myners arguing that in forgoing his 12-months notice pay when he resigned last October, he had made a sufficient “gesture.” Myners replied in a letter that his position was “unfortunate and unacceptable” and that the executive should think again.
“Such an act would be an appropriate recognition of the failings of RBS under your tenure and subsequent support the government has provided,” Myners wrote.
The Treasury has finally acknowledged that Myners did know all about the pension arrangement when Goodwin resigned last October although there had been some argument previously about the details. His understanding, according to the Treasury, was that the payout was Goodwin’s legal entitlement and unchangeable. Prime Minister Brown said it was only this week that he learned the RBS board had some discretion in awarding the pay.
The government has not yet made it clear what route it will take on this issue. Ministers have, so far, just applied maximum moral pressure on Goodwin to voluntarily give up his pension.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said, “Sir Fred could resolve this problem very quickly.” Brown said the payout wasn’t acceptable but offered no remedy.
“The anger the public has is the anger I have as well,” Brown told broadcasters. “This is unjustifiable and unacceptable, and I am going to clean up the banks so it doesn’t happen again.”
Or the government might apply pressure on Goodwin by threatening to have him stripped of his knighthood, but that makes the government look ever more like a petty Ruritania than it already does.
Surely of more importance, we must learn the lessons this debacle should teach us. We need people who understand business taking business decisions that have a commercial consequence. Government ministers are demonstrably incapable of this.
Our focus must be on the big issues; we cannot allow ourselves to get bogged down on these small but diverting side issues. Maintaining a relentless public focus on our huge problems will stop our leaders avoiding the big elephants in the room.
In the meantime Sir Fred, I hope you suffer the consequences of your actions and you don't get any pleasure from all our money.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
HowNottoGetBeatenUpByYourCreditCard
The good news is that the bad news was predicted to have been even worse. RBS bank in the UK has racked up losses of £24,000,000,000. (Twenty four billion pounds – approximately $35 billion). Losses like this has mean that the government will have to guarantee more toxic loans and fund the failing banks with even more of our money.
Another result of such huge holes in the accounts is that the credit card companies will act even more stringently to plug every gap in their financial dyke.
This is one of my occasional “GUEST” blogs that I hand over to another contributor. My good friend Neville Spiers, otherwise known as the Negotiator, has written this article. We first met when we were eight years old, and, as the saying goes, we’ve all passed a lot of water since then.
“How not to get beaten up by your credit card by Neville Spiers"
I heard a programme on BBC’s Radio 4 last week – not a new subject – the perennial issue of people who have offended Visa, Maestro and all the mighty Gods of credit. They have fallen behind with their payments and the slavering hounds of collection have been unleashed.
Some of the stories were extremely harrowing; elderly people suffering from terminal illnesses or recently bereaved; it made no difference. Many of them had had the good sense to phone up, explain the situation and make a revised payment plan; it made no difference.
The calls started coming four times a day, from different callers in the same debt-collection company – sometimes more than one company chasing the same debt! Each time, the caller would first put them through a process of “security questions”. Then they would ask when the debt wasgoing to be repaid. If the answer was anything but “right now”, the question would be repeated over and over again.
I listened to this and I thought, “Why are these people allowing themselves to be beaten up four times a day”. The truth is that there are very simple techniques, which can be used to prevent it.
1) Don’t answer the security questions. Tell them “I’m sorry but I don’t give out confidential information to anyone I don’t know and I don’t know you”. They may tell you that they cannot continue the conversation unless you do. Answer “O.K. thank you for calling. Have a nice day”. CLICK!
2) Insist on dealing with one caller only. When a different person calls, tell them to speak to the first one, in order to save them time. If a second company calls, tell them to battle it out with the first company, then come back and tell you who is handling the account.
3) If the same person calls you a second time on the same day, say, “I spoke to you two hours ago. Please refer to your notes. Now forgive me but I’m in a meeting.” Then ring off.
At all times remain polite but firm. Keep in your mind at all times that you don’t have to take it. If you have the confidence to take control,you won't have to.”
Another result of such huge holes in the accounts is that the credit card companies will act even more stringently to plug every gap in their financial dyke.
This is one of my occasional “GUEST” blogs that I hand over to another contributor. My good friend Neville Spiers, otherwise known as the Negotiator, has written this article. We first met when we were eight years old, and, as the saying goes, we’ve all passed a lot of water since then.
“How not to get beaten up by your credit card by Neville Spiers"
I heard a programme on BBC’s Radio 4 last week – not a new subject – the perennial issue of people who have offended Visa, Maestro and all the mighty Gods of credit. They have fallen behind with their payments and the slavering hounds of collection have been unleashed.
Some of the stories were extremely harrowing; elderly people suffering from terminal illnesses or recently bereaved; it made no difference. Many of them had had the good sense to phone up, explain the situation and make a revised payment plan; it made no difference.
The calls started coming four times a day, from different callers in the same debt-collection company – sometimes more than one company chasing the same debt! Each time, the caller would first put them through a process of “security questions”. Then they would ask when the debt wasgoing to be repaid. If the answer was anything but “right now”, the question would be repeated over and over again.
I listened to this and I thought, “Why are these people allowing themselves to be beaten up four times a day”. The truth is that there are very simple techniques, which can be used to prevent it.
1) Don’t answer the security questions. Tell them “I’m sorry but I don’t give out confidential information to anyone I don’t know and I don’t know you”. They may tell you that they cannot continue the conversation unless you do. Answer “O.K. thank you for calling. Have a nice day”. CLICK!
2) Insist on dealing with one caller only. When a different person calls, tell them to speak to the first one, in order to save them time. If a second company calls, tell them to battle it out with the first company, then come back and tell you who is handling the account.
3) If the same person calls you a second time on the same day, say, “I spoke to you two hours ago. Please refer to your notes. Now forgive me but I’m in a meeting.” Then ring off.
At all times remain polite but firm. Keep in your mind at all times that you don’t have to take it. If you have the confidence to take control,you won't have to.”
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
TooEarlyToCAll
The Obama presidency is still so new that no one can judge how it will turn out. Those of you who follow my articles will know I have long harbored doubts about the man. Yes, I admire his spunk, his undoubted ability as an orator, his undoubted charisma and his physical appeal he carries like a Hollywood leading man. The man is a star, but I also remember the early days of Tony Blair’s Premiership in the UK carrying all the same signals.
I am one of the few British people you will meet who still like Blair; most of his once mighty army of followers long ago having folded their tents and gone to pastures new.
One thing that Blair had in spades for the first few years of his leadership was unbelievably good luck. Everything he touched turned to gold and that’s a gigantic political advantage he exploited to the full. We are about to discover if Obama also has that special alchemy.
But there was something too much of the Cheshire Cat about that Blair grin and there’s a faint whiff of the same odor of contrivance about President Obama.
Because Obama is so vital to us all I sincerely hope I am wrong in this early judgment. We need a brilliant and strong President Obama but I am beginning to see through the mist to a man who is beginning to find it all a lot harder than he ever imagined it would be.
I am not talking about the economy, or even the war on several fronts that America’s forces continue to fight. No, I refer to the war just starting to be waged by the President with the Congress and Senate and the Defense top brass. This will be the battle that really decides our fate. If Obama is right in his policies he has to win without getting too bogged down in micro managing detail, which might be his Achilles heel.
One can discern that Obama and his staff spent a great deal of time preparing a strategy that looks great in theory but as we all know the devil is in the detail. Now it’s as much to do with luck and timing as it is with the execution of potentially ill conceived tactics.
Just because his predecessor followed one path does not mean that this President should necessarily do the opposite but that seems to be the track being presently traveled.
It is apparent that the other major powers in the world plus the enemies of democracy are waiting to see what the rhetoric of Obama means on the ground.
I believe that Obama intends to handle overseas diplomacy more diplomatically, and that seems a good idea in most circumstances. However it only works with willing partners or at least other parties who are willing to have a genuine dialogue. How true is that of countries like Iran?
One result of this new, more statesmanlike resolve from America is likely to be that everything moves very slowly. Don’t expect instant results or even fairly quick fixes. More likely we are going to get the kind of results that gave the UK its diplomatic reputation of Perfidious Albion. The US appears to be much more cautious and time will tell what results this will generate. One perceptible result there has been from this approach is that America is no longer the instant cartoon hate figure for the street protestors of the world. The world likes the look of Obama and the kind of future America he embodies. Of course this could be the result of his color or the perception of many that America will be easier to handle and deal with now.
The economic necessities are forcing Obama to act in a way that the Republicans clearly loathe. But what other routes are immediately to hand? It is not socialism to prop up the banks and key industries, but it is prudent when the alternatives are cataclysmic for jobs and the economy in general.
The President has already rolled the dice and we all hold our breath as they spin in the air, where they land will decide our world’s future for the next couple of decades. Let’s hope the new President is lucky!
I am one of the few British people you will meet who still like Blair; most of his once mighty army of followers long ago having folded their tents and gone to pastures new.
One thing that Blair had in spades for the first few years of his leadership was unbelievably good luck. Everything he touched turned to gold and that’s a gigantic political advantage he exploited to the full. We are about to discover if Obama also has that special alchemy.
But there was something too much of the Cheshire Cat about that Blair grin and there’s a faint whiff of the same odor of contrivance about President Obama.
Because Obama is so vital to us all I sincerely hope I am wrong in this early judgment. We need a brilliant and strong President Obama but I am beginning to see through the mist to a man who is beginning to find it all a lot harder than he ever imagined it would be.
I am not talking about the economy, or even the war on several fronts that America’s forces continue to fight. No, I refer to the war just starting to be waged by the President with the Congress and Senate and the Defense top brass. This will be the battle that really decides our fate. If Obama is right in his policies he has to win without getting too bogged down in micro managing detail, which might be his Achilles heel.
One can discern that Obama and his staff spent a great deal of time preparing a strategy that looks great in theory but as we all know the devil is in the detail. Now it’s as much to do with luck and timing as it is with the execution of potentially ill conceived tactics.
Just because his predecessor followed one path does not mean that this President should necessarily do the opposite but that seems to be the track being presently traveled.
It is apparent that the other major powers in the world plus the enemies of democracy are waiting to see what the rhetoric of Obama means on the ground.
I believe that Obama intends to handle overseas diplomacy more diplomatically, and that seems a good idea in most circumstances. However it only works with willing partners or at least other parties who are willing to have a genuine dialogue. How true is that of countries like Iran?
One result of this new, more statesmanlike resolve from America is likely to be that everything moves very slowly. Don’t expect instant results or even fairly quick fixes. More likely we are going to get the kind of results that gave the UK its diplomatic reputation of Perfidious Albion. The US appears to be much more cautious and time will tell what results this will generate. One perceptible result there has been from this approach is that America is no longer the instant cartoon hate figure for the street protestors of the world. The world likes the look of Obama and the kind of future America he embodies. Of course this could be the result of his color or the perception of many that America will be easier to handle and deal with now.
The economic necessities are forcing Obama to act in a way that the Republicans clearly loathe. But what other routes are immediately to hand? It is not socialism to prop up the banks and key industries, but it is prudent when the alternatives are cataclysmic for jobs and the economy in general.
The President has already rolled the dice and we all hold our breath as they spin in the air, where they land will decide our world’s future for the next couple of decades. Let’s hope the new President is lucky!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
HelloCharlie
Today I am not writing a full article as our family has grown by one shiny new member.
Welcome Charlotte May, a first-born daughter for my son, Dan and his lovely and deservedly proud wife, Doctor Sarah Klinger. Mother and daughter are doing fine.
I shall resume my articles very shortly but you will understand a slight pause while we welcome Charlie to our world!
Welcome Charlotte May, a first-born daughter for my son, Dan and his lovely and deservedly proud wife, Doctor Sarah Klinger. Mother and daughter are doing fine.
I shall resume my articles very shortly but you will understand a slight pause while we welcome Charlie to our world!
Monday, February 23, 2009
AreYouEverWrongMrBrown
There are many things wrong in the world today, and one of the most annoying is the failure of people to admit that they’re wrong. Arise chief culprit, Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This is the same man who, when things were going well when he was in charge of the economy claimed all the credit for the country’s success. Now that it is going very wrong it has nothing to do with him.
It goes further than this. This weekend he announced that he was looking at new legislation to stop financial institutions from issuing 100% mortgages or allowing them to people unable to prove sufficient earning multiples. This is called locking the door after the horse has bolted.
It is laughable that the Prime Minister should seriously announce that he was going to stop such mortgages when no such mortgages are available.
His time would be better spent making sure his pronouncements regarding the banks easing credit for small to medium businesses and individuals actually happened at ground level since at present this is not the case. His entire government continually tells us that they have made funds available for this specific purpose, but there is a massive blockage in the pipeline. The money is simply not getting to its intended recipients.
I have spoken with many small businessmen recently and they all report pressure from the bank at best and withdrawal of facilities is a common occurrence. The little men and women are fighting for their financial survival and they are not being helped, despite the bank having received huge sums of our money via the government for this purpose. Our leaders had better get out of their luxurious offices and stop listening to their fat cat civil servants or the troubles we’re now facing will get much more intense. People are rightly getting very angry.
I am grateful to the correspondent who sent me the winning entry in an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term:
This year's term was Political Correctness.
The winner R. J. Wiedemann Lt. Col. United States Marine Corps (Retired) wrote:
"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
Remind you of anyone Mister Brown?
It goes further than this. This weekend he announced that he was looking at new legislation to stop financial institutions from issuing 100% mortgages or allowing them to people unable to prove sufficient earning multiples. This is called locking the door after the horse has bolted.
It is laughable that the Prime Minister should seriously announce that he was going to stop such mortgages when no such mortgages are available.
His time would be better spent making sure his pronouncements regarding the banks easing credit for small to medium businesses and individuals actually happened at ground level since at present this is not the case. His entire government continually tells us that they have made funds available for this specific purpose, but there is a massive blockage in the pipeline. The money is simply not getting to its intended recipients.
I have spoken with many small businessmen recently and they all report pressure from the bank at best and withdrawal of facilities is a common occurrence. The little men and women are fighting for their financial survival and they are not being helped, despite the bank having received huge sums of our money via the government for this purpose. Our leaders had better get out of their luxurious offices and stop listening to their fat cat civil servants or the troubles we’re now facing will get much more intense. People are rightly getting very angry.
I am grateful to the correspondent who sent me the winning entry in an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term:
This year's term was Political Correctness.
The winner R. J. Wiedemann Lt. Col. United States Marine Corps (Retired) wrote:
"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
Remind you of anyone Mister Brown?
Saturday, February 21, 2009
DangersAhead
This week it was revealed that the UK had a debt mountain of £2 trillion, that’s approximately $3 trillion. This is such a huge debt that it is almost unimaginable and unmanageable especially in a country that has a population of a little over 60 million.
Those of us interested in such things also discovered that there have been laws, rules and regulations passed quietly, and without a fuss that enable our central banks to bail out our financial institutions when they deem it necessary, and to keep such an action secret.
There is also further legislation in place allowing yet more breaches of our civil liberties and this has grown with every passing year of our battle against terrorism. Except the laws enacted are not really about that legitimate battle at all, but are much more about controlling us, the British population.
The British, those most relaxed and civilized of people, are just beginning to show a growing antipathy to the countries huge immigrant population as they lose their jobs, homes and prosperity. This catalogue of failures is fanning the flames of hate and envy and that is dangerous since it allows credibility to both the loony left and the far right of our political spectrum.
Observing this sad catalogue in the United States you might well tut and believe this has little or nothing to do with you, other than for your country’s historical links to this, your ultimate mother country. The truth is that it has everything to do with you, because if the battle for liberty is lost here it will inevitably follow all over Europe and the Western World, yes, even in the West’s bastion of democracy, America.
The reasons for this are many but mainly centre on the fact that America faces many of the same economic traumas internally and political battles externally. If these warped experiments in big brother control works in Britain you can bet they will be tried there.
That’s the difference between this Great Depression and the last one in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. First of all, no one in power wanted to admit that we are in recession and the fact is that it is going deeper and further than that. The other huge problem this time around is that this economic collapse is truly global; there is nowhere that is going to prosper in isolation. The best you can hope for is that you will not suffer too badly.
The way to achieve this measure of damage limitation surely starts with our all realizing that this situation must not become the excuse to introduce any forms of isolationism, or protectionism. This would certainly lead to even deeper problems, as countries would seek equally destructive defensive measures.
Perhaps even more vital than this will be winning the fight to protect our liberty and laws so that we don’t sink further into the hands of the very people manning our governments and bureaucracies who put us into this mess in the first place.
Those of us interested in such things also discovered that there have been laws, rules and regulations passed quietly, and without a fuss that enable our central banks to bail out our financial institutions when they deem it necessary, and to keep such an action secret.
There is also further legislation in place allowing yet more breaches of our civil liberties and this has grown with every passing year of our battle against terrorism. Except the laws enacted are not really about that legitimate battle at all, but are much more about controlling us, the British population.
The British, those most relaxed and civilized of people, are just beginning to show a growing antipathy to the countries huge immigrant population as they lose their jobs, homes and prosperity. This catalogue of failures is fanning the flames of hate and envy and that is dangerous since it allows credibility to both the loony left and the far right of our political spectrum.
Observing this sad catalogue in the United States you might well tut and believe this has little or nothing to do with you, other than for your country’s historical links to this, your ultimate mother country. The truth is that it has everything to do with you, because if the battle for liberty is lost here it will inevitably follow all over Europe and the Western World, yes, even in the West’s bastion of democracy, America.
The reasons for this are many but mainly centre on the fact that America faces many of the same economic traumas internally and political battles externally. If these warped experiments in big brother control works in Britain you can bet they will be tried there.
That’s the difference between this Great Depression and the last one in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. First of all, no one in power wanted to admit that we are in recession and the fact is that it is going deeper and further than that. The other huge problem this time around is that this economic collapse is truly global; there is nowhere that is going to prosper in isolation. The best you can hope for is that you will not suffer too badly.
The way to achieve this measure of damage limitation surely starts with our all realizing that this situation must not become the excuse to introduce any forms of isolationism, or protectionism. This would certainly lead to even deeper problems, as countries would seek equally destructive defensive measures.
Perhaps even more vital than this will be winning the fight to protect our liberty and laws so that we don’t sink further into the hands of the very people manning our governments and bureaucracies who put us into this mess in the first place.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
LivingINTheShadowsAResponse
Some of you that follow my articles regularly already know that it is my occasional habit to give space to my exchanges with those who respond to me. In particular I want to show my appreciation to the genuine and widespread depth of feeling my articles on Alzheimer’s and Cancer have engendered this week.
These are illnesses that affect us all, either directly or indirectly at one stage of our lives. It is how we respond to these enemies of us all that demonstrates and defines us as human beings, with all our magnificence and weakness, knowledge and foolishness. We all hope that we are never to be touched by the grim reaper in this tortuous guise, and that if we are, we will somehow manage, at least, for our dignity to survive.
Here are some of the responses I received this week, and I make no apologies for applauding these quiet heroes, for I find their calmness, love and dignity under fire inspirational. Sharon, Neville I know you must have sometimes screamed inside how unfair fate can be, but your examples demonstrate that anything can be overcome, well done and thank you for your inspiring examples.
“Very powerful. I thought it was going the other way, and then you surprised me.” – Dick
Tony
“Your article has struck a resounding chord with me. My late wife didn't have Alzheimer's but she displayed the symptoms of it. Over a period of 10 years, I watched her disappearing in stages.
In 1994 she started to become disorganized - this was a woman who previously raised organization to an art form.
In 1995 she forgot how to drive; which gear to be in, what the pedals were for....
In 1998 she forgot how to use a knife and fork in tandem.
The same year she forgot how to swim.
While all of this was going on she was steadily losing her short-term memory and her ability to join up the logical dots. As the world started to make less and less sense to her, she gradually gave up trying to decipher it and abdicated responsibility.
Between 2001 and 2004, she lived in a nursing home, where everything was done for her. By this time, she had become a 5-year-old, with no short-term and very little long-term memory. She knew her immediate family but she would peer at the nurses who attended her every day as if to say "I know you from somewhere but I'm not sure where."
By the end, she could only remember songs. That's right! Songs. If an advert on TV featured an old song from 30 years ago, however obscure, I would hear her singing along, without animation, as if in a trance, yet she knew all of the words.
I felt like an artist looking at a block of stone or wood and
envisaging the sculpture that he is going to carve out of it. I could
see her in there, but I couldn't reach what I could see. One day, when I am ready, I am going to write the story of her life and death; I may never show it to anyone but I will need to do it.
Thank you for writing this article; I found it strangely comforting; I
couldn't tell you why.” - Neville
Following that response here is a very thoughtful and detailed letter from Sharon;
“It has taken me a day to be able to reply to your article. As you might imagine, I found it difficult to read and it was very poignant. I hope your article finds the right targets.
Unfortunately, for my mum, she lives in Barnet. If she lived in Harrow I could approach the very wonderful Admiral Nurses. The social workers are bound by budgets and I was told by mum's social worker that when people in the borough are asked what they what money to be spent on, dementia is rarely mentioned and then probably only by those who have a loved one who is suffering from this cruelest of diseases. Interestingly, I have NEVER been asked how I think money should be disbursed and I wonder whom it is that the borough approach when sending out these forms. I know of no one who has been asked. Although I have to fight Barnet every inch of the way, and believe me, they don't give an inch, I do have the support of the Maurice Lawson Dementia Support group for carers. However, it is an ongoing fight, which ultimately will be lost because my mum simply can't improve but can only get worse.
What I find unbelievable is that Barnet will not fund full time care at
Home, which for a Malaysian or Phillipino carer costs in the region of £350 per week but that they will fund residential care which costs £500-£800 per week which even after deducting pension income is still costing more. There doesn't seem to be any common sense used just bureaucratic red tape and forms - oh lots of forms. I receive some funding via direct payments and as well as coping with all the emotional stuff I also have to deal with the inland revenue and do the wages and national insurance on a weekly basis as well as end of year tax stuff.
Caring for a relative with dementia of Alzheimer’s is isolating and depressing and certainly, in my experience, there is insufficient care and support available from the local authority unless there is a crisis. They are so busy putting out fires that they don't think about preventing the fire from starting.
Thank you for taking the time to write your article and try and get the message across.” -Sharon
If my writing these articles helps anyone in any way, then I’m glad to have done so. For those of you suffering from these afflictions in any way I can only pass on the wish that you have the strength, wisdom and tenacity to deal with this heavy load.
These are illnesses that affect us all, either directly or indirectly at one stage of our lives. It is how we respond to these enemies of us all that demonstrates and defines us as human beings, with all our magnificence and weakness, knowledge and foolishness. We all hope that we are never to be touched by the grim reaper in this tortuous guise, and that if we are, we will somehow manage, at least, for our dignity to survive.
Here are some of the responses I received this week, and I make no apologies for applauding these quiet heroes, for I find their calmness, love and dignity under fire inspirational. Sharon, Neville I know you must have sometimes screamed inside how unfair fate can be, but your examples demonstrate that anything can be overcome, well done and thank you for your inspiring examples.
“Very powerful. I thought it was going the other way, and then you surprised me.” – Dick
Tony
“Your article has struck a resounding chord with me. My late wife didn't have Alzheimer's but she displayed the symptoms of it. Over a period of 10 years, I watched her disappearing in stages.
In 1994 she started to become disorganized - this was a woman who previously raised organization to an art form.
In 1995 she forgot how to drive; which gear to be in, what the pedals were for....
In 1998 she forgot how to use a knife and fork in tandem.
The same year she forgot how to swim.
While all of this was going on she was steadily losing her short-term memory and her ability to join up the logical dots. As the world started to make less and less sense to her, she gradually gave up trying to decipher it and abdicated responsibility.
Between 2001 and 2004, she lived in a nursing home, where everything was done for her. By this time, she had become a 5-year-old, with no short-term and very little long-term memory. She knew her immediate family but she would peer at the nurses who attended her every day as if to say "I know you from somewhere but I'm not sure where."
By the end, she could only remember songs. That's right! Songs. If an advert on TV featured an old song from 30 years ago, however obscure, I would hear her singing along, without animation, as if in a trance, yet she knew all of the words.
I felt like an artist looking at a block of stone or wood and
envisaging the sculpture that he is going to carve out of it. I could
see her in there, but I couldn't reach what I could see. One day, when I am ready, I am going to write the story of her life and death; I may never show it to anyone but I will need to do it.
Thank you for writing this article; I found it strangely comforting; I
couldn't tell you why.” - Neville
Following that response here is a very thoughtful and detailed letter from Sharon;
“It has taken me a day to be able to reply to your article. As you might imagine, I found it difficult to read and it was very poignant. I hope your article finds the right targets.
Unfortunately, for my mum, she lives in Barnet. If she lived in Harrow I could approach the very wonderful Admiral Nurses. The social workers are bound by budgets and I was told by mum's social worker that when people in the borough are asked what they what money to be spent on, dementia is rarely mentioned and then probably only by those who have a loved one who is suffering from this cruelest of diseases. Interestingly, I have NEVER been asked how I think money should be disbursed and I wonder whom it is that the borough approach when sending out these forms. I know of no one who has been asked. Although I have to fight Barnet every inch of the way, and believe me, they don't give an inch, I do have the support of the Maurice Lawson Dementia Support group for carers. However, it is an ongoing fight, which ultimately will be lost because my mum simply can't improve but can only get worse.
What I find unbelievable is that Barnet will not fund full time care at
Home, which for a Malaysian or Phillipino carer costs in the region of £350 per week but that they will fund residential care which costs £500-£800 per week which even after deducting pension income is still costing more. There doesn't seem to be any common sense used just bureaucratic red tape and forms - oh lots of forms. I receive some funding via direct payments and as well as coping with all the emotional stuff I also have to deal with the inland revenue and do the wages and national insurance on a weekly basis as well as end of year tax stuff.
Caring for a relative with dementia of Alzheimer’s is isolating and depressing and certainly, in my experience, there is insufficient care and support available from the local authority unless there is a crisis. They are so busy putting out fires that they don't think about preventing the fire from starting.
Thank you for taking the time to write your article and try and get the message across.” -Sharon
If my writing these articles helps anyone in any way, then I’m glad to have done so. For those of you suffering from these afflictions in any way I can only pass on the wish that you have the strength, wisdom and tenacity to deal with this heavy load.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
ALingeringFarewell
Today we are going to mull over a moral dilemma. Is it right or acceptable behavior to share your own death with the paying public - Isn’t this the ultimate reality television?
Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his sympathies for British reality TV star Jade Goody, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He is quoted as saying that people should "applaud her determination to help her family", by her sale of the media rights to her wedding this weekend. OK! magazine has bought exclusive rights to this Sunday's ceremony for £700,000 and Living TV paid a further £100,000 to broadcast it.
The former Big Brother contestant's plight was "very sad and tragic"; Brown told his regular monthly press conference. Mr Brown went on to say: "It's very sad and tragic that such a young woman has this cancer. It's very sad indeed that the treatment has not been successful."
He added: "Her determination to help her family is something that we have got to applaud and I wish her family well."
In January 2007, Ms Goody received a huge barrage of criticism for her alleged racist bullying of her fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant, Indian film actress Shilpa Shetty. Goody was consequently slung out of the Big Brother house.
Last year, in an ironic twist, Ms Goody appeared on the Indian version of Big Brother. She had to leave prematurely when informed she had cervical cancer.
Months of treatment followed and now it has just been revealed that the cancer had spread to her bowel, liver and groin, leaving her only months to live.
This young woman decided that she wants to share this experience to the end. She claims two reasons for doing so, the first is that she wants to provide as well as she’s able for her young sons. The second is that Jade believes that other women can benefit from the terrible lesson she is learning about regular health check ups and screenings. Apparently if Jade had followed up as she could and should have done she would have enjoyed a 90%+ chance of survival whereas she now has a 0% chance.
I know the benefits of regular medical checks myself as twice they have spotted pre-cancerous cells in me, which were quickly and easily dealt with, and following which I am fortunate enough to have suffered no consequences.
Ms. Goody is not so fortunate, and is hated and loved by many who have watched her short career as a TV celebrity, famous for being famous. She might not be the brightest intellect in the world, but surely no one deserves an end like this.
My wife was shopping a few weeks ago and found Jade distraught and crying in her car in the parking lot. She offered the young woman whatever comfort she could, but she was distraught at the obvious distress she was in. Imagine having to put on a brave face in public all the time whilst your world is literally falling apart.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jade’s decision to share her harrowing experience with the world; no one else has the moral right to condemn her motives, whatever they might be. I think she is very brave and deserves our total support in this, her toughest fight. In a way, if she has this support she will triumph even in her own death, and that is what she deserves.
If Jade needs the money to cushion the blow of her imminent demise for her children surely she deserves that right.
If Jade, by her terrible example, can warn just one other woman to protect herself adequately health wise then that would be wonderful. There are, in fact, reports of a 20-30% increase in young women seeking the appropriate cervical smear tests since Jade made herself a public campaign.
For those sanctimonious and patronizing members of the chattering classes who take a morally higher tone I respond with the words of Mark Twain, “Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his sympathies for British reality TV star Jade Goody, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He is quoted as saying that people should "applaud her determination to help her family", by her sale of the media rights to her wedding this weekend. OK! magazine has bought exclusive rights to this Sunday's ceremony for £700,000 and Living TV paid a further £100,000 to broadcast it.
The former Big Brother contestant's plight was "very sad and tragic"; Brown told his regular monthly press conference. Mr Brown went on to say: "It's very sad and tragic that such a young woman has this cancer. It's very sad indeed that the treatment has not been successful."
He added: "Her determination to help her family is something that we have got to applaud and I wish her family well."
In January 2007, Ms Goody received a huge barrage of criticism for her alleged racist bullying of her fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant, Indian film actress Shilpa Shetty. Goody was consequently slung out of the Big Brother house.
Last year, in an ironic twist, Ms Goody appeared on the Indian version of Big Brother. She had to leave prematurely when informed she had cervical cancer.
Months of treatment followed and now it has just been revealed that the cancer had spread to her bowel, liver and groin, leaving her only months to live.
This young woman decided that she wants to share this experience to the end. She claims two reasons for doing so, the first is that she wants to provide as well as she’s able for her young sons. The second is that Jade believes that other women can benefit from the terrible lesson she is learning about regular health check ups and screenings. Apparently if Jade had followed up as she could and should have done she would have enjoyed a 90%+ chance of survival whereas she now has a 0% chance.
I know the benefits of regular medical checks myself as twice they have spotted pre-cancerous cells in me, which were quickly and easily dealt with, and following which I am fortunate enough to have suffered no consequences.
Ms. Goody is not so fortunate, and is hated and loved by many who have watched her short career as a TV celebrity, famous for being famous. She might not be the brightest intellect in the world, but surely no one deserves an end like this.
My wife was shopping a few weeks ago and found Jade distraught and crying in her car in the parking lot. She offered the young woman whatever comfort she could, but she was distraught at the obvious distress she was in. Imagine having to put on a brave face in public all the time whilst your world is literally falling apart.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jade’s decision to share her harrowing experience with the world; no one else has the moral right to condemn her motives, whatever they might be. I think she is very brave and deserves our total support in this, her toughest fight. In a way, if she has this support she will triumph even in her own death, and that is what she deserves.
If Jade needs the money to cushion the blow of her imminent demise for her children surely she deserves that right.
If Jade, by her terrible example, can warn just one other woman to protect herself adequately health wise then that would be wonderful. There are, in fact, reports of a 20-30% increase in young women seeking the appropriate cervical smear tests since Jade made herself a public campaign.
For those sanctimonious and patronizing members of the chattering classes who take a morally higher tone I respond with the words of Mark Twain, “Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to.”
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
LivingInTheShadows
Horrible Alzheimer’s disease, could there be anything more cruel or arbitrary than this illness that robs us of our loved ones and leaves us with their shadows? This is an intensely personal article and a plea from the heart on behalf of us all.
I am not a medical expert so I won’t write an article with any pretense to knowledge I don’t possess, but I have seen the results of Alzheimer’s on two occasions. The first time I witnessed this especially insidious illness the victim was my lovely Nana Bertha. This big, jolly lady who dispensed her love via her sweet smile and her big balls of East European food, in the form of knadels or meat or lockshen was slowly diminished to a husk as her brain became a useless empty shell.
Now her daughter, my special Aunty Renee, is suffering from the same fate. I’ve watched from a concerned distance as my Aunty has been taken from us inch by terrible inch. I don’t see her as much as I should because I am unsure of how to deal with her; I am also diminished by her illness. I still love her dearly, but my Aunty Renee is not “in” any more. Now when I look into her eyes and she returns the stare, still with love, but unsure who I am, and usually wrong when she ventures a guess. For my more recent visits she thinks I am my nephew, Daryl. I don’t try and argue with or question her; my instinct is just to go along with our small deceit if it makes her happy. I wonder who she thinks Daryl is when he sees her, but there’s no point in correcting her as she now has a memory like a goldfish trapped in a bowl. Our family just wants her to be happy as her world steadily contracts.
Compared to the fate of my aunt and grandmother the sudden death of my father from a heart attack was a blessed relief. Of course at the time we are all hugely shocked and grief stricken when a loved one is yanked from us by their sudden demise. The lingering nature of Alzheimer’s is intensely draining and lengthy. It makes the people in the families who care for the victims of Alzheimer’s wonder if they can continue to be strong and determined enough for the entire length of this terrible and unrewarding journey to death of their loved ones.
I watched my mother and her family try to cope with my grandmother’s illness and despite their unrelenting determination and love it was unrelenting and crushingly hard for them. Now I see the same thing happening to my cousin Sharon as she fights every inch of the way to deal with her mother’s slow drift to the end. This is made more poignant by the fact that my cousin is a health professional that understands exactly what’s happening and is savvy about the system and deals with it expertly. It’s still hard for her almost beyond bearing; so how much worse is it for those less eloquent or able? Another route for some is to spend the money necessary to provide the necessary care but there are very few people with the financial muscle to furnish the essential 24-hour a day caring resources.
My reason for choosing to write this article was the revelation by the British TV news anchor, John Suchet, that his wife, Bonnie, was another victim of Alzheimer’s. She has been a victim for more than three years and as he bravely faced the questions on TV this morning he made the point that in the entire UK there are only 60 nurses trained to help deal specifically with this awful disease. That equates to 60 trained people battling an illness that 700,000 people in this country are presently suffering from!
I was appalled when I heard these statistics, which by any measure is a national disgrace that shames us all. There is an urgent and pressing need for help to be given to the families of all those suffering from this dreaded and silent killer and robber of personalities. All of you who form our government, you must listen because one day this will affect someone in your family, or a friend or a loved one, and none of can ignore this desperate need. This is not just a job for families or charity; this is a function of a caring society. We are going through parlous economic times but nevertheless we can find these resources if we eliminate banking bonuses and government overspending on expenses and wasteful, failed social engineering experiments to pay for it.
I am not a medical expert so I won’t write an article with any pretense to knowledge I don’t possess, but I have seen the results of Alzheimer’s on two occasions. The first time I witnessed this especially insidious illness the victim was my lovely Nana Bertha. This big, jolly lady who dispensed her love via her sweet smile and her big balls of East European food, in the form of knadels or meat or lockshen was slowly diminished to a husk as her brain became a useless empty shell.
Now her daughter, my special Aunty Renee, is suffering from the same fate. I’ve watched from a concerned distance as my Aunty has been taken from us inch by terrible inch. I don’t see her as much as I should because I am unsure of how to deal with her; I am also diminished by her illness. I still love her dearly, but my Aunty Renee is not “in” any more. Now when I look into her eyes and she returns the stare, still with love, but unsure who I am, and usually wrong when she ventures a guess. For my more recent visits she thinks I am my nephew, Daryl. I don’t try and argue with or question her; my instinct is just to go along with our small deceit if it makes her happy. I wonder who she thinks Daryl is when he sees her, but there’s no point in correcting her as she now has a memory like a goldfish trapped in a bowl. Our family just wants her to be happy as her world steadily contracts.
Compared to the fate of my aunt and grandmother the sudden death of my father from a heart attack was a blessed relief. Of course at the time we are all hugely shocked and grief stricken when a loved one is yanked from us by their sudden demise. The lingering nature of Alzheimer’s is intensely draining and lengthy. It makes the people in the families who care for the victims of Alzheimer’s wonder if they can continue to be strong and determined enough for the entire length of this terrible and unrewarding journey to death of their loved ones.
I watched my mother and her family try to cope with my grandmother’s illness and despite their unrelenting determination and love it was unrelenting and crushingly hard for them. Now I see the same thing happening to my cousin Sharon as she fights every inch of the way to deal with her mother’s slow drift to the end. This is made more poignant by the fact that my cousin is a health professional that understands exactly what’s happening and is savvy about the system and deals with it expertly. It’s still hard for her almost beyond bearing; so how much worse is it for those less eloquent or able? Another route for some is to spend the money necessary to provide the necessary care but there are very few people with the financial muscle to furnish the essential 24-hour a day caring resources.
My reason for choosing to write this article was the revelation by the British TV news anchor, John Suchet, that his wife, Bonnie, was another victim of Alzheimer’s. She has been a victim for more than three years and as he bravely faced the questions on TV this morning he made the point that in the entire UK there are only 60 nurses trained to help deal specifically with this awful disease. That equates to 60 trained people battling an illness that 700,000 people in this country are presently suffering from!
I was appalled when I heard these statistics, which by any measure is a national disgrace that shames us all. There is an urgent and pressing need for help to be given to the families of all those suffering from this dreaded and silent killer and robber of personalities. All of you who form our government, you must listen because one day this will affect someone in your family, or a friend or a loved one, and none of can ignore this desperate need. This is not just a job for families or charity; this is a function of a caring society. We are going through parlous economic times but nevertheless we can find these resources if we eliminate banking bonuses and government overspending on expenses and wasteful, failed social engineering experiments to pay for it.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Nearly25Things
First I wish to include a note via my good friend Chip in America who sent me the following;
Muzzammil Hassan, of Orchard Park NY (SE of Buffalo), is the "founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004 amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light. Its slogan was 'connecting people through understanding'."
He was arrested on Thursday and charged with beheading his wife.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29189095/
Keep working on the image building Muzzammil.
I am almost totally caving in on two fronts today. Firstly I have cravenly submitted to the seemingly inescapable “Twitter” craze and signed up after being “Twitted” many times over the last weeks by those wishing me to join the trend. I really don’t see the point of being in a text based messaging system to send or receive chains of random thoughts to and from people I either don’t know well or at all. Perhaps I am missing something profound.
Last week it was the thoughts of actor, comedian and all round genius Stephen Fry when he was trapped in a lift (elevator) with a bunch of strangers. As ever he communicated his plight in tight little sentences; this time is he a Twittee for the transmittal of his plight or am I the Twittee for reading of it?
I don’t see why we should wish to communicate in this truncated form in either direction, particularly since instead of personalizing our relationships this will, by definition, other than by accident, do precisely the opposite. However, this is no doubt one of those giant crazes that sweep the world in minutes so one has to participate to witness its evolution and be annoyed by it.
I have also decided to join another craze, the one in which you list 25 things about yourself, although I have randomly decided that I shall construct a list that is slightly shorter or longer on the arbitrary basis that I must not totally conform. I’m not sure of the precise reason for this listing of one’s peculiarities and peccadilloes being a necessity but on the other hand, it does, momentarily, release your mind from thinking about the economy or Gordon Brown or the multi trillion deficits our countries are all running. I wouldn’t be so angry if at the same time our leaders didn’t keep telling us what we are doing wrong, when clearly they don’t have a clue how to do anything themselves!
So here we go, purely in the interests of not being too serious. Some things you didn’t know about Tony Klinger and perhaps don’t care to know.
1. His favorite color is red, which is the color of the strip for his favorite football team, Manchester United and, of course McDonalds.
2. He must never drive a red sports car since a psychic told his late mother he would be killed if he drove one, Avis and Hertz please note.
3. In the UK Tony drives an American car, a Cadillac, but in the States he usually drives a Japanese car, go figure.
4. The first thing Tony read was the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
5. His first school was St. Francis, in Acton, London, where he was the first non-Catholic to attend. Interesting but ridiculous.
6. The best book of stories he ever read was the Old Testament.
7. Klinger’s favorite book is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller but it’s run close by Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged that possibly signifies that he has a somewhat split personality.
8. Tony’s favorite film is Citizen Caine and he thinks it is also the best film ever made.
9. Klinger’s dad was also a filmmaker, producing films such as Get Carter with Michael Caine and executive producing, amongst others some wonderful stuff like Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac with the director Roman Polanski and the ultra successful Confessions series.
10. Before that Tony’s dad had many occupations, but he was most proud of having been a structural engineer, having designed, during the Second World War the first machine that tested bombs and other munitions on the production line.
11. TK has worked in every capacity on film and media production except for make up and hair.
12. TK once scored 6 goals in a single soccer match in Los Angeles and when a teen he won all his boxing matches bar one and once won all the races at a swim meet and the Twist dance competition at Hastings Happy Holiday Camp, beat that!
13. Klinger has filmed in 37 countries, and made over 600 productions for cinema, TV shows, music videos, documentaries, commercials and corporate films and in doing so he has won more than 50 awards.
14. Tony’s most proud professional achievement was to be part of the team winning The Queens Anniversary Award for Education when he was a Lecturer, Course Director at the Bournemouth Film School.
15. Tony, like the British BBC news guru, Jeremy Paxman is very disappointed by the fall in standard and quality of Marks and Spencer’s once great men’s underpants, and is still in search of a suitable replacement. Time is running short.
16. Klinger has been called a Socialist, a Liberal and a fiscal Conservative since he started writing articles on politics but is, like Charles De Gaulle, “above such things”.
17. Tony’s first book, Twilight of the Gods will be published this summer.
Muzzammil Hassan, of Orchard Park NY (SE of Buffalo), is the "founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004 amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light. Its slogan was 'connecting people through understanding'."
He was arrested on Thursday and charged with beheading his wife.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29189095/
Keep working on the image building Muzzammil.
I am almost totally caving in on two fronts today. Firstly I have cravenly submitted to the seemingly inescapable “Twitter” craze and signed up after being “Twitted” many times over the last weeks by those wishing me to join the trend. I really don’t see the point of being in a text based messaging system to send or receive chains of random thoughts to and from people I either don’t know well or at all. Perhaps I am missing something profound.
Last week it was the thoughts of actor, comedian and all round genius Stephen Fry when he was trapped in a lift (elevator) with a bunch of strangers. As ever he communicated his plight in tight little sentences; this time is he a Twittee for the transmittal of his plight or am I the Twittee for reading of it?
I don’t see why we should wish to communicate in this truncated form in either direction, particularly since instead of personalizing our relationships this will, by definition, other than by accident, do precisely the opposite. However, this is no doubt one of those giant crazes that sweep the world in minutes so one has to participate to witness its evolution and be annoyed by it.
I have also decided to join another craze, the one in which you list 25 things about yourself, although I have randomly decided that I shall construct a list that is slightly shorter or longer on the arbitrary basis that I must not totally conform. I’m not sure of the precise reason for this listing of one’s peculiarities and peccadilloes being a necessity but on the other hand, it does, momentarily, release your mind from thinking about the economy or Gordon Brown or the multi trillion deficits our countries are all running. I wouldn’t be so angry if at the same time our leaders didn’t keep telling us what we are doing wrong, when clearly they don’t have a clue how to do anything themselves!
So here we go, purely in the interests of not being too serious. Some things you didn’t know about Tony Klinger and perhaps don’t care to know.
1. His favorite color is red, which is the color of the strip for his favorite football team, Manchester United and, of course McDonalds.
2. He must never drive a red sports car since a psychic told his late mother he would be killed if he drove one, Avis and Hertz please note.
3. In the UK Tony drives an American car, a Cadillac, but in the States he usually drives a Japanese car, go figure.
4. The first thing Tony read was the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
5. His first school was St. Francis, in Acton, London, where he was the first non-Catholic to attend. Interesting but ridiculous.
6. The best book of stories he ever read was the Old Testament.
7. Klinger’s favorite book is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller but it’s run close by Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged that possibly signifies that he has a somewhat split personality.
8. Tony’s favorite film is Citizen Caine and he thinks it is also the best film ever made.
9. Klinger’s dad was also a filmmaker, producing films such as Get Carter with Michael Caine and executive producing, amongst others some wonderful stuff like Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac with the director Roman Polanski and the ultra successful Confessions series.
10. Before that Tony’s dad had many occupations, but he was most proud of having been a structural engineer, having designed, during the Second World War the first machine that tested bombs and other munitions on the production line.
11. TK has worked in every capacity on film and media production except for make up and hair.
12. TK once scored 6 goals in a single soccer match in Los Angeles and when a teen he won all his boxing matches bar one and once won all the races at a swim meet and the Twist dance competition at Hastings Happy Holiday Camp, beat that!
13. Klinger has filmed in 37 countries, and made over 600 productions for cinema, TV shows, music videos, documentaries, commercials and corporate films and in doing so he has won more than 50 awards.
14. Tony’s most proud professional achievement was to be part of the team winning The Queens Anniversary Award for Education when he was a Lecturer, Course Director at the Bournemouth Film School.
15. Tony, like the British BBC news guru, Jeremy Paxman is very disappointed by the fall in standard and quality of Marks and Spencer’s once great men’s underpants, and is still in search of a suitable replacement. Time is running short.
16. Klinger has been called a Socialist, a Liberal and a fiscal Conservative since he started writing articles on politics but is, like Charles De Gaulle, “above such things”.
17. Tony’s first book, Twilight of the Gods will be published this summer.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
MyFunnyValentine
Today we feature my exchange with, Brad, about the potential future of our economies. In featuring this we have edited for space and use of expletives, mostly on my part. I apologize for our not being more loving on Valentine’s Day!
“Tony:
Well...I am not sure who predicted what...but I know that every time you beat the war drums I came back with four paragraphs on the economy and got nowhere--you called it "pragmatism" and "cynicism"...defeatism, etc. America's top spook came out today with something interesting: the top threat is no longer terrorism but the economy. …--That’s been true for six years. Things have been bleak in America for at least six years--this is what I kept trying to tell you--but only if you were in a city--I mean really in a city, teaching in urban schools or hanging around industrial America. Anyone with a credit card and credit line was basically skating by--but the scale of the homelessness and misery was staggering. The cost of these wars is also largely hidden--you have to go to towns around here that have actually sent a significant number of troops--where just about everyone is in the national guard because there is nothing else to do --it's been hardcore for years.
I would say that things were also bleak in the Reagan era if you lived in Hollywood and saw the mental patients that Ronnie let out of the asylums after canning federal money for mental health--the immigrants, the uninsured, all of those shut out of the emerging "bubble" economies that are now bursting around our ears. The "economic downturn" is not just a matter of a change in the weather...it's a touch bigger than that. Things aren't the same in this country, and haven't been for some years now.
Those were the Ronnie Reagan eighties--for me at least. Having said that, I think your recent stuff on the economy is interesting, and I am glad to learn. I've been reading heavy criticism of Obama along the lines that he should essentially be nationalizing the banks and every month that he dithers on this is a month closer to Japanese-style decline. Does that make sense to you?
Hello Brad,
On the economy, banks and Obama, and I would add the UK and Brown. Yes, we're heading, if we're lucky, to stagflation a la Japan just a little while ago. I was there for a few weeks in that period and it was hard to understand……..there seemed no way out even though they had a huge balance of payments surplus and were manufacturing like crazy, and on the surface it should have worked out fine.
The problem there, as it is here and in your neck of the woods, is that the structure of our economies is false, and can't work longer term. That's because the whole thing was based on smoke and mirrors and now that they've been removed we can all see the little green man, and we know he knows nothing and is incapable. Like the bankers in the UK this week who turned out not to have a single banking qualification or experience between the lot of them.
What I'm saying, somewhat clumsily, is that the whole trick could only work with the good faith and blind gullibility of the masses and that is now gone, possibly forever. Once that cat is out of the bag there isn't much that can work properly in a market capitalist society. The problems have not yet really begun, and I'm afraid, unless we get very lucky it is going to be truly awful for all of us.
I have already predicted that the banks will have to be largely nationalized both here and in the US, and I'm sticking with that view. One of the banks here, Lloyds TSB, was 45% nationalized a month or two back when it was encouraged by our Prime Minister, to take over HBOS to now have about 30% of all British retail banking. Lloyds TSB, announced that the taken over bank had a bad year, it lost £10 billion, in one year; in fact its about £1 billion worse than that according to my brief computation of their figures!
This doesn't spell immediate disaster for Lloyds or the government, because the bank is presently pretty well capitalized, but if things go wrong at all, then the only way back would be for this bank giant to be totally nationalized, which would mean more than half of our giant retail bankers were now publicly owned, in less than 3 months.
It is a huge and bloody disaster but next will come the printing of money, (probably in both the USA and UK) and who knows how that will work, but what else can they do now that the interest rates are effectively zero, what tools are left to our governments to energize our economies? Then we might be choosing between stagflation and hyperinflation and both are poisonous.
Hold on to your hat it’s going to be a very bumpy ride!
All the best,
Tony
“Tony:
Well...I am not sure who predicted what...but I know that every time you beat the war drums I came back with four paragraphs on the economy and got nowhere--you called it "pragmatism" and "cynicism"...defeatism, etc. America's top spook came out today with something interesting: the top threat is no longer terrorism but the economy. …--That’s been true for six years. Things have been bleak in America for at least six years--this is what I kept trying to tell you--but only if you were in a city--I mean really in a city, teaching in urban schools or hanging around industrial America. Anyone with a credit card and credit line was basically skating by--but the scale of the homelessness and misery was staggering. The cost of these wars is also largely hidden--you have to go to towns around here that have actually sent a significant number of troops--where just about everyone is in the national guard because there is nothing else to do --it's been hardcore for years.
I would say that things were also bleak in the Reagan era if you lived in Hollywood and saw the mental patients that Ronnie let out of the asylums after canning federal money for mental health--the immigrants, the uninsured, all of those shut out of the emerging "bubble" economies that are now bursting around our ears. The "economic downturn" is not just a matter of a change in the weather...it's a touch bigger than that. Things aren't the same in this country, and haven't been for some years now.
Those were the Ronnie Reagan eighties--for me at least. Having said that, I think your recent stuff on the economy is interesting, and I am glad to learn. I've been reading heavy criticism of Obama along the lines that he should essentially be nationalizing the banks and every month that he dithers on this is a month closer to Japanese-style decline. Does that make sense to you?
Hello Brad,
On the economy, banks and Obama, and I would add the UK and Brown. Yes, we're heading, if we're lucky, to stagflation a la Japan just a little while ago. I was there for a few weeks in that period and it was hard to understand……..there seemed no way out even though they had a huge balance of payments surplus and were manufacturing like crazy, and on the surface it should have worked out fine.
The problem there, as it is here and in your neck of the woods, is that the structure of our economies is false, and can't work longer term. That's because the whole thing was based on smoke and mirrors and now that they've been removed we can all see the little green man, and we know he knows nothing and is incapable. Like the bankers in the UK this week who turned out not to have a single banking qualification or experience between the lot of them.
What I'm saying, somewhat clumsily, is that the whole trick could only work with the good faith and blind gullibility of the masses and that is now gone, possibly forever. Once that cat is out of the bag there isn't much that can work properly in a market capitalist society. The problems have not yet really begun, and I'm afraid, unless we get very lucky it is going to be truly awful for all of us.
I have already predicted that the banks will have to be largely nationalized both here and in the US, and I'm sticking with that view. One of the banks here, Lloyds TSB, was 45% nationalized a month or two back when it was encouraged by our Prime Minister, to take over HBOS to now have about 30% of all British retail banking. Lloyds TSB, announced that the taken over bank had a bad year, it lost £10 billion, in one year; in fact its about £1 billion worse than that according to my brief computation of their figures!
This doesn't spell immediate disaster for Lloyds or the government, because the bank is presently pretty well capitalized, but if things go wrong at all, then the only way back would be for this bank giant to be totally nationalized, which would mean more than half of our giant retail bankers were now publicly owned, in less than 3 months.
It is a huge and bloody disaster but next will come the printing of money, (probably in both the USA and UK) and who knows how that will work, but what else can they do now that the interest rates are effectively zero, what tools are left to our governments to energize our economies? Then we might be choosing between stagflation and hyperinflation and both are poisonous.
Hold on to your hat it’s going to be a very bumpy ride!
All the best,
Tony
Thursday, February 12, 2009
WhenYouAreWrong
It is human nature to let others know when you predicted something and it turned out as you forecast. I managed this feat with quite a few things that modesty forbids me mentioning here if I was modest. OK, you forced me; I did predict the recession and the busted flush in the property market etc. But I am not here to boast; too much.
It also does us good to admit when we have made a mistake. Having taken some credit above I shall point out a very recent error on my part. On the day prior to the Israeli elections my prediction was for a narrow Benjamin Netanyahu right wing Likud victory over Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima party. In fact she won the battle between these two parties by one seat. It being Israel, and therefore very politically complex, his potential right wing partnerships are potentially just a little more likely to work than any combination of the centre and left, and therefore it will probably be Bibi (Netanyahu) who is called upon by President Shimon Peres to form a government coalition, if he can.
This is made even more difficult by the fact that the leader of the third largest party, Y’Israel Beytenu, Avigdor Lieberman, detests the religious parties who would normally form a natural part of any Nehatanyahu coalition.
So, it being a very Israeli business, I was wrong but I might yet turn out to be right, although I admit that my head hurts thinking about the possible permutations.
For the sake of peace a broad based coalition of national unity would be the best solution but we’re probably several weeks from the answers.
What is clear from the voting in Israel is that security and how to deal with the Palestinians is the paramount question, even in these parlous economic times; financial issues barely warranted a mention during the elections.
I also stated that during Israel’s brief and stormy history it is their strong, right wing leaders, not the well-intentioned liberals, who do the best peace deals with their Arab neighbors. This is a paradox I ascribed to the national characteristics and histories of those at the negotiating tables. I remain convinced that this is the case but I didn’t mean to include Avigdor Lieberman in the category of strong leaders. He, and his supporters are potentially nearly as big a danger to the future of peace as the extreme Arab and Muslim leaders he seems happy to confront.
So there you have it, a fulsome admission that I was in error, and I don’t feel blemished or diminished by my act of public contrition.
In the last few days we also witnessed a series of bankers and other financial titans admitting that they made mistakes. President Obama also owned up to a minor gaffe. The head of the Bank of England also admitted that the bank’s reading of the financial tealeaves had been severely at fault.
It seems the time when it is fashionable, as well as desirable to hold up one’s hands and utter the words, “I screwed up, and I got it wrong, I am sorry!”
So why does Prime Minister Gordon Brown find it so difficult?
He hired Sir James Crosby as deputy chairman of the financial watchdog, the Financial Service Authority, which is created to oversee the running and well being of our financial institutions. During his tenure of this office, Crosby, while also Chief Executive of HBOS apparently personally fired the bank’s most senior risk expert for predicting that Crosby’s risk taking stewardship of HBOS could lead to huge future problems for that company.
When this was exposed Sir James Crosby almost immediately resigned his post as deputy chairman. Did he fall or was he pushed? The answer is that he was pushed, very quickly and very ignominiously and almost certainly from the direction of Number 10 Downing Street.
This situation is rendered surreal when it became clear that the FSA had also issued warnings about the risks HBOS was taking. It is more than strange that the man effectively running both was Sir James Crosby.
Today there was a parliamentary inquiry into all these dealings that personally questioned the Prime Minister. As ever our dour leader failed to show any contrition. As ever none of this is his fault in any way. He didn’t apologize for any of it.
For those with short memories you will recall that Mister Brown accepted all the praise for everything that seemed to be going right in the British economy for the last dozen years or so. Now that our recently mighty financial ship has hit stormy weather he must accept culpability and blame or he will be consigned to the dustbin of history along with all the other fakes and phonies.
It also does us good to admit when we have made a mistake. Having taken some credit above I shall point out a very recent error on my part. On the day prior to the Israeli elections my prediction was for a narrow Benjamin Netanyahu right wing Likud victory over Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima party. In fact she won the battle between these two parties by one seat. It being Israel, and therefore very politically complex, his potential right wing partnerships are potentially just a little more likely to work than any combination of the centre and left, and therefore it will probably be Bibi (Netanyahu) who is called upon by President Shimon Peres to form a government coalition, if he can.
This is made even more difficult by the fact that the leader of the third largest party, Y’Israel Beytenu, Avigdor Lieberman, detests the religious parties who would normally form a natural part of any Nehatanyahu coalition.
So, it being a very Israeli business, I was wrong but I might yet turn out to be right, although I admit that my head hurts thinking about the possible permutations.
For the sake of peace a broad based coalition of national unity would be the best solution but we’re probably several weeks from the answers.
What is clear from the voting in Israel is that security and how to deal with the Palestinians is the paramount question, even in these parlous economic times; financial issues barely warranted a mention during the elections.
I also stated that during Israel’s brief and stormy history it is their strong, right wing leaders, not the well-intentioned liberals, who do the best peace deals with their Arab neighbors. This is a paradox I ascribed to the national characteristics and histories of those at the negotiating tables. I remain convinced that this is the case but I didn’t mean to include Avigdor Lieberman in the category of strong leaders. He, and his supporters are potentially nearly as big a danger to the future of peace as the extreme Arab and Muslim leaders he seems happy to confront.
So there you have it, a fulsome admission that I was in error, and I don’t feel blemished or diminished by my act of public contrition.
In the last few days we also witnessed a series of bankers and other financial titans admitting that they made mistakes. President Obama also owned up to a minor gaffe. The head of the Bank of England also admitted that the bank’s reading of the financial tealeaves had been severely at fault.
It seems the time when it is fashionable, as well as desirable to hold up one’s hands and utter the words, “I screwed up, and I got it wrong, I am sorry!”
So why does Prime Minister Gordon Brown find it so difficult?
He hired Sir James Crosby as deputy chairman of the financial watchdog, the Financial Service Authority, which is created to oversee the running and well being of our financial institutions. During his tenure of this office, Crosby, while also Chief Executive of HBOS apparently personally fired the bank’s most senior risk expert for predicting that Crosby’s risk taking stewardship of HBOS could lead to huge future problems for that company.
When this was exposed Sir James Crosby almost immediately resigned his post as deputy chairman. Did he fall or was he pushed? The answer is that he was pushed, very quickly and very ignominiously and almost certainly from the direction of Number 10 Downing Street.
This situation is rendered surreal when it became clear that the FSA had also issued warnings about the risks HBOS was taking. It is more than strange that the man effectively running both was Sir James Crosby.
Today there was a parliamentary inquiry into all these dealings that personally questioned the Prime Minister. As ever our dour leader failed to show any contrition. As ever none of this is his fault in any way. He didn’t apologize for any of it.
For those with short memories you will recall that Mister Brown accepted all the praise for everything that seemed to be going right in the British economy for the last dozen years or so. Now that our recently mighty financial ship has hit stormy weather he must accept culpability and blame or he will be consigned to the dustbin of history along with all the other fakes and phonies.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
StatingTheObvious
It’s pretty obvious what went wrong with our economies in general, but needs stating anyhow. Too many people were too greedy. Too few people are making stuff and too many are selling and buying financial products that no one understands.
Abraham Lincoln said part of this better than anyone else, “I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich…(But) we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else.”
There is nothing wrong or objectionable about creating wealth but there is certainly something wrong if that becomes the sole motivation for our society. In the last years the deal became king, short-term gains were paramount, above any other consideration. We simply cannot and will not sustain our way of life on this basis.
You cannot build society on consumerism and rising property prices alone.
It only takes a few people obtaining a disproportionate share of the pie to upset the balance for the rest of society. That’s exactly what has been happening with rapacious bankers and deal making entrepreneurs at the very summit of our economies over the last decades. This was exacerbated by insufficiently stringent financial regulation, and where the law was sufficient it was not applied with any rigor.
There was also an entirely cavalier and inappropriate duty of care employed in the hiring of the men to run our leading banks. During yesterday’s inquiry in the UK’s House of Commons it became clear that none of the leaders of the banks that have just been bailed out had any banking qualifications.
All of these financial gluttons should learn something from Millard Fuller who passed away on February 3rd. This was the man who more or less invented the term, “sweat equity” and the “theology of enough.” He developed a philosophy that typified generosity of spirit, which should inform all our thinking for the future well being of our society. He co-founded Habitat for Humanity with his wife, Linda.
He didn’t start off as an altruist, making his first million before he was 30. Linda refused to stick with him if he was going to obsessively collect money as his reason for living. To get her to return he changed himself and his ambitions. He not only got Linda back he also went on to fulfill his dream of building homes with no interest mortgages for the poor. With the help of uncountable volunteers and many future occupants their organizations have built nearly 1.5 million homes with no interest mortgages around the world.
As Fuller said, “There are sufficient resources in the world for everybody but not enough for the greed of even a significant minority.”
Abraham Lincoln said part of this better than anyone else, “I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich…(But) we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else.”
There is nothing wrong or objectionable about creating wealth but there is certainly something wrong if that becomes the sole motivation for our society. In the last years the deal became king, short-term gains were paramount, above any other consideration. We simply cannot and will not sustain our way of life on this basis.
You cannot build society on consumerism and rising property prices alone.
It only takes a few people obtaining a disproportionate share of the pie to upset the balance for the rest of society. That’s exactly what has been happening with rapacious bankers and deal making entrepreneurs at the very summit of our economies over the last decades. This was exacerbated by insufficiently stringent financial regulation, and where the law was sufficient it was not applied with any rigor.
There was also an entirely cavalier and inappropriate duty of care employed in the hiring of the men to run our leading banks. During yesterday’s inquiry in the UK’s House of Commons it became clear that none of the leaders of the banks that have just been bailed out had any banking qualifications.
All of these financial gluttons should learn something from Millard Fuller who passed away on February 3rd. This was the man who more or less invented the term, “sweat equity” and the “theology of enough.” He developed a philosophy that typified generosity of spirit, which should inform all our thinking for the future well being of our society. He co-founded Habitat for Humanity with his wife, Linda.
He didn’t start off as an altruist, making his first million before he was 30. Linda refused to stick with him if he was going to obsessively collect money as his reason for living. To get her to return he changed himself and his ambitions. He not only got Linda back he also went on to fulfill his dream of building homes with no interest mortgages for the poor. With the help of uncountable volunteers and many future occupants their organizations have built nearly 1.5 million homes with no interest mortgages around the world.
As Fuller said, “There are sufficient resources in the world for everybody but not enough for the greed of even a significant minority.”
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
BankingTrust
Today in the UK there was a governmental commission of inquiry into the banking debacle that led our economies to the brink of a total financial apocalypse.
For the first time, in public, our leading bankers were summoned to explain their actions and inactions to our elected representatives in the full unforgiving stare of the public. For the first time these so called Masters of the Universe volunteered that they were unreservedly sorry for their mistakes and injudicious decisions. It’s about time.
The Chief Executives also admitted that the bonus culture, which they led and profited from, is a flawed system. Everyone now seems to share the view that bonuses should be linked to results over the longer term, measured in years, rather than linked to single deals. I am relieved that the greedy bastards have admitted this, and now, feeling contrite, one supposes that these pigs at the public trough will return their own grossly inflated bonuses of the past?
What was not investigated in today’s question and answer session is the cause of the underlying problems, in order to prevent any recurrence. I believe I know what is at the root of the catastrophe and it is a more profound, albeit simpler thing to correct than the obvious greed culture.
When you look at the relative knowledge and experience of these former banking Chief Executives one factor stands out, and it is so clearly the key factor in the disaster that I am surprised I am the only journalist to write about it. These men were brought in from outside banking, and they had no idea what they were doing! This is so obvious that I’d better repeat my research finding, these men largely had NO experience in banking prior to running our biggest banks.
Would any of us hire someone with no experience to run a chain of supermarkets, would any of us hire someone to run a car manufacturer with no experience, would any of us hire someone to run anything without any experience?
Of course the answer is no. It clearly didn’t occur to the Boards of Directors, the personnel officers, the shareholders or the headhunters that the bloody banks needed someone who knew something about banking before they hired these incompetent apologists.
The reasons for hiring these Chief Executives was a history of perceived success elsewhere, usually garnered from their deal making entrepreneurship. These Chief Executives didn’t even have sufficient knowledge to be a bank cashier let alone run a bank.
The banks clearly deserved what happened to them, but we, the public, did not.
For the first time, in public, our leading bankers were summoned to explain their actions and inactions to our elected representatives in the full unforgiving stare of the public. For the first time these so called Masters of the Universe volunteered that they were unreservedly sorry for their mistakes and injudicious decisions. It’s about time.
The Chief Executives also admitted that the bonus culture, which they led and profited from, is a flawed system. Everyone now seems to share the view that bonuses should be linked to results over the longer term, measured in years, rather than linked to single deals. I am relieved that the greedy bastards have admitted this, and now, feeling contrite, one supposes that these pigs at the public trough will return their own grossly inflated bonuses of the past?
What was not investigated in today’s question and answer session is the cause of the underlying problems, in order to prevent any recurrence. I believe I know what is at the root of the catastrophe and it is a more profound, albeit simpler thing to correct than the obvious greed culture.
When you look at the relative knowledge and experience of these former banking Chief Executives one factor stands out, and it is so clearly the key factor in the disaster that I am surprised I am the only journalist to write about it. These men were brought in from outside banking, and they had no idea what they were doing! This is so obvious that I’d better repeat my research finding, these men largely had NO experience in banking prior to running our biggest banks.
Would any of us hire someone with no experience to run a chain of supermarkets, would any of us hire someone to run a car manufacturer with no experience, would any of us hire someone to run anything without any experience?
Of course the answer is no. It clearly didn’t occur to the Boards of Directors, the personnel officers, the shareholders or the headhunters that the bloody banks needed someone who knew something about banking before they hired these incompetent apologists.
The reasons for hiring these Chief Executives was a history of perceived success elsewhere, usually garnered from their deal making entrepreneurship. These Chief Executives didn’t even have sufficient knowledge to be a bank cashier let alone run a bank.
The banks clearly deserved what happened to them, but we, the public, did not.
Monday, February 9, 2009
IsraeliElections
There is about to be an election in Israel. Leading in the opinion polls is Benyamin Nehatanyahu, who heads up the right wing Likud party and who was Prime Minister a few years ago. He swears that if elected his party will not give one inch of Israel or the West Bank to the Palestinians and then dilutes this somewhat by stating that there could be pullbacks but only if there were a comprehensive peace settlement.
Trailing him is Kadima, the current government, who are being led in the campaign by Tzipi Livni, the present Foreign Minister. This is the party formed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, prior to his stroke. If Kadima lose this election as it seems they will it is possible that the party might just implode. Their campaign has simply failed to ignite the people of Israel behind their pledge to continue negotiations for a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestine Authority led by its President, Mahmoud Abbas.
Not far behind Kadima in the polls is the Yisrael Beiteineu party led by Avigdor Lieberman. This party has a largely Russian born support base and boasts a platform in which all citizens of Israel, including the Palestinians will have to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state. The fact they are showing so well in the polls is a sure indication of the general shift to the right in the country’s politics.
Trailing in last of the big parties is Ehud Barak and the Labour Party. For many years after the independence of the country they were the natural government. Presently Barak is the Minister of Defense and is recognized as doing the job well following the perceived military success of the recent Gaza operations. His foreign affairs policy and that of Kadima are pretty much indistinguishable. But he is hampered by his previous experience as Prime Minister when he negotiated with Clinton and Arafat to give up approximately 97% of the West Bank to the Palestinians, which they famously declined.
The likely outcome is for Likud to win a fairly narrow victory which will need the support of other minority parties to form yet another shaky and fairly narrow coalition. The probable partners in this will be religious parties and potentially the even more right wing Yisrael Beiteneinu. This fills many observers with dread, as they perceive Netanyahu to be a right wing fanatical bogeyman. They hear his American accented English picked up during some of the years he spent growing up in the USA and they translate this into hearing him as if he were an American neo- conservative. It would be a mistake to do so. This man is steeped in Israeli history, myths and legends and this, for good or ill, informs his every thought and action.
It is entirely possible that a future Prime Minister Netanyahu could be the perfect person to make a lasting peace with Syria and the Palestinians. Historically it is strong men from the right who are more able to make peace deals with the Arabs, not the well-intentioned liberals from the left. This might be due to the psychology of both the Israelis and the Arabs who respect strength in their paternalistic leader figures. In both societies nurturing and conciliation are sometimes perceived as female traits, often confused with weakness.
Also necessary will be even handed support for any reasonable settlement by the USA that provides guaranteed security behind recognized borders. Within this mix there must be economic benefits for following the agreed path and the reverse for those that don’t. Hamas must not be allowed to sit at the table unless and until they recognize that the State of Israel is legitimate as a Jewish state. This includes a renouncing by them of all acts of violence and an acceptance and adherence to previously agreed treaties.
The irony is this; Hamas is stronger politically because it was badly defeated militarily. If there are moderate forces within the movement they must now show their heads above the parapets or whoever will soon lead Israel will simply have no one to speak with.
Trailing him is Kadima, the current government, who are being led in the campaign by Tzipi Livni, the present Foreign Minister. This is the party formed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, prior to his stroke. If Kadima lose this election as it seems they will it is possible that the party might just implode. Their campaign has simply failed to ignite the people of Israel behind their pledge to continue negotiations for a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestine Authority led by its President, Mahmoud Abbas.
Not far behind Kadima in the polls is the Yisrael Beiteineu party led by Avigdor Lieberman. This party has a largely Russian born support base and boasts a platform in which all citizens of Israel, including the Palestinians will have to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state. The fact they are showing so well in the polls is a sure indication of the general shift to the right in the country’s politics.
Trailing in last of the big parties is Ehud Barak and the Labour Party. For many years after the independence of the country they were the natural government. Presently Barak is the Minister of Defense and is recognized as doing the job well following the perceived military success of the recent Gaza operations. His foreign affairs policy and that of Kadima are pretty much indistinguishable. But he is hampered by his previous experience as Prime Minister when he negotiated with Clinton and Arafat to give up approximately 97% of the West Bank to the Palestinians, which they famously declined.
The likely outcome is for Likud to win a fairly narrow victory which will need the support of other minority parties to form yet another shaky and fairly narrow coalition. The probable partners in this will be religious parties and potentially the even more right wing Yisrael Beiteneinu. This fills many observers with dread, as they perceive Netanyahu to be a right wing fanatical bogeyman. They hear his American accented English picked up during some of the years he spent growing up in the USA and they translate this into hearing him as if he were an American neo- conservative. It would be a mistake to do so. This man is steeped in Israeli history, myths and legends and this, for good or ill, informs his every thought and action.
It is entirely possible that a future Prime Minister Netanyahu could be the perfect person to make a lasting peace with Syria and the Palestinians. Historically it is strong men from the right who are more able to make peace deals with the Arabs, not the well-intentioned liberals from the left. This might be due to the psychology of both the Israelis and the Arabs who respect strength in their paternalistic leader figures. In both societies nurturing and conciliation are sometimes perceived as female traits, often confused with weakness.
Also necessary will be even handed support for any reasonable settlement by the USA that provides guaranteed security behind recognized borders. Within this mix there must be economic benefits for following the agreed path and the reverse for those that don’t. Hamas must not be allowed to sit at the table unless and until they recognize that the State of Israel is legitimate as a Jewish state. This includes a renouncing by them of all acts of violence and an acceptance and adherence to previously agreed treaties.
The irony is this; Hamas is stronger politically because it was badly defeated militarily. If there are moderate forces within the movement they must now show their heads above the parapets or whoever will soon lead Israel will simply have no one to speak with.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
EnglishVacations
Just when you think there isn’t much more you could write about the erosion of personal freedom in the UK along comes another brick in the wall.
Our freedoms are being removed, adjusted, lessened and blunted a little more with every passing day. Our present government is sleepwalking us to a totalitarian state in which it will become an offense to even question the lessening of your freedoms.
Our government has decided to monitor every trip into and out of our country. It has already started to do its utmost to achieve this by recently logging 70 million of our recent journeys, and they aim to raise this number to over 100 million in the next few months. After this has been achieved they aim to know where you went, who with, when and for what purpose. This is part of their obsessive wish to know everything about you and then will come the control.
Imagine a time when the civil servants will ration the number of trips you can take in order to reduce your carbon footprint?
Think about a future in which an anonymous official decides you mustn’t take your child on holiday during term time and will have the information to make it impossible for you to do so?
How far are we from being monitored for tax purposes using this new information?
The published reason for this governmental need for such information is that it will help them deal with externally linked terrorism threats. This is, of course, the same reason given for huge swathes of new legislation and quite frankly it is not believable or tenable when confronted with forensic examination.
The government is setting up a new centre to monitor and evaluate all this additional information in a part of Manchester, North West England. It will no doubt employ several hundred trained operatives. Their purpose will be much broader than the one admitted.
As with the money transfer tracing it has another purpose than just anti terrorism. This is a function of governmental control and tax gathering. The more information that Big Brother has on us the more it can dictate our lives.
The real danger for our future is that all of these small breaches of our freedom will be abused, misused or simply botched in a future in which we might find ourselves governed by some form of dictatorial government who will only need to use the levers of control now being foolishly put in place. We must do all we can to roll back this tide before it is too late.
Our freedoms are being removed, adjusted, lessened and blunted a little more with every passing day. Our present government is sleepwalking us to a totalitarian state in which it will become an offense to even question the lessening of your freedoms.
Our government has decided to monitor every trip into and out of our country. It has already started to do its utmost to achieve this by recently logging 70 million of our recent journeys, and they aim to raise this number to over 100 million in the next few months. After this has been achieved they aim to know where you went, who with, when and for what purpose. This is part of their obsessive wish to know everything about you and then will come the control.
Imagine a time when the civil servants will ration the number of trips you can take in order to reduce your carbon footprint?
Think about a future in which an anonymous official decides you mustn’t take your child on holiday during term time and will have the information to make it impossible for you to do so?
How far are we from being monitored for tax purposes using this new information?
The published reason for this governmental need for such information is that it will help them deal with externally linked terrorism threats. This is, of course, the same reason given for huge swathes of new legislation and quite frankly it is not believable or tenable when confronted with forensic examination.
The government is setting up a new centre to monitor and evaluate all this additional information in a part of Manchester, North West England. It will no doubt employ several hundred trained operatives. Their purpose will be much broader than the one admitted.
As with the money transfer tracing it has another purpose than just anti terrorism. This is a function of governmental control and tax gathering. The more information that Big Brother has on us the more it can dictate our lives.
The real danger for our future is that all of these small breaches of our freedom will be abused, misused or simply botched in a future in which we might find ourselves governed by some form of dictatorial government who will only need to use the levers of control now being foolishly put in place. We must do all we can to roll back this tide before it is too late.
Friday, February 6, 2009
BankingHonor
Honor is an old fashioned and out of date concept. It seems that as we slide into economically troubled times it is every person for themselves, let the devil take the hindmost.
The trouble with this philosophy is that we are rapidly descending into financial anarchy. We have all witnessed many recent instances of the banks’ rules being unilaterally changed on the hoof whilst they operate outside normal rules of self-restraint and decency.
This has allowed the heads of banks to take huge bonuses whilst being bailed out with taxpayers’ money as if this is OK. It is not.
Furthermore banks are still not lending properly to their customers and are charging more for their questionable services, not less. What choice does a bank customer have when the bank squeezes them? There are many that cannot arrange a loan at even inflated rates, and who are, as a consequence facing bankruptcy. Why should this be happening when the government has bailed out the banks with our money?
The answer is bank greed compounded by fear. The banks are terrified of how near they are to the financial abyss and will do almost anything to increase their liquid capital reserves to ensure their long-term futures. In this equation, we the customers are very much at the bottom of the list of those who need to be serviced and looked after.
There are decent exceptions to this rule; old-fashioned bankers who remember that their organizations only exist because of long term, and hitherto hugely profitable relationships with their customers, but faceless people who are plugged into management by computer program have largely replaced these once noble, honorable men and women.
There is irony to be found in this situation. If the banks were to take a more sanguine and far-sighted view, and surely some amongst them must; those banks will surely prosper. Generosity of spirit will equate with their enlightened self-interest.
There was a time, not so long ago, when you shook hands with your banker, lawyer, accountant, in fact any professional and most business people, and you could rely on them to do what they had promised. What a sad reflection on our world today that this is no longer the case.
The trouble with this philosophy is that we are rapidly descending into financial anarchy. We have all witnessed many recent instances of the banks’ rules being unilaterally changed on the hoof whilst they operate outside normal rules of self-restraint and decency.
This has allowed the heads of banks to take huge bonuses whilst being bailed out with taxpayers’ money as if this is OK. It is not.
Furthermore banks are still not lending properly to their customers and are charging more for their questionable services, not less. What choice does a bank customer have when the bank squeezes them? There are many that cannot arrange a loan at even inflated rates, and who are, as a consequence facing bankruptcy. Why should this be happening when the government has bailed out the banks with our money?
The answer is bank greed compounded by fear. The banks are terrified of how near they are to the financial abyss and will do almost anything to increase their liquid capital reserves to ensure their long-term futures. In this equation, we the customers are very much at the bottom of the list of those who need to be serviced and looked after.
There are decent exceptions to this rule; old-fashioned bankers who remember that their organizations only exist because of long term, and hitherto hugely profitable relationships with their customers, but faceless people who are plugged into management by computer program have largely replaced these once noble, honorable men and women.
There is irony to be found in this situation. If the banks were to take a more sanguine and far-sighted view, and surely some amongst them must; those banks will surely prosper. Generosity of spirit will equate with their enlightened self-interest.
There was a time, not so long ago, when you shook hands with your banker, lawyer, accountant, in fact any professional and most business people, and you could rely on them to do what they had promised. What a sad reflection on our world today that this is no longer the case.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
WakeUpBritain
When did we Brits become such wimps?
It has snowed this week; it is still snowing in some parts of the country. That used to be called winter, now it is a “major snow event!”
This has resulted in our traffic infrastructure unraveling several times and huge delays in almost everything.
I didn’t receive any mail between last Saturday and yesterday when I went to the Post Office to collect it. This major trek passed without incident, but apparently was impossible for my post delivery worker. He was clearly concerned about his safety on the treacherous ground. I wanted to say, “Listen Nanook, it wasn’t minus 50, but hovering just under zero. There were no major drifts of snow, just some ice that could easily be walked around, if you wanted to bad enough.” When I spoke with the lady at the Post Office she informed me that the post office workers concerned had to be consulted, “and if they are happy with the conditions then they will deliver.” Clearly they hadn’t been happy for a few days!
Schools in some parts of the UK have been closed down for the week because of the potential danger to our tiny tots. Now sounding like an old fart I compare this to when we were kids; in weather worse than this we walked to the bus or if the buses couldn’t make the journey we walked the whole way, and we loved the adventure. If we didn’t turn up we were in trouble, and it was unthinkable for the teachers not to appear.
Another thing that seems to have disappeared is simple self help. When it used to snow we all got out our shovels and dug a path between the pavement (sidewalk) and our homes. During the recent snow I was only one of two houses in my turning that did this, all the other neighbors simply left the snow and ice where it was. If only to prevent themselves or others from slipping over you would think that they should have more sense than this, but apparently common sense is another thing that goes missing when the temperature hits zero.
When I collected my post I noticed that outside the building it was like an ice rink. I pointed this out to the counter clerk, she looked outside and solemnly nodded her head, “Yes,” she said, “We noticed that and called the council.” It wasn’t worth my while elevating my already considerable blood pressure by suggesting that she grabs a shovel and takes care of the Post Offices own exterior.
I completed my own office work and decided that the safest bet to get my outgoing mail delivered was for me to take it to the nearest sub Post Office in town. Again I walked the few minutes and found that this central post box was full to overflowing. I called the Main Post Office who thanked me for pointing out that the box was full. “The reason is,” they stated in a monotone that you couldn’t fabricate, “that we didn’t collect from there this morning due to the weather, but we will be collecting from there tonight.” I tried to suggest that the weather hadn’t actually changed between the morning and evening but apparently the post office workers concerned had to be consulted, “and if they are happy with the conditions then they will collect.”
As a country we used to have the so called Bulldog spirit, the bloody mindedness that has won us countless battles against seemingly insuperable odds, but now we can’t deal with a little bit of slush, snow and ice. Come on Britain, wake up, this is pathetic!
It has snowed this week; it is still snowing in some parts of the country. That used to be called winter, now it is a “major snow event!”
This has resulted in our traffic infrastructure unraveling several times and huge delays in almost everything.
I didn’t receive any mail between last Saturday and yesterday when I went to the Post Office to collect it. This major trek passed without incident, but apparently was impossible for my post delivery worker. He was clearly concerned about his safety on the treacherous ground. I wanted to say, “Listen Nanook, it wasn’t minus 50, but hovering just under zero. There were no major drifts of snow, just some ice that could easily be walked around, if you wanted to bad enough.” When I spoke with the lady at the Post Office she informed me that the post office workers concerned had to be consulted, “and if they are happy with the conditions then they will deliver.” Clearly they hadn’t been happy for a few days!
Schools in some parts of the UK have been closed down for the week because of the potential danger to our tiny tots. Now sounding like an old fart I compare this to when we were kids; in weather worse than this we walked to the bus or if the buses couldn’t make the journey we walked the whole way, and we loved the adventure. If we didn’t turn up we were in trouble, and it was unthinkable for the teachers not to appear.
Another thing that seems to have disappeared is simple self help. When it used to snow we all got out our shovels and dug a path between the pavement (sidewalk) and our homes. During the recent snow I was only one of two houses in my turning that did this, all the other neighbors simply left the snow and ice where it was. If only to prevent themselves or others from slipping over you would think that they should have more sense than this, but apparently common sense is another thing that goes missing when the temperature hits zero.
When I collected my post I noticed that outside the building it was like an ice rink. I pointed this out to the counter clerk, she looked outside and solemnly nodded her head, “Yes,” she said, “We noticed that and called the council.” It wasn’t worth my while elevating my already considerable blood pressure by suggesting that she grabs a shovel and takes care of the Post Offices own exterior.
I completed my own office work and decided that the safest bet to get my outgoing mail delivered was for me to take it to the nearest sub Post Office in town. Again I walked the few minutes and found that this central post box was full to overflowing. I called the Main Post Office who thanked me for pointing out that the box was full. “The reason is,” they stated in a monotone that you couldn’t fabricate, “that we didn’t collect from there this morning due to the weather, but we will be collecting from there tonight.” I tried to suggest that the weather hadn’t actually changed between the morning and evening but apparently the post office workers concerned had to be consulted, “and if they are happy with the conditions then they will collect.”
As a country we used to have the so called Bulldog spirit, the bloody mindedness that has won us countless battles against seemingly insuperable odds, but now we can’t deal with a little bit of slush, snow and ice. Come on Britain, wake up, this is pathetic!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Lies
There are two different and disturbing stories in the press today. One gets little coverage and the other hardly any. They share a common theme that is not, at first, obvious.
During the Gaza battles it was globally and hysterically reported that Israel had intentionally shelled a United Nations school in which civilians were sheltering. This was vociferously condemned both by the Secretary General of the United Nations and the local head of that organization. It did not happen.
In Europe Pope Benedict XV1 caused controversy by reinstating the excommunicated bishop, Richard Williamson. This is a man of the cloth who does little to hide his anti Semitism. This is most clearly evidenced by his Holocaust denial. Williamson states that the Nazis did not kill 6 million Jewish people, he puts the number at 300,000.
The Vatican, by inviting Williamson back into the fold appears to condone the bishop making a blood libel that we, the Jewish people have taken part in the biggest con trick in the history of mankind.
Just for the record my own family, bishop, lost some 63 of its number to the Nazis. My paternal grandmother’s entire family was wiped out. I am not imagining this, they didn’t all go on holiday and not return, they were shot, gassed, starved and tortured to untimely deaths because they were guilty of being Jewish. There are exhaustive records for millions more who were similarly massacred and these are available to everyone.
In war, the saying goes, "the first victim is the truth." Now there has been an in-depth investigative report about the Gaza UN School shelling conducted by the Canadian Globe and Mail's Middle East correspondent, Patrick Martin and he has proved that the incident at the United Nations school did not take place.
Like the supposed “Jenin Massacre” of a few years back, the last time Israel felt compelled to foray into Gaza to stop terrorist missiles from landing on their civilians, it has proven to be a publicity relations fabrication by Hamas and their fellow travelers.
Martin’s front-page investigation of the Israeli shelling of Hamas terrorists near a UN school that led to the tragic deaths of 43 civilians. His conclusion is that the facts don't support the accepted story that the school was shelled.
According to Martin who witnessed the physical evidence and conducted interviews with several eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was present when the shelling took place: While a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled UNRWA compound, not a single person in the compound was killed. The 43 people who died in the incident were all outside, on the street, where three mortar shells did land. No shells landed inside the schoolyard.
Martin corroborates the Israeli accounts that the IDF accurately returned fire to the location from which it was being shelled by Hamas terrorists. The killing of 43 civilians on the street as a result may be a good reason for investigation, but this clearly is not the same as an intentional shooting into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers. Any such investigation must also ask why the Hamas mortar team were embedded with the civilians.
Martin states that the incorrect public pronouncements by the UN helped allow "the misconception to linger" that Israel had committed a war crime.
Palestinian civilians were milling around the area where Hamas was firing rockets at Israel. This cannot be Israel's fault, but points out that Hamas fired from an area frequented by civilians, engaging in what former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls a double war crime: "Attacking [Israeli] civilians and hiding behind [Palestinian] civilians."
However, during the conflict, John Ging, UNRWA's operations director in Gaza, condemned the Israeli attack, as "horrific" and stated Israel knew it was targeting a UN facility.
"We have provided the GPS co-ordinates of every single one of our locations," he told the BBC. "They are clearly marked with UN insignia, flags flying, lights shining on the flags at night. It's very clear that these are United Nations installations."
During the Globe and Mail investigation, Ging totally reversed his previous announcements and acknowledged that all three Israeli mortar shells landed outside the school and that "no one was killed in the school. "I told the Israelis that none of the shells landed in the school," he said.
A European Member of Parliament, Paul van Buitenen submitted a parliamentary question based on the Globe & Mail's investigation. The MEP points out that UNRWA's John Ging admits in the article that Israel didn't attack the school but then blamed the confusion on the Israelis. Van Buitenen says that that the EU, which is UNRWA's single largest donor, wrongly condemned Israel for attacking the UN school.
Will the EU now apologize to Israel for wrongly condemning it without checking the facts?
Will the EU investigate Mr. Ging’s dissemination of misleading information concerning the supposed attack on this UNRWA school and whether this was politically motivated?
We return to the issue of the Pope welcoming bishop Richard Williamson into the Roman Catholic fold. This reeks of the lowest form of self-serving expediency as the church has stated that their action does not mean that the Holy See shares the bishop’s views. Put another way, the Pope doesn’t agree with the anti Semitic stuff but the unity of the church is apparently more important than upsetting a few Jews.
Germany’s Central Council of Jews broke off their ties with the Catholic church to protest the Vatican’s ill considered move to reinstate the bishop and three more of his ultra traditionalist fellow bishops who are all part of the ultra conservative Pius X sect of the infamous French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
The German nation, led by their Chancellor Angela Merkel, has taken the moral high ground by demanding that the Vatican make a public very clear rejection of Holocaust denial. “The Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial and there must be positive relations with the Jewish community overall. This should not be allowed to pass without consequences, “ she added, “This is not just a matter, in my opinion, for the Christian, Catholic and Jewish communities in Germany.”
Other German bishops have expressed dismay and “a loss of faith in the Pope.” Whilst Cardinal Walter Kesper, who is in charge of Roman Catholic relations with the Jews admitted that the episode had been mishandled by Rome.
Bishop Williamson is on record as stating that Jews are seeking world domination and further has claimed that the Americans planned the 9/11 attacks on their own people and finally that the Freemasons have corrupted the Vatican. He seems like he might make a perfect future candidate for Pope himself, or perhaps the nearest lunatic asylum for some obviously needed treatment.
It appears to be open season for people seemingly in moral authority, such as bishops, cardinals and the Secretary General of the United Nations to either lie about Jewish people, or just as bad, to allow others to lie on their behalf protected by their mantle of power, in some of the most rampant and obvious anti Semitism witnessed since the Nazis.
None of us should allow such lies, distortions or injustices to go unchallenged or we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
During the Gaza battles it was globally and hysterically reported that Israel had intentionally shelled a United Nations school in which civilians were sheltering. This was vociferously condemned both by the Secretary General of the United Nations and the local head of that organization. It did not happen.
In Europe Pope Benedict XV1 caused controversy by reinstating the excommunicated bishop, Richard Williamson. This is a man of the cloth who does little to hide his anti Semitism. This is most clearly evidenced by his Holocaust denial. Williamson states that the Nazis did not kill 6 million Jewish people, he puts the number at 300,000.
The Vatican, by inviting Williamson back into the fold appears to condone the bishop making a blood libel that we, the Jewish people have taken part in the biggest con trick in the history of mankind.
Just for the record my own family, bishop, lost some 63 of its number to the Nazis. My paternal grandmother’s entire family was wiped out. I am not imagining this, they didn’t all go on holiday and not return, they were shot, gassed, starved and tortured to untimely deaths because they were guilty of being Jewish. There are exhaustive records for millions more who were similarly massacred and these are available to everyone.
In war, the saying goes, "the first victim is the truth." Now there has been an in-depth investigative report about the Gaza UN School shelling conducted by the Canadian Globe and Mail's Middle East correspondent, Patrick Martin and he has proved that the incident at the United Nations school did not take place.
Like the supposed “Jenin Massacre” of a few years back, the last time Israel felt compelled to foray into Gaza to stop terrorist missiles from landing on their civilians, it has proven to be a publicity relations fabrication by Hamas and their fellow travelers.
Martin’s front-page investigation of the Israeli shelling of Hamas terrorists near a UN school that led to the tragic deaths of 43 civilians. His conclusion is that the facts don't support the accepted story that the school was shelled.
According to Martin who witnessed the physical evidence and conducted interviews with several eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was present when the shelling took place: While a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled UNRWA compound, not a single person in the compound was killed. The 43 people who died in the incident were all outside, on the street, where three mortar shells did land. No shells landed inside the schoolyard.
Martin corroborates the Israeli accounts that the IDF accurately returned fire to the location from which it was being shelled by Hamas terrorists. The killing of 43 civilians on the street as a result may be a good reason for investigation, but this clearly is not the same as an intentional shooting into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers. Any such investigation must also ask why the Hamas mortar team were embedded with the civilians.
Martin states that the incorrect public pronouncements by the UN helped allow "the misconception to linger" that Israel had committed a war crime.
Palestinian civilians were milling around the area where Hamas was firing rockets at Israel. This cannot be Israel's fault, but points out that Hamas fired from an area frequented by civilians, engaging in what former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls a double war crime: "Attacking [Israeli] civilians and hiding behind [Palestinian] civilians."
However, during the conflict, John Ging, UNRWA's operations director in Gaza, condemned the Israeli attack, as "horrific" and stated Israel knew it was targeting a UN facility.
"We have provided the GPS co-ordinates of every single one of our locations," he told the BBC. "They are clearly marked with UN insignia, flags flying, lights shining on the flags at night. It's very clear that these are United Nations installations."
During the Globe and Mail investigation, Ging totally reversed his previous announcements and acknowledged that all three Israeli mortar shells landed outside the school and that "no one was killed in the school. "I told the Israelis that none of the shells landed in the school," he said.
A European Member of Parliament, Paul van Buitenen submitted a parliamentary question based on the Globe & Mail's investigation. The MEP points out that UNRWA's John Ging admits in the article that Israel didn't attack the school but then blamed the confusion on the Israelis. Van Buitenen says that that the EU, which is UNRWA's single largest donor, wrongly condemned Israel for attacking the UN school.
Will the EU now apologize to Israel for wrongly condemning it without checking the facts?
Will the EU investigate Mr. Ging’s dissemination of misleading information concerning the supposed attack on this UNRWA school and whether this was politically motivated?
We return to the issue of the Pope welcoming bishop Richard Williamson into the Roman Catholic fold. This reeks of the lowest form of self-serving expediency as the church has stated that their action does not mean that the Holy See shares the bishop’s views. Put another way, the Pope doesn’t agree with the anti Semitic stuff but the unity of the church is apparently more important than upsetting a few Jews.
Germany’s Central Council of Jews broke off their ties with the Catholic church to protest the Vatican’s ill considered move to reinstate the bishop and three more of his ultra traditionalist fellow bishops who are all part of the ultra conservative Pius X sect of the infamous French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
The German nation, led by their Chancellor Angela Merkel, has taken the moral high ground by demanding that the Vatican make a public very clear rejection of Holocaust denial. “The Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial and there must be positive relations with the Jewish community overall. This should not be allowed to pass without consequences, “ she added, “This is not just a matter, in my opinion, for the Christian, Catholic and Jewish communities in Germany.”
Other German bishops have expressed dismay and “a loss of faith in the Pope.” Whilst Cardinal Walter Kesper, who is in charge of Roman Catholic relations with the Jews admitted that the episode had been mishandled by Rome.
Bishop Williamson is on record as stating that Jews are seeking world domination and further has claimed that the Americans planned the 9/11 attacks on their own people and finally that the Freemasons have corrupted the Vatican. He seems like he might make a perfect future candidate for Pope himself, or perhaps the nearest lunatic asylum for some obviously needed treatment.
It appears to be open season for people seemingly in moral authority, such as bishops, cardinals and the Secretary General of the United Nations to either lie about Jewish people, or just as bad, to allow others to lie on their behalf protected by their mantle of power, in some of the most rampant and obvious anti Semitism witnessed since the Nazis.
None of us should allow such lies, distortions or injustices to go unchallenged or we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
HealthandSafety
Snow clearing is not something we are wonderful at in the UK. We don't seem built to withstand more than an inch of the white stuff, but that's probably because we don't get much snow, so we don't get to practice.
This week we had between half a foot and one foot of snow in great areas of the country, and for one day our infrastructure was brought to pretty much of a standstill. Personally it doesn't unhinge me that this happens once every twenty years or so, but the way the commentators and pundits are having a hissy fit you would think we had just experienced the Apocalypse!
Ease up everyone, it snowed, we will clear it up in a day or so and we will survive, I promise.
Taking up this theme it seems as though anything that happens which is remotely negative is someone else's fault. We have truly become imbecilic if we expect someone else to take care of our every need. I know how insidious this is by comparison. I went to Spain a year or so back and was walking down a pavement (sidewalk) and noticing it was uneven turned to my companions and said, "pavements like these wouldn't be allowed in England!" I had caught the dreaded disease of "health and safety!"
This ailment is brought about by groups of little civil servants who exist to eliminate all risk from our lives. It resulted yesterday, when it snowed, with their not allowing any buses to run in London. They did this and stopped most of the trains and underground on the basis that it could be dangerous, not that anything bad had happened, but that it could, therefore it must be stopped from happening.
Of course if we were truly to eliminate risk we would never do anything and then nothing bad could happen, but the unfortunate truth is that nothing good could happen either.
If Health and Safety had been in charge of the financial sector of our economy there is no chance that we could have fallen into the abyss in which we presently find ourselves. However it is equally true that we would never have enjoyed any prosperity prior to the problems.
It is not the natural habitat of mankind to live risk free and never can be. There are bad things and bad people out there who mean us harm, and we'd better be a little toughened up or we won't survive the harsh realities that are sure to find us. Otherwise we will be like the Native American tribes who led a life free of our germs and diseases until we arrived and shared ours with them. The result was the decimation and subjugation of entire civilizations.
We need to be responsible members of our society, for our own benefit and that of each other. Government cannot and must not try to legislate or micro manage every aspect of our lives when the way we behave and treat one another is our own responsibility.
This week we had between half a foot and one foot of snow in great areas of the country, and for one day our infrastructure was brought to pretty much of a standstill. Personally it doesn't unhinge me that this happens once every twenty years or so, but the way the commentators and pundits are having a hissy fit you would think we had just experienced the Apocalypse!
Ease up everyone, it snowed, we will clear it up in a day or so and we will survive, I promise.
Taking up this theme it seems as though anything that happens which is remotely negative is someone else's fault. We have truly become imbecilic if we expect someone else to take care of our every need. I know how insidious this is by comparison. I went to Spain a year or so back and was walking down a pavement (sidewalk) and noticing it was uneven turned to my companions and said, "pavements like these wouldn't be allowed in England!" I had caught the dreaded disease of "health and safety!"
This ailment is brought about by groups of little civil servants who exist to eliminate all risk from our lives. It resulted yesterday, when it snowed, with their not allowing any buses to run in London. They did this and stopped most of the trains and underground on the basis that it could be dangerous, not that anything bad had happened, but that it could, therefore it must be stopped from happening.
Of course if we were truly to eliminate risk we would never do anything and then nothing bad could happen, but the unfortunate truth is that nothing good could happen either.
If Health and Safety had been in charge of the financial sector of our economy there is no chance that we could have fallen into the abyss in which we presently find ourselves. However it is equally true that we would never have enjoyed any prosperity prior to the problems.
It is not the natural habitat of mankind to live risk free and never can be. There are bad things and bad people out there who mean us harm, and we'd better be a little toughened up or we won't survive the harsh realities that are sure to find us. Otherwise we will be like the Native American tribes who led a life free of our germs and diseases until we arrived and shared ours with them. The result was the decimation and subjugation of entire civilizations.
We need to be responsible members of our society, for our own benefit and that of each other. Government cannot and must not try to legislate or micro manage every aspect of our lives when the way we behave and treat one another is our own responsibility.
Monday, February 2, 2009
WhateverNext
In England it snowed overnight. In fact it was the heaviest snow we’ve had for nearly two decades, and the weather forecasters are predicting this is just the start of “the biggest snow event in over a decade.” Put another way, it is snowing heavily. These things are relative; here we panic when the depth of the snow reaches 10 inches, whereas in Canada they moan at 10 feet.
It’s interesting to note that even as the ice caps actually increase and whilst the temperature decreases and our snowfall levels are healthily high the global warming doomsayers persist in their politically correct predictions. According to them we are about to all be flooded by the melting polar ice caps. I challenge them to provide proof. I simply don’t believe them. They are either well –intentioned but stupid, or evil extremists who use any lie to make their insupportable arguments appear correct.
I remember the predictions that these same thought police came up with previously, and all of which proved entirely false. This ignoble tradition began in the 18th century when the first such dire predictions of the earth’s demise were widely circulated. It was announced then that the world’s resources would not be able to feed the population, which was then a fraction of what it is today. It has been proven to be a wildly inaccurate prediction as we’ve been eating well for the intervening 200 years.
Of course there are parts of the world where people do not get enough to eat, but that is due to unfair economic systems, corrupt governments and bad, iniquitous distribution. It has never been due to our inability to meet our production needs.
In the mid 1960’s a book entitled “The Population Bomb” by Paul Erlich predicted that hundreds of millions of people would be starving to death in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and that about 65 million of these people dying of starvation would be in the USA. He went on to state that by the year 2000 England would cease to exist. Plainly Paul is a prat. I don’t want to rub it in too much, but what the hell Paul, you were totally wrong in general and in detail, in fact you were talking out of your politically correct anal orifice. The thing that should concern us all is that Mr Erlich is a member of the Optimum Population Trust despite his not having a clue, and being totally incorrect.
Such bodies as the Optimum Population Trust demand the power to curb the amount of children we can have. Remember that they don’t want you to retain the right to reproduce as you want, but demand that they should decide how many children we should all have. They are the true guardians of Nazi and hard line Communist ideology regarding how much we should reproduce. Welcome to the real Green policy leading to a brave new world.
There are doctors who follow such political beliefs who proudly declare that they will refuse to offer fertility treatment to any women who want to have more than 4 children because they believe this will cause an insupportable strain on the earth’s resources.
Our government’s Green adviser, Joanthon Porritt declared last week that it was “irresponsible” for the people of this great land to have more than 2 children per family because it was creating an unbearable burden on the environment. I suppose this follows that other great example of “Green” democracy and tolerance, The Peoples Republic of China, because they have long enjoyed a 1 child per family policy. Nazi Germany had an even more selective reproduction policy.
The UK is doing its best to be a bastion, a shining light of political correctness. After all this is the country that allowed its local government to ban refuse collections more than once every two weeks for environmental reasons. Perhaps they don’t realize that refuse allowed to stand and rot for a couple of weeks might be a bigger health hazard?
Today, due to the heavy snow, the parks in London were closed for “health and safety” reasons. Yes, we are banned from play in our parks with our kids today, in case we might slip over.
Our milk now has a label on the outside of the carton, because it contains milk, and therefore, if you’re allergic to milk, you shouldn’t drink, er, milk!
On our television and cinema screens we see a multitude of advertisements from our big brother government telling us it is unsafe to have unprotected sex, it is bad to drink and drive, it is bad to take drugs and drive, it is dangerous to cross the road without looking first, it is good to study math, it is very good to study science. I’m astonished they haven’t made a commercial instructing me in the correct manner of how to wipe my bum.
Also, in this proud tradition of freedom and tolerance, we allowed the installation of more than 4,000,000 CCTV cameras that gives us the opportunity to be photographed, one way or another, about 2-400 times per day, every day. These cameras are being enhanced all the time and are now linked in an enormously powerful combination. Some of these cameras come complete with such devices as vehicle license recognition, and soon many with behavior recognition, face recognition and listening and broadcast facilities.
Undaunted we have made it possible, through anti terrorism legislation, for our local councils to install tiny cameras into our refuse bins to make certain that we sort our rubbish in the prescribed manner, or we will be fined.
Local government is using the same legislation to check whether people claiming benefits are actually cohabiting with each other. This is achieved by dispatching council employees to spy on the potentially false claimants. When did it become local governments role to pervert the use of supposedly legitimate anti terrorism legislation to see if man A is having consensual sex with woman B?
Our government informs us that we need to eat less and exercise more. In fact it has been paying for huge advertising campaigns to promote a healthy lifestyle on TV and elsewhere. Don’t they understand that it’s our own choice how we live, diet and exercise? It is not the job of the nanny state to instruct or legislate on such matters.
In fact it is no one’s business, as long as we don’t break existing laws, how we choose to live, where and with whom. Even if I want to drink myself to oblivion, or exercise until I drop or jumping up and down naked and yodeling my head off it's my right and no one is going to take that away. It is my business and no one has the right to tell me otherwise.
This is a battle for freedom and we are allowing it to drift away in a fog of baloney loosely called political correctness and it is probably the most insidious and dangerous assault on our liberties and common sense since the English Civil War.
I have a guaranteed method for controlling the population and relieving stress. All of these politically correct fools who tell everyone else how to live, reproduce etc. should commit collective suicide, then we would all have what we want.
It’s interesting to note that even as the ice caps actually increase and whilst the temperature decreases and our snowfall levels are healthily high the global warming doomsayers persist in their politically correct predictions. According to them we are about to all be flooded by the melting polar ice caps. I challenge them to provide proof. I simply don’t believe them. They are either well –intentioned but stupid, or evil extremists who use any lie to make their insupportable arguments appear correct.
I remember the predictions that these same thought police came up with previously, and all of which proved entirely false. This ignoble tradition began in the 18th century when the first such dire predictions of the earth’s demise were widely circulated. It was announced then that the world’s resources would not be able to feed the population, which was then a fraction of what it is today. It has been proven to be a wildly inaccurate prediction as we’ve been eating well for the intervening 200 years.
Of course there are parts of the world where people do not get enough to eat, but that is due to unfair economic systems, corrupt governments and bad, iniquitous distribution. It has never been due to our inability to meet our production needs.
In the mid 1960’s a book entitled “The Population Bomb” by Paul Erlich predicted that hundreds of millions of people would be starving to death in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and that about 65 million of these people dying of starvation would be in the USA. He went on to state that by the year 2000 England would cease to exist. Plainly Paul is a prat. I don’t want to rub it in too much, but what the hell Paul, you were totally wrong in general and in detail, in fact you were talking out of your politically correct anal orifice. The thing that should concern us all is that Mr Erlich is a member of the Optimum Population Trust despite his not having a clue, and being totally incorrect.
Such bodies as the Optimum Population Trust demand the power to curb the amount of children we can have. Remember that they don’t want you to retain the right to reproduce as you want, but demand that they should decide how many children we should all have. They are the true guardians of Nazi and hard line Communist ideology regarding how much we should reproduce. Welcome to the real Green policy leading to a brave new world.
There are doctors who follow such political beliefs who proudly declare that they will refuse to offer fertility treatment to any women who want to have more than 4 children because they believe this will cause an insupportable strain on the earth’s resources.
Our government’s Green adviser, Joanthon Porritt declared last week that it was “irresponsible” for the people of this great land to have more than 2 children per family because it was creating an unbearable burden on the environment. I suppose this follows that other great example of “Green” democracy and tolerance, The Peoples Republic of China, because they have long enjoyed a 1 child per family policy. Nazi Germany had an even more selective reproduction policy.
The UK is doing its best to be a bastion, a shining light of political correctness. After all this is the country that allowed its local government to ban refuse collections more than once every two weeks for environmental reasons. Perhaps they don’t realize that refuse allowed to stand and rot for a couple of weeks might be a bigger health hazard?
Today, due to the heavy snow, the parks in London were closed for “health and safety” reasons. Yes, we are banned from play in our parks with our kids today, in case we might slip over.
Our milk now has a label on the outside of the carton, because it contains milk, and therefore, if you’re allergic to milk, you shouldn’t drink, er, milk!
On our television and cinema screens we see a multitude of advertisements from our big brother government telling us it is unsafe to have unprotected sex, it is bad to drink and drive, it is bad to take drugs and drive, it is dangerous to cross the road without looking first, it is good to study math, it is very good to study science. I’m astonished they haven’t made a commercial instructing me in the correct manner of how to wipe my bum.
Also, in this proud tradition of freedom and tolerance, we allowed the installation of more than 4,000,000 CCTV cameras that gives us the opportunity to be photographed, one way or another, about 2-400 times per day, every day. These cameras are being enhanced all the time and are now linked in an enormously powerful combination. Some of these cameras come complete with such devices as vehicle license recognition, and soon many with behavior recognition, face recognition and listening and broadcast facilities.
Undaunted we have made it possible, through anti terrorism legislation, for our local councils to install tiny cameras into our refuse bins to make certain that we sort our rubbish in the prescribed manner, or we will be fined.
Local government is using the same legislation to check whether people claiming benefits are actually cohabiting with each other. This is achieved by dispatching council employees to spy on the potentially false claimants. When did it become local governments role to pervert the use of supposedly legitimate anti terrorism legislation to see if man A is having consensual sex with woman B?
Our government informs us that we need to eat less and exercise more. In fact it has been paying for huge advertising campaigns to promote a healthy lifestyle on TV and elsewhere. Don’t they understand that it’s our own choice how we live, diet and exercise? It is not the job of the nanny state to instruct or legislate on such matters.
In fact it is no one’s business, as long as we don’t break existing laws, how we choose to live, where and with whom. Even if I want to drink myself to oblivion, or exercise until I drop or jumping up and down naked and yodeling my head off it's my right and no one is going to take that away. It is my business and no one has the right to tell me otherwise.
This is a battle for freedom and we are allowing it to drift away in a fog of baloney loosely called political correctness and it is probably the most insidious and dangerous assault on our liberties and common sense since the English Civil War.
I have a guaranteed method for controlling the population and relieving stress. All of these politically correct fools who tell everyone else how to live, reproduce etc. should commit collective suicide, then we would all have what we want.
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