Tories are warmongers, and David Cameron is weak.

They say that leopards never change their spots and the Tory Party have just managed to prove that point!
No sooner than the Eygptian 'revolution' starts to settle than David Cameron waltzes into the country and starts nosing about with his killer entourage of Arms dealers and other nefarious business men hungry for new contracts! As if Britain hadn't caused enough damage in these countries already!
These business men form a fraction of the massively honed lobbyists that haunt the corridors of our parliament,  steal away our democracy, and inevitably cause corruption in their wake.
These are dangerous groups, the arms dealers, the huge medical bio-tech manufacturing and drugs groups, the gm and cloning lobbyists, the banking industry, the alcoholic drinks lobby,  there are many more.
Who actually runs the country? Is it parliament anymore? it is certainly not the people. Ministers always seem to have an axe to grind, and laws are never now brought in for the good of the people.
Mr Clegg, despite the problems in the country caused by cut-backs gaily sets off on his hols! He is the Deputy Leader, and North Africa is in a state of turmoil! So while David Cameron gets shuffled around Eygpt by arms dealers, Mr.Clegg (that wet piece of seaweed) goes off skiing with his family, and  the country is left to the articulate fox William Hague!
Parliament is losing out, ministers all have their axes to grind, their lobbyists to feed, the people, through their mps have little say in best decisions for the people. Sadly it won't be any good turning to the Labour Party, because they are exactly the same. Is it time for the people of Britain to get out there and protest?

The Tories, they're at it again.

News that the Conservative party are relying on tycoons to financially prop up their party doesn't come as a great surprise.
Ten wealthy business men, mainly City tycoons,  have donated  more than £13million between them to the Conservatives since 2005,  the City has handed over almost £43 million since 2005,  and in the first ten months of this year  hedge-fund managers and financiers gave  the Tory party £11.4million, and  that's not counting donations from the former wealthy Tory treasurer Michael Ashcroft.
These hedge-fund managers, financiers, venture capitalists, and property tycoons etc, expect to gain regular access to Mr.Cameron and other senior figures in the government, business deals can be done behind the scenes, honours arranged, and  favours inevitably result from high-powered lobbying. So much for democracy!
The £800million tax levy George Osborne intends to levy on the banks  represents less than a week's profit for the top five banks.  Wealthy men don't give something for nothing, they're not stupid.

Food Rationing c1916 - 1921. A reminder.

These postcards were produced in Britain between the 1st and 2nd World Wars.
In 1916 Britain had only 6 weeks of wheat left, this was a serious situation because bread was a staple part of most diets, potatoes and sugar were also in short supply.
DORA (Defence of the Realm Act) was introduced by the government to ensure shortages of food never occurred  because  people had started hoarding and panic buying. Then,  in 1917 the Germans started unrestricted submarine warfare, and merchant ships crossing the Atlantic  carrying food from Canada and America - our main food suppliers, were sunk with great frequency.
Young men had been called up so women and conscientious objectors started to work on the land, and the government took over 2.5 million acres of land for farming. People limited themselves to what they should eat,   gardens being  turned into allotments, and chickens and rabbits etc  kept in back gardens.  Nevertheless  in 1918 rationing, starting with sugar, was brought in to guarantee supplies not to reduce consumption, and in the main intake of calories was kept up to pre-war levels.  By 1920 all rationing was ended, and The Ministry of Food was dissolved after four years in 1921.  Reminder,...... it wasn't a long time ago.

Corsets, the squeezed middle.

When politicians talk about the 'squeezed middle' they refer, inadvertantly , to the corset.   

Corsets  first became fashionable in the 16th century when they were called "payre of bodies".  Stays,  (the later word), were worn then with a farthingale that held the skirt out in a stiff cone so that with the help of the stays the  upper torso was turned into a matching  cone. 

By the mid 16th century stays  were commonly used, made of linen with wooden shafts inserted into a pocket at the front,  they remained more or less in the same format until the 1860s. 

In the 18th century stays predominantly took the form of an inverted conical shape, their primary purpose being to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, and support the back. 

During the early 19th century  stays became much less constricting with the advent of the high waisted Empire style in c1796. By the 1830s the corset reappeared serving the dual purpose of supporting the breasts and narrowing the waist, and for the first time the word corset was used.  The exaggerated shoulders and skirts of the 1830s made the waist look narrow , so when they disappeared in Victorian times the waist had to be cinched tighter, and the fashionable silhouette became the - hourglass figure. From then on the corset became exaggeratedly curvaceous. (See examples in the illustrations).  

The "corset controversy" or the "corset question"argued that  the wearing of corsets was harmful to health, and  prompted vanity and foolishness. This controversy raged over the decades, featuring in The Times, The Scotsman, etc,  and newspapers in America including   The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and The Washington Post etc. 

Women over the centuries seem to feel obliged to exaggerate or diminish their natural attributes,  supposedly to their advantage.  They are generally mistaken!  So much for the squeezed middle!

GM foods. We are being softened up!

Sir John Beddington the governments chief scientific adviser is using the possible future global  hunger crisis to push  genetically modified foods.  He, on behalf of some of the fiercest lobbyists in the world,  is softening us up.
"GM crops could feed the world", "GM foods  are as safe as their non-GM counterparts and pose no additional risk to the consumer", "the general public should drop the term 'frankenstein foods', and embrace the technology." These  are some of the weasel words used by the pro GM lobby.
GM foods are derived from genetically modified organisms, and involve the insertion or deletion of genes. The first commercially grown GM crop was the tomato, modified to ripen without softening, this was developed by Calgene, later a subsiduary of Monsanto.
95% of GM crops are grown in N.America with rapid expansion of cotton varieties in India,  in Brazil, also in China, Paraguay, South Africa, and Argentina.  Monsanto is currently involved with US Supreme Court re 'roundup ready alfalfa', other court cases involve their pesticide - resistant sugar beets.
There is more than enough food in the world, the hunger crisis is caused by problems in food distribution and politics, not production. Vandana Shiva  founder of Nardanya a group that  represents the seed keepers and organic farmers in India is totally against the use of genetically modified crops, and several countries including Zambia, Venezuala, and Hungary have banned use of GM crops,  and the importation of GM rice to Europe has been stopped. India is holding a moratorium on cultivation of GM and France have banned Monsanto's MON-810 corn and similar modified crops.
The US have attempted to retaliate against France and the European Union for their decisions.
The health risks of eating GM foods is almost entirely unknown  although already some dangers have been noted. Danger to wild life,  birds, and  butterflies could be serious, and certain weeds may become uncontrollable.  Serious difficulties are experienced by organic farmers, and the fact that GM seed is subject to licensing  prevents farmers from sowing their own seed because the intellectual property is owned by the developers (Monsanto).
Beware!     Massive lobbying groups are infiltrating our news media in an effort to  soften us up.  NB.  See:  Caroline Spelman  (DEFRA), her husband Mark Spelman and  his senior position with Accenture,  and previous post - January 4, 2011, on Monsanto.

Sell England's Forests + Woods?......NEVER!

Forest - a wood, woodland, wold, weald, holt, frith or firth defines an area with a high density of trees. These are currently run (in the main) by The Forestry Commission, but the Coalition Government are planning to sell them off!
There is great danger in this policy because in private ownership entry would probably be denied to the general public, the preservation of wild life would be uncertain, (this is what happened when Pennygrove Wood, East Sussex was sold off),  private companies would cherry-pick sites for commercial development, and  voluntary groups would be left to look after ancient woodlands without a budget.
Caroline Spelman  (see this link for more information)  The Secretary  State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs is in charge. She has form - bad form. During the expenses debacle she had questions to answer regarding payments for nannying work, -(nannygate), she reportedly over-claimed hundreds of pounds towards her council tax, and received £40.000 for cleaning bills for her consituency home, but was it her main home?    She co-owns Spelman, Cormack and Associates, a lobbying firm for the food and biotechnology industry with her husband. An axe to grind?
To sell the woodlands and forests would be an act of insane vandalism, but once politicians get their teeth sunk into a proposal it is hard to stop them.  No doubt the lobbying Spelmans have their 'friends' waiting in the wings?
The overwhelming public feeling  is against the government's  plans.  Democracy?  What government ever cared about democracy!        To sign 'Save Our Trees' petition  contact
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/save-our-forests#petition

Ed + Ed, + Gordon? Another Labour disaster.

Ed Milliband  plus Ed Balls , but where is Gordon?!
This gruesome  threesome  ruled government  finances during the New labour  years, and  wrecked them!  No more boom and bust was their watchword.
New Labour  took over a reasonably successful economy from the conservatives then proceeded to 'blouter' money at an alarming rate, mainly diverting funds into the state sector to suit their own voting areas.  They  introduced   a large amount  of privatisation into the NHS,  Gordon Brown espoused the idea of PPPs  (public private partnerships) with great zest, increased the numbers of manager/civil servants at an alarming rate,  ruled over a massive increase in immigration, and a noticeable decrease in the standard of education.
So now the triumvirate are nearly back! It is certain that  in their shared office bully boy Balls will get his way. He is not a pleasant character. Ed Milliband with all his faults, his  uncertainty, his lack of direction, will have a hard fight on his hands if he is to keep the ravenously ambitious Balls (and his scheming 'ladywife') at bay. Cameron and Osborne will have to lift their game v the new shadow chancellor who will be out guns blazing in full bullying attack mode. Will Balls ever apologise for the  calamitous state, with Gordon and Ed Milliband, he got  the country's  finances into?  Not on your life!

Boris Johnson, .........A BROADSIDE!

See 15th January, 2011 -  beneath!

Boris Johnson, .........A BROADSIDE!

Boris Johnson,      Mayor of London.

What a fine figure of a man you are Boris! Your unruly albino hair lives a life of its own, thatching a  classically well educated brain.  You are a one off, a man of  high intelligence with a good turn of phrase, and a quick wit. You are both  likeable, congenial and charismatic, a veritable 'leader of men', a huge shambling 'polar bear' of a man. Probably the best leader the Tories never had?

Here the eulogies have to stop. Your weakness may lie with the opposite sex, your high opinion of yourself perhaps  and  your sexual prowess, - only your female companions will know about that, or perhaps it's just a matter of hubris, all men get too big for their boots after a few months of power, and you now have plenty of that!  You are a mere mortal , like the rest of us Mr. Johnson, and don't forget it.

You probably wear braces (metaphorically speaking) like all men to keep your trousers up under the unkempt ubiquitous grey/navy suit you wear, part of your charm are  your ill fitting clothes though the danger is that they  disguise a ruthless determination beneath.  You make mistakes like all men, and recently you have made a very large one.  You have given the nod to the massive potentially dangerous UKCMRI - (UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation).
This gigantic (and I mean gigantic),  and potentially dangerous laboratory is planned to be built in the Borough of Camden - (planning 'say-so'  passed inexplicably by the once amenable and caring council of Camden).  The building  is far too large for the site, it is planned to have several storeys built underground, and be situated right alongside that magically restored (thanks to John Betjeman) international St Pancras Station, more or less right above 6 very busy underground lines, near thousands of people's homes and within very close distance of the new British Library.
The protests have been vociferous, but to no avail.  Boris Johnson was the last desperate port of call  before  the final go ahead for this monstrosity.  He retains a  tight  sycophantic propaganda machine around him, and one wonders if he actually knows what's going on at all as he whirls from meeting to meeting? The  Greater London Authority website  gave such an over the top glowing report of the Laboratory, does  Boris really know what's going on?
He makes out that his whole life is dedicated to the welfare of London, but in this instance  Boris you have slipped up badly!  You and the Camden Council will be held responsible should there be an accident  affecting the health of the people  from leaked pathogens or from terrorism.
Finally, complete transparency in these serious planning matters is essential. Boris talks of transparency but like most of the mumblings that come out of  politicians' mouths- including his rather well educated one - it's  all 'hot air and bubbles'. Boris, we are beginning to find you out, to discover you are a dangerous wolf in sheep's clothing.
See also:
St Pancras and Somers Town Planning Action
Evening Standard article re Laboratory re high security report 
Boris Johnson Mayor of London, Greater London Authority, City Hall, The Queen's Walk, More London, London, SE1 2AA



Tuna, Tesco looks dodgy.

Hugh F-W continued his programme on Channel 4 about the unsustainable fishing of tuna, and the practice of 'Discard'.
He showed  the difference between line-fishing and fishing for tuna from an enormous ship with gigantic catch-all nets in Ghana.
In the first case line-fishing catches tuna and tuna alone, in a sustainable manner.  Sainsburys sell tinned tuna of this type in their stores.
Tesco and 'Princes' sell a tinned variety of tuna that is not fished sustainably. Their tins state on the label 'dolphin friendly', but in the programme Greenpeace interviewed a member of the crew who stated categorically that their MASSIVE nets caught turtles, sharks,  dolphins, and  other rare fish, and these are thrown back  into the sea dead (sharks are often cruelly de-finned before being  thrown back alive into the sea)!
Hugh is very sincere and enthusiastic in his crusade to inform the general public about this scandal.  He takes part in most of the activities on board ship and has a charm that overcomes opposition, but he found  Tesco  reluctant to have a meeting with him, although they eventually put forward a surly representative who disputed his and Greenpeace's findings.
UPDATE on http://www.fishfight.net/!  Tesco has now stated they will stop buying tuna from their  Ghana fishery, and will only buy them from sustainable sources. The 'Princes' business has withdrawn  labels from their tins of tuna that state their tuna fishing is 'dolphin friendly'. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is to be thanked for this small victory. The fight now moves to the European Union where protesters will attempt to stop  the ridiculous practice of 'Discard'.

Dream Pharma, a British scandal!

Mehdi Alavi runs his business  'Dream Pharma'  from a rented premises behind the Elgone Driving Academy in Acton,  West London.  His business name  'Dream Pharma',  is not an entirely appropriate name, under the circumstances!
Mr. Alavi has recently sold drugs to a state prison in Arizona for the execution of a convicted criminal ,Jeffrey Landrigan, (enough for several further  executions),  for £4,253, though his website  tells you he is "dedicated to the health care of the public."
This  information  has been  released under the freedom of information act.
Vincent Cable has been slow off the mark in dealing with the scandal.  He was notified on December 16th, but has done very little to make sure this export of drugs never takes place again. Mr. Cable took plenty of time to practice his dancing skills for that inane programme 'Strictly Come Dancing'.  His son is  involved in the well -funded centre for Technology in Singapore, so perhaps Mr. Cable's attitude is more lenient than it should be?

Cheap food, it's an obsession.

'Cheap food is damaging our health, the farming industry, and the environment', says a managing director of Waitrose.
'Value' is the favourite red-lettered  sticker for their own-brand recession-proof ranges in supermarkets, but due to poor content cheap food may not be good value at all. There are no requirements for  minimal contents to be stated on, for instance,   a simple meat pie,  where the proportion of  meat may be very low.
Our grandparents spent a higher proportion of their wages on food than we do today, and amazingly we possibly spend  a higher proportion of our income on our mobile 'phones than we do on food!
One bag of food in three is chucked out uneaten, and at the end of the day huge amounts of 'past their sell by date' perfectly good food is thrown away by supermarkets.
Cheap food also causes hunger when self sufficiency is destroyed by globalisation.  When Mexico, for example, was flooded with US corn imports the poorer farmers were put out of business and the entire economy suffered.  The Mexican environment suffered, there was increased poverty among food producers, inevitably increased food dependence,  and subsequently hunger. Globalisation cheapens everything, and our land and life-sustaining food should never be cheapened.
In their rampant desire for increased  profits Supermarkets are the culprits. Food has become a purely financial commodity, and the  more people consume the more the money makers like it. The general public should wise up and realise that the real cost of cheap food is a high one, both to our own health and the welfare of those in other countries. With an ever increasing incidence of obesity, people should  consume less, waste less, spend a little more,  and buy wholesome home grown preferably organic food , and never  plump automatically for the cheapest product on offer.

Monsanto, a huge beast, and a very dangerous one

Monsanto,  the notoriously  aggressive biotech giant  have been caught by Wikileaks with 'their hands in the cookie jar'.
Monsanto was  founded in 1901.  The first product they made was saccharin, the artificial sweetener that  they subsequently sold  to Coca Cola. Monsanto established their first foothold in Europe in Wales where they went into partnership with   Graesser's chemical works. They expanded in the 1920s, and in the 1940s became leading manufacturers of plastics, herbicides,  Agent Orange (a highly carcinogenic defoliant agent  used during the Vietnam War), other artificial sweeteners, and bovine growth hormones.
During the same decade they were involved with the development of the first Nuclear weapons, and in 1944 they commenced manufacturing DDT. After forming a partnership with the chemical giant Bayer they marketed polyurethanes in the US. In 1982 they were the first to genetically modify plant cells. It was during the years 1997 to 2002 that Monsanto moved from chemical giant to biotech giant.  They have,  since 2005,  patent claims on the breeding techniques of pigs,developed the so called 'terminator' seed which requires customers to repurchase seed for every planting, and developed bovine somatotropin, a synthetic hormone introduced to increase milk production. Not a pretty history!
Virtually every chemical  Monsanto have manufactured has been detrimental to human well being and other animals, and  many  have been/are excessively dangerous.  Like a cancer Monsanto attempt to spread and control  the world with their own  deadly variation of  the disease.
Wikileaks have done a good job exposing the American Ambassador for  chatting up the Vatican and generally sucking up to the EU . Thankfully, so far,  those in power in the EU have not succumbed  to their bribes and aggressive lobbying, but Monsanto play a very long game. We must all beware.

Factory farmed pigs, how shameful!

A short programme on radio 4 this morning featured a US farm that intensively breeds  and fattens pigs,  on a massively industrialised scale. 
Americans are supremely trained in the use of euphemisms. They are past masters at turning  truth  into lies, never call a spade a spade if you are an American , just hide nastiness by giving it a pleasant sounding word.  This particular 'farmer' likes to stress that pigs are not human beings,  he insists we must not anthropomorphise pigs yet he constantly uses the word 'gals' for his breeding sows. He keeps these in the most degrading and dreadful  conditions. The trapped sows eventually go  mad, chewing on the bars of their tiny crates  in bleak despair.
Gestation crates are used in US, Canada, Denmark, and Mexico.In some states in the US namely Florida,  Arizona, and California they are banned, they are also banned  in the UK, and from 2015 it will be illegal to use sow crates on New Zealand pig farms.
Systems for housing pigs for fattening (piglets are taken from their mothers at a few weeks old) are equally horrific.  They live crowded together in a small pen indoors on a concrete slatted surface without straw.  They, like the sows never see the light of day. Excrement passes through the slats, and pigs which are highly intelligent naturally clean animals have to live their entire lives above the smell of their own waste. Piglets are subjected to tail docking, teeth clipping, and ear notching  without anaesthetic,  they are put on drug programmes , and antibiotics, vitamins,  and hormones are administered pre-emptively.  In the US there is a Humane Slaughter Act but there are repeated violations of this in the slaughter houses. North Carolina  houses approximately 10 million pigs,  with the   greatest state of  barbarity  reserved  for breeding sows. They spend 70 days a year confined to their metal crates where they produce c2.5 litters per annum,   and are despatched to the slaughter house if they fail to reach this number or in any way fall below par.
How can anyone eat  bacon or ham  without checking its origins first?  The association of greed and the human being is mindblowing.  A pig, or indeed any other animal,  is not a machine!

Fuel, government's milch cow.

The cost of filling a tank of petrol will shortly rise to record heights. Today there is an  increase in fuel duty followed by a rise in vat to 20% on Tuesday.
In 1896 the Marquess of Salisbury put 9d on a gallon of petrol, no fuel duty existed then , it was introduced  in  1909 by the Liberal government.  By 1919 the price of petrol rose but duty was abolished, then replaced by vehicle taxation. The tax disc was introduced, and  this was based on the horsepower of the vehicle.
It was the Liberal Prime Minister  David Lloyd George who replaced fuel duty with road tax.  In 1929 fuel duty returned under the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin  making a gallon of fuel  cost 1s.6 3/4d.  Under the first Labour government  of Prime Minister  Ramsay McDonald fuel duty rocketed to 45% where it remained until the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.  It stayed  virtually unchanged until John Major's  premiership when  the   increase gathered pace and rose to 70% plus.  The increase  in fuel tax  led to serious protests in 2000,  2005 and 2007, and in 2008 UK tax rates were one of the highest in Europe.
Government revenue raised from fuel duty in 2009 was £25,894 billion plus £3,884 billion being raised from vat on the duty!  Jet fuel is exempt from  duty, and there is a rebate system for bus service operators, agricultural  and  construction vehicles.
Successive governments have used the people's need and strong desire to use the motor car  to squeeze and squeeze for more tax. The general public  are an  easy sitting target because  it is almost impossible to live life now without a motor car due to totally inadequate public transport.

Honours and the New Year, as night follows day.

On the brink of another  New Year, and we are assaulted as per usual  by the honours list.  What a charade! Why do people, who ought to know better,  actually accept  these awards?
Their history dates back as far as Anglo Saxon times when the monarch honoured  his loyal subjects with rings and other symbols of favour. The Normans introduced knighthoods, and The Order of the Garter was created by Edward 111.
Each year approximately 2,600 people receive awards personally from the Queen. The ceremony for receiving these is at Buckingham Palace and follows a tradition begun in 1876, it's a complicated ritual that involves members of the Yeomen of the Guard who were created  in 1485. It is rare that anyone refuses the offer of a reward, though Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919.
In 1925 when Prime Minister David Lloyd George was found to be selling honours  some reform was brought about . In 1976 during Harold Wilson's government  there was  another scandal named the  'Lavender List', then in 2006-2007 during Tony Blair's premiership the  'Cash for Honours'  scandal  came to light, this was to do with the connection between political donations and the award of Life Peerages.
Once upon a time Life Peerages were awarded to members of the landowning aristocracy and royal favourites, now a variety of people from all walks of life are given honours including this year a sheep farmer, a circus ringmaster, and a nun.
This year 979 honours have been given , these include 842 received at MBE and OBE level. The 'man in the street' who works for the poor and needy, gives his/her time to charity does it because he wants to, and never for a reward, so why give him one?  But these honours   to 'ordinary folk' do  give a pleasing gloss to  honours given to the undeserving at a much higher level.
Patronage is the insidious  way the powerful keep their hold over the people.  Unworthy names still slip through, - thank yous for  favours given to governments,  for keeping their mouths shut at the appropriate moment,  or for turning a blind eye at the appropriate moment. For example the City veteran  Roger Carr  is listed this year despite his involvement in the sale of Cadbury, he is also chairman of the energy giant Centrica responsible for  large gas price rises!    Martin Broughton, despite the problems at British Airways receives a knighthood! The list goes on and on.   Isn't it about time we threw off the shackles and stopped grovelling to  these ancient patronising rituals?

Politicians are 'shite', pure 'shite'.

From a young age politicians  nostrils sense the odour of power.
Despite their protestations of being 'oh so benevolent', of going into politics 'to make a difference', of 'offering something to society', their only ambition is to gain power.
Margaret Thatcher built an organisation that had 'ideal ends' and therefore an excuse for the love of power. This inevitably produced a superiority, a ruthlessness and an  unscrupulousness. The Tories have at least got it written on the front of the tin. They want to privatise, we know that. That's what they do.
The Newlabour party (euphemism for Tory party) fooled the people because they thought Thatcher's wholesale privatisation of the utilities, the railways, telephones, sale of the council houses etc would be rolled back, and some of the excesses of her 'reign' would be rectified. The utilities etc would be returned to the people who owned them in the first place. But no such luck! The NHS was 'got at', privatisation by creep was the order of the day.
Politicians are like that, they promise the moon when they are asking for your vote, but renege as soon as they get it. Worst of all these Newlabour champagne so called 'socialists' live the high life, do the deals, work the room, collect their kickbacks, and their swollen expenses. The ex Newlabour Prime Minister Tony Blair, John Prescott, Peter Mandelson, the architects of Newlabour have a lot to answer for!
So the word shit/shite/schite, an ancient and beautiful Anglo-Saxon word perfectly describes all types of politicians whether from the left, right or centre.

Saint Vincent of Cable shows his true colours.

So Saint Vincent is not as much of a saint as everybody thought he was! Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, he was too good to be true, but not any more. He's only a politician in granddad's clothing after all!
If the British electorate hadn't been undecided in their voting decisions at the last election, Mr. Cable and the rest of the Liberal Democrats wouldn't have had any power any way. Liberal Democrats fail to take this into account when they throw their weight around, foolishly sounding off to their 'faux' constituents. Mr. Cable deserves to be taken down a peg or two, he's been taken in by his own hubris, pride, and arrogance, the girlie giggling in the background of the constituency meeting when he spills the beans says it all. Didn't take long did it?
Think you may have to brush up on the ballroom dancing Saint Vincent, because your political life is almost finished.

Janet Daley,......... who the hell does she think she is?

What a rude awakening this morning when Janet Daley, that monstrous opinionated American woman journalist shouted down John Pilger and Sara Montague the interviewer in a discussion about Wikileaks on Radio 4 Today programme!
As usual the BBC were incapable of conducting a civilised balanced interview, and Sara Montague allowed the conversation to get completely out of control.
The discussion was between John Pilger a renowned thoughtful journalist and Janet Daley, an American loud mouth journalist. The women behaved intolerably, and the discussion descended into a shouting match between them with John Pilger in the middle hardly getting a look in. Who cares about her partial American thoughts anyway?

Because, for the moment, the US is top dog, and has been bullying its way around the world for a long time there will be plenty of leaks about them and their undiplomatic diplomacy. There are plenty of other injustices Wikileaks has exposed but that old American fish- wife Ms Daley isn't in the slightest interested in these. Methinks she doth protest too much! Having lived in Britain since 1965 she thinks we care about what she thinks, just because she went to Berkeley in the 1960s doesn't give her carte blanche to shout everyone down at some unearthly hour in the morning, and in defence of the indefensible!

The NHS, what ever are they up to? .... again!

Our magnificent National Health Service was set up in 1948, when the weather was awful, food still rationed, there was a shortage of fuel, and a dollar crisis. After the cataclysm of war an opportunity was provided to organise a new system of health care, most people believing that access to health care was part of a civilised society. Beveridge wanted to slay 'Want, Disease, Squalor, Ignorance and Idleness'.
In the 19th century health care was sporadic, relying on hospital charities, and the benevolent. The Webbs (well known socialists) argued for a state system, then there was the idea of an insurance system when you paid in when well to provide care needed when sick. In 1920 Lord Dawson put forward a plan on how the health service could be organised, and in 1929 local authorities took over Poor Law hospitals which were then serving ratepayers but not paupers. The LCC and Middx were doing a excellent job, but not the rest. In 1939 with the experience of WW2, an emergency medical service was instantly created, and in 1945 after various plans had been put forward by both Conservatives and Labour, Bevan presented a radically different plan favouring nationalisation. So, in a society wearied by war, but accustomed to austerity the NHS was started. Now we take the NHS for granted, yet it is only just over 60 years ago that health care was considered a luxury.
Since those early days the NHS has been under constant change. Politicians choosing to tinker at their peril with the 'free for all at the point of service' ethos. Now it is under its greatest financial and social pressure.
In 1997 under Newlabour 10 strategic authorities were put in charge of 200 Primary Care Trusts, but their new systems of financial flow, payment by results, and a tariff system destabilised NHS finances. NICE a new body was set up to assess the cost effectiveness of drugs. Mistakes were made in negotiation of contracts, particularly to GPs and Consultants, and that led to a temporary financial crisis in the NHS. Under Newlabour Private Sector organisations came to build and operate hospitals, and PPs to run clinical services etc.
Andrew Lansley, the new kid on the block plans to bring in 'efficiency savings', and Primary Care Trusts are to be replaced by GP led Consortiums. Why can't the NHS just be let alone for a bit, be allowed to find its own feet and not have to suffer another massive upheaval? Mr. Lansley reckons he will be saving money, but reorganisation is never cost free. Mr Lansley will have his own secret agenda and under cover of his promise to stop mixed sex wards he will be, like Newlabour privatising like mad by the back door!