POLITICAL NONSENSE AND WE ALL PAY !

Most of the recent news is so ludicrously banal, or just plain stupid, as to be not worthy of any significant comment.

Today, an assortment of senior Metropolitan Police Service officers have ben cleared of any wrong doing with regard to the 'phone hacking scandals, even though some have already been forced to resign from their positions due to the accusations.

The resignations were politically required and had nothing to do with any failings of the incumbents. I hope that the victims will extract every last halfpenny out of the self-serving politicos who were ultimately responsible for their self-sacrifice and arrival on the dole. The only trouble is that WE, THE PEOPLE, have to pay for all the compensation they'll eventually get because the only money that the government has is OURS.

RIOTERS MUST BE QUELLED AT ALL COST.

It seems that my initial comments about the current round of rioting and vanadalism were somewhat wide of the mark. As more and more sub-humans have ventured onto the streets of our cities, creating scenes not witnessed for decades, if ever, it's now clear that the police actually do need the more active support of government if they are to restore order.

With rioting and looting spreading to Bristol, Birmingham and Liverpool, there can be no doubt that more forceful measures are needed. The gangs of youths that have been rampaging around the streets, terrorising residents and shop-owners, looting and destroying properties and attacking the police, appear to be motivated by a desire to cause as much trouble as they can in the pursuit of what they probably see as 'a bit of fun'. Hiding behind a blanket of supposed 'disaffection' with the rest of our society, they are uneducated, jobless and rootless; these animals should be rounded up and incarcerated on some off-shore island, where they can do whatever they like, without affecting the rest of us. They have no place in civilized society.

There's been much talk this morning about what additional measures can be introduced in the battle to reclaim our streets and major cities from the rioters - water-canon, the army, rubber bullets. I say bring on all three and give the forces of law and order free rein to do whatever is necessary to rid us of this pestilential scourge in our midst.

NEITHER 'BULLS' NOR 'BEARS', BUT OSTRICHES AND CHICKENS.

The meltdown currently being experienced on world stock markets is causing much hand wringing and very little real action.

Governments hold meetings while the people watch their savings and pensions vanish down the drain. In Europe, the lunatics who invented the 'Euro' stick their heads in the sand, ostrich-like, and refuse even to contemplate the dismantling of their pet project, even though this is the only long-term solution to the difficulties they are now experiencing. Instead, the European Central Bank has committed itself to buying up vast amounts of worthless Italian and Spanish government bonds, the consequences of which action will eventually be visited on the people of Europe, but not before enough time has passed for those responsible to be long gone. In the UK, it looks increasingly likely that the Bank of England will issue yet more paper through it's scheme of 'quantitative easing', a programme that will inevitably lead to uncontrollable inflation in the future, making us all much poorer but, again, not before the current incumbents of office has departed and can no longer be held accountable. As for the USA, their borrowing is continuing to grow and their economy is clearly not in a healthy state; with a Presidential election due next year, the risk of political paralysis is real and markets will become increasingly jittery as a result. Added to all of the other factors, there seems little likelihood of there being much good news in financial circles for at least the next 18 months. The old stock market adage of 'sell in May and go away' should, perhaps, be amended to 'sell now and come back in 2013' and even that may be far too soon.

The problem is that no one is willing to take the action that is really needed for fear of the dire electoral consequences. We have all been living beyond our means for decades and now the chickens are finally coming home to roost; the final evil day of reckoning is upon us and all we can do is batten down the hatches and hope. In the meantime, the Chinese must be laughing their socks off. 

DID ANYONE READ THE RIOT ACT ?

The disgraceful events that began in Tottenham and subsequently spread to other parts of London over the weekend have led to the usual breast-beating, recriminations and panic amongst the political elite.

Labour MPs have been quick to use the events as a means to attack the police, obliquely of course, and the government. The Home Secretary has felt compelled to rush back from holiday in order to hold talks with senior police officers, and others are busy blaming anyone and everyone in whatever way suits their own special interests.

The truth is that the rioting and looting was carried out by yobs and criminals who will exploit any opportunity to behave in ways that the majority of our society finds repugnant; these people have no excuse for their actions and the nonsense spouted by their apologists is nauseating. Whatever the supposed stimulus, their behaviour was that of sub-human mobs and should be roundly condemned.

Why the Home Secretary should have to curtail her holiday is a mystery. London has an elected Mayor who is responsible for the Metropolitan Police; surely, if any political figure needs to be involved, it is he, though I fail to see why there needs to be political involvement at all. This was a law and order issue and the Metropolitan force should be left alone to deal with it; having suffered so much turmoil in recent weeks already, the last thing they need is more politicians with vested interests stomping around in their size 9s.

FIFA : ETHICS RULE, OK ?

What a surprise ! FIFA, that organisation so wedded to open and honest behaviour, has determined that its former Vice President, Mohamed Bin-Hammam, is guilty of bribery and has banned him from football for life. Given that he is 62 years old, the ban is hardly likley to affect his playing career, though it may stop him from drawing on the vast wealth and patronage that is gained annually by officials of various national footballing bodies.

Bin-Hammam was involved in the controversial bid for the 2022 World Cup from his own minute state of Qatar. The findings of FIFA's Ethics Committe' must surely call into question the validity of both that bid and the voting that was associated with it. Separately, there is a report that the now ex-FIFA representative and Vice President, Jack Warner, handed a caseful of cash to various of his Caribbean colleagues in an effort to bribe them to vote in favour of the Qatari bid; whether or not this is true, coupled with the decision over Bin-Hammam, can the decision to hold the 2022 event in Qatar possibly stand ?

Knowing FIFA, anything is possible. It's more than likely that neither Warner nor Bin-Hammam is guilty of anything that would stand up in a properly consitituted court of law but, in the kangaroo environment of a FIFA court, they have both been covered in sufficient **** to ensure that FIFA emerges as the good guy while they are both condemned as villains. It's also more than possible that voting for the 2022 World Cup will be revisited as no one, other than Qatar, really wants it to be there; given the controversy, this would be a perfect cover for FIFA to look elsewhere without appearing to have been in the wrong, itself, in the first place.

What is most noticeable is the total absence of FIFA's President from the news in the last 3 or 4 weeks; might he be keeping a low profile and hoping that none of this **** sticks to him ? Overall, an entirely corrupt organisation has simply shown itself to be every bit as corrupt as everyone knows it to be, though no one of any power seems really prepared to say so.

BAN KI-MOON : THE INVISIBLE MAN.

The United Nations has re-elected its Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, for a second five year term. Frankly, I wasn't yet aware that he'd served his first term, so little impact has he made on the world stage; yes, I've heard of him and know what position he holds, but he's hardly hit the headlines as a world leading figure.

As a South Korean, this man is little more than a puppet of the USA. His re-election is little more than an affirmation of the continuing influence of the USA over the UN; the USA sees itself as being far more important and significant than the UN and puts up with its existence for political reasons only. In truth, the USA will always do whatever it likes, regardless of what the UN might think or say.

The idea of the UN was a good one, though it was, in reality, a mechanism to enable the western world to control the rest, particularly the Russians. It has developed into a largely impotent organisation, though it now has three major players, with the Chinese joining the USA and Russia as the ones all the rest have to listen to. As with so many world-encompassing organisations, it provides a talking-shop for politicians and civil servants but rarely achieves anything of value.

Mr Ban (or is it Ki-Moon ?) is simply the latest in a long line of largely pointless, impotent and gutless holders of his post, although t always looks good on the CV. Today, he continues to serve the interests of the nations which really run things, the US, Russia and China; in 5 years he will be replaced by another US puppet, unless the Chinese decide otherwise.

EURO-BOLLOCKS

As expected, the Euro-Zone countries have conjured up an agreement to ensure that the Greek economy does not collapse, at least this week.

When the idea of the Euro was first floated, I thought it was ridiculous; when it actually came into existence, I was with those who saw it as simply a political manoeuvre in the drive to create a single European state and one that simply could not work. Today, I am with those who still see it as such, but also now see it as a total failure, a disaster that the governments so intimately involved cannot afford to recognize.

Today, European governments are congratulating themselves on their success in resolving the recent crisis. They are merrily burying their heads in the sand and ignoring the future consequences of the current mess; yes, they have staved off immediate catastrophe but the real achievement is to push back the day of reckoning for a few months or, perhaps, a year or two.

Greece still cannot pay its debts, any more than can Ireland; Prtugal, Spain and Italy are all in trouble as well, all in part due to their involvement in the Euro-zone. At some point, the chickens will come home to roost and, given that Germany cannot afford to carry the burden of all of these economies for ever, the rest of the Euro-zone will eventually start to feel the effects. Worse than this, those EU countries not using the Euro will also bear substantial costs, and that includes the UK.

The clear result will be that we will all become significantly poorer. Stock markets will rise, but inflation will negate any profits; indeed, inflation will negate any financial gains made by ordinary private individuals in usually accessible, and safe, investments. In due course, the costs of failure have to be borne; the Euro is a nonsense dreamt up by politicians pursuing their own, largely hidden, agendas, and it is doomed to failure. The trouble is that the costs will be borne not by the responsible politicians but by the poor people who never understood what they were being dragged into in the first place. The European Union was created as a mechanism designed to prevent another European war but, in reality, it is much more likely to cause one than not. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the idea of a united Europe may well have made sense; in 2010 it still makes sense that European countries work closely together in a variety of ways, but trying to tie highly disparate economies together in a fiscal and monetary strait-jacket is a policy for total mayhem, which is what we have.

The Greek economy has, effectively, failed; Ireland is in the same boat and Portugal is not far behind. Spain and Italy are tottering on the brink and Germany is currently bearing most of the pressure. Eventually, the German people will cry 'Enough !', and then watch out.

PHONE HACKING : WHO WILL RESIGN NEXT ?

The more I hear and read of the 'phone-hacking' saga, the more I despair.

Ignoring all the sordid details, what is most depressing is to have confirmation that our press are so willing to subvert any semblance of morality for a good story, that our police are apparently so corrupt as to happily sell information to the aforementioned press and, worst of all, that our political masters are 'in-bed' with the leading figures of the same press.

Many of us have probably had a pretty low opinion of all 3 institutuions for many years, however, to receive such damning confirmation of our worst fears is hardly welcome news. What we now have is a news organisation in terminal decline, a police service in turmoil and a Prime Minister so damaged as to be impotent.

News International is surely dead in the water. It's very recently departed chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, has been arrested today, following in the footsteps of the Prime Minister's other friend, Andy Coulson, as well as several other News of the World executives and reporters; it can only be a matter of time before the police come calling on James Murdoch, son of the organisation's patriarch. The scandal seems likely to spread to the US where the Murdoch empire is based and, if wrong-doing is found there, the literal wrath of God will be visited upon it. Not only will the British end of Rupert Murdoch's operations be under threat, but so will his entire life's work. Whether or not any of those currently implicated in wrong-doing will eventually be tried, found guilty and imprisoned is another matter, however, the damage has already been done.

As for the police, the scandal has, today, cost Sir Paul Stephenson, Metropolitan Police Commisoner, his job. Sir Paul made the fatal mistake of hiring a former News of the World employee, Neil Wallis, to be his adviser and he now sees this as a possible impediment to the ongoing investigation. In resigning, Sir Paul will, no doubt, be taking early retirement on a large pension, a significant cushion to the blow of having to give up his job, though he could still find himself embroiled in the ongoing saga. There can be little doubt that some police officers have had various degrees of involvement with the press over many years, not all of it legal, and any proper investigation is likely to produce an awful lot of dirty washing. Sir Paul will almost certainly find himself giving evidence in the future, as will many of his former colleagues.

When we come to the political involvement in all of this, we have to wonder just how far our 'wannabe' leaders have sunk in order to gain power. We all now know that the Murdochs and their upper echelons have been wined and dined by a succession of Prime Ministers and party leaders; we also know that the now suspect Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks are close friends of the family of the current Prime Minister, David Cameron. Cameron has, in fact, continued to try to justify the closeness of his contacts with these, and other, media contacts in the face of mounting criticism. Some of this criticism has been justified and some has been simple political cant; the maniacal tirade from Gordon Brown last week was an example of a man trying to regain some credibility while having no idea of how to go about it. At the same time, the appallingly 'holier-than-thou' attitudes of many other leading figures has been nauseating, and I do not confine my remarks to politicians; many journalists are just as culpable.

As Prime Minister, Cameron has been, at best, mediocre. Since the emergence of this media scandal, he has been seriously weakened and his House of Commons performances have been poor; lacklustre though he is, Ed Milliband has had the upper hand in recent exchanges and has taken the lead over the 'phone-hacking issue. Cameron has, at no point, taken control of the storm that surrounds him; he has, in fact, fed it through his continuing and inexplicable support for Andy Coulson. What this has done is to call into question his judgement, something which, for a Prime Minister, is all-important; the grey suits in the Tory party must now be on alert, wondering if they will soon need to be looking for a successor.

Where will all of this end ? It's anyones' guess but there seems sure to be some changes in media ownership, a lot of hand-wringing in the Met, and some serious rethinking amongst the political elite, before we all get tired of the story and 'business as usual' is resumed.

TEACHERS STRIKE IS GOOD FOR STUDENTS.

Today's news is full of stories about Michael Gove, the Education Secreatry, warning tachers not to take part in the planned public sector strikes next Thursday. He apparently thinks that striking will cause the public to lose respect for them.

What world does Herr Gove inhabit ? When I was a child, teachers actually cared about their students; they saw their occupation as a vocation and worked for decades in the same place, happy in the knowledge that they were imparting genuine education to their charges.

Today, far too many teachers are motivated not by vocation but either by money or by the old adage 'those that can, do, those that can't teach'. They are also hideously handicapped by an imposed curriculum that gives far more credence to nonsensical rubbish such as 'citizenship' and 'PSE' than it does to proper subjects. They teach 'Equality and diversity' rather than Physics and Chemistry but, of course, the latter is far easier as it's really just a matter of sociological claptrap; Physics and Chemistry require the teacher to have some genuine education of their own.

If I was Gove, I'd be jumping for joy that the teachers were going to strike, and just a bit sorry that they hadn't chosen a more helpful time of the year. As itr is, a little friend of mine has already told me that next week she's on 'work experience' (at 15) and the following 2 weeks she's trying out the next year's timetable. Why it should be necessary to 'try out' a timetable for 2 weeks is beyond me - we never did when I was at school and I don't recall ever landing up in second year French when I should have been in third year English. This seems to me like teachers creating reasons for not actually doing their jobs. Whatever, my young friend will suffer not a jot by the intended strike and may well benefit, as she'll quite probably end up in the company of adults who'll teach her far more than any school ma'am is capable of.

Gove is an idiot. He always has been, hide bound as he is by political doctrine and motivation. He has no real ideas about education, any more than have dozens of other Education Secreataries over the years; the only one I have any respect for is Estelle Morris, but only because she recognized her shortcomings and resigned, something previously unheard of amongst the political fraternity. The rest have been a joke, successively trying to please all points of view and utterly destroying our schools and university system in the process. We now have the least well educated people in the developed world thanks to decades of government meddling, cant and target setting, all supported, I might add, by the teaching unions.

Cameron talks of a 'broken society'; he supports all manner of left wing policies aimed at 'helping' families' and young people. Doesn't this moron understand that 'he does best who helps himself' ? What is needed is an education system that recognizes the different abilities of children and allows them to develop in their own way, with proper support, not a system that insists on everyone achieving certain numbers of and grades in specific exams, and then trotting off to 'Uni' to do useless degrees in colleges that used to be the local Technical Colleges awarding HND's and the like.

Let the teachers go on strike, they will only hurt themselves. Then sack the lot and start again.

WHO KNOWS BEST - CAMERON OR THE GENERALS ?

There are days when I truly believe we live in a dictatorship.

Today, Our Beloved Leader has been quoted as criticising our military leadership with a comment "There are moments when I wake up and read the newspapers and think, 'I tell you what, you do the fighting and I'll do the talking'."

As a statement of dictatorial arrogance this is extraordinarily outstanding. Cameron has absolutely no experience of military life; he knows nothing of real operational issues in any of the forces and can have no understanding of the logistical demands of warfare. The people he is taking issue with are senior officers in the services who do have such experience, knowledge and understanding. Cameron, it seems, is choosing to ignore their expert advice as it conflicts with his political aims to appear to be a leader of world standing saving us all from nasty dictators, while also getting re-elected through impossible pledges such as reducing costs and taxes, increasing life expectancy, making the trains run on time, and bringing Elvis back to life.

As our elected representative, Cameron has a constitutional duty to take proper account of the advice given to him; if he chooses to ignore such advice, the consequences are entirely his responsibility. If this man is so arrogant as to believe that he knows better than Generals, Admirals and Air Marshalls, he's a better man than I. He's also not too many steps removed from Mubarak, Gadaffi, and Assad, not to mention Stalin, Mao and Hitler; he's adopting a dictatorial stance that cannot be justified and will eventually lead to  disaster.

His comments bring us ever closer to Dictatorship.

FIFA : BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Following the previous shenanigans at FIFA that culminated in the unopposed re-election of Sepp Blatter, this unaccountable and utterly corrupt organisation continues to amaze.

Today, Jack Warner, vice president but currently suspended pending an enquiry into bribery allegations, has resigned. As a consequence, FIFA has terminated its investigation into Warner's activities and say that 'the presumption of innocence is maintained'.

How can this be ? As long as these allegations remained uninvestigated, both FIFA and Warner remain suspect; why should his resignation bring enquiries to an end ? FIFA is an organisation that has many questions to answer and that many people see as simply being a 'gravy train' for its members; surely, it is in its own interests to continue this investigation to the bitter end, in order to demonstrate that it has a desire to prove that it is not.

Once agian, FIFA and Blatter have merely shown how morally bankrupt they are.

PENSION AGE : WOMEN HAVE NO CASE.

My heart bleeds for the poor women who are now complaining so bitterly about having their pension age equalised with that of men by 2020.

For decades, women have been able to retire and receive a state pension 5 years earlier than their male counterparts. Historically, men have worked many more years, retired later and had shorter lives; no one made a fuss or complained that this was unfair. With women, however, it is different. Any change which removes some inbuilt privilege is resisted; hordes turn out to complain about the 'unfairness' being visited upon them and politicians quake. Whatever we do, we mustn't upset the female vote.

What rubbish. Let's have a bit of equality and fairness for the men, just for a change.

EXAM GRADE MADNESS.

The 'AQA' an exam-setting body, has said that it is planning to intrduce a new 'Super A star' grade to recognise the performance of particularly able students.

When I was at school, the grades were A to E for pass, and F to H for fail. Now we shy away from even referring to failure and seem to have lost the appetite for grading students sensibly. We give them 'projected' grades long before their exams and even 'target' grades throughout their school lives, effectively pigeon-holing them in a way that was never done in the past. Again, when I was at school, an 'A' grade was the aspiration of all, now the children aspire only to meet the target set for them by their teachers - what sort of lunacy is this ? We heap pressure on them in ways never thought of when I was a child. Pupils are even made to sit sub-standard exams, in which the highest attainable grade is a 'C', so as not to put them off by giving them the real exam which they might struggle at.

All this nonsense is simply to avoid facing the fact that some children have different abilities to others, and that some will inevitably do worse at certain subjects than others. Why can't we just admit this fact and work from there ? Rather than do this, we continually inflate the top of the grade scale, first with 'A stars' and now with 'Super A stars'. Logically, we should be looking at a return to the former system, in which top performers gained an 'A' and the grades then descended through 'B' to 'F' and beyond but no, this would cause distress to those awarded the lowest grades so we keep the myth that every 'F' has the same value and, instead, extend the top end of the scale.

I know 1984 has come and gone long ago, but not even George Orwell could have imagined this type of madness.

HAIRSTYLE IS A CHOICE, NOT A RIGHT.

A school in the area in which I used to live, St Gregory's in Kenton, Harrow, has been judged to have discriminated against a boy due to his hair style.

The school has a dress code that includes not allowing certain hairstyles. The boy, apparently from an 'ethnic' background, has a hairstyle that the school does not permit and would not change it; consequently, he was refused a place. The matter went to court and now judges have decided that the school's position is "not unlawful in itself, but should have taken into account the individual pupil's family tradition". It would seem that the boy has a right to his hairstyle, enshrined in law.

This is sheer bunkum. If a child is from a family of naturists, should he or she be allowed to attend school naked ? Should they be allowed to wear jeans and tee-shirts because they are Americans ? If the family tradition is for arranged marriage at 12, should we allow that too ? We fall over ourselves to maintain societal differences, while ignoring the critical need to create a society that sees itself as a single entity. The boy in question should be, and is, perfectly free to do what he likes, within the law, while he's at home; while at school, and later at work, he should be required to conform to the rules that are the traditions of THIS country, not some homeland from which his family have migrated. Hairstyle is a choice, not a right.

FATHERS ARE NOT ALL BAD.

David Cameron has, reportedly, penned an article in today's 'Sunday Telegraph' in which he condemns those he tersm 'runaway dads'. He believes that such individuals should be stigmatised by Society as it is simply not acceptable for single mothers to be left to bring up children on their own.

On one level, Cameron is certainly correct but there can be little doubt that he has also shown himself, yet again, to be horribly divorced from the Society that most of us live in. Of course, there are men who fail to act responsibly and desert their children, but there are also women whose behaviour is such as to leave them uncertain who the father of their child might be; it is not uncommon, in the real world, for some such women to accumulate several children by several different men without even being sure who the men are. Some women (not just men) are unfaithful to their partners and the resultant children may not even be aware of their true parentage; when the sinned-against partner discovers the true, the true father may have disappeared from the scene without knowing that he has a child. In a Society in which marriage is no longer the universal bond it once was, when relationships break down the parties inevitably go their separate ways, often with great acrimony; some mothers may no longer wish their former partners to have any part in their childrens' lives. Indeed, some families may now have such a confused mixture of children and relationships that trying to determe who should bear ultimate responsibility for them may be not just be difficult but might also be highly damaging to the family group.

Men have already become the downtrodden element in our modern world. They are vilified at every turn; they are discriminated against as 'positive discrimination' is brought to bear for women. Many men are frightened of being seen with small children and they are viewed with suspicion whenever they undertake activities with children of any age. Even the laws have been amended to make it easier for women to cry 'Rape' and gain a conviction, notwithstanding their drunkeness and debauched behaviour. Now Cameron wants to introduce yet another stick with which to beat us.

Cameron and his like live in a world of tradition in which marriage and 2.4 children is not just the norm but is almost mandatory. While these types look to condemn those who are not "PLU" (People Like Us), they have also overseen changes to our Society which have seen marriage downgraded and aligned with 'civil partnerships' for homosexuals; they approve the spending of substantial sums on free fertility treatments for all and sundry, rather than point out that having babies is not a right, it's a responsibility. They've introduced ludicrous benefits and advantages for unmarried mothers and, in particular, for teenage single mothers that have surely encouraged some young girls to see pregnancy as a means to gain independence from their parents. They have done little to really track down errant fathers and, in this respect, are far less effective than were the Parish officials of 200 years ago.

Another aspect that Cameron seems to have forgotten is that in some cultures, mens' attitude to fatherhood is very different to that of our indigenous western population; given the propensity of the courts to interpret human rights and anti-discrimination legislation in some very odd ways, Cameron's position could easily be seen as discriminatory towards such communities, rightly or wrongly.

Before he condemns 'runaway fathers' Cameron needs to look again at the Society in which we now live. He needs to acknowledge the mess that it is and take steps to turn the clock back to a more ordered and responsible time. In short, he needs to go back to the drawing board.