HALLOWEEN - ANOTHER AMERICAN IMPORT

                                       HALLOWEEN - ANOTHER AMERICAN IMPORT

A broad grin developed as I listened to a report on Radio 4 highlighting the apparent embarrassment  suffered by both Tesco and Asda with regard to certain halloween costumes.  I have always baulked at  such imported Yankee tosh, but if they are going to indulge in all things tacky, then at least they are being imaginative in their quest to increase  income.  It would, however, seem that costumes with 'Mental Patient', and 'Psycho Ward' on them cross the line of acceptability!

My grin was swiftly wiped off my face when I realised that mental charities had complained - but then they would do, wouldn't they!  What is wrong with these people?  So busy being good, they seem to have lost all sense of proportion and humour.  Can you imagine working with these people?  I can just see them running to their politically - correct  bosses shouting "Please sir!", or  "Please Miss" - although that should probably be "Please Ms" every time someone says anything which they consider to be an 'inappropriate comment'.  Still, at least the charities have copped for an unexpected windfall from both of the supermarkets,  which adds credence to the saying that all publicity is good publicity.  It has probably also stopped the charities - and their patients - from suing for trauma and compensation.

Whilst shopping in Waitrose (Frimley) earlier this week, the subject of Halloween came up with the customer in front of me.  It was really refreshing to hear the chap relate how, on the night in question, his neighbour places effigies of the Whicker Man and Jimmy Savile in his front garden to ward off evil children.  Now that's humour!

ANOTHER £100 MILLION

                                                         ANOTHER £100 MILLION

It's funny, isn't it.  Whilst Nick Clegg was being ever so pleased with himself with his announcement to the world that our government is about to pledge a further £100 million to Syria, I fumed at this use of  our - yes, our money.  He seemed to take great delight in stating that Britain was 'Leading the charge', and that 'We cannot avert our eyes from Syrian people'.  I could, and can, very easily in fact. IT'S NOT OUR PROBLEM!  I thought this country was broke?  Isn't this why VAT was increased to 20%? Were we not 'All in it together'?  I don't expect Messrs Cameron, Clegg or anyone else in government to be in touch with the public or their views, but surely they must have considered using the money to top up their pension funds or their expenses at least.

Still, the one thing you can be sure of is that if they are not being self-serving, they will be contributing to those who have never contributed to this country and will never thank us.  Whatever we do - or give -  we will  always remain 'Those western imperialists'.

ANY FOOL CAN BE BRITISH...

                                                     ANY FOOL CAN BE BRITISH...

I see on the news that there has been a very unpleasant incident in Nairobi.  Some 65 people killed and many more injured.  It appears that 'British' subjects have been found amongst the innocent dead and those named within the terrorists ranks - either dead or alive. None of those from either group is 'British',  they are from  a country with different values, culture, and in many cases, a desire to change the society of the country they have adopted.

Everyone has to tiptoe gently when discussing race or religion, which is rather sad when one considers that this country has prided itself on freedom of speech.  A presenter on BBC news, when commenting on the child sex victims of gangs in the midlands and the north stated that the guilty were of asian and North African heritage.  Heritage!, heritage!  No-one would dare say they were plain asian or black.  However, if they were white, the term would be used without a thought to the inequality of it.  Every time Stephen Lawrence is mentioned, you can bet your bottom pound that those found guilty of  his murder are always described as white, and that the crime was racial.  Strange how nobody comments that  all the young girls used in trafficking were white, but those guilty of their abuse were merely of 'Heritage' stock!

As I always say, any fool can be British, but it takes a heck of a lot more to be English!

SURGICAL MASKS OR NOTHING AT ALL

                                       

                                             SURGICAL MASKS OR NOTHING AT ALL

It was interesting to see the most odious of the current crop of ministers - Jeremy Hunt - bottle out of making any decision on behalf of the government by stating that the wearing of niqabs, ie full veils with just eye slits, should be decided by the medical industry and not by government.   Well, that's giving leadership isn't it.   But they won't if it has anything to do with race or religion. 

I understand that 17 hospitals have banned these full face masks and it was interesting to hear a doctor on radio state that whilst she uses a full veil outside of work,  once she is inside a hospital doing her job, she removes it as she feels that all patients should be able to see her face.   Whilst I accept her argument I still think it's a bloody cheek that anyone  should  be allowed to wear them, whether at work or not.   I would love to be lying in a hospital bed  looking up at a pair of eyes staring down at me.   Actually, I wouldn't put up with it and I sincerely hope that others wouldn't either.

There was a recent case in the courts where a Muslim woman was told she had to remove her full face veil and a Muslim group said it was "disgusted" at the judge's decision.    Frankly, I'm disgusted that anyone feels they can live in another person's society and impose their will on the host nation.  It comes under the heading of "bloody cheek"!

 "If you don't like it here, there's a very easy answer - bugger off!"

YOU SAY TOMAYTO, NOW WE SAY TOMAYTO!

                                       YOU SAY TOMAYTO, NOW WE SAY TOMAYTO!

I wonder sometimes which country I actually live in.   I used to know it was England because we spoke English.   Why on earth anyone would want to sound like any other country than the one they were born into baffles me.  I am singling America out because t it is the country that has invaded our dictionary more than any other.   And the BBC, that bastion of everything that was well pronounced, has succumbed.   For instance, on the Media Show only last week, a presenter stated that something had been"downplayed", as opposed to "played down".   Yesterday morning Susannah Reid mentioned that something was "upcoming".   This is an increasingly used word.   What was wrong with "forthcoming".  Things have been forthcoming for years - until they arrived, that is.   Even this morning, when the very lovely Lisa Faulkner was offering Susannah and Bill Turnbull slices of her homemade ginger cake, Bill actually said,"I'm really loving this".  It's not a bloody McDonalds.   What was wrong with saying, "I really love this" or "I really like this".

Why is there a lemming-like desire to jump into the linguistic American pond?   I remember many years ago when Aldershot 'welcomed' a Burger King branch.   The local council asked the company if they would spell the words "drive through" in English, i.e. drive through, but no, such is the arrogance of a large number of Americans that we have "drive thru" as they refused to acquiesce with the request.   Again, one has to ask, why are these councils so gutless?   Presumably, it's because of the council rates being brought in by a new business.   I would have told them that this isn't America, it is actually a different country and we spell things in the original way.   And if they don't like it, then planning permission would not be given.

POST SCRIPT

                                                                        POST SCRIPT

Hard on the heels of the previous posting,  I notice with some amusement - with a lot, actually - that the flu vaccination programme, a pilot scheme in Leicestershire and Rutland, contains pork gelatine.   This has been trialled on 70,000 pupils aged 4 to 10 years.    At one school in Leicester the head is quoted as saying, the inclusion of pork gelatine showed "insensitivity".   The school apparently has 650 Muslim children, which as an indigenous parent I would feel particularly worried about  if I had my children attending that school.   Health officials have naturally apologised for not informing parents at the offset.  Oh, there's a surprise!    You can't see me, but I'm shaking my head in dismay.   Still, I'm about to enjoy my breakfast - eggs, baked beans and pork sausages .....

ABOUT TIME TOO!

                                                                ABOUT TIME TOO!

Any readers of my books will know I have been harping on about this subject since time immemorial.  Surprisingly it was Jeremy Browne, the Lib-Dem Home Office minister, who has stated that whilst he is uneasy about restricting freedom, he has urged a national debate on the state's role in stopping veils being imposed on girls.

This comes after the particularly worrying decision by some obviously misguided and gutless people at Birmingham Metropolitan College, who have dropped a ban on pupils wearing full-face veils.   He says the government should consider banning Muslim girls from wearing veils in public places such as schools.  It shouldn't be considering it, it should have acted on this years ago.   Some Muslim group was quoted on the BBC teletext as saying it was "disgusted" by the Minister's suggestion.   But then they would be, wouldn't they?

I come back to the point I made years ago, that freedom is two way and at the end of the day, this is actually OUR country, not theirs.   I don't care whether they are first, second or third generation Muslims in this country.   They should still abide by the rules initiated by the indiginous population.   If they don't like the way we run our country there is a very easy answer, which somebody in government should spell out poste haste.  Bugger off!!

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT

                                                               I DIDN'T KNOW THAT

I've just been catching up on the Radio Times for the week 17th-23rd August.   On the penultimate page is My Watchlist, which I usually find quite interesting.   The week in question featured Evan Davis, who I've always found easy to listen to in the days when I used to watch Dragon's Den, and he is particularly good on Radio 4.   I wasn't aware that he is homosexual, because in the first paragraph he talks about his partner, a French landscape architect with the name Guillaume, which could to me have been male or female.  I just assumed it was female.   In fact, I assumed that until I got to the second question which asked, "How do you feel about the portrayal of gay people on TV?"   His answer included comments on a recently shown sit-com starring Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi.   At the end he said, "It's useful to normalise the promotion of gay relationships.   To be fair, he was answering a question put to him, but it always seems to be so narrow a subject.

I was interested also in the name of the interviewer.   It was a lady (I presume a lady) by the name of Alexia Skinitis - sounds as if she needs to visit a dermatologist|!

A GAY OLD DAY!

                                                                 A GAY OLD DAY

I read with much amusement that those humourless scrotes from the mind-bending group Stonewall, have invited players from all 92 English and 42 Scottish football league clubs to wear rainbow shoe laces during matches played over the weekend  21st and 22nd September.                                        

Apparently, there is something called the " Right Behind Gay Footballers " campaign who would like to change attitudes towards homosexual footballers - and I can just imagine them being right behind a gay footballer!   They must have little get-togethers, presumably over bowls of nuts and a ginger beer, and actually waste time and energy coming up with these pointless suggestions.  The worrying thing is that the football authorities take these people seriously, but then they would as they are a minority - and minority = rights.

What these minority pressure groups never seem to understand is that other people, i.e.  the majority, also have opinions, are equally entitled to them, and do not need to be re-programmed into thinking that  what is right for the homosexual goose is right for the straight gander!

THAT INCREASINGLY EXPENSIVE HS2

                                               THAT INCREASINGLY EXPENSIVE HS2

It was interesting to note that a committee of MPs  has concluded that spiralling costs do not appear in proportion to the alleged benefits bandied about by those arrogant bastards who wish to destroy even more of our once green and pleasant land. Governments from both sides of the house have a long and distinguished history of under-estimating costs of projects, both civil and military.  To be fair, it is never their money, merely that taken from the poor sod who works to keep them and their ilk in a manner to which we will never be accustomed.  Not for them a once timeless view about to be destroyed forever.  We have lacked collective government foresight for the last 60+ years.

With regards to the railways this is no better exemplified than in case of the HS2 route.  The Great Central Railway (the remains of which still run out of Marylebone Station) was built to the continental loading gauge and afforded a direct link to Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Grimsby and Hull.  En-route the line served Rugby, Leicester, Nottingham, Bradford, Doncaster and Lincoln.  The short-sightedness of the infamous Dr. Beeching's recommendations  sounded the death knell for the GCR, finally succumbing in 1966.

And so it has come to pass that we taxpayers are now being asked to stump up an unknown sum of money in order to build a railway line which will initially take one to Birmingham, some 30 odd minutes quicker than is currently achievable.  In all honesty, who would want to hear  that awful Brummie accent  30 minutes earlier than you have to!

THE CONTINUOUS DESTRUCTION OF THE GREEN BELT

                             THE CONTINUOUS DESTRUCTION OF THE GREEN BELT

I noticed with dismay yet another set of brightly coloured hoardings around what was a lovely field, the advert on the hoardings proclaimed a new housing development, courtesy of Greedy Development Bastards PLC.   It exalted all of the benefits of purchasing one of their brand new houses, and they even had the gall to end the name of the development in "Meadows".  These were the meadows that were enjoyed by all before council planners' hands shook those of GDB PLC and council accountants rubbed their grubby little mitts at the thought of yet more revenue in the form of council tax swelling the authority coffers. And for whom are we providing the housing?   We certainly are not looking after local residents whose family lineage goes back years. It's all changed.   Social housing is more often than not the dumping ground for ne'er- do-wells and immigrants taking advantage of our very generous benefits and hospitality.

Locally, I understand that 520 houses have  been authorised for construction on fields in Worplesdon, hundreds more in Ash and over 700 in Normandy, which is a pretty little village, again, to be totally destroyed by these acts of over-development.   As I have said in the past, and will no doubt continue to do so for the rest of my life, we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.   Once that land is gone, there is no turning back.

SUPPORTING THE WORLD

                                                           SUPPORTING THE WORLD

It came as no surprise to learn that David (all things to all men) Cameron has graciously decided to donate £52 million to Syria in some form of aid - quite what, the BBC didn't specify.   This now brings the total support to £400 million.   We have water voles that need protecting, we have libraries that need saving, we have historic buildings falling down around our ears and we have a cultural lifestyle built up over many hundreds of years,  being destroyed by successive governments of all political colours.   Did he not consider that the money could  be better spent in this country?   I would love to have a Prime Minister who put this country first and announced on election that the first thing he or she was going to do would be to cut overseas aid to the square root of bugger all.   How on earth you ring fence money to others who have paid nothing to this country's lack of wealth is beyond me.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

                                                BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

I am extremely glad that the vote went against David Cameron in the House of Commons with regard to the Syrian situation.   I think everybody is slightly wary after the weapons of mass destruction debacle in Iraq a few years ago.  The effects of not getting your facts right have resonated for longer than the Americans would like.   I cannot understand why Mr. Cameron decided to have a vote before the results of the findings of the team seeking the origins of chemical warfare.

 Even if  the Assad regime is responsible, is it really down to an independent country, ie the USA, to use military strikes, however limited and  however free of footfall on the ground.   The whole concept seems to be a little loose to those trying to understand exactly what their limited strike actually means.   And you do have to be careful of what you wish for, because the outcome could be exactly the same as Iraq, Egypt and I have no doubt, Afghanistan, once allied forces have left the country.   Chaos, factions and a clear lack of leadership will be even more endemic in Syria and a great helping hand will have been given to Muslim extremists.   However awful war is, I really do think it is down to them to sort it out and I have to say, whatever everyone may think of Mr. Assad, you never see him without a tie!  And that counts quite heavily for us in Surrey .....