Old age and wisdom

Youth and inexperience will be defeated by old age and wisdom they say. I wish it were so. Unfortunately its a bit of a double edged sword. Yes the more mature still hold the hand of power in many ways and the wisdom of the elderly is valued, particularly the further east you travel, but in this country sadly not so much anymore.

Here one is classified as old by 50 and over the hill at 60, by 70 one is on the last adventure prior to dementia and 80 you are viewed simply as a hazard to navigation. Its a great shame because inside many of our elderly their lives experience, skill, wisdom and compassion sadly lacking in those of more tender years.

Here is a case in point, a couple of days ago I took a local elderly lady to hospital, she is 89 now and not in the best of health.. Her body is frail, but her mind is as sharp as a razor.. We were engaged in conversation about her time in Rhodesia when her husband taught young pilots how to fly when into the cafe, we were recuperating in, came a young couple who had just been to see the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Conningsby.. Not a million miles from the cafe.

They had two children about 6 and 8 and one had a red arrows blow up and the other a spitfire. Naturally they were playing with these toys and in the end their mother pulled the reigns in and sat them down. Dad spoke up, "if you want to be a red arrow or fly a spitfire you'll have to eat your carrots". I laughed quietly to myself and the lady opposite me smiled. I said "My mum used to say Cats Eyes Cunningham was a night fighter pilot in the war and ate carrots and I ate ruddy hundreds of them". The lady opposite said "must of done my husband some good". She said this because her husband was Pilot in the war and flew spitfires.

I looked at the kids with the spitfire and then at the lady in front of me and thought how brief life is and how sad it is that we do not make the most of people and particularly the elderly who have amassed so much experience. They really could teach us so much and yet are listened to hardly at all by the young. I think it is generational. I remember venerating the old and listening actively to what they said and what they had done. We had role models and our hero's really were very heroic. There was many to choose from and probably you had one or two in your own immediate family.. Not that they spoke much, bug you knew by their bearing and often dignity that they had experienced life.

Not so much now with instant fame simply earned by being a total dick or a youtube hero. There are many examples of this and none really edifies.

They say the hardest part of growing old is the loneliness. I am just getting to realise this, as I have no family of my own near by. I do not view myself as anything special, but some elderly folk I have met have lived lives that you would not believe if they made a film of it and yet they die every day, neither missed nor will they be remembered. A very great pity indeed for to die unloved and unwanted is a very great condemnation of a country that holds its elderly with such disdain. A woman recently died who had been a spy during the war and had received both foreign and British awards for her courage. She had no family and if it had not been for the local British Legion she would have had a poor person unmarked grave. This happens virtually every day as the generation that fought world war two thin out taken by old age. A lonely death and no one to morn or to say farewell. Sad.

But, it is not just the elderly but those of middle age we throw to the scrap heap just when they have amassed a wealth of experience and skill. Indeed, we face a mounting skill shortage as these chaps with once well practiced skills retire. Light and heavy engineers, for years under valued, are now in desperately short supply and for example our local saddler has retired unable to find an apprentice capable of taking on the skills it took him many years to acquire.

Examples of this are now sadly common. Kids do not want the labor involved in learning how to be a black smith or heavy engineer. Its a shame for the rewards are many when you can earn a crust with the sweat of your brow and the labor of your hands.

At more cerebral altitudes "ageism" in not so marked. The Consultant Surgeon, Senior Partner, those of the professions are not so marked for early retirement. Here wisdom is valued more for the steady hand it can give to more conservative and cautious fields of endeavor, such as commerce and trade. Perhaps there are good reasons for a classical education, so loved by the bar, medical and foreign office. One learns much from the elderly of Greece and the philosophers Rome. Indeed, much of value from History in general that if noted by the student stops one repeating its errors.. Well, it does if you know it. There by hangs the rub.. The young do not learn from history and so they learn the hard way.. Pity and frustrating for those of us now on the sidelines who could help avoid the pain of learning that way.... But we are not... !

Yesterday I popped over with another ex RAF chum to see a chap of some 90 odd summers who had been a guest of the Japanese during the war. He told of a time when after capture in Java in 1942. He was chopping wood when a Guard came around the corner and started looking for a bit of wood. Eventually he found one and then set about beating up this chap for no good reason. There first job was to level a mountain with hand picks and shovels to build an airstrip. His friend lost his eyes in the light of the first A bomb dropped on Japan and when he eventually returned to UK after four years of captivity he was given a new suite and sent on his way. His pay book simply says:
Rank on enlistment AC1
Rank on Discharge AC1

Medals and honor -  Burma Star
Comments. AC1  Smith (anon) has shown interest in becoming a Teacher.

and thats it. No mention of the fact that of the 350 members of his original unit only 50 were still standing at the end of the war. 300 of the others were basically starved and worked to death.

He now sits in his house alone most of the time following the death of his wife and goodness knows what thoughts go through his mind of his life and the times he lived through. Wisdom, if it is born of age, he must have in buckets full.

Our Prime Minister is a total dick!

What do you make of a country that can elect such a twit as David Cameron. His latest outburst about Britain being the "best place to be" and why its understandable that all those poor unfortunates in Calais would wish to live here because "its got jobs and incredible place to live". God help us. We will have no NHS, no welfare and no homes soon. Already some towns in Britain are swamped by migrants. "Sorry we are full" should have been the message coming out of his mouth, we cannot absorbed the amount of people fleeing conflicts and what will we do once the new arrivals all start breeding? We have schools with 18 different languages spoken in them already for goodness sake and a health service creaking at the seems.

Enough Cameron you idiot shut the doors and your stupid mouth, secure the ports and make it plain that migrants coming across Europe to get here are voting with their feet and its an election they are not entitled to participate in. Its sad that these people have to come here I know only too well the plight of these people. But the world needs to solve the conflicts that cause exodus not ignore it. Once again the UN needs to given the resources and mandate to stop this madness and stop it now. We need to stop the reason for them coming here, make them go home and effect the country they come from. Even if this means military intervention. If we do not stop the rot in the middle east soon and north africa then we are going to end up in a similar situation within a generation as the migrants bring to us the causes of the civil wars in their former homes. It is always so.. History proves it. Already we have inner city areas where sharia law is imposed and those not versed in Islam fear to tread. I kid you not things get scary in some parts of Aylesbury, Luton and High Wycombe to name but a few..

That statement may upset the liberal intergrationists but its a fact that we cannot be the refuge for the world and absorb all its refugees. What makes it worse is the EU have agreed to absorb these people and do.. 170,000 have settled in Germany alone and 70,000 in Sweden and thats just from Syria. Goodness knows what will happen if this goes on. The longer it does the worse it will get for those attempting to get here (three have died this month) and the greater the impact on this country and europe. No good will come of this until those we have elected to take tough decisions start to take them and enact some common sense solutions.

People Watching

Today I stood in for our village taxi driver, due to a recent delivery of 7 Old English Sheepdog pups.. The lady is in need of lots of newspaper and sleep apparently due to the pups regular movements! Thus engaged she could not take Barbara (89 with poor eyesight) for her check up to the local hospital. Barbs was going to be at least two hours and that gave me an opportunity to have a good nose at the folks who inhabit these places by doing a bit of people watching. Now people watching is an art and has to be thought out first...... and so where to go is obviously crucial.

Of course the entrance would be a good place being as it is a natural choke point but...the people are too mobile and one cannot earwig conversation..I could go with Barbs to the opthalmickery department?.. No, just a lot of folks bumping into walls and saying "excuse me". Then it jumped out at me "the staff canteen" So, bold as brass I wondered in, got myself a brew, a daily Telegraph to hide behind (still thankfully broadsheet), found a corner table and prepared to view/earwig.

The first four were Nurses of equal rank who proceeded to demolish four baked potatoes with gusto and various toppings while working their IPhones. This was a share experience it seemed and they showed each other their internet surfing results while chewing rapidly.. Such comments as "ohh that looks nice is it on offer?" and "So, I said thats no way to treat a domestic Goddess is it" Wafted over between moutfulls of Tater and Prawn or cheese topping. One girl vindictively stabbed her potato as she described the latest antics of her husband/Boyfriends Mother. "She is a total cow and she knows it" said the stabber. All very predictable including the exploding rice pot that covered one of them.  I bored quickly, but happily just as three doctors, one American (very) one of African and an Asian sat down with salad, steak pie and chilly avec rice respectively. The American (female of the species) of rotund and short stature then started a none stop nasal chatter that soon had her compatriots and myself slightly stunned. I swear she never stopped talking and the amazing thing was she managed to eat her lunch before anyone else and with no discernible reduction in verbal output. I swear she must have been breathing with her ears.  After ten minutes, and with some desperation I tried to tune her out, as indeed did her unfortunate table companions..Wow she could talk.. but I had gleaned such gems as:

"My Mother enjoys the peace now that Ive left", "I may be vertically challenged but I make up for it in other areas".. She did indeed! I moved my gaze and attention as at last three, at a guess, physio therapists types plonked down on the opposite table. Two of them looked like mother and daughter and they all had packed lunches from home. One in a British Heart Foundation bag and the others not!
However it was the youngest daughter who fascinated me. She was very tall, had a striking nose and huge brown eyes with a mop of blonde hair.

 She kind of looked like an African wading bird...... as if to emphasis this she displayed rather similar eating habits. First she ate an apple with rotating gnawing movements at some rate of knots while her head bobbed in a rather alarming fashion and when her moth was full and her cheeks puffed out she masticated furiously and then swallowed the pulp in one mighty gulp. She then ate a small yoghurt with a huge soup spoon  using short jabbing scoopy motions while eyeing the contents with one huge eye the other being shut. For all the world it looked like she was taking aim with the spoon prior to harpooning her prey. No conversation took place at any point and mother like daughter was notable for her grazing bird technique. In her case she ate a sandwich simply by biting it twice and then splooshing it down with a probably home filled bottle of evian. Obviously frugal types and not to be allowed to the front of any cavery or buffet cue.

But the best ones were probably two consultants. Who brought a couple of posh sandwiches (probably smocked goat cheese and mango) and then filled their table up with paper work, coffee cups and computers. One was female and in a skirt too short by several meters for the public good and the other a gentlemen who had the look of one trying very hard to get into the garments beneath said short skirt. "A Player" we can safely say. It took but ten minutes for our hero to go for gold. The boy really did try hard and some of his chat up patter was bordering on criminal.
"Its nice to be able to speak openly to a fellow professional on such matters". As a opening line was a bit limp, but "Maybe we could exchange notes on this one" made me smile.. Yeah I bet!

She on the other hand was doing the duck swimming thing.. On top she was filling out notes, smiling and making junior doctor noises while under the table she was stamping her foot, scratching her arse and behind her knee to the point of making herself raw. Either body lice or she doesnt like you mate I thought. But professional to the last she kept her smile. I noted as she walked away from the carnage that had been their table he kept a respectful viewing distance behind her and couldnt have missed the self inflected wounds on the back of her legs.

And then when I thought it couldnt get much better two cleaners of very substantial girth sat directly behind me with the obligatory fat person lunch of salad, water and musli bar. You just knew it was pie and chips tonight. But not withstanding the delight of watching them daintily tucking into the grass verge on their plates I nearly lost it when I tuned into the conversation in time to hear "Well you know me and although I am not a doctor I have worked in this hospital long enough to know when someone is putting it on and that lad was putting it on.. Broken back my arse"

I noted the time and with regret left just as three Bangladeshi Specialists sat down with the most exotic plates of rice, fruit and chilly mounded on it in Himalayan proportions. They nattered away in their native tongue as one chopped a banana onto the top of K2 thus rendering scaffolding probably necessary for its consumption..

The commonwealth in action I thought as I wondered off to pick up Barbara who was not happy when I found her. Apparently the Doctor was not nice and rather rude to her. I brought her a cuppa and a slab of chocolate cake in the Cafe by the entrance to make up for it and watched the people coming and going as she nattered away about the decline of the NHS since her day.

If it walks like a duck

Well, As predicted Turkey has bombed the Northern Kurds. Any excuse will do. Naturally the PKK will defend themselves and thats the end of that cease fire. Makes you wonder if Turkey really is on the side of ISIS or just used the excuse to take a pop at ISIS in order to get at the PKK, who they really hate and its mutual. . Naturally Turkey will deny it and blame it on the PKK and we should always take Turkeys word for it.. After all they didnt walk a million Armenians into the desert and leave them to die in 1915 did they? Hell no!
That old religious divide is a big thing in Turkey and cost millions of lives over the years. The Ottoman empire had a big area and spent a lot of time sorting out religious problems. Usually at the end of a sword.  Hence the problems of the Balkans and a few other areas of the middle east that now are fractured along the usual tribal, ethnic and religious lines and in flames.

There by hangs the rub!

For it beggars belief that in 2015 in a supposed multi cultural society we are still so tribal, but we are. Ive seen it all over the world. Folk from different tribal, ethnic or religious beliefs in the main do not get on well. Im afraid, these divides have amply demonstrated that intergration and multi-culturalism  does not stand a chance to succeed. This has been and is being amply demonstrated not only in the middle east but eastern Europe.

For 60 years the peace was kept by two powerful counter forces America and Russia. Before that and particularly in Europe the Russians kept peace between many differing tribal and ethnic groups by being tough on dissenters and breakers of the peace. They were also far from backward in getting the Cossacks in to sort out any group requiring further assistance in leading a less obtrusive life style. For example the Jews of Eastern Europe well remember the pogroms that particularly in Poland were such a feature. Now that empire has collapsed the old fractures have come to the surface, long forgotten disputes and tensions have flared into wars and ethnic based terrorism. If you link it with the the same problems in Africa and the  Middle East these murderous disputes would fill the page. Indeed, there is little of the globe that is not feeling ethnic, tribal or religious tensions.

What to do about it. Well, those tensions have been evident since the dawn of time and no doubt as long as I draw breath they will continue. Unfortunately history proves there are only two resolutions that last; War and fear. We hope the UN will sort it, but it will not the UN is the sum of its parts and thus riddled with the same tensions it is supposed to sort.It is open to the same problems its member states complain of and so might is right will prevail no matter what the UN says.. It has not the will or tools to do the job. Indeed, I often wonder, having seen so much tribal, ethnic and religious based conflict in my life, if it is better to let it burn itself out. In Bosnia our (the UN) efforts to stop the war added two years and thousands more to the death list in that sorry state. It has likewise done more harm than good in a few other conflicts.. In fact it seems the UN is not more now than a talking shop. Sad to see such a superb idea brought to nowt for wont of will power by its member states.

Perhaps the answer lies, as so often, in the past and in this case we could learn something from Clausterwitz who says that war is politics by other means and that to wage it requires the state to give all to win it. For not to commit to total war means more cost in lives and treasure because it lasts longer.. He has a point. Quick sharp war followed by committed peace seems to be the only war we prosper as a race. To do it half arsed, as in Vietnam or with no exit strategy as in Iraq just prolongs the agony, leaves massive power vacuum which then releases repressed ethnic, religious or cultural differences to run riot as the state collapses and is replaced by hundreds of folk with a repressed grudges against their neighbor. Simplistic you may think. But im afraid people are...very simplistic and no amount of liberal hopeful multi cultural oxbridge educated intellectual clap trap spouted in the hollowed halls of learning concerning the law and rights of man mean a damn when your stuck in the middle of a prime evil war between Sunni and Shia chasing you around with a bloody big sword or Hutu and Tutsi or Georgian and Russian, or Turk and Kurd or Millwall and Chelsea Supporter. The thing you need then is a bloody big tank.

So, the world needs a policeman again and it needs to go back to sending people who walk softly and carry a very big stick able to chastise separate the fools, get the tribal elders and religious nutters back in their box and smack the legs of the people till they learn to get on again. Well, what else do you do with a bunch of intolerant people who will not take the first move and put the brick down?

If you know then please tell the UN because they sure as hell dont know!

Huray for Jeremy Corbyn

At last a barn storming real socialist in the mold of Wedgy "Up the workers" Benn and a conviction politician. You may not like what he says, but at least you know he believes it. If only he could win the election to become leader of the Labor Party... Wow.... real opposition on the benches facing the bloody Tories..

Perhaps we could stop the austerity rot and begin to actually look after the poor, disposed, elderly and sick. Put the banks back in their place, put the railways back into public ownership, save the NHS and stop this mad dash of the selfish right towards complete ownership of all the wealth by the top one percent at the cost of the other 99% of the population.

It would be something to watch Corbyn take Cameron apart at PMQ's and have that chinless Eatonian Gobshite subjected to some withering fire from a real working class lad with coal in his veins.. For too long the working class have aspired to be little home owners and sod everyone else. For too long they have had no one talking their talk.. Since that turd Blair moved Labor to the middle ground and tried to out Toried the Tories things have been baron on the left of Politics with predictable results.

Its well passed time we had some Marxist Socialism shaking up the money lenders and blood sucking capitalist bosses. You never know it might just be the very thing to get the Tories back on the right, The Liberals back in the middle and Labor saving Scotland from the SNP.

Rock on Jeremy!

Thud me Gripkims

I just spent a very pleasurable half and hour in the company of the Goons. Its on radio I player and BBC Four Extra every week. No matter how fed up one gets, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Ned of Wales cannot be beat for putting a smile back on your face. If you are the generation without memory of Radio Comedy what better introduction could one have than these three wonderful idiots. All you need is a imagination and your there.

It has been an interesting week. The demise of my marriage goes on with the pair of us becoming more estranged by the week and I can only say that the estrangement is being accomplished with the greatest of good will and good manners on both sides. Just a general sense of sadness that the good things we had could not of offset some of the bad. However, it takes two to make a relationship and only one to break it and so I am outnumbered.

On the international scene; I see Turkey has waded in and decided to bomb ISIS. No doubt the Turks will wage this war as they waged the peace. They will bomb the Kurds and Isis equally so as not to offend. I think it is well passed time that there was an independent Kurdistan.. They have been a feature in the region for thousands of years and the only reason they are not doing there own thing is because of the total first class abortion the allied powers made of drawing the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria after the first world war. Kurdistan just happens to straddle all these countries and they have been appalling treated along with the Armenians for generations.

The Kurds also deserve far greater recognition for the way they stood up and were severely beaten by Saddam Hussein back in the 90s. They rose up and stood up to Hussein because President Bush told them to following the first Gulf War and then they were left without our support and suffered his retribution. If it had not been for the British Prime Minister John Major declaring a no fly zone over them in the mountains they had taken refuge in it could have been another genocide.

Now of course the Kurds are the only effective army fighting ISIS and they do so with total commitment. The are valiant fighters and give no quarter or expect any.  The women fighters of the YPG are particulalry fierce and much feared by ISIS and for obvious reasons will fight to the death rather than surrender to ISIS and probably a fate far worse than death.

We should remember them when we sit here behind the security they provide for us.. Because, believe me if ISIS win in North Africa we would be next. How would you like your daughter to have to take up arms against them.

Slang

I was talking to a fellow vet the other day and we laughed over the choice slang we used and are still used in the forces. It originates from every continent the British Armed Forces served in and some of it is hysterical. Here are some of the phrases we could recall. This is in no way an exhaustive list:

Food:
Scran generic term for anything edible (army)
Munguz believed Malay term for food (RAF)
Machan - ditto- RAF
Schnellie - German quick food outlet "Schnell Imbiss" (Army/'RAF) were they sell Bratties and poms. "Bratwurst and Pom Frites"
Scoff or Yaffle (Royal navy)
Lumps (army)
Lumps Brown (stew)
Lumps Green (salad)
Lumps Yellow (pudding)
GEB  Greasy early breakfast
Growlers - Sausage (RN)
Yaffle Spanners - Knife fork and spoon (RN)
Diner manglers - Ditto - Army
Fitters and Turners - Cook (army) "Turn good food into shit and fit it into a tin"
Cabbage Mechanic - Cook (RAF)
Brew (tea)
Nutty - chocolate bar (RN)
Banjo - Fried egg sandwich (army)
Wad - Cake various - (Army)
Mystery Stew - just put everything in and see what happens - All three services.
Not to be confused with Nuclear Stew. This is made by cooks in time of war or stress:
Corned beef
tinned veg
tinned toms
oxo cubes many
brown sauce enough to dull the senses
any fresh veg knocking about and I mean any.. I once found a red peper!!!
Stew the crap out of it and wallah Nuclear stew.. Nice if your freeze your arse off in minus 40 Norway. If your in the desert empty a tin of curry powder in it.
Babies heads - steak and kidney pudding (Army)
Pom - Dried mashed potato - Excellent for thickening anything from stew to custard.. Anything!
Hexi - Small cooker that uses solid blocks of heximine tablets to make a brew, dinner, six course banquet and make your mess tins go black.
Bacon Burgers - Tin of flavored lard with animal residue in suspension. Best discarded or you will be burping it back all day.
Bacon Grill - To die for  - eat from the tin or miss with beans for that true gastonomique experience. Bacon grill is also divine on biscuits dog. Best kit in the compo range. My ex wife loved it too.
Chocolate powder drink.. Good if thickened with Pom. To make Navy Coco empty a good few Chocolate powder packets into a pot simmer with milk powder, water, custard powder (to thicken) or pom and a couple of chocolate bars or Mars bar. Then add a good measure of Navy Rum. Can save a life in cold weather.
Herrings in - Sardines in tomato sauce - (Navy
Herrings not - Sardines in oil - (Navy)
Ghandi's Revenge - Any curry - (RAF)
Desert Chicken - Corned beef - (Army)
Chi - tea - Probably Chinese.
cheese possessed -  processed cheese (Army/RAF)
Dog biscuits or hard tack - very hard biscuits that defy any amount of gnawing and can lead to dental failure.
Chinese wedding cake - Rice pudding with raisins (RN)
Vin rouge - Tomato Sauce (RAF)
Vin Brun - Brown Sauce
Nose bag - Packed lunch (Army)
Horror bag - Packed Lunch (RAF) usually 2 sandwiches (cheese and mustard or ham, cheap crisps, penguin or similar cheap chocolate bar and bottle of panda cola. I was once told off for telling the cabbage mechanic off for giving our position away by discarded half eaten cheese and mustard sandwiches.
Screech - lemon powder (Army) Not to be left in the sun can self-combust in direct sunlight.
Screech Challenge - Mix a packet into your water bottle, allow to stand in sunlight all afternoon, then put on your respirator and attach drinking tube to the top of your  water bottle. Result usually is yellow explosion in you face mask and your eye pieces turn yellow.. Hysterical to watch from the outside.

Note;
All Service Chefs are without doubt the best chefs in the world. They can make the best food under conditions that would make civilians faint. I once saw a cook in Central America produce sunday roast with yorkshire pudding and apple pie and custard for 400 troops in 100% humidity and I have no idea what the temperature inside his tent was... I have seen them produce full English breakfast in Norway in temperature so low the trees were bursting. They are simply Gods and I have been very happy to have them with me.

On the other hand without a cook and on compo rations things could get interesting and it is surprising what you can knock up with a 24 hour ration pack.

More some other time.

Life changes

20 years ago I was in Bosnia just across the river drjna/drina which marks the border between Bosnia and Serbia. Across the river at the time Bosnian Serbs were shooting men and kids in the head. I was with a UN Monitoring Mission and could do nothing. We were unarmed and only four people. I will not bore you with the story of those days.. Its not the point of this narrative. What is, is the clarity with which those events came back to haunt me last week. Triggered by the media coverage of the anniversary of the massacre. There were many massacres in Bosnia, but I guess Srebrenica was the one people remember the most. It is not the case for me.. I remember other horrors from that war and more than anything I remember the kids and women.

It was those images that haunted me last week. I really thought I would have stopped dreaming about it by now. I served in Ireland and Afghanistan/Pakistan.. and the Lebanon was no pic nic. But its always Bosnia that gets me. I think it was because the setting was achingly beautiful and the people so passionate and kind. Plus, one could fly home in 3 hours. I think that was the worst thing. I did 3 months on and 3 weeks rest. The change from Belgrade to Heathrow airports was mind blowing.

One minute one could be watching thousands of desperate refugees fleeing for their lives and 3 hours later listening to ones partner moaning about the price of electricity.

Much has been written concerning this dislocation and inevitable consequence of love lost and relationships broken and I wish I knew then what I know now.. But hindsight is the only perfect science and we have to live in the here and now and with the past we have lived.. Shame because I still love both the women I lost. They were good people and its not for me I morn its for the pain they suffered loving me.

The whole Balkan mess was my baby for five years and it was five years that has shaped my old age. It caused a stroke and 2 failed relationships with women I loved deeply. I wish there was one thing I could point to that was a success, but there is nothing and perhaps that is a legacy in itself. Perhaps as an epitaph "nothing" sums up Bosnia and....?

Sunday Service

First, I never realised just how clever this blog thing is. It can tell you not just how many people are reading ones blog but where they are from.

So, Good morning to those of you in Alaska, Canada, Japan and here in Europe. I will try and be more inclusive in future.

Now back to matters pertinent to the Sabbath, or more particularly religion. Since my divorce  from my "chosen life time partner" I have been taking a critical look at what binds us together on this messed up rock in space. I have to confess that I am a bit "old school" and take oaths and my word as my bond rather literally, or did! I have found breaking my word a painful experience and it has been a shock to realise that the oaths one takes that encompass others are not always binding for the other person it seems. A perfect example would be my marriage that failed. I would have taken a bullet for that lady, but she strayed to pastures new and broke her word when I could not. Great pity considering the damage she caused to one or two relationships of my own in earlier days. But, is that not the nature of people basically selfish. They frequently put their problems far beyond the stricture of oath or word and any bond to another.

So, it interested me greatly to take a look at the Church into which I was brought as a kid and where I was first taught the meaning of binding oath. Here I found many good people its true but more people with a surface veneer of trying to be good and obey the rules they think they should and doing what they like when no one is looking. I think there is no doubt that they are just as selfish, vain and likely to stray from the straight and narrow as the great unwashed. I have no problem with that, but I have noticed a marked selfish streak in lets call them "the knowledgeable ones". Those that know their bible inside out seem  to enact less of those teachings they so cherish than those of us who know few. If they did the world would be a very nice place.

Example in case: recently I was with a no doubt good women who knew the bible inside out and back to front and who sat there in her gems and finery showing utter disdain for the poor. Snobbery in the church seems to be endemic and very obvious.  This links in with the rank structure that exists in the church. IE the closer you are to the Vicar the posher you obviously are.. Ive noted this peculiar creep factor in the Services and it came as surprise to find it in the church. In the services it was called "brown nosing" In the church lay people and Parish note worthies love to glad hand it with the Vicar and brown nose it.

However, I think the strangest thing Ive noted is that religious people all think that they are going to heaven and all sins will be forgiven no matter what. Naturally the bigger the sin the more they believe in this. Kind of get of jail free certificate.. I guess this is why religious people never seem to actually do much with the more practical teachings of the bible just reading it seems to suffice.


So, what have I learnt? Well, I can honestly say the only lasting bond I have found was in combat in time of war. Then the man looking after your back really was your brother no matter what his religion and letting each other down was not on the menu.. Makes you think eh!

The list of Huntingdonshire Cabmen week ending 17th July 2015

Notification is hereby given of awards as follows:

1st Gear
Haratio Wilson Halibut-Sprat
Trevor Tonsils
Wrangler Jeans
Ethelred Totally-Aware
Major Twat


2nd Gear
Helmutt Von Dingleberry
Mike Bike
Marjory Mainly-Humpbacked Wahle
Ming the Member for East Ham
Count To-Ten

3rd Gear
Fred Needle


4th Gear
Mable Grate
Windlass Womble


5th Gear
The Great Bumble
Wednesday Come-Weekly
Trundle Trolley-Jack.

How to Govern in 2015

I twigged it tonight when watching channel four news. The usual story, NHS is falling apart at the seams and the government is doing all it can to make sure it does:
Piss the Nurses and Doctors off with endless meddling and never ceasing to shift the goal posts and avoid the real problem the NHS has which is what to prioritise on a finite budget.
They could start with the fact that their are not enough psychiatric beds but plenty of money for IVF and other life style medicine. Need I go on? Im sure you have a view.
The Government would never do that, because it might upset the gay vote or the single mothers or some other single issue pressure group only to willing to shout "human rights".

So, what they do is constantly deflect onto other less vocal or popular groups by for example reminding everyone that we have and increasing old age problem bed blocking. While ensuring that local authoritise have insufficient funds to care for them in the community and thus its not their problem is it..

Basically the government drip feeds the agenda to the press or drive the debate to achieve the outcome the they desires. You must be so used to it by now that you have been brain washed. You know the blurb goes like " its all because of austerity and sponging benefit low life, plus elderly bunging up the social housing". These are always good punch bags and deflect the problem of actually giving some solutions to all this overcrowding that is causing the demand on the public services and the culture of everyone being able to get it all on the NHS. We cant and we must face it. We can expect to be looked after to a degree but what that degree is, IS the problem we must face and Government is not facing it. We cannot keep milking the cow without giving it grass and expecting it to deliver chips as well. If you cant have children, my heart goes out to you, but if you want them you should pay. If you want to be a man and your name is Doris then why should a person have to die because the NHS will not pay for a drug that person cannot afford. Moral problems we must face and soon. Before the government makes the perfect storm and case to privatise the NHS and there by duck their number one head ache. What to do with the NHS.

Of course 10% rise in their pay today didnt do any harm either did it... not while the NHS has had no pay rise in five years.

They are getting expert at it, well you would with an ex PR man as PM. You just ignore the stuff you dont like, pretend to do something about whatever this weeks story is and do bugger all that could upset the chancellor of the exchequer. Last week The Home Sec went to Dover and when she got back she said she would put a fence around a bit of Calais (enough to go around 250 trucks) and that would keep all those hopefuls out! Naturally, its just a background noise to most folks. We are used to being over crowded and we only bang on about it when we have to go to hospital in a taxi or spend a day on a trolley because their is no bed due to some poor old sod being unable to go home or into care on account of the sad fact their isnt any.

Well, you to will be old one day and you to could be that person blocking that bed. I hope by then we have a government that can do more than blame it on you for being old.

Grexit

Poor old Greece, well and truly stuffed by the EU Banks. So, now the banks will milk Greece for every penny and for many many years to come. NGOs will now have to increase the support to the poor and prop up the medical system. More soup kitchens and more austerity.

Greece effectively just got taken apart and sold by the EU into slavery for decades. Now there will be a flood of young people leaving Greece and the already shrunken GDP will continue to shrink. The IMF and the Central Banks will make sure they just charge enough on the loans to keep Greece paying for decades and they will now run the country caring not a jot for the massive cuts to education, pensions, medical, defence and other essentials. Life expectancy in Greece for the poor just got shorter.

Geopolitically Greece will become a failed state unable to act as bastion for Nato in the Eastern Adriatic and countering Turkey. Nato will be weakened and Greece will edge towards Russia and the other Orthodox nations like Serbia in the region who also have much to dislike the EU for. A bad days work yesterday and for what.

I predict bad things will come of Greece selling its soul to stay in a flawed currency. This was a case of better a day as a lion than the life of a mouse and Greece was bullied into a mouse trap.  The poor will stay poor, the sick will become sicker and we could well see aid in many guises being sent to Greece as un-employment (already at 50% for the young) hits higher levels. Already 20 business a day are going broke.

I only hope someone somewhere has a little morality left. But, I doubt it.. We have no politicians left who are not in the pay of the bankers. The EU just got a very scary club and I for one will vote to leave it at the first chance. I think Finland will do the same. I prefer freedom to being told what to do by the Germans.

Good luck Greece your going to need it.

This picture was taken this week in Athens and the same picture can be taken anywhere in Greece and on any day. Look at Europe in 2015 and wonder at where we are going wrong.

How would you like to see your Mother reduced to this? This bullshit has to stop. When a political system cannot look after and defend its poor, sick, elderly and young then it has failed and the European Union (ha! Union?) failed totally yesterday and miserably by showing no compassion or moral obligation on even a basic human level to the people it is supposed to protect. Shame

List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen Weekending 10th July 2015

Awards are here by promulgated:

1st Gear:
Ada Dada
Dilbert Deranged - Daffodil Minor


Second Gear
David Davidson-Davies
Sluice Faucet Snr Rtd
Grundfuttock the Flabbergasted
Adrian Skin-Blemish

Third Gear
Victor Voluminous-Voglemunchburger
Hampton Trouser-Press
Oliver Oligarth-Sprain
Frampton Frampton


Fouth Gear
Mouse Minor
Harpoon Wilson-Picket
Mandible Tooth-Whitening
Terrapin Tragedy

Fifth Gear - in waiting
Prudence Nightly
Tom Prong
Wilson Wilburforce-Trousertrumpet

RIP
William Ground-Water
Peter Wombleboard-Spillage
Kingsley Crabs-Infestation


Special Notice;
Hungerford Chapter has been placed in special measures due to un-authorised use of metric units. Please note only Imperial measurements and time are to be used in demi official memorandi. Failure to do so may invalidate use of pump priming during the hours of darkness and where loud shirts are specifically allowed.

Steam Powered Wireless Sorry Radio

I love Radio Four.. It is an English Institution, but it contains two of the worst programs known to man in during the day. Womens Hour and the Archers. The Latter we have discussed at length some time ago. An every day tale of country folk it is not. If I lived in Ambridge it would be for pure curiosity to see what strange event happens next. Eddies first miscarriage being about 50 to 1 at the moment followed by Mrs Dale popping in for  a  natter about her diary with Doctor Finlay at odds on.

But woman hour that is in a league of its own. Never is there a happy item. Its just one hour of how to loose weight usually by some terrible condition requiring amputation, or slow agonizing death allied to the use of slimming pills or whatever the Daily Mail is headlining as this weeks curse. Then we have daily bashing doled out concerning anything male with handy link on the website to whatever lame arse charity, or single issue pressure group has formed a herd.

Why cant we have Mans Hour with such handy tips as how to rebuild a MG Roadster and how to avoid your prostate being inspected by folks you dont know or wish to. A segment on wine storage in your shed would be good and the correct method of whiskey distillation using the old water boiler and a hose pipe.

I gave up yesterday trying to get something to listen to that did not end in prozak.  I was spinning through the waves and on one was some idiot speaking advanced Essex "noawah see init sick totalleee whatever right no problems that was Milly Cyst with her banging track and now the news", on two it was a major item on what electric cars should sound like "My horse was startled the other day by an electric car. Its very dangerous and I think they should sound like waves or similar" and another women who said and I quote here: "I have run over four cats since I brought a Prius"! Is that a case for the RAC or RSPCA I mused.  I moved on to local radio to hear some sad arse describing the last moments of a lizard apparently eaten by a bigger Lizard...QED? and then the problems getting recompense from a builder who had installed a window with the handles on the outside!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe its time for Happy FM I thought as I put on a cd.

OK OXI it is!

Yippee,
The cradle of democracy has spoken and told the banks to shove it and done so with gusto.

Fantastic and possibly the first signs of spring after a long dark winter of capitalist excess. Could we now see a return to real equality, fraternity and dignity for the people of Europe. And and end to poverty, austerity and rampant banker excess.

May this be the wake up call for the EU to end the run of its un-elected chambers and a curtailment of the IMF and banks rule by austerity and imposition of poverty on those it is supposed to be there to serve not rule. Fingers crossed.

Of course the news media will have a field day headlines like:
"Thousands leave Greece"
"Banks could collapse"
"Elvis found on mount Olympus"
"Greek Prime Minister ate my Hampster".
"Emergency EU summit"
"Greek Banks cause run on Pitta Bread"
"Greek leads EU revolt"
"Greece apply for oyster card blocked by Boris"

As we speak you cannot get a hotel with a veranda in Athens thanks to the news teams setting up sat dishes next to the sun loungers. Also, all the heads of Euro, IMF ECB and even bloody Wonga are packing their swimming cozys and booking the Ryan air to an airport only 100 miles from Athens. Naturally, easy terms on loans and no questions asked. Hold on! Isnt that how we got in this mess.

Five drakmars will get you ten that the Russians will soon be on the scene causing a run on house prices on the Adriatic and I bet even the Syrian refugees will stop going.

At last we finally got some humanity back into politics and the rights of the people against the endless pursuit of the minority for riches and of course what really is causing panic is the possibility that Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland may now ask for their loans to be re-scheduled. Ha! Brilliant. For once could the one percent who own 90 percent of the wealth of this world be in for a "hair cut".. I for one hope they get scalped.. A good dollop of beans on toast and switching off lights might do them good.

Cream Tea

Yesterday was a very warm day. It was even warmer in the kitchen of the local church making endless cups of tea while the girls made endless plates of cream teas. the village did a splendid job of turning out the scones and jam while the local farmer donated the strawberries. The cue was a mile long at times and I think we must have served half of the area. By the time my shift had finished at 3.30 I was bathed in sweat and ready for a breather. Good fun mind you and so nice to be able to do something towards the greater good.

Two dear friends turned up just in time to carry on the good work and it was good to see them roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. I, like them, have no idea about the rest of the village fete. We never got time to see it. A simple day, but fun with the joy of a common cause.

Greece
Well, today is the day we find out whether the good people of Greece will send the Bankers packing. I do so hope so. I do so hope they fire the first shots across the bow of the rampant capitalism that has wrought havoc with the poor carrying the burden and the rich few as always simply moving to new grass and better pickings.

Wednesday in UK will bring the Chancellors Budget and £12 billion  of cuts to the benefit and welfare budget. I wonder how much the poor, once again, will pay for the £1.8 trillion lost by the banks. My dear Lord! £1.8 trillion???????? How many hospitals, how many  children lifted from poverty, how many pensioners able to pay their power bill without freezing each year. How many with dementia given proper care and how many Nurses would that pay for.. ?

I still cannot fathom how the Bankers and Government make us responsible for paying back money they lost and we never saw a penny of. It has to be at the very least morally reprehensible. Why can they just print money to get the banks out of the mire they themselves created and yet cannot print a quick billion to help those using food banks to feed themselves. 2 million children in poverty in a country like UK.. No... tis wrong and those that created the debt should for once carry the burden.

Go on Greece..

List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen

List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen Week Ending 3rd July 2015:

Awarded First Gear:
Splodnick the Terrible Son of Splodnick
Spencer Strange-Denture

Awarded Second Gear
Lady Montford Mountjoy-Kneetremble
Henry Paul Jones Hermitage-Ramshackle
A.Bee
Wendleberry Wrist-Action Jnr


Third Gear
Non Applicable

Fourth Gear
Susan Sauce-Buchett
Terrence P Hampton-Smallmole
Jody J Juniper-Spline

Fifth Gear
Henrik Wambamalouba-A-Wambambou
Paul Countersunk-Castlelatednut
Cresta Nasal-Twine

RIP
Brenda Burnished-Bedstead
Mandy Post-Natal
Mutt Pratt


Special Notice:
Following has been suspended:
Wales

Greece

Well, I have to say I like the Greek Government a lot.. Much more than the German government does that is for sure. Shame the Germans (as if!) just cant get that the honor of Greece and the well being of its people came before bending before the banks. The Greeks thought why should we have to borrow to pay just the interest on a loan that is breaking the country and driving the poor to starvation with penury. Good for Greeks to teach us about democracy again and I wish them luck with their referendum. The Greek government has done the right thing asking for a vote of confidence and a mandate to carry on into possibly very uncharted seas that lie ahead. The government will need the people to navigate the course ahead and thus give the EU a shot across the bows that it really needs.

What gives the banks the right to enslave a nation? Those same banks that gave Greece lavish terms and turned a blind eye to the warning signs that Greece was not ready for currency union now charge massive interest on the loans they gave Greece and would keep them broken for decades. Austerity for all after a summer of plenty. Typical.

I think its time the the EU halted and decided just what it was for,  a monolithic generator of rules without recourse to national members law,  monetary union beyond public control. Or, a place that actually has morality and is  democratically responsible to its members? I would suggest Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy prove that monetary union was a bad idea and without any real hope of prospering.. Moldova and other new EU nations will prove likewise that a two speed Europe would have been a better idea and the lack of that two speed Europe may prove the undoing of the EU. Unless the Eu adapts to the needs of emergent and fragile democracies who for many years lay beyond the iron curtain and only now are showing green shoots and they are tender then it will kill the green shoots off before they have chance to bloom.

The EU has tried to be too much to too many people and frequently without a mandate from the people it serves. It actually feels the other way around.. We serve the EU and that cannot be right. Greece may be the wake up call it and wee need.  

Time the EU stayed out of the business of trying to be a giant state and balance to America and tried to do its job. A European Union of member states constructed for the benefit of those states. Not Government of those states. We all have our own governments for that.

Further, Central Banks should be held far more to account for the damage the wreak.