The Privacy of Choice

You would think by now we would have learnt to live in peace and harmony and in balance with mother nature...but nope! Wherever one looks there is trouble and no matter how one tries to live a peaceful life there is always a fly in the ointment intent on provoking a fuss. Indeed, it becomes more difficult to actually maintain some kind of control over ones life and destiny as control and power over the people of this planet becomes the intent of commerce and the state.

Freedom of the individual and self determination are areas much of interest to the greedy profit mad companies that intrude on our every day life. From computer snooping, data selling to constant advertising and brain washing the marketing gurus and media companies are at us 24/7 trying to sign us up through fair means or foul. Recently I was signed up to a power company without even requesting to be so. Erroneous transfer they call it. The case now rests with Offgen.

Similarly with the state one can be registering to vote and find ones name and address have not just been logged to vote, but become an item of data with a price to be had. I recently trawled a website and found out all sorts of things about myself. Some true, some false and all rather concerning considering I volunteered none of it.

Self determination was once deemed to be the essence of personal freedom and I for one miss it greatly. Privacy now is deemed a cover "if you have nothing to hide" is the constant rejoinder to anyone wishing to snoop on ones privacy and a bovine excuse to pry, frequently used as a pretext to have a good root around in someone life. The mere fact that everyone has something to hide and a right to do so escapes the people wishing to have a look around in ones life until that is the compliment is returned and it is they who are subject to the spotlight of the snooper..

Alas as far as the security services are concerned I can see the point to greater control being given to the state over the citizens it protects. But how often is that scrutiny a pretext to gather information simply to exercise greater control over us. Checks and balances with over sight committees may be extent, but are they? There is always a nagging doubt.

It was with this in mind that today I arranged my own funeral. No service, no family, just cremate and ring a person to come and collect the ashes.. Simple and no fuss. Also, remarkably refreshing to be able to have control of one aspect of ones existence.. If only briefly and ironically without being.............erm.....there!

differrent People

Once upon a time, before liberal democracy took over and told us all how to live, this world was happily divided without really knowing it. We all lived on the same shared planet and it was usually ok to be different in religion, creed or nationality. Indeed, your nationality often was the point. We often celebrated our nationality and religious differences in our own national ways under our own flag. As a youth I well recall truly enjoying visiting and being a guest in another country. To experience the customs and culture was the point of many a trip abroad. Not so now it seems. half the world is a no go area and one would not wish to be in half the countries I once knew as happy and stable. How things have changed. Tolerance replaced by bigotry and religion certainly has caused more than one war and no doubt will continue to as long as we get so upset over having the same God.

Once the point that folks of common bond liked to live together was the point. They put great store by their nationality and no amount of so called enlightened modern multi-cultural integration will stop people of common bond wishing to live together on their own land. The Olympics and many competitive areas of sport prove the attraction of nationalism even today. England V Germany will always BE England V Germany. I for one would hate to live in a unified Europe where its custom and culture played so little part and we only celebrated our union and bland nature.

History and the future will continue to show that folks really do get upset when you try to stop this most common of traits and try to separate people of a common bond. From the mess caused by the Europeans at the end of the first world war and their cutting across tribal and ethnic lines with the creation of the middle east as we know it today, to the Gulf war and its fall out from that proves one should never give a liberal a map and a pencil. And yet, we continue to meddle where we are not needed. How many would still be alive now if they had been left alone to sort their own problems when the Ottoman Empire collapsed for example.
How long did the Balkan wars last due to half arsed attempts at unifying instead of allowing them to sort out problems that had lain dormant for 70 years and thousands more come to that.

Half the strife in Europe currently being manifest is due to repressed ethnic problems caused at the end of world war two. How many would be happily alive now had Stalin not decided to re-configure the Soviet Union to his own ethnic tastes and crush all decent, which now readily boils to the surface. Why do you think Poland and Hungary will only take Christians from Syria? One messes with ethnicity and religion at ones peril. Yet we still persist to do so!

Once upon a time a simple polite phrase linked us all "live and let live" and another was "when in Rome do as the Romans do". I have lived on all the continents of this world and found that I never offended anyone by doing these things and wish for nothing but the same in my own country to be observed by guests visiting here. Should they wish to live here I have no problem with that as long as these simple rules are observed. But I have a very considerable problem with anyone wishing to visit or live here trying to change the nature, faith or customs of my country and there is the problem as far as Englishmen and women are concerned. We do not wish to be anything but English by nature and culture.  Respect for each other is a two way street and currently in many parts of this country that is becoming a rare thing. Politicians should bear this in mind.. I see nothing good coming of doing otherwise.. as history proves. .

List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen

List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen week ending 4th September 2015:

1st gear:
Worsnip Dingle
Gregory Gripe
Percy Parnsip
Daily Tonic

2nd Gear
Humpty Blastfart
Mandrake Miser
Prentice W Walderblad Snr
Grott the Terrible of the planet Zog

3rd Gear
Hamilton Housetrained
Mandy Mouse-Trap
Fred Fumble

4th Gear
Unidexter Unbridled Lust
Erwin Appliance
Susan Undergarments
Fred Thread

5th Gear
Marsupial Mainbrace-Gargle
Arch Bishop Marmalade P Walrustittie
Baroness Brenda Blast-Foghorn of Strangled in the Hedges Glos.
Prentice Poopshoot

RIP
Mary Mongoose-Featherstone on Tuesday last, in bed. Donations to Arthur Dents Truss only please.

Graham Graduated and Miss Pamela Pavement are pleased to announce their engagement this thursday last. Bands to be played at St Grundfuttocks in the meadow. Objections welcome.

The birth of a boy to Sir Basil Blustery-Bloomers OBE KCBE DFC VD and Scars Retd and Marsha Blustery -Bloomers etc etc is announced at home following a brief bought of wind.

Club News;
The Wansworth Ladies Chapter announce the winner of the guess the scones terminal velocity as Mrs Catherine Capacity-Crowd with 2.4 meters per second.

Refugees

Ive spent the week watching the media going totally overboard in a feeding frenzy over the refugee migration to Europe. No aspect has been left without coverage, no spokesman left speechless, no pressure group un pressed no historical aspect missed and no politician persecuted to within an inch of the poor sods life and actually having to do something.. It has been as merciless as the wars from which these poor unfortunates flee. I will not concentrate over much on the fact that the media have driven this problem and in no small way caused a very marked escalation in the  mood and probable emergence of fear and violence as they do in every conflict..

It is a great shame for Europe and its European union is riven with fractures both political, national and ethnic and could well do without the press winding it up. The east of Europe will tell you honestly (the Polish, Czech and Hungarian Politicians already have clearly) that they want no truck with Muslim refugees and they east of Europe knows only too well the problems of religious and ethnic divide. Plus the east of Europe now makes up a third of the population of the EU and has a voice.

Thereby hangs the problem. The European Union has not the mandate or the mechanism to sort this problem. It was never created to be a Super State with a single parliament and thus foreign policy capable of handling this and the other problem of forced or economic migration that will haunt it unless it either becomes a super state or respects the self determination of its member states.

Further, it is not for the Germans to tell the EU how many refugees it should take... It is for the UN to request and the UNHCR to oversee by agreement. We have these organisations for a reason, we are a part of them and we must use them for the purpose they were set up for, or indeed make them do their job as they are responsible to us for doing that job and my goodness they cost us enough in donations.

Above all, it is not for the media to create the agenda and drive the debate, they are un-elected at best and riven with private interest at worse. Rebecca Brooks is a case in point!

One last point; Historically it is totally wrong to compare the end of world war two and its mass deportations, migrations and refugee problem with today. For example over 4 million Germans were evicted from Poland and the Czech Republic alone. It took the allies powers almost a decade to sort that problem and to compare the current problem with that is fatuous at best.

We have to learn from history, by all means, but we have to stop running around like a bunch of headless chickens and use the organisations we created to deal with this exact problem and that may well mean telling the press to go away and leave the professionals to it. If we do not then we are in for a very bad century indeed for this problem will increase and if forecasts of climate change and its effects are accurate then God help us.

I remember some years ago when I worked for UNHCR and we were faced with the eviction of the Bosnian Serbs back to Serbia. It was a very hot summer and a line of tractors and trailers as far as the eye could see headed towards the Serbian border with exhausted thousands was dramatic and heart breaking. However, very few camera crews covered that sorry picture. The Serbs were viewed by the media and the west as the bad guys of the conflict and soon to be bombed and so somehow less worthy of our pity. Oddly I never thought of a family prostrate upon a trailer in incredible heat as being bad but the media managed it. But there you have it. Once again you believe what the media can cram into a tv screen sized picture and if your told something often enough then you jump on board. Modern brain washing at its best.

The problem is, it is usually far from the complete picture and in this case the Serbs mainly unreported got on with, put their fire engines on and sprayed the convoys with water as they arrived at the border. They then took the refugees to reception centers and the Serbian Red Cross and UNHCR fed them..

Perhaps, once again, if we got the United Nations to do its job and took the veto away from China and Russia we may be able to sort the wars these people are fleeing from and then they would not have to flee!

Addendums to the list of Huntingdonshire Cabmen week ending 30th August 2015:

First Gear:
Barry Barely-Audible
Hogan Octagonal-Touserpress
Fanny the Fishermens-Friend
Count Ten
Frederick the Flatulent of Pomerania

Second Gear
Wilbur Legbrace
Freddy Finkeldinklestinklestien
Cedric Shirtail the III
Barry Bladderwort-Plague

Third Gear
Tim Dim
Elspeth Marsupial Ganderbrace the incontinent third Barnett of Hogfarts-in-the-Hedges
Mable Marbles-Gone
J Arthur Rank

Fourth Gear
The Rev Trevor Knee-Tremble All Saints Mainly-Flooded Glos.
Francis Fridge Freezer
General Horticulture


Fifth Gear
Mandrake Mandible-Extension
Count Claude de Formed of Normandy
Willie Wont-He


Fifth Gear With Diamond Clusters and Fruit Salad
HRH The Duchess Constance Krapper de  Water-Closet KCbO Md PM/AM and Bar twice removed bog brush in waiting to the Royal Chamber pot.

Special Notes:
Mildred Pettigrew and Miss Helena Bon Chance announce the reading of the bands at St Slightly Bent-Spires, Preston Bissett, Berks has been delayed due to rising damp following a fire in the vestry.

Correction to last weeks list:
Second gear... Delete Rubber - Insert Finger.
Third gear...... Delete Andy Error-Intoto. In toto.

RIP
Dilbert Dead-Weight  will be laying in state at the Coop Funeral Parlor and Garden Centre, Boxhill on sea between the hours of 1 and 1.15 am next tuesday week. Viewing by prior arrangement only please. Bring your own seat and optical aids.

Mary Mangled - at home (natural causes) despite husbands best efforts.. Sadly missed. Contributions to the rifle club.

Weekly ramblings

In no particular order, it seems to have been a week of ups and downs..Hysterical to watch the great and good panicking because a true old time socialist in a scruffy shirt may become the next leader of the Labor party. No matter how much they throw at him the public refuse to take away support and indeed it is obvious that the more the ruling elite panic the more we "plebs" like it. Rock on Mr Corbyn..

Emigration is still raising its head as a specter and bad omen for the future stability of Europe. We cannot go on absorbing the worlds refugees without massive implications to welfare, health and other support structures.. The EU as with all forums these days is proving just a talking shop with little power to act and when it does its overtaken by events. No one listens to the UN anymore and the media, who drive most things, these days managed to have a field day this week and changed the parlance from migrant to refugee, which was nice. No doubt we shall all go down the tube as the lawyers wring their hands and mumble about human rights, but wouldnt like one living with them. Time to act is now unfortunately and it is a simple enough thing to solve. Secure the borders and sort the problem at source.. We caused most of it by invading Iraq and doing nothing in Libya.  Then to just make the day complete our stance on Syria was at best headless chicken and that lead to the tribes rising, as Gadaffi warned it would before he died! But with what do we address... We have no conventional forces capable of doing the job and the rest of Nato is either backing Turkey in its stance against the Kurds, who are the only effective force fighting ISIS, or trying to put a bargain basement force together to bolster the east of Europe against Russia trying to re-start the cold war.. Sorry, not trying, they have! Interesting times.. As I have said before..We are a tribal based society and history proves and will continue to do so that nothing good comes of mass movement of refugees. We would do well to study how it was done after the second world war when most of the world was on the move. The Red Cross and The Allied Powers did a magnificent job then.. Why cant we do the same now? Cost I expect. I am no bigot or racist, by the way, I am a realist and think that most things can be solved if there is a will and a plan..

I saw with total disgust yesterday that over 90 a month are dying who have been re-assessed by the Department of Work and Pensions and been found capable of work. What that means is 90 people a week are dropping dead who were once being paid disability welfare and have recently been told they are not sick enough by a private company paid for results.. And nobody cares! What is the matter with this country.. 90 people a week dying because some arsehole has put them back to work when they are incapable through ill health.. What?
I met a chap yesterday who had been written off with very good cause, lost his licence and was extremely disabled who had been told he could do some work and had lost his benefit payments. He had no idea how to get from a to b or what he was going to do, or what he could do?

Ian Duncan Smith the author of Welfare reform in this country is a most onerous and despicable man. He lives rent free with his posh wife in a huge house and is just another of those tory gravy train MPs currently on a power trip. No doubt when he is past it he will toddle off to the Lords as did another 45 hangers on yesterday. We now have over 800 Lords all doing bugger all and too many bums for the seats in the Lords. Its disgraceful to think that only China has a second house bigger than UK. Un-elected and unwanted burden on the tax payer... Vet the Lords Mr Duncan Smith and see how many of those you can chuck out to get a job. Fat chance!

Social Media. Well what of it... I for one wouldnt mind a hole lot less of it, as a lot of it is very much less than social.

I watched in horror a short film on Youtube this week were a bunch of feral high school girls in America beat the living crap out of each other, while the boys all stood around in a circle with camera phones at the ready. This made me go on a short hunt and I found dozens of fights in schools recorded for your viewing pleasure.. One particularly savage and very one sided encounter ended up with the serious head injury to one poor unfortunate male who had tried to protect his girl friend.. As he lay there in serious need of medical attention the device needed to summon aid was being used to film his probable demise. The crowd by the way thought it all very good fun and were laughing hysterically. This was in a modern city and in broad daylight. What have we become.. It is beyond sick..To think one could be in total deadly peril requiring aid and your fellow man just views you as ideal entertainment to be filmed, the film circulated world wide and laughed at. I know this has met its ultimate sick expression with the filming by the culprit of the shooting of a news team in the US, but he was a very disturbed individual and goodness knows there are enough head cases in the world committing murder and filming it.. But what makes this all the worse was it was filmed by normal (apparently) kids who seem to have had a morality by-pass. Where are we going?

Following Cabmen hereby promulgated with effect week ending 21 August 2015:


Fist gear:
Chester Drawers
Helmut Tingle
David Fumble-Blatt

Second gear:
Peter Plonk
Percius Prentice-Pratt
Premula Spread

Third Gear
Hambel Humpstead
Greta Grabberspatula
Winston Spencer Beltwobble-Bottom
Morris Dancer


Fourth gear:
Brunwin Bubbersplargaturin of Mendibble
Turgid Gramophone-Time
Molly Wimblestone-Gently

Fifth gear:
Honourable Mrs Penelope Putrid-Spline
Count Ten
Captain Sir Grimspode Hamilton Largely-Splendid KCVO
Marmaduke Bisexually-Active
Spot the dog

RIP
Terrence Perennial-Herb

Notices:
Wedding is announced of Winston Graceful and Ariadne Spoke-Shave at ST Splods Ramsgate on the 28 Aug at 10.15 reception at the Savoy Chip shop at 3. Bring your own cutlery and plate. Flowers only please.