Terms of endearment

I could not believe my ears this morning when the radio news informed me that the care commission (presumably a commission that cares?) had inspected a care home in Yorkshire and found it to be homely, but the terms of address were inappropriate. Such terms as:
Dear
Love
Cherub
and one Lady who requested to be called "Parsnip" (her family nic-name) and was so called by the staff. All these were found to be inappropriate. God help us!
Firstly, its Yorkshire they are forms of endearment in common use and should be a comfort to elderly folk used to using them all their lives.. Lighten up care commission.

When I was a kid I was addressed as far worse than that and you have no idea the bond that can be established by being called:
Me duck
Pet
Pudding Chops
Wee Bear

All the above being nice ones. In later life i was frequently called worse and still am, but in good humor and by friends. There I suppose is the rub.. Once again Liberal inclusionism gone mad. We must all conform.. Well, no we must on no account do so. As long as it causes no offence to "normal" folk we should not conform. Long established forms of address totally have a place in the culture from where they come and should be applauded. I for one would hate to be addressed formally in a care home by the staff who when all said and done can be the only family old folk have and in my case probably will be. Call me what you like ducks..Ill take no offence, long as I know your a gud-un!

See, thats the point! Its what you have in your heart that counts

Briefly, Sadly and predictably Germany and Austria are joining the list of European Nations putting up the fences and alerting their armies to control the influx of migrants/refugees now emboldened by social media and the media to tramp the fields to a safe heaven or better life.

Ironic that Merkel taps into popular feeling by flinging open the German Borders only to be told within days by the Bavarian and other impacted states to retract the offer and shut the doors. Anyone with half a brain could and did tell her that a mass influx of refugees/migrants would swamp the authorities and indicate to desperate people that now was the time to flee. And so it has happened.

I say ironic because Chancellor Khole in the 1990s did a similar thing by recognizing Croatia and prompting the start of the Bosnian Wars. It seems inappropriate verbosity and not thinking through the consequences is a German trait.

Once again; please Europe get a grip and rapidly get the rules sorted and then implement them. Its criminal what Europe is subjecting these people to and the southern countries impacted by this tidal wave of human misery.

 Its one thing to make the news Madam Chancellor and brief popularity, but sometime your job is to look for a long term solution and it seems to me your not. Europe needs to get a grip.

Following Huntingdonshire Cabmen List is approved for the week ending 11 September 2015:
First Gear:
H. Prune- Stone
Wenslydale Humpback-Whale
Prentice Pratt
Nelly Candlewick-Bedspread

Second Gear:
Ford Prefect
Austin Cambridge
Morris Oxford
Dennis Fire-Engine

Third Gear
Grand Wizard Hamilton Marsh-Gas
Terrapin Turps
Mandrake Mongoose-Pillion Snr
Hercules Plenty

Fourth Gear
Basil Thunderpants
Henrik The Dane  (Scandinavian Chapter)
Graham Gradual-Incline

Fifth Gear
Trevor  Horizontal-Azimuth
Lord High Poo-Bar and most masterful Beaker of the planet Arghhhhhhhh (Alien Chapter)
Lady Pringle Elspeth Derby-Dingbat. third countess of Dingbatshire twice removed current toilet role in waiting to HRH the Princess Royal of Spode and Crown Derby.
Spencer Led-Astray

Notices:
RIP
T. T. Roast (third gear)at the base of the stairs.. Tuesday last following a short trip.  Flowers only to his wife Mavis.
Birth is announced of daughter to Ann and Mathew String-Vest at home with her socks on. Christening at St Staples the Stationers Wycombe on the 15th.

Other business:
Nil.  

Yeahhhh For Jezza Corbyn

I have to say I am socialist with a very small "s" and one would think the current crop of Blairites in Labour HQ would be just my cup of tea. But, they, in common with their greasy professional politicians and ever present add men, who inhabit no 10, really do leave me shuddering. Therefore, a promise of a return to clause four, public ownership of the railways and power companies is no bad thing in my mind. Plus and here is the big one for me,  a proper conviction politician in his mums cardigan opposite Cameron in his Savile Row Suit at Prime Ministers Question time has my mouth watering with the prospect of Tory for dinner. Yum yum, go to it Jezza.

I may have to revise the size of the S soon, because the more I think of it the more I like the thought of an end to bankers influence and the injustices that see the old, sick, unemployed and poor having to suffer under rampant capitalism. Yes, up the workers.. Its time the Labour Party returned to its routes and the Blairites went and joined the Conservative party where they belong. Clear out the money lenders from the church! It must be my Miners routes coming out and having laid dormant since the strike. Granddad would be proud today.

Maybe its the start of something? Along with the socialists doing so well in Greece and Spain. Are the poor and disposed finding a voice? All those poor Liberals also found a cause? I hope so. . Could be the sound of the International may be heard at the Labour Party conference.

Of course the "smiley's" and add men currently doing a "Tessa Giles" in Labor HQ will be planning how to kill Jezza off before he can do toooo much damage, or more particularly give them the boot into more productive and possibly manual labor! So, I hope our boy has the "right stuff" because he has got a hell of a task on his hands.

So, congratulations to the millions who spent £3 to support him and I for one extend to him all the luck in the world with trying to bring a more humane and honest form of laborism to the commons and I hope to our lives. I really hope he can rock the commons and unify this country by making it a more fairer and equal place where we can be proud of looking after our old, sick and less fortunate and give a fair chance to all

Unless your one of the one percent who own 99 percent of the wealth? In which case I wish you a healthy income tax bill and on behalf of the poor thank you..

Probably time you shifted your fat greedy arse abroad?

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!