French Cries

It is reported that the French Prime Minister is coming to London today to ask us to help out with the Euro crisis by agreeing to greater integration. The French have a habit of asking us to help out although I do not recall what thanks or help we have ever received in return. Where was the help we needed against the Argentine as the French continued to sell our enemy exocet missiles? Where was the help we needed when we were are under enormous pressure before our ignominious exit from the European Monetary Union? Of course we must not talk about the last World War. We must, as de Gaulle would have done, say NO. There will be those who will say we should help out and use the occasion to seek a quid pro quo. When have we ever had the better of the negotiations with the cheating, lying fascist bureaucrats at the EU? We do not have a long enough spoon to deal with the EU tricksters. Let the eurozone countries go hang and clear up their own mess. This is a real test for our government, a real test for Cameron and its timing could not be more propitious, coming as it does after the vote on the EU Bill  in Parliament yesterday.

Obama Loves French Fries

Bummer is at it again claiming that the French are the United States's greatest ally. Bummer has of course to distance himself from everything Bush  said and did but the Americans felt very differently when they were frustrated by the French whilst trying to get a resolution about Iraq through the Security Council at the UN. So angry were the Americans that they even refused to eat French Fries and a number of restaurants changed their menus by calling French Fries something else. One has to laugh but on the other hand Bummer is showing all the gift for government that our late lamented leader Mr Brown showed. I do hope someone puts him out of his misery by beating him at the polls at the next election. I hope so for our sake as neither he nor the third rate Hillary is a friend of this country and I do not trust them to do the right thing in an uncertain world. We have been lucky so far that there has been no international crisis of the kind that occurred in the Bush years as I have no confidence that they could do any better, indeed as they are bleeding heart liberals they will inevitably do worse. Of course Bummer has to go to to Tucson but there is a nagging thought that says the real reason he is going is for party political purpose not for national interest. Until the mid-term elections he had demonstrated his Brown like tribal roots and I don't think that he's suddenly become more impartial or even handed. 

Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa on the Kings Road does a three course lunch for £9 and sells its house wine at £10 per bottle. It is the best value anywhere in London and the quality of both the food and wine is not that bad either. As you can imagine that kind of price attracts an eclectic crowd from manual labourers to those of the more intellectual kind. It is a fascinating place if you enjoy people watching. I was there for lunch with my elder brother yesterday and we were talking about education. We agreed that with the rest of what the government is doing it will have to ensure that the politics of the teacher training colleges is changed so that the spirit of those like Ms Birbalsingh is fostered rather than suppressed. I had also reminded my brother how two of my children had passed through teacher training college having been called to see their respective tutors in one case only once and in the other case only three times and wondered what else these tutors could have been doing to earn their salary, if anything. It was at this point that a rather powerful but unshaven and scruffy chap at the next door table interrupted us. I was a little afraid that he might want to thump us. However he excused himself by saying that he was a teacher but had become so disillusioned he had taken a year out to travel to Australia and India and had only just returned. His disillusionment had arisen as a result of three main issues - firstly, the employment over the last 10 years of middle management and the increased bureaucracy and waste that this had inevitably generated, secondly, the stifling of any individual thought or action making teachers afraid to make any complaint against a manager or support a colleague wishing to do so for fear of losing their job and lastly grade inflation where what was an exam question at GCSE had now become an A level question. He also mentioned that the emphasis on course work for exams had had the result of making it easier for girls to pass rather than boys who work better under short term pressure, nor was he in favour of sats. He hoped the coalition government would re-balance the education system and rid it of the unnecessary jobs worths and allow teacher enthusiasm to flourish for the benefit of the children.      

Quangos

Quango burning has not it seems been as effective as first hoped. Indeed according to the Public Administration Committee the bonfire has failed to result in greater accountability and in a reduction in spending. One of the Committee members, Charles Elphicke MP, has said that quangos spending our money to lobby for more money from us is wrong. He's right and it should be prohibited. The Telegraph believes Mr Maude should think again and I agree with them. Whilst preparing further quangos for the bonfire Maude should also look at the Charity Commission and repeal the Labour Charities Act. It is appalling that charities can now engage in political lobbying. It is a misuse of the donations given them by their supporters for the charitable purposes for which they exist. Whilst repealing the Charities Act the present chairman of the Charity Commission, Suzi Leather, should be dismissed. The only reason for her appointment was because she was a Labour party apparatchik and would ensure that the goal posts for becoming or remaining an educational charity would be moved to the charity's detriment for naked political purpose.  

The Deficit is a Deceit

Ed Miliband says the Government is being deceitful about the deficit. He says that Labour was not to blame and that the deficit was not caused by chronic overspending but by the global financial crisis. From 2002 the Labour government spent billions in excess of tax revenues and racked up a huge deficit even before the global financial crisis hit us in 2007. There is no deceit - unless Miliband is deceiving himself. I don't think he's that stupid so the only other conclusion one can come to is that he is telling a big fat lie. Die hard Labour supporters like Mr McCluskey, the new leader of the Unite Union, no doubt believe in what Miliband is saying - they would do wouldn't they. McCluskey also believes in fairy tales since he told Jeff Randall on Sky this evening that the cuts are being imposed for no reason other than an ideological one and that the first thing to do in order to deal with the deficit was to stop all tax avoidance. According to McCluskey there are £40 billion of tax to be raised by abolishing tax avoidance (Jeff Randall quoted a figure of £25 billion). How does anyone know how much could be raised by banning tax avoidance and how would you do it particularly when it is perfectly legal to arrange your tax affairs in such a way that minimises the tax you have to pay. McCluskey also wants to increase the rate of tax for high earners. In his estimation obviously he should be able to put his hand in a rich man's pocket for all his needs.
       

Mohammed

Apparently this awful name is now the first (I hesitate to say Christian as we all did when I grew up, including my Jewish friends) name given to most boys born in this country. Furthermore we learn that not only is Britain a Mecca for Hamas in its campaign to 'delegitimise' the Israelis here but also that there has been a record number of conversions of Her Majesty's subjects to Islam. This is all quite frightening to those of us who never thought for a moment that our country would be changed to something we never wanted nor were asked to vote on. We all know the world is a small place and that we must expect globalisation here at home, particularly as a result of the legacy of Empire but God save us from those appeasers who would accept Sharia law and other such obscenities. We must stand up for our rule of law, our English way of life and even our feeble Church or, in the words of Dad's Army, 'we shall all be doomed Captain Mainwaring'. Already London has changed out of all recognition from my youth and I am well aware that there are other towns in this country which are predominantly peopled by those from abroad as if we were a new sparsely populated country needing significant numbers of immigrants to grow. We have as usual been let down by the Labour party and in part also by the Conservatives. Damn all politicians for their arrogance in thinking they know best.    

Monbiot and Other Nonsense

For those who do not know Monbiot he is a warrior for those affected by global warming and ungreen policies and now it seems those wanting a roof over their heads. According to his article in the Guardian this morning he has discovered that there is an enormous number of houses with excessive bedrooms, i.e. bedrooms that are never or hardly ever used. He thus wants these bedrooms to be allocated to those who are unable to get pads of their own. The Soviets tried this and indeed house sharing of some sort or other is still probably being practiced in parts of those countries now freed from having to hide behind the old Iron Curtain. It was certainly still alive and well and greatly resented by those forced to live with others in Hungary when I was there 10 or so years ago. What is it with these people who want to dictate how others should live their lives? What makes them think they have any idea worth imposing on others? I suppose though useful idiots do have a function by giving the rest of us something to laugh at. Sadly though his support for the global warming nonsense is costing us all a huge sum of money and will continue to do so until the pseudoscience is slain. On this topic I see that the Met Office is saying it did not publish its long range forecast of a cold winter because it was concerned about the reaction to it. It seems though that whilst it forecast a cold winter it was still publishing charts on its website showing rather the reverse - see http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100070451/how-the-doomed-met-office-tried-to-spin-its-way-out-of-trouble/