Politics

Goodbye, Yerp?

So, ‘tis the morning after the night before and we have a result. It isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but breakfast will be a sombre meal in Downing Street where it will be regarded as the worst of all possible outcomes.

Cameron took us into this expensive, divisive and damaging referendum for purely party political purposes. He’d hoped for a massive vote for remaining in the EU as that was the only way he could silence the Euro-Sceptic wing of his own party and effectively neuter UKIP.  Nothing short of at least 60/40 in favour of remain would have done that and in the early stages he must have thought he was on to a winner. Only very late in this bruising and hurtful campaign did it occur to him that the public didn’t altogether share his rose-tinted view of Europe!

Where do we go from here?

Leave has won, but not by a very big margin. The outcome of the referendum is not binding on Parliament, so don’t expect anyone to invoke Article 50 any time soon. More than likely that things will be fudged to the effect that because the majority was so small Parliament must make the decision. UKIP will stay with us, but making much more noise.

Stand by for lots and LOTS of legal challenges. Oh, and expect resignations!

Politics

Poisonous Politics

It’s now over half a century since I was involved in my first ever political campaign. (In case you’re interested, it was stuffing envelopes for my father’s efforts to get elected to the local council.) I’ve been quite an active campaigner over the years, less keen to do so in recent years as politics in the UK has become steadily more fractious.

The referendum campaign has finally killed off what was left of my enthusiasm for politics.

Firstly, there are all the lies and scaremongering that has been going on – from BOTH sides.  Some of it has been so far off the wall that it can only come from a political class so far out of touch with the people that they think we can’t see through their charlantry. They must hold us in such contempt.

The atmosphere is now poisonous. What should be reasoned, polite Continue reading Poisonous Politics →

General, Politics

Bring Back BR

I admit that today I gave up!

I don’t exactly live out in the sticks, but then again, my local station isn’t the Clapham Junction of Surrey. It does, however, have the complete misfortune to be “served” by Southern Railway.

During the peak rush hour between 7.30 and 8.30am there are supposed to be five trains heading into London. I arrived for my usual one at 7.45 only to find that it had been cancelled, as had the 7.30 and the 8.15. The 7.54 was still on the board, but then that got cancelled as well. That left the 8.26 – all five coaches of it!

I didn’t have a very good night’s sleep. I’m getting over a cold and that, coupled with the emphysema, kept me up coughing for quite a bit of it. I also don’t breath very well when under stress or in humid conditions, so I decided to call in and take the day off.

Now, I wish that I could say that Southern’s piss-poor performance Continue reading Bring Back BR →

Politics

Sometimes My Country Makes Me Sick

Two really disgusting things happened yesterday.

The first and most obvious was the killing of Jo Cox MP.  This was clearly a senseless act of violence which is utterly repugnant to any civilised person. It should be roundly condemned and it was correct that Corbyn and Cameron put aside their differences at least briefly to show respect.

The second is more insidious, but just as vile. Almost before the poor woman was cold some sick individuals from the left and right of politics and both sides of the referendum debate were seizing on her death to make political capital out of it.

Two of the worst examples?

False flag conspiracy Brexiters who think Ms Cox’s murder was a put up job to make us all vote to remain, and rabid Bremainers who point out how offensive this is and then proceed to tar every one who wants to leave the EU with the same brush.

Sometimes this country just makes me want to puke.

PS – It is now looking increasingly likely that the murderer is a neo-Nazi nutcase.

Law, Religion

An Attack on One of Us is an Attack on All of Us

I sometimes find it hard to believe man’s ability to be inhuman, but then another senseless act of violence brings it back into very sharp focus.

I could file the events of yesterday in Orlando in the already overflowing drawer labelled “Predictable Consequences of letting any old basket-case have a gun”.  We are all too familiar with the seemingly endless stream of carnage and mass murder from around the world, but this one’s rather personal.

The gunman’s father apparently told NBC News that his son was enraged after recently seeing a same-sex couple kissing in front of his family, “an event that could have set him off”.

Really?

Seriously?

THAT’S a reason to murder 50 people and ruin the lives of countless others? I see people doing things that offend me almost every day. Does that give me carte blanche to go crazy and kill anyone of whom I don’t approve? No! No! NO!!

What is emerging is a picture of an unstable racist, misogynist and homophobe who, regrettably, had easy access to weapons. The attack must have been homophobic, else why choose a gay nightclub.

Even more gross and disgusting is the absolute glee with which the attack has been seized upon by christian nutjobs claiming it as “god’s punishment”. Just Google “Pat Robertson” or “Westboro Baptist” if you don’t believe me! They are in paroxysms of righteous joy. Filth!

Well, there’s news for you and any other religious extremist who thinks they’re doing “god’s work” by spewing hate or violence towards gay people.  Homosexuality occurs naturally. There is reliable evidence to show that we were around long before your religions even got started. And we will be here long after they have crumbled into dust.

We will NOT go quietly into the night.

We’re Here, We’re Queer – now grow up and deal with it!

Politics

Flies, Frogs and Death of all the Firstborn

That’s what the outcome of this referendum campaign is beginning to look like.

In the last week or so there has been a series of increasingly hysterical claims being made by both sides on this (for want of a better word) “debate”. It’s most certainly not a patch on the more gentlemanly discussions in 1975, but there was more deference towards politicians then and more willingness to follow the establishment – which Wilson had got sewn up.

I’m not convinced about any of the extreme claims being made, whether they are Bremain’s claptrap about losing paid holidays and the onset of World War III or Brexit’s bollocks about rising wages or that the process of leaving will be easy.

What does disturb and disappoint me, though, is the tone in which much of this is carried out.

A friend recently shared a post on Facebook from a person in Norway. It was another of those lists of dire predictions – you know the stuff – if Britain leaves the EU the economy will shrink by 500%, we’ll have to bring back the Corn Laws, Scotland will vote to be towed out into the Iceland/Faroes gap and the Four Horsemen will escort Boris Johnson up Downing Street.

Fine! Chuck it on the heap with all the other predictions of Armageddon.

No – what upset me about this one was that it was prefaced thusly:

“British friends: if you know anyone who is considering voting for Brexit (and I sincerely hope you don’t), please point out to them that blah, blah blah…”

Are we no longer allowed to be friends with people who hold different political views? Have we sunk so low in our regard for each other that we must discard people because they disagree with us on how our country should be run?

If that is what politics is now to involve then I leave, I resign, I want no part of it.

Politics

Same Old Snake Oil

This here referendum thingy is going on a bit too long for me. I made my mind up months (read years) ago about whether we should leave or not and I’ve already cast my vote.

The referendum was painted as the opportunity to have a proper debate about the issues. What we have, however, is the usual childish mud-slinging contest. The latest to chuck his rattle out of the pram is John Major with his charges of “deceitful and dishonest”. Well, and both Norma and Edwina will back me up on this, his honesty is definitely not without a fucking great big stain on it!

I despair!

We have an elected chamber that conducts much of its business at the level of a lower school playground. Our elections are carried out fortissimo as yah-sucks-boo shouting matches. I suppose it was too much to hope that, for once, we would be able to take a major decision with our politicians acting like sensible informed adults rather than participants in the early stages of Monty Python’s argument sketch. Sadly not! We are destined for yet more “we’re right, you’re wrong, ner-ner-ni-ner”-ism

Research places politicians as the least trusted of all occupations, below even estate agents and journalists. And rightly so – they are, as a breed, disingenuous and dissembling. They trade in false promises, unreliable predictions and vacuous soundbites. Apart from a handful of honourable exceptions they serve no purpose but their own. Believe me, I have seen them in operation close up. They are not pretty people and should not be trusted with the running of a sweet shop let alone a country.

It is, in part, the very fact that so many of these Music Men are still trying to sell me the idea of a marching band that has helped to convince me that it’s time to leave failed experiment that is the EU.

Law

Fidler Loses His Roof

It’s nice to see in the papers in recent days that our local planning drama seems, at long last, to be drawing to a close.

Robert Fidler owns a farm about a mile from our back door. Back at the turn of the century he started work on a four bedroom house in the farm yard. Fairly unremarkable, except that he didn’t have planning permission and had no intention of applying for it. Instead he built his house inside a shell of hay bales and covered by tarpaulins.

He was trying to take advantage of a provision in Section 171B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to the effect that where building work is carried out without planning permission enforcement action may not be taken against it if it remains uncontested for four years.

Fidler completed his house in 2002, but only removed the hay bales to reveal it in all its “glory” four years later in 2006. He made no secret of his intention to bypass the need for planning permission. What he hadn’t banked on was that the local council and the planning inspector regarded the end of the building work as being when the hay bales were removed – a position later upheld by the Courts. He’d also failed to take account of what’s called the “Connor principle” which is a general rule of public law to the effect that no-one should benefit from their own wrong.

Cutting a very long story short it finally comes down to Fidler being ordered to demolish his house or face going to prison. Reports in April and May suggest that he has finally complied after a legal battle that has cost my local council over 50,000 smackers.

Quite aside from a certain amount of satisfaction in seeing this mock-tudor eyesore reduced to corrugated iron and rubble, I am more than a little cheered that this barrack-room lawyer smartarse has at last been forced to face reality.

However, what really grinds my gears is Fidler’s pathetic attempt to portray himself as a victim and his fractious claim that the local council is out to destroy his life.

Bollocks, Robert! You deliberately set out to flout planning law, but made the most glorious pratfall. Instead of accepting with at least some level of dignity and grace that your gamble failed to pay off you have engaged in a protracted and ever more futile legal battle that has cost the ratepayer a great deal of money that could have been better spent elsewhere.

Planning law is no law unless it is enforced. If Fidler had been allowed to get away with his stunt what’s to stop your neighbour opening a pig farm in their garden?

General

That Kids Company Thingy

I watched the BBC documentary which followed Camilla Batman’sdoodah through the collapse of the charity that she founded and “ran” for nearly twenty years.

That prompted me to watch her appearance alongside Botney of the Beeb before The House Of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee – a singularly ill-natured event from which she emerged looking like a teenager who has been caught running up a massive bill on Netflix.

The Committee, quite correctly, turned most of its firepower on Botney. The collapse, although sparked by allegations of sexual abuse, really happened because the charity ran out of money as it had nothing approaching proper reserves – a responsibility that the charity rules places on the trustees.  This was a £23 million a year organisation employing 650 staff, and they were existing from day to day even before the final allegations that brought it all tumbling down.

I started watching the documentary feeling quite well disposed to Camilla. I’ve always thought she was a bit odd, but there’s nothing wrong with that. But, in common with the film maker, I started to lose sympathy as some of the more, shall we say, eccentric things that Kids Company were doing began to come to light. You can watch the film yourself, but there’s something distinctly odd about a charity for Kids footing all the living expenses for a 34 Jamaican failed asylum seeker. Saying that she was “special” doesn’t really mean much, and I suspect that there is more to this than we have been told.

Obviously, there were mistakes in the running of Kids Company, but to listen to Camilla it’s clear that she is unable to even contemplate the possibility of some of those errors being hers. Every time she was challenged about something she became aggressively defensive, displaying a rather unpleasant mixture alternating between petulance and pomposity.  She had been at the helm for such a long time that she now believes in her own infallibility. Too late were Botney and the Board taking steps to get her to stand down.

Nobody could dispute that Kids Company did some admirable things, but there were problems and until such time as Camilla admits her own part in its downfall the poor woman will be unable to move on.

General

A hoo-ha in Halfords

I don’t want much out of life these days, but a bit of good old fashioned customer service would not go amiss now and then.

We have just bought a car, nothing fancy, but it suits us. Unfortunately, the built in stereo doesn’t do what we want, so we wanted to change it. Last Saturday morning we visited Halfords in Crawley, West Sussex.  (Yes, I know! We should really have known better.)

We found a unit that we quite liked the look of, despite there being no one there to assist. After about ten minutes of waiting we went looking for someone to help. We were told that someone would be with us shortly. After another ten minutes we went looking again. Alex mentioned that we were looking to buy a car stereo and have it fitted, to be met by the first response of “It won’t be today”. Well, that wasn’t actually the question. The “assistant” who finally came over gave the distinct impression that we were a nuisance.

Anyway, we showed him the unit we were interested in and he went to the desk to log on to the computer. We just seemed to be getting somewhere when another member of the public came in and, rather rudely, demanded information about MoT tests. Even more rudely the “assistant” then proceeded to deal with his question. When I worked briefly in retail the response would have been “I will be with you in a moment, sir, when I have dealt with this customer”.

At this point I had rather had enough of Halfords, so we went and got a coffee instead. If Halfords doesn’t want my money that’s fine by me, we’ll go somewhere else.

We did! Alex phoned a local company that specialises in car audio. They were helpful from the start and installed the new unit on Thursday.

The payoff is that when I mentioned that I had tried and failed to buy one from Halfords the installer said I was their third customer this week to say that! I’ve now written to their CEO politely advising her that I’m unlikely to use her shops in future for anything more complicated than an air freshener. Doing a bit of simple extrapolation I’d say that customers just walking away could be costing them a quarter of a million a week in lost sales.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind!