Sunday 31 August 2008

Derby County

I am really in pain! Yet another defeat this time to a team which, previously had lost every match, ensures that we now at the bottom of the league again. The reports state that we dominated the game but Barnsley scored the goals. No excuses this team has real morale problems and that is the fault of the manager.

Last week a player defied the manager and was so desperate to leave the club that he crept into the kit room, removed his boots and went to Marseilles for a trial! The manager retaliates by saying that he will never play for the club again! That is obviously precisely what he wants. Why is this happening I ask time and time again?

What is wrong with this club that we constantly hear that the management and the players are continually in strife? Where is the harmony, the confidence and the team spirit which binds good teams together. Paul Jewell (the Manager) seems to have lost the plot. No team can go so long without winning a game without the management taking some share of the blame. I don't want to know how well he did at Wigan when he was much younger. I want to know why he cannot pick a winning team.

Let me help him. When a player is as short on confidence as Rob Hulse is then rest him. I know the manager paid out a lot of money for the fourth choice striker at Sheffield United but he must accept the obvious. Our hardest working striker is Wayne Ellington - play him!

Kris Commons was know at Nottingham Forest as flattering to deceive. He is talented but he is not producing a decisive cutting edge. Give him an ultimatum: get goals or get out!

If you are going to sign a youngster from Arsenal who has come to a team at the bottom of the league then play him! If he doesn't come off then fair enough but give him a chance. There are still players on the books who haven't played a game this season who two years ago got promotion from this very same league.

This is your team Mr Jewell but the club belongs to the fans. If you are not up to the job then go before we drop any further. I am still behind you but only because I love the club. Surely even you have to concede that almost one whole year without a league win is getting beyond a joke and most of it lies at your door.

Jack Straw with Emily Maitlis!

I was almost on my feet cheering at the way Emily Maitlis did not allow Jack Straw to dominate the interview on the Andrew Marr Show this morning in the way that Andrew Marr would have done. Something tells me that Emily had not read the script. The script normally reads that Andrew feeds Jack a soft question then lets him waffle on for the next ten minutes making fatuous point after fatuous point until he runs out of breath.

Andrew then feeds him another line and Jack gets free air time to babble on about how successful NoLab has been until we cannot stand it any more.

Emily didn't know that this was the procedure because she kept interrupting the 'Justice' Secretary and asking him to answer the question. What did NoLab intend to do to ease the pain of the credit crunch? AhHa now that is a good question and Jack knew the answer but he wasn't going to tell us the voters. You see it is a secret known only to the great and the good. Gordon you see has a plan which he will announce when he deems it the right time. This sounds a bit like his vision for the future which caused him to cancel the phantom election shortly after he eased into Tony Blair' seat.

The PM has huge ambition and very limited ability which just about sums up the whole of the NoLab posturing crew. Have we ever had a more self serving, ideological, money squandering cabinet than this crowd? I cannot think of one policy which this bunch have initiated which remotely benefits the public at large. Everything is designed to promote their own pathetic, personal well being.

Well enjoy it you sods because it won't last long now. The Glenrothes By-Election will no doubt shame you again. OK... it won't shame you into calling a general election because why throw away another couple of years of ruining the economy and stealing money from the public purse for your own personal gain?

I just hope that when you are gone for good, never to be seen again, that someone finds out what you have done and that you all end up in the dock. I do realise that there is a lot of protection for people like you at the top end and that the Tories will support your attempt to beat the rap but one day somebody of integrity will emerge from this country and expose all of you.

In the meantime can we have the Emily Maitlis show? The problem is that NoLab would boycott it now that they know she is not an idiot!

Thursday 28 August 2008

Arrested? They wanted to kill Gordon Brown!

Heh! I should really be scared. Now I know that terrorism is a very serious subject and we should all be alert to the possibility of a terrorist attack but being arrested for wanting to kill Gordon Brown? Is that really an offence? With tongue very much in cheek I have to say that there must be so many people in the frame for this crime!

Time to go Gordon before we get you. By the 'we' of course I mean the electorate but then Gordon won't ever stand for election. He will duck out before the inevitable and leave someone else to face the public.

Tony Blair was always worried about his legacy but Gordon Brown faces an electorate knowing that he has no legacy... nothing... disgust perhaps... possibly pity... but this man deserves nothing but contempt because he is a useless git who has contaminated all aspects of public life.

I realise that the people who were arrested today are my enemies alongside his but we have something in common. We all want rid of him!

Derby County

What the hell is going on? I read that before the game against Preston on Tuesday evening the manager (Paul Jewell) got the team together and told them that none of them was fit to captain his team. He therefore drew lots and the captain for the evening became Paul Connolly who has never played for the club before.

Well the upshot is that the team won which probably makes Jewell a lucky manager. Well I say lucky but he has yet to win a league game and he has upset the local press by alleging that they were not supporting the club in the manner that he wanted. Cue howls of protests particularly from the doyen of Derby County reporters, Neil Hallam, who has been commenting honestly on Derby County since the seventies! He is a marvellous writer who pens with humour and is not scared to confront anyone who he sees failing in the duty of running his club properly.

I have blogged recently that I am suspicious of Paul Jewell because I have not seen the improvement on the pitch that we should expect. I suspect that as a desperate measure he introduced a former academy player, Miles Addison, as a defensive midfield player and then changed the full backs. Well it worked but all my background and training in the army tells me that you should know who your captain is and if you don't then it is you who is the problem. Jewell brought most of these players to the club including the foremost object of his derision Robbie Savage.

Having said all that I have that little funny feeling that perhaps Jewell will get out of jail but am I viewing events through rose coloured spectacles? Never mind when I get down my local club on Friday night I will, once again, use my standing joke! Remember I am surrounded by Leicester and Forest fans so...hands up all those who are still in the Carling Cup... oh am I the only one then!!! Hilarious!

The People in the Shadows

This BLOG was born out of a deep sense of frustration which I now know is mirrored up and down the country. One only has to view other BLOGs and read the letters pages on almost every newspaper in the land to sense the deep despair spreading across the country. It has also been reflected in every recent by-election result but still Gordon Brown and his useless cabinet will not let their grip on power go. Heaven only knows what David Cameron will find when we eventually get an election.

This week in my local paper a letter had been submitted by a teacher prior to returning to work after the summer holidays and she seemed to care quite deeply about her responsibilities with the children but she seemed in despair at having to face and confront an army of government consultants, advisors, administrators and middle managers.

Now I knew that it was bad and I knew that the government was employing an army of people to ensure that their targets were being met but this article emphasised that the situation is much worse than even I thought. Apparently it is also the same with hospitals, the police and the Fire Service with the same shadowy figures calling all the shots. These people sit on the sidelines telling the professionals what to do and they are getting paid very well for doing so.

They are not necessary! The professionals are quite capable of running their class rooms, wards, crime desks and shifts without interference from the outside. The problem is that the current government are obsessed with targets and statistics. Ask the PM a question and he fires back figures. It happens all the time at Question Time in the Commons. They cannot trust the professionals because if they do then they lose control which is their prime objective. They are committed to ensuring that they control as many aspects of our lives as they can.

Unfortunately for them they have been rumbled. One of the reasons that the economy is going downhill so fast is that all these advisors and consultants have to be paid for and they are not producing anything. I just hope that when the Tories win the next election that they give the professionals back the responsibililty for their professions and make the people in the shadows get proper jobs.

Wednesday 27 August 2008

Charnwood Borough Council

Well guess what? My local council has lost a computer and all of our personal details have been made public to anyone who wants them! Are we really surprised? The local government officials of today are a travesty of those from yesteryear. So now what should happen and what will happen?

What should happen is that the Chief Executive should resign. He/she is obviously not fit to hold the position. It is a national disgrace which brings dishonour to all of us. If we cannot trust the people at Southfields to guard our personal details then where do we go next? There is obviously nothing of integrity left in the people who survive purely on what we pay in Council Tax. They simply do not care.

What will happen is that the CEO will refuse to resign and will be backed up by all the councillors who we stupidly voted for at the last election. NONE of them will demand his/her resignation. Nobody will question his/her suitability for the job which he/she should have lost the minute this computer was discovered.

If they do not sack the ridiculously high earning official who was found out to be incompetent then what is the point of anything? After all our bank details are almost the most precious possession that we have. If the council officials are so incompetent that they allow this information to be auctioned off on EBay then hell where do we go from here?

Now we should all demand that the Chief Executive must resign. He is obviously (sorry) a total twat. The Head of the department who committed this atrocity should also go and so should anyone else in the chain of command down to this computer.

I mean for Gawd's sake how does a council computer come to be auctioned on EBay?!! Who authorised that and why?!

Yeah I know that the reality of local government in 2008 when they are all overpaid and protected means that nothing will happen. Nobody will be regarded as culpable and nobody will be sacked because if one goes then they all go!

I look forward to the letters column in the Loughborough Echo this week!

Tuesday 26 August 2008

Derby County

I don't believe it!! My team has won a game and I am ecstatic! OK it was only 1-0 against Preston in the Carling Cup but I have to remember that they stuffed us 1-4 last season.

Now I have a sneaky feeling that Paul Jewell is reading this BLOG because tonight he introduced the new signings who so far have not had a opportunity to show their worth. He also played a lad from the academy squad who did very well. I don't care how he does it because we are now through to the third round of the Carling Cup. Rams fans are so used to 'Cup' failure that we must now hope for a good draw.

Sinister Links to Sinister Groups

I have believed for many months now that there are sinister goings on at the heart of government in these modern times. No fair minded person can ignore the conduct or the inactivity of this government when it concerns crime, education or immigration.
It is appalling that children cannot play safely in our streets. It is appalling that our useless police refuse to respond to local crime and it is appalling that the exam grades continue to rise year upon year to such an extent that they have now become meaningless.

This sometimes appears to be a concentrated effort to destroy the youth of the country because we now have unprecedented violence on our streets and nobody seems to know what to do about it. Well that is wrong we all know what should be done but we have a government who refuses to acknowledge the problem never mind react to it. We are involved in two unnecessary wars which have the effect of neutering our armed forces which woiuld be very convenient if we ever have any problems at home. 24 hour drinking, homes for single mothers, mountains of debt for students, contraceptives for kids... it is a depressing catalogue of the young being encouraged to be irresponsible. It shows too. Whenever any of them appear in front of a camera their ignorance of anything of consequence is so often all too evident.

All these thought have been with me for some time and I must admit I sometimes wonder if I am becoming paranoid but then a BLOG called Christian World has come up with a link that I believe is really sinister. Apparently the former National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) had links with paedophiles. They had at one time representatives of paedophile groups on the Council and members of the current government worked with them. MP's like Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt were once prominent members of the NCCL and were actively involved with the paedophile groups and so I pose the question why? What possible reason could the National Council for Civil Liberties have for engaging with paedophiles? Why give them any platform whatsoever? No wonder our kids are under threat. When members of the government have links to groups like this then what is their agenda?

I am also mindful that Margaret Hodge MP, the Minister for Children and wife of Lord Hodge who just happens to head our pathetic Immigration effort, was linked to an horrendous scandal in the 1990's when she was in charge of Islington Borough Council. She ignored complaints from abused kids and then added insult to injury by questioning the motives of some of the people abused!

Is this also the reason that we are being forced into recognising the existence of same sex liaisons. I personally have no problems with adults who prefer same sex relations but I abhor their practice and I do not want it shoved in my face. I am in
complete agreement with the Christian groups who insist that it is an unnatural practice. Yes I know that some people prefer it that way and I also know that there are people in our society who have absolutely no self control. It doesn't matter to them whether it be men, women or children and they are the monsters who we have to protect our children from.

It really concerns me that members of our political class have in their past aligned themselves to those engaged in unnatural acts because that means that their heads are not in contact with reality. I now await for books on homosexual practice to emerge in our schools and then I will know our kids are being attacked!

Monday 25 August 2008

The Return of our Olympians

Today we saw the return of our British Olympic Team which the BBC has christened 'Team GB' a term that many of us find derogatory. Generally we did very well but let's face it the blue riband events are the Track and Field athletes who with notable exceptions performed no better than average.

We have completely lost our way where the middle and long distance events can only be described as a national disgrace. For far too long the presence of Paula Radcliffe has disguised our weakness in this sphere. We have two middle distance athletes Andy Baddeley and Lisa Dobriskey who have the capability to challenge in the 1500 metres but when the chips were down they both failed to run up to their potential. Lisa in particular just didn't seem to believe that she could have won a medal as she consistently wandered to the inside where she could not cover the moves up front. I think that Brendan Foster's outburst on TV was necessary and well made.

Perhaps I am being unfair because when I was fourteen I trained regularly around the darkened streets expecting that I would be safe. Every week we ran cross country races at school and so potential long distance athletes could be discovered and encouraged. Today the average fourteen year old is probably too scared to leave his computer to train in the streets. Certainly I have never seen a school cross country take place in recent years and judging by the spindly little legs jutting out from beneath shorts this summer few are exposed to regular exercise.

Still athletics apart something works in Britain today because so many did achieve in their chosen sports and the potential is there for 2012. I did notice however that much of our success was in events which could be described as 'elitist'. You know not many inner city kids sail or row and I reckon there has to be some social advantage to pick up one of those special bikes that the cyclists use. I do know however that the poor girl who bashed herself to bits on the BMX cycling probably would not count herself as having a social advantage. There are always exceptions to the rule.

Their homecoming today appeared to be a joy. It was however, marred by one man. I nearly threw up when I saw that the PM who has recently sold off so many school sports fields had positioned himself at the entrance door so that nobody could avoid shaking his hand. Does it never occur to him that he is a deeply unpopular person and I am sure that many of the returning athletes would not want to be greeted by him. It was so creepy and so unnecessary.

I see that Guido Fawkes on his blog is seriously questioning the PM's sanity. The venomous comments he has attracted from people who agree with him indicates that he is not alone in this line of thinking. It is worth a visit.

Sunday 24 August 2008

Derby County

Dear Paul Jewell(Manager of Derby County),

Sorry boss but after the Saturday show you cannot expect to have much time left. I can't put my finger on what the problem is but it is quite clear that this team, that you have personally put together, is being played off the park. Once again the problem is that they cannot pass the ball. That means that they lose possession and they are constantly under pressure. I have it on authority from a mate that Southampton have major problems and are relying on kids to get them our of trouble!

You have signed almost everybody and anybody but you cannot put a team on the park. The fans know that Ellington is better than Hulse but you insist on playing Hulse who you paid big bucks for and that is the problem.

We have one saving grace. We have two Aussies coming back from the Olympics who have done very well away from Pride Park and you. I reckon you need them so do the right thing and play them. After all you don't really have an alternative. After all Albrechtson is not doing so well, Connolly and Stewart haven't had a chance, Green cannot control a game, Commons flatters to deceive, Kazmierczak has disappointed, Pereplotkins was dropped after one game, Davies is still a kid, Dickinson has already been binned, Barazite didn't live up to his billing etc etc! That leaves only Roy Carroll as being worth his wages.

I cannot help but wonder what the problem is? Are you a manager or a conman? You give me the impression that you are a hardman capable of being a bully and so does your assistant Chris Hutchins. Players cannot play if they are scared. Why can't they pass the ball? Why can't they retain possession? What do you do in training?
All these players are good professionals so it must be you. Look at Lee Holmes who was cut adrift and yet came back to haunt us.

Where are our youth team graduates? Can you not spot a young player coming through? Is our academy so devoid of talent and if so why? Davis continues to lumber around the box losing a lot of aerial balls but we never see Nyatanga. So many questions but so few answers. Don't lose at Preston on Tuesday boss because that will really look bad. However, I doubt there is a single Rams Fan alive who seriously believe that the team that you have created will win that game. I hope that I am wrong... I really do.

Trojans and Cookies!

I have been quiet recently because I have been dealing with trojans and cookies! What? I hear you say...well the people of my age may say that but I am sure that the modern generation all well aware that trojans and cookies affect your computer to such an extent that it can crash completely.

Out there in the ether there are a group of people who take great delight in devising nasty little programs which they will then drop into any computer that they can gain access to. These programs can be quite ingenius and elaborate and so I called in my own personal cavalry in the shapes of my son and son in law and my computer is now armed with additional security software which seems to be holding the attackers at bay.

It doesn't stop the spam merchants though. Spam is the generic word for the idiots who send out unwanted E-Mails. At the moment some seedy little oik thinks that it is a wonderful idea to send me pictures of Paris Hilton in all states of undress. Why me and why Paris Hilton I don't know but I tell you what there are a lot of photos around of this young lady in compromising positions!

Then of course there are the warning E-Mails from banks who will tell you that your account is under threat so they just want you to confirm your details so that they can put it right! So far I have had warnings about my accounts at the Halifax, Lloyds PayPal and a couple of others which is strange because I don't have accounts at any of them.

The point that I am trying to make is that it is about time that laws were introduced to stop this. At the very least it is an invasion of my privacy and at the worst it could prove costly. These little sods are dangerous and should be dealt with severely but like everything else in this country nobody will do anything about it and it will probably get worse!

Tuesday 19 August 2008

The Olympic Games

I am becoming a bit square eyed because I have become addicted to the Olympic Games. It happens every four years and I start watching sport which normally I wouldn't give a second glance. The difference is that this year we are winning lots and lots of medals and it is wonderful to see clean British athletes standing on top of the podium.

It got me thinking that how in this country which has recently been ruined by fifth rate politicians can we still produce wonderful young men and women who can beat the world. If you listen to Rebecca Addlington, Chris Hoy or even the Yngling girls it is the organisation behind them which has produced the gold medals. Yes they are the people who actually do the job but without the back up teams they would not be able to produce their best.

Now my point is who are these people? Who are the backroom staff who are so good at organisation and leadership that they can produce world beaters? Why can't we find them in politics? Why not put the running of the country in their hands? After all they must be reasonably honest because these days our sports people are tested to oblivion for their resistance to drugs (by the way have you noticed how the Russians have slipped down the medals table). They obviously have leadership qualities and they do not have allegiance to anyone other that those who wish to benefit this country.

So everyone how about Jurgen Groebbler for Prime Minister?! (PS He is the Head Coach of Rowing!). By the way our PM is about to hit Beijing to bask in the reflected glory of our sports people who have done so well. That great blogger Guido Fawkes continually casts our PM as a Jonah beyond parallel. I surely hope not because he didn't arrive for Christine Ohourugu but he might be there for Phillips Oduwu!

UPDATE: Phillips Oduwu got the silver, Goldie Sayers placed fourth in the woman's javelin and our relay team got disqualified!! AAAGH! I'm not even sure that he is there yet he may just be on his way!!

Sunday 17 August 2008

Apathy and Politics

There was a councillor from Derby on the local news this evening suggesting that we should change the day that we vote so that apathetic voters would be encouraged to turn out. I cannot believe that these political oiks live in their own dream world. They either don't get it or they refuse to swallow it but the reason that people don't vote are many and various and at the top of the list is that most of us have totally lost our respect for lying gutless politicians who are well past their sell by date.

They have given so many of the responsibilites of governing our country to Europe which means that their value as politicians has eroded. Our utilities have been sold off and our railways are being run for profit so the service is poor and the price is high. The roads are therefore packed and gridlock is nigh.

We are being exploited by almost everyone be it local councils, utility companies, banks, building societies and at the top of the list is our government who tax us unmercifully and then top it up with fines for almost anything deemed as a misdemeanour.

Trust in politics is at an all time low and even solid, tax paying citizens like myself feel disenfrancised. Neither major party will change anything. I keep waiting for David Cameron to announce some relief for the tax payers. I wait in vain for the hint of a policy on law and order which would meet with public approval. Can nobody halt the march of the politically correct bigots and give us back our national sense of humour? Who will tackle the rise in drunkenness and drug abuse currently destroying our youngsters.

Once again exam results have improved for the umpteenth year in succession and yet many of us believe that their is something desperately rotten at the heart of our education system. Let's face it I wouldn't trust the people marking the papers because there are far too many tales appearing in the press about inconsistent marking.

It goes on and on. In every sphere of government influence there are problems. Vast sums of money are being thrown at them but nobody seems to monitor what happens to it. We only see certain individuals getting very rich by picking up tax payers money which wasn't originally designed to end up on their pockets.

These are just a few of the reasons that people aren't voting and it wouldn't matter if you kept the polling stations open day and night for a week it wouldn't change anything. The people have lost trust in politics which is an appalling state of affairs for this so called home of democracy.

Saturday 16 August 2008

Letter to Paul Jewell

Dear Paul,

Hello boss I expected that when I blogged disaster for my team then it would be feasible that we might just get a result or two. I cannot get to Pride Park these days but that does not mean that I care less.

To make matters worse my wife comes from Bristol and so this evening we sat together in front of the box with her goading me about a team which she last saw forty years ago when John Atyeo was a lad!!

In my opinion Derby got out of jail on Tuesday night against Lincoln in the Carling Cup when we equalised with seven minutes remaining and went on to win 3-1. Sometimes it needs something like that to kick start the season and today we faced in my opinion one of the better teams in the Championship.

To be honest Bristol City should have been so far ahead at half time that it would have been no contest but... they spurned their chances and we equalised. This team will evolve. My mate who is a F****st supporter calls Chris Commons 'fatboy' well I tell you what this guy is potentially a star and I mean that. He is a footballer to his finger tips and will become a big star when we get going.

Derby are making progress but they are vulnerable in central defence because Bristol City won far too many aerial balls. It was frightening because big Claude (Davis) did not command the area and neither did Martin Albrechtson.

You do have plus factors which were clear today. Your full backs I know are under pressure but they are responding. Sav is also trying hard and the only question I have is against Rob Hulse. I think you should try Villa and Ellington because 'Tito' really looked up for the job. Pereplotkins is also stronger than Davies at the moment but time will tell.

That was a good result today boss and it gives us all hope for the future.

Computers and Survival!

I have been unable to log on for a couple of days and so I contacted my son in Edinburgh who sorted out the problem. He used a facility called LogMeIn which allows him to take over my computer and repair it from a remote facility. It has been a tremendous help to me because computers do fall over every now and then and it got me thinking.

The loss of my Internet connection felt like a man who has lost his right hand. When the computer is disfunctional then what? Almost every major business in the world is dependent on the computer but not so long ago a geek from England apparently hacked into America's White House system. He has been arrested and could soon be jailed but why? I would be offering him a job because if he can do it then what will,for example the Russians, offer for that kind of expertise? Or have they got it?

Internet banking is big business but how safe is it? Can we really trust the banks to safeguard our cash when out there is a guy who can access White House secrets from a flat/semi in UK?

It makes me realise how vulnerable our whole society has become on energy and technology. Is my generation the last generation which will be able to function purely on brainpower. I can calculate, write reasonably well manually and I can function without technology. For example I can grow things and I could survive without technology because my army training has taught me the skills.

How many others have that knowledge? Perhaps we should forget about global warming and concentrate on basic survival. Perhaps our next political objective should be lessons on survival rather than lectures on global warming. We are far too dependent on forces out of our control. When the computer crashes then the world crashes... food for thought.

Wednesday 13 August 2008

Snouts in the Trough!

The snouts in the trough syndrome appears to have hit the UK to such an extent that the ordinary man/woman in the street is regarded as a failure if they cannot find a trough to stick their snout into. I challenge some of the political bloggers like Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes to start blogging in support of the average, hard working, family orientated, tax paying families who are not seeking a trough but still want a decent standard of living for their families.

In the society of today created by NoLab but perpetuated by the other political parties there is no reward for people who work hard,support their families but cannot find a trough to stick their snout into. If you cannot find that trough then I am afraid you are branded a failure and you are condemned to a life where you are dependent on the state.

This is particularly clear when you examine the prospects of the people scrabbling for jobs where they have to depend on agencies for a living! They are then pawns in the hands of unscrupulous agents who will exploit all of them for profit.

Nobody represents these people because frankly a lot of them do not vote. The reason that they do not vote is that they have never been educated to vote. They do not understand the power or significance of their vote. Education has been dumbed down, quite deliberately, where the kids of today, with a few exceptions, have been educated that any subject with a serious connotation is regarded as 'boring'!

We now have a society which does not realise that we are a democracy and that is quite a precious commodity. We have created a climate which admires people with their snout in the trough. It is a sad state of affairs where the people who have their snout in the trough of public finance are regarded as pillars of society. These people should be pilloried and exposed but that is not the end of the matter. The NoLab government have perpetuated every aspect of this snouts in the trough culture but I ask the pertinent question...will David Cameron end it? Of course he won't because he is part of the Political Class who all embrace the European Union and provide so many millions with the trough which they can all stick their
snouts into.

Tuesday 12 August 2008

The Political Class

A few years ago I started to read a book written by Edwina Currie which I found in a holiday apartment. Let's face it when we are lying on a beach with minds in neutral we will read almost anything and I soon regretted my decision.

This stupid woman had written a book about a British government creating a political class which had elevated itself above the general public to such an extent that they were actually unaccountable. Now of course I did not finish the book because it seemed so lacking in realism. Surely nothing like that could happen in this country? Well I am afraid to say that we are now all a lot wiser and I also wish that I had finished the book!

There are now reports that this discredited and frankly embarrassing government are trying to ensure that any events which would discredit or embarrass them are to be held in courts which will ban all public intrusion. I tell you what they will never ever get the message! They lose election after election mainly because they have been absolutely rumbled by the public but Brown and his cohorts do not ("I am listening to the public") ever listen to the public!!

They never listen to the public because their agenda is so contrary to democratic principles and they/we all know it. Gordon Brown is a busted flush but unfortunately he can still do so much damage to the country before the coward eventually goes to an election. They all know that they will be wiped out when they eventually give us a vote (I bet he gets out before any election). That night I await for his humiliation with relish BUT what will that leave us with?

What will they try next? I will probably not live to see the antics of this bunch exposed but we all know what has happened. They are trying to create a political class which the public cannot penetrate.

Apparently forty four police officers will give evidence anonimously at the inquest of the death of Jean Claude Menezes, the Brazilian erroneously shot dead by misled police officers. The person in charge on the day was Cressida Dick who apparently has since been promoted thus exhonerting her of any blame on the day that this poor fellow was blasted to death by officers who believed he was a terrorist. Press reports suggest that she was in competent, giving incoherent commands over the radio but then is that her fault? If she is one of the political class of police officers who have been promoted purely on the grounds that they will slavishly follow NoLab doctrine then what do you expect?

This bunch of neurotic ideologists have killed education in this country. They have ruined law and order to the extent that murder is now routine on our streets. Our children cannot play on the streets for fear that some paedophile will abduct them without any fear of the consequences. There are no consequences for the evil. They are indulged, pampered, understood, cossetted and consequently they have no respect for the law.

Don't tell me that this is not deliberate! The powers that be could change this at a stroke but they refuse to protect the public. It is quite, quite, deliberate and someone is to blame!! Get real folks we are being let down by the political class and perhaps Edwina Currie had a point...but I will never know because I didn't finish her book!

Sunday 10 August 2008

Derby County

In my profile it states that I am a fan of Derby County and you will notice that I have been very quiet on that subject for many months after I realised that perhaps Paul Jewell, the manager, was not quite the man everyone thought he was. He talks a good game does Mr Jewell and he obviously has the backing of the Chief Executive, Mr Pearson, but something is wrong.

All summer Mr Jewell has been making headlines by signing almost anyone who wanted to come to the club. His stated object has been to change the philosophy of the club so that he could start to win games. That is the problem you see because Mr Jewell cannot win a game of football. Derby County are currently on their worst run in the club's history. They have lost so many matches in recent months that they are being renamed 'Donkey' Derby.

Yesterday out came the new players and according to all the reports nothing has changed. For long periods they were played off the park by newly promoted Doncaster Rovers despite the fact that Derby had signed their 'star' midfielder during the close season. The problem has always been the same since the arrival of Mr Jewell and that is the team cannot keep the ball. They cannot pass it accurately and therefore they continually lose possession. The strikers hardly threatened and I am not surprised because they are both at Derby because they could not hold down a first team place with rival championship teams. A strange way to build a promotion challenging team.

A third striker who was so good in a lower league last year that he cost Derby quite a lot of money. He has never played for us but according to reports he will now be loaned out to 'build his confidence'. I saw him play last year and he looked a really good striker who scored over twenty goals. What has happened to him? The fourth striker is an Argentinian who was signed from a Mexican club for a couple of million quid and apparently is not now good enough to threaten the first pair! What is going on?

Good players cost money. Players come on loan because they can be spared by their clubs. Promotion chasing sides are built brick by brick. Derby once had a youth policy which paid a lot of dividends but in the past couple of years only Lewin Nyatanga and Giles Barnes have emerged from the youth team and Giles is currently recovering from injury whilst Lewin has played more games on loan at Barnsley. Lewin is, by the way, a permanent Welsh international but cannot make the team which won once last year! Good clubs produce good young people who stay loyal to their club.

I may be jumping the gun on the back of one poor and disappointing performance and there could yet be vast improvement but all I see is a collection of misfits and a manager hoping for a miracle and yet not knowing how to produce it. Perhaps he should look at his training methods, his scouts and his own man management because none of the recent signings has improved since they came to the club. I just hope we can beat Lincoln City in the Carling Cup on Tuesday because if we don't then I think that the manure will hit the whirring mechanism attached to the ceiling!

UPDATE: Derby 3 Lincoln 1... but a damned close run thing! Well done Wayne Ellington!

Wednesday 6 August 2008

The Home Office

I have long been convinced that the Home Office is a source of evil for the British people. I cannot remember any policy emanating from the HO which has met with the approval of the British people in the past twenty years.

This is the governmental department which was summed up in the immortal words of the then Home Secretary Dr John Reid as 'not fit for purpose'. Did anything change after his outburst? Well you guessed it, nothing has changed apart fron the Home Secretary and John Reid was replaced by yet another Home Secretary the delictable Ms Jacqui Smith!

It does not seem to matter who poses as the Home Secretary, remember Blunkett and Charles Clarke both described as 'big beasts' in the political world and yet both destroyed by this heinous department.

What I would like to know is who is pulling the strings of this department? After all the HO is responsible for controlling so many aspects of our lives. It controls immigration or doesn't control it, depending on which side of the fence you lie. If you love your country and want to control immigration then you have fat chance of support from our HO!

Crime is controlled by our HO and they will baffle you with ridiculous stats! Crime is down they argue and so the persistant criminals need no longer be jailed. We all know that violent crime is rampant which has been emphasised today when a plucky lady was thrown onto rail tracks purely for requesting thugs to stop smoking in a non-smoking area!

It is quite obvious that we need more prisons and that we need a controlled regime within the prisons and that control has to be administered by the prison officers and not the drug barons. The prisons should be a rotten place to habitat but they are in fact a luxury item where the inmates have a life which many of them could not even imagine on the outside. Some of them crave for their prison life because they cannot exist in such luxury conditions after they leave the prison!

It is obviously a quite deliberate attempt to destroy our society from within. They are even suggesting the most ridiculous premise that we do not jail persistent criminals. We have a situation whereby it is quite obvious that we need thousands of more prison places which reflect out lawless society but the HO refuses to budge. Better to forgive the thugs who commit crime than to jail them. Better to concentrate on rehabiliation than to punish those who rob, burgle, rape and destroy the average citizen. It is not acceptable and I will not accept it. What I want to know is what proposals David Cameron has to reverse this trend? Don't hold your breath folks because someone, somewhere will prevent him from reversing the trend. Why is that I ask and you should all ask the same question before voting for him.

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Five Hundred Visitors!!

Very quickly I notice today that this BLOG has had 500 visitors! I cannot believe it and I thank you for your interest. Heh I am only doing this out of total frustration with the British political scene. I know that many of you do not agree with my views but you also agree with my right to express them.

As one gets older one has the experience to see the nonsense being perpetrated by the mystery people of today. Believe me someone has an agenda to bring this country down to the level that we will no longer have the respect of the rest of the world.

These people fund political parties with their vast wealth so they can fund mass immigration, political correctness, two wars for our army to fight and subservience to the European Union. Who would do such a thing?

Now that is for you to discover but I have just one candidate and his/her initials are RM.

Modern Nursing

I read this week that someone had recently died in hospital from infected bedsores! I cannot think of a worse indictment on the NHS than this horrendous example of poor nursing. There is just no excuse for this type of neglect and so many people have to take responsibility for the consequences but under NoLab we know that nothing will happen. In recent years there have been so many examples of poor hygiene and poor nursing practice that it is now becoming commonplace. Africa would not accept the standards in our NHS hospitals never mind the rest of Europe. It has come to the point where admittance to an NHS hospital seriously threatens your health.

Now I hold my hands up because I owe my life to the NHS. In 2001 I collapsed suddenly and subsequently had my colon and major bowel removed. Following the operation I had peritonitis which caused septicemia and so I was rather poorly and spent a week in intensive care. It never rains but it pours!

After that little lot I was in Leicester Glenfield hospital for about three months and had first hand experience of modern nursing. Now as most of us know hospital life can be really boring and I became an interested observer of life on my ward. I realised very quickly that to receive the best treatment I had to play the game. My surgeon was fantastic! He has always been fantastic and to this day I think of him as more of a friend than a surgeon. Mr Adam Scott is a modern gentleman who possesses a wonderful bedside manner and cares for his patients in the time honoured tradition of the NHS. How he does it I will never know but after him there was a problem.

The young doctors generally did not have the same dedication or attention to detail. Let me give you an example. I was due a home visit which is so precious that you cannot imagine. Every day the nurses had to record my 'functions' and at that time I was still emiting puss from my stomach wound (Sorry!. Some silly moo entered the amount of urine that I was passing in the puss column and the young doctor stopped my home visit on that pretext! He seemed amazed that I was so incensed!! If that amount of puss was coming out of my stomach then surely I was dead meat!! Not in his world he believed the entry and did not query it.

But back to the nurses who generally were more interested in their social life than the problems faced by the patients. Most nurses today routinely ignore the patient until they have to follow ward routine. They will come round with the pills or smile sweetly as they follow the surgeon around but for the rest of it one has to demand or learn how to extract attention. I was lucky because I am a bit bright and I soon learned the game but for those who cannot attract attention it must be horrendous.

On the evening that my appendix burst there were three nurses attending fifty men on male surgery. Twice I was ignored but on the third pass I leant from my bed and grabbed the wrist of the passing nurse because I knew that I was dying!! I don't know what happned next but I am alive today so I made an impression.

They are not all like that. Some of them do care what happens to their patients but I am afraid to say that they are few and far between. They are generally older and therefore more compassionate. In the nursing schools today nursing is not taught. Targets have to be met and that is the legacy of NoLab. Most recent patients will probably recognise that after surgery the nurses crowd around the reception desk with their mates and rarely enquire after the health of their patients. In one occasion after a day care operation a lady who was struggling to recover had to complain to the Staff Nurse that the staff were making so much noise that they were hindering her recovery. He apologised to the offending culprits before asking them to keep the noise down! The reduced volume lasted little more than five minutes!!

The nursing industry has to reintroduce discipline on the wards before we will ever combat disease and neglect. We must somehow reinvent nursing standards of the fifties but that means standing the world on its head. Will anyone have the guts to confront the problem? Once again I doubt it but then more old people will die and guess what? We will all get old one day.

Saturday 2 August 2008

The Public Perception of Horse Racing

A couple of days ago I commented on the Panarama programme exposing some bad elements in horse racing (including jockeys) and at the time I expressed my own dissatisfaction with the lack of explanations from trainers after some surprise results. I know that horses are not machines and that surprises do occur where even the trainer is amazed but generally these horsey people know exactly what they are doing otherwise they would soon be out of business.

As I said in my original comment I have studied form for thirty years. I can understand that a trainer will try to disguise the ability of his/her horse so that the handicapper will allot the horse a winning mark. I just think that there are limits to the methods of disguise so that when is horse is not running to its merits then the punters are not being given a fair deal. Take today at Glorious Goodwood and the six furlong cavalry charge called the Stewards Cup. Most small punters love this gamble and I suspect that millions are staked on this one race alone. It is the type of race where a case can be made for most of them on their best form but of course in order to stand a chance the horse should have shown some recent glimmer of ability.

The race was won by a horse called Conquest at 40-1! Yes that's right 40-1!! The reason that it was that price is clear because it has run seven times since winning a race on the AllWeather track at Lingfield in March and on every occasion has shown very little. His record reads like this:-

18 Apr Newbury 5f Good/Soft beaten 10 lengths and finished 8th from nine runners.
04 May Newmarket 5f Good/Firm Group 3 race finished last of ten beaten 10 lengths.
15 May York 5f Good/Firm finished 7/11 but not disgraced.
31 May Goodwood 6f Soft 5/8 and beaten 3 lengths. 'Settled in last and little impression'.
21 Jun Ascot 6f Good/Firm 13/27 beaten 5 lengths although led far side group up until 4 furlongs (Hint of ability?).
28 Jun Windsor 6f Good/Firm beaten 6 lengths 'towards the rear never on terms'
11 July CHEPSTOW 6F Soft 11/12 beaten over 20 lengths!!!
02 Aug Goodwood WINS THE STEWARDS CUP!!

Now I don't care how you cut the cake if a horse is smashed at a Grade 4 track like Chepstow then it is never entitled to win the Stewards Cup at Goodwood!

This is the problem with British racing. There are too many results which are never explained. I would have expected that the trainer William Haggas should have been dragged in front of the stewards who should have demanded an explanation for the poor running in his previous seven races.

The trainer was not disguising the ability of his horse because as a 2 year old it won the Gimcrack Stakes at York (on soft going) and that race was a Group Two event. He actually ensured that this horse would get into this valuable handicap on a decent mark by a series of poor performances. In effect it was 'schooling in public' which is against the rules. In my opinion this should be investigated but of course it won't because the trainer and the owners are all part of the horse racing establishment.

William Haggas always comes across as a decent chap and he is obviously a serious trainer BUT in this instance the run up to this highly prestigious victory has to be questioned but I tell you what... it won't be and that is the problem.

HAT TIP - Tanya Stevenson the 'Femail' on Channel Four Racing gave Conquest as an Each Way option!! It is not the first time that she has done this either. She is either a genius, a sceptic or she had some very valuable information (which we all ignored)!