William Hague... very vague...!

I am captivated by the battle that Guido Fawkes is waging against the Foreign Secretary William Hague who Guido is convinced is homosexual. Now in this day and age it is almost suicidal to criticise anyone who claims to be 'gay' but in this case the Foreign Secretary has employed his 'driver' on the public purse. Now this appointment has been made even though this very young man apparently has no relevant qualifications apart from, of course, he is a very personal friend of the boss.

William Hague is married (no kids). He is one of the most respected politicians in the new government but he is denying what Guido has unearthed which makes his position untenable. If he has employed his 'driver' on the public purse purely on the basis of a personal relationship then he has no case. I have personal views on the homosexual community but frankly I don't give a damn about what they do in private. What I really object to is the so called 'gay' community pretending to be straight! Why?

I fear for the future of the Foreign Secretary. Guido is obviously onto something. I suspect that we will soon have a statement. What a shame that Hague the Vague appears to have been unable to contain himself and what about his poor wife...! How many more of our MPs are hiding secrets?

Mind you if they uphold the EU then what can we expect because that is the biggest con of all times. The fact that Guido thinks that William Hagus is cheating on his wife with a man is very small beer compared to the scandal that he supports the unaudited EU.

Derby County

Here I go again! On Saturday we were leading, top of the table, undefeated, Queens Park Rangers 2-0 when the fourth officials board indicated 4 minutes additional time. By the time the four minutes was up the certain win had evaporated and a mere draw was on the cards. Now do I need to explain the frustration of the Derby fans?

This is a professional team which had a win guaranteed. What do we need to do...retain the ball...do not get ambitious and secure the three points. What do we do... conceed a goal...try and score a third and concede a second! What is going on?

On the credit side the low level buys are proving to be effective. Young Brayford and James Bailey and Tomasz Cywka are really quite good. We are playing very good football and reports say that we have a striker arriving. That is what we need. We create chances all the time but we don't have a natural predator.

I am a football nut. I watch all kinds of football. Like everyone else I appreciate good football and I know the value of team spirit and teamwork. Something tells me that Nigel Clough has a plan. He is not his Dad and he does have his hands tied by a parsimonious board of directors. Up until now the Rams have been the twelth best supported club in the country but they have little money to spend. Now why have these Americans bought the club if they cannot afford to fund it? Why buy a potential Premiership club if you can't afford it?

On the field however, they are lacking confidence. This is the best team in the Championship but they need to believe it. I have a betting voucher giving me 40-1 for the Rams to win the Championship. I don't expect to collect but as yet I have not seen a threat. The only threat are the Rams themselves.

The European Union

Ever since I began this blog I have been implacable in my criticism of the European Union. I cannot for the life of me see any possible reason for a European Superstate and I believe that the British people have been hijacked into a membership that most neither want or need. The existence of the unaudited political conglomorate, which is supported by the vast majority of our mainstream politicians is indefensible. Why do we contribute to an organisation which has to be deemed illegal because it cannot face an audit?

Why pretend that we require audit procedures in every other walk of public life and yet ignore them for the convenience of the EU? How come that our top European politician, Baroness Ashton, has never faced an election. She was appointed by Gordon Brown and yet retains her position even though our government has changed hands? How come none of the political parties will allow the British people a say on this nonsense?

Every party that stands up and declares itself anti-EU is slaughtered by the mainstream media. However nobody ever explains why their 'baby' cannot face an auditor and now we have even more problems. A new European edict has recently landed on our doorsteps called the European Arrest Warrant. Our Foreign Secretary, Theresa May has also supported the EAW by signing us up to European Investigation Order. This now means that any European Police Forces can extradite any British citizen on any trumped up charge and we have to play along.

You don't believe me? Well pop across to Iain Dale's Diary and read the story of what the Greek Police are currently doing to a young British holidaymaker. Poor Old Iain Dale...he is the chairman of the David Cameron fan club, a fully paid up dyed in the wool member of the Tory party. He has been trying to be adopted as an MP for some years but keeps getting rejected. Now I sense that he has suddenly realised that all is not well. The people who he supported and trusted are starting to disappoint him.

Until our politicians can explain why they support this raddled excuse for a political assembly then I will continue to question it. Possibly when political commentators like Iain Dale also begin to question the inconsistencies of European Law then one day we may get someone of real substance to start hollering 'foul'. In the meantime it will have to be me and the many hundreds of bloggers who agree with me who draw your attention to the loss of our sovereignty.

Pakistan

They are trying to deny it! This disgraceful nation should be thrown out of international cricket. It is only by cutting them off from the rest of the world that we will bring them into line. Pakistan cannot, they simply cannot, play a game honestly. It is not in their psyche!

Heh don't get me wrong I don't actually have any connection with Pakistan. I don't have any axe to grind. I just cannot believe how the western world continually to pander to a race who contine to endorse what most people believe of them.

They cannot even cheat sensibly. Their go between confirmed that the whole Pakistani set up is so corrupt that being honest precludes their selection. If they are allowed to continue in world cricket then we may as well forget the game completely. Pakistan has effectively killed cricket as an honest sport but then ever since the days of Mike Gatting did we believe anything else?

Lorry Drivers and the danger to the motorist!

Today I got behind the wheel for the first time since my attack and it was brilliant. One of the worst things about a heart attack is that all of a sudden you lose your independence. People regard you as an invalid and even though they are nice you can see that they are wary. You know...will you die on them?

I have friends who were much, much, worse than me. One of them was revived three times, twice at home and once in the ambulance and today you would never know it. He is an inspiration to me. I never even passed out. I had a warning. I like to think of it as a broken heart. When my son was killed it broke my heart not just metaphorically but physically. I must now recover and continue as before to guide my beloved granddaughters and fight for justice for my son.

His death was a result of a very corrupt system which drives lorry drivers beyond normal endurance. It should be stopped because it is dangerous to all the other road users. I will blog much more on this subject as evidence evolves. It is a shocking indictment on so many of the multinational companies who supply their stores relentlessly regardless of the cost.

A No Ball for our people?

Can anyone believe the mindset of the Pakistani cricketers? Knowing that their country was under scrutiny from the rest of the world following the appalling flooding in their country they decided to cut a deal over the bowling of no balls.

They are touring over here apparently oblivious to the plight of their own people and this is exactly why nobody trusts them. How can a country facing such a catastrophe even think about cricket? We are led to believe that their country is facing the most horrendous plight. Nightly we see visions on our television depicting very poor people clinging desperately to life and yet it is not sufficient to cancel a cricket tour.

Not content with that they then ignore the horrendous plight of their poor people and negotiate deals to cheat. This is the country who have exported terror to the world. They are totally and utterly THE most corrupt country in the world (and that does not excuse North Korea and Iran). We have been castigated for using the word 'Paki' to epitomise foul practice. Now we know why this 'expletive' entered our vocabulary.

If these cricketers actually are proven to have dealt with gamblers/newspapaers at the height of their national disaster then we. the sceptics, have been proven correct. As a nation they are probably, providing more men than anyone else, to the cause of the Afghan War. They are implacably our enemy. We have invited our enemy into our parlour and we should recognise that.

Is it not sad that they cannot recognise that we really have tried to help. Some people want to help...but clearly not their own twisted privileged. Any help going to Pakistan is a waste of money and their own cricketers have proven it!

Record GCSE's....yet again (23 times in a row)!!

Once upon a time we had a really wonderful education system. Way back in the nineteen fifties, kids from Council estates could, without any social engineering win scholarships to universities like Oxforrd and Cambridge purely through healthy competition. I remember kids who did it.

Since those days successive governments and a variety of educationalists have contrived to gerrymander the education of our children to such an extent that for the twenty third consecutive year the GCSE results indicate yet another improvement.
Of course we now have an 'A' star grade which superceded the 'A' grade because far too many kids were gaining the A grade. What next the 'A' double star, followed by the 'A' treble star and so in say, the year 2020, every child will achieve an 'A' grade in all subjects and we will all end up seeing stars (and counting them)!

Just how long can they perpetuate this nonsense? You see the problem is that the kids are the ones being short changed. Already it is difficult to differentiate between the brilliant and the bright and that is only half the problem. When one digs deeper we find an ignorance of basic arithmetical skills, a lack of knowledge of English grammar, poor spelling and such a dearth of what we used to call general knowledge that it is frightening.

And yet the media, the schools, parents and the authorities every year celebrate this quite glaring confidence trick. It isn't real folks! Life is just not like that. In reality during one of these twenty three years at least one academic year would not be as bright as the previous academic year. Not every child can gain an 'A' grade and if they do then the examination isn't worth sitting. I suspect that next year I will be blogging about this again because nobody appears to have the political will to change it and we are consistently sliding down the international league tables.

How about a few Tory policies?

Ever since the Coalition was formed the minority grouping (the LibDems) seem to have taken the central ground. I sometimes think that, although they polled significantly less votes than they would have wished, they won the election. One would hardly think so however when we hear them moaning at every conceivable opportunity.

One after the other they hog the limelight complaining about almost anything as if they were significant. If it isn't Vince Cable, it is Simon Hughes or Menzies Campbell winging on about their dippy attempts to change our voting system or socially engineer our society. This despite the strong rejection of their policies at the ballot box.

What I would like to know is whatever happened to the Tory policies? What has happened to the nationalist right wingers who I know are lurking on the Tory backbenches. Have they been gagged by David Cameron in much the same way as Blair gagged his leftwingers. And whilst I am at it why does David Cameron invite socialists like John Hutton and Alan Milburn into his Cabinet? Surely he has Tory MPs who more accurately reflect his thinking?

That could be a problem because up until now David Cameron seems to be more aligned to Nick Clegg than he does to his own party. Frankly he hasn't shown any sign of being a Tory! He hasn't addressed the EU or the Human Rights Act and Ken Clarke seems to be softer on sentencing than even his predecessors. I wonder how long his honeymoon period will last before someone from the right will fire the first warning shot across his bows.

Iain RIP

It a week where news appears to be in short supply forgive my little self indulgence. Today would have been my son's 39th birthday. Anyone who regularly views this blog knows that he was killed in an HGV accident on 10 July. My daughter has formed an Iain RIP Facebook page and today the messages have come in from lots of his friends.

He would have been 39 today but most of his friends were much, much younger and that has been a theme throughout his life. He did not want to grow old. He did not celebrate birthdays. To Iain a birthday was a disaster, an unnecessary reminder that even he was getting older and definitely not to be celebrated. Well he got his wish! He will never get older. We will all age but we will always remember Iain as he was at 38 years of age...still handsome, still charming...still with that roguish, caring charisma which filled any room he entered.

One thing that I find extraordinary is the wide spectrum of friends who he attracted. He had his student crowd (and most of you are stunning), he had his HGV professional driving mates (and most of you are not!), he had his Christian friends, his personal friends and his family. One thing we all have in common... we care about other people and we cared about Iain.

It doesn't get any easier but it will. What makes it easier is the number of people who want to keep his memory alive! Thank you so much to all of you for your messages and support. Stevie and I are so grateful (Heh just in case you have just passed by Stevie is short for Stephanie... he says in a deep voice).

Please keep in touch with us and with each other. I impress upon you that you must be special people because as you all know Iain RIP had strong opinions about almost everything and everybody. Long live 'The Freak Club'!

Aid to Pakistan...and the EU

It is tragic! It is appalling! But it is not, in this modern world, the sole responsibility of the UK and the USA to save the people of Pakistan. We are fighting a desperate war at home to recover from the legacy of the NoLab government. We cannot afford to spend money on a country which will not even be grateful.

Where are our European 'allies' in all of this? Why is it only our responsibility to help the people of Pakistan? What happens to our immense contributions to the EU? Surely if we are an equal partner then there has to a contribution from the EU to Pakistan? Where are they? What have they done? As usual when the chips are down we are alone in Europe. The EU is and always has been a farce.

I cannot understand why our politicians seem to be scared to death to challenge the EU. It achieves nothing and yet our contributions outweigh anything else in our fight for solvency. If Pakistan requires Aid then it is the responsibility of the EU to provide it from our annual contributions. If they duck this responsibility then people like Baroness Ashton (remember her?) should appear before the British public and explain why.

This really bugs me! All our leading politicians, for whatever reason, are Europhiles but they can never explain away their reasoning. Everything about the EU resonates corruption and they tacitly refuse the electorate a vote on our membership. What the hell is going on? They all appear to be democratic politicians but the situation in Pakistan exposes their corruption.

UPDATE: France is kicking out Romanies...what has happened to their Human Rights which apparently prevents us kicking out anyone? Does the European Human Rights Act only operate in the UK? We must seriously demand a referendum on this nonsense. It should never be allowed to drop. It is highway robbery!

The NHS

There are so many different aspects of the NHS that it is difficult to grasp their priorities. The strains on this priceless service is frequently apparent as the doctors and nurses struggle to cope with the onslaught from people who arrive from all over the world and demand treatment when they have never paid into it.

Someone must come up with a priority list which depends upon what people have paid into the system. It would almost equate to how well people are insured. If one has paid into the system since its introduction like my mother she should have priority over recent illegal immigrants who are just abusing it.

I am a bit cross because my mother is 94 years of age. She fell ill this afternoon (1pm) and an ambulance was called. It took two hours to arrive as she was non priority. She was taken to the Royal at Leicester (as usual despite it being our most inaccessible hospital) and she was admitted. My wife rang at 10pm and she had still not been seen by a doctor.

Now I know that she is old. I know that she is non-priority but why admit and not diagnose? She and my father paid into this travesty all of their lives. They were told that when they needed treatment that they would receive it because that was the contract in those days. It used to work until we were invaded by the rest of the world. We should not abandon our elderly because they are inconvenient. We should remember that without the contributions from people like my mother we would not have an NHS which so many have abused.

I realise that the people who actually supported our so called democracy until the politicians turned everything on its head are now unimportant but we need a sense of fairness again in this country and it is about time that the Coalition addressed the question of priority in the NHS.

Tony Blair and his book...

I have blogged many, many times that Tony Blair is quite the most unprinicipled public figure in the history of this country and that is a prize difficult to win. His standard of conduct since he took over as PM and since he left the job plumbs depths which is breathtaking.

I have long held the belief that he entered into an agreement with George Bush to invade Iraq and then had to convince parliament and the public that he held the moral high ground. To do so he invented a lie and shamelessly sold that lie to Parliament.

Since then he readily became accomplices with most of the European leaders and so many of them have got skeletons in the cupboard that little surprises me about these alliances. He has also been linked with Colonel Ghaddafi and the shennanigans with BP which frankly stinks to high heaven. In fact I have got to the point where nothing else than a trip to The Hague by Tony Blair would feel like justice. His appearance at the Chilcott enquiry was a joke. He was never put under pressure and sailed through like all the others. They have major secrets to cover up and yet they are treated like some kind of private gentlemen's club.

So now along he comes with his little plan to buy off the casualties of the wars that he initiated by donating the money he makes from his forthcoming book to a fund to help the injured soldiers. This man does not have a conscience! If you are thinking of buying the book please forget it and donate the money direct to the British Legion. His motives will be as usual a cynical ploy to profit from the misery of others.

Tony Blair is incorrigible. He has nothing but contempt for the services, the public and his fellow mankind. He was born with oratory talents and media charm. He has used and abused all his gifts. It is time to cut him loose from publically funded security and let nature take its course. You of course know what I mean.

Aid to Pakistan

It would appear that only a fraction of the aid that was sent to the countries affected by the great tsunami has been sent to Pakistan even though their current crisis affects so many more people. Sophie Rayworth on the BBC lunchtime news yesterday laboured the point when interviewing an International Aid distributor more than once asking why he thought that there appeared to be a lack of international will to contribute to the aid effort in Pakistan.

I have often, probably to the point where I could be accused of racism, questioned the motives of the people from Pakistan who have settled in this country. As I have oft repeated there can be no other race in the world who are, in thought and deed, so diametrically opposite to the British character.

This appears to have translated itself to other nations as well because most appear to be very reluctant to contribute to the welfare of the Pakistani people. What the Pakistani hierarchy must learn is that help begins at home. They seem lamentably incapable of conducting any form of internal aid effort. If they are not holding out their hands asking for donations/food/shelter then there seems to be no organisation. Even their PM seeemed more concerned with projecting his own image in the UK than coordinating their internal aid effort.

I'm afraid that corruption and Pakistan seem interminably intertwined to those on the outside and until they begin to project a much more wholesome image to the world at large then their poor starving people will suffer.

The same people always suffer...

Why is it when I view the local news that it is always the same people who suffer? Whenever we hear of cutbacks it is always the elderly, the infirm, the under-privileged, the vulnerable or the poor who bear the brunt. It is never the councillors, the overpaid local government officers, the politicians or the care home owners.

Whenever redundancies are announced then the first people to suffer are the care workers, the charity shop workers or the meals deliverers. We never hear of a council chief offering to part with a penny of their salary to help a home to survive. We never hear of a councillor foregoing an expense to enable a desperately needed service to remain viable.

The vulnerable are not responsible for the state of the economy. In all of this they are the first people who should be protected. The people who should suffer are those public servants who have grabbed everything when they could. The expenses now being revealed by the Coalition which expose the profligacy of the NoLab government and their very many supporters should be the target for legal reprisals. It appears that there have been blatant misuse of public funds which must be repaid.

I would like to see a target force being deployed against all the public servants who squandered public funds. I want to see them being forced to pay that money back. It should begin of course with the prominent MPs who have somehow escaped censorship over the house flipping issue.

If the Coalition are really serious about accountability they must ensure that the poeple who exploited the gravy train pay the money back and then it should immediately go back to protect the vulnerable. It is high time that we brought some semblance of fairness into our society.

NHS and Asian Society

I see another infection has entered the NHS which has been born in the Indian Sub-Continent. I read that it has been brought in by Asians who have visted Indian hospitals for cosmetic surgery prior to returning to these shores.

This has to be monitored much more closely. For too many years Asian British have been allowed to abuse their dual nationality status freely commuting between two societies and consequently introducing certain illnesses which we had long since eradicated.

The same applies to their attitude to visiting hours. In many local hospitals there are signs clearly stating that visiting must be kept to a minimum and only two or three people should visit at any one time. Of course this doesn't apply to the Asian communities as they swarm in to pay homage to the elderly in their side rooms which is another issue.

They have either all got MRSA or there is a two tier NHS operating where the Asians get all the side rooms and are allowed unlimited visiting facilities. If you don't believe me check it out the next time you have to visit your local hospital.

The NHS

Once again I reluctantly sampled the NHS and once again they saved my life. The NHS has many detractors but there are very many dedicated people who turn up regularly at all times of day and night to ensure that people like me live to fight another day.

At the frontline they cope with people who can barely be categorised as 'human'. The NHS staff should not have to deal with people who quite deliberately set out to cause harm to themselves and to others. When I was wheeled into the Royal at Leicester on a 'normal' Thursday evening we were confronted with women screaming and swearing following drug problems.

There should certainly be a section labelled 'scumbags'. They should only be given minimum levels of treatment and the place should only be staffed by volunteers being paid vast sums of money for their inconvenience. Nobody should have to deal with the dregs of humanity. There should be a minimum level of behaviour and when it drops below that level then they should be referred to 'The Scumbag Unit.'

The NHS has, in the past twenty years, changed beyond all recognition. It is now staffed by a league of nations to such an extent that, at doctor level, I rarely see a doctor from an indigenous background. I have no reason at all to suspect that any of them are nothing other than highly trained professionals but despite that I find it daunting to be faced with a sea of faces none of which relates to mine.

At one point as I lay on my bed watching the activity all around me I was surrounded by beards, headscarves and turbans. I often had to ask the medical staff to repeat themselves as accents hindered comprehension. I have travelled far and wide, I have made friends of people from many nationalities but I feel sorry for those that haven't as they struggle to comprehend what has happened to their country. I don't think that any other country in the world has had to face the extraordinary change that we have had to embrace.

One thing I utterly fail to understand as I watched the activity around my bed last Thusrday evening is the reason why any intelligent young person want to come to this country and deal with the dregs that successive of our governments have produced? How do they square it all away? I tell you what things must be bad in other countries to prefer life on the night shift at the Royal in Leicester!

So much to catch up upon but...England

I told everyone during the World Cup that Fabio Capello had to make a huge decision and drop Frank Lampard. Look back through my posts and you will see that I said it I said it at the time and not afterwards! Everyone and his dog knew that for whatever reason Lampard and Gerard could not work together. Managers like Capello are being paid huge amounts to make crucial decisions which bring failure or glory.

Capello failed when he was needed. He could not change the team, the culture or the mood in the camp when the going got tough. He chose the wrong squad, the wrong team and the wrong tactics. OK he was inititally worth a punt but he got it wrong so why do we not choose a guy who played in our culture, speaks our language and will reflect our approach to football.

Amazingly Martin O'Neill is suddenly available to manage England! Amazingly Fabio did not look enhusiastic tonight. Amazingly Stevie G saved his bacon after yet another unconvincing performance... but for how long?

Heart Attack!!

I have just arrived home after six days in a local hospital recovering from a heart attack! After my recent family bereavement it was the last thing anyone needed and of course it does affect all members of the family. Fortunately it was not a major attack (if one can put it that way) but of course it is a warning and needs to be taken seriously.

It did put me back in touch with the NHS once again and gave me an opportinity to observe at first hand how the modern NHS is coping with modern austerity measures. However I will leave that for another time.

To my bowls mates who were playing when I collapsed on the 18th end of the Loughborough and Distict league against Quorn I would like to issue a little reminder! Despite my heart attack we still won the game and after going to all that trouble I was dismayed to learn that you fit guys playing at Quorn both lost both your rinks!! Come on guys I can't do much more!

Finally thanks to Paul Chalmers who recognised the symptoms and phoned the paramedics despite my insane ramblings that I would play on! Thanks also to the team from Quorn for being so sporting and understanding...I owe you all a pint.

New Labour and Reality!

David Miliband has recently commented that they could be out of power for ten years or more, After the abject performance of NoLab for the past 13 years and the contribution of all the NoLab leadership candidates to this disastrous performance he could not be more wrong.

New Labour should be consigned to the dump for so many years until they realise that their supporters want them to adopt socialist policies. They don't want toffs like Blair/Brown/Mandelson/Balls or any of the other pseudo NoLab leaders. They want people like Keir Hardie fighting for their cause. They want education for their kids like it was in the nineteen fifties,they want a fair healthcare system, they want a fair welfare system. They actually want everything that the NoLab government failed to deliver.

The NoLab party became so smart that they failed. They were so devoid of policies and they apparently only cared for their own welfare. They reverted to type which has been typified by John Prescott. How this one individual can retain his self respect mystifies me and how any person who supported him can sleep at night also mystifies me! Unfortunately this party which has been so devoid of decency are still riggling and thanks to the BBC are still being given the oxygen of publicity.

My father would turn in his grave but socialism in this country has been wrecked by useless and self serving politicians. How has the legacy of Keir Hardie been destroyed by people like Blair and Brown? How can we trust chancers like the Milibands, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham or Diane Abbot... dear oh dear they are all useless... and that is the NoLab legacy. None of then know what they believe. They are all actually toffs and we need working class candidates. What chance of that eh?

Pakistan

I don't agree with David Cameron over everything that he does. Foe example I cannot see any advantage for Europe if Turkey joins the EU. Somebody commented that instead of encouraging the EU to bring Turkey in he should be campaigning to get us out. He has done a lot to reverse the NoLab years but while he supports this corrupt, unaudited organisation then his thinking is seriously flawed.

He has however to be applauded for his stance on Pakistan. It is quite clear that most of the world's terrorism seems to emanate from Pakistan. It is a country so removed from our lifestyle and our way of thinking that it simply amazes me that any of them want to live here. But they came...they came in their droves and they soon made themselves so unpopular that the word 'Paki' symbolised their presence.

Contrast that with the Hindus or the Sikhs who retained their cultural identity but worked hard to integrate. Now before I go any further I must emphasise that nobody should sterotype any race/culture/people but the Pakistani people were the first to bring an alien way of thinking to this country. They dressed differently, they crowded into ghettos and frankly were unable to even relate to the British way of life.

Of course this brought with it resentment and made them a target for people who preferred terrorism to peace. We have subsequently paid the price but so have their own people. While the extremists thrive the innocent suffer. There are Pakistani Muslims who have integrated here but because of the extremists they will always be linked with terrorism.

Where do we go from here? I think that this decision remains with the people from Pakistan who seriously want to make Britain their home. They either want to make this island their home or they will forever remain isolated. In the meantime I am afraid that I personally steer well clear of burkhas, headscarves and mosques.