What Has Happened to our Public Services?

On the even of one of the largest and potentially dangerous influx of economic migrants arrving from Rumania and Bulgaria we got a glimpse of the future following a few December storms. It is clear that already the public utility services cannot cope in emergency.

Threre appears to be no continency plans set for unusual weather.  Airports close, trains are cancelled, electricity companies cannot be contacted, roads are cluttered with fallen trees and accident and emergency wards are creaking at the seams with the elderly waiting hours for attention.

Everywhere you look we have incompetence and an inability to cope.  It is Christmas so they all run away and hide.  In the meantime families have been left withour essential services and are just offered apologies and compensation.  That compensation comes from us the, rest of the general public, who got away with it this time! 

But why are so many houses being regularly flooded?  The simple reason is that in their desperation to cope with the wave of economic migration they have been quietly building on flood plains.  They are called 'flood plains' because they bloody flood!

My serious complaints are however, always reserved for the transport industry.  The lack of planning, the lack of essential resources, the filth, the overcrowding, excessive prices and a total lack of empathy for the paying customer would be challenged by any politician with an ounce of integrity.

They continue to fatuously argue about HS2 and a third airport when what they should be doing is modernising our existing railways, cancelling franchises and cleaning up disgusting airports like Gatwick!

I am Addicted!

I began my blog five years ago and I thought that I could walk away and never again comment on the nonsense that we repeatedly see aired through the Mainstream Media (MSM). Sorry but I am addicted and I have also been supported by so may people who follow me, many of whom do not comment, that I have decided to take a deep breath and plod on.

This blog is my voice in a world where the individual generally does not have a voice. The blogosphere is the last sphere where an individual can voice honestly held opinions which differ from government and we need that voice.

There is so much evil in modern politics where, in my opinion, every modern day politician appears to be sponsored by someone who supports modernisation that democracy vanished years ago.  Year after year the same stories appear and yet nothing gets done. For example look at the chaos at Heathrow when only a couple of inches of snow arrives.  Look at the benefits issue where foreigners can arrive and somehow immediately qualify for huge benefits without any check.

Nothing ever changes!  Bankers and politicians almost bring down the economy of the counrtry and always the public are punished. The European Union have decreed that very soon hundreds of thousands of Rumanians and Bulgarians, who are not already here, will also get access to our benefits system.  Everyone but everyone realises that this could be the final straw which breaks the back of our education system, our health service and our prison service but how many of our front bench politicians on either side of the house are expressing concern?

In the States Barack Obama and his administration are beyond belief. So much that their media puts into the public domain is being questioned. There is a petition currently doing the rounds that favours impeaching the President on the grounds that he is not and never was an American Citizen. I am one of those who believes that his background is so shrouded in mystery that something is wrong.

We must continue to question and probe.  I know that sometimes I get things wrong but at least I keep questioning because I do not trust anyone with an agenda. Our politics stinks so somewhere we will uncover wrongdoing we just have to keep trying.

The Annual Snow Farce!

The race to the bottom is hotting up! Last week we got almost a week's warning that come Saturday evening we would be under a great heap of snow. Everyone knew it was coming and for once the forecasts were right on target!

Prior to that, amidst a blaze of publicity, Heathrow announced huge sums of money spent on modern snow removing equipment. This was after all the apologies for the chaos they created last year when one of the largest airports in the world could not function because it had snowed.

Now we do have cold snaps in this country but let's be honest this is not Scandanavia, it is not Russia and conditions recently right across Europe have been far worse than they have been at Heathrow. So to cancel flights in two consecutive years because of a snowfall smacks of incompetence.

If the people who run Heathrow cannot cope even though they have had ample warning then may I suggest that they step aside and let someone else try. This country is rapidly becoming a laughing stock across Europe. They are making jokes at our expense. These management boards claim huge salaries so it about time that the government insisted upon competence and regulated to ensure it!

Just to emphasise the point I wrote this last year (and other posts) so I guess nothing much has changed. Are we really surprised?

Useless Britain

Five days ago I posted a warning about the prospect of bad weather arriving in the country over the Christmas period. I had a pretty good idea that as usual we would grind to a standstill but I thought that just possibly somebody would regard it as a duty if not a challenge to keep the sirports and railways operating.

Thousands travel prior to Christmas to link up with loved ones across the world and as usual our transport managers have let them down. Now I know that in some places the snow was quite fierce for short periods but that should only delay flights not stop them completely.

If some planes can leave then they can all leave but I get the impression that the highly paid airline executives head to the hills at the first sign of trouble. Perhaps that is the reason that airlines just ignore their customers who repeatedly claim that they cannot prise information out of them.

The real scandal however lies in the fact that our international airports have no emergency contingency plans for stranded travellers. Surely they could open a hangar somewhere with warm drinks and some dossing accommodation?
At least it would give people the impression that they cared but at the moment their attitude is 'tough luck you're on your own'!

It really isn't good enough and perhaps it is time that people stopped travelling with British companies until they learned lessons. I have posted before that if places like Gander Newfoundland can stay open then the technology is out there. Perhaps it is just the will which is absent.

Terminal Five!

The troubles continue and as usual our country is shamed by irresponsible management! The problems with the baggage handlers at Heathrow have continued ad nauseum for some considerable time. Now I am not an international traveller of note but I have done my little bit. My wife and I only lost our baggage once and that was in Seattle. Our flight was late in from Birmingham to Chicago and we sprinted across the airport (via their internal railway)and dived onto our connecting flight to Seattle just in time. Unfortunately our luggage did not catch up with us!

Now we were departing the very next morning for the Rockies so of course panic set in but the American baggage handling system was so professional that we were assured that our baggage was en route and would be delivered to our hotel before we left... and it was!

I have also used other airports but there never seems to be the same problems that face customers of Heathrow. It was entirely predictable that on their first day the baggage handling staff at Heathrow would be unable to cope. I am convinced that this is a scam. I personally believe that the operation at Heathrow is riddled with people who by design desire disaster.

To demonstrate the state of their desire to destroy the system was it not a coincidence that the very bag that Naomi Campbell needed in America did not get on the plane? Now I hold no brief at all for Ms Campbell who probably epitomises everything that I despise about modern culture BUT she probably knew that she had been targetted by the baggage mafia. The one item she needed in America had been 'lost'! Quelle coincidence! No bloody wonder that she got arrested as a consequence. I mean she is a well known nutter but that would have done my head in.

The management at Heathrow seriously need to review their recruiting policy with respect to baggage handlers because they hold the clue to success. If you cannot rely on your baggage handlers (and they can't) then your airline will fail. In the modern age of management it has probably never occurred to them that the boys at the bottom could possibly stuff the guys at the top!

Terminal 5 Heathrow Airport

I am watching SKY News as I write this post and it sounds as if Terminal Five has broken down inside 24 hours. Are we really surprised? BA has been a disaster for some particular time but this seems to be unparallelled. Flights in and out cancelled, people queueing for hours, visitors redirected to Gatwick with no information on how to get there and then of course the inevitable lost baggage! Apparently a flight left yesterday with no baggage on it at all!! As my more famous brother would say - I DON'T BELIEVE IT!

Welcome to broken Britain folks and just be thankful that you don't have to live here like we do!

UPDATE
It is much,much worse that even my brother could envisage! It is a total disaster and a national disgrace. The government must now step in but then what would they do?
We all know how decisive the PM is. What concerns me is that we are meant to host the Olympics in 2012. I am not sure that we are capable of holding such an event. I really hope that I am wrong.