Letter to my MP

Dear Mr Prisk

Thank you for your letter in which you acknowledge the terrible lack of guidance from successive governments in matters of training and investment and suggest that we can still slow the decline.  The root of our problem seems to me to be an almost chronic lack of a long term strategy by all the partners in GB Ltd.                                             Business leaders are constrained by their “shareholders” to think short term. Governments are likewise constrained by the pressure of the next election. Banking is in terror of its book, having forgotten what its founding purpose was and likened its self to a hedge fund, it went along with the criminal extortion of all that the market had to offer in near illegal trading practices. The list goes on but it is no good looking back to the past, what can we do now to protect the future.

Investment in people and in infrastructure, in technology and in the means of production, these are the goals to pull us through.

There is a role model in the German experience which, with few exceptions we could emulate to our advantage.

In Germany Industry and finance are tied at the hip. Projects are collaborative, each party sits on the Board and decisions are made with all parties in agreement. It’s not a, them and us arrangement as in this country. Proper training is a responsibility of the respective industry and not a political football as it is here.

It strikes me that when we need money to build a questionable high speed rail link we seem to have it (50 billion) but when we need money to build a nuclear power station (15 billion) we don’t. Why ?

Perhaps the national 70% holding of Nat West could be a precursor to funnelling funds to new and vital piece of national kit such as a power station?                             

Before cries of “Nationalisation”, that’s exactly the source of the Chinese money.

The French fund their nuclear and aero industry; with government financial support and as a result we have to go to them for assistance.   

Placing one’s self strategically at the whim of the Financial Markets is total madness.

So much ideology gets in the way of a National Long Term Plan and we are bound to continue with short-termism unless we form a strategic, non-political body, made up of experts in all aspects of business who are allowed to construct a plan for the future.

A 20/ 30 year project that the politicians of all parties have to work with.            Dream on !!              

A weather report

Its a measure of the country we live in and the need to stoke up the population from its lethargy that we have been inundated on the news channels with a tale of carnage due to be served up as gales arrive on our shores this weekend.
Of course as a seasoned jurno', (well blogger) I can't help but tempt fate to write a piece whilst we are all in one piece, before the lines come down and communication is disrupted. 

Candles have been purchased and extra fruit bought to carry us through whilst the power is down.  I am resisting the urge to fill the sandbags, (that sounds like hard work) but it all reminds me that we are not in a tsunami region or troubled with huge forest fires, at worst, we might have to put up with a relatively tranquil rain shower to dampen our spirits.

As I look outside the trees are hardly moving but there is still time. I could ring my weather outpost in Wales for a report but she might have been out on the town and there's no storm known to man like the wrath of a daughter plucked out of her beauty sleep.    

I wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as others see us. It would from many a silly notion free us !!

We try hard to understand how our children seem to have such short attention spans especially when it comes to reading a book. Their need for immediate gratification means that the slow unfurling of a story line, as we read and turn page after page, is out of character with today's young.
Of course they are hardly to blame given the incomplete messages that today's news media project, each hour, on the hour. Stories of blight and corruption across the world, set in gory detail only to be replaced by "another crisis" from somewhere else within 24 hours.
Our view of the world, through media reportage, is one of on-going trauma which makes us all feel complacent as we sit in the chair behind the double glazing.
The human race is clearly connected genetically but we celebrate our own ethnicity and consider the difference between us.   Much of our problem lies in this mental condition, of how we visualise ourselves and build a platform of self indulgence, ignoring the wealth of diversity that identifies the rest of the world.
People from other countries bring, through the life experience and the environment they grew up in, a different complexion to virtually every aspect of our own set of opinions. Whist the complexion differs, as you talk, you discover you have much more in common than you could imagine, given the distance and the cultural or political differences of each others background.
There are generally many common values, yes tainted by the pressure of each persons way-of-life and up bringing but remarkably similar in their root values.
We should learn to celebrate our commonality and recognise we all have so much in common, value these similarities and down grade the difference.        

Power and the danger it brings

Under the heading of national security the right wing Conservatives are hot foot, mounting an orchestrated onslaught against the Guardian Newspaper.
In a debate held in Westminster Hall, an adjunct of the main debating chamber,the Tory's had obtained time to debate the matter of the the release of information to the Guardian by David Miranda and Glen Greewald, journalists living in South America.  Greewalds partner had been held for a number of hours at Heathrow Airport at the behest of the security services in line with the American attempt to hold  Edward Snowden, another whistle blower with sensitive information who eventually fled to Russia.
I have rarely seen such misuse of  parliamentary procedure in that, normally debate is held under the rules of debate whereby the right of questioning the debater is nearly always given, the only constraint is usually time when the person standing , giving the debate wishes to proceed with the points he is trying to put across and refuses to be interrupted.
In this particular debate the Tory members were scathing in their complaint against the Guardian Newspaper but their blatant refusal to allow the Labour members to stand and offer alternative views was a sad, unhealthy sight. The debate was ruled by the rules of debate but the concept of "Parliamentary Democracy", where all views are heard, was totally disregarded. Each Tory member was allowed to stand and have their say, each New Labour member was told to keep quiet !! I found this one of the most distasteful meetings I have ever witnessed in the Houses of Parliament and would hope that it is not a preview of things to come.
There is a strong danger that open debate in society at large on such issues as Race, Religion, Sexuality, and now Security matters becomes very difficult as powerful elements in society seek to blanket comment and discussion.
The fearful condition of our Economy, not withstanding the good news stories released about recent marginal growth, has given Parliament the opportunity to enact draconian measures including the fire sale of the Post Office at a share valuation which enable massive profit for the City investor. The privatisation of the National Health, handing the Medical Practitioners  the potential to push prescriptive dugs onto the patient whilst the same Practitioner (now running a business) is enabled to trade with the suppliers of the drug. The danger that such a position of power brings is obvious.
The judgement that the ordinary man and women in society shall be the main conduit for finding firstly the funds to prop up the failing banks with taxpayers money and now to reign down on the heads of the poorest members of society with such as the bed-room tax is a trend that makes me very sad indeed.              

It will get worse

Its a bit like watching a slow motion car crash. Slowly the wheels are coming off the economies of the economically established countries, it seems that the world has changed in such a way that national parliaments, representing the ordinary man and woman in the street are rapidly becoming irrelevant.
The concept of democracy and the way people elect their representatives to fulfil the electorates ideas of fair play and good governance is becoming powerless.
As we go into the future, globalisation and the control the Financial Markets have over all nations, has shifted the power firmly towards faceless, unelected people who have little regard for the masses, other than an opportunity to exploit them.
The divisions between the rich and poor are widening at an astronomical rate and will continue to do so. Our politicians have let us down as we were encouraged to spend and become our own worst enemies through cheap credit. The doom sayers were ridiculed as the financial giants told us that they were in control, that the boom bust phenomena which had wrecked previous societies was a thing of the past. How wrong they were !!
The sad thing is that they "now" hold all the cards, having persuaded governments to max out the national credit card by borrowing up to the hilt and then some.
With the trillions owed as debt we will never be in a position to square the books, to be solvent again, we will always be beholden to countries that are based on the petro dollar swilling with huge cash funds looking for a mug to lend to.
We will continue to teeter around the edge of our affairs, trying to square the circle of our commitment to our society with  our inability to gain freedom from our creditors. The call to austerity is the solution of those who will never be asked to share the austerity. Joe public having been asked (sorry we weren't consulted) to bail out the Banks, are now asked to forgo their standard of living, their children's standard of living and that of their grandchildren.
The controls are gone, the new boys on the block are without a constituency. Recognised by their cars, their homes, their yachts and all the bling which is their trademark they, with the help of their political bedfellows are currently set on dis-mantling all aspects of our national endeavour to provide equality in the services we receive.  
Privatisation, the other buzz word, is decreed across all aspects of our collective, social responsibility to the ordinary people who live here. There is money to be made and the Market Makers will exploit every opportunity, irrespective of the true cost to the individual.

Make no doubt about it, it will get worse !!!      

UK Ltd remains a joke

Today it was a rant, not a reasoned debate, not a dissertation but a rant against all the things that I feel are wrong with the UK, particularly its leaders and their short sighted, self centred agenda.
What started me off was the news that China will soon be the "owner" of our new nuclear power station when its built.  China a communist, one party, dictatorially controlled society which must be the absolute antithesis to our so called, democratic,freedom orientated, legally centred country would now be the paymaster, the decision maker of one of the most critically, fundamental elements of our industrial environment. We will be on the slippery slope of no longer have any control over the capacity to provide energy to drive our industry or even heat and light our homes. 
We are exposed to Russian gas producers. We rely on French technology for the nuclear power stations. There are no ships of any size built here any more, instead we rely on Germany,France Italy, or the Scandinavians. Once the greatest shipbuilding nation we now can't produce one ship on our own.
The railways were invented on these islands and now we have to rely on the Germans and French to produce our rolling stock. The bridges, the iconic buildings, the steelworks are all foreign owned or foreign built. We have little or no industry.  
The Europeans continue, (as we "out source" everything to the Far East to maximise profit) , to have their leaders, Siemans, Philips, Renault, Fiat, Ferrari, Gucci - what totem do we fly - "Tesco" !! We have sold everything but the kitchen sink, Bentley, Rolls Royce are but typical of our race to the bottom.
We listen each day as we pull ourselves to bits and pieces attempting the impossible to be all things to all men. Ringing our hands about the past wishing to submerge ourselves in a daft game of supporting everyone but ourselves. Priding ourselves on our inclusiveness but in doing so, ignoring the fact that we have lost our identity. 

This tragedy stems from our leadership. The quick return on an asset sale, reinvested in the nano-second transaction conducted by a Hedge Fund of a trade based on some artificial differential between competing stock markets is where we are focused.  Why invest in the long term prospect of a healthy economy with a workforce re-contributing to the economic health in their own spending power.

We are poorly served because of the divide that exists between the people who have their dividends and much more and the massive bulk of the population who are descending, with the not inconsiderable help from George Osborn into penury. There is no sense of a one nation. The schooling system takes care of that, the jobs for the boys, the self perpetuating boardroom shuffle, a civil service drawn from the ranks of the debating society with firsts in Greek and Latin ensure that the administration of "UK Ltd" remains a joke.  

I think I might have a fry-up

There was a time when on dragging myself from the warm clutches of my bed I would hurry on down stairs to the kitchen, take out the bacon and eggs from the fridge, heat up the frying pan (no health fanaticism here) and start a good old fry up. The aroma of bacon cooking is one of those smells to die for, at least it is if you are the one to scoff the food. Marie forever complains about the smell as she opens the windows and doors even in mid winter to emphasise the point. Fried bread sprinkled with salt and pepper, sit the egg on the bread and lay on the bacon, what a creation !! 

That is all in the past. The future is bleak, now, I enter the kitchen and head for the fridge to search for a carrot, yes a carrot, a carrot for breakfast would you believe it. No more bread, no more sugary tea,, what is there left to live for. I find myself wandering into the kitchen and wondering why I am here. The routines are gone the frying pan sits unloved the sugar bowl empty their place taken by carrots, apples and a juice,r its just not the same !! 
Everyone talks of this mode of healthy living as if it were a passage out of the Koran, life depends on it. But who's life and what sort of a life are we talking about.

Life is a concept and all concepts should be taken with a dose of salt which nicely brings me back to the joy of fried bread. 

I think I might have a fry up ????        

By the grace of god.

There are moments when you are forced into seeing the world in a new different way and often it can come through the chance hearing of a radio program that brings to the microphone an experience of someone who has grown up in very different circumstances from ones own. 
Our prejudice is built in the emotional hot house of our environment when growing up and we are fixed, as in aspic to a set of values that form as we learn from our parents knee. The issue that was being discussed was whether it was right to take children away from parents who couldn't cope and don't care.
The adults who came on air were either from the hang em and flog em brigade or were people who had grown up in an unloving environment and had, on having their own children found it hard to offer their own children love and care. The articulate deeply sincere explanation of how they were unable to comprehend the needs of their children, would as time passed, slowly begin to understand their shortcomings was really moving.
We have our opinions, we base our thoughts and comments on our own experience and find it incomprehensible to see how these parents could ignore their children in virtually every way. Like any disorder, be it physical or mental we find it extremely difficult to put ourself in their position since it is so far from what we would call our own "normal"experience but remember "we" have been blessed with the security that allowed us to project our love onto our children.   

But for the grace of God !!! 

Bury me with the potatoes !!

I will never live it down, but then again I may never live, full stop ?
Every so often I get roped into an appearing at the allotment. Today it was digging up the spuds. Fork in hand I am directed to a patch of ground where it is rumoured  there are potatoes lurking under the soil.  I start to dig but apparently, there is a special way to unearth potatoes and I am doing it wrong. The fork must not go in at an angle, the depth is crucial and the shaking and loosening of the soil is a knack  I have still to attain.
Having done it all wrong and speared some fine specimens I was told off in no uncertain terms.
Promising to "try harder" I continued digging, folk in, lift the soil and shake out the potatoes, folk in, lift the soil and shake out the potatoes. One row completed I began to feel dizzy and light headed, stick at it lad, don't be a woose, fork in, lift the soil you get the drift but by now I need to sit down.
White faced I sit under the apple tree and contemplate. Has it all come to this, 10 minutes exercise and I'm floored and yet yesterday I walked the few miles into town and back no problem. Marie who battles to walk more than a mile is digging away like there's no tomorrow,the roles reversed she looks at me from the intellectual height of, "I can do this why can't you"?  I also want to know why can't I ?
Having arrived home and now in the comfort zone, in front of my lap top. I open the medical dictionary on Dizziness. 
Ignoring the "pint too many" I troll, Low blood Pressure, Hypoglycema and so on. Do I suffer diabetes is the ticker ok. The more you look the more symptoms you have, so I closed the book to do what I do best, write my blog.
If you don't get another, (there are many who live in hope), you will know where I went.
Marie has promised to bury me with what remains of the potatoes !!              

Robert Mugabe

Reading a very interesting book on Robert Mugabe I was fascinated as I often am by the history. This is especially true when you have lived through part of that period and have been captivated by the events as they played out, literally in ones own back yard.  The implications for South Africa were crucial.
Rhodesia was a country which, when one visited it from South Africa with its Apartheid legacy, you were regaled  with what seemed a contented well run society black and white.     Coming from SA one took for granted the squewed, master servant relationship between the whites and the blacks, the Colonial legacy was intact and working well. We saw what seemed a genuinely good relationship between the races, and contrasted this with the friction in the contrived racially segregated society further south.
As the years passed we were surprised to see the unfurling of a bitter war breaking out between the whites under Ian Smith and the blacks under a range of men who's names became house hold words and events which were but milestones in the South African story. Nationalism and independence were breaking out all over the continent and eventually the pressure on South Africa to conform was overpowering.
Reading this book writen by a South African female author, Heidi Holland, I was struck, in hindsight how our view of the conflict and the reasons for the conflict were manipulated by the SA Government controlled media.
The good guys, Ian Smith and his white tribe, fighting for their very existence. The bad guys the terrorists were Marxist trained thugs who just happened to be black. The symmetry with what we were brain washed with, in South Africa made the story plausible.  Edgar Tekare, Sithole, Abel Muzorewa, Joshua Nkomo and of course, in the background, Mugaba himself.  
The quiet man, the man who from an isolated, matriarchal dominated childhood, which made him self sufficient but also withdrawn, lacking the normal communication skills with those around him. A clever man who obtained several degrees but has little empathy with others. An obsessive man who listens and trusts no one because of a deep rooted inferiority complex.
Painted into a corner he blames everyone but himself for the trauma brought down on the country he governs. This narcissistic behaviour has its routes in childhood but is amplified by the duplicity of those around him, especially of those in power in the  West with their racially based, stereo typical paternalism that made a mockery of his deep routed belief in the uniqueness of Africa and of African solutions.
Rather than compromise he became intransigent and brought to its knees a beautiful country !!              
 

No medal this year !!

Winning the marathon has always signalled the height of athletic prowess. Whist the title of fastest man/women on earth the 100 metres has the glamour, endurance races for me are the true epic of athletic achievement.
The Comrades marathon,at 56 miles, longer than the normal marathon. It always captivated the South African audience with its "cock crowing" start, to the climax of Polly Shortts this race is full of pathos.
Bruce Fordyce was the man, he was god. The only question asked as the race progressed was "where is Fordyce".
He always ran a cagy race, hovering about tenth as the race progressed easing himself forward to ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, could he do it, surely not. And then came Polly in all her glory as he picked of the rest of the lead runners one by one. Imagine the the dismay, you had been up in front for most of the race when this enigma appeared on your shoulder, merciless he passed and left you in his wake as he surged yet again for another win. God was in his kingdom and all was well in the world. For Fordyce the anointed king, the race was won but for so many the challenge lay ahead, grinding out the miles, an eye on the clock, the cut offs at Drummond and Cato Ridge where, if out of time you were forced to retire, or the final ignominy, at the finishing line, the official turning his back on the approaching runners raises his gun as the time runs out to expel any further competitors from winning a medal.The crowd at the finishing line screaming, urging them on, people throughout the country watching on their television were doing the same, come on, come on, come on. The sound of the gun was like a shot through the heart to those still struggling towards the line, some sprinting, most close to crawling, it was to no avail, their effort in vain, no medal this year !! 
There are many tales of heroism, of camaraderie, of self discovery throughout the race. People plumb new depths or find a resilience that surprises them, stories to dine out on friendships that last a lifetime.
Amongst the good there is always the bad and downright foolish. The story of the guy who caught a taxi to shave off 40 ks, or the identical twins who shared the running by swapping every so often, the one resting whilst  his brother ran. Their only mistake was that they wore their watches on a different wrist and were disqualified.
Some of my fondest memories of South Africa were watching and trying to embroil my kids in the drama. It was theatre of the highest, a true life and death struggle carried out amongst a people who were living a schizophrenic existence but who came together on this day in a bond of common humanity.                   

52 factions

What a strange people the Yanks are. Fundamentally rich beyond reason they have this obsession with independence and the fallacious concept that we are all born equal to compete for life's riches. The cult status given to firearms apparently ignorant of the danger of guns in general. There denial of the need in a civilised society to provide basic and fundamental assistance to all members of society such as medical insurance and through it medical care for all family members. Their method of governance set out after the Civil War through a Constitution and the balance of power, Presidential in design but limited by Congress for the purse strings to pay, has resulted in the absurd bartering of power to enable the administration of the country to do its job for the citizens of that country. Ideology and not common sense raises its ugly head, each side digging in refusing to give way, grid lock ensues and everyone is made to look weak and powerless.
I suppose the real issue is that the country is not a united whole but rather a conglomeration of separate states each carrying its own veto. Congress represents those States and the voters who elect their Senators and Governors do so on narrow local issues. The same voters elect their President with a different set of criteria in mind.  The fear of powerful governance from the centre, powerful enough to cancel the self interest of local politics has always been an issue in the USA and we are often confused by this dichotomy. If State politics is most relevant to the voters in that State, the offer of pork today is very persuasive compared to the National issues that might be of value only as a concept.
The very reason for central, national governance is to bind all the citizens together for a common aim or standard right across the country. It also attributes the cost of any scheme to each tax payer and allows all the citizens to feel they have some ownership of the scheme. In the States they are split into 52 factions and there is little collective empathy for people in another part of the country.This much heralded independence, this belief in standing on ones own feet has provided the impetus for the tremendous growth to power but it has left many people behind struggling to live and make ends meet. For every winner a looser !! Should a society not be more compassionate, more civilised, more humanitarian.