Ron Paul and a few home truths

As this is a Ron Paul supporting website (shouldn't every blog be that?) I'm showing this good expose of the "War in Afghanistan". As Dr. Paul says, the more Muslims we kill, accidently or deliberately, the more ammunition there is for Al Queda. This is a hopeless battle, made even more so by the fact that nothing is being done to get rid of the poppy harvest. Instead of bombs and bullets, how about deploying an army of cropsprayers to devastate the drugs trade? Surely that's the real enemy. Let the Afghan farmers grow natural tomatoes or something, so we can have decent fresh food in the supermarkets. I bet an Afghan farmer wouldn't flog us green tomatoes just for them to be gassed in a warehouse so they go an odd orange colour!

Anyway, I digress. Here's Ron Paul -

Bishop flips his lid!

The Pope is right to condemn the remarks of a wayward bishop. Bishop Richard Williamson was among four bishops whose excommunications were lifted by the Pope last week. So, as a joyous way of thanking His Holiness, Williamson sounds off about his thoughts of Nazi Germany. "I believe there were no gas chambers", he says.

This video of him shows what it must be like to live in a parallel universe. The Church is supposed to be universal (catholic) but Bishop Williamson's universe is not part of it!

Hoon's Hollow Heathrow Win!

When it comes to giving elocution lessons to weasels, Geoff Hoon is the man. Highly regarded in all ways for his weasel words, he has just managed to get his Heathrow expansion vote through the House of Commons.

Just like he waffled on about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he is waffling on about opposition to a third runway as doing "serious damage" to Britain's economy. He accused the Tories of "political opportunism of the lowest kind". He should know all about that! He weaseled his way through the Iraq enquiries like a snake oil salesman.

The truth is that this third runway is NOT about loss of jobs but more the re-arrangement of jobs. It is about BAA and British Airways enjoying a superior status. It has been suggested that Birmingham's runway extension could be halted if this goes ahead. Why? Because we would all be expected to trundle down to London to fly off from there, paying the likes of BAA for the privilege!

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Hoon is up to something. What exactly, I'm not sure. None of this makes any sense except that the government is in bed with the Heathrow expansionists. Why on earth would I want to fly from Heathrow to, say, Seattle, when I could with an extended Birmingham runway? Now that's where the jobs nonsense comes in. London airport workers OK, Birmingham airport workers - forget it!

As I've said before, the answers will not be forthcoming to any sane and rational questions put to ministers. Just look at the hapless Brown, who apparently was bringing on the crocodile tears as he pleaded for votes today. He was ridiculous in the Commons at PMQs. He doesn't answer a single question, but just repeats his gormless mantra that the Tories are "the do nothing party".

Well his do something has been disastrous for the country. The man is an utter disgrace. Time is running out and we need change now. Oh, how we need change.

Politically correct nonsense!

Two pensioners from Essex were left stunned when they were asked to show photo identification to buy a bottle of wine. Where? At a One Stop store.

The madness of it all. Tesco owns One Stop. A spokesperson for the store said, "We take the sale of alcohol to underage people extremely seriously." They should have added, "and we are extremely stupid!"

If Tesco thinks that defending such nonsense, asking pensioners for ID for age purposes, makes any sense, then they should leave this planet and go and set up shop on Mars!

Kebabbed by the porkies about kebabs?

It seems that the doner kebab, as served up to the average late-night reveller, is both high in calories (almost 2,000 in one case) and not at all what it would seem. A survey shows the poor state of the kebab. No wonder the phrase "being kebabbed" suggests getting into a bit of difficulty. Because six kebabs surveyed served up pork in the mixture, which would have been enough to put any good Halal eater off, had they known.

Officers from 76 councils sampled 494 kebabs to test their nutritional value, during the Local Authority Coordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors) study. I pity them, I really do. I was severely put off these things, when I sat next to a friend eating one of these in a car. We were somewhere in South London, Brixton maybe, at about 2am. He started on this greasy concoction, the fat squelching out of the sides, running down his face to a great globulely drip on his chin. As I had had a few beers, I was not in any sense able to have a reasoned discussion on these molecular monsters, but I was sober enough for my memory to be implanted with a high degree of disgust. He thought it was delicious. "You should try one!", he said, with a knowing grin and a sense of satisfaction. I never have and I never will.

However, my wife tells me that where they make them well, Greece and Turkey, no such qualms should exist. They are perfect creations there. Which leads me to wonder why the British will accept any crap and not demand higher standards.

It's no good these Local Authority Coordinators of Regulatory Services valiantly sampling such greasy grub if they don't do something about the food standards in this country. We deserve better, we really do.

Gordon Brown to leave the Last Chance Saloon?

He's a busted flush. If he's not gone before the year is out, then the United Kingdom will be broke. What a carry on! What a disaster.

Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail sums up Brown's lack of grasp on the credit crunch.

From his article today -

"Staggeringly, Treasury officials do not appear to have inspected the banks' loan book before committing these astronomic sums of public money.

As a result, almost all the money invested in October has now almost entirely been lost because the value of the banks has reached rock bottom and meant that this
week fresh public money had to be made available which is also being poured down the drain.

Second, by forcing through its merger with the crippled HBOS, Gordon Brown has ruined Lloyds Bank which had, for more than a century, been one of Britain's proudest financial institutions.

Following this wholly unnecessary merger - orchestrated with the complicity of Lloyds chairman Sir Victor Blank - the bank has sacrificed its independence.

The third error is the most grotesque. Gordon Brown has lost all control of the national finances."

Surely someone can suggest to him he goes, and goes soon!

Mollywood Movies

Every so often a film comes along that everyone raves about. This time it is Slumdog Millionaire, which is about a boy winning big on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". He comes out of the slums of Bombay to win the coveted prize, then arouses suspicions and so on. Slight memories of the cheating major, etc.

The thing that interests me here, or things actually, is that this is not an Indian film as such, although it is filmed in India and the cast is almost exclusively Indian. It is a British film done in India. Bollywood films (Hollywood in Bombay) are seen as being in the cultural ownership of Indians. Very few people other than Indians watch them. However, these films make money and are seen by many people so that Bollywood has all the infrastructure and technical knowhow to take on Hollywood. This film, Slumdog, may well tip the Indian film industry into the world of "crossover" movies. Those that have an international audience. Then Hollywood would get real competition. With American actors playing in Oscar-nominated movies, the Indians could do very well indeed.

However, these new movies could not be Bollywood ones as they conjure up a very particular cultural ethos. Far better to move with the current name changing mania. I suggest Mollywood Movies made in Mumbai! After all Bollywood was Bombay's answer to imported cinematography. Mollywood will be the exported version that the whole world can enjoy.

Barack Aitch Obama!

The man with the sonorous tones announced the entry onto the world stage of the President-elect. "Barack Aitch Obama!", he said, with the most manly voice an American audience could hear. For BBC viewers, Huw Edwards mumbled something about the name Hussein being "controversial in America" and then went on to say that he would have to have it known when he, Obama, took the oath of office. Can't think why Edwards would think to say that. After all, hundreds of Americans have odd names, at least to the WASP community!

That all got me thinking. "Aitch" - what would it be for if not Hussein? Would it be happy, or hope, or heavenly? These are probably words that would sit well with the assembled masses, and what a lot of masses there were! It wouldn't be hell, or hopelessness, or handicapped. Those are words that should be for yesterday's politics.

It was hell for the victims and families of 9/11. It was hell for those caught up in the hurricane that was Katrina. There has been the hopelessness of seeing greedy people play Monopoly with other peoples money and not to be able to change it. And we have been handicapped by the credit crunch, the lack of transparency and such. We hope now to get away from that and to be happy. Is that so much to ask?

President Obama will no doubt have a few setbacks but if we all work together, as he rightly said, Americans and all around the world can overcome the setbacks and move on.

Welcome President Obama!

Today sees the Inauguration of a new president in the United States for the people of the USA and elected by the people of the USA. Even those who voted for McCain and others are, in large part, happy and expectant of great things.

Barack Obama is not Superman, neither is he a special envoy from God, but he is a man of the people. I suspect he will be the most relaxed man ever to walk around the White House and to sit in the Oval Office. After all, if he is willing to work for change with this mess and not get flustered, how much more can he achieve when things get easier. He is clever, he is quick thinking, he ruminates on things, and he appears not to suffer fools gladly.

A new broom is coming, and we all together can sweep away the trash!

Obama gives a raspberry to Blackberry pickers!

Quite right! President-elect Barack Obama says he has a plan to retain his beloved Blackberry once he moves into the White House tomorrow. The security types are beside themselves. Why? Because they see it as their business to control POTUS and get very touchy if they can't.

He is, to certain extent, hampered by the requirement of the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act of 1978 to keep a record of every White House communication. But let's have a bit of common sense. I reckon this President is going to be a man of the people and not a man for the government machinery. He's got a good brain on him. He'll find a legitimate, honest and practical way to keep his Blackberry. It will be better all round.

I'm getting visions of Michael J Fox's character buzzing around Michael Douglas' president, in that marvellous film, An American President. "Not now, Lewis!". The movie's tagline? Well it was - Why can't the most powerful man in the world have the one thing he wants most?

Browned off with bailouts?

I've just seen Gordon Brown on television, with Alistair Darling giving appropriate backup. The two are still convinced that throwing money at the problem is the only way out. Some agree, but many more I suspect are either in disagreement or are highly uncomfortable with it all.

Brown looked tired and drawn. If he doesn't get it right soon, he may have to do an Anthony Eden on us. He still blames the banks. He is angry. Well we all are, but he has had access to information we didn't. In August 2007 the sub-prime fiasco blew up in our faces. Ever since, he must have been asking some questions, surely? He just seems to be following events rather than anticipating them or even asking simple questions.

He needs to get those bankers in and put a financial pistol to their heads. And he can bring in Angela Knight in too, of the British Bankers' Association. She was Conservative MP for Erewash and was Economic Secretary to the Treasury in John Major's government. She seems to think more roses are growing in the garden than most of us can see!

We need Ron Paul over here to give us all a pep talk!

Ken Clarke in Tory front bench return!

Well, he's back. He's going to be shadow business secretary, taking on the oleaginous Lord Mandelson. Clarke may be distrusted by many Tories inside and outside the Conservative Party for his pro-European leanings. However, in my opinion he is a very excellent performer, a demolisher of humbug (Mandelson's stock in trade!), and a man who can put forward an argument in ways that the electorate understands. In that, he is an excellent choice.

Put him in the House of Commons or on TV, and we will see the slippery Mandelson's plotlines unravel very fast. We need people with the will to get to grips with this financial mess. Funnily enough, it's occurred to me that a pincer action between Clark and Cable in the Commons would be the political death for this New Labour outrage of a government.

Tony Hart dies

Anyone under 60 in Britain will, as a child, have watched Tony Hart drawing on television. Drawing pictures, painting, in fact anything to do with art. Anyone over 60 will have watched him as an interested adult, which means that everyone in the UK was familiar with Tony Hart. He had a 50 year television career. Not bad at all!

He died today, after being in poor health. As I'm one of the ones nearer sixty than six, I remember him back in Eamonn Andrew's days on Playbox. "Huh, huh, Tawny Hart, boys and girls!", Eamonn would chortle. And we were into a delightful period of black and white viewing. Hart said later on that basically all he was using in those days was grey chalk and white chalk on a piece of coloured drawing paper. So we were not missing the colour, then. That came with the invention of the magic marker and the introduction of colour television.

I will remember his laid back approach to his art with affection, even if I could not emulate him in any way. A real pro!

Fox News now Ron Paul's biggest fan?

It seems that Ron Paul is pundit number one when it comes to Fox News. Pity they were so down on him during the election. Anyway now they appear to be bending over backwards to give air time.

Here is Ron Paul saying he thinks Barack Obama is right in telling us that things may get worse, but he thinks Obama may be missing a few points. If you want to hear a politician speaking it as it is, here's Ron Paul. If you want a different tack, take up with Gordon Brown and the fairies in Number 10!

Willie Walsh and his weasel words!

The chief executive of British Airways has kissed the blarney stone and is off at full pelt with supporting the "we must have a third runway" proposals. I saw him on BBC's Question Time from Leeds. He got a free ride, that's for sure. Only David Dimbleby picked up "unnecessary flights" which an audience member had asked about. Dimbleby wryly suggested that these were those on competitors' flights. Audience laughter. Willie goes along with this and smiles.

Now I have no desire to see British Airways do other than prosper. However, it must be as a successful business because it attracts custom not because it out to do down others or create advantages paid for by the taxpayer. In short, these proposals as outlined by Geoff Hoon have nothing to do with jobs or the well-being of our economy. What they are about is securing advantage for British Airways and BAA, the owners of Heathrow at the expense of others.

When Terminal 5 was given the go ahead, this duo said they would not press for a third runway. They've got Terminal 5 and they still want the runway. On the programme, a woman asked why Leeds/Bradford Airport was not being given the extra flights. "We want to expand business here too!" she said. Willie was sympathetic but basically unconcerned.

He now wants all UK flights to go via Heathrow. This is so that BA can get the custom and not Air France or KLM or Lufthansa. He uses the mantra of "lost jobs" but anyone wanting to come to London already can from anywhere in the world. So all this is about forcing people to use Heathrow over Schiphol or CDG.

Willie Walsh also claims Heathrow has 180 destinations and some that the others don't have. Well Manchester has 225 and some destinations that Heathrow doesn't have. He never once mentioned Manchester! I wonder why?

This is not about the economy. It is not about jobs as such. The spin and subterfuge are there to obtain a goal. Perhaps when the enquiries come, we can find out how many planes are flying into Heathrow half full or empty? That's another question that needs answering.

British Airways left the domestic market as far as aircraft were concerned. However, they still sell flights from regional airports through codeshare arrangements as do other airlines. We don't need an expanded Heathrow for this to continue.

The only reason for Heathrow to get a third runway would be if there were no flights going from anywhere else. As this is patently not the case, the proposals for this runway are dead in the water.

Willie and his pals need to answer three questions.

1. Is it impossible now for a person to fly to London in order to visit as a tourist or to do business? YES or NO.
2. How many planes fly half empty or below full capacity into and out of Heathrow currently?
3. Is it impossible for a person to fly from any one of the top 20 regional airports to the USA, Europe, Australasia or anywhere else without flying though Heathrow? YES or NO.

These are the questions that may take some time to get answers to. We need integrity in business, not the handiwork of spinmeisters!

Brown urges banks to 'come clean'

He does does he? How come he never asked them in detail about their so-called toxic loans before he handed out taxpayers' lines of credit (it isn't real cash!)? He really takes the biscuit for his affrontery!

He told the Financial Times the banks had to "come clean" about these bad debts so people could trust them again. How about him "coming clean". As Vince Cable says, in his excellent article in the Mail on Sunday, "The Government wants the banks to come clean on their bad debt. Why on earth weren’t they asked to do this when they first obtained help from taxpayers?"

The answer is that both Brown and Darling are skirting around the problem in order to keep their electoral chances alive. Forget all that. They will fare a lot better with the electorate if they do what is right, which is forensically obtaining the facts. If some banks go to the wall, so be it. Far better a dodgy bank goes down the pan than the WHOLE COUNTRY!!

Miraculous escape from Hudson River plane crash

I've just been watching the escape of passengers from a downed US Airways jet en route from La Guardia to Charlotte, North Carolina. All passengers got off. The pilot did a fantastic job by landing the jet in a perfect way.

The first thing you need in air travel is an unflappable pilot of the Lloyd Bridges type. Assuming that an incident is not terrorist related, which this thankfully was not, you put all your trust in the pilot and the crew. They did well!

Adolf Hitler taken into custody!

I had a post about what's in a name recently. Some people don't like their names, others are quite happy. I once remarked to my wife that nobody is called Napoleon, only to see a chap on Dutch TV called Napoleon Smit. Now it is reported that the authorities in New Jersey have taken exception to the name Adolf Hitler for a three year old boy. That's right, Adolf Hitler Campbell. They are afraid he might grow up to be some kind of Scottish-American Nazi! Heaven help us.

This all came to prominence because the parents went to a ShopRite supermarket in Greenwich, New Jersey and the cake decorators refused to inscribe Adolf Hitler Campbell's name on a cake for his third birthday.

The child protection unit say it's not about the name, but they won't say what is the real reason for seizing the child. I suppose they couldn't do it just on a name only. There are some pretty weird names out there and some people might be ringing up the welfare people every day.

So no cake for the little boy. The parents must be a bit barking, but if they have looked after the child for three years, why now? It surely wasn't the cake incident alone.

Chambers of Commerce in Heathrow hotair

I've just seen a guy from the North-East Chambers of Commerce talking on BBC News. Ross Somebody. Apparently he thinks this Heathrow expansion is good news. When asked why, he said he hoped some of the new slots at Heathrow would be given over to flights to Newcastle. This much alarmed the interviewer, as his blatant reasoning was nothing much to do with anything other than a quick fix for transport via "a UK hub".

The Chambers of Commerce are fast becoming the trojan horse in all this. I am not against reasoned airport expansion, but not on the airy fairy lines most of these guys in the airport business go along. They have the mantra about "creating jobs" and that "our prosperity is at risk". The same parrots that suddenly stopped sqwarking at the time of the sub-prime fiasco and all the dodgy dealings of last year.

Newcastle Airport is not cut off from the rest of the world. There are flights to Dubai with Emirates with onward connections. And they have access to a hub in Amsterdam with KLM and CDG in Paris. Of course, this Ross guy knows that, but he doesn't want the present flights out of Newcastle publicised. He wants to dig up more land in Middlesex so he can have more flights from Heathrow. It's moronic and it's shameful.

If a businessperson wanted to fly to Newcastle from anywhere they can do it via Amsterdam or Paris. Why on earth would they be more impressed by going through Heathrow. For starters the shopping is better in Amsterdam. All British airports need to get a grip of what's on offer in the retail side of their businesses before they start dreaming of third runways.

However, listening to Ross one could be forgiven for thinking that the North-East was stranded and suffering business-wise. He conveniently did not mention that British Airways currently flies from Heathrow to Newcastle,so why would he want want to keep quiet on that one.

In all this waffle, we must be on the lookout for the disingenous and the downright deceitful. Oh, and isn't it funny that these Chamber types are so pro-European when it suits them but anti-European when they think it fits their agenda.

Wednesday's Wonders

These are some of the best posts I've noticed on the blogs I read, so I put together my Wednesday list and recommend them.

1. Archbishop Cranmer - A must read posting on the apparent presence to be of the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire at the Inauguration. Very good, very to the point.


2. John Redwood - A concisely argued piece on “A frightening deterioration in the UK economy”.


3. Wonko's World - He does us a service in his post on “An Israeli’s perspective on Gaza” by highlighting this article in the Guardian. Keep it up Wonko! Gangster state, indeed.


4. The Captive American - He is doing a good job exposing the ballot riggers, this time in Illinois. Americans need a democracy not a stitchup at the OK Counting House.


5. Letters from a Tory - Brilliant assessment of the Bush years in his post George Bush remains clueless and ignorant to the last.

Gordon Brown to nationalise free enterprise!

Prudence has nothing to these days. She's definitely like Mr. Rochester's wife! Stuck in the attic, wondering what became of her. Gordon has taken up with a flibberty gibbet by the name of Gay Abandon!

The BBC says ministers are considering plans to guarantee up to £20bn of loans to small businesses to help them survive the downturn. This in effect would mean the taxpayer coughing up for every defaulted loan. Could make Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac look like amateurs!

The Conservatives say that every child born into the country starts off with a £17,000 debt. Guarantee schemes are OK if they are there to help the entrepreneurial activity of the country, but this is just bailing out failure.

The country needs to be reassured, because confidence is what it is all about. Most people are not confident, and no amount of posturing will help until money flows in the normal way. People need to be able to part with a pound in the reasonable knowledge that it won't be their last.

Sweatshop workers exposed in Manchester!

The BBC has uncovered exploitation of workers, minimum wage abuse and the employment of illegal workers. Two companies, TNS Knitwear and Fashion Waves have been caught out. Both deny any wrongdoing, but the evidence would appear to be against them.

The companies make cheap clothing for Primark. They are aghast at the position! No doubt an investigation will take place into the importation of third world practices into Manchester's business community.

As Neil Kearney, of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, says , It is a total scandal. This is the importation of third world working conditions into Europe and in this case into the UK. There's no such thing as cheap clothing, somebody has to pay and in this case it's the workers in Manchester who pay." Perhaps Primark could explain things to us?

Clerical first?

The Independent reports that a father and son have been ordained into the Roman Catholic Church. Jerome Taylor starts his article by asking "With celibacy a fundamental tenet of the Catholic clergy, you might think it should be all but impossible for a father and son to both be priests." That is the quick response to these type of stories in which the finer points of the matter are missed.

It is perfectly possible for a father and son to be priests in the Roman Communion. Celibacy is both abstinence from sexual activity and about marital status. There have been many priests who were widowers at the time of their ordination.

However, I am a little uncomfortable with the Vatican's stance in that, by trying not to compromise the position on Holy Orders, there is an implied compromise on the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Jerome Taylor reports, "They are allowed to stay within wedlock despite being priests in the Catholic Church but are expected to remain celibate."

This appears to be an illogical concept of the position of matrimony, but then I am not a Roman Catholic.

Which threat is the worst? Al-Qaeda or the Credit Crunchers?

I don't wish to trivialise any threat of terrorism, as this is a barbaric act of indisciminate criminality. However, I do take issue with George Bush when he says, in his folksy advice to Barack Obama, "The most urgent threat he will have to deal with, and other presidents after him have got to deal with, is an attack on our homeland. I wish I could report that is not the case, but there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on Americans. That will be the major threat."

I beg to differ. It may be a major threat, but it is not THE major threat. The major threat that is on every American's doorstep is the imploding economy. Slowly the authorities are going after the crooks and dodgy dealers, slowly the minds of Congress are attempting to think about the problems, but it still seems a long way off before sanity sinks in. Funny money floats about like confetti, whilst real money goes to pay for unimportant things.

Whilst it is the first duty of any government to safeguard the wellbeing of its citizens, this does not come before checking that another cuckoo is in the nest. There is currently a huge monetary cuckoo in Congress's nest. The bird needs seeing to!

Blinkered vision for jobs?

When Peter O'Sullivan commentated on horse racing, he was always keen to point out the horses in the blinkers. Not that in racing terms this is perceived as much of a handicap. In the world of politics, it's very much a handicap to walk around with blinkers on.

I don't doubt that Gordon Brown is doing his best to secure new jobs to replace those going out of the window each day. However, he still appears to be a bit blinkered. The new wheeze is that employers will be given up to £2,500 for every person they train who has been unemployed for more than six months. But will they just take on the unemployed to get the cash? I hope not. But it's no good tempting employers if the jobs are not there.

Mike Kirkham-Jones says "Since being made redundant it's become obvious that the jobs aren't out there. And what jobs there are, an awful lot of people are applying for them," which doesn't sit well with the prime minister's view of things. Mike had a £40,000-a-year job as an operations and project manager in a small software company. Was he on this government tour giving his opinions?

The truth is that there are no easy answers, because the economy is still in shock after the credit crunchers screwed things up last year. Instead of bailing out these failed oufits, the companies that have good management and sound business plans should be identified and their fortunes promoted.

If not, we will just be pouring good money down the drain.

Is BAA flying on hot air?

According to The Independent, "there is not much doubt what the Government's decision about a third runway for Heathrow will be. This week, Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, with the support of the Prime Minister, is likely to give the go-ahead to the expansion. Equally, however, there can be little doubt that the third runway will never be built".

That is much of the trouble with the governance in Britain. It's looking two ways at once in the vain hope of pleasing as many people as possible. With so many years of this nonsense, we have become a country very much ill at ease with itself. The recession is bound to cause more of the same. In a nutshell it is called "Short Termism". Quick fixes just to gain instant popularity. So long as something is happening, we are given to believe all is OK.

So the "slippery" BAA carries on. Sir John Egan, its former boss, said that Terminal Five would not add to pressure for a third runway. Last week, BAA admitted, "That's what he had to say to get permission for Terminal Five." There's a TV commercial running at the moment about "who do you trust?" and given the antics of the corporate world, most people don't trust business-speak anymore.

The Third Runway debate with be just like the Euro debate. Stick up the Five Tests, which in this case are all anti-pollution ones, and say that when they are met you can have it. So the runway will never be as the tests will never be met.

If only these nutcases could sit down in a room and actually think out a proper transport strategy for the whole country. But being what they are that is probably impossible. A whole new set of people, with clean sheets, are required. For unless we get an integrated transport policy, we will continue to have airports each doing their own thing, trains running around full and empty, cars clogging up some roads whilst others are almost vehicular free.

It's either a frustrated travelling public or a happy one.

Prince Harry's history repeats itself!

There is much talk about something Prince Harry said on a videotape THREE YEARS AGO! Some of the people criticising him are the very people who would not want videotapes of them unearthed by the pompous prigs on the News of the World. Let's be clear, derogatory words are offensive. Prince Harry is obviously mortified and has expressed genuine regret at his lack of judgement, even though it was "used without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon".

What makes me annoyed is that people are treating this as if he uttered the word yesterday. Since his cadet days he has grown up a bit and has endured the deserts of Afghanistan.

I may have a tape of the editor of the News of the World saying something injudicious or imflammotory or just downright obscene when younger. Would or should I make it public for all to see and hear, assuming I have got one? Keep them guessing! It's humbug.

This has just stirred up things for no apparent purpose.

Uncle Sam's got more paperwork!

Christopher Columbus only had to contend with crossing the Atlantic ocean. We on the other hand have to contend with crossing the I's and dotting the T's otherwise "it's on your bike, mate!" at the immigration lines.

On Monday, if you are travelling into the United States, you will need to have completed an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form, which will give the American authorities all they need to know about you.

According to the Daily Mail, the move to more form-filling is likely to frustrate holiday firms, travel agents and holidaymakers - particularly elderly travellers less at ease with computers. They expect chaos! The changes have not been widely publicised beyond the embassy website. So I'm doing my bit, although it's somewhat late in the day.

Rick Galbraith, of the customs and border protection office at the U.S. Embassy, said, "Esta will not be optional - it will be required before they get on that plane." Which will be they won't get on the plane if they haven't got it..

Travellers will have to state whether they have a range of communicable diseases - including some sexually transmitted diseases and TB - any mental or physical disorders, and whether or not they are drug abusers or drug addicts. I can't believe those suffering from a mental breakdown brought about by the credit crunch are going to admit it on a form. Kind of double whammy. And are all those suffering from "unmentionable diseases" going to admit to anything? I've not seen the form, but it's all a bit iffy in the knowledge department. I wonder if Al Quaeda operatives have any sexually transmitted diseases. Nutcases and fruitcakes, yes, but that is already known.

The rules state: 'If your admission is denied, you have no right to appeal.' Well, Big Brother speaks. He should set up home with Big Sister!

Ron Paul on too much blowback!

Watching this piece from Ron Paul in the House today makes you wonder what American foreign policy is all about. The more I hear him, the more I wish he was going up to swear the oath of allegiance, but hey that was then and now is now.

Ron Paul on the Gaza conflict -

Dick Cheney answers Queen's question!

The Queen has been waiting a long time for the answer to her question about the financial mess we are all in. She asked, "Didn't anyone see it coming?". Nobody stepped up to answer. Our hapless prime minister has spent a whole year denying there was a recession on the horizon. He's still in some kind of denial, so has been no use there.

However, that gun-totting, oil-dealing, war-mongering sidekick of George Bush, by the name of Dick Cheney has come running to the rescue. He now says, “I don’t think anybody saw it coming.” In a garbled interview with the Associated Press’s Deb Reichmann, Vice President Cheney repeatedly insisted that no one anticipated the looming U.S. financial crisis. Aren't you glad he's only got a week to go?

"It's awful!", the Queen said. She meant the crisis, but she could equally have been referring to the behaviour of politicians.

Did Bush cause the financial crisis?

Sub-prime loans. Credit default swaps. Mortgage-backed securities. All dodgy ideas for pumping funny money round the financial system. Did Bush cause the financial crisis? Not on his own, but he knew what was going on. He muttered words about "folks hurting" but blithely carried on. So now we have a trillion dollar debt for Americans to be living with. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, "Consider the terrible consequences of the 'anything goes' Bush Administration, whose irresponsible non-regulation of financial institutions has led to this crisis." Well yes, but she is just as much to blame. It's no good regulating without seeing what you are regulating. Did she say anything about the loans going to those who didn't have a dime? Did she sound off about the guarantees that were as worthless as lead balloon? I don't think so.

Still money is chasing indebtiness. Only when an honest day's work is paid for in proper money will we begin to see sense. Let's get the lumberjacks out to cut down those money trees that have sprouted out all over the place. We need a new approach right now.

Dave Dee dies

My sixties record collection has definitely got Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in there. Probably The legend of Xanadu is my favourite. So it is with sadness I heard that David Harman, otherwise known as Dave Dee himself, has died at the age of 65, following a three-year battle with cancer. RIP.

"I want my kidney back!"

Divorce can be a messy business. In some in brings out the lowest in human emotional capability. Dr Richard Batista is divorcing his wife and is demanding that she return the kidney he donated to her or pay him $1.5m (£1m) in compensation. What about her heart? Has he done for that what he hopes to do for the kidney?

She in turn appears to have done the old trick of keeping the children from him. With all the hurt in the world, can't two grown, educated people do better than squabble over such a thing. Perhaps he'll get it served up as Devilled Kidney!

Big Sister is watching you!

The government's wonderfully worded Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) will make available our emails to any public body which makes a lawful request for them. From March all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will by law have to keep information about every e-mail sent or received in the UK for a year. On BBC Breakfast News this was discussed. Some naive emailer responded with the classic "if you haven't done anything illegal what have you to hide" line. But this is stupidy of the first degree.

As the Earl of Northesk, a Conservative peer on the House of Lords science and technology committee, says "This degree of storage is equivalent to having access to every second, every minute, every hour of your life. People have to worry about the scale, the virtuality of your life being exposed to about 500 public authorities". He is very right. This is not about some avunculur schoolmaster looking out for his pupils, or a priest taking in information of a sensitive nature and not revealing it to third parties. This is about simple data with not a lot of clarity (no content will be revealed, yet!) being washed around Whitehall for transient ministers and contract staff in government agencies to wade through. What exactly they will make of it I do not know.

Emails can be sent to anybody. Are we to ask about the moral fibre of every recipient of the emails we send out? I'm waiting for the knock on the door because some person the police or security service is interviewing has me on their email list. It's absurd nonsense. This will tell them nothing. I suspect it is more about securing data for their own purposes. It will waste time weeding out all the people who "haven't done anything illegal so haven't anything to hide".

The Earl of Northesk also says "Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right... it is important to protect the principle of privacy because once you've lost it, it's very difficult to recover." Hear, hear to that!

It’s time to get your SPAM™ cooking hats on!

What was I saying about enterprising people from Solihull. I've now found out that the SPAM® Cook Of The Year Midlands and Anglia regional finalist 2008 was Gerardine Sykes from Solihull who came up with a SPAM® and Vegetable Parcel recipe.

I must confess I've not had SPAM® for a long time. It was much favoured by the school cooks I seem to remember. I've had it in batter at a fish & chip shop, but our local one isn't in to that sort of thing. I will certainly try Gerardine's recipe.

Monty Python had a thing about SPAM®. It put the product right in the forefront of the public's imagination. The fact that it is still going strong must be some testament to the endurance of brand image. It has sold over six billion cans and is over 70 years old. With SPAM® you are either a fan or not, it seems. And the fans make good use of it. Apparently it is very popular in Hawaii. I wonder if Barack Obama is a fan of SPAM®?

Best of the Bushisms!

There was the Reverend William Spooner - "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain". Followed by a succession of word muddlers, including Officer Crabtree in 'Allo 'Allo recalling a "nit on the bonk of the Thames" (night on the bank of the Thames) with a female "secret urgent" (secret agent).

George Bush brings it all up to date with his collection of Bushisms. Some silly, some naive, and some plainly rather deceptive. the BBC has a list of some of the best. The one that gets me is "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." Not a mangled malapropism but smething more sinister. Had he got the trillion dollar deficit in mind?

The list is here.

Ron Paul sees trillion dollar deficits in true light!

Ron Paul would save a trillion dollars just by cutting the "overseas empire" so that the trillion dollar deficits "for years to come" that President-elect Obama says we have to live with would be dissipated fairly quickly. Of course, all those tied up in the business of the War on Terror would have to be deployed elsewhere, but at least the average American wouldn't have a taxation millstone to drag around until death!

"We haven't had free market economies for a long long time", says Dr.Paul. Seems to me very odd that in the Land of the Free, free enterprise is on a back burner and corporate interference is the bees knees. Oh, well!

Here's Ron Paul talking about the continuing dilemmas and that trillion dollar deficit.

Justin's king of the grocery castle!

Justin King is a Solihull boy made good. There's something about Solihull that creates an enterprising attitude. Maybe it's in the water, although Severn Trent may take some time finding out!

Sainsbury's has had a bumper year. Mr. King says that the company has just had its "best ever Christmas performance", after enjoying strong sales growth in the last three months of 2008. Wow! Does that cheer you up? Even if you don't shop at Sainsbury's it must be good news. The bottom line here is that if you give the customers what they want, they will support the business. That's an age old adage, but it's true.

Mr. King also derided the VAT cut that Alistair Darling thought was so great. One wonders if this benighted chancellor ever consults anybody.

However, when I hear such company results it gets me thinking. When I was in my local Sainsbury's just after Christmas, there was a whole stack of mince pies going cheap. I counted up the boxes, some unopened in their cartons. I reckon there were over 600 boxes that needed to be shifted. So I thought, did the manager overdo it on the pies, or are people round here going off mince pies? I really don't know. I got a box of six for 37p. I freely admit I'm not much use to Sainsbury's as the freezer is full of "cheepos". But at least I'm saving them a part of the costs in removing out-of-date food. These company figures must include the mince pies, surely?

Long distance information, give me.....!!

New Year has arrived and the Indian call centres have cranked up into top gear. I've just had three on the line in quick succession. One trying to flog a mobile phone scheme, another talking about my house in detail, and the last preposterously suggesting that the British Government wanted to help me, should I have "any unsecured debts"!

Most of them, when told that I'm not interested, hang on in a similar vein to the drowning man in Tony Hancock's Radio Ham ("Mayday, mayday, please, please, I am sinking in the Indian Ocean!") only to be advised he'd be better off talking to someone better prepared.

The thing that gets me is that these call centres seem to be badly linked up to the phones. Mostly it is like talking to a person in a drain. Progress? Of a sort, I suppose.

Gordon Brown gradually begins to see sense

It took him a long time. The Prime Minister is beginning to recognise the damage done to the economy by all this "leveraging". He is now in a position where limited words would help. He has been saying that he saw the recession coming, but that doesn't sit so well with his past performance. It is more fantasy than downright lying, but Gordon Brown's first objective in 1997 was to unseat the grinning imposter settled in next door at No.10. His second was to stoke the economy with funny money so that sycophantic Labour MPs could go into TV studios to say that we had the best chancellor ever! Now it's all come crumbling down.

He still blames others ("it all started in America"), but, unless he had cloth ears for the past year and a half, he would have known that this cuckoo economy was going to crash. Is there a New Labour version of Monopoly? Someone should get one out soon, if not!

Brown has decided to tour the country. "It is more important than ever for us to talk to people right across the country about what they are going through". My heart bleeds! Crocodile's crying comes to mind. I heard Sir Stuart Rose and Simon Wolfson on the Today programme this morning. Perhaps it might not be a bad idea to replace Brown and Darling with them and get some real progress in tackling this crisis.

Personally, I have no confidence in this tour unless people tell it as it is. Then it will be a case of burnt ears replacing the cloth ones.

Vicar vicariously dismisses the Crucifix!

Sometimes the Church of England amazes in ways it probably shouldn't. In Horsham, Sussex, a vicar has found that the crucifix outside his church was 'unsuitable' and 'a horrifying depiction of pain and suffering'. He says, "It wasn't a suitable image for the outside of a church wanting to welcome worshippers. In fact, it was a real put-off. We're all about hope, encouragement and the joy of the Christian faith. We want to communicate good news, not bad news, so we need a more uplifting and inspiring symbol than execution on a cross."

Quite what goes in place of this symbol I do not know. It is all rather sad, because this cosy rosy version of the Faith is just like icing with no cake. I suppose this vicar, had he been around at the time of the crucifixion, would have been offering the Virgin Mary and the Disciples tea and sympathy well away from the gory scene.

Without the suffering there is no hope. It's a topsy-turvey rollercoaster, this new way, that's for sure.

Suffer little children

The Holy Land should be holy, but it is currently turning into a paradise for the Devil. I suppose it is because there is no real authority in the White House at the moment. The Israelis saw their chance to fight back as they see it against the intransigence of Hamas. I've met and known Palestinian Arabs. The one thing I can tell you is that they will never give up the idea of a Palestinian state. Some are on the rather casual end of the spectrum, others are far more rabid about it. But they all support the proposition.

I've been accused on other sites of being anti-Jew or anti-Israel. Far from it, but you can't always debate with some because they take the slightest hurt from the mildest comment. The vast majority of the world believes in a settlement based on a two-state solution. This is not a winner takes all contest.

The Israelis have usurped the Peace of Christmas and the Manifestation of Christ to the World by bombing and burning in order to win some position of strength. All it has done is turn people against them. United Nations agencies are being stopped from their life-saving work because of this assault. The Jews of all people should understand suffering. Why then turn the Gaza into a ghetto? Is this Old Testament vengeance?

Wherever little children are massacred for the crazed notions of adults, we must be concerned. "Suffer (allow) little children to come unto me" is far better than having a millstone round our necks and being flung into the deepest part of the ocean!

Blagojevich and Burris in high-wire double act

I may be on the wrong tack here, meddling in domestic American politics, but I maintain that, as the credit crunch bites my ankles, I can have a say in the system that is helping the crunch bite better!

So I am not surprised when I hear U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say, as he did on Meet The Press that Democrats will use every legal power they have to keep Burris from being sworn in on Tuesday. "We think we're pretty clear on what we believe is the law and precedent in the U.S Senate. We're the ones who determine, Democrats and Republicans, determine who's going to sit in the Senate". So the good citizens of Illinois, you are not capable of selecting your next senator. Harry Reid and his chums are the only ones. Blimey, it's a sort of self-selecting club with the electorate supplying the fixings!

I suppose the sight of mop-haired Blagojevich standing next to Roland Burris at press conferences makes the senators shudder. The thrust of Reid's political thought is that Blagojevich should move on, and the Lieutenant-Governor "appoints Burris or anyone else". The governor could be doomed. All it takes is a simple majority in the house to impeach him and he could be gone from office if 2/3rds of the State Senate believes he's guilty.

That's the whole dodgy thing here. Allegations all round. Sounds like solid evidence is not really required and the voters get to watch it all on TV. Now that is a reality show!

PCs to hack into PCs! How PC is that?

It never ceases to amaze me. One reason why I think New Labour likes the European Union so much is that each has a mutual nosepoking philosophy. Lord Mandelson is chief amongst this breed of busybodies. Quite keen to go sniffing around other people's business, but very sniffy when it comes them being checked out.

So it is no surprise that the "remote searchers" of the New Labour regime will be licking their lips. What quite distinguishes a remote searcher from a hacker is unclear. Answers on a postcard to Gordon Brown, I'd say, or rather email for those so inclined.

It is all part of this catchall type approach we experience today. It's all this warrantless intrusion into our lives that the ruling elite think is so acceptable. It isn't. What keeps a democracy apart from the others is the rule of law. If the rules allow for below-the-belt stuff, then we will lose a lot.

An amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 made hacking legal if it was authorised and carried out by the state. So who does the authorising? The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said such intrusive surveillance was closely regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. A spokesman said police were already carrying out a small number of these operations which were among 194 clandestine searches last year of people’s homes, offices and hotel bedrooms. That is all very fine, if we can trust their word, but it may not be so. Unless this is enshrined in law, all manner of "agencies" can go eavesdropping on a whim.

As usual, Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, has made some very sensible comments. He is someone I could have a lot of faith in as Home Secretary, as opposed to Jacqui Smith, where words fail me! Grieve agrees that the development may benefit law enforcement. But he adds, “The exercise of such intrusive powers raises serious privacy issues. The government must explain how they would work in practice and what safeguards will be in place to prevent abuse.”

Yes, explain now and concisely. Any delay will be monitored!

What's in a name?

Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico, has gallantly decided not to accept President-elect Obama's invitation to be Secretary for Commerce. This is because of an investigation over business dealings, in which Richardson denies any wrongdoing. Obama would have had two former challengers in his cabinet.

The thing that got me over this story is the fact that journalists love to describe Richardson as "an Hispanic politician" as if his name doesn't fit with his background. Obama's been through the ancestry mill, with the press hotfooting it to Kenya to seek out his aged grandmother as if to make a point or two. Richardson also follows in a similar vein.

All the time Bill Richardson was running for president, I never really bothered to think of him other than Bill Richardson. The name sounds very English and therefore very Yankee. In fact, Richardson is only a small part Yankee. He owes that to his paternal grandfather only. All his other immediate ancesters are of Spanish or Mexican background.

So in his case, Richardson could claim to be far more Hispanic than Obama could in claiming to be African. But does it matter? I don't think so at all. There's a chap running the Russian gas business called Mr.Miller. He sounds very Russian to me. A cursory glass at the Amsterdam telephone directory will show all manner of English names, but the vast majority of these are not ex-pats but everyday Dutch folk, just with English monickers!

We are all the result of who our parents met, but we are not our parents. If Obama's African grandmother is to be consulted on all major issues by the press, it will detract from his own abilities and talents. We are hopefully judged by our own views and actions, and not those of our ancestors.

Ron Paul bazookered from the bushes!

Here's a shot from Bazookaman aka Michael Bradbury, from somewhere up a mountain in Idaho. He rues the day that the Republican Party squeezed out Ron Paul. He says, "As many of you know, I was solidly in Ron Paul's corner. When he was intentionally barred from some of the eastern debates, I KNEW Ron was the right guy. When he was mathematically out of it, and officially withdrew, I wasn't going to vote at all."

That's how many perceived it. Bazookaman puts it well. "Nope...........I didn't support BUSH last time, and if the GOP can't put Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, or someone of that caliber, into that running slot, then we probably DESERVE to lose! Looking at it realistically, in the pack of jackals the Democrats have to choose from, Obama probably WAS the best they could do."

The "right" isn't always right, and over the last year in America the ruling elite appears to have lived under a vaporous cloud that has addled their brains. Read Bazookaman's piece. I think he speaks for a lot of people out there.

Coalition or National Government Mr.Brown?

In the Daily Mail today, Peter Oborne suggests that Gordon Brown might be considering some sort of deal regarding future governance. Perhaps a coalition with the Libdems? Get rid of the Speaker (Oborne doesn't rate him) first, then install Sir Ming Campbell, then cosy up to senior LibDems by offering plum jobs. Does it sound plausible? I don't think so.

It may be that Gordon Brown is pally with Ming, but that doesn't imply all LibDems are pally with Brown. Oborne rightly suggests that the younger brood on the LibDem benches would be appalled at a coalition with New Labour. And I can understand why. Gordon Brown may have certain qualities, but he is also prone to grumpiness and vendetta-like attitudes. His meddling in the traditional parliamentaty processes is deplorable. No wonder the Tories are furious with him.

I feel that Brown may consider that his best bet in remaining Prime Minister is to contemplate a coalition or a national government before the next election. If he thinks he will go down as a big loser, why not blame the credit crunch ("It started in America") and say that a unity government is the answer? Trouble is that the public won't buy it.

We know that New Labour is a busted flush. All spin and no substance. If it is true that Vince Cable is "on good terms" with Brown, that he is after a job, he won't last long in the scheme of LibDem politics. The only possible coalition after the next election (not before) is that of the Conservatives with the LibDems (and that is a long shot!), because both have been in opposition and the public would accept this over keeping a failed government in power.

One thing Peter Oborne says is curious. He writes, "before 1979 it was common for two minority parties to enter into alliances in order to form a government. Indeed, analysis shows that for at least a third of the past century, the country was governed by parties which had failed to win an election in their own right but had created temporary mergers with another party in order to form a ruling coalition." I'm not sure what this means. Certainly there was no coalition after 1945. Ted Heath tried in vain to bring the Liberals into government in 1974, but this was vetoed by the Liberal hierachy. The odd Irish MP has helped in tight votes, but that is not a coalition. And I don't consider wartime national governments are to be considered in the same vein as peacetime coalitions. So that leaves the period when the Liberals were going down and the Labour Party coming up in electoral terms.

The truth is that we live in a democracy that was originally created around two political philosophies. Conservatism and Liberalism. Then these splintered over the years and the result is we now have a multi-party process in a two-party system. Hence New Labour gets to govern on the votes of only 20% of the total electorate. 80% of us either voted for some other party or didn't bother to vote.

Coalitions are only good if they are supported by the system. In the UK system, our adversarial instincts are now centuries old. A coalition will not last long, even if agreement is reached. It is far better to look at changing the system first rather than to plot an outcome based on present formularies.

Ooh Matron! Nurse is waving her wages at me!

It is a sad reflection, following on from the Settle shopkeeper, that there are organisations where money isn't exchanged so well. The National Health Service is one example. Admittedly being vastly larger than a small shop, it is nevertheless proper budgeting that is a necessary requisite. So we now hear, through the Freedom of Information Act, that some agency nurses cost £250,000 a year (pro-rata) to the NHS. In all, the NHS spent almost £800 million on agency staff.

Of course, if the hospitals were managed better, then none of this extravagant nonsense would be happening. Agencies are getting rich because of others' incompetence. Nothing new there, but surely it is high time to change this slack attitude to easy hiring of staff. And it's not the nurses getting all this money, although some do better than permanent staff nurses. It is the agency contractors who have "overheads".

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley is right. He obtained the figures for us to see. He says, "For years the Government have been telling us how many extra staff they have hired for the NHS. So surely we should have reached a situation by now where we no longer need to keep paying out millions each year to agencies and their staff? It is a dreadful waste of taxpayers' money at a time when we can least afford it."

But New Labour are rather like the Pushmi-pullyu. The want to say they are spending money and getting things right whilst at the same time saying that everything is managed by agencies, imlpying a hands-off approach to responsibility.

So £800 million being tossed in the direction of employment agencies is no real surprise. Onwards with the change!

Honesty box nets £187 for shopkeeper!

Here is some good news for the New Year. A shopkeeper in Settle, Yorkshire, decided to open his shop on Boxing day but just put an honesty box there. He himself was at home playing a game of Risk! No such risk with the good folks of Settle. They bought and settled up by putting the money in the honesty box.

It just goes to show that, although we live in straightened times, most people are just plain decent. It has always been the few that spoil it for the rest.

Tom Algie, the shopkeeper it was, says, "I didn’t think twice about leaving the shop open. Settle is a lovely quiet town, there’s never any trouble here. I put faith in my customers and I wasn’t disappointed". Great news!

American muslims ordered off jet

Being a muslim in the USA today is not exactly the same way of life that others expect or accept. Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark. Thought is the operative word here.

All nine are native-born Americans. However, some would seem to be more American than others when it comes to security. AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson agreed that the incident amounted to a misunderstanding. But he defended AirTran's handling of the incident, which he said strictly followed federal rules. And he denied any wrongdoing on the airline's part. "At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't have made on the airplane, and other people heard them," Hutcheson said. "Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions." It's all alleged stuff. Who said what when.

No doubt it is best not to discuss the possibility of the jet engines falling off. However, I suspect that if this had been a group of white born-again Christians going to charismatic knees-up in Florida nobody would have batted an eyelid. If a muslim had mentioned he had overheard inappropriate talk, would the airline have acted in a corresponding manner?

We all make assumptions, but the world is such that some have to live with more than others do. In that, I suppose change will take a little longer this year!

Fatal crash plane hits rail line

Two people are feared dead after their light aircraft crashed into the overhead power lines of the West Coast Main Line in Staffordshire, reports the BBC. The aircraft came down in Little Haywood, near Stafford, just before 1200 GMT.

There are a lot more light aircraft flying around the UK. It may be premature, but the likelihood of a smaller plane crashing appears to be significantly higher than a commercial jetliner. It is always unnerving when a plane crashes. Regretably there were no survivors.

BBC Report.

Happy New Year!

So another year comes round. Today is January 1st and 2009 is hear. Let's hope it will be the year of change in what is right to change and the year of maintaining what is right to maintain.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year.