Off on my hols!

I'm going offline until the beginning of September. Will be in jolly old France enjoying good food and good wine and good company! Then it's back for school runs, credit crunch dodging, and keep tabs on the New Labour cabal!

McCain's taxman v. Obama's taxman! Taxing times ahead?

John McCain's senior economic adviser is Doug Holtz-Eakin and Barack Obama's senior economic adviser is Austan Goolsbee. The BBC had the grand idea of putting them head to head.

Mr Goolsbee said, "Barack Obama's tax cuts for ordinary Americans are three times larger than John McCain's. The way that John McCain's package ends up being three to four trillion dollars more is that they give humungous tax cuts to high income people and large corporations." One in the eye for McCain.

Mr Holtz-Eakin told the BBC, "In this economy in the past six months with over 400,000 jobs lost we've seen the small businesses - those with less than 50 employees - add 283,000 jobs."

He underlined the importance of not damaging those small businesses. "Keep them in a position where they don't have onerous health care costs and mandates to provide expensive benefits to their employees." Which basically implies that Obama would stifle enterprise.

I think the only way to get out of this mess is for BOTH business and individuals to feel that they are succeeding. Just favouring one only will just cause more problems.

Listen here to the debate.

Gorilla in Georgia is no proper primate

Fancy that! A policeman and a former prison officer said they had found Bigfoot somewhere in the state of Georgia. I think they thought they'd got their chance seeing as the other Georgia was making all the headlines. Why not add to the mix by stuffing a block of ice up a gorilla suit and trying to fob off some overkeen "researcher". Two researchers bought the "carcass", encased in ice, for an undisclosed sum. Pity, but I suspect it wasn't $10!

You'd think there would be better things to do. I've seen some odd things in Georgia, US state that is, but I never for one minute would have thought that "Bigfoot" was prowling around. When Atlanta was hosting the Olympic Games, nobody muttered a word about being careful in case Bigfoot came on by.

Now you have to ask yourself what possesess law enforcement officers to be involved in such fantasies. Next time you get stopped on I85 tell the cop you're looking for Bigfoot. It has all the hallmarks of Car 54 Where Are You?

John Major's Olympic long termism!

It is the long held view by continental Europeans that the UK suffers from short-termism with respect to business planning and civic development. Most governments in Britain don't see past a ten year period. Mostly, I think, this is because, like Blair and Thatcher, they do ten years and the grey-suited men get restless. The grey suits seem only keen to let Buggins get his turn. The rest of us have to make do.

Once in a while a bit of strategic thinking breaks through. John Major, no doubt prompted by the likes of Lords Coe and Moynihan, thought that the only way to win big at the Olympics was to INVEST LONG TERM! Wow! Did he do right or not? I'd say he did. He arranged for part of the Lottery money to go to sport, and the rest is history as they say.

Why not do the same (long term strategy) for the railways, housing, retail, the lot. Then we would know what was happening 25 years ahead. A continental friend told me recently that the UK was "crap at project management". Maybe she's right. After all, according to the radio this morning we as a country are borrowing more in real terms than in 1945! Any more of this and the PM will be printing ration books and sounding all sombre.

So, let's have a bit more of the Olympic winning streak in business and government, and a little less of the doom and gloom.

Cereal abuser?

Following on from my last post, I was surfing around concerning fundamental Christians and I alighted upon the entry in Wikipedia of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes. One thing I always knew about Kellogg was that he came from Battle Creek, Michigan. This was because idle reading at the breakfast table told me so as it was on the carton. Idle reading has now got me thinking about Kellogg himself.

He was not just a cereal maker but a man who felt obliged to look after the moral degredation of others as he saw it. As a doctor he was more taken by the bowels and the sexual organs than mere corn flakes alone. In fact I would say that he was a tad flaky all round. He was a Seventh Day Adventist (which is how I came upon Kellogg in the surfing) but he took anything they said a step or two further.

He seemed to think that eating well and aiding your digestion kept sexual stimulation at bay. He should have met Dr Ruth! "Vat iss it viv you? You are so unhealthily obsessed, you are!" She'd have run rings round him. The medical Dr.Kellogg was obsessed. He was an advocate of sexual abstinence. He was a crusader against "self-abuse". He wrote Treatment for Self-Abuse and Its Effects. I wonder how many were traumatised by his stern lectures. He stated "A remedy for masturbation which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment. In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid [phenol] to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement."

Isn't it rich! A man who professed some belief in God purports to cause pain and suffering to God's handiwork. It never occurred to him that God thought all this out and found it to be perfect. Even today, American doctors are following his advice and coining the cash with such operations. And I doubt very much if the circumcised of America have abstained from masturbation!

Kellogg wrote another book entitled Plain Facts for Old and Young which outlined his beliefs. Hardly facts! It is apparent that those who are zealots for a cause are blind to the facts.

Kellogg was a "cereal abuser" of the facts!

McCain and Obama able in Christian den!

It is typically American today that the two candidates from the main political parties have to go to some born-again Christian temple to open their hearts, minds and souls. In England it is usually the local vicar or some civic dignatory that puts on a "hustings" event. Not so in America, or at least not anymore. There you have some preacher, probably vetted to see if there are no skeletons in the cupboard, introducing the duo so they can empty their closets in public to show off their skeletons.

I would not put much store by these events. The devil in me thinks it is partly to boost the career of the preacher concerned. Coming from a part of Christendom where this kind of publicity-led preaching is unheard of (apart from Anglicans getting publicity from disagreements!), I find it slightly uneasy that prim and proper people should be delving into the personal lives of others in such a way. The troubling aspect for me about "born-again Christians" is that the "I'm Saved!" mantra dispels much of the Faith, Hope and Charity aspect of Christianity. They don't apparently have Hope, they have rock solid certainty that they have front row seats in Heaven. This, it seems, gives them the right to sit and judge others who do not have the "I'm Saved!" mentality.

I see Bob Barr is getting all het up about not being invited. I wouldn't worry Bob. You're better off out (to paraphrase a Eurosceptic message!). Apparently "the only people getting into the event are Obama, McCain and those who reportedly paid $500 to $2,000 to the church to sit in the audience." Filthy lucre, Bob. Stick to being a libertarian and forget the huffing and puffing!

Taking the Tea Test

I've just taken the tea test from the Tea Association of the USA. They are the organisation geared up to promote tea. I didn't do very well. Seems there's more to tea than I thought I knew. Some of which was the participation of Americans in tea-drinking and its history.

Try the Tea Test. It is quite illuminating!

Iain Dale answered Any Questions?

I've listened to Any Questions? ever since Freddie Grisewood did the questioning. "What do we think of the troubles in the world? Bob - Bob Boothby, any ideas?" "Well, FREDDIE (Boom - boom!)" and the show got off to a rollicking start. There were characters like Mary Stocks (who once likened modern day Egyptians to a "degenerate race"), Lady Violet Bonham Carter ("When I was a gel"), Russell Braddon, giving us forthright Aussie opinions, Ralph Wightman, Ted Leather, et al. It was jolly days indeed!

Iain Dale, the bloggers' blogger, at least in the British dimension, was on last night. Apparently nervous beforehand (who wouldn't be?), he got the audience on side with some weak jokes and self-deprecating comments. All Any Questions? audiences require a good dose of both! He obliged them well.

The meal beforehand, where the host entertains, is an enduring part of BBC Radio practice. Most radio hosts did in the past, I'm not sure if most do now. Roy Plomley used to take his Desert Island castaway out to a slap-up lunch (with vino), then back to the record library to make the final selection, then a relaxed recording! All very civilised. Whether modern day castaways get the same, I do not know.

Any Questions? was always very civilised. Some of the best editions have been when politicians were not on the panel. Politically aware contributors, yes, but MPs, no. Iain Dale's real test comes with Any Answers? That's when "Cyril from Beckenham" will tell him if he spoke well or it was all tosh. Now that it's no longer letters a week old, each panellist gets it from the listener as is!

Iain says "I left at around 9.30pm to drive back to Kent. Much of the journey was spent thinking about how I could have done better, but also wondering if I had hogged it a bit. Sometimes saying less is more. Hopefully I did well enough to be invited back. Time will tell!" All I can say is that Boothby hogged it all mostly, and he was asked back many times. The Any Questions? radio audience likes "characters" more than anything else!

Blogger changes!

One thing about blogging, or the whole internet for that matter, is that things keep changing. And changing at a pace that I find mildly alarming. It's a bit like buying a new TV only to find a better model on display the next day.

Blogger have updated again. All very good and I've got no complaints, but it is all a constant learning curve. Will my widgets be there tomorrow, I ask myself. I'm getting used to the new changes.

In some ways, being on the internet is like being a fish in the ocean. Sometimes you can see for miles in clear water, then a ghastly oil slick blocks your view. There are some slippery eels out there, some sharks, some knowledgeable dolphins and some shoals of fish you'd rather avoid. The crabs can give you a nip and the weeds can get you tangled up. But mostly, it's an adventure worth being involved in. I'm pleased it's here!

I'm Alabrummy Bound!

Where's Birmingham, folks? It's in, er, somewhere Down South or in the middle of England, I'm not quite sure!

Same goes for the bigwigs at Birmingham City Council in ENGLAND! They got Birmingham in Alabama all having a laugh because somebody put the wrong photo on some leaflets - 600,000 leaflets on recycling to be precise.

What this tells me is that we live in a society where a lack of attention to detail is becoming more obvious. Any self-respecting Brummy would know that the city skyline is different. Where is the telecom tower, where are the church spires, and where are the clouds? Umm!

Here's Birmingham, England and here's Birmingham, Alabama.

McCain tries to trash Obama - Olympic style!

John McCain's people are all about negative advertising, it would appear. We are to suppose that the average American is sitting watching TV thinking "Gee, this Obama is a screwball! I won't vote for HIM!" I have this vision of young Kevin from the Wonder Years as his dad tries to watch the TV news so he can give his squabbling family his take on the world's problems. Kevin shrugs his shoulders as usual!

Surely all this is a waste of time. Americans are crying out for a new way forward. Obama is the only one available that will give positive action in this direction. This response from Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, is disingenuous in the extreme. He says McCain is "focused on ensuring that voters have the best information possible to make an informed decision on Election Day." I doubt that very much.

However, if the US media was not so strapped down to the floor by advertising moguls and corporate lobbyists, then I would believe him. However, the real world suggests he is wrong.

I would normally be actively thinking right now that McCain was the best guy. He's a Republican, and all the rest. But he mixes too much with lobbyists for my liking. Come November, should McCain win, these trough-snouters will be in their best bib and tuckers all salivating at the thought of more riches. Which could mean more ruin for others.

If McCain changes tack and tells us what he would actually do I might be more impressed. But by merely negatively attacking the messenger of much wanted change, he shows a paucity of ideas.

Chinese cheating

Made in China now includes fakes and faking. The news that the Olympic organisers decided to use the voice of a young girl deemed to be "unattractive" but put a "pretty" girl before the audience to mime the song is very distasteful. The musical director Chen Qigang said that "the reason for this is that we must put our country's interest first" which implies that only beautiful people can go on TV.

Does Mr Chen think that anybody outside China would have thought "blimey, what an unattractive little girl!" as they sat glued to the spectacle before them. He must be mad, because nobody would have thought other than "what a lovely voice" or something similar. All he has done is make China look petty and pernickety and rather nasty. And did he think that this would be kept quiet for long? Not whilst the Olympics are on, as all manner of news is moving around.

Chinese cheating indeed!

Georgian unrest

The Russian incursion into Georgia is very troubling. Not just because innocent people are yet again being slaughtered in another grand-scale political potboiler, but because it spells trouble for the concept of the nation state. The Russians declare that they are coming to the aid of the bealeagured South Ossetians. Possibly, but the look on Putin's face as he adddressed trouble Ossetians could be taken two ways. He could just as well be telling them they were on there way to Siberia. Putin is very typically Russian. Using people to get to the greater Russian glory.

I think we misunderstand the Russians. They are both cultured and corrupt at the same time. Their history is a mixture of brutality and the sublime. In a way, I can understand that they feel the West is encircling them. That was why Gorbachev once said "We are Europeans too, you know!" Well, the Russians are, the tribes reaching out to the Siberian wastelands are not, but have embraced Russian values to a certain extent.

Georgia is an independent country, but thanks to vinegar Joe Stalin, a man raised in the republic, it is left with a legacy of minorities. Ossetians being one of them. The European Union has being giving the nod to the President of Georgia that th EU would be a place to be. This, coupled with the idea of joining NATO, has upset the Russians.

Now I heard Jim Murphy, Europe Minister, on the radio this week. He's a man given to thinking that black and white are all shades of grey. Asked about Kosovo and its independence from Serbia, he blithely commented that that was different. Not really, but because it had a UN backing of sorts, he could say so. However Serbia does not agree, but what the heck.

I think this all serves to undermine democracy and the notion of the nation state. If countries are forced to stay together or forced to break up, then it just means bigger countries win all the time. In Europe there are many minorities all seeking some individuality even if it is short of independence. Spain has the Catalans and Basques, France has the Bretons, Germany has the Bavarians, the Netherlands has the Frisians and so on. Nearly every country in Europe has a minority that could get uppity at any given time.

It is no good holding people together if they don't want it but at the same time they should not be forced apart. I've always wondered what would happen if Texas decided to go it alone again. They did for nine years. They wouldn't last nine hours today because the US Army would roll into Houston to put it all down. Scotland may go independent, it may not. I would hope not, but democracy means the Scots may decide so.

Most people of different backgrounds stick together through a common language, history or religion. Where these differ, differences are greater. It is no great shakes if a country splits, as Czechoslavakia did, but the power of larger countries doesn't always go with democracy.

Animal rescue

All too often animals suffer the indignity of being involved in the forgetfulness and inconsideration of human beings. I've seen some odd behaviour towards animals and I don't mean basic cruelty. The most peculiar was when I was working on a farm at about the age of 20. One cow had been separated from the herd to await the gropings of the AI man. As was their wont, cows in such a condition made an almost continuous combined breathy cough and crying noise. It could be very loud. On this particular day the farm manager was trying to talk to some visiting sales rep but was finding it hard to concentrate. Suddenly he could take it no more, so he swung round to the tethered cow and shouted "Oh, shut up!" and the cow, looking extremely startled did just that - four a couple of minutes.

Some animals get caught up in the panic of others. One day I had to escort some dry cows to a field which meant a fairly long road walk for them. Not given to road sign sense, the cows drifted off down the wrong road and into a garden.They were running around a circular rose bed when an upstairs window burst open and a scantily clad woman started to berate me and scare the cows.

Now I see that a cow has fallen down a drainage ditch in Sutton Park in Birmingham. How she got there is not revealed, but John Porter, the park manager, said he had not known that the drainage ditch existed. He said it had been covered with railway sleepers which had become rotten and could not withstand the weight of the animal. So she was in the wrong place at the wrong time!

A couple of years ago a bullock got trapped in a swimming pool, and recently a rider and her horse have been rescued from a Cambridgeshire ditch where they were stuck upside down. The horse was winched out OK and the rider was unharmed.

The thing that gets me here is that the animals are very much at the mercy of us humans. We do care, but I wonder if we understand if the animals find it all a trifle embarrassing.

Guilt by association - Guantanamo style!

I see that a US military jury at Guantanamo Bay has convicted Osama Bin Laden's former driver of supporting terrorism. Salim Hamdan was found guilty of five of eight charges of supporting terrorism but acquitted him of two separate, more serious, charges of conspiracy. So he just drove Bin Laden around knowing he was an arch-terrorist but did not join in with any conspiratorial talk. It's all a bad joke in this kangaroo court land, isn't it?

Do the prosecuting soldiers in this Cuban camp think that by just driving you support the activities of the driven? In that case, the recently jailed crook Lord Black's chauffeur could be pinned against a wall and accused of fraud. Max Mosley's driver could be said to support kinky sex, and Amy Winehouse's driver may be accused of supporting her various antics.

All chauffeurs and personal drivers better watch out. Uncle Sam may have you if your boss gets into trouble. By the way, is anybody questioning George Bush over his past friendliness with the Bin Laden family? Oil and water don't mix, I know, but what of oil and truthful politics? We're still waiting on that one!

BBC gets its vicars in a twist!

I knew the BBC had long left the realms of those who knew about church life. To the average BBC reporter a cleric is a vicar - regardless! Unless of course he's a bishop or has been disclosed as a Roman Catholic, in which case he's a priest.

According to the BBC a "Vicar's anger over road tax rise" is reported as "A vicar has hit out at plans to raise car tax ....." and goes on to describe Rev. Peter Cook as the "vicar at the Hanham Baptist Church in Bristol". Umm!

In another story the BBC tells us of a couple who had their marriage blessed on a wing of a plane by a dare-devil vicar. He was in fact the Reverend George Brigham, of Wrose Methodist Church, Shipley. The Anglican clergyman who conducted the proper marriage on terra firma was in actual fact a rector of his church.

I know I'm being a tad pedantic, but the serious point here is that it all goes to show that a secular press reports in a secular way about things they have little knowledge about. In that, times have indeed changed.

Asian Babes joke - tact, tastlessness and two-facedness!

We live in a very morally uptight society, controlled by the self-righteous and the socially sleazy. This morning the Today programme had a bit about hypocrisy and I do think it permeates across the mindsets of the chattering classes. They are so good at saying "Do as I say but not as I do".

TV journalist Martin Bashir has apologised for making what he called a "tasteless" comment about Asian women. It was called that after he was got at. He said at the Asian American Journalists Association annual banquet in Chicago, "I'm happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes. In fact, I'm happy that the podium covers me from the waist down." Now excuse me, but I don't find that tasteless. Maybe a bit cheeky. I'll tell these tasteless touts what really is tasteless. George Bush telling a group of fundraisers that Wall Street "just got drunk". That's tasteless, cheesy, and odious all rolled into one.

Jeffrey Schneider, a spokesman for ABC, the channel that Bashir now works for, said, "This kind of remark has no place in any setting and Martin knows that and is truly sorry for his serious error in judgment." Come off it, Schneider, you sound like a prig of the first order. Where were you when Bush made his comment about Wall Street, and others over Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, famines in Africa and the rest. A whole catalogue of quips and silly remarks.

What does ABC think of the credit crunch apart from just reporting it? Have they deigned to investigate the "tastless jokers" running the sub-prime scams or the money-shuffling exercises on Wall Street? Not really, because some of that money comes their way in advertising dollars.

Mr.Schneider should get out more and find out what really is tasteless in life. His remarks are tactless, his hypocrisy is tasteless, and his actions display a level of two-facedness!

Rigorous Roman rhetoric!

I've just had a read of some of the comments on Damian Thompson's Telegraph blog. In his post "Rome's plans for the Anglicans" we are given some very nice insights into RC pew thinking. As an Anglican Catholic I have long since known that ecumenical niceties are only skin deep with some. I'm derided as a fake catholic, attending a fake "mass" with an invalid priest in a church full of "ornaments". Now I realise that not all RC's take this line, but some reading this will give a knowing nod to themselves.

This quote - "These people have supported wymynpriestesses and mincing gay clerics with boyfriends, and such, for how many years now? What makes anyone think that they really are Catholic?" And this one - "Well, the Anglo Catholics or failing that some of us Catholics will have to go and get the Anglicans.That's not such a silly idea as it appears on first reading. If Catholics cared about the Anglicans being re-united to the Church they would make a lot more sacrifices and take real Catholicism to them." And even this one - "We have too many Anglicans in the Catholic Church already. They should take greater care to ensure that they are Catholics before they receive them into the Church."

Am I beginning to get paranoid or am I really between an eccliastical rock and a spiritual hard place? I do wish people could accept differences, live with them charitably and work out how to get on without rancour. Impaired communion exists within the Anglican Church. We live with denominational differences. However, all Christians are united by their baptism. I remember a Roman Catholic priest saying of those who were not of his persuasion, "I'm not saying they're wrong. Just that it is not right for me." A good thought.

If Roman Catholics want Anglicans to go through some sort of sackcloth and ashes penitence ritual, then that is not being Christian. Faith is caught not taught (although doctrine buttresses the Faith). I certainly don't want to catch something where I am encouraged to rubbish those I was with the week before!

Obama's tired of tired tire gauge jokes!

I well remember an American cousin of mine telling me in the 70's that a good way to save money on gas was to have your car tyres pumped up to the right pressure. So how come John McCain didn't know this. My cousin was US Army trained. Did McCain never get to check his army trucks over? Were all his Jeeps running OK?

The truth of all this is that the US economy has been taken through a hedge backwards by the cost of the Iraq war, the Wall Street money grubbers and the sub-prime prize shysters. They all got drunk! Barack Obama is only saying that "every little helps" to borrow a phrase.

John McCain should tell us what he would actually do as president, not scoff at his opponent. If this tit-for-tat stuff goes on until November, none of us will be any the wiser and most be be considerably poorer!

When two planes collide

It's something that is not unlikely to happen, although the likelihood of such a thing happening is not usual. However, today it happened. Two planes had a minor collision at Manchester Airport due to being too close to each other on the taxiway. An airport spokesman said that "this kind of thing shouldn't happen" and I thought they never really do.

However, David Learmount, of news service Air Transport Intelligence, said incidents of aircraft being damaged at airports were relatively common. "It's a serious problem in terms of expenses, but it's very rare that it involves people getting hurt." I then thought that maybe we don't hear of the bangs and bumps unless they are so blatant as to be publicly witnessed, as today. If Mr.Learmount says it's "relatively common", and he should know, does this imply that pilots are not that good at driving a plane, more the expert at flying the things?

Wunderbra! It lifts and separates and stops bullets.

The Germans have developed a wunderbra that actually stops bullets. Carmen Kibat, a policewoman in Hamburg who tested the new underwear, said, "These can save someone's life so it's not a laughing matter." She organised "Action Brassiere" across Germany, getting hundreds of policewomen to try the bras out in the line of duty. I'm still not sure if someone actually fired a gun at her breasts to test it out. Rather her than me.

Northern Rock 'n Roll

Robert Peston of the BBC reports that Northern Rock has made a £500 million loss but has made a sterling effort in paying back some of the taxpayers' money quicker than expected. Does it really matter if Northern Rock declares losses or gains as if it were still a bank in the private sector? I don't think so. The outfit is only fit for staying alive so long as it owes money to us, the taxpayers. The Government basically drained the lifeblood out of it. The business survives like some confined creature that has a starring role in Doctor Who. We'll keep on its good side until it is time to say "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

High in the Sky!

The BBC reports that an air stewardess has appeared in court charged with drinking alcohol before working on a plane. Monika Lukomska, 24, is alleged to have been working on a BMI Airbus A320 while over the drink-drive limit when she was arrested. This was on a flight from Aberdeen to Faro.

What I don't get about this story is that her solicitor Mike Munro told the court he needed more time to look into the act under which she was charged because he had never dealt with such a case before. That got me searching the net for the relevant act. It's the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003. Now I'm no lawyer and I'm no expert, but I can read! The section that is relevant is 93.

There is no double-meaning in the section at all. It is crystal clear that drinking over the limit is a criminal offence whilst performing an "aviation function" which in this case is "acting as a member of the cabin crew of an aircraft during flight". One bit of law that the drafters wrote up properly and Parliament saw fit to pass.

Mr.Munro has only to read it and take his client's instructions. What time does he need to "look into the act". It's this type of timewasting that causes the legal system to have a monumental bill which the taxpayer has to foot. I'm all for due process and the rights of the individual but I defy anybody to say that section 93 of this act is not clear or that being intoxicated on a plane whilst conducting an aviation function is not in contravention of the act.

She either was or she wasn't. That's all there is to it!

The disappointment of it all!

The one thing the British police have difficulties with it seems is the handling of social misfits within the context of murder inquiries. Stefan Kiszko was wrongly convicted of murdering Lesley Molseed. His particular problem was being an immature man with sexual, social and medical problems. He was "caught" with dirty mags in his car, fitted up for the crime, convicted of murder and life went on as usual. On his release Kiszko benignly felt able to blame nobody but indicated a desire for matrimony and domestic bliss. He died about a year later.

The police said that this could never happen again. I well remember my sister saying, when Barry George was first charged with murder, "Looks like they've just picked up the local nutter!" - and it seems she was right. Eight years after his conviction Barry George walks free. However, the Metropolitan Police are not so sure. Scotland Yard said it was disappointed by the verdict but respected the decision of the court. Disappointed? That Barry George wasn't rotting his life away on the flimsiest of evidence. Are they now too casual to get their boots on to detect the crime? Probably.

The Metropolitan Police is now an organisation built on the business of statistics, political correctness, short-termism, and internal politics. The Barry George's of this world come low down on the list of priorities.

Society needs to get a grip of how we deal with those whose lives have become a mess. Barry George was "known" to the authorities but the authorities didn't care much. So we are left with a crime that will be unsolved, a much-loved TV presenter's family in distress, another family relieved after eight years campaigning and the rest of us left wondering.

Only the police are disappointed!

Man "decapitated" on Greyhound Bus!

Rumours abound about a Greyhound bus stabbing in Canada. Apparently a young man was stabbed and, according to witnesses, beheaded aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba on Wednesday night.

Police have not confirmed the identity of the victim pending notification of his family, saying only that he was stabbed while riding on a bus that was en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton.

Such things are extremely rare. However, I would not think it above the suspicions of fellow passengers to think each other capable of peculiar or odd behaviour. I well remember travelling on a Greyhound bus (it could have been a Trailways) and a chap regailed me about whether the Queen ever came out of Buckingham Palace. "She does come out, doesn't she?" he repeated, seemingly at every turn in the road. Another passenger gave me chapter and verse on her journey from the Roman Catholic church to the Mormons, via what appeared to be every denomination in the USA! Yet another had gory details of the Vietnam War.

Most are genuinely agreeable and make exceedingly good travelling companions. But, as far as I know, there is little or no screening for nutters and nuisance-makers. These you have to deal with according to your own abilities.

Obama to be tried and tested the McCain way?

There's a well-known firm in Britain called McCain. They make "oven chips" which are potatoes neatly chipped, then frozen so the customer can put them in the oven to get something ressembling a deep fried potato chip that is the mainstay of fish and chips. How good this process is and how fine the results are has been the stuff of food scientists. They have tried to replicate the fat fryers in the domestic ovens.

Senator Obama is being seen by the Republican Party as an untried and untested potato head. They are gearing up to put him through the slicers and the ovens of the presidential campaign by seeing how he reacts to their barbs and broadsides. What a carry on? If this is to be the level of the debate, then Heaven help us all! We are being subjected to talk about shoe selection (Imelda Marcos style?), about personal tastes, and music appreciation. Does McCain always buy $500 shoes? It is all too banaal. We need a proper debate about dealing with the credit crunch fraudsters, the Iraq debacle, the world energy problems and the emerging economies of China, India and Brazil. If the established "Western World" goes to hell in a hand cart, what will the importance of a presidential candidate's shoes be?

Both parties need to get away from juvenile schoolyard propaganda and address the real issues. If being tried and tested is showing you have 50 years of experience, then it hasn't been a very good example in most cases. Barack Obama will fail or succeed only by his abilities to deal with "events". And no president deals with this in isolation. He has a team around him.

Being president is not like being Cinderella. Your shoes are not a pivotal part of the plotlines!