British Standards - If They Can Be Called That

Driving home after New Year the litter alongside the A42 was appalling, what has happened to us? Who are all these people who just toss plastic bottles, tin cans, pizza boxes, cardboard mugs, polystyrene containers and plastic bags out of car windows?

Back home in Stannington I see bags of dog shit and crisp bags and other litter stuffed into cracks in someone's wall, on what planet is that acceptable, civilised behaviour? I could also mention the fly tipping, but what's the point? This country has lost the plot and  there's an argument that it comes from the top down, honest politicians would be a start, Anyone else noticed no one calls them statesmen anymore.

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Rip Off Britain

Went to Chatsworth House the other day, owned by the struggling aristocracy, where one can buy a plastic garden chair, although they call it polycarbonate as if it were some exotic marble, for a mere one hundred and fifty pounds. Buy four and you can get them for the bargain basement sum of five hundred pounds.

A pot of tea for one, that is a teabag, some hot water and a drop of milk is two pounds and forty pence BUT you do get to stick your backside in a one hundred and fifty pound chair, so that's alright then. And we want to leave the sanity of Europe!

If the cost of living in the UK is getting you down you can make a little extra money at sites like this one. As I do!

Football's Battle With Morality

Football has lost its moral compass and I'm not just talking about covering up past child sex abuse. The England manager lost his job because of blatant corruption, but that doesn't stop him from finding another highly paid job in the sport without a soul. Shame on Crystal Palace and yet again shame on the FA.

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The BBC Debates The Undebatable

Yesterday the Jeremy Vine show on BBC radio 2 debated the 'post truth world'. The debate seemed to be about the acceptability or otherwise of lying. The most unnecessary debate ever. We don't like being lied to in our private lives, we don't like spouses, partners, offspring, friends lying to us. It causes hurt, resentment, loss of trust and conflict. Lying is wrong and not just the absence of lies, we want the truth, it's why in court we ask for the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Lying in public office has potentially greater consequences than the loss of trust in a family or between friends; lying in public office has national and even international consequences. And yet there were callers defending lying. Has the world gone mad?

Brexit voters saying don't patronise me I knew they were lying, but I still wanted to leave the EU, or words to that effect. Well, I won't patronise you, but I will insult your intelligence, what you've done is handed power to liars and opportunists. You wouldn't want to be lied to or deceived in your private life but you've handed governmental power to the untrustworthy.

Some people of course believed the lies and are now bitter about being lied to, one such person phoned in. Brexit was founded on lies going back thirty years in the media, but with new lies mixed in about Turkey and about money in particular. Liar in chief was Boris Johnson now destroying relationships in Italy, Germany and The Czech Republic. He'll do far more damage before he's done. #notmygovernment #notmyforeignsecretary  #notmyrpimeminister

Still, on the bright side Christmas is coming.

It's About Their Future, That's What Concerns Them, It's Not Rocket Science

Mrs May gets my goat, but I bet she gets the goat of our European trading partners and allies a lot more. Demanding Britain play a full role right up until we leave is arrogant rubbish. It's about the other twenty seven now, not about us. The decisions being made are for them, not us. The more she stresses British rights and forgets British responsibilities the more anger she will engender and the tougher it will be. My sympathy is with the EU, not with the Tories or UKIP MEPs who created this mess.

The one thing worse for the world than the UK Govt is the UN in its current form.

Only Now Do We See The Scale Of It!

It's October, the tenth month of the year. Eighteen women have died in custody in the jails of England and Wales so far this year. That's one point eight deaths, or, call a spade a spade, nearly two every month and only now it's making the news! A shortage of staff, drugs in jail, what is going on? Who is running our jails, private firms? It's a bloody disgrace. The only party we haven't really tried for years is the Liberal Party, can they do worse? I doubt it personally.

If Britain's government is letting the UK down the UN is letting the world down!

Justice Or Talk - Take Your Pick

The conservative party 'justice' minister talked out a bill yesterday. Talking out a bill is an immoral device to prevent a vote, you just keep talking until there's no time for a vote, if ever there's something that needs to change in our parliamentary so called 'democracy' this is one.

The motive is uncertain, it might be as simple as not wanting a private members' bill brought forward by a Scottish National Party MP to succeed. Pathetic. We have decriminalised homosexuality in this country, therefore it's obvious  that those convicted previously, men entrapped and put on the police 'queer list' should have their convictions wiped out now that the country has decided that sexuality is not a crime.

In fact the bill wasn't even asking for the convictions to be wiped out, annulled as it were, it was simply asking for a pardon. No justice from this justice minister, it was talked out. You can have a pardon when you're dead according to Mrs May's government, so if you're an elderly gay man and you want a pardon suicide would appear to be the only option. Of course that's a crime too, so you can't win. Vote Liberal as thousands did in Mr Cameron's constituency by-election, not enough but a big swing.It's become the only sane choice.

My petition to try and make the world a better place.


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There's Nothing Cool About it

There is two million square kilometers less sea ice in the arctic this year. The ice at the poles reflects the sun's rays and helps to keep the planet cool. Forecasters suggest all the arctic sea ice will have gone by 2045. I worry it may accelerate personally, as less and less sunlight is reflected.

Even if all governments keep to their agreed, inadequate quotas on greenhouse gasses etc, which they won't, then the future looks very uncertain, especially if you live on a low lying island, or in a low lying area near a coast or river.

We are not bequeathing the next generation a very cool outlook. Still, if recent outpourings from Boris Johnson are anything to go by we may confront Russia militarily and end the human race. Then maybe the planet will eventually recover without us. A bit of common sense would be better though.

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Hopeless And Heartless Bureaucrats

The migrant camp just across the English Channel in Calais is about to be dismantled. Monday in fact. Within the camp are close to two hundred minors, or children, alone and at risk of abuse and kidnap, even death. Some eighteen have recently gone missing and more before that you can be sure. Many will have been raped and worse. Many of these minors have a right in law to come to the UK as they have relatives here.

We are still a part of Europe for the moment even if we didn't sign up for Schengen. And anyway even if we weren't part of Europe what's happening here is incredibly and seriously wrong.

People need passports and bureaucracy must be appeased, it's the way of the world, I know that. However, if a white middle class British child lost a passport in France you can be sure something would be done about it and swiftly.

Children are at risk of abuse, exploitation and death and it's left to people like Juliet Stevenson to do something about it. Yet again politicians in this country have no idea, no heart, no soul, no integrity, no feelings. You can do it May, Johnson et al; so send someone to get them you idiots, you don't even have to get your hands dirty, process the papers here or there, but go over there and save them while there are still some left to save.

Blaming the French is not good enough.

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Nice One Gary

We think about Clinton and Trump as the only Presidential candidates, but there are others out there, if only to make a point. One of them is Gary Johnson, supposedly a Libertarian although what that means to him is anyone's guess. As a former Republican Governor of New Mexico he's unlikely to be liberal in outlook.

Asked in a televised interview what he would do about Aleppo he responded 'what's Aleppo?' The interviewer couldn't believe the scoop he was getting I suspect. A man running to be President of one of the world's largest economies and of one of the world's most militarily powerful countries, is genuinely that ignorant. No really. He got it was Syria eventually and then suggested cosying up to Russia.

As astonishing as it is worrying.

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Don't Try To Change History

Those seeking to revise history once the eyewitnesses have died get my goat. A move to create a museum at the derelict factory of Oskar Schindler is meeting strong opposition in the Czech Republic. Many Czechs see Schindler as a traitor who spied for the Nazis, that's as may be. He was of course a German speaker from Sudetenland. It's just a part of history that Czechs come from different ethnic backgrounds and had different allegiances.

Schindler was a gambler, womaniser, opportunist, he wasn't an angel for sure, but for a Czech MP to say there's no evidence he saved Jews is madness. There were literally hundreds of witnesses once, it's a fact that a flawed man did good. Maybe he wasn't actually so flawed, don't many of us want to have fun, make the best of things? Whatever your individual view of Schindler he did save lives, the holocaust happened and we should learn the lessons not try to deny it.

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Corruption In Banking?

Thank goodness for whistle blowers. Long, long time ago I remember writing about Royal Bank Of Scotland. So many small business owners were complaining they'd been deliberately forced into insolvency by devious, underhand tactics, in order that the bank could strip them of their assets that it just couldn't have been a coincidence.

Of course there was no proof that it was a deliberate policy, there would always have been some businesses which would have failed anyway and so on. As compelling as the circumstantial evidence was, and it was very compelling, proof beyond any doubt was just about questionable. Although in certain individual cases the behaviour of the bank was so very blatant that it probably was actionable, if there had been any money left to take action.

Years ago Vince Cable, then a minister, ordered a report on the seemingly nefarious doings of RBS, it's never been published. If it does attempt a whitewash they won't publish it now that the truth is out there. The leaked documents point very strongly indeed to an orchestrated campaign to force good entrepreneurial businesses into bankruptcy, to steal their buildings by reducing valuations and then calling in loans, that sort of thing, defaults which weren't defaults at all, seems to have been another strategy. Special 'assistance' to push costs higher and higher.

Some businessmen used the money from their homes to prop up their businesses and lost those too, marriages broke up and good, hard working people had breakdowns and mental health issues. Last night RBS managed to find an executive willing to try and defend the indefensible on television, one of the guilty clutching at straws? I cannot say. It was not impressive however.

People and businesses which purchased property wrongly repossessed by RBS cannot be made victims too and sorry to say it's the taxpayer who will end up paying, but compensation must be huge; the value of all assets lost plus interest, lost earnings plus interest (at the rates from then, not now) and proper compensation for hurt and suffering. That could literally be millions of pounds per victim and there are certainly hundreds of victims, maybe more.

That's one heck of a bill, it's also justice and just maybe those victims will go back into the business arena and make things, or provide services, or regenerate run down areas, in other words make a contribution to society, something RBS has done the opposite of.

It would be nice if the Queen could strip them of the title 'Royal' but there's another Bank Of Scotland so that would cause confusion, maybe we could call them CBS, you can work out what the C stands for I'm sure.

Malcolm Snook author, blogger and sailor.

Intellectual Stimulation

The Daily Mail has got my goat for years now, whilst I'm all in favour of freedom of speech, naturally, it seems to me to be largely fear stories, things to make people angry and anti European propaganda. However the truth came out this last weekend as to how they see their readers. All were given a Lego toy; perfect for the four to six year old intellect!

Malcolm Snook writer and blogger

Seven Years For Failure

Katrina Percy has quit her 'advisory' role at Southern Health. She got that role after conspicuous failure as Chief Executive, with no cut in her remuneration.Far too many patients died and there were pitifully few inquiries or improvements. Now that she's finally going she's walking out with one year's salary. That's one year for her at £190,000, which, just so you know, is more than seven years salary for the average working Briton! And they say the health service has a funding crisis, not in the south it would seem.

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Something to Be Proud Of?

Seen the value of the pound today? We had the best of both worlds, we kept our precious Sterling, but were still EU members. The pound will be nothing to be proud of at this rate and we can all stay home and moan about pesky foreigners. What the hell is happening to this country?

A way to top up then!

Investigate McClaren Too.

Yesterday I blogged about Sam Allardyce getting my goat. Former England striker Alan Shearer has bemoaned the state of the beautiful game and the disrepute attached to it due to the actions of men like Allardyce, he's right.

His Match Of The Day colleague Gary Lineker has called for a police investigation. Lineker was a clean player on the pitch and like Shearer makes an honest living as a commentator, I wholeheartedly support the call for a police investigation.

It's not the first time highly paid players or managers have been caught trying to skim a bit more off the top. Where there is corruption there's crime. I've heard the figure of four hundred thousand pounds bandied about and I've heard rumours of a million pound payoff for Allardyce.  He reckons he's paying for his 'mistake'. Huh!

If his pay off exists, and you can bet that contractually it does, then the FA should publicly give it to Children In Need, or Cancer Research or McMillan and see if big Sam is big enough not to challenge that decision, he'd become a pariah, even more than he is now.

Lineker is right, there should be a police investigation and former England manager Steve McClaren who has supported Allardyce and said 'it could happen to any of us' should be investigated too, out of his own mouth.

These people live in a different universe from the British football fan working to pay for his or her ticket and the constantly changing strip and club regalia. All the money swilling about in British football attracts corruption.

You can bet someone who doesn't care that Allardyce is corrupt will give him another chance, another highly paid job. It doesn't just get my goat, it's disgusting and fans are too loyal to vote with their feet, but two weeks of empty stadia countrywide might force the FA to think twice.

The position of England Manager is an honour, and a highly paid one at that, even if some Premiership clubs pay even more. The least anyone who lands the job can do is apply themselves to it, not spend time trying to milk it.

Malcolm Snook Writer and Blogger

Where Greed Meets Stupidity

I'm not a huge fan of media stings, but I'm even more anti corruption, greed and abuse of position or power, how small does Sam Allardyce look now? English football has been a disgrace for years the FA and the England team. Can't help feeling this is just a symptom of the money, greed and stupidity that's endemic in football, but it still gets my goat.

Malcolm Snook Author And Blogger

Our Clown Prince Of Chaos

Boris Johnson got my goat yesterday (again). He's obviously enjoying his seat at the table in the UN as Britain's senior diplomat, his consolation prize for not taking the top job in government. He was talking on British television about the great role Britain plays at the UN and in the world, how no one wanted to talk to him about Brexit but about WORLD matters. Jumped up poseur.

Does he not see that he now has a seat at the table of abject failure? Rhetorical question obviously. The UN has spread disease, denied it and claimed diplomatic immunity when caught, it has failed to protect women being raped just a few miles from the door of one of its bases, it failed spectacularly in Bosnia and is failing humiliatingly again in Syria.

I mean no disrespect to the heroic people serving on aid convoys and dying for humanity, but I have utter contempt for the hypocrites at the top, especially the Security Council. With the likes of Boris, our very own clown prince of chaos at the top table the failure will go on and on. The UN requires a new constitution, not a large Johnson.

He was questioned on his absence from a recent meeting with President Erdogan of Turkey, a man he has mocked, in which he might be correct for once; although in this case it's no laughing matter. He made light of his missing that meeting, pointing out that he has relatives in Ankara. I and many people are well aware of Boris's Turkish heritage, but......

 A momentary look of  'oops what have I just said' passed across his normally merry visage, but don't worry Boris, your Turkish heritage is still not known to most, just as your utter hypocrisy in using fear of Turkey, a most unlikely candidate for prompt EU membership (as you well know) to try and bring down Europe still goes un-recognised by the majority of the great British public.

One day though, you'll be seen for what you truly are, maybe we can incarcerate you on Boris Island in the Thames. You posturing, self aggrandising idiot.

Malcolm Snook Author

Thirty Years Of Failure And No End In Sight

Female Genital Mutilation has been a crime in the UK for thirty one years. It took thirty years to bring one unsuccessful prosecution. It's a scandal and a national disgrace and that gets my goat. Research suggests one hundred and thirty seven thousand women and girls living in England and Wales were affected in 2011 alone.

It's a crime which, in some communities, is probably carried out daily. And still the police and crown prosecution service are getting nowhere with it at all. Get a few burglars to admit to crimes they didn't do in return for a lesser sentence and catch a few motorists, that's easy, helps the statistics along, but a vile crime which involves cross cultural difficulties, real victims of real violence, the hell with that sunshine, let the victims suffer, too difficult for us. That's Britain today.

Malcolm Snook

Oh Really!

George Osborne, Cameron's yes man with thwarted designs on number ten has said he will not follow his leader into retirement, but will stay and fight for the 'liberal mainstream majority'. He'd better defect to the real Liberals then if he 's actually now concerned to do what's right and not just power crazed. If they'd have him!

Malcolm Snook