Hey rotten, nationalizing Labour government, leave c2c alone

The news today about the East Coast Mainline was perhaps not unexpected.   Although many of us will have hoped that another method of solving National Express’s problems could have been found  -  sale to other transport companies who had shown interest, for example  -  rather than nationalization.

The beautiful Lord Adonis says that he will offer the franchise for tender again.   Hopefully he will.   I would deplore any move to keep it in the public sector.   We fought for years to turn back the clock on Socialism’s previous nationalizations.   Don’t let it happen again.

But whatever happens to the East Coast Mainline, there was a nasty little threat in what the Lovely Peer had to say.

He said it was possible he would remove the company’s two other franchises.  This is seen as punishment for making a mess of the East Coast Mainline, but lawyers (and the almighty Robert Peston) believe he may not be able to do that as the East Coast franchise is controlled by a separate specially set up company. 

One of those other franchises is c2c which runs the Essex line out of Fenchurch Street to Southend-on-Sea, via Upminster and West Horndon, or around the Loop taking in Dagenham, Rainham and Purfleet, or Ockendon and Chafford Hundred, to Grays, Tilbury and Pitsea and then on to the seaside.

It’s a small operation  -  only fifty or so miles from London to Southend  -  but it’s a great little railway.   It always comes near the top of the league tables.   Its trains are very rarely cancelled.   They are punctual and clean.   There are always workers clearing litter from platforms and trains.   The staff are friendly, polite and helpful.   Inspectors patrol the trains regularly checking on tickets in addition to the automated barriers at the stations.

So, here’s one passenger, not a commuter but a fairly regular traveller, who says to His Lordship and his government colleagues, “Keep your hands off c2c”!

Blue Babe has gone

Friday was a momentous day!   I changed my car!

Blue Babe had been with me for 17 years and 5 months,136,000 plus miles.   Before him, I used to change the car every three years, but I fell in love with Blue Babe.   Already I am missing his pop-up headlights and his great tilt and slide sunroof which I always have open at this time of year.

But the time had come.   I have spent a lot on Blue Babe in the last couple of years, and now the exhaust needed replacing and there are some strange noises emanating from beneath the bonnet.   Also I’m off to Durham in a week’s time, which will take six hours, and I was nervous about whether Blue Babe would stand up to it.   I think he probably would have done.   And even now I think I probably made a mistake in getting rid of him.   It troubles me to think of him standing outside all by himself at the dealer’s place waiting to be scrapped.

Talking of scrapped, I didn’t get the Government scrappage allowance because I didn’t buy new.   Can’t bear to think of losing so much value the instant a new car is put on the road.

I do  -  I think  -  like my new-to-me car.   Couldn’t get a blue one.   It is dark grey  -  cosmic grey!

But I am still heartbroken at losing Blue Babe.

Good British men lost their lives on D-Day – they don’t deserve to be dismissed by “Generale de Gaulle” Sarkozy

Sorry I didn’t write about the D-Day celebrations in France during the weekend, but I was busy having my own little celebration, as the RNLI have been kind enough to award me their Silver Badge, and I was at the presentation ceremony in Cambridge.

I am very glad that the Prince of Wales was, in the end, invited to go to France to attend the D-Day celebrations, but the disgraceful lead up to the invitation is no credit to anyone.   Two heads of state were there, the US President and the French President, but the speaker on behalf of Britain wasn’t a head of state, it was the Prime Minister.   (Although I’m sure Brown thinks he’s much more important anyway.)     And as has been pointed out, the Queen is the only one of them who actually served in World War II. 

I don’t suppose we shall ever know whether it really was that Gordon Brown couldn’t bear the thought of being upstaged by the Queen.   (Remember Blair hijacking the Queen’s walkabout?)   Or whether Sarkozy wanted to prance about as Obama’s new best friend.   (Well that didn’t work!)   Or one of those things that just happens.

What we do know, though, is that the French government described the event to mark the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings as being a French/US celebration.  

How could they?   The troops taking part in the landings crossed from Britain.   They had all, of whatever nationality, trained and prepared in Britain.   The ships that took them across the Channel were Royal Navy warships.   The aircraft which gave overhead protection were from the RAF.   Landings took place on five beaches:-  on two beaches US troops were landed;  on two beaches British troops were landed;  on one beach Canadian troops were landed.   So three out of five beaches, (60%), were NOT American troops.      There were roughly the same number of British casualties from those landings as there were US casualties.   Many good men of all three nationalities lost their lives in those first days after 6th June 1944, and many of those were British.   They don’t deserve to be dismissed in this way as though they were never really there.

It’s always been an American trait to re-write history to pretend that they alone won all the victories of World War II  -  I’m sure you know that they captured the Enigma machine!!!!    Now it seems the French government is saying the same thing.

At least in 1944 the French people were glad enough to welcome their British liberators.   It seems Sarkozy is taking on the same attitudes now that de Gaulle did then!

Judge’s Jury didn’t find winners

Delighted at the very poor votes being achieved right across the country by the Jury Team.

The leader, who used to be Chief Executive of the Conservative Party, e-mailed to invite me to join.   I replied that unlike him I had always been a member of the Conservative Party, and would always remain a member of the Conservative Party.

When the election campaign started, I was the lucky recipient of a couple of Jury Team e-mails.   I “unsubscribed” from the first, but still got the second.

Perhaps now he will realize that a “party” of “independents” is a contradiction in terms.

Never mind Labour, it’s a bad night for Nick

It’s being a terrible night for Nick Robinson on the BBC1 European elections programme.

The panel of talking heads started on Wales, before the results came in, and David Dimbleby said there was a rumour that the Conservatives had topped the poll in Wales.   Mark Francois agreed.  Quick as a flash Nick was in there, “We have no evidence that the Conservatives have topped the poll”.       A few minutes later, er, we did top the poll in Wales.

Then Mark Francois started talking about what these figures would mean if transferred across to a general election.   It’s all just too much for poor old Nick  -  with a ghastly grin he rushed in again, “but of course they won’t be.   These are European elections with a very low poll.”

The way things are going, if we’ve got another year of this, I’m really worried about the effects on Nick’s health!

The instructions are in the box

I was talking today to a lady I know who has reached the grand old age of 93.   She can only walk a few steps, using a stick.   She is profoundly deaf, and has very little sight, needing to use a special low vision aid meaning she reads just a word at a time.   She is an extremely intelligent, well-educated lady, who had a high-flying career, and served as a local councillor and school governor.   But despite the restriction in what she can now do, she remains very cheerful, and fortunately has friends who visit her.

Because of her disabilities, she decided she needed a special telephone with large buttons, with flashing lights to signify a call, and with enhanced sound.   So, she ordered one from BT.   It came in the post, in a box.   It needed to be set up, and she needed to know how it worked.  

Guess what  -  the instructions were in a little booklet in very small type.   She couldn’t read them.

So the ‘phone stayed in its box, unused, until one day the kindly burglar alarm engineer came along to service the alarm.   He discovered what had happened, set up the phone for her, and explained how it worked.

It’s not just BT who do these things.   There are lots of other companies.   But wouldn’t you think that if they are selling a specially adapted telephone for people who have little sight and are deaf, it might occur to them that they wouldn’t be able to read small print?

Who’s paying for the scrappage scheme?

I’m getting heartily sick of the constant TV and radio adverts from car companies offering discounts on new cars and saying “thanks to the Government’s scrappage scheme”.

Let’s just remember whose money is being used for this scheme.   It’s yours and mine.   Have to say again  -  the Government does not have money.   They use ours.

Labour destruction of our country

For an excellent summary of what Labour has done to our country, have a look at this.

I have long said that no one will need to declare war on our country;  they can just turn off the switches of all the industry and utilities owned by foreign countries.

And likewise, Labour hasn’t needed to fight the rest of us with red-blooded socialism, they’ve just destroyed a once great country by their neglect and incompetence.

Thanks to Man in a Shed for setting this out.

The BNP is not a banned party, and we just have to accept that

In all the fuss about the leader of the BNP going to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party, I am inclined to go with those who say just ignore it, don’t give the BNP the oxygen of publicity, and the Queen is quite capable of dealing with the situation, especially as she has had to entertain some pretty nasty foreign tyrants in her time.

But there is one point which must be stated yet again.  

The BNP is a registered political party in this country, just like the other political parties.   It has to be in order to field candidates at elections.   It is not a banned party.

Whilst this is so, the party is entitled to go to Buckingham Palace Garden Parties and all other events in the national calendar.   What is more, the leader is going as the guest of a duly elected member of the Greater London Assembly, who has been given an invitation just like the other members of the Assembly.   It comes to something if we are to question whether Mrs Bloggs, the guest of Cllr Joe Soap, is fit to go to a garden party.

I have to commend the officer of the Assembly who took that view, saying that the BNP elected councillor had as much right to be invited as all the other councillors.    It contrasts sharply with another council a few years ago, where the council staff announced that they refused to work with a newly-elected BNP councillor.   That councillor, too, had been properly elected, and the disgraceful conduct of the staff should have resulted in disciplinary action.

A tale from the North

This is a letter I’ve had from family members in the North of England.   I daresay most of us know people who have been affected by the Recession in similar ways, but it does set it all out, and make you think.

“We’re all ok.    xxxxx  seems fine after the 2nd heart procedure but is under a lot of stress at work….just like most other people right now.

“You remember his company went into administration last year and he stayed on to try and get a smaller new company up and running.   Well they’ve just about run out of money!!    He should get paid this month and there’s a possibility of next month too, but unless they can pick up some paid work I think that will be the end of that.   He may continue to work for nothing if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel but it is very tough in Construction right now.

“My company announced a 4 day week just as we got back from our holiday in Spain.   This meant that my 4 days were cut to 3, but as it is totally impossible for me to get the work done in that time, I work from home one day unpaid  -  better that than get no pay if we go under!!   It’s very hard for the staff in my office as even though the company hasn’t got as much work on – we still have about the same to do as always;  in some ways we have more to do.   Problem for me is that I am able to cover everyone’s roles, so if they’re not in one day and something from their duties has to be done – then I have to do it.   BUT they are not able to return the favour, which puts me under even more stress as I’ve even less time to do my own work.   Ah well, I think it’s much the same story all over at the moment.

“xxxxx (son)  hasn’t been paid since his February salary, and has now been told it will be 23rd May before there’s any money.   He’s had an interview with a different company, but it would mean his relocating from Glasgow to Edinburgh and it’s taken him over 3 years to establish any kind of social life where he is.   Plus the actual job isn’t quite as cutting edge, and the company is only a fraction of the size so he’s in a right old quandary.    He has been told that xxxxx are interested in him but that would mean moving to Germany.   Also his line manager is hoping to get something going with the whole of his team and start a new business working from Glasgow with funds from the EU.   Lots of balls in the air  -  don’t know where they’ll land!

“xxxxxx (daughter)  is much the same but managing to get some fun in her life.   Decided to take some classes and was asked by her teacher if she would perform at a local venue.   Since then she’s been to Manchester, York, Huddersfield and Hull, done several photoshoots in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, and is going to be an extra in a film which is being done in Newcastle.   These are all things she probably couldn’t have done if she’d been working though I’m sure I know which she would prefer.   Mostly she just gets paid her expenses but she has met some lovely people, got to wear some glamorous clothes, had her hair and make-up done, and had loads of compliments, so it’s boosted her morale no end.    She’s moving house to share a flat with just one other girl.   She can’t wait as this year’s been a nightmare with her housemates who haven’t been paying their share of bills and seem to enjoy living in filthy squalor!   Being an organiser, she has ended up with all the bills in her name and so she receives the threatening mail, but she seems to have it under control now.   She’s learned a lot I think.”