The Few – Our proud history, how dare he knock it

Those who can, do.   Those who can’t teach about it.   Those who really can’t try to change history.

Never must that have been more true.

How dare a historian called Anthony Cumming, from the safety and comfort of his twenty-first century life with all its modern equipment and luxury, suggest that the Battle of Britain pilots couldn’t even shoot straight!   He says they were poorly trained and ineffective in combat.

He says that the history of the Battle should be re-assessed  -  that it was not the great triumph that we all celebrate and that Winston Churchill so memorably marked when he called those who took part “The Few”.

Ronald Scrase, a veteran of the Battle, now in his eighties and with a proud chest full of medals, including the DFC, says that’s not how he remembers it, nor how those who lost their lives would have seen it.   But he says he’s not angry, just thinks Mr Cumming’s claims are laughable.

Well, I’ve got two things to say to Mr Cumming.

1.   We won the Battle.   Hitler turned back from the Channel coast and did not try to invade again.

2.  I wonder how he would have got on flying an impossible number of hours, tired, losing friends and colleagues every time the Squadron went up.   I suspect he might have changed his view.

The most boring journal in the world?

Story today about a man in New York who wrote a diary chronicling every minute of his life, from the age of 54, in five-minute segments.   Now, following his death at 89, the existence of the 37.5 million word document that fills 91 boxes has been revealed.   Apparently he even slept for only two hours at a time so that he could wake and record his dreams.

What made him think we would be interested.   I suppose it just might be pored over by social historians in a hundred years or more, but it looks as if it mainly consists of documenting every time he went to the lavatory, (he had three dozen ways of describing the act), and his daily blood pressure readings!

Auntie BBC showing red petticoat again

Just been watching News 24 and listening to the report on the Malcolm Rifkind speech, which, it is claimed, is the Conservatives setting out our views on an English Parliament.

Auntie BBC is letting her red petticoat show again.   The report says the Conservatives are considering a proposal to allow English MPs to vote on English matters in Parliament, and Scottish and Welsh MPs would be excluded.    They don’t give the reasons why the English want this move, but go on to say that Harriet Harman, on behalf of the Government, says this would undermine the political union.

So immediately the Conservatives appear as the villains of the piece.

How dare Broon’s Government accuse us of trying to break up the Union through wanting a devolved government for English domestic affairs, when they were the ones who forced through devolved government in Wales and Scotland.   Are they claiming that move didn’t risk breaking up the Union?   Why should England having similar powers be any different?

Why do we let Labour get away with this?   The logic is so clear.

New Slogan  -  Labour hates the English

Time for the English to demand their own Parliament

Newspapers and blogs today are full of stuff about an English Parliament or an English Grand Committee.   Malcolm Rifkind has made a major speech in which he suggests an English Grand Committee of Parliament with English Members of Parliament only sitting and voting on matters which only concern England, and it looks as though the Party may be backing the idea.

As an interim measure, an English Grand Committee is a good idea, but we should be aiming for an English Parliament.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is made up of four countries:- England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.   The last three of these have a recognized identity, culture, nationalism and, importantly, their own legislature, whether it be called Assembly or Parliament, which determines domestic matters.

The fourth, England, does not have its own legislature.   That must mean we are an oppressed, discriminated against minority!   Our domestic matters are determined by a Government made up largely of Scots, and voted for by Members of the UK Parliament representing Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland constituencies.

Let’s look at a hypothetical case:-  prescription charges.   The national legislatures in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland could decide to abolish charges and allow free prescriptions.   Then UK MPs from those three countries could consider a similar measure for England, and could vote against abolition of charges, against the wishes of the English people and the English MPs, thereby putting the English at yet another disadvantage.

As an aside, why is it that Scottish, Welsh and Irish culture and traditions, however nationalistic, are considered charming and an important part of the country’s life and history, whereas in England such things are castigated as nastily xenophobic?

Another extremely important point on this subject is that we must oppose any suggestion of regionalized Parliaments or Assemblies.   If Labour feels that public opinion is so strong they must do something, it is likely they would opt for Parliaments for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Regional Assemblies for the various parts of England.   This is quite unacceptable and illogical.   Scotland has regions, Strathclyde being a case in point, but there was no suggestion there should be anything other than a national Parliament. 

England, too, must have a national Parliament.   There must be Parliaments for each of the four nation states of the United Kingdom.

Just a thought

Just a thought  -  but isn’t it strange that we, here in England, are the proud possessors of the Greenwich Meridian;  that Greenwich Mean Time was chosen to be the central point for calculating time right across the world;  but that so many British people want to ditch it to “bring us in line with Europe”.  

I’m so sick of that idea.   Why is it always us who have to change?   whether it be time, metric measurements, or euro currencies.

The reason given, of course, is it aids cross border business.   On that basis, perhaps we ought to come into line with America and change our clocks by seven hours.   And don’t forget there are several time zones in one country when you look at the big ones, like America.

The other reason given is road safety regarding dark afternoons.   But if you don’t have dark afternoons, you’ll have dark mornings.

Anyway, back to my original point.   Let’s be proud of GMT, and stick to it.

I’m back

I’m back, and what a week  -  well eleven days  -  it’s been.   Once I could watch the telly and read the papers, I was longing to blog.

The reams of written instructions sent in advance by the private hospital sternly said “No laptops” and indeed “No mobiles”.   On arrival, there was a folder of info on the table rather like the one found in hotel bedrooms.   That boasted proudly that they offer complimentary wifi!   What’s more the nurses quietly advised that one had a mobile available to make the call saying one was ready to go home, because the bedroom telephones were charged at hotel rates.

Operation went OK  -  the great thing being that one is completely oblivious and the two consultants clearly knew their stuff.   Afterwards was another story with five days when even swallowing a tiny drop of water was so difficult and hurt, how it hurt.

The nurses were great, caring and pleasant.    Although I guess the staff nurse who removed the clips from the wound before I came home thought I was a baby, but then I told her I was a coward about these things.  

Back home, all I can say is thank goodness for Mr Tesco’s delivery service and for the pharmacy who I persuaded to deliver my tablets.

It’s twenty years since my last operation.   I’d like to think it will be twenty more at least before I need another.

‘Bye for now

Will not be blogging for a few days as I go into hospital tonight for an operation.

When I’m back home, I shall not be able to do much else, so will really be able to concentrate on posting lots of rants and prejudices!

The English should demand their fresh milk!

There are few things nicer than a long glass of cold milk straight from the ‘fridge.

But the interfering busybodies are at it again.   Now they want to stop me, and you and everyone, from drinking it.

Instead they want us to drink that nasty longlife stuff, UHT milk in equally nasty cartons.

This time it’s the civil servants, the officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who have dreamt up this idea.   They say it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it does not require refrigeration at depot or supermarket, only when the carton is opened.   Apparently they have a cunning plan that, by 2020, 90% of milk on sale will not require refigeration, and to do that they need to make us all drink the longlife stuff.

And, of course, it would mean the milk in your tea and coffee and the milk you put on your cereal would also be the nasty UHT.

They have set up a “milk road map” to help a dairy industry committee work out the carbon footprint for milk and dairy products and identify ways of reducing the footprint.   “Milk road map”  -  the mind boggles.   Why do they use this stupid jargon?

Even the officials say that existing choices for consumers, (mainly fresh milk products), “mean that they may not demand milk that does not have to be refrigerated.”    In other words, they accept we don’t want it, but still intend to try and foist it on us.

This is one of my “red lines”;  I won’t buy the muck.   I would be one of those who just stop buying milk, and that harms the dairy industry.   Industry insiders, from the NFU to the Women’s Food and Farming Union, are against the idea.   They say fresh milk is associated with healthy eating habits, and that the plan could destroy the dairy industry.

At the same time the officials have come up with another target that has infuriated farmers:-  that methane emissions from dairy cattle should be reduced by 60% within fifteen to twenty years.   Has anyone told the cows they will need to change their personal habits?   These clowns can’t see that the only way to hit this target is to destroy half the national dairy herd.

But then, if they won’t let us drink fresh milk, and we refuse to drink UHT, there won’t be a need for all these cows.   Ah, that’s how the cunning plan comes full circle.

Come on, protest, we want fresh English milk.

A completely inconsequential post about a Fly

Today a spider has constructed a truly beautiful web outside my window, quite close to the glass.  

I think it is the most complete, traditional shaped spider’s web that I have ever seen.   The spider was big, with a huge round body.

It was not long before a small insect and two houseflies were caught in the web.

And then the spider came along and carefully, painstakingly, slowly enveloped one of the flies.   As it wrapped the fly so that it disappeared into a white cocoon, its shape became unrecognizable.   Then the spider left it and went away.

And all the time as I watched this taking place a chill came over me.   It was like watching one of those sci-fi films where the aliens cocoon the earthmen and store them away.

Curly’s view of Broon’s last few days

Please, please, look at this post of Curly’s.  It’ll be well worth it.  It’s the best thing I’ve seen in a long time.

http://curly15.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/police-in-digital-breakthrough/