And so to home

Well, my first business trip to the ME is coming to an end and I have a tortuous journey back. From Riyadh to Dubai tonight, getting there about midnight. A few hours in a hotel and then a 9am flight landing at 2pm UK time. Don't let anyone tell you business travel is glamorous.

It's been interesting and the hospitality was fantastic and I'm sure I've put a few pounds on despite the lack of alcohol. It has also been educational and has reinforced some of my opinions which will be the subject of another post when I get a few minutes.

On this day - Falklands

in 1982 it was Maundy Thursday and for us the log weekend had started. I wasn't formally taking leave so couldn't leave Germany - as part of BAOR (British Army Of The Rhine) there had to be a certain level of forces and unless you had a formal leave pass you couldn't leave country. In truth I was preparing to get the train to Copenhagen for some sight seeing and maybe a visit to Lego Land.

I had just had breakfast and was sitting in the lounge having a cup coffee when my boss walked in and asked what I was planning. Obviously I couldn't admit my plans so mumbled something about not much. Anyway, it turns out than an Electronic Warfare troop was being put together as part of the Task Force, under the command of the Marines. I was a specialist in maintaining EW equipment I was being seconded to the troop, along with 2 of our best operators. We would be joining language and other experts at Lympstone, the home of the marines.

This was an informal discussion because I had to complete certain forms. We went to the Regimental HQ where the Adjutant and Chief Clerk were waiting. I was given life insurance forms to complete and sign and then formerly told that I was under orders for active service and would be flying to Lympstone the next morning.

Nobody seriously thought it would end in full blown was so it was all rather light hearted and I spent the rest of the day preparing equipment and packing.

Hunt down these deluded fools

The Guardian is reporting a YouGov poll carried out by the Telegraph:

The YouGov poll asked voters who they would choose from a list of politicians "at the peak of their powers" to be prime minister. Only 5% chose Brown

Who are these deluded fools, have they no brain?

Maybe this is why Brown is talking of constinutional changes - the new voting system will be limited to these idiots.

H/T Guido

The dumbing down of the MSM continues apace

Having a quick break from writing presentations I had a look at the beeb's news pages to see if anything new had happened and was appalled by this headline :

The 'tapas seven'
The central witnesses in the Madeleine McCann case ..

FFS, this is not some story created for sub editors to have a bit of fun trying to see who can come up with most eye catching pun, its a real story about about a missing girl and distraught parents.

Is there no story that the MSM can't reduce to the banal? Are we all so dumb now that we can't read serious news without some weak pun to attract us?

It wouldn't be so bad, although still unacceptable, if it was some commercial organisation needing click through to generate revenues.

On this day

in 1976, MP John Stonehouse resigned from the Labour Party, leaving James Callaghan's government in a minority of one. Stonehouse was accused of faking his own death, and also faced 18 charges of theft, forgery, attempted insurance frauds and conspiracy.

Our current crop of politicians won't have to worry about being arrested as they've legalised fraud, theft and banditry, calling it expenses.

April snow, so what?

Occasionally the weather can even take a rather wintry turn during June. On the 2nd June 1975 snow fell in a number of places with midday temperatures held down at only 2°Celsius!

Then all the great and good were forecasting an ice age and anyone who challenged them was some sort of nutter.

On this day

in 1944 Pay As You Earn (PAYE) income tax was introduced into Britain. It was devised by Cornelius Gregg.

A simple measure that tidies things up nicely for bureaucrats* but which breaks the link between the taxed and those spending the money. Its surprising how many people only consider their take home pay and don't give a second though to how much they have been taxed and, more importantly, where that money goes and how efficiently it is used. I know it anecdotal but I would say, as a former employer and now senior manager dealing with pay and rations, that 90% of our workforce don't consider the tax element as part of their salary.

I suppose with our innumerate society a return to everyone filling out tax returns and sending a cheque once a year will never happen; but if it did I am sure there would be more holding MP's to account over Govt expenditure.



*I'm being generous and assuming it wasn't a deliberate step to separate tax and spend

If climate models are so good

how come they don't model La Nina and El Nino?

Global temperatures for 2008 will be slightly cooler than last year as a result
of the cold La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said.
The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.

They are, after all, well known phenomena. And if they can't predict these how can they make this statement:

and in a few years time we are confident that the current record temperature of 1998 will be beaten when the La Nina has ended

And yes i do understand the difference between weather and climate and long term trends. My point is that alarmists seem happy to use peaks like 2008, El Nino high? to make their point, yet when another phenomena is only a blip.

Max Mosely affair brings us some ugly insights in to our national attitudes

I am on a business trip in the ME and have been spared most of the prurient and hypocritical commentary about Mosely's shenanigans, thankfully. But I have heard enough to make me realise that Longrider has an excellent take on the whole subject. It is worth a full read but he sums up my view far better than I could:

Any suggestion that this is in the public interest is pure fantasy. It is not. What a public figure does in the privacy of their own home – or bordello – is no one’s business but theirs and the other participants; providing those activities take place between consenting adults. The wheeling out of the professional victim brigade to claim that Mosely’s “disgusting” and “perverted” activities were offensive to them would be laughable if so many stupid people didn’t take it so seriously.

What is really dispiriting is that should one of our politicians or other so called community leader stand up and make this point there will be howls of outrage and they will be pursued to the ends of the earth by the liberal media.

How did we get to this point where it is acceptable to spy on people's private lives and condemn activities between consenting adults, yet making a comment in support of their right to do it is tantamount to having I'm a paedophile tattooed on you forehead?

There's no wonder Brown can get away with his totalitarian moves to increase detention without trial, remove Coroners when it suits them, introduce ID cards and the attendant National Database etc.

On this day

in 1976, James Callaghan won the Labour leadership contest and took over at Number 10 Downing Street.

he was a geneial, bumbling, idiot who never led his party to a general election victory. Lets hope that Brown, a vindictive control freak, emulates him in having the embarrasment of never winning a popular vote.