westerly21

The Office of National Statistics has announced today that the number of people unemployed in the UK has risen by its smallest amount since May 2008.

Before we pop the champagne corks and explode the party poppers, we should remember that the rise was still 30,000 bringing the total number of those out of work to 2.46 million.

Even more sobering is the fact that youth unemployment which covers those between 16 and 24-years-old rose by 15,000 to a total of 943,000.

When you think about it, though, is it really surprising? We have become a country that no longer produces anything of substance. Our manufacturing industries have gone, along with our fisheries. Once, we were the envy of the world in technological advance but we now create very little that is innovative or original.

We have become just a service nation that trades in items that do not exist in a realistic form and where the profits and risk taking are high.

University graduates have spent years studying for qualifications, while accumulating huge debts, to find they have returned to a world of few jobs worthy of their abilities.

There are no longer apprenticeships for those to whom academic achievement was beyond their ability; we have few trades left where skills need to be passed on and taught over time. Many of the jobs requiring such skills are now filled by foreign workers prepared to accept lower daily rates and longer hours.

Of course, we all have to shoulder some personal responsibility for allowing such things to happen. The unions became too strong and past governments were too weak. Our products became too expensive and uncompetitive.

The fact remains, though, that when we gave away our industrial ability we also gave away the sense of hope and value of thousand upon thousands of our young people who are never going to be, or want to be bankers!

For many of them, we only offer the armed forces and war in foreign lands!

I meant to post this at the weekend but foolishly, I left the original email at work. It was sent as part of a weekly newsletter I receive from the Red Fridays campaign.

I have no idea who the author is but I found it to be extremely thought provoking; it brings reality into the world of politics. I found it to be very moving. I hope you do too....

The average British soldier is 19 years old.....he is a short haired, well built lad who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears and just old enough to buy a round of drinks but old enough to die for his country - and for you. He's not particularly keen on hard work but he'd rather be grafting in Afghanistan than unemployed in the UK.

He recently left comprehensive school where he was probably an average student, played some form of sport, drove a ten year old rust bucket, and knew a girl that either broke up with him when he left, or swore to be waiting when he returns home. He moves easily to rock and roll or hip-hop or to the rattle of a 7.62mm machine gun.

He is about a stone lighter than when he left home because he is working or fighting from dawn to dusk and well beyond. He has trouble spelling, so letter writing is a pain for him, but he can strip a rifle in 25 seconds and reassemble it in the dark. He can recite every detail of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either effectively if he has to. He digs trenches and latrines without the aid of machines and can apply first aid like a professional paramedic. He can march until he is told to stop, or stay dead still until he is told to move.

He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation but he is not without a rebellious spirit or a sense of personal dignity. He is confidently self-sufficient. He has two sets of uniform with him: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his water bottle full and his feet dry. He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never forgets to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes and fix his own hurts. If you are thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food is your food. He'll even share his life-saving ammunition with you in the heat of a firefight if you run low.

He has learned to use his hands like weapons and regards his weapon as an extension of his own hands. He can save your life or he can take it, because that is his job - it's what a soldier does. He often works twice as long and hard as a civilian, draw half the pay and have nowhere to spend it, and can still find black ironic humour in it all. There's an old saying in the British Army: 'If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined!'

He has seen more suffering and death than he should have in his short lifetime. He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and he is unashamed to show it or admit it. He feels every bugle note of the 'Last Post' or 'Sunset' vibrate through his body while standing rigidly to attention. He's not afraid to 'Bollock'anyone who shows disrespect when the Regimental Colours are on display or the National Anthem is played; yet in an odd twist, he would defend anyone's right to be an individual. Just as with generations of young people before him, he is paying the price for our freedom. Clean shaven and baby faced he may be, but be prepared to defend yourself if you treat him like a kid.

He is the latest in a long thin line of British Fighting Men that have kept this country free for hundreds of years. He asks for nothing from us except our respect, friendship and understanding. We may not like what he does, but sometimes he doesn't like it either - he just has it to do.. Remember him always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.

And now we even have brave young women putting themselves in harm's way, doing their part in this tradition of going to war when our nation's politicians call on us to do so.

When you receive this, please stop for a moment and if you are so inclined, feel free to say a prayer for our troops in the trouble spots of the world. Maybe you'll want to send it on to someone else too.

It is not often that I feel a pang of sympathy for dear 'ole Gordon, our esteemed prime minister but I did feel it stirring today.

He has, after all, been guilty of extreme arrogance and aloofness in the past but he does not deserve the bitter criticism he received from today's papers.

He was judged to be guilty of nothing more than sending a handwritten letter of sympathy to the mother of a serviceman killed in Afghanistan and misspelling the family name. It is a mistake similar to that any of us could make every time we write a letter - although how many of us bother to hand write letters nowadays?

Whatever your opinion on the rights and wrongs of our presence in Afghanistan, it should be remembered that it was not GB alone who sent us there. He is guilty of many acts of stupidity but I am prepared to believe that today's incident was nothing more than a blip in a genuinely heartfelt message of sympathy.

I am more surprised that the serviceman's mother did not take a moment to think before running to the Sun newspaper.

Let's place a full stop on this story!

Today is the day we remember all those who have died in conflict fighting to preserve our freedom.

Since my earliest childhood memory of men and women standing around the Cenotaph in warm black coats, silently laying wreaths of bright red poppies, it has been about those who fought in WW1 and WW2. Now, though, it must include those who have, sadly, been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For me, that brings confusion.

Both of the world wars were just that - they were global. They were about fighting to protect our freedom against those who sought to invade and conquer us.

In Iraq and Afghanistan the conflicts are different in that we have chosen to invade those countries - albeit with the excuse we are ultimately protecting our home country from terrorist attack. Despite what Foreign Secretary David Miliband writes in today's Mail On Sunday, the argument is still not convincing.

Sir Jock Stirrup, Head of the Armed Forces, said on the Andrew Marr show this morning:

"We haven't done a good enough job of explaining to the public what our strategy is".

That is because there cannot be a strategy against a foe that uses the unpredictable tactics of the terrorist and promotes our presence in their homeland as that of the invader. Yes, you can 'take the fight to the terrorists' and kill hundreds in battle, thereby reducing the numbers but you cannot change the mindset, or the radicalisation of future generations.

As I listened to the bugler at my local cenotaph service occasionally missing the notes and stopping during his performance of The Last Post, I acknowledged there are those in this country who would try to claim that speaking out against our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is being unsupportive of our troops. It is not.

To speak out against an unjust and legally dubious conflict is, in reality, being totally supportive of those who do not have a choice!

It has been a while since I last posted on here, following my spectacular dive down the stairs and my teeth numbing stop, using my head as a brake, against a doorframe.

Since my unplanned flight, I have been living on Planet Concussion. It is a strange world I entered after needing the rather confusing quality of service available from the NHS (could do better – maybe more written later) and where I have imagined strange things to be happening all around me.

For instance, I had visions of the leader of the over hyped and allegedly racist BNP being grilled on Question Time while outside the studios, demonstrations were taking place ; of MPs being made to re-pay and apologise for the expenses they had inadvertently claimed while “just following the rules”; of X Factor contestants taking up more space in newspapers than proper journalism; of footballer’s wives miraculously being able to give birth to babies; of even more of our troops losing their lives in a mystical land called Afghanistan; of senior scientific advisors to the government being sacked for not agreeing with the political will of our rulers; of bankers being curbed from receiving huge bonuses for doing what they are already paid to do and of the next prime minister of our great country performing a complete U-turn over holding a referendum over Europe.

The weirdest vision of all was the one where Transport for London insisted that actress Kelly Brook should have her own 'buns' concealed with...even bigger buns on a poster advertising the play Calender Girls on London's underground trains.

Planet Concussion is a scary place to be and I am really looking forward to returning to the real world, where things like these would never happen!!

One of the best quotes of the day, referring to the MP's expenses repayment saga, must have been supplied by Ann Widdecombe, Tory MP for Maidstone.

She was trying to make the point, that limits for expenses should not have been imposed on MPs retrospectively and was implying that MPs should be trusted to govern themselves.

However, her words have inadvertently described what a large majority of the voting public must be thinking about the whole sorry episode.

During an interview for the BBC Ms. Widdecombe said:

"if we can't govern ourselves within the rules of natural justice we certainly ain't fit to govern anybody else"

Well, it seems they have proved that they can't .... and many in this country think that they are not!

If this is an October sunset in the UK that results from global warming then things can't be all bad! Bring it on!

The Guardian newspaper has announced it has been gagged from reporting parliamentary proceedings, on legal grounds, for the first time in living memory. It has said in its report:

Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.

The action against the paper appears to call into question the privileges that guarantee free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.

The Guardian has vowed to immediately go to court to overturn the decision.

For the sake of our free speech and our democracy let's hope they succeed!

OK..Ok it's time to own up...aren't you feeling just a little bit of sympathy for that dysfunctional group of society called MPs?

After all, they have just returned from weeks and weeks on an expensive summer vacation (working in their constituencies, of course, and not holidaying in their second homes or travelling the world) to find that most of their number are receiving letters demanding they pay back expenses they have 'mistakenly' claimed in the past, not knowing they had never incurred them in the first place.

Of course, they are not guilty of having abused the system, they are just the poor persecuted victims of an unjust media world. Their only crime, in reality, was to get caught!

So....do you own up to feeling sympathy? I would guess not!!

For a country that has so many surveillance cameras the authorities can virtually see the state of your colon as you walk down the street - and all in the name of anti-terrorism - it comes as some surprise to learn that 50 Greenpeace campaigners (protesting against global warming) have been able to climb onto the roof of Westminster Hall, part of the Houses of Parliament, without being spotted by police officers guarding the high security building.

Even more amazingly, the demonstrators used ropes and ladders to climb the perimeter fencing - hardly items that can be concealed under everyday clothing.

Perhaps, the police guarding Parliament, are like the MPs they are supposed to be protecting - still on their annual vacation.

With everyone returning to work tomorrow, it seems likely that the arse kicking that will be sure to follow, will be increasing global warming even further!

Today, is World Mental Health Day.

It has been organised to try to stimulate discussion on what seems to be one of the most stigmatised areas of modern medicine: mental illness.

Most people would rather own up to having a serious sexual disease than admit they suffer from the most common form of mental disorder - depression.

It is a disease that brings a feeling of isolation to the sufferer but then feeds off the darkness of that same isolation. It is so easy to sink into the dark fog of loneliness, but to put it all into perspective, one person in four is likely to suffer from some sort of mental illness in their lifetime - governments have been elected with a smaller percentage than that!

More importantly, the percentage amongst children is growing, so it is even more essential we remove the taboo surrounding mental illness as soon as possible.

Almost as worrying, according to recent surveys, only about 25 percent of employers say they would give work to someone they knew had a mental illness. In most cases that just does not make sense and combined with the negative reporting in the press of people who suffer with extreme mental problems, it seems the quicker we all educate ourselves and tame our fears, the quicker the stigma attached to the disease will die.

I am going to start by admitting to the world that I have suffered from depression and received medication to control the imbalance in the chemicals that make up my thought processes. I feared people knowing about it - even though I have not been in such a bad way ever since I sought out medical advice. I was lucky, I had a superb and understanding GP who supported me throughout the whole slow healing process but I know some people are not so lucky.

Nowadays, when the 'black cloud' starts to descend, I go for a long walk and take action to reduce the stressful parts of my life that I know fuel the fire of my problem. I find it therapeutic to write about the things I used to think about; that is one of the reasons I maintain this blog.

I know it is manageable but I still fear that one day it might not be.

It is for all these reasons, I applaud and support any attempt to make such an illness socially acceptable, for sufferers need to be able to discuss and, thereby, share the burden that is mental illness.

So, please show your support for World Mental Health Day, for if you don't ... you really are mad!!

I have only just caught up with this interview between London's somewhat eccentric Mayor, Boris Johnson and BBC Newsnight's 'Rottweiler' frontman Jeremy Paxman. It was recorded at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on October 5th.

I am not sure if it is really about politics or is just an audition for the lead roles in a situation comedy. Judge for yourself - and weep!

Postal workers have voted by a 3 to 1 majority in favour of an all out strike. If it goes ahead, it will be the first UK-wide walkout since 2007.

However, I am not really feeling much sympathy towards either side in the dispute.

Postal workers are seeking to protect their job security and working conditions, while the management of the Post Office are trying to preserve their right to maintain large profits from a declining service.

Both concepts, are in today's world at least, rather out of touch with reality.

On one side, the workers are claiming they are now being overworked and undervalued, while their management are claiming workers are overstaffed and under modernised.

According to their latest management computer 'toy', which works out the theory of how fast a Postman should walk and therefore, how long each round should take, the staff are capable of doing more in their day. Sadly, I don't think that computers have a first hand knowledge of snapping dogs, inclement weather and the time if takes to chat with certain members of our smaller communities.

Both sides need to wake up and realise that the world has changed dramatically and how we choose to communicate with each other has become far more urgent than in times past; for most things we want instant contact and not next day.

Strike action is an outdated method of resolving a dispute and will not settle anything. Ultimately, it will cause an even greater decline to the postal service and its associated workforce.

For my part......I am going to start breeding pigeons!!

"I'm Harriet Harman, you know where you can get me."

Those are the words of Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman.

They were not the reassuring words of an MP to a worried constituent but, instead, are alleged to have been made to a witness, who saw a parked car hit by Ms Harman's vehicle, while she was apparently driving and using her mobile phone.

Ms. Harman denies the allegation and that she left the scene of the accident without supplying details of her registration or insurance.

The accident is said to have occurred in Dulwich, South London, on 3rd July and the police are waiting to question Ms. Harman. The reason for their delay is said to be because officers wanted to wait until after Labour's party conference last week. By anyone's calculations, that seems to be a long time to delay such an enquiry and we can only wonder why.

Ms. Harman is of course best known for officially promoting the case for women's equality.

It seems, though, that she sees herself, as being far more equal than anyone else.

I await with interest, the result of the police investigation!

At times of financial downturn in the economy and when politicians are having to justify the bad news about raising taxes and cutting public services to refill fiscal potholes, it is always the easy option to highlight those in our country who are unable to defend themselves. I refer of course to those who are receiving benefits.

An article in today's Sunday Times has reported that the Conservatives would force the jobless back to work by stopping their benefits, if they do not enter into privately run training schemes.

Of course, forgetting for a moment, the obvious point that training is about as much use as a cat flap on a submarine, when there are not the jobs available for the newly 'trained' to fill, it is insulting to brand, by implication, that all of those who are receiving benefits are a drain on public funds and scroungers.

It is no fun to be unemployed and the people who target them are usually those who have never themselves had to suffer the indignity of entering a job centre. They have never been unfortunate enough to need the help.

Most of them watch programmes and read papers that sensationalise the actions of the minority who abuse the system and then tar all other claimants with the same brush.

As we have found out recently, however, where there is a system to be abused, there are always those who abuse it. I refer, of course, to the MP's expenses scandal.

Most people who have received benefits over a long period do not want to be in that position. They want to work but have often lost all self belief and confidence in any ability they may have for finding a job. Single mothers are unable to afford the childcare that will enable them to work even part time. Many do not have the help of immediate families. They are not living the high life, they are trapped by the same system they are accused of abusing.

Interestingly, the simplistic view of the Conservative policy announced today makes no mention of those who have entered our country from abroad and used the UK as a benefits 'cashpoint' and then sent the money back to their families abroad.

Neither, is there a mention of the billions of pounds being lost by those who are able to exploit loopholes in the tax system and deprive the revenue - and the rest of the country - of the benefit. These cheats are not treated with the same scorn as benefit claimants and instead are often feted and admired.

Perhaps, this is because funding of our political parties is largely received from such donors?

It is regarded by many as a socially acceptable fraud but, in reality, it is just as much of a fraud as that perpetrated by the minority who abuse the benefit system.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who has been trapped as a long term claimant of benefits. She has fought to bring her two children up as respectable, intelligent, responsible and much loved individuals. She has struggled and her children have missed out on the things that most children take for granted, but they are neither bitter or envious; they are grounded.

I have gained far more respect for her, than I will ever have for the politicians who seek to make cheap political capital by attacking those who cannot afford a voice!

Six months is a long time in politics and we have even longer than that until the next general election takes place.

Of course, all the parties are now, unofficially at least, campaigning to capture the imaginations of the voters and predictably, the Conservatives are the most popular party in the polls at this moment in time.

Before they get to be too complacent, though, it is worth remembering that its main players have little experience of running anything more complicated than the tuck shops in their various public schools and their leader had a career in public relations - a profession where you gain the ability to persuade people that even a turd can be a 'must have' product.

They keep telling us they have great ideas but they have yet to reveal exactly what they are; they are promoting theory, rather than reality.

Now that The Sun newspaper has announced it is switching from being a Labour supporting rag to Conservative blue, there will be many more who will soak up all the promises made by David Cameron and his posse. The problem is they are the same readers who believed that Freddie Starr ate his hampster and that they all have a chance at copping off with the topless models on page three. They are gullible!

This might sound like I am a Labour supporter or I am anti Conservative but I am not. I was brought up within a Tory voting family and have been raised to hold beliefs about country, personal morality and honesty, which I have tried to incorporate into my everyday life - of course I have failed but I did say 'tried'!

The problem I have now - and I believe there are many others like me - is that I am disillusioned by all of the parties, as they all seem to be just mimicking each others presentation and policies.

Just like the buttocks on a Sumo wrestler, there is not a lot between them!

Therefore, we should not write anybody off, or vote anyone in, just yet!

Roman Polanski is an acclaimed Oscar winning Film Director. He is the man responsible for films like Chinatown and The Pianist

He is also the man who admitted the drugging and sexual abuse of a thirteen year old girl, while he was photographing her for a magazine in 1977. He fled the USA before he could be sentenced and has been openly 'on the run' ever since, living mainly in France.

Last weekend, he was detained in Switzerland while travelling to the Zurich Film Festival where he was expected to receive a Lifetime Achievement award. He now faces being extradited back to the USA.

Polanski is now 76 years old and has lived what can only be described as an eventful life. He was the son of parents with both Polish and Jewish backgrounds and he was forced to run from the Germans, when they sealed off his Jewish Ghetto in Krakov, in 1940. His mother died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

In later life his wife, the actress Sharon Tate was murdered by the infamous Charles Manson cult while she was eight months pregnant.

With this background, it is hardly surprising that Polanski has lived his life in the headlines.

His thirteen year old victim was plied with drugs and champagne before Polanski had unlawful sex with her at the home of the actor Jack Nicholson. Of course, despite admitting his guilt, he maintains that the girl was sexually experienced and her participation was consensual.

So, should Polanski be dragged back to the US after 32 years, to be sentenced for his crime?

The answer has to be yes.

He may well be a famous old man but he is also a self confessed child abuser. The passage of time does not erase the act that took place over thirty years ago, or change it's status in law.

Polanski maintains that the legal process, after he was charged, was flawed and the prosecutor and judge dealing with his case had been negligent.

If he has a case to make against the legal procedures followed prior to his escape, now is the time to challenge them.

The law is the benchmark by which all decent society survives. It cannot be allowed to suffer from alzheimers.

Polanski must go back and face his past. Celebrity, fame and wealth, cannot be allowed to re-write the truth.

Perhaps, Polanski is about to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award after all!

Aides to PM Gordon Brown are said to be furious that he was sandbagged, during an interview with Andrew Marr, on BBC1, when asked whether he is taking prescription painkillers.

Marr said:

"A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?”

The PM relied:

“No. I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics.”

There has been much speculation over the last couple of weeks about the subject (I wrote a post 2 weeks ago) but until today, it seemed that no-one from the mainstream media was prepared to actually ask the question directly.

Whether this is because the media machine at Number 10 had deliberately tried to suppress such an enquiry or whether it was because none of the favoured political commentators wanted to risk their controlled access to the PM, we cannot be sure.

However, it is a justifiable enquiry to make and one to which we should all have the right to an answer.

If the PM is to survive until the next election and beyond, he needs to come out fighting and forget the scripted answers that his advisers prepare for him before interviews. He needs to 'shoot from the hip' and look like he is in control.

If he does that, then we might start to think of him as a worthy leader after all!

I am irritated!

Tonight, while travelling home from work, I was listening to the excellent Eddie Nestor who hosts the drivetime programme on BBC London 94.9FM.

Eddie is one of the few broadcasters who has the rare gift of being able to discuss any subject, however sensitive, in a fair and amiable way, while still being able to express his own opinion without causing offence.

Tonight, he was engaged in a telephone conversation with respected financial expert, David Kuo, about a new London initiative called the Brixton Pound. It is a concept that is aimed at promoting trade in the locality of Brixton and David was explaining why it might not work in reality.

To help his explanation, he was using the examples of a Butcher's shop and a Grocer's shop to demonstrate how the Brixton Pound might be used in practice.

However, half way through his explanation, he was told by Mr Nestor that he could not use the example of a butcher as it could cause offence to those with certain religious beliefs, or non-meat eaters. Nestor had been told to explain this, by his programme producer, while Kuo was talking.

Are you getting irritated yet?

Has the normally excellent BBC finally become a censor for the political correctness movement?

Surely the whole point of a phone-in show is to exploit the values and principles of free speech and to hear the views of the callers by promoting discussion? It is not to publically admonish a guest expert for describing a profession that has been the mainstay of most high streets and food stores for as long as commerce has been in existence.

Sadly and unusually, Mr Nestor did not challenge the instruction he was given by the time I arrived home. I can only hope this is because he was in a state of shock at being given such a pathetic instruction by his producer.

In reality, though, I fear incidents like this will become more common.

If you are one of those whom the BBC assume would be offended by the mention of professions to which you do not approve......tough!!

Last time I checked, the majority of us were still sane.....just!

"We are doing the right thing to make sure that for the future as we move into a full recovery we will invest and grow within sustainable public finances - cutting costs where we can, ensuring efficiency where it's needed, agreeing realistic public sector pay settlements throughout, selling off the unproductive assets we don't need to pay for the services we do need"

The above words were spoken by Gordon Brown to delegates at the TUC conference in Liverpool today.

They describe what most students learn, in chapter one, of the guide book to running an efficient business.

So, why after all these years in power, has this government only just discovered how to run UK plc?

Time to man the lifeboats methinks!