Webcameron

It is truly amazing that we manage to make a complete pigs breakfast of everything that we try and do as we get older. Maybe it is first stage Alzeimers but these days I can so easily be distracted and find that I have left something that I came for behind.

Well that would be my excuse but what excuse has David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Have a look at their video cast on webcameron. The contrast is staggering! We have David doing small sound sized bytes that are almost single line messages, then we have a long ramble by Boris who is showing us arround his office. I have to say neither piece exudes a great deal of confidence that they could run any great Minstry of State

Still nothing wrong with Charlie

I thought that Charles Kennedy did a sterling job on the channel 4 programme that he made on the political process in the UK. I really thought that much of what he said was absolutely on the money. This is the sort of political debate that we need more of. I am sure that party must really be regretting its decision to replace him as leader.

Scandal in the wind - Outlook is not resigning

Well it has been an interesting week for the government. It seems impossible for people to go on without taking ownership for their failings. I have no doubt that Charles Clarke should resign over the release of foreign prisoners. What were we doing keeping them locked up at our expense in any event.

The John Prescott affair is more difficult. It is his affair after all, but if it shows more than usual lack of judgment or abuse of power he should also go. The lady in question looked pretty wretched and abandoned on her interview with the Mail. However one cannot overlook the fact that she is being advised by the odious Max!

One thing that becomes clear in all this is that if we are to have more of a presidential style of leadership, which undoubtedly under Blair we do, we should adopt the American principle of only having 2 terms. Power as we know absolutely corrupts!

" Words" a devalued currency

The concept of words as a weapon of war appeals to our finest ideals of freedom. They are not costly, enduring when written down and have in the past made a difference. However I should like to pose a question: does modern media devalue the concept? Perhaps the ease of publishing and being heard makes us less likely to be heard. It seems no matter what the severity of revelation, peerages for loans or lying about weapons of mass destruction, consequences are minimal. Amongst the media hype does anyone really listen to the words and weigh their true implication on our society and lives? I think not!

Do we need all this Government?

Daily it becomes clear that the outcome of New Labour is simply to add much more government interference to our lives. It is pretty obvious that Doctors are no longer in charge of our healthcare and that the healthcare we get is determined by the centre with a greater mind on politics than on the health of the individual.

We constantly hear that privatisation of parts of the NHS will make everyone more competitive whilst healthcare remains free at the point of delivery. What a load of old tosh! Private Industry is fast becoming as inefficient as Government depts were. The reason for this is to do with size and very little else. The bigger the organisation the less efficient it is likely to be. A friend of mine lately went for a referral to a consultant as she had private health insurance. She had to pay £20 that she could ill afford for the referrall, which was after all was saving the NHS money - where is the sense in that? Once upon a time you could go and buy the health services you wanted, not anymore! The NHS has become the gatekeeper and in any other industry would be seen as anti-competitive.

Almost every aspect of our lives is changing due to Government interference. The criminal justice system is now designed to elicit pleas of guilty in return for lenient sentences. All of this no doubt to make the numbers look good.

I could go on but I won't

Highest Heist

The public are not really outraged at Britain's largest bank robbery. Most people I have talked to have a sneaking admiration for the crooks. Undoubtedly this will never be shared by the poor family that had to undergo the terrifying ordeal of being kidnapped as part of the plan. It is pretty difficult to have a lot of the sympathy for the good guys. Securitas builds a facility that clearly has something valuable in it, and then just in case you did not get it they put a sign on the building "Securitas Cash Management." I seem to think that a prevention of car crime ad running in the UK makes fun of the poor motorist who leaves valuables on the back seat!

Anyway the kidnap the managers family is such obvious ploy that one would think that it would definitely be a job posting for an out of towner with no family. I would love to see the risk assessment for this facility. One would also think the insurers would not be so silly.

I also find it difficult ot believe that part of the gang could be so stupid as to be caught trying to deposit some money in a building society! My view is either they are or it is a cleverly constructed decoy.

A Proper Charlie

Prince Charles is in trouble again with the disclosures in the court case relating to the publication of his personal journal. I would like to have some sympathy for him. I certainly do not have a problem with him supporting causes and getting involved in politics, particularly if he has dissident or contrarian views. I would rather have him do stuff and annoy politicians than stand idly by. The constitutional arguments about the Monarchy not getting involved in politics are pure bullshit.

However sending out up to 19 photocopies of your journal and bleating about privacy - I ask you!

Hello Brits

It is amazing that after 53 years I can truly say that British music is as good as I can remember. Everyone that was nominated for a Brit should be really happy that they are in great company this year.

Its just as well that something is working for us because everything else is pretty grim. On the mighty scale global terrorism, global pandemics and global warming seem to be major challenges for us. On the less than mighty scale the way that all service in the UK now seems to have deteriorated to an incomprehensible level is extremely worrying not to say irritating. Yesterday I watched management in a Holiday Inn ignore customers in favour of doing performance appraisals! The more we spend on customer service training the worse we seem to become. Perhaps you just can't do good customer stuff unless you have basic good manners as a pre-existing competency

January 2006 is over

Good riddance to it - this proabably has been the worst month of my life so far. A year which could have started with so much promise turns out completely terrible. So what do I make of it? Is it simply bad luck or have I brought this upon myself. Difficult to say. Napoleon said "bring me lucky generals." It would have been better if he said something about how to turn things around when luck deserts you. Anyone got any ideas?

Hollow sacrifice

It really brings it home when you see what we have practically achieved in Iraq if last nights channel programme is to be believed. The deals that have been done with the Mahdi army militia allowing them to be the real law makes an absolute farce of the "regime change" rationale for going to war. It was bad enough that we had to disguise our motives as a pre-emptive strike against the possible use of WMD and lie to our soldiers about their mission.

Now it seems that we are set to withdraw and leave behind a radical Islamic state making all the deaths and woundings a hollow sacrifice. I agree with General Rose - the politicians should not be allowed to walk away!

Nothing wrong with Charlie

Charles Kennedy was an acceptable face to lead the LibDems. Even though he has a problem with alchohol it does not mean that he would be unable to lead the his party.