Like Father, Like Son

I used to play a game - not a very imaginative or thrilling one - where I'd decide where to live in England depending on the quality of the local MP.  For many years I've had my eye set on a small farmholding in the constituency of Shipley, West Yorkshire but this morning I discovered that the apple had fallen from a bigger tree, so I'm now musing on the possibilities of Doncaster.  They recently elected an English Democrat Mayor and by all accounts, he's doing very well.

With delicious serendipity, it turns out that Peter Davies (the Mayor) is father of  Philip Davies (the MP).

Within a week of his election, Mr Davies had slashed his own salary from £73,000 to £30,000, scrapped the mayoral limousine and abolished the council's free newspaper.  He has written to the Electoral Commission asking them to scrap two-thirds of Doncaster's 63 council seats in order to save the town £800,000 a year.
'If Pittsburgh can manage with nine councillors, why do we need 63?' he asks.

Doncaster definitely has the edge at the moment and I hope many more English Democrat Mayors and Councillors with the same values are elected to office in England - it's no less than we deserve.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Doncaster.

Like Father, Like Son

Rogue Gunner Says It All

Cato is right. It's a shameful disgrace.

If you haven't already visited Rogue Gunner's blog, here's the link to the blog and the full article:

"On a day when the bodies of four UK servicemen are flown back home after making the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan the MOD are in the Court of Appeal. Why may you ask are they costing the British tax payer tens of thousands in legal bills? To make the lives of our young injured servicemen some who have horrific injuries better? No, they are once again making our Heroes fight another battle for adequate compensation that must last them for the rest of their lives.
...
Sometimes your longest War begins when you hand your uniform in and rejoin civvie street."

That's from a man who's been in the thick of war and knows what it's like. He also knows what it's like to be on civvie street with PTSD and no support. We ask so much of our Armed Forces; is it too much for us to demand our government treats them better? So many charities are springing up in an effort to fill the void left by government. Here's a link to Help for Heroes.

Rogue Gunner Says It All

Where To Start?

Late to bed and late to rise makes a blogger dull-witted not wise. In fact I was thinking about declaring myself a Jedi and taking the day off to celebrate R2D2's birthday (it's my yuman right innit?)

However, we have the all-too-believable story in the press this morning about the plan to smear Gen Sir Richard Dannatt once he leaves post in August. Here's the article. His 'shopping list' is unlikely to endear him further to Brown and the MoD. One minister said: “Once he’s gone, we can have a go at him. He can write his book and talk all he wants, but he’ll be fair game then.”

The reason this is so readily believable is because smearing is the proven tactic of the Labour Party: smear, lies, deflection and spin is all they know and that's why they're such a bunch of no-hopers and losers. The only way they could win an election is by increasing the postal vote in some northern cities; lowering the voting age to 16; allowing online voting or text voting (perhaps they can bring Ant & Dec or Richard & Judy in as consultants and ennoble them for their work?)

While the government attempts to deflect criticism of its lacklustre Defence funding & policies another British soldier has died this morning. As yet unnamed but from 2nd Btn The Rifles, he was on foot patrol near Gereshk.

Parliament prorogues next Tuesday, 21st and won't sit again until October 12th - that's about ten/eleven weeks - which means that MPs this year will have only sat for 128 days. Thanks to the govt's way of doing business, many debates have been guillotined and rushed; some nodded through without adequate scrutiny. The Parliamentary Standards Bill currently being rushed through before next Tuesday on Brown's orders is a good example. Already the govt has had to back-track and water down some aspects of the Bill, the consequence will be ill-thought out legislation and a piecemeal attack on the Constitution (whether written or not, it's still our Constitution). And, of course, those MPs who have already announced their resignations and those expecting be be kicked out at the GE can hardly be expected to give the Bill their full attention. Perhaps they're the ones being reported as 'surly' and 'resentful'?

Oh, well, that's enough for the moment from a bear of very little brain - though more accurately, I feel like this:


By the way, there's a radio discussion at the moment considering the difference between the mourning at Lt Col Thorneloe's funeral yesterday and the grief displayed at Wootton Bassett. What no-one has yet mentioned is that (a) these two events were not comparable: one was military and one was public, and (b) the 'keening and wailing' I saw came from youngsters still in school uniform who obviously had close ties to at least one of the 18yr-olds killed. I don't think it's a good move to criticise the ways grief shows itself.

Where To Start?