DIARY OF A SEPTUAGENARIAN
- John Copeland -
Friday 29th January - Thursday 4th February, 2010
A sprinkling of snow on Wednesday evening. Fortunately, traffic struggled through the sprinkling on the morrow, and there was no annoucement from the Government advising public sector workers to stay in bed. It is hoped that this further snow will not curtail our rising economic growth.
""Prestige has surely been the most fruitful source of military mistakes since the beginning of time."
Major-General John Kennedy, November 1942. It is a comment, albeit with added pride, that explains the fine mess we got into in Iraq and the muddles we now face in Afghanistan, not being willing to admit our mistakes in starting wars we could never win.
FRIDAY 22 JANUARY
Maybe it is because we live in an Alice-in-Wonderland country these days, but it nevertheless seems surprising that while the economists are all predicting doom and gloom (except Anatole "What Crisis" Kaletsky, of course), suggesting that the stock market is going to see an almighty crash, possibly going down to 3,400, and that house prices will also tumble, the FTSE nevertheless goes up and up; the pound rises against the dollar and the euro; and one building society has had a dream that house prices rose by an incredible 1.2% in January. No wonder financial forecasting is often likened to being little better than astrology, economics being likened to fortune-telling.
Presumably we are going to hear a lot more good news during the next four months in preparation for a May general election, seeing the Office for National Statistics pumping out good news every month to proclaim that Calamity Brown has brought us out of recession, and that the country is booming again - that is to say, going on as before as householders borrow more and more money on the rising equity of inflated house prices, while the banks start being irresponsible again.
A correspondent sent me an e-mail of a report in "The Daily Mail" saying under the heading of "Stressed Treasury staff told: 'Don't worry, do it tomorrow'.
"Treasury staff, including the Chancellor Alistair Darling, have been advised to shelve their problems to reduce stress. Treasury officials have been told to 'shelve problems' to help keep their stress levels down in the face of Britain's dire public finances. A 70-page taxpayer-funded guide to 'stress awareness and management' advises officials to put off difficult decisions to another day if they are causing them anxiety.
"It includes tips such as 'learn how to laugh at yourself' and a six-point lesson in how to 'relax your thighs'. And it reassures staff that it is 'okay' to switch off, day dream, make errors and even fail, stating: 'Stress may be avoided if I allow myself to make mistakes… recognising that sometimes I will make mistakes and that is OK to make mistakes.'"
This is obviously a further indication that this country has gone quite barking mad, obsessed with stress, which, in so many instances, is an indication of inadequacy, an example of an employee being promoted beyond his level of ability, known as the "Peter Principle". In the good old days when I was working we referred to stress as a "nervous breakdown", and this is surely a far more appropriate term to describe people who cannot cope with pressure. Nearly all the work colleagues I knew who went off with a nervous breakdown were quite useless at the job, usually because they could never make a decision.
Part of the trouble of course, is that children have been so mollycoddled by my generation and those following, protected from any kind of danger by their parents, that they are unable to cope with any difficulties in their adult lives. You see this in modern marriages, where the couples soon part or separate whenever there is the slightest problem, usually saying to hell with the interests of the children. Mind you, it is all very fashionable to have stress these days, and I nearly ended up with a touch of the post-traumatics after having to cope the burglars who tried to break into my house. I was offered counselling, but turned it down, which was probably a mistake.
Winter warmth. A load of logs was delieverd this afternoon, the price having gone up 12% since the last load in November.
I went to have a drink at Woodcocks with a couple of friends at noon, making for a pleasant interlude for the day. As always, we had to endure the ghastly musak, but the beer was in good condition, so I suppose that is the main consideration. We more or less had the place to ourselves.
Back home after a late lunch, a load of logs was delivered. The price last year went up from £30 to £40, and the charge in the first month of this year is £45, an increase of 12.15% which is somewhat higher than the C.I.I. [Corrected Inflation Index for Essential household Expenses, which is found by multiplying the official CPI index by 3 and adding 1, currently at 9.7%.]. By the end of the year the price of the logs will probably be up to £50 or even £55 to take account of the rapidly rising inflation.
The evening was spent by the fireside, reading some more of "Masters and Commanders" - a fascinating account of Churchill, Roosevelt, Marshall and Brooke.
I heard today that people we know living in Yorkshire, formerly living I our village, recently had a daylight burglary at their house, the thieves breaking down a stout door and ripping the burglar alarm off the wall whilst the couple were out. The wife's jewellery, much of it obviously of a sentimental value, was stolen amongst the items taken. This must be deeply distressing, for even if the thugs are caught, there is unlikely to be any recovery of the jewellery, having been sold on.
Whatever cuts are made in public services, the Government needs to ensure that the police budget is greatly increased rather than reduced. With unemployment predicted to rise to 3 million (the realistic figure probably indicates that it is already above that level), we are going to see more and more crime in this lawless land. One necessary improvement would be to take the police service away from the control of dim-witted local councillors, transferring it to a national force, which would bring about greater co-ordination and control.
I substantial saving would be to bring back troops from the Hundred Years War in Afghanistan, where they face a hopeless struggle trying to prop up a corrupt government that will always be corrupt. If this action were to be taken, the public service cuts would not need to be so drastic, not even under the Cameroons. Meanwhile, I am not bothering to follow the Iraq Inquiry, knowing that it will be the traditional whitewash, nobody, least of all Mr. Blair, being in any way to blame for an invasion that, according to the almost daily suicide bombings, has made life even worse for the citizens of Iraq.
SATURDAY 30 JANUARY
We woke up to find that there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground, barely covering the grass. It was good job this happened over the weekend, otherwise the country would have come to a stop again, denting the recovery we are now supposedly seeing.
The February edition of the "Literary Review", for which I have an annual subscription to the excellent journal, arrived in the post this morning. It makes me wince when I think that for many years I took the "London Review of Books" that now seems to have become more of a political magazine than a reviewer of books, anti-American and anti-Israel in its bigoted and biased beliefs of some of its contributors.
Fortunately, there were no books that I wanted to buy next month. I say "fortunately" because the ever rising inflation is putting a severe strain on my household budget, finding that everything is shooting up in price, especially petrol that goes up a penny a litre every week, soon to be at the former record level, meaning that gas and electricity charges will be rising as well. I am therefore having to start making economies, and the most obvious one is to cut back on book purchases, the amount over the last few months being about £50 a month from Amazon for four hardback books.
My reckoning is that the inflation over the past three months has devalued my pension by about £15 a month, so by deleting one book a month this will just about cover this deficit. Presumably later in the year, as inflation really takes off as the pound plummets, it will be down to two books a month. It is all very disappointing, but at least we have enough food (and alcohol) and do not go cold in winter - though I suppose an incoming Cameroon Government will abolish the winter fuel allowance, or at least means-test it.
I suppose pension index-linking for public employees will also go under the Cameroons, the argument being that it is far too expensive to continue. The only hope is that the police on retirement receive this index-linking, and the Cameroons will not want to upset the plods at a time of increasing law and disorder. This was one of the considerations that Thatcher the Great Destroyer had to consider when she thought about cutting public service pensions, eventually not daring to do so.
Fortunately, Calamity Brown has promised that there will be a 2.5% increase on pensions and welfare benefits from the 1st April, so that will go some way to easing the burden of rapidly rising inflation. So three cheers for Mr. Brown, who looks after us old-timers, whereas as non-wealth creators we are loathed by the Cameroons, almost as much as single mothers, the NHS and the European Union.
I rather feared that the littlegame shooters would be in the village this morning, firing away close to my house in deliberate defiance of the police instruction not to discharge weapons near residential properties. However, there was no sight or sound of the rural terrorists,. certainly not anywhere near my house, though they were pop-pop popping in other parts of the village, The pheasants hereabouts, including the cock bird I feed each day, a successor to an earlier one, will therefore be safe until October when the slaughtering season starts again.
We will therefore now be able to enjoy some peace and quiet, peace coming "dropping slow" again, albeit until the motor-mowers start up and the advent of the absurdity of clay-pigeon shooting. Luckily, the aerial acrobats known as "The Red Arrows" are usually away in the summer months with their displays, but their traditional February freebie in Cyprus is, so I gather, no more, that country wisely having banned the team from practising within its borders on account of the noise and pollution. How I wish that a similar ban could be imposed over here, justified on the grounds of having to make economies in the Defence Budget and reducing carbon footprints.
Road improvements in Lincoln that are causing chaos to motorists, but then this is the aim of the City Council. The months of February and March are knows as Waste Weeks in local authorities, the budgeted money having to be spent by the 31st March of each year as it cannot be carried over into the new financial year beginning on the 1st April.
At noon I went to "Widow Cullen's Well", usually referred to as "Widow Twanky's", joining three of my friends for the usual Saturday gathering, one that I always greatly enjoy. Now that I have a "Blue Badge" because of the arthritis in my knees, I am able to park the Scorpio on double-yellow lines right outside the pub, which is a great advantage, especially as it is far too cold these midwinter days to go out on the scooter
During our discussions, one of our contingent told us that he had spent £300 on a lunch at a posh restaurant in Lincolnshire as an anniversary treat for his wife, the enormous sum at least including drinks. On hearing this, I spluttered in my beer, almost having to rest afterwards, for I just cannot believe that any meal is worth about twenty books from Amazon.
In another discussion we were talking about there being not enough artistic merit to justify all the television channels that exist these days. It could even be said that there is hardly any artistic merit at all on the idiot's lantern, the BBC channels having to rely on endless repeats of comedy programmes as there are few, if any, available today, and those that do exist are, I gather, usually smutty to make up for their lack of originality and artistry.
We also talked about Blair appearing before the Iraq Inquiry that will be costing taxpayers millions of pounds for the whitewashing, the point being made that Blair thought only in terms of black and white, ranging between the goodies and the dark forces of the baddies, largely tunnel vision in which no alternatives were ever considered. However, we did admire Blair departing at the right time, just before the debt disaster overtook the country, from which we are still suffering, still heavily indebted nationally and individually.
Mention was also made of the enormous subsidies given to our farmers since the war, whereas hardly any grants were allocated to manufacturing industry, no doubt explaining the mess we are in now. But then it has to be remembered that the farming community has been, and still is, strongly represented in both Houses of Parliament. Over the years, subsidies were given to farmers to rip out hedges and trees, then, when it was realised the harm this was doing, there were subsidies to bring back the hedges.
Similarly, there were grants for pesticides that poisoned the land, and as a result of animals being kept in cruel conditions, we bailed out the farmers when, not surprisingly, the animals went sick and had to be killed. Oh, that our manufacturing industries had received such generous handouts, though British Leyland was not exactly a very good example of a state run enterprise.
An evening by the fireside, reading some more of the excellent "Masters and Commanders." The book is rather detailed, but I am enjoying it.
SUNDAY 31 JANUARY
A correspondent has sent me an-emailed of an article that appeared in yesterday's "Daily Telegraph", saying that the Conservative lead was still falling: "The YouGov survey puts the Conservatives on 38 per cent, down two points on last month. Labour is on 31, up one, and the Liberal Democrats on 19, up two. If that was translated into a general election result David Cameron would fail to win an overall majority".
Although such findings are largely irrelevant when there are four full months to go before a likely election on May 6th, I have never believed that the Cameroons would form a government, principally because the electorate fears that it would be the return of the Ancien Regime, slashing public services. Even worse, than this ruthless cost-cutting, the Cameroons seem to have no policies at all, and this must worry electors, just as their extreme right-wing nature, all very redolent of Thatcher the Great Destroyer, continues to worry me, even though I am at heart a Conservative supporter.
It made me laugh (LOL, as they say on the Internet), that today's "Sunday Times" tells us in a highly amusing editorial that, "The Tory leader has the most coherent message". What message is that, I wondered, for the Cameroons, having earlier boasted that they would slash public expenditure, are now saying, as a result of public alarm, that they would not slash so much after all. Oh dear, oh dear. As Eeyore would say: "It's pathetic!" Although we are all aware of the appalling premiership of Calamity Brown, can we really replace him with these pathetic Boy Scouts who change their policies on the full moon, seeming as lost as Bo Peep's sheep?
The editorial has to admit that "Labour is benefiting from the gradual return of economic optimism. It may also be that the Tories are suffering from the other interpretation of the 0.1% rise, that the economy is too vulnerable for aggressive Tory spending cuts" - the very point I have been making in this diary, saying that in the height of a recession you do not dig an even bigger hole.
The latest tame pheasant that I now feed, the bird being incredibly tame, following me around in the garden, obviously after food. The littlegame slaughtering season ends today, so he will be safe until the rural terrorists return in October.
I continue to enjoy "Masters and Commanders" by Andrew Roberts, which I continued reading by the log-burning fireside in the evening. In one of the chapters the author mentions the elderly Sir Dudley Pound's [the First Sea Lord] somnolent stance at meetings: "During most of the discussion the First Sea Lord went sound asleep, and looked like an old parrot asleep on his perch....Pound's biographer argues that although he did catnap and also had a habit of closing his eyes when concentrating, he also had the ability to perk up whenever the words 'cruiser' or 'destroyer' cropped up in conversation."
Although there were times when Churchill could be unbearable, and sometimes very wrong indeed about the conduct of the war, having to be corrected by the courageous Brooke as CIGS who stood up to him, he was a splendid leader, the right man in the right place at the right time, with a splendid put-down wit. It makes me wonder what would have happened to us in 1939 if pygmy politicians such as Calamity Brown and Cameron, men of little ability and even less wit, had been in charge. Presumably we would now be ruled by the Germans, at least having some manufacturing industries and law and order.
According to my weather station we had 42.8 mm of rain in January. The highest temperature was 9.6 C, and the lowest -6.6 C.
MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY
I have been trying, alas without any success so far, to find out who owns the cat that has adopted us, putting up notices in the village today. Unfortunately, I let the cat come in during the recent bad weather, feeling sorry for him as he meowed pitifully outside, and now he presumably does not want to return to his proper owner. The last thing we want is a cat in our old age, and we have not really helped him, allowing him to sit in the parlour in the evenings, but then putting him outside in the cold before we go to bed.
As Mrs. Copeland so rightly says, I should not have let him in, it being a great mistake. As the old saying says: "Be sure your kindness will rebound on you." Yes, indeed, especially as we now have the expense of adding cat food to the week's provisions. Nevertheless, he is a delightful little cat, sitting on my lap whilst I am reading in the evening, happily purring away. To put him outside later seems so cruel, but we have no cat-flap, and as far as I know he is probably not housetrained.
Another fine mess - though perhaps that is not quite the right term, being something we are trying to avoid. Somehow I cannot bring myself to putting him into a cats' home, probably leading to him being put down if he remains unwanted. There are times, this being one of them, when I wish that I were of stronger and crueller stuff, rather like the littlegame hunters who would not give a thought to drowning him, or the redcoated rascals who would probably enjoy throwing him to the hounds.
I tried telephoning the RSPCA, only to be directed to their web site, finding there that there was no RSPCA service within 25 miles. For all the good that inquiry did, I might as well have put out a note to the fairies at the bottom of the garden. Over the years I have never much cared for that organisation, one that can never make up its mind about fox hunting.
It cheers me up that January, possibly the worst month of all here in Lax Britannica, is now over and that the days are lengthening. Once we reach the 15th of this month we can say that the winter is virtually over, for even if there is further snow it never lasts long after that date. To see the snowdrops, now in full bloom, is a reminder that Spring is on the way. It would not surprise me if it turns out to be a very hot summer, which will have all those crazy scientists warning us again about global warming. They never lose an opportunity to put the frighteners on us with their nonsense.
At the ungodly hour of 8 a.m., Mrs. Copeland went out walking with a female neighbour, traversing several miles. I cannot imagine a more unpleasant activity, seeing it as an ASBO punishment rather than any kind of enjoyment. On her return, Mrs. C told me that they "had had a free showing of the Red Arrows' display." That is about the last thing I would want to see, especially as it would remind me that as a taxpayer I contribute to the £120m it costs for that frivolous flying.
On Ceefax I saw that the Office for Trading had said that "10% of Britons fall for scams", their financial losses ranging from £50 to £5,000. Apparently, 73% of adults had received a scam e-mail in the past year. Granddaughter Chloe lost £66 in a scam over Ugg boots that were falsely made in China instead of Australia, and although I was not deceived, I recently received a scam purporting to come from my ISP, the excellent Claranet, asking me for full details of my account, including the password.
Fortunately, much of the spam is removed before it gets to my computer by the first-rate Border Scout facility for which I pay £28.50 a year, though as I mentioned earlier, a few still get through. As a precaution, I only use my 12-year-old computer using Windows 95 to download e-mail, never going on-line with my relatively new laptop. Not being on broadband I cannot download any large files, but I consider that to be an advantage.
I had an interesting e-mail from sunny Cairns in Australia, my correspondent telling me that, "In January we recorded a total of 692.5mm of rain, slightly more than the average of 380mm. Which combined with the heat tends to make things rather sticky.
"Not to everybody's liking up here but we like it, for most of the year there is little rain and loads of sun. However, we do get some enjoyable sights. We have a mango tree in our garden which has produced a magnificent crop this year.
"Now the fruit has ripened the excess remaining on the tree has been providing a feast for the wildlife". Among the attached photographs was one showing Christmas beetles enjoying the fruit (seen below), rather like the pheasants in our garden ruining all Mrs. Copeland's Spring flowers, pecking off the buds.
Christmas beetles on a mango tree. Photograph sent to me by a reader in sunny Cairns in Austrlaia.
At odd times I have been reading a copy of "Wind in the Willows" that was recently given to me by a villager. It is a delightful little book, so beautifully written with its expressive language - "This day was only one of many similar ones for the emancipated Mole, each of them longer and fuller of interest as the ripening summer moved onwards. He learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy of running water, and with his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly among them."
Kenneth Grahaeme, who became Secretary of the Bank of England, was of a very right-wing persuasion, and in political terms Mr. Toad represents the aspiring but rather vulgar middle classes, while the weasels are the aggressive working classes, whom we nowadays refer to as the Great Unwashed. In the book, middle class mores are eventually triumphant, which is more than can be said of this country today as we descend ever more into a thuggish and lawless little island, the poor man of Europe. It is the loss of former middle class values and culture that has so weakened this ailing land in recent years.
It seems so sad that many of today's children will never know the delights of such books. They much prefer their Game Boys, their parents believing that these toys enhance intelligence if not culture, or they spend their time on an Internet teenage facility called "Facebook." Similarly, most schools have now abandoned Shakespeare, his works being seen as being far too difficult for today's schoolchildren. Maybe there is also the consideration that the current generation of teachers has also been brought up knowing nothing about the classics, and hence is not interested in them.
As a British Telecommunications subscriber, I had an e-mail from the company today telling me that the cost of daytime calls would be going up from 5.4 pence to 5.9 pence a minute, an increase of 9.25%, which is almost exactly in line with the C.I.I. [Corrected Inflation Index] for Essential Household Expenses. As I am on the "Anytime Tariff", presumably I will not be affected, yet I nevertheless find it surprising that BT is putting up charges substantially when there is so much competition.
My 125 cc scooter is having its MOT test next Monday, and this afternoon I spent some time cleaning it. However, I fear that it is going to fail the test on account of the rusted exhaust, and as the vehicle is 9 years old it is not worth spending any money on it, a new exhaust costing £200 with fitting (How we are ripped of by foreign spare parts!). I therefore feel that I will have to have a new scooter, principally because of the traffic chaos and parking difficulties in Lincoln, so it is a choice between having a 50 cc, or replacing the present 125 cc., the cost of the latter being £2,600 on the road.
Because I have not passed a motor cycle test, I have to have a proficiency test every two years (one due in September), costing about £90 for the three-hour tedious test. However, if I purchase a 50 cc, which would be a good deal cheaper, I would no longer have to take the test, being able to use my driver's licence to qualify. At the moment I cannot make up my mind which to do. In many ways it would be better to have the 50 cc, costing less to buy and to run.
In the evening, Mrs. Copeland and I watched a DVD of the film "Broken Embraces" starring the lovely Penelope Cruz, who is worth seeing at any time. Unfortunately, it was a tedious film, and for once the universal condemnation of the critics was justified, even among "The Sunday Times" reviewers. Over the year, I have found that films recommended by "The Daily Telegraph", "The Guardian", "The Times" and "The Financial Times" are the most reliable reviews, whereas "Total Film" and "Empire" do not seem to be so good for my liking.
There were big falls today of the £ against the euro and the dollar, and I therefore continue to believe that the £ will be parity with the euro by the end of this year. If Labour wins, which begins to look increasingly likely as the poll ratings of the Cameroons continue to fall as a result of their muddled approach to public expenditure cuts, the £ could even be well below parity.
On the other hand, as economists always say (it was President Truman who said that he wished he could have one-handed economists), the Bank of England could be forced into raising interest rates as a result of the rapidly rising inflation, which would certainly upset my soothsaying. The real problem, of course, is that the British economy is in such a hopelessly indebted muddle that there is no apparent prescription for recovery.
If interest rates are kept low, we have a return to a booming and unsustainable housing market from which we have only just recovered, while imports flood in from abroad now that we no longer make much, whereas if interest rates are raised production at home is dampened. If the Government, whether Labour or Tory, cuts back public expenditure to reduce the enormous deficit, unemployment will rise beyond the 3 million mark; if there is only a half-hearted reduction, the country becomes ever more indebted, and it cannot continue carrying the burden of so much debt. A Catch 22 situation indeed, you might say.
TUESDAY 2 FEBRUARY - Candlemas
Amongst the junk mail in the post this morning - the mail coming later and later these days, presumably as a result of Royal Mail improvements - there was an offer of 12 issues of "Radio Times" for just £1, the leaflet asking: "With so many programmes across so many channels how are you to find what you want to watch". At the end of the offer, I would have to pay £24.99 every six months by diabolical direct debit.
As I nowadays only watch Prime Minister's Questions, only switching on the set to look at the financial pages of Ceefax and for showing DVDs of films, "Radio Times" is about the last magazine I would ever want to see. I would even rather take "Horse & Hound", which would at least be good for a laugh, learning about a Hunt's bow-wows being run over by a train. Maybe "Shooting Times" would also be good for a laugh, reading about a shoot bravely killing a hundred or more pheasants in a single morning, most of which were subsequently thrown away amidst the fun.
In our February issue of our local Church Newsletter, the Bishop of Lincoln writes about today's Candlemas, telling us: "Candlemas on the 2nd February has become one of the iconic festivals of the Christian calendar. During the darkness of winter it speaks of light and new life as the days lengthen and the first signs of Spring begin to appear." It is a day that I always celebrate by lighting candles, seeing the day as the beginning of the end of winter.
Unfortunately, a serious argument has developed over the proposals to bring in an Equality Bill that will give equal rights to homosexuals, transvestites, and various other groups that have been persecuted over the ages. The Pope, who is planning to come to England in the Autumn, has complained that the legislation, if passed into law, would force the Catholic Church to appoint homosexuals and transvestites amongst their employees, something that is deeply alien to its religion.
Deeply offended by the Pope's stance, the outrageous and outraged National Secular Society has warned that it would mount a protest campaign "made up of gay groups, victims of clerical abuse, feminists, family planning organisations and pro-abortion groups among others". Presumably this bearded bunch, who will brook no discussion of the issues, will be seen offensively and rudely waving banners when the Pope arrives in London, not doing their cause any good.
I am not quite sure how I feel about the issue, especially as I believe that rights are only relevant when there are accepted responsibilities; indeed, I just wish our spineless Government would think more in terms of our responsibilities and duties in our society, rather than concentrating on so-called human rights. Although I deplore the Catholic Church's attitude to contraception, a policy presumably based on wanting to increase the number of Catholics in the world, I admire its adherence to religious teaching, unlike the pick 'n' mix morality of the Church of England that cowardly bows to every social pressure in the land, making a nonsense of Biblical teaching.
Against this view, it could be argued that the Church of England's acceptance of homosexuals and other persecuted people is more in keeping with the love of our fellow men. Do we, for example, want to return to the 19th century days when the C.of E. was the Tory Party at prayer, when we had to bless the squire and ensure we kept in our proper stations? To read Thomas Hardy's novels is to see the unbelievable nastiness of the Church in those days, refusing to bury Tess's dead baby in consecrated ground because it was born out of wedlock. At least there has been an improvement in decency since the humbug and hypocrisy of those dark satanic mill oppressive times.
Whenever I condemn Israel for its barbaric behaviour towards the Palestinians, I am sure to receive e-mails pointing out the error of my ways. Today, an American tells me: "You are constantly condemning Israel for flouting the will of the United Nations. I know you do not like to have the Holocaust brought up as license for Israel, but when you recollect that world Jewry was brought to the brink of extinction by the Nazi genocide and the civilized nations, including, to our shame, America, turned and looked the other way. Can you really blame the Israelis for not trusting their lives to the rest of the world?"
My correspondent goes on to say: "You also mention more than once that they ignore the wishes of President Obama: as well they should, in my opinion. He is not their leader, is he? Nor ours, but we are stuck with him. Finally, you make much of the fact that Israel ignores the dictates of the World Court. In my opinion the World Court is horrendously anti-Israel: would you want to trust your life/liberty/property to a court that was zealously anti-white Englishman? Probably not."
I certainly do not deny the horrors of the Holocaust, yet do we really need to go on about the Nazi crimes over sixty years later? Do the Russians, who suffered far more than the Jews in the Second World War, need to constantly remind themselves of the horrors they suffered under and fighting Nazi-rule? Saying that President Obama is not the American leader is hardly credible.
More importantly, we should remember that America disastrously supported the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, helping to set it up against British and Arab opposition, to what was to become a brutal occupier of Palestinian lands, and one that went on to seize further territories, causing mayhem and murder in those lands, now being accused of war crimes in Gaza.
Since 1948, America has poured money and weapons into Israel, so when President Obama condemns the Jewish occupation of Palestinian lands, telling the Jews to desist in their encroachments, perhaps the piper should be allowed to call the tune, rather than face such ingratitude. And if the World Court is so "horrendously ant-Israel," which I do not believe to be true, why does it have such an attitude towards that country; indeed, why is it that all history shows that the Jews have been loathed wherever they have settled in the world?
When Israel returns to its defined boundaries that were legally established in 1948, no longer creating Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, and recognises a Palestinian State, then perhaps I will have a very different attitude towards what I now regard as a most unpleasant pariah country. To describe this attitude as anti-semitism - the condemnation that Israel makes whenever ita appalling behaviour is criticised - is a nonsense. I have a high regard for Jews for their business acumen and their culture; it is the nasty little country of Israel with its cruelty towards the Palestinians that I dislike so much.
A candle for Candlemas Day
I went in to town during the morning on the scooter on a horribly raw and damp day, the weather so typical of the downright miserable weather at this time of year. However, I would rather have these grey skies and a total lack of sunshine than having further snow. At least we can get around in this weather, whereas an inch of snow causes chaos in this country.
This evening, after a fairly relaxing afternoon, my productivity being lower than that of a British worker - well, almost, I went to a friend's house with Mrs. Copeland to see a DVD of the film "Frost/Nixon", another couple joining us. We all thoroughly enjoyed the film - a most pleasant evening in civilised company. The actor playing the part of Nixon was excellent, though that part of Frost seemed rather weak, the actor being better in the film "The Queen" in which he represented Blair.
According to press reports, the unbelievably stupid wee Georgie Osborne, who, more than anybody else is likely to lose the election for the Conservatives, is in conflict with his leader over the public sector service cuts, the wee little man wanting a far greater pruning than his leader. The sadness for the Tories is that they have nobody as bright as Mandelson to fight their diminishing corner, and it is beginning to show, his lordship making mincemeat of the opposition. There are many times when I criticise Calamity Brown, but there is no doubt that it was a brilliant political move to bring back Mandelson.
We have been hearing a lot during the week about the Government's intention to cut back severely on university expenditure. Bearing in mind that our young people are the only asset we have left in this ailing land, this severe pruning seems like kamikaze economics. It might have been far better to prune the length of courses, so that a 3-year degree could be completed in 2 years by cutting out the enormous holidays, most university campuses being empty for 20 weeks of the year.
Obviously shortening the courses would mean that lecturers would have to do some real work, not spending nearly half the year in their Dordogne cottage, but there would be the great advantage that students would not leave university owing so much money. However, there are far too many vested interests for this ever to be done. What does seem so surprising is that I went to LSE on a full grant in days when the Tories were in power, leaving not owning so much as a penny, whereas under a Labour Government there are swingeing fees and no grants, only loans.
WEDNESDAY 3 FEBRUARY
The thermostat valves on one of our bedroom radiators has packed up, and today a heating engineer came to fit a replacement that will cost about £80. It has been one expense after another recently, including having had to pay the highest price ever for 1,000 litres of oil (£537).
Today there was a report on Ceefax in which the energy regulator Ofgem warned that, "that a significant number of customers may not be able to afford the higher energy prices they would have to face in the years ahead." As might be expected, the weekly rise in the price of petrol at the pumps saw a further penny increase today, taking the price here in Lincoln to £1.11 a litre, whereas in the south it is probably up to £1.18. At the start of the year Brent Crude was at $82, then it fell during most of January, and is now starting to rise again, probably likely to see considerable increases in the months ahead, adding to the inflationary spiral.
Catchwater drain in the village, now very full of water, as are the lakes in the bailiwick.
I watched Prime Minister's Questions at noon, that weekly circus that invariably descends into farce and personal abuse, little ever being mentioned about the needs of the country.
Much to my horror, after the traditional crocodile tears mourning the further loss of life among our troops, we were hearing that the Hundred War in Afghanistan will alone cost £3 billion this year, an incredible figure and such a terrible waste in terms of the loss of life and money for an unworthy cause, and money that this terribly indebted country cannot afford.
A quiet day at home, only venturing out in the afternoon to purchase the weekly free-range eggs from the Lincoln market, now costing £3.60 a dozen. In the evening Mrs. Copeland went to the village book club (no male members), while I stayed at home by the fireside, finishing reading "Masters and Commanders". At times the book is a little hard going, but I continue to enjoy it.
The author records that Churchill had a poor opinion of the British Army, saying that our soldiers were poor compared with the warriors of the Wehrmacht, and much to my surprise he comments in the final chapter that, "The man who most influenced the course of the war was the one who openly acknowledged that he knew the least about ground strategy - Roosevelt." Although there is no doubting that he was the dominant Western partner, eventually putting Churchill on the back burner, he was totally hoodwinked by Stalin, believing that the cruel dictator had the best of intentions.
I liked the quotation attributed to General George C. Marshall in 1957: "A democracy cannot fight a Seven Years War". It is a quotation that could equally applied to solving an economic crisis as we are now experiencing in this country, a democracy never wanting to take its medicine. The author records that this country had 397,700 military personnel killed during the 1939-45 War, whereas the Russians had an estimated 22 million killed. This, of course, is why many historians say that Stalin won the war, rather than the Western leaders.
There was some more snow in the late afternoon and into the evening, though the forecast is for milder weather tomorrow, so it obviously will not be with us for very long. Even so, we have had quite enough snow for my liking this winter, making me realise how much I loathe the stuff. Roll on the Spring! Fortunately it turned to rain later in the evening.
THURSDAY 4 FEBRUARY
Despite all my efforts to find the owners of the cat who is now with us, having put a notice on the Parish Council notice board and posters on telegraph poles around the village, there has been no response, and we do not know what to do, not wanting to keep the cat. I suppose we could send it to a cat rescue home, but there are doubts whether anybody would want it. Maybe in the end we will just have to keep the animal, but I am very reluctant to do so.
I rather fear that the cat had been brought out to the village and dumped. That is the way of the world these days, somebody probably having had the car for Christmas. It still annoys me that the RSPCA was so useless, there being no office anywhere near Lincoln, and its website was no help at all.
No Premium Bond prize this month after the 2 @ £25 last month. I am beginning to think that these bonds are a dead loss, even though I made £38.80 more in prizes than I would have on the highest rate of return on a building society. With inflation rising rapidly each month, the bonds are being devalued all the time, and I am beginning to think that at my great age I might as well start spending the money, keeping in only about £10,000 for emergencies. As the old saying has it: "A pound saved after the age of 70 is a pound wasted."
Conservative poster from http://www.mydavidcameron.com/posters/gauche1. The site is well worth looking at in its fine depcitions of the policies (policy) of the Cameroons.
I went to a motorcycle/scooter showroom in Lincoln this morning to see the Honda range of scooters, having decided that I will in all probability have to replace my existing 9-year-old machine, now like its owner very much the worse for wear. There is a 110 cc costing, with a screen, £1,814, which is considerably cheaper than the Sym at £1,600 that I had thought of having earlier. So I may go for that.
Whilst in town I bought a copy of "The Daily Telegraph", seeing a report saying that a study in the "Journal of Applied Physiology had shown that, "Millions of people who strive to keep fit by jogging, swimming or going to the gym are wasting their time. Researchers claim that the health benefits of aerobic exercise are determined by our genes." Is this not what I have been saying so many times in this diary - that exercise, particularly walking, was a total waste of time? Once again you read it here first.
I liked Matt's cartoon in the newspaper, showing the team of "Red Arrows" running along the ground in their airborne formation, a poster reading: "Low-cost Red Arrows." How wonderful it would be, bringing peace in our time, if they were reduced in this manner. There would be dancing in the village streets and celebratory bonfires all along the flight-path to mark the end of this frivolous flying that costs the taxpayer £120m a year according to a correspondent in our local newspaper. Oh the joy there would be!
I was surprised that the horribly biased "Daily Torygraph" (inside there was a pathetic article believing that Cameron could do no wrong, giving the appearance of having been written by a not very bright 6th form pupil at a minor public school) had its front page dominated by a married English footballer who had visited a brothel whilst his team was in Thailand. Just why this should excite such excitement and attention is a mystery to me, though I suppose it is all part of the Victorian prurient hangover that still believes in this country that anything to do with sex is very naughty indeed.
In an increasingly intolerant country with a 16th century ducking-stool mentality, one that rams sex down our throats, so to speak, every night on the idiot's lantern, we have the strongest laws against prostitution and pornography in any European nation, yet have, not surprisingly, the highest number of sexual crimes and the greatest incidence of paedophile problems than in any other country is Europe, not to mention being a world leader in teenage pregnancies.
I suppose it could also be said, echoing Thoreau in his book "Walden", that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." This is certainly true in this broken down land, in which all hope seems to have been abandoned as the country goes steadily into an ever deepening recession, even trying to pretend that the housing market is taking off again..
With friends I shall be watching a DVD of the film "Under the Bombs", set in the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli conflict, dealing with a mother's desperate search for her lost child amongst Lebanon's bomb-scarred ruins.
According to the write-up on the DVD box: "Shot in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic bombardment using actual locations, 'Under the Bombs' vividly captures the turmoil and ravages of war with extraordinary realism".
These film showings have become a traditional part of Thursday evenings, and I greatly enjoy them, the sessions not usually ending much before 1 a.m., being complete with liberal quantities of alcohol that end up with some Calvedos, that wonderful winter warmer.
Further big falls on the FTSE and the Down Jones Index today. Things are beginning to look very grim indeed, suggesting that the finacial forecastesr were right after all in having predicted substantail falls in the market.
Standing up against the nonsense of political correctness.
E-mail: johncopeland@clara.net
Lincolnshire 6th February, 2010,
Comments welcomed
No. 623
Diary of a Septuagenarian<BR>
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