Practical Thoughts

Dear Reader, We hear how ISIS/Daesh "must be destroyed". But if we were to think back to 2003 wasn't the organisation to be destroyed called al-Qayida? And they still exist. Furthermore, ISIS/Daesh have since appeared and are even a worse foe. Therefore, isn't it logical that if we keep bombing it will only create further groups that want to throw their spite at the West, as they have appeared in Libya and other places? Just what is the alternative? In my view it's to turn the whole thing on its head and do something that stands a chance of removing these hate groups. Something peaceful! Abraham Lincoln is reported as saying: " Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? " Well, it must be said that he didn't totally succeed as someone shot him; but that's another story for analysis at some other time. Just now, I'd rather look into the crux of this quotation of his. In fact, Lincoln can be quoted many times in how he...

Dear Reader, After some reflection, I am wondering whether last week-end's inhuman attacks in Paris actually point to a solution with regard to 'British Values'. This week I read that in  one year alone ( last year: 2014), over 32,000  persons had been killed by terrorist activity. Multiply that by a factor of 2 for those who survived but were seriously hurt, then we have a total of around 100,000 very serious casualties in one year … women, children as well as men. The survivors and the families of the dead will be mentally scarred as well.  And in addition we must add the numbers who have died at sea in attempting to seek refuge in Europe and elsewhere, such as Australia. And, I suspect, the deaths of Palestinians (are Israeli deaths classified as killed by terrorists?). If that was just last year's total, what must be the aggregate total of severe casualties since, say, 2010? But many (most?) of those so damaged will have been Muslims. Yet it is the Musli...

Dear Reader, I first of all must state my utter sympathy with the people of France and, particularly, Paris, and join with them in seeking a righteous solution to the demonstration of beastiality that took place last night. Right will prevail ... but we must be careful on how it is achieved. In the previous article, I finished by postulating on perhaps whether we  need to determine what sort of values we should be basing our vote on. "British Values" if you will.   So, when using the term "British Values" what is being alluded to here. The 'British' bit is self-apparent: something that relates to people in the British Isles. But 'Values' I define here as "beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is important in life". Not (please note) the use of 'value' to define monetary values; I fear that these days that is what we tend to think of first and foremost, and not what is intrinsically of importance. In other word...

Dear Reader, This week (and for a while after), I'm going to lay off David Cameron. It must have seemed that I have been simply mounting a political campaign over the last couple of weeks, against Cameron and his cohorts, but it's not been quite as  it seems. I really want to get to the root of it all. That I was expressing opposition to his policies and methods is certainly true, but there is an underlying matter that I really want to get to ... that the way this government is behaving reflects on us, the citizens of this country.  We have been made (by a combination of indoctrination, self-delusion and apathy) to allow this government to behave as it is. The opposition parties (Labour, Liberals and Greens in particular) do have much greater aspirations, but we (the voter) have come to believe that the Tory promise of self-determination through work and management of the economy are the chief issues. They certainly have their place, but they are not  the only iss...

Dear Reader, Nothing has changed on the Tory front bench. At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, David Cameron spoke on behalf of a very beleaguered looking Chancellor who frankly looked as though he was afraid of having to claim benefits himself (by losing his job)! But David Cameron didn't answer the question put to him ( six times ) by the Leader of the Opposition, and gave the feeling that it was Osborne's responsibility to deal with the issue, and not his. The following day there was a Parliamentary debate on "The Effect of the Tax Credit Cuts" at which a number of Tory MPs conceded that there was a case to look into for special help for those lower income workers. It took an SNP MP to point out that amounts wrongly paid out by the DWP and HMRC government departments exceeded the bill that would be saved by the proposed Tax Credit reforms (£4.5bn). The government, therefore, is failing to mop up expensive holes in its payments structure - as well ...

Dear Reader, This past week - if we would look closely - has emphasised just how calamitous Calamity Cameron is! The issues that have been greatly highlighted this week have been related to (a) the Chinese president's visit and (b) the associated UK steel industry problems. And the latter issue has - in my opinion - been dealt with appallingly badly by Cameron and his government. Okay, Cameron was quick to make the statement that the interests of the steel workers would be safeguarded. But isn't that just rhetoric designed to keep people believing - mainly his supporters - that everything is fine and that he has One Nation interests at heart? The fact is that with the Redcar steel plants completely closed, there is virtually nothing in that area for the workers to go into, so no matter what you re-train them for (if that's the idea) then nothing short of moving families to a totally new area will help them. Tibbett's "On your bike" rhetoric rears it...

Dear Reader, It may have escaped your attention that the UK government has lately transferred all subsidies that were designed to reduce emissions and support renewable energy towards more greedy projects. The UK was doing well in the development of solar energy solutions, but the government has pulled the rug from the feet of that development with the result that solar enterprises have gone to the wall. Yet another instance where Britain has promised so much through its inventiveness and has been sold off or suppressed. And when it happens to a cause celebre , then all the more sad - and wasteful. (This happened to graphene very recently.) Why has this happened? Well, the government (for what reason does not take too much imagination) is only interested in motor cars, gasoline and fracking. Of these  fracking is the subject of most concern. The underground water system acts as a blood supply acts in our bodies. Encoded information is carried in the underground water from ...

Everywhere, there seems to be the state of reactive opposition. With the forthcoming of the right-wing protestations in Germany this week, following the left-wing developments in the English Labour Party setting themselves completely apart from the Tories, and our Prime Minister resorting to castigating the Labour leader in an extreme (and erroneous) manner, my thoughts went to the Bible and the words of Jesus about division: In Luke 12:51 Jesus says (via one translation) “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Now there are people who think that religion and politics are two different 'things' and should be treated differentl...

The West still tries to portray itself as being the Good Guys, while the Baddies are countries like Russia and Iran. But the countries that continue to provide arms to many (not one) dubious regimes are the USA, Britain and France. And it's the USA and Britain that have been the hawks over the last dozen years in their insistence on use of arms in preference to diplomacy. Russia, therefore, can legitimately scoff - but not that I support their support of Assad. So it comes as no surprise to learn this week that the British Foreign Office has decided that Human Rights issues are no longer high on their list of consideration, in favour of trade. Er, the arms trade. This in the midst of plentiful advice being offered to the British government that a perpetuation of militant solutions instead of diplomacy is counter-productive. That a display of arms does little more than stir up more resentment - and more "terrorists". The Lord Jesus and other great spiritual beings a...

There are ominous signs, world-wide. Nowhere seems to be without conflict of some kind, and a lot of it is extreme. The topmost issue will soon be - I'm sure - the survival of the huge number of Middle Eastern refugees and economic migrants that have entered Europe. Many, many more will soon come and then will be faced with what could be a grim European winter, and I fear a crisis arising. There is already a serious food shortage situation in the camps that exist in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. The 'migration issue' has certainly opened up some real issues in respect of our so-called eastern European partners. Up until now the European Union seems to have been operating reasonably well as it says on the tin (a Union), but the sheer scale of the migration has caused panic amongst the eastern countries of the EU and much criticism of Merkel's generous invitation. The UK is poised to have a referendum on whether we should stay in the EU. But not only do we have divis...