OSBORNE FIDDLES WHILE STORM CLOUDS GATHER.

"Boy George" our brilliant young Chancellor of the Exchequer has finally realised or, perhaps, just admitted to the rest of us, that the nation's finances are in a bigger mess than he'd previously believed. His 'Autumn Statement', more of a mini-budget since the days of Gordon Brown, has painted a picture of continuing austerity for years to come, against a backdrop of world-wide financial and economic chaos. We have a larger 'structural deficit' than originally thought, we're going to borrow mind-boggling additional amounts of money over and above the stratospheric sums already announced, economic growth is going to stagnate, at best, unemployment is likely to soar and the state-pension age is going to rise more quickly than previously planned. Life is going to be increasingly hard for very many, and for much longer than we'd been led to believe.

What is worst about all of this is that our political leaders continue to treat our ailing economy as nothing more than a plaything, something for them to use against each other when it comes to the next General Election. They either don't understand how serious things are or aren't bothered because of the protection offered to themselves by their exalted status and wealth. While the banking crisis has not made matters any easier, and the Eurozone crisis may yet cause its own catastrophe, the heart of the matter in this country is decades of mismanagement by a succession of Governments that have insisted on spending well beyond their means in pursuit of some economic nirvana of never-ending growth and stability. This was always doomed to failure and all that has happened is that the failure has occurred a little earlier than would otherwise have been the case due to the troubles elsewhere.

Much of the western world has been enjoying a much better lifestyle than has been justified by its actual economic performance; the gap between reality and actuality has been filled, for many, many years by borrowing, both state and personal. In the UK, we have paid ourselves far too much for doing far too little; we have established state run schemes to allow the indigent to draw incomes in excess of those enjoyed by many in work, thus discouraging work and creating an environment in which all the 'mod-cons' are seen as essentials rather than luxuries to be earned. Children are granted their every wish for the latest 'I-Phone' or computer, everyone has a car and a 50" television, all in a world of unsustainable consumerism largely paid for by the Government.

We complain that we pay too much in taxes, but how else can Government pay for its profligacy ? The country no longer exports anything significant except 'financial services'; large-scale manufacturing died years ago, beaten into submission by the greed of workers and the greater efficiency and lower costs achievable in the far-east. What we have now is the left-overs; mostly an unskilled workforce taught pointless and useless subjects at school and, laughably, university, who have no jobs to go to. We provide very little that the rest of the world wants, or needs, to buy and what we can provide is frequently too expensive due to the pay expectations of workers. It is painful to hear some of the recent interviews with empty-headed youngsters unable to find work; they see having a degree as a pathway to work, seemingly regardless of the nature of the degree. They complain that they can't find work in their 'chosen field' but seem unwilling to accept anything else; they blame 'the system' or 'the government' for their predicament and seem to be unaware of their own responsibilities.  

Government ministers witter on about improving education and creating more job opportunites etc., etc. This is all hot air and wind. Our children are no longer being educated at schools, but taught 'life-skills'; they don't do languages or history or geography in any understandable fashionable, but do learn about climate change, the evils of slavery and NAZI Germany, and the plight of the 'third world'. They have little or no discipline in class or at home; at school, they are given 'predicted grades' well in advance of taking any exams, thus limiting their expectations and efforts - achievement of the prediction is all that is expected and real effort is unnecessary. Worst of all, they are kept at school, or college or wherever, for longer and longer, supposedly to gain a better education but, in reality, to keep them out of the jobs market and, thus, out of the unemployment figures. This is an insane approach dreamt up by some civil servant working in the bowels of some ministry and who hasn't seen the light of day for years. By the time these children have finished their 'education' there are no jobs for them to go to, or they're too old or don't have the right skills, and they end up unemployed anyway, having cost us a fortune to get nowhere.

Real job opportunities are few and far between. As pension age increases, vacancies will dwindle; jobs in the public sector are being dramatically reduced, with the vast number of non-jobs created in recent years simply being scrapped; for the private sector, our school leavers and graduates are largely unsuited, having none of the necessary skills, drive or enthusiasm. How does a degree in Journalism fit anyone for a real job ? Or one in Tourism or any of the other myriad of wholly pointless, and largely non-academic, subjects on offer at today's plethora of so-called Universities ?

Within a few years, all of this will become so clear that it will seem obvious to all. By then, we'll all be very much poorer, and there'll quite probably have been civil disruption and disturbance of a type not seen in this country for centuries. Osborne and his mates have talked glibly about the increased borrowings in future years without ever explaining how it will all be paid back; the answer, of course, is that it won't be, not in real terms anyway. The pound will be slowly devalued and the value of the debt will fall; this means interest rates will remain higher than they would otherwise be and industry will remain in the doldrums. We will be saddled with this problem for far more years than this, or any other, Government will ever admit.

There is only one way for this crisis to be resolved and that is to admit that Governments have spent far too much of our money in order to buy our votes; this has given us all an inflated lifestyle that we have not earned. The answer is to reverse this madness in dramatic style; close entire Government departments and agencies, drastically reduce state benefits for all and sundry, limit NHS and educational services and scrap the minimum wage. If projects like 'Cross-rail' and 'HS2' are truly viable, let the private sector fund them; stop wasting money on frivolities and the burgeoning throng of charities, all of which have special tax exemptions. Bringing events such as the Olympics or Football World Cup to Britain is a ridiculous diversion, designed to create an illusion of well-being, as will be next year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations; the latter may be a true national celebration, the former are simply political objectives that cost billions of pounds we don't have.

This is a time for serious retrenchment, not for namby-pamby fiddling at the edges by policians fearful of the next election. We need a Churchill or a Thatcher, someone with the determination to see us through the very dark days ahead. Sadly, I see no such figure anywhere on the political stage, nor even waiting in the wings. Batten down the hatches; it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

'NICE' FOR SOME, BUT WRONG.

NICE, the Quango that is responsible for deciding what is, and is not, delivered by the NHS, has decided in its wisdom that caesarean section should be an automatic 'right' for pregnant women.

Notwithstanding that any surgery is inherently dangerous, females, human and of all other mammalian species, have been successfully delivering their offspring for millions of years without needing to resort to this extreme measure. Until now, caesarean section has been a surgical procedure used as a last resort when normal delivery has proved too dangerous for mother, baby or both. Now it seems that caesarean section is to become a mere lifestyle choice for women who can't be bothered to go through with a normal pregnancy; how long will it be before surrogacy also becomes such an option ?

One wonders if the bright sparks at NICE who came up with this guidance have really understood what pregnancy is all about. Pregnancy and childbirth are biological processes designed to ensure that the mother and child are bonded to each other; by removing the element of normal childbirth, they run the risk of greatly reducing the strength of that bond and thus of producing many more children whose parents care little for them. Such decisions move us ever-closer to the day in which children are simply designed and manufactured in a laboratory, far distant from their biological parents. These children will be raised by the state, placed in their allocated position in society and disposed of when no longer useful.

Fanciful thinking this may be, but once we embarked on the current road of putting parental and state convenience above normal human responsibility, we inevitably and inexorably set out along such a path. 

DOCTORS AT IT AGAIN !

Apparently, the British Medical Association is at it again. Today it's reported that they want the Government to ban smoking in cars due to the potentially harmful effects this can have on non-smoking passengers.

Why don't these idiots just demand that cars should be banned? After all, the vast amount of noxious fumes and chemicals spewed into our atmosphere every minute by the traffic on our roads must vastly outweigh anything produced by a smoker in one small car. What about banning all power stations and factories, aeroplanes and trains, power tools, tractors, anything that produces dust, alcohol, fatty foods, salt, sugar, loud music, bright lights etc., etc.? Any of these things may be deemed to cause pollution and or lead to illness or other medical conditions, or otherwise affect our environment in such a way as to be detrimental to ourselves or to others.

The NAZIs in the BMA are hell bent on saving us from ourselves and would have the Government spend a fortune on monitoring our every move. How a ban on smoking in cars could ever be properly enforced is anyones' guess; at present, the ban on using mobile telephones seems to be largely ignored, being caught speeding is probably a one-in-thousand chance and the ban on fox hunting is a joke; many other ridiculous laws designed to control our everyday behaviour are equally ineffective. These things cannot be policed and all should be wiped off of the statute book - laws that cannot be properly enforced do nothing but bring the law into disrepute.

Let the BMA, and even the Government, issue information leaflets and advice, but leave it to the individual to decide whether or not they follow that advice. There are far too many potential dangers in the world to ban them all, unless we really do want to live in Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany, with a secret policeman on every corner and under every stone.

POPPY FACISM

Years ago, when I was a lad, Armistice Day was celebrated as an opportunity for the sombre remembrance of those who'd fallen in the 2 World Wars and, in particular, the first of these, universally known as 'The Great War'. It was always remembered that those who had fallen had done so in defence of freedom.

Wearing a poppy was a simple symbol of this quiet time of remembrance. November 11th itself was almost ignored in favour of the nearest Sunday, which day was the focus of the national services, with the annual 'Btitish Legion Festival of Remembrance, taking place on the previous evening. 11th November was a day on which distant guns might have been heard and those who wanted to, stopped for a few moments of quiet reflection, while others carried on as normal.

How things have changed. Today, instead of 1 minute's silence, we have 2; 11th November has become a day on which everything stops at 11:00, as well as on Remembrance Sunday. Today, every organisation tries to make capital out of the event, from the Government with its overblown rhetoric to the Football Association with its ludicrous insistence that its players have a poppy emblazoned on black armbands; one question I have yet to see evn asked is 'Why are our footballers wearing black armbands ?', but I suppose that's now taken for granted.

The wearing of a poppy has become little more than a cipher. It's true meaning has been lost amidst the political and commercial hype which has so invaded our world. Children wear the poppy and chat about why they do so without having the faintest notion of its origins; they relate its use to more recent conflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq while having no knowledge of 'The Great War' at all. Any thought that our servicemen have died in 'the defence of freedom' has long been forgotten, as our forces have been deployed in pursuit of very different objectives.

I always try to observe the silence on Remembrance Sunday; as a family historian, I'm well aware of the sacrifices that were made by many family members, upwards of 2 dozen of whom I know to have perished in 'The Great War' alone. However, I am offended by the way in which the poppy appears on the jackets and tops of every television presenter weeks ahead of the event, in a way reminiscent of the early appearance of Christmas cards and displays in our shops: I am uncomfortable with the way in which the remembrance events have been extended to 11th November to such an extent that this day now seems to have become a near-duplication of Remembrance Sunday itself: I dislike the way in which the wearing of a poppy has, in effect, become a symbol of support for our armed forces, rather than being a symbol of remembrance. Most of all, I am horrified that our politicians have used this time as an opportunity to change the very rationale behind Remembrance Day while doing nothing to ensure that our children understand the true history of their genesis; this subtle distortion is evil in the extreme.

Today, we are all expected to 'wear our poppy with pride'. Why ? I am not proud that our country has taken part in conflicts which cost vast numbers their lives and left many more horribly maimed, I am saddened. I wear a poppy as a sign that I'm aware of the shocking sacrifice made by so many, and am saddened by it. I do not puff my chest out and display my poppy as some sort of national symbol, and neither should anyone else; the wearing of the poppy by football teams this weekend is wrong and the fuss made about it shockingly misdirected.

It is time that the true reasons for wearing the poppy were restored; it is time that Remembrance Sunday was restored to its former place in the calendar and 11th November restored to its. It is time for the 'Poppy Facists' to be put back in their box.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OZONE LAYER ?

We are bombarded, almost on a daily basis, with horror stories about global warming, shrinking icecaps and diminishing rain forests.

I have no doubt that there is truth, possibly very important truth, in many of these stories, but I also wonder what has happened to the scientific scare stories of yesteryear.

Is the ozone layer still endangered ? Is it still even there at all, or is it back to 'normal' whatever that may mean ?