WEMBLEY STADIUM MUST NOT BE SOLD.

The announcement that the Football Association is in talks to sell Wembley Stadium to a Pakistani-American businessman tells us much about the state of the FA.

Wembley is our national stadium, an iconic venue for almost a century and for there to be even the slightest suggestion that it might be sold to foreign interests is shocking. Whatever money is offered and whatever guarantees are given, it simply cannot be right that future England football matches, various cup and promotion finals and assorted other national events should be held at a stadium that is not owned by British investors.

As has been said by Ken Bates, a former chairman of Wembley Stadium, guarantees become meaningless once a deal has been done and financial considerations would inevitably prevail. The potential buyer, Shahid Khan, lives in the USA and has serious interests in American football; a major part of his rationale in bidding for Wembley is to enhance and enlarge these interests in the UK. Although he also owns Fulham FC, it seems likely that Mr Khan sees the opportunity of bringing the American version of football to the biggest stadium in England as being one that will be a big money spinner; 'real' football is of little interest to him.

Again as Bates has said, Wembley has to be protected from such foreign raiders and, if necessary and against both his and my usual strong views against such action, it should be nationalised. Sadly, I really don't see this happening and I fully expect the FA to be dazzled by the oodles of cash being thrown at them. How long will it then be before we have FA Cup Finals being played at the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Stadium ?

The FA has a chequered history of supporting English football and now it appears to be on the point of deserting it altogether. Shame on them.

TIME TO LET ALFIE EVANS DIE.

The case of Alfie Evans, a near 2 year old, is another example of the ridiculous extremes to which our society has become addicted.

Similar to the case of Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans is a seriously ill child who has no chance of recovery. He has been in a coma for many months and has been described as being in a semi-vegetative state, that is, his higher brain function is effectively non-existent. He was given all of the relevant treatment and care until and doctors determined that further treatment would be futile; his parents disagreed and the result has been a protracted and highly publicised legal fight. At every stage, the courts have upheld the medical opinion and agreed that the child's invasive treatment regime should be ended and that he should be allowed to die.

Inevitably a variety of voices have been raised in opposition to these court rulings. The parents have continued to argue their case that treatment should continue, either in England or elsewhere, the Italian government has intervened by declaring that the child has now been made an Italian citizen and should be transferred to a hospital in Rome, and the Pope has also had his say. Hundreds of people have joined in a vociferous campaign, some directing foul abuse at the staff of the hospital where the child still remains.

While I have sympathy for the parents of any sick child, surely any intelligent person knows when time is up. This poor child has no quality of life and no prospect of any; he is almost certainly unaware of what is going on around him. The kind and proper thing to do is to let him fade away, as his doctors now believe is the only sensible option. That his parents and others want something different speaks more for their feelings for themselves than it does for their feelings towards the child. They are, in my view, being grotesquely selfish and are utterly uncaring of the condition of the child,

That some of the most extreme protesters are targeting doctors, nurses and other staff of the hospital with abuse and worse is disgusting; these appalling creatures should be rounded up and deported to some remote place from which escape is impossible. They are a stain on our society and should be permanently separated from it.

As for poor Alfie Evans, he should be allowed to die with what little dignity can be allowed him.

DAVID TREDINNICK - A BELIEVER IN THE ABSURD.

Prime Minister's Questions is an opportunity for back bench Members of Parliament to ask important questions about matters which affect their own constituents; most Members do just this, though not all.

Today, my own MP, David Tredinnick, got to his feet and, rather than saying anything relevant to his constituency, asked a ludicrous question about homeopathy. As many people will know, homeopathy is a practice which claims to treat medical conditions by the administration of vanishingly small quantities of chemical substances. Also as many will know, serious studies of the efficacy of homeopathic remedies have repeatedly shown that they are useless, any claimed benefit being almost certainly due to the placebo effect.  

Tredinnick has been an advocate of homeopathy for many years and has also lobbied for astrological charting to be made available on the NHS; it has been reported that he has claimed that blood does not clot under a full moon, a patently stupid assertion. He has expressed support for the use of homeopathy in veterinary practice too. Despite the fact that his views have been rubbished by every serious scientific expert, Tredinnick has continued to espouse them and has, himself, rubbished the experts.

His constituency is a safe seat and this goon has been the Member of Parliament for almost 32 years; for no good reason, the local constituency party has continued to support him despite his insane views, a 'cash for questions' scandal in 1994 and an attempt to exempt himself from having his expenses made public in 2007. 

Is it not terrifying that anyone can be represented by someone such as this ?

CUSTOMS' UNION MEANS PRIME MINISTER CORBYN !

There is no doubt that those who are currently demanding that the UK either remains in the European Union's Customs' Union or makes some other sort of customs' union arrangement with the EU are really doing nothing but trying to keep the UK in the EU.

The Customs' Union is an integral part of the European Union and being a member implies also being a member of that bureaucratic organisation or, at the very least, being subservient to it. Such an outcome to the Brexit negotiations would fly in the face of the referendum result and would prevent the UK from pursuing the potentially lucrative free trade arrangements with the rest of the world which was a key cornerstone of the Brexit campaign. It would clearly be wholly unacceptable to Brexiteers.

Any serious moves in that direction would almost certainly lead to a major split within the Conservative Party and a smaller one within Labour. A general election and the arrival of a Marxist Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street would be inevitable.

Do we really want that ? 

UNELECTED LORDS DEFY DEMOCRACY.

The House of Lords vote to ask the government to make a statement about its proposed future trade relationship with the European Union is yet another attempt by committed Europhiles to derail Brexit.

It may well be that those in parliament are more in favour of remaining in the EU than leaving it, but the people made a clear decision back in June 2016; that decision was that a majority of the British electorate wanted to leave. Ever since, much noise has emanated from certain quarters suggesting that the people were too stupid or ill-informed to make the decision, that the referendum vote was not binding on the government and that the people simply got it wrong as leaving the EU will irreparably damage the British economy.

The Lords' vote was simply another attempt to obstruct, or reverse, the result of the Brexit referendum. An assortment of former senior Conservatives, whom Mrs Thatcher would have undoubtedly labelled 'wets', teamed up with others in a vote designed to pressure the government into remaining in the EU's Customs' Union, a move that would effectively mean that the UK would stay in the EU. Labour's Brexit minister, Keir Starmer, later made his own noises, telling us how damaging a failure to remain in the Customs' Union would be, while ignoring arguments to the contrary. Starmer, of course, was previously Director of Public Prosecutions and his migration from that role to a role on the extreme left of British politics as one of Jeremy Corbyn's leading lights must raise serious question.

It seems that those of the left, who previously despised the EU, are now only too keen to keep us in it. Assorted wishy-washy liberal types', including a fair few centrist Conservatives, have always seen the EU as a gravy train and an alternative place from which to exercise power without ever really reflecting the views of the general population or being properly accountable to them. These elitists have always believed that the common people should do as they're told and not be the ones to do the telling; the result of the referendum was a nasty shock that they've yet to accept.

It's yet to be seen how the government will deal with this assault on democracy by an entirely unelected and unrepresentative body. If it was up to me, I'd throw the whole lot out and start again with an elected upper chamber. Perhaps now is a good time to do just that.

WINDRUSH - TOO MUCH POLITICAL HYPE.

The furore that's been stirred up over the so-called 'Windrush Generation' strikes me as being nothing but an opportunistic political manoeuvre.

Undoubtedly, those who arrived in Britain from various Commonwealth countries in the period from the late 1940s to early 1960s were invited and had expectations of remaining here for the rest of their lives. That some now appear to have been threatened with deportation due to an inability to 'prove' that they have a right to be here is wrong but appears to be more a result of lack of foresight and a degree of incompetence than anything else. Claims by some that the destruction of landing cards in 2010 is to blame are ludicrous.

Ship's passenger lists and other associated records have been routinely destroyed for many decades and the destruction of these particular records is irrelevant. If there was an error, it was in not transferring the information to some other form such as a simple list of names, dates of birth and places of origin. Equally, it seems to me that the immigrants themselves might have taken steps to adopt British nationality or, at least, to obtain some other form of evidence of their origin and status. Being able to demonstrate continuous residence in the UK, a tax or national insurance record, school or college records, and much more, could certainly have been useful and an inability to produce such records must raise questions whoever was involved.

It is apparent that some civil service officials have been somewhat over-zealous in their approach to a few of the people caught up in this messy situation but for there now to be an attempt to stir up a political wind storm is ridiculous. No one did anything deliberately to create this problem and the government has now acted to reassure those affected by it. Yes, there have been difficulties for some but the extent of the issue shouldn't be blown out of proportion for political purposes.

One wonders if there'd have been the same fuss made if the immigrants in question had been from predominantly white Commonwealth countries and been more difficult to make political capital of.

MAY v CORBYN - WHO'S WINNING NOW ?

Nine months ago, few gave Theresa May any chance of surviving as Prime Minister for more than a few months at most. Jeremy Corbyn, having brought the Labour party close to winning June's general election, was seen as Prime Minister in waiting. What a difference 9 months can make.

Today, Theresa May is still in office and seems to have regained control of her party, as well as having made significant progress in negotiations with European bureaucrats over the arrangements to be put in place after the UK leaves the European Union. Additionally, she has now shown herself to be a strong an determined leader in her reaction to the appalling use of a nerve agent in Salisbury and has made the decision to send British armed forces into action against the barbaric regime in Syria. Mrs May now seems secure in her role for at least the next 2 to 3 years, with there being little sight of any realistic challengers from within her party.

Conversely, Jeremy Corbyn has had an increasingly difficult time. There's been all manner of infighting within his party as he has attempted to remove all of his opponents and replace them with his likeminded supporters, in a style reminiscent of the dictatorships of Russia, China, North Korea and those other left wing dictatorships of which Corbyn is such an admirer. He's been mired in accusations of anti-Semitism, both personally and within his party, and has failed so far to quell these. While Mrs May has appeared Prime Ministerial, Corbyn has prevaricated and procrastinated over the attempted murder in Salisbury and has been less than supportive of government actions both in relation to this case and in the matter of the recent attacks on Syrian chemical weapons facilities, preferring to waffle about the need to have a dialogue with Russia as if this hasn't already been tried and failed.

At this stage in a parliament, it would be expected that the main opposition party would be well ahead and the Prime Minister would have falling support, but it's not like that today. While opinion polls continue to show the Conservative and Labour parties too close to separate, Mrs May's personal ratings are rising, Corbyn's are falling; Mrs May has grown into her roll while Corbyn has surrounded himself with inexperienced, likeminded acolytes who have failed to make any real mark. Labour's 'big hitters' have almost all migrated to the back benches, distancing themselves from a leader whom they see as being extremist and unrealistic.

There will be local elections taking place on 3rd May and it will be interesting to see how the parties fare in these. Anything less than significant gains for Labour will be a failure for them and the pressure on Corbyn will mount. His popularity may already have peaked and it may well be downhill all the way from here.