Suicide Couple

Reading the sad story about the couple who jumped of Beachy head with the body of their dead paraplegic son stuffed into a rucksack should act as a leveller for all us out their who worry about unimportant material things, the real valuable thing in life is family. You can replace a car a dvd a mobile phone. You can live without a car a dvd a mobile phone. next time you feel sorry for yourself spare a thought for that poor family I bet your problems dont seem so bad.

Home secretary

Jaqui Smith has resigned her post as home secretary and about time I never really had any confidence in her. As recently as 1997 she was still a school teacher how does that qualify her to look after the safety of our citizens. After all  the protection of people and property comes under the home secretary's remit.  do you feel safe walking the streets at night?. Burglary's muggings violent crime are all on the increase. Terrorist incidents are also part of her job description. I think its time that we looked outside the house of commons and looked for the best person for the job i.e a military man a former chief constable certainly someone with a security background after all if we have bombers running loose in London would you prefer your old school mistress chasing them or Rambo, I know who I would pick. where does it say you must pick from parliament. its to important a post to narrow the field that much. is it to much to hope Gordon Brown reads my blog. maybe it is so I am forwarding this to downing street who knows I may get a new follower. 

Knife Culture

As more and more  teenagers see carrying knives as the norm it is time for the government to do something decisive no more fancy gimmicks  amnesty's or footballers telling them its uncool I mean something  practical. Drastic times call for drastic solutions. I think the time has come for national service to become a reality. Teaching discipline  instilling values and restoring pride into today's youth has to become a priority. How many more kids have to die before our leaders wake up. With  unemployment at 2.2 million as of march this year and predicted to hit  three million by years end  here is a chance to attack two problems simultaneously, crime and unemployment both would benefit from this initiative. with our armed forces caught up in two wars albeit Iraq coming to an end peacekeeping duties around the globe have stretched us to the limit. with a prison population in excess of 74000 and rising the arguments for urgent action could not be more valid. 12 years have of a labour government have seen our courts rendered toothless with paltry sentences  for even the worst of crimes.  last year 29 teenagers were knifed to death in London alone. this year already we have had 10000 arrested and 5000 knives seized nationwide and we are only midway through the year. as a parent and grandparent I fear for the future lets hope, no lets demand that the next government act.

Goodbye Darling

Unbelievable!! The Chancellor of the exchequer has been caught with his hand in the till. He claims like the other MP's who got caught with their snouts in the trough that it was a clerical error an oversight on his part. Lets give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is not a thief. then he is incompetent a man who cant manage to pay his mortgage shouldn't be in charge of our nations finances. goodbye Alistair and good riddance.

Kids

Few experiences in life if any can match the feeling of parenthood that moment when my prioritys changed forever, no longer could I  be selfish or self centered. Periodically bundles arrived that I cared for more than I  cared  for myself.  The moment you hear the first scream until .....well there is no until it goes on forever. from the early nervy learning days while you get to know each other through  the dreaded toddler years they make you laugh and cry in uneven proportion with laughter far exceeding tears. sleepless nights (thankfully I didnt breast feed my wife did). through teenage years when you lay in bed waiting to hear the door knowing they have returned safely from wherever there hormones took then. Just when I thought I  was getting the hang of it a new challenge appeared in my life The GRANDSON. this I wasnt prepared for but thankfully was better equipped to deal with. From the  moment I laid eyes on him my life has not been the same unlike a lot of grandparents we see our little terror most days in fact he is such a part of our lives that it is difficult to miss a day. His smiling face, his energy. his eagerness to imitate and learn. his unconditional love. Then we have his moods his demands for attention his claim to the remote control. all these thing and more go towards making him the little man that he is. WhyI have written this piece I'm not sure does it have a point I'm not sure I just wanted to say it.

George Tiller murdered

kansas physician George Tiller was shot dead on his way into church, Tiller specialised in late term abortions over the years he has performed thousands of procedures. To the anti abortion lobby he was a monster but to the women that he helped he was a saint. providing late term therapeutic abortions for women in need- women whose pregnancies threatened their lives or health, and women who learned that they were carrying foetuses with severe abnormalities. A pound to a penny bets when the killer is caught he will turn out to be a poorly educated redneck who is part of the pro life "lobby" that believed he was doing gods work. when will they wake up and learn across the water that their lax gun laws encourage this type of crime. Women  across America will be  shedding tears today. in a few days it will be forgotten.....until next time.

Obama extends hand to Muslim world

Obamas long awaited speech to the Muslim world is expected in Egypt this week, this will apparently start to rebuild the American image in that region, help to curtail Iranian nuclear ambition, and get the Palestinians and Israeli's talking again, by offering the hand of friendship supposedly Iran will come to heel, But a leopard does not change its spots, and you cant unlearn the technology they now possess, Elections in Iran may solve the problem temporarily anyway with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being dumped in favour of the moderate former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who is being endorsed by former President Mohammad Khatami, Long term the best hope for the Iranians lies with their youth the next generation gradually pulling their country towards some sort of truce with the west until they learn to trust one another. a big step towards peace will be getting independence for the Palestinians and a return to the 1967 borders. but this is unlikely in the short term with Netanyahu flexing muscle at home. incidentally I don't believe a two state solution will work either as sixty years after Israel was created and Palestine was destroyed we are back where we started,as the land cant be divided then it must be shared the Israelis and Palestinians need to find a way to live together. in my Lifetime? maybe but I wont hold my breath.