Jeramiah Denton Knew Who His Enemies Were.

"Former Alabama Senator Jeremiah Denton, who survived 7½ years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and alerted the U.S. military to conditions there when he blinked the word "torture" in Morse code during a television interview, has died. He was 89 years of age.

Denton's grandson, Edward Denton, says he died about 8 a.m. Friday at a hospice facility surrounded by family. Edward Denton says his grandfather had been in declining health for the past year and died from heart problems.

Denton, a Republican who served a single term in the U.S. Senate, was a strong advocate of conservative causes and backer of the Reagan administration. But the iron will that served him in such good stead in captivity gave rise to criticism that he was too rigid as a politician."

(Associated Press)

 

I remember as a very young child seeing those terrible images from the Vietnam War that have now become so iconic. They were beamed into our homes with every news bulletin.

 

Vietnam was, of course, a cold war era proxy war.

 

Of course, we still fight proxy wars, but as one who served in Her Majesty's Armed Forces during the final years of the cold war, I sort of took comfort in the fact that in those days we knew who our enemies were. Our main enemy was what was officially called the Soviet Union, but what we all knew was the Russian Empire. Or as one former Baltic Prime Minister called it recently, "The Second Mongol Occupation".

 

Then it changed. That change reached its pinnacle on 9/11. The enemy became an unknown force, operating within our own borders.

 

Now, in a loose interpretation of Marxist vernacular, we see the negation of the negation.

 

It has changed again. It has reverted back to where we were some decades ago. Russia is on the move again.

 

A very senior military advisor to NATO told me two days ago "This is the start of World War 3".

 

Let us hope he is wrong.

 

 

Another Duff Policy, This Time From UKIP.

On the subject of ridiculous policies....

I have commented on the UKIP policy formulation process in the past. It is, to say the least, incoherent. But this one really takes the biscuit.

Apparently, a chap named Stephen Woolfe, a UKIP economics spokesman who wants to close down the Bank of England, has come up with the idea of abolishing the state pension.  Considering that the average UKIP member is quite elderly and below the average educational level, this might seem a somewhat unwise direction to take....



“This would take hundreds of years of strict public finances to have an impact. It is bizarre UKIP could be going after the state pension when its core voters are pensioners.”
Strategic Society Centre director James Lloyd

I understand that UKIP has sought to distance itself from this nonsense, just as it Nigel Farage has sought to distance himself from the Pythonesque 2010 UKIP manifesto that he himself signed off.

And The Winner Of The Shit Policy Of The Year Award Goes To........

An aquaintance of mine recently undertook some work at Tory HQ. His comments on Grant Shapps' office were enlightening, "Well intentioned, well educated young people, mostly working for free, but absolutely no experience in the real world at all. Utterly clueless."

The latest Tory wheeze is a plan to cut taxes to "help hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy". Apparently, outside of Central Office, where these chinless Oxford graduates wait for Daddy to arrange a safe seat for them, the proletariat play bingo and drink beer. OK, drinking beer I will accept, and as I own shares in a brewery I'm going to let that one pass without too much criticism. But Bingo?

I actually find it hard to say what I truly think about this. In fact, this is so idiotic, I don't even want to waste my thoughts on it.

What does worry me, deeply, is that somebody at a high level of government thought that was a suitable way of presenting policy. I would like to think that every single person who touched this project, from conception, through approval, to launch, will be sacked this very day.

Given that the Tories are facing a strong challenge from UKIP at the moment, one would have thought that they would have drafted in some heavyweight policy boffins. Apparently that is not the case.

If this is what we are going see from the Tories now, they may as well pack up and go home.

A Proud Father Moment!

Today, George had his first kart race.

He was, as always, pessimistic, and even doubted that the event would even happen. For an 8 year old, he is seriously Laconic.

 The race started, and he was 5th (out of 6) out of the pits. Not exactly pole position. But by the end of the first lap he was in the lead, and he held it until the end of the race. At the end of his 8th lap, the young lad in second place was still just short of his 7th lap. The lead narrowed slightly, but at the end he was still way ahead of the field. His best mate Jay, whose birthday the event was to celebrate, won the preceding race, so now they are feeling pretty good about themselves.

He celebrated with a fizzy water!

Lib Dems Trounced - By Elvis!

I am absolutely delighted that the Bus Pass Elvis Party has beaten the Lib Dems in the Clifton North by election.

As I understand it, the party is an offshoot of the Church Of The Militant Elvis.

Being in the business myself, the websites of other political parties are of great interest to me. I think I can honestly say, however, that in a great many years I never saw anything quite like this! Keep up the good work, chaps.

A Precious Moment!

I love music.

Rock n Roll or Country, Jazz or Folk. Classical or Opera, I simply love music. And the good Lord blessed me with a life in which I am surrounded by like minded souls.

Sometimes I am lucky to meet some very special people. But to me, there is none more special than Mr Vytautas Landsbergis MEP, who I have written about before on this blog. He is not just a great composer and musician, but he is also one of the true political heroes of our time. And his office is close to mine, and so I am able to share some moments with him far more often than I really deserve.

And so....

He kindly agreed to attend a concert to mark the events unfolding in the Ukraine. After the occasion, a conversation on the stage went something like this:

Me: "Mr Landsbergis, I regret that I never heard you play in this house..."

Mr Landsbergis: "Hmmm...."

At which point he promptly sat down and played for us. I have a soft spot for this stage, because in 2009 it saw the launch of a project to bring more classical music into the parliament. A project initiated by former MEP Tom Wise, under the banner 'FREEDOM OF SPEECH - FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION' and inspired and elevated by the Ukrainian pianist, Dmytro Sukhevienko, a former student of Yehudi Menuhin, and also my daughter's teacher. He is also a good friend and inspiration to me. Dmytro is totally dedicated to to the classical cause.

I was thrilled beyond belief when I was sent the above photo. It is a picture that I will cherish forever.

My thanks to Olga Kaminska for this wonderful image, and for preserving this wonderful memory.

Well Done Canada!

The men's Ice Hockey final is one of the real highlights of the Winter Olympics, which is why it is saved until the end.

It was obvious, during the semi-final between our two former colonies, Canada and the US, that whoever won that game would take the gold. And lo, it came to pass!


The Swedes looked dangerous at the beginning, and their goalkeeper gave the Canadians a hard time - the goal tally could have been higher.

But the big loser in these games has been Vladimir Putin. A lot of money, lots of favours, and some lives, were sacrificed for what was to be his crowning glory. But the world was looking not at Sochi, but at Kiev.

As I have written before, in 2004 Putin feared that he would be remembered as the man who lost the Ukraine. But he got lucky, and played it well. EU Commission President Barroso was to go down in history as the man who lost the Ukraine.

But now, in what was to be his finest hour, Putin has lost it!

The EU is not the winner either - the Ukraine, Germany, and the US have pulled it off.

Exit stage left, Mr Barroso.

Well Done England!

That was a tight one. Both the tries were textbook jobs - very nice!

I have to admit, I somewhat expected Ireland to put in another try in the last 60 seconds, that being a bit of a feature of English sporting events. Nobody can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like we can!

But a win is a win!

Thanks for that, John.

Any more like this will always be well recieved!!

Just thought that I would share this with you.... :)

Belgian Drivers - Generally Pissed, & Amongst The Worst In The World.

Federal police carried out massive checks on drivers on the A12 Brussels to Antwerp Motorway (partially ploughed section) this weekend. Nearly a quarter of motorists were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit.

Those of us who live here were surprised that the number was not higher.

The entire motorway was closed for the operation. In all 124 drivers were stopped. 27 motorists were over the limit and had to hand in their driving licence. Two were on illicit drugs. Drugs and arms were also seized. Four people on the wanted list were detained.

In total, it was anounced, only three drivers were observed to be driving in a sensible and courteous manner - two Brits and a German.

(OK, I sort of made that last bit up!)



 

After last week's helter skelter match against the perfidious French, it was a joy to see it come together today. Well, sort of.

Again, this thing about dropping the ball. Do they need gloves, or what?

Anyway, it was a well deserved win. I had a bit of a dream about England playing Wales on March 9th, with both sides going for the Grand Slam. That is not to be, but |I still hope that the tournament will be decided on that day.