More on "New Labour" .. some credit?

Yesterday I was pretty churlish about the present Labour Government, and I do not detract from anything I said. But in my enthusiasm to criticise I had forgotten that there have been two or three good aspects to the Labour era.

Looking back at a number of governments and Prime Ministers it seems to me that each one can only be remembered favourably on one or two counts, whilst everything else they did was either neutral or negative in effect. For example, Winston Churchill was a great war leader, and his ability to inspire not just us, but those who were persuaded to join the fight against the German Nazis, cannot be disputed. And yet his record as a peace-time Prime Minister was distinctly underwhelming.

The Post-war Labour government of Clement Attlee can be remembered with pride for the creation of the National Health Service. It is still with us, and God help anyone who has the temerity to suggest that it should be dismantled.

The Conservative Administration of Margaret Thatcher or (as the late great Clement Freud called her) Attila the Hen can be remembered as the government that destroyed the tyranny of the Trade Unions and democratized them. Having done that she might as well have packed her bags, because in my opinion she did nothing else memorable except to cause misery and divisiveness: she was an arrogant, self-opinionated fanatic who (together with her buddy Ronal Reagan) sowed the seeds for the financial disaster that we are now experiencing.

Some governments are memorable for having nothing good to be memorable for, such as the Conservative Administrations of Ted Heath and John Major, and the Labour Administrations of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

And so we come to our present Labour Government: yes, they have done one or two good things and should be given credit. One was the National Minimum Wage, something the Conservatives fought tooth and nail against and would never have introduced such a thing. Another was devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (though only 8 our 10 for this because there was no devolution for England). Then there have been the annual Winter Fuel Payments for senior citizens, and also free bus travel for them, again a couple of measures the Tories would never have introduced.

So, one and a half cheers for New Labour. But alas, it will still be farewell some time next year.

Bye-bye New Labour

I've said it before, and (because I'm a boring old fart) I'll say it again .. Opposition Parties don't win elections, Governments lose them.

I think it's becoming clear enough to most people in the UK that come the next General Election (due in 2010) the chances of Labour getting back in for a fourth time are approximately zilch.

This is not because David Cameron's Conservative Party have anything particularly inspiring on offer; rather it is because Gordon Brown's Labour Government is becoming a bit of a laughing stock in much the same way that John Major's government was towards the end of the last Conservative administration.

All power corrupts, and in recent years we have seen that amply demonstrated. Tony Blair swept in on a tide of enthusiasm in 1997 promising to be whiter than white after the Conservative government's embarrassing "Cash for Questions" scandals, and miscellaneous scandals of a sexual kind.

Then we had, under New Labour, the Iraq debacle, donations to secure exemptions from legislation, donations to "buy" peerages, and more recently under the Gordon Brown administration, the infamous e-mail sent by his senior political adviser to a colleague suggesting various ways of running personal smear campaigns against Conservative front-benchers (and their wives). Gordon Brown - in a statement somewhat reminiscent of a Communist dicatorship - said "I accept full responsibility, that's why the person who did it has now gone".

The rich have become richer and the poor have become poorer, whilst at the same time women's wages continue to be lower than those for men for doing similar work; therefore it is clear to me that Labour has failed miserably, since it's whole reason for existence has always been to produce a fairer society.

We have also become the Surveillance State with more CCTV cameras watching our every move than anywhere else in the world. Meanwhile the government is also intent on forging ahead with an expensive and intrusive national identity card scheme (which, to the Conservatives' credit they promise to abandon .. if they are to be believed). Now there are plans to force communications companies to store records of all phone, text, and e-mail messages from everyone in the land. Some Local Councils are using anti-terrorism regulations to enforce ridiculous rules about how much, and what exactly, you are allowed to put in your waste disposal wheelie bins, and using underhand tactics to monitor your activities in this regard.

Well, Gordon Brown, I'm sorry to say this as an ex Labour Party Member and fervent adherent to left-of-centre politics, but come the next Election we shall surely be saying good-bye to you. God knows what we'll get in your place, and our crazy "first-past-the-post" electoral system will, as usual, ensure that the country's fate will be decided by a couple of dozen marginal constituencies.

I have no idea who I'm going to vote for, or even if I'll vote at all. Good grief - I can't believe I just said that!

Vine House Hotel, Paulerspury, Northamptonshire

During a recent visit to Northamptonshire we stayed overnight at the Vine House Hotel, Paulerspury. The proprietors describe it as a Restaurant with rooms.

This is fair enough because the restaurant and food is excellent, prepared by a very fastidious Chef, but the accommodation could only be described as adequate. You have to be prepared for the fact that this is one of those restaurants where the Chef takes it upon himself to know and to dictate exactly how much his dishes should be seasoned, and you will not find salt or pepper shakers on any of the restaurant tables. Whilst I had no complaints about the food whatsoever I still feel uneasy about not being given the simple choice of adding further seasoning should I wish to.

Holden House B & B, Shardlow, Derbyshire

If you are in need of overnight accommodation in Shardlow, Derbyshire, next to the Trent & Mersey Canal and the river Trent, I can recommend Holden House. It is very popular and nearly always full, so you need to book well in advance.

The accommodation is good, and so is the breakfast. We stayed there the other night and got a warm welcome, a good night's sleep, and a first class breakfast to send us on our way the next day.

Trains getting better!

We spent a few days in London the other day, and were pleasantly surprised to find that not only was our train from York to London running on time, but every surburban train we caught in London departed and arrived exactly on schedule. Our six-year year old grandson enjoyed riding on the London Underground ("The Tube") and was quite disappointed when he saw daylight again.

Our train back from London Kings Cross to York was non-stop and did the journey in 105 minutes, i.e., an average speed of 114 mph. A Scottish businessman was sitting on a seat behind me conducting a prolonged conversation on his cellphone; he started the call immediately we left Kings Cross, which was a stupid thing to do because there are at least five longish tunnels as you leave London on the East Coast main line, so his conversation was constantly interspersed with "Can you hear me? .. can you hear me?" followed by long pauses, only to be repeated again at the next tunnel.

Anyway, as a result of our recent travels I should like to thank and congratulate National Express Trains and South West Trains on their efficient and pleasant service.

American Giants at the G20 in London

Shouldn't they have given the Queen a box to stand on?

G20 .. "Anglo-Saxons" versus The Rest?

Well, the great and the good, the bad and ugly, are all gathered in London today for the G20 summit that's intended to put the world to rights.

President Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Merkel of Germany have formed an unholy alliance against those they see as the Anglo-Saxon originators of all the world's financial troubles, i.e., the USA and the UK.

They want more regulation rather than more spending boosts. I am tempted to agree with them. It is hard to avoid the fact that the present troubles did arise from the lightly regulated, laissez-faire kind of capitalism espoused principally by the United States and the United Kingdom. I am inclined to agree that we need more, not less, regulation; and as for delivering financial stimulus we are already up to our ears in hock for generations without borrowing even more to spend our way out of the crisis. We need to expose and close down all these tax havens as well.

Naturally the gathering has encouraged the appearance of thousands of protestors in London, some of which managed to break the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland and gain entry to smash up a few computers. Since we own most of the RBS these days, I suppose these guys were pretty much breaking into their own premises!

There have been anti-war protesters, anti-globalisation protesters, anti-capitalism protesters, anti-nuclear arms protesters, environmental protesters, socialist worker protesters, trade union protesters, communist protesters, anarchist protesters, and for all I know anti-protest protesters. Apart from the break in to the RBS these huge gatherings have been largely peaceful and handled quite well by the Police. (Update 20th April .. there have since been 90 complaints to the Police Complaints Commission about some Police Officers hiding their identity numbers, and physically assaulting protesters, allegededly causing one death.) City of London bank workers who took it upon themselves to wave fistfuls of £10 notes to the assembled crowds probably cannot be described as the world's greatest practitioners of tact and diplomacy!

I wish the G20 gathering well in their endeavours.

British National Party

I write with trepidation knowing the theory that all publicity is good publicity, and the BNP appears to be getting quite a lot of it.

There has been much correspondence in my local press about the increasing presence of this Party in the area and it's intention to field candidates all over the UK. It has been heartening to see so many people speaking out against this deeply unpleasant bunch of racist retards, but also very worrying that some people are still being taken in by them. 

BNP policy on the Economy is the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods and reduction of foreign imports. This cannot work because we are all internationally inter-dependent upon each other for goods, services and materials. If protectionism is a defensible policy then the logical conclusion is that this country could not trade with any other country because they too would be locking out our goods: self-defeating.

BNP policy on Education includes restoring the knowledge of, and pride in, our history, cultures and heritage of the native peoples of Britain. Knowledge of it is good, pride in it not always necessarily so. Religious intolerance, torture, subjugation and exploitation of other nations, and slavery, are all part of our history. We might of course allow ourselves some pride in the defeat of a German regime 1939-1945 that was based on a philosophy of giving preference to specific racial groupings. (Sound familiar?)

BNP policy on the NHS says there should be no money going to foreign aid so long as we are short of beds. Foreign aid is not only a reflection of our humanitarian values but has the added advantage of developing communities who are more likely to, and more able to, trade with us.

BNP policy on Defence includes the complete withdrawal from NATO and the closure of all foreign military bases on UK soil. (Has anyone told Barak Obama about this?!) If anyone believes that we can single-handedly defend ourselves without being in alliance with others who share our values and interests they must be a couple of bullets short of a full magazine. 

These are just some – though not all – of my reasons not to vote for the BNP. (They do have an excellent Website, but I suspect that if the Internet had been around in the 1930s the NAZIS would have had one too, and Dr Goebbels would have been the Webmaster!)

Rhod Gilbert- Royal Variety Performance 2008

Enjoy this Welsh Wizard of Comedy!

Afghanistan - Words of Wisdom from Imram Khan

The following is part of the transcript from the interview between Andrew Marr of the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning 8th March and Imran Khan (famous cricketer and Chairman of the Pakistan PTO Party). To my mind he speaks a lot of sense regarding the way we are handling Afghanistan and the Pakistan border areas:

IMRAN KHAN:

I do not think Pakistan will become a failed state because it's a very resilient state. You know the people are very strong. They're used to crises. All it needs is a bit of stability for the country to start bubbling again. The problem we face right now is, in a way what he said is right - that the responsibility in a parliamentary democracy, which is based on the Westminster model, lies with the Prime Minister. But here the authority lies with the President, so he has usurped all the powers of Musharraf, who was a dictator, army chief. So he's got all the powers of Musharraf, but the responsibility is with the Prime Minister. No system can work where you divide authority and responsibility, so no wonder the government is paralysed.

ANDREW MARR:

And in the meantime dozens of people continue to die all the time. There was a report this week - another group of police killed by a car bomb up in the North West provinces. At least the impression of complete lawlessness up there, isn't there?

IMRAN KHAN:

Well you know we entered into a war which was not Pakistan's war, and we were taken in by a military dictator. Then we started doing exactly what the Americans were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, using aerial bombardment to fight the war, killing lots of civilians, and slowly but surely the whole area rose up against us. So now where there were no Taleban before, the entire area has a new phenomena which is called Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan.

ANDREW MARR:

So what would be your message, for instance, to President Obama who clearly intends to pursue the war in Afghanistan and the border area even more vigorously?

IMRAN KHAN:

My message to President Obama is do not follow the tried and failed policies of George Bush. Learn something what happened to the Russians in Afghanistan. They killed 1.5 million Afghans. Still lost the war! This way of fighting a war by aerial bombardment, the whole area is getting radicalised. This country, this is going to go down the drain if this war continues. Forget about everything else, we can cope, but this war is draining this country. We should tell Obama save yourself, start negotiation, talk to the Taleban. Taleban were never your enemy; Taleban don't have the capacity to hit any Western targets. And help us get out of this mess, which was not of our making. We got stuck in someone else's war.

ANDREW MARR:

So are you saying that it would be better for Pakistan, for the British and the Americans in Afghanistan simply to leave and go home?

IMRAN KHAN:

You know what surprises me is the British have an understanding of Afghanistan. They've got a history. They know what Afghanistan is all about. They have an eighty year history of the tribal area. What surprises me is that why are they not advising the Americans that this is a disaster for all of us? I mean particularly this country, but also for the Americans, because this is just going to drain them. This war will go on and on and on. No-one can tell me right now what will happen for them to win the war. What are the objectives of this war? What are they trying to bring to Afghanistan? If it was Al-Qaeda then surely the sensible thing is isolate Al-Qaeda, not push all the people towards Al-Qaeda.

Death Penalty

It is reported today in the New York Times that some States are considering getting rid of the death penalty as a cost saving measure. Apparently capital punishment cases are considerably more expensive to administer than others. The Governor of Maryland is conveniently also using his religious beliefs to push forward the case for abolition.

To my mind the case against capital punishment is quite simple. It has nothing to do with cost. It could certainly have something to do with religious belief ("Thou shalt not kill") but the overwhelming case against the death penalty is the unfortunate fact that people are all too frequently wrongly convicted. When fresh evidence comes to light, or a case of police corruption is uncovered, it is not within our power to restore life to someone who has been executed.

The sooner all the American States abolish this barbaric and ineffectual punishment the better.

News just in - Man Uses Vacuum Cleaner

I rashly volunteered to hoover the whole house this morning. Before proceeding any further I should explain for the benefit of the thousands of Americans who read this Blog that by "hoovering" I mean vacuum cleaning. There was a time when anyone who owned a vacuum cleaner owned one made by Mr Hoover, and in the UK at least this became one of those surnames that became both a description of a piece of equipment, and a verb.

By the way, Mr Hoover is frequently credited with the whole idea of vacuum cleaning, but wrongly. The idea came from a certain Mr Spangler. But Mr Hoover was a wily old salesman who knew a good thing to market when he saw one, and talked Mr Spangler into letting him take on that side of things. From that point on Spangler found himself consigned to the dustbin of popular ignorance.

So, strictly speaking, I have this morning been "spangling", and what a job it was. The trouble is, I cannot vacuum clean a room (or indeed a house) superficially. There is nothing that annoys me more than bits of furniture getting in the way of my fevered activity with the howling machine. So it all has to go: chairs, occasional tables, and so on, are gathered up and consigned to another room. I'm not satisfied until I have a clear run at every available inch of carpet. Then, away I go, and as I go I succomb to the usual ridiculous activities of picking up by hand those stubborn bits that cling on to the carpet in spite of the considerable negative pressure being applied to it. I then throw them back on to the floor for the howling machine to fail at its allotted task all over again.

Having completed the push-pull part of the task I then pull out the auxiliary tools and reassemble the machine so that I am armed with the device for digging into those inaccessible corners and sucking them from here to kingdom come. Then, stick that brush device on the end and fly around all things fabric. Come to think of it, while I'm at it I'll use it to "dust" the furniture as well - so much more effective than a duster (and less likely to cause sneezing).

One room done, then repeat the procedure in every other room - pieces of furniture in temporary transit. Why do I do it like this? Do other men do it like this? Is it because we are supposedly unable to multi-task? We are constantly told that women can multi-task. This means they can vacuum the kitchen floor with one hand, ironing the shirts with the other, whilst kicking the dog out of the way with one leg. They are wise enough to know not to use both legs for this, a process that leads to something called falling over.

The male of the species is supposedly a mono-tasker which I suggest is the reason that whatever task they are involved in gets done properly. The trouble is, it takes longer. Of course that was Mr Spangler's problem: had he been a multi-tasker he could have seen to both the invention and the marketing of the vacuum cleaner, instead of consigning the marketing to another mono-tasker Mr Hoover who could only concentrate on one thing .. persuading the population at large to spend money on something that sucks.

I've hurt my back.

Winter like wot we used to 'ave.

Stone the crows! It's brass monkeys out there! My small fish pond has a layer of ice on it that's an inch thick. We haven't seen a winter like this for many a long year, and the country is ill prepared for it. That is the trouble with a proper winter coming upon you only once every few years - local authorities have no sound economic reason to invest in fleets of snow ploughs and mountains of road salt: it would all be sitting around in depots doing nothing.

Now, with the UK covered in snow and ice, Councils and the Highways Agency are running out of salt and grit, and are being selective in which roads they treat. Motorways and A roads are being looked after, but one wonders whether there is any point if one is unable to reach the major roads in the first place because the minor connecting roads are either impassable or ice rinks.

The other night in south Devon two hundred motorists were stranded in their cars for six hours, and people had to be taken to reception centres for food, warmth and sleep.

Then we come to the problem of accidents that shouldn't occur because they are caused by drivers who have had neither the experience nor the tuition for driving in ice and snow. They seem to expect their cars to behave in exactly the same way as they do under normal conditions.

Quite a winter we are having .. an ice cold economy in an ice cold climate.

On the day that London's buses all came to a halt last week, our capital city's eccentric mayor, Boris Johnson, was interviewed for TV and he said there was no reason why people should not make the effort to get into work, and if they couldn't, well - they could always work from home. So there you are, you lazy layabout teachers, nurses, doctors, surgeons, policemen, electricians, plumbers, utility workers, couriers, van and truck drivers .. you can work at home .. get stuck in!

Meanwhile the Bank of England is leaving those of us with a few quid in savings out in the freezing cold. The interest rate's been cut again - to 1 percent. What is this meant to achieve? Earlier cuts in interest achieved nothing, and I suspect this will achieve nothing. Do we now have to look forward to ZERO percent interest? I was interested to hear the other day that there are six times as many savers in the UK as there are borrowers. Our money is sitting around doing nothing for us, and people who rely on savings interest to live on are having a hard time.

I ventured out into the sub-zero climate this morning with a plastic bin liner, having made the rash promise at the height of summer to be "litter monitor" at the childrens' playground. The playground committee had most months covered by a rota of volunteers, but were lacking someone for the jolly month of February. So that's where yours truly steps into the breach.

I trudge down the frosty road to the playground, half fill my bag with plastic bottles, bits of paper and other assorted bits of rubbish thrown to the ground by half-wits that know no better and within 10 minutes I'm in the middle of another snow storm. So, it's back to the warmth of my house and a cup of coffee. I'll have another trudge down there with a plastic bag next Saturday. Something to look forward to.

Today's Motion for Debate

Today's Motion for Debate is ..

Bankers are Wankers

Last year American bankers paid themselves $18.4 billion in bonuses during the period the whole system was spinning out of control.

President Obama has, rightly, condemned them.

There are currently riots in Paris over the French Government's bank bail-out plans. It is understandable that there is going to be mounting anger amongst the average Joe Public in a number of countries when it becomes clear how disgusting the behaviour of the banking community has been in recent years.

I doubt that public anger will be assuaged until or unless they start seeing a few more of these parasites being consigned to a prison cell.

And talking of bail-outs, why are America and Britain now in the process of giving financial assistance to the automotive industry? What are people who work in other industries and services to think whilst they are being closed down and made redundant?  Surely, once you decide selectively that one industry deserves saving, then natural justice dictates that all are worth some assistance, and yet we see thousands of people losing their jobs every week, and we see the Woolworths chain closed down and boarded up in every High Street.

The world is in financial meltdown through the greedy and immoral activities of an entire breed of people who were once looked up to as the model of probity and respectability. How did they get from that place to this place where they are looked down upon as greedy, grasping, selfish, idiotic, blinkered, self-centred wankers?

They got there because our governments were stupid enough to let them.

Riot, anyone?

President Obama's First Days

Closing Guantanamo Bay .. Good.

Closing secret CIA prisons around the world .. Good.

Prohibition of torture .. Good.

Tightening up the regulations and monitoring of the financial markets .. Good.

Return to America's true values .. Good.

Not using force just because you can .. Good.

Security but not at the expense of America's basic values .. Good.

Total repudiation of the Bush/Cheney way of doing things .. Brilliant.

It could be a brighter future for all of us; but the whole philosophy could fail. On the other hand it can't be worse than the results of the past eight years. There's nothing to lose by trying.

He's going to be a hard man to say "No" to,  European leaders better get ready, especially when he calls for better back-up in Afghanistan. Britain has been shouldering most of the Europe's burden in Afghanistan whilst other European countries have made lesser contributions in terms of military numbers and the type of operations in which they are prepared to engage.

Apparently Winston Churchill's bust has gone from the Oval Office. I can understand why .. in the 1950s, the latter days of the British Empire in Africa, Churchill sent in the troops to crush the movement for independence in Kenya. And we know Obama's links with Kenya.

Churchill might have been a great war leader, but both before and after World War II his humanitarian credentials were highly suspect in my view. In Britian's earlier involvement in Iraq between the two World Wars he was an enthusiastic proponent for the use of poison gas to put down any rebellion.

No human being is perfect, and I suspect that we shall in due course discover that even President Obama is not so, but I expect in that case the redeeming factor will be that he does actually recognise that.

I wish him, and America, well.

Israel (again)

Listen up you Israelis .. which part of disproportionate response don't you understand?

You've now killed more than a thousand people (about a third of them children). Are you satisfied now? Do you call yourself civilized?

Israel

I fully understand that any democracy has the right to defend itself. My problem with Israel is the way it is currently reacting to the Hamas rocket attacks. It appears to me (and apparently to most of the world) that their response is somewhat disproportionate, to the say the least.

The death and injury toll suffered by Israel pales into insignificance compared with the dead and injured in Gaza - now approaching 1,000 - with children left and ignored by nearby Israeli soldiers to starve amidst the corpses of their parents.

I have no time for Israel so long as they persist in building settlements in illegally occupied territories, and for many years I have tried to avoid purchasing anything made by or originating in Israel. I shall continue my personal boycott for as long as their current policies and practices continue.

Israel's occupation of lands and their vicious military methods are the twin sources of further escalation of terror against them. They themeleves are acting as very efficient recruiting sergeants for any Arab groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

Meanwhile, it is also important to recognise that there is also a kind of proxy war going on here between the USA (via Israel) and Iran (via the Palestinians). It was notable that in the latest Security Council Resolution condemning the current action and calling for an immediate ceasefire, America abstained. Israel can do anything it likes so long as the USA is backing them, and the USA always backs them - it appears to be in their DNA.

From a historical and religious point of view the whole Jew v Arab thing is a farcical tragedy considering they are all descendants of Abraham.

Back to Normality

We have come to the end of that strange but slightly magical limbo period between Christmas and New Year, during which the normal working week doesn't quite manage to re-establish itself, and you continue to eat what's left of the mince pies, Christmas cake, various "nibbles", not forgetting to help it on its way with all that beer and wine that you bought too much of. Just when you are coming round to the idea that you should be doing something more responsible you find New Year's Eve upon you and before you know what's happening you are down to the local pub for yet more food, drink, music and general festivities, and another late night to bed for several hours of weird dreams and indigestion.

We finished off our limbo period by taking our grandson to see a Pantomime in York (Jack and the Beanstalk) - the usual load of corny jokes, outrageous costumes, and an opportunity for 500 children to scream out "He's behind you!" .. "Oh no he isn't" .. "Oh yes he is!"  and ..

.. "What I want is adventure and excitement; I want to see something new and different"

"Well, you can always catch a bus to Pocklington" .. and ..

.. a Pantomime "Dame" in a succession of outrageous gowns and dresses saying "This is no job for a grown man".

No doubt we'll do it all again next year .. a production of Cinderella.

They say Americans don't do Pantomime, and don't understand our obsession with it every Christmas. I suppose the secret is not to analyse or question it at all but just have fun with it, enjoying the way the kids enter willingly into a slightly mad repartee with the characters at the top of their voices.

* * *

I was given a heated coat for Christmas. It has an electric heating element in the back that connects to a small battery/control unit sitting in an inside pocket. The heat settings range from 1 to 9. I set mine to 2 but when I sat in the car and lent back against the seat I was nearly barbecued! I can't imagine cranking it up to 9 unless standing outside in 20 degrees of frost and a horizontal blizzard. When the opportunity arises, I'll report back.

Happy New Year!

I've had a computer-free, blog-free Christmas - apart from firing off the occasional short e-mail - which has been quite liberating in some ways, not so in others. On the one hand you are free to to the important things like spending quality time with family and putting on several pounds in weight with the aid of goose, turkey, Christmas pudding, mince pies, chocolates, beer and wine, etc., but on the other you know there are friends out there in cyberspace (some of whom were kind enough to send boxes of Christmas gifts) wondering if they have been either forgotten or ignored.

Well of course they probably aren't wondering any such thing, but it's a feeling you get when you are used to (or should that be addicted to?) being online regularly. Anyway, no doubt we shall get back to some kind of normality in a few days. Meanwhile I'd like to wish everyone a happy and peaceful 2009 (although it seems that Israel and the Palestinians are already knocking seven bells out of each other again).

Why do human beings have to be so disgustingly mad and evil?

Two Presidents in Denial

You can't help wondering about the state of mind of some of the people who reach the pinnacle of power.

We have George Bush apparently finding it quite amusing to have two shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist, and he wonders "I don't know what his beef is". Then we have Robert Mugabe who denies the existence of cholera in Zimbabwe.

Only an idiot would be amused by an Iraqi throwing his shoes at you, because as most of us know, this counts as an extreme insult in Iraq and some other Middle Eastern countries. "What's his beef?" .. well, I'm guessing the guy did not find his presence in Iraq as something to be welcomed. I'm so glad Bush finds it amusing to be insulted because now he can laugh his smirking head off when I express the view that he's an idiot.

As for Mugabe, clearly this man is deranged. Not only has he ruined what used to be one of the most productive countries on the African continent, but he now comes out with the ludicrous statement that the cholera (which apparently no longer exists) was deliberately visited upon his country by the UK as a form of biological warfare being conducted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. But even as people are dropping like flies around him, as they have nothing else to drink but sewage-contaminated water, and their money is worthless, Mugabe states the cholera epidemic has been dealt with, so there's "no further need for war".

I find it hugely depressing that we have not dealt with this psycopath with the same enthusiasm that we dealt with Saddam Hussein.