An Avoidable Disaster

The above is a photograph of Burrowbridge in Somerset this week.

From the early 60s to the late 80s my parents could see the village of Burrowbridge from their living room window.  They lived little more than a mile away and my father walked the dog regularly along the River Parrett, which runs through Burrowbridge.  

Dad had done his homework before he built their house and ensured it was built on a hill - not a hill as we mean in Scotland, but more of an incline. Every winter the Parrett would overflow its banks and the road would be flooded but seldom closed.  The local farmers saw to that and, along with the pumping system which had been in place for generations, life continued happily while their friends back in Scotland usually battled snow and ice.

How things have changed. In less than 30 years the influential left-wing of UK government, in cahoots with the EU, decided butterflies and voles are more important than people. 

What has the EU to do with the maintenance of our waterways?  Everything.  How I wish the people of these islands would realise the EU has control over any government, be it Westminster or Edinburgh.  David Cameron and Alex Salmond bend over backwards to ensure every EU directive is implemented.  

I suspect the Somerset Levels qualified as no 11 in the EU Directive 2007/60/EC ‘Flood risks in certain areas within the Community could be considered not to be significant, for example in thinly populated or unpopulated areas’. Until the mid 90s, when many from the south east started to buy up west country homes as holiday homes, the counties of the south west were more or less ignored by London.  A little changed in the 90s (can’t afford to upset those wealthy enough to buy luxury holiday homes can we?) but not much.  The locals kept feet on the ground.

Speaking of ground, the soil on the levels is solid clay.  Even in dry heat of summer, it’s nearly impossible to dig to produce a garden of sorts.  Every alternate year my father had tons of top soil delivered because he was intent upon growing his beloved delphiniums and gladioli, but it was hard work.  The clay was unforgiving and refused to mix and the top soil was usually just spread over the flower beds.

The clay is the main reason why the water on the Levels refuses to be absorbed by the ground and the lack of trees also hinders the process.  

David Cameron, glib with soundbites as ever, insists there will be adequate money available for the flooding problem. although he refuses to acknowledge the problem is the cause of political decisions.  Now that the south east is also involved, I suspect the majority of any finance will be spent there and the people of the Levels will be left, not high and dry, but low and wet.

There is talk about reinstating the pumping stations of old and dredging the rivers, but over 12 months ago heard the same utterings. Nothing was done.

I’ve read some ‘greenies’ think the Levels should be left to revert to their ‘natural state’ before the Romans decided to reclaim the land for agriculture.  Sometimes I despair at the stupidity of these people.  The whole of the Fens was a bog, yet successive governments have ensured the area now is one of the UK’s most productive in terms of produce.

The flooding in the west country could have been easily avoided if politicians had listened to those ‘in the know’.  By that I don’t mean the Environment Agency, but the local people who, for generations, have dealt with the land.  Party leaders, welly-claded and murmuring platitudes, could be viewed as amusing, but the matter is far too serious.  

Will the present flood situation be the catalyst for a nationwide protest against our membership of the EU?  All I can do is hope.

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Tommy

Edward emailed the following and I thought today would be an appropriate time to publish it. After listening to David Cameron's weasel words yesterday I would not advise anyone to join the British military, because it's now blatantly obvious our politicians have no regard for any in our forces.  They're just political pawns in the greater scheme of things. It's always been thus.

A guest post from Edward Spalton

Pubs in Exeter have been refusing to serve Royal Marines.  The 'gay' Labour MP Ben Bradshaw declined to take an interest. 

I went into a public 'ouse to get a
pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, " We
serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they
laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to
myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that,
an' " Tommy, go away " ;
But it's " Thank you, Mister
Atkins," when the band begins to
play
The band begins to play, my boys,
the band begins to play,
O it's " Thank you, Mister Atkins,"
when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as
could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room,
but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or
round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin',
Lord! they'll shove me in the
stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy
that, an' " Tommy, wait outside ";
But it's " Special train for Atkins"
when the trooper's on the tide
The troopship's on the tide, my
boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's " Special train for Atkins "
when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that
guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an'
they're starvation cheap.
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when
they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than
paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy
that, an` Tommy, 'ow's yer soul? "
But it's " Thin red line of 'eroes
" when the drums begin to roll
The drums begin to roll, my boys,
the drums begin to roll,
O it's " Thin red line of 'eroes, "
when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor
we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most
remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't
all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't
grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy
that, an` Tommy, fall be'ind,"
But it's " Please to walk in front,
sir," when there's trouble in the
wind
There's trouble in the wind, my
boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's " Please to walk in front,
sir," when there's trouble in the
wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an'
schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you
treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room
slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the
soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy
that, an` Chuck him out, the brute!
"
But it's " Saviour of 'is country "
when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy
that, an' anything you please;
An 'Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -
you bet that Tommy sees!

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Political Duplicity

It's alleged the Falkirk MP Eric Joyce, started a rammy (brawl) in the Strangers Bar in the Palace of Westminster on Wednesday night.  He is said to have attacked the Tory MP Stuart Andrew, several other Tory MPs and a Labour colleague after complaining the bar was 'full of Tories'.

The police were called and Eric Joyce was held overnight at a London police station on suspicion of assault. It is reported he left the police station last night after being charged with three counts of common assault.

I've no wish to comment on Joyce's behaviour because it would appear, throughout his careers, he's encouraged animosity amongst his peers and superiors, but I would like to highlight the hypocrisy of the political classes.

All food and drink (including alcohol) supplied within the Palace of Westminster is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer; the catering subsidy for the financial year ending 31 March 2011 was £5.8m. That fact alone irritates me particularly when the governments of the UK and Scotland are attempting to bring forward legislation which will increase the price of alcohol to those of us who aren't privileged enough to have it subsidised.

All the bars in the Palace of Westminster and Holyrood should be closed unless hotel prices are implemented. Alcohol and work don't mix and the excuse for having bars within parliament buildings has long gone. The House of Commons seldom sits late into the night and Holyrood has never had the need. Cafes can supply a varied selection of non-alcoholic beverages and there are plenty restaurants and eating houses for politicians to enjoy the best quality food.

If this event had happened anywhere other than Westminster by anyone other than an MP it would be an example of the disgraceful 'yob' culture infecting these islands and followed by politicians calling for action.

One journalist shows sympathy with politicians because 'most MPs drinking there are doing so because they haven't really got anywhere else to go...Sometimes they just don't want to go 'home' to a London flat they find lonely'.  I find Mr Kirkup's empathic article somewhat outside the real world. There are many thousands of people who have to leave their families on a weekly or longer basis in order to do their work. Few have the luxury of taxpayer-funded 'homes' or 5 star bars and restaurants.

For some years I travelled regularly and yes, I did find it lonely, because I was in a different part of the country each time, but I was able to entertain myself during my off duty hours. An MP's London workplace is the Palace of Westminster which caters for their every whim. The whole of London culture and entertainment is on their doorstep so there is no reason for any MP to be in their workplace outwith their working hours.

One fact of life is certain. Eric Joyce will remember yesterday morning's hangover for a very, very long time.

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The Technical Glitch and Freezers (part two)

A guest post by John Souter.

Part one is here.

“The role of Nature accepted, we then have to ask; whether in the affairs of humanity, any concept, system, practice or ideology which doesn’t improve the wellbeing, contentment, security and advancement of the majority of the species and its survival, has any claim to legitimacy or continuance by establishment or custom?”

I make no apology for repeating the questioned I posed in the Introduction to The People Business.

Our World today is, we are told, struggling through a major crisis; one that threatens our societies, the role and values we inherit from our stake in the business, and the balance sheet of improvement we leave for future generations.

Perhaps, given what’s at stake, we need to analyse very carefully, logically and judicially the pros and cons being claimed as the reality that demands we must react to this crises.

Undoubtedly this is a world crisis. But it’s a crises of our World; a systemic failure that can only have been created through manipulation by our species.

The ‘product’ at the core of this crisis has no natural function and even within the role of nurture has only a tenuous link to the measurement of value and fundamentally no legitimacy when it attempts to exploit nature ; which is exactly the intent when it attempts to grade and categorise the micro and macrocosm of our species.

We – Us are as natural a part of nature as the air we breath, the land we live on and the Earth and Cosmos that makes it all possible. We have a legitimate right to life and the development of our values. Why then should we be subject to ‘commodity’ crisis which to a large extent has been labelled and usurped by the few as a means of control over the many.

Is this financial hybrid sensible and functional in the models of riches it assumes when weighed against the scales of effects it demands,

Does it ‘drive’ the economics of societies evolution or merely distorts and diverts it by the smoke and mirrors of delusional gobbledegook.

Has science strived and pled in vain for sanity only to have a secular commodity, of no intrinsic value, to be raised on the plinth of idolatry and awarded the right of impunity to the effects of its actions and of those who proselytize its function.

Within the terms and statutes of The People Business has the executive –either elected or unelected – been granted the legitimate power to downgrade the quality of life dividends to its shareholders to that of serfdom, wage slave or debt peonage in order to conserve and continue its own incompetence?

This is the hellish morning we have woken to.

The one where you’ve stubbed your toe on the file you were swotting up on for the scheduled ‘crucial’ meeting. The morning where the electric toothbrush is flat, the towel still damp and where the shirt button drops off; then the replacement goes into the wrong button hole. The tie dips into the cereal milk and the lace of a shoe you polished the night before breaks and the infallible country road short cut you take in order to avoid the gridlock to catch your commuter train has been invaded by a thousand cows who found a hole in the hedge. The morning when you give a sigh of relief when you find a seat on the next train to the one you intended then settle in the belief that you can still, by the skin of your teeth, make the meeting only to find the crucial file, the one you stubbed your toe on, is still lying in disgrace in your bedroom. Your life is in ruins. A fool clickety clacking on the track to purgatory, esteem of self has withdrawn leaving only the shadow of the person you were to slide into your niche of ‘routine’ business.

There’s a message on your desk. The meetings cancelled. Immediately you re-instate esteem and with it comes total recall of every coma, full stop and decimal point contained within the file – now you want to know why and who caused the ‘crucial’ meeting to be cancelled.

In The People Business it’s our board of directors who have cancelled the meeting. They have chosen not to hear our arguments; to stifle debate in the certainty it would include criticism of their incompetence with little by way of mitigation in support of the path they have chosen and, as a group, have levied rich rewards and remuneration from.

Without the fear of repercussion has responsibility any claim to power or reward?

They are fully aware the games up. That, they’re in full pelt down the slippery slope leading to the cliff edge. Their only hope is in the amount of collateral bodies (Us) they can push before them to act either as a redoubt before they face the edge or, as a last resort, act as a mattress of apathy to break their fall.

It seems mindsets die harder than habits – mine are, we should grease the slope, give them clear passage and, leave their fate to the laws of physics.

These are the cons of the technical glitch we are facing. The analysis of the pros and the failures of our board to maximise their potential and distribute them as dividends will be covered in Part 3.

John Souter

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The Technical Glitch And Freezers - Guest Post

A guest post by John Souter.

That’s the underlying problem. The cause of this crises that has sent the bandits of monetary spin into the spins within the spin they’re in.

I don’t know if any of you have read or heard of “Big History” – you can Google or Wiki it and get an outline. Basically it gives the development and their stages through the World from the Big Bang to conception and on through to the present. In essence it gives you the perspective of the wood as opposed to the tree of modern history which, against the measure of world time, is a sapling struggling for space, light, tenure and now given the present crises, legitimacy.

According to Big History our species has been on earth around 200,000 years, the vast majority of which we occupied our time as hunter gatherers – 10,000 years ago we switched to an agrarian lifestyle – recorded history covers the last 5,000 years of this, and 300 to 400 hundred ago (its sometimes called the enlightenment) we entered what they have labelled the modern era. Now, while there are still plots in this world where hunter gatherers still operate and farming has perhaps an even more significant role to play now and in the immediate future than it ever had in the past; the learning and development curve we as a species have had to innovate, refine and adapt to, has possibly accelerated so much in that relatively short time, our senses have been scrambled by the G force. So it’s perhaps not so surprising that a few moves or the odd slick spin should slip under the radar.

After all our brain hasn’t evolved solely to match that accelerated pace. Its capability, to a great extent, has probably been there throughout our history and, while we are slowly uncovering its mechanics and re-assessing its potentials the one thing it, and consequently we, are being swamped with is information.

Problem is some of this information doesn’t ‘do’ what it says on the tin. In fact some information is designed purely to disguise the fact of the information we have gleaned on the mis-information has reduced it to the level of ridicule so we blithely ignore it – which is why producers of soap commercials have been telling us their powder washes whiter year after year and while we ignore the claim with the contempt it deserves they keep using it because we keep buying it.

Okay admittedly that’s a frivolous example. But it’s one of probably thousands of information bights our brains cope with classify and file or dump everyday – a subliminal white noise of information and one that this generation has seen accelerate, had to cope with and hasn’t managed very well.

This model and the intellectual level of communication it demands has not only effected those it targeted it has also infected those who inflict it. They believe it works, as a consequence of which they believe the results it brings, which in turn makes the method adopted seem logical.

An example of this can be seen in Europe. A huge organisation is created, part of which divides its time between two centres, creates nothing but another layer of bureaucracy and political oligarchy, passes a law which says dead fish must be thrown back into the sea!

An organisation that spends a fortune from the money it extracts from its members to build a parliament for expensive representatives who haven’t the democratic power to hold or direct an unelected executive to account.

In an age when clarity and level headed commitment is needed more than ever before, the politicians add another level to the morass that is politics. A self perpetuating growth industry for evangelical liars, tarts and tribunes spouting tripe, demands dead fish are dumped back into the sea in the name of conservation.

Admittedly the above is only a slightly less frivolous example. But it’s one that is mirrored in one way or another in all the institutions, governments and power brokers that juggle for control of our business and the relationship and sustainability it has with the natural elements that makes it all possible.

As I write, these ‘power brokers’ (our businesses executive) are claiming we need to review and revamp the policies and revalue the equity we hold in the business. They claim we have a liquidity problem?

And they are right we do have a liquidity problem. We also have problems of population growth – energy resource and supply – ecology and contaminations – quality and sustainability – we have all sorts of problems that have to be addressed and solved. All are legitimate threats to the continuity and quality of our lives, but not the one they want us to waste our time, efforts and lives on – namely the money game. Continue to allow them to waste our time and lives on that and they’ll lead us into the swamp of oblivion.

Money as an agreed rate of exchange has a minor purpose when it relates to the law of supply and demand of real products and services. Demand is controlled by the availability of resources –if it’s impossible to get a quart into a pint pot it’s asking for a miracle to get a quart out of it – money distorts this and claims it can and our leaders and politicos with all their free loading current account thinking have hitched on to it and pawned our futures by doing so.

Whether we can redeem our future and get a chance to revise the values and objectives of our business depends very much on not only resolving the money issue but in resolving the technical glitch it has highlighted and led us into.

(extract from The People Business) Part 1.

John Souter November 2011

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Tales from a small country - Yes, First Minister (Guest Post)

A guest post by Sheila.

There has been much fuss and bluster in the press recently regarding  civil servants, past and present, “going native”. The spin seems to be that the mandarins are “parroting” the SNP agenda. Well I’m starting to wonder just who is parroting whom.  

Sir John Elvidge was Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from July 2003 - June 2010. In June of this this year he delivered the Michael Shea Memorial Lecture at an event hosted by the International Futures Forum and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In his speech he jokes about how the majority of the Scottish population have never heard of the Scotland Performs website.. What, you too?  He continues to explain that the site is part of what he has recently learned from his contacts in Australia to call the Scottish Model of Government.

What we should be focusing on is just how this brave new Scottish Model of Government came about. It was reported quite widely, by the Guardian amongst others - with a link to Sir John’s report: Northern Exposure - Lessons from the first twelve years of devolved government in Scotland.

Maybe it is a bit dry compared with civil servants “going native” or maybe it is too much to ask that our MSPs think for themselves and dig just a wee bit deeper?

In the article,“ Lessons from Scotland on streamlining government”,  Sir John says that “radical changes he made under the minority SNP party in 2007 – which involved abolishing departments, redefining top civil service roles and aligning the entire Scottish public sector around a single framework of national purpose that would be tracked and measured – were a world first.”

Suddenly - apparently - everyone is learning lessons from Scotland - Wales has been since June. Our current elected members are probably glowing with pride and self-congratulation....  Quite why, I’m not sure, because they don’t seem to have had a lot to do with any of this..

"A key theme throughout this report is our recognition of
the progress made over the last four years by the Scottish
Government in developing the National Performance
Framework (NPF). As one of our members put it: “The most
important fact about the NPF is that it exists”. The innovative
work and thinking in developing it should not be overlooked,
and those involved in its inception deserve praise.

However, we are very concerned that through the ebb
and flow of politics – and with regular elections – there is
a significant risk of all this experience being lost and the
framework itself being abandoned either now or in the
future”.

The quote is from a recent Carnegie Foundation report: More than GDP:Measuring what matters (taking dry to new level!) by the Round Table on Measuring Economic Performance and Social Progress in Scotland of which Sir John is also a member. 

The  Round Table took the findings of the 2009 Stiglitz Report (positively dessicated!), which emerged from a Commission established by President Sarkozy and recommended that Scotland should shift its emphasis from measuring economic performance to measuring wellbeing; all within the National Performance Framework that Sir John is so proud to have brought into being and is keen to export to the rest of the UK and beyond. 

In late 2010, Professor Stiglitz became a member of the Council of Economic Advisers which was set up in 2007 to advise the First Minister on the best way to improve Scotland’s sustainable economic growth rate and last month a stampede of NGOs signed up to a briefing paper urging the Government to revise the National Performance Framework along the lines recommended by the “Carnegie Round Table” which, as previously stated above, puts a kilt on the Stiglitz report. 

So quite how this process is at any risk whatsoever from the "ebb and flow of politics" and "regular elections" is a bit of a mystery to me.

Whether Sir John's system of governance  is for good or bad, it seems to be happening  and going places... 

Meanwhile the “over-arching purpose” of  this system seems to be changing to bring us in line with a report commissioned by a French president, written by an American economist, rubber stamped by the EU and  currently being implemented across the globe. Interesting times, as they say... 

So where exactly do our elected members fit into this process? And would the process have been any different with another variety of politician "in power"?  Sir John seems to have a pretty cosy relationship with the last lot too. 

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How Do We Choose Our Political Representatives?

The result of the poll 'How do we elect our political representatives' is as follows:

By personality   1%

By party          34%

By policies       26%

Combination of the above  34%

Eeny-meeny-miney-mo system 1%

By habit 4%

The number of votes cast was 119.

Surprisingly I thought more people would vote by personality but it would seem a politician's personality alone isn't enough to make us put our cross against their name.

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The Psychopaths of Capitalism by John Souter

The Psychopaths of Capitalism

The present aim of capitalism is quite simply to socialise the costs while being allowed to maximise and privatise the profits.

In a nutshell, its capitalism without moral or social responsibility.

In another article I called the players psychopaths. I used that pejorative term factually, not as a knee jerk reaction, but in the considered view of neuroscience and its application to the criminal traits of serial killers and their like.

The majority of psychopaths know the law, are often astute in its application and are aware of the moral values deemed as normal benchmarks by society. 

Where their flaw becomes apparent is their indifference to the values placed by both the law and normal society on such dispirit issues as the minor offence of littering or the gravest offence of killing. They treat both with the same casual, if any, remorse.

The same attitude has been adopted by all the players in this game, including those who are supposedly in the business of representing us and looking after our interests. 

Both, however, hide behind the façades of institutions; institutions which by design and practice have removed conscience from their covenants because applying it would increase costs at the expense of profits. They don't see such an attitude as corrupt they just see it as the normal game of global business - the world of dog eat dog and eat what you kill.

This explains their hubris and lack of remorse and appreciation of being saved from the stupidity of their own making; and their utter lack of conscience. To the extent they not only deem they had a right to be saved, they want to exploit the recovery by tilting the ballpark and reducing the rules all in their favour.

They even have the audacity to threaten if they don't get what they want they'll take the huff and their ball and find a better pitch. Which would be laughable, if we had a competent government with a backbone who said - Go, but before you do, it’s our ball, our pitch, our rules and our clothes you’re wearing. So strip off and piss off as far as that big van that's waiting for you by the touchline.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a government (apart from possibly Iceland) any where in the world that has this biological necessity of backbone that, supposedly, separates man from mollusc.

However, whatever the cost, - and I suspect to the normal citizen, if done fairly and in a forensic manner, they would be less than the approach presently adopted - their failures and the surreal fantasy of their values have been exposed, and we have had an expensive education in the worthless alchemy of their beliefs and the vacuous lexicon of their inner temples.

So, in the immortal words (except for Bush): Fool us once; shame on you - Fool us twice; shame on us.

But this is exactly what they are presently doing, with the connivance of governments.

Why is our government conniving with them? Well it may be panic which has undermined their competence and confidence. That may be regrettable but excusable.  

But, with twenty two millionaires in the cabinet and a party bankrolled by big business that confidence has to be allied with trick – a confidence trick designed to protect the value of their investments and portfolios and those of their backers by passing the bucks to the bewildered herd under the guise of austerity.

Austerity doesn’t feature in the concerns of the rich; it needs to be seismic, in the realms of catastrophe, before they feel the pinch. Meanwhile they hope the collateral damage inflicted by the shock and awe of their austerity measures will subdue the herd into stupefied subjection of stress, anguish and the chilling vice of penury.

The price paid by millions to support the avarice of a few psychopaths.

Think I’m being too harsh on them? Look for the remorse. 

contributed by John Souter

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Where Is Our Ron Paul?

Ron Paul. We're missing politicians who are prepared to stand up and speak for the people. Will we ever have a Ron Paul? I may not agree with some of his policies but I do agree with his common sense which has been replaced by non-sense in this country.

Why don't our politicians make more use of video/audio to reach their electorate? I still receive paper newsletters, via the Royal Mail, from my MP and MSP. Surely it would be much cheaper to do a 3 minute chat.

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Politics 2010

Courtesy of G.O.T.

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