Quote of the day yesterday

Kate Hoey in yesterday's debate on the Naval debacle said,

"I genuinely want to ask him, because it is the sort of question that the public will be asking, if a Secretary of State has made mistakes and admits that he has done something wrong, what sort of mistake does it take for him then to decide that he should offer his resignation?"

Exactly. In this government it appears no one has to be honourable enough to resign - and if for some obscure reason they do so then they are usually given another job in government within a few months! This government will no doubt urge us and the media to "move on" so that they can "get on with the job" and no doubt move on to bigger and better cock ups!

NHS super computer - or not!

There is quite alot in the press today about the NHS computer system which is the subject of a report out today. The telegraph has an interesting piece by Richard Bacon who serves on the PAC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/17/do1702.xml. I bet that the 12billion wasted on this will not get anything like the publicity on the BBC or other news networks that the Olympic Budget got. At least at the end of 2012 we will finally have some top class sporting venues in the this country - not to mention the high speed rail link to stratford and the regeneration of the east end. I would much rather money was "wasted"on that project than on this computer system that will never work and was never wanted by the people that are expected to use it.

Gordon ignores experts advice again

No surprises that Gordon has ignored Bank of England advice and sold our gold from under us for a song - I can't help thinking that anything is up for grabs at a discount as far as he is concerned. Why however has the BBC chosen to ignore this story? I cannot find any mention of it in the BBC news website and I have not heard it mentioned on News 24 either, it is all over the papers and on Sky News and ITV news website - if he has to answer questions on parliament about it the BBC should be on the case. Yet again they are ignoring a story that is damaging to Broon and the Government.

Sale and Jason Robinson

It has been a very quiet week for blogging (easter holidays, kids at home and good weather hurrah!) The debacle over the cash for stories goes on. The decisions made by Des Browne were a disgrace and as he obviously is not respected by those who work for him - he should go. This government has been all to good at getting the press to "move on" following bad news - these decisions have damaged the reputation of the country and our brilliant armed forces and someone in this government should be made to be carry the can.

I had the pleasure to be at Egdeley Park last night, a great game, brilliant atmoshere and from a Sharks point of view a fairytale ending to Jason Robinson's club career. After such a troubled season it was great to finish the season on a high. After the game the there was a presentation and lap of honour by Billy Wizz. The only sad thing was that as the only Englishman to win and to score a try in a world cup final (not to mention the sucess that he has had in both codes of Rugby) you would have thought the there would have been a larger media presence for his final club bow. Jason has made himself available to be selected for England for the world cup in september, lets hope he still has a few more tries in him wearing a white shirt.

10 years ago

I apologise if I have a bit of a rant here but...10 years ago I moved with my husband to Phoenix Arizona. Arizona is the most beautiful state in the USA but it was a huge change for me as I came from a very small village 13 miles from a relatively small but fairly distinguished market town in west suffolk. What I found in Phx was eye opening - we moved into a large "master planned community" every house had electric garage doors (because security was the name of the game) and because of that we had only 3 conversations with our neighbours in the 3 3/4 years we lived there. It was a complete desert as far as community relations goes. When we came back we lived in Bath and to a certain extent the same happened - we lived in a commuter village and no one had the time for anyone. After 6 months we moved to Lancashire and things changed dramatically everyone here is outgoing and friendly and I am "Blessed" (as Zack Johnson kept saying last night on his masters victory) to live where I do now. It has the values of the village that I grew up in still, but the village I grew up in has now been taken over by communters and "trendy "people who want to live in a converted barn. The moral of this story is that this government has to protect the rural way of life because without it this country is going to die. It has to make sure that there are homes for locals in villages and it has to start protecting farms, farmers and rural people as they are the only ones left who seem to represent the "community" that those of all parties aspire to. It is time for the rural communities to show the way and for the government to respect and cherish that.

Confirmation of Virgin Pilot story

The telegraph has a piece here about my previous post http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/08/npilot08.xml
I hope that the sun will print a full apology to the poor guy concerned and Virgin Atlantic (somehow I doubt it though!)

The Scumbag journos at the Sun

I have been away for a few days (kids on holiday etc) but one headline that grabbed my attention was that in the Sun on monday about the airline pilot who was arrested at LHR at taken off in handcuffs for being drunk. Accordring to Pprune (the professional pilots network) this story has turned out to be rubbish. The pilot was not drunk and not handcuffed. The fact that the Sun managed to put this all over the front page probably has more to do with a Murdoch owned company trying to damage Virgin's reputation and obviously has no basis in fact. I hope the Pilot concerned will make a formal complaint on his own behalf and Virgin should seriously consider action as well