Still no Sir Bruce Forsyth ?

I am sure I am not alone in wondering why Bruce Forsyth was not awarded a Knighthood today for his services to comedy, TV and light entertainment ?

But well done to all those who did receive an honour today. Particularly to Chris Hoy who deservedly receives a Knighthood for winning four gold medals at two separate Olympics. I rather felt that Kelly Holmes was rather prematurely awarded her equal honour four years ago in some undue haste and potentially created a problem for future honours lists whereby anyone else receiving two gold medals might equally expect to be made a Knight or a Dame. Bradley Wiggins, a winner of three gold medals in two Olympic games might rightly feel a little put out that he has been treated unequally compared to Dame Kelly.

But I rather like the honours system. It does allow is to reward and revere those worth of our thanks and praise. Well done to all of them.

A Hollywood nightmare coming true

You've all seen the futuristic Hollywood films where private companies run the police force, personal data is owned by large corporations and governments are rendered impotent by multi national corporations who the government are beholden to.

Well apparently this is Labour's vision of the future for the UK.

Yes, at a time when the government are trying to convince us that more and more of a personal data should be stored by the government, and in the wake of a number of private contractors being responsible for the loss of large amounts of government data (and yes, I know that government departments have done this too but at least they are directly answerable to government ministers), the government want a private company to administer and make a profit from storing our private data.

Now this decision must, in effect, be because the government wants to save money. How does a company do something for less than the government ? By paying less to staff of course (although mangers will obviously earn more and get richer). Heard the old adage of "Pay peanuts, get monkeys". Well apparently the government wants monkeys to administer our personal data.

Of all the governments actions over wanting a giant database to record everything we do, this is possibly the most worrying aspect.

Welcome to a Hollywood nightmare vision.

Would Coca Cola change their name ?

A recent survey in the press over the holidays (and yes, I cannot remember which paper so I don't have the link) showed that 60% of respondents could name Norwich Union as an insurance company, whilst only 2% could name Aviva, whilst when prompted with options, over 90% could name Norwich Union, with less that 20% naming Aviva.

This is the sort of brand awareness that companies like Coca Cola or Nescafe try to establish. Yet you wouldn't see them changing their brand name.

Yet Norwich Union, the brand, is to go, to be replaced in the UK by the name Aviva, the name they used in other parts of the world (including Australia where the "Norwich" brand is very highly recognised.

It's interesting that many companies which have a stunningly high name awareness using a local brand name (witness General Motors using Opel in Europe and Vauxhall in the UK or Lloyds TSB which used the National Bank brand in New Zealand) keep it, but Norwich Union seems completely oblivious to the fact that its good name means something in the UK and wants to toss it aside like they have so many of their UK workers.

Time to prosecute the 999 time wasters

The number of idiots phoning 999 for totally unimportant rubbish seems to be hitting an all time high, and the news today that former topless model Linda Lusardi phoned 999 to ask if she can have permission to use the hard shoulder because she was going to be late for her pantomime only highlights this further.

In recent days the emergency services have revealed that a member of the clergy phoned 999 to report that he could not get through to Strictly Come Dancing in order to vote for Tom Chambers, someone else phoned 999 to ask how to get to Homebase whilst nearer to home here in Norfolk we had a Tory County Councillor a few years back who phoned 999 when she was stuck in a queue leaving an event because "ordinary people were being let out before her".

I don't think it takes a great deal of common sense to understand what an emergency is. Put simply, if it involves a criminal offence, fear of a criminal offence, something the fire brigade can deal with or a serious medical emergency which means the person hurt cannot safely make there was to a hospital, then that constitutes an 999 emergency. People phoning for other reasons ought to be fined and publicly named and shamed.

Religion and Politics - A mix that never works

When a report comes out from any group which has legitimate and objective criticisms of the government, then it usually ought to be given a fair hearing. However, sometimes, despite the fact that I might agree with 100% with what they say, when it is a religious report, I have deep concerns.

The Bishops responsible for the report highlight concerns about Labour's obsession with money and further worries about the fact that Labour seem to thing that the consumer route is the way for the country to dig itself out of recession. Both of these I agree with. But then my sensible side kicks in. Labour may be morally bankrupt, but why are priests lecturing us on the economy and how the government should be run ? Why are religious leaders taking an overtly political stance in condemning the government ? And why are the Church of England at this time not trying to turn round the decline in the number of people going to church rather than claiming to understand how the economy should be turned round.

I have always felt politics should be kept divided from religion as the answers to today's problems cannot be found in a 2000 year old book.

Channel Four and Robert Mugabe

After allowing the Iranian Leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lecture the nation yesterday on Channel Four's alternative Christmas speech, one must be grateful that Channel Four was not around in the 1930s as it seems improbable that they would not have allowed Hitler the chance to legitimise himself to us.

But don't worry everyone, because next year Channel Four have lined up Robert Mugabe to speak to us all.

Season's greetings to all

Can I wish everyone who comes to this blog, even those whose comments I block (this is your one chance to get a comment published) very best wishes at this special time of year, and all good wishes for their health and happiness in the new year to come.

Yes, it must appear really sad that I have nothing better to do than sit in front of a computer on Christmas Day, but using Blogger's scheduling option, I actually wrote this posting a few days ago, so by now I am probably comfortably sat down with a mince pie, a glass of port, whilst trying to stop my son trashing the tree !

And for those who are interested, yes, I do like to watch the Queen's speech.

Have a great Christmas !

Stop the hate preachers who don't believe in goodwill to all men

Coming to the Pope's comments a day late, it strikes me that if The Pope was spreading his poisonous anti homosexual views from the front of a Mosque people would label him a hate preacher.

As it is, he gets widely ticked off but nobody has the balls to tell him to stick his antiquated views where the the Virgin Mary cannot see.

Peace and goodwill to all men ? Not from this Pope !

The frightening truth about MRSA screening at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

My mother went in to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital last week for a minor operation, and she was pleasantly surprised to be taken to one side shortly after arrival and told she, like all other patients would be screened for MRSA with them taking a mouth swab and a groin swab to test.

Great news, you would assume. After all, this is what they do in Holland as a matter of course in order to isolate MRSA carriers and ensure they are kept away from other patients and treated with the correct drugs to eliminate MRSA before it gets in to open wounds.

But no, the hospital's actions is a piecemeal attempt to pretend at trying hard to control infections. Why ? Because they told my mother it that they results would not be known for three days, which was pointless as she was actually having the operation that day and she would be home before the results would be known.

What an utter joke infection control is in the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital is, and I am sure that other hospitals are no better.

Update : It appears from this BBC story this morning that there is a 2 hour MRSA test available (which costs £17) but there is also a cheaper 3 day test (£6). So it appears that the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital are simply doing the cheapest test and wasting £6 each time in to the bargain.

What is the point of the General Teaching Council

The Labour government decided a few yeas ago to introduce a new layer of bureaucracy in to the teaching profession by launching the General Teaching Council. This move was never wanted by teachers, there was no clear need for such a body, and nobody knew what the GTC would actually do. However, this did not deter Labour, and we now have had a GTC for about 8 years.

The problem is 9 years on that teachers still cannot name one thing the GTC has achieved despite it receiving millions of pounds each years which could have been spent on education rather than meetings, hospitality, hotel fees and the gravy train that goes with such an organisation. I did have a colleague who was on the GTC and he raved about the hotels they stay in for meetings. Beleive me, its not you local travel lodge.

Talking last night at our Christmas meal, one teacher commented that she read that the GTC wants to have the right to remove the qualified teacher status (QTS) from teachers who fails to act as role models. They apparently want to have the right to remove QTS from a teacher who embarrasses themselves on a hen night or has one to many on a stag do. The GTC, in effect, wants to neuter teachers and turn them in to robots who never go out. Yet this is the same GTC that claims to be fighting for teachers rights.

Sadly the GTC is nothing more than a chocolate fireguard. It serves no purpose other than to discipline (and this could be done by someone else) and if the teaching profession itself cannot name one thing the GTC has achieved on behalf of teachers, than is there any point in it ?

The last (for this year) Christmas Blog Quiz

It's the last of my four Christmas Blog Quiz posting's for each of the Sundays of advent. A simple question this week, which Christmas ornament are you ?

You Are a Tree

You love every part of the holidays, down to the candy canes and stockings. And you're goofy enough to put a Christmas tree ornament on your tree!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

What price do you put on our Nuclear sovereignty ?

Before anyone makes the point that there are plenty of unilateralists in the Liberal Democrats, I'll make it quite clear, I am not one of them.

So I was amazed to hear that the Labour Government has sold out its remaining shares in the Aldermaston Nuclear Weapons establishment, the company that actually produces nuclear warheads for our independent nuclear deterrent.

So in effect, a key strand of our independence has been cut as we are now reliant on a US owned firm.

We all saw how Labour under Tony Blair tied us to the folly of the Iraq war, and now Brown perpetrates this further by making us totally reliant on an overseas company for our own nuclear defence.

Stop bailing out foreign companies

I asked a few weeks ago why the UK tax payer was being asked to loan money at a preferential rate to Santander, a Spanish bank, when it appears to me that the Spanish Government ought to be doing this. So I am equally perplexed as to why the UK taxpayer is now being asked to provide emergency loans to foreign owned car makers.

According to reports, the UK government is to provide funding to the billionaire Indian owner of Jaguar/Land Rover. Why are we bailing out billionaire Indian businessmen ?

Reports state that similar support fro the car industry has happened from governments in Sweden, France and Germany, but the reports fail to distinguish between the fact that these countries have domestically owned cars companies of their own, whereas we do not.

If Land Rover and Jaguar needs support then the government should make the loan dependent on the UK government getting a % of the shares and also a share in future profits in the company.

It's all about the cars

The US government is pumping £11 billion in to sustaining the US car industry, but like like the British government in the 1970s pouring cash in to British Leyland, the US government is actually blind to the realities of the world and the deeper problems the US car industry has.

As the rest of the world knows, the US makes some shockingly poor cars. Bumpy suspension, poor road holding, odd "standard features", that nobody in the rest of the world wants (self locking seat belts ?), terrible handling, odd looking monoliths that burn petrol at a rate that a 1950's jet fighter would be embarrassed by.

Just like British Leyland, these manufacturers can only really sell to their own market, and again just like Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, cheaper better made cars are increasingly taking market share away from home grown producers in the states.

The truth of the matter is that the only really innovative parts of Ford and GM are their overseas divisions which turn out much better cars with world wide appeal.

So whilst Bush might be putting £11 billion on to the US car giants, the reality is that this will be the first hand out of many until these US car giants look at the rest of the world and adopt what every other manufacturer in the world does.

But these aren't chips ?

A child at our lunchtime school Christmas meal pointed to his plate and asked a nearby adult "What is this ? I never have these at home".

And it was ... a carrot. Shocking.

Why would the police and CPS hold back such vital evidence ?

The not guilty verdict given today on Suzanne Holdsworth really does beg the question as to why the police and CPS kept back the vitally important piece of information that little Kyle Fisher was severely epileptic.

When the jury were this time told this information, they returned a not guilty verdict, meaning that Suzanne Holsdworth's many years in prison were all the fault of the prosecution in her earlier trial suppressing such vital information.

The question is why people are allowed to get away with locking people up for years on end when they know full well that there is evidence available which would clear the person found guilty, and further from this, it makes you wonder how they sleep at night.

The serious problem with modified cars

The sad case in the news today where a father has been convicted in relation to the death of four of his children when his modified Land Rover crashed and ended up in a river raises a question regarding modified cars which has been common for many years.

The truth is that there are an enormous amount of modified cars on the road which are not safe either for the driver or for other road users.

I was really aware of this problem when I was councillor for Fakenham on North Norfolk District Council and we had (and probably still have) a problem with teenagers driving modified Vauxhall Corsas around the town late at night, very often speeding, and in cars that had been modified in carious ways that rendered them dangerous.

The classic example of this was the group who had their 1.2 litre Corsa's altered to take wider lower profile tires. The problem was that these tyres actually rubbed against the bodywork when they got full lock on their steering. Not happy with this, the cars were sometimes lowered (meaning they caught the bottom of the car on ruts and speed bumps) and to add to the danger, they had an array of flashing neon lights that lit up the road in various patterns which seemed specially designed to distract other drivers.

How did they get through their MOTs I hear you ask ? Well in the first instance they simply reverted to their old tyres when their test was due (a cheap job if you have a few friends who will help you with the tyre change and MOTs are not concerned with things like neon lights.

I'm sure Fakenham is not the only place with such problems. But today's events highlight the need for the police to be vigilant in stopping modified cars, but with the number of police patrols being lower than ever, the chances of them being stopped is lower than ever.

Hallelujah Snobbery

I guess the simmering resentment present amongst the great part of the population towards whoever was going to win the X Factor should come as no surprise. In many ways I have to agree that Simon Cowell has rather spoilt the fun of the Christmas number one by monopolising it for the last four years, however the way that some people are going on about Alexandra Burke's version of Hallelujah really is a dreadful type of snobbery.

Any number of people and Facebook groups are bemoaning the fact that Alexandra has done a cover of Jeff Buckley's song, whilst ignoring that Jeff Buckley was no better than Alexandra Burke because actually all he did was do a cover of what is a Leonard Cohen song.

I heard on the radio earlier someone moaning about that X Factor "killing original music". Presumably Jeff Buckley was guilty of this too ?

There might be some mileage in trying to avoid the X Factor winner being number one in order to prove that Simon Cowell does not have a divine right to the Christmas number one, but lets just drop the attacks on Alexandra Burke and the song choice. In all honesty, she has a great voice and her version of the song is actually not to bad at all.

China's admission that they lied to the IOC

When China won the right to hold the Olympics, they heralded it as the event that would show China was becoming more tolerant, more open minded, more democratic and essentially less censored.

China that "unblocked" websites in the run up to the Olympics as evidential proof that their promises to the IOC were being kept.

However, less than five months later, the Chinese government are again blocking foreign websites for fear that they may report on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen square massacre when thousands of Chinese students and protesters were machine gunned to death in a Nazi style killing orgy by the Chinese Army in 1990. Needless to say, the Chinese government want no details of this or the burning of the bodies being mentioned to their population.

So now we know that China's promise to the IOC was a hollow lie. Welcome to China. Land of the repressed.

The recession - A chance for bad bosses to take advantage

One thing the recession has seen us return to is workers being scared to ask for what they have earned because they fear the sack. A good example today is something I heard from a colleague who has a member of her family who works for Debenhams.

Apparently Debenhams are "encouraging" staff to work anything up to 12 hours a day repricing items for the sale, but without overtime pay, and with the implicit threat that has been made that "there may be redundancies in the new year".

How daft a worker would they be to insist on overtime pay or refusing to do the extra hours knowing that bosses have already mentioned imminent redundancies.

Yes, indeed, some companies really are taking advantage of their workers.