HAPPY NEW YEAR

As explained below, my Tony On posts are now combined with the rest of my output. From now on you can access my current affairs by clicking Home, or Beyond the Blog title.

READ MY ALL NEW ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST
What’s on today: For a new year, a new way. From now on my Diary of a Writer, Tony On and Magazine posts will be combined, allowing more of each. Hope you enjoy.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It is New Year’s Eve, so it’s inevitable I will speak about Scotland. After all, Hogmanay is their celebration above all else - world renowned for downing more whisky than the rest of the world put together at this time (not true, really).
There isn’t a Scottish gene in me, but my children, it seems, are a sixteenth Scottish. This is, obviously, because my wife is an eighth Scottish, which does, of course, explain the ass.

She wasn’t always, I might add.

Which may seem a strange statement to make. Well, there was always a story in her family that her adopted grandfather was the illegitimate son of a Scottish aristocrat, or Laird.
We can’t prove that bit, but we did get proof of his Scottish parentage. But if only Yvonne could say ‘laird’ instead of ‘lard’. ‘So you mean your greet granddaddy was a block of cooking fat?’ I always ask, only to be greeted by a steely Scottish eye.

Since finding out this Scottish ancestry, things have changed.

New Year’s Day has taken on a new slant, what with her prized Andy Steward CD with renditions from ‘Loch Lomond’ to ‘Donald Where’s Your Troosers’. And then, a compilation of Robbie Burns is placed in my hand for the reading of.
But it is also a serious time, where New Year’s Resolutions are made. Sadly I could never keep them, until, that is, I had a brainwave some ten years ago. I made a resolution that I’ve kept to this day – namely, to never make resolutions again.
Happy New Year to you all.

© Anthony North, December 2007

ROBIN HOOD - SERIES TWO

Right, it’s all over. How can Robin Hood continue now? Good grief, Maid Marion is dead, sliced through by the wicked, but troubled, Gisborne! But I never thought you could have Robin Hood without Friar Tuck …
… read more …

CHARLES FOR KING

So, over half the UK population want William to be king rather than Prince Charles. Oh dear, I think this would be a terrible mistake. Certainly, in time, William could be a good king, but let him have youth and experience first …
… read more …

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Fiction Xtra - A MINISTERIAL AFFAIR - a whodunit to take you into the New Year

Detective Sergeant Jordan entered the room with an air of expectancy. It seemed as if he’d been a copper all his life, but although he enjoyed it, he knew that, at thirty five, he should be an Inspector by now. He knew, of course, what the problem was - he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut or tow the line. And with a new user-friendly police service - NOT force - he knew he was seen as a dinosaur …
… read more …

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TONY ON SHRINKING ISLAND AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News ands comment LATEST: Britain facing increased floods danger … PLUS … Tyranny of Christmas SOAPs. How to save Anglicanism. The McCann circus is getting out of hand.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY - from a real voice of Britain and the world.

A SHRINKING ISLAND

Some devastating results are coming out regarding the future of Britain – and I don’t just mean the changes in society. No, Britain is under attack by more than people and ideas. It’s under attack from water.
The estimated rise in sea levels over this century have increased to some five feet. The effects will be devastating on Britain’s coastline, already under assault as cliffs crumble and the size of the country shrinks.

But this is not the only problem.

The floods in the summer of 2007 showed a stark new danger. In recent years Britain has suffered from rivers bursting their banks, but the latest flood came from the ground itself being unable to soak up the deluge.
As in the Biblical Flood, the water table flowed up onto the land. Costing 13 lives, it wrecked 48,000 homes and cost billions. One city even became an island, and a wrecked infrastructure left sewage and chemicals swirling about our streets.

We are woefully unprepared for this in Britain.

And it seems to me that the government is doing little about it. The reason for this is obvious – what CAN they do without a major rethink of how we do things?
This is something that many countries will eventually have to face. At present, western society is thinking ‘big’, with things centralized. The only answer is to think ‘small’, and delegate more and more to the local.
If we don’t, a major natural disaster will spread through the system and finish us. Only with smaller, and local, infrastructures can we survive the coming storm.

© Anthony North, December 2007

SOAPY CHRISTMAS

Christmas Day TV in the UK was typical, with films most of the day and mostly SOAPs in the early evening. Indeed, if not for the incredible Doctor Who, most people would have had three hours of SOAPs to contend with …
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SAVE THE CHURCH

Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism. It appears this is a typical move by this self-publicising politician. Why do I say this? Because Catholicism has just become the leading Christian Church in Britain …
… read more …

THE McCANN CIRCUS

The McCann circus goes on – and on, and on, and on. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of it. Indeed, as soon as poor Madeleine went missing, I had the feeling it would go this way …
… read more …

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TONY ON HUMBUG AWARD AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Who gets the Humbug Award this year? … PLUS … NuLabour bails out capitalism’s failures. Chat show Parkinson has finished.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world.

HUMBUG AWARD

As this is my last current affairs post before Christmas I thought I’d issue what I’ve called my Humbug Award. This is issued to the most ludicrous political correctness crap I see as Christmas approaches – a festival they want destroyed.
This year’s winners have got to go to the UK’s NCP Services. This company provides parking attendants for many of our local authority run car parks, and in the past they have given their workers a £25 Argos voucher for every year they have been with the firm.
A marvelous and generous Christmas present, this year, however, it seems they have withdrawn this gift, advising that it could be seen as insulting to many of their workers who do not celebrate Christmas.
Humbug!

© Anthony North, December 2007

TAX PAYERS PROP UP CAPITALISM

Anyone with commonsense has been aware for a long time that the present model of super-capitalism is approaching its end. Already propped up by inflated house prices and kept alive by encouraging people to live on credit, it now gets worse …
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BYE, BYE PARKY

On Sunday night I watched the very last interviews by my fellow Yorkshireman, Michael Parkinson. Since the early 1970s the Parkinson show has been the greatest UK chat show …
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TONY ON POSH OLD MEN AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Diana and ‘Dearest Pa’ – posh old men are not nasty … PLUS … Brit troops hand over Basra – and are still there! More hot air as Bali finishes.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world.

DIANA AND THE DUKE

So now we know. Diana, Princess of Wales, and the supposed ‘murderer’, the Duke of Edinburgh, were actually quite close and had a good relationship, with Diana sending letters to him beginning ‘Dearest Pa’.
This revelation at the Diana Inquiry will come as a shock to those who are certain the Duke detested her and is implicated in her death. But it doesn’t come as a shock to me. This is because we often mis-judge those from the ‘old school’.
Yes, they’re posh, outspoken and appear uncompromising. As such, political correctness has little difficulty in making them villains we can do without. But tell me, where do ideas such as free speech, democracy, individuality and human rights initially come from?
I’ll give you a clue. It all began with aristocracy in 1215 …

© Anthony North, December 2007

BASRA PULL-OUT

This Sunday British troops handed over control of Basra to Iraqi forces. After four and a half years, southern Iraq is back under Iraqi control. It is the beginning of the end of one of the most shameful periods of British history …
… read more …

BALI IS OVER

So the global warming conference at Bali is over. Agreement has finally been made, following the United States’ agreement to allow green technology for developing countries. But what have they actually agreed …
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TONY ON RIGIDITY AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Does healing provide the full benefit? … PLUS … Brown defeats troops in PR stakes. Are UK police about to strike?
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world.

A MIRACLE HEALING?

A rather marvelous story has been going round some elements of the UK media this week. It concerns a 56 year old woman who, after six years in a wheelchair, got up and walked, due, so she believed, to the power of prayer.
Now, I’m not interested in the actual ‘truth’ of her claims, as such. Of more interest are her claims for state benefits during this period. And I don’t mean whether she was entitled to them – in my mind she clearly was.
The interest comes, it seems, when she went to the benefits agency and told them she no longer needed them. And here we meet the total rigidity of the system, for it seems they continued to pay a further £3,500 before they were finally stopped.
It seems they didn’t have a button to press for ‘miracles’.

© Anthony North, December 2007

DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT

British forces in Afghanistan have played a leading role in retaking Musa Qala in the last few days. In Taliban hands since February, this strategic town will now be garrisoned by the British Army. It is a spectacular victory …
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THE POLICE ARE ANGRY

British police are enraged. After the Home Secretary decided to back-date an already pitiful, but agreed, pay rise, they have called for her resignation after expressing no confidence in their boss …
… read more …

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Abolish Political Parties

TONY ON ECO-BUSINESS AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Is business finally moving towards the environment? … PLUS … Shops get nervous this Christmas. Time for change in Anglican Church.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world

BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT

Plans are to be soon unveiled to build 7,000 windmills off the British coast, providing enough power to run all British homes by 2020. Sainsbury’s supermarkets, meanwhile, are beginning moves to replace the tin can.
In its place will eventually be a rectangular carton made from wood pulp. It will save on transport costs by being lighter and taking less space, and will be recyclable. I don’t know whether these are fully sensible measures, but they seem so.
But how far will they go? Does it mean business and government are fully committed to the eco-message, or will both projects end up as publicity stunts to convince people they really do care? Only the former will do. When you shop, tell them that.

© Anthony North, December 2007

CHRISTMAS CASH CRUNCH

Stores in Britain are slashing prices, issuing money-off vouchers and extending hours as they fear the worst Christmas spend-fest in over 25 years. As the economy begins its slide, businesses are panicking …
… read more …

CHANGE THE ANGLICAN CHURCH

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has cut up his dog collar and is refusing to wear it again until Mugabe is no longer president of Zimbabwe. What a wonderful Archbishop he is, but what’s he doing in the Church of England …
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TONY ON FIT FAT AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Be fat, be fit, and you may live longer than you think … PLUS … Wheelie bin terrorists – oh dear! Is the house market about to collapse?
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world.

FAT ISN’T A DEATH SENTENCE

Being obese does not necessarily mean you are going to die prematurely. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has suggested you can be fat and fit, and if fit, you should be okay.
The fittest fat men and women over 60, it seems, are more likely to live to a good age than their average or slim counterparts. However, I think there is more to it than this.
Fitness is an obvious prerequisite for a healthy life. This goes without saying, and can be achieved by the simplest of exercises. It is a fallacy that you must pump muscle and jog till you drop. But equally important is a state of mind.
In my experience, the happier a person is – the easier they take the knocks of life – the better their chances of survival. So fat isn’t necessarily a death sentence – as long as you’re able to laugh about it.

© Anthony North, December 2007

WHEELIE BIN LADEN

Well there you have it. Forget Osama. Britain is being terrorized by a whole generation of selfish, and dangerous, people who just refuse to obey the rules when it comes to their wheelie bins. And I’m not talking a load of rubbish …
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END OF THE HOUSING AFFAIR

It seems to be coming. UK house prices, inflated for so long, are beginning to stabilize, and in some areas go down in price. A credit squeeze, both national and global, is beginning. City and mortgage lender watchdogs are becoming pessimistic in unison …
… read more …

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TONY ON GM FOOD AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment latest: Genetically modified food being served up again … PLUS … Rising crime, declining courts. Nurses become the new pushers.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world

GM FOOD ON THE MENU AGAIN

Britain’s chief scientist, Sir David King, wants the UK to become a cheerleader for genetically modified food. It is, it seems, the best answer to feeding the Third World. To which I can only say, totally wrong. Go to the back of the science class.
Strange isn’t it how the Third World didn’t wipe itself out before meddlesome Europeans told them how to live? For millennia they somehow just managed not to starve themselves to death.
Or maybe the reason is that the system they had before we interfered was adequate for their needs. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t adequate for ours. Hence, their system had to go, and not only that, WE must be their only saviours.
It seems to me that the esteemed chief scientist is spouting politics, or maybe economics. But definitely not science.

© Anthony North, December 2007

A CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT

Crime appears to be getting out of control. Of course, we’ve known this in the UK for quite a while. Reasons vary from a move away from community, to a decline in the number of Police on the beat …
… read more …

COCAINE PLEASE, NURSE

Plans are afoot to allow nurses to prescribe cocaine to drug addicts free on the National Health Service. Personally, I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before in the UK. It has been several years now since NuLabour went soft on drugs …
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TONY ON HEATHROW AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: Heathrow Airport set to get even bigger … PLUS … Labour funding goes murky, murky, murky. Minority education is the tops.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world.

HEATHROW EXPANSION

Greenpeace UK are beginning a campaign against the planned expansion of Heathrow airport. Already the busiest in Europe, the government has begun a consultation for a third runway and sixth terminal.
This would mean a 70% increase in capacity. Of course, many would say these flights have to come in somewhere, so why not make that place somewhere which is already heavy in traffic anyway?

Well, despite the obvious extra pollution, safety must be taken into account.

No matter how big you make an airport, you can’t increase the size of the airspace above it. And above Heathrow, ‘traffic’ jams and ‘stacking’ are already horrendous.
But the thing that annoys me most about such things is the fact that new technology is already on the drawing board, but ignored, that could vastly reduce such problems without decreasing carriage capacity.

This technology is called many things, but I’ll call it ‘wave-rider’.

Partly boat and partly aircraft, envisioned carriers would skim several hundred feet above water, and approach speeds of existing airliners. Of course, a full investment in the project would take years, but not, perhaps, as long as the new extensions to Heathrow.
But what is so great about this? Well, first of all, it would dock, quietly, at a port instead of airport. And most importantly, any pollution would be lower level, and not deadly for the environment as high altitude emissions are.
If only our ‘far sighted’ multi-nationals could be far-sighted for a change.

© Anthony North, November 2007

FUN-DING DONG CRISIS IN LABOUR

So NuLabour are reeling again. Those naughty little closet-lefties are up the proverbial with big business again, taking money from tycoons in any way they can. And Backroom Boy cum front-man who isn’t, Brown, showed himself up once more in Parliament through his total ineptitude …
… read more …

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Ethnic minority children are now learning the three Rs quicker than white children in the UK. This is a significant improvement from a decade ago, when ethnic minority children were way behind …
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TONY ON NEW ORGANS AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: New procedures in organ transplants for the future … PLUS … Is it time to look again at the Commonwealth? If Blair were still PM.
POSTED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY – from a real voice of Britain and the world

RINSED HEARTS

Scientists are working on a radical method of organ transplant. A system is being developed to ‘rinse’ organs of their existing DNA, and replace it with stem cells from the patient. The hope is that this will stop rejection by the patient’s body.
Of course, it is years from being practical as yet, but I have a suspicion that it may not be all it is cracked up to be. This suspicion has nothing to do with the procedure itself, but the usual ideals of the big medical corporations.
Are we really to believe that they will allow a simple, cheap system to operate without the need for life long drugs after it? Are the corporations going soft?

Possibly.

But two factors I would certainly like to know before this procedure goes ahead. First, can the procedure do it with adult stem cells alone, or will embryonic cells be required, thus allowing more demands for cloning? And second, are there other problems in this procedure that would require a whole new class of life long drugs to allow it to work?
Forgive my cynicism. But by past experience, it is deserved.

© Anthony North, November 2007

EMPOWER THE COMMONWEALTH

The British Commonwealth has suspended Pakistan. Whether this is a good idea or not is debatable. World affairs are rarely of right or wrong, but lesser and greater evils. And such moves could assist in Islamic fundamentalism gaining power in the country …
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IF ONLY BLAIR WERE PRIME MINISTER

I never thought I’d write that title. Of course, I don’t mean it. As far as I’m concerned he never should have been Prime Minister. But many, it seems, wish he still was. Indeed, it is this lacking why Labour is behind in the polls …
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