Why do I do it?

Up to the previous blog, I hadn't written for over a week. But someone said they missed my "pearls of wisdom / insanity".

I'm taking that as a compliment - thanks Clare!

Dying to move?

We have a residential home near us, Winifred Dell House. The private contractors who now run it got planning permission to extend it and increase the number of residents. Then they put in for permission to demolish the whole lot and rebuild, for (I think) the same number of residents. That means that now, all the existing residents will have to be moved out of what has become their home, away from other residents who have become their friends and away from familiar staff. Moving is stressful when you are young and are moving because you've decided to! What will it do to very elderly people? Well, some of them will probably die because of the strain, but of course you can't prove it.

Anyway, in the local paper this week, one of the ladies who lives there who is 87 years old has threatened to chain herself to the railings! And she did, symbolically, this afternoon and it is on ITV "London Tonight" even as I type!

The whole problem of 'privatisation' is illustrated so well here, where 'profit' is the most important thing. We've been told things should be privatised because the private sector can run things better than the public sector. And this is how they do it - by throwing the elderly out of their homes - the unacceptable face of privatisation.

The night's no longer young ...

We often watch the BBC news at 10 pm followed by the London news, from Louisa Preston. Why is it that at at 10.34 pm the lovely Louisa says at the end of the bulletin, "Enjoy the rest of your evening"? By that time I've already fallen asleep once in the main news and all I can do is struggle up the stairs to bed! It must be my age ...

Emotive embryos?

Professor Sir Martin Evans urged MPs voting on embryo research legislation to ignore "emotive arguments" from religious groups. But what exactly is emotive? The professor says the research is needed to develop lifesaving treatments. That sounds pretty emotive to me! Especially as there's no proof or guarantee that the research done will actually produce these treatments.

So 'emotive' seems to mean disagreeing with him. And so the message is, ignore all disagreements!

Sorry, but I'm not going to. The "religious groups" he refers to are an important part of the few who are actually asking the hard questions about ethics and morality in these areas. And the questions need to be asked!

It shouldn't happen to a dog

You know that car advert with the dog singing with confidence in the car but whispering it whilst he shakes elsewhere? Well I'm pleased to tell you that VW has explained the dog was not mistreated during the making of the film. This was in response to (according to one source) 286 complaints from viewers. I also heard that the advert has been withdrawn and I certainly haven't seen it recently.

I haven't heard of masses of complaints against violent video games that are also advertised on TV. Of course, the excuse is they are only fantasy, so that's OK. There again, the dog on the advert didn't actually sing! That was fantasy as well!

My conclusion is it doesn't matter about blowing our fellow human beings to smithereens as long as no animal is hurt. Sometimes I wonder about our culture.

By the way, an RSPCA spokesman is reported to have said, whether or not the dog was harmed, it ought to be in the back of the car and wear a seatbelt (Arrggh!)

A nice meal

Yesterday we went to The Ship at Harwich for lunch. See www.theshipatoldharwich.co.uk It was a very pleasant meal, reasonably priced and friendly service. I had the lamb and potato stew, which came with a chunk of warm bread and my wife had fish and chips. The 'fish of the day' was red mullet. They cook their own food and source it 'ethically'. One thing that means is no cod! So if you are passing, it's worth a visit, and their menu changes each month. The trouble is, no-one passes through Harwich, unless they're on their way to the Hook of Holland ...

Post 'flu ramblings

If you've wondered where I've been, I'm recovering from 'flu! First of all my wife had it, then on Good Friday I went down with it. However, I'm over the worst now and looking back at what's been happening in the world.

Well Mr Mugabe seems still to be trying to hang in there in Zimbabwe. After all, with inflation running at 150,000% (have I got enough zeroes?), most people jobless and very little food in the shops, what's the problem? Give the poor bloke a chance! It was pointed out years ago that Mugabe backwards is e-ba-gum. The Zimbabwean equivalent of that must be being said quite a lot over there as they wait and wait for the election results ...

Then there's terminal five! It has been said that people make mistakes, but it takes a computer to really cock things up and T5 seems to be the best example yet of that! I think it was Michael Flanders who said, "If God had meant us to fly he wouldn't have given us the railways." I think it must have been the devil that added, "As they do want to fly I'll give them BA!"

Apparently the terminal had to be evacuated yesterday because the toilets blocked and flooded. That must be quite a relief after tens of thousands of bags to sort through!

I was thinking, maybe the baggage computer system has a virus. If so, I think the prognosis can't be good - even Terminal!