Recently I was puzzled by something I read in the paper - all about child poverty and how many children, in these tough times, were trapped in that direction.


Poverty? I wonder what poverty means in 2011? Is it that children can no longer have their own TV or DVD? No Playstation or X-Box - or have to put up with last year's model? No £80 trainers or £30 football shirts? Can't afford the latest mobile phone, or latest street fashion? Have to eat boring food at home because there's no money for the chippy or kebab house?


Let me run over some of the things we did and didn't have when we were kids. And before you do, remember that we weren't regarded as being in poverty.


Clothes. Handed down from uncles and aunts and then from sibling to sibling. When my brother got a new (second hand) jacket, I got his old one - and so on. We usually had to scrabble for the under pants or vest! Our shoes were worn until they dropped off! Literally. I have walked to school with cardboard inside my shoes to cover the holes worn through the soles and the toe cap flapping around where it had come away from the upper.


 Food. We were always hungry. We ate what was put in front of us. Crusts were never wasted and were given a smear of Marmite and baked in the oven - like home-made Twiglets! We scrumped apples, ate acorns, dog biscuits and hawthorn berries - anything that wasn't poisonous! 


High Tech. Crystal sets were as near as we could get to a DAB radio - and they mostly didn't work very well. No phones, of course. No TV. No Playstation. We got a torch one Christmas, made by our Dad from a tobacco tin. The battery was inside and he had threaded a bulb in one end. You pressed the lid and on it would come. No mountain bikes with multiple gears for us. If the money was available, we would get a redundant ex GPO bike for 10 shillings. It weighed  a ton and had no gears but kept us fit!


We made our own entertainment, dug holes and caves, climbed trees, swung from ropes, swam in rivers, joined youth clubs, played table tennis. Anything else our fertile imaginations could dream up, was a bonus.


So were we in poverty? I honestly don't know - but we were happy enough. We could transform anything, from a cardboard box to a wooded copse, into anything we wanted. We had imaginations that were unpolluted by the world of TV and videos. The world was full of adventure and exploration. No chance of any accusation of obesity with us kids. Just our legs to get us anywhere and never quite enough to eat, saw to that!


Yes, times have changed - but is it too late to take a long look at the life style we follow....and maybe think again?

Our NHS

Whatever is happening to our NHS and our hospitals? There are scary reports coming out, of neglect and lack of care, disrespect for older patients and even dehydration of patients from lack of water!
What's going on?!
Things are going on in wards that shouldn't be happening - because, to my mind, there is a lack of supervision. Apart from the odd overworked staff nurses, no one is in charge. There is no one to say "Why isn't that done? Why has this patient no water? Why is this person lying in a soiled bed?" With no direct supervision, standards will fall.
Any private company out there, has a boss. Builders have a foreman. Police have a superintendent. Schools have a head master.
So why can't hospitals have someone in charge. Someone who nurses and auxiliaries are answerable to - and dare I say it, a little afraid of? We need to get back to having a Matron!

Ancient History

David Cameron is conspicuous by his absence. Here we are, heading for another recession, the EU is bullying us again over benefits and bailing out their wretched euro, the unions are threatening to bring the country to its knees - meanwhile DC is playing at being a world leader, flying around and doing nothing very important. Bit like  history repeating itself. remember old Nero, sitting playing his fiddle whilst Rome burned?!

They're at it again!

Now the EU are demanding that our schools include lessons on EU Citizenship in their curriculum. Unbelievable! Doesn't this smack of what Hitler started with his Youth movements - creating brainwashed, nasty, poison minded little people who did anything they were asked by the Fuhrer?


We really should watch what our leaders drag us into, EUwise.

David Cameron

I don't want this space to become political but I must say, political matters are putting my BP up just now.
What is Cameron playing at? He was voted in (including my vote) because he gave us such hope and optimism. We would have a referendum on the EU. He would sort out the money grabbing quangos. The useless and much abused Human Rights would be scrapped in favour of a Bill of Rights that would restore faith in our own legal system.
So far....nothing! He doesn't think we should have a vote on the EU. Practically nothing has been done about quangos. They continue to absorb huge sums of our money. Thousands and thousands of criminal immigrants laugh at us and claim their right to live in Britain, despite convictions. Our jails are bursting and still they come.
Cameron has to stop blaming his inaction on the LibDems. He is in charge. Get on with what you promised to do.....otherwise you will be out on your ear come the next election - and into a cushy, well paid number within the EU. (now....I wonder if that's what it's all about when it all boils down?).

Immigration

What's David Cameron playing at?!! Immigration into the UK has increased since they took over.....and despite his promise to get a grip on it. I suspect the liberal Liberals...and in particular, Vince Foot-in-the-mouth Cable! get rid of him now!!!!

How hard?

I remember our old Dad saying to us boys -"If you're going to hit someone, then do it properly - otherwise they'll get up and hit you back."
I'm reminded of this when I listen to the wittering and speculations on the TV when they discuss what sort of force the police should use on rioters and arsonists. If they are going to go in and stop it, then do it properly. And just ignore the pacifists. It's not their house and shops that are being looted and burned.

Some of these tow rags and yobs who have been looting shops and burning them down, have been  explaining why they feel the need to do this. Some choice ones are:-

"We're out on the streets, innit. We're fed up with all these taxes 'n stuff" 

"These shops can afford us taking stuff and that."


Well.....I guess that explains it then. There was also a studio interview with a supposedly intelligent ex gang member who said he "didn't condone it, like....but could understand it." His answer, when asked if he thought that it justified burning homes and looting shops and now killing people, was "Umm....well...."
I think it was all too complicated for him to figure out.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

We have been trying to have a quiet morning but it has been interrupted by cold telephone calls. I thought we had them blocked but they seem to get through. One was by someone wanting to talk about a claim I could make for my motor accident. I told him I hadn't had an accident and didn't want to talk to him.

Then Pam had a call offering her a refund on a mis-sold protection plan. Pointless, as she didn't have one and never had.

Next was some guy I struggled to understand, who had been advised that my computer had been infected. I cut him off mid speil and informed him that he couldn't possibly know anything about my computer and I didn't wish to speak to him anymore!

What's going on??? The world is full of shysters, crooks and greedy legal firms!

The Police

Sometimes I niggle at the police and other times I feel for them. Take what's happening in and around London just now. Violence, thuggery, looting and arson, where the culprits don't give two hoots for the danger they are inflicting on innocent citizens. And what do we hear? The police were unable to control the mobs, didn't stop the looting, yap, yap, yap. Imagine if they had got steamed in, corralled the yobs and tear gassed them, kick their backsides and sent them home or to Casualty. There would have been uproar from the appeasers. The police over reacted! Used too much force! You've heard it all before.
All I can say is we had better make up our minds if we want a strong and effective police force or not. If not, then we will have to accept that the anarchy and lawlessness we are seeing now will get worse.

Finders Keepers.

Sorry to snipe at the police again - but....well, remember the days when, if you found money or a wallet in the street,  you were encouraged to hand it in to the police?
 Well, they don't want you to anymore.
Between 1st Jan and 10th April, Surrey police have taken in the following items, all dutifully handed in by honest citizens, in West Surrey.
114 wallets, purses and bank cards,
 31 handbags/cases,
 49 phones,
 27 jewellery items,
 22 passports,
 8 laptops,
 70 bikes,
 8 cameras,
17 driving licences,
 10 watches,
 2 iPods,
 8 tool boxes - plus sundry money items.

If you had lost any one of those items and were able to recover it, because some kind person had handed it in - how happy and pleased you'd be. Well, the Surrey police don't want you to hand in things you find because they say it isn't their job or responsibility to handle this sort of stuff. Instead, they encourage you to "retain property rather than deposit it at a police station." What that means is keep it. It's yours. Next time you lose your phone or wallet, there's no point in going to see if it's been handed in - it will have been "retained" by whoever found it!

Doesn't it make you wonder where we are all going?

Traffic Cops was on TV the other night. The cops pulled over a chap on a 125cc bike, who was doing nothing dicey or illegal, and started in on him.

"You were probably doing over 30mph but you slowed down so we couldn't check it," said the cop. The lad said he wasn't.

"Is this your bike?" It was.

"Have you got insurance?" He did.

"Is it a full licence or provisional?" It was provisional.

"Where's your L plates then?"

"I had them but they were ripped off."

The cops didn't believe him. The guy might have been trying it on - but the cops seemed to want to get him for something - so they hit him with a £60 fine.

Is it any wonder that bikers don't get on so well with the police?

Racing?

I'm becoming fed up with Formula One. It is rapidly disappearing up its own exhaust pipe and only has itself to blame. Or Bernie Ecclestone. They're not racing anymore - they are using tyres that wouldn't last for a trip to the seaside, options, wets and inters. Pit stops are used to try and pass somebody - called one stoppers, two stoppers, three stoppers or more depending how long they can make the tyres last. Anyone who dares to chance an overtake and gets it a little bit wrong, is penalised and told not to do it again. Racing? Poor old Fangio or Clark will be turning in their grave!

Whatever was wrong with putting four tyres on, that would last the race, filling up with petrol and then having a race to see who could reach the chequered flag first? Watch Moto GP and British Superbikes racing. That's what they do and it is gripping racing. When Sky eventually take all the F1 away from the Beeb - well, good luck to them - I shall watch Moto GP, Superbikes and British Touring Cars.

First grump!

I sometimes wonder whether or not this country...this government, really have the will to put things right. David Cameron wanted an American police chief to be allowed to put his name forward for the post of our own police supremo. Our Home Secretary, (a really useless and obtuse woman; who has, so far, not had a single bright idea) vetoed the proposition. So this very clever and determined man, who practically cleared crime from his own city streets, will not be able to add his ideas toward getting some sort of law and order to our cities and towns.

Questions arise from this. Does Cameron allow his cabinet ministers to say no to something he wants to be seriously considered? Who is in charge here? Does Mr Cameron (of whom I had such high hopes) really desire to crack down on crime, any more than the previous Labour lot wanted to? We'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, if you are out on the streets at night and you get mugged or attacked, don't hit back. You could get yourself arrested!