Black sheep

The news today is not great. It has sadly been dominated by crimes which we would probably rather not hear about. Yesterday, a man was jailed for the murder of five year old April Jones. Today, on my way home, I drove past a mass of police and forensic officers and later learned they were investigating a body believed to be that of the missing teenager, Georgina Williams. Earlier this week, the first of the two men responsible for the murder of Lee Rigby was released from hospital to embark on the legal process which will doubtless incarcerate him for many years to come. The two young men who murdered the Shropshire busker Ben Bebbington by a canal path last September were today given sentences of 16 and 14 years respectively before being considered for parole.

I write this because as bad as these stories are, they are not new. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that the world is a more evil place today than in days gone by. There will sadly always be people of this type. Thankfully, they are newsworthy for their scarcity. I always find it very difficult to understand what must drive anybody to consider taking the life of another. During the past week, strong emotions have been expressed in the wake of the killing of Lee Rigby. Calls to bring back hanging are never too far away when we are confronted by events of this magnitude. Such calls though would be misguided. We have come a long way since Ruth Ellis faced the noose and I would argue our approach since has been far more civilised. I do have sympathy with those who point to the paucity of some of these sentences though. The two lads in Shropshire could conceivably be released in fourteen and sixteen years time which seems rather at odds with the years denied to the innocent man they murdered. An eye for an eye though is a big step backwards to the dark ages from which we pertain to have moved away.

Doubtless, the law will deal very firmly with the two extremists responsible for last weeks' murder outside Woolwich barracks. I shouldn't imagine the two responsible will ever be considered for release because of the seriousness of the crime and their stated potential to repeat it. At a time when fewer people seem to profess a faith, it is regrettable that they have chosen to attribute their act to their faith. There is no such faith which would condone such an outrage. It is easy to forget what a great comfort faith is and can be to millions of people the world over. It does not follow that they will all become murderers in due course.

While all the cases to which I have referred here are distressing, the case of April Jones is arguably the worst. Whatever your opinions of the claims of the two men in Woolwich, at least we know why they did what they did. I'm damn sure we none of us agree with their reasoning but at least they have given us an explanation no matter how unpalatable. I just can't imagine how difficult it must be for the family of Lee Rigby. As for the family of April Jones, they will perhaps never know. Last August, 78 year old Winnie Johnson died. Her son Keith Bennett had been murdered by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady forty five years earlier. I can't imagine a more cruel fate than being condemned to live the rest of your life not knowing. For the sake of April's parents, I hope the man responsible for the death of their daughter has one shred of decency in him and reveals the truth - that is surely the very least they deserve.

Enid Jones - A woman for our times?

She may not be known to the most of us but Enid Jones is at the centre of a debate which threatens to destroy our communities and way of life. In the mid Wales town of Aberystwyth, town planners have approved a proposed retail development which would see yet another large Tesco being built with a three-storey Marks and Spencer outlet.

The proposed development entails an entire street being bulldozed in favour of the corporate big boys. With a promise of 280 jobs, this new development claims that it will result in an extra £1.6 to £3.5 million pounds per year being spent in the town centre. Wrong. Look at any town you care to mention where a new superstore has been built on the fringes of the town centre and the statistics are overwhelming. Town centre spending goes down and key businesses are lost as they seek to fight the supermarket in a battle they can never win. The greengrocer has no chance faced with the buying power and import strength of the supermarkets. The butcher likewise. Even the electrical shop and hardware shop are now in the firing line. The florist will be sweating even as I write. There will be limited scope for a newsagent to compete and even the chemists will take a battering. The only shops which are seen to prosper when the supermarket comes to town are the charity shops. Retail premises haemorrhage their value and many become vacant and remain that way. When they are gone, they have a habit of not returning. Quite how this new development will result in all this extra money being spent in shops which will no longer exist is an absolute mystery to me.

To their shame, local councillors have approved the employment of a compulsory purchase scheme to force Enid out. This house was purchased by this lady nearly a decade ago because she needed to be near to her town centre on the flat so that she could easily access local shops and services. Her medical condition dictated her decision the building the council would destroy is not a house - it is her home. This is a fundamental and very important point. The mantra of local government now appears to be "if we can't get our own way, we'll just use whatever means we can until we do". That they have been allowed to become so powerful is a massive mistake for which we will all pay in due course.

The final decision in this shameful story will rest with the powers that be in the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff. I can only hope that they show a shred of decency and allow themselves to see this charade as it really is. The local council has said they are merely asking Enid to compromise and relocate to another property. If they too could show some compromise, she wouldn't need to. Does Aberystwyth really need a 25,000 square feet Tesco and a 36,000 square feet Marks and Spencer? Will the world stop spinning if they don't go ahead?  The developer has stated that this is the only way they can do it - and the council believes them. What a surprise! If any of these council employees ever spent a month or two working in one of the shops in the town, they might just gain some insight in to just how hard it is and just what a vital service they give. If the qualification for becoming a council employee required people to have previously run a small business, the function of the council would change overnight.

This lady has my full support. Whichever way the council likes to portray their treatment of her, she is being bullied, plain and simple. Stick to your guns Enid. Her right to remain in her home should only be compromised by earthquakes, volcanoes and subsidence - not corporate greed. The leader of the council claims they have no choice because they have to develop their economy and provide a viable future for their young people. Absolute rubbish. If proof were needed of how detached councils are from real business, we need look no further. Tesco and Marks and Spencer exist at the behest of shareholders and operate accordingly. They do not provide a sustainable future any more than local councils do. This is a case of the swindlers promoting the money men. Let us not delude ourselves that the council leader even believes her own words. There will undoubtedly be something in it for the council for them to be supporting it to such a partisan extent. Meanwhile, can they just leave this lady alone in the comfort of her own home or has their regard for us now become none existent?

Reaction

The daylight murder of a British soldier outside his Woolwich barracks this week has given rise to a tidal wave of condemnation from the public and politicians alike. And rightly so. On the same day, the trial was taking place of the man accused of the murder of five year old April Jones. In both cases, a life was needlessly taken but the reason for doing so rather different.

In the case of the murdered soldier, the men responsible cited their reason. They claimed it was done because it highlighted what the British army was doing to people of their faith in other countries. In the case of April Jones, the man accused seems intent on keeping the details of her death and, by intimation, her final resting place, a mystery. This may well end up being referred for psychiatric reports with the accused man being detained indefinitely on psychiatric grounds.

Not so long ago, Norway had to deal with the aftermath of Anders Breivik who saw fit to murder 69 young Norwegians because they belonged to the Workers' Youth League of the Labour Party. Idealogically speaking, Breivik was about as far right as it is possible to be without actually falling off the edge. He was eventually diagnosed as having a condition called narcissistic personality disorder. His far right views were thus attributed more to his psychiatric state than his actual insight.

In each of these three cases, the one common theme is the innocent loss of life or, to put it another way, murder. In the case of the two men in Woolwich who were shot by the police, they will face the music in due course and, no doubt, indulge us with their views, however unpalatable. I am glad they were not shot dead. An eye for an eye would have played directly in to their own warped view of the world. As is stands, they will have to live with the enormity of their actions. Even a brainwashed mind can't be in denial of murder for ever. At 28 years of age, they will have plenty of time to reflect on their action. It has been heartening to see the Islamic community unite in their condemnation of this appalling act. The moslems I know are rightly disgusted that their faith has been sullied in this manner. Whether or not we have a faith, we none of us have the right to take the life of another - under any pretext.

The danger from this weeks' savage killing is the sympathy for the extremists which may ensue - on both sides. As I write, the English Defence League is marching in Newcastle upon Tyne with 1500 people joining them. On the other side of the fence, a radical moslem has this week refused to condemn the actions of the two men in Woolwich. As sickening as this, his views are thankfully in the minority where they belong. The frightening part of all this is that if a General Election was being held this week, I shudder to think how many people would feel disposed to vote for far right parties for all the wrong reasons.

When murders of this or any type occur, they go against common decency and have no place in any society. The perpetrators are understandably reviled by the public. That said, we mustn't make the mistake of striking out against the faith concerned. I know this is already happening and would urge everyone to take stock and calm down. However upsetting this week has been for everyone, what's done is done. Sadly, we can't turn back time but can seek to learn lessons. In the three cases to which I have alluded here, those responsible all seem to have been on the fringes of our society. It is arguably the task of society to reel in those on the fringes and seek to include and integrate them. Ostracising them will only have the opposite effect and will help nobody.

For the family of the murdered soldier, I may only guess at their grief. A two year old boy has now been deprived of his Dad and his wife and family are now faced with picking up the pieces. They have been in my thoughts all week because I know they face a very difficult time in the days, weeks and months to come.

This weeks events are a blessing for people like Nick Griffin and the English Defence League but they needn't be. As a society, we must keep our resolve and not descend to the level which has abhorred us all this week.

The media has been widely chastised for its graphic portrayal of the events in Woolwich as they unfolded. While they might have been more discreet in their editing, mobile phones with cameras and video allied to a vibrant social media will forever more ensure that such events are shown to us all. Whether we want to see them is up to us. There will always be those who seek to create division among us. Our job is to be even more determined to stand firm.  

Keyboard Giant

It is not difficult to explain why Ray Manzarek was such a highly regarded musician. The former Doors keyboard player has died aged 74. His musical legacy will last a great deal longer than that. Before the 1960s came along, rock and roll music had become very formulaic with lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums usually augmenting a good looking singer. All that changed when early 60s groups started to realise the impact the organ was having on their sound.

With the notable exception of the Beatles who only incorporated it late in their career with Billy Preston guesting on several tracks, most 60s bands of note had a decent keyboard player. The rhythm section of drums, bass and keyboard was, if you'll pardon the pun, instrumental to their sound. Drums aside, the combination of bass guitar and keyboard was integral to the sound of many stellar acts.

The Small Faces had Ronnie Lane and Ian Maclagan. The Animals had Chas Chandler and Alan Price. Deep Purple had Roger Glover and Jon Lord. ELP had Greg Lake and Keith Emerson. The Rolling Stones at various intervals had Bill Wyman and Nicky Hopkins. I list these bands because I would consider their respective keyboard players to be the very best to emerge from that most influential decade. The Doors, by comparison, had Ray Manzarek - he was that good. He played bass with his top keyboard using one hand and played standard keyboard below it with the other. Like Jon Lord, Keith Emerson and Nicky Hopkins, he had been classically trained and was equally at home with classical, jazz or any other genre you cared to throw at him.

It is widely believed that the enduring appeal of the Doors' music can be attributed to the mythical status of their erstwhile singer Jim Morrison. The fact is that Ray Manzarek was far more important - he made their sound possible. Listen to any of their songs and you will appreciated the extent to which he absolutely dominated the group. His other group was his musical inventiveness and willingness to experiment. Playing it safe wasn't his style and thus the boundaries were pushed. Boots like his are nigh on impossible to fill. The most the contemporary musicians can aspire to is simply to try and copy some of those magical patterns he created. I wish them luck.

The acid rock of the Doors is now stuck in time in that golden musical era which happened between 1966 and 1971. Its legacy is timeless.

Compromise - the hardest choice of all?

In August 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis heralded the Worldwide credit crunch which has been the albatross around all our necks ever since. We continue to pay the price as we seek, like the mole at the beginning of "The Wind in The Willows", to emerge from our dark world in to daylight.

Food prices in the UK have risen a staggering 40% since the beginning of the financial crisis. Inflation has continued unabated at 3.5% despite the government targeting a rate of just 2%. The 2% target will not be met for a very long time simply because food and fuel inflation is so exorbitantly high. As a society, we are all directly affected by these two parameters and seem set to remain so for a long time to come. Fuel poverty is said to apply to anyone who is spending more than 10% of their income on heating their home. This puts a lot of people in fuel poverty in the UK today.

It is therefore all the more baffling to witness the growth in out of town retail parks at a time when the fuel to get us there has never been more costly and the food to purchase so expensive. This begs the question: Why do we choose to shop in this way? Our net disposable incomes have never been lower and yet still we seek a little retail therapy to make ourselves feel what? A bit better? Over the past twenty years our high streets have become increasingly barren with major retailers choosing to relocate to lucrative out of town venues.

An interesting trend has started to emerge recently. The supermarket dominated retail sector has started to spot that not as many people are venturing out to their out of town retail palaces. Their response has been to seek premises on our high streets just in case they might be missing out on some of our income. Of course, the big problem is that like that that other scourge of modern society, the banks, they don't face any serious opposition. We all have a choice though. As our net disposable income is gradually squeezed, we naturally become a little more discerning in terms of where we chose to part with our money.

One thing is certain. Because of the rising price of petrol and diesel, shopping on our local high street has to be cheaper. It is up to the independent retailers to entice us. We have nothing new to learn about the supermarkets. We are all well versed in their marketing gimmicks. The supermarkets with loyalty schemes seem to have hit on something. Perhaps this is the way the local high street can fight back. If they join ranks and create a collective loyalty scheme, they stand a far better chance of getting their locals back. Recessions invariably serve one important purpose. They habitually get rid of the dead wood so that the retailers left standing are more efficient and focused.

Ultimately, both we the consumers and our local high street retailers have to compromise together to regain our once thriving retail sector. A retail sector dominated by four or five big players is not healthy. It needs to be spread out between more players and more local. If the supermarkets couldn't offer cheap booze, cheap petrol, loss leaders and loyalty cards, the playing field would be a lot more level. That won't change though so local retailers need to join forces and play them at their own game. We, the consumers, will ultimately choose whether we want a vibrant high street or not. Fuel poverty might just help us to make up our minds. The battle is between globalism and localism and it is up to us think carefully about which we want in the future. 

Friend or foe?

Sheila Dillon is the presenter for the Food Programme on Radio 4. In a recent article she turns her attention to a subject I was writing about in the year 2000. She was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma which is a comparatively rare cancer of the bone marrow.

On her visits to her local cancer treatment centre she was surprised to encounter ambivalent staff attitudes towards nutrition. On each visit, she was offered a white bread sandwich, a fizzy drink and either a chocolate bar or some biscuits. I can well believe this because I saw the same things being offered to my first wife in 2000 when she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I am dismayed to see that little has changed because there are no excuses for this

It is counter-intuitive to ignore nutrition when treating someone with a cancer diagnosis. Granted, if the cancer is of genetic origin, the diet of the individual is likely to be limited in its effect on their long term outcome. A great many cancers though are not genetic and by deduction are either environmental or maybe even psychosocial in origin. One of the problems in all of this is that current medical education is entrenched in evidence-based medicine. This is all well and good but does close its eyes to anything outside of that box.

In 2007, the World Health Organisation stated that 60% of oesophageal cancers, 45% of all colorectal cancers and 38% of breast cancers could be prevented with just three core strategies. A healthy diet, a healthy body weight and regular physical activity all contribute to these claimed reductions. Much has been written about the Mediterranean diet and rightly so because it is very straightforward and very healthy. The only notable omissions to this diet are heavily processed foods, refined flours, sugars and specifically, saturated (animal) fat. The best part is that we don't need to live in the Mediterranean region to achieve it.

Surely when our body is being presented with the challenge of fighting a cancer, the best thing to do is to give it the best available fuel to do the job? Of course, some cancers sadly remain untreatable but many are now treated very well so it makes sense to stack the odds in our favour when we can. If no less a body than the World Health Organisation recognises this fact, why are our health professionals not doing likewise? The average hospital in this country, regardless of cancer treatment centres, are littered with vending machines which dispense most of the very foodstuffs which we should be seeking to avoid. Why is this being allowed? If patients choose to bring their own food in to the hospital that is a matter for them but please don't offer them the wrong foods from the hospital itself. The hospital ought to be promoting health, not exacerbating it.

I suspect the real reason the hospitals place such a small premium on nutrition is that it seems like too much hard work. For a start, staff would have to be seen to be adopting the same approach to their own health which, with due respect, is not always the case. The big food manufacturers who benefit from the proceeds of such vending machines might also have something to say about it. More than this though, we as a society have become progressively more attuned to a high carbohydrate diet which is now known to be detrimental to our long term health. The real challenge therefore seems to be one of change through better education. When we go to the shops today, the marketing begins even before we have entered. Look at the special offers the next time you go to a supermarket and ask yourself this? How many of these offers tick the boxes of the Mediterranean diet? That is to say, how many of these offers are not processed food, not high in saturated fat, not high in sugar and not high in refined flour? You will not find many and that is because it is the food manufacturers who are reliant on maintaining our eating habits to sustain their profits for their shareholders. Ironically, with a work-based or personal pension, you are probably already contributing to their profits and your own pension because it is likely that your pension provider has a vested interest in their success. It is therefore clear that effecting such a change is going to be like pushing the proverbial elephant up the hill.

That said, we all have the capacity to choose what we allow in to our bodies. The challenge is to try to be even stronger than the lure of the marketing which seeks to keep us hooked in to this cycle of inferior nutrition. It is surely one of the great ironies of our age that the very poor in countries such as China and India have diets far superior to our own because they can scarcely afford to eat meat or processed foods. It is only us in the West with our disposable incomes who can afford to eat so badly to maintain the pressure on our already buckling Health Service.

I attended a small talk the other day given by a nutritionist and she asked a question which made me think. What was the last thing you had to eat and did you enjoy it? I think that if we all made a habit of asking ourselves this simple question on a regular basis, things might start to change for the better and we would all start to see the light. A bit of food for thought on a lovely Sunday in spring. Great day for a walk in the country? 

Behind blue eyes

Tomorrow marks the 68th birthday of one of the most influential musicians of the 1960s. The 60s were the stand-out decade for musical expansion beginning as they did with Elvis, Buddy and Cliff and ending with Led Zepellin, Elton John and David Bowie. Of course, it was the acts in the middle who dominated the scene. In particular, the Beatles bestrode the decade as Gulliver amongst the Lilliputians. Not far behind them came The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. For their part, the Americans gave us the Beach Boys, the Byrds and the Monkees. Back in the UK, the band who were to conquer America unlike any other were the Who.  They alone played all the iconic gigs: Woodstock, Monterey and the first Isle of Wight festival. As a stage act, they were second to none.

Yesterday marked the 49th anniversary of the multiple arrests made on Brighton Beach as rival gangs of Mods and Rockers engaged in fights on the beach. Culturally, they constituted the polar opposites of 60s youth. The Rockers gravitated towards the early rock and roll sound of people like Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochrane. The film Easy Rider could have been made for them. The Mods by contrast were more concerned with looking the part and espoused the early rhythm and blues music which was making its way over to the UK from the States. A wave of British groups sprang up to epitomise Mod Culture. They dressed in the coolest Italian fashions and eschewed large British motorbikes in favour of the more aesthetically stylish Italian scooter. The Mod movement was very image-orientated and even its music was very cool compared to established sound of rock and roll.

The main UK proponents of the Mod cause were the Small Faces, the Yardbirds and the Who. Each started off covering rhythm and blues standards and quickly progressed to writing their own songs. The Small Faces had the songwriting partnership of lead singer and guitarist Steve Marriott with diminutive bass player Ronnie Lane. For the time they were together, they turned out a very impressive back catalogue culminating in the highly regarded concept album "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" featuring the gobbledygook English narration of the incomparable Stanley Unwin. The Yardbirds became the laboratory for guitar players and restricted themselves to three - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Difficult to top that trio in any era. The Yardbirds relied on song writing from all parts of the band with Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja and Jim Macarty all contributing regularly. The Who were reliant on the songwriting genius of the man who turns 68 tomorrow. Peter Dennis Blanford Townshend remains the driving force for the group as it approaches its fiftieth year in the business.

In 1964, they scored their first hit with "Can't explain" but it was their third in 1965 which brought them to everyone's attention. My Generation was the youth anthem for the 1960s. It is remarkable to reflect that Pete Townshend was still only nineteen when he wrote it. The immortal lyric "I hope I die before I get old" seemed somehow to sum up how the youth felt about the older generation. They struggled to relate to a generation who had lived through the Second World War with all its hardship and distress. Townshend's generation didn't want that life. They wanted excitement. They wanted to experiment. They wanted to push the boundaries. They didn't want to be dictated to by an older generation who just didn't understand. The song was, and remains, a masterpiece which captured the musical zeitgeist of the time. The stuttering vocals of Roger Daltrey suggest the use of the F word but cleverly transmute into Fade away.

Townshend's musical accomplishments seemed always to be one step ahead of the game at least until Quadrophenia was released in 1973. Two years earlier, he had released the album which remains their finest, Who's Next. The album resulted from an aborted project in which Pete Townshend had placed much faith. The Lifehouse project never came to fruition but had been intended to stage a new type of musical show in which the audience and the band where as one, all searching for that elusive perfect note. In hindsight, it all probably seems a load of hippy nonsense. Be that as it may, the album which resulted was extraordinary with ten tracks. It is impossible to point to a weak track. Of the ten though, three in particular stand out: "Won't get fooled again", "Baba O'Reilly" and the semi-autobiographical "Behind Blue Eyes".

The lyrics of the latter are widely held to be written about himself. "No-one know what it's like, To be the bad man, To be the sad man, Behind blue eyes". Its a very poignant song dripping in angst and frustration. I suspect few people could listen to it without identifying at least in part with the lyric.

Well, he didn't die before he got old although plenty of his musical peers did. Like them, he too experimented with drugs and alcohol but he got lucky. The death in 1978 of the Who's legendary drummer Keith Moon  at the age of just 32 was surprising only for the fact that he had managed to live that long. At the height of his own addiction in the early 1980s, few would have foreseen the Modfather reaching his 68th birthday.  That he has done so is perhaps testament to the irony of his 1965 lyrics. "I hope I die before I get old" was perhaps just a passing swipe at the establishment which he so despised. To coin an interesting quote from the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited, rather than having a great will to live perhaps "he has an even  greater fear of death". Anyway, Happy Birthday Pete and as a lifelong fan, many thanks for the music.    

Beware false idols

It is sometimes tempting amid the challenges of our own lives to regard those in the media with awe. Seldom though do we choose to admire the people most worthy of it. A case in point is a lady called Julie Bailey. Her 86 year old mother died at Stafford Hospital in five years ago. Like many of the deaths which occurred there, her mother's was entirely preventable. The night before her mother died, she resolved to do something about the scale of suffering and neglect prevalent at that time. She set up an organisation called "Cure the NHS" and has been steadily paying the price ever since. Since standing up for better patient treatment, she has thus far been spat at, she has had human faeces delivered through her door, she is called vile names in the street and to cap it all, the grave of her late mother has been defaced. Locals have now all but boycotted her cafe in the town and she is now living in rented accomodation. In spite of all this, Julie Bailey carries on undiminished. Determined to see through her quest to change her local hospital for the better, she is being targeted by local people employed there.

When I read stories like hers, I feel very humble. She is a remarkable lady. Her crime is to try to change for the better an organisation which has become complacent. The facts don't change. 1200 people died at that hospital who needn't have done. She is to be applauded for her actions and I hope she succeeds not just because she deserves to but because we will all be the beneficiaries. To his credit, Jeremy Lefroy, her local MP has publicly come out in her defence and highlighted the good she has already achieved. Standards of care at the hospital have improved dramatically since she began her campaign but that is just Stafford. What about your local hospital? Those employed at hospitals don't have a job for life. Neither do they have a right to their job. They have an obligation to provide the highest possible standards of care to the patients on the wards. If the NHS is free at the point of access to us all, the least we can expect is that those being paid to work there do so to the highest possible standards of care and compassion. After all, if like Julie your own mother had died needlessly in great pain at your local hospital, wouldn't you be moved to say something about it?

I began this post by alluding to our tendency to idolise people in the media. For two days now, the BBC has been fixated with the announcement that the football player David Beckham is to retire. Maybe I'm getting old but I really don't understand the fuss. The ex-England winger Chris Waddle today asserted that if a list of the top 1000 players of the past thirty years was compiled, Beckham wouldn't even be on it. For the record, I entirely agree. That said, Chris Waddle seems an eminently better judge than I. He infamously missed a penalty at the World Cup in Italy in 1990. They lost that semi-final against the then West Germany and remain the team who have come closest to reaching the final since the class of 1966. Beckham is merely an example of the demise of the modern game. Big on money and short on talent, the modern game is more about marketing than football. He has been marketed quite cleverly and has squeezed every last penny on offer. He was created by the then Fulham Chairman Jimmy Hill who campaigned for the abolition of the maximum wage in the early 1960s. The then England captain Johnny Haynes became the first player to earn £100 per week and the rest, as they say, is history. Beckham wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the '60s, '70s or '80s because he would have been kicked off the park. He has had one basic talent. He could kick with reasonable accuracy a ball at a goal from close range. That does not constutute a great football player. Famously, he was sponsored by Brylcreem earlier in his career. How ironic!

Ironic because that product will always be synonymous with one of the greatest sportsmen this country has ever produced. His grandson now opens the batting for England. His grandson has a very long way to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath as Dennis Charles Scott Compton CBE. With Dennis, it wasn't just the avalanche of runs which he mercilessly plundered from bowlers of all denominations for nigh on twenty years. It was far more than that. After the war, Dennis gave comfort and pleasure to a lot of people through his batting and his personality. Like Beckham, he was admired for his looks. Unlike Beckham, he was dripping in talent and leaves a trail of achievements the like of which will never be seen again. He scored his first century against the old enemy Australia in 1938 at the age of 19. His 3816 runs in the 1947 season will stand for ever. Averaging 90.85, he scored the small matter of 18 centuries and the touring South Africans couldn't board their boat home soon enough. There was not a petulant bone in his body - even when things weren't going his way. Unlike Beckham. As a winger with Arsenal, he won the league and the FA cup. He has a stand named after him at his beloved Lords cricket ground and fittingly, he died on St. Georges Day in 1997. He only ever played for Middlesex but not for the money. He was from Middlesex. It was people did in the golden age of sport. By comparison, he was afforded a brief mention by the BBC when he died. Granted he made a bit of money out of advertising Brylcreem but neither was it an obscene amount.

When we choose idols, even Dennis Compton must step aside for the likes of Julie Bailey because she is achieving the hardest of all challenges. She seeks to effect change and is quire prepared to go through all the unpleasant repercussions to get there. Well done Julie - keep up the good work.       

Even the bad times are good!

History has a relentless capacity to highlight the things we say today. Sometimes it does so to our credit but mainly it does so to our detriment. In the week where our future involvement in Europe simply won't go away, it is today announced that France has once more retreated into recession. As the second largest European economy, this ought to be setting our alarm bells ringing. If we consider the mire within which Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus find themselves, arguments to remain a member of the European Union become increasingly more desperate.

The normally reticent Labour leader, Ed Milliband has paddled in to the debate nearly up to his ankles by accusing the PM of having lost control of his party. On the contrary, losing control of his party is the best thing that has happened to the Tories for a long time - it has allowed them to bring the subject of EU membership out in to the public arena. This is essential because it is ultimately the public who will make that decision. While they may be accused of hiding behind the confines of being in coalition, the Tories have made clear their preference for an "in or out" referendum. The only difference between UKIP and the Tories is therefore their respective capacities to do anything about it. I would argue that the real pressure is now shifting slowly but surely on to the shoulders of the Liberals and Labour. They need to spell out where they stand and give the rationale for their decision. Given that poll after poll shows clearly that the British electorate wants such a referendum, it is clear that Clegg and Milliband are now becoming isolated. This explains why Milliband has chosen to attack the Tories for disunity. It is a poor attempt to distract attention away from the intentions of his own party. Sooner or later though, he will have to come clean with the voters and whatever direction he chooses will condemn him. Choose to stay in Europe and he goes against the majority opinion. Choose to leave the EU and he's just jumping on the bandwagon of UKIP and the Tories. Good luck.

News that unemployment is going up is hardly surprising. This coalition has been forced to oversee a comprehensive reduction in the numbers being employed by the Public Sector (state). That the figures are actually better than they were a year ago is a miracle and the coalition deserves some credit. It is sad to see the ever increasing numbers of young people out of work. On the same day, a third of students on University degree courses express their dissatisfaction with their course. It seems clear that the obsession with gaining a degree and the myth underpinning the future employment opportunities associated with them, is starting to become clearer. It is pointed out that a record number of job vacancies remain unfilled. This suggests that those seeking the jobs are in a financial position where they can afford to pick and choose. It is well documented that young adults now increasingly reside with their parents until well into their 30s in many cases. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining their evident levels of discernment.

France has just announced a proposed tax on 4G access. This is a surprisingly good idea. They propose to invest the proceeds in to education. Given the insatiable appetite of all ages for this mode of communication, this seems inspired.

It is revealed that A and E departments nationwide are at breaking point unless they receive more investment. Where from? This revelation just provides more weight to the argument that the privatisation of the NHS is now inevitable. The NHS is the envy of the  world not particularly because of its excellence (although it is very good), but because even seasoned intellectuals can't understand how you can finance such a costly service free at the point of access to everybody. Of course, the answer is that you can't. If a contributory element was introduced, however modest, much of the current strain on emergency services would be curtailed.

That said, it was recently admitted by a prominent leader of the GPs in this country that 10 minutes is not enough for consultations involving mental health issues. Genius! All bets are now off for the 2013 winner of the State The Obvious awards. This is a huge issue which ought to have been resolved a long time ago. Funding for mental health is habitually slashed in favour of "mainstream" medicine. But, all health begins with mental health so why don't we have this as our priority? It seems perfectly straightforward to me. On the same note, why don't we address the main causes of mental health issues? Why don't we have a re-think about alcohol availability? Why don't we look again at our drug laws? Why don't we seek to integrate our ageing population more into society rather than condemning them to the sidelines?

If the politicians really want to engage with the electorate, I suggest that they start with health. If they deal properly with health, including and especially mental health, the jobs will come. Labour still thinks that if we build a load of houses, everything will be alright in the end. It won't. It will take more than bricks and mortar to put right our current problems. They may come later. We have a burgeoning population of young people of varying degrees of qualification who need the self worth which comes with employment. They will merely add to the existing tidal wave of mental illness unless they are employed. Our fixation with wealth and money is now our Achilles' heel because we have now spawned a generation who pick and choose the jobs they are prepared to do.

When Cuba faced enormous financial difficulties in the 1990s, the government invested in 100,000 bicycles so that the people could get from A to B. Now there's an idea! Get fit, use less fuel, feel better about yourself, relieve the strain on the NHS and move more towards local regeneration where the local community once more comes together for the common good.   

Denbigh: Too many chiefs?

In terms of the imbalances facing towns up and down the country, Denbigh is a great example of where it has all gone wrong. Of the working population living in the town, two out of every five are employed in the Public Sector. As a proportion, this is one of, if not the, highest in the United Kingdom. As I write, about one in five retail premises in the town is vacant. Can you spot the connection?

The town is a shadow of the one I grew up in. Now, we are the takeaway capital of North Wales with a quite mind blowing array of shops catering to our greed. At the last count, we have three Indian resaurants, two chip shops, two kebeb shops, three (yes, three!) chinese takeaways and a solitary bakery to fly the flag for British! Three cafes also fight for our seemingly unremitting committment to gorge ourselves to death. To complement this gourmet feast, we are also spoiled beyond measure with a hospice charity shop whose front window would grace Harrod's. Imminently, we are also to have an animal rescue charity shop. Luckily, these are supported by no fewer than ten pubs (there are more down the hill), one of which even serves food where you actually have to sit down to eat it. Curiously for a town which boasts so many vacant retail premises, there are also three estate agents. In the midst of this galaxy is the ubiquitous Co-Op which continues to thrive. A lone butcher soldiers on providing truly excellent fayre and a newsagent fights against the tide. In terms of national retail, we have Boots and Holland Barrett both of which are more synonymous with health - ironic given how many fast food establishments we have.

There are other premises of course, but my point is to concentrate on why there are so many vacant retail premises and why there are so many Public Sector employees. The two go hand in hand. The arrival in the 1990s of Safeway, as it then was, away from the town centre coincided with the end of the livestock market. I would guess that livestock market had been in Denbigh in one form or another for more centuries than Denbigh has takeaways. In it's place came the dreaded supermarket since occupied by Morrison's. In addition, a new Council Building appeared which continues to dominate our landscape in more ways than one. Quite what all the people do there is rather a mystery but I'm sure it's all for a reason.

To add to the woes of the original High Street, three in ten of the working population now work in areas more than fifteen miles away from the town. It is not difficult to see why money is being spent elsewhere while the High Street sleeps it's way through a gradual demise.

We have a castle here built by Edward I not that you'd know it. As castles go, it is a good one too which has fired the imagination of every child who has ever visited. Outside the town is a little old cottage which slowly crumbles with the passage of the years. This was the residence of no less a person than the celebrated lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson. A little further on, a monument to him still stands in a spot so beautiful, you would never want anyone else to know about it. And few people do. The country walks surrounding Denbigh are steeped in history and reveal this part of North Wales in all its beauty.

There are sadly a number of buildings here which stand empty. Sad because they were the hubs of our community not so long ago. The cinema, the Church Institute, the Crown Hotel, I could go on. This town is crying out for its people to come together and start using it again. The council with its over inflated workforce pertains to have plans to change things for the better but this is an irrelevance. Councils do not effect change and seldom do they facilitate it. Communities and the people within them are the real agents of change. If you are from Denbigh or have a connection with it, I would welcome your comments on how we can restore it to the town where the community once made things happen.

The derelict North Wales Hospital would never have been built without the will of the local people. The annual Roll the Barrel competition on Boxing Day would not have started without the local community making it happen. I could go on all night but my point is made. I care passionately about this, the town of my birth. Do you?      

What motivates you?

About twenty years ago, I attended a sales motivation course in London. At the beginning of the course, the trainer asked the delegates to each write down the one thing which motivated them the most. The majority of those present wrote down "money". I wrote down achievement. If asked to repeat this exercise, I would still write achievement down. Nothing in the past twenty years has convinced me that money alone can motivate me.

When I embarked on my medical degree in 2008, a group of students were asked by a tutor in basic life support, to reveal the reasons why they were studying medicine. The majority cited money as the main reason. I write this not to judge them but rather to make a wider point. In fact, I can well understand why a lot of people do see financial reward as the main reason to pursue a medical career. Given that many young medical students arrive straight from school entering a world in which money is consistently portrayed as being the be-all and end-all, it is little wonder that they feel motivated by money. Perhaps it has always been this way and people become a little less obsessed as they grow older.

Few people in today's world do anything out of pure altruism so it is unreasonable to expect a medical student to be any different. Talk of medicine being a vocation is the talk of yesteryear. I would argue that the students who said money was their biggest motivator were being a little less than honest though. I say this because even though they will potentially earn a high salary when they eventually qualify, there are many other professions which would offer them far greater financial reward. I suspect that what really motivates a lot of medical students is the challenge of making it through an academically challenging qualification process. In other words, it is the competitive aspect of a medical degree which provides them with their true motivation.

If evidence were ever needed that money seldom achieves true motivation, the FA Cup final provided a good example today. The haves of Manchester City faced the comparative have-nots of Wigan Athletic. The pre-match odds being offered against a Wigan win were about 10-1. In a two horse race, such odds are rare indeed. The odds reflected the chasm in performance between the two teams over the whole season in the league. They also reflected the illogical assumption that a player being paid £200,000 must be more highly motivated than a player being paid £20,000 per week. As today proved, this is simply not the case. To be absolutely fair, the Manchester City players had the same 90 minutes within which to exert their alleged superiority. That they did not do so would appear to reflect the fact that they were not sufficiently motivated. To follow the argument that money is indeed the greatest motivator, you would keep on increasing their wages until they eventually start to win matches like this. The reality of course is that it has little to do with money except that too much can actually become demotivating. I am pleased for Wigan but still think their players are paid far too much money for what they are actually expected to do. How can anybody morally defend wages of £20,000 per week while people abroad and in our own country go hungry? Human nature dictates that few among us would turn down such wages if offered them so in one sense, they are no different to us.

The Royal Society of General Practitioners today expressed concern that long term carers are at risk from depression and mental illness. They claim that General Practitioners need to play a greater role in addressing this. Carers have been propping up our creaking Health Service for donkey's years and remain the unsung heroes in our society, The scandal is not that GPs aren't do more to help them. The real scandal is that our society has become so insular that many such carers have nobody to turn to. When you become a carer, it is shocking how quick your social sphere disappears. You become preoccupied to provide care and get forgotten about in the process. It is a grueling task with limited reward. The motivation for the army of carers who do this invaluable job day in, day out, is seeing the positive effect of their efforts on their loved one. I can say from personal experience that you would definitely not do it for the money because the financial recognition for carers in this country is risible. You do it for the love and the bad days frequently outnumber the good. As far as I can make out, in the unlikely event that such a carer can actually grab a quick half hour to even visit the doctor in the first place, the only real help the doctor could provide would simply be to listen to them and allow them to offload some of their difficulties. If this is all GPs do, it will be a massive step in the right direction.  

  

Europe: Why it really matters.

Amid the recent wave of sympathy for UKIP during the local council elections, their stance on membership of the European Union is widely believed to account for their appeal. Our continued membership of the EU is now rather like a long playing record. There is a good reason for this. A succession of British Governments from Thatcher to the present day have valiantly attempted to punt the issue into the proverbial elephant grass. The trouble is, everyone knows it is still there and it is now forty years since the electorate was last deemed worthy of expressing their opinion. This is why it really matters.

Only today, a group of Conservatives are planning to introduce a Commons motion to force the House to vote on the matter. While this may seem like a step in the right direction, it once again misses the point. It is not for them to decide. Until the electorate decides, the discontent will continue to simmer until it ultimately reaches boiling point. It is the short distance to the latter upon which UKIP have so cleverly played.

Abu Qatada is once more in the news today. In his latest attempt to expose the weakness of the British legal system, he has suggested the conditions under which he is prepared to return to Jordan where he holds citizenship. Quite simply, it is membership of the EU which allows this farce to continue. As loathsome as it is to house somebody with such extreme views, in one way he is correct to show how stupid the British legal system is. The British system doesn't need his help though because everyone knows that they can't rule on anything without the due consent of the European Parliament.

It is now quite clear that the issue of EU membership will utterly dominate the result of the general election two years hence. The question we need to ask ourselves is really quite simple. What type of Britain do we want? We can either elect to stay in and suffer all that goes with that including the massive cost or we can decide to leave and go back to how we were (for the previous few thousand years).

That bit is simple enough. The tricky bit is deciding upon the party who seems most willing to let us decide. As things stand, only the pint supping fag smoking UKIP offers this choice. The Tory pledge is so tied up in political knots, it would take Houdini to work it out. If the Tories, Labour and the Liberals make no alteration to their current committments, UKIP will garner a huge wedge of votes. They may even claim some Westminster seats. They could conceivably form a part of the next coalition. Let us not delude ourselves. The chances of another majority Government are very slim now. If the latest local council elections are even slightly reliable, Labour has hardly made any inroads at all. The Liberals are being punished for a series of U-turns but their votes will largely return. The main reason the Liberal vote will hold good is that so many people have so little trust in the Tories and Labour.

The UKIP leader compared himself last week to David Owen and the SDP in the early 1980s. Not unreasonable except that the SDP was headed by a number of intellectual heavyweights and acquired a healthy number of Westminster seats. It is tricky to see their counterparts in UKIP doing likewise today. Put simply, UKIP are the party who give you a say on EU membership. If you are indifferent to people like Abu Qatada being housed here at our expense, UKIP will hold no appeal for you. I suspect though that the latter will be in a conspicuous minority. On this basis, UKIP are a force to be reckoned with until such time as one of the other parties matches their bold resolve.

I have twice visited Switzerland in the last few years and see no reason why leaving the EU will affect our trade one iota. Much of the arguments for continued membership simply don't hold water. Our trade outside of the EU is rising steadily and the Germans in particular trade far more with us than we do with them. The next two years will be interesting if only to observe the meanderings of the Tories and Labour in terms of their committments to EU membership. Interesting times ahead.     

Lest we forget.

It is now 68 years since Winston Churchill announced to the British people that the war with Germany was over. The surrender had been signed the previous day at the American Headquarters in Rheims. The following day, the surrender was ratified in Berlin by the Russian leader, Joseph Stalin. Meanwhile, Japan remained at war until August when the dropping of two atomic bombs arguably changed history forever.

Estimates of the fatalities generated by that war vary between 50 and 75 million lives. Such numbers almost render the value of those lives meaningless. In just six years, the equivalent of the current population of the UK was wiped out. Of course, all war is pointless and this one served to underline this better than most. Against huge odds, Churchill orchestrated an unfeasible victory and eventually secured peace. In the aftermath of the Second World War political idealogy was polarised between those living to the West of Berlin and those to the East. It took 45 years to bring down that wall and begin the process of idealogical softening. The cost of victory to the UK was crippling. The attrocities exacted upon enemies during that war were of the most unspeakable, inhumane nature. In some ways, it is easier not to read about them and live our lives in ignorance of them. That would fail to learn from them though.

The price of this war left the UK on the cusp of bankruptcy. Only for the provision of long term loans by our American allies were we able slowly to emerge from the ashes. One of the first decisions of the newly elected Labour government was to embark on a project of Nationalisation of our industries, most notably coal. That time in our history is often referred to as the age of austerity and here we are again!

This would be rather more difficult today since we have so little national industry to speak of. The obscene profits being generated by the privatised utility companies do provide a good example of where nationalisation would actually benefit people though. It was four years ago almost to the day that the then Chancellor Alistair Darling warned that we faced our worst fiscal outlook since the second world war. This, I think, sums up just what a complete mess the Labour government had made of the economy. On the day we should be remembering VE day and the millions of lives sacrificed along the way, it is instructive to consider the impact of mismanagement and speculation on the nation's finances. The Second World War was inevitable since Nazi Germany had made their intentions clear. We had no choice and the debt accumulated by its end was the price we had to pay. The last government did have a choice though and for thirteen years they kept getting it wrong. When times were good they spent money like water. When times were bad, they spent money like water. They now have the gall to accuse the incumbent government of not spending enough to stimulate the economy. On a technical note, we don't have that money to spend. To householders up and down the country, this is the principle by which they lead their lives so it is baffling to understand why the last government felt itself exempt!

Although it is the anniversary of Victory in Europe day, it would not have been obvious reading the BBC news today. We had notification of the Queen's speech as the main headline. Fair enough. We then had blanket coverage of the retirement from football management of Alex Ferguson. As a role model to thousands of young players, he has represented the worst aspects of the professional era. He has silverware certainly but the way he has acquired it would have been difficult to understand for those who lost their lives in the war. I do hope that by tomorrow, the BBC can discover something more worthwhile upon which to report. There must surely be more reason than ever to remember the events of 68 years ago - if we intend to learn from them.  

The ghost of Mr. Micawber

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." So said Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield. Although painfully simplistic, this message resonates today as much as it ever did.

A survey for the consumer magazine Which today revealed that one household in five is borrowing money or eating in to their savings to pay for their food bills. From a purely Maslowian perspective, the need to eat is basic. I wonder though how many people reading this are happy that they are eating enough rather than too much? The Which survey reveals that the average food bill per head stands at £76 per week. Food prices are reported to have increased by 4% since last year. Sixty per cent of those surveyed admitted to experiencing difficulty on their current income. In April, nearly a third revealed that they had borrowed money from family and friends to buy food.

"So now, as an infallible way of making little ease great ease, I began to contract a quantity of debt." So said the profligate Pip who was wining and dining his way around London in Great Expectations. As things stand, food waste costs the average British family £40 per month. The Which figures don't tell us how much waste is being generated by the people being surveyed and I'm sure they wouldn't like to reveal how much if asked anyway. Put simply, waste in all its forms is the scourge of our age. At a time when the finite nature of our resources has seldom been more scrutinised, we continue to throw things away with scarcely a care in the world.

There is no doubt that we find ourselves in hard times (excuse the obvious reference). A key component of waste is compromise. If people were prepared to compromise more on those parts of life which are actually luxuries, few would need to borrow to eat. Furthermore, the supermarkets continue to throw away mountains of food in the skips at the rear of their shops. It is morally repugnant to consider the waste being generated by the supermarkets. There is absolutely no justification for good food to be thrown away. Casting aside snobbery and false standards, the food destined for their skips ought to be offered out to food banks at the very least. Given the profit orientated nature of their business, wouldn't it make more sense for them to realise 10% of something rather than 100% of nothing? I would have thought it obvious. Add to this the good such a gesture would do for their image and it makes me wonder why they aren't doing it already.

It was Oscar Wilde who defined a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. It appears we have become overly cynical and need to revisit the warnings of Dickens in order to reclaim some core values. We learned last week that up to a million mortgages will mature a decade hence with no vehicle in place with which to repay them. Buy now, pay tomorrow. While the banks were undeniably culpable for selling mortgages to just about anybody irrespective of income, the people who engaged with them were equally to blame. As ever, it will all end in tears.

If Mr. Micawber was with us today, I think there would be tutting a-plenty..

Vote Zippy!

Listening to the Today programme this morning, I might have been forgiven for thinking that UKIP had just won the General Election. Granted, UKIP have made significant gains in a lot of councils but they have failed to gain control in any. The result of these council elections was never in reasonable doubt. In my last post, I expressed my fear that UKIP would do well but hoped they wouldn't.

In the middle of a financial depression, we shouldn't be overly surprised to see some people turning to more extreme parties. Such trends are not without precedent in political life. A political analyst revealed that the majority of those who had propelled the UKIP vote were over the age of 50 and less well educated. I would expect the over 50s to have sympathy with a party which opposes immigration. Having said that, it was a relief to learn that the BNP had lost their existing seat.

To understand the appeal of UKIP, it is instructive to consider what they stand for. They want low tax and seek to oppose all wind farms and the proposed HS2 train project. They aspire to have more police on the streets and favour a crackdown on crime and anti-social behaviour.They want to cut the number of highly paid council executives and want to claw money back from the EU for local communities. They also wish to devolve decision making to local communities. This is more of a bucket list than a manifesto!

Clearly, everyone would like a reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour. What is less clear is how they propose to deal with it. Perhaps they are unaware that the prisons are full to bursting as it is. While we would all like to see a more obvious police presence on our streets, that would cost a lot of money which we don't currently have. It goes without saying that low tax is a nailed on vote winner. It always will be if it can be afforded. It is clear that there are far too many people at the top of the pay scale in local government and UKIP is brave to take this on. Devolving decision making to local communites is absolutely the right way forward provided they are left to get on with it without interference from local government. Opposing wind farms per se is all very well but turning your back on green energy is no longer optional.

In other words, UKIP tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people who yearn for a return to the way things used to be. The reality though is that they are, at best, a protest vote. On one issue above all else, they have exposed weakness in all the other parties. They are crystal clear on European membership. They want us out of Europe and free from the shackles of Brussels. Davis Cameron has already said that he will grant a straight in or out referendum should a Conservative majority form a government on May 7th 2015. Up until today, that promise would have been sufficient to see him returned as PM. He has now been trumped by a party who has no chance of even winning a seat in Westminster. Because of our first past the post system, the 25% vote share achieved by UKIP this time around won't be enough to take any seats. What he has done though is to put European membership right at the heart of British politics. This is ironic given that EU memebrship was the elephant in the room during the latter years of Margaret Thatcher. Well, the phoney war is now over. If Cameron doesn't respond by calling a referendum before the next General Election, we are in for another hung parliament. In the event of the latter, you can all but make up your coalition. I very much doubt UKIP will continue to garner such a high percentage of the vote but they may well exert a significant effect on the outcome of a great many seats. It is clear that they are now taking votes away from all and sundry - not just Cameron.

The mannerisms of Nigel Farage put me in mind of Zippy, the loud, opinionated member of the children's show Rainbow. If he is to be believed, there will be up to half a million Romanians and Bulgarians coming here shortly when the current restrictions are lifted. The point is that you can't be a multi-cultural society when it suits you. We are undeniably a multi-cultural society. Recently, a series of small groups have been averted from carrying out bombings on our population. This has been for a number of reasons. To have multiple cultures living in your country is one thing. To have all these different cultures mixing with and tolerating each other is quite another. To go to war with countries for whom many of your citizens now have great sympathies is a risky business.

Nigel Farage will enjoy his day in the headlines today but his message is a dangerous one and will divide rather than unify. At times, his bigotry is cringeworthy. The one good thing about him is that his mere presence should spur Cameron in to action and start to address the issues which can longer be swept under the carpet. Whether we remain a part of the EU or not is not up to UKIP or the Conservatives. It is up to the British people and the sooner they are afforded that choice the better. Once the people have made their decision, UKIP will be a spent force one way or the other.

It was proposed as early as this week to emulate the voting system currently used by the Australians. Under the new change, all young voters will be fined £10 if they don't vote. To validate such a move, a box must be available on the voting form marked "none of the above". Aside from the fact that such a move would be blatantly undemocratic, I rather fear "none of the above" entering Downing Street two years hence. Now that really would be newsworthy!   

The dangers of ring-fencing

As government cuts continue to incur the wrath of ordinary people the length and breadth of the country, there are still three sectors which remain immune from them. Specifically, education, health and foreign aid are exempt from these cuts. To be absolutely clear, the NHS will avoid cuts whereas Social care remains under the control of local government. This little detail has huge ramifications for anyone currently within the social care system. This includes a lot of elderly care in the community which is stretched to breaking point as things stand. Going back to the NHS though, two prominent experts this morning warned of the dangers of ring fencing its budget because it has the potential to create a culture of complacency within the hospital hierarchy. That is to say, the hospital comes to expect that level of income so that it is less likely to seek cost savings and more likely to concentrate on the actual spending of the money. A good point made. The point they missed though is that they failed to see the NHS as a big pipe-line. It is this approach which will ultimately bear fruit as wee explore ways to reduce the extent of its impact on our national finances.

There is very little we can do about an elderly lady in her mid 80s who has suffered a debilitating stroke. We obviously have to provide care for her and aim to give her the best quality of life from that point onwards. At the other end of the scale though, there is a considerable amount we can do. A young person arriving at A and E on a Friday night who is obviously drunk is an avoidable drain on resources. There are of course many other examples but the point remains that they are being fire-fighted as things stand.

Taking alcohol as a case in point, much fury was vented earlier this year when a minimum price was suggested for a single unit of alcohol. The truth is that minimum pricing allied to a comprehensive alcohol education programme is riddled with common sense. As things stand, I can go home tonight and share a reasonable bottle of wine with my wife for less than five pounds. A minimum price of 50p per unit would not affect me either in terms of the amount I drink or in terms of the price I pay. A typical bottle of wine has 9 units of alcohol so a 50p minimum price would make that £4.50 per bottle. It would affect the problem drinker who arrives at A and E on a Friday night. Such a minimum price would have to apply to everyone in the retail sector including supermarkets. This would be a shot in the arm for community pubs and would give our high streets a more level playing field.

Whether it is justified to ring fence NHS spending is debatable but I would argue that such a ring fence needs to be far more conditional than at present. Fire fighting is all well and good but doesn't ever really address the actual cause. If that same young person was made to go back to A and E a week later to witness (in their sobriety) the problems caused by alcohol excess, it would at the very least give them some food for thought. Things seldom look so good when we are sober. Such a scheme was piloted a few years ago but has since vanished without trace and I don't understand why. It makes a lot of sense to me.

The deputy leader of the Labour party (New or Old? I'm not sure) today admitted that under a Labour government, spending would have to go up. While her party leader has tried desperately to avoid answering this question in recent weeks, she has been rather more forthcoming with the truth. Granted, it is hardly a surprising admission but does make the choice facing the voter next time around a little more clear. If you aren't too bothered about controlling national debt, Labour is the party for you. If you are anti everything and listen to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance at night, you need to vote UKIP. If your priority is to cut the national debt and reduce borrowing, you have to choose which of the coalition members is most genuine. It might be that you care about the environment. In such a minority, your choice is a lot more straightforward.  On a serious note, I listened to the UKIP leader on the radio this week and felt very uncomfortable. Mr. Farrage is sailing very close to facism. His pronouncements have overtones of the worst aspects of the far right. His opposition to further immigration was perfectly clear and very worrying. The news that a UKIP candidate has been seen giving a nazi salute on social media has been treated with outrage by candidate in question. His outrage is founded not on the salute which he made but on the fact that his social media account had been allegedly hacked. I should have thought that transparency was a basic requirement for someone intent on taking public office. I for one, will be very sad if UKIP do well in the council elections because at a time when several bomb plots have just been thwarted, the last message anyone needs at the moment is one of rejection and isolation. Rather than try to further alienate parts of our population, we would do well to engage with them. History shows that building bridges tends to work better than destroying them.

The by-election in South Shields reminds me of a bit of advice I once received when living in Barnsley. Like Barnsley, South Shields is just about as near to a guarantee of a Labour win in the country. My advice was that if there was a general election tomorrow fielding a man with a blue rosette, a man with a yellow rosette and a ****ing donkey, they'd vote for the ****ing donkey. And, do you know, it was true!