Changing of the guard?

Barring a miracle of biblical proportions, England have surrendered the Ashes. It would be really difficult to remember a more pitiful effort and I'm afraid many of the senior players need to embark on a sustained period of soul searching. At the beginning of this series, I warned against the real possibility of them emulating the England side of 1958. That side boasted names whose reputations on paper were second to none. All thay had to do was turn up and the Ashes were theirs. Unfortunately, all they did do was to turn up and the Australians helped themselves to a 4-0 victory. Many would argue that the then England captain Peter May was never the same player again. He was widely believed to be the best England batsman since the war and had a galaxy of talent at his disposal on the pitch.

Surrendering the Ashes in so feeble a manner is one thing. Being let down by all of your senior players is another. You expect the odd one or two to have a below par series once in a while. Thus far, only Carberry has displayed any sort of consistency in the top order and he hasn't exactly sent the scorers scurrying for the record books. Cook, Bell and Peterson have been abject and some of their dismissals have been due to school boy shot selection. That is unacceptable and none of them should be feeling confident of their place in the test side. That is not a right - it is earned. You are only as good as your last match.

Going in to this series, Anderson was being hailed as the best strike bowler in the world. If he had stuck to his bowling he might be worthy of such an accolade. Instead, he has become sucked in to the trap of verbal exchanges at the wicket. I never saw Richard Hadlee do that because he didn't need to. When you're that good, you just need to let your bowling do the talking. For all his reputation as an opinionated Yorkshireman, his team mates will tell you that Fred Trueman just got on with his bowling. He knew how good he was and didn't need to threaten batsmen verbally. He certainly wouldn't have let himself get tonked for nigh on 6 runs per over on the third day of an Ashes test match.

I like Bresnan but he really shouldn't be playing. He was selected because none of the three reserve fast bowlers were up to the mark. That is not good enough. Bresnan will bowl his heart out for you but he won't bowl a team out at Test level. Before this match, I asserted that Swann had to be rested. Nothing has changed. They would have been better served by another seamer in Perth because that ground is only worth a leg spinner if you have one - and we don't.

The whole series has been a debacle and it would be wrong to blame it all on the withdrawal of Jonathan Trott. Geoff Boycott said that Peterson had bottled it when needed to get his down and graft. Boycott was right but then Peterson has been picked for too long for what he can do rather than what he does do. I belive the real bottler has been Bell. As the best batsman in the side, he should have stepped up the minute Trott left the tour and said, "I'll bat at three". Instead, we have seen Root put in a position wholly unsuited to his batting style. They would have been better served keeping Root at six to farm the middle order and bring in Gary Ballance at five. Ballance is a lovely batsman who has been in great form. Stokes has done alright but has only been selected due to the lack of faith in the front line bowlers. The injury to Broad has just been the icing on the cake. Unfortunately for England, they can't come home yet because they have to go through the ignominy of a 5-0 whitewash first. I can't see any other outcome.

Leaving cricket, I note that Liverpool have once more emerged as genuine title contenders having thrashed Tottenham away from home. Love him or hate him, Luis Suarez has been in scintillating form and the goals are flying in. While the money men at Manchester City remain favourites for the title, Liverpool are certainly sending out a strong message. Manchester United will just be grateful to reach the end of the season having finished in the top four. At present, even that looks somewhat optimistic. Their reliance on Ryan Giggs at the age of 40 largely sums up their predicament.

Meanwhile, the people of the Ukraine demonstrate en masse in an ideological fight between continued ties with Russia or moving more towards the EU. The toppling last week of a giant statue of Lenin was testament to the strength of their intentions. As the Ukraine seeks closer ties to the EU, the UK can't cut them quick enough. Where the Ukraine seeks to choose between one master and another, the UK seems hell bent on having no master. Rather like the truculent teenager intent on seeking greater independence away from the stifling involvement of their family, the UK is about to be introduced to the vagaries of the big, wide world. No man is an island.

The Russian revolution which for so long dominated Ukrainian life, was beautifully captured by the late David Lean in his iconic film Doctor Zhivago.
http://betweendenbighandkeele.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-legacy-of-pasternak.html
A few years earlier, he shot Lawrence of Arabia and cast Peter O'Toole in the title role. The death of O'Toole was a sad prelude to the festive season. Aside from his arresting good looks, he was a very fine actor who never quite achieved the recognition he really deserved. He was one of the last of that great generation which produced so many incredible films in the sixties. Money alone dictates that we will not see films of that scale again. So if you're at a loose end this Christmas and have the time, tune in to Doctor Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia and watch them in their entirety. You may not want to watch a new film again though because you will not believe how good they are.

 

In the fast lane

As Australia ended the first day on 326 for 6 in Perth, the scale of the task facing England's top sux is now clear. They will have to accumulate a total well in excess of 500 to have a realistic chance of holding on to the Ashes. Based on recent batting performances, the chances of such an outcome are unlikely.

Looking back through previous Ashes contests down under, such a feat would not be without precedent. In 1986, Mike Gatting's team nearly reached 600 thanks to hundreds from Broad (162), Gower (136) and Richards (133). That said, the Australian bowling attack in 1986 did not possess the pace of the current crop. This is the key. If England are to put recent batting performances behind them, they must face up to the quick stuff and take the body blows if they need to.

Ominously, their last showing at Perth did not make for great reading as they twice failed to reach 200. Of course, should England come away from Perth with a draw, they would still technically have a chance to hold on by winning the final two tests. Best not to hang on to that outcome though.

The pressure is now well and truly with the batsmen and Cook and Bell both have experience of making decent scores there. Both are also overdue big knocks on this tour. It's time they stood up to be counted and let the Australians know what they're all about. If they don't, five days won't be needed at Perth and the Freemantle Doctor will be blowing with a vengeance.

Food Crime in the UK

The intention to establish a UK food crime agency is an interesting development. The realisation that we have been fobbed off with horse meat in our ready meals has created the mother of knee jerk reactions. In a country which can lay claim to being the ancestral home of the knee jerk reaction, this is quite a story.

The horse meat had been identified in a processed meal the nutritional content of which is probably not too different to the packaging whence it came. I wonder how many of us could honestly hold our hand up to being able to differentiate with any reliability between horse and beef?

A few years ago, I was holidaying with my wife and we decided to sail over to Sardinia for a few weeks. I was rather surprised when I first encountered the meat counter in the butcher's shop because it was more difficult to find meat which wasn't horse. Hence, as stereotypical carnivores, we gorged on horse for a fortnight and jolly nice it was too if a trifle sweet in comparison to beef. In a lasagne though, I would defy anyone to spot the difference.

The late, great Sir Clement Freud who had the most extraordinary of lives, opened a restaurant after the second world war which prospered for a number of years. In the immediate aftermath of the war, things were tight to put it mildly and people made do with what they had. On one of the first nights, one of the diners complimented Clement on the meat and asked what it was. In his trademark laconic style, Clement informed him that the meat was horse. Because everybody always assumed that Clement was joking, the diners roared with laughter and continued with their meal. It was horse.

The saddest part about revelations which show that Tesco has thrown over 30,000 tonnes of food away in the last quarter is that I wasn't even remotely surprised. Certainly I was appalled but I wasn't surprised. The trouble is that this has been allowed to evolve over many years as Tesco has continued its obscene domination of the UK retail sector.

In these posts, I have long advocated the advantages and strengths of localism and this news just adds more weight to my argument. To understand these revelations better though, it is instructive to analyse the details.

We are told that one of the biggest items thrown away is bags of salad. There are two sides to this. Not everybody shops at Tesco so they will always be faced with buying challenges when stocking up their fresh produce offerings. That said, Tesco have Clubcard. Not so much to reward your custom as you may mistakenly believe, but rather to track your buying patterns and seek to supply them accordingly for the maximum profit. Therefore, they can't even predict with accuracy how much stock they need on their shelves even when armed with the buyinf patterns of their customers. They either have a sub-standard buying department or an over ambitious growth forecast.

Aside from the obvious point that we have increasingly become a nation of salad dodgers, the other possibility here is simply that people have seen through the Tesco vision and returned to the riches of localism to be found on their own high streets. Recent market research data would appear to confirm this view.

The Tesco disclosure also asserts that its customers also continue to waste large amounts of the food they purchase. The latter is well known and should be highlighted as a national disgrace. It is immoral that we complain about austerity while throwing so much food away when people in other parts of the world really are starving to death daily. While Tesco are quite right to point to household waste, I would remind them that the latter is made possible by companies such as themselves using every marketing tool in the book to squeeze every last penny out of its Clubcard clutching customers. Just this morning, their Commercial Director of Group Food asserts that Tesco is seeking to reduce the average £700 per annum currently being thrown away by their customers so that they have more money in their pockets - so that they can spend it in Tesco of course! Is it just me or is the strategy of this and its equally nauseous friends at Asda, Morrison's and Sainsbury's barn door obvious. Their entire business models are based on continued expansion to fund even more stores and rest assured, they couldn't care a fig how they do it just as long as they can show a profit to their share holders. Frankly, its a bit rich for a company like Tesco to be pointing to the amount being thrown out by the British consumer. They really should seek to get their own house in order first. They can't have it both ways. They want everybody's custom and to eradicate the competition but woe betide you if you buy an extra bag of salad from them (which they promoted in the first place) which then gets thrown away.

Nationally, our waste of food is morally repugnant. It is utterly inexcusable. If there was a huge snow storm today which meant that everybody was confined to their homes for a couple of weeks, do you think many would starve? Of course, there would be some that would but the majority have freezers and cupboards stocked up to the brim. We all need to just take a step back here and take a look at the people in the world (of whom far too many) who genuinely don't know where their next meal is coming from. Shame on Tesco and shame on us. This problem belongs to all of us. It is immune from Nimbyism and we all have some soul searching to do.

Wherever possible, my family now spends its money on our local high street. This supports local jobs. The local shopkeeper knows me and know him. I don't have a Clubcard but I have a fair price and buy only the food which I need. I also know that much of the food I buy has been reared and produced locally so it hasn't travelled far. The Tesco apples being thrown away have been flown half way around the world and sprayed with sulphur dioxide to give the impression of freshness. My local grocer doesn't need to do that because my local apples are just that - local and fresh. Yesterday, we ate some rocket lettuce which will thankfully never see a plastic bag. We picked it fresh from our garden and it tasted like, well, rocket lettuce - as you would expect. As the saying goes, "you pay your money and you take your choice"....

As for horse consumption, this only came about in the first place because too many people resorted to ready meals instead of buying and cooking their own food from scratch. I am not convinced that anyone's life is so busy or so affluent that they can't do this. As millions throughout the world continue to wake up to another day wondering if another meal might occur, there is something distasteful about this whole story. I think history shows us that during the war, the people of the UK and other countries would have been fighting over the prospect of horse meat. Quite what they fought for is sadly becoming rather less obvious.

Help for our loved ones?

A recent article suggested that people in the UK will vote for the party which promises to help their children and their elderly parents and relatives. I don't doubt the truth of this assertion but question the realism underpinning it.

Would these same people be so keen to cast their vote if they were told the true cost? I suspect not. Of course, from a purely Socialist angle, we should be looking to the State to provide for those in greatest need of help. It is true to suggest that the State has failed successive generations in education. Education of the parents and education of their children. Socially, we have become less socially cohesive as more and more of us have sought to own our homes and seek work away from our families. This has been caused by a variety of factors.

In Wales where I live, the Assembly Government strives for every child to be taught the Welsh language. When they leave school, the majority seek employment in England. If they return, their proficiency in the Welsh language has become eroded. While they have been away, their families have become divided. The parents they leave behind get older and with age comes illness. Illness demands care. Where once the parents might have been cared for by their own children, this is increasingly becoming the ideal rather than the reality. So why is it that there are no longer the jobs in places like Wales. Why is it that the Public Sector has been allowed to become so big while the private sector in Wales has become something of a novelty? There are many reasons for this. The real growth of the former was ushered in by the prudent Chancellor of Tony Blair in 1997. The reason why the private sector has become so negligible is that Wales has become too unattractive for business. With a poor transport infrastructure and more regulations than you could shake a stick at, Wales has effectively been closed for business for a couple of generations now. Take a walk down your local high street if you don't believe me. Take a look at your local farming community because the evidence is there for all to see. We gleefully welcome supermarkets with open arms knowing full well how much of their produce is imported from abroad.

So what about the care of our elderly because the headlines today have revolved around the burgeoning problem of dementia. Dementia is not new. Granted, there is much more of it but that is because people are living longer more than any other reasons. Historically, many would argue that dementia care was better in the past than it is now. Granted the medical side of care is more advanced but I wonder if the same could be claimed for the actual human care? Before it's closure in 1995, the former North Wales Hospital had become a centre for care of the elderly with dementia being a big part of it's work load. Although it had started life as a mental asylum, it had evolved to become a 1700 bed hospital with a large focus on care of the elderly. This had the additional effect of freeing up vital bed space at the local district general hospital. It is not hard to imagine what happened when it closed in 1995. The effect on elderly care in North Wales has been further exacerbated with the closure of a a succession of community hospitals. It seems that in Wales, the State has absolved itself from caring for the elderly. It certainly puts a lot less in to this are than it did 20 or 30 years ago.

The problem now is that for all their headline grabbing promises, none of the political parties have the necessary funds to supply the care of children and the elderly which people are looking for. In the same way, they no longer have the funds to allow people to retire at age 65. Maybe we've got to the point where the State has admitted that it's capacity to help us is limited in spite of the amount we pay in tax. Whoever promises us the earth in 2015 will not be able to deliver it so we would be better served seeking the answers to our problems within. An old saying goes like this, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day but teach a man to fish and you feed him for life". That is where the education comes in. It is not the sole responsibility of the State. It is far more the responsibility of the family. In China, an old saying claims that it takes an entire village to bring up a child. We are no different to China. The only difference is that for a variety of reasons we have lost touch with our families and communities. Until we re-connect with the latter, we can call for the Government to help us all we like but the onus will remain firmly with ourselves. I doubt whether this would garner any votes but at least it's a more honest approach than that being drawn up by the political elite.

Old Age: A thing of the past?

News that a generation of children are being neglected through being denied exercise is possibly the most chilling indictment yet of the Nanny State. If proof were needed of the dangers of State reliance, this story seems to sum it up.

Where do children get their exercise? Broadly speaking there are two avenues. The first is at school and the second is under the care of their parents. The rising levels of childhood obesity should shock nobody. Our society has relentlessly embraced a culture of over eating carbohydrate rich diets and at the same time has found a multitude of excuses warning against the dangers of going outside. How this is handled from here is critical because a failure to address this will have far reaching effects. For one thing, an entire generation will fail to enjoy the old age of their grandparents, many of whom were born during or immediately after the war. More worrying still is the extent to which these people will impact on the NHS in their adult lives.

A lot of discussions currently taking place on various social media seem obsessed with bemoaning a State which is failing people whereas the real problem is often that people are failing themselves. Why do we think or expect that the State can look after us any better than we can look after ourselves. This idea seems to be in vogue and for the life of me, I can't see why.

Is it so outrageous to raise the State pension age to 68? I understand the arguments. People assert that they have paid in to the scheme for long enough to expect a return as they approach their old age. Reasonable enough on the face of it. Exactly how much have they paid in though? And does this equate to the income they will go on to receive? The whole model of our State pension is flawed from top to bottom. This was clearly identified in the late 1980s. The real crime is that the State has done nothing to address this since. This is why the retirement age has been increased. Put simply, there is not enough money in the pot because the current crop of pensioners are legion and living to hitherto unforeseen grand old age.

The current crop of under exercised children will surely redress this injustice in due course. All of us with children have a responsibility to give them the best. The best opportunities for play. The most healthy diets. Plenty of exercise. None of these would have even needed to be pointed out to the parents of our grandparents because there was no alternative. Our generation is courted by an array of marketing whose capacity to repel exercise and promote poor diet is without precedent. So are today's parents guilty of neglect when it comes to the health of their children? Well, for those parents with under exercised children who are obese, the only question really is whether they are aware of the dangers. Is it the responsibility or indeed the job of the State to tell them?

Remember, this is the same State which has progressively given the green light to the growth of the supermarkets which ply us with their cleverly marketed junk food. So can we really trust the State to take on such an important role? I don't think we can but I do think the State could and should be doing a lot more in the way of awareness campaigns and public information. Given that the NHS famously free at the point of access to every man, woman and child, the State really has no choice but to get involved. If they turn a blind eye and just let this madness continue, the results will become apparent over the next generation and they will not be pleasant for anyone.

If the decision by the State to stretch the retirement age to 68 has attracted an outcry, I ask this; Why have they not extended the retirement age for Public Sector employees to the same age? The latter pay in to a guaranteed, index linked, final salary scheme which currently begins to pay out from the age of 55 or 60 depending on which branch of the sector you are in. You just don't need to be a mathematician to see the flaw in this. The truth is that the State is too fearful of the Public sector backlash if they do because it has been allowed to grow to gigantic proportions. So why have we got a country where the State outranks all else? Largely because we voted for it. Red or blue, a succession of governments have put the State at the heart of our lives. In reality, we need to be seeking to claim back our lives and take responsibility for our own futures. I for one, don't need the State to tell me.

This and previous governments have overseen the sale of thousands of playgrounds to build houses. This has been a real scandal and once again provides us all with a great advert for the State. If the State really understood the implications of poor health, they would have been seeking to expand the existing playing fields as opposed to selling them off. I could go on but the point is plain to see. We have our lives in our hands and the sooner we recognise this, the better off we will be - perhaps not financially but definitely from a health standpoint. If we seize the opportunity, 68 might not seem too unreasonable after all..

Surprised by Australia?

The recent success of Australia in the opening two Tests of the current Ashes series has been entirely predictable. During the summer series in England, Australia lost 3-0 and I said at the time that this margin of victory flattered the England team. The summer series was much closer than that. The recent batting performances of the England team have been brewing for some time now so nobody should be overly surprised.

For the past few seasons they have become dangerously dependent on the performances of Cook and Trott. This is alright when they are batting well and making big scores but it becomes a real problem when they aren't. Bell is head and shoulders the best technical batsman in the side. I fail to understand why he has remained at number five in the batting order when everyone saw that he needed to replace Trott at number three. Joe Root is a highly promising young batsman but was not ready to open for England in the summer and is not ready to bat at number three now. I'm aware of his 87 in the last match but that aside he has done little in the series so far.

The England selectors have got a real job on their hands for Perth and I suggest that dropping Swann ceased to become optional the minute the last wicket fell in Adelaide. In effect, the only strategy left to England now is to try and fight fire with fire and go all out for pace in Perth. Bresnan needs to return urgently because we need his sort of attitude on the pitch. He will be ready for a scrap and will not give his wicket away. Of the top six in the batting, only Carberry has achieved any level of consistency so far and he is very much the new kid on the block - even at his age. As often happens, Pieterson has flattered to deceive and continued to play millionaire shots at inappropriate times. Alistair Cook should go on the next series of Strictly Come Dancing in an effort to get his feet moving again. He looks bereft of confidence and needs to get some runs under his belt quickly.

It is the margin of victory in the first two tests which should give England the most cause for concern. If they continue to bat as they have been, they can expect more of the same at the WACA. Australia have taken a fair bit of baiting over the past few years and have never been shy at giving it back. The expected backlash against Stuart Broad has barely been needed because his contribution has been disaapointing and you don't really need to have a go at the opposition when you are thrashing them so convincingly.

Mitchell Johnson has bowled well with passion and aggression. But England have made him look considerably better than he is. The father of Broad toured Australia in 1986 and how England must wish they had someone of his calibre now to deal with a bit of pace bowling. The likes of Broad, Gooch and Lamb would have torn Johnson apart but the current crop doesn't appear to have a batsman capable of playing genuine pace.

I don't know what the odds of an Australian whitewash are but it's beginning to look like a fait accompli.

Ambulance

While we all have a fair understanding of what constitutes an ambulance, it is a good idea to remind ourselves of the derivation of the word. Ambulance comes from the latin ambulare which means "to move about". Recent revelations appear to show that some ambulances are being made to wait for periods of six hours or more outside A and E departments. The patient inside the ambulance is thus stationary and not being moved about.

There are reasons why this is happening. The main reason is the legal one. The patient only becomes the responsibility of the hospital at the point when they are taken over the threshold of the front doors. They therefore remain the responsibilty of the ambulance crew for the time they are kept waiting outside A and E. But why are they being kept outside for so long?

Contrary to the popular myth, it is not always due to a lack of hospital bed space although this is often the main reason. Sadly, this has become something of a political football as hospitals seek to demonstrate how stretched they have become. In a recent story in North Wales, ambulances were being turned away from one of the DGHs and diverted to other units 40 minutes away. Ultimately, this will move to the front pages when a patient actually dies while they are waiting and it seems likely this will happen before too long.

The closure of many of our Community Hospitals has undoubtedly played a part in all of this and still can't understand the rationale for that decision. It seems as though warnings of bed blocking have come home to roost and the ambulances are being used as pawns in a battle of political ideology. The poor patient inside is the real loser though.