From what I have read today it would appear that only Slovakia and possibly the Czech President though not their Prime Minister, realises the danger that uncontrolled access to countries can do. Indeed the Czech President Milos Zeman said on Tuesday that “only the future will show what a mistake this was”, when referring to the decision to impose quotas on member states, a law that Slovakia is saying it will challenge in the courts.
And this brings me back to my first point. How can 28 sovereign states act collectively if decisions are not in their own interests? As she arrived at the summit, Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaite said it was “not a lack of European unity, but a lack of European wisdom” that had led to this point. Correct. The wisdom that thought Unity of Europe was even a remote possibility. If a club cannot work, there is no point in being in it but if you are already in, the best option may be to inflict change on others who cannot see the folly of their ways. The lack of wisdom is trying to put unity before sovereignty and compounded now by the fact that European leaders are not able to deal with a crisis at source, merely trying to cope with the end product over spilling into their lands. For those who may think otherwise, I do not lack compassion for my fellow human but I do realise that sometimes, as we used to say, you have to be cruel to be kind. Let’s just take one very worrying thought. Germany expects 800,000 migrants this year, some of whom may be genuine refuges, some of whom may not. Suppose, and I sincerely hope I mean suppose, that just 0.1% of those arriving are neither genuine,are not discovered at any border they cross and happen to be militant terrorists who have infiltrated the migrant surge. Germany has just allowed 800 terrorists into Europe. I so hope I am wrong but these types of people seem mighty clever so if I can think of it, I’m sure they can and have. Europe needs a refugee/migrant policy in which anyone entering the European Union at any border is fully checked, registered and then, and only then, allowed to move on to any country that will accommodate them. If it means these people have a long wait at that border, so be it. Feed them, make sure they are safe but hold them until the checks are done. Otherwise ………………… November 18 Liberté, égalité, fraternité First there is the horror and the shock; then the grieving and the mourning and then the anger and threats of retaliation. I shall leave any comment from me until next week. November 25 A personal selection just for you – like hell I love advertising nearly as much as I love One Direction, Justin Bieber and wet mackerel slapped around my face. I sometimes find it hard to understand the modern retailers, vying for my business. You see, in the old days, notice I didn’t say good there, I remember going into a J Sainsbury shop, not supermarket, and buying a chocolate éclair or two with my grandfather and he handed over the money, the shop assistant put it in a tube which whizzed off into the ether and came back some time later with the correct change. The only advertising was what was on display, the goods. Basically in those days people were intelligent enough to go into a shop to buy what they wanted to buy. Once supermarkets arrived that all changed. Having got us into the shop they wanted to entice us to buy something, or perhaps lots of things, that we didn’t actually want. Items would be placed near the check-out that were known as impulse buys. We would be standing waiting and suddenly decide we needed some chewing gum, a bar of chocolate and four Duracell batteries (other batteries were available). For some reason the fruit and vegetable produce would be placed at the front of the store, down the first aisle so that it went in the trolley first and was then squashed by the heavy box of soap powder and leaked on by the 2lb of lambs liver bought later. But I’m sure there was a reason that you saw the fruit and veg first other than the perverse attitude of the store that wanted you to buy something that would be ruined before you got it. Possibly fruit and veg look prettier that soap powder, who knows. Actually I hope someone does otherwise why is it being done? Now we are in the online market. How can these crafty retailers incite us to buy what we don’t want? Today I found out. Ebay kindly sent me an email telling me that they have some top picks specially for me, some deals for me to explore and, wonder of wonder, some more handpicked deals for me. This is all connected to Black Friday which, due to a fault in the Gregorian calendar, is apparently happening all this week. God help the Queen if this continues as she may have to give out Maundy money for seven days next year. Excitedly I scrolled down for my specially picked deals. Jean Paul Gautier Male Summer Cologne, Jimmy Choo Flash London Club Eau de Parfum, Issey Miyake Pour Homme Summer Eau De Toilette and Calvin Klein Eternity Eau De Aqua were the first four items. Specially picked for me. 60 something, retired and delighted to smell the way I do. Oh well, I thought, something ebay may find difficult, what can I explore. This turned out to be phones and tablets under £100. I have all the technology I need thank you ebay so that was about as helpful as Mrs Cameron looking at the help to buy scheme. But, do not despair, I thought, they have some more handpicked, as opposed to robotically selected by the company that has paid them to do so, items. I could hardly contain myself which, I am led to believe, can be a problem in people my age but so far I haven’t had an inkling of it personally. I do always buy dark trousers as I think it’s best to be prepared. Ebay had handpicked for me 3 tech products, 50% off selected toys, 20% off Christmas at Homebase, which I guess sort of leaves Christ, and 20% off Health and Beauty when I buy two or more products. Wow. Such a hand chosen selection. How do they do it and how do they have the naked cheek to pretend that they have handpicked something for me? I am sure that such statements must be in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act, if such a thing still exists but regardless of the legal position it sure convinces me that probably most things on ebay breach such an act. Let me tell you that Rossini would never have had one of his most famous overtures if everyone’s targeting skills were so bad. And talking of targeting skills if you believe the US army know what they are doing and don’t kill innocent civilians, read my column next week.
2015
November 4
HAPPY WTF DAY – as long as it makes money.
Simple moan this week. Why do we have to follow everyone else and be taken in by people who market goods for special occasions?
When I was young, no one in this country, to my knowledge, celebrated Halloween. We had fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night although even then we normally celebrated at home with friends without forking out to go to some organised display with hundreds of others and stand so far away you can only see things in the far distance.
But Halloween, with all the rather ghoulish and sometimes disturbing costumes and make-up didn’t exist. I say disturbing because I actually saw on social media this week a small child who had been made up to look as though they had been shot through the head. Make believe is one thing; make realistic a totally different ball game. Quite frankly, I found it pornographic in the true sense of the word. I felt that small, once innocent child could be corrupted by having this done to them, especially since the mother apparently had the same make up.
Then there is mother’s day which in my time was called mothering Sunday and was largely religious. We would buy mother a card, collect some flowers from the garden, put them in a jar, make her breakfast and take it up to her in bed; all for the cost of a card which we might even make ourselves. Now we have father’s day, even grandparents’ day, probably aunt and uncle day and very soon “second cousin twice removed on my mother’s side” day. And we all know why, don’t’ we? So someone can market things and make money.
Christmas goods are in store already. Good, you may think, gives me time to buy. No. It means you have more time to over buy, impulse buy or just plain be brainwashed to buy. Materialism is one of the most sickening parts of society. Kids are bought far too many toys to ever play with and, as a result, they don’t learn that you can’t always have everything you want.
As it says in a song by a guy called David Mallett – “what a hell of a race to call men”.
Happy National Stress Awareness Day, Happy National Candy Day and, rather ironically, Happy National Eating Healthy Day but, most importantly, Happy National Sceptics Day.
November 11
When is a sporting achievement just that?
Is there any point in winning, in defeating your opponents, if you know you have cheated, broken the rules, gained an UNFAIR advantage? It would appear that in sport, the answer is yes. When I was younger there were always rumours about the Soviet and East German athletes. They were all using some form of drug to enhance their performances. Now some of this may have been because we didn’t like the Soviets, the eastern bloc as we called them.
We know that the most despicable cheat of all time, in my humble opinion, was actually American; cyclist Lance Armstrong. Now we have gone full circle again and it is the Russians who are being accused of cheating. I stopped watching athletics some time ago. I have no idea who is cheating and who isn’t and certainly I do not believe the words of any athlete. In this modern world I am sure we can find some method to test athletes immediately after an event. Not just winners but all athletes. A simple urine test would probably suffice.
Don’t tell me it would take time because I, for one, would willingly see those pathetic post-race interviews, usually conducted by broadcasters who have no idea how to interview, removed and that time taken up with a test. And maybe it should be compulsory in all sports. Any one who fails the test is banned for life and any sponsor who has been sponsoring them is fined a very large sum of money too. That might possibly result in some of those sponsors actively encouraging their athletes to run clean.
But it is not only the athletes who seem to tarnish sport. So many officials are being outed for corruption and I wonder how anyone who is in a position of power, whether it be the very top or the next layer down, is unaware of this.
I grew up loving sport, the thrill of competition, the desire to do one’s best. It doesn’t matter if you win or if you lose as long as you have played by the rules. I am not against a little gamesmanship but rule breaking is different.
Alex Wurz, the Austrian racing driver, has announced his retirement at the end of this season. I will finish this piece with perhaps my most controversial statement of all. Alex Wurz was, and is, a greater racing driver than Michael Schumacher. Schumacher, in my eyes, was a cheat. He drove into Villeneuve and probably into Hill; he parked in the middle of the track to stop anyone beating his time and he tried to drive another driver into the pit wall. He was not, and is not, a racing driver. He may have been fast, he may have had good car control but a racing driver competes in the sport of motor racing. He has to be a sportsman. Schumacher was not and, to a greater degree, neither was Senna. I am sorry one is dead and one seriously injured, on a humanitarian level. I do not miss them in my sport, the one I have followed since 1957. It would have been better had they never been a part of it and the same seems to be true of other competitors and officials in other sports too.
November 14
28 acting as 1 doesn’t work
Originally posted on Sep 23 and, if what I read is correct, I am deeply, deeply saddened that my last two paragraphs were not wrong. The “otherwise” has happened
The EU, its leaders and ministers are certainly giving a pretty good example of why a collection of 28 sovereign states are totally incapable of providing a united front. The EU, in its wisdom, allows complete freedom of movement within its borders for most states who carelessly forgot to opt out. Fine so far. The EU, as an entity, has borders. The law says, as I understand it, that any asylum seeker entering the EU must register in the first EU state they enter.
The asylum seekers we now see entering the EU from wherever, in many cases, refuse to do this. This is against the law and they are knowingly breaking the law of a Union in which they seek to live. Why is this allowed? It is not compassionate to allow law breakers to live in your country; it is stupid. Until these people register, no one can know who is a genuine asylum seeker, who is a refuge and who doesn’t like where they live and wants to try somewhere else. By the time they arrive in Germany, the chosen destination of most, it is too late to discover who should or should not be there.
Angela Merkel, obviously appealing to those who think compassion means giving everyone what they want unless it’s your own people, states Germany can take everybody. Then it turns out they can’t. Germany can’t cope with everybody but everybody is now on their way because they heard no door would be shut. Angela meant Germany could take genuine refugees but not economic migrants. However, as we know, many of those entering their first EU country refuse to register so, Angela, who is a genuine refugee and when you find those that aren’t, what are you going to do with them?