May 2008 Archives

If you end up with bedding plants that turn out to be a totally different colour to what you thought you bought then it could be a woman in a red top who was selecting bedding pelargoniums in a local garden centre. She saw something she preferred more so dumped the lot, about a dozen plants, in the nearest empty trays with no regard for variety.

I would have mentioned the error of her ways to her and told her how annoying and thoughtless it was but her husband had tattoos, a shaved head and looked hard so I though I would mention it to you instead.

It will come as no surprise that I was not one of those clamouring to bomb Iraq back to the Stone Age. It was an ill conceived, abysmally planned affair based on hidden agendas from start to whenever it happens to finish - which will not be any time soon.

But having lumbered our armed forces with a messy war no one has a chance of winning it would seem only right that we treat them properly when they are dying or maimed in our name. I mention this because the Government has just managed to find £2.7 billion to placate party rebels and cynically attempt to reduce the disaster awaiting them at the by-election at Crewe. This is on top of the billions offered to our hard pressed charitable institutions, the banks.

I mention this because there is scheme to create accommodation at Selly Oak hospital where the families of seriously wounded servicemen can stay to be near their loved ones. Not unreasonable when a son, husband, fiancé or whatever has just had a leg blown off or been liberally ventilated with shrapnel on our behalf.

The cost? A mere £5 million, which is probably about what the Government spends on consultants before breakfast every day. With the Government's contribution to this presumably lost in the post - another of their stunning successes - it has been left to the charity, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association Forces Help to do the spadework.

A similar accommodation unit at the Defence Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey was opened three months ago and the fund still needs just short of a million to fund that and the Selly Oak scheme. If you want to know more or want to help then have a look at http://www.ssafa.org.uk/index.asp

Anyone else getting fed up with the cheery inquisition you have to endure from checkout staff in supermarkets these days. Somewhere some suit at head office with a diploma in something useless has come up with the idea that customers wish to be engaged in a happy, chatty way as they pass gaily through the checkouts.

It starts with asking if you want help with your packing. The fact you might only have one item does not seem to matter. I bought just a newspaper a couple of weeks ago and when asked the obligatory packing question was sorely tempted to say yes.

Next you are asked what sort of day you have had, what you have done, when you are going on holiday and a whole host of other questions all asked with a fixed smile and wide eyes - presumably that is also part of the training

Now most days even I am not interested in what I have done so why some stranger would care defies logic but logic was probably not in the training manual. It has become the shopping equivalent of the Church of England's shake hands bit where we are drawn into the happy, feely world of marketing whether we like it or not.

I don't mind chatting, I don't mind shaking hands it is just I prefer to do it on my terms, for real and not from a manual. Have a nice day and peace be with you.

So the first of what will no doubt be usual collection of Government initiatives this week is care for the elderly. Well there is plenty to go at there. The treatment of the elderly in this country is a national disgrace. I might not yet be among their number but I am certainly close enough to give the oldsters a friendly wave so my interest is becoming more vested as the years, ever more rapidly, roll on.

It should all be fairly simple. You work, you pay taxes, you pay national insurance and when you retire you receive a pension in return for your contribution to society. If you are one of the unfortunates who needs additional help and care through frailty or dementia then the NHS or the welfare state should be there to take care of you, after all 50 years or so of NI contributions must surely count for something.

The failings of old age are just as much part of the human story as other long term conditions such as diabetes or arthritis but all the state seems to be interested in once the bus pass arrives is squeezing every last drop of cash out of those who have spent a lifetime working before the old clogs finally pop. No one recovers from old age but that is no reason why Government should impose what is no more than a tax on dying.

The Government are not actually proposing anything this time around, after all they have only had 11 years to think about it, and there is no money involved but the more cynical of you might have noticed it did deflect the flak from Labour's local election disaster for a couple of days. There are concerns about the cost as more people live longer apparently, although the amounts quoted pale into insignificance against the bale out of our impoverished, hard strapped banks, but I suspect the real concern of our political masters could well be the growing size of the grey vote. The elderly are slowly starting to have a considerable say at elections and votes have always been a language politicians understand.

I see from Cherie Blair's autobiography - which will probably be found in libraries in the fiction section going on the family's past record - that Tony Blair is giving old Gordon advice on winning the next election - as if our dear leader did not have enough problems.

As I was saying . . . I did mean to keep in touch while I was on my hols but found myself in a bit of Cornwall where mobile phone coverage, which in my case is also Internet coverage, was sparse. But as it was a bit of the country where they still leave doors and cars unlocked I am not going to knock it.

One thing I did notice in Cornwall though and I suspect it happens in every small holiday town, is that people suddenly ignore pavements once the sun tan lotion drips on the flip flops. Driving though St Ives the only person on the pavement in one street was a busker, or more accurately someone who appeared to be learning guitar. As I was in a Toyota Prius - a brilliant car by the way - which was running on electric motor at low speeds it was quite good fun to watch the reaction of people when they suddenly discovered they were being stalked by a silent car.

Another thing I noticed in Cornwall is that every Cornish pastie sold seems to be award winning which means there must be a competition in every street about three times a week.

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman spent a long time banging on about how New Labour was going to listen after they were well and truly creamed in the local elections. Apparently that did not apply to listening to questions though as she managed to swan through interviews without even coming within hailing distance of answering anything she was asked.