Category: Uncategorized

When I was reading through what I posted yesterday about groups of people and nations being taken to war purely to satisfy the aims of a few, it was inevitable, especially as l live in Northern Ireland, that the use of religion to substantiate, or foster a political philosophy, had, and has, more than one… Continue reading Religion was ever the tool of the unscrupulous

I know that I am whistling in the wind, it will never happen, but that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. By using the phrase ‘The league of gentlemen and gentlewomen,’ I am not referring to the upper-class, wealthy Sloane Rangers, but men and women throughout the world who have a gentle outlook, are not aggressive,… Continue reading The League of Gentlemen and Gentlewomen

It is amazing just how much our lives are being changed by the credit crunch. Some of it is desperately serious when you see the statistics of small companies that were once buoyant, if only just, now going to the wall. The whole thing is so totally unfair. Those responsible both in the financial world… Continue reading Fallout

The Internet holds a very fine history of the relationship between the British Indian Army and the Gurkhas, and later their relationship with the British Army. 200,000 of them fought in World War I, they were in Burma in World War II, and I always thought that the British nation as a whole not only… Continue reading Just one more voice in praise of the Ghurkhas

When you get to my age, if you are a hoarder, you can become unpopular with the rest of the household, as they think they can see a day when they will be turfing all your rubbish into a skip. In consequence I have started to part with things that I have treasured, but that,… Continue reading The book has been overtaken

Almost on my doorstep is a company that is being wound up, after being in business for 45 years, and surviving through the Troubles. The whole workforce is now in a sit-in, because it was made redundant, with terms that were totally unfair, and it would seem, by the way the discussion is progressing, that… Continue reading I not only think it is unfair, I think it is illogical

I don’t think I am being chauvinistic when I say that I believe the British Armed Forces are equal or better than any in the world. I can remember men telling me of the excitement they experienced in the First World War when whole batches of them went to the recruiting centres, it was like… Continue reading A possible opportunity

I would be taking a very serious exception to Brown’s broad brush. Not only would I take it as a personal slight, I would object to the fact that he is telling the world, whether truthfully, or making a general statement, that I, and the rest of my colleagues are thieves. When I was young… Continue reading If I were an MP

Yesterday I watched a film made in the 80s, by Jane Fonda. As the picture unfolded I discovered that I was watching a prediction of this credit crunch in which we find ourselves. I sat through it enthralled, Sophie slept through most of it. It was broadcast early in the day, when I had recorded… Continue reading I thought forewarned was forearmed

On April the first I wrote a piece, entitled Responsible Selection in which I tried to show the absurdity of journalism today, by quoting the case of the accidental expenditure claims by the Home Secretary, and which must have entailed considerable digging. Since then there has been a torrent of pieces in the press that… Continue reading Finding dirt not nuggets, when grubbing in the gutter