Blog

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 and in the political one, those who gambled, and those who allowed them to do so without restriction, seem to have got away without redress. The question a lot of us are asking is, why the financial programmes on television are reeling out figures of the daily rise and fall of the stock market, which seems contrary to what the uninitiated would have expected, when so many people are now being conservative with their finances, if they’re lucky enough to have any? Are we really now having the regulation that we should have had?

On the frivolous side, from where I sit, we are being short-changed, because those in the entertainment world, and especially Skye, are cutting the suit to suit the cloth. While the advertisements have risen in quality, but unfortunately also in quantity, the entertainment products offered, are below par . They are giving us films that they dredged up from the archives, now virtually unwatchable, as the whole industry has moved on, and which haven’t been watched in generations, because they were so bad. Repeats go on for ever, quality is often replaced, by hysterical hype It is also noticeable that members, once at the top of the entertainment industry, whom we respected and admired, are now being used to persuade us that certain insurance products, and financial companies are operating to our advantage. Have these celebrities the nouse and done the research to qualify to give those who trust them an honest appraisal? I have often found that the people who need the help most, are the ones most trusting.

On the home front, the big enterprises, that still seem to make the profits, are offering inducements to increase sales, at a level that the shop on the corner couldn’t match. In my lifetime I have seen such a change in shopping habits that could never have been predicted. Now that I am chair-bound, no longer able to drive, I miss the shop on the corner, or the shopping area within walking distance that was so common when we were young. A combination of the car taking the place of public transport, big business in the world of domestic shopping, and large housing estates without a single shop have wrecked a change which will be hard if not impossible to reverse

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 held them in high regard, for their probity and their loyalty, but because they were part of the fabric of the British Empire. As someone who lived in the Raj as a child, I am fully aware of the relationship between the indigenous populations and the Imperial civil service. So I also am pretty sure that while some may refer to the Gurkhas as mercenaries, they were never paid as mercenaries, were never paid at the level of the equivalent ranks of the British Army, nor thought of themselves as mercenaries, but still they served us well. I can only speak personally, and I come from a generation where the British Empire was lauded, and where a lot of the indigenous people of other nations within the empire, were not always at variance with the system, and especially in the subcontinent, where I believe they felt part of it up until World War II.

Hence, I was pleased to see that more than some of the older men were taking up the plight of the Gurkhas as a whole. I suspect there will be a lot of hurdles in the way, but when we are supporting nations across the world that are in difficulty, I still believe that charity should begin at home, and I believe the Gurkhas have a place in our society.

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, to be honest, have really outlived their usefulness, because progress has made them redundant. The list is endless, those beautiful fountain pens that you received at Christmas, at great expense to the giver, that wrote elegant script; Groves concise dictionary of music, and practically all the rest of my books, except the Idiot’s Guides.

On the 29th of September, 2007, under Random Thoughts 40, which is still available, I wrote about the changing demands on the public library, and the way in which reading books has been severely overtaken by the Internet. I have probably about 600 hardback books, most of them non-fiction, which today are virtually worthless, not only because the information is out of date, but because one can find practically anything by a flick of a switch. As a child I read books that were for adults, and have been reading ever since, seeking knowledge, or just enjoying a level of English prose that to me anyway, is like music. When I was at school we had to read a large number of the classics, and miles of poetry, some of which was a total bore, but some, even to a boy, had beauty of thought and description. I write this because I wonder if the children of today, with their computers in school, their high-tech approaches, will ever have time to read what I read, or something of equally high-quality. The 60s changed a lot of the mores that we had lived by, and advances in the entertainment industry, at the same time, introduce a crudeness our parents would never have stood for.

I suppose one could say that I’m a Job’s comforter, a miserable killjoy, not moving with the times, but to my old eyes so much of the standards that we enjoyed have a been denigrated. British policeman rarely whacked the public, even at the times of those huge strikes. Young women in company were not heard to mouth foul language, whereas today it seems that this is the smart thing to do. We are so insular today, so high-tech, that we are divorced from the sort of association we had in the past. We used to buy across the counter, or from a stall, instead of serving ourselves, we went to church, our youngsters joined clubs, with the result that we not only rubbed shoulders with, but communicated with people mostly from every class and every walk of life. This was a university, where we learned communication skills, compassion, and respect for the other person. I hope that I am wrong in believing that the majority are leading not only an insular life, but to some extent a sterile one, bolstered by other people’s choice of what they see and hear, rather than broadening their outlook by their own choice. If this credit crunch has told us anything, it is that when the chips are down, not only our well-being, but our aesthetic is diminished. Cheap and cheerful seems to be the order of the day.

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 there may be some legal reason in their favour, for claiming they are being treated unjustly. I quote this, because it is regularly on our news, and must be replicated right across the country.
Throughout the land there must be young people, middle aged, and old, who are receiving termination notices. Some are being sacrificed on the altar of pragmatic accounting, some because the whole company has gone into receivership. Most of these people are hard working, loyal and competent, had a future they thought they could rely on, only to find that they appear to have no future at all.
The situation is the result of nothing more nor less than gambling. The boards of the banks certainly permitted, if not actually sponsored the most risky form of gambling that there is. With a bookie, you’re betting small sums on a positive outcome. In the case of gambling on the stock exchange, you have Bull and Bear markets where you can bet that the price will rise or fall, and the amounts that these people were handling, belonging, as much of it did, to the customers of the bank, must have been prodigious. What I find alarming, as everyone else does, is that they were doing it unheeded by the regulating authority.
Where this business is so unfair and so illogical, is that the banks, the instigators of the crunch have been bailed out, but the very people who were innocent of any misjudgement, to put it mildly, are not getting bailed out, and are now finding themselves in a financial situation where many of them have no idea just what awaits them. I was made redundant by the RN upon demobilisation, and was made unemployed later in life, and I know the stresses that this can bring, but I had an extended family; so many of those affected today, are on their own, facing losing everything.
There should be some mechanism which cushions the blow to these people, protects their homes, and gives them time to redress. When you read about the quantity of the money paid out to the building societies and banks, it makes one wonder how this would compare with paying some of the interest on the mortgages of those made redundant, and giving additional help when needed, in order to cushion the blow on the innocent, so that unlike me, as a child, being farmed out around the family in a similar situation, the families can stay together and have time to review their own personal situation, and perhaps come to a temporary solution that is equable if not perfect.

Accountants will probably say that I’m stupid, and they could be right, I just feel that the balance of who qualified for the help and who should be receiving it, is totally out of kilter, and unfair.

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 an hysteria. In the Second World War, when I was too young to join up, I got into every group connected with the war that I could, and I waited impatiently for my turn to come. The fact that the realisation is not up to the imagination never seems to filter down to the next generation.

I have always railed against the fact that our government has to get our men into the forefront of every conflict that is going at any time. Presumably it is the ‘leading the world syndrome’, a throwback from the days of the Empire. Now with a credit crunch, with young men throughout the world, having their futures made insecure, having difficulties in finding suitable work, we have an opportunity to build, under the auspices of the United Nations, an International Legion, which is supported financially by the wealthier nations, and can go to hotspots like so many areas in Africa and the rest of the world, putting down corrupt governments, for the sake of their people, tackling terrorism, fighting drug trafficking – need I list more? In fact, upholding reason, compassion and the rule of law. If they’re not fighting, they can be called upon to help with any emergency throughout the world.

One thing I would not want to see is conscription, as psychologically it is counter-productive in the long run. I firmly believe they would have an opportunity of selecting the very best candidates, because the supply, at this time, will more than outstrip the demand. Nations across the world would then be more closely tied in with the United Nations, which has developed from its original glittering ideal, into a weak talking shop, and perhaps, thereby, giving it more backbone.

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 we knew nothing of millionaires, they were so rare. We respected what we then referred to as ‘our betters’, the doctor, the clergy, the Lord of The Manor, our MP, and even our Councillor. They were rarely taken to task by the press, and we were too preoccupied with our own living to take much notice of what they were doing. I still believe that the average person is honest, truthful, and trustworthy, and for this reason I believe that the great majority of MPs are behaving with probity. Brown, by his sweeping changes, is telling me I’m stupid. I have a mantra that says ‘if it ain’t bust don’t fix it’, and if the system or expenses in Parliament has being alright up to two years ago, and the press in an urge to increase sales has recently done some serious digging, and exposed a few miscreants, I feel it is totally unfair to tar so many with the same brush.

I know nothing about the inner workings of Parliament, but from the outside it seems to me that a fairly large proportion of MPs, who are expected by their electorate to be dedicated and attend Parliament on a regular basis, will require a second accommodation in easy reach of Westminster, and the differential in expenses between members will be proportionate to their travelling expenses, if a sensible cap is placed on the cost of a second home. I can’t see what the fuss is about in general terms, and I object strongly to our country being held up to ridicule across the world, yet again. This whole business is like so many other problems, like football hooliganism, where the majority are painted with the broad brush of censure, because of a few. This government treats so much in this manner, without due care and attention, because, in my view, they’re dancing to the tune of the correspondent, they are trying to distance themselves, because of electioneering considerations, rather than necessity. If you really want to castigate the expenses of a governing body, the place to start is in the EU, where waste seems to be endemic.