Royal Apologists

The fact that Prince Harry reverted back to buffoonish, feckless, Nazi insignia wearing posh boy mode while on his taxpayer funded beano to 'the land of the free' was just about palatable. But the level of hypocrisy and sycophancy experienced from some areas of the media and talking heads has been difficult to stomach.
One defence of his high jinks has been that he needed a holiday and the opportunity to let his hair down. A holiday from what exactly? From spending two weeks watching the Olympics from the best seats in the house. Or the exhaustive hours spent drinking beer with medal winning female athletes. Some have said it was a holiday before returning to the front line. I'll be honest with you I'm pretty certain that as I type this I'm closer to the front line than Harry will ever be. I don't think the top brass would give the Taliban even a sniff of an opportunity of  being able to count a prince amongst their ever increasing kill counts. If Harry was ever allowed near the front line he would be wrapped in bubble wrap, put inside an oil drum, loaded up onto a M111 armoured personnel carrier and for absolute safety, the carrier would be inserted up Eric Pickles rectum. However, the levels of hypocrisy went intergalactic when The Sun said that the justification for printing the pictures was the nation interests. Strange that in News Internationals world of twisted logic they didn't consider that news involving bribing public officials, hacking into a dead girls mobile phone or the corruption of police officers was not in the public's interests, given The Suns lack of coverage, but pictures of a naked prince were.

Army Redundancies.

It is truly disgusting that some soldiers are being made redundant prior to qualifying for their full military pensions. Some soldiers are as little as eighty days short of qualification which could lead to a loss of £230000. It is a disgusting but not surprising example of this governments callous disregard for serving military.

Atos Kills.

Talking of disgusting examples, Atos, the company that is currently performing miracles that Jesus could only dream of, by making the sick walk and the blind see again, is a sponsor of the Paralympics. A company that is so despised by the disabled community due to its predilections for ignoring medical advice, the advice of medical professionals and ensuring that people with disabililities lose their benefits by declaring them fit for work when, in one example, a claimant was dying of cancer and another was suffering from terminal kidney failure is a member of 'the world wide paralympic family'. It's the equivalent of Mcdonalds sponsoring a vegan Olympics or Eric Pickles sponsoring The Slimmer of The Year Awards.
 70% of all Atos decisions are overturned on appeal which surely demonstrates how ineffective their Work Capability Assessments are. This company currently has a contract worth £110m a year. The appeals cost the taxpayer another £60m a year. Hardly an effective use of tax payers money. But of course with this government the cost is secondary. It is the zealous ideologue of Witch-finder General Ian Duncan Smith that is primary. It would not surprise me if it was discovered that Duncan Smith had a portrait of himself dressed in priestly robes in a priapic pose, clasping a crucifix in one hand while strangling a poor orphan with his other hand and gazing ecstatically skywards. It would not surprise me at all.

Stupidity of The General Public.

Following on from the subject of the Paralympics it does not surprise me at all to hear that hate crimes against people with disabilities has increased tenfold. After all, it is a subliminal and open policy of this government to demonise sections of society they hate and despise in equal amounts. Mainly these sections contain poor and vulnerable members of society that are easy to target without being a vote losing policy. I am also not surprised that the public fall for this self interested divide and rule crap because a high proportion of the general public are MORONS!!. They would rather be lead by the nose, in the same way the German nation in the 1930's were lead by the Nazi's, and told what to think rather than having to rationalise a dilemma and draw their own conclusion based on fairness and objectivity. That is much to much like hard work. You just keep watching Xfactor, morons, and when this government is wheeling the disabled, the poor and the vulnerable towards the cattle trucks we'll give you a bell and you can come out, line the streets, and scream abuse at them.

Another policy of this government is to continually lie, falsify or ignore inconvenient facts otherwise known as the truth. The press conference held by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt post Olympics was a classic example of this. It was utter bul****t.

Jeremy Clarkson.

Due to unpleasant comments made about the death of his dog, Clarkson has said that Britain is full of '60 million utter bastards'. I agree it is unpleasant to make fun of the demise of a family pet and the people that did are, in my book, worst than utter bastards, they are scum. However, Clarkson is the classic bully who gladly picks on weaker targets who cannot defend themselves. So when he gets some of his own medicine he should shut up and take it, rather than start whining like the prissy little public schoolboy he will always be.

Neil Armstrong

Over the past few weeks we have been regaled with achievements of people running,jumping, some hopping and others not drowning. Attached to many of these people has been the somewhat ridiculous epithet 'hero'.
The death of Neil Armstrong has thrown a severe light on how ridiculous it was to refer to the likes of Bolt, Ennis and Farah as heroes for Armstrong was a genuine hero. He and his fellow astronauts went into the unknown, fully aware that they may never see their families again. When he stepped out on to the moon it must have been frightening and not knowing whether they would ever get off again puts into perspective the events of the past few weeks in the Olympic park.If the worst scenario did occur NASA  had a speech prepared for President Nixon saying that the men had gone to the moon in peace and would now rest in peace on the moon. But the worst scenario did not occur and they returned, quite rightly,as heroes. Armstrong remained a humble and reclusive man, never attempting to trade off his status as an American hero.

 The only sad aspect was that the space programme, due to its success, was the architect of its own demise. We now know that the chances of colonising the moon is impossible and the costs involved prohibitive so it is doubtful there will ever be another man on the moon but the men that went their are bona fide heroes and tossing the term around so easily diminishes their achievements somewhat.

The Royal Spare

Looks like Prince Harry has been fulfilling his role as the Royal Spare lately with great gusto. I presume he was fearful that the falling out of night clubs and wearing Nazi uniforms to parties was fading in the countrys collective memory and he was starting to be regarded as an upstanding responsible adult who could justify having millions of tax payers money spent on him that allowed him to live a life of wealth and privilege.

 I thought he was enjoying flirting with fit medal winning female athletes and taking on a greater responsibility as a representative of this once great nation when all he was doing was putting together a plan that would destroy any good he had done to his image over the past year and confirm many peoples suspicions that he was still the feckless, directionless, buffoonish bear of little brain many people always thought he was.

However all is not lost Harry my boy as now we have a cowed media who are afraid to say or print anything critical about you for fear of being Levesonned. If you wish people to once again  consider you to be nothing more than a drunken posh boy who associates with other chinless, drunken posh boys and girls then you will have to come up with something better than going on a massive tax payer funded beano, rounding up a lot of camera phone carrying strangers from the foyer of a hotel and then engaging in some sought of pot black themed orgy. It ain't gonna work. Next time I suggest you get caught on tape saying something disgustingly sexual about your Grandmother and if that doesn't work then you may have to take the nuclear option and try an get off with your brothers wife. Although there is a part of me that thinks you may have already tried that. 

Olympic Volunteers.

There is a hope that the success of the Olympic volunteers will carry over into normal life and a better more caring society will be created. You can see that Cameron is desperate to associate it with the Big Society. Unfortunately I have to tell you that this hope of a new utopia is bullshit. It won't happen and here are some reasons why.

• The volunteers were part of a momentous time that was fleeting. They were highly visible and were constantly recognised and praised by the establishment, the media and the public. That is the exact opposite to what people who volunteer 52 weeks of the year experience. They unfortunately are never recognised, rarely praised and the establishment normally wouldn't give them the time of day.
• Many Olympic volunteers were taking annual leave. When they return to normal life they will not have the time. Or at least that is what they will tell people.
• The Olympics was a glamour event. The volunteers were able to bask in the reflected glory of the athletes. Sorting through a bag of donated clothes for the RSPCA or CLIC won't feel quite the same although it is far more important.
• Volunteering in general is demanding and at times can be challenging. You need to care about the cause or organisation you are working for. I got the feeling that the majority of Olympic volunteers were involved for personal rather than altruistic motives. It was all about being there. Something to tell the gran kids
• When you normally volunteer you don't get your meals and travel paid for.

I respect what the Olympic volunteers did. They were great ambassadors and obviously found it very rewarding. But it was a bit like a holiday and unfortunately that feeling quickly fades when you have to return to normality.

Honours For Athletes ?

The suggestion that all gold winning British athletes should receive an honour is a ridiculous idea. Putting aside the fact that the Honours system is an anachronistic system that rewards time servers, celebrities, failed politicians and establishment flunkeys it must also be made clear that these athletes did not do it for the nation. They did it for themselves and for their own personal glory along with the wealth it may create for them. It has been said that they are hard working and driven, that they get up early etc etc and that they  make sacrifices. Well, I expect there are a lot of care workers, road sweepers, nurses, teachers, doctors, refuse collectors and  many other people who would love the opportunity to spend their time pursuing a sport they love and being funded by the tax payer to do it. But that fortune is not accorded to them. It was inspiring what the successful athletes achieved but I'm afraid jumping a few more millimeters or running a bit faster than someone else should not equate to hero status. That should be given to people who truly improve the world we live in. Lets celebrate the nurses, teachers and road sweepers the same way the athletes and Olympic volunteers were celebrated.   

International Sports Day. Part 2.

The efforts and achievements of the athletes were indeed inspiring and taken in isolation they were enjoyable and at times quite moving. However there were aspects that were very distasteful. I have already written about the corporate fascism involved along with the anti business practices of the multi nationals involved. So I will put that to one side. There have been other aspects that have been very uncomfortable to witness.

• The jingoism of the presenters and commentators( TV and particularly radio) and their desperate attempts to associate themselves  with the athletes as they wrapped themselves in the flag was at times sickening. By the end of the two weeks the presenters seemed little more than Olympic groupies who sneeringly dismissed anybody who should dared to have the temerity to criticise anything involved with the Olympics.
• Continually referring to the athletes as heroes. They may be inspirational. They might be quite brave. They are not heroic. A hero is somebody who carries out an act because they consider it to be their duty and they have nothing to gain. Heroism is an unselfish act that benefits others. An athletes existence is a very selfish one dimensional existence. All the athletes are motivated by their own success. They do not run, jump and throw for others. They do it for themselves.
• Politicians and celebrities desperate efforts to associate themselves with successful athletes. Boris Johnson and some Tory ministers have been particularly active. They need to be reminded of some unpalatable facts. It was the Labour government that decided to bid and eventually won the Olympics. It was the Labour government that planned, organised and built all the infrastructure and put in place all contingency plans. The Tory's were just fortunate to be in office at the time of the Olympics so they could bask in the reflected glory of the previous governments hard work. However, The Tory's were responsible for two areas. They were responsible for putting the security in place as well as the ticket sales. That went well then.
• The athletes were given a very positive press and some events were glossed over or ignored. An example being the GB cyclist who, because he got a poor start, fell of his bike to get a restart. If we rightly criticise footballers for feigning fouls and falling over we cannot then ignore an athlete trying to gain an advantage in a similar way just because it happens to be a medal winning cyclist. It's hypocrisy.
• The governments almost daily pronouncements about sport in schools when three weeks ago they couldn't give a stuff about sport in state schools. Bandwagon and jumping  comes to mind.
• The right wingers suddenly being very keen on multi culturism when the two stars of the Olympics are a mixed race heptathlon athlete and a gold medal winning Somali immigrant.
• The propaganda currently being put out by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt that the Olympics increased business in the area. It is a disgusting lie. 70% of business in the Stratford area of London when asked said that business had dropped dramatically during the Olympics. And when these business tried to advertise their business with flyers and posters they were ripped down by Locog.

As I have already said the achievements of the athletes have been immense but do not let misguided patriotism and nationalism cloud our judgement. And beware of the bandwagon jumping mendacious politicians.


Sports Funding.

I agree with athletes being funded via the taxpayer. Nearly all the GB medal winners would not have achieved their success without the benefit of tax payers funding. I do think, however, that funding should be treated in the same way as tuition fees. Some athletes such as Jessica Ennis,Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Mo Farah will receive lucrative endorsements over the next few months. They will become very wealthy. Surely it is not to much to ask that they pay back some of  the funding they received in the same way we now expect university students to pay back their loans when they achieve a certain level of income. It would also be nice if some of the athletes that have received benefits in the form of sports funding perhaps spoke up in defence of less fortunate people such as the disabled who are victims of this governments war on the poor and vulnerable. Particularly as the Para Olympics are about to begin.

Suicide

Suicide figures have increased dramatically since the current government came to power. Some people have suggested that the victims are selfish for taking their own lives. It is wrong to accuse a person of being selfish if they believe they are living a pointless life with no hope. They have the right of self determination. It is the accusers who are being selfish. There attitude is that they expect someone to carry on living a daily life of desolation, pain, isolation, hopelessness and futility because if they choose to end it then the accuser will be effected negatively. It is the accuser who is selfish not the person considering taking their own life.