I read an article that was posted in the Guardian newspaper on Sunday by Tracy McVeigh with The Observer entitled “Beckhams a ‘bad example’ for families.” The first paragraph sums up the article nicely with this sentence:

“According to a growing group of campaigners, the birth of their fourth child make the couple bad role models and environmentally irresponsible.”

The article goes on to say that a growing number of public figure such as “Green” MP, Caroline Lucas, and Sir David Attenborough have joined other leading environmentalists in calling for an end to the “absurd taboo” of discussing family size in the UK. Well, my thought on that is, Ms. Lucas and Sir David should go visit China and see how that is working for them. Four guys for every girl…. What a party!

I try to listen and lend credence to important issues that need to be raised, but this sort of tripe is rediculous. In fact, most level headed people who would read this would dismiss any valid point the author might make. It is far too prevalent in today’s society to take absurd, cheap shots to make a point. To call a married, financially successful couple that can afford to raise four children in a home “a bad example” is insane.

Nowhere in the article did the so called “environmental experts” point out that the families in Somalia, India, Mexico and other impoverished countries act “irresponsibly” , or dare I say inhumanly, when they have far more children that cannot be supported by the land, the resources, the family or even by their governments. They don’t seem to be concerned about nor mention the “carbon foot print” caused by far more abusive scenarios around the world than they are with a Football star and a former Spice Girl. It is nothing more than a cheap stunt to grab a headline for their cause. No one should have respect for that.

When it comes down to it, I’m doubtful that a lot of couples in Britain sit around the dinner table discussing their future and family planning based on the Beckhams as a role model. The article sites that 50 years ago the world population was 3 billion, now it is 7. I know Beckham has a lot of energy and has played all over the world, but I don’t think he is responsible for that either.

Mind you, I am not a fan of European Football nor do I think that Posh Spice is/was very talented. With that being said, I do stand up against “drive-by attacks” on any person. If you truly want to pick on something, how about the name of their latest child, Harper Seven!?! What are you guys thinking? That makes the child “seven of four” and that makes no sense at all.

If we are to be as civilized a society that we claim to be, this kind of agenda driven, mindless, gobbledygook does not need to be give legitimacy by being broadcast in the media. Silliness detracts from the real issues.

Regular attendees to this site (you both know who you are) will have noticed that I am not the most prolific of posters. I work betwixt 12 and 18 hours a day and see my son every weekend which doesn’t leave me with much time for research, let alone writing.

So I wish to extend a very warm welcome to “Ugly Pete” who most definitely has something to say…. Quite often as it happens!

I have known Pete for a number of years and consider him to be one of my best friends in these United States Of Amnesia.

Some months ago I offered Pete an invitation to post on this site as I know he has very good opinions and an urge to to discuss them with a wider circle.

Over the years I have found his insight and opinion on current affairs to be extremely valid and after some months he agreed to write for this blog.

I hope that visitors to this site will enjoy Pete’s views as much as I do and will lead to more frequent entertainment.

Of course, if you hadn’t guessed “Ugly Pete” is not his real name I have changed it (like my own) to protect the guilty.

I will make his first post available within the hour and I hope that you will enjoy his contribution as much as I do.

On the eve of the traditional announcement for the New Years Honours list there has been one notable omission for far too long.

While we shake our heads at some of the “gongs” awarded there has been one entertainer who my generation grew up with who has been sadly ignored.

A tireless campaigner for children’s television who tells a  marvelous story (whether for children or adults) and brings magic to any part he plays.

He has starred and acted in movies, television and radio even having hit singles.

Lately he has played a major role in Doctor Who.

Step forward please Bernard Cribbins!

If this man is not honoured by the Queen in 2011 then it is time that a campaign was started to rectify this error.

At 82 years old it would be a crime to see him honoured posthumously.

I am indebted to Sid for pointing me towards the Daily Telegraph this past week and a story that causes The Crazy Englishman to shake his head sagely (it would have been in disbelief but I know what’s coming.)

It seems in the spirit of Christmas (if not profits) several major airlines have approached B.A.A. (British Airports Authority) offering to help them clear the snow from London’s Heathrow Airport. What a wonderful idea. For those that do not know the British Isles have been under semi artic conditions for over a week with better than two feet of snow falling in a single night. Road, transport, sport and postal services have been devastated for more than a week causing England to come more or less to a halt. The Christmas mail deliveries are backlogged bringing a possibility that even if you “posted early for Christmas” your presents may not arrive and most of the sporting events are being called off days in advance.

This is the second bout of  snow and one would have thought that the airports would have been prepared for a repeat given that it is still only December but of course this has caught B.A.A. on the hop.

Gatwick Airport has been shut down and Heathrow (supposedly the world’s busiest airport) is at half capacity with people being told to come to the airport for their flight only to sleep there for several days with no information and few facilities.

So you would have thought that B.A.A. would have welcomed any offer of help no matter where it came from but it seems that is not the case. Claiming health and safety issues (which seems to rule Britain these days) it has refused the offers of help from the airlines saying that staff are unqualified to de-ice aircraft stands. So much for “Cameron’s grand plan.” At the same time it has been discovered that B.A.A. have neither the staff or equipment to clear the airport for itself.

While football clubs and other sports have enlisted the volunteer help of it’s supporters to keep events from being cancelled, B.A.A. are refusing offers to help bring families together for Christmas.

Now, of course we will all sit back and wait.

It won’t be long before (once everything gets back to normal) the seasonal chink of begging bowls will be heard up and down the country…. Oxfam? Salvation Army? None of these! The usual suspects; Farmers, (ever seen the will of a farmer?) lorry drivers, cabbys, insurance companies (who year after year charge premiums and bleat when one year in ten when they are forced to make a payment) and of course the airlines.

In the latter case the airlines should be refused government bail out and given the address of B.A.A.’s chief executive with a message, you caused this, now you pay for it!

And if you thought I was joking about the number of organisations holding out a begging bowl….. Just watch and see.

T.T.F.N.

Well David Cameron releases his scheme for Britain’s Big Society” and I have to say I am stunned by his audaciousness.  I am not stunned by any disillusion that the idea has any merit, I am slightly taken aback by the fact that he is espousing (what is in essence) socialism. But I am stunned with the open purloining of an American advertising campaign.

For readers in “Blighty;” there has been a rather amusing campaign being run in this country by a hotel chain. As an example a man is being seated on a bucking bronco and an assistant asks; “How many rodeo’s have you done ?” to which the reply comes back “None…… but I did stay at a (insert the name of the hotel chain here) last night.”

Another shows a man walking into the cockpit of a commercial airliner crowded with passengers and the co-pilot asks…”Are you the captain?”  You can see the sort of thing.

Now the new coalition leader expects the people of Britain to give up their off work hours and volunteer to spend their leisure time assisting at a library or the local post office without pay.

He apparently intends to fund this by raiding dormant bank accounts,

What planet has he just arrived in from?

As I remember my life in England; I think of being out of the door at dawn, returning 12 hours (or more) later before commencing several hours of paperwork generated during the day. I often was working past ten in the evening and still not making enough money to make ends meet!

The only reason that my bank account wasn’t dormant is because it was overdrawn on a weekly basis!

I don’t think that my experience was much different from that of many single working class people in London. So where is Cameron expecting these volunteers to come from?

Obviously it is another thinly veiled scheme to put the unemployed  under the cosh again. While I have no objection to the unemployed  being asked to make a contribution to society in general I object to governments creating unemployment and then penalising the unfortunate victims as if they had a choice in their situation by stealth.

Perhaps I am being unduly harsh and the scheme is exactly what he says it is, perhaps there a millions of people in Britain who are “chomping at the bit” to give back to the country.  Perhaps there are thousands of subjects who would like nothing better than to build a school or sit behind the counter of a post office but I can see this ending in tears.

I can see the new television advertising campaign that will kick this off, let me share it with you…..

Do you have much experience building schools? No but I did work building a Patio with Fred West…..

This train goes from London to Bristol have you worked as a guard before? No, but I spent some time in a cell with Ronnie Biggs….

So have you done survival training with children before? No but Raoul Moat gave me some pointers.

Welcome to the school have you worked with  children before? No but I did spend some time in Vietnam with Gary Glitter

Oh the list is endless but my nomination is the ad that has David Cameron asking a volunteer… Have you ever written a conservative party manifesto before…. No but I did get a diploma from the Bernard_Madoff online college of accounting, I can make your promises disappear and then I’ll tackle that expenses problem you were having….

While I have written this with my tongue placed very firmly in my cheek there is a a part of my mind wondering how long it will be before some of these “volunteers” act in a way that will make people think twice about being associated with it

Perhaps not much longer than it seems to have taken for this years manifesto promises to disappear

T.T.F.N.

I didn’t watch Tuesday nights election coverage. There was something inside me that just couldn’t tolerate another “historic night.”

Living in the United States it has always amused me to see how desperate the American media are to make themselves a part of history. They don’t seem to realise that everything they do is (in some way) is a part of history, even if it’s reporting Ms. Jones cat stuck up a tree for the third time this week.

An overblown sense of drama might explain it as might the constant ratings war but really it all comes down to a basic insecurity in the psyche of the “movers and shakers” which is not shared by the common citizen.

That insecurity is that the United States of America has a history that runs from the present day……… All the way back to last Thursday!

The United States has achieved many incredible things in its time but just because someone puts the milk in the fridge the world will not be immediately applauding and licking its collective pencil to scribe another chapter in the ever popular history of world events.

Hearing “One small step” is a major historic event for the world, against which Dan the Dick becoming W.W.E. Intercontinental champion in a fixed competition pales into insignificance.

Barack H. Obama being elected President will probably be regarded as interesting enough to merit a marker in world history but how much is written will depend on what is achieved (or not) during his time in office. The fact that the United States elected a new president for the 44th time in its history in itself is really unremarkable (despite race) because it has already been done 43 times previously.

Actually living in this country allows a different perspective from one gained from living abroad. You have to wonder if when world events unfold other paths might have been taken had the American participants not been so worried about their place in the hallowed halls of history as defined by the American media

I am indebted to my my best friend Hissing Sid for coaxing me out of semi retirement with this article from Auntie Beeb.

Just when you thought that the P.C. silly season had reached its zenith in the disunited kingdom comes a reminder that in actual fact the silly season actually lasts 364 days 23 hours and 59 minutes (extended opening on leap years.)

God Bless Hissing Sid and God Bless Flintshire County Council for making me smile for the stupidity of the ruling classes.

Seems that Flintshire County Council have a problem with puddings…. (No! Not the councilors themselves, the after lunch treat in the canteen.)

After nearly 200 years the idea of amusement at the name of “Spotted Dick” has just reached this esteemed body and in a gesture of considered deliberation (panic to you and me son) they have decided to rename this venerable treat “Spotted Richard!

(For my American readership (that’s right both of you) “Spotted Dick” is a steamed desert made from suet and currents.)

What a bunch of “pilchards!”

Of course eventually they have had to rescind this order but the Crazy One has to ask whatever possessed them to join the lunatic fringe in the first place? What would they do if a set of thespians came to the county performing Shakespeare?

Rename Richard the Third to Dick 3 (Son of Dick)

If they had to make such a ruling why did they not pronounce that from hence on in the Flintshire County Council canteen the pudding shalt be known by its other name of “Spotted Dog?” You could not go out of your way to draw attention to yourself by calling it “Spotted Richard.”

Then they have the nerve to restore the rightful name and threaten sanction upon anyone behaving childishly! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Honestly; you couldn’t make this stuff up (and why would you need to?)

So  Flintshire County Council you take the award for the 2009 Richard Heads of the year!

TTFN

To all Americans that visit this site, may the Crazy Englishman wish you a happy 4th of July.

(Personally I am off down to the local lake to throw a few cases of coffee in:)

Enjoy the fireworks

Happy Saint Georges Day everybody

The Crazy Englishman is indebted to his usual circle of concerned “English subjects” for highlighting a disturbing new trend of political correctness taking place inside “This Sceptred Isle.”

It seems that running out of ideas to interfere with the English way of life the “P.C. brigade” have now decided to brainwash children.

Having effectively outlawed many children’s books and characters they have now turned their unwanted attention to nursery rhymes with the apparent blessing of the British Government.

A Government funded project has decided to change the wording of “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” to “What shall we do with the grumpy pirate.”

Is there no end to the politically correct stupidity running rampant in England?

An Oxfordshire nursery has taken it upon itself to alter the words of “Baa baa black sheep”  to “Baa baa rainbow sheep” and it would seem that the traditional English seaside children’s Punch and Judy show now has the skids under it.

This is not the way to do it!

Whilst Punch and Judy has some overtones of domestic violence most children view the show in the same way that they view Tom and Jerry cartoons. As a fan of both I have never been persuaded to dress up in a stripy costume for the purposes of beating up my wife just as I have never tried to see if I could flatten a cat to the thickness of a piece of paper.

What sticks in my craw is that this is just another way of removing the identity of the British.

The primary purpose of teaching these rhymes to children since the 17th century was to encourage the development of vocabulary skills whilst sometimes also relaying historic events. Another way of keeping historic records by way of mouth when reading and writing  in society was the exception rather than the norm.  Now we have a situation where as many as 10 schools in the London area have no English language whatsoever.

In one of the examples above: Baa baa black sheep was either a complaint against King Edward 6th for the “Enclosures of Sheep” law or a complaint against an export duty place on wool back in 1275. During my life I have seen quite a few black sheep but outside of a toy shop I have never seen a rainbow coloured one.

“What shall we do with the drunken sailor” was an old sea shanty sung when sailors had to undertake heavy monotonous labour (such as hauling up an anchor) and came from a time when sailor arriving back from a shore leave drunk or having too much beer (kept on ship because it was easier to keep than fresh water) was not uncommon. Some of the words (Hooray, up she rises) probably refer to either the anchor or the sails.

Britain was (not so much these days) a seagoing nation and therefore rhymes of this nature are a part of our history just as in the USA slavery was a part of theirs but I don’t see a movement there to alter gospel music.

The United Kingdom is deep in the heart of a recession and to get out of it the population will need to pull together and its government will have to show much fiscal responsibility. It is time for the Prime minister to take a lead here and call a halt to this shameless frittering of taxpayers hard won contributions which only serve to deny history and cause divisiveness amongst it’s people.

As an amusement let me try a P.C. rhyme myself.

What shall we do with the P.C. nutters,

What shall we do with the P.C. nutters,

What shall we do with the P.C. nutters,

Early in the morning.

Hooray taxes rising,

Hooray taxes rising,

Hooray taxes rising’,

Early in the morning.

Make ‘em all P.C. and waste their taxes,

Make ‘em all P.C. and waste their taxes,

Make ‘em all P.C. and waste their taxes,

Early In The Mornng.

T.T.F.N.