Thursday 2 December 2010

ENGLISH PRINCE: SOLDIERS' TARGET PRACTICE: DEAR MPS

While I wait for an opportunity to listen to today's FMQs, I decided to get a few minor irritations off my chest. (Please note that when I refer to "dear MPs", I mean that they cost a lot, and not that they are in any way beloved.)


I note that Prince William, who is part of the England bid to host the World Cup, has said that he is English. "I love football, we English love football and it would be an honour for us to host the World Cup."

That’s cool with me. They are welcome to him. It was probably a little slip in his speech, but he has proved how he feels about his own identity.

I can’t help thinking that it is a sign of desperation that one of the world’s most iconic footballers joining the prime minister of England wasn’t felt enough to win the prize: they had to trot out an English Prince as well, and one who has just received massive publicity for announcing that he is going to do what millions of other people do every year, get married.

Still, I suppose you have to use what you can get. Perhaps the glittering of Williams’s metaphorical crown will make up for the cheesy PR prime minister, and the fact that there was, yet again, crowd trouble at an English football match last night.

***

I wonder if I was the only person to shake his head in wonderment this morning when I heard about the sentencing of an American soldier who, as part of a gang went on a drug induced rampage killing Afghan civilians for no apparent reason, except that they were there.

The soldier did the American equivalent of “turning Queen’s evidence” by telling about his mates, in order to get a reduced sentence for his part in the shootings. For sport (aren’t there any wild animals in Afghanistan for the huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ set?), these brave boys, heros maybe, went out and shot anyone that crossed their path.

It’s hard to believe but ex-Sgt Robert Stevens was a medic. I shouldn’t care to be treated by him. He says that he didn’t actually kill anyone himself, but would you believe him? Anyway, pour encourager les autres, he was given a 9 month jail sentence and busted down to private.

Not only did he go around with a gang that was killing human beings for sport, a filthy and despicable thing to do, he has also given terrorists every reason to hate, even more, the westerners who are in their country (at the invitation of the Afghan government of course, but we can all remember what they American government said, and didn’t want us to know, about the Afghan government, don’t we). This piece of filth will, more than WikiLeaks, have the blood of his comrades on his hands. So was that an appropriate sentence? And they want to execute the Wikileaks’ Assange for treason. Wow!

***

And surprise, surprise the Honourable (?**?!*!?**?) members are angry about their expenses and the body that administers them. (It appears they have stopped handing out money willy nilly for no other reason that the MOPs demand it.) The greedy, useless 650+ have claimed over £3 million in the last 3 months... sheesh... including Conservative Keith Simpson, who received £20,752 over the period - mostly for travel expenses to and from his constituency in Norfolk. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but Norfolk isn’t that far from London; certainly not as far as Scotland, so how was he travelling? We already know that they have been working a housing fiddle already, and apparently some are still charging first class rail fares.

Now they want to waste yet more of the time that WE pay for to debate the matter in the House on the subject. Now, we know that they think we are stupid and all have memories that hardly stretch from one episode of Emerdale to the next, but I really do think that they should be aware that we are hurting out here despite what the Noble Mr Young thinks; it’s cold and gas bills are soaring; we are paying back the excesses of a small number of stupid people... them included. So a wee piece of advice to them.

Shut up, get on with your bloody jobs at £66,000+ and keep your greedy, fat heads down, before the public turns, and you find them chopped off and lying at your feet.

Just a thought.

Oh and before they try to have me arrested for Treason, I mean that in a metaphorical sense. (Sorta.)


16 comments:

  1. I think the Unionist Govt in Westminster missed a golden chance over the World Cup. Had they offered to have the WC in the UK and not just in England, they could have campaigned for a single UK team (something FIFW/UEFA have longed for for yonks); they could have shot the Scottish fox (don't you want a piece of the action, with games at Hampden/Ibrox/Parkhead?); they could have made great political capital out of it ("One nation sharing the benefits").
    But they didn't--because they're English and will always think of themselves first.

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  2. Right on the nail Andrew...well said..and I hate Football

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  3. Andrew, welcome to Munguin's republic. :)

    I think I read the proposition is that they will use the Ibrox for some of the games, but it will remain England's games.

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  4. Not unless they are in Russia and the qatar.

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  5. Nomine: Likewise, welcome to the Republic. It seems that for all his perceived snub to FIFA and for all England sensing a Prince and an iconic star of football to sell its bid, along with their first minister who is a PR man to trade, Putin won out.

    I'm not gloating. There might have been a Barnet consequential in it for us, but I always thought it was a tad on the greedy side to be wanting the Olympic Games and the World Cup in short order and people may have thought that England had had more than its fair share of world level sporting events.

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  6. Ah yes CH... I read the news just after I made that first comment... It might have been an idea if I'd done it the other way round...

    Apologies to Andrew... I'm not always that dim... just frequently.

    A bit of a kick in the teeth to Cameron, having invested so much time and got David beckham and prince William in.

    At least Brown, ghastly though he, was managed to get the Olympics. (Millstone round their necks, though it is.)

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  7. Damn, and I was so looking forward to Scotland winning the World Cup at Wembley, even with the help of a Russian linesman with a dog and a white stick. Ach well, it's back to Hibs winning the Champions League.

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  8. I'm devastated--not!

    Cue stories from the English media hinting darkly of Russian Mafia bribes...

    Dave, Wills and Becks---altogether now "3 plonkers on the shirt"

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  9. Oh lord CH. He can even ruin things from his Edinburgh bunker.

    I wonder how his money making book is getting on?

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  10. Yeah right John...

    I was looking forward the the consequentials. I've heard they are good with chips.

    BTW, I'm wondering why no one has said anything about the greedy MPs, or the charmless ex- sergeant....

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  11. There will have to be some excuses Andrew. I mean, when you invest your future king, your first minister and arguably the world's most famous footballer in it and still lose, you have to have someone else to blame.

    Methinks the bid must have been a bit crap.

    Oh well, here's to Dundee winning the under tens 5-a-side... Well, they might.... don't laugh.

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  12. Next week is publishing this fictional novel on "Banishing Boom and Bust by Brown" bargain basement bucket. Bugger!

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  13. I really love political diaries CH. I don't care who wrote them as a rule. Right (Alan Clark), Left (Tony Benn), Notorious (Peter Mandelson), Unknown (Lance Price).

    But there are a few exceptions.

    I tried to read Mrs Thatcher's memoires, but gave up after 80 pages. Her repeated assertion that she was right about everything and everyone else was wrong got me down. I could hear her voice in my ear when I was reading, and that's not to be recommended just before bed.

    I couldn’t bring myself to read Blair’s book, although perhaps time will heal my aversion to the man.

    Oh and I was in Munguin’s house and caught a glance of Ashcroft’s skinny little book under his coffee table. God, it looked boring, so I’ll skip that. (Munguin, you need to get that table leg fixed.)

    Brown’s “Book of Flying Nokias and Other Bad Tempered Snotty Behaviour”, is another one I will have to miss. He has sat at home doing squat, earning money and writing his bloody book because he’s been too embarrassed to show his sorry face in public. Pratt.

    Can’t wait for Cameron’s doubtless written in cooperation with Clegg. “How I failed to get the World Cup for England, and he finished the Liberals for good” seems like a likely title, don’t you think?

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  14. Hi

    I'm not sure I understand your point about Prince William. Did you think he wasn't English? It's been a few generations since his family were German, and the Bosch can be a bit funny about awarding German passports without close German ancestory I believe.

    Jim

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  15. Hi Jim... Welcome to the Republic.

    My point really was that they've been trying to con us that they are British or UKish or whatever, but clearly he's English and we Scots are foreigners like the Australians and New Zealanders.

    He probably only came here for his education because it's better than the English equivelent, and apart from that, like the rest of his awful family, he comes to shoot our animals.

    Oh well, much good it did them sening their English Prince. 2 votes out of 22.... not much of an endorsement.

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