Christmas is coming...already?

We've all heard the refrain: "Christmas comes early every year", but even I was surprised today, when I visited our local Marks & Spencer branch. To my amazement, they were selling Christmas cards (£5-00 for 20). And it's not even September! I don't know whether anyone else has noticed the early signs of Christmas anywhere, but if you have - isn't this just a little too soon? It might, of course, be a sign of desperation by the stores. They must be so desperate to maintain turnover, that they want to corner the Christmas market early. What next? Will pubs and hotels be taking Christmas party bookings in June? When will we start to hear Slade and Jona Lewey singing in Sainsbury's? The possibilities are boundless. Oh dear...

Osama and the Chimera

I hate to admit it, but I wasn't sure what a "chimera" was, until I looked it up online. I came across several meanings, two of which I thought of interest. Here is one: " a mythical fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a serpent". Right - and here's another:" a grotesque product of the imagination". For some reason, this made me think of the ever elusive Osama Bin Laden, who stands (somewhere- or is he bedridden?) as one of the greatest monsters of our time. The fact that no-one seems to have the remotest idea where he is, or even if he is alive or dead, makes me wonder if he is, perhaps, a product of a paranoid imagination, like bogeymen, trolls - or chimeras. But of course, I exaggerate. He must be alive - isn't that why Iraq and Afghanistan were invaded? Now, as we all know, US combat troops left Iraq this week, with their mission (hopefully) accomplished. British troops left some time ago. The war goes on in Afghanistan, of course, but there is hope for a withdrawal of NATO troops in the not-too-distant future. As things stand, they will probably leave without finding Bin Laden. Whether this is important or not, we are not told.
 Some things are clear, however. About 7 000 NATO troops (mostly American) have died in both theatres. For exact figures (so far) see here.  Civilian casualty figures are disputed, but run into six figures. Another grim statistic is that about 200 000 US personnel who have served in Iraq have developed various mental health problems. I have no similar figures for UK troops, but they must be high. Then, of course, there are the wounded and disabled. If Bin Laden set out to cause mass bloodshed, mayhem and damage to the West, then he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. And (if alive), he may still escape capture.
If Bin Laden wears socks against the cold, he must laugh them off his feet every night.

George and the Dictator

It's very rare for me to read the "Times", but as I made a long train journey today, I bought a copy to pass the time. One article that caught my attention was by one Martin Fletcher, with the title: "Galloway meets Ahmadinejad - a shameful sight". As George Galloway ("GG") and the repressive regime in Iran have featured in my postings before, I read the article with interest. It seems that GG hosts a weekly programme called "The Real Deal" on Press TV. For those who have never heard of Press TV, it is an English language TV channel run by the regime in Iran. Others may be unaware of GG's interest in the media - he also hosts a radio programme on Talk Sport radio which I have only ever listened to for a few minutes. I became very bored with GG reading letters from admirers telling him how wonderful he was. I've not seen his interview with President Ahmadinejad (much as I'd like to), but Fletcher's account of it sounds typical of GG. He asked the Iranian dictator "patball questions", ie, easy questions to answer. He avoided asking any awkward questions (such as "Why did your security forces shoot down opposition demonstators last year?"), and prefaced his one question about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (see below) with the words: "Every so often an issue comes along which is seized on by enemies of Iran and magnified...". Martin Fletcher comments: "It was a performance more demeaning even than Mr Galloway's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother as a cat."I agree with that conclusion, but I wonder if GG has another agenda at work? He must be aware that there will be widespread criticism of this so-called "interview", as there has been criticism of his previous escapades. Personally, I think he revels in it - it always seems to me that he enjoys controversy, as it provides him with publicity and boosts his ego. Anyone who doubts that GG has an overweening ego should listen to his radio programme. Like Gloria Swanson, he knows that: "Good publicity is great, bad publicity is good - no publicity is awful!". And let's face it - without the heat and dust he stokes up, who would notice Mr Galloway anyway? No, like I have said about Jonathan Ross, I believe GG to be an operator, out to further his own ends. The difference between them lies in the fact that Ross is said to have cultivated Media Moguls; Mr Galloway prefers tyrants and dictators. Well, as the old saying goes: "A man is known by the company he keeps".

Cracking Down on Benefit Fraud - Again?

Mr Originality, aka David Cameron, is at it again. With all the appearance of having found something outrageous that has gone unnoticed before, he has declared his intention of taking decisive action against benefit cheats. In his own words to an audience in Manchester today, he boldly stated:
"There are some people who are claiming welfare who are not entitled to it and that is just wrong and that should stop. Both things, fraud and error, go together and I want to cut them both."
Er - am I wrong in finding this all a little familiar? I seem to recall that back in the 1970s, newpapers like the Sun were always banging on about "Costa del Dole" and "Social Security Scroungers". It has been a recurring theme at Tory Party conferences for decades, yet they never seem to be able to eradicate the problem, or even reduce it. So what has the PM come up with? Well, as it says on the news, he's going to use private credit rating firms, offering them a dividend from the money they save in tracking down the cheats. As one firm, Experian, estimates that it can save £1 billion, that should make for a handsome profit.
 What I wonder about is this: why hire private firms to deal with this problem when there already exists a full time, highly experienced force of Government employees to do the job? Or will they be joining the people they now investigate?

Death for Adultery?

I copied this from a US website called "Care2 Action Center":

"In May 2006, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two children, was sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery. Her conviction was based on a forced confession that she later retracted.
She has received a temporary reprieve from stoning, but now Iran's judiciary has changed her charges and sentence to execution by hanging. The Iranian regime has changed the method of execution and executed prisoners in the past without informing their families and without public notice."
I am sure that everyone who reads this will be as horrified as I am. The fact that a human being can face death for what must be one of the most common lapses in judgement made by married men and women the world over is utterly outrageous.If everyone in the world who committed adultery was executed, tens of thousands of people would have to die. Even if this lady did commit adultery - and it is disputed - there appears to be a double standard at work in Iran. I am reliably informed that Iran's Revolutionary Guards regularly extract sexual favours from so-called "dissident" women (and others) in return for not arresting or harassing them. Let's hope that this poor woman can be helped by international pressure. She is by no means an isolated case of human rights abuse in Iran, which can be verified by visiting the Amnesty International website by clicking on the logo on this page, and then clicking on "Iran". 
And this is the lady concerned:

The New Diplomacy

I have to admit, our Prime Minister has an original way of doing things. Besides his way of managing the economy by cutting everything in sight, he is now giving object lessons in how he thinks we should conduct diplomacy with one of our principal partners in "The War on Terror". In spite of the fact that we need Pakistan's support against the Taliban, he has now offended the Pakistani Government by declaring that: "we cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that [Pakistan] is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror". Quite how Pakistan is exporting terror, when Pakistan itself is a victim of terror attacks, is not clear. The actual culprits in Pakistan are thought to be the ISI - Pakistan's Intelligence Service. This may be true, but where is Mr Cameron's evidence, and is being a "loudmouth" (David Miliband's phrase) the right way to deal with the matter?
Below, I show a new picture of the Prime Minister.