Wednesday 6 July 2016

1 Chilcot Report = War and Peace x 4

Alerted by the screeching of Peregrine Falcons at 6 this morning, I looked out of the window in time to see a parent making a bad pass to a juvenile over the Guildhall, and watched the half-dead pigeon drop like a stone to the rooftops as an opportunist gull raced to be the first one on the scene to claim the meat. Peregrines never (I am told) go back to pick up dropped prey - why bother when there are so many other birds around for the taking?

I don't normally get involved with football, but there have been so many upsets by so many underdogs of late, that I will be glued to the screen to watch Wales v Portugal tonight. You never know, this might even inspire them to get a cricket team together. If the 'home' teams do unexpectedly  well this year and next (excluding England, of course), then it will be even more ironic that we will not qualify for any inter-Europe matches ever again.

The mother of a British soldier who was shot and killed in Iraq was interviewed this morning, and said that her son was issued a set of ceramic, bullet-proof plates which are inserted into the jackets for combat, but as soon as he arrived in Iraq, he had to give them back to the quartermaster, who obviously had a better use for them. Vegetable chopping boards?

A couple of years ago, a ruthless bastard who manufactured completely fake bomb-detectors which were sold in large numbers at arms fairs, was sent to prison for a long time (but probably not long enough) as well as having all his assets seized. One - just one - of his numerous assets was a large house in The Circus, Bath - one of the most expensive dwellings in this expensive town.

The astounding and inexplicable thing about his conviction is that they are still using the fake detectors, worldwide, even today. They do not work AT ALL, but the governments who bought them refuse to admit that they spent everyone's money unwisely, probably  - no definitely - because of all the back-handers and dodgy deals which go on at arms fairs, making a handful of individual people very rich indeed.

You know that massive bomb which went off in Iraq a couple of days ago, killing 250 people (at the last count)? Well that was supposed to have been screened out with one of the fake detectors.

What is left of the government there have finally said that the use of these useless detectors will be 'phased out' over the coming month. There is NOTHING to 'phase out'!

17 comments:

  1. Some random thoughts on security. I was in a bank this morning and there was a person waiting next to me dressed from head to toes in black with a one inch slit for his or her eyes. A policeman died yesterday having been shot at the scene of an armed robbery in a supermarket not far away from the same location. Firearms permit applications are up 400% on last year they said on the news this morning. EU people are taking security seriously. It's the EU's new DIY industry.

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    1. That would have been a 'her'. If it was a 'him', then he would have made his sex known by pulling a gun from under the cloth.

      I think you may find that if gun-licence applications are up by 400%, then it will be for shotguns, not firearms. These sort of statistics can be easily manipulated for political purposes, and may have an entirely different cause - like good weather, for instance. I know many people with shotguns, and in no way do they see them as weapons - they are sporting equipment.

      With regard to statistics, it was on the news that inter-racial hate crime incidents have rocketed since the Brexit vote - or so it seemed.

      The situation was explained away by a policeman, who siad the the REPORTING of hate-crime had risen, not the crimes themselves. There could be any reason for this, not just what appears to be obvious.

      Security has always been an industry, and DIY will not take over until the police relax gun-laws to the extent whereby any madman can legally own one. They are getting tighter, not slacker, and now you need a pshological profile report from a doctor to hand in with your application.

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    2. Oh and the most obvious explanation for the rise in the reporting of hate crime in the UK will probably have something to do with the reporters - newspaper reporters.

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    3. Hardly a week goes by without a shooting in Vienna. Mostly the offenders tend to be from the Balkans. The latest involved Bosnian.

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    4. I was going to write about the so called rise in race related crimes. Nottingham and Norfolk police both reported such crimes as down on the week before the Referendum and othe forces reported similarly. Figures this week here are in line with any other week in the year. Corbin stood up somewhere last week and made a speech about race hate crime going up. Dont they ever tell the truth? And there's always someone out there who believes them.

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    5. Millions don't, and never did.

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    6. P.S. - The shootings in Europe are - in general - by illegally held guns. The ones in America are - in general - by legally held ones. There is a pretty big difference.

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  2. Chilcot : Waste of taxpayers money. Usual answers are to blame the bloody army.

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    1. Well Chilcot blames Blair - shock! Blair is, of course, saying that the report has exonerated him completely. The man is mentally ill, he tells such huge porkies. This could be his only mitigating factor when brought to trial.

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  3. Never mind all that, what's this I've been hearing about severed feet being found in Bath gardens?

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    1. Old news. Badly disposed-of waste from the nearby hospital. Dogs love it.

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  4. Phased out? Pretty useless phrase in this instance I would have thought - no, in fact a pretty criminal phrase. In that part of the world lives are played with like toy soldiers. Everyone is somebody's wife, husband, son, daughter, mother, father, lover - need I go on.

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  5. I remember Blair being interviewed on radio a short while after the invasion. He had the temerity to say that it was old news and got shirty with Humphries for bringing it up.
    I can't hear the song "things can only get better"without getting angry.

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    1. Well he was far from shirty with Humphries this morning. I cannot look at Brian Cox without thinking of that tune now either.

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  6. I've got to find that interview online. Now I have to go research the etymology of "shirty".

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