St Crispin’s Day

I’ll soon be posting over on Ghost cabinet under the dedfence brief, and will probably do a little duplication on this site (I like to get value for my posts!).  One of the things I’m highlighting is that of military hospitals.

Some good soul has put up another e-petition on the subject urging that the government builds at least one solely for the use of the military.

the petition is here.

I would like to see veterans hospitals as well (like they have in US).

Two previous posts also comment on the plight in our military medical services!

Haslar here and The BBC documentary here.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that avery nice guy called Andrew Rhodes has commented (twice) on the subject of car tax & additional costs.  Apparently he is a top man in the car tax world, so knows his onions.  His comments are quite fair,and give a little redress to my rantings. See his comments here.

Iain Dale & Daily referendum got to this first, and thank god they did.  I was stuck in an officers mess when the news broke, with limited access to the net, hence the delay in reporting.

Apparently he, and several hundred gurkhas have been denied access to the UK.  Now I for one could find at least that number of “unworthies” any day of the week down whitechapel way!

Exactly what does this country value anymore?

Go here for the quiz from The Times, it’s shocking.

Apparently being a rapist or potential mass murderer gives you a greater chance of staying in this country than the following actions.

“The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the VICTORIA CROSS to :- No. 10119 Rifleman Tullbahadur (sic) Pun, 6th Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army. In Burma on June 23rd, 1944, a Battalion of the 6th Gurkha Rifles was ordered to attack the Railway Bridge at Mogaung. Immediately the attack developed the enemy opened concentrated and sustained cross fire at close range from a position known as the Red House and from a strong bunker position two hundred yards to the left of it. So intense was this cross fire that both the leading platoons of ‘B’ Company, one of which was Rifleman Tulbahadur (sic) Pun’s, were pinned to the ground and the whole of his Section was wiped out with the exception of himself, the Section commander and one other man. The Section commander immediately led the remaining two men in a charge on the Red House but was at once badly wounded. Rifleman Tulbahadur (sic) Pun and his remaining companion continued the charge, but the latter too was immediately wounded. Rifleman Tulbahadur (sic) Pun then seized the Bren Gun, and firing from the hip as he went, continued the charge on this heavily bunkered position alone, in the face of the most shattering concentration of automatic fire, directed straight at him. With the dawn coming up behind him, he presented a perfect target to the Japanese. He had to move for thirty yards over open ground, ankle deep in mud, through shell holes and over fallen trees. Despite these overwhelming odds, he reached the Red House and closed with the Japanese occupations. He killed three and put five more to flight and captured two light machine guns and much ammunition. He then gave accurate supporting fire from the bunker to the remainder of his platoon which enabled them to reach their objective. His outstanding courage and superb gallantry in the face of odds which meant almost certain death were most inspiring to all ranks and beyond praise.”

It’s been a while since I was this angry!

Ok, so the nanny state is saying that we have to change the way we get rid of rubbish for the common good & that of the environment.   Well here is my suggestion. Let’s price it in such a way that whatever the tax take, it is a net reduction in the councils income.  Surely if it’s that good then they are prepared for some pain in order to “save the planet”!

We all know that the legislation will result in a net gain for the councils, just like road pricing. They will  NEVER make it neutral, so by suggesting that there is a net loss to the public purse, they can REALLY do some long hard thinking before they foist it on us!

Dear council executive,  Please no longer send any paper documents to my house.  I want no bills, information leaflets or anything, as I’m sure that it can’t be right or just for you to charge me for disposing of something that you generate!!!!!

Its similar to what I say here in my post about car tax by web.  There is no way that the cost of the credit card payment when taken against the reduction in costs of on-line payment comes to £2.50 per transaction.  It’s just stealing.

We all know that paying for stuff online saves the supplier a fortune in infrastructure.  They don’t need to employ so many people to procees paperwork, rent or own property to put them in, pay postage etc etc.  So why does the governemt ask for an additional £2.50 for payment by credit card when paying car tax online?

Don’t give the taxman any more money than he already gets ( he just wastes it), and get yourself fit by walking to the post office (which may just keep it open!)

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Please check out the “Power to the People” TV programme tonight (It will be the only intelligent thing on all week anyway!).   It highlights the issues ex-soldiers are having regarding defence cuts within the military medical services.

Here are a couple of quotes to get you blood boiling!

Scott Garthley served in Iraq. His injuries included spinal fusion and PTSD, yet when he was rushed to an A&E NHS hospital in the middle of the night, the first thing he was told to do was remove his uniform in case he offended anyone.

How can anyone be offended by someone defending thier own country and it’s interests?

We used to have 11 military hospitals in the UK, but this year the last one - the Royal Haslar near Portsmouth - is closing. Injured soldiers returning home from war now either go to one unit in Selly Oak NHS Hospital in Birmingham, or to an NHS hopsital that specialises in the treatment they need.

Meanwhile the US army may be six times the size of ours but the Americans have far more than six times the hospitals for their returning troops. In fact, they have a staggering 87 military hospitals for serving soldiers and a further 154 hospitals just for veterans.

Wow! Imagine how safe you’d feel as a retired serviceman to know that in the UK you had over 30 hospitals JUST for you, No mixing with dole scroungers, “newly arrived workers” (yeah right!), or chav scum, just you, getting made better as a special citizen who “did thier bit”,  ahhhh utopia!

Oh, and a very strong bronze statue by sculptor James Napier. 

Great Britain, maybe it’s time to pull the red toggle & steer away to the right!

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Blogging has been reduced recently due to my taking up a new career, and having to do some training in the Holy Land.

I want to talk about Prince Harry, but don’t find I have the time.

I also want to talk about the Blair - Brown handover, but I makes me lose the will to live.  We all know that Brown would never have got elected in a real election.  “personality politics” may be shallow, but it’s here to stay, get over it.  And labour, get a real contender when the time comes.  Cameron may not have much to offer, but he looks good, sounds good, and that’s where we are in this new era.

I recently received this e-mail, and although usually I would not pass this on, I feel that it is an attack on our freedom to be invisible to the government unless we want to engage with them. 

This is not the usual Support email but the topic is going to affect every one of us in one way or another, and most of us directly, so please take the time to read it and go online to sign the petition.  The government’s proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it.  The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver.  A non working Mum who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.  On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked.  Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit you can expect a NIP (Notice of Intended Prosecution) with your monthly bill.  If you care about our freedoms and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10’s new website.

The Petition is here

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I’m a regular reader of the milblogs site, and also eaglespeak.

They have recently held a military blogging conference over the pond, and I trust they had a good time.  Guiness was mentioned a lot!

Just to give you a feel for the power of blogging, and how it’s regarded by the politicians, look who addressed them at the conference start!

Click here , as I can’t embed motionbox stuff yet

I’m impressed!

Hat tip to “the Chosen Man” for bringing this piece to our attention.

 The piece is about the death at 88 of a Battle of Britain veteran Iain Hutchinson.  He flew spitfires in defence of his country.  We all should be grateful to him for that.

What I found rang a particular bell with me were some of the coments on the website (admitedly the Daily Mail).

Here are three that I found myself agreeing with, and which I find myself remembering everytime another hero falls.

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The word hero is banded about too freely these days but this man epitomises the true meaning of the word, i wonder what he thought of what had become of the country he and his comrades risked there lives for.

- Mark, spain

Can we expect B. Liar to mention the passing of Mr Hutchinson in the House of Commons and pay his respects - in the same way he did for Linda MacCartney? I somehow doubt it.