Wednesday, January 26, 2011
SNEAKING IN A RANT OR TWO!
Bernadette has been in New York three weeks. The reins are off. Hence the rants! Enough - better vacuum the house, new sheets on the beds, polish shoes and silver, tidy clean laundry into drawers.
NON EUROPEAN VICTIMS OF TERRORISM DON'T COUNT
MORE PAROCHIALISM? OR MERELY IGNORANCE? SURELY NOT RACISM?
Our Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition opened Prime Minister's Question Time today by expressing great sympathy for the victims of the Moscow airport terrorist attack. Neither man has ever opened Question Time by expressing sympathy for those killed and injured in the frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Iraq. We freed Iraq from a vile dictatorship. Pakistan is central to our fighting in Afghanistan. Curious...
Our Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition opened Prime Minister's Question Time today by expressing great sympathy for the victims of the Moscow airport terrorist attack. Neither man has ever opened Question Time by expressing sympathy for those killed and injured in the frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Iraq. We freed Iraq from a vile dictatorship. Pakistan is central to our fighting in Afghanistan. Curious...
BBC WORLD SERVICE
PAROCHIALISM:
In my youth, most members of Parliament (and particularly members of the Government)gained wide experience before entering active politics. Many had served Britain abroad. They had gained an understanding of foreign opinions and beliefs. Today's politicians are essentially parochial. Politics is their career. Their advance is seamless: student politics, think tank, special adviser, MP, Minister. The vital service offered by the BBC World Service is foreign to them. They have never watched eager-faced tribesmen crouch round a radio or known those for whom imprisonment was the reward for listening to the BBC. They have no understanding of the respect the World Service earned for Britain even while our politicians earned contempt. And, of course, those foreigners for whom the World Service has been an information lifeline have no vote within these shores. They are unimportant.
Thus cutting 650 jobs from the World Service is a sensible retrenchment...
In my youth, most members of Parliament (and particularly members of the Government)gained wide experience before entering active politics. Many had served Britain abroad. They had gained an understanding of foreign opinions and beliefs. Today's politicians are essentially parochial. Politics is their career. Their advance is seamless: student politics, think tank, special adviser, MP, Minister. The vital service offered by the BBC World Service is foreign to them. They have never watched eager-faced tribesmen crouch round a radio or known those for whom imprisonment was the reward for listening to the BBC. They have no understanding of the respect the World Service earned for Britain even while our politicians earned contempt. And, of course, those foreigners for whom the World Service has been an information lifeline have no vote within these shores. They are unimportant.
Thus cutting 650 jobs from the World Service is a sensible retrenchment...
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