MINISTERS “LEARNING LESSONS” AS OUR SERVICE PERSONNEL DIE
Posted by Caledonian Jim in Daily Posts
In the UK a damning report produced yesterday concluded that a “‘systemic breach of the military covenant” led to the crash of a Nimrod spy plane (example above) in Afghanistan in 2006 which killed 14 servicemen. The Nimrod exploded in mid-air near Kandahar in 2006, causing the biggest single loss of life for UK forces since the Falklands War. A review carried out by Charles Haddon-Cave QC concluded that financial cuts within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as a result of the 1998 strategic defence review had led to “a dilution of the airworthiness regime and culture with the MoD”. And he described a safety review of the ageing Nimrod carried out by the MoD as a “lamentable job which failed to identify key dangers and was a story of incompetence, complacency and cynicism. The best opportunity to prevent the accident to the plane was tragically lost.”
That insipid, dodgy-moustached incompetent, UK Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth (pictured above), a man who seems to have the unique ability to be cretinous and be an alleged strategic genius at the same time, told the House of Commons yesterday that he accepted the review’s findings and would be publishing the MoD’s detailed response before Parliament breaks for Christmas. “I am sorry for the mistakes that have been made, and that lives have been lost as a result of our failure,” he said. And doubtless before long we’ll get the usual New Labour mantra of “lessons being learned”. But the fact remains that this government has in the past - and disgracefully continues to – send our brave service personnel into war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan with crappy equipment and inadequate resources. And no amount of mealy-mouthed platitudes from the likes of Ainsworth and his boss Gordon Brown can hide that. Unless and until we change our politically correct policies in this country, where the average inner city Islamic resource centre promulgating race and religious hatred has got more chance of government funding that our troops in the field, this scandal will continue.
Pictured above is the mother of all parliaments. And its occupants seem intent on making the mother of all mistakes in relation to their expenses. Sir Christopher Kelly, the parliamentary watchdog, faced an angry backlash from MP’s yesterday over plans to ban them from employing family members and claiming mortgage interest on their second homes on their expenses. Sir Christopher was even accused by one Conservative opposition MP of “not living in the real world”, asserting that he “did not know the hours MP’s worked or what kind of job they did”. The rumous happened after Kelly recommended that in future MP’s will have to rent, not buy, their second homes if they wish to receive taxpayer support. Kelly is also to make it more difficult for MPs living in the south-east of England to claim for a second home, so more of them will have to commute to and from parliament. Well, Sir Christopher might not be living in the real world – but at least as a result of his work our MP’s will have to at last !
Hopes in the UK that a second postal strike (above) in a week could be avoided were dashed last night as talks between unions and Royal Mail finally broke down. The end of talks means that 43,700 staff in mail centres across the UK as well as drivers will commence a strike at 4am today, followed by another walk-out tomorrow. And a further 77,000 delivery and collection staff are due to down tools on Saturday. The Royal Mail accused the Communication Workers Union (CWU) of ”walking away” from peace talks and condemned the new strikes. Leaders of the CWU, have spent the last 3 days locked in talks with the Royal Mail, blamed the bosses. One thing’s for sure – if they keep this up, both sides will be looking for new jobs in 2010.
In the UK the DNA (above) of over 90,000 innocent people has been added to the national DNA database AFTER a landmark human rights ruling that keeping indefinitely the profiles of unconvicted suspects was illegal, according to new figures. The disclosure comes as the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC, seemingly doing something worthwhile for a change) is pressing the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to withdraw guidance to chief constables to carry on collecting DNA profiles of innocent people. It says it will take enforcement action if the chief constables fail to act. Let’s hope that enforcement action includes arresting, trying and jailing those arrogant police officers who are continuing to flout the law as if they know better.
Celtic 0 – 1 Heart of Midlothian. That was the score at Parkhead, Glasgow last night, as Celtic went down at home to a Michael Stewart penalty (pictured above) for Hearts in the 58th minute of the Scottish Co-Operative Insurance Cup quarter-final. A penalty for the Jambos at Parkhead ? I’ll be sure to do the lottery this weekend !
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