Bankers and Politicians Lack Morality

Bankers and Politicians Lack Morality

The public cry out loudly that the Bankers are corrupt, that the politicians are not to be trusted. And now they want to know who is to blame?  We have progressed to a wonderful society of greed, and this, as is often the case, stems from the roots, a plant that is dying always has poor roots. The people - the man and woman in the street of the different nations they are to blame. The public, and they alone, have chosen to elect the politicians of their choice, and they in turn pass the laws that control our society. The politicians pass the regulations that control the banks, and the banks will, finding themselves lacking in the necessary rules to abide by, find they attract the wrong type!

We had established an order of morality, it took many generations, but now that it seems is all to go. The arrival of politicians like Ed Balls and Gordon Brown and their greed for more taxes to give generously to the idle and wasteful meant that the drive to make more taxable profit has given us bankers whose only ambition was to make these bigger profits, and therefore a greater bonus for their banks and themselves.

Honesty and integrity became lost and what has seemed a time of more for all has become bound up in a system of benefits, and the money which we thought we were entitled to, without earning it, has become a monster. Now it seems we have to pay. Well not me, somebody else should pay, anybody but me!

Gone are the days of Prime Minister’s like Gladstone and Thatcher, Prime Ministers not frightened to bring in reforms, the first to bring the civil service under control, the second to ensure our factories could produce the good we needed for export and not controlled by inflexible unions.

David Cameron has replaced Gordon Brown. We have a new Prime Minister who after a couple of years is giving even more money away to overseas countries, who has done little to control the civil service who are out of control again. Companies are endeavouring to put more money into our industries, goods that could be sold throughout the world are being produced, we are still world leaders. But all our leaders, the ones we elected, only seem to be worrying about helping countries that only wish to have civil war.

Sorry gentlemen (Cameron and Clegg) – you were not elected to lead our country – that was done by the party faithful, who are now leaving both parties in droves. Get your priorities right. Bring the soldiers back to the U.K. and maintain them at their current level, the money saved in stopping overseas aid will be enough to do that.

Stop this immigration, possibly some of them could be a benefit to our workforce, but the word benefit sticks in my throat, it seems to be linked to immigration in other ways. We are a crowded country almost the most crowded in the world, we don’t need more people, and you only have to look at the recent unemployment figures to understand that.

Change the House of Lords …why! Just because Mr Clegg has no principles and has forgotten that it was only agreed to vote on it FREELY. by the fortunate well paid few. Mind you it could possibly do with a little alteration.

Still we voted at the last election, and if you didn’t well then you have no axe to grind

John Freame said - !and you know of him of course? -  John Freame said - Honesty, Integrity, and Plain Dealing should be the bye word of every honest fellow. He believed that, and lived by that code. He must now be turning in his grave – he founded Barclays over three hundred years ago.

Holidays in Greece to be really inexpensive -cheap!

Holidays in Greece to be really inexpensive -cheap!

So Greece has solved its problems by yesterday’s vote. We wait to see, and there is a lot more to see. And are they, the pundits’ right – which ones – either I suppose?

Will Greece withdraw from the Euro? The experts say that is not a good idea! But are they right.

Now the problem Greece is suffering is a lack of cash – why! Well it’s not selling enough to pay its bills – some say they spend more internally that they can afford. But that’s another discussion. At the moment they need cash, but not loans – loans only cost more money as you repay one day with interest. That is of course if you repay!

So what do they sell? – HOLIDAYS – we all like a cheap holiday, so the need is to make their holidays cheaper. But to do that it seems they need to be paid less and that they don’t want to be paid less - I mean who does.  They could sell other products, and I’m sure they will, but it is still the same problem. So what is the answer?

We mustn’t let them default on the loans they already have. Well I’m not sure about that – how do we stop that happening if they have no money, and as they are now situated it looks like they will be having even less for a long, long time. We might as well put those loans on a back burner interest free and wait for the proverbial miracle; and concentrate on the now!

So who has the answer, let’s go back to 1967, to the days of Harold Wilson; who! You might well ask. Well maybe I’m a bit older than most. He devalued the pound by 14% and said;-

‘From now on the pound abroad is worth 14% or so less in terms of other currencies. It does not mean, of course, that the pound here in Britain in your pocket or purse, or in your bank, has been devalued. What it does mean is that we shall now be able to sell more goods abroad on a competitive basis." Well that’s what he said and we believed him!

As to Greece, so they can make their products and holidays cheaper if they devalue, as the Dracma will be worth X per-cent less or so in terms of other currencies. It will not mean of course in Greece that the Dracma in their pocket or in their bank has been devalued; it seems they can resume their way of living! What it does mean is that they will be able to sell more goods abroad on a competitive basis. They start earning from their holiday industry, we can  have cheaper holidays. And the people of Greece have still the same money in their pockets!

What else did Harold Wilson say? ‘The only alternative’ he said ‘was to borrow heavily from governments abroad.’ And he didn’t want to do that! Which is what is being suggested for Greece –and that wouldn’t be a good thing for various reasons. The then (1967) Prime Minister of England Harold Wilson, defended his decision to devalue the pound saying, ‘It will tackle the “root cause” of Britain’s economic problems.’ Now as we all know we entered a time of prosperity for Great Britain in the late sixties. I suppose the same thing could apply to Greece. There is only one problem – members of the Euro are not allowed to devalue. Time to leave the Euro I think – well for Greece anyway – the English never joined – so let Greece be the same as us (Out of the Euro)

However to all intents and purposes we devalued in 1992 – Black Wednesday they called it – but that was a very dodgy time for businesses and property prices. But it was described as Golden Wednesday by some as it was followed by a very strong and good economy for the U.K. and the Conservatives were able to hand that over to the Labour in 1997, Mind you Labour soon spent all the money and then flogged off our gold cheap. Seems you just can’t win.

I still think Greece would be better off to get out of the Euro, and Great Britain to get out of the Common Market!

THE WORLD TODAY

The World Today

I started to write a blog then wiped it all out as rubbish. Like so much in the world today. Now I am starting again and will probably scrub this lot after a short while.

First I should like to know why we have such a large number of politicians. I remember someone saying that when God create the world (So it’s all his fault!) , he asked a small committee of men to design a horse and they came up with the camel. So he did the design himself. So I ask myself, should we not get rid of eighty per-cent of Parliament, well to start with, we can consider the situation about the remaining twenty per-cent later. And the same goes for the House of Lords. Personally I would keep the Lords to a select hereditary ones, non of this coming from the House of Commons  – if the Commons have no further use for them then they should go out to pasture!

The next thing is this business of Conservatives – Labour – Coalition etc. WHY. If you’ve been elected to govern then give your opinion and vote for what you believe is best for the country. SOD the party they are a bigoted lot, I am concerned about the country.

Now the money we pay in Taxes, wow that’s a biggy. Still we have to pay them in order to have a well-run country. But that’s my first worry; having given my money – our money to have a well-run country – then told we have to borrow as it isn’t enough – why do we give it to other countries. Don’t tell me it is to help good relations, I don’t agree. I shall blog on Taxes another day!

Why do we have our armed forces patrolling the world. It made sense when we had an Empire. They sent us goods and money, and we kept them as subjects. You don’t know what a subject country is – well look it up. BUT WE HAVEN’T GOT AN EMPIRE, bring them home to look after us and not spill there blood on foreign shore.

But we need to control drugs and terrorists – good idea, but in Great Britain. In Afghanistan the poppy production is up. We are often shown our troops patrolling through the poppy fields. Actually if not channelled through the drug trade we could use more of it for medicine. – look it up. The terrorists train how to place IED’s on dusty terrain then come to lush green Great Britain! Read my blog of the 10^th March2010.

I keep hearing how badly we are doing in trade and finance. I don’t deny there are serious problems, but I also hear Great Britain is becoming a safe haven for investing your money. Foreign investment in the car industry – whisky – e-commerce – and other is steadily rising. We sell more armaments to the world than anybody else apart from America, bit of a worry that,  but then if you can turn an honest buck why not, they don’t have to pull the trigger!

So I’ve got rid of most of the politicians – kept our money in Great Britain – brought our armed services back home – said it’s Great Britain, and will expand another day on all subjects and more. Kindest regards to the World - Patrick

Return to the blogs

In case the world thinks I fell off the edge I should say I haven't. But have been writing  earnestly on a new story of which 104k words are written and I'm half way there! Also have been trying to decide if my second home on Tenerife is for me - times change and twenty two years of flying back and forth I am beginning to find tiring - well at 75 one should start to slow down a little. Had a look at Brittany last month we a view to possibly having a second home nearer to our English home. Margaret objected to my driving for eight and a half hours on the last day on our return - funny lady. Mind you my legs complained so that means I shall have to think of something else. Margaret suggested a rocking chair - as I said funny lady. I shall now think up some things to write about if you're interested. Not intending to say much about this coming weekend - Yes I am a Royalist. I did swing on the gates of Buck House sixty years ago. It was in the evening and nobody arrested me, and the Coronation was fantastic - and I did visit Tree-tops some years later with Margaret. So I'm in there with the rest of the Royalists. Regards to all Patrick.

 Come to think of it I could write about Tree-tops. 

Spanish Tapas

An extract from my book ‘The Bougainvilleas

Hilary and Carla decide to have a get together and what could be more fun than a visit to a restaurant for Tapas – read the following extract when Carla decides to dig for information and also enjoy herself. Here Carla opens the conversation. Read on

‘If you don’t mind I think a set meal is to formal, shall we go for the tapas? They make a surcharge if you have them at the table but there’re fun, and if done well delicious. Here they’re really good, set meals tend to be tourist orientated, but with tapas you get a real Spanish feel.’ At that moment the waiter returned with the fruit juices, set them down on the table, and then stood waiting in anticipation for the order. ‘Shall I order?’ said Carla.

‘You’d better, I wouldn’t know where to start,’ Hilary replied.

‘Bien,’ Carla spoke to the waiter. ‘Jamón serrano, gambas a la plancha, calamares fritos y patatas bravas, mejillones a la marinera tortilla y salada verde, oh y salpicón de mariscos,’ she looked at Hilary. ‘Would you like some of the local potatoes, they’re cooked in very salty water?’ Hilary nodded. ‘Y papas arrugadas,’ she glanced towards Hilary again. ‘Do you like Cava … sparkling wine?’ then as Hilary nodded. ‘Bien, Cava Seco.’ At this the waiter departed.

‘What did you order it sounded quite a lot to eat?’

Carla smiled at Hilary’s question, as the company was paying she had ordered most of her favourites. ‘The Spanish salt cured ham, prawns, squid rings, potatoes in spicy sauce, mussels. Then Spanish omelette, a salad and finally the local potatoes.’ She didn’t mention salpicón de mariscos; the dish was her favourite but inclined to be expensive. ‘Don’t worry it comes up in quite small dishes which are placed on the table between us. You put what you want onto your own plate, then you pick at it slowly while you sip your wine, it’s great, you’ll love it.’

‘Tortilla I know, but surely that’s mainly potatoes, there sounded like a lot of potatoes!’ Hilary saw anything resembling a controlled diet going out of the window. ‘You did say salad, a plain salad?’ she added hopefully.

‘Look, eat only what you want,’ said Carla, ‘we’ve a couple of hours, and we can pick and chat without worry.’ At that moment the waiter came with the sparkling wine and some more glasses. ‘Just open it, we can pour it ourselves,’ Carla was feeling in a party mood, ‘Would you like some in your orange juice, a Buck’s Fizz?’

The extract is about Spanish Tapas and continues for over two hours. Did Carla find out all she wished to know? For that you need to read the book!

Regards to all Patrick

HOW TO STOP SMOKING!

Everybody has the answer – just log on and pay for their advice! This time the advice is free based on my personal experience. You can follow it and I hope you are successful.

I was smoking approximately 100 cigarettes a day, is that a heavy smoker, I’m told yes. Why did I want to stop, actually it was because we were about to fit the house out with new velvet curtains and I knew they would be tainted by the smell, and colour change, caused by a heavy smoker. Health and cost wasn’t a consideration. So I stopped and here is how.

I looked at some books on self hypnosis, very lengthy and detailed but I analysed what they had to say and worked out a programme.

Every morning I arose from my slumbers/bed at 6am, my normal time had been 7am so I was only losing one hour lying in bed wondering when to get up.

Downstairs within a completely silent house I would lie comfortably on my back on the floor, and carefully tell my body to relax. This meant I would consciously tell each part of my body to relax starting at my toes, working up through my body until every part of my body except my mind had become completely relaxed with a sort of numb feeling. My body didn’t move , not even a twitch.

Next I would visualise standing amongst some clouds with ten steps leading down before me. Slowly I would descend and with each step I would instruct my body to go further into a state of complete relaxation. By the time I reached the bottom I would be almost (probably was) in a trance.

I was now below the clouds and before me stretched a meadow of grass leading down to a lake. Slowly I would walk down to the lake. Remember this is all a visualisation within my mind but I really felt it was taking place.

At the water’s edge there was a small boat, I got in and headed out onto the lake where there were two islands. I had to choose which one to go to. On one were a crowd of people smoking, choking on their cigarettes, spluttering. The air was polluted, horrible atmosphere, you can visualise the scene making it as unlikeable as you fancy. The other island was also occupied, but this time with healthy, good looking, pleasant people. The air was clean and everybody walked, or sat around, talking pleasantly. Not a cigarette in sight. Again your mind can make the scene as pleasant as you can.

Which island to row to; of course you choose the second and mix with the pleasant people who welcome you to join them. Finally, and reluctantly, you leave and reverse the route you took to get there, do this slowly and in detail. As you walk carefully up the meadow and then ascend the steps you let your body come out of the trance like state. Eventually you arrive back where you started, on the floor downstairs in your house. You find you have been there about an hour, possibly slightly more.

Yes – but does it work you ask? I can only speak for myself – all this was thirty four years ago. I set myself a date to stop smoking, it was for the 1^st December 1977, and I constantly reminded myself of the date. One day, six weeks after I started my programme I smoked my usual one hundred cigarettes, often lighting one from another. That night I went to bed and the next morning I arose, this time not to go downstairs – but never to smoke again; never to want a cigarette again, never to fancy a cigarette again, it was the 1st of December! The cure was absolute!

I never criticise smokers, sometimes I ask if they ever fancy giving up, usually the answer is yes. But then who am I to criticise them for smoking, I smoked heavily for quite a few years!

I hope you try my cure, it costs nothing, and the benefits are great.

Paperbacks or e-books

With the sale of over one million copies of some individual books on kindle, and other e-book libraries, all being downloaded on to PC’s, ipads, iPhones, iPod Touch, iPod, Kindle, the concern shown by the publishers and retail outlets of paperbacks is brought into the spotlight.

Major high street shops selling the printed books, whether paperbacks or hard cover, have to consider just how viable the sale of books consisting purely of text will be when in competition with e-books. Certainly e-books are normally less expensive than a paperback and for the indie author it is an easy way to see their stories available to the public.

Is the content of a story any less intellectual, less interesting, does it lose any of the content value because it is an e-book? As an author the difficulties of entering within the closed wall of the established publishing world becomes apparent. Not because you are not welcome. Not because your work is not worthy of being published. It’s the cost of putting a book out onto the market place that is the problem. Estimates are usually put at roughly £30,000.00. for one book. No publishing house will take the risk unless they are certain of some return.

Writing a series of books, of which the author feels sure are going to be a block buster, takes time. To then find what you consider your epic series will never go before the public is to say the least heartbreaking. So more, and more, authors are turning to placing their cherished works with the electronic world of the e-book. Once you have established the distribution, something that requires some work on your part but only work, then you can forget about the cost of printing.

You can of course advertise, but that can prove costly! Getting known to the public means diligent work. Now you can go twitter, facebook, blogging, and by asking friends to mention you and your link to the book or books you become known for free. Home and dry, not really, the question of cost per book must now be tackled. In this your distributor has a say, how low, how high, or are you not going to charge, it no longer is going to cost you anything so why not give it away? Writing costs money and time , you should have a return.

This is where the printed paperback hits several problems. The cost of printing and distribution of a printed book, and the retail outlet shops including their staff, the profit margins, and the holding of stock. All this can be very heavy. However on the internet there is a different story!

This writer has several books in his stable and the prices have been set. But the guide lines have now been redrawn. Take one of my books ‘Hocus Pocus and the Pentacle Pendant’. The paperback is part of a series and is £6.49, the kindle version was £3.39, but no longer. I can sell it at a much cheaper rate, it has become a ‘loss leader’ without actually being a complete loss, now it’s 70p, and I still retain a profit! Do you have to search for it on the internet? No - all you have to do is click on the following link, this link this now appears on all the non cost outlets! http://amzn.to/jAD5PR or you can type ‘Hocus Pocus and the Pentacle Pendant’ onto books Amazon web page search window.