It has been another week with no appreciable good news, but a whole lot of bad news. In Japan, the Fukushima disaster swings from getting better to disastrously worse with annoying regularity. The latest, as I write this, is that some of the brave workers have suffered exposure to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than expected. Strangely, the nuclear operator has since raised the limit emergency workers may receive to 100 millisieverts an hour. I’m guessing that’s because having well passed that limit and no workers actually exploded, had their extremities fall off, or dropped their pants and, while they still could, went for one last bang, it might make the whole thing seem less of a fiasco. I think if I was a worker there, I’d be dismantling Fukushima into syllables and telling my boss where to go! I believe Scottish workers frequently do something similar, but in their case the bloke is usually called Jimmy!
With more bad news on the economic front, I see we’ve resorted to bombing the hell out of a sovereign nation again. This political ploy to take the heat off a government is becoming a bit old hat, isn’t it? Yes, we can find some very good reasons to maintain a no-fly zone, humanitarian ones, but equally we could find them for many other countries too, so are they REALLY why we are involved? If they are, then why did we give Colonel Gaddafi so much time to mobilise his forces and gain an advantage? Over recent years we have sold an unbelievable amount of arms to Libya. Of course, whatever the end result, now we’ve destroyed most of them, we can sell a whole lot more! Isn’t that good?
Never let it be said the government isn’t working in our best interests. If you are the proprietor of a threatened with closure nursing home or playgroup, or just a pensioner hit hard by the recent budget, you could do a lot worse than buy shares in a munitions factory. At nigh on a million quid a time, we’re chucking missiles at Libya like there was no tomorrow. They will all need replacing!
Fuel prices are becoming silly. There are people spending more than half their wages every week simply on travelling to work. We need to cut down on our journeys and save fuel. Which reminds me: we had the time to do it, and she still has her knickers on, so why didn’t we quickly pop a flag back on our dear old decommissioned Ark Royal and park her up a couple of miles off the coast of Libya? Those nightly bombing flights from Norfolk, with mid-air refuelling involved, must have used a hell of a lot of fuel, and cost us a bomb in themselves. Yes, we now have combat planes stationed in Italy and Cyprus, but that’s still hours of flying time away from their targets as opposed to minutes.
I suppose we should all be grateful HMS Cumberland was just passing by. Of course, her just passing by had nothing at all to do with the harem of the ladies of the court of King Caractacus – she was merely another one of our ships on her way back to the knacker’s yard! Diverted to this conflict, she heroically rescued 200 people from Benghazi, and is currently doing a magnificent job enforcing the naval blockade. Not bad going for something written off as surplus to requirements! Does anybody in charge really know our requirements?
Hmm . . . I owned a catapult as a youngster; I think I’ll see if I’ve still got it. Well, I mean, every little helps! You’d be surprised how far you fling a load of bullwhatsit with a catapult – it’s nearly as far as that act can performing at the Westminster Palais!
