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So the secret is out of the bag, the Labour Government is proposing Tony Blair as its candidate for the first EU Council/Commission President. So says Glenys Kinnock, you know that unelected Minister of Europe that was given this important position without as much as a nod to the UK electorate.

Also in case you thought that you would have a say in who is to be the first EU Council/Commission president, well you won’t! In the end the final decision will be made by a number of EU commission heads.

What is strange to me is that this position, still undefined by the EU is largely ceremonial as the European Parliament – which we all voted in recently has already elected its own President  European Parliament, former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek.

So if the Lisbon treaty is ratified and it’s a big if and the EU Council/Commission does elect its first President, then we will then have two EUI presidents, one elected and one not!

No wonder people are confused about the whole aspect of the EU.

Cutting his political teeth as a shop steward at Jaguar in the 70’s and later as a branch organiser for the MSF (now the Unite) union and even being a candidate member of the International Marxist Group, he seems to be a strange choice by Gordon Brown to be running our Armed Services. Perhaps he can organise a ballot to end the bloodshed!

He gives me no confidence at all that he can help with the equipment situation, but I suppose he has his hands tied by the likes of Brown and Darling as per the previous incumbents.  I wonder when we will have someone who knows a bit about the military in that position?

Here is some interesting voting information about Bob Ainsworth.

• Voted strongly against a transparent Parliament. votes, speeches

No wonder when he came joint top of the list of people claiming second home allowance!

• Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards. votes, speeches

• Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees. votes, speeches

• Voted very strongly for the Iraq war. votes, speeches

• Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war. votes, speeches

• Voted very strongly for replacing Trident. votes, speeches

Taken from the They Work for You web site page for Bob Ainsworth.

Lets hope that they get the helicopter situation sorted out as soon as possible and we see a reduction in deaths caused by these IAD’s.

I watched Andy Burnham’s statement in the House of Commons this afternoon as he set out the Governments Green Paper on a national care service for the elderly.

I might be confused here, but don’t we all contribute to the NHS and its related services through our taxes already and isn’t the care of the population one of the remits of the NHS?

Perhaps, if the government was better focused on not wasting so much of our tax money, there might be enough to start building up reserves to begin to cover this need.

For once I was impressed by the comments made by Andrew Lansley, the shadow spokesman. He quite rightly chastised the government for not doing enough to begin solving this problem when they came to power 12 years ago – see the full debate here.

I think I’ve paid as much tax as I possible can over my lifetime, but it looks like even what I have saved won’t be enough to cover any extra care that I might need in later life. It will be interesting to see what comes out in future discussions, as with an impending election, the political parties all begin to offer promise after promise to get our vote.

What a very moving day it has been for the people of Wootton Bassett and those of us that managed to witness the repatriation of the 8 recently deceased solders.

What a sad sight to see those 8 hearses as they travelled from RAF Lyneham through Wootton Bassett up to Oxford.

It’s obvious from what is going on in Afghanistan, that this will not be the last time we see such sights, but lets hope there are not so many at once  next time.

Finally, its staggering to me that not a single politician bothered to turn up to this or any of the other repatriations that have taken place in the previous years, seems that it only adds credence to the statement that they seem not to care what is happening to our service personal.

I can across this list of fatalities that the BBC has put together, staggering how many have died, all the more poignant when you see all the images of the people that have died.

• Afghanistan Fatalities List

• Iraq Fatalities List

I wonder how many more will be added to this list in the coming days and months?

It seems that whatever good you try and do in this country and it involves  getting one over on the government, they will go out of their way to get back at you.

With Joanna Lumley’s magnificent victory for the Ghurkhas still fresh in our minds, it seems that the Government is to axe one of the Ghurkha battalions as part of its upcoming Armed Forces budget cuts!

Seems very strange to me as on the one hand we seem to be ready to send more troops to Afghanistan to back up the effort out there and here we are getting rid of some of the best fighting me in the world.

Another fine example of a government that has not got a clue about running the Armed Forces of this country.

Roll on the general election.

NatWest recently revamped their online banking website design and today there seems to have been a lot of phasing emails around encouraging customers to log on and check their own NatWest new customer forms.

How do you decide which is the real email to use, especially when they all seem to be addressed direct to you.

Take a look at these two email inserts (via Screen Snaps) I received … which one is correct?

The answer is neither!!!

You should never click on a link in any email irrespective of who you think it came from if it involves banking or any other sensitive content – in fact I never click on any email link unless I have requested the email and know where it comes from.

The only safe way is to go direct to the web site of the bank etc. and log on using your own log-in and password details. That way, you’re not going to get diverted into the hands of the phisherman!

By the way the real NatWest email in on the right.

I’ve just finished watching the Jackson Tribute on Sky News. Yes, I am a fan of his music.

What at a lovely memorial, so fitting and I bet a total disappointment to many of the journalists covering the event, who were looking for something else.

Carried out with great dignity and many poignant great speeches, it was a fitting tribute to someone who despite his various demons cared more about the world, than much of the world cared about him.

With no adverts interrupting it and no benign commentary, it kept my attention through out the whole service, for that is what I think it was. He deserved this much and more.

To borrow a phrase from ABBA, thank you for your music.

With news that Chief Police Officers of some UK Constabularies are not only being paid well over the £100,000 mark, they are now at the receiving extra payments to cover such things as Stamp Duty, Sky TV packages and retention package’s topping up basic salaries to near £200k levels.

How perverse, when we still read of the ongoing deaths of  British Soldiers including Lt Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, in charge of similar numbers of troops that some Chief Police Officers  manage and leading from the front which was not a desk! His pay according to MOD pay scale charts, £63,927.36 to £74,022.60! There seems something very wrong with this picture.

The UK seems very happy to pay someone who pushes paper around a desk to attain government specified targets much more than someone who daily puts their life on the line to carryout life threatening tasks from the front, whilst at the same time still trying attain government specified targets!

This needs to be sorted out and soon. A UK national scale of pay needs to be introduced for all UK Chief Police Officers, I would probably not include any extras/bonuses either, especially for performance. If you do your job according to the definitions, then you get your pay, if not; then find another job.

Will anything change? Not while local Police Authorities have the power to arbitrarily pay anything they want.

Pure Gold

• This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly age 6)

• Oysters’ balls are called pearls.  (James age 6)

• If you are surrounded by  sea you are an Island. If you don’t have sea all round you, you are incontinent. ( Wayne age 7)

• Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richard son. She’s not my friend no more. (Kylie age 6)

• A dolphin breaths through an arsehole on the top of its head.  (Billy age 8)

• My dad goes out in his boat, and comes back with crabs. (Emily Burniston age  5)

• When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes, when the wind didn’t blow, the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would be better off eating beans. (William age 7)

• I like mermaids. They are beautiful, and I like their shiny tails. How do mermaids get pregnant?  (Helen age 6)

• I’m not going to write about the sea. My  baby brother is always screaming and being sick, my Dad keeps shouting at my Mum, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can’t think what to  write. (Amy age 6)

• Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves  under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves into chargers.  (Christopher age 7)

• When you go swimming in the sea, it is  very cold, and it makes my willy small.  (Kevin age 6)

• On holiday my Mum went water skiing. She fell off when she  was going very fast. She says she won’t do it again because water shot up  her fanny. (Julie age 7).

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