On the move . . .

I'm in the process of moving 'mad dogs etc' to a new home. The job may take a a few days and but I hope the end product will be a bright and shiny new blogsite for mad dogs and Englishmen [and anyone else who cares to visit].

UPDATE the new site is now ready for viewing. Click here for the new mad dogs . .

Fairy Tales are good for kids?

If you think fairy stories are just harmlessly entertaining tales which are ideal for teaching children good wholesome moral values take a look at this posting on the mental floss website. Here are the summaries of a few medieval fairy tales with their original plots and endings. Some are quite well-known in their modern format, such as 'Cinderella' and 'Snow White', and others are less well known, but what they all have in common is that these are the original stories which abound with murder, treachery, incest, cannibalism, torture and, this is bad news for those who like a neat and tidy ending, there are very few 'and they all lived happily ever after' conclusions.

Click here and enjoy, but don't read them to your kids.

The end?

I've just read through a newspaper column in the The Guardian, 21.4.2008, about the possible forthcoming parliamentary upheaval over the abolition of the 10% tax band. And it leaves me breathless. I read it several times to make sure I hadn't missed anything or had really understood it but, no matter how hard I tried to find some hidden inner message, the meaning remained the same.

What the author is saying, in effect, is that it is more important to preserve Prime Minister Gordon Brown's reputation, save face and avoid a climb-down than it is to look after some of the poorest people of our country. Thank you, Ms Ashley.

Brown must have done one of two things when he frigged his 2007 budget, either he was fully aware of what he doing, in which case, contrary to what he has been telling us, he is a callous, calculating liar who cares nothing for those at the bottom of the social heap, or he made a mistake, in which case, contrary to what the spin merchants have tried to tell us, he is an inept and bungling halfwit, there is no plausible third explanation. Either way it is a lose-lose outcome for him. But his sins don't stop there. First of all he denied that there were any losers as a result of his budget saying that everyone was compensated in some way by other measures of the package, when that wouldn't wash he said that the problem was exaggerated. He has now reached a point, along with his Darling mouthpiece, at which he admits that something may be wrong but insists it is too late to do anything about it. I suspect, will now resort to some heavy-handed bullying, behind conveniently closed doors, to 'persuade' each of the dissenters to quieten down.

If the motion put forward by Frank Field wins this could be the end of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he has tied himself too closely with this matter to escape, and if that happens, so be it. If this causes problems for the government, tough - that's life.

Right now 5.4. million people are going to be worse off for the next year unless something is done about it soon. Promises, such as we have heard from Alistair Darling, of looking into the matter at some unspecified future date, and maybe taking undefined action in future budgets is not good enough. Waiting a year for something that might, or might not happen, simply to save face for someone else, no matter who it is, is morally unjust and not acceptable.

Toughing it out . . .

Every politician wants to make his mark on the world; some do it on their terms and some only manage it by accident but they all get there in the end. At some time in every wannabe world leader’s career there will come a point when it is necessary to show your mettle, stand up to, or face down, an opponent. As western citizens we expect them to be tough – we have no respect for politicians who appear weak in any way. Contrast the careers of Sir Alex Douglas-Home and Michael Foot with those of Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson. Who was hated most, and who got the cheers and who got the jeers?

Listening to endless hours of drivel from friend and foe alike and then dishing it out, of course, is not something for the oversensitive or faint of heart. It’s the same the world over, Tricky Dicky [Nixon], Charles De Gaulle, Nikita Krushchev, - I could go on quoting examples ad nauseam, in fact, as I’m in the mood, I think I will - Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Tony Benn, Jo Stalin, Nasser, are/were all immensely popular in their way and all made their mark amongst their people and often beyond by standing firm against an opponent.

Right now our dear leader is faced with something of a hostile scenario; after months of being accused of dithering, boorishness, oafish clumsiness and kow-towing to big business he must make his stand, assert his authority over his party and show that he will not be pushed around. Like any sensible leader facing battle he must choose his ground and select a position which gives him an advantage. To some degree his choice is limited but, following the military maxim ‘never take on someone bigger than yourself’, he has selected his target with [some] wisdom.

The removal of the 10% income tax band, introduced in the 2007 Budget when our leader was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, has not gone down well with much of the populace, and the ensuing noise has even woken a few MPs from their slumbers. The reason behind the disquiet is simple enough, this tax change has resulted in many [over 5 million people] of the poorest paid people in the country having to pay more tax while those further up the social heap are left financially better off. For someone receiving £50,000 per year a change of three or four pounds per week, either way, would hardly be noticed, for someone paid £15,000 per year the same change will have a noticeable effect. As this negative change applies to the poorest only it becomes very difficult to see how talk of ‘redistribution of the tax burden for the overall benefit’ can be justified. Whichever way the politicians wriggle the poorest are being told to pay more and the better off are paying less – no weasel words, no matter how skilfully applied, can get round that.

However, the rebels, who are demanding that this be put right forthwith, are told they are hiding after nothing. The Prime Minister has put his foot down and will not move, ‘there will be no climb-down by the government over the 10% tax band’ is the gist of the messages heard.

So there you have it; it must pick a fight don’t choose the biggest bully in the yard, hit the weakest and stand firm. Maybe I’m missing something here but I don’t see this winning many friends or elections.

I'm swimmin' in the rain, just swimmin' in the rain . . .

If you want to go swimming in Sunderland [Wear] you can can go and splash around in their spanking brand new rain puddle. It has taken a a few years to build and a few million pounds in bottle tops and washers to pay for it, but Sunderland now have the only 50 metre swimming pool in the North East of England [apparently Berlin has 11 of them]. It's a truly modern construction with movable booms and floors so it can be adapted for almost every water activity, diving. competitive swimming, synchronisd swimming and a bit of good old-fashioned fun.

It's quite a lavish creation but also very 'green' in that it has been designed for maximum fuel efficiency and minimum waste of resources. The water is collected from the roof, treated and cleaned in the downstairs water plant, so every time you jump in you are swimming in the rain . .