Rebuilding "Broken Britain"

Broken Britain
A lot has been written and talked about concerning what people call "Broken Britain" but in the main people seem to think that someone else snuck in while we weren't looking and knocked it over when in reality we are all to blame either by creating it or even worse by not standing up and being counted when it was being broken.
So what do we do about it? Who broke it? How do we fix it? Here are some embryonic ideas that might help:

Who Broke Britain?

Well, the short answer is; "We all did", either by direct actions or complacency, apathy or being too concerned with our own lives.  We got taken up with Maggie's "Me first" ideologies and missed the fact that at the same time that she was breaking the unions and bringing in the Gordon Gekko "greed is good" philosophies that have tainted us, the insidious left were undermining our basic institutions.
So, in short, in my opinion, extreme left wing and right wing ideologies since the last War actually created Broken Britain and now we need to fix it.
Apart from the Banking system which I have pilloried in earlier blogs and where I have suggested a mild solution of hanging one in ten Bankers from lamp posts in the city "pour encourager les autres" I feel the following areas need to be examined and to adopt solutions as shown.  Clearly this is not meant to be a scholarly document but a vox pop piece reflecting how the man on the Clapham Omnibus feels and how we can put it right.  Instead of posturing and posing in Parliament, maybe these wastes of space which were the MPs who came back from holiday and ensured their local paper had a good soundbite last Thursday could actually get together and pass the relevant legislation??  After all, is that not what we elected them to do?

Parents

Lets start with the Parents as they are supposed to be the biggest influence on a child.
The majority of children appearing before the Riot Courts in the past few days have not had their parents with them. Parents of these children have failed completely in bringing them up and are now trying to ignore the behaviour and it's consequences of their offspring.  This is going to become a little harder to do because when "Wayne" gets sent down for looting then Mum and Dad can find themselves evicted, and good thing too.
These parents do not seem to give a damn OR are terrorised by their kids.  But why?
Well, let's face it, in the old days, if a kid came home and told his parents he was in trouble at school or with the police, the first thing would be his parents punishing him or her in advance of any other action.

This was more prevalent in immigrant families who certainly agreed with "spare the rod and spoil the child" as a philosophy but it also pertained in basic British families.
Then the left wing brought in laws which said "Thou shalt not smack your child" - when there was absolutely zero evidence in favour of no smacking and mountains of evidence that it worked.  Lets be real here, we are not talking about a "Baby P" scenario where a child can be battered to death by inhuman brutes while the zillions of support services play "The Three Wise Monkies" but on simple discipline of a child to make them realise that there are boundaries and limits to what society will accept. One has to wonder if Jamie Bulger's parents would have wished his killer's parents to have brought their two killer sons up with more discipline?
Discipline in itself is not the answer as a child has to be lovingly disciplined if it is to work but taking away discipline from a loving parent makes their job 20x harder, we need to reverse this.

Teachers

At the same time as the Left were attacking Parents, they also attacked Teachers. This was made easier by the teaching unions who were at the time very left wing and progressive and who called for corporal punishment in schools to be banned.  Teachers who caned or slippered were portrayed as sadists or sexual deviants or both.  Fifty years ago, if a child was in trouble at school, parents were embarrassed and would support the teacher and indeed give further punishments to the child. Now parents regularly confront teachers and in a lot of cases actually attack them physically when their children are in trouble.
Teachers do have a disciplinary role but if they have no means of enforcement and no support from feral parents then it is unsurprising that they abnegate that role.
We need to empower teachers to employ corporal punishment as an ultimate deterrent, under strict rules, and to ensure parents who attack teachers are immediately gaoled until their case is heard.

Police

Watching brief

Then we have the Police. I cannot remember how many successive Governments have talked about getting more police on the streets but who have enacted policies that did the exact opposite.  A lot of the rioters have said that the only reason they chanced their arm in looting was that there were too few police to stop them and those who were there originally were not getting stuck in.

On the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the riots, this was predominantly the case as too few Police Officers were on the streets and thos who were were powerless to stop the hundreds of looters.  However their reluctance to become involved was also pretty redolent of two main themes; Reaction to the G20 riots prosecution of a Police Officer and a general expectation by senior Police Officers that some crimes are not worth pursuing.  The former is a case where on mature reflection, I think it was wrong to prosecute the officer.  Yes he was heavy handed, yes what he did was wrong, BUT we do not want our riot police to be thinking about the cameras watching them whilst they are attempting to quell a riot, we want them to quell it. A case in point is people moaning about Police Brutality where Manchester Police were shown giving Rioters on bikes and wearing hoodies a short sharp shock with batons.  The You Tube video went viral with the vast majority of people watching it praising the Police for what they did.  If they do trace the officers (Which I hope they don't), it should be to give them a People's Medal.

On the second point, it came to light last week that some Police Forces are refusing to send an officer out to 50% of crimes and will only investigate crimes where CCTV or direct witness evidence exists and a known suspect.  Now who on earth set up a league table of crimes and decided that investigation was determined on needing it to be on camera??  Does this mean if someone is murdered in the middle of a forest, no policeman hears the 999 call?
It also explains why soft targets like motorists speeding or having slightly misaligned number plates get prosecuted whilst burglary prosecutions decline rapidly.
The Police also seem to be able to choose what laws they will enforce and what they will not.  As an example, when was the last time you saw any copper at all bothered by someone driving an HGV whilst on the phone with it to their ear??  Despite the fact that it is highly dangerous behaviour and redolent of a "couldn't give a fuck!" attitude?

Solutions
So, what are the solutions to this sort of behaviour and how do we re-enable parents, teachers and Police to be able to reshape society to they way the majority want it?  Here are a few suggestions:

Transportation
In the old days or maybe the "good" old days, when we ruled most of the world it was relatively easy, just transport the felons you did not need to Australia and let them survive or not as colonists in the New World.
However we have none of these options available and Australia has caught on and has sent people like Peter Tatchell over here to plague us rather than keeping him at home.

Repeal some laws
We need to get parliament to repeal some laws and also some white papers on corporal punishment in schools, smacking etc. In short all the laws that make parenting more difficult and teaching more onerous.
A good sort out of laws that are manifestly NOT being enforced by the Police would be good too with the ones remaining being rigorously enforced by the Police.

All Crimes to be Investigated
If a crime is really a crime then it needs to be investigated.  Dropping litter on the streets is an offence and needs to be on the spot fined but Burglary is a Crime and should always be investigated properly. It is NOT a waste of time to investigate as most burglars get better as they go on so are more likely to get caught on earlier crimes.

Enact New Laws
Some laws need to be enacted; Making Parents equally responsible for their children's actions might be draconian but losing your council house should be the minimum if you child riots and loots.
Proceeds of crime legislation needs to be extended to households where their income vastly exceeds their benefits and an onus of proof on source of funds needs to be upon the holder not on the Police.

Old days hoodies, still evil

Gun crime needs stiffer penalties and carrying knives or any other offensive weapon under cover needs to be an immediate gaol sentence.
Wearing Hoodies or balaclavas in public when the weather is not snowing or wintery needs to be an offence and so does wearing hoodies when 5 or more are gathered together.  Citizens need to have a fear free environment.
Threatening behaviour needs to be a more stiff penalty offence as well.

Enforce Existing Laws

Clearly enforcing existing laws would be sensible and although Parliament including "Call me Dave" mentioned "The Riot Act" when talking about victim compensation, there is an overwhelming need to actually use The Riot Act in the midst of or at the start of an actual riot.  Therefore the 1973 repeal of the Riot Act needs to be overturned and provisions made to enforce it.
The original Riot Act gave a "riotous assembly" a short period of time to disperse peaceably before the authorities could use all force to disperse the rioters. Powers were also given to indemnify any citizens helping the Police or Authorities against prosecution in the case that that enforcement resulted in the death of a rioter.

National Service
There should be two types of National Service introduced, Military and Civilian.  These should both be for a period of two years and volunteers should have the choice of either branch.
Civilian should be broken down in to uniformed volunteers and for offenders.  The Offenders should be made to wear dayglo orange jump suits with "OFFENDER" written in black on them prominently.  Army style discipline should be the norm for both Military and Civilian branches but with citizenship and personal behaviours training also given.

OK, this is not the perfect solution by any means but it is something that I have been mulling over for a while and have decided to put out there for consideration and comment.  Yes it has a lot of flaws but it is the idea that is behind it that counts and I welcome anyone's constructive comments on it.

Ghenghis 2011

Travellers Tales

A friend of mine on Twitter who is one of the more articulate and travelled punters asked me to do a Blog entry about "Sex in an Islamic State" and upon reflection this seemed like something fun to write about as there are still a lot of people who think that everywhere of that nature is ruled by Mad Mullahs and Sharia Police and that just thinking of sex as a westerner can get you beheaded.  So here goes.

Dubai

Dubai still under construction

Dubai is one of my real bête noire of the places to go because it is so hypocritical. They give you an image of hedonism and unparalleled freedoms where the reality is from the moment you arrive you are treated with contempt by officialdom, the majority of the buildings are unfinished shells which are lit at night to give the illusion of untrammelled growth  and everything overpriced.
Hotels are very expensive but virtually all of them do have working girls operating in them and in their night clubs attached.  Competition is high for these ladies and so it is best to decide early on which one you want and then secure her services.  This in Dubai however is a very expensive option as they tend to want feeding and watering as well which really racks up the overall cost.
I have done it there for the experience but ONLY for the experience and will not repeat that or indeed return if I have any say in the matter.
Ghenghis Punting Index for Dubai puts it at -5 (Out of 1-10)

Algeria
Now this is an interesting one as the one thing you do have to realise is that although Algeria does not have any real tourist industry it does have an extremely effective and large secret police force and so if you are planning on punting just be aware that this will be noted in the archives.
Having said that most hotels there have a reasonable selection of ladies to choose from however the ability to speak French is preferable if you are going to negotiate as they all start high.
A typical punting evening starts over dinner where you are warmed up by the "local" belly dancers. Strangely enough in Algeria, virtually all of these belly dancers are Russian and speak good English.  A few minutes hovering near the lift (As they all tend to live on the premises) tends to elicit that they also supply additional services and this tends to result in a more reasonably priced encounter but without the local frisson.

Alternatively the local girls hunt in pairs and are to be found in all of the hotel bars.  These will be dressed in Western fashion and will be chatting away, apparently animatedly to each other, however looking directly at them tends to elicit a smile and a wave.  There appears to be a common rule that they are not allowed to approach you directly so a gesture for them to join you will be ignored but if you walk across and introduce yourself the ladies will within seconds start price negotiations for the overnight. They tend not to do 1-2 hours but will happily price that if asked.  After that it is a trip to the check in to get them registered (For Police and Fire purposes) and then you can take them up to your room and try what you have purchased. Algerian ladies tend to be highly enthusiastic and you can have a great time however caveat emptor as with all things punting, if there is a bum note in the bar, do NOT ignore it.
Ghenghis Punting Index for Algeria puts it at +5 (Out of 1-10)

Morocco
Morocco is a haven for punting in North Africa and the Islamic countries although as with everything, including it's great religious tolerance, it is not evident on the surface.
All of the major cities have bars/nightclubs with selective entry which locals and westerners of a reasonable dress code can gain admittance to and which offer dining, drinking and dancing.  A lot of these are also frequented by the higher end of the working girl community and your hotel concierge, if asked discretely, will point you towards one within reasonable distance of your hotel.
Once there, just going to the bar or going on to the dance floor (Even accompanied by a lady) will make you available to be hit on by ladies of negotiable virtue who will dance alongside you or even with you and then ask you to buy them a drink (Normal bar prices NOT £200 bottle of 'champagne' ).  Over the drink they propose prices and venues.  Be warned, if they go back to your hotel, you will have to buy a cheap room for them, if you go back to their room it is riskier but cheaper.  Your choice.  You do get some genuine French girls there working but in the main they are local ladies.
Another new thing that is taking hold is Hammam Massage which is a "Turkish" Bath experience but with exfoliation. Ensure that the Spa you use is staffed by ladies though as normally they are available for me, staffed by men and that is a totally different experience!!  The one staffed by ladies and recommended by the concierge tend to be ones where, after the whole refreshing and cleansing is completed by a buxom young lady in a wet suit, she is then persuaded to remove the wet suit and join you for a gloriously sweaty romp. Be warned though that these young ladies do not carry condoms and so if you want the ultimate climax to this even you need to bring your own which they will enthusiastically employ.

Following the Hammam, you are taken to a rest area where you cool down on a bed with scented rose water dripped on you and mint tea.  Once you have calmed sufficiently round 2 starts where another young lady takes you into a massage room where unguents and creams are liberally employed and the result of any excitement is dealt with joyfully for a small additional charge agreed.
After that you are offered a shower before leaving, and if there is any life in the old dog by that time, a charming new young lady will assist you to remove any lingering stiffness.
When you are dressing, the various ladies will visit you for their agreed "presents" which they receive courteously with a kiss.
Ghenghis Punting Index for Morocco puts it at +9 (Out of 1-10)

Pakistan
Finally, Pakistan.  Now those of you who know me, know that I tend to be equally at home in Islamic countries as with others however Pakistan is one of my favourites.  Despite all the Newspaper hysteria, it is generally a very peaceful country with the majority of people interested in feeding themselves and their families, having somewhere reasonable to live, get their children properly educated and having a job to pay for these benefits.  Yes there is a lot wrong too but on balance I like the place and the people.

In Pakistan the whole sex industry is underground and you do need the help of a trusted local to get in on the scene however once in you can do anything from sex parties to individual punts.  The punts tend to be at your hotel or flat if you are a westerner and the parties at friends flats.
Straightforward punts tend to be overnighters and for a fixed price you have all the sex you can both handle. Although again they also have Russian girls working, you can also get local girls but check the ages as looks can be deceptive and girls get married there at 14 and you need to be sure.  I tend to ask specifically for NOT under 25 which means they are of working age in the UK and meet my own moral stance.
The sex parties are where a varying number of ladies do increasingly more erotic and explicit dances, individually and a s a group whilst the attendant males eat, drink alcohol and smoke (Smoking is a bane in Islamic countries as a rule) and then at points in the evening, one of more of the performers and guests retire to one of the bedrooms to make smiles. Depending on the generosity of your host/friend, you will either be insulting him if you offer to pay or sometimes if you don't but it is sensible to ask prior to the event in all cases.
Ghenghis Punting Index for Pakistan puts it at +7 (Out of 1-10)

So, a very small taster of Punting in Islamic countries but hopefully one where you can get a glimpse of the possibilities and realise that it is not the barren wasteland for punting as it sometimes is portrayed but rather a chance to gain experiences.

Ghenghis 2011

Ponzi Pensions

First a little learning as per the Wikipaedia entry on Charles Ponzi:

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going.

Charles Ponzi

The system is destined to collapse because the earnings, if any, are less than the payments to investors. Usually, the scheme is interrupted by legal authorities before it collapses because a Ponzi scheme is suspected or because the promoter is selling unregistered securities. As more investors become involved, the likelihood of the scheme coming to the attention of authorities increases.

The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi^[1] who became notorious for using the technique in early 1920. Ponzi did not invent the scheme (for example Charles Dickens' 1857 novel Little Dorrit described such a scheme decades before Ponzi was born), but his operation took in so much money that it was the first to become known throughout the United States. Ponzi's original scheme was based on the arbitrage of international reply coupons for postage stamps; however, he soon diverted investors' money to support payments to earlier investors and himself.

OK, now time to rant and explode a few myths currently being put out by Tory Fat Cats funded by the Stock Market and Bankers who really do not give a shit about common people as we are only here as sheep to be shorn by them in order to keep their Fat Cat Lifestyles going - a la Fred (Hang the bastard) Goodwin and his ilk.

The UK Government decided around the time of Bevin and Co, just about the time they brought in the NHS and decided workers did not need their eyes or teeth looked after via the NHS but could sort those privately, that the pensions paid to State employees would be paid from what they termed an "unfunded" scheme.  Thus the then current pensioners would be paid their pensions out of the contributions of those not yet at pensionable age.

For those of you quick on the uptake, this was exactly the same type of scheme as pioneered by Charles Ponzi in the 20's.

Later, as Private Companies started their own pension schemes and insurance companies followed suit the Government imposed regulations that insisted that all such schemes be "Funded", i.e., that the contributions would go into an investment pot that with prudent investment would increase in value over time and thus provide the wherewithal for the Pension Provider to pay the pension earned.  The Governemt later also insisted that the Firms paid in a pension contribution alongside the worker so that they too bore some of the costs.  Therefore pay for everyone was reduced in order to pay for the pensions and Pensions became effectively deferred payment for labour.

However, despite everyone warning successive Governments, no UK Government ever put any money aside from the contributions paid into the pension schemes by the workers.  They also took no account of the fact that these pensions were index linked in the main to the Retail Price Index.

Then came the banking crisis, led by such august luminaries as the newly knighted Sir Fred Goodwin who bought new meaning to the phrase "laughing all the way to the bank" and after what can only be regarded as a term of complete and utter lunacy it it's cavalier disregard for any of the normal banking principles such as prudence, common sense, conservative principles, adherence to basic banking rules or a whole number of measures and processes developed through the years the banks collapsed leaving all of the common people deeply in debt unto their children's children's times.

Smug Bastard!

Thus the government said "we must be prudent and draw in our horns.  Instead of public crucifixion of "Sir" Fred Goodwin, or even asking Madge to take back his knighthood and bung him in the tower, what did we get?  We got a derisory amount given back to us in a mockery of an attempt to shown embarrassment and then two fingers as he buggered off to try and spend all that was left.

As the government's Ponzi Pension scheme managed to not only run in to Sir Fred and Chums' banking crisis but also the "grey majority" where people were living longer due to better health care and to a better standard of living with the double whammy of less people in employment in the UK, they realised they had to do something and quickly or they could not sit in their London Clubs and chortle over "those foreign wallahs" in Greece and Spain getting their currencies knocked by Standard and Poors because they UK would soon be up the swanee as well.  How could they cut down on the promised pensions without looking like the rogues and charlatans they were?  Someone had to come up with "a cunning plan" and bloody quick or the Bullingdon Mafia were for the high jump and no mistake.

The first part of the plan was to blame the workers themselves and so the Bullingdon Blaggers got their chums from Eton and Harrow to start the biggest smear story going and started spreading the lie that the Public Sector Unions had enforced "Gold Plated Pensions" well over and above those available to the private sector workers.  "Divide and conquer had always been a good plan ever since the Roman invaders had used it to go from a pretty small and ineffective City in what became Italy to a world spanning Empire.  (Incidentally the Roman Empire was also a Ponzi scheme as it relied totally upon always conquering new territories to fund the lifestyles of the existing citizens of the Empire, once the conquering stopped, it imploded).

Thus Public Sector workers were vilified by the press as parasites living off the poor old private sector when in fact the public sector pay was always lower than the private sector just because the pensions were allegedly better.

The second strand of the debate was to close all final salary schemes as soon as possible.  This was done in order to increase the profits of all the private sector companies at the expense of their workers and to save costs in Government by minimising the pensions payout.

The third and positively fiendish part was that as any accountant knows, when you ask them "What is the outcome of doing this?" The reply is always "What do you want it to be?".  So, if you want to reduce index linked pensions quickly and seem to be fair, just change the index.

Thus the change on how the index linked part works FROM RPI TO CPI.  RPI has for generations been the way we measure inflation and is the yardstick with which we measure inflation, our finacial wellbeing, our wealth and indeed our feelgood factor or otherwise.  Historically CPI is always a couple of percent BELOW RPI and so the Governemt loves that, as do the Private Sector who were quicker to adopt that measure than a rat up a drainpipe once the Governemt had led the way.  Incidentally the Government also have linked State Benefits to CPI as well so that will steadily reduce the total cost of State benefits and eventually force those lazy workshy paraplegics into fiull time employment if they do not wish to starve to death.

So, who gains and who loses here?

Well, it is manifestly obvious who LOSES here and it is the workers both Private and Public who are going once again to fund the excesses of the Financial Sector and those who gain, apart from Fred Goodwin, will be those in the Finacial Sector who will not only provide pensions for the private sector but who will also have designs on taking over the public sector pensions (So long as they have a cast iron Government pledge to underwrite said pensions).  Thus the Bullingdon Boys and their Fat Cat chums ride off into the sunset taking our hard earned dosh with them while their replacements get on with the job of fleecing us.

So, readers, if you have got this far, altogether now, say "Baaaaaaaaaaaa!!".

Ghenghis 2011

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