Is sorry the hardest word? Only if you mean it, you posturing scum

In my current job I drive around in an an ancient van for the first half of the day. I have a functioning radio, so I’ve got something on in the background all the time. But as I have to get in and out constantly, I don’t want to have my phone or MP3 player broadcasting the entire time because that’s a waste of battery. This would be fine if I was anywhere, really, other than Lewis. Being up here means that I’m very, very limited in what radio station I can listen to. I’ve got Isles FM (aka The World’s Worst Radio Station), Radio Nan Gàidheal (I don’t understand Gaelic), Radio Scotland (just… naw), Radio 4 (daytime stuff is dire), Radio 3 (I can’t afford to crash because I’ve fallen asleep),  Radio 1 (I’m not constantly popping ecstasy, so it doesn’t appeal) and finally Radio 2 which is a decent compromise between inoffensive pop and slightly older stuff. It’s not perfect, but it will do.

The only blight on the 5 hours or so that I’m driving up to lunchtime, is the incomparable nincompoop that is Jeremy Vine. Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce beforehand are like having a bath in warm treacle. Then the lunchtime discussion comes on and it I want to crash  into the nearest wall. Every day, as soon as he comes on, I start changing channels to see if I can find anything, anywhere, worth listening to, and, every day when I get back to the show – having failed – some moron somewhere is making a point that is just mind-bogglingly stupid. Every day I think, I’ll remember that and write something about it when I get home for lunch, and every day I come home and look at pictures of kittens.

However, this morning I got up early enough to spend a little time on the laptop before work, and caught sight of the big apologies story going round, and later heard the first snatch of the debate or phone-in discussion on the radio, before, unfortunately, changing to radio one. My mind is still bleeding. Anyway, Kevin Rudd and Gordon Brown are apologising for the sins of the past. Not, in either case for their own sins or even their respective governments’ sins. They are apologising for previous government’s mistakes. It is therefore entirely futile, empty and meaningless. You cannot apologise for a mistake someone else made in the past. You can, however, express your sorrow and sympathy. In fact, many of the people affected and shipped off to Australia are still living and do deserve our sympathy for what was, undeniably, horrible treatment. I believe these people should gain some sort of compensation for their treatment, and should have all possible help in contacting any remaining relatives over here.

But, I say again: we cannot apologise. Brown – if indeed the man is capable of emotion – can say he is saddened and sorry that this happened, but as Longrider said in the first (but by no means only post) I read today:

This practise ended forty years ago. How old was Gordon Brown then? Was he in government? The answers being that he was a teenager when this finished and he was not in government. Therefore, he has no right to apologise and neither has Kevin Rudd as neither of them was involved in the offence. An apology, to mean anything at all, must be proffered by the person or people who caused the original harm. You cannot apologise by proxy. To do so is empty gesturing.

In the Telegraph, Ed “Dumpling-faced Gurning Moron” Balls says of Brown’s planned apology, that

the government was talking to the victims’ organisation to work out how to frame the apology

The whole thing is getting emptier and emptier as the whole saga unfolds. If, for example I stole someone’s car and then asked the owner to sit down with me and help me write out a sorry note to explain how sorry I was that I had stolen his car, I have no doubt he would think it a rather empty gesture. But it’s even hollower that. In a comparable hypothetical situation, my cousin stole someone’s car and then several years later, when my (hypothetical – don’t send any sympathy, all my cousins are fine) cousin had died, then I went and asked the owner to sit down and help me to write a note of apology on behalf of someone from whom no recompense is possibly forthcoming. That’s how useless this apology is.

Also, to ring true, an apology should be, at least in part, spontaneous. Not mumbled through in a monotone by a humourless, expressionless Cyclops.

Oh, and as a final aside, it turns out the Prime Minister thinks that

“the time is now right” for the UK government to apologise for the “misguided policies” of previous governments

nothing to do with wanting to look good just before a general election then? Of course not, that’s just me being cynical.

And no mention of apologising, even in the most hollow, empty way for the “misguided policies” of the current government, for the misguided handling of… well… nigh-on everything.

Woo! Free stuff!

I got a free book today.

So can you. Well, not today but you can order it from that link.

I’ll review it when I get the time.

Joined-up justice

A friend’s link on facebook brought me to this story earlier today. An ex-soldier is facing prison for five years for being a good, upstanding member of the community. The story, for those who can’t be bothered following the link is that some guy found a sawn-off shotgun, with ammo, in his garden, phoned the police and handed it in. Where he was arrested for having an gun. And taken to court. And found guilty. And now faces five years for possession. Did I mention the minimum sentence? Five years. That is FIVE YEARS. That’s two years more than you get for raping a toddler. That’s four and a half years more than you get for dumping a body and leaving a guy for dead.

Following the discussion thread on OH’s blog on the topic I came across this gem, where almost the exact opposite happened, 15 miles away in South London. Again, the story is mind-bogglingly stupid – another guy finds a loaded revolver and cash in a bag, phones the police and is told to carry it two miles to the station. I’m really surprised Mr. Leary wasn’t arrested when he took the gun to the police.

I was going to insert a rant here about how stupid it is not to have legal guns in society, but it all just seems like an exercise in banging my head against a brick wall.

That’s annoying…

That last post had a good 20 minutes of typing in it,.

What was published was nothing. Nothing whatsoever. Not even in the WordPress dashboard thing where everything’s kept.

Anyway, what was in it was a link to this story, and why the quote

Fikile Mbalula … urged the police to “shoot the bastards”

was the best thing any politician has ever said anywhere.

I’ve realised why everything was wiped. It’s because I didn’t put a relevant/hilarious picture at the start.

my new hero

Intermission

Round of applause for Steve Wood everybody

Posting has been rare recently. This is most definitely not due to any lack of ready material; in fact it is possibly the glut of inspiration that is the reason. Where to start with such a messed-up, confused and doomed country? I have an unexpected few days off, so if I make the time in the next couple of days, I’ll make some rambling, ill-informed and poorly-constructed posts. That is all.

A response

The petition on the No.10 website, calling for the PM to resign has had a response. In it Comrade Brown’s mouthpiece says

The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all.

Which doesn’t address the issue. Will you resign or not? I seem to remember the petition bring back a vast number of signatures,  but then when has democracy ever got anything to do with anything?

After over a decade of Labour and over a century of Brown, you would have thought that they would have sorted out that list. And as for all that talk “restoring the economy, getting people back to work” and building “a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all”, this came to mind:

Click the picture if your eyes aren't too good

On the upside it isn’t an unequivocal  “no”.

The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all.

Bad Parents

As a society we really need to crack down on misbehaviour and wrongdoing. Today I heard that some parents are lying and cheating to get their children into decent local schools. Ed “Worst Surname For A Children’s Secretary Ever” Balls’ department is going to come up with some suitably nasty punishments for those horrid people who want a usable education for their offspring. Imagine believing that there are some schools that are no good in our Labour-run Utopia.

Because everything needs to be tightened up.

It doesn’t matter about real criminals getting off with little more than a nasty look, we need tougher penalties for downloaders, tougher penalties for (private individuals) passing around private data, tougher penalties for people driving without seatbelts, tougher penalties (including losing their livelihood) for fishermen trying to make a living despite EU regs, tougher penalties for driving fast, tougher penalties for those terrifying stoners (such a notoriously violent and antisocial section of the public), tougher penalties for breaching elfin safety, tougher penalties for mistreating animals, tougher penalties for talking while driving, and of course, tougher penalties for companies breaching environ-mental rules.

Most importantly, why do all these rules need to apply to us?

Our thieving, slippery, mendacious representatives don’t want to allow such regulation tightening when it’s their our pockets being targeted. Why should they have to pay for cleaners, gardeners, mortgages, non-family members to work, travel, home improvement, decorations, furniture, (…continues ad infintium and ad nauseum)? I mean really, who do we taxpaying slobs think we are, expecting our money to be spent decently? There’s biblical quotation that seems to sum it up quite nicely: “… why beholdest  thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Clear out your own Augean stables (preferably with fire*) before starting on us.

Since it’s that time of year, here’s a cute wee picture to end with too.

Harriet Harpyperson

*Horribly mixed metaphor alert.

Show your support.

From over at D/K (because I couldn’t improve* or add anything to it)

Well, President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic continues to hold out on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, despite all the incentives and threats that are undoubtedly being thrown his way by the EU and other European leaders.

After the craven failure of our own Government to honour their promise of a referendum, President Klaus is the best hope of us ever getting that vote.

The TPA is running an online petition urging him to continue to stand firm on Lisbon until we can have the referendum that we were promised. Please do sign it (here), and send the link on to your friends and family. 

 

*or come close, without being abominably rude.

Oh, I nearly forgot a picture. Here’s one that made me giggle like a toddler with a silly hat on, and is completely unconnected to what I’ve written.

Stop. Hammertime.

Words (almost) fail me

fishcat catfish

During my trawling through the internet, I came across something when on Dick Puddlecote’s blog. It being a while since I said anything, I thought I’d take the easiest target.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I think I’ll go with mock.

As part of the bumph, they say:

…if you call fish “sea kittens,” maybe people will be nicer to them.

(Nicer as in, not fishing and eating them). Quite apart from the obvious lentil lunacy of it all, calling something something it’s not is, at best, just silly.

If you call an eco-loons a “land dolphin”, it won’t make us believe they are as smart as one.