Dark Friday

Over the past few months there has been a sometimes fierce debate about influences and invasions from abroad.

Influxes of people, ideas and cultures undermining our British way of life, whatever that may be.

These discussions have tended to be directed one way...across the channel or the North Sea...mainland Europe, the source of all our troubles.

However, in my opinion, whilst the leaders of the major parties...and UKIP... Focus to the east, we need to keep at least one eye on the west and our cousins across the Atlantic.

Well,actually, we don't need to keep an eye on them, we need to avoid taking our eye off the ball and seemingly accept anything that isn't from Brussells.

Our relationship with America has been special and we have stood together on many occasions in the past and I am sure we will in the future but the influence of culture seems to have been notched up over recent times and we seem to be encouraged to accept it.

Here are two very different examples.

NFL being encouraged to create a franchise in England...not only encouraged but if the price is right they can use our national stadium, oh it's ok, the football team, sorry soccer team can go and play in towns and cities out of the way, at least we would fill Wembley for the NFL, well we would to start with until the novelty wears off... Next it will be rounders...err baseball at Lords!

Second example is the import of something that has, today, shown the worst side of our population. The introduction of an Americanism that works perfectly well in the States but over here?...

Black Friday is an excellent concept...a gift to the nation to finish off the most important holiday of the year. A chance for all to save a little money on early Christmas presents or just on that something you need.

Import that concept to a nation taxed to the hilt, cut to the bone, austerity weary and not in holiday mode and Black Friday turns very dark indeed.

Some of the scenes today in household name stores were difficult to watch and in a word shameful.

Scenes were so similar to the looting seen during the riots except this time they fought each other to grab the item but then raced to a till and pay the reduced sum before rushing home with their booty.

I wonder what these people think of themselves when they watch on their new...cheap...flat screen televisions? If I'm honest it will be a badge of honour.

Why has this been allowed to happen? Could it have something to do with thousands of pounds a second being flung at our tills?... I'll let you answer that, but I will ask one final question on this very Black Friday...would this have even been considered if today would have been noir vendredi? Or Schwartz Freitag? I feel the answer would sadly be no, any other answer and our leaders speech on the perils of immigration, made today of all days, would have contained I am sure a couple of extra paragraphs warning us that we are being further undermined from the East...it's not just a moral compass they lack.

History Repeating Itself?

Just a couple of weeks ago the nation honoured the men and women who gave their lives in conflicts since 1914.
Quite rightly the nation stopped and reflected on their sacrifice and stories were told and re told about the events that led to their horrible end.
As it was the centenary of the commencement of the First World War there was, quite rightly, a lot of focus on how that terrible and some would say pointless conflict was allowed to happen, relevant and thought provoking.
The Second World War was slightly different.
Our brave men and women, ordinary normal hard working non military men and women were fighting something totally different.
They were fighting a regime that had come to power in a country rife with, division, poverty, social injustice, inequality and for a vast majority of their population a sense of hopelessness and betrayal by their leaders.
The regime seized on this and began to implement their plan.
The plan was quite a simple one. Feed on all of the feelings the population was experiencing, emphasise, sympathise, put an arm around them and whisper in their ears, "it's ok, it's not your fault, it's theirs" and proceed to blame a minority of the population.
Put the burden of the majority of the populous at the doors of those who were deemed to be different, unorthodox, atypical...foreign.

These people were labelled as sponges, taking as much as they could and not giving anything back, depriving the idiginous people of their right to work, earn and live as they wanted to.
It is much easier to blame these kinds of people rather than the establishment or governments because  in bad times people like someone to point a finger at and it is much more simple to blame a person rather than a faceless governing body that may be based hundreds of miles away...these people lived in the same town and were a tangible presence.

The regime knew this and they soon had the desperate deprived people believing them and the persecutions started and the rest as they say is history...or is it?

I wonder what the brave people honoured so recently would make of their countries latest MPs? Or the party or society they represent?
Times are hard...money tight...injustice rife...division rampant...inequality everywhere...hopelessness and betrayal commonly felt. The establishment taking no notice and indeed fuelling it.
Who does this new "people's party" blame? Put the burden of the majority of the populous at the doors of those who were deemed to be different, unorthodox, atypical...foreign. Oops that was a copy and paste! Well actually it was no accident because it is exactly the same and people are actually believing it...all over again.
Lets have a look at what these people have supposed to have done... Plunged the economy into crisis by gambling trillions of our pounds in the financial markets? Oh no that wasn't them....inflict austerity not seen since Victorian times...still not them...Create a society where number one is the only one that matters...nope that wasn't them... Threaten a Heath service that is the envy of the world...except the U.S. but that's another story...and that is still not their doing...

Struggling to find what they have done...oh wait! Times are hard so blame the minorities, the ones who are different etc...

Now there are two sides to this coin and those of you who have read this far will now see the balance,  the ones who have stopped reading are probably blocking me and avidly reading their new party's leaflets for comfort.

The second side to this coin is that all parts of the populous must resist this new finger pointing blame game and not react in an insular defensive way...the huge majority of peaceful hard working people of all faiths and nationalities need to prove the bigots wrong and dismantle their arguments in front of their faces...How? By showing that they understand that only the divided fall...discourage the extremists in their own societies, allow their children to learn with other children about the different faiths and societies they will live in when they grow up for the more insular minority groups become the more they fuel the fires of the new party and its sheep...

On The Right Track?

How many times have you heard this?...
"Usual queues this morning on the M25 junctions 5-3....M6 in Southbound congested between junctions 12 and.....M62 in Cheshire tailbacks due to clockwise M60 queueing between junctions 9 and 17....
Without putting words into your mouths I would imagine your answer would be two or three or more times per week...the same problems in the same places at the same times every day. Of course the three examples above are not isolated, I could have included the M1 the M4 the M8 and many numerous A roads nationwide.

It seems strange that in the times we live in where every minute of every day seems to be judged on whether it has been productive that as a society we seem prepared to waste so much time staring at the break lights of the vehicle in front.
So we look to our leaders for some plan, some light at the end of the Blackwall or Bryn tunnels.

The master plan seems to be a new train line...Yes...one...train line.

Admittedly its a fast one which will cut journey times between London and Birmingham by 20 minutes...in around 10-15 years...

That's not all...this one track will then head towards Crewe and Sheffield...20 years...possibly even Glasgow and Edinburgh by the time I'll be getting my birthday telegram from King George...

And as if that excitement wasn't enough there is now talk...yep...talk of an East/West track between Liverpool and Hull....I don't think I will see that one...



So , what do we do in the meantime? We sit...and wait in the same places at the same time every day.

Not that anyone will ask me and the few people who read this blog don't include, as far as I am aware planners or transport workers, but here are my thoughts.

The cost of this single track is reputed to be around 50billion pounds at completion. Eye watering figures. So firstly I would reduce the amount by 8billion, the amount needed to help the NHS to survive, leaving 42 billion to sort out not one track but a whole attitude towards transport. If I may I will use myself as an example of what I mean.

I had to go to a meeting a few weeks ago 35 miles from where I live.


I had to travel through one of the examples at the start of this blog and it took me two and three quarter hours to travel 35 miles.

So as I was sat there wondering how the driver in front could get his finger that far up his nose I instead began to think of an alternative...what if I had got the train? This was the outcome...

I live just over 2 miles from my nearest railway station, so a 40 minute walk...how about a bus? I hear you shout...well, because of my local bus companies narrow thinking I would have to get 2 buses to get to my station and they don't start to run until around 7...way too late for me...oh and they stop at 5:30 at night...

So a walk it is...when I arrive at my station I can get a train direct to either Liverpool or Manchester I can even get a train to Norwich, 5 hours away if I so desired...but a train to my two local towns? Nah...

So I would get on the train to Manchester, only 1 an hour to the main Manchester station. Thirt five minutes later I am in Manchester...now to the Tram...or rather 2 trams as my meeting destination is on a different line...so the 3 or 4 mile journey could take half hour or more...and then I would have it all to look forward to on my return journey....with all the walking and waiting it would have taken me around the same length of time as in the car...that shouldn't be the case and isn't, in my opinion right.

What could improve? Well I believe it is firstly an attitude problem, public transport services are not public and are not a service, they are a business hence why there are no buses from parts of my town to the station, why? Because apparently most people have cars...can you begin to see potential issue here?

Being a business is also the reason why there are not enough trains and 2 sardine carriages an hour is more cost effective than 3 comfy ones every half hour...you can almost hear the millions of car doors slamming and engines starting up can't you?

But what if public transport really was a service? With flexible timetables, bus companies and authorities talking to train companies about timetables and demand...train networks looking at re opening some of the local branch lines left to rot following the first edition of narrow minded thinking in the 60s involving DR Beeching.

With this thinking I could bus,train and tram in half the time and be more productive for my company...

I can hear the calls now of we can't afford this...we still have 42 billion left...and the cost saved in time for business and individuals pays for itself...because I for one would hardly drive at all if this were to happen and the travel news would be that there would be no travel news...

Ah well back to reality and the suspense of whether his finger will exit his nose without causing any permanent damage.