Serious Gardening

After almost two years I have finally started to get to grips with the garden. Lawn mowed ... but it's had a bad winter; THREE new fruit trees ... Cherry, raspberry, blackberry; and herbs and flowers.

Take a look:

See your OWN Doctor Mister!

It is my deeply held view that any head of State must be able to be treated by the medical profession within his or her own country to retain any credibility at all. Alternatively, make it possible for all of their fellow countrymen to go abroad for medical treatment.

Banda in Malawi was treated in the UK and South Africa
Mugabe treated in Singapore at the moment
Chavez in Cuba now

I could do some research and find hundreds more no doubt. I don't care about their fine words and well intended policies, if they don't make health for their country a priority then they deserve the same treatment as everyone else.

Duncan

Sell by Date

I just read a story in which a woman had been found dead in a chair in her house eighteen months after she is thought to have died. They said they estimated the date of the woman's death by using the sell by dates on food in her fridge.

In that case, if that were to happen to me they could estimate that I had died as long ago as 2009! There are foodstuffs in my cupboards that go back that far. If son Andrew hadn't cleaned out my cupboards a couple of years ago there would be things still there from 2005!

DW

That woman and the Euro 2012 Football Championship

She's at it again: a very famous woman from across the pond. There's a Chinese dissident who is now probably under greater threat than ever before and the former Prime Minister of the Ukraine is seeking to benefit from this woman's attention. Disgraceful! None of her business.

More than that I see these wretched politicians are now lining up against the Euro 2012 Football Championships. Politicians here not going, politicians there not going ... GOOD! You would only be sitting in a seat you didn't pay for, staying in an hotel you didn't pay for, eating high quality food you wouldn't have paid for. Clear off! Let a proper football supporter have your seats.

DW

Broadband my 'arris!

All I wanted to do was to watch and listen to a short video on YouTube. Less than five minutes in duration but I didn't get to the end of it.

Stop start, stop start.

Will any broadband provider accept the challenge of giving me FULL access to their services without lying to me and give me £1,000 if they fail? Then I can watch this video in peace.

DW

Another airline tax? Get lost!

This is a simulcast with duncan's diacritical discussion Read this article and then my comments below http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8d2ca858-92f2-11e1-b6e2-00144feab49a.html#axzz1tFw6P9cn --oo0oo-- This is a joke, yes? Cameron agrees so that's it? The reality is that politicians these days are so undereducated in the ways of the practicalities of running a country that all they can think about is to increase taxes and hope that a problem will then be solved. The reality is that this is a matter of planning, forecasting and management. Is it a surprise, for example, that today, an Emirates A380 will arrive from Dubai at Heathrow (and Manchester for that matter) and another one will arrive from Singapore? Is it also a surprise that there may be more than 500 people on each plane? Is it also a surprise that this happens every day of the year? The point is quite clear, airlines have their timetables and their slots at our airports. We all know all of this. Now, just take another step or two from here: on average, how many Brits are on these planes?; how many are from the EU and so on?; how many are from the rest of the world ... la la la. Passenger arrival statistics are a matter of fact and have almost certainly been analysed ... haven't they? Finally, we get the the nub of the matter: the Border Agency knows all of the above much better than I do but in the end it's a matter of staffing and management since the plans and forecasts have largely been taken care of. Like other people on this thread, I travel a lot and would resent most strongly if ever more taxes were loaded onto passengers. For example, a recent flight: cost of ticket £42, cost of taxes and other charges on that ticket £121. Easy target or what? Duncan