Identity Crises

It is beyond my comprehension why British politicians waste so much time talking about implementing an identity card scheme for the UK when, surely, it would make a great deal more sense to simply make it a legal requirement for all Britons to hold a passport.

The technology and infrastructure for the production of passports is already in place. Citizens could simply be compelled to acquire a passport upon reaching the age of 18 if they did not already have one; young offenders could be issued a passport as part of their processing and so on.

In order to spare people from having to carry the passport at all times, it could be agreed that a plasticated photocopy of the page containing the photograph and other personal details of the holder would be sufficient for the purposes of being identified in the street, provided that the individual were able to produce the passport itself on demand i.e. could go with police to their home to fetch it or produce it at a police station within a given period.

This is already done in several countries and seems to work perfectly well. Citizens would then have a passport ready if they wished or needed to travel at any time as well as being able to identify themselves. It seems obvious to me, but perhaps I'm missing something? What, I wonder, could that be?

Shame On Spendthrift Governments

What a mind-boggling thought: Apparently, rich countries spend seven times more subsidizing their agriculture than they spend on aid to poorer countries which could supply the produce needed far more cheaply and support themselves by doing so.

This would be bad enough if the money being wasted in this way belonged to the governments that are wasting it but it doesn't.

That money belongs to the taxpayers of those countries who entrust it to their governments in the belief that they will do the best possible job of distributing and investing it.

The Cruel Irony Of It All!

In my youth, I was advised by pretty well everyone with whom the topic ever came up, from my family to well-intentioned total strangers, to put as much of my income as possible into pension plans for my old age.

For various reasons, I ignored their admonitions and, apart from making the contributions required by law from self-employed persons in the UK whenever they weren't being dealt with by employers, I chose to enjoy my money while my youth and vigour was at it's peak.

When asked how I would manage in my old age, my response was that I would simply have to live within whatever means my state pension provided or, in the absence of that, starve to death - we all have to die somehow and at least I would know that I had enjoyed my life to the full on the way there.

The vast majority of those who shook their heads at my foolishness, whilst entrusting their funds to financial institutions in the belief that they would be available later, and with interest added, were sacrificing much of their pleasure in the present so that they could enjoy it at some future date.

Now, aged 55 and still enjoying the present, albeit temporarily on a constricted budget, it gives me no pleasure to see that most of those who have survived thus far are now in exactly the same position as me, in terms of the future, in the wake of the disastrous behaviour of so many of those financial institutions in which they had placed their trust.

Unfortunately, whilst I have at least enjoyed the past to the full, they don't even have those kinds of memories to enjoy. The irony is not lost on me but I dare not ask them what they think about my stubborn intransigence on the subject now.

People In Glass Houses

One can, to a certain extent, sympathize with the view, held by more than a few people of our acquaintance, that Britain's government is being hypocritical in criticizing that of Iran over the quelling of protests in the matter of the recent elections there.

Whether the election was fairly run or rigged is one matter but whether the use of force in quelling potential riots was acceptable is entirely another. Under the existing British Labour government, peaceful protesters have regularly been treated with violence by police, including the appalling beatings meted out to the Countryside Alliance protesters against the ban on fox hunting, respectable and mainly middle-aged or older people who were doing absolutely nothing to deserve it.

The Countryside Alliance supporters had marched to Westminster without incident and some were standing still, unarmed and showing no indication of intent to cause trouble of any kind. One respectable and pleasant-looking lady of a certain age was smashed across the head with a baton before our very eyes - more shocking than most of the things I have witnessed in a life that has been spent witnessing shocking sights with alarming regularity.

Interestingly, although we happened to see that event live on television, it did not appear in the news the next day, or ever again and is not even on YouTube.

The current prime minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, is an unelected leader, irrespective of whether he is a good one or otherwise. A Britain promised a referendum over a matter of national importance discovered it had been lied to when the referendum never happened and the government of the day did exactly as it pleased.

What, exactly, gives the British government the right to pass comment on current events in Iran, I wonder?