Cheers!

Imagination triumphs again! The legislative killjoys in the Scottish Parliament have forced pubs to keep their prices constant for at least 72 hours. This was intended to stop "happy hour" promotions. Some pubs have now responded by offering cheap drinks for three day periods - in other words continuous happy hours.

It does the heart good to read stories like these.

Another craven action from GB

In 1962 I visited the town of Wurzburg in Germany as a hitchhiker and youth hosteller. It was a pretty town with an interesting mix of architecture. I liked it. 40 years later I revisited the town and this time took the time to look around the museum. What I missed the first time because I was too impecunious to afford the admission was the quite shocking history of the last few months of WWII. Wurzburg was carpet-bombed by us and almost obliterated. Two models of the city, before and after, illustrated the tale. About 90% of the town was destryoyed, including the hospital.

Well, after the war the Germans rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt their towns, much as they were before this wanton destruction. I saw other examples on this trip through parts of Germany. If there have been cries for compensation for the victims then I have not heard them, and certainly they have not been reported in this country. Terrible things happen during war, but once the damage has been done, the only sensible thing to do is to rebuild your life.

However we now live in a compensation culture. No victim is allowed to get on with life unless they have been adequately compensated - even if it takes many years.

The victims of IRA bombings are innocent victims and I feel sorry for them. At the same time I have to ask what really can be done? The atrocity has happened. That fact won't be changed. Compensation can never make true amends.

In any case the compensation chasers end up with a distorted view. The men who detonated the bombs are to blame, but they have no money, the Americans who donated money to fill IRA coffers may have some blame but we don't know who they are, the Czechs who manufactured the semtex may also be blamed but they probably don't have deep pockets, but the people who sold the semtex to the IRA, the Libyan Government, apparently have lots of money, so maybe they should compensate the victims.

Into this moral morass steps one G. Brown. His first view, that nothing could or should be done about compensation was probably the correct one. It is not popular, it is not nice, but it is a realistic and defensible political position. Any leader worth his mettle would take this position in the best interests of the state.

But we unfortunately have a Prime Minister who will stoop to any craven political ploy to earn short term gain - in this case to get the Libyan situation off his back. Promises are made which cannot be kept and the victims will have their hopes temporarily raised only to see them slowly wither over time.

Libyan aftershocks

I have remarked before that Gordon Brown is a classic bully. He is very good at beating up and terrorizing those in weaker positions than himself but steers clear of anyone with the strength to stand up to him.

The Libyan negotiations, which are dripping out day by day, illustrate the downside of having a weak and bullying character in the office of PM. Qaddaffi has run rings around him and Brown apparently was afraid to raise the issue of compensation for IRA victims, according to the Sunday Times today. We should not be surprised by this revelation but it is a pretty poor show. Libya did not hold all the cards in these negotiations- they wanted trade and respectability with the latter probably being the bigger prize.

Any leader with any strength of character would have been able to deal on this issue.

Browndown

There was no sense that Gordon Brown looked rested and refreshed when he made his first appearance after an extremely long holiday. Grey faced and whey-faced he faced the cameras unenthusiastically in a robotic manner.

Several insiders have always made the case that Brown was bonkers and much of his public behaviour certainly betrayed some personality problems but this post today presents a plausible case for the theory that Brown is actually on serious medication to try to keep his behaviour under control.

Those who forecast that Brown might leave Number 10 accompanied by men in white coats may not have been too wide of the mark!

The Lonely Smoker

Smoking used to be a happy social activity. After a lengthy Sunday lunch my grandfather would go to his humidor and bring out two fat cigars to share with my father. Both pleasurably went through the rituals of rolling the cigar between thumb and finger, sniffing it, removing the band, cutting the smoking end and carefully lighting it with a Swan Vestas match. After dinner conversation was accompanied by the rich and not unpleasant aroma of cigar smoke.

Today I saw a lone woman dragging a few long puffs on a cigarette outside a hair salon. She was obviously in the middle of her hair treatment but needed a break, I emphasize the loneliness because it is common enough now to witness a small knot of smokers outside pubs, restaurants, courts, shops, libraries, fitness centres, sharing their comradely sense of exclusion from approved society. The lone smoker is perhaps rare but, who knows, may become more common.

As I was growing up, as I indicated above, smoking was an everyday part of life. Even school staff rooms exuded smoke during breaks. Smokers were mostly male, but in men it was an almost universal habit. Some women smoked but it was generally considered to be a masculine activity. Nobody pretended that it was good for you. Men joked about smoking coffin nails and were fatalistic about future health problems or shortened life expectancy. If it was going to be a short life the you might as well enjoy it.

Smoking was a social pleasure rather than a private vice. How times have changed!

British PM fooled by dictator

British Prime Minister learns that he has been fooled by an unscrupulous dictator.

September 3rd. 1939

or was that

September 3rd. 2009

Lies, more lies and Gordon Brown

This day had to come. For weeks now Gordon Brown has been hiding, hoping that the consequences of his ineptitude would go away. If anything it has got worse and he has to keep compounding lies with more lies.

Everybody knows what the situation was and there are times when realpolitik has to overcome nice feelings. Ok you do what you have to do and hold your nose. Every leader has to face up to this unpleasant reality from time to time, except, it seems, Gordon Brown, who seriously lacks courage.

Blair had to deal with a not dissimilar situation with the Saudis a few years ago. They were unhappy about close scrutiny of some of their dealings with British Aerospace by the Serious Fraud Office. Blair recognized the reality and canned the investigation. Not nice but realistic. And he did have the gumption to confront questions about the propriety of his move by emphasizing the impact it would have on British jobs. Eventually we all got off our righteous high horses and got on with life.

Unfortunately Brown is so inadequate that he ha contrived a situation that has made the SNP look like international statesmen, made the Labour leader in Scotland look like a complete idiot, upset the Americans, undermined justice in this country and achieved a marginal economic benefit that could probably have been achieved through tougher diplomacy..

When will he go?