Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 57

Vaping: Do Not Relax Restrictions

Vaping is a nasty habit. No sane person wants to be close to a vaper in a public place or social environment. It is a device to help people quit smoking and a parliamentary committee wants restrictions relaxed so that more people can use it in more places and thus more give up smoking. This blog thinks vaping disgusting and would oppose any such move.

I speak as one who smoked a lot of cigarettes each day for twenty five years. It is thirty years since I gave up, so I have a licence to speak out. If you want to stop, stop. Not over a cliff, but thirty down to twenty a day in month one, to ten in two, five in three, then stop in four and never go back.  You will live to celebrate it. You do not need any help beyond your own decision, your free will and your strength of character. Don’t make excuses, your are more than strong enough to carry it through. Your reward will be a healthier and better life for you and those you love. Good that.

Historical Thriller: Download or Paperback

Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy and right hand man, flew to Scotland on a mysterious peace mission in 1941, which has never been convincingly explained, to meet unidentified politicians who wanted to end the war. The truth has been covered up for generations because to reveal it would somehow undermine the honour and constitutional fabric of the United Kingdom. Who was plotting against Churchill? What were the peace terms on offer? What happened to Hess? Was he killed in the War? Was the prisoner in Spandau a double?

There are many questions to which in the modern day one man, Saul Benedict has all the answers, because his parents were players in the drama involving Churchill, Hitler, leading politicians and an important Royal. Saul is an author and declares his intention to write a book to reveal all, but he is shot dead, apparently accidentally by a poacher. But was it an accident? Rick Coleman, an investigative journalist, determines to find out.  Taking place in the modern day but with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, the novel is a fast moving and compelling read.

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Bridge Collapse: Is There A Wider Question?

The dreadful loss of life and the shear unexpected horror of the collapsing motorway in Genoa has made front pages the world over. Questions abound. Foremost, after the anguish for the dead and injured, are: How? Why?

The new Italian government is already beginning to place the blame on cuts in government expenditure forced upon Italy by the Eurozone, i.e. Germany. There may or may not be truth in this,  but more widely there is a very big problem, growing ever bigger. The economic model favouring low taxes, small government and a very large financial sector with low wealth creation and high asset inflation is unsuited to a modern state. Not just Italy, but many, if not most. Especially the UK.

Whatever may have been the ideal in the past, whatever economic theory is seen to be the purest and whatever ideology drives politicians and campaigners from the right, the plain fact is that the modern world is different. The notion, the driver of everything for nearly forty years, that you keep taxes low, cut spending to make that possible, favour the rich over the poor, lavish wealth upon the few, not the many, and make everybody else survive on the nebulous notion of opportunity for all, is way past its sell by date.

A government must inaugurate an economic model which creates new wealth at the base, built on giving priority to the mass of ordinary people upon whose shoulders the provision of all manifestations of civilised living depend.There must be proper jobs, paying enough to cover housing costs, living costs, leisure and enough for saving. Public investment in housing and infrastructure is an absolute must as part of that economic reboot to guarantee state of the art transport, communications, environment and competitive energy. And, most of all enough decent affordable housing. That will bring prosperity at all levels but will begin at the base and filter upwards, not the other way round.

But it is also necessary to run efficient public services right across the piece, whether it is health, education, the police or social care and the national fabric has to be maintained and renewed. That costs money. Taxes provide the cash. But the difference has got to be that first the cost is calculated and then the taxes are fixed at rates required to pay the bills.

At the moment taxes are reduced to gain votes and services are cut because the money runs out. Well, that is all going to come to an end. Prepare for a very different world. But a better one for the ordinary majority.

 

Hess Enigma: Download or Papaerback

Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy and right hand man, flew to Scotland on a mysterious peace mission in 1941, which has never been convincingly explained, to meet unidentified politicians who wanted to end the war.  Who was plotting against Churchill? What were the peace terms on offer? What happened to Hess? Was he killed in the War? Was the prisoner in Spandau a double?

There are many questions to which in the modern day one man, Saul Benedict has all the answers, because his parents were players in the drama involving Churchill, Hitler, leading politicians and an important Royal. Saul is an author and declares his intention to write a book to reveal all, but he is shot dead, apparently accidentally by a poacher. But was it an accident? Rick Coleman, an investigative journalist, determines to find out.  Taking place in the modern day but with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, the novel is a fast moving and compelling read.

                   Amazon UK           Amazon US

The Hastings Option: Download or Paperback

 

The narrow, ordered life of a gentle but almost reclusive artist, Jane Block, is disturbed when a bequest, intended for her dead mother, passes to her. Mystery surrounds the nature of the inheritance and Jane is led on a sinister trail to secrets of the past, forcing her to confront her own fears and inhibitions. She finds herself caught in a frightening quest to unravel a mysterious cover-up from World War Two, and in so doing finds intrigue, love and betrayal.

Amazon.uk

Amazon.com

Is The Government Governing? What About Hungry Children?

Well one can only hope so, yet there is scant evidence of it. Boris hysteria has gripped both the Tory party and the media for over a week now. The Cabinet appears split on what do do, which is hardly surprising, since it is split on everything else. Everybody seems to be investigating someone or something. Yet the serious world is still there and it will not go away. The EU looks on with mounting anxiety as the orderly government, which has been the hallmark of Britain’s contribution to Europe’s wellbeing for three centuries, appears to be dissolving. The implications for Brexit are not good. And, as previously posted by this blog, all the sniping and quarreling at the top is contributing towards an atmosphere of intolerance and discord right through the country.

There are real things needing attention. Infrastructure and service issues like railways, prisons and social care. But human issues about increased demands for more food banks to, and this I never thought to hear in this country, hungry children having to be fed by charities or  volunteers during the holidays because their parents cannot afford to do so. As so often posted here, we are now seeing some very ugly outcomes of an economic model which makes the poor even poorer while the rich become even richer. So, instead of grandstanding  and being generally obnoxious to each other and everyone else, this government must fix these things or be consumed by the white heat of the people’s anger, already beginning to glow.

Historical Thriller: Paperback or Download

DOWNLOAD OR PAPERBACK     

Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy and right hand man, flew to Scotland on a mysterious peace mission in 1941, which has never been convincingly explained, to meet unidentified politicians who wanted to end the war. The truth has been covered up for generations because to reveal it would somehow undermine the honour and constitutional fabric of the United Kingdom. Who was plotting against Churchill? What were the peace terms on offer? What happened to Hess? Was he killed in the War? Was the prisoner in Spandau a double?

There are many questions to which in the modern day one man, Saul Benedict has all the answers, because his parents were players in the drama involving Churchill, Hitler, leading politicians and an important Royal. Saul is an author and declares his intention to write a book to reveal all, but he is shot dead, apparently accidentally by a poacher. But was it an accident? Rick Coleman, an investigative journalist, determines to find out.  Taking place in the modern day but with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, the novel is a fast moving and compelling read.

                   Amazon UK           Amazon US

Economic Growth: Creating New Wealth

An idea to stimulate economic growth without further government borrowing. Written in plain English and very easy to follow, this is the only really fresh approach out there to the intractable problems of the UK economy,  Buy! Download only .99p  Paperback £2.99

Kindle or Paperback  UK        US            

Boris and Free Speech

One of the pillars of democracy is free speech. Free speech is not a notion which can survive in degrees. You either have it or you don’t. But freedom of religion, racial and gender equality, LGBT rights and basic human rights themselves demand judgement about what you say, to whom and when. Moreover, and especially, what you publish on social media and in the newspapers must take account of its impact on others. Incitement to hatred or violence crosses the border protecting free speech and becomes a crime.

When Boris wrote his piece (which remember the Telegraph published happily) he made the overall point that, unlike France and Germany, GB should permit Muslim women, whose faith inspired them to wear face coverings and veils, to do so. This is a positive liberal opinion to be applauded. He then went on to make sure the point was publicized by making another of his infamous jokes in bad taste. It is the kind of mocking wit which many find funny. But others do not. And because the butt of the jokes were women of a minority faith, there was an outcry.

But this is where we come back to free speech. He was entitled to make those jokes, which were flippant and harmless, if gratuitous and insulting. His penalty will be in the loss of credibility as a reliable public figure and votes at the next election. Even perhaps his ambition to lead the Tory party. That is how the free democratic system works. You reap as you sow. But you are free to sow.

It is also important in all of these things for the wronged, too, to be measured. Demands that Boris, of whom this blog is not at all a fan, be thrown out of the Tory party or subjected to some peculiar and secret investigation are plainly ridiculous. It is also the case that Labour, embroiled as it is in a seemingly never ending row about antisemitism, be now given the space to reach its conclusions. Otherwise the prejudices feared of whatever nature, instead of being wilting plants on barren soil, will become  rampant vines out of control. Christians, Muslims, Jews and atheists live together in GB in harmony and have done for decades. Not by chance, but because of mutual respect and plenty of old fashioned give and take.

Everybody on all sides must remember that.

Downfall In Downing Street: Download or Papaerback

Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. The novel catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, sex, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.

Download £2.08 ($2.51)    Paperback 8.99 ($12.99)    UK    US