Page 24 w The Top
A View From
Welcome to my monthly column “A view from the top”. Hopefully you will find my rambling readable maybe even enjoyable. You may agree or you may disagree with my views, I care not. These are my views long held and forged over a life time of work, travel and experience. Now that’s over let’s have a look at what is really winding me up.
The Trident Question. An awful lot of news has been generated recently with regard to the question of Britain’s independent nuclear weapons and should they be updated at a cost of several billions of pounds. The subject in question has been discussed in terms of “The money could be better spent on other capital projects like schools and hospitals” rather than be spent on weapons that in all likelihood may never be used. The weapons in question for your information are a number of sea launched ballistic missiles that are fired from one of four of the Royal Navy’s Trident submarine fleet …one of these boats is always at sea in a state of hopefully undetected readiness. Each boat can carry up to 16 missiles and each missile can be equipped with multiple warheads that if fired could see the end of mankind. The key here of course is that the weapons are seen as a deterrent and are not expected to be fired. The current submarine fleet is nearing the end of its effective lifespan and hence the debate rages along the lines of “renew or scrap” the weapons system. If you believe the Royal United Services Institute then the issue of fire or not is a political decision that is authorised by each current Prime Minister as he begins his or her term of office. A letter of authorisation is written and is signed by the PM and clearly states that in the event of a strike against Britain what the captain of the submarine in question should do…ie…fire or do not fire the missiles. The intriguing thing here is that sources close to the Diplomatic service and the British military and the Royal United Services Institute have floated the suggestion that the general consensus has been for the captain to be instructed “not to fire” after a first strike as it is probably deemed that escalation is a flawed scenario if deterrence has failed. In other scenarios discussed on the daily politics programme it was stated that if the order to fire cannot be authenticated, then the at sea captain can either act on his own volition as he reads the circumstances, or he can in fact hand his boat and its weapons over to a recognised military ally…probably France or the USA. On a personal note I find the whole thing disturbing in its seemingly lack of clarity.
QF Focus Magazine
I understand the whole point of deterrence is to keep the other side guessing as to what the British submarine fleet would do in the event of nuclear catastrophe… however on the other hand if it’s probable that we would not fire the weapon then it’s a very expensive game of cat and mouse that is being played out at our expense.
The Great British Menu. Skipping through the television channels I had the unfortunate experience of settling on a cookery programme that is like no other cookery programme. It’s a pretentious nonsense about selected chefs cooking dishes that will be fed to “the people” at the people’s banquet. These up market cheffy interpretations of what ordinary people should like are judged by three of the most out of touch cookery judges I have ever seen. Raw prawns served with a lavender flower scent were deemed to be what ordinary folk like to be served… absolute nonsense… next came Jerusalem artichoke… the people should enjoy this! A ragout of all the bits of a dead animal came along next… posh roasted bone marrow with a something jous (gravy to you and me) all dishes served on or in some professionally manufactured piece of miniature furniture rather than on a good old fashioned dinner plate. The judges Oliver someone…and Pru someone were joined by Matthew someone in their fulsome praise for this Michelin cooking. The only thing I appreciate Michelin for is car tyres and road maps… most people cannot afford to visit restaurants where the food is served in geometric shapes using ingredients that are unaffordable to the common purse. Where is the good honest food that ordinary people eat? The title of this cookery nonsense is “The great British Menu” the title is a complete misnomer in that it seeks to persuade people that this type of food is readily available to all, should all be able to afford it. The show is a disgrace and runs against the daily experience of the British people. A better title would be “the great self satisfied smugfest” or even “food that plebs can only dream about”. It’s a waste of television licence payer’s money and is akin to a kick in our proletarian food habits by people who not only do not live in the real world, they do not eat in it either. Where is the great pie and mash show when you need it?
What has happened to my mother tongue? On my wanderings around the local commercial establishments and with the channel surfing via my television, I have become increasingly aware that the English I speak is becoming markedly different from the English that other, mostly younger than me, people speak. The ability to frame sentences seems to have been replaced by a kind of cyber dot dot shorthand. This shorthand that is used on social media is starting to be used in every day conversation. I offer as an example the tendency for people to start a verbal reply to a request with the word “so”. In a shop the other day I asked may I have a packet of digestive biscuits …the young person who was serving me replied “so you want a packet of digestive biscuits do you? …yes I do I replied…I thought to myself if he says “so I will go and get them I will explode. All that was required after my first request was for the young man to simply pass me the biscuits. Another thing that annoys me is the tendency for people in bars to say to the bar person “can I get” rather than may I have… and to top off my frustration I was waiting patiently in the queue in the local chip shop… my turn arrived and rather than ask me what I wanted the young lady said to me “are you alright there” this question threw me completely and after a moment’s thought I replied I am fine thank you. Several seconds passed before the impasse was broken and I was asked well what do you want. Normal prose restored my somewhat delayed request for cod and chips was acted upon. Why has language become so difficult… back in my day…. oh no, I am doing it now.
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