Scapegoat?

Years and years ago when the Roman Legions were marching around the known world enslaving everybody their commanding officers had a little trick to make sure the common legionnaire worked his heart out to the best of his ability. If a battle hadn't gone to plan or even something small like a days march had fallen below standard, 17 miles instead of 20 the boss man would walk up and down the assembled ranks and purely at random would point at some poor sod and say," You" then same again an other couple of times for good measure. Then these three luckless chaps would be taken away and crucified. By crucified I mean the full monty, the wooden cross, the nails, the hanging around for a couple of days waiting to die while the rest of the legion stood around and thought, "There but for the grace of God go I.". A scapegoat for the legions lack of effort. Thank God it's not the good old days anymore.

Which brings me to the poor ex MP who has just been crucified. True, no nails and cross but Wandsworth Prison could be pretty close. Now I am not saying that David Chaytor didn't deserve to end up in court for swindling all us tax payers out of over twenty thousand quid. He did go to the trouble of forging documents to get housing benefits he wasn't entitled to but what about all the other MPs who made claims for expenses that would have had even the most hardened con man open mouthed at their outrageousness. Duck House

Man and one of our local MPs who had thousands of pounds worth of gardening to his house in Totnes done at our expense. He even said people were just jealous because he had a big house. There were many more such claims that had us all wanting blood last summer. There were in all over 500 MP had to pay money back once the dust had settled. Now many of them were genuine mistakes. Take my own MP. He had to pay money back but in his case it was an obscure rule that anyone could have missed. He claimed 3 months rent on his flat in London and paid his landlord the rent. Then Parliament was dissolved and a general election called so Adrian headed back to Torquay to try and get reflected (he was) but what he didn't realise was that he was wasn't an MP for the 3 weeks between disillusion and election and therefore no long able to claim for any expenses. The people in the office that deals with expenses thought this fact so trivial they didn't bother to tell him and he was as suppressed as the next person when he was finally asked for the money back. No forging of documents there so no need to even think of poor Adrian ending up in court. But what about some of the other claims that someone as clever as you would expect an MP to realise was not exactly a kosher claim like flipping houses and the married couple, he claimed rent on the house they lived in at the weekend and she claimed rent on the flat they both lived in during the week and £2500 for an electric toaster. Actually I think that was a flat screen plasma TV not a toaster. But so many MPs claims were out of order so why so few, 3, of them in court? Could it be that had they all have been dragged through the courts the justice system in this country would have dragged to a halt and a new prison would have had to have been built to accommodate all the new inmates. Or is the scapegoat system used by the Roman Legions alive and well in Britain today.

I hope all those MPs and ex MPs who were directly involved in the expenses scandal and haven't had the dread summons have at least had the good grace to say, "There but for the grace of God go I."

Stop Press: Torquay falling down

OK, it is only a few lumps of concret but falling 30 feet of a building in Union Street could have messed someone's head up just a fraction. Big problem is that there are lots of similar windows lurking around Torquay prehaps waiting to drop similar lumps of heavy stuff on passersby. Think of the headlines, "Come to Torquay for a free lump of rock".

Plymouth, it's just down the road.

Plymouth, an nearby town, like Torquay has fallen on hard times recently. Being so far away from London it tends to get forgotten by those in charge of the nations purse strings. The amount of work done at the Navel Dockyard at Davenport has fallen dramatically over the last few years and there has been a constant on going fear that the plug will be pulled and the lights will go out. Then came the news that the UK had lots of old nuclear submarines to pull apart and Devonport could have the job. At once a protest group jumped up and said, "Not in or back yard". They may need the work but not if there is a chance of Plymouth becoming a nuclear hot spot to rival Chernobyl. The government are still going to take the bloody things apart and have promised that safety precautions will be taken and Plymouth wont end up glowing in the dark. Cautionary note; governments don't always manage to keep their promises. See Bankers Bonuses out tomorrow.

Now there's a bit more for the protestors to join forces about. The Devon Rubbish Partnership, Torbay is a member, have decided that as the local landfill site is just about full to overflowing, an alternative method of getting shut of the rubbish is needed. And so they are going to burn it. Beats dumping it in Tor Bay. The advantage here is the ash that comes out is smaller in volume that the rubbish that went in and the heat will produce a small amount of power. The disadvantage is the incinerator has to be built in someone's back garden. Well not exactly in the back garden but you know what I mean. I hope the planers have thick skins, they're going to need it.

And now for the good news. Plymouth Argyle, the football team of that fair city currently owe the Tax Man loads of money. Probably less than most senior bankers manage to avoid paying each year but the bankers can afford a team of tax avoidance lawyers. Plymouth can't even afford a team. They have sold of a couple of their best players and may even have to sell more so the tax man gets his money. It was going to write the tax man always gets his money but that simply isn't true. (See above). Anyway Plymouth Argyle have managed to pay a chunk of the money they owe and are in line to pay the rest any day now. And on Saturday they managed a rare win after being two nil down with only a few minutes to go. Not all doom and gloom in Plymouth.

PS. Just a thought about those nuclear subs and the smelly incinerator. The prevailing wind here is from the west and if my memory serves me right, Plymouth is to the west. We could end up with all sorts blowing in on the wind.

Say no to nuclear subs; say no to an incinerator.

PPS Torquay take on mighty Carlisle United on Saturday for a place in the 4th round of the cup. Worth lots of money getting to the 4th round. Best of luck boys.

　

New Year But Will Anything Change Except the Date

Couple of items from the news, first is the confusion regarding the arrest of a man in Bristol on suspicion of murder. Now this is a serious charge. Photos and life story of the suspect were displayed in the papers and on the TV and the www which isn't usual. Then after two days he has been released on police bail. What does that mean? A little later the police issued a statement saying the murderer was still at large. Now there is an old saying, "No smoke without fire." Not true, but now there are a lot of people out there who believe the police arrested the right man but don't have enough evidence to convict and so had to release a murderer. Myself I am keeping an open mind but I imagine Mr Jefferies life will have changed in ways most of us can not begin to contemplate whether he is or isn't the murderer. So what are the police playing at.

Second question is about looking at the rule book and following it no matter what. This can be a mark of a person with high principles or is just pigheaded or maybe even stupid. Imagine what you would have don't in this situation. You are in charge of an open prison and you suspect some of the prisoners have been drinking. It is New Year's Eve after all and experience should have told you how easy it is to smuggle alcohol into the prison. So the rule book says you should breathalyse those you believe have been drinking. Fine. Go ahead. Do it. But first ask your self what chance, realistically, do you have of succeeding considering there are 500 of them and 6 of you. Time to close the rule book and nip down to the off licence and have a quiet drink to celebrate the new year like everyone else.

PS I know all 500 of the inmates weren't all drinking and responsible for the couple of million quid's worth of damage that followed. But who was?

And finally if you have an Apple Phone then you could always chuck it in the bin and get one of these. The alarm always works and it has a couple of other advantages too. One, you can use it as a phone and two, you can send and receive text messages. That's it. Nothing else to play with. Think how much spare time you will have without having to work out what all those apps do.

　

Someone Died Here

Late last night a car crashed at this spot on Newton Rd Torquay and the passenger, a 19 year old local woman suffered fatal injuries.

The driver, who was treated at the scene for minor injuries, was later arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

He has been released on police bail until 15 March.