Denmark saves money by tightening up on Immigration

The favourite mantra of the left that immigrants help to boost the economy has been shown to be incorrect in the case of Denmark.
A Danish Government report shows that immigrants and descendants from non-western countries as costing Danish society 15.7 billion. (1.87 billion sterling) per year, while immigrants and descendants from Western countries contributing to the exchequer by 2.2 billion. DKK.
See here.
And remember that the population of Denmark is only 5.5 Million, about one eleventh of that of Great Britain. Think of the savings that we could make!

Opposition Priorities

John Redwood's brief blog today is worth reading.
Our country is still trying to work it's way out of the financial crisis, for which the last government, in part at least was responsible, we are at war in Afghanistan with our troops being killed almost on a daily basis, we are deeply involved in Libya, other middle-east countries are on the verge of war and local elections are pending, and the best that our Labour opposition can do is to complain about the political correctness of a catch-phrase from an insurance advertisement which Cameron used towards a female MP.

Personally, I prefer some of Churchill's "put-downs":
Bessie Braddock to Churchill (late one evening): "You're Drunk"
Churchill: "Yes, and you're fat and ugly. But in the morning, I'll be sober"
I can imagine the outrage if Cameron said something like that in this modern politically correct world.

The modern MP's are all wimps!

Easter Sunday - Words worth reading

Normally, I wouldn't suggest reading an article in the Daily Mail as a thought for today, but I think this article is well worth reading by anyone who still considers themselves to be a Christian.

The author, Andrea Minichiello Williams, is the founder and director of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, an organisation that I never thought would be required in Britain.

St George's Day

Today is England's Saint's Day

Today is St George's Day

 

So we've  Hung out the Flags

Large and Small

 

Not a mention of St George on the BBC, or even in my Newspaper

(but then what should I expect!)

And if the flags upset the people living opposite, who are of non-European descent,
that's their problem, not mine.

Another Mine Clearance Expert Killed

This is a World War 2 flail tank at work dealing with land mines. It was reasonably safe, and reasonably effective. There are now more modern variants of this such as the Aardvark flail, or the American MRAP, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles
South Africa has produced the Matador, a vehicle designed to resist the impact of land mines and maximise the protection of the occupants.
Yet our soldiers are still getting killed clearing mines manually.
In all walks of life these days, we are forever hearing the phrase "If only one life is saved it will be worth it", but it seems that this does not apply in the case of our armed forces.
There is an argument that these methods of clearance don't work against remote controlled mines; it is fallacious because neither does manual clearance work, as the person operating the remote control  explodes the device just as clearance is about to start, killing the soldier who has located the device.
It is ludicrous that our military should still be using such antiquated clearance methods in this modern age.

As an afterthought, does anyone know whether the US military in Afghanistan still use the same method of mine clearance as our troops?

My sympathy goes out to the family of the latest victim, Captain Lisa Jade Head, 29, of Huddersfield who was the 364th member of our military to be killed in Afghanistan  and the 6th member of her regiment killed clearing mines.

Computer Aided Waste!

My wife had heart surgery some years ago, and at her annual check up, a couple of weeks ago, her consultant suggested that she had an echo-cardiogram.
Last Friday she received a phone call from the local hospital saying that they had a cancellation and offered her an appointment for Monday morning, which she accepted. As arranged she attended and was obviously pleased to be told all was well.
Today (Wednesday 20th), she received a letter, first class mail, informing her that an appointment had been made for to attend the hospital on Monday 18th, etc.
Now I know it is only the cost of a first class stamp, an envelope and a page of computer print-out, by why waste even this amount?
But then I suppose, because of the ignorance of those who placed the contracts for the NHS IT system, it would now cost a fortune for a line of code to be added to the program to prevent this happening.

Make Up Your Minds!

The media has been reporting today that, according to Government figures, more than a quarter of children aged 16 and under today can expect to live to see their 100th birthday.
The Daily Mail reports it here and the Evening Standard here.

Wait, hang on a bit, surely it was only a couple of weeks ago that the Media were reporting Government figures showing that obesity and excessive alcohol consumption were going to result in many of today's youngsters not living as long as their parents.

I do wish they'd make up their minds!