Yes, I know. I know I said I wouldn't let this turn into a political blog. But it's a case of rant it out here or suppress it with beta blockers, and I prefer to avoid medications.
The Human Rights Act has actually achieved something worthwhile at last. The law lords have ruled that British troops have the same human rights as civilians even on the battlefield. The MoD was appealing against an earlier ruling (and squandering more of the defence budget on lawyers) to overturn the decision that a right to life meant a right to decent kit. We've lost too many of our people through cheese-paring MoD bean-counters and shit-house defence ministers sending them into battle poorly equipped.
EU legislation has its uses, it seems, and this landmark ruling is long overdue. Of course, this government's track record on obeying the law is poor, and it'll probably ignore the underpinning obligation of the ruling like it ignores so many. No doubt it will spend even more of our taxes taking this sickening argument to the House of Lords. But at least families now have some hope of being able to sue.
I don't need to point out to you that a country has an absolute moral obligation to look after the men and women it sends to put their lives on the line; if I do, though, you're probably a Member of Parliament. Just to underline what a shabby and shameful way we treat our boys (and girls) I'd like to point out that one of the elected parasites on the Commons list of shame, LabourMP Sir Gerald Kaufman, treated himself to a TV set costing £8,000 courtesy of the taxpayer.
As you can see from Kaufman's reaction to the Sky News reporter, he obviously didn't claim for a course at Miss Manners Academy of Humility and Courtesy.
It's hard to pick out just one aneurysm-inducing detail of the massive MPs' expenses fiddle as being especially emetic, and that one is probably small change compared to the other scams some of them are working. But an £8,000 TV has to win some sort of prize. Not only did most people not know any TV could cost that much, but those of us with a calculator and some idea of the cost of army equipment have worked out how much life-saving kit that money could have bought for an honest squaddie.
I'd rather save the life and health of one British soldier than a thousand politicians. It saddens me that I've seen almost no debate on what the budget diverted to MPs' puke-making tax-free expenses fiddles would have been better spent on - just bitching about how it's one rule for MPs and another for us. Yes, that's worthy of our indignant anger, but nowhere near as much anger as is warranted by the thought of Kaufman and his obnoxious colleagues lounging in front of £8,000 TVs while a soldier dies for want of a working radio or body armour.
