Diana's death taught the North Koreans to publicly mourn

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's Dear Leader, died of a heart attack on Saturday at the age of 69 or possibly 70 - as with so much about him his date of birth is unclear.

North Koreans have taken to the streets in an outpouring of grief that frankly looks ridiculous to cynical Westerners. Perhaps most of it is orchestrated by the government to show the world how much the people will miss the Dear Leader.

As I watched the footage on North Korean television I was transported back to August and September 1997 when this country was host to a similar situation - people crying over the death of someone they only knew from the television or newspapers.

In the days following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales you not only grieved but you had to be seen to grieve and if you didn't you ran the risk of having your head kicked in, as did some poor sod who decided to wash his car on the morning of her funeral.

Laugh all you want at the public mourning in North Korea and then watch the footage of Diana's funeral and tell me what is different.

We should honour our own...

In this country we seem to have almost an obsession with honouring foreigners and foreign towns that have nothing to do with us.

There is a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square. Why? What has Mandela got to do with this country? As a member of what was a terrorist organisation, I don't understand why he is so honoured. I doubt if he lives to be 90-odd we would erect a statue to Gerry Adams. At least I hope not...

Now, we learn an old soldier has lost a two-year battle to stop the local council renaming the Hemsworth bypass in Pontefract, West Yorkshire Sprockhoevel Way. Sprockhoevel is a town in the Ruhr. I'm sure it's a very nice town but what on earth does it have to to with Pontefract? Is there a Pontefract Strasse in the Ruhr? What do you think?

It's not the cuts, Ken...

Some things are cyclical. The planet warms up and cools down by itself; flares come back into fashion; a reality show winner will crash and burn and Ken Livingstone will pop up opportunistically to have a pop at the Tories.

There he was last night on Newsnight blaming the rioting in Tottenham, Hackney, Croydon et al on "the cuts". He bemoaned the "fact" that in Tottenham nine youth clubs have closed because of the Coalition government. Of course that's the reason Ken. It was obvious to anyone watching the rampaging mob that if they hadn't been setting fire to Carpetright or looting a Vodafone shop that they would have been down the local youth club enjoying a lemonade while playing a gentle game of Whist.

The fact is that, like Livingstone, much of what has gone on over the past three days is nothing more than opportunism. Opportunism to run amok. Opportunism to have a punch-up with the Old Bill. Opportunism to smash up a few shops and loot them while you can.

The people carrying out this mayhem are not doing it because of the cuts. They are not doing it because the police shot some gangster in the back of a taxi. They are doing it because they are greedy, stupid, feckless thieves who would prefer to live on money made by selling drugs or benefits or both, rather than get a proper job and improve the "community" they claim so passionately to care about.

As for Livingstone, well there's a mayoral election next year and there's nothing like going on television to defend "the people".

Bring on the water cannons - and if Ken Livingstone gets a bit wet, so much the better.

The answer is not blowin' in the wind

Wind turbines are a giant waste of hot - and cold - air. They don't work in the cold and if it is too cold, they have to be switched off in case they get damaged. Oh and if it is too cold they have to be heated thus causing them to cost more money than they actually save. Madness.

Now, we learn that they will be have to switched off for 38 days a year if it gets too windy because the National Grid cannot cope with a surge in power. At the moment, they are turned off for 25 days a year. Based on historic data, wind turbines will have to be switched off for 38 days every year when wind power production exceeds 35 per cent of installed wind capacity and demand falls below half the levels seen at peak time, National Grid said.

So are we abandoning this folly? No, we are pressing ahead to increase these eyesores seven-fold by 2020. Utter, utter madness.

Close our purse strings

Prime Minister David Cameron announces that Britain will donate a further £814million of taxpayers’ money to a child vaccine programme run by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, taking the country’s total contribution to £1.5billion. He told a conference at a five-star hotel (natch) in London that people should be "proud" of the Coalition’s pledge to increase aid spending by 34 per cent to more than £12billion.

As well as being more than five times the £274million pledged by the U.S., it is more than 30 times higher than Germany’s £44million and almost 50 times the £30million given by Spain. Japan gave just £5.5million, while China gave nothing.

Raj Shah, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that America could not afford to give more because it was facing a "very difficult budget environment".

No kidding? Our "donation" would be all very laudable if the country was not financially bankrupt. We simply cannot afford to be the world's nurse as well as its traffic warden.

Why do the "great and the good" love grandstanding with otehr people's money? Lord Coe told a radio audience that he believed most Londoners were happy to pay for the Olympic Games - he has obviously not spoken to the Londoners I know. We didn't want it and certainly don't want to pay for it.

Gordon Brown paid untold millions just so that he could have his picture taken with Nelson Mandela. Now his successor at Number 10, a millionaire many times over, is giving away more of our money at the time people are fearful of a double dip recession that will lead to more unemployed, more homeless and more misery.

Enough is enough. Charity begins at home, Mr Cameron.

Shoesmith's blood money

They just don't get it.

The hatchet-faced harridan Sharon Shoesmith who has unbelievably won her case for unfair dismissal sqawks, "I don't do blame" when asked if she feels any responsibility for the death of 17-month-old toddler Peter Connelly.

She claims that her health has suffered because of her ordeal and that she had even contemplated suicide although she didn't look at death's door in the pictures taken on Friday.

Shoesmith claims that she took the case to court for "justice" not for money. So by this, can we take it that she will not be taking one penny of any offered compensation that she so richly does not deserve?

Prisoners have no right to vote

It has been a long time since my last post for which I apologise.

Should prisoners have a right to vote? No. Totally and unequivocally no. When someone goes to prison, they lose the right to vote and this is as how it should be.

A friend of mine disagreed. He said that anything that makes prisoners feel less disenfranchised is a good thing.

Aside from most prisoners not knowing what "disenfranchised" means, thanks to the appalling comprehensive school system, does my well-meaning but, I believe, naive friend really believe that most prisoners could care less whether they can vote or not?

Does he really believe that Chummy lays on his bunk in his cell on a Friday and Saturday night when his friends are out burgling or chatting up girls in pubs and bemoans the fact that he cannot vote?