The Future

I refer to the correspondence taking place through your letters page (the Express & Echo Exeter) relating to evolution, the bible, God etc and will put my point of view on this subject.It is simply to say that God is a creation of man rather than man a creation of God. Consider that God created the universe and the universe, we are told by scientists is expanding, yet what is it actually expanding into?We know that the stars and galaxies are many light years away so by the time we see them they may not actually exist. So, do we actually exist at all?When man developed we had no thoughts, we had no language to discuss deep religious concepts and eventually we had to come up with somthing called God to explain that which is beyond our comprehension. Our problem in the west could be that we are reductionists, trying to go back to see where we have come from rather than spend more time on trying to see where we are going to. The future is out there, the truth is out there not the past.

as has been widely reported Tony Blair has admitted that the Iraq invasion has been a disaster although we are being told that his admission was so as to be polite to the interviewer on an Arab TV station, a certain Sir David Frost. Well why has he had to wait until being interviewed on a foreign station, could he not tell Parliament or don't the British public deserve to be told the truth.The man is going mad before our very eyes and should be put out of his misery by the men in white coats taking him to the nearest asylum, he would be released the next day though so maybe a prison would be a better place. Tony Blair is the king with no clothes and he still hasn't heard the voices off stage.Patricia Hodge has broken ranks by accusing Blair of 'moral imperialism' so can our own Ben 'I don't want to be another Terry' Bradshaw soon join the realists or has his recent promotion bought his silence. Can't wait until Exeter gets her own waste to energy plant to prove how green we are. No signs of solar panels or wind turbines at the Met Office or the PFI schools, another failure to go with the rest.

it is widely reported that the Nationwide Building Society has had a computer stolen from a member of staff which may have resulted in certain personal details being lost. Now there is a question which must be asked that requires an answer. What on earth is somebody doing taking such details out of the office in the first place. Where is the security.
One of the tasks I had at the bank where I worked was the implementation of the Data Protection Act. it would appear to me that there has been a serious breech of the Act.
What also concerns me is what other information is being taken home by staff of many other organisations, not only financial but also we know the way in which working from home has developed over the years. How secure is our information. Councillors have computers at home now, social workers, doctors accountants etc. so what protection have we got against our details being stolen.
When testing computer systems who is actually controlling what the analysts are seeing. Somehow I fear that there is systemic failure in the area of security and we should all be afraid, very afraid.

Get out now

in times gone past there was a Greek poet who went by the name of Horace. After Greece was conquered by Rome he came up with a most appropriate quotation Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit which I think you will find translates nicely into 'so captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror'. May I say that this is true today of the desperate situation now developing in Iraq. Bush and Blair will never be able to extricate themselves because they are not only too proud they are also so very stupid.When they went to war with Iraq, defeated her and now continue to occupy the country they not only went on the wrong pretense of weapons of mass destruction they also went to war out of passion and not principle. If America was going to retaliate for 9/11 then it must not only have been Afghanistan they attacked but also Saudi Arabia and they were too scared to do that. The people who flew the planes into the World Trade Centre were Saudi, not Iraqi.We have given the guns to madmen and now they must be disarmed. The only solution is not only to talk with Syria and Iran but there must be a European and United nations dimension to solve the problems, not only of Iraq but also Israel and Palestine. There never can be peace in the middle east until the Golan heights are returned to Syria, that Iran stops developing nuclear weapons and that borders are drawn and agreed which guarantee the States of Palestine and Israel.When America adopted the Monroe Doctine in 1823 they expected there to be only two different political systems in the world, the American and the European and many Americans do not seem to be aware that times have changed. Blair must go now so that a peace conference can be held with people who are not tainted by the illegal war and occupation of Iraq. Time to go Blair.

Dean Clarke House

further to your article Echo November 7 Flats and offices project for city's historic first hospital I thought just a little extra information would greatly assist the people of Exeter to realise that in my view the sale of Dean Clarke House, in Southernhay, is nothing but daylight robbery by the new Devon Primary Care Trust.A little bit of history will explain my viewpoint. On the 23rd July 1741 the first general meeting of the subscribers to the Devon & Exeter hospital was held in the chapter house of St. Peters Cathedral and the Rev Dean of Exeter Dr. Alured Clarke (hence Dean Clarke House) took the chair.On the 11th August 1741 John Tuckfield agreed to part with the ground (on which the hospital was to be built) without any reservation of rent. On the 27th August 1741 the foundation stone was laid and on the 17th September John Tuckfield was paid £100 for the land. On the 1st October 1741 John Tuckfield was a benefactor to the new hospital for the sum of £100.How is it that Exeter residents paid for the hospital all those years ago and now the millions of pounds go to the Devon Primary Care Trust. We have been robbed.Finally, just look at the time line. Founded, subscribed for, land acquired, designed, built and finally up and working on the 1st January 1743. Oh, to return to those glorious days before the regulators took over.

Mayor for Exeter

I am soon to start the process of raising a petition to have an elected Mayor of Exeter. If Exeter is, as I sincerely hope it will, to be a Unitary Authority then it is imperative that the true Democratic process is followed.It is unacceptable for the current crop of councillors to select the elected mayor from amongst themselves. We must have a referendum to first agree that there is an elected mayor and then what type of mayor that should be put in place.If the people decide that there should not be a referendum then so be it but at least we must try. We, the people of Exeter, can, if you approve let Exeter be free of the dead hand of the rural community and take contol over all the issues which effect us all. We can bring in car parking at County hall, impose congestion charging, we must have control over Exeter International Airport, Skypark and the new town at Cranbrook. We surely, can run our schools better than Devon County Council and we can surely look after our aged and infirmed better than Social Services. So, when asked please vote in favour of an elected Mayor for Exeter.

Taxes

after the doom and gloom of the Stern report the only way that environmental taxes can work is if there is a system of FLat Rate Taxes. There must be tax allowances of £12,000 per person and then a rate of tax which includes not only income tax but also national insurance. One tax rate for earnings up to £50,000 and then another for anything above those earnings.Capital Gains Tax must be abolished to the effect that all Capital Gains should be treated as income. All other allowances must be abolished and taxes levied on expenditure. It can be the only fair way to have a taxation system based on environmental taxes.Does anybody know that farmers do not pay inheritance tax. Is it any wonder that the rich kids from the City are buying-up farms as fast as they can.We should be able to complete our tax returns on one sheet of paper, not the large numbers some people have to do nowadays. A very simple tax system where anybody fiddling the system loses everything. That would stop them.

They died in vain

this week parliament is to pardon those soldiers executed in the Great War for cowardice and desertion. One of the reasons given is that they were not given access to a proper defence. yet at the recent trial of Fl Lt Kendall-Smith where exactly was his defence.This man was found guilty of disobeying orders and his legal representative was not allowed to call anybody to defend his position. My own son was given an honourable discharge from the army yet this man was sent to jail for six months. in earlier times he would probably have been shot.Yet this despicable government wants to change the law so that any army personnel refusing to operate in a foreign country will face being sent to prison for life. Even though they will either perform or be witness to activities which are war crimes they will not be able to disobey an illegal order. See what happens to you if you do.The Hutton report over the death of David Kelly was a whitewash, the decision not to put Saddam Hussain on trial in the Hague was done to protect the politicians in many countries, the leader of the labour party hopefully will soon be interviewed and charged over the loans for peerages, that is if there was anybody who doesn't stink of corruption who could make the decision, and I hope that the bad back with which the Queen is suffering from prevents her from attending the State Opening of Parliament because I couldn't even spit out the words put together by the Prime Minister of this country. All those soldiers I'm afraid did die in vain.

Dont hang Saddam

our activities in Iraq get worse with every passing day. The decision to execute Saddam Hussain is morally corrupt and the hanging should not go ahead. Apart from anything else the man is nearly seventy so if the execution could be delayed until April next year than under the Iraqi constitution he cannot be hanged.He should have been sent to the Hague to stand trial there but somehw, as in the parlance of awful American films he would have sung like a canary. All the truths would have come out and the governments of the west powers would hang their heads in shame as the misdeeds over arming Iraq to fight Iran, the corruption over the oil for food program the support given to his opponents which was then withdrawn when they most needed it after the first Iraq war.Everybody but a total liar or lunatic knows that the war in Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction but was about regime change. Well there has now been regime change so withdraw now. An announcement on armistice day would not go amiss to the effect that our troops are being withdrawn, now because the job has been completed. We are totally disgraced and both Bush and Blair will soon stand trial for their part in an illegal war and occupation.