Newspaper Editors seemed widely unimpressed with these random thoughts on – Margaret Thatcher, bungalows, rail travel, the alleged invasion of privacy and the BBC:

Jonathan Glancey tells your readers (23 April) that “…if the bungalow revolution is unleashed, we will have nothing to lose but our stairs”. Read the rest of this entry

As many airline passengers lose seating space, the prescience of George Bernard Shaw merits recognition. Long ago he observed that “The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man”. So ‘squeeze up in the interests of Read the rest of this entry

Fred tells us: I joined the British Army as an Apprentice in 1957 and after 3 years went into the Royal Engineers where I served in Germany and Aden as a Combat Engineer before training army recruits back in the UK. When I left the army in 1967 I worked for Rolls Royce in Bristol running their main frame Read the rest of this entry

Within the on-going debate on Forces’ cuts, rarely is the crucial issue of ‘critical mass’ mentioned. The numerical decline of the RN and the Army in particular, inevitably means a reduction in the recruiting ‘base’ for the UK’s internationally admired Special Forces. The resultant options for Read the rest of this entry

It must be that I am out on a limb here since the Secretary of State is hugely disinterested in my views on saving lives and energy……

A report in the papers on Thursday 11 October 2012 about a study into the wasteful habits of motorists does not, incredibly, mention the use of headlights. There Read the rest of this entry

Train travellers are treated to a raft of automated announcements that range from the threatening – “It is illegal to travel on a train without a valid ticket” through the obvious – “don’t forget your luggage” to the wholly irrelevant “stand clear of the platform the next train is not stopping” Read the rest of this entry

Have you offered your views to Lord Ashcroft? What follows here is an expurgated version of my contribution……..

The ‘market place’ for those leaving the Forces is becoming very busy. There are at least two implications that arise from that observation. First, Forces folk are a high quality Read the rest of this entry

Economics: As the US economy shrinks by 0.1% in the fourth quarter what will be Ed Balls’s new exemplar?

Mathematics: It may be that it is just a coincidence that the Nation’s ability to undertake mental arithmetic went into a steep decline with the introduction of decimalisation and metrication. Read the rest of this entry

In the last 50 years Army personnel have been encouraged to think about money – the seminal point being the introduction of the Military Salary which, in essence, meant that a pay increase was offset by the raising of charges for living in military accommodation. Some years later Lord Heseltine increased Read the rest of this entry

Soon Twickenham Stadium, with a seating capacity of 82,000, will be able to host the entire British Army. Whether a nation of over 62 Million should be able to sustain an Army of a more meaningful size is a question that her citizens might care to consider; two particular issues might arise from that Read the rest of this entry