M25 Here We Come

South of Thickthorn – the Finale

Well, despite all the years of frustrated queuing, the millions of pounds of wasted money, the disillusionment of the masses and the crazy delays down the final stretch, the Thetford to Five Ways dualling on the A11 finally opened.

Whoopee do dah!

I tested it. From Thickthorn to the M25 in an hour and a half, and I don't drive very fast. Gone is the feeling of absolute dread as you approach Elveden (now a pleasant diversion from the new carriageway with quaint shops and eateries); gone is the steam from the bonnet of your over-heating vehicle, gone is the possibility of dying of thirst before you get to Five Ways roundabout.

Excellent.

All, of course, is not entirely rosy in the garden. I was thinking that the roundabouts at either end might get clogged up with folks tearing down the road to get queue to go around and around purposefully. So, far this has not happened. But, I'm not entirely sure it's all plain sailing. Time will tell.

Then there is the money. And, I mean a colossal amount of it. Will it be worth it? Will Keith Skipper have a heart attack at the thought of the hordes descending on rural Norfolk? Time will tell.

Let's enjoy it while we can and get ready for the fiasco that is the NDR. It's coming to a village near you, so keep an eye out for it!

For those not in the know, the NDR (Northern Distributor Road) is Norwich's answer to the M25 – well not quite. The M25 is circular. It scribes a complete circle around the capital. The NDR will not do the same for Norwich.

We already have the Southern Bypass which takes traffic from Postwick to Easton. The plan is to build the NDR going north from Postwick via Plumstead, Rackheath, Hellesdon and join the Drayton Road. This is, then, a 2/3 NDR M25-look-a-like for there will be no joining up at Easton.

Reason? Can't cross the Wensum valley – a site of special scientific interest.

Cars will pile north to Drayton and then somehow rat-run themselves back to the A47 at Easton.

2015 General Election

Scrotland scuppers Labour attempted surge

I've been waiting for the dust to settle on the General Election before making any judgements.

Since the poll all we have heard from the pollsters is how the electorate got it wrong, or were lying, or forgot how do a ballot paper.

Despite all the rhetoric, the truth is far more pragmatic. The English voters, faced with the prospect of hordes of ginger-headed Scottish scroats surging over the border, decided to stick with the devil they knew and not risk the Ed Miilband led Labour/Scottish Nationalist coalition. As usual the voters probably got it just about right.

The Tories gave it full blast in the last few days and it worked. Nobody thought that bringing the Scots into government even in a supply and confidence arrangement would be palatable in Milton Keynes. It just seemed too woolly and far too risky. The voters agreed.

So, what have we to look forward to in the next five years.

Well the Scots did rampage into the Commons upsetting the Speaker and, heaven forbid, Denis Skinner in the process. Short of being a pain in the bum that's about all the good they will do in their tenure at Westminster. Cameron will not give them anything: he has much larger fish to fry in Brussels. We can discount their efforts until the Conservative majority is whittled away – a prospect that might not be too distant.

David Cameron will focus on Europe until the referendum in 2017. Everything else will be business as usual.

The Labour party will do a lot of soul-searching and faffing about, but unless they try to seal the Emperor's clothes will find regaining power difficult. The have five years to counter the nationalists in Scotland or they have no chance of unseating Dave.

Whatever happens, it will be interesting.

Chiefs - Moving Forward?

Chiefs Draft/Free Agency Analysis

Time to un-mothball the pigskin chatter and find out where the Chiefs are now – and, more importantly where they are going.

First the moves in free agency.  The tribe were winners and losers.  They grabbed Jeremy Maclin, a proven NFL receiver. This addresses need number one.  The signed Ben Grubbs, another NFL proven talent.  The also added OL Paul Fanaika.  The is a solid base of new talent to add depth, provide some kind of a passing threat and get the O-line moving in the right direction.  Overall a B or B - is my verdict.

In the draft, the Chiefs look like making an already sound defence better.  First round, a cornerback from Washington, Marcus Peters.  As with all first round picks, you need them to make the team, make an immediate impact and be a starter for years to come.  On this basis, the Chiefs record is patchy at best.  Remember that great wide out Baldwin?  I do.

They added Missouri guard Mitch Morse in Round 2. Georgia wideout Chris Conley and Oregon State cornerback Steven Nelson were selected in Round 3.  These are solid selections addressing the needs of the team.  Good.

Later round picks:  the Chiefs kicked off Round 4 by selecting former Georgia linebacker Ramik Wilson and added guys like D.J. Alexander and James O'Shaughnessy later in the day.

Overall a solid, if unspectacular draft.  But, when free agency is added into to the mix, things look a lot better.  The two things must be seen together as the team moves forward to 2015.

I particularly liked the analysis of where the Chiefs are in relation to the division done by Arrowhead Pride.

They say:

1) Does this team have a great quarterback OR a way to neutralize a great quarterback?

Good question.  The verdict on QB Alex Smith is still out.  This year should provide him with the tools he needs to do the job - a better offensive line – better receivers. Can he move up to the next level?  Does he have to?  Remember, it's defence that wins Super Bowls and the Chiefs should be better on that side of the ball.  Can Smith get enough production out of the offence?  I think he can.

2) Does this team have any glaring weaknesses good teams will expose in the playoffs?

Another good question.  Last season the run defence failed miserably at critical times.  Will it be better?  It depends on a large number of variables.  Will Eric Berry be back, fit and able?  Will Derrick Johnson be back and as a solid LB?  Mike DeVito, returning from injury, competing?  This could be the crunch topic.

3) Does this team show the ability to beat other playoff-caliber teams?

I was happy to be at Arrowhead to see the boys demolish the Pats.  The big question is can they find a way to beat Peyton and the Broncos?  They may.  That will be the crunch for the season and this topic.

Oh to be in England!

This other Eden, demi-paradise

I am more than ever convinced that I have too long resided in this island.

As my old buddy Bill Bryson is fond of reminding us, we are not just separated by a common language but are actually more exasperatingly separated by language, custom and mores (apologies to Caesar for paraphrasing his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars).

I must be getting old. The daft things that you have to put up with in order to live in England are beginning to get to me.

I was in Roys supermarket (the largest village store in England, so they proudly boast) – though this experience is equally frustrating in almost any shop in the land. English people wander about in shops seemingly without any sense of purpose and completely oblivious to anyone or anything around them. They stop right in front of you for no discernible reason. They cheerfully block an aisle, or even a clearly-marked exit, whilst they have a chat with someone or anyone about nothing. They will stand in front of a display case preventing anyone else from examining the wares. They will seemingly puzzle over which brand of shoe polish to buy so you cannot just reach in and get the one you already know you want.

Then if you are truly lucky enough to reach the checkout your problems are just starting. The English can't handle paying for goods at the checkout. You may well think they have all sprung fully grown from the head of Zeus and; therefore, have never shopped before. This is the only logical explanation. They are unable to position their loaded trolley so as to enable it to be easily unloaded. They cannot load their purchases onto a moving belt. Even though the checkout aisle is clear ahead, they cannot (or more likely will not) move forward to where the unloading can start. I would rather have an impacted wisdom tooth extracted with a pair of needle-nosed pliers without anaesthetic than watch them trying to pack a shopping bag.

Having already established that the physical effort of getting the goods ready is beyond them, we come to the paying. No English person has ever done this before. They are to a man (or woman) all paying-virgins. For each and all – it's a first. It must be, because they stand with the “open-mouthed-guppy expression” on their face when the cashier says, “That's 42 pounds and 68 pence, please.”

They are truly astonished that they have to pay. They root about in their handbag for their purse. They cannot get it open without some extravagant effort. They are unable to find their credit card without searching every available nook and cranny and examining the old bus ticket they find instead.

God forbid that they are paying with cash! Wait! I hear the reader cry, surely cash is easier! (Not so, you foolish, silly ones.) When paying with cash they examine every note even though all the notes are different sizes and colours to aid in identification. Then the fun really begins. Instead of handing over 43 or 45 pounds and waiting for the change, they fumble about trying to find the exact combination of notes and coins to settle the bill. All the while they are convinced that they are doing the shop, the general public, the bystanders, Uncle Tom Cobley and All a great and wonderful favour. Get on with it you gherkin brains!

Finally the paying process is over. Those in the queue who have not become terminally ill or incapacitated in the wake of this excruciatingly long process begin to dribble with the excitement that they might be about to move forward. (Hold you hard – not so fast!)

Now the bags have to be adjusted in the trolley. The purse has to be replaced in the handbag. The inane chat with the checkout assistant has to be concluded. (Sorry did I not mention that throughout the paying process the shopper is carrying on a running commentary with the cashier including tales of past exciting things that have happened whist shopping, the health of various family members, the outlook for the General Election, the fortunes of the local football team and other even more interesting trivia?) All this has to happen before they can move the foot or two from the end of the conveyor so the next person can move forward. (No, I am not making this up!)

What is truly amazing to me is the on-lookers do or say anything. I am often tempted to forcefully, yet politely, say something like. “Excuse me, could you please move/hurry up/get on with it/stop scratching your bum, etc.” Somehow I never do. I am more than ever convinced that I have too long resided in this island.

Down to the pub last evening for the quiz – during which I remembered another thing that drives me nuts about England. My team-mates are both driving instructors. Great! I'll ask them about the driving habits of their countrymen.

Driving is a complex activity. The cognitive and motor skills required are more than complex. So, why do people make it more difficult? Have they been taught to be ignoramuses or did it come naturally?

Somehow after passing their driving test people learn bad habits. Or, is it the way they are taught?

I asked. Tell me this: “On the driving test you are, quite rightly, penalised for “”not making progress””, correct?”

“Yes.”

“So, why do people stop in the middle of a main road to let some twank pull out from a side road?”

“No idea.”

“Where, then did they learn this crazy manoeuvre?”

“No idea.”

“Am I then free to shoot them for being gormless idiots?”

“No comment.”

Do the folks who do this realise that they are quite likely to cause an accident? Do they care? Are they sub-normal?

There you have it – two reasons why I need to keep myself deeply rooted in Missoura!

Germanwings

Mad as a March Hare

Alpine tragedy. 'Nuff said?

Actually, no, that is not enough said.

Airplanes falling out of the sky for no apparent reason is quite a rational fear. It harks back to our ancestor's earliest days. The main reason we have stereoscopic vision is so we can accurately judge how far away that next branch is; because we all instinctively know that if we miss it we are going to fall and the fear of falling is inbuilt. It's in our genes.

When we get on a plane that genetic fear is triggered again. We are afraid of falling. No matter how many time we are told that flying is safer than crossing a road, we still feel instinctively frightened. There are, of course, some people who insist they love flying. They are called idiots or downright liars.

Still, we all need to fly sometimes as the alternatives are either too inconvenient, too expensive or just plain not there. (I did see the other day some crazy idea to make a land route from Europe to Canada/US via the Bering strait – this I've got to see! In my lifetime? Not likely.) Check out: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11493681/Plans-for-superhighway-linking-Britain-and-America.html

We get on the plane and we not only overcome our natural fear, but our problems are compounded by putting our lives in the hands of a large number of strangers – and the pilots are only part of it. There's the ground crew, responsible for seeing that our plane doesn't run into something whilst still on the ground (you may think this is much preferable to crashing, but the result is about the same – a plane full of fuel is likely to explode on the ground if you run into something), the air traffic controllers, the maintenance crews, the refuelling crews (remember the guys who didn't put enough go-juice in the BA flight that just made the runway at Heathrow a few years ago?). The list is long. And everything has to function perfectly for us to safely arrive at our destination. No wonder most of us are not all that keen.

All this becomes irrelevant if just one of the links in the chain becomes broken.

This is what seems to have happened to the Germanwings flight. The pilot crashed the plane, deliberately.

This is not in the script of possible frightening situations. Should it be? Probably yes, but no amount of pre-flight checks are likely to have had much chance of picking up this scenario. In the old days we would just call it an Act of God. Perhaps that is the best phrase for it.

10 000 BC - Update 18 Feb

And then it snowed

Predictably things went from bad to worse. With more people giving up, the tribe were down to 13 by the time the next show was screened on Monday.

A sudden snowstorm and freezing temperatures left them cold, wet miserable and more or less trapped in their huts. Disaster.

After consultations with the producers, it was decided to temporarily abandon the project and remove the tribe to a place of safety. With hot showers, hot food and some well-needed rest the remaining members recovered their spirits and the time was not entirely wasted.

The survival experts and the producers finally realised that two days of training to live in the Stone Age was never enough. So, in the time available while the snow poured down they tried to expand the knowledge of the group. Some tribe members used the time well. Some members, having been reminded what life in the 21st century was all about, decided to leave.

The seven remaining tribe members seemingly bonded well and appeared determined to make a success of the experiment.

Lots of positives were expounded, but could these be translated into real progress?

Finally they got back to the camp as the weather moderated. The tribe promptly decided to sack Steve. Steve is the archer and a wise head on old shoulders. How would he react?

Badly.

Steve decided to leave. And then there were six.

(aside – a recent news report concerned a proposed reality TV show. The purpose of the show would be to “select” members to join a mission to Mars – where they would set up a colony. The producers seem to think they can do this for almost no money (compared to the propose NASA budget for a Mars mission). This would, at least, be more realistic than 10 000 BC. Members of the tribe just quit; they leave the camp via a four-wheel drive vehicle, and they resume a normal everyday life. Put 20 people on Mars and then we'll see who can survive! Craziest idea I've heard in some long time!)

Left with six, three men and three girls, the tribe began to struggle, despite having their food stores replenished with 10 days supply of nuts and berries and yet another deer.

They managed to skin the deer and prepare it for making deer jerky. This is a good plan for the first deer was wasted because it was soon infested with fly maggots. They even managed to wedge it up a tree overnight to prevent animals feeding on the tempting carcass.

Paul Barnes (the leader voted in after the coup to get rid of Steve Nicholson got sick. Really sick. Constant coughing and short of breath. He was removed to the medical tent for assessment. Down to five.

Of the five, one of the ladies is a vegetarian. Great call producers! She is running out of food. (I didn't spend 10 000 years clawing my way to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian!) Digging up the required roots for carbohydrates is back-braking work with no modern tools. She is going to starve!

John Paul was helping her to dig. He announced last night that he was leaving but the whole group begged him to stay, so he remains for the time being.

Melissa more or less takes over leadership as Paul's illness prevents him from playing an active part.

This looks like it could be a blessing in disguise. It is very possible that our ancestors lived in a matriarchal society. Men are hunting all day and women are raising children. Nagging has a long and illustrious history!!

Paul eventually arrives back at the camp but he is weak.

Last word to the Mirror:

“In just eight days they caught 10 tiny crayfish and – drum roll – a mouse. Enough to reduce everyone to severe malnutrition. Yay.

As more and more of them collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital, the on-site doctor declared a thoroughly modern medical emergency. Unless these ailing losers were fed fast the show was over.

Enter the programme’s hapless staff with a mammoth meal of jerky, honey, isotonic drinks and “for the first time in days”... fresh meat. A dinosaur-size slab of venison. What, no wine? A nice Bulgarian red to wash it down?

Wearing the panicked ­expression of a man whose mission was falling apart at the seams, producer Rob Rawlings lied: “The aim of this experiment isn’t to watch 20 people starve. It’s to see if 20 people can survive like a Stone Age tribe.”

Now I’m no expert, but I’d hazard a guess that when the going got tough for those real-life Fred ­Flintstones, there was no caring camera crew ready to provide them with tasty takeaways.

In other words Rob, the answer’s no. You have emphatically established that 20 people CAN’T survive like a Stone Age tribe. Your experiment has failed. On an epic scale. Get used to it.”

10 00 BC Update

And disaster was not long in coming to call

Why do people say, “I hate to be an I told you so.” It's such a cop-out. Actually, everyone loves to be the one who is proved correct whilst their buddies are all proved wrong. It's human nature – get over it!

This is exactly what has happened to the producers of the programme 10 000 BC. I told them it was not going to work and I was right.

After seven weeks in a programme which should have lasted for four months, it's just about over. The “tribe” has lost more members and those who are left are struggling to make any impression on the environment.

What's gone wrong?

In the first instance, the programme designers set up an entirely false premise. To recap – they had 20 people put into a stone age environment and (supposedly) left them to sort out how to survive.

First point: the tribe had two days of instruction from a “Stone Age survival expert”. So, what it took our ancestors 20 000 years to learn the hard way the tribe was supposed to learn in two days? This was never either going to work or be a fair test.

Secondly, the tools provided to the tribe were inadequate to make for an interesting test. Example: much play was made in the first programme as the tribe struggled for a whole day to get a fire going without matches or a cigarette lighter. This was completely unrealistic. Our ancestors had fire. No doubt they had methods of making fire if they had to. But, what they most probably did was keep the fire “at home” going. So a day was wasted when the tribe should have been doing more important things. Consequently they were way behind before they started.

Leadership has been a real problem. The producers should have stayed with the team for at least a week to identify possible leaders and prepare them. Instead the archer got the job and he has been singularly unable to make an impression on many members of the group. Why? He is too soft. He's a conciliator. He's a man of his time – that is to say our time. A good example would be his dealings with Amir. Amir is a waste of space. He has contributed nothing to the success of the experiment. In the last show, he calmly announced that he was only prepared to continue with the experiment if he was provided with a mobile phone call home each week and at least one hot meal per week as well!

Oh, did I mention that the producers had to step in and provide food so the tribe did not either starve or quit altogether?

Steve has been either unable or unwilling to tell Amir to go away. The tribe think that more people means more success – actually they need less people and more skills!

Steve is an archer – a hunter. He should be hunting. Instead he decided to bank on fishing as the food saviour. There is a small lake about 2 hours walk away. The lake has fish. The tribe have no way of catching them. They tried to make some hooks out of bone from the deer. They don't work. In any event they had no way to leave the bank and get out on the lake where the big fish are.

Again the producers should have provided them with hooks made by the survival expert. They should not have been expected to re-invent the wheel. They should have been provided with a boat – made to stone-age specs. Then they could have then sent the girls out on the lake to fish whilst Steve went hunting. With some sort of secure food supply they would stood some sort of chance. Instead, all they managed to do was to make less than adequate traps to catch crayfish. The caught six or seven in two days. Disaster.

They may make it for a little while longer – with the help and intervention of the production team. But, as an experiment in Stone Age living it has been a very poor test. The tribe have tried but have not really been given a realistic chance.

Good TV but poor premise.

10 000 BC

A real lesson

On Channel Five – a channel which I seldom watch – they are showing a programme called 10 00 BC. The premise is as simple as it is problematical.

Take twenty ordinary people from GB with a selection of practical and life skills, maroon them in a forest in Bulgaria for eight weeks with no technology from the 21st Century; and see how they make out mimicing our distant ancestors. The twenty included both men and women. Some had real outdoor experience either rock climbing, camping, or orienteering. Some had useful “civilian” skills such as archery, fishing and construction. They were a real cross-section of society – minus the “intellectuals”. For, only the end of the Stone Age and the development of agriculture would bring the deveopment of the complex, technological societies we see today.

Quite ordinary folks in an extraordinary situation, really. The group contained lots of your “I know a guy just like that” types.

Just to be on the safe side the producers had a survival expert stay with the group for two days to get them going. Sort of. They also provided them with a source of fresh water and three or four huts built to pre-historic specifications. Being kind-hearted folks they even left a freshly killed deer behind to provide a head start in the food race.

A film crew stayed with the group – otherwise there would be no film and no show! This is glossed over by the documentary makers, but an intelligent viewer would realise that they were not really marooned because the film crew (and therefore help) was always there in the background.

As an example, before the show got underway an elderly (late 50's) lady was taken ill and removed from the site before the challenge really got started. Also, one of the lads decided this was not for him and left. So, in practice rescue is really only a phone call away.

The first day was a bit of a lark. After spending some time trying to butcher the deer, they rightly decided that the priority was to get a fire started. Good call.

They had no matches, no butane touch, no nothing except a primitive bow and stick fire-making tool which our ancestors might have used. They spent most of the day trying and trying to get it to work after the first effort failed miserably. Finally, just as dark fell, they made it. Fire! Prometheus would have been really pleased!

With the fire going and sticks collected you might think that they were off to a good start. They roasted some of the deer over the fire and went to bed suitably fed and probably feeling as if a really good start had been made on Day One.

Day Two dawned. The left-over deer, which they had hung on the branches of a tree, was covered in flies. The weather was unseasonably warm and they were constantly attacked by the local mosquitoes. Some of the group were reluctant to get out from underneath their nice, warm animal skins. By evening the survival expert had bid they farewell and they were on their own. Wisely, they decided to “elect” one of their number as leader. The bow and arrow expert got the job. His success would be measured in the amount of co-operation and respect he could gain from the others. He did make a start at assigning jobs to various small groups. Some when to forage for edible plants. Some dug a primitive latrine. Some had another go at getting some useable meat from what was left of the deer. Some, alas, did very little.

One bright spark decided he knew where some edible mushrooms were and led a group in a wild goose chase after taking a wrong turn. Steve, the leader, led a foraging group who stopped to try and strip bark from a silver birch to use to make some sort carrying pots or containers. After spending hours with their flint tools, they decided it was too difficult, gave up and collected a few roots instead. One particularly dopey guy decided to spend the whole day devising a trap to catch a wild boar. If it works, which I suspect it won't, it might give a boar a headache of a bruised rib. Kill it? Not a chance.

Back at camp, it was discovered that despite having dug a latrine, a person or persons unknown had defacated quite near the tents. By the end of Day Two, food was running low, (the deer meat was covered in maggots) and it began to dawn on the group that this was not going to be a jolly camping trip in a charming, benign woodland setting after all. Dejection had well and truly set in. There were signs of tensions within the group. Some were clearly not pulling their weight. Some had been reduced to tears by trivial set-backs. Leadership was lacking. A sense of community was not really developing.

As the programme develops, the weather is going to turn colder and colder. You can clearly see this in the intro which shows our Stone-Agers shivering in their shelters with the snow falling and a good covering of the white stuff already on the ground. Lots of fun to come.

So, what have we learned so far?

Life in 10 000 BC was hard – very hard. I'm convinced that we have no real idea of how hard our ancestors had to work just to stay alive. I'm convinced the poor souls in this programme have no real idea how hard they will have to work if they are to make it to the end of the eight weeks.

Food is the essential and they show no sign of being able to either hunt for it or forage for it. Already some people are complaining of being hungry. This is despite the gift of a deer and the results of two days foraging. Do we “moderns” really understand hunger? I suspect not (except for those unfortunates in Third World Countries – actually the third-worlders might do a better job of surviving than this hapless crew of GB's finest!).

Clothing became a real problem real soon. The unseasonably warm weather meant a plague of insects, particularly flies. And where you have flies, you will have maggots. The animal skinsthey were using as bedding became infested with maggots, so the producers replaced them with wollen blankets on Day Two.

Shelter is just about Ok for the moment, but when it gets cold they are going to experience life like our ancestors, who must have been mostly cold most of the time in the winter.

This programme focuses the mind on the journey we made to get where we are. It has been a long one. It has been a costly one. It has been one of fits and starts. But, modern man is the product of people who overcame these kind of challenges. What seems to be missing is the ability to put to one side the usual modern sensibilites. To survive our ancestors must have been fairly ruthless – especially with those who did not pull there own weight. The Bulgarian guinea pigs seem unable to do this at present. If they can't master the skill of working together they will surely fail. I look forward to the rest of the programme.

Chiefs at the Crossroads

Chiefs 2014-5 Review

Well the dust has just about settled on the 2014 NFL season. There is the small item of the Super Bowl to come this Sunday, but for most of us it's time to evaluate last season and look forward to a draft day and a long hot summer before we get back to the action in September.

BTW, do you know which team owns victories against the Super Bowl contenders this season? Yep – it's the Chiefs. The destroyed New England on 29 September 41 – 14 (I was at Arrowhead) and they beat Seattle 24 – 20 in November. Did they peak too soon? Certainly looks like it.

Summing up the season: if the Chiefs had not imploded against the Oakland Raiders and failed to show up against the Tennessee Titans in the opener; they would have waltzed into the play-offs and might still be playing. But, as they say, that's football.

So, how did it all come about? What lessons are to be learned? Where do we go from here?

Number one – the Chiefs had no production from the wide receivers. This has already been well-documented. This is probably the reason they didn't make the play-offs, so we can move on to other more interesting topics.

Lessons to be learned – it's becoming a game of inches – literally. More and more there are imponderables that affect the result of games. The officials miss a call – the wide receiver drops a sitter – the cornerback slips at an inopportune moment – the list is getting longer every season. Hence we have the NFL's stated goal becoming more and more to the fore. Any given Sunday. It's a fine line between winning and losing and most teams can make a good case for “we wuz robbed”!

Where do we go from here? Firstly, I found on Arrowhead Pride a chart grading the Chiefs players for this season. Interesting reading.

According to the grading system used the Tribe had only three Elite players: Justin Houston, Sean Smith and Anthony Sherman. Hard to argue with these but when your blocking fullback is one of your elites – it says a lot (BTW the NFL average is 2).

In the Good category we have only two – Travis Kelce and Rodney Hudson. Two offensive players I will grant you. (Can't see how Kelce gets in - the man drops too many easy catches!) The NFL Average is 4.3.

We have 18 Average players. Tamba Hali, Jamal Charles and Alex Smith are in this category. Surprises might include Dontari Poe (too low) and Zac Fulton (too high). The NFL average is 21.

In the Bad category we find 8 Chiefs. Eric Fisher is in. So is Knile Davis. The NFL average is 5.8.

So anything interesting here? Well for starters comparing your team to the NFL average is not very useful. I'd like to see how we stack up against the play-off teams. That's a better area with which to make a meaningful comparison.

In any event, 2014 was a rebuilding year. We won more games that I predicted at the start. We had some excellent wins and some surprising losses.

What does 2015 hold in store?

As the song says, the only way is up!

The Chiefs are two or three players away from a guaranteed play-off appearance next season. And, once you make the play-offs anything is possible!

The draft will have to improve (where is Dee Ford – top pick in 2014?)

With improvements on the offensive line and also at wide-out we could easily improve on the season's record. (Added bonus – Peyton Manning will almost certainly retire!)

2015 should bring better times.

Crazy NFL

Any Given Sunday?

With the Chiefs poised to miss out on the play-offs this season (barring a miracle of monumental proportions) it's time to take stock.

Most people know that I am no real fan of soccer. Conversely, I'm a big NFL fan – mostly of the Chiefs, but I will religiously watch the play-offs no matter who's in and who's out.

My big gripe with soccer football is the basic unfairness of the game.

Good play often gets no reward and minor mistakes can be punished far more than is warranted. When it comes to officiating, things are even worse. One man, the referee, attempts to police a large field with 22 people trying to kick a ball (and sometimes each other). In some respects it is a minor miracle that the ref gets some things correct at all. Take Saturday's Derby v Norwich City game. I said at the time that the ref had a good game. Some of the decisions he made seemed wrong at first glance but, in replay he was absolutely correct. My only gripe was about the “non-decisions” - the ones where fouls that should have been given weren't – the free kicks wrongly awarded – that sort of stuff. So, when the game is so close and goals so ridiculously difficult to score every small error by the ref is multiplied and affects the game much more that it should. Soccer is just too haphazard for me. One team can clearly play better, create more scoring chances, defend well, run rings around the opposition and still lose because the ref makes a big mistake. Not good enough.

Wait a minute! Looking over the NFL results from last week, I was summarily hoisted on my own petard!

I always do the prediction game in the KC Star – for a bit of fun. Last week I thought I had a few bankers. Firstly I had the Eagles to beat the Redskins. Score: Eagles 24 – Redskins 27. I had the 49ers to whomp on the Chargers at home. Result: Chargers 38 – San Fran 35. Everyone had the Packers to slaughter the hapless Tampa Bay Bucks. Result: Pack 20 – Bucks 3 (GB should have won this easily whilst resting their starters). Lions 20 – Bears 14 – me and my gran should be able to beat the Bears. Detroit are supposed to be challenging for a Super Bowl berth. The NY Giants beat the St Louis Rams 37 – 27. The Panthers beat the Browns! And, on Monday night the Bungles beat the Broncos. Finally, the Raiders beat the Bills 26 – 24. (Even though the Old Enemy beat the Chiefs – which will probably cost the boys in red a play-off spot – they are without a doubt the worst team in the league!)

What's going on?

All my injunctions about “Any Given Sunday” seem to be happening at once. And it is just the very small things that are costing teams bit-time.

Take the Chiefs on Sunday. Some very tough calls by the officials (Charles fumble – a crazy spot short of the first down, an absolutely set-in-stone pass interference call in favour of Albert Wilson that the officials missed, missed and missed again, etc.) meant that the game was decided not by the players but by the officials.

Just what I gripe about regarding association football.

Maybe I need a rethink?

Home Thoughts From Abroad

USA -- all the way

To paraphrase Mark Twain ( ‘The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’ ) or, perhaps more appropriately, Bill Bryson (My countrymen think I'm dead) I did manage to make it back to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave this last September/October only to discover that whilst I may have been missed - I was not entirely forgotten.

I made the first mistake before we even left Norwich. We had a very early American Airlines flight out of Heathrow. Taking the coach the day before was definitely the best option. When we arrived at Norwich Bus Station, we had to double park the car in order to unload the bags. In the rush I left my mobile phone plugged into the car phone charger. I first noticed this when the bus was heading down the A 11. Far too late to do anything about it.

Immediately I was flummoxed. I spent most of the bus ride to Heathrow realising how dependent we are on such communication devices. This would have astounded our not very distant ancestors. Consider - I am old enough to remember the first Television I ever saw. (1950 – Chicago – little Jewish kid on the block had one and let us come over to see it – a round six-inch screen in the most beautiful light-mahogany cabinet you have ever seen). I can remember when mobile (cell) phones were miraculously new and becoming available to general smucks such as I. I remember no email. No text messages. No voicemail. No answering machines. In short, no lots of stuff we take for granted today. Without my phone, (replete with all my contacts) I could not contact Steve or Pete to tell them I had no phone. To make matters worse I cheerfully remembered telling Juliet to leave her mobile at home – we would not be needing it!

I had to rely on Steve turning up at Heathrow at the general time we were supposed to be there. He did. I decided not to buy a new phone just for the trip – again chancing it that my sister would be at the other end when I got to Kansas City.

We were fortunate enough to be invited to dine with Steve and Lucy and catch up with grand-daughter Darcey the evening before our flight. In the midst of a convivial supper, I let it slip that I was not looking forward to the Chicago O'Hare airport portion of the journey. Not only did we have to change terminals (three to five travelling via a kind of overhead tram thing), clear immigration (two lots - one for me one for Juliet) and clear customs with heavy bags; we also had a limited amount of time to achieve this.

Lucy piped up, “Get a wheelchair.” I protested that we were old - but not that old. She explained that the airlines must give you a wheelchair if you ask for one. There is no inquest and no quibbling. They just do it. I explained that I wanted to wander around the airport after checking-in, and she assured me that this was not a problem. Just ask at the desk before boarding I did. It works. It's fantastic. Always ask for a wheelchair when travelling. Apparently many Middle Eastern ladies of youthful appearance demand wheelchairs at Heathrow to carry their shopping, and they get them with no hassle.

I don't sleep well before a flight. We were up at 04:30 and at the airport by 05:00 for a 07:30 flight. Lovely. I had just enough time to buy two books (I have to read on a plane – can't sleep). Off we went to Chicago with American Airlines.

Flying is boring. That's why they feed you. It gives you (and them) something to do for a medium-sized portion of the eight or nine hours you are cruising over the Atlantic. Question: when did they start allowing twin-engined aircraft fly the Atlantic? Apparently it was in 1990. Personally, I think the more engines the better – even though I am not a great fan of the Boeing 747.

Wheelchair at O'Hare turned up miraculously right outside the aircraft. Juliet was duly loaded and we were escorted through the labyrinth of getting to our connecting flight to KC. Absolute magic!

Best part of the trip was sitting quietly waiting for the flight to KC when an announcement asked for Juliet Kauffman to come to the desk. Did she needed a wheelchair in Kansas City? I cheerfully and gratefully said no. At MCI we can manage. An uneventful flight deposited us in KC and, fortunately, my nephew Chris did turn up to drive us to my sister's house in spite of me being incommunicado for stupidly leaving my phone in the car at Norwich Bus Station.

I've done the drive home before. You come out of the airport going generally east and run into Interstate 29/35 going south towards KC. Not now. You go straight ahead onto Interstate 425 which goes south towards Independence. Think of the I 425 as a bit like the M 25 – it provides a circle route around the KC metro area just as the M 25 does for London.

This very neatly illustrates an important point. At any given time somewhere in Missouri some road is being built/improved/widened. And why wouldn't you? Head down the highway and there is nothing on either side except brush/scrub land not much good for anything else. So, why not plaster it in concrete and drive on it? Good call. Damn good call!

The pace of change accelerates. Change breeds more change. In Independence, Missouri not much remains of the old city of my childhood. I wanted to visit the old stomping grounds, but I never quite made it. I was just too busy.

I was jet-lagged. I stayed up as late as I could before staggering to bed, but I still woke up early the next morning. I was still jet-lagged two days later. Finally I resurfaced and managed to contact old friends. I was greatly assisted in this by the loan of a mobile phone which my brother-in-law Mike had spare. (Many thanks). So, the phone disaster actually worked in my favour as I only had to pay for pay-as-you-go calls instead of the overseas rates I would have paid on the mobile I left behind.

(aside – when I got back I discovered that Pete had found my phone in the car, brought it into the house, put it down in the kitchen and forgot about it. The battery was flat as a lizard drinking, as the Aussies would say. I plugged it into the mains charger, but it stubbornly refused to charge. I took it to Norwich and they had to give it a “boost” charge to get it going. Moral: don't let your cell/mobile phone get completely out of charge!)

My jet-lag persisted. For a few days I felt decidedly under the weather. I was functioning but only at 80%. I did feel well enough to attend two baseball games at Kauffman Stadium and the Chiefs game at Arrowhead.

In the UK we get extensive coverage of the NFL. We have done for more than a few years now. We had three regular season games at Wembley Stadium this season and will have three more next year – including a Chiefs home game for which I will move heaven and earth to attend!

Baseball is another story. There is very little coverage other than, perhaps, World Series highlights. You have to pay an extra subscription to the broadcasters to enjoy regular season baseball. Even then it's a sort of “game of the week” type situation – not conducive to following the KC Royals. Therefore I was completely out of touch when I arrived in KC. Take me out to the ball game!

The first game I saw was a Royals loss. This is not surprising as I hadn't seen them win a game with me in the stadium since the 1970's. Most notable event was Juliet's new-found aversion to heights. We trudged up into the upper deck only to be informed that it was too much for her. I took her down to the mezzanine level and bought her two hot dogs (that cheered her up no end). A kindly steward asked if she could help and I explained the problem. She offered to try to find Juliet a seat in the lower deck. I decided to walk her around a bit first and we ran into my sister who decided to take Juliet shopping behind the right field bullpen. A result for Julie!

I finally saw a Royals win on my next trip to the ball park (I went with others and left Juliet at home!) To cut a long story short, they made the play-offs, had a remarkable run all the way to the World Series and lost the seventh and final game 3-2!

The weekend saw my 50th Anniversary High School Reunion. Go Bears!

On Friday we played golf at Drumm Farm Golf Club. I knew the course, for I had played there with Larry Dean the last time I was in Independence. Unfortunately, they have gone up-market. The rough was extensive and it was deep. I found it regularly. I even managed to hit one in the pond.

I played with Terry Galloway and his wife. One of the great things about the reunion was seeing how folks had changed in fifty years. Terry had not. Of course, in a class as large as ours (600+ kids) There were hundreds of people you did not know, even by sight. Terry was a star on the basketball team, so even though I did not have any classes with him I “knew” him. Disgustingly, he had not changed a bit. Just less hair. I'm sure he could still shoot hoops with the best of them. He and his wife were extremely competitive – with each other fortunately. They were content to watch me hack around the course in my usual style. I shot about my usual – 120-ish but everyone had a great time.

On Saturday morning we went back to the old school for a guided tour. How memory fades! We were warned that the building had undergone a complete make-over recently, but; nevertheless, as the outside looks just as it did in '64 perhaps we expected the same inside. Not so. At various points we were able to place old classrooms, old rest-rooms and old views. I particularly enjoyed the wall-mounted plaques “honouring” WCHS graduates who had achieved something notable throughout the years. Very impressive – though I was suspiciously absent.

After a nice box lunch we had the afternoon to rest up for the main event – the reunion dinner. Larry got himself double-booked. One of Connie's nephews was getting married in the late afternoon, so he went to the ceremony and then changed and picked us up. Imagine the scene - 150-odd old folks who don't really know each other, though they may have done 50 years ago, sitting down to dinner at tables for 12. Point One for the reunion committee, the names tags needed to be far larger. At our table, I recognised Peggy Townley, who was one of the reunion organisers, and also a fellow sufferer from Sophomore History class in 1962.

(This was a very interesting class. The teacher, I believe, was Mr Davidson. Point Two for the reunion committee, the reunion booklet should have included the names of the teachers and what happened to them. He must have been new to the job. Certainly, he didn't look very old. His methods were suspect to say the least. We went through the history text book chapter by chapter. We were supposed to read the chapter for homework and be prepared to answer questions in class. I've always liked History. I've always been a very fast reader. I had read the whole text book by about week two. I was bored. He would ask questions and then call on someone in the class to answer. In the beginning, I would put my hand up if I knew the answer – which was almost always. He would avoid calling on me. Then he couldn't resist the challenge. He'd call. I'd give the answer. Soon he more or less gave up. I upped the ante. I would only put up my hand when I wasn't 100% sure of the answer. He never called on me in this situation. When I knew the answer, I'd sit at the back with a puzzled and distraught look on my face. He couldn't resist. He'd call on me. I'd struggle, seemingly, and then give the correct answer. Poor man – he never figured it out.)

The dinner was a great success. A very nice meal and a chance to mingle. The highlight was the class reunion photo. I got on the back row and tried to get my head between the two ladies in front of me. I failed. You can see about 75% of my splendiferous visage.

Next day, Sunday, I went to the Chiefs game with Stoner (Juliet, convinced she had vertigo, forestalled) and saw them whip the Patriots big time. The first week was rounded off more than successfully.

One thing that puzzled me was the absence of “ethnic” faces in the crowd at both Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead. It was explained to me that the pricing of tickets for both baseball and football was now so up-market that poorer people were effectively excluded. I heard what they were saying, but I'm still not entirely convinced.

I was even more disgruntled to learn that some states are placing restrictions on voting and wondered if this tied in with what I was seeing? I checked out the Texas voting procedures. They do not present much problem to the citizen who is only relatively well off. If you have a photo driver's licence you are in. Ditto for passport. So, if the intention is to avoid voter fraud, then fine. But what about those who are so poor that they don't have access to any qualifying documents? It still smells a bit like Jim Crow. I believe the courts are looking at this as I write.

We look down the long lens of history and think we learn. Sometimes we do – sometimes we don't. Current events in Ferguson, Mo show how fragile a democracy can get. Is the lack of black faces in the crowd at Arrowhead some kind of cultural apartheid? Are the NFL and MLB consciously pricing blacks out of the market? I just don't know. I do know there were not many blacks at the games I attended. That's a fact.

Is the current apoplectic furore regarding President Obama's plans to use an Executive Order to allow millions of illegal immigrants, mostly Hispanic, to obtains residency rights but not voting rights a symptom or a cause? “President Obama is announcing his executive action on immigration, and some conservatives are raging with ... Right-wing claims aside, the President's immigration order won't give voting rights to unauthorized immigrants.” Whether this will prevent them from voting in practice remains to be seen.

Don't forget America is the home of voter fraud (and the hanging chad). We probably invented it. The colony of Rhode Island was founded by after a split from Massachusetts because of voting irregularities. America is the home of Boss Tweed (NY), Boss Pendergast (KC Mo) Mayor Richard Daley (Chicago) and Boss Butler of St Louis (The King of them all), who was occasionally known to call out to his men, in full hearing of the police at the voting station, “Are there any more repeaters out there that want to vote again.”

So, what is the President up to? Lame duck Presidents are always looking to protect what they see as their legacy. One way for Obama to do this is to make sure that Hispanic Americans know which side their bread is buttered on. He's probably just electioneering for the Democratic Party. All Presidents do things to favour their own party.

I wonder how many folks in KC know anything about the immigration issue here in the UK? I suspect not too many. The UK has its own “problem” with immigration. The UK even has their own political party on the subject – UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party). They are currently riding high (about 16%) in the polls and threatening to be a real force in the next general election, which will be in May 2015. Their main platform issue is withdrawal from the European Union.

One of the central tenets of the EU is the free movement of capital and labour. So by being a member, the UK has no control over who or how many people from other EU countries may come and live and work here. UKIP want to change this by withdrawing from the EU. The other three parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats all want to stay in – but change various aspects of the free movement of labour policy. The Conservatives are promising a renegotiation and a referendum afterwards – provided they win the next election. The anti-immigrant vote is on the march. Supporters of withdrawal say that current levels of immigration (about +260 000/year) are unsustainable. (This is a small, overcrowded Island already.)

The best analogy would be if the USA, Canada and Mexico formed some kind of Union where workers and capital could move freely between each. The EU is far more complicated as it involves countries as diverse as Germany and Spain or Greece and Latvia. By this comparison, Obama's initiative on immigration looks pretty tame.

Into the second week and it was definitely family time. Brother Jim and brother Mark drove in from Illinois for my nephew Mike's wedding. Before the festivities could commence we had to play golf in the Kauffman Championship match.

Off we went to Royal Meadows. I actually played my first game of golf here many, many years ago. It was called Stayton Meadows then. The golfing gods decreed that I missed the golf-talent gene when I inherited my left-handedness from the Old Man. That is a bit of a shame, cause he was quite a good left-handed golfer. Brother Jim got most of the family talent, but Brother Mark is pretty much in my mould. Nevertheless, with family pride at stake it was a hard-fought match. Nephew Mike Kauffman made up the foursome. He's young and fit and hits the ball, as my Uncle Ray used to say “out where the big dogs pee”, and occasionally in the correct direction. The most amazing part of the entertainment was a golfing tip I got from Jim. Whether or not it was the cause I managed my best score ever – exactly 100. As usual with golf, I can think of ten ways I could have shaved just one stroke off and broke the hundred barrier!

The wedding was wonderful. Mike married Bradee Risen – two good German families reunited after many generations. I enjoyed the whole thing – it was excellent. The venue was very good and I met lots of new folks.

The remainder of the time was spent visiting friends, shopping and going out to dinner.

I've now maxed-out my brain, so I will stop boring you.

Scottish Independence

Scotts Porridge Oates - or Scotts Humble Pie

I will be in the land of the round doorknob on 18 September – the day the Scots vote on independence from the UK. So, I better get my take in now.

First. This has been an almighty cock-up almost from its inception. It has to be said.

“The Edinburgh Agreement (full title: Agreement between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government on a referendum on independence for Scotland) is the agreement between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government, signed on 15 October 2012 at St Andrew's House, Edinburgh, on the terms for the Scottish independence referendum, 2014.[1]
Both governments agreed that the referendum should:

• have a clear legal base
• be legislated for by the Scottish Parliament
• be conducted so as to command the confidence of parliaments, government and people
• deliver a fair test and decisive expression of the views of people in Scotland and a result that everyone will respect
  

The governments agreed to promote an Order in Council under Section 30 of the Scotland Act 1998 to allow a single-question referendum on Scottish independence to be held before the end of 2014 so to put beyond doubt that the Scottish Parliament can legislate for the referendum.[2]
The agreement was signed by David Cameron, Prime Minister; Michael Moore, Secretary of State for Scotland; Alex Salmond, First Minister; and Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister.
The legal status of the agreement is a matter of academic discussion.[3]”
The last bit is the good bit. Mr Cameron's brain must have been on holiday that day to agree to such a plan. Or his advisers were out to lunch. By agreeing that only people living in Scotland could have a vote on a matter that affects the whole of the UK, Cameron ensured that the SNP were already half-way there to winning. What an idiot. No wonder he has spent the last week running around north of the border trying to cry his way to a No vote.
Second. The No campaign has been run by idiots – or failed politicians – or both. Only now when the chips are down have they tried to get their act together. Anyone with half a brain could have told them that just lecturing the Scots was not going to work. It's a bit late to start a hearts and minds campaign.
Third. Cameron should have played the monarch card. Had he threatened to resign if the Queen did not speak out (assuming she is a No supporter), he might have had the real trump card.
Fourth. He should have been more pragmatic. If it works, use it. Now we have Gordon Brown on-board. Late. Very late. Alistair Darling is a disaster.
Fifth. He should have agreed to debate Alex Salmond. Not in Edinburgh but in Parliament. Somewhere in Westminster Hall would do. With a packed audience. Alex could not have refused and he would have been murdered.



Sixth. He should have offered Devo Max either much earlier or not at all. Now he has the worst of both worlds. The Scots don't trust him to deliver and the English may well demand similar powers from central government.
Where do I stand? I think the Scots would be very foolish to vote Yes. A Yes vote may be the prelude to a fantastic new opportunity for the country, but it's very risky! I might also be the precursor to economic and political ruin. Cameron is right on one point – there is no going back. If it's a yes vote, then that's it.
(Except for the obvious point that the Act of Union was the result of a complete mishandling of the Scottish economy and with bankruptcy looming!)
My feeling is the No will win but it will be far closer than it ought to be.
Nightmare scenario: Yes wins but by only a few votes. Cameron refuses to accept the result and resigns. A new Tory Prime Minister disowns the Edinburgh agreement and demands a UK General Election to endorse his actions. UK votes for Tories believing they are voting for the Union and we get five more years of crap Tory rule.
(A bit like the Falklands War gave us Maggie Thatcher!)
In any event the prospects are not great!

Chiefs Prospects 2014

Hope makes a poor meal!

I've been waiting to see what week one would bring before I make my predictions for the Chiefs season. I might not have bothered. The news and the prospects are all bad and getting worse.

“On NBC's Football Night in America: this exchange between NBC's Dan Patrick, Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy.

Harrison: Kansas City, they're done. Their very first game.

Patrick: Done?

Harrison: Yes and I'm not exaggerating. You get your best player on defense, Derrick Johnson, he's out for the year. You play San Diego twice. Why are you looking at me like that?

Patrick: We just had one game!

Dungy: It's early to be done.

Harrison: You have to listen to what I'm saying. You have to play against Denver twice, San Diego twice. You had the entire season to prepare for the Tennessee Titans and you have to play outside the division, the NFC West. Stop looking away Dan. Are you convinced now?”

To top it all, the poll of Chiefs fans after week one comes out as 70% think the season is over. And, these are Chiefs fans, not some overpaid pundits!”

Ouch!

Remember before every season hope is on everyone's agenda. After a very good season last year with a play-off berth, surely the Chiefs would be better this year!

Sadly, no.

First the free agency when we lost too many good players and signed not enough. Then the draft when a team crying out for a genuine passing game drafted a line-backer first and no receivers at all. Finally the first game loss of Derrick Johnson and Mike Devito to probable season-ending injuries. Should I go on?

The blame game is about to start in earnest. We have the Broncos, Dolphins and Patriots in the next three weeks. After an 0-4 start questions are going to be asked.

Coaching? Fantastic last season when the Chiefs benefited from some excellent good fortune. Now is when Andy Reid has to earn his money.

Let's hear from the man himself:

OPENING STATEMENT: “As far as injuries go, Derrick Johnson and Mike DeVito ruptured their Achilles tendon, and Jeff Allen has a bicep strain we’ll see how he is in the morning. That was a rough game. I thought the guys kept battling through the end, but I take responsibility on the offensive side of that. It was a terrible game I called, I didn’t put them in position to make plays, and I put the defense in a bind a number of times. Special teams we need to do a better job. If we have a fake punt we have to make sure we convert on those. We had a couple things there that we could have turned into points; we just have to do better.”

Are these season ending injuries for Johnson and DeVito? “I don’t know that, we are going to evaluate them overnight and see. They normally are, but we’ll see what happens.”

What’s the impact of not having Derrick Johnson? “You know my theory on that. He’s a great player, but I expect other players to step up and do the job. When given the opportunity we want that to happen.”

How did you feel like your new kicker did? “He did good (on) one of them and missed on the long one. His kickoffs were decent, so that was good.”

Jamaal Charles got three touches at the beginning and only eight after that, what was the reason? “They took away a lot of what we had designed for him. That was one of the reasons.”

Not to make excuses for not having Dwayne Bowe, we’ve known that for a long time, but it seemed like it was Donnie Avery or nothing down the field – 13 targets. “I didn’t do a very good job there. Could have used our short intermediate game better, probably could have run it more. Not a very good job on my part.”

Alex usually does a good job with the interceptions. I know you’ve been on him a little bit to be more aggressive down the field. Do you think that had a factor with what happened? “He was trying to make something happen and things didn’t work. Again, those are calls down there, opportunities for shots, and they had them covered. Again, I’ll take that responsibility.”

The call from the two, you were in that situation last year against them. Would you like to have that one back going into half time? “Any of the interceptions I’d like to have back. But yeah, I would. I’d like to have that one back.”

What are your impressions of Jake Locker and how he’s kind of progressed? “Ken’s (Whisenhunt) done a nice job with the team. They’ve got good talent there and they utilize it.”

Last year you guys built such momentum as the season went along, this is a tough way to start especially with the injuries. Are you worried about the mental state of your guys? What was the locker room like? “After a loss you’re down, I mean you’re not happy after a loss. There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into it, I would expect them to be a bit down now and then start to rally themselves as we get together tomorrow.”

Not much to be positive about here, but at least he's honest. The preparation and coaching were very poor.

Could the Chiefs turn it around in the next month? Not likely.

Israel - Palestinian Conflict

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going strong since at least 1947. There are occasional lulls but no resolution. The problems seem too deep-seated and the respective positions too entrenched. Everyone deplores the deaths of innocent Palestinians and Israelis alike. Still the killing goes on and on. It is, in every sense of the word, a tragedy of human making and monumental proportions.

It is easy for us who are far from the conflict both in miles and in understanding to offer simple solutions and express surprise and disgust that the killing just seems to go on and on.

In Britain the populace seems more and more to be “on the side” of the Palestinians. This is an inevitable consequence of the overwhelming superiority in weaponry that the Israelis can bring to the conflict. Many hundreds of innocent Palestinians are lost for every Israeli. It's not surprising that the sympathies of the British people are with the underdogs.

Unfortunately, this posturing from a long way away is not likely to produce any reduction in either the government's support for Israel or its exasperation for the lack of progress towards a real peace agreement.

A short history lesson for those who may need it. Notwithstanding Richard I and Saladin, the first modern involvement in this part of the Middle East was the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917.

“His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

Following WWI Britain was effectively the government of Palestine under a mandate from the League of Nations.

After WWII the pressure to allow Jewish immigration into Palestine was almost insurmountable – owing in large part to the discovery of the Nazi death camps. Still Britain tried to keep an even-handed approach and keep both Jews and Palestinian Arabs on side. This tactic failed miserably.

"Between November 29th 1947 and June 1948, 214 British servicemen lost their lives, including the 28 killed when the Stern Gang blew up the Khantara to Haifa Express at Rehovoth on February 29th 1948."

Many other British forces died in trying to administer Palestine.

Finally the UN decided to act:

“The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal developed by the United Nations, which recommended a partition with Economic Union of Mandatory Palestine to follow the termination of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan as Resolution 181.

The resolution recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. The Partition Plan, a four-part document attached to the resolution, provided for the termination of the Mandate, the progressive withdrawal of British armed forces and the delineation of boundaries between the two States and Jerusalem. Part I of the Plan stipulated that the Mandate would be terminated as soon as possible and the United Kingdom would withdraw no later than 1 August 1948. The new states would come into existence two months after the withdrawal, but no later than 1 October 1948. The Plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of two competing movements: Arab nationalism in Palestine and Jewish nationalism, known as Zionism.[3][4] The Plan also called for Economic Union between the proposed states, and for the protection of religious and minority rights.

The Plan was accepted by the Jewish public, except for its fringes, and by the Jewish Agency despite its perceived limitations. With a few exceptions, the Arab leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition in the resolution and indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division. Their reason was that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny.

Immediately after adoption of the Resolution by the General Assembly, the civil war broke out. The partition plan was not implemented.

By now it should be clear that neither Israel of the Palestinian Arabs were all that interested in a peaceful solution to the problem. Neither are they to this day.

For Israel's part they believed that the Arab leadership at the time of independence was unable or unwilling to negotiate with the new Jewish state as the Palestinians were expecting the surrounding Arab nations to overwhelm Israel. So, when they left their homes for Syria, Egypt or Jordan they thought they would soon be back in triumph.

The Palestinian leadership, such as it existed, simply looked at the map and the promises of their Arab friends and saw no reason to come to any accommodation.

That's just about where we are today. Neither side neither trusts each other nor seeks a real peace. And the deaths continue to mount up.

There are interesting parallels with the conflict in Northern Ireland. Both problems go back many, many years – centuries really. Both have a religious element at the core. Both feature seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Both have many people on both sides who have a stored up hatred of the other side and a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for death and destruction. The list goes on.

Yet eventually a solution was found.

The controlling feature in each case seems to be the attitude of the American government.

When influential politicians in the US began to see that no progress could be made if they maintained (even tacitly) their support for the IRA, the writing was on the wall.

When influential politicians in the US begin to see that almost unqualified support for Israel will not bring about a resolution, some progress might be possible.

What would a real peace plan look like?

Israel would abandon parts of the West Bank to a new Palestinian state.

The Palestinians would recognise the state of Israel and stop war-like action against it.

Israel would abandon the siege of Gaza.

The Palestinians would abandon historic claims to land, and property lost after 1948.

This would be a good start.

Likely to happen? I fear not. More likely is more killing, grief and pain for the citizens of both side.