From Barrie Etherington:

On the many evils within, on ageism, pride and other things ......

The many evils within .....

Let's start by referring back to our previous editorial. We asked whether Osama bin Laden would ever be caught now that the ground war in Afghanistan was drawing to a close. We assumed, as we wrote, that he would be spirited away to become a hidden leader with armies of thousands still prepared to do their terrible work on his behalf.

We wondered whether the 'do gooders' would degrade the 'coalition's' commitment to prosecute this war and diminish the efforts to banish the Taliban and Al Quaeda from the face of the earth.

I fear we were right to wonder ... Mr Bush now speaks of '100,000 trained terrorists in 60 countries' waiting for a call to action. He talks of never giving up the search for bin Laden ( ... some suppose that means he has no idea where to look next ...). The press, the broadcast media and their 'do gooder' hangers-on use every opportunity they can to spoil the efforts of the military in the war on terror whilst they increasingly give the impression that the terrorists are the victims.

Charities squabble with the needy over the well meant contributions to the bereaved and injured of September 11th. Our own UK Prime Minister is pilloried by the press for failing to concentrate enough on home affairs. The British Trade Unions are on the rampage again, led by former members of the UK Communist Party; 'sleepers' who have been biding their time until now. Strike action has begun to re-appear as their first weapon in an industrial dispute.

The UK Government should legislate for strike action only to be the weapon of last resort in any industrial dispute; used after a minimum of 90 days exhaustive arbitration has taken place in the full glare of the public spotlight.

Should 'ageism' be permitted ?

People are living longer and remaining healthy and able to work well into their 60's and 70's.

Recently, a friend of mine who lives in the United States, prepared to retire in his late 60's from work as an airframe inspector. His skills were still in demand in the aerospace industry. He worked for an airframe contractor who had cornered a piece of the market converting former passenger aircraft into side loading freighters.

His retirement day came and he settled down to flying his model aircraft and doing whatever retired people do in Florida. But not for long. At 69 years of age, he was head-hunted by a South American airline to work with them in airworthiness certification as they converted some of their own aircraft into freighters.

I've lived and worked in the IT industry for 40 years. Twenty three of them with IBM.

One of the key strengths of IBM in the late 70's was its core (corps) of management just below board level. People who had worked for the company for 15 years or more, and who made IBM the force it was at that time.

Many spoke of IBM as the greatest company the world had ever seen. Hardly a country in the world did not look to its local IBM subsidiary for excellence in quality products, management style and methods. Who would have expected the old 'elephant' could rise to the challenge of re-inventing itself when the PC suddenly appeared on the scene ?

But, rise it did - and the middle management of the company made that happen. I know, I was there, in the thick of it.

The IBM PC we created became what virtually the whole world now talks of as 'the IT industry' and, eventually, 'the Internet'.

But now the IT industry has turned its back on thousands of experienced people who are deemed to be 'too old' or 'not up to speed' or 'out of touch' yet still in their late 40's, 50's and early 60's. Instead, it has recruited young people with few skills and is having to teach them on the job.

It's not just the IT industry; all over the commercial world people in their working prime, at the peak of their skills, with years of training and experience, are being 'let go', 'retired early', 'offered a package', laid off, made redundant, down sized, re-engineered, merged, consolidated, re-structured or 'spun out' of their livelihoods.

When they try to recover their dignity and seek new employment they find that 'they don't fit the job profile', their 'experience isn't right', they will 'need re-training we cannot provide', they're 'unlikely to be able to stand the pace we operate at' or 'you won't be able to handle the miles or the travel we demand'.

The mealy mouthed words are always just outside pure chauvinism and inside the law; you're never 'too old', 'black', 'yellow', 'white' or 'a woman', 'bald-headed' or 'too fat'. Perhaps you remember the famous advertisement for workers on a building site that asked for candidates, in the early days of the feminist movement, who would 'be prepared to work stripped to the waist' ?

Now look where women stand in the job stakes. Right up there with the men.

We sorely need the law to recognise the rights of older job seekers in the same way it has recognised those of women. Older persons have a right to expect employers to treat them as if they can do the job they're applying for.

Test us for sure, check our backgrounds, take up references. But don't assume we're mentally and physically challenged just because we're middle-aged !

and finally ...... with a tinge of pride ... an introduction to The Jurassic Coast

Living, as we do, on the glorious South West Coast of the United Kingdom, we are delighted, excited - and tinged with just a little pride - that our famous coastline has been elected a 'World Heritage Site'. This puts it in the same class as The Grand Canyon in the USA and The Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Here are a few local sites for your information: come and visit if you're passing close.

http://www.jurassiccoast.com/

http://www.swgfl.org.uk/jurassic/lyme.htm

http://www.swcp.org.uk/

Be Safe, have Fun and look after your Health