Ol' England

Well, here I am in Merry Ol' England. It is 0430 hours and quiet as a grave. That will change soon enough. As some of you may be aware, the G20 Conference is starting tomorrow, and security is HUGE. Estimates of cost are around 1.2 million pounds (and that is conservative, I think), and these costs are at taxpayer's expense. It is no wonder that people are upset! These conferences rarely solve any of the world's problems. That sort of money would be far better spent on eradicating malaria bearing mosquitos in the poorer nations, educating the poor in third world countries (no, Mutters, not New Zealand), or providing free birth control in the same. Why do we put up with such frivolous expenditure of our hard earned cash? I wish I had the answer, but it is not my money, or my electorate. I do feel for the British taxpayer though - their economy is in the shit, national health is more a joke than it ever was, and bureaucracy rules supreme (the Poms invented it, but Australia perfected it, incidentally). The concern about security is so high that the hotel we stay in is closing its main doors as the protest march is to start from Grosvenor Square (where the US Embassy is located) at 1300, right outside the hotel lobby. That is not comforting in itself. What is worse, is that my room faces directly toward the US Embassy. Thankfully, Air New Zealand pays my personal life insurance, but that is of no comfort to KB. Enough C4 and you could say "good-bye" to everything in the Square and a good deal beyond. So I guess security has its purpose (we are probably in the safest place in England, really).
As I commented to the Captain on the way to the UK, "Why couldn't the conference have been held in Alice Springs? It's far away from extremist hotbeds, it's in the middle of the GAFA (for those uninitiated, that's the Great Australian F**k All), there's f-all to blow up, it costs a bloody fortune to get there, and to top it off, we don't overnight there". When he finished laughing, he said "That's because nobody gives a f**k about Australia either".
Such are flight deck discussions. It saddens me that our elected officials are not as pragmatic. With a little thought and a lot less self indulgence, our politicos could achieve a great deal more. But we have to hold them accountable.