Monday, January 31, 2011

This won't work either

Anther infringement on our civil liberties comes into force today in England and Wales, it's a measure to target gang members but will no doubt end up being used for something it was never meant to be used for.

BBC.
Powers to restrict the movements of people accused of gang membership have come into force in England and Wales.
Gang injunctions can be used to ban people from certain places or from walking aggressive dogs.
The powers are similar to anti-social behaviour orders and were conceived by the former Labour government after appeals from councils for help.
Ministers say the injunctions should not replace prosecutions of gang members involved in violent crime.
Police and local councils can seek gang injunctions in the county courts against adults who they believe are involved in gang-related violence and crime.
The Labour government devised the powers after Birmingham City Council tried unsuccessfully to use ordinary civil injunctions against suspected gang members in the city.
Like Asbos, each order is tailored to the individual and could include bans from particular neighbourhoods where police know rival gangs meet to fight.
Individuals could also be forced to take part in activities designed to protect them from gang culture, such as mentoring schemes, or could be banned from wearing certain colours used by gangs to signify membership.
A separate power covering injunctions for young people aged 14 to 17 is being piloted later in the year.
I suspect like ASBO's these will become a badge of honour to some that they are applied too, I also expect like ASBO's a majority of gang members will ignore them and go ahead and keep doing what they were doing anyway, it's a typical political fudge designed to show that they were doing something when in fact they weren't dealing with the problems at all, a slap on the wrist rather than a bullet to the head. The police already have the power to deal with this sort of thing anyway, they just don't have the time or resources anymore because of paperwork and the very necessary time consuming  task of revenue raising from motorists.
I do wonder how long it will be though before these gang injunctions are used to target protest groups by various councils in the UK, It would be easy enough to declare the leadership of protest groups gang members and prevent them from attending demo's without actually doing more than signing a piece of paper. Local authorities after all have a history of overstepping their authority just look at the abuses of RIPA where instead of targeting terrorists they used it to check bin levels and if parents were in the catchment areas for schools.
ASBO's were a waste of time, I suspect gang injunctions will be too, until they are used to target the wrong people or rather those the local authorities wish to silence...

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Justifying paedophilia

There is a problem in the Pakistani Muslim community and it isn't just that they are Muslims. For years now the some of the young men in that community have been preying on and grooming under age girls from outside their community, not just white, but Sikh and Hindu girls as well. Finally the MSM had the courage to break the story and various other minions of the state poked their heads above the parapet to tell us yes they knew about it, but dared not report it further because it might be deemed "racist" if they did. So you'd think the Muslim community as a whole would be keeping their heads down and coming out with various platitudes such as "it's only a minority" and doing their best to use the term "Asian" rather than "Muslim" or "Pakistani" like most of their useful idiots on the left and in the MSM have been doing, though the Muslim talent for public relations and how to get it totally wrong is utterly astounding.
So, into the breach steps Lord Ahmed of Cartexting Rotherham to explain why these scum behaved as they did and it's all due to marrying their cousins (even the ones who weren't married it seems)

Express.
BRITAIN'S first Muslim peer last night attacked arranged first-cousin marriages for contributing to a spate of sex crimes committed by Pakistani men.
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham said the marriages were being used by depraved young men as an excuse to prey on “vulnerable girls”.
His comments follow a succession of court cases where Asian men have been prosecuted for targeting white teenage girls.
The Labour peer, who wants an end to cousin marriages, claimed Asian men target their victims at a young age because they feel there is less chance of getting caught.
He said: “They are married to girls from overseas who they don’t have anything in common with and they have children and a family but they are looking for fun in their sexual activities and seek out vulnerable girls.”
Last month, former Home Secretary Jack Straw provoked fury after claiming some men of Pakistani origin view white girls as “easy meat”.
The Labour MP for Blackburn spoke out after two Asian men who abused girls in Derby were given indeterminate jail terms.
Research suggests about 55 per cent of British Pakistanis marry their first cousins, who are typically from abroad.
Marriages between first cousins is lawful in Britain, but they are generally frowned upon.
So there you go, marrying your cousin turns you into a sex mad paedophile according at least to Lord Ahmed. The truth is rather more brutal of course, these men behaved in a depraved manner because people in authority and in their own communities chose to look the other way. Yes some of the blame must also be laid at the feet of the parents of these children too, though in some instances at least they may not have been aware of what was going on, or even cared. But the vast majority of the blame has to be laid at the feet of these men who deliberately sought to target vulnerable children from other communities because they knew full well what would happen if they did target their own. There is no justification in the world for what they did, nor any excuse and Lord Ahmed would have done well to have simply continued his campaign to end first cousin marriages without trying to excuse or justify these perverts behaviour.
I am sick to death of this stupid blame game played out in the MSM and our political elite over the rape and prostitution of these young girls. I'm sick to death of the avoidance of the discussion of the amount of men queuing up to pay to molest these children, some in their 50's following the example of their sick prophet no doubt, after all if it was good enough for Mohammed... And well past the age where they're over the distress of being forced into marriage if they ever were. I'm sick to death of the term Asian being used to disguise the fact that this is a Pakistani Muslim problem. It's not a Sikh problem, it's not a Hindu problem it most certainly isn't a Chinese problem and they are all Asians and sick to death no doubt about being tarred with a Pakistani Muslim perversion. I'm sick to death of people like Taji Mustafa, media spokesperson of Hizb ut-Tahrir who objects to the claims that Islam had anything to do with the issue as various newspapers had claimed. He said:
"Islam promotes respect for women regardless of their race, religion and ethnicity. In Islam, you are not allowed to drink, take drugs, engage in pre-marital sex or even have a girlfriend. So how can Islam be blamed for these heinous crimes?"
 I suspect the fact that it was Muslims doing this that gives the game away, not Asians but Pakistani Muslims, despite the vast generalisation on the matter of who was actually doing it in the press and amongst politicians as well as the silence of various socialist groups like the SWP and the UAF who would be all over this if it was white guys preying on Muslim girls screaming racist no doubt. Since 1997, 56 people with an average age of 28 have been convicted of offences related to on-street grooming of girls aged 11 to 16. Of these, three were white and the rest Asian, of whom 50 were Muslim, with the majority British Pakistani, with more and more cases coming out of the woodwork. I'm totally sick of the stench of cover up as this seems to have been going on for years, even the fact that at the time the UK's youngest mum was only a mum because she was gang raped by Pakistani taxi drivers back in 2002 and still nothing was done other than for Labour to open the floodgates to even more immigration to rub the rights nose in multiculturalism. Well if this is one of the benefits of multiculturalism then count me out as a fan of it, not that I ever was, watching from the sidelines as all that was good about England was denigrated and contemptuously cast aside by Labour, the left and their pro British anti English mind set, which allowed this outrage to go on unchallenged until it could no longer be brushed under the mat and even then I reckon it would still be hidden and Jack Straw et al saying nothing and pretending the problem doesn't exist had not the Times finally got brave enough to do an article on it. I even remember Nick Griffin of the BNP being vilified  and prosecuted back in 2005 for saying it was going on. Since then the establishments, both legal and political, have ignored the continuing abuse and violence solely for their own benefit and to avoid getting accused of racism themselves. 
I am absolutely horrified by this, authorities across the country knew this was going on for many years yet did NOTHING significant to effect the cessation of these vile acts, but elected instead to hide them under blankets of secrecy! They were culpable in withholding relevant information that would have helped to protect our country's children from abuse at the hands of Muslim paedophile gangs.
What gets me as well, is that as soon as these scum have done their time they'll vanish back into their communities and not be despised like we would despise.
That this could happen in my England is the most damning verdict on the Labour years in power, not the war in Iraq, not the financial waste and irregularities, but the despoliation of young girls by an alien culture encouraged to settle here and aided and abetted by a wall of silence by the authorities.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

90p a gallon, that'll be before tax of course.

Seems our clever British scientists have developed a fuel based on hydrogen that can be used as a substitute for petrol that costs only 90p a gallon (oh halcyon days) and can be used in petrol driven cars without modification. It's also carbon friendly but only idiot enviroloons give a damn about that.

Express.
BRITISH scientists have invented an “artificial” petrol that could spell an end to soaring prices at the pumps.
The new hydrogen-based fuel costs only 90 pence per gallon and could even run in existing cars.
The environment-friendly fuel has been developed in secret at a laboratory in Oxford and could be available in as little as three years.
Motorists could even be able to drive for 300 to 400 miles before needing to fill up.
The breakthrough comes as average UK fuel prices have hit a record high, marking “another milestone along a road of misery for drivers”, according to motoring organisation the AA.
The revolutionary fuel, which has been invented by Cella Energy, produces no greenhouse gases and is “suitable for widespread use as a carbon-free alternative to petrol”.
Clever guys, of course what everyone is forgetting is the cold dead hand of the state and fuel duty. There's no way in hell that we'll be buying fuel at 90p a gallon not with any politicians in charge of the country, not now, not then, not ever.
That said, if it can get us out of the clutches of OPEC and the Islamic oil cartel (yes I know it's not just the Middle East) then it will be a job well done. Until that is the enviroloons start panicking about us turning all our water into fuel. There are already water problems around the world of too much usage anyway. However there is a source of hydrogen available too us if we want to go and get it. All of the gas giant planets out there starting with Jupiter have hydrogen atmosphere's, plus there are masses of Ice asteroids out past Neptune. Not easy to get, but easy enough from a technical standpoint as the technology to convert the stuff to fuel to power the tankers needed to get it is already in development.
I'd expect our enviroloons to come up with some sort of objection though, it's in their nature, they want to reduce the world population (minus the enviroloons) not sustain or civilisation by technology. So this technology will have been a body blow to them.
Isn't science grand...

Friday, January 28, 2011

Guess I'm not most

seems most of my fellow countrymen think it's possible to communicate with the dead...

Express.
MOST Britons think it is possible to communicate with the dead – and the person they would most like to talk to is Princess Diana.
Two-thirds of us believe in life after death, a third think there is a heaven and a fifth expect to be reincarnated.
These are the findings of a survey on modern attitudes towards spiritualism.
Some 58 per cent of Britons believe their dead loved ones are “with them in spirit” – while 40 per cent believe in guardian angels.
A fifth claim to have seen a ghost or felt the presence of a spirit and 53 per cent believe that psychics are able to communicate with the dead.
Diana was the most popular choice of famous person to contact, with Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe in second and third place.
However, the most common ghost sighting is of a relative or friend, the survey of 3,000 adults revealed.
The poll, by Dr Penny Sartori, was conducted to mark the release of Hereafter, directed by Clint Eastwood. The film is about a man who can talk to the dead.
That certainly explains the plethora of tv programs both fictional and purporting to be factual that pass for entertainment on various satellite/cable tv channels, though what it says about the thought processes of the UK public leaves me somewhat bemused. I cannot imagine for one second why a dead person would still want to interact with the living nor indeed why the deceased Princess Di would want to talk to a lot of nosey voyeurs. Personally I believe that wishful thinking as well as a desire on the part of the public to seek meaning beyond death has a lot to do with it. As well as a certain pandering to the bereaved and incredulous on the part of spiritualists and their cohorts (Yes I'm looking at you Derek Acorah) I'm sure some of you out there could regale me with tales of meeting recently or even long lost relatives, but frankly although I'd be polite, I wouldn't believe you, a part of me stubbornly holds it to be wishful thinking as well as an unconscious desire of people to scare the shit out of themselves.
Still it's up to you lot what you believe, I'm not going to gainsay you and your beliefs, they're simply not mine and I doubt you'd convince me otherwise, I've yet to see any proof, never mind scientifically proven proof, bit like global warming really. It's not a discussion I have at home either, both the female members here fully believe the dead can speak and my views go down as well as a pork pie at a mosque. So I'm afraid you lot get it in the neck and put up with my minority heresy. I'm not saying that nothing happens to you after you die (though it's possible) I'm just saying that I don't believe the dead hang around to chat/haunt, they move on perhaps, or don't interact. Either way I believe people delude themselves into thinking that the dead are still around, mostly it's harmless, sometimes it's commercial, but really it strikes me as people being people, therefore odd. I'm just odd in different ways...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Another betrayal

It was Labour under Tony Blair who crowed that they wanted 50 per cent of those aged up to 30 to be engaged in higher education by 2010. Despite the fact that major dumbing down in education under labour went ahead and these courses only brought them up to what was considered A Level standards in my day, plus they got charged for the privilege too. So our young were encouraged into a university life and to take a host of courses that few employers wanted or needed, such as degrees in the Beatles or indeed flower arranging, useful I'm sure for Music magazines or florists but of limited other use in the real world as the current figures for joblessness in graduates prove.

Express.
The number of university graduates out of work is at its highest level for more than 10 years.
A fifth of new graduates are now unemployed – double the 10.6 per cent without a job before the recession.
Official figures show that graduate unemployment has increased faster than for the UK as a whole.
By the end of the recession, the jobless rate for college leavers was 2.3 times higher than the rest of the UK in the third quarter of 2009. Student union leaders said the statistics were further bad news for young people.
Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said: “Graduates are encountering an exceptionally hostile jobs market and the Government persists with policies that put the burden of the country’s debt on the young.” He said the NUS was calling for renewed targeted investment in education and the reinstatement of the Future Jobs Fund to support graduates into employment.
Sally Hunt, secretary of the University and College Union said: “Those who do make it through university are going to face a difficult job market without support, but saddled with record levels of debt.”
The data was taken from the Labour Force Survey by the Office for National Statistics.
Yes it's bad news and yes it's pretty bad that students start off in life owing huge amounts of debt, but that sadly for Aaron Porter is not the fault of the current government despite his lefty bleating on the subject. Students have paid top up fees since the Dearing Report into the future funding of higher education on 23 July 1997 by the then Education Secretary David Blunkett who announced the introduction of means-tested tuition fees to begin in September 1998 with students being required to pay up to £1000 a year for tuition, thus opening the floodgates to universities and banks to charge through the nose for silly courses of no use to anyone but their treasuries.Porter should really learn some history, but as head of the Students Union and arch socialist, probably struggles to learn anything of value about real life and the real world.
Today you don't get much for nothing, life changes and the idiocy of labour for allowing this situation to develop still hasn't been resolved, nor does it look too likely that the coagulation will do anything to reduce places and actually get kids taught anything useful for life. The old system worked fairly well, grammar for the brightest, secondary modern for the skilled, university only for the top 10% of our brightest and best, but plenty of opportunity via technical colleges and polytechnics for our skilled workforce to move up a notch, often by paid day release by their employers, or nightschool if they weren't. Yes there were times it wasn't fair and some got left behind, but it worked by and large. Labours class ignorance by bringing in comprehensive dumbing down and Thatchers moving us away from a manufacturing based economy to a service economy didn't help, but it was still a good base for education. Sadly there's no going back and we've ended up producing a generation of unemployables unless they get lucky with an understanding employer. Students graduating today have been betrayed by Labour, but the rot goes back a lot further a whole generation of kids dating back to the end of the 70's have been denied the skills to really make a difference in their lives, we need skilled craftsmen not Beatles degrees, engineers, plumbers, electricians, not flower arrangers, people who make things, not shuffle paperwork. If we had those we wouldn't need the constant stream of immigrants with those skills nor those sadly without them.
Frankly I don't know what if anything can be done to repair the damage, it's not as if the kids are any less bright, just simply betrayed, by both government at home, socialist education methods and the EU abroad. There will come a reckoning though and I hope I live to see it when the architects of this betrayal are paid back in full and bitterly regret their hand in this mess.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Consequences

Don't do the crime if you are not prepared to do the time, used to be the old maxim before various ministers tried to find ways to cut corners and reduce the prison population rather than build more prisons, though frequently enough they were prepared to let any prisoners out early violent or not. Yet what happens if there is no real penalty for committing a crime?

Express.
MORE than 10,000 yobs have snubbed anti-social behaviour orders, it was revealed yesterday.
Government figures show 56 per cent of Asbos issued between 1999 – when they were introduced by Labour – and 2009 have been breached.
It found 45,599 Asbos were flouted across England and Wales between June 2000 and December 2009.
In 2009 – the latest year for which statistics are available – 1,671 Asbos were issued and 1,133 broken. Officials found that one Asbo – often imposed to control the behaviour of thuggish street yobs – was breached more than four times on average.
I can't imagine what was going on in the heads of labour politicians other than this is a cheap (and unsupervised) way of dealing with the odd thug who they didn't want clogging up the prison/remand/probation system. It wasn't even an effective slap on the wrist as 56% of those given them simply ignored them, it just added an extra layer between the courts and prison. Inevitably it was used for things it was never designed for, as well as ridiculous lengths of time it often applied for.
If we are going to deal with criminals and anti social behaviour then the punishment has to be such that the offenders will not wish to re-offend. I'm not saying that persistent littering should carry a death penalty or any such, but that those who do it and get caught should not simply get told not to do it again or else. Not even kids are fooled by that one, it's what's known to them as an empty threat, nor am I suggesting birching or flogging, though in certain instances I could see it having an effect, however as the human rights act and various do-gooders would go into apoplexy over really punishing criminals they aren't options (yet) The answer I believe would be hard tough but short sentences, up at 6, made to run or jog to every task (mundane stuff), basic food, no tv, no interaction and early to bed. Most kids wouldn't know what had hit them and probably wouldn't want to do it again, that said, others might have better ideas and would no doubt work far better than an ASBO.
Certainly something needs to be done if the figures are anything to go by.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The turning wheels

Climate change, Climate disruption, Global warming (what the hell I'm a traditionalist and I like nailing warmists to the mast) started to unravel almost as soon as the phrase was invoked. A lot of scientists went along with it following the money, but a hard core dug their heels in faster than you could say hockey stick and said, hold on a minute this doesn't match what's actually going on. Unfortunately politicians had decided that they needed an excuse to wave in front of the public to justify their raid on our money via taxation for all those lovely bird choppers and climate levies on our fuel bills. So essentially truth became a casualty in the ongoing debate of whether or not mankind was responsible for warming the planet up, but the fightback was growing apace and slowly but surely the warmist camp were being forced onto the back foot as data continually showed they were talking out of their adjusted figures, 3 cold winters on the run didn't help either nor their support from the wilder side of the environmental movement. The so called "climategate" or "CRUtape" leak however tipped the balance, the "proof" skeptics had been looking for was suddenly out into the public arena and for all it's taken a couple of years and two cover ups investigations finally some politicians are taking note of what's going on in the minds of people in the real world.

Express.
TWO inquiries into claims that scientists manipulated data about global warming were yesterday condemned by MPs as ineffective and too secretive.
The row, which became known as Climategate, erupted in 2009 over allegations that researchers had deliberately strengthened evidence suggesting human activity was to blame for rising temperatures.
MPs on the Science and Technology Committee have now concluded that both probes into the scandal had failed to “fully investigate” claims that scientists had deleted embarrassing emails.
The investigations were set up after around 4,000 leaked emails and documents appeared to show that scientists at East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit had manipulated data to strengthen the case for man-made global warming.
UEA’s Independent Climate Change Emails Review was led by Sir Muir Russell, while the Scientific Appraisal Panel was led by Lord Oxburgh.
But the MPs said they had “reservations” about both inquiries.
They criticised the brevity of the appraisal panel report, at “a mere five pages”, and said both investigations should have been more open to the public.
The committee also said the emails review “did not fully investigate the serious allegation” relating to the deletion of emails and instead relied on a verbal reassurance that the messages still exist.
Though the committee was split over the credibility of the inquiries, an amendment put forward by Labour MP Graham Stringer which said that they had not been independent was voted down by members.
He said Lord Oxburgh appeared to have a “conflict of interest” because of his links to green businesses while the Emails Review panel included a former Climate Research Unit scientist.
He maintained: “We are now left without a clear understanding of whether or not the CRU science is compromised.”
Yes, it's mostly MP's covering their arses, but it does give the first official signs that some MP's are starting to get worried by the web of lies and deceit implicit in the leaked documents and aren't very happy with the findings of the two investigations. It's a shame Labour MP Graham Stringer's amendment didn't get through, but that I suspect would have taken a miracle and run headlong into the administrations ultimate policy of milking us for all we're worth.
The warmists are losing the battle, they know this, but are still hell bent on getting as much cash for research out of the system before it all goes tits up, same with the government, one day someone will pull the plug and scapegoat hunting season will begin. MP's are notoriously good at shifting the blame, pro warming scientists and environmental groups should remember this, it wont be MP's who are hung out to dry, they'll just claim they were badly misinformed by the scientist and enviroloon movement. MP's will move onto the next great cash cow, probably biodiversity unless we hang them all first.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Never thought I'd see the day

It was always something that attracted the great green unwashed, various leftists and many others of the hard of thinking in society and that was nuclear power. New Labour actually came to power in 1997 with a promise to phase out nuclear power as part of its manifesto.
New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals but not of outdated ideology. ..... We see no economic case for the building of any new nuclear power stations.
All part of Blair's concessions to the left-wing suicidal tendency CND part of the party, a little sop to say we're still (sort of) Labour. Whilst other countries (namely France) moved on to third and fourth generation stations in an area we used to be world beaters at, the UK decided that we would be safe relying on others to provide the fuel for our stations as well as a very unhealthy reliance on mostly useless "Green" energy schemes that don't even come close to generating what is claimed they can never mind what the country needs.
So this little matter caused my eyebrows to raise...

BBC.
Hundreds of people have called on the coalition to reconsider a decision to rule out Dungeness as the site of a new nuclear power plant.
The previous government dismissed Dungeness as a location for one of 10 new nuclear power stations in 2009.
About 200 people gathered at the meeting in New Romney on Saturday, to pledge their support for a new plant.
Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe Damian Collins vowed to take the issue right to the heart of government.
He told the meeting he would take a petition signed by hundreds of residents supporting Dungeness to Downing Street on Tuesday.
Mr Collins said thousands of jobs in Kent and East Sussex were dependent on the power plant.
The meeting in New Romney was also attended by officials from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Dungeness was rejected as an option for a new nuclear power station primarily on environmental grounds.
It is in an area prone to flooding and the shingle beach which protects the current site from the sea often needs to be replenished.
Strangely enough if anyone 10 years ago had asked me where Dungeness was I'd have hazarded a guess at Scotland. As it is it seems so strange to have people clamouring to have a nuclear power station in their back yard. Yes the jobs are certainly welcome and yes it is essential on top of Labours attempts to strangle at birth any attempt to build any power station that actually worked, now currently carried on by that idiot Chris Huhne in the coagulation.
How things have changed in the last 14 years, any attempt to build a new generation of nuclear plants would have been the cause of marches up and down the country, public enquiries and various attempts at sabotage by enviroloonies. Now staring into the abyss of power brown outs in the next few years nuclear power is the only guaranteed power source that can produce the necessary giga-wattage reliably and of low carbon that the green movement can stomach.
Hypocrisy writ large, though still not the quickest and cheapest way to stop the blackouts, but as that would bring the enviroloons out of the woodwork (google Kingsnorth) it does give me a wry smile to see the damascene conversion of the Green movement and the idiot left.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ooh popcorn time

This could get interesting, seems it's soon to be "LGBT History Month" and homosexuality and alternative sexual lifestyles is to be bigged up in schools as part of a Government-backed drive to "celebrate the gay community".

Telegraph.

Children are to be taught about homosexuality in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a Government-backed drive to "celebrate the gay community".
Lesson plans have been drawn up for pupils as young as four, in a scheme funded with a £35,000 grant from an education quango, the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
The initiative will be officially launched next month at the start of "LGBT History Month" – an initiative to encourage teaching about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues.
The lesson plans, spread across the curriculum, will be offered to all schools, which can choose whether or not to make use of them.
But critics last night called the initiative a poor use of public money which could distract from the teaching of "core" subjects.
Among the suggestions are:
Maths – teaching statistics through census findings about the number of homosexuals in the population, and using gay characters in scenarios for maths problems;
Design and technology – encouraging pupils to make symbols linked to the gay rights movement;
Science – studying animal species where the male takes a leading role in raising young, such as emperor penguins and sea horses, and staging class discussions on different family structures, including same-sex parents;
Geography – examining the transformation of San Francisco's Castro district in the 1960s from a working-class Irish area to the world's first "gay neighbourhood", and considering why homosexuals move from the countryside to cities;
Languages – using gay characters in role play scenarios, and teaching "LGBT vocabulary".
The lesson plans, written by teachers and backed by the Department for Education, will be available for schools to download from the Schools Out website.
For younger children, the plans will suggest using images of same sex couples and also promoting books such as "And Tango Makes Three", which is about two male penguins raising a young chick, inspired by actual events at New York's Central Park Zoo.
 I can't help wonder who is kidding who here if they think that kids (who will victimise any one they perceive to be different) will buy into this sort of guff, but each to their own. That said, I just wonder how they believe our resident Muslim/Islamic community are going to react to this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/07/muslims-britain-france-germany-homosexuality
- 0% of British Muslims found homosexuality acceptable.

So we have the delicious possibility of a righteous pet fight coming up, though I suspect a lot will chicken out of the voluntary scheme if they have a large percentage of Muslims at their schools or even ignore the subject entirely.

I'm still waiting patiently for "White History Month" and the MOWO (Music of white origin) awards, a White policeman's association and I can't see any of these happening any time soon.

I'm feeling victimised.

 

Saturday, January 22, 2011

For the children?

Adoption is a serious business local councils charged with it go to great lengths to try and place kids in their care with loving families and by and large they are successful, for a given value of successful. For it seems only the natives in this land are prepared to adopt in any great numbers, other ethnicities apparently not so and because they are over represented in the adoption agencies this is becoming a problem as any attempt to do anything about it immediately brings up the racist cries.

BBC.
The reluctance of some councils to arrange adoptions because of a child's race means the UK faces a collapse in adoption rates, the outgoing chief executive of Barnardo's has warned.
Martin Narey told the Guardian this "prejudice" was so entrenched that it would be difficult to reverse.
He said the adoption rate of babies must "quadruple" in the next few years.
Children's Minister Tim Loughton has said it is unacceptable to deny a child a home because of ethnic differences.
Children from ethnic minorities are over-represented among those seeking adoption, but it typically takes three times as long to place them.
Official figures show that 2,300 children were placed for adoption in 2009, compared with 2,500 the previous year, and down from 3,400 in 2005.
In about 20% of cases identified as suitable for adoption, no placement is found.
"The law is very clear. A child should not stay in care for an undue length of time while waiting for adoptive parents of the same ethnicity.
"But the reality is that black, Asian and mixed race children wait three times longer than white children," he said.
 Tricky situation the righteous have created for themselves here, lots of, well lets call them white couples willing to adopt and lots of, lets call them coloured babies and kids up for adoption. But as every righteous knows, white people are racist and so shouldn't be allowed near coloured kids in case our intolerant culture rubs off on them and they find themselves adrift in society (no doubt believing that old whitey isn't racist at all which would be terribly wrong) and so they struggle to place them with members of their own ethnicity, because cultural differences mean that other ethnicities are reluctant to bring up someone else's sprogs as they tend to see the immediate family as far more important than the general nation. All attempts to get more Blacks and Asians to adopt runs into this brick wall, if the kids aren't family, they generally don't want to know, the correct term is amoral familism, but essentially it's a tribal thing.

This is the problem councils and adoption agencies have dug themselves into so sensitive have they become to criticisms of their own nations and people in regard to others that they are very, very reluctant to put kids into a loving home of a white family and would rather keep coloured kids in care.

So just who are the racists here?

Friday, January 21, 2011

Regrets

I have to be honest here, I was one of the millions taken in by Tony Blair and his case for invading Iraq, though in this case it was more about who organised and lead the "Stop the War" coalition rather than any belief in what Blair was saying. It was more of a case of what the far left support = bad for the country, still even a stopped clock can be right twice a day and I shouldn't have let my prejudices colour my actions or thoughts. I'm a bit less naive now, though I could never see me walking alongside them nor sharing a platform with them save in the most general terms. I saw them in action during the Poll Tax riots and recently during the Student Fees riots. I want nothing to do with the violent left or right in this country, I have areas where my views would be considered extreme, but I wouldn't force them on anyone, hope to persuade yes, but not with lies and not at the threat of violence. Sooner or later the chickens do come home to roost.




'I promise to tell the truth, the edited truth and nothing harmful to me about the truth...'  


Telegraph.

Tony Blair was heckled during emotional scenes at the Chilcot Inquiry as the former prime minister expressed regret for the loss of life in the Iraq war.
Mr Blair told the inquiry into the conflict that he regretted "deeply and profoundly" the deaths of British troops and Iraqi civilians.
Members of the audience watching him give evidence jeered at his comments, with one person shouting: "It's too late."
Mr Blair sparked anger among the families of the 179 UK personnel killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 when he insisted he had no regrets about the war at the end of his first appearance before the inquiry last year.
His voice cracking with emotion, he told the inquiry panel: "At the conclusion of the last hearing, you asked me whether I had any regrets.
"I took that as a question about the decision to go to war, and I answered that I took responsibility. 
Mr Blair said regime change in Baghdad had always been ''on the agenda'' for the Americans after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He acknowledged that it had come up when he spoke to Mr Bush by telephone on December 3 that year.
''Regime change was their policy so regime change was part of the discussion,'' he said. ''If it became the only way of dealing with this issue, we were going to be up for that.''
He added: ''The Americans, from September 11 onwards, this was on their agenda.''
I realise that we do tend to follow somewhat slavishly what the Americans want when it comes to their foreign policy, that said, when it comes to war abroad my feelings have changed. We should not be involved in extended foreign wars, if we do need to go in, it should be fast and with surgical precision then out again. Once our objectives have been met. This should of course only be the final resort after all other means have been eliminated, even then if it can be done without putting feet on the ground it should be, though I'm not so naive to believe that it can in all cases.
But what I do object too is being lied to by politicians, not Just Blair, but all of them, the term honourable member when it comes to parliamentarians has become an oxymoron, they lie, they steal they cheat and they took us into wars in countries where we should never have gone, costing us the lives of soldiers and civilians as well as stirring up a further hornets nest of Islamic extremism (yes I know the Islamic extremists started this). But what I hate most about Blair over this is that he gave the left who hate this country with a passion the moral high ground over this, he's actually made it much more harder to deal with future problems like this without his name and actions being dragged into the equation. Blair's legacy for this country has left us with a riven society, extremists in our midst planning terrorist outrages, our security forces at full stretch combating these, the loss of civil liberties, the trampling over of ancient rights and the trust we had in politicians weakened to the point of contempt for the profession, not that it's ever been particularly high, but some politicians managed to rise above the herd, Thatcher, Powell, even Lord Tebbit, oddly enough I can't think of many on the Labour side of things though and I certainly don't believe any of the current lot can rise so hight, though I did have hope for David Davis until Cameron sidelined him through his actions on personal freedom. Nor can I help but laugh at the current Labour and Lib Dem dwarfs on the benches, well I would laugh if it wasn't so serious, these are pretty much in the same mould of Blair's parliament, who would sell us all out given the means and the opportunity for 30 pieces of silver, look at their actions over the EU after all.

I wondered at the time why the government removed the death penalty for treason, I suspect I know now.

Unfortunately we are living in interesting times.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The last acceptable form of bigotry?

I used to think the last acceptable form of bigotry was anti-Americanism, certainly you get to see a lot of it if you haunt various forums and debate boards where any mention of colour or religion brings the moderators down like a ton of bricks, but accuse the USA of being a nation of degenerate child molesters hardly raises an eyebrow.
But seems I was wrong, it's islamophobia according to baroness Warsi.

Telegraph.
Islamophobia has “passed the dinner-table test” and is seen by many as normal and uncontroversial, Baroness Warsi will say in a speech on Thursday.
The minister without portfolio will also warn that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice.
Lady Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, has pledged to use her position to wage an “ongoing battle against bigotry”.
Her comments are the most high-profile intervention in Britain’s religious debate by any member of David Cameron’s government.
They also confirm the Coalition’s determination to depart from its Labour predecessor’s policy of keeping out of issues of faith.
How can it be a phobia (an irrational fear) when some of them really are out to get us? Who flew the planes into the Twin Towers? Who blew up the buses and tubes in London? Who tried to drive a car filled with gas canisters wrapped in nails at Glasgow airport? Who were 53 of the 56 people convicted of grooming under age girls for sex? It strikes me that Warsi is just engaged in another cover up job by trying to pretend that there isn't a problem with Islam and some Muslims.
A recent study estimated there are now around 2.9 million Muslims in Britain, up from 1.6 million in 2001.
Some religious and social commentators have suggested that growth in numbers gives rise to legitimate concerns, asking whether strict adherence to the faith is compatible with the values of Western democracies.
Some Christian leaders have also said that Britain has become less tolerant of their faith during the same period.
In response, Lady Warsi will blame “the patronising, superficial way faith is discussed in certain quarters, including the media”. The peer will describe how prejudice against Muslims has grown along with their numbers, partly because of the way they are often portrayed.
Patronising and superficial? Anyone who studies a bit about Islam soon comes to the conclusion that there is a major problem between it and Western values.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/07/muslims-britain-france-germany-homosexuality
- 0% of British Muslims found homosexuality acceptable.
- 3% found relations outside of marriage morally justifiable.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1510866/Poll-reveals-40pc-of-Muslims-want-sharia-law-in-UK.html
- 40% of this poll found Muslims wanting Sharia law in the UK.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-432075/Multiculturalism-drives-young-Muslims-shun-British-values.html
- 75% of young Muslims want women to wear the veil (or at least hijab) compared to 19% of adult population.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2461830/Killing-for-religion-is-justified-say-third-of-Muslim-students.html
These results are from a poll of Muslim students:
– 33% claim that killing is justified if done to protect religion.
– 40 percent support the introduction of sharia for British Muslims.
– 33 percent support a worldwide Islamic caliphate based on sharia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1540895/Young-British-Muslims-getting-more-radical.html & http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-432075/Multiculturalism-drives-young-Muslims-shun-British-values.html
These results are from Muslims polled (16 – 24) for Policy Exchange:
-37 percent of young British Muslims want Sharia law in Britain.
-36 percent of young British Muslims think apostates should be killed.
-13 percent of young British Muslims said they “admired” Al Qaeda.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/23/uk.religion
-According to a 2006 Pew Survey, only 17% of British Muslims believe that Arabs carried out the September 11th attacks.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/religion/survey+government+hasnt+told+truth+about+77/545847
-According to an NOP survey, 2007:
-24 percent of British Muslims deny that the four British Muslim suicide bombers carried out the 7/7 attacks.
-24 percent of British Muslims believe the British government carried out the 7/7 attacks.
http://news.scotsman.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=2798950 & http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3244cf90-2626-11db-afa1-0000779e2340,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3244cf90-2626-11db-afa1-0000779e2340.html&_i_referer=
-According to Channel 4 Polls in August 2006, reported in both the Scotsman and the Financial Times:
-24 per cent agreed or tended to agree that the 7/7 bombings were justified.
-45 per cent think 9/11 was carried out by the US or Israel.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article729974.ece
-16 percent of British Muslims support suicide bombing in Israel.
-7 percent of British Muslims support suicide bombing in Britain.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/291
-NOP Channel 4 polling came out with these results:
-33% of Muslims want Sharia Law as implemented in Saudi Arabia.
-28% of muslims agreed they dreamt of Britain becoming an Islamic State.
-78% wanted Danish cartoonist prosecuted.
-68% want prosecutions for insulting Islam.
-62% disagree with the freedom of speech if it insults religious sensibilities.
-50% said British people who insult Islam should be arrested and prosecuted.
-Between 5-9% say that violence to protect Islam is acceptable.
-Whilst 10-13% found that they “understood” why young Muslims might want to become suicide bombers.
The information is not that hard to dig up took me about 1 minute on google, so Warsi really needs to understand that the people of the UK who are not Muslims have a very real distaste and dislike of Islam and some Muslims for very good reasons. There is a stream of violence running through the Koran, the Hadiths and the Surahs and Muslims themselves who adhere to their religion rather than living secular lives are steeped in it because it allows no leeway or freedom to choose how they live their lives. They are told Muhammed was a perfect example of how to live their lives, a guy who probably married a 6 year old and consumated the marriage when she was 9. Who ordered the murder of 600 to 900 Jews of the Quraiza  in 627 AD, who told his followers it was ok to lie, cheat and rob people who aren't Muslims.

Warsi is suffering from Muslim Grievance Syndrome by playing the victim card (yet again) in defence of the indefensible. Yes Islam has passed the "dinner party test" because you can only fool some people so long and Islam is now well past its sell by date for this sort of thing. People now know what a vipers brood we have introduced into the nation and we aren't happy about it. keep pushing this sort of guff Warsi and you'll see things change from unhappy to livid and intolerant.

As Lord Tebbit puts it so much better than I.
I would have told her that the Muslim faith was not discussed over the dinner tables of England, nor in the saloon bars, before large numbers of Muslims came here to our country. Then I would have told her to go to our Christian churches and listen to what was said about her religion and those who practise it, then to the Mosques to hear what is said in some of them about the Christian faith and those who practise it (or about Buddhists, Jews, or even those who have no faith at all).
What we have is an ideology giving rise to so many problematical organisations because it itself is seriously problematical. It cannot remain here in its current form, it will mean civil war otherwise.

Daily Mash does it better (of course)
He added: "When someone says 'it's okay, they're not very muslim'  they're not saying 'it's okay, they'll have a sneaky glass of cider' they're saying 'it's okay, they're not very supportive of imprisoning women who have been raped'.

"A lot of people have a problem with rape victims being jailed, particularly on religious grounds. That doesn't make you a Nazi. It actually makes you the opposite of a Nazi.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Strangers in a strange land

You have to wonder at the path at which society is heading, where the native population are treated as second class citizens and denied access to rate payer funded ventures.

Mail.
Two mothers who were kicked out of a council-funded playgroup spoke of their humiliation today after being told the group was for immigrant families only.
Emma Knightley, 25, and Kimberley Wildman, 27, turned up at the 'Making Links' playgroup with their children Imogen, 21 months, and Olivia, 18 months.  
But they were stunned when organisers at the centre in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, ordered them to leave after demanding to know 'what country are you from?'
The best friends were told that only foreign mothers and their children are welcome at the council-funded playgroup - which they have accused of discrimination.  
Shop worker Emma, who lives in St Neots, booked a place at the playgroup six weeks ago after it was recommended by a mixed-race friend.
She said: 'The first thing I was asked about was my nationality and when I said I was British I was told we had to leave.  
'She said are you not aware this is for foreign people only? 
'I said I knew it was trying to integrate people into the community but didn't realise that meant British people and their children were banned.  
'I felt humiliated. It shouldn't matter what nationality you are we shouldn't be discriminated against.  
'You wouldn't get away with a British-only mum and children's group
Can you imagine the uproar if these two ladies had been any colour other than white? The state would have come down on them like a ton of bricks along with the Commission for Racial Equality as well as various other bleeding heart righteous groups. face it, you just wouldn't get away with it, it's along the same lines as the Black Police Association,try and set up a white one and see what you get, reverse discrimination at its finest.
It's even coming out of ratepayers (and probably taxpayers) money too from the local community for a facility that most wouldn't be allowed to join if they had kids. And if it's to help them integrate, why aren't there English kids around to help? Or could it be that it's just a mutually exclusive "non white" club that's cheap and not there to help them integrate at all but to help them keep apart?
I fear that a time is coming when this country is going to explode in riots and civil disobedience the likes that haven't been seen since the Chartist movement and at the brunt of it will be all those who don't look like they fit in. It unfortunately wont be the idiots who put policies like this in place, it will be those who were told that it was ok to stay apart from the populace.
No-one from St Neots Town Council was available for comment.
Sounds about right, I suspect they've gone to ground as this is one charge they'll struggle to give a decent answer too. After all how can anyone integrate if they aren't allowed to mix with the locals?
Roger Owen, administrator for Making Links, said 'We have had an issue with men turning up before and back then we told them the group is strictly for mothers so it's nothing to do with racial discrimination.'
No that makes it racist and sexist you prick!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Second rate or second best?

The NHS has many faults, in some areas of treatment it compares nicely with the rest of the world. However in other areas it singularly fails to provide a world class service.

Express.
DAVID Cameron came under fire from health workers’ leaders and senior MPs yesterday when he unveiled plans for a huge shake-up of the NHS.
The influential Commons Health Committee hit out at his scheme to sweep away primary care trusts and strat­egic health authorities and introduce more competition into the health service.
And the Prime Minister was attacked by angry doctors and nurses after accidentally describing the NHS as a “second-rate service” in a live radio interview.
Mr Cameron’s keynote speech in London was overshadowed by the gaffe in a radio interview.
Well they're calling it a gaffe, but in this case I believe Cameron had it right the first time. There have been several scandals over the years of patients dying on trolleys, diseases such as MRSA running rampant, even one of my local hospitals (Maidstone) managed to kill 90 patients due to the C-diff bug. So quite clearly there are a few problems in the system which not only is the third largest employer in the world, but has recently come under fire for wages increasing but productivity falling. So clearly not a first class or first rate service by anyones standards, then again, Cameron may have been being kind with his slip of the tongue because quite frankly there are some areas of the NHS where second rate would be a bit of a compliment.

Mail.
NHS shamed by third-rate hospitals: Needless deaths and thousands of blunders exposed.
Death rates at 19 hospital trusts are alarmingly high and tens of thousands of patients are suffering blunders at the hands of careless and incompetent doctors and nurses, a major report reveals.
Many of the substandard hospitals already face investigations that could lead to fines, prosecutions and the closure of wards and units.
The annual snapshot of the state of care in England’s 147 hospital trusts also lays bare huge variations in treatment for strokes and broken hips and in the odds of developing potentially fatal blood clots after surgery.
And this was only in November last year, so I doubt there's been a massive change since then. Certainly even the comment of second best was too kind, other countries health services compare a lot more favourably to ours, particularly France and the Scandinavian countries, anyone doing a bit of research could tell you this. yet Cameron is castigated for a slip of the tongue over the fact he was being critical of the NHS, yet the facts tell a different story, Cameron should be castigated for not going anywhere near far enough. The NHS does ok in certain areas, they saved my arm when I had a cancerous tumour on it and the service I had was good, but not everyone is as lucky as I was. In some areas it offers a well below second rate/second class service and those piling into Cameron should be honest enough to admit this. Whether Cameron's reforms will make a difference, I don't know, but I do know the NHS is in need of reform root and branch and trying to tell us any different is akin to pissing into the wind.
A bit of honesty from both parties might be in order instead of defending both the best and the worst of the NHS.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Human nature

It's always interesting to see the reaction of various pressure groups and the MSM to surveys which show that people are.... well people.

BBC.
Many mothers are under so much pressure to appear like perfect parents that they cover up how much television their children watch or what they cook their families, according to a survey.
Such "white lies" also extend to how much "quality time" mothers spend with their partner, website Netmums said its survey of 5,000 people suggested.
The parenting site said mothers often made each other feel "inadequate".
"Mums need to be more honest with each other," said Netmums' Siobhan Freegard.
The website is calling for a more honest approach to family life and an end to the guilty subterfuge of mothers who feel unable to achieve an idealised view of parenthood.
Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said they had been less than honest with other mothers about how well they were coping and almost half covered up financial worries.
Almost a quarter of mothers admitted to downplaying how much television their children actually watched - and one in five "span a yarn" over how long they played with their children.
 Whilst I admit that honesty is generally a good policy, I did raise a wry smile at Netmums trying to get parents to be honest about how well their kids were doing when discussing it with other parents. Most parents are very proud of their kids and no-one would wish to appear to be a less than perfect parent in front of anyone else, for one thing, the state can be fairly intrusive if they think there's a problem even when there is not. So parents will tend to bend the truth at times, if not tell outright whoppers about what their kids do at home, particularly on areas where they know excess is frowned upon such as tv or video games. You might get home from work exhausted, your partner has had a hell of a day too and all you want to do is relax and if your kids are playing quietly on their playstation for 3 hours after doing their homework and having dinner before they go to bed you can be pretty grateful for that fact, even if it might (just might) not be all that good for them, nor would you ever admit to anyone at the school gate that's what you did last night or most other nights either, mostly because other parents can and will judge you on it. So you tell a fib, it's human nature, the downside being of course that your kids will grass you up to the other parents kids anyway.
Still it's always amusing to see Netmums and the BBC getting their knickers in a twist over human nature, people lie, people lie about all sorts of silly things, people even know people lie and don't pull them on it, it's just human nature and good manners.

As parenting expert and sociologist Frank Furedi said
"Parents are always being judged in one way or another - including by this report. The real solution is to lay off parents and publish less reports."
Got it in one.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Quote of the month

A very lovely lady from the EDL forum pointed me to this article...

Standpoint.
" I shan't miss some locals' assumptions that, being a white woman, if I was outside after dark, as I occasionally was, usually to walk the few metres between my house and the church, I must be a prostitute eager to give them a blow job"
A brilliant summary from the vicars wife of an inner city parish struggling and losing against a tide of immigration from the middle east. The full article is well worth a read and places in context the real destruction that multiculturalism is putting on the embattled native population of England. It also shows the mind set of those who took it upon themselves to groom young girls from any faith other than their own for sexual purposes because at root they don't see women as equal to men and particularly don't see women of other faiths or beliefs as even being particularly human, simply something to use and abuse.
Yet even now after all the publicity over the cases you still have some out there desperately trying to excuse these vile acts or shift the blame to all. Despite mounting evidence that it is endemic in certain communities.
This is a statement issued by the organisation that ran the 'islamophobia and racism' UAF conference - the conference where the prestigious speakers ripped up the photos of black people in EDL, and attacked the Jew, Pakistani, homo and cameraman who had "stormed" the conference by paying at the door.

Link.
Jack Straw chose to make a damaging and unsubstantiated intervention, whipping up the Islamophobic responses to these cases. In a television interview he claimed both that these crimes are rife in the Muslim community as their cultural background means they do not have a sexual outlet, and – most shockingly – that they target white girls in particular as they are seen as ‘easy meat’.
Unsubstantiated? The guys doing this and others arrested were all from the Pakistani Muslim community, if you want to check out the MPAC forums, you'll find lots of evidence of them trying to shift the blame as well in some instances that they think those poor girls were asking for it.

There's something rotten going on at the heart of England, it's something vile introduced by politicians who allowed unrestricted immigration into our country. It's something evil protected by those who believe that multiculturalism works. It's been ignored by the mainstream media for years, it's caused communities to disintegrate, ghettoism, intolerance, misogyny, homophobia, prostitution and a belief that it is above criticism and presents a silent front to all who investigate its misdemeanour's, seeking only to excuse or shift blame. It's called Islam and I believe it has no place in a civilised country, not until it reforms root and branch and outs those within it who do these despicable acts!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

It's a record

And it's not the sort of record most of us are ever likely to try and beat.

Telegraph.
British Army bomb disposal experts have made safe a record number of improvised explosive devices for a single operation on their current tour of Afghanistan.
Some 12 IEDs were found within 300 metres of each other on a route known as Bandi Barq Road in the Gereshk area of Helmand province.
The high-risk clearance operation found the devices, which ranged in size from 5-15kg and were targeted at vehicles and troops on foot.
All 12 were cleared by Warrant Officer Class 2 Iain Martin, Royal Logistic Corps.
The 39-year-old from Craigiehall, Edinburgh, said: ''This was a huge variety of IEDs, all within a short distance, and represented a real challenge for us.
''Our reward came when we had finished and an Afghan family came up on to the road with their herd of goats, looking around like they hadn't trodden on the land in years.
''The local people have confidence in us and our work to improve their lives, and that's a great feeling.''
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Davis GM, Commanding Officer of the Counter-IED Task Force, added that the bravery of his bomb disposal teams ''never fails to amaze me''.
''We know we are having a positive effect, not just for our own troops but also for local Afghans who approach us and express their gratitude for the UK troops helping to make their lives more bearable,'' he said.
Quite an achievement and very brave men. Whatever you think about why our troops are in Afghanistan, shouldn't detract form their bravery and compassion. These aren't the actions of "child killers and murderers" as some sections of society would name them, nor are they imperialists fighting an illegal war (it can't be illegal if our parliament says it is legal, think about it) Just brave men and women doing a job in a country where they probably shouldn't be. Yes I believe they should come home, no I don't believe that the situation there will improve any though they do some good against the Taliban and religious extremists there who treat anyone other than men in their tribes as less than human. Yes women can now be educated and perhaps live better lives, but I don't believe it's a war we can win. Sooner or later we'll leave and the Pathan (and other) tribes will go back to killing each other, it's what they do best. I doubt we'll see Afghan warriors in this country any time soon, unless it's Luton. Periodically we may have to go back in and destroy terrorist training camps, but that doesn't mean we need to keep troops there, just have the strike capability to do so.
Still for what it's worth, these guys and the rest of our Army there are mostly doing good work and I salute them for it, these guys saved lives by their actions and deserve thanks far more than this blog can give or even the Daily Telegraph. Yet I can't help but think that God forbid that any one of them should be killed or injured doing what they do it would have been worth our while being there.

 

Friday, January 14, 2011

The fascist left

On paper it sounds great and a lot of politicians including David Cameron put their names as support, however over the years it has become more and more apparent that Unite Against Fascism and their political master the Socialist Workers Party are a cancer on the body politic and those who wish for freedom and free speech. That's not to say that I oppose those who wish to protest, just not those who would attempt by violent means to silence their opponents. Which is exactly what Unite Against Fascism Freedom are about...

Demotix.
Members of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) waited for British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin to arrive at the Frontline club in Paddington where he was due to hold a Q&A session on the documentary film 'The Battle of Barking'.
He arrived promptly at 1900 hours at which point many people ran towards him shouting 'GET HIM!!'
Mr. Griffin's security detail protected him with one spectacular scuffle in the street. They also used some sort of spray ink, which got one cameraman and one protester in the face.
Numerous police rushed to the scene.



I don't like the BNP myself, but as a legitimate political party they have the right particularly as two of their members are MEP's to meet and discuss things with their constituents.Griffin was speaking to people who wanted to hear him. He broke NO law and the Police should have protected his right to free speech, they didn't. As much as I detest Griffin, his party leadership and what they stand for they have the democratic right to hold view's that the great majority of this country find abhorrent and he has the right to voice his opinion as others have the right to hear them it is called freedom of speech. How can I oppose griffin if I am not allowed to hear what he has to say. This is the true danger of the UAF, they have stopped me hearing what he had to say so this morning I could not comment had I so desired and there was a strong possibility that my comments would not have been favourable. So instead of a blow for democracy the UAF have furthered the cause of fascism and again allowed the BNP to claim victim status as they were able to do on Question Time.
The UAF are also the same group who accuse the EDL of violence, yet actions like this reveal the UAF for what they are, fascist thugs who can't stand any sort of dissent, freedom of speech, freedom of thought or freedom of action.
No wonder so many politicians like them. By allowing this sort of thing to happen, by not arresting, prosecuting and jailing the perpetrators, the message extremist groups get is clear, violence and intimidation gets results.
Why the British government seems hellbent on allowing the spreading of that message far and wide is beyond my ability to comprehend.

It's rumoured (though not proven) that Winston Churchill said "The fascists of the future will call them selves anti fascists."

Thursday, January 13, 2011

My flag is a flag not a religious symbol! update

Seems common sense has prevailed, in this case...

Inside the court 37-year-old Tilehurst man Ronald Peterson was on trial for religiously aggravated harassment. The court heard he went to the partially built mosque in Oxford Road, west Reading, on May 30 to protest over the way its planning application was handled by the borough council.
Peterson, with two other men, draped the St George’s flag on a fence, posed for pictures and chanted “E, E, E.D.L” and “England”.
Witness Urfan Azad, 32, told the court he was in the nearby Reading Tea House and went outside after hearing the chanting.
He said he dialled 999 because he was concerned the situation could escalate, and added: “My concern was the flag needed to be taken off the fence because it might be seen by Muslims as a religious symbol. I felt upset about the whole incident. I’m British myself, I was born in Reading. It’s made me feel a bit socially excluded.”
Now today...

Reading Chronicle.
A MAN arrested after hanging a flag of St George outside a partially built mosque has had the case against him thrown out of court.
District judge Andrew Vickers dismissed the charge of religiously aggravated harassment against Ronald Peterson, from Tilehurst, at Reading Crown Court today (Thursday).
Mr Peterson, 37, a member of the English Defence League (EDL), was arrested on May 30 last year when a witness called the police after seeing him hang the flag on a fence outside the Oxford Road mosque in West Reading and hearing him chant “EDL” and “England”.
Judge Vickers said he did not believe Mr Peterson’s words were threatening, abusive or insulting or that he was motivated by religious hatred, and added: “Was the display of the St George’s flag a challenge to the Islamic faith? I do not find that beyond reasonable doubt.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Peterson said: “I’m happy but I’m not happy because at the end of the day I shouldn’t have been in court in the first place.”
Well done that judge!

Good news, but it should not have even reached the court, flying the flag of your own country in your own country should never be classed as a crime!
Again it seems as if the law enforcement agencies in this country will fall over backwards to pander to those who cry of racist particularly if it comes from a member of the so called "religion of peace"
And they wonder why groups like the EDL are growing at an incredible rate.

Why am I not surprised. # 2

Our prisons are overcrowded, granted we probably send a good few of the wrong people too them and we certainly shouldn't be keeping foreign prisoners in custody either, however it remains the case that the system is stretched to the breaking point.
So what's the governments solution? Build more prisons? Come up with a non custodial system that actually works?

BBC.
Three prisons with a total capacity of 850 inmates are to close, the Ministry of Justice has announced.
Ashwell prison in Rutland and Lancaster Castle in Lancashire will shut, while Morton Hall in Lincolnshire changes to an "immigration removal centre".
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, who wants to cut total inmate numbers, said the jails were outdated and expensive.
As of last weekend, the jail population was 82,991 in England and Wales, almost 5,000 places below capacity.
The inmates from the three closed prisons will be re-housed elsewhere, while about 500 staff will be transferred nearby or invited to apply for voluntary redundancy, a spokesman added.
Mr Clarke said: "The decision to close any prison is a difficult one but one that we have had to make. Closing outdated and expensive prisons is an important step in our strategy to provide a secure and modern, fit-for-purpose prison estate, while improving efficiency and value for the taxpayer.
"The changes will reduce our current capacity by 849 places and I am confident that they can be safely managed within existing headroom, whilst maintaining our ability to cope with any increase in population.
"Security remains our highest priority and we will ensure that this, along with efficiency and current performance levels, is maintained across the estate."
He added: "Decisions on the future size of the prison estate will be driven by population demand and prisons will only close when capacity allows.
 Yes, they're going to close prisons down because they are more expensive and they need one as an "immigration removal centre" which to my mind is a waste of time, handcuff them onto the next flight home is my preferred solution, if they're lucky it will be inside. Only one appeal, then only on the grounds that they make a valuable contribution to the UK economy, not even if they have family, if their family want to go with them then fine, oh and charge them for the privilege.
Why is it that every act of idiocy in the Tory party seems to emanate from Ken Clark and his mates? His position on the EU is well known and now he's tinkering with the prison service. is it so hard to accept the fact that if we have an overcrowded prison system then a solution is to build more prisons, not close them down? granted some non violent criminals probably shouldn't end up there, but we certainly have enough violent dangerous ones to take their places.
Honestly there are some days I wish this stuff was made up!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The wonderful world of league tables

Politicians are obsessed with league tables in education, often using them as examples that their preferred method of telling teachers how to do things is working. Labour were notorious for dumbing down exam standards to keep the percentages of those getting the higher levels rising despite the fact that many employers and a good few universities were pointing out that the standard of education of those applying was becoming ever more dire.
Still, you'd expect the top private schools to be at the top of the education tables, well you would if it weren't for a technicality where because they make their pupils take a much harder exam, their results in the league tables make them look bad.

Telegraph.

Many of the most famous schools in the world – including Eton, Marlborough, Harrow and Dulwich College – registered lower results than some of England’s worst-performing comprehensives because of a technicality.
According to the tables, at 142 independent schools no pupils achieved five A* to C grades including English and maths, while a further 26 scored below 10 per cent.
The rock-bottom ratings come because most independent schools have dropped conventional GCSEs in some subjects and moved towards the tougher International GCSE – an alternative qualification based on the old O-level.
Labour refused to recognise the qualifications – skewing independent school results – but the Coalition has pledged to reverse the decision.
However, a popular maths IGCSE set by the Edexcel exam board was not accredited in time for this year’s rankings, sending schools to the bottom of the tables.
Typical of Labour, not recognising a harder exam in order to make other schools under their control look good, though I doubt it stopped those who could afford it sending their kids in for private education. Anyone who could afford to probably knew about the IGCSE anyway, though it does beg the question as to why kids in the ordinary schools were never given a chance to take it. I know if I were an employer I'd opt for anyone offering me the higher exam standard, only common sense after all.
What it boils down to in the end is that our kids are being badly let down by the system, too much checking on their progress and not enough teaching. Education is still one of the few areas that UK politicians have free rein in away from EU control so the urge to meddle has to be pretty high. But a generation of well educated kids is vital to the countries future. And there's the rub, were I a conspiracy theorist, I'd put money down that this is the case, that politicians don't want a too well educated generation, after all people who can think are a danger to the political classes. So you educate a small elite and keep the rest tied down too poorly educated to mess with the process. Throw in a few foreign wars and add a mixture of a few immigrants who wont integrate and generally wind the local populace up and you have a heady mix of problems that keep them out of the way of politicians as they are too busy fighting amongst themselves.
I hope I'm wrong.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Bansturbation

It's one of the more annoying things about those who discover that what they want isn't the way it is, it's as common amongst Daily Mail readers as it is amongst Guardianistas, they automatic reflex to ban something rather than deal with it at a personal level. And so it is with flu jabs...

BBC.
People who are not in an at-risk group should be banned from having private flu vaccinations, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs has said.
Dr Clare Gerada told the Daily Telegraph allowing healthy people to buy the flu jab had compounded NHS shortages and left others vulnerable.
There are reports some GPs in England have run out of stock.
The Department of Health said it could not prevent pharmacies from selling the vaccine commercially.
Nearly 15 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine have been delivered to the UK.
Usually that is more than enough but this year there has been a late surge in demand, with reports that some people most at risk from flu - including pregnant women and those with underlying health problems - have been unable to get the vaccine.
Some pharmacies have offered the jab privately for about £15.
Dr Gerada told the newspaper the private flu vaccinations had affected the "delicate balance" of availability and should be stopped by the government.
Yes, instead of lambasting the inefficient NHS and the GP's who failed to stock enough of the flu vaccine, they want to ban private businesses from selling it. Yes I know some groups are vulnerable, but surely the NHS and the GP's know who they are and could have ordered stocks in? There's nothing to stop them buying up the chemists stocks themselves after all, it's only our money they're spending, it's never stopped them before.
I suspect what has got their knickers in a twist is that people have decided they'd rather avoid having flu this year and taken it upon themselves to do something about it and rather than bother their GP's (who may have turned round and refused anyway) went to a supplier and paid the market price. So instead of taking a week off work to recover if they got flu, they keep going and help the country out, yet get the blame anyway for using their heads.
What happened was as usual the state run medical business was slow off the mark in making sure they had sufficient supplies, they are now screaming that those with the jabs now hand them over to them to cover their client base and I'm sure a lot will have sympathy for the people at risk who can't get a jab, I do, however it doesn't blind me to the fact of who is to blame for this. Nor do I have any sympathy for those who say we must rob Peter to pay Paul, perhaps those supplying Peter should have got their order in earlier, one thing in business you do learn is you don't irritate your customers by cancelling their orders.
Yet another example of NHS efficiency, they really couldn't be trusted to arrange a piss up in a brewery, or in this case a vaccination in an epidemic.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Democracy?

I have precious little time for the BNP or the English Democrats, despite the latter having more in common with my desire to see an English Parliament. Yet in a democracy I do believe they have a right to their say in public meetings of the candidates in the Oldham by-election.

The English Democrats candidate had to do his speeches outside the meeting.



The BNP candidate got thrown out by police out of the meeting by the police.



Seems a disgruntled Labour councillor wasnt to happy that the council were giving the BNP and the English Democrats a platform. So he went to the event organisers to complain, he then returned to the event room and told the two candidates that they were no longer welcome. The BNP candidate refused to move explaining that it was his right to be there. So the police were called. The police consulted with the event organisers, they then escorted Derek Adams out like a criminal. (In this case I'm not blaming the police)
Now from a libertarian point of view, whoever hired the hall has the right to say who attends or not, no one has to break the law as such. It would be the same if you had a party there, you would have the right to invite or even dis-invite who you wish and the police would have ejected them, normally that is. However, if (and it is a big if as I don't know as yet) it was a council run hustings, by law they can not promote one candidate over another. As the council is the organisation charged with running the election this is a serious matter. If I were in a senior position in the BNP or the English Democrats I would be getting legal advice, and looking to press charges, if this is the case.