Not as big as they look and they know it.

Lies, damned lies and statistics, a quote attributed to Benjamin Disraeli by Mark Twain, though not mentioned in any books or other works by Disraeli. I've frequently used the quote myself to disparage the work of government when they claim that a majority of people support certain positions, when the statistics themselves often allude to a different position. The classic case being that the current government claiming they have a mandate to rule having gotten the most votes or the highest percentage of the vote, when a quick scan taking into account the number of non voters added to those who voted against the government shows no such popular mandate. Still that's the system we use and until we're given a better choice, it's the system we get to put up with.
One of the statistics that has always puzzled me though is the one claimed by gay people that 5 to 7% of the population is gay. I've never seen any evidence of this, 5% of the UK population is Muslim and I see a lot more evidence of this. Not that I'll admit that gay spotting is a pastime of mine or that they'd somehow stand out in a crowd, but surely there must have been a lot more evidence around of their existence if as was claimed by Stonewall to civil servants for a Whitehall consultation paper some 8 years ago. The figures themselves were then thought to be somewhat conservative as the claims of Alfred Kinsey that 13 per cent of men are exclusively homosexual and seven per cent of women exclusively lesbian were still widely believed.
Yet other surveys done by the ONS (Office of National Statistics) showed a very different story.
Mail.

Homosexuals make up only 1.5 per cent of the population, the survey found.
One per cent said they were gay or lesbian, while 0.5 per cent said they were bisexual.
More men than women declared themselves homosexual, with 1.3 per cent of men saying they were gay compared to 0.6 per cent of women who described themselves as lesbian.
Gay lobbyists and politicians have long claimed that 10 per cent of the population is homosexual. But the figures from the Office for National Statistics’ Integrated Household Survey show this is a wild exaggeration.
Some 94 per cent said they were heterosexual, 4.3 per cent declined to answer the question or said they didn’t know, and 0.4 per cent said their sexuality was ‘other’.

Now these statistics were part of "The Integrated Household Survey" and was put together from five ONS surveys which asked the same ‘core questions’ over a year, it's confidential and unlike your average political poll of 1000 people this one is based on questions answered by 413,000 people. The fact that confidentiality is assured means that the answers are likely to be far more accurate than with an open poll.
This by the way isn't a tilt at gay people, what people choose to do and how they live their lives so long as it doesn't impinge on me and mine or break any laws is their concern. What this is about is undue influence...
The gay lobby keep collecting fat taxpayer grants both nationally and locally via the taxpayer, do a google on gay pride marches to see just who and what contributes, this is out of proportion for a group representing only just above 1 in a 100 of the population.
And for the government, there is a question of how you justify continued gay equality legislation when the general public is finding it increasingly irksome. (Well those who study the figures on government spending, the rest just watch X factor and go "huh" when asked political stuff).
Though not as seriously damaging, as in the equality rules that have already shut down 10 Roman Catholic adoption agencies at a time when numbers of adoptions of young children are disastrously low.
Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone once said ‘we are a world leader for gay rights but there is still more we must do’ which now has to stand against the claims of Christians who object strongly to the extension of marriage to same sex couples and who fear their churches will be compelled to celebrate gay weddings. Yet the statistics show that this is all to benefit only 1.5% of the population. Yet there are 70% who claim to be Christian and who see marriage as being between men and women, not same sex, as they already have civil partnerships for that, something of an advantage over men and women who wish to live together and not get married.
Yet the influential gay lobby has plenty of allies who will try to smooth over the little problem with the numbers. Starting with the BBC, whose website continued to publicise figures suggesting that the gay population was about 5%
Yet, Ministers are still barrelling along with enforcing civil partnerships in churches and redefining marriage influenced by groups who only represent 1.5% of the population. Yet if we were to use the majority rules that the government use as a mandate, this wouldn't be happening, the people of the church would get to decide. That this isn't happening shows the grave distortion in politics that an effective lobby can make, particularly one that distorts its own numbers out of proportion to its actual size.

Surprise, surprise

When Labour were last in government they commissioned a report on just who was claiming jobless benefits. It naturally told them what everyone knew and so they appear to have tried to hush it up.
Express.

MIGRANTS to the UK are more likely to be claiming unemployment benefits than the native population, newly found studies for the last Labour government have revealed.
A report showed that while just over 3.7 per cent of the local population claimed jobless payments, 5.7 per cent of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria took the handouts along with 5.3 per cent of migrants from outside the EU and 3.7 percent of eastern Europeans who joined the EU in 2004.
The study, one of five commissioned by Labour and never published until today, belies the claim that migrants come to the UK for work.
Current Ministers accuse Labour of an “orchestrated cover-up” over the reports which lay bare the folly of its open-door migration policy.
The research was ordered by the Department for Communities and Local Government in the dying days of Gordon Brown at No 10.
At the start of the 1980s “net immigration” for the UK was minus 42,000. By 1995 the figure had risen to 9,200.
But a decade after Labour swept to power in 1997, it had mushroomed to plus 178,000 a year.
Housing benefit was the most popular handout. Nine out of 10 claimants from A2 and A8 countries had their rent paid by the state as did 85 per cent of other migrants. For UK-born claimants the figure was 81.6 percent. 

Thing is, a lot of immigrants do come to work, but fail to leave once the work runs out and the benefits system encourages this. You get your rent paid, your council tax paid and you get pocket money from the state for just simply claiming you're looking for work. From an immigrant from a poor country with little or no benefits, what's not to like?
Thing was, the vast majority of the country already knew this and had been saying this only to be derided for being bigots by various leftists and liberals as well as the then Labour leader himself on tv.
The benefits system itself was only supposed to be a safety net for the unemployed, yet it has become a millstone around the neck of the nation making those who don't work far better off than those who are on low paid jobs. Yet just the other day we had the now Labour leader telling the world that the then Labour government had only made a mistake with some immigrants, notably the ones who hadn't joined the EU during the time when mass uncontrolled immigration allowed by Labour happened.
That they tried to suppress this report is not surprising, that they continue to deny there is a problem is not surprising, that they seek to blame anyone but themselves for a problem of their creation is the least surprising of all.
Labour really should be unelectable for what they did, it is to the shame of the current government that they aren't.

No, this wont work either

Apparently from Saturday the price of some beers will be up to 50p cheaper if they have only 2.8% abv (alcohol by volume) and apart from wondering what's the point of drinking something that will be flushed out of your system by numerous trips to the loo before you can get any sort of effect I do think that the wishful thinking going on in the paper that this will invigorate the pub trade rather misses the elephant in the room.
Mail.

Cash strapped drinkers and people looking for a low alcohol beer will have more choice from this weekend as new ranges of tax-busting beers are introduced.
From Saturday, a new rule will mean that beers with less than 2.8 per cent alcohol by volume will be taxed less, leading to possible savings of 50p for some drinks.
With local pubs closing at an alarming rate and government promoting responsible drinking, beer lobby groups have welcomed the new tax break.
Dubbed the 'people's pints', many brewers have already started selling lager and ale with lower alcohol contents but more are likely to follow suit.
Carlsberg UK has already announced that it will reduce the strength of it's Skol lager from 3 per cent to 2.8 per cent to take advantage of the new tax break.
The Campaign for Real Ale says it hopes the lower price and alcohol content will provide a lifeline for thousands of pubs threatened with closure.

God alone knows why Camra thinks this will help, the stuff mentioned is hardly real ale after all and Carlsberg Skol barely escapes classification as drain cleaner in my book of beers to avoid at all costs.
The elephant in the room of course is the smoking ban whereby the state took it upon itself to tell people what they could and couldn't do with a legal pastime on their own property, rather than leave it down to personal choice. That decision is the one which sounded the death knell for so many pubs, not expensive beer, but the fact that many of their customers (and non smoking friends) decided they no longer felt welcome in the pubs and decided to just meet and drink at home instead.
Try getting a politician to admit this though and it's like trying to get blood out of a stone, a very few have, but by and large they seem to live on a different planet to the rest of us and cannot see the cause and effect factor at work.
If they'd just left us alone and not tried to legislate away our freedoms, then perhaps the pub trade (and the country) wouldn't be in the mess that it is.

Rewriting history

Revisionism is a despicable act often promulgated by socialists and other leftists after they have made a total balls up of a country after they have been thrown out of power. You saw it in full flow with Ed balls yesterday when he denied Labour had been profligate with the countries finances whilst completely ignoring the idiotic Private Finance Initiatives that the Labour government have saddled local authorities with. Worst of all though was his attempt to somehow blame Eastern Europeans for the UK's immigration problems.
Express.

ED Balls yesterday denied Labour had wasted hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
In his keynote conference speech the Shadow Chancellor admitted Labour had “made mistakes” on the economy.
But he rejected charges that the party had been “profligate with public money” and insisted even more borrowing and spending was needed to boost growth.

Yes, that's right, he believes the way to cure government overspending is for the government to borrow more and spend more, something a 9 year old could figure out as being complete bollocks.

“We should have adopted tougher controls on migration from Eastern Europe. And yes – we didn’t regulate the banks toughly enough.”

Yes you should have, though I can assure you that because of the Lisbon treaty your cowardly idiot of a leader signed, there was bugger all Labour could have done about Eastern European immigration, though oddly enough most of them came here to work. The problem for the UK stems from Labours other pet immigrants, the Islamic community, many of whom only come here for the lavish (by their standards) benefits system Labour set up, not to work at all so becoming a net drain on the economy, not a benefit. Labour seem to want us to forget that they came to office in 1997 and Poland did not join the EU until 2004. Yet  in 1996, net immigration to the UK was 40,000, by 2003 it was 150,000. It is now about 250,000. Eastern Europe might be a problem, but it isn't the problem the left would want us to believe it is, not in the same way that Islamic immigration is anyway.
If immigrants want to come the the UK they should:

Swear allegiance to the Country
Speak English fluently
Leave their (religious) culture and social mores at the door
Guarantee that they will do their best to integrate.
Not complain about customs that offend.
Respect and embrace our culture.
Bring money with them and pay a bond to repatriate them if it goes wrong.
Have a job, pay for their own housing.
Have no benefit entitlement until they've paid at least 10 years worth of taxation for all the non tax paying members of their families at the minimum wage level.
Do not get full citizenship until after 10 years have passed and they can prove they have successfully integrated.

Yet the left and Labour continue to deny they did anything wrong, just mistakes and no real apology.

Typical, but very, very socialist.

I wonder if they'd try this in another religions café

I'm not a Christian, I used to be and I still hold to the values in inculated in me by the Sunday Schools and Scout troops along with confirmation classes. It taught me tolerance (though I know a good few intolerant Christians) and a lot of good social values such as treating others as I'd wish to be treated myself, a good human (and libertarian) value if ever there was one.
However the number of attacks on Christianity has increased in the UK over the last few years as various pressure groups who have values that Christianity disapproves of have gone on the offensive to make Christians lives just that bit more uncomfortable than necessary.
The Christian Institute.

Police in Lancashire have told the owner of a Christian café to stop displaying Bible texts on a video screen, because it breaches public order laws.

Officers attended the Salt & Light Coffee House on Layton Road, Blackpool, on Monday 19 September, following a complaint about “insulting” and “homophobic” material.

The café’s owner, Mr Jamie Murray, says the officers did not specify which Bible texts had caused the offence. 

That's right, plod have decided that it's illegal for Christians in a Christian café to display Bible verses. I can only imagine that it's one of the militant gay factions or idiot socialist types trying to be clever and I have grave doubts as to whether they'd even dare try this in a Muslim run café. After consulting his solicitor the owner has put the display back, but he should not have even been warned in the first place.
The problem is as usual interpretation of badly written law in Section 5 of the Public order Act 1986...

"(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he:

(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or

(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,

within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby."

This offence has the following statutory defences:

(a) The defendant had no reason to believe that there was any person within hearing or sight who was likely to be alarmed or distressed by his action.

(b) The defendant was in a dwelling and had no reason to believe that his behaviour would be seen or heard by any person outside any dwelling.

(c) The conduct was reasonable.

Seems some pressure groups are using the insulting words clause to cut down on free speech no doubt congratulating themselves on doing so but not realising the ramifications that an attack on specific free speech is an attack on all free speech. Part of the problem is that people have forgotten that there is no right "not to be offended" and yes the Old Testament and the New Testament are fairly clear on the fact that the Christian God does not like the homosexual act, however, that doesn't stop homosexuals from being Christians and the specifics as it is interpreted these days is that the sin can be hated, but not the sinner (not all Christians do I know). This seems to apply to most main religions, but only Christians seem to be attacked for it, I doubt the group or person who complained would like living in an Islamic country with their attitudes towards gays.

Parliament is going to debate removing the "insulting" clause from the Act, they also suggest that the police are better trained, either would be welcome, though any restrictions on free speech should be removed from the statute books save only for slander and libel, anything else just gives the state and their minions far too much power.

Petty revenge?

The saying used to go "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" but it equally seems to apply too ousted district council members too. Council leader Fred Brown ex of East Cambridgeshire District Council was ousted in the last local elections for what he claimed were the budget deficits and cut-backs in which he ultimately paid the price for the difficult decisions made by the ruling Conservative group. Of course it might just have been the fact that he had awarded himself a huge pay increase soon after arriving in office in May 2009 and people have long memories when it comes to that sort of thing.
Still what better way to put the boot into your locals than to propose this...
Ely Weekly News.

Ousted council leader Fred Brown wants to help Ely Muslims build a miniature mosque, the Weekly News can reveal.
The former leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, right, says he has a property in central Littleport which would be “ideal” for Muslims to convert into a prayer centre.
Mr Brown, who lives in Littleport and owns several properties in the village, says he wants to meet up with the group and show them around the building.
Speaking to the Weekly News, Mr Brown, who lost his seat during the elections in May, said: “I want to get in touch with the Ely Muslims and have a chat with them.
It was earlier this year that the Ely Muslims, who currently meet each week at the Paradise Centre in Ely, announced that they wanted to build a miniature mosque in the city.
The management committee of the Paradise Centre had told the group that they would lease them an area of their sports fields, close to the junction with New Barns Road and Deacons Lane, to build the facility if they gained planning permission.
However, the discussions have been put on hold following uproar from many locals, who insist the Muslims should not be allowed to build a new prayer centre.
Since then the debate has intensified with more and more people speaking their minds over the proposals.
The English Defence League (EDL) has even threatened to protest in the city if the plans come into fruition.

Now, it's his land and he can do what he wants with it so long as he isn't breaking any laws, however I suspect that this is either an attempt to offload a badly performing business property he owns or a way to stick two fingers up to the people who decided that they didn't want him to represent them any more. Judging by Mr Brown's history it's a possibility of both being the case. Fact is, despite the attempts by media, government, other (foolish) religious types, socialists and bleeding heart liberals, Muslims are about as welcome as pork pies at Jewish weddings in most communities these days. Although they may appear to blend in at first, as soon as their numbers reach a certain critical mass then they start to "demand" that things go their way and once the first domino falls it just carries on until you end up with some form of ghetto filled with Muslims who don't integrate and who live separate lives to the rest of the community including the usual homophobia, misogyny and religious intolerance that characterises that totalitarian, fascist ideology.
As a way of sticking two fingers up at your community, I can't think of anything better really, well not with any hope of getting planning permission.
I doubt Mr Brown will be standing for election again...

Someone gets it...

I have to go into darkest Essex tonight to visit relatives of Lady QM, it's always a good visit as they really look after us very well food and drink wise as well as enjoying long country walks which we appreciate all to well. Yet to get there we have to cross over the Dartford toll crossing on the M25 which has to be the biggest bottleneck on a main transport route ever devised, so much so that some people who ought to know better claim it as a traffic calming measure yet all it does is create a bottleneck for motorists going North or South across the river. This along with the current road widening going on in Essex on the M25 means that in future, it's only going to get worse.
BBC.

Tolls on the Dartford Crossing should be scrapped to help boost the local economy, a group representing public bodies and businesses has said.

The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (Selep) said charges "can have devastating effects on business."

The Department for Transport (DfT) wants to increase car tolls from £1.50 to £2 in November and £2.50 in 2012.

The crossing comprises a dual tunnel northbound and bridge southbound, linking Essex and Kent.

The local enterprise partnerships were set up to stimulate economic growth, replacing the publicly-funded regional development agencies.

George Kieffer, who chairs Selep, said: "It is not rocket science to see the toll booths act as a major traffic bottleneck which can have a huge knock on effect for the surrounding road network.

Yep, it might not be rocket science, but prising £40 million quid from the hands of politicians/ministries is never going to be easy. To them, it's all about the money, not the problems caused, after all the crossing was paid off years ago and the government reneged on the promise to scrap the tolls once it was paid. So somehow or other I cannot see Selep's call to have them scrapped falling on fertile ground.
Still it's nice to know that my opinions and others are being echoed by others with more clout than I have, though sadly I fear with the same result of being ignored by those who prefer a revenue stream to free flowing traffic.

Biting the hand that feeds you

I had a wry smile at an Express article today on Ed Millipede and his reluctance to condemn unions for planning to bring the country to a halt over public sector pension reform. Don't get me wrong, it would be interesting to see Millipede E grow a pair, but the Express also seems to be forgetting just who is bankrolling the Labour party and Millipede E is not stupid and will avoid shitting in his own nest.
Express.

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband ducked the chance yesterday to condemn unions for planning to bring the country to a halt over public sector pension reform.
With fresh talks due today aimed at resolving the dispute, he refused either to attack or support the unions’ planned day of action on November 30, saying only that the Government must negotiate “in good faith”.
Several unions are preparing to ballot for strikes with a view to coordinated action, which some leaders have threatened could drag on to next summer.
In an interview on the eve of the Labour conference, Mr Miliband replied when asked if he would support November strikes: “I’m not going to get into hypothetical's about a strike that may or may not happen.”
Asked if unions should strike, he insisted: “The unions have to make their own judgement about what they do. We’re not at 30 November. I’ll make a judgement about that if we get to that.”

There is no chance that the Millipede is going to tell the people who are paying for his party's upkeep that going on strike is a wee bit naughty, even if he suspects it might be a bit of a losing situation. Going against the people who put up the money for your organisation requires courage and leadership qualities, something that none of the current leaders of the big 2 and a half have in any abundance so tied as they are to the policies of centralism that they have forgotten that the main ethos of being a leader is to lead, not react, not administer and not play favourites or power consolidation. Yet all the Leaders of the Con/Lab/Lib parties look like a bunch of interchangeable clones, each could be slotted into the other parties team and I doubt we'd notice the difference, they'd simply change the buzzwords as they appear to be politicians first and foremost rather than principled men.
And that sadly until it is resolved is the root of the problem.

Qualifying the obvious

The BBC continually do this in their reporting and I shouldn't be surprised anymore but if I like others don't constantly trip them up over this, they'll keep on doing it. No I don't think my efforts in this will change them one iota, but a gradual groundswell just might.
BBC.

Six men and a woman have been arrested in Birmingham in a large anti-terrorism operation.

The men, aged between 25 and 32, are being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK.

The woman, 22, is held on suspicion of failing to disclose information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000.

The arrests are thought to be the most significant this year, BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said.

It is understood the investigation, which has involved security service MI5, relates to suspected Islamist extremism.

But the arrests are not thought to be related to the Liberal Democrats' conference which is taking place at the city's International Convention Centre.

Suspected Islamic extremism? One of the addresses known to have been searched belonged to Mohammed Irfan, previously jailed for his part in plotting to kidnap a Muslim British soldier and behead him live on the internet and Mohammed Rizwan, who preaches at a mosque. The woman arrested was nursery nurse Salma Kabal hardly an average English or Irish name. Others arrested were Ashiq Ali, who was arrested with his brother Bahader, 28, who runs a gym.
So I'm going to stick my neck out here knowing the proclivity of certain followers of the religion of peace and say that suspected Islamic extremism is a bit of a misleading statement here and that the BBC is as ever reluctant to be too critical of Islam. It was Islamic extremism, no doubt in my mind about it. All of the accused have British Passports, yet to me none of them are truly British anymore, they view themselves as Muslims first and that's fine by me, as I don't consider them to be welcome residents.
It's truly a pity that Tony Blair was able to get away with removing the death penalty for treason from the statute books...

Crime and disorder act 1998 amended.

(4)In section 1 of the Treason Act 1814 (form of sentence in case of high treason), for the words “such person shall be hanged by the neck until such person be dead”, there shall be substituted the words “ such person shall be liable to imprisonment for life.


Because if these Muslims had indeed been planning their usual sort of atrocity, it would have been nice to just simply hang them pour encourager les autres.
And no I'm not in favour of the death penalty, but I'm less in favour of home grown terrorists abusing this countries good nature by trying to kill as many of us as possible in the name of their perverted beliefs.

Indugence

I have been indulging myself with past memories and an ability to find a bargain on Ebay. I've managed to blag myself an Amiga 1200 complete with a massive 850 mb (that's right megabite) hard drive. For those who don't know, Amiga's were lovely little hybrids between true game playing machines like the Sony Megadrive and the  Super Nintendo and business/arts machines like the pc or mac. It had a keyboard and various ports for connecting accesories

The 1200 was the last of the Amiga group although enthusiasts are still building new bits for them today and there's a burgeoning market in spares and repairs, though sadly few games. You can still have one built to order though and the Amiga community is still one of the more active of the retro computing groups on the web. I can with a few mods even get it running on my broadband getting a browser for it being the fun bit, though this will wait a while as I'm going back to my computing roots to play a few old games I remember well.

Here we go again

I frequently rail at the police who arrest people for defending themselves in their own property when faced with someone breaking the law. It happened to the florist Cecil Coley and its happened to others in the past where the automatic reaction of the police is to arrest people for crimes committed on their own property to people who shouldn't have been there.
BBC.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a suspected intruder at a Greater Manchester house.

Police found a man, aged in his 30s, with knife injuries after they were called to a house in Midland Road, Bramhall, at 19:50 BST on Saturday.

He was given first aid by paramedics and responding officers, but died a short time afterwards. A second man fled the scene.

A 39-year-old man believed to be the householder has been arrested.

Yes I know the police have to investigate the circumstances, after all there's the possibility of enticement or some sort of revenge motivation, but you'd think that innocent until proven guilty would apply as the householder will now have been fingerprinted and dna analysed and his details kept on permanent record. Granted he may never come to the attention of the police again, but the details will still be kept on record unless the householder goes through a lengthy process to try and have them removed.

Ch Supt Tim Forber, said: "Clearly this is a serious incident in which a man has lost his life and at this time we believe the dead man was one of two men who were attempting to carry out a burglary at the house."  

If that's the case, why arrest the householder? Clearly there is a need to investigate, however if as the police suspect that it was a burglary, then the householder need only be told not to attempt to "leave town" until the facts are ascertained, or even kept in "protective custody" but certainly NOT arrested at least not until its proven an actual crime has been committed and defending yourself on your property against burglars should never be considered to be a crime even if the burglars die. If the investigations bring up evidence of collusion or discrepancies in the evidence to place the householders version in grave doubt then arrest, but not before. I'm still of the mind that no-one has the right to come onto my property unannounced without my permission, I'm willing to give a bit of leeway to the police, fire brigade and ambulance service if they have good reason to think they are needed, but no-one else without some sort of court warrant having presented some form of evidence that they need to get in without my permission or because I've withheld it. Similar to a search warrant I guess.
But everytime this happens it just reinforces the idea in my mind that those who break the law by entering someone property illegally have more rights than the property owner and until this matter is redressed, more and more people will end up being arrested with all the rigmarole that goes with it simply for defending themselves in their own homes/property against someone who should not be there.

More human wrongs

As each day goes bye I'm coming to hate the Human Rights Act and the idiot politicians who will not do something about the ambiguity of its clauses and the fact that the legal system is abusing its original intentions by using it to prevent justice by protecting their clients within its bounds.
Yes I know if the act protects criminals it will also protect me, but I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I don't need the kind of protections it offers, not when it can be twisted to produce a result like this.
Express.

A COLOMBIAN cocaine dealer has beaten deportation after claiming it would ruin her social life and be a breach of her human rights.

She even got legal aid to bring the case, funded by the taxpayer.

A series of bungles by immigration officials left a furious judge with no choice but to let the 48-year-old woman, referred to only as AMB, stay in Scotland.

The judge, Lord Bannatyne, heavily criticised Home Secretary Theresa May for errors at the Home Office.

He described the deportation order as “unreasonable” and said officials had failed to scrutinise the case properly.

At one stage official papers had even called for the woman to be sent back to Jamaica.

She was first arrested in Leith in 2005 when police stumbled on a sophisticated drugs lab which “would have produced large amounts of cocaine and crack” to be sold across Scotland.

After serving 20 months, she was served with a deportation order but appealed successfully, arguing that a return to Colombia would interfere with her private life in a “disproportionate manner”.

That's right, being deported for selling an illegal substance would be a breach of her human rights with regard to her social life. No I'm not getting into the argument that drugs should be legalised (they should) and that under legalisation this wouldn't be a crime (it might under the sale of unregistered chemicals) but under the law as it now stands we have to feed and keep a foreign national in this country when the easiest solution should have just been deportation to a Colombian prison oh and a tattoo across the forehead  saying pusher just in case she ever tries to get back in.
A right to a social life isn't a right and certainly shouldn't be the right of a convicted criminal. Same with the right to a family life, you get deported, your family can go with you if they want too.
But our spineless politicians cannot or will not do anything about it, makes you wonder what they are good for other than expenses, talking hot air and generally finding ways to take our money off us via taxation.

Oh, you think?

The boy Clegg seriously doesn't appear to get it, he's the junior partner in a coalition government and still appears to be attempting to be the tail that wags the dog..
Telegraph.

Scrap the 50p rate and we’ll drive through a mansion tax, says Clegg
Owners of “high-value” houses will be made to pay more tax, Nick Clegg has said. 

The Deputy Prime Minister also insisted yesterday that the Liberal Democrats’ plans to cut taxes for low-paid workers must come before Tory moves to ease the tax burden on “people at the very top”. George Osborne, the Chancellor, has suggested that the 50p tax rate is “economically inefficient” and senior Tories want to abolish the higher rate as soon as next year.

However, Lib Dem ministers are arguing that if the 50p rate of tax is scrapped, another tax on owners of expensive homes must be introduced to replace the revenues the Treasury would lose.

The Treasury is expecting to take in £3 billion from the 50p tax this year, and £2.6 billion next year. Under the Lib Dem’s so-called “mansion tax” plan, revenue lost by reducing the 50p rate – perhaps to 45p – would be recouped by imposing higher taxes on property owners.

The Lib Dems still haven't really got to grips with Laffer Curve economics or the law of diminishing returns as yet, I somehow doubt they ever will. Essentially it's to do with ever higher taxes and the proven fact that the higher they go, they reach a point where what the government takes in actually becomes less as those who are being taxed simply up and leave. So unless the Lib Dems are proposing to stop emigration then keeping taxes high or proposing to hit those with big houses wont work. People will simply up and leave and the burden of raising taxation will fall again on those at the bottom of the scale.
What the government should be doing is lowering taxes to encourage businesses to set up here, employ people and take them from the unemployed or public civil services. And chain saw back the state and costly legislation like the Equalities Act, the Human Rights Act and various other restrictive policies such as offering translation services for all and sundry. They should call a moratorium on immigration too and set up a "green card" system of work permits, only the people we need will be permitted entry. We should leave the costly and over regulated EU and apply to join EFTA become a trading nation with everyone with no costly import/export tariffs, the EU will still want to sell us stuff after all.
If you lower taxation, you increase peoples and companies spending power, you create real jobs, you make it worthwhile working at the lower end of the scale. You raise taxes, people leave.

What only others can say

It comes to something when we have to rely upon a representative of an ethnic minority group to say in the MSM what all the rest of us are thinking and occasionally saying to our friends about certain ethnic minority groups. Such is the hold of political correctness and not saying the "bleeding obvious" on our political representatives that for your average (white) politician to say what Baroness Flather did say would be tantamount to political suicide complete with ritual disembowelment from certain sections of certain sections of the media lead no doubt by politicians of the left.
Express.

BRITAIN’S first female Asian peer has stirred up a storm by claiming that some immigrant families have large numbers of children simply to milk the benefits system.

Baroness Flather accused ethnic minority groups, particularly Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, of failing to adopt the “pattern” of UK family life.

She claimed debating it had been silenced through “political correctness” and called for benefits to be slashed to discourage claimants having extra children.

Lady Flather, 77, a former Tory now on the non-party crossbenches, made her outburst in a Lords debate on welfare reform on Tuesday.

The peer, born in Pakistan’s Lahore when it was part of India, moved to England to study for the Bar. She said: “The minority communities, particularly the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis have a very large number of children and the attraction is the large number of benefits that follow the child.

“Nobody likes to accept that, or talk about it because it is supposed to be very politically incorrect. Well, I’m politically incorrect because there is no doubt about it that six or seven children give you a far larger income than three or four. I think it is about time we stopped using children as a means of improving the amount of money they receive or getting a bigger house.

“In the countries of origin, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis and even Indians have large families because there is no safety net. When you get old it is only your children who are going to look after you.

“This doesn’t apply here – every old person does have their pension and they will be looked after.”

She said that in education league tables Pakistanis and Bangladeshis came near the bottom, but Indian children came on top. “Indians have fallen into the pattern here,” she said.

“They do not have large families. They want their children to be educated. There is no emphasis on education in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi families.

Now statistically I don't know if this is true or not, though the growth rate population wise in certain ethnic Pakistani/Bangladeshi communities is still higher than the national average, in some cases 10 times higher, though slowing. However the statistics do show in education that for all there is no real difference between Indian ethnics and Pakistani ethnics on a genetic level, there is a marked difference in achievement. Not all of course, individuals continue to do well in certain cases yet it does appear as if we are sitting on a demographic time bomb of ill educated benefit drones far far worse than our current problem which is still sustained by a relatively well educated if ageing generation.
What I suspect is happening is the creation of a drone class controlled by a highly (privately) educated elite who by their religion will do what they are told, unlike the current white working class. That this is unlikely and improbable (the control bit) it does appear as if our political classes are encouraging it. Though the lessons in the current middle east and the so called Arab spring should really give them pause for thought. The loyalty of Pakistanis and Bangladeshi’s is not to a political elite, but to family, clan/tribe and their religion. Nationalism as such hasn’t the hold on them in the way it has on Western masses, nor do they have the work ethic of Northern Europe, the USA, ethnic Chinese or even Hindu Indians. They are fatalists, everything is the will of their god or in’shallah, improving their lot is directed inwards to the family, not necessarily their neighbours or even their nation. This is also a major barrier to integration as a whole as they cannot for cultural reasons see past their families and become part of the larger society in most cases. A true case of I’m alright Jack and to hell with the rest of you.
And yes, they are outbreeding us, yet such is the stigma of saying something politically incorrect, that it takes one of their own to actually say it out loud. Unless we get over this quickly, we’re doomed as a civilisation.

Linguistic anglophobia

Communication skills are what sets us as humans apart from the rest of the denizens of the planet, no-one else does it quite so well as we do and English for one reason or another has become the dominant language for communication on the planet. Yes there are more Chinese speakers, but writing it down is a nightmare as the character set is immense compared to the western alphabet as used in the UK. So, when you have what to all intents and purposes a common tongue as used in the UK, you'd expect there would be no particular problem to actually getting people to use it for health and safety reasons if no other even if they were from abroad.
Of course, you'd be wrong.
Express.

FOREIGN workers at a book warehouse have accused bosses of “human rights abuse” – for making them speak English to their workmates.

Packers at the Waterstone’s distribution centre were told they could not use their native tongues during working hours for health and safety reasons and because it could “marginalise and isolate” colleagues.

Unions yesterday called the ruling “ridiculous” and the foreign workforce, mainly from Poland and Latvia, has drawn up a petition claiming discrimination and breaches of their human rights.

But one Tory MP David Davies, whose wife Aliz is Hungarian, said: “It’s right to expect them to speak English if that’s what managers have decided. It’s a British workplace and English is what should be spoken.”

All staffing matters at Waterstone’s distribution hub are handled by logistics firm Unipart, which manages the site in Burton, Staffordshire.

A Unipart spokesman said: “It’s important for good clear communication among employees that our stringent health and safety standards are maintained and that all employees speak a common language.

Seems the old maxim "When in Rome" no longer applies so long as you have idiot union reps and the Human Rights Act. It's not as if the company is trying to make them speak English at home or even on their breaks.

“Unipart requires all employees to communicate in English during working hours in the workplace. It does not apply during meal and rest breaks. This creates a better team environment and makes sure employees do not feel isolated or marginalised from other employee groups.”

 Seems fair enough to me, the odd times I've done work abroad I've always done my best to communicate in the language of the country I've been in, though admittedly at times not very well, though I could read better than hear in many cases. But from a strict health and safety point of view with regards to safe communication between workes whils working, I think they have a case. The fact that the Unite union supports the workers does rather swing it from my admittedly jaded point of view though, completely missing the point as usual.

But Rick Coyle, a spokesman for the Unite union, said: “It is ridiculous to employ lots of people from other countries whilst insisting they must speak among themselves only in English. Unipart has a lot to learn about human nature and respect.”

One of the problems I had when working amongst Poles at a sausage factory in Tunbridge Wells was that for all a great deal of them could speak English ok, a large minority could not really communicate very well and could not report incidents nor read the safety instructions on the machines properly meaning they learned by rote or seeing, so instructing them in the correct way to do things rather than how their mates did it was frustrating and damned near impossible at times without a translator and even then you aren't sure what actually is being translated.
So in this case, I think Unipart have it right, its for their own safety and to prevent Unipart from being sued by some worker at a later stage due to an accident from a linguistic miscommunication.

Bring it on...

Seems our overpaid union bosses in the public sector are trying to justify their obscene wages by calling for a general strike in the coming months.

Picture courtesy of Taxpayers Alliance http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/2011/09/taxpayers-alliance-reveals-union-fat-cats.html

BBC.

Britain is facing the threat of mass walkouts by public sector workers after the biggest unions announced strike ballots over pensions.

Unison, Unite, the GMB and the Fire Brigades' Union will consult members about co-ordinated industrial action starting in November.
Unison's leader Dave Prentis told the TUC's annual conference the strikes would involve the "fight of our lives".
But the government said widespread action would leave the public "angry".
Ministers are seeking increases in pension contributions from next April, while millions of workers continue to face a pay freeze.
The coalition argues that rises in payments are fair and will make schemes sustainable despite an ageing population.

If it goes anything like the last lot, I wonder if anyone other than the mums of schoolkids will actually notice. Sure there might be problems if the fire brigade strike and the RMT have shown a tendency to strike over trivia (The EDL, yet not the people who support bombing tubes MAC) but overall other than inconveniencing the general public for whom they rely on for support, I rather think they will be digging their own graves. Their members will lose money, lose public support and in the end will have to bend to simple economics in that the country simply cannot afford the largesse of their current pension schemes. Still I'm sure that the union leaders themselves won't mind a bit, not as if they are going to lose out particularly, their attitude over all seems to be one of "Never mind the results, if I'm still in charge, Then everything went well" a similar attitude to many WW1 generals who felt any amount of deaths to gain a few yards of territory was justifiable so long as it wasn't their deaths.
The public will suffer (perhaps) the ordinary union member will suffer (definitely)and I'm pretty sure that if anyone dies due to the fire brigade being on strike that the headlines will reflect the anger.
Quite frankly other than the government giving up and increasing our taxes (thus committing electoral suicide) I cannot see any way for the public service unions to win this.
I suspect the ordinary members know this too, though sadly they aren't the ones who make the decisions, just the idiots on the so called left who think no price is too high to pay to have a go at a Tory government.

Weird statistics and car insurance

Like many people I drive a car, by choice it's a poor man's 4 x 4 Hyundai Santa Fe, but it's comfy and at least I'm assured of getting out of the street in the winter when the snow that we were supposed to have kissed goodbye too (according to the in-experts) comes around again. Because I'm a law abiding type I'm insured, pay the tax and have it MOT'd. Normally insurance would be a choice like home contents etc, but because I'm driving over a ton of metal around at fairly high speed at ground level I can see the case for having insurance, should the worst happen. What I'm not happy about though is the fact that others don't think the same way for a variety of reasons, though mostly to do with cost. I'm lucky, I am over 25, have a clean current driving license and I shop around each year for a better deal, even so my premiums are still higher than I'd like and I dread having an accident with the excess thrown in if it were my fault, but that's the risk you take. For the younger people though and those on a tight budget, car insurance can be a nightmare, hideously expensive and financially out of reach, so a good few don't bother with insurance, they take a risk they wont get caught and if or when they do have an accident that pushes up the premiums for all of us and possibly drives more people into not bothering, a vicious circle, though I dare say some do it because they are cheapskates or simply criminal.
Mail.
Almost a third of motorists are driving without insurance in some parts of Britain, a report reveals today.
Their reckless behaviour costs claims firms up to £500million a year – and adds an average of £30 to every single annual premium.
The damning figures go some way to explaining why the cost of running a car is rocketing for law-abiding drivers.

There was also something else a bit odd about those areas so I and a few others did some checking on the postcodes...

B6 Aston Muhammad Afzal ,Ziaul Islam MBE, Ayoub Khan

B8 Washwood heath Tariq Ayoub Khan Mohamed Idees Ansar Ali Khan

B9 Bordesly Green Mohammed Aikhlaq Shaukat Ali Khan Shafique Shah

B10 South Yardly Nawaz ali, David Willis, Daphne Gavid

B12 Nechells Zahir Ali, Rashid Chauhdry and Yvonne Mosquito

B21 Sparkbrook Shockat Ali Tony Kennedy

B10/21 Lozells & East Handsworth Don Brown, Wazim Zafar, Hendrina Quinnen

BD3 Bradford moor Riaz Ahmed, Ghazanfer Khaliq, Mohammed Shafiq

BD3 Bowling and Barkerend Imran Ahmed Khan, John Antony Robertshaw, Zameer Hussain Shah,

BD8 Manningham. Asama Javed, Mohammad Amin, Shabir Amin,

BD9 heaton ward Sajid Akhtar,Rizwan Malik, Mohammed Masood

M12 Longsight Abid Latif Chohan, Luthfur Rahman, Suzanne Richards

Can anyone explain this coincidence?
Yes, this is a tilt at a certain religious group and no I'm not presuming all the uninsured are of this group, that would be bigoted of me after all, but it does strike me as odd. This is also coupled with reports that it is quite normal to find a licence and insurance being shared by dozens with the same name. oddly enough from the same religious grouping too.
It strikes me that the system used if we must legally hold car insurance needs to be overhauled to a state where it would be difficult to own a car and not have insurance. Or more draconian would simply be the crushing of any vehicle found being driven without insurance or a license and jail time for the uninsured.
Yes I know that isn't very liberal of me, but I do believe that if I abide by the rules (unfair as they sometimes are) then others should abide by them too, particularly when the cost of not abiding by the rules hits me in the pocket.

Lycraphobia

There's no doubt about it, cycling is a healthy sport, good for non impact muscle development and cardiovascular stimulation. However it seems some people do not wish to cycle as they do not want to appear weird...
Telegraph.

The fear or seeming “weird” is putting people off cycling to work, an academic study has found.

A three year research project has discovered that not fitting in, alongside “squashed helmet hair” and turning up “hot and sweaty” for meetings are the biggest deterrents for using a bike to commute.
Successive Governments have invested £150 million to promote cycling as an environmentally friendly way of travelling.
But there appears to be a long way to go before the public is convinced, according to the study funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
“I get called the bag lady, because I walk everywhere and I have quite a lot of stuff with me,” said Steph, a respondent from Leeds.
Lara, also from Leeds, complained: The helmet is a problem for me, because I just think it would make my hair a little squashed.” 

Meanwhile Joe from Leicester added: “I probably would cycle if I didn’t worry so much about image and public opinion – me arriving at a meeting hot and sweaty.”
Sally from Worcester observed: “You do get a sense of some people thinking oh, you’re a bit weird because you’re going up on the bike you know. A bit odd.”

And these are all valid points save perhaps for the turning up on a bike being weird. We have a number of guys here cycle to work, oddly enough though none of them are office staff, I rather suspect turning up to work in the office sweating buckets is somehow frowned upon, though there are shower facilities available, but then you have all the extra gear to carry and it just seems like you're doing your morning ablutions all over again. And helmet head is definitely not something a fashion conscious lady really wants to contemplate either.
So essentially the government is wasting £150 million of our money trying to get people to do what they just don't see the point of, cycling for pleasure, yes, cycling to work with a full shift ahead of you? No.
I can't see this changing a great deal in the future either, cars are just too handy if you want to turn up smart.

 

At least they tried

Muslims against crusades came specifically to the USA embassy to cause a scene and celebrate the deaths of over 3000 people. That they managed to burn a Stars and Stripes Flag is their right and I don't have a problem with that. What I do object too is that the powers that be in this country have taken away their right to face the consequences of this act. The EDL attempted to stop this by occupying the demonstration site, they were served with section 14 notices and forced to move aside whilst these ranting fanatics went about their business of shaming themselves and their religion.

Image courtesy of rupertyevelyn at yfrog

Others were there to counter-protest as well, but only the EDL actually tried to prevent the MAC scum from their shameful act.
Credit where credit is due.

Nearly 400 EDL and Casuals at the US Embassy now. MAC disrupted the minutes silence and have been burning flags.
Luke

We will remember, we wont forgive, nor will we forget.

Breaking, 2 EDL stabbed in a London Weatherspoon pub after it was invaded by 8 Islamic knife wielding cowards.
Story is still breaking, but like the bus beating up of the young lady it rather looks like the police arrested 20 EDL, though there are unconfirmed reports of 2 MAC supporters being arrested too.
UPDATE
Both lads are ok and one of the EDL Angels filmed the stabbing so they will get nicked happy days

I don't think this will work the way they expect

Kudos to the judge who decided to send Munir Farooqi to jail for recruiting jihadi's with a cumulative set of 4 life sentences, but there's a bit of a flaw in the reasoning that I can see here unless they decide that Munir Farooqi is going to be kept in solitary confinement for the rest of his sentence.
Telegraph.

A former Taliban fighter who ran a ''recruitment centre'' in Manchester for extremist Muslims to go to Afghanistan to kill British troops was today jailed for life. 

Pakistani-born British citizen Munir Farooqi, 54, was at the centre of a plot to radicalise and persuade vulnerable young men to ''fight, kill and die'' in a jihad in Afghanistan, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Farooqi, of Victoria Terrace, Longsight, Manchester, and two others were captured in a police sting when two undercover anti-terrorism police officers infiltrated his group.

Farooqi bragged to the officers how he had fought with the Taliban and told them they could become ''martyrs'' for the jihad cause.

He also found ''amusement'' in the sight of the flag draped coffins of fallen allied troops returning from Afghanistan, the court heard.

Today Farooqi was given four life sentences and told he must serve a minimum of nine years before he can be considered for parole.

Ok, once you get past the idiocy of giving someone 4 life sentences and then stating he must serve at least 9 years before becoming eligible for parole you can guess what's going to happen once Farooqi finally gets settled into the system. He's going to start recruiting new convert jihadi's, it's what he does and prisons have a problem with Muslm extremists.
Sunday Mercury.

Amid the forests and foliage of leafy Littleton sits the forbidding fortress of HMP Long Lartin, where some of the world’s most dangerous Islamic extremists swap stories, prayers and even plots.
New research from inside the lock-up’s specialist terror suspect unit suggests that regular inmates are being converted to radical Islam by the dangerous militants who are allowed to mix with other lags – and even lead prayers.
Fanatics inside the Worcestershire prison include Mohammed Hamid, 51, dubbed Osama Bin London, who encouraged teenagers to become suicide bombers during camping trips in the Lake District.

Among his cellmates are Adel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian linked to Al Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman Al-Zawihiri, who is fighting extradition to the US for the 1998 African embassy bombings which killed more than 200 people.
Mustapha Taleb, a disciple of hook-handed terror preacher Abu Hamza, kept a prison diary about how ordinary Muslim prisoners initially avoided extremists during his time inside Long Lartin.
“When we came here first, it was harsh, harsh treatment and harsh life,’’ he said. ‘‘Even the prisoners were like scared of us, because the system here told them that these people are very dangerous, you can’t mix with them.”
But ordinary Muslims’ initial fear of the detainees soon evaporated.
“With the brothers here, our Muslim brothers in the prison, it’s OK, it is as God wills it,” Taleb wrote. “There is some kind of harmony, connection between brothers in here, praise be to God.”
They have access to controversial Islamic texts, with terror detainee Barbar Ahmad writing in a blog from his cell that: “I understand now why prison is known as the University of Islamic Knowledge.”
They are reportedly allowed to share meals, and even lead prayers with other prisoners, raising fears that radicalisation could spread to other Muslims and even non-Muslim converts.

Why do I have the feeling that we're setting the cat amongst the pigeons here and prison is the last place we want to be sending this guy? Personally I think a parachute and just the clothing he's wearing along with a plane trip over central Afghanistan is the perfect solution for Farooqi seeing as he's so enamoured of the place, if we want to be really cruel we could always shave the beard and tattoo I love Israel  to his forehead in the local dialect.
Yes I know it would breach his human rights, but I'm having a hard job regarding jihadi's and their recruiters as actually being human at the moment, something Islam at its most extreme seems to strip away from ordinary people.
What appears to have happened looks just a bit like giving a fox the keys to the henhouse.

Waiting for our own Oskar Freysinger

 Or Geert Wilders come to that



The man makes a lot of sense, yet the one thing noticeable about UK politics is the notable lack of anyone prepared in politics to actually say how it is to the ordinary people on the street.
Even the 2 party system we have is more or less designed to keep things the way they always have been, maintain the status quo. To get to the top is impossible for a maverick or personality as the compromises they have to make just leave us with recently a succession of interchangeable clones. Those who don't or can't play the game by the rules are destined to fail, just ask Gordon Brown, not that succeeding would have made him any more popular, but he might have lasted longer.
Yet when you hear what Freysinger has to say, it strikes a chord in many of the people who read it and you know that if we had a UK version he would be instantly shunned by the media and written off for not playing by the rules (as the left see it) yet like Pat Condell and others he would probably be very popular with the masses.
It's a shame the system we have turns out politicians rather than people who believe in doing what's right.

Doing what our parents did

Long, long ago back in the days of my youth people were very very careful with their money and what they would spend it on. There was little or no credit as such, occasional store "tick" but that was often measured in weeks not years like today's credit cards, there were also savings schemes like the Co-op "Divi"
Thing was people were very careful with their money as they knew that if it ran out, well you went hungry till you got paid, gardens were for vegetables mostly and anyone who had a allotment was envied.
Seems people though are heading back to those days...
Telegraph.

Shoppers are becoming increasingly "professional" as a result of the lowest consumer confidence in a generation, according to the head of Morrisons. 

Dalton Philips, the chief executive of the country's fourth biggest supermarket group, said: "We're seeing it across the country: the phenomenon of checking all the prices, of leaving the credit card at home, of being very savvy about what they are buying, buying in bulk packs and splitting the packs with friends or freezing. This professional approach to shopping, this rigour will continue long after the recession, I think. Grocery shopping is the biggest bill after your mortgage, after all."

The company said that 51pc of its customers were now checking the price of every single item before they put it in their basket, and that spending on credit cards had fallen by 8pc over the last six months, while spend on debit cards had increased by 4pc.

Its bleak assessment of the consumer economy came as it reported a strong set of figures, at the top end of analysts' expectations. Like-for-like sales increased by 2.2pc and the company claimed it was the only one of the big four supermarket groups to be gaining market share, with an extra 400,000 customers a week visiting its shops, taking the weekly total to 11.5m shoppers.

"We're encouraged by these results. It is especially encouraging that we delivered these results at a time when the economy is having such a pronounced impact on consumers. The last three years have seen the largest drop in spending power since 1980 to 1983. We are also hearing concern from our customers that there seems no end in sight. Consumer confidence is almost as low as it has ever been," Mr Philips said.

 I have to admit that the QM extended household do this sort of thing with buying in bulk and splitting the packs amongst the family. We also use our mobiles when at farmers markets and occasionally boot sales, though this is more down to the ladies being jigsaw fanatics.
People are learning the old lessons of not spending what you don't have again, often enough using the credit cards only for emergencies and setting out a fixed budget for food rent/mortgage, power, transport etc and sticking to it as their actual spending power has been reduced by price rises coupled with no real term wage increases.
Hard times in old England? Well not so much, we're still immeasurably better off than previous generations, though it's debatable whether we're happier or have more in the way of spare cash in our pockets at the end of the day. My Dad could easily afford to take himself and his 2 sons to the football on Saturday and go out drinking on Saturday night, I can't, I have to be a lot more careful with my spare cash in that sense, though I have a great deal more choice on where to spend it.
I expect a lot more families are now in the same boat, becoming more careful on where we spend what spare cash we have, we aren't poverty stricken by any means, just more choosy as and how we spend it. I don't expect this to change any time soon, if anything it will get worse as belts are tightened and prices rise.

Bet they're faked (not)

I'm not a great one for conspiracy theories, in the end it always seems to be that people can always find some evidence to prove what they want to believe no matter what. The Twin Towers attack is one of those with people constantly coming up with "proof" that it was a controlled detonation or the panes were added to the films after or even it was the wrong sort of plane.
The Moon landings are another case in point, with accusations that they all took place on a massive sound stage, that the flag waved in the breeze when a door was opened, all foundering on the simple fact that if it was a conspiracy, it would have involved hundreds of people and not one has ever come forward to admit it, ever.
Mail.
For many it is one of the human race’s greatest achievements - but ever since that first ‘giant leap for mankind’ there are some who have questioned whether man really did land on the moon.
Now, though, there’s photographic evidence so powerful that even the most hardened sceptics should be persuaded that we really did touch down on the lunar surface.
Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO) has taken new photographs of the surface that clearly show astronaut footprints, the lunar rover and spacecraft scorch marks.

I don't doubt for a second someone will be along in a minute or two to tell us these pics are fakes, though to my mind, the USA's crowning scientific achievement has always been its lunar landing program. I listened to it back in 1969 with most of the rest of the world and was thrilled by it as much as I expect any American was too. Why some people had to try and spoil it I don't know, but the rumours were always persistant if having little or no evidence to back it up. Even the flag in the breeze was explained

Still, I was pleased to see the pics, they proved to me at least that something I felt was right is actually right.

Good for him

Normally I don't like the compo culture as the people most often getting hit by it are the general public as sooner or later it leads to higher taxes, premiums or prices as the people paying out seek to recoup their losses. However I'm all for people having the right to sue over someone or some organisation not doing their jobs properly.
Telegraph.

A driver whose car was damaged by potholes in Coventry has won a payout of £2,000 after taking the city council to court. 

Hamilton Bland took on the authority after it refused to compensate him for the damage to his Mercedes.

The damaged was sustained during the city's winter roads crisis in January 2010 when hundreds of new potholes appeared after freezing weather.

The 68-year-old former BBC sports commentator hopes his case may pave the way for other people to take legal action.

He took his claim to Coventry County Court after the council said it wasn't to blame.

Mr Bland argued the impact of hitting two potholes was severe, causing damage to three of the wheels on his Mercedes while he was on his way to a leisure centre for a swim.

There is a little bit more to this case in which it turns out the council had been neglecting the roads as they'd ran out of money, no doubt having to pay for all those diversity co-ordinators, chief executives and translation services. But Coventry were caught out by the fact that  Hamilton Bland simply wasn't going to take "It wasn't our fault" as an acceptable answer. If only because looking after the roads is the responsibility of Coventry Council.
This is a fundamental issue that a lot of councils have lost track of in that most people only want them to empty the bins, light the streets, trim the grass in the parks and fix the roads when they get potholes. What most people do not want their councils doing is pandering to immigrants (translation and housing) paying themselves over the odds, telling us how great they are via a printed paper and ignoring our questions when we do write to them or fobbing us off.
Yes I know councils have to deal with a lot of other stuff, but they should never forget the basics and that's exactly what Coventry Council did. Shame that it wont come out of the pockets of the councillors or the executive.

The moral bankruptcy of the left

The depths to which the left sinks when dealing with anything it doesn't understand or fears can never be underestimated.




Here we have an utter slimeball UAF mong describing an attack on a young female who had fallen off a coach carrying EDL patriots that had been attacked and clearly gloating about the violence and thuggery on display.



The attack on the coach.

The attack on the woman who had her jaw fractured but is now out of hospital.

The police? Well they arrested everyone on the coach (though not the young woman)
Fortunately the video shows despite some ludicrous claims by various Leftist and Muslim groups that the EDL had provoked the attack just exactly who the barbarians in our society are, and they aren't the EDL. You can imagine the headlines if the EDL attacked a coach of Islamists, the front page wouldn't be big enough.

Parish notice

Owing to illness in the family and other stressful events, I've had to find a new home with a loving family for my dog Coal as he wasn't getting the attention he really deserved.
It hurts a lot, but it's for the best.
I'm going to drink a lot now, normal service will resume tomorrow.

They came, they saw they did a little shopping (not really)

The EDL went into Tower Hamlets today, no real trouble, no rioting (yet) and at the time of writing this had peacefully left the area and for some reason are now kettled on London Bridge (no I don't know why either)
BBC.

The English Defence League (EDL) are protesting in east London - despite a ban on marches in six London boroughs.

Several hundred protesters were outside Liverpool Street Station, a BBC reporter said. Police were escorting them towards Aldgate High Street.

BBC London's Paraic O'Brien said the atmosphere was rowdy, with a lot of shouting and incendiary chants.

There have been no clashes with rival activists. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said it was "very quiet".

Earlier police said a group of EDL supporters had gathered outside King's Cross Station with another 500 protesters in Whitechapel.

Far be it from me to cast doubts over the numbers the police are giving out, but at least 500 were in Covent gardens, 1000 at Kings Cross, and 300 at Liverpool Street and that was at 1pm an hour before they were due to be escorted to the demo site. Overall estimates put EDL numbers at about 2,000 and no trouble other than a police attempt to arrest "Tommy Robinson" after his speech. As far as my sources can tell, there were only 4 arrests.

The activists are supposedly prevented from chanting or waving their flags while walking as that would constitute a march.

O'Brien confirmed the protest was on the move through Aldgate High Street at the behest of police and there was chanting.

I don't know who thought that banning the EDL from chanting or flying their banners would work (higher plod probably), the EDL had already said if any attempt was made to stop them then they'd return on the 22nd of October ater the ban had been suspended. Fortunately the police on the ground have far more sympathy with the EDL than the political officers running the various forces.

Twitter:
Overheard in Brick Lane, copper: "The #EDL have done what they were told, it's you lot that haven't." 

Yes, the UAF idiots and assorted Muslims who were foolish enough to believe the propaganda the UAF put out proved incapable of behaving themselves yet again.
Despite the claims that there would be violence, there was none, what happens after the EDL have left is none of our concern.
Update, apparently there was talk that the EDL didn't make it actually into Tower Hamlets, though we do have pics of a bride crossing in front of the demo in Alie Street, Tower Hamlets, also at 7pm members of the EDL were still at Mile End right in the heart of Tower Hamlets.

Interfering with a democratic right

It's a democratic right to protest in this country as it's a democratic right to counterprotest. It's not however a democratic right to march as the idiots in the UAF found out when they called on the home secretary to ban the EDL march in Tower Hamlets and subsequently found their march banned as well. However the anti-democratic antics of the left have gone much further and their fantasy world where everyone "must" oppose the "knuckle dragging fascist/racist EDL" (their view, no-one else's) in that they have managed to secure funding and other aid from trade unions despite the fact this isn't an employment issue.
The Londonist.

Opposition groups including Unite Against Fascism are organising a counter demonstration Their website reported that the RMT had threatened to stop work on health and safety grounds if a planned muster at Liverpool Street station went ahead, which has to be one of the few occasions when Londoners might actually support a walkout. They are also calling on two Euston pubs to stop EDL members using their premises as meeting points.

I very much doubt other than in the fantasy world that much of the left inhabits that any Londoners would welcome the communist lead RMT calling a strike or a walkout on a busy Saturday in London, it really shows how much out of touch they are from reality to even express such views. I can't help wondering if the RMT remember just who set off the tube bombs and yet they have their leadership trying to stop those who seek a solution to the problem as opposed to just appeasing the problem. As it is, the EDL are not using Liverpool Street (it doesn't seem to have occurred to the imbecile left that the EDL will be coming from all over the place in all directions), nor are they using pubs in Euston, still it's typical of the left to try and deny struggling pub owners the right to make money hand over fist in these hard times.

The far-right group originally intended to march through the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Newham, Islington and Hackney but a 30-day ban was imposed after an appeal from the Metropolitan Police over public order concerns.

No they didn't that route is sheer guesswork from you, simply setting out the areas in which the ban is in force.

The decision to ban the march has been criticised by freedom of speech campaigners – Liberty’s legal director James Welch said:

‘The police and home secretary must realise how serious it is to ban marches in a free country.’

The Met points out that it wasn’t an easy decision to make:

‘We have not sought this power since 1981 – which shows how we do not take this lightly. As far as Saturday is concerned, both parties have requested a static demonstration and we will be negotiating with them suitable locations with the aim of minimising disorder.’

Yet the EDL would not have been the ones causing the trouble, it's the opposition to the EDL who cause the trouble by stirring up hatred and suspicion within the communities where the EDL intend to march. Police officers have admitted that the EDL are disciplined and obey instructions unlike the UAF and other groups who oppose the EDL and only come for a fight.
I'll leave the final word to the EDL though...

‘Placing a ban on the EDL march gives out completely the wrong message. It suggests that it is the EDL, and not the extremism that we demonstrate about, which needs to be kept in check.’

I'm sorry? Whose fault was it?

I blame the government for lots of things, mostly because they interfere when they shouldn't and act like kiddies in a sweetshop when it comes to spending taxpayers money. What I wouldn't do is blame them for not doing something which wasn't their concern in the first place.
BBC.

A couple held captive by Somali pirates for more than a year have criticised the British government in a book, for failing to support their family.

Paul and Rachel Chandler, formerly of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, but who now live in Devon, said assistance offered to relatives had been "derisory".

The couple's ordeal began when their yacht was seized in October 2009.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it had been in "constant touch" with relatives.

The Chandlers, who now live in Dartmouth, make their claims in a book documenting their 388-day kidnap.

It wasn't the British governments fault that those two idiots decided to sail in pirate infested waters, though I do believe that the government could have dusted off the old rules of conduct when dealing with piracy and wiped them out if they caught them.
Nor was it the governments job to look after the families of the two idiots other than to give them updates if anything was happening, which is what appears to have happened.
It should not be the job of any government to support families other than the normal means of support as provided by the state, even that I have railed against when it moves from support to pampering.

A spokesman for the FCO said: "Throughout Paul and Rachel Chandler's ordeal, a dedicated team from across the region and in the UK did everything we could to secure the couple's safe release. 

"HMG's policy is long-standing and well-known - we do not make or facilitate ransom payments."

As it should be, nothing more should be allowed or required. If you go sailing into dangerous waters, you only have yourself to blame if you get kidnapped and it isn't the duty of the government to look after your family in any special way if you do get captured. Keep them informed, yes, attempt to secure your release, yes. Offer your family counselling, tea and sympathy, no.