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December 31, 2007
Happy New Year
Sorry I have failed to write my review of the year.
But simply family and friends have been the high spots again; people virtually met through the blog have been funny, informative and fantastic. May 2008 bring you all you desire and deserve.
The downside of 2007 is the coil of hempen rope still lies unused in the barn and the oxygen thieves in Westminster and Brussels, and their brethren worldwide, continue to infest us as ticks on a hedgehog.
After an enjoyable repast with the FMs this evening I'm off to bed before the witching hour, as there has been nothing decent on the box to stay up for to watch since it went from being 525 lines and black and white...
In honour of that long lost golden age here's Walkin' After Midnight..
Posted by The Englishman at 10:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What you are not missing by staying in tonight
How I hate the human race
How I hate its silly face
And when I'm introduced to one
I wish I thought what jolly fun
I thought the poem was Belloc, but I can't trace it. Mr Google throws up the preposterous suggestion it might be by Sir Walter Raleigh, thus:
I wish I loved the human race;
I wish I loved its silly face;
I wish I loved the way it walks;
I wish I loved the way it talks;
and when I'm introduced to one,
I wish I thought what jolly fun.
I don't believe it.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:01 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
A Cycling Fan wries
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Churchill, prescient or what?
Surely most bloggers are lacking something which allows them to pour out their near endless bilge and take in everybody else's same old boring rubbish.... I've got better things to do. And likewise with reading endless screeds about someone's hobby horse or, particularly lame, a great swathe of text cut and pasted from the paper about someone's hobby horse with either very little or zero input from the alleged blogger whatsoever. Or lamer still, just a You Tube clip that someone else took the time to make and post, embedded into the blogger's page for which they expect the credit and in some cases even money for this old rope....
Guilty as charged.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
End of Year Stat Pron
Iain Dale boasts 404,000 Individuals Visited This Blog in 2007, Well done, and richly deserved, and I'm glad to have played a part in it. I had forgotten I was also running Google Analytics, so having been reminded I thought I would check:
223,284 Absolute Unique Visitors (And yes I know the arguments over definitions.) - 305,232 visits came from 189 countries/territories, which doesn't leave many countries unpolluted, none of which I can name, half a dozen in Africa, a couple bordering Afganistan and one in South America, Demerara Land if my memory is anything to go by.
And my biggest thanks go to the 51,000 of you who have visited nine or more times, including the 8,326 who have visited over 200 times.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bi Cyclist Tales
A joke that will sicken cyclists | Alison Steed - Times Online
OK, I admit it, I like Lycra! I know that may seem bizarre to many of you who chug around in your cars, but as a cyclist it is something I could not do without. And if you agree with Matthew Parris, who wrote on these pages that we deserve to be “decapitated” for wearing bright, clinging colours, then tell that to the families of the 150 people a year who die in cycling accidents.... but not by piano wire.... and on and on she goes, I thought she was going to be calling for new laws to make it illegal to mock push bikers. So who is this Alison Steed? I wondered. A quick google and I come across this wonderful story - I have no idea if it is the same bicycling - emphasis on the bi - Alison Steed or not, but I hope it is.
The truth about my lesbian divorce | the Daily Mail
...three months on, the 'marriage' of Daphne Ligthart and Liz King - triumphantly celebrated as one of the first of this country's same-sex civil partnerships - is in tatters amid accusations of infidelity, lies and betrayal.
Two weeks ago, keep-fit fanatic Liz moved out of the couple's home after falling for wedding guest Alison Steed, who is separating from the man with whom she has lived for 16 years.....At the reception party, at Churchill's pub in Ashford, Daphne noticed that Alison Steed - one of several guests invited from the local athletics club, Ashford Tri,(giggle) where Liz was a member - looked rather depressed.
"She had come on her own without her boyfriend,"(fnarr fnarr) Miss Steed, the 33-year-old, who works in the media seemed to wish the couple well....
But it was the discovery of a pizza box in the kitchen at the end of March, and Liz's admission that Alison had cooked it while Liz had been upstairs taking a bath, that finally tipped Daphne over the edge....Liz told Daphne it was because Alison was splitting up from her boyfriend, with whom she shared an Edwardian home near a Kent hamlet called, ironically enough, Cuckold's Corner..."She swore on our dogs' lives that it was a friendship." (howl)
As Daphne recalls: "I said to Liz that I thought Alison was meant to be straight, and that she had never been with a woman before."
To which Liz is said to have replied: "She's doubting her sexuality."
After that sharp exchange, Liz left for the night, apparently to see Alison. The following morning, she returned home to admit that she and Alison had shared their first kiss.
"She said they had a kiss and a cuddle," says Daphne. "I asked her what kind of kiss and she said it was a French kiss.
"I said: 'Why are you doing this? Is it just exciting?...
(Cue music, curtain fall and credits)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Gratuitous Photos of Pretty Girls
The Press Association: Beauty icon title goes to Knightley
These are, in order, the top beauty icons of 2007 as named in the Superdrug poll: Keira Knightley, Kelly Brook, Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby, Gemma Atkinson, Alesha Dixon, Lily Allen and Jordan.
The story is crying out for a few illustrations but do you really want to see a bunch of high maintenance "tits on sticks" at this time of the morning? Where are the real women? Over to you Theo.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Travel Papers Bitte
EU move to collect fact files on air passengers - Scotsman.com News
PASSENGERS boarding flights within Europe – even on domestic UK routes – will have a wide range of personal details stored on a security database for more than a decade, under plans being drawn up by the EU's Justice Minister.
The controversial move by EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini would see 19 facts about each passenger kept on file for more than a decade and available to a range of agencies.
The Passenger Name Recording (PNR) information would even include details of requests made to change seats or how tickets were paid for.
Initially, if the plan is ratified, it is claimed only the 27 EU member states would get to view the details – which will be kept for 13 years – but civil liberty groups are convinced the US government would soon demand to be able to see them.
One security source said: "There is no question that once this material becomes available that Washington will want access to it."
Already, anyone flying to the States from the EU has their details entered into a security database for the US authorities, but critics believe Frattini's idea is an extension of that policy.
Last night, a spokesman for the EU said that while any firm decision was some time away, "it would be strange" if the UK did not sign up.
Strange indeed if the UK weren't in the forefront of this move to squirrel away any personal detail they can about people exercising their free choice to travel, and then "losing" the data for any Tom, Dick or Muhammed to use as they want.
In other news:
Britain rated worst in Europe for protecting privacy | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
Britain, the country with the world's biggest network of surveillance cameras, has the worst record in Europe for the protection of privacy, according to a report from a London-based international watchdog.
The UK is billed as "an endemic surveillance society" alongside Russia, the US, Singapore and China in the survey of 47 countries by Privacy International (PI).
Britain is bottom in Europe because of its cameras, ID card plans and lack of government accountability. ..
The report concludes that the 2007 rankings "show an increasing trend among governments to archive data on the geographic, communications and financial records of all their citizens and residents. This trend leads to the conclusion that all citizens, regardless of legal status, are under suspicion.
Four out of five doctors believe patient database will be at risk - Times Online
Only a fifth of doctors believe that a national electronic system for storing patients’ records will be secure, a poll for The Times has shown.
More than three quarters are either “not confident” that data will be safe or “very worried” that data will leak once the £20 billion National Programme for IT (NPfIT) is running. Asked how well they thought that local NHS organisations would be able to maintain the privacy of data, only 4 per cent said very well. The majority, 57 per cent, said quite or very poorly....
A pro forma letter written by anti-NPfIT campaigners is available on a website for patients who want to object to their details being included in the database. The letter, on www.nhsconfidentiality.org, is designed to be sent by patients to their GPs. The Department of Health said that patients who chose to opt out might not get the best emergency care.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An Englishman Abroad
Empire was built by improvising - loudly - Telegraph
The Briton abroad has been a uniquely popular figure ever since, clanking with armour, he first blundered through the Holy Land lopping the heads off peaceable Islamic pedestrians with something that looked like a scaffolding pole.
Back when the map was pink, he brought civilisation to the uncivilised, complicated railway systems to those without, and free trade to those who had never even realised they needed it.
Everywhere his solar topee was sighted, the locals would greet him with cheerful cries of "Allez à l'enfer, cochon!", "Could you untie me now, bwana - it's been three weeks and I'm jolly thirsty" or "Aiee! He's back! Run for your lives!"
In the 1980s, his great-grandchildren adorned the Spanish coast with concrete golf courses, egg and chips, and broken glass coloured with lager and blood. In the 1990s, his merchant-banker descendants brightened up Umbria and Provence with their bogus bohemianism, ludicrous straw hats and open-necked shirts.
He may not always have been popular, you see, but he had a certain distinctiveness, a certain panache, a certain - dare I venture it? - je ne sais rien. He was our advertisement to the world - and he succeeded precisely because, knowing nothing whatsoever about anything, he had the freedom to improvise.
And now they want to ruin it for our children...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 30, 2007
Antony Fisher's Ideals Attacked
Fowl play: Jamie’s ruffling feathers again - Times Online - December 29, 2007
Jamie Oliver’s back on the warpath - this time to urge us to eat better chicken. Battery farming’s in for a roasting
Humane Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wants you to give up cheap chicken - Times Online - December 30, 2007
THE television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, known for his earthy approach to cooking and love of offal, is to launch a campaign for the middle classes to boycott cheap chicken in protest at the cruelty of battery farming.Fearnley-Whittingstall believes well-heeled consumers should be prepared to pay more for their chicken so that fewer birds are reared in overcrowded, unnatural conditions.
Santa having given me the Sainted Hugh's book on Meat (down to £10 at W H Smith) for Christmas I have a lot of time for his point of view. I certainly don't ever want to eat a cheap chicken again, they are pointless bits of rubbery gunge. But, but, I do worry about these campaigns for dearer food. Widespread availability of cheap nutritious food has done more for improving the sum of human happiness than any moralising sermon. Did Antony Fisher do more good by founding Buxted Chickens, bringing cheap chicken to Britain or founding the IEA . Discuss.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:45 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Teen Sex
Scotsman.com News - Sex lessons must start at age five
SEX education lessons should be given to schoolchildren as young as five as part of a bid to combat soaring levels of teenage pregnancy...
Sex education failing to halt teen pregnancy - Telegraph
Sex education initiatives are failing to control the spiralling teenage pregnancy crisis, ministers have admitted for the first time.
Teenagers have no problem knowing what goes where, and how it works. In fact judging by the videos scientific research they have a damn sight better idea than the grown ups. Telling them to wear a condom in kindergarten isn't the answer. They are choosing to get pregnant, now the reasons maybe stupid and due to their paucity of aspirations, or because they want a council house as the Daily Mail would say. But it is rarely anything to do with not knowing enough about sex.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Shooters Banned
‘Down in one’ drinks curbed - Times Online
DRINKS firms will no longer be able to market products as “slammers” or “shooters” from midnight on New Year’s Eve under a new code of conduct designed to curb high-speed “down in one” drinking. Even ads that show a drinker’s head tipped back too far as they put the glass to their lips will be covered.
A votre sante!
Alla Salute!
Cheers!
Egé szé gé re!
Kanpai!
Na Zdrowie!
Ooogy Wawa!
Prosit!
Salud!
Saúde!
Skal!
Slainte!
Wen Lie!
Yasas!
Za vashe zdorovye!
Zivili
Zum Wohl
Posted by The Englishman at 7:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 29, 2007
Holiday Quiz
Out on my walk this morning down by the canal where the water gypsies live I noticed an old waterproof ammo box in the hedge. Useful I thought so I picked it up, and as I walked along I opened it up and looked inside. A fancy steel cutting box with a brown powder in it, a steel ampule, a calculator and a bag full of unused syringes and needles. Umm I thought, as the ghost of Sherlock Holmes inspired me, a diabetic snuff-taking mathematician has lost his box, what to do?
Posted by The Englishman at 9:48 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
What an Honour
The New Year Honours list - Telegraph
Tom Kelly, one of Tony Blair's official spokesmen is to be given The Order of the Bath.
Calling John George Haigh , there is work to be done....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Really, How Interesting.
House price fall worst for seven years - Telegraph
House market is steady in popular areas as prices fall around them - Times Online
I'm so glad my curmudgeonly reputation has become so widespread that no longer am I invited to Middle Class Dinner parties where gel haired prats and their power dressed wives will be boring for England about property prices. Given the choice between listening to them, disembowling myself with the fish slice or drinking too much ASDA Australian Cab Sauv and falling over shouting abusive comments into the koi pond you will probably understand why Mrs Englishman got fed up of dragging a sopping wet gibberer home everytime.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Guns for Boys - Offically Good for Them
Ministers tell nurseries to allow boys toy guns - Times Online
Boys should be allowed to play with toy weapons at nursery, according to government advice that contradicts guidance from police and teachers.
Ministers do not mention toy guns specifically but they claim that some form of “weapons play” could help to engage boys in education.
However, teachers said that the guidance, published today, had no basis in educational practice, could encourage aggression among pupils and would anger and confuse parents.
Children have been suspended from school previously, or even arrested, when caught playing with toy guns.
The advice, from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, says that nursery staff should ignore their “natural instinct” to stop young boys playing games with weapons. It says that such activities can help to engage them.
I thought those mushrooms last night tasted a bit strange because I must be hallucinating, sensible advise from the Department? Though I would have been a bit more robust in telling the whining teachers that their "natural instinct" is nothing of the sort but is just another manifestation of the feminising wussyness that pollutes the whole education system.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Fuming
Smoking in cars used for work to be banned - Telegraph
Motorists could be banned from smoking behind the wheel of their own cars while driving them as part of their job, it has emerged.
Cigarettes are banned in company cars when passengers are carried, which means taxi drivers cannot smoke. However, sales representatives still can light up if they are the only person using the vehicle.
There is greater confusion when it comes to private cars. Smoking is banned if the vehicle is mainly used for work - but not if it is mainly private....
Action on Smoking and Health welcomed the idea...
smokers could be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.
Prof Richard West, the Government's leading smoking adviser, has called for a complete ban on smoking at the wheel.
He said: "It may seem draconian but the Government should legislate."
And come the New Year the French will be banned from smoking in their bars... Oh for the Glorious Day when the air is putrid and choking with the toxic smoke of the burning pyres of politicians, pokenoses and parliamentary paper.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 28, 2007
Friday Night is Music Night
Posted by The Englishman at 5:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
27% of Iain Dale's Readers are scum
- that is the only conclusion that can be reached from Iain Dale's Diary: End of Year Awards: Devolved & International Politicians.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The Year of Global Smarming
JunkScience.com -- Steven Milloy, Publisher
Top 10 Climate Myth-Busters for 2007“I’ve made up my mind. Don’t confuse me with the facts.” That saying most appropriately sums up the year in climate science for the fanatic global warming crowd.....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Tale of Two Dynasties
Was Benn the Silver Jubilee spoilsport? - Times Online
With the economy faltering and the Government hanging on by a thread, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee was an unmissable opportunity to instil some feel-good factor into 1977. However, an “anti-monarchist” at the Department of Energy was threatening to ruin plans for a floodlit spectacle in London.
Lord Drogheda, the chairman of the London Celebrations Committee of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, did not name the culprit, it seems reasonable to suspect that the allegedly unenthusiastic minister was Tony Benn, the Secretary of State.
And while Her Majesty serenely carries on as an inspiration and providing wise counsel, Benn is still a bitter old man heading up a dynasty of fanatical puritanical spoilsports.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:11 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Someone to pass the biscuits round at the board meeting
Norway's firms face gender law - Scotsman.com News
NORWAY is about to smash the glass ceiling for women in the workplace with a sweeping new law.
From next week, firms must employ 40 per cent of female boardroom directors – or face being shut down.
At 37 per cent, Norway already has the highest number of female boardroom executives in the world.
Many Norwegian firms say they will not meet the quota deadline set for Monday and will have to shut until women get the posts once reserved for men.
A team of bureaucrats in Oslo has been tasked with keeping tabs on companies in the weeks and months ahead to make sure the ratio is being constantly increased to the required levels.
Nice to see that bureaucratic employment will increase as private firms suffer trying to fulfil this sexist tokenism. And how do female board directors who made it on their own merits feel about Trace from the typing pool being promoted and everyone assuming that every female director has now been given the role just because she is a girl?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:05 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Too dangerous to live
Why the fanatics wanted Bhutto dead - Telegraph
For as long as Miss Bhutto lived, she was a symbol of the alternative route open to Pakistan - the route towards a liberal, secular, open democracy, offered in stark contrast to the closed and militant path of the radicals.
Moreover, Miss Bhutto was genuinely popular....In the end, the popular backing she was able to command was her trump card, rendering her an exceptionally dangerous opponent for the Islamist radicals, perhaps more so than Mr Musharraf.
Miss Bhutto knew the risks only too well. Yet she addressed rally after rally, choosing the militant stronghold of Peshawar for her penultimate gathering on Wednesday.
It was her popularity that was dangerous to the Islamofascists - they don't like it when the "ordinary" people show they don't want a medieval theocracy.
Her death is a huge blow, we need more, many more like her.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 27, 2007
Perdix perdix - incentives matter
Grey Partridge Perdix perdix or English Partridge is on the Red List of the Conservation Status. and there is an active Biodiversity plan with targets and objectives.
No 1 son has a shiny new Shotgun Certificate and has been out today doing his bit to help the wild population....
Giving them an economic value by shooting them gives farmers the incentive to maintain their habitat..
Posted by The Englishman at 3:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
B of the Bang goes the Games' Budget
‘Bang’ ends with a whimper as spikes fall foul of health rules - Times Online
A sculpture created to mark the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester has been declared unsafe...
The vaulting ambition of the 180-tonne structure, a starburst of enormous metal spikes that dominates East Manchester, was designed to seal the artist’s reputation. But his company is being sued for negligence and breach of contract by Manchester City Council. The council says that the structure remains unsafe. Four years after it was due to be completed it remains fenced off....a sorry sight on the periphery of Eastlands, formerly the City of Manchester Stadium.
Discarded metal spikes lie on the ground and, for a short period, the road had to be closed to traffic because of safety fears.
Meanwhile, costs spiralled from an estimated £750,000 to £1.42 million – because the successful bid did not include the cost of installation. The opening was put back from July 2003 to January 2005. But within two weeks of the opening, spikes began to fall off,...Sir Howard Bernstein, the council’s chief executive, said: "We want a lasting memorial to the Games."
Posted by The Englishman at 7:32 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
EU Bendy Bananas
‘No one wants to bend banana rules’ - Times Online
STOCKPORT The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, has reassured a Liberal Democrat MEP that the bendiness of bananas is a valid matter for Brussels.In response to a question from Chris Davies, an MEP for the North West, Mrs Fischer Boel said that in the 13 years that European legislation on bendy bananas had been in force, not one grower, wholesaler, retailer or customer had complained. Mr Davies said that this was because the industry needed such trading standards.
He had raised the issue with the Commission to clear up an old claim about bureaucratic overregulation by Brussels. “People think bananas are just bananas, but there’s a huge difference between a long, straight one from Costa Rica and a short, curvy one from Cyprus,” he said. “Strip away the anti-European nonsense and there are sound reasons for most EU laws.”
Not one complaint about the regulation? Huh? So that proves it is needed? And what is the sound reason? That bananas come in different shapes, doesn't the EU celebrate diversity?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Olympic update
Who can deliver Sebastian Coe’s Games promise? - Times Online
Fears that London 2012 will fail to deliver on its promise of rejuvenated participation after the Olympics were raised yesterday by leaders of the two marquee Olympic sports..
Our promise in Singapore was that we’d use this as an inspirational tool to re-engage the youth of this country and the world. That is a really tough call. But who is joining up the dots for all this to work? Where is the drive?”
I have no idea of what a "marquee Olympic sport" is, sounds a bit camp to me. But this guff about inspiring and re-engaging yoofs worldwide is just another excuse to suckle the public teat. If they just concentrated on putting on a bit of a show as the drug addled "atheletes" hop, skip and jump then the Olympics might be interesting; there would be no role for the boring smug git Smeg Coe, apart from being a javelin catcher; and there would be chance that the whole circus would cost less than £20 Billion
Rising security costs threaten to break the Olympic budget - Times Online
There is a 20 per cent chance that the £9.3 billion total budget will be exceeded, the Government admitted yesterday.
You find me a bookmaker that will accept those odds and I will be down there with a wheel barrow of fivers to say that if it is properly audited the cost will be double that, minimum.
Union warns that wildcat strikes could hit Olympics - Times Online
London Olympic projects could be hit by widespread industrial action and wildcat strikes.., Ucatt, the building union, has given warning....Work on building the main Olympic stadium and other projects is due to begin in the spring.... Alan Ritchie, the Ucatt general secretary, said: “My union is 100 per cent committed to the London Games being a total success. However, I fear...
Get your snouts in the troughs boys, everyone else does and there is no reason why the brickies shouldn't as well. It is badly run with a pressing timetable, it won't be hard to squeeze them a bit as they panic it won't be finished in time.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
How do you like your spuds?
Is umami the secret to help potatoes pass the taste test? - Scotsman.com News
UMAMI, a 100-year-old Japanese concept of flavour, may hold the key to breeding the perfect potato.
Umami has been scientifically accepted as one of the five individual tastes sensed by receptors on the tongue, along with salty, sweet, bitter and sour.
Although there is no equivalent word in English, umami has been used to describe the slightly savoury taste that people encounter when they eat ripe tomatoes, parmesan cheese, cured ham, mushrooms, and various types of meat and fish.
Dr Mark Taylor, the SCRI scientist who led the research, said: "Umami is almost a savoury-like flavour and that is obviously considered to be important when it comes to judging the taste of a potato. It was certainly the case in our taste trials.
I find it is the generous application of butter and salt or roasting them in beef dripping that gives them flavour...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Make Boys Girly - Official
Schools told to teach boys netball - Telegraph
Schools have been told to encourage boys to play netball and take dance lessons in the name of equality.
Thousands of schools are being forced to ensure that pupils are more "gender balanced" as part of discrimination legislation introduced this year...
Last night, the guidance was criticised by head teachers, who said they were already struggling under the strain of bureaucracy.
Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "It doesn't make any sense to promote things to boys that they don't want to do, simply so you can tick a box on a form."
It is refreshing to see some headmasters recognising that there are limits to the indoctrination they can perform on their charges, they have enough trouble already with the feminised curriculum to keep the boys interest.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 26, 2007
Peter Watt is likely to face prosecution for his role in Donorgate
Donorgate police 'to press criminal charges' - Telegraph
The scandal over the Labour Party's £670,000 illegal donations will return to haunt Gordon Brown in the New Year as criminal charges may be imminent, according to an authoritative Whitehall source.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that those leading the investigation into the so-called "donorgate" affair will complete their inquiries as early as the end of next month.
The source has said that Peter Watt, who resigned as Labour's general secretary, may be facing criminal charges over his role in the worst fundraising controversy since Labour took power in 1997.
The development will overshadow attempts by Mr Brown to regain the political initiative in the New Year after a disastrous last quarter of 2007.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Peer Review of 2007
Early kick-off for political football - Scotsman.com News
In the first of a four-part series, ROBERT McNEIL gives his unique perspective on the key events of the first three months of 2007.
THE year got off to a great start for curmudgeons when the Hogmanay Party in Edinburgh was cancelled due to inclement weather. In more good news, Saddam Hussein was bunged into an unmarked grave....An infinitely more tragic death was that of Lord Anthony Lambton, 84, a former Tory defence minister famously photographed in bed with two prostitutes while smoking a joint. Lambton had dedicated himself to "gardening and debauchery" after losing a legal battle about a toff title.
Asked why he used call-girls, he said: "I think that people sometimes like variety… and I think that impulse is probably understood by almost everybody. Don't you?"...
In February, the nation rejoiced when charges of causing mayhem on a small aeroplane were dropped against Lord Fraser, the much-loved roly-poly peer who had overseen the mysteriously named Fraser Inquiry into costs at Holyrood. On the plane, at a small airstrip by the Tay, all his nibs had done was speak out politely when he was seated among the proletariat after paying for a posh seat. He wasn't drunk or anything, having inhaled merely one large whisky while his plane was delayed. However, he had wobbled in an alarming manner, and that was enough to make one of these notoriously panicky stewardesses start shouting the odds. Nowadays, you daren't even glance at these power-drunk prima donnas without risking immediate arrest and your picture in the papers.
No wonder Russians are going wild for P G Wodehouse - Telegraph
Posted by The Englishman at 7:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Happy PC Holidays
Mary is contrary in the politically correct year - Telegraph
For decades, children have enjoyed singing about the little donkey which is said to have carried the pregnant Mary to Bethlehem.
But one group of young singers was ordered to change the traditional lyrics of the Christmas song - because they were said to be "too religious".
Instead of "Little donkey, carry Mary safely on her way", the youngsters were told to sing "carry Lucy" for fear of offending non-Christians. The incident, at the school's Christmas concert, appears on a new calendar alongside 11 other examples of extreme political correctness from around Britain.
More here - H/t Jos
Posted by The Englishman at 7:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hunt On
Hunting enjoys a revival - Telegraph
Hunting is undergoing a revival with increasing numbers of women and children taking part as a direct result of the ban imposed by the Hunting Act.
As 314 hunts were preparing to meet organisers report that in the two years since the ban, young people have attracted to the sport, reversing the situation of more than a decade ago where hunt memberships were ageing and in decline....
Karl Creamer, 44, joint master of the Ludlow, is a former professional ice-hockey player who had not sat on a horse until 1994.
He said: "Everything that gets banned seems to become popular." Mr Creamer said that the average hunt follower was now 26 years old and female with a full time job who likes doing dressage as well.
"I make no bones about it, that's why I got into it," he said.
Doing something that that the Government has tried to ban, open air, traditional, danger, excitement and immaculately turned out 26 year girls - what's not to like?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 25, 2007
It's Christmas cracker time
My wife's gone to the West Indies
-Jamaica?
-No, she went of her own accord.
-My wife's gone to the Indian coast
-Goa?
-Phwoar! I'll say!
-My wife's gone to St Petersburg.
-Is she Russian?
-No, she's taking her time.
-My wife's gone to Northern Italy
-Genoa?
-I should think so, we've been married for 20 years.
-My wife's had an accident on a volcano
-Krakatoa?
-No. She broke her leg.
-My wife's gone mad in Venezuela
-Caracas?
-Yes, absolutely loopy
-My wife's gone to the Welsh border.
-Wye?
-Search me.
-My wife's gone to the botanical gardens.
-Kew?
-Yes, it was rather busy.
-My wife's gone to Malawi
-Lilongwe?
-Yes, about 5000 miles
-My wife's got an upset tummy in Laos
-Inkhazi?
-Yes, constantly.
-My wife's gone to see relatives in France
-Nice?
-No, her Aunt and Uncle actually
-My wife's gone on a singing tour of South Korea
-Seoul?
-No, R&B
-My wife caught a cold in the Gulf
-Qatar?
-Yes, she was coughing up greenies for weeks
-My wife had an accident in Slovenia
-Bled?
-like a stuck pig.
-My wife's parents are from Croatia
-Split?
-No, they're still happily married.
-My wife went to a very bad concert in South East Asia
-Singapore?
-Terrible. And the rest of the band was even worse.
-My wife went on a sailing course in Poole
-In Dorset?
-Yes, she'd recommend it to anyone.
My wife had a nasty car accident in Mid-Wales?
- Lampeter?
- No, she drove into a wall.
My wife's gone to Indonesia.
Jakarta?
No, she flew with British Airways.
- My wife's studying polar bears somewhere in the Arctic.
- Alaska?
- Impossible, she's out of contact at the moment.
My wife's gone to Iceland.
Höfn?
No, just the once.
Who was the wife of Jupiter?
Juno?
No, that's why I'm asking.
What is the state capital of Alaska
Juneau
Yes, but do you?
My brother was taken ill on a flight to England
-Heathrow?
-No, but he felt very queasy
- My wife bought some second-hand clothes in Cheshire.
- Altrincham?
- No, they fitted her perfectly.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:40 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Happy Christmas
H'T Becky
Posted by The Englishman at 12:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 24, 2007
Churchill on The Home Secretary Detaining Suspects Without Trial
DEFENCE REGULATION 18B
A SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
OCTOBER 21, 1941
NOTE.—This speech was made in the course of a debate concerning the Home Secretary’s powers of detaining persons under Defence Regulation 18b and the prevention of Mr. McGovern, M.P., from visiting Northern Ireland.
THERE is no part of the powers conferred on His Majesty Government in this time of trial that I view with greater repugnance than these powers of exceptional process against the liberty of the subject without the ordinary safeguards which are inherent in British life. Those high-sounding familiar phrases like “ Habeas Corpus,” “ petitioner’s right,” “ charges made which known to the law,” and “ trial by jury “—all these are part of what we are fighting to preserve. We all care about them and understand them, and we are determined that they shall not be trespassed upon by anything except the need of self-preservation which arises in time of war.
I recognize that this legislation and the Regulations which are based upon it were passed at a moment of great danger. It possible that if in this lull—-and it is only a lull—the matter were considered, the House would be in a different temper. I must say that I should feel very proud and happy if I could come down to the House, even while the war was going on, and say, “Our position is now so good and solid, we now see the path before us so firm and clear, that even in time of war we can of our own free will give back these special powers.” Unhappily that is not the case at present. The time may come, but not now. In the meanwhile, I cannot conceive how Parliament can better keep control over the use of these abnormal powers than by insisting upon their being exercised in the discretion of a Minister present in the House and accountable to the House. The Minister has been made accountable to the House. He has come down to-day and has explained in the greatest detail his use of the powers in a particular case. I should think he feels it a most objectionable thing to have this discretionary power conferred on him ; but such a discretionary power there must be, and there must be a choosing between this and that. The House has given the power, and I am bound to say that the manner in which my right Hon. Friend has explained the whole position has brought home to the House, first, the submissiveness of the Executive to Parliamentary institutions, and secondly, the care with which these powers are exercised.
For my part, I hope that the day may come as speedily as possible, even before the end of the war, when we may be able to relieve ourselves of these exceptional powers, or some of them. In the meanwhile, I feel that we are entitled to ask from the House a general measure of support for the Minister charged with exercising them. There can be no question of going behind the powers of the House. The powers of the House are over-riding and inalienable, and everything that is done s done on the responsibility of the House, be it right or be it wrong The House has power to wreck the pro-posed action, provided, of course, it is confident that it is representing the country in the course which it is taking. Therefore, I hope the Debate when it ends may leave the impression that there has been no derogation from the authority and freedom of Parliamentary institutions I particularly resent the suggestion that we are adopting the methods of Fascist States We are not We are the Servants of the House. It may be true that the House will support its servants, but if it does not the powers in their hands are without effect, and so long as that fact is established it is absolutely improper, as well as unhelpful, to place us upon the level of totalitarian Governments which have no corrective legislature, no law but their own wills, no check on the enforcement of their own particular doctrines in any way they choose.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dear Hugh - Saving the Whale
Dear Hugh on Myspace reveals that the Japanese did require whales for scientific research - research into a complaint peculiar to Japan, known as "mame chin".
According to the delegation, the whales are hunted not to eat (using the flesh for food is a side-product of the exercise) but for a fatty chemical tissue found in the blubber.
"Mame chin", our reddening translator continued, is Japanese for "tiny penis".
Apparently the chaps of the rising sun are not quite the stallions of their counterparts in Europe and America - and that the demand for injections of this whale fat is led by Japanese businessmen who are planning trips abroad.
So miniscule is the average nob of Nippon that businessmen feel they will be humiliated if their condition is revealed on a business trip and that rather than risk losing face, they succumb to these injections, which have effect for up to a month, whenever working overseas.
Understandably, because they don't wish to wave this fact about, they call it "scientific research".
That's the truth.
And so basically if you want to save the whale, tell our whores not to giggle so much.
And I bet they don't tell you that on Newsnight.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Remember this Christmas how lucky we are.
"So what happened was, I had had a couple of beers and fancied a takeaway, as you do. So I drove the old Land Rover into Swindon and parked in the car park opposite the Chinky's. When I came out with my meal I couldn't drive away, I put the old girl down into low gear and we started off and then I realised I had caught my tow hook under the bumper of the car behind. Well I tried, and the Chinese guys tried but we couldn't get the bugger off. So I started thinking and thought I've had a pint or five maybe I ought to get on my way. So off I set, took me two and half turns round the car park before the bugger fell off. I often wonder what they thought when they came back to find their car t'other side of the park without its bumper..."
I didn't know Bob Fry well, but spent a few memorable evenings with him, and he always had such a tale to tell
Robert Fry, 52 and his wife Deborah, 48, died when they ran into rough seas near Sagres on the Algarve coast on 22 October saving their children. Rosie Fry, 11, and her brother George, nine, are now orphans.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
If you are having the day off..
Today's the day for settling down in front of a roaring fire and watching an old film in the afternoon, before the chaos of tomorrow commences. In a year or so we all will get video on demand down the wire and no longer have to rely on the vagaries of the programmers, this would be my choice for today:
Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Iain and Tim both wrong
Iain Dale and Tim Worstall are at oppositie ends of the argument as to how much MPs should get paid.
Iain as a wannabe MP thinks MPs ought to be paid gazillions, and having learnt how he has had to sell the roof from over his head to finance his attempts to become one, he argues with some passion. His disinterested argument is simply, you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Tim can be summed up that as we only get monkeys they only deserve peanuts, and that is generous as a length of hempen rope and a lamp post would be more fitting for most.
There is a simple, fairer and more democratic answer. Let prospective MPs, like a job applicant say what their salary expectations are. Put it in their manifestos. "I'm worth £100,00 a year and double that in expenses because I'm jolly clever and will work hard". We will soon judge who is worth what.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Pass the sick-bag, Alice
‘Judge not Tony Blair, for he is like St Paul’ -Times Online
The Roman Catholic priest who was instrumental in guiding Tony Blair on his path to Rome compared the former Prime Minister last night to St Paul.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Follow the money
Education funding 'spent in Labour strongholds' - Telegraph
Billions of pounds are being spent on schools in deprived districts in Labour strongholds at the expense of pupils in more affluent areas, new figures show....Almost all the local authorities that have seen the biggest increases in spending since 1997 are dominated by Labour councillors and MPs.
Ministers insisted that spending had been targeted at those areas of the greatest social need.
Michael Gove, the Tory shadow children's secretary, said: "These figures only underline how important it is that we have educational reforms which put spending power in the hands of the parents, not Labour-controlled bureaucrats."
Dominated by the social need of the politicians to continue sticking their snouts in the trough. Grove is correct we need to put the spending power in the hands of the parents, not Labour, nor Tory bureaucrats. Give the money to the parents to spend, if we think that some deprived families need more money to help them, give them more . Don't give it to some bureaucrat to spend on their behalf as though they are some sub-normal case who patronisingly needs caring for.
School Vouchers NOW.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
No X factor
Generation X 'having less sex' - Telegraph
They are defined as Generation X but today's 20- to 40-somethings could soon be equally known as "Generation with no sex".
For those born before the 1960s, the invention of the Pill awakened their sense of sexual adventure. ... teenagers and those in their early 20s, .. are increasingly using sex as entertainment thanks to the internet, according to Edward Laumann, the professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, who conducted the research.
"It's clear that, while Generation X has sex, obviously, it's probably not as much or as varied in styles as that of their parents or today's teenagers and students," he said.
I think I'll give some yoofs a high five tonight as us old farts giggle at the losers in their carefully pressed jeans, oh so ethical lifestyles and boring lives in Barratt Homes. Still I see in other headlines there is hope for our rural northern friends:
First steps in a bid to bring the beaver back to wilds of Scotland - Scotsman.com News
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack