July 7, 2007
Squealing
Gone Shopping -Times Online
Snitching, grassing, blabbing, sneaking, spilling the beans, informing on, letting the cat out of the bag, leaking, blowing the gaff, betraying, selling down the river, telling on, shopping, blowing the whistle, tipping the wink, ratting – whatever you call it, snitching is a tainted practice.
Nearly 200,000 people have shopped enemies, friends, bosses and family to a new confidential Tax Evasion Hotline over the past year, The Times has learnt. Such ratting is often justified by the pious sentiment that the ends justify the means. But would an apologist for snitching argue that it is also morally permissible to mug millionaires on dark street corners in order to raise cash to carry out good works for the poor?
Tax evasion is reprehensible, but should you snitch? On enemies – understandable; but on friends? Snitching sounds moral and high-minded. But much snitching to the tax authorities is not motivated by a quest for financial justice, but by a desire to get even – with a former spouse, an annoying neighbour, an employer who is massaging his tax bill, or a friend or a business partner with whom you have fallen out.....
But then the tax authorities probably don’t call it anything so vulgar as snitching: they may call it a “non-formal revenue-enhancement stream”. If it is ethical to rat to the Revenue about unpaid taxes, is it not also ethical to grass up the sneaks? Is there a hotline to snitch on the snitchers?
It is the French way, Gordon should condemn it as unBritish, as I said before in a post which The Times echoes.....
An Englishman's Castle: Cockroachs
Snitch, squealer, stool pigeon, tout, grass, dobber, bavette, bourrique, cafard, cafteur, donneur, fileur, indic, mouche, mouton, raille, taupe....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:41 AM
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March 28, 2007
Scottish Raj to lose power at home, but not in their colony - yet.
Labour faces meltdown as SNP heads for power-News-Politics-TimesOnline
The Populus poll puts the Nationalists ahead of Labour in both the first-past-the-post and proportional-representation sections. They are on track to win 50 seats in the 129-seat Scottish Parliament, seven more than Labour. The Liberal Democrats would have 18 MSPs, the Conservatives 17 and the Greens one.
If the SNP leader Alex Salmond becomes First Minister, Mr Brown would face taunts that he would be a Scot in power in England whose writ did not run on issues such as health, education and transport in Scotland. And Mr Brown, if he becomes Prime Minister, would also be swiftly reminded that the Conservatives secured narrowly more votes in England than Labour at the last general election – leaving him open to claims that he has a mandate in neither country.
Today’s poll comes amid increasing signs that Mr Brown is unlikely to face a serious challenge for the Labour leadership. Some Blairite ministers have tried vainly to keep alive the prospect of a challenge by David Miliband, the Environment Secretary. Tony Blair is reported by friends to be irritated by what he sees as misguided attempts by some of his own allies to damage Mr Brown, believing they can only harm his party’s attempt to win a fourth term.
Mr Brown has tried to defuse opposition to a Scot running England by making a series of speeches about Britishness in recent years. It is possible that three Scots, Mr Brown, Alistair Darling, who could become Chancellor, and John Reid, who could stay as Home Secretary, will fill three of the main offices of state by the summer.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:40 AM
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November 5, 2006
Oleaginous Hain Green with Envy
The Times: PETER HAIN today raises the spectre of making the rich bear more of the burden for reducing carbon emissions by relating green taxes to income.
The Northern Ireland secretary, campaigning to become deputy prime minister under Gordon Brown, also suggested “innovative ways” were needed to stop the super-wealthy “racing away” from those on average incomes.
Hain advocates introducing “progressive” green taxes to hit those on big incomes hardest, rather than slapping levies on flights, petrol and rubbish.
...
“There is a problem about those right at the top just racing away over the horizon and those on average and below-average incomes staying behind. We need to find a way of addressing that.” What I am saying is just be very careful that we’re not ignoring the need for social justice.
It is good of the oleaginous one to remind us what the call for "green taxes" is really about - not a "levy" to rectify the harm an activity does but another method of socially engineering society in the orange faced twat's vision. Green with envy with taxes maybe?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:27 AM
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September 12, 2006
Community, Identity, Stability - Blair's Brave New World
Tony Blair "At the heart of my politics has always been the value of community"
Tony Blair:"We will pursue identity cards because they are right;.... I should also say that if we want to keep track of people in this country, in the end we will have to face up to the difficult decision on identity cards. "
Tony Blair "the yearning is for order and stability"
SparkNotes: Brave New World: ..its guiding motto: “Community, Identity, Stability".
Posted by The Englishman at 8:13 PM
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Tory Leaders
Today's lesson: Compare and Contrast:
A fat boy on a gap year regurgitating half baked green and "new world" political theories versus a simple dignified pilgrimage to show support.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:18 AM
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September 7, 2006
The King is Dead - Long Live the Interregnum
Feud threatens to spell an end to key reforms - Britain - Times Online
...the workings of Whitehall could be paralysed well before Mr Blair leaves.
And this is bad news? "That government is best which governs least." as Thomas Paine, or Henry David Thoreau, but not Thomas Jefferson said. I believe the US economy had its best months while the hanging chads were being counted and it was leaderless - I believe the same is happening here.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:19 AM
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September 5, 2006
Chris Huhne - economic idiot?
WINDFALL TAX ON DUKES' FARM INCOME SHOULD BE CONSIDERED - HUHNE (Chris Huhne MP)
Commenting on statistics released today revealing the beneficiaries of millions of pounds from the Common Agricultural Policy, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:
"The Government should consider a windfall tax on big farm subsidies that would claw some of this largesse back for the taxpayer.
"Subsidies designed to maintain the countryside are one thing, but subsidies to maintain the Dukes of Marlborough, Richmond and Westminster are quite another. These Dukes are quite big enough to fend for themselves now."
Now either Chris Huhne is an economic idiot though with an Oxford first in PPE and the fact that before his political career, he was a City economist, and before that an economic commentator for The Guardian, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, that is probably unlikely; or worse he is prostituting his knowledge in a base attempt to win favour with the envious and grasping.
If subsidies are being paid per acre to maintain the countryside why does the owner's name or acreage matter? - and if you look at the list of payments their Lordship's names aren't even very high - page one is below the fold.
I guess the largest claimer, Business Link in Devon are acting as agents for lots of small farmers but No.2 on the List with £2.6 million is the good old Co-op - the same one as you used to shop from and get your divi stamps - why isn't Huhne picking on it?
(Disclosure - To my shame I'm on page 278 out of 287)
Customer Payment Region
BUSINESS LINK DEVON AND CORNWALL LTD £3,048,002.62 Devon
FARMCARE LIMITED £2,601,757.56 North Yorkshire
YORKSHIRE RURAL COMMUNITY COUNCIL £1,788,011.61 North Yorkshire
STRUTT & PARKER (FARMS) LTD £1,635,134.45 Essex
BUSINESS LINK SOUTH YORKSHIRE £1,586,929.29 South Yorkshire
DUCHY COLLEGE HOME FARM £1,524,165.29 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
MEAT AND LIVESTOCK COMMISSION £1,500,000.00 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
SOUTH WEST TOURISM £1,437,122.01 Devon
TAMAR FOODS (A DIVISION OF SAMWORTH BROTHERS £1,418,697.56 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
CORNISH HORTICULTURE ENTERPRISES LIMITED £1,308,487.77 Devon
LILBURN ESTATES FARMING PARTNERSHIP £1,264,202.95 Northumberland and Tyne and Wear
ALBANWISE LTD £1,247,065.46 East Anglia
SIR RICHARD SUTTONS SETTLED ESTATES £1,117,139.97 Inner London
CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL £1,084,969.45 Cumbria
PARKERS OF LEICESTER LTD £1,073,529.62 Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire
FOREST OF DARTMOOR COMMONERS ASSOCIATION £1,058,202.65 Devon
BLANKNEY ESTATES LTD £986,594.86 Lincolnshire
AGRESERVES LTD £947,639.48 East Anglia
THURLOW ESTATE FARMS £906,406.27 East Anglia
KENSEY FOODS DIVISION OF SAMWORTH BROTHERS L £871,918.68 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
LIMESTONE FARMING CO. LTD. £864,310.45 Lincolnshire
RSPB £850,720.69 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
WARTER PRIORY FARMS £807,284.48 East Riding and North Lincolnshire
THE BIRDSALL BEEF CO LTD £770,588.42 North Yorkshire
ELVEDEN FARMS LTD £743,211.23 East Anglia
OLDE ENGLISH MEATS LTD £665,886.60 Lancashire
COMPTON BEAUCHAMP ESTATES LIMITED £638,032.68 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
J S R FARMS LTD £634,969.79 East Riding and North Lincolnshire
MR R COLLINGWOOD-SMITH £634,843.22 East Anglia
MR RMR WINGFIELD £633,538.74 Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset
TASTE OF THE WEST LTD CORNWALL £626,590.52 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
LORD RAYLEIGHS FARMS LTD £618,083.51 Essex
ROBINSON FARMS (CARBROOKE) LTD £603,373.58 East Anglia
R J & A E GODFREY £594,909.80 East Riding and North Lincolnshire
LOVEDEN ESTATES LIMITED £589,191.30 East Riding and North Lincolnshire
THE NATIONAL TRUST £583,360.10 Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
HEATHPATCH LTD £582,707.83 East Anglia
H R PHILPOT & SON (BARLEYLANDS) LTD £574,359.20 Essex
R H TOPHAM & SONS LTD £568,519.64 East Anglia
WORKING WOODLANDS HOLDINGS LTD £560,491.39 Devon
HR BOURN AND SONS £553,646.77 Lincolnshire
MERSEY FOREST COMPANY LTD £553,502.00 Cheshire
ISLE OF WIGHT ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP LIMITED £548,858.89 Hampshire and Isle of Wight
WESTCOUNTRY RIVERS TRUST £540,629.67 Devon
BECKHITHE FARMS LTD £538,635.95 East Anglia
FOLD HILL FOODS LTD £531,644.38 Lincolnshire
SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL £529,030.33 South Yorkshire
MIDDLETON AND PORTWAY FARMS £517,930.94 Hampshire and Isle of Wight
THE NATIONAL TRUST £517,417.01 Surrey, East and West Sussex
I KEMSLEY FARMS LTD £515,486.37 Kent
BLENHEIM FARM PARTNERSHIP £511,435.59 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
WALDERSEY FARMS LTD £502,855.33 East Anglia
WILLOUGHBY FARMS LTD £500,409.41 Lincolnshire
HEATHCOTE FARMS LTD £497,793.83 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
TRADITIONAL NORFOLK POULTRY £496,282.50 East Anglia
M.D. HAMILTON FARMS LTD £490,296.87 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
BEDFORDIA FARMS LTD £490,246.25 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
FT WALTON £478,688.35 Northumberland and Tyne and Wear
LONGFORD FARMS LTD £476,587.66 Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset
RAMSBURY ESTATES LTD £473,141.43 Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset
MERCER FARMING LTD £466,175.13 Shropshire and Staffordshire
STOWELL PARK ESTATE LTD £464,720.32 Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset
JH HEATH LTD £463,594.73 Lincolnshire
AW SMITH & SONS LTD £462,009.58 Lincolnshire
THORPE AND ASGARBY ESTATE LIMITED £459,708.41 Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire
EARL OF PLYMOUTH ESTATES LTD £459,171.99 Shropshire and Staffordshire
RIBBLE VALLEY B C £457,098.00 Lancashire
MYERSCOUGH COLLEGE FEC £456,677.18 Lancashire
THE GOODWOOD ESTATE COMPANY LTD £456,404.51 Surrey, East and West Sussex
BUCKMINSTER FARMS £454,509.96 Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire
Posted by The Englishman at 4:59 PM
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Tony Blair - the James Blunt of politics.
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair urged to go by Labour MPs
Tony Blair - the James Blunt of politics. No one can quite remember how or why the mockney public school boy was popular once and all claim that hey weren't ever a fan - now. That embarrassing CD was a gift from a friend - oh no they wouldn't ever have bought it....
Posted by The Englishman at 4:46 PM
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Dave's new friends
L etters to The Editor - A changing environment - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Signed
PETER AINSWORTH
Shadow Secretary of State Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Conservative
CHRIS HUHNE
Shadow Secretary of State, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Liberal Democrats
COLIN CHALLEN MP
All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change
ASHOK SINHA
Stop Climate Chaos
TONY JUNIPER
Friends of the Earth
DALEEP MUKARJI
Christian Aid
So who are the Tories new friends?
CHRIS HUHNE
A Lib Dim - Tories should always treat Lib Dims as they did the fat ginger boy who smelt at school - in fact the Lib Dim probably is that boy. So no cuddling up there please.
COLIN CHALLEN MP
A beardie Labourite who believes in an article he claims on his website to have written in the future 28 March 2008 Climate change means that business as usual is dead. It means that economic growth as usual is dead.... Contraction and Convergence... Yep - give up and go back to great days of the 1970s.
ASHOK SINHA
Stop Climate Chaos - if it is a trendy "charity" it is here shouting out dubious "facts" such as "Over 3 billion people in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent could be facing acute shortages of water" - what is the population of that area? Quite.
TONY JUNIPER
Friends of the Earth - who are really against the current corporate industry driven systems.
DALEEP MUKARJI
Christian Aid - Their disgraceful anti Free Trade adverts - need I say more?
So they are the nuTories - does that make you want to join their party?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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August 4, 2006
ID cards - MPs warn of the coming debacle
Committee wants to postpone ID | The Register
The government has been advised to further postpone the introduction of ID Cards until it can be sure the scheme will work.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee inquiry into the thinking behind ID Cards, published today, found the government had decided what it wanted to do before it had determined if it would even work.....
Government trials of the biometric technology it wants to use in ID Cards are planned to occur simultaneously with the procurement, which specifies the system, decides who will develop it, and how much it will cost. But the procurement process should be informed by evidence gathered from the trials.
To date, the committee found, the Home Office had been "unscientific" in its practice of selectively using evidence collected by previous trials to prove its own theories about biometric technology.
"We are surprised and concerned that the Home Office has already chosen the biometrics that it intends to use before finishing the process of gathering evidence," the committee report said.
It added that the Home Office should "act on evidence rather than preference".
The Home Office's consultation on ID Cards had also been inadequate. Industry was doubtful about what the Home Office was doing and sceptical that it had given it proper thought.
...
This lack of inhouse knowledge has been identified before as the cause of government IT failure, the Child Support Agency debacle being a case in point. As it happens, the committee was worried that the signs showed the Home Office had not taken enough notice of the accumulated wisdom of previous IT disasters, as surmised in numerous reports over the last decade.
It was also concerned that the committees set up to guide the ID IT plans had not been "best placed to offer expert advice" because they had few experts. The Home Office also lacked an IT chief, while there was uncertainty about who at the Home Office was in charge of the project.
The Home Office wanted a flexible, staggered approach because it was learning what to do as it went along. But until it fixes its plans, which the committee said should be done "as soon as possible", it will not be able to get the disparate parts of the ID scheme interoperating - i.e. working. ®
Another one to lay at Charles Clarke's door...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:43 AM
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August 2, 2006
Your starter for ten
Telegraph | Opinion | Which one makes her country proud?
Condo or Ma Beckett?
Come on it's not that hard, let me give you a clue, which one is tirelessly working, intelligent, talented and knowledgeable and which one is a total fuckwit who is going caravaning rather than put in a few hours doing what she is paid for?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:13 AM
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July 21, 2006
Rawhide Prescott - the adventure continues
Iain Dale's Diary notes a message from Newsnight:
"You'll be relieved to know we've secured a Bucking Bronco on College Green. We just thought we couldn't let you ponder the complexities of the Commissioner on Standards in Public Life's findings on John Prescott without one.
May have something to do with the official sleaze report - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/21_07_06_prescott.pdf and questions such as these:
Question 1—Did you receive any gifts from Mr Philip Anschutz during your stay in his ranch in July 2005?
Yes, I did receive gifts and I fully understood that they were gifts at the time. Indeed I was informed at the time I used them that they would be posted to my office in the UK.
Question 2—If so, what was their nature and the estimated cash value of each of them?
As I explained in my letter of 14 July, the nature of the gifts I received were designed to allow me to carry out a
working day on Mr Anschutz's ranch, and, as you know, in the usual way their value has been estimated at:
A Stetson hat—£97
A pair of calf length boots—£120
A belt and buckle—£207
A pair of spurs - £185
A leather bound notebook (not valued)
Question 3—Were they declared on your return to the UK to your then Permanent Secretary?
...In accordance with my department’s procedures, there was no correspondence between my Private Office and my Permanent Secretary about these gifts - though she did see at least some of the
Anschutz gifts when they were displayed in the office on their arrival.
I wonder if any of his other secretaries or Parliamentary colleagues also saw the boots and spurs...?
Keep movin', movin', movin'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep them dogies movin'
Rawhide!
Don't try to understand 'em
Just rope, throw, and brand 'em
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
My hearts calculatin'
My true love will be waitin',
Be waitin' at the end of my ride.
Rawhide!
Rawhide!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:08 PM
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July 15, 2006
Spitting in the face of your friends
The dairy giant, Fonterra, says a decision by the European Commission to suspend all New Zealand butter imports to the European Union is extraordinary.
Significantly, throughout the war and the very worst of the U-boat campaign, Germany never managed to sever our trading links with New Zealand but now, sixty years later without even firing a shot, it has achieved that, courtesy of the European Union.
Back then, of course, our trading links - and our more general relations - with the Commonwealth really mattered. But, despite this serious blow to the New Zealand economy, and not a squawk of protest from the British government, and no mention of this in our media.
How things change.
Of all the many things our politicians make me ashamed of, the way we have treated our true friends around the world is one of the worst.
My father was proud to wear a fern leaf and so should all of us be:
In 1941 the regiment was re-roled as an armoured regiment in 9 Armoured Brigade under the command of 2 New Zealand Division. In recognition of that close association, The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (PWO) continues to wear the 'fern leaf' flash on their Blue Patrols to this day.
At EI Alamein The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (PWO) had the honour of being the first British tank regiment to engage the enemy.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:02 AM
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Meum et Teum
Telegraph | News | 'Bedroom touts' want right to sell tickets on net
Nine out of 10 people want the right to buy and sell tickets to pop concerts, cricket matches and rock festivals on the open market, according to a new poll.
Buying and selling second-hand tickets is not illegal, accept for football games in England and Wales.
However, re-selling tickets is usually in breach of the terms and conditions laid down by the event organiser.
Venues can refuse admission to someone they know has bought a ticket second-hand.
In a survey of 1,000 people, carried out by ICM, 87 per cent of people said they should be able to re-sell tickets.
Nearly half of people surveyed who said they had tried to secure a refund had found it "impossible".
Eighty-four per cent believed that a ticket was their private property and that they should have the right to buy and sell it.
Funny how people actually recognise the importance of the principle of private property when it is something they might actually own - how unlike our dear leaders who have a distinctly cavalier attitude to the principle when they think they can get away with it.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:44 AM
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July 13, 2006
Scots welsh on English deal
Yesterday, Geoffrey Cox, Tory MP for Torridge and West Devon stood up in the House and asked Snake-oil Blair a question..about a tender for a Scottish Fisheries Protection boat won by a local firm. Apparently, Appledores, a shipyard in his SW constituency had originally won the contract fair & square from the Scottish Executive.
And then, all of a sudden, they lost it. Just like that.
Thanks to Scottish Executive Environmental Minister, Ross Finnie, the contract was withdrawn from Appledore the same day as it was awarded and eventually re-awarded to Fergusons shipyard in Port Glasgow who were incidentally one of the original tendering companies who failed first time round.
Even though strict EU rules state that the Scottish Executive should select the cheapest quote. Even though Appledore of SW England were the cheapest. Even though they were awarded the contract it was still withdrawn after Finnie sort of cried "foul" - and given to a Scottish yard.
Consequently, Appledore are in it right up to their necks. Workers have been laid off their yard is empty. They are currently suing the Scottish Executive for 10 million.
Narrow minded parochial protectionism? No of course not...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:36 AM
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You can't trust Cameron
Tories MPs are being summonsed this morning to hear their leader renege on his promise to withdraw the Conservatives from the EPP group, his one and only specific promise made during his bid for the leadership of the Party.
....
Looking at the broader picture, with Cameron having already ditched the pledge to withdraw from the CFP, pulling his party out of the EPP was the one issue to which the Eurosceptic wing of the Tory Party was able to cling, in order to convince themselves that the Boy had any Eurosceptic tendencies. This has now been shot to pieces and nothing left of the Tory policy suggests anything other than a Heathite, pro-EU policy. His u-turn signals that he has no intention whatsoever of wooing the Eurospectic vote.
....
Possibly most damaging of all for the Boy, however, is the loss of trust. Although in the grander scheme of things, the EPP was a minor issue, for him to break his one "bankable" promise made to secure his leadership victory proves that his word is valueless. From now on, the grumblings in his Party, not least over his latest "hug a hoodie" lunacy, may be more difficult to contain.
And the Tory party is still only just ahead of Labour in the polls - if he can't trounce this enfeebled ragbag of smug sleazy shits there is something very wrong, and maybe a little bit of it is people like me hesitate over supporting him.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:04 AM
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Col Collins joins the campaign
BBC NEWS | Politics | 'Horror' at Prescott as acting PM
Colonel Collins, who hit the headlines for his eve-of-war speech to troops in Iraq, voiced his dismay at Mr Prescott taking charge.
"I have to say that the prospect of John Prescott running the country in the absence of Tony Blair is a prospect that fills me with horror," he told the BBC's Daily Politics.
"I have to say that the prospect of John Prescott running the country in the absence of Tony Blair is a prospect that fills me with horror," he told the BBC's Daily Politics.
"A man who on the BBC last week by his own admission struggles with a paper and pencil, and is incompetent by his own admission with technology, running two complex wars, and a number of other complex issues in the nation leaves me wondering who actually is running the nation.
"Is it the civil service behind the scenes? Or... this man who by his own admission is not up to the job?
"It does fill me with horror, and I feel sorry for the troops who are deployed at the risk of their lives on his behalf."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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Racist Brighton and Hove Council
Telegraph | News | 'I was refused a job because I'm white'
A history graduate has been rejected for a job in a royal palace because he is white.
Brighton and Hove council told Kieron Keenan he could not apply for the job of trainee museum assistant at The Royal Pavilion because he is not of African, Afro-Caribbean, Asian or Chinese descent.
Mr Keenan, a 23-year-old graduate, said: "It's astonishing. In order to be seen to be less discriminatory towards ethnic groups the council has used a law which is blatantly discriminatory against another ethnic group.
"Apparently it is perfectly legal. I feel very annoyed.
"To get a graduate job in the history field is very hard and I have been automatically barred because of my skin. I am perfectly qualified to do the job.
"I didn't even get the chance to apply because the advert made it clear you could not apply unless you were non-white.
"I couldn't even get as far as filling in the application."
The council applied the Race Relations Act to exclude white people from applying for the 9,000 a year part-time post in order to help fill quotas of ethnic minority employees. ...
Bert Williams, who runs the Brighton and Hove Black History Project, said: "This is an easy way out for the council. It is panicking because it has been accused of being institutionally racist.
"Yes, the council must have a more representative work force but this is not the way it should be doing it because it's another form of discrimination."
I think it is an ex-royal palace actually, it is now a Local Council run attraction sandwiched between a dual carraigeway and some grotty 1970's concrete - If my memory of Brighton is correct. Brighton is such a "right-on" council I'm sure it loves beating itself with the stick of instituional racism - and now they have proved they are racist!
Good to see the Black history spokesman taking a reasonable line.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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July 12, 2006
For your viewing pleasure tonight:
BBC2 7:00 pm
Porridge: New Faces Old Hands
"Unlike Fletcher, Lenny Godber has never been in prison before and there are many things to be learned from old lag Fletcher," ...
Channel Four 7:00 pm
News
All the latest news, including a background report into the arrest of Lord Levy
It was hard to tell them apart...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:00 PM
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Today I'll be mainly playing
Loyalist Music Archive and raising a toast to the "glorious and immortal memory" of William III, Prince of Orange and King of England.
Happy Holiday to Loyal Readers.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:44 AM
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The Green madness rolls on
TV standby buttons will be outlawed - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
THE Government is to outlaw standby switches on televisions and video and DVD players to cut the amount of electricity wasted in the home
If I can't leave my video on stand by how do I get it to record when I'm not there? And as the Government's own research unit - http://www.mtprog.com/ - says a lot of this "wasted" energy - which turns into heat - is substituting for other heating sources. I never have to worry about a heater in my office as the mighty 486 ticks over.
But the greenies won't be happy until we have been beaten back to the stone age.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM
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An Englishman's castle and his Laura Ashley curtains are belong to us
Telegraph | News | Home seizure plans criticised
Local councils will have power to seize furniture and fixtures and fittings when they take over empty homes according to new rules published by the Government yesterday.
Town halls have been given the authority to take over and rent out homes which have been standing empty for more than six months.
possess furniture, fixtures and fittings when a home was seized, even in cases where a property was taken over because the owner was dead.
The Government admitted that the purpose of the new laws was to provide "a credible threat" and was intended to put pressure on the owner. Yet empty public sector properties were unaffected and exempt from the new powers. Under the Orders a private home could be seized for up to seven years, 28 days after an Order was granted - and with no right of appeal.
A home did not have to be blighted, boarded up or uninhabitable to be seized, merely empty for six months, including homes of the recently deceased.
Homes for sale could be seized if a council thought the asking price "unrealistic".
Councils would have forcible powers of entry once an Order was made and people could be taken to court and charged with a criminal offence if they obstructed officials.
Once seized, there was no obligation to obtain a market rent, and social tenants could be housed in the property. The owner could even be charged and billed for their property being seized, if service or standing charges were greater than the rent, after the council deducted its "expenses".
"Prescott's parting gift" gets worse the more it is examined. And I repeat the biggest cause of empty house is the local authority messing about with planning applications. Your dear old mum dies and you want move into her house but it really need updating. A month or so to sort out the will if you are lucky, a month or so to get some plans drawn up and then the council objects to your plans. Six months is approaching you want to go to appeal and someone from the council drops a hint about "a credible threat". What are you going to do? Carry on trying to improve your property in the way you want to and risk losing your house to the Asbo family or cave in to some hairy planner's idea of what a socially just and renewable scheme would be?
Of course like the Duke of Westminster I left the Tory party when they passed the 1993 Leasehold Reform Act which started this trend of state seizures - I haven't rejoined and until they start being a bit more robust in defence of the rights of property, amongst other niggles, i won't.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM
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July 11, 2006
What's the Story?
Site Meter - Counter and Statistics Tracker
Visit 414,804
Domain Name newsint.co.uk ? (United Kingdom)
IP Address 143.252.80.# (Times Supplements Limited)
ISP Times Supplements Limited
Referring URL http://www.google.co... John Prescott&meta=
Search Engine google.co.uk
Search Words rosie winterton mistress john prescott
I wonder what story they could be researching?
Posted by The Englishman at 12:26 PM
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Charlie the Safety Elephant's Plans coming unraveling Pt II
Online passport applications halted - Britain - Times Online
The problems with the online application system, which was begun on May 16 and withdrawn 20 days later, on June 4, are disclosed today in Computer Weekly.
Under the system applicants fill in the form online, pay online and can print out the form at home. They then send the old travel document plus photos to the passport service who issue the travel document.
Staff at the passport office realised that difficulties were preventing them turning round applications as quickly as promised soon after the service was started.
The disclosure that the Siemens Business Services online system was withdrawn after operating for less than three weeks is a serious embarrassment to the Home Office.
The Prime Minister and John Reid, the Home Secretary, have praised the Passport Agency as an area of government with high levels of customer satisfaction.
The agency is also the organisation that is to develop the identity card scheme, which will involve issuing tens of millions of cards to British citizens.
More Giggles! And of course you too can help them out - join the campaign!
renew for freedom - SUMMER 2006 - renew your passport
Why you should renew your passport.
The Identity Cards Act 2006 turns your passport into a one-way ticket to control of your identity by the government. It means lifelong surveillance, and untold bureaucracy. This website, produced by the NO2ID campaign, is about how you can renew your passport and avoid being forced to register on the ID scheme database.
Please renew your passport this summer.
You can apply to renew your passport online right now at the UK Passport Service website [use the 'Launch online application form in a new browser window' link]
Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM
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Charlie the Safety Elephant's Plans coming unraveled
I was alerted by this:
The Remittance Man: Police Mergers
The in depth insta-analysis (from the political correspondent, not me): Police force merger plan is likely to come to a grinding halt. More to be revealed in tommorrow's HO questions.
I shall now retire to my bed with a chuckle and an extra large glass of North Antrim's finest liquid export.
And lo so it came to pass - I too enjoyed raising a drink to it last night.
Merger of police forces is scrapped - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
PLANS for a 1 billion merger of police forces across England and Wales have collapsed, The Times has learnt. John Reid, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce the decision tomorrow.
And that rumbling sound is Fungus's head starting to boil - with any luck a journalist will seize the chance and get some really good quotes from him - go on Charlie say what you really think of Blair!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM
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July 10, 2006
A summer campaign
Telegraph | News | Don't leave Prescott in charge of the country
John Prescott's future looked precarious last night as it emerged that senior ministers were questioning whether he should be left in charge of the country when Tony Blair goes on holiday next month.
They fear that the Deputy Prime Minister will be a lame duck stand-in and a target for tabloid newspapers after he refused yesterday to deny reports of further extra-marital affairs.
Labour MPs and ministers are canvassing the possibility that he should step down as Deputy Prime Minister but remain as the party's deputy leader, at least until the Prime Minister leaves No 10.
Another senior Cabinet minister, probably Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, or possibly Jack Straw, the Leader of the House, could deputise for Mr Blair over the summer break.
The idea that Rawhide Prescott should be left in charge of the UK and the big red button while Tone and Cherrie swan off on a freebie holiday is too horrific - so time for a campaign methinks - nick the graphic!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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Bureaucratic Waste
Others such as Tim W and Mr RM have already commented on this. I was too busy down the barn checking and oiling my stock of piano wire to do so, being prepared for the glorious day when we deal with these scum seemed more important - but if you haven't read it please put anything breakable out of reach first:
EU Referendum reports on the scheme highlighted in the Booker column this week.
A small charity called Intercare, based in Leicester, has for 30 years been putting large quantities of drugs surplus to requirements to use in Africa. Thanks to a nationwide network of volunteers, it collects medicines from GPs, which are rigorously inspected by a team of retired NHS professionals - doctors, nurses and pharmacists - and then supplied to 94 clinics in seven African countries.
This is the sort of initiative that does work. It cuts out the middle-men, by-passes the corruption because no money, no government agencies and no NGOs are involved, and ensures that real aid reaches the people who most desperately need it.
That was the situation, but it was to reckon without the mindless intervention of the bureaucrats of our very own Environment Agency. According to their bizarre interpretation of EU waste rules, they have decided that these life-saving medicines are "waste" and must be buried in landfill rather than put to use in Africa.
The drugs are only sent out, to order, when they are in date and in perfect condition, and the operation is approved by the World Health Organisation. It provides 2.5 million Africans in remote rural areas with access to treatment they could not otherwise afford.
However, not only are these cretins in the Environment Agency seeking to put a stop to this work, they are considering prosecuting Intercare for breach of EU waste rules, and the directors have been summoned to an interview under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.
The lamp posts are waiting.....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:43 AM
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July 9, 2006
ID cards - the forthcoming cock up.
ID cards doomed, say officials - Sunday Times - Times Online
TONY BLAIR'S flagship identity cards scheme is set to fail and may not be introduced for a generation, according to leaked Whitehall e-mails from the senior officials responsible for the multi-billion-pound project.
The problems are so serious that ministers have been forced to draw up plans for a scaled-down "face-saving" version to meet their pledge of phasing in the cards from 2008.
However, civil servants say there is no evidence that even this compromise is remotely feasible and accuse ministers of ignoring reality by pressing ahead. ....
Read the emails
Posted by The Englishman at 7:39 AM
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July 8, 2006
Plus a change, plus c'est la mme chose
Cabarfeidh - Highland Warriors brings us:
War Poem of the Week
The Last of the Light Brigade
There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!
They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."
They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.
They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.
The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said,
"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.
An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;
For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an, we thought we'd call an' tell.
"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write
A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o' the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."
The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn."
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.
O thirty million English that babble of England's might,
Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made-"
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
-- Rudyard Kipling
As The Wondering Minstrels says:
Surprisingly enough, this is not one of Kipling's better known poems. Or, perhaps, not so surprising - while Tennyson's account of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds caught and stirred the public imagination, Kipling's scathingly acid revelation of the way the world treated its heroes seems, like most of the uncomfortable details connected with the war, to have been swept under the carpet. There is a glamour inherent in the charge of the Light Brigade - even though it was obvious "someone had blunder'd" - that the real life plight of Thomas Atkins, Esq., cannot match.
And of course, it was Thomas Atkins that Kipling was chiefly concerned with.
From his magnificent 'Tommy' to the unforgettable 'Gunga Din', Kipling saw war neither as the noble endeavour earlier poets made it out to be (sometimes stirringly heroic, sometimes ineffably sad, but always noble) or as the graphic nightmare later poets (most notably Wilfred Owen) splashed across the world's consciousness. Kipling's war poems were highly personal; his soldiers ordinary men doing a misunderstood and underappreciated job in the best way they could. (Like much else of Kipling, this attitude is no longer fashionable; the which, of course, detracts nothing from his poetry,but does help explain its fluctuating repute).
Though the BBC takes a slightly different view:
Kipling's poetry works will live on to document the excesses of class and racial attitudes of 19th century Britain and British Imperialism. Kipling's poetry has earned for him equal measures of both lasting fame and infamy.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:23 AM
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July 6, 2006
How the BBC got those documents
BBC NEWS | The Editors | Freedom of Information
Some bloggers have queried how Newsnight had key documents on John Prescott (watch here), obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, at such an appropriate time. The BBC's Open Secrets blog has an intriguing explanation...
For instance :The Devil's Kitchen
I would say that we are pushing it considerably faster than the MSM, frankly. And as Unity implies, it doesn't seem to be because the BBC didn't have the materials to hand; not only did they probably have them to hand, but they have failed to make a vital connection.
And here is the intriguing answer:
BBC NEWS | Open Secrets | How journalism works 2
Last night's Newsnight revealed the keen interest of officials from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the idea of a casino on the site of the Dome, a new twist to the latest John Prescott tale.
This revelation stemmed from documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. So was this a speedily made and answered FOI request from Newsnight? No; actuallly the documents had been sitting for months on the website of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
It was Newsnight's political reporter David Grossman who recalled that DCMS had made FOI disclosures about the Dome in the past and had the bright idea of looking through them to see if they would shed new light on the role of Prescott and his officials.
He found this.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:03 PM
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Charting a Minister
This entry I first put up on 2nd May is worth repeating as more blogs become braver at naming Rosie Winterton as one of Rawhide Prescott's Mistresses. Keep an eye on the line.
Posts that contain "Rosie Winterton" per day for the last 30 days.
Get your own chart!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:28 AM
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One of Prescott's other Mistress specialised in getting money out of the ODPM
UPDATE - Ms Sarah Bissett Scott of Hertfordshire complained that articles in several newspapers describing an alleged relationship between her and John Prescott were inaccurate in a large number of respects and used misleading terminology. She also said that some articles had misquoted her.
Resolution:
The matter was resolved when the newspaper noted the complainant's position as being: that there was no affair between her and Mr Prescott, that she was never his mistress, and she has neither taken nor been offered any advantage for herself, her professional or political standing nor for her business in this matter; and that reports that she “claimed to have had an affair with Mr Prescott” are untrue. The newspapers agreed to place a warning on their internal databases to the effect that a complaint to the PCC had been made and that details of the complaint could be found in the legal department, managing editor’s office or elsewhere.
SundayMirror.co.uk - News - PRESCOTT EXCLUSIVE: SECOND MISTRESS TALKS
JOHN Prescott had a SECOND secret mistress. Former Labour Parliamentary candidate Sarah Bissett-Scott, 57, said she had a two-year fling with Prescott and believed she was just one of a string of torrid affairs.
RISE Associates - Regeneration in the South and East
Sarah Bissett Scott is currently working with clients in the East of England, providing programme management for European funding streams, regeneration briefings for Members and chief officers, advice on economic development and planning matters, and capacity building with community groups.
Sarah is a highly experienced Urban Planner and Regeneration expert with an outstanding record in local government of managing bidding teams. As head of economic development for Luton from 1992 to 2001, she secured access to over ?150m in regeneration funds. She has an excellent track record in incisive research and reports, in sitting on and contributing to Ministerial Task Groups
And who was charge of Regeneration at Cabinet level until he lost a few powers recently - Yup old Rawhide Prescott himself. Of course there is no suggestion that anyone has done anything wrong - it is just natural that lovers have similar interests and even when they fall out those interests remain.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM
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Is it too late to let Paris have the games?
Costs soar for London Olympics - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Until now the cost of staging the Games has been put at 2.375 billion, with an additional 1 billion of government money for regeneration of the Lea Valley area. That will rise by at least another 1.5 billion and possibly 2 billion.
It's government project - what do you think the final bill will be - I would bet north of 10 billion - and for what?
No gold for those who were hosts in the past - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
THE Olympics will bring no lasting benefit to British tourism and may cause damage to the industry, according to a report released yesterday.
Nations that have previously hosted the Games have suffered declines in tourism growth in the years surrounding the event, the study from the European Tour Operators Association shows.
It claims that visitors at Olympic events are sports fans, with different spending habits from other tourists who devote much of their trip to leisure activities. The behaviour of Olympics attendees was akin to business visitors attending a convention, making them unlikely to spend money on visiting museums, theatres and monuments.
Theme park owners in Los Angeles saw a decline in revenue during the 1984 Games, while in Sydney in 2000, regular attractions also experienced a downturn, the study claims.
Tom Jenkins, the executive director of the association, said that the Olympics could threaten the conveyor belt of visitors coming to Britain. The great rolling circus that hits town during the Olympics does not help tourism and perhaps hinders it. The Olympics deter regular tourists, scaring them away for some time, as they perceive that the city will be full, overpriced and congested.
The association said that this Olympic effect was also apparent in the Games at Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996). Full details for Athens, which staged the 2004 Olympics, are not yet available, but the association said that one month before the Games visitor arrivals to Greece were 12 per cent down.
London is the last place I'm going anytime around the Olympics - and I would advise you to stay away as well.
We need Great Britain football team, says Blair - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Londons victory came with a pledge by Lord Coe, the bid chairman, that the London Games would bring participation and interest in Olympic sport back to young people. A year later, there has been limited evidence of this, although Mr Blair said he hoped that this would change.
When I was at school, you could play sport every day and many of us did, he said. It was a great thing to be able to do. Id like the opportunity for kids to be able to play sport.
In the two most recent Olympics, half of Team GBs medal winners have been athletes educated at private schools. Mr Blair said that he hoped that British medal winners could be more representative, but it requires us to build the facilities and encourage sport in schools. I think sport is a major, major thing. It declined over a long period of time and weve got to build it back up again.
And the fact you have been selling off school playing fields to your mates at Tesco is unconnected? And the ethos against competitive games, everyone must be a winner, has no effect? So you think wasting billions dahn the East End is going to help? Tosser.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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July 5, 2006
Bill of Rights scrapped
1689 BILL WON'T SAVE ILLEGAL 'PARKERS', JUDGE RULES
By John Aston, PA
A senior High Court judge today demolished the belief that the 1689 Bill of
Rights outlaws parking charges because they have not been imposed by a court of law.
In a ruling which will dismay a lot of motorists and bring relief to local
authorities, Mr Justice Collins said the belief was "baseless" and "a
nonsense".
The judge said: "The only surprise I have is that this argument has been
produced on a number of occasions and seems to have worried local
authorities and possibly even parking adjudicators.
"All I can say is that they should cease to worry. It is, as I say, a
completely baseless argument."
Bill of Rights Act 1689: :
"That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void".
Apparently he said "the Bill of Rights does not apply to parking as parking tickets are not fines or forfeitures." I'm not sure what they are then but hey who cares our Bill of rights was just a stuffy old document that was holding up progress towards the brave new world Dear Leader has promised us.
As the Metric Martyrs site says:
..this is clearly an establishment decision with a Judge basically saying Parliament can do what it likes. The public will be able to work out for themselves the mendacity and duplicity behind this decision in order to protect the "parking industry " worth 1 billion a year...
This judgment will now open the door for local authorities and Government abuse at every level ... Fines for littering, fines for not putting your bin far enough out into the street, fines for wearing a loud shirt in a public place, fines for failure to recycle... all on the say so of a badge wielding Government appointed jobsworth, without there ever being recourse of reference to a Court of Law...except for the registration of a civil debt. The general public are now living in the real "big brother house".
Posted by The Englishman at 6:33 PM
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Rawhide Prescott
Prescott to face sleaze inquiry over ranch visit - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
...it became clear yesterday that the donation, which the department said was the equivalent of a hotel room, was worth just 40 per person per night. Mr Anschutz's ranch is on a 32,000-acre Rocky Mountain estate, which has a nine-hole golf course and health spa. Mr Prescott also admitted that the stay lasted two nights rather than one, and he was accompanied by two civil servants and a media adviser.
Mr Prescott insisted that at no point during the trip did he or his staff discuss business. "I spent [Sunday] travelling around the large cattle ranch, discussing with ranch staff the issues and problems of running a large-scale farming enterprise,..."
On the positive side at least he was a s mean with the taxpayer's money when it came to donations as he is with his own. But the idea of a fat old sea steward from Hull having anything relevant to say about "the issues and problems of running a large-scale farming enterprise" makes this story even more bizarre - I thought yesterday he only talked about Slavery when he was there.
Are we sure he wasn't just holed up in his cabin rutting with his staff - name the civil servants!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:48 AM
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Of course I express no opinion as to who I believe...
Tommy Sheridan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician from a well-known family of Irish-Scots Trotskyists from Glasgow.
Born in Glasgow, on March 7, 1964, he attended Roman Catholic schools before attending the University of Stirling, from which he graduated. He was active in the Militant Tendency faction inside the Labour Party, before leaving Labour as a member of Scottish Militant Labour (SML). He was a leading campaigner against the poll tax in Scotland, and was jailed for six months for trying to stop a warrant sale taking place. He has also been jailed twice as a consequence of his activities campaigning against the presence of the nuclear fleet at Faslane Naval Base.
Sheridan fought two elections while in prison. In the Pollok constituency at the 1992 General Election he won one of the best votes for a left candidate for many years, and a few weeks later he won the Pollok ward on Glasgow City Council..
(He was first elected to theScottish Parliament in 1999. Opinion polls consistently recognise Tommy as Scotland's most respected politician.source )
He was the convenor of the SSP from its formation until November 11, 2004 when he resigned, due to 'personal reasons' citing a desire to spend more time with his family.
More time with his family - not according to the News of the World!
Spanking, swinging and a socialist MSP - Britain - Times Online
A LEADING Scottish politician attended a swingers' club and asked to be spanked with red PVC gloves, a court was told yesterday.
Tommy Sheridan, the former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), was then said to have asked party colleagues to lie about his behaviour by backing his public denial of newspaper allegations against him.
Lawyers for the News of the World said that Mr Sheridan, 42, a member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow, was a "hypocrite" who took part in sex orgies and cheated on his wife.
Giggle.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM
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Bloody Expensive Sunday
Telegraph | News | Bloody Sunday: Full inquiry, cost 400m. July 7 bombs: No inquiry, 'too expensive'
The Government stepped up efforts yesterday to block an official inquiry into the July 7 London bombings by disclosing that the eight-year inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings had now cost the taxpayer 400 million.
The inquiry, ordered by Tony Blair in 1998, has still not produced its report into the deaths of 14 civilians shot by paratroopers during a civil rights march in Londonderry in January 1972.
Last November the Government put the cost of Lord Saville's Bloody Sunday inquiry at 163 million. However, Tessa Jowell, let slip on BBC TV's Sunday AM programme that "the latest estimate. . . is about 400 million"
In response to questions about the Bloody Sunday inquiry, Government officials were unable to explain why the cost was more than double the estimates given publicly. Miss Jowell's aides confirmed that she had repeated a figure given to her by John Reid, the Home Secretary, who when he was the Northern Ireland secretary had challenged the hefty fees being charged by lawyers at the inquiry.
Mr Blair's official spokesman later agreed that costs had run out of control, saying that the inquiry had taken a "long time and cost an awful lot of money". It heard from more than 900 witnesses before it ended last November and Lord Saville retired to write his report.
David Lidington, the Tories' Northern Ireland spokesman, said the costs were "scandalous". He would be asking in Parliament why there had been such a dramatic increase. Tory figures say the inquiry has cost everyone in the country 6.64; the total of 400 million would have paid for more than 15,000 nurses, nearly 5,000 doctors and 11,000 policemen, or 13 extra Apache helicopters for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A simple scandal - producing a report that no one will believe. Not one single person will have their view of why those people died changed. But is the fact that they let one inquiry run away with itself, in case it offended anyone, is that a reason not to have one on the 7/7? or do we need to institute a system where we can find the truth quickly and economically?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 AM
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July 3, 2006
Short prick, short arms, long pockets.
Prescott's charity gift came from public purse - Britain - Times Online
THE charity donation made after John Prescott spent the night at the Rocky Mountain ranch of the tycoon who owns the Millennium Dome was paid by the taxpayer, The Times has learnt.
THE charity donation made after John Prescott spent the night at the Rocky Mountain ranch of the tycoon who owns the Millennium Dome was paid by the taxpayer, The Times has learnt.
The Conservatives are demanding that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards should investigate the trip to the 32,000-acre Denver estate of Philip Anschutz last July.
Mr Prescott spent the night with a small number of civil servants at Mr Anschutzs home, which has its own nine-hole golf course, hunting facilities and a health spa...A spokeswoman for Mr Prescott confirmed that the donation, which was made to a 7/7 charity, came from the public purse because the trip was official business.
Mr Anschutz, who has close links to President Bush, is the owner of AEG entertainment, which was handed the Dome free for 20 years in June 2004,..at the time of the US trip Mr Prescott had ultimate ministerial responsibility for the regeneration of the Dome.
Bloody amazing isn't it! Yesterday the excuse was - "Oh it is alright because the Fat Bastard copied his leader and stuffed a couple of quid in the collecting box" - and now we find our it was poor bloody tax payer who did on his behalf , not the Council Tax cheat himself.
And was Tracey one of the "civil servants" also there on "Government Business", did we also have to pay for a palatial knocking shop?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:24 AM
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June 30, 2006
The wonders of Google (and gratuitous Friday Cat blogging)
EU Referendum has been running a series of posts debating how wide are Basra's streets and whether their width is a decent reason for HMG not to equip our troops - the story is that they are too narrow for anything but a canvas sided Land Rover - Personally I feel that with a enough horsepower any street can be made wide enough for the proper sort of vehicle!
A quick flyover from the comfort of my home via Google Earth allows one to see Basra looks a lot like Plano in Texas with decent sized streets...(though the locals are probably not so well armed...)
Regarding the horsepower mention, below is a picture of me driving my baby Cat and meeting a badly parked car...
Posted by The Englishman at 5:22 PM
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Dave and Tony crying together
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair to count cost of poor night
There can be no clearer indication of the difficulties currently facing Tony Blair and his government than the results in the Bromley and Blaenau Gwent by-elections.
And the signs are seriously bad, with the party failing to regain Blaenau Gwent and plunging into fourth place behind the Liberal Democrats and UKIP in Bromley and Chislehurst.
But, while it may have been a disastrous night for Labour, there was also a sharp kick in the pants for David Cameron's Tories.
They came dangerously close to losing the once safe-as-houses seat of Bromley to a sensational Liberal Democrat surge
I think Dave has more to worry about than Tony - NuLabour is in meltdown but we knew that already whereas the Tories must be seriously disappointed and surprised at a piss-poor poll with the UKIP taking a lot of traditional Tory votes, maybe Dave ought to start "doing" Europe and the Lib-Dims hanging onto the soppy end - however green and cuddly Dave is he doesn't seem to get the sandal wearers to actually vote Tory.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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June 29, 2006
'The Fork in the Road Sorting out the UKs defence policy debacle'
I emailed my MP with regards to EU Ref's campaign about the Land Rovers and general piss poor provisioning of Her Majesty's Forces.
He kindly replied with a copy of his latest pamphlet:
Defence: 'The Fork in the Road Sorting out the UKs defence policy debacle' Michael Ancram QC MP
"I make no apologies for what I am about to say. It will be unpalatable to many both in Government and Opposition who take the view that there are no votes in defence. I write it because after four years as Shadow Foreign Secretary and six months as Shadow defence, necessarily restricted by the doctrine of collective responsibility in relation to spending commitments, I can no longer stand back and watch while the well-being of our armed forces and the safety of our nation are being compromised in the way that they currently are. The sentiments I express here are not so much my own as a distillation of the very strong if private feelings I have encountered amongst serving members of our armed forces and others with a deep understanding of these issues over the past few years.
All governments mislead the public about defence. It is part of the nature of the politics of defence that a programme of disinformation is perpetrated by politicians, refined by Treasury mandarins and loyally articulated in public by serving Defence Chiefs. It is a conspiracy constantly to pretend that our defence capabilities are improving and our objectives succeeding when the reverse is the case. Never has that conspiracy of disinformation been as great as it is today. And no Government has been more blatant in advancing it than our current Government.
They would have us believe that they are increasing defence resources, streamlining and improving our defence forces and that those same defence forces are more than able to meet the very substantial military commitments which this government has imposed upon them. Talking privately to our forces on the ground, as I have done recently as shadow defence secretary, makes clear that nothing could be more dangerously further from the truth. Our armed forces are more overstretched, more under-equipped, more over committed and more under-trained than at any time in the last fifty years. In their weakened state they are ever more frequently being asked to respond to unforeseen and unexpected new commitments such as Afghanistan in 2001. This is no theoretical point. It is factual and it goes to the very heart of the safety of our troops in carrying out the increasingly dangerous tasks they are being asked to do.
I think he has secured at least one vote for the next election.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:25 AM
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Labourhome and the racist Labour voter problem
I thought I would check out the woeful Labour home, especially as Devil's Kitchen claims to have been banned by them - which would be the expected action of a true nuLabour setup.
LabourHome Colour-Blind Affirmative Action
In a recent MORI study it was shown that BME candidates secure a smaller share of the vote for their parties than white candidates, sadly this was more so in Labour constituencies.
So that is nuLabour's problem is it, traditional Labour voters don't like Darkies, of course the party doesn't anything to do with these dinosaurs but it can't live without their votes - what to do?
Racism is of course the inherent design fault of socialism - if you bang on about society and sharing within it pretty soon you have to draw up boundaries as to who is within and who is without your society, otherwise you have to share with the whole world. And that is what politicised racism is - socialism in action. Whereas global capitalism doesn't give a hoot as to the colour of your skin just what you sell or buy.
(I think bme is Black and Minority Ethnic - not Body Modification Enthusiast - ugh! - Though I prefer BME.co.za "Market leader in blended bulk explosive formulations for surface mines and also manufactures packaged explosives"
- much more interesting than the wingeing of some nuLabourite...)
Posted by The Englishman at 8:57 AM
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When the levy breaks....
Defra, UK - Farming - Levy Boards Review
For years producers of commodity agricultural produce such as beef, lamb, potatoes, wheat etc. have had to pay a compulsory levy which goes towards marketing these items - you may have seen the Beefy and Lamby adverts for instance. The future of these levies was reviewed and they have been reprieved, to quote the NFU -
Statutory levies will be retained on the basis of continued market failure in the sectors concerned.
In other words they have failed up to now so lets have more of them to prevent failure in the future....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:30 AM
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June 27, 2006
When will Blair go?
For a 1.50 stake you could win 500. All you have to do is text the time and date when you expect Tony Blair to stop being Prime Minister to 88010.
We are not looking for the time and date when Mr Blair announces his decision to resign but when he actually resigns. You need, therefore, to think about the time that it might take for the Labour party to elect a successor or you might think that Mr Blair will resign immediately and install John Prescott as interim Prime Minister?
Entries should be texted to 88010 and the message should look like this...
"BLAIR 1312 240707" would mean that you expect Blair to stop being Prime Minister at 1.12pm on 24th July 2007.
Um - worth a think...
Of course I actually hope he continues in office for ages - the government is now paralysed with the ineffective and infighting leadership. And we all know the less governing that gets done the better. I believe that the USA had record growth during the Hanging Chad Interregnum, maybe in our present Blair-Brownian Interregnum we may experience the same.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:58 AM
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It's not November already is it?
BBC NEWS | UK | First Veterans' Day to take place
A series of events are to be held across the UK to mark the first annual National Veterans' Day.
Now I'm all for celebrating and commemorating our veterans but are you as confused as I am about Gordon Brown's new Veterans Day? Apart from the nuLabour need to reinvent all our institutions what has today got over Armistice Day? Or is it because the politicians, especially the Jelly bellied Flag-flapper, have grabbed today whereas Royalty and the Armed Services seem to control the other one? And it couldn't be because today can be a nice sharing day where we don't have to mention beating the crap out of the Boche and Jap, could it?
And I only ever need the slimmest of excuses to reprint a bit of Stalky & Co - Rudyard Kipling's description of how real patriots would have seen today is still true as far as I am concerned.
And so he worked towards his peroration - which, by the way, he used later with overwhelming success at a meeting of electors - while they sat, flushed and uneasy, in sour disgust. After many many words, he reached for the cloth-wrapped stick and thrust one hand in his bosom. This - this was the concrete symbol of their land - worthy of all honour and reverence! Let no boy look on this flag who did not purpose to worthily add to its imperishable lustre. He shook it before them - a large calico Union Jack, staring in all three colours, and waited for the thunder of applause that should crown his effort.
They looked in silence. They had certainly seen the thing before - down at the coastguard station, or through a telescope, half-mast high when a brig went ashore on Braunton sands; above the roof of the Golf Club, and in Keyte's window, where a certain kind of striped sweetmeat bore it in paper on each box. But the College never displayed it; it was no part of the scheme of their lives; the Head had never alluded to it; their fathers had not declared it unto them. It was a matter shut up, sacred and apart. What, in the name of everything caddish, was he driving at, who waved that horror before their eyes? Happy thought! Perhaps he was drunk...
They discussed the speech in the dormitories. There was not one dissentient voice. Mr. Raymond Martin, beyond question, was born in a gutter, and bred in a Board-school, where they played marbles. He was further (I give the barest handful from great store) a Flopshus Cad, an Outrageous Stinker, a Jelly bellied Flag-flapper, (this was Stalky's contribution), and several other things which it is not seemly to put down.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:57 AM
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June 26, 2006
Gotcha
BBC NEWS | Politics | Parade to commemorate Falklands
"Major celebrations" are planned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War, Junior Defence Minister Tom Watson has announced..
Note the quote marks - I don't think anyone at the BBC can imagine why there should be celebrations...
Britain claimed sovereignty in 1833 but it has remained disputed ever since.
Mainly by the BBC...
This will mark the 25th anniversary of Liberation Day - the day the Argentines surrendered.
Or were beaten..
And next year's Veterans Day, which is staged each year on 27 June, will focus on the Falklands.
Of course the first Veterans Day is yet to happen - as it is Gordons big new idea for this year, so making it sound like a long standing tradition is a little strange.
Stand by for much handwringing by the BBC next year - I remember their coverage 25 years ago and I doubt they have grown anymore loyal in the meantime...
Posted by The Englishman at 4:51 PM
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Our Bill of Rights
BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories want a UK Bill of Rights
As The Remittance Man says wouldn't it be a better idea if Tory Boy started defending our existing Bill of Rights before he starts writing a new one with the rights to keep and bear double chocolate cappuccinos and making no laws regarding religions, except those that worship the Earth Goddess and the cult of "Five a Day".
In fact I think the following hardly needs any tidying up to be a suitable text to follow.
That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal;
That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal;
That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious;
That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time, or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal;
That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal;
That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;
That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;
That election of members of Parliament ought to be free;
That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;
That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted;
That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders;
That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void;
And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.
And they do claim, demand and insist upon all and singular the premises as their undoubted rights and liberties, and that no declarations, judgments, doings or proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example; to which demand of their rights they are particularly encouraged by the declaration of his Highness the prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein. Having therefore an entire confidence that his said Highness the prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far advanced by him, and will still preserve them from the violation of their rights which they have here asserted, and from all other attempts upon their religion, rights and liberties, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve that William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, be and be declared king and queen of England, France and Ireland and the dominions thereunto belonging, to hold the crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions to them, the said prince and princess, during their lives and the life of the survivor to them, and that the sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in and executed by the said prince of Orange in the names of the said prince and princess during their joint lives, and after their deceases the said crown and royal dignity of the same kingdoms and dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the said princess, and for default of such issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the heirs of her body, and for default of such issue to the heirs of the body of the said prince of Orange. And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said prince and princess to accept the same accordingly.
And that the oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the oaths have allegiance and supremacy might be required by law, instead of them; and that the said oaths of allegiance and supremacy be abrogated.
I, A.B., do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to their Majesties King William and Queen Mary. So help me God.
I, A.B., do swear that I do from my heart abhor, detest and abjure as impious and heretical this damnable doctrine and position, that princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope or any authority of the see of Rome may be deposed or murdered by their subjects or any other whatsoever. And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm. So help me God.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:33 PM
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Trust us - we are from the government.
Telegraph | News | Relatives to be targeted if DNA draws a blank
A recent Home Office "e-bulletin" to police advises them to examine DNA profiles on the database that bear similarities to the genetic "fingerprint" found at the crime scene and which may belong to relatives of the unidentified criminal, the assumption being that "criminality tends to run in families.
....
It was revealed this year that more than half a million children had been entered on a DNA database created to record known offenders, even though many had never been charged with an offence.
It is only the guilty who have to worry - why not come along to your local Registration Offices where we can just jot down your details and take a few simple measurements. It is all for your own good so we can protect you from the nasty people out there. Dear Leader only has your interests at heart...
Of course this Blairite (as in both Blairs) policy is symptomatic. Coppers have always known who the scrotes are and where they live but have been prevented from pulling them in in case they are practising "profiling" and anyway they have far more important things to do behind their desks. So a hugely expensive technological cockup is being brought in to replace a cheap working solution - and it isn't even if all this surveillance is actually cutting down on crime. As the WSJ said viaMr FM
With Great Britain now the world's most violent developed country, the British government has hit upon a way to reduce the number of cases before the courts: Police have been instructed to let off with a caution burglars and those who admit responsibility for some 60 other crimes ranging from assault and arson to sex with an underage girl. That is, no jail time, no fine, no community service, no court appearance. It's cheap, quick, saves time and money, and best of all the offenders won't tax an already overcrowded jail system.
Not everyone will be treated so leniently. A new surveillance system promises to hunt down anyone exceeding the speed limit. Using excessive force against a burglar or mugger will earn you a conviction for assault or, if you seriously harm him, a long sentence. ..
The government's duty to protect the public has been compromised by other economies. Police forces are smaller than those of America and Europe and have been consolidated, leaving 70% of English villages without a police presence. Police are so hard-pressed that the Humberside force announced in March they no longer investigate less serious crimes unless they are racist or homophobic. Among crimes not being investigated: theft, criminal damage, common assault, harassment and non-domestic burglary.
It may be crass to point out that the British people, stripped of their ability to protect themselves and of other ancient rights and left to the mercy of criminals, have gotten the worst of both worlds. Still, as one citizen, referring to the new policy of letting criminals off with a caution, suggested: "Perhaps it would be easier and safer for the honest citizens of the U.K. to move into the prisons and the criminals to be let out."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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All your children are belong to us
Telegraph | News | Family life faces State 'invasion'
Government surveillance of all children, including information on whether they eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, will be condemned tomorrow as a Big Brother system.
Experts say it is the biggest state intrusion in history into the role of parents.
Changes being introduced since Victoria Climbi's death from abuse include a 224 million database tracking all 12 million children in England and Wales from birth. The Government expects the programme to be operating within two years.
...
Doctors, schools and the police will have to alert the database to a wide range of "concerns". Two warning flags on a child's record could start an investigation.
There will also be a system of targets and performance indicators for children's development. Children's services have been told to work together to make sure that targets are met.
..
Dr Eileen Munro, of the LSE, said that if a child caused concern by failing to make progress towards state targets, detailed information would be gathered. That would include subjective judgments such as "Is the parent providing a positive role model?", as well as sensitive information such as a parent's mental health.
"They include consuming five portions of fruit and veg a day, which I am baffled how they will measure," she said. "The country is moving from 'parents are free to bring children up as they think best as long as they are not abusive or neglectful' to a more coercive 'parents must bring children up to conform to the state's views of what is best'."
Obviously the chances of such a complex government database being on time or even remotely on budget are as slim as Gordon Brown supporting freedom for England, but eventually they will build a creaky version that will work, appallingly.
I'm sure there are long and convincing reasonings that could be written why this is a bad idea, but all I can come up with is "Fuck off you cock-sucking interfering fascist bureaucrats".
Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM
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June 23, 2006
Where Greenpeace leads the Tory party follows
Greenpeace: Choose Clean Energy - Stop Climate Change
The UK throws away two thirds of all the energy it produces. That isn't a typo; two thirds of all energy generated in our nuclear, coal and gas fuelled power stations is lost as waste heat. Up the cooling tower chimney. Along the transmission lines. Gone. We throw away enough heat to meet the equivalent of whole of the UK's heating and hot water needs....
Now imagine a system that captures that "waste" heat and distributes it to local buildings or city districts. By producing electricity close to where it is used and using Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, we could slash our carbon emissions, save consumers money and ensure our energy security....
Decentralised energy essentially means generating energy close to where it is used. These local energy generators can be Combined Heat and Power stations, but they can also include renewable technologies such as wind farms, solar power and energy from greener fuels such as biomass. A decentralised system encourages better integration of a range of innovative clean technologies to get the best possible mix.
...The entire city of Rotterdam runs on decentralised energy, as does over 50% of Denmark.
Tories: we don't want power - Comment - Times Online
WE ALL KNOW what Tony Blair thinks about nuclear energy. We even know what Gordon Brown thinks now. Both men seem to see support for new nuclear power stations as a sign of their political virility and their commitment to modernity.
What is far more interesting, though, is how the Conservatives will respond to the Governments energy review, due to be published in about three weeks time. Will they continue with their traditional gung-ho support for nuclear power? Will they reluctantly champion the building of new nuclear stations as a way of reducing carbon emissions? Or will they use this as a powerful opportunity to make voters think about them anew, and reinforce their green credentials?
....
Our huge power stations whether fuelled by coal, gas or nuclear are grossly inefficient: they waste two thirds of the energy that they produce. Most of it rises into the air in the form of heat from the cooling towers. If Britain were to adopt a decentralised form of electricity generation, with much smaller combined heat and power (CHP) stations located in the communities they serve, then the heat produced by the stations could be channelled straight into factories and homes through hot water pipes. These CHP stations waste only 5-10 per cent of their energy.
Then, say the Tories, there are promising new technologies coming on stream. Carbon capture could make coal and gas-fired power stations much less polluting. There is huge potential in tidal power, which is more predictable than that of wind or sun. Add to that the possibility of geothermal power and hydrogen cells, and we look to be on the brink of a revolution in renewable energy
It can be done. The whole of Rotterdam runs on decentralised energy. So does more than half of Denmark.
Did Mary Ann Sieghart share her fee for this article with Greenpeace or are the similarities just the product of research?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM
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Where Neil Herron leads the country follows
It is apparent that Decriminalised Parking Enforcement across the country is descending into chaos.
NPAS and PATAS in disarray and facing allegations of breaching Article 6(1) of the Human Rights Act.
Local Councils blindly ignoring the mandatory legal requirements of the 1991 Road Traffic Act.
The Court facing allegations of issuing bailiffs warrants without examining ANY of the paperwork.
Over the past few months we have started investigating and exposing 'lawless' local authorities who have shown a blatant disregard for the law and shown total and utter contempt for the motorist.
It was our first intention to prove DPE unconstitutional in order to create a conflict between DPE and the Metric Martyrs Judgment, but examination of the technical aspects of DPE has produced evidence of maladministration, misfeasance and fraud.
The penny is starting to drop for the press and the media that DPE is nothing but a lawless scam and the power mad local authority officials, the 'men with badges' have lost control of all sense of fairness....
Telegraph | News | Parking fines in chaos, say MPs
"Our parking system is, frankly, a mess. We heard that the administration of parking enforcement by councils was too often inconsistent, with poor communication, confusion and a lack of accountability. This must change."
The Government responded last night by indicating that it would publish regulations next month banning councils from using incentives for wardens to distribute penalty notices. There could also be smaller fines for lesser offences.
Gillian Merron, the transport minister, admitted that enforcement was "over-zealous" in some areas.
She said: "Parking enforcement should not be about raising money but about keeping traffic moving."
The MPs said that ministers must create "without delay" a single system of parking enforcement run by councils rather than the police. Councils were first allowed to take over enforcement from the police in 1991 and 45 per cent of English authorities now control parking.
In 2003, a total of 7.1 million penalty notices was issued by wardens working for 75 councils and 33 London boroughs. In the same year, only a million penalty notices were issued by the 313 authorities where the police were still responsible.
The committee said it was "astounded" that, of the 7.1 million fines handed out by council wardens, one in five was eventually cancelled following appeals.
"This is far too high and indicates that the system is malfunctioning," it said.
So congratulations to Neil and the No campaign for pushing this - of course while Parliament now recognises the problem their proposed solution is for more of the same by pushing out DPE nationwide, where it is obvious that the introduction of DPE has caused the problem! Go figure.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 AM
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June 22, 2006
Mr Brown's light-touch regulatory environment.
BBC NEWS | Business | UK has tough choices, Brown says
Chancellor Gordon Brown has praised the state of the economy but warned that difficult choices lie ahead if Britain is to continue to prosper.
In his annual Mansion House address, Mr Brown warned that clinging to the past would be "fundamentally wrong". ...
Mr Brown tried to ease fears and said that as well as ensuring a low and stable rate of inflation, he also wanted stable industrial relations, a competitive tax regime and a predictable and light-touch regulatory environment.
NO ONE ever expected the Company Law Reform Bill to be a minor piece of legislation - but no one expected it to grow into the colossus it has now become, either.
The three-volume, 925-clause Bill currently working its way through Parliament is the result of eight years of work, carried out by than half a dozen trade and industry secretaries. ...
A massive 1,600 amendments were tabled during the Lords stages, swelling the Bill to its current 925 clauses. Experts say that once all additions and are amendments made, the final Bill will contain a record-breaking 1,300 clauses.
Yep - that' s the light-touch regulatory environment!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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June 21, 2006
On Liberty
Tim Worstall beat me to this -
You will recall the recent addition to the law of the land, that if a place is empty for more than 6 months the local council can come in, seize it, stick some scrote in there (to the delectation of the neighbours of course), take whatever they like in administration expenses and then give you the remainder of whatever said scrote deigns to pay in rent.
I have mentioned it before, and thanks to The Last Ditch last night I read the man behind it's defence of this destruction of liberty - I didn't blog it at the time as the red mist descended and Nursey had to be called to give me the medication - but here it is now:
Unlocking the Potential of Empty Homes: More on Freedom to Leave You House Empty
I can't help but refer to the great 19th Century British thinker John Stuart Mill who's work "On Liberty" discussed the limits of power that the state can have over the individual. His brilliant concept was the harm principle. Briefly it said that people should be free to engage in whatever behavior(sic) they wish as long as it does not harm others.
Seen through this principle the owner of the empty home of course has rights but not unlimited rights. Once it starts harming others whether that be though restricting housing to those that need it, spoiling the appearance of a street or loose slates falling onto playing children the state should and does have the right to intervene.
So poor old JSM is dragged in to support the seizing of property to alleviate a government caused restriction of housing to those who need it. I'm not sure the old boy would approve of that. Wouldn't it be more honest to just admit it is a simple socialist policy and that destruction of the rights of private property are part of the plan?
Posted by The Englishman at 5:17 PM
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June 20, 2006
Lse-majest
BBC NEWS | Politics | PM to get two 'Blair Force Ones'
Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to get the go-ahead later this month for two "Blair Force One" planes to fly him on official trips, the BBC has learned.
One is likely to be a long-haul plane with 70 seats, while a 15-seater jet will be ordered for shorter flights,
Until now the PM has chartered planes or used the Queen's Flight. The Queen will also have use of the new aircraft.
Oh that is jolly decent of Cherie to allow Her Maj to share the Prime Minister's Aircraft, provided of course C&T haven't got wind of another freebie holiday they need to be rushed to...
lese majesty also lse majest (lēz' măj'ĭ-stē)
n., pl. lese majesties or lse majests.
An offense or crime committed against the ruler or supreme power of a state.
An affront to another's dignity.
Posted by The Englishman at 2:09 PM
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Iron man, action man? or just a paper shuffler?
Reid's never-ending reviews prove a pain in the neck - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
THERE is no part of Britain that is not now under threat of being reviewed by the Home Secretary. That was the main message from Home Office Questions yesterday: everything that can be reviewed is being reviewed, and every minute of every day John Reid is finding more things that must be reviewed. It is a bonfire of the banalities and no one knows where it will end.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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June 18, 2006
How Blair is killing our soldiers
EU Referendum - How Blair is killing our soldiers
This is an unusually long post, but I make no apologies for it. In my view, this is a vitally important issue quite literally a matter of life and death. Please bear with me at the end of the post, I am asking for direct action from all our readers
You can get the address details of your MP here - including email addresses.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:44 AM
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Not my Castle anymore
Telegraph | News | Anger at power over inherited property
The government came under fierce attack yesterday after quietly bringing in measures to give councils the power to seize the homes of the dead from bereaved families.
Ministers were also accused of "burying bad news" by publishing details of the rules while the nation's eyes were trained on the World Cup.
The measures, released by Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, on Friday afternoon, give local authorities the power to confiscate homes that have been vacant for six months and rent them out to the homeless.
From next month councils will be able to break into, alter or refurbish the properties and let them out to tenants of their choice for up to seven years.
Robert Whelan, of the think-tank Civitas, said the "outrageous" confiscation of property ran "right against the ancient common-law principle of private property, which is as fundamental as habeas corpus.
"The right to private property is the Englishman's right to his castle". Labour was "behaving more like a dictatorship than a democratic government", he said.
Yvette Cooper, the housing and planning minister, said, however, that it was an outrage that empty properties were not being used to tackle housing shortages.
Her "outrage" versus the fundemental rights of free born people everywhere - I know which one I back!
I don't think I know a family which has inherited a family home which has settled all the scores and actually sold a house within six months. I blogged about this back in March and included this material from the Government...
An Englishman's Castle: An Englishman's house is Prescott's Castle..
The Housing Act 2004 contains provisions about the occupation of privately owned empty homes. The device for securing occupation of empty homes is known as an Empty Dwelling Management Order. Once the legislation has been commenced, an Empty Dwelling Management Order would enable a Local Housing Authority, in certain circumstances, to take management control of a dwelling in order to secure occupation of it. The legislation is intended to operate alongside existing procedures for securing occupation of empty homes..... When an EDMO is in force, the LHA takes over most of the rights and responsibilities of the relevant proprietor and may exercise them as if it were the relevant proprietor. A relevant proprietor is not entitled to receive any rent or other payments from anyone occupying the dwelling and may not exercise any rights to manage the dwelling whilst an EDMO is in force.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:31 AM
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June 17, 2006
Crapita card
Telegraph | News | Students' reward card flop earned Capita 66m
It could have paid for more than 3,300 new teachers, 250,000 laptop computers or replenished understocked school libraries with 10 million new text books.
Instead, 100 million of public money has been wasted on a reward card scheme, intended to encourage teenagers to stay on at school, which has been officially evaluated as a flop.
Ministers decided last week to cut their losses and axe the Connexions Card - but not before it has earned Capita, the private company that runs it, more than 66 million....
...
"This is yet another example of an untested, ineffective project that has been allowed to run for years despite failing to produce results. Just think of the number of maths teachers or text books that could be bought with this kind of money."
The Connexions Card was launched by the Department for Education and Skills six years ago to give 16- to 19-year-olds an incentive to stay on at school by giving them "loyalty points" that they could exchange for discounts on CDs, clothes and tickets for events.
Early evaluations in 2003 warned of its lack of progress, but ministers continued to back the scheme, even after the final assessment report last year concluded that there was no evidence that it had improved teenagers' motivation or led to more staying on.
Less than four per cent of youngsters had redeemed points with the card. Just 54,788 had used it by the end of 2004 - spectacularly failing to hit the target of 1.7 million.
While the scheme was questioned by critics, Capita was picking up 66.14 million. Under the contract, the company is due to receive a further 41.48 million, but officials refused to say last night how much of this would be paid.
Beverley Hughes, the children's minister, said: "Cardholders will have until the end of August this year to earn points and until the end of February 2007 to redeem them. We will be winding it down because the card has served its purpose."
Official figures released last week show that the proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training increased from 10 per cent in 2004 to 11 per cent last year - about 220,000 young people.
You can't blame Capita for taking the money - that is what they are in business for! But it is symptomatic that this sort of fiasco is so common with this Government that no one really notices or comments on them now.
So todays Maths question is if it costs 66 milion to reward 54788 pupils with a few DVDs, would the kids have prefered 1204.64 in cash instead each?
Posted by The Englishman at 12:57 AM
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June 16, 2006
How soon we forget and cover-up
( source )
BBC - Manchester - Features - Manchester bomb: no justice
15 June 1996: a sunny morning in Manchester. Saturday shoppers were filling Market Street and the Arndale Centre buying Father's Day presents. The country was hosting Euro '96 and the nation was gripped with football fever.
Then, at 09:43, came the first warning. It was coded message: 'You've got one hour to clear the city centre.' The IRA had packed 3,000 lbs of explosives into a lorry parked on Corporation Street.
When the bomb went off, it exploded at 2,000 feet per second. The sheer power of the blast shattered the city centre around Marks and Spencer and the Arndale shopping centre.
Thanks to a massive operation to evacuate the city centre, no-one was killed although, 200 people were injured, some seriously, mostly by flying glass and debris.
Professor Richard English of Queen's University in Belfast has studied the activities of the IRA for a number of years and wrote the book 'Armed Struggle - The History Of The IRA.'
He says it's known who carried out the attack and spoke to Inside Out's Andy Johnson:
"One of the strange things about many incidents in the Northern Ireland troubles has been that while informally, quite a lot of people know who is responsible for certain actions, in a formal sense, convictions have not been pursued. That is the same with the Manchester bomb of 1996.
"Broadly speaking, its known which unit of the IRA produced this bomb. Some of the names of those involved are known, but they have not been brought to justice. There are two explanations which people have offered for that: one is that the kind of acquisition of informal evidence that you can pursue as a journalist, or as a commentator is one thing, but getting people to tell you on the record the kind of things theyll tell you off the record is different for obvious reasons in a place like Northern Ireland.
"The other explanation, I think is slightly more complicated, and its this. During the peace process period the British government and the British authorities were keen, above all that the IRA shift from something like war to something like peace. In the process of doing that, getting into a second ceasefire from 97 onwards, with Sinn Fein, the politicians becoming more important than the IRA, there was a desire not to rock the boat.
So it's all about keeping the peace process on track...
"Prisoners were released after the Good Friday agreement, people who had often done murderous and appalling things. There was a sense that you could almost forget the past atrocities if the future was going to see Republicans be political, rather than being violent. Thats not to say people wouldnt want to pursue a conviction, but for example, under the terms of the Good Friday agreement, if the people who had carried out this bombing were prosecuted then they would be eligible for release fairly quickly anyway. In other words, theres a sense that theres something like an amnesty for IRA actions has informally been accepted in Northern Ireland. In that context, theres no real urgency to try and reach prosecutions for things like this, to reach convictions, because its almost as if youve put a line through what happened in the past in order to reach hopefully a more peaceful present."
Greater Manchester Police has conducted a review of the investigation into bombing of Manchester city centre in 1996.
Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said: "The Manchester bomb had a tremendous impact on the lives of people in the area, which is why we have thoroughly reviewed the case. A team of officers from GMP's Anti-Terrorist Unit carried out a detailed analysis ahead of the 10th anniversary of the incident.
"In consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, we have concluded that at this time there is no realistic possibility of a prosecution. This has allowed us to release new material that we have held for the last 10 years.
"Any speculation about individuals alleged to be linked to the incident is unhelpful as there is insufficient evidence to substantiate charges.
(You may want to compare the photo to ones taken from Canal and Church Street in New York five years later - and the subsequent reactions... )
Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 AM
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I just wish he'd shut up, frankly
Telegraph | News | Blair should shut up about sentencing, says ex-prisons chief
Asked on BBC2's Daily Politics programme about Mr Blair's announcement of new measures to curb the early release of offenders, Lord Ramsbotham, a former chief inspector of prisons, said: "I just wish he'd shut up, frankly.
"One of the problems that there has been recently is announcement after announcement from the Prime Minister that he's going to do this and that and the other. More people are going to come in for longer, but unfortunately all that's doing is crowding the system even more than it is."
He said the Home Office had three priorities - arrest people more quickly, sentence them more severely and reduce prison overcrowding. "They are mutually conflicting," he said.
Could hardly have put it better myself.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:20 AM
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June 15, 2006
Must read new blog
Labour AchievementsOver the course of this summer, Labour will be trying to highlight 40 of their achievements since 1997. I thought I'd help them out...
Hat tip Iain Dale's Diary: 40 Things That Make You Embarrassed to be Labour
Posted by The Englishman at 9:22 AM
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June 14, 2006
Getting it right
Ascot wins the race to redevelop its course - Sunday Times - Times Online
The 200m showpiece stand at Ascot is ready for business - after a mere 20 months. It has been delivered on time and on budget.
I drove past the new stand and through the new underpass at the weekend - what a fantastic looking building. Just shows what can be done by private enterprise. While Her Majesty has taken a close personal interest in how Douglas Erskine-Crum, a former brigadier in the Scots Guards, has been keeping this project running on track the various Government leaders that have been helping out with Wembley Stadium, Bath Spa and the Dome have not been - they are too busy ensuring our Olympic stadia will be ready....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:07 AM
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Does crime pay?
Deep pockets - Comment - Times Online
When the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) was set up three years ago to track down and seize the proceeds of crime, it was inundated with almost three times the number of cases it had expected.
This plethora of possible targets ought to have enabled the agency to help the Prime Minister to fulfil his ambition of doubling the unlawful assets recovered every year. Tony Blair hoped that this would be ploughed back into policing. Yet so far, a body that costs about 18 million a year to run has delivered nothing approaching that figure. It recovered assets of about 4.1 million in 2004-05 and around 4.3 million in 2005-06.
Parliament, in its zeal to outwit wrongdoers, may also have overreached. The ARA can apply to the civil courts to freeze assets even if the police have insufficient evidence to secure a criminal conviction. If a crime is suspected, and no legitimate explanation can be given about how the owner amassed his or her assets, they can be removed. This creates both practical and ethical difficulties. Suspects whose assets are frozen can delay proceedings for months while they try to mount a defence on legal aid. And there must be real questions about a law that abandons the presumption of innocence in the minority of cases that deal with individuals who have not yet been convicted.
So another one of Tony's totalitarian knee jerk schemes is an expensive flop - what a surprise! Is there anything this Government has set up that is competently run.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:59 AM
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June 13, 2006
If you have time this evening
13 June 2006 The Welfare State We're In - Launch of new revised and expanded paperback
Venue: The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 12 Great George Street, Parliament Square London SW1P 3AD
Timetable:
6:40pm book signing
7:00pm James confronts his critics
8:00pm reception & book signing
Anyone may come. If you have the time, please RSVP here
The paperback edition of the book with many updated figures, a special preface and two extra sections (one titled 'The NHS: so did it get better?') has just been published. The link to the relevant Amazon.co.uk page is here.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:15 AM
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Won't even lie straight in coffin
Charles Haughey - -yet another tax dodge...
Posted by The Englishman at 11:04 AM
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Paying twice for a rubbish service
Rubbish bag 'tax' to encourage recycling - Britain - Times Online
HOMEOWNERS face paying a second tax for their household rubbish to be collected as part of a range of proposals to reform council tax, The Times has learnt.
I already pay 2000 a year to my local council and as far as I can see the weekly collection of a couple of bags of rubbish is about all I get in return - of course I see where the council spunks away money left, right and centre, subsidising yummy mummies to be pampered in luxurious leisure centres - why do I have to pay for that? - forward planning, making up grandiose schemed that will never happen, why am I paying for some planners' wet dreams? - Educational services, preventing half the money the taxpayers spend on education ever reaching the schools - building libraries, but not for books but so the feckless can borrow DVDs for less than Blockbusters...
So now having spent all the money on useless bloody projects they want to come back again for more money for the one service that used to be half decent. How nu-Labour, how Gordon Brown!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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Blair backs Blair
Met and its boss have my complete confidence, says Prime Minister - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
TONY BLAIR declared his full backing for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner yesterday
So Sir Ian, you might as well start looking through the Sunseeker catalogues now and booking a long summer holiday - his "full backing" is as reassuring as a kiss from your Sicilian Godfather.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM
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June 12, 2006
Another mess for the Boy Miliband to sort out
Whilst farmers in England have been growing more and more desperate as the government fails to honour its promises by paying them on time, or even close to time the staff responsible for sorting out the payments seem to have had other matters on their minds...
BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Probe into 'naked civil servants'
Civil servants on Tyneside are under investigation amid allegations staff romped around naked in offices and had sex in toilets.
One person at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in Newcastle has been sacked after officials began an investigation.
The antics emerged after some members of staff were caught on CCTV cameras.
The RPA is part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and administers millions of pounds in agricultural payments to farmers.
The agency said it was investigating claims that staff leapt naked from filing cabinets, had sex in office toilets, held break-dancing competitions during working hours and fought in a reception area.
Thank god it wasn't John Prescott in charge otherwise it would have been worse!
Posted by The Englishman at 4:38 PM
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Balance of Trade
As a side note for you students of economics consider this - I noted in passing yesterday that every thing I was wearing, my new cotton shorts, shirt and pants from Matalan combined with my sandals from Lidl, brought from the far corners of the earth to a local retail store, cost less than the three pints of Wadworth's IPA,produced just down the road from me, that I drank...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:02 AM
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'The fact is, it's tax.'
'The fact is, it's tax.' Blimey, O'Reilly, you never said five truer words - Comment - Times Online
Tony OReillys view is that the main reason for the Irish economic miracle has been the low level of corporate tax in Ireland. He is working to persuade the UK Government to reduce the rate of corporation tax in Northern Ireland to that of the south; that is, from the UKs 30 per cent to the Republics 12.5 per cent. He comments that the Irish miracle is not because the pubs are great, the golf is great and the climate is, well . . . the fact is, its tax.
This is, indeed, one of the political truths that politicians ignore at their peril. OReillys the fact is, its tax, is just as valid as Bill Clintons its the economy, stupid. Of course, from the British point of view, there can be no question of cutting the Northern Ireland rate of corporation tax without cutting the UK level. If 12.5 per cent is good for the Republic and it is then indeed it would also be good for Northern Ireland. If it would be good for Northern Ireland it would be equally good for England, Wales and Scotland. Not only good, but essential.
Most politicians have little understanding of tax. They think it is easier to tax business because global businesses do not have votes. They do not realise that Ireland has found that lower tax rates produce higher yields. The result is that Conservative tax policies are inadequate, Liberal Democrat policies are self-defeating, and Labours are complex and perverse.
Politicians do not appear to understand that global businesses are free to arrange their tax affairs on a global basis.
....
The latest information is that the outflow of international companies from Britain is accelerating. There are at least 40 major companies in the pipeline to move; the sums involved run into hundreds of billions of pounds. Last year Royal Dutch Shell consolidated its holding company in the Netherlands that represents a capital value of more than 110 billion by itself. This drain will do far more damage to the UK economy than merely loss of tax revenue, though that is considerable. The real loss is the benefits these companies provide to our economy while they are here.
Sir Digby Jones, as Director-General of the CBI, has stated: A lot of our biggest businesses are now looking at whether they want to be domiciled here because of the tax system. They are looking instead at Holland, Ireland . . . Estonia, even. That was never on the radar screen before. I fear that the Chancellor, in going after a few million of extra tax, will lose the Exchequer billions by driving companies out of Britain. That is not just silly; it is suicidal.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 AM
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June 9, 2006
Kennet Council Rubbish a local Hero
Rubbish Protester Says Hell Fight On (from This Is Wiltshire)
DEVIZES resident Phil Oliver is prepared to go to court after being told he had committed an offence by handing in a bag of household rubbish at Kennet District Council's offices.
Mr Oliver, of Cornfield Road, took his bag of rubbish to Kennet's offices at Browfort in Bath Road, Devizes, when it went uncollected due to a one day strike by refuse workers and Unison members in a row over pensions.
Kennet said his action in depositing the litter was a criminal offence and ordered him to pay a fixed penalty notice of 50.
"I was a bit fed up because rubbish from bags ripped open by cats had blown into my garden. I rang Kennet to find out when the rubbish would be collected and received a curt response that it would be the following week.
"I was a bit miffed by this so I took my bag of rubbish and went to Kennet's offices. I asked to see the manger of the refuse department and was told he was not in.
"I then gave my bag of rubbish to the receptionist and asked that she give it to the manager with the message that he should make suitable contingency plans for such events and not expect the rate paying public of Devizes to put up with rubbish all over the streets for a week. I was quite polite about it. I went straight from work and was wearing a shirt and tie."
Kennet Council said: "The council will not tolerate waste being dumped. This case of illegally deposited waste was passed to the legal department for consideration under the Environmental Protection Act."
Collecting the rubbish used to be the one and only service that Kennet Council could do efficiently - but they can't even do that now as they have far better things to spunk our money away on now. I hope he holds out against Kennet - and next time they fail to collect my rubbish I will be taking the tipping trailer into Browfort myself.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:13 AM
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A real cost of the SWRA Quisling talkingshop
Cost Of New Council Offices Rising At 50 000 A Month (from This Is Wiltshire)
THE predicted cost of the council's Bourne Hill office project has already rocketed by 2m but senior councillors and officers argued this week that it was still the most efficient and cost-effective option for its future accommodation.
Outlining the business case for the scheme which is now projected to cost 13.7m and is set to rise by 50,000 each month until work gets under way ...
However, rapid increases in building costs have already seen the bill rise by more than 15 per cent and, if the plans get called in by the secretary of state and snarled up by a public inquiry, the price will soar.
The council is now waiting for a decision from the government office for the south-west on whether it can proceed with its plans, which could see work start in early 2007 and staff working in their new offices 18 months later.
The swell of public protest against the project was expected....
I'm glad it isn't my council tax that Salisbury Council is enjoying spending..
Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM
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Holding Councils accountable to the Law
Neil Herron continues his campaign to ensure that councils obey the very laws they rigorously and pernickitaly enforce on motorists.
The Peoples No Campaign - Blackpool Press Release 8th June 2006
Neil Herron states, "Yet again we have caught out another local authority playing fast and lose with their legal responsibilities. Many have cut corners in their attempt to introduce Decriminalised Parking Enforcement, but the law is a two-way street and it is not just the motorist that must obey the law. This is a very serious matter in which the misrepresentation of the legal situation with the inference that a criminal offence has been committed and means that Blackpool have made a catastrophic error and all drivers must be refunded."
Ben Durkin states, "I find it staggering that local authorities such as Blackpool, who are in charge of hundreds of millions of pounds of public money are knowingly extorting money from motorists in this illegal manner. It makes you wonder what else is going on. Personally I wouldn't trust them to run a bath."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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June 8, 2006
Chris Gaskin - an apology
In a previous post I mistakenly implied that the views of the blog Balrog "An Irish Republican perspective on life" were from "south of the border".
My error was pointed out by Chris Gaskin a writer on the blog; "a Law student attending Queens University Belfast. (sic - it has an apostrophe as it is the university of Our Most Gracious Majesty) ...(who) works part time as a Barman in the 26 counties. (and is) a staunch Irish Republican who supports the establishment of a 32 County Secular Socialist Republic." So my apologies are due.
I am surprised he is offended by being identified as having Southern Irish views seeing he states:
Am I the only one who finds it funny when he talks about dragging the reputation of the British nation through the mud?
It has no reputation worth saving FFS!
It has a long history or brutality, oppression, domination and conquest. All you have to do is to look at the countries around the world where there has been war and strife about borders to see what the Brits created, Israel/Palestine, India/Pakistan, Ireland.
It's about time that the British woke up and realised that their "nation" has blood flowing from its fingertips after centuries of war, injustice and colonisation.
Britain is not a peacefull (sic) nation and it never has been, a bit of reality might scare them half to death.
Of course I'm glad he prefers to be identified as an Ulsterman, but it would be nice if showed a little more gratitude to the state that has paid for his education and way of life....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 AM
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God Bless you Sir!
Prince to promote old-school teaching - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
THE Prince of Wales is to set up his own training programme to promote traditional methods of teaching English and history in state schools.
Prince Charles renewed his attack on modern teaching methods yesterday, saying that they had robbed children of their cultural inheritance by promoting misguided notions of equality and accessibility.
He announced that he was joining forces with Cambridge University to establish the Princes Cambridge Programme for Teaching to re- inspire teachers over the value of literature and history.
For all sorts of well- meaning reasons, and for too many pupils, teaching has omitted to pass on to the next generation not only our deep knowledge of literature and history, but also the value of education, he told teachers at the fifth annual Prince of Wales Education Summer School in Cambridge.
There is a need to revisit the fundamental principles that drive our educational beliefs; to reinspire teachers; to question the notion that equality and accessibility are best served by reducing the range and quality of work that pupils undertake; and to put a stop to the cultural disinheritance.
The old boy may be seen as a bit of a crackpot but on some issues he is not only spot on but also gets things moving. I hope this becomes as successful and as influential as his Prince's Trust and Poundbury initiatives.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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"culturally authentic and accurate"
Telegraph | News | BBC hires its own cultural watchdog
The BBC is hiring a "diversity tsar" to ensure that its channels and programmes are "culturally authentic and accurate".
Mary Fitzpatrick begins work next month ...(at I believe 70 k pa)
Jana Bennett, the BBC's director of television, said that the move was to "put audiences at the heart of what we do". She added: "To meet audiences' expectations in a changing world, we need our programmes to reflect fully and accurately the diversity of the UK population."
Miss Fitzpatrick said her job would not be about "quotas or box-ticking, but focusing minds on the fact that audiences are hugely diverse and they rightly expect to see themselves and their life experiences reflected on TV".
So "culturally authentic and accurate" - what is she going to do about Balamory -
The whole of Scotland is 98.4% white with the area around Tobermory, where it is filmed, even more monocultural (figures not online). You will notice the make up of the main characters above, the supporting cast is also as ethnically diverse.
So to be "culturally authentic and accurate" they would have to do a serious culling of characters! Remember the whole of the UK is 92.1% white, does that seem to be the proportion you see on the BBC?
If the BBC wants to project the UK as a culturally diverse and exciting place, if it wants to pretend that that Scottish fishing villages are as cosmopolitan as Islington - fine. Just don't come the "culturally authentic and accurate" lie to me, or with my money.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:29 AM
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June 7, 2006
A reader points out this article
icBirmingham - Why all true citizens need their own guns
Shootings continue daily and knife crime has reached epidemic proportion. Here Dr Sean Gabb from the Libertarian Alliance explains why he believes we need more guns to make us safer
The current debate on armed crime is depressingly predictable. Everyone agrees something must be done.
Just about everyone agrees this something must include laws against the sale or carrying or simple possession of weapons. More controls on weapons, the argument goes, the fewer weapons on the street: therefore lower levels of armed crime.
Now, this whole line of thinking is nonsense. ....
I think the other reader of this blog can probably recite the argument that follows, if not please refresh your memory of it. But outside the Blogosphere it is rare to hear it, and especially rare to read it in a newspaper.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:11 PM
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Notwithstanding the source of the clause
At last, a piece of legal history - it's the law in plain English - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
CENTURIES of parliamentary tradition will be swept away next week with a new-style Bill offering a "plain English" translation of the usual impenetrable legal language.
...
The English system of common and case law is blamed for the complexity of legislation. Meanings of words are carefully prescribed in law with particular vocabulary used to convey specific meanings. That makes it hard for those outside the legal profession to grasp the meaning of a Bill.
The arcane language survives because the courts are responsible for interpreting legislation, and it is the language they understand. But, experts say, legislation is increasingly baffling and governments in centuries past produced clear and concise Bills. Several Victorian laws were shining examples of plain English. The 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act, for example, states: It is an offence to cause a riot.
Bad habits crept in during the 20th century. Oliver Heald, a barrister and the Conservatives constitutional affairs spokesman, said that Harold Wilson was the worst offender, famous for massive tomes of regulatory legislation.
Tony Blairs predilection for sweeping framework Bills, which can be easily topped up with secondary legislation, has added to the complexity.
The Campaign for Plain English called it a great step forward.
Lawyers, who make a living out of explaining complex legislation, could be the big losers.
I came to mock but the more I read I think that unbelievably for once Ms Harman may have done something good. It is not ripping up our common heritage but rather a small attempt to return to our glorious past where the common man could understand the Law and Bible in the common tongue - a principle many have fought the executive for over the years.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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June 5, 2006
Spend and waste Brown - the figures
Telegraph | Money | Brown set for his century
The number of tax rises under Labour has steadily ticked up to 80, taking the UK tax burden close to record proportions.
The rising tally of new taxes under Gordon Brown, counted by The Daily Telegraph, is the latest illustration of how families are paying more of their incomes to the Government. If Mr Brown maintains this strike rate he should comfortably exceed 100 by the end of this parliament.
The news follows hard on the heels of Tax Freedom Day, which this year fell on Saturday - the latest date since the early 1980s....
Christine Frayne, economist at the IFS, said: "The tax burden is demonstrably higher than it was in 1997/98. About half of this increase could be attributed to fiscal drag."
Professor Peter Spencer, chief economist at the Ernst & Young Item Club, said stealth taxes were extremely damaging. "A thousand pounds less here, a thousand pounds there - it all adds up."
He said the tax-credits system that replaced some tax reliefs had already proved itself to be "an absurdity". Government figures last week showed 1.8bn was overpaid in credits last year, much of which must now be recouped.
"Fiscal drag is the real killer here," Prof Spencer said. "It's everywhere: income tax, inheritance tax, stamp duty. It's working with a vengeance in middle Britain.
"Taxes are going through the all-time high they hit under Geoffrey Howe.
"The really worrying question is: if he's [Gordon Brown] borrowing that much money when the times are good, what's going to happen when all those good stories abate?"
High taxes, high regulatatory burden, decreasing freedom of action - and he believes the good times will continue to roll...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:17 AM
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June 3, 2006
Whose land is it anyway?
Yet again the principle of private property which underlies our freedoms and prosperity is waved away as inconvienient...
Telegraph | News | Right to roam all Britain's coastline
A new public right to roam on all beaches, foreshore and coastal land in England is being called for by a Government quango. It would include dunes, cliffs, banks, barriers and flats.
There would be no right of appeal against the proposed blanket right, nor any compensation to the owners of private beaches, hotels, nature reserves, wildfowling clubs or golf courses for any loss of income or capital value....
David Fursdon, the president of the Country Land and Business Association, said: "It is nonsense to suggest that the public is deprived of access to the coast. This half-term week, as usual, the roads have been clogged up with people doing just that: heading for the coast.
"We are happy to see improvements to access at the coast but this proposal is the sort of conclusion that might have been reached by the Bolshevik politburo, with the same lack of recognition of the legitimate rights of rural business people and property owners. The coast means different things to different people and some have invested heavily in residential, environmental and business assets that derive their value from seclusion and tranquillity. Taking that away without even addressing the issue of compensation is not only unreasonable but a sledgehammer to crack a nut."
Kate Conto, a spokesman for the Ramblers' Association, said that mapping had proved impossible under research carried out by the agency. Under the proposals, which the ramblers endorse, the extent of access land and the responsibilities would be set out in a code of practice, as in Scotland.
"There would be exclusion zones around property - that means 20 metres."
Oh that is bloody generous of her - she is prepared to keep her bunch of technicolour cagoul wearing beardies 60 odd feet away from someone's private retreat.
Remind me what is the "season" for Ramblers and how does the Boone and Crockett Club score them...
Posted by The Englishman at 9:52 AM
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June 1, 2006
Croqueted
Prescott quits country house in the hope of saving his skin - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
JOHN PRESCOTT has moved to save his flagging political career by giving up the use of Dorneywood, the grace-and- favour country residence that he insisted on keeping despite losing his department in last month's reshuffle.
The Deputy Prime Minister bowed to public and political fury over his retention of his lavish perks and said farewell to the Buckinghamshire estate where he was photographed last week, to his intense embarrassment, playing croquet.
After receiving strong advice from his closest friends that he needed to make a gesture to the public and the Labour Party, Mr Prescott telephoned Tony Blair yesterday morning and told him that he would do what Mr Blair asked him to do when he carried out his reshuffle - give up Dorneywood.
You can hit the public, grope your staff, waste billions of pounds, be totally incompetent and you will be forgiven, but the first whiff of being a toff by playing a game of croquet and that is unforgivable. There is no snobbery like working class snobbery!
I predict that no one else takes over Dorneywood until Prescott has left the cabinet, like Blunkett he will just take a long time to move out...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:08 AM
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Welcome to Britain
Working the system - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
THOUSANDS of illegal immigrants are being issued with national insurance numbers every year even though officials know that they have suspect immigration documents.
Staff in Jobcentres have been told that they have a duty to issue an NI number even if they realise that the applicant has forged documents and no legal right to work, official papers seen by The Times reveal.
The NI number, which employers regard as a prerequisite to work, can also be used to claim various benefits.
Of course for an employer you have to check the passport or birth certificate as well as the NI card to give someone a job legally, but I doubt many do. we had always assumed that an NI card meant something, but now we learn: "The important point for us is that national insurance numbers are an internal reference number that lets us link an individual with their social security, or their child support, or their tax or their contribution record. It is not proof of identity, and it is not supposed to be proof that you are entitled to work."
Yet another shambles for "Dr" Reid.
I thought John Reid was going to win the stupidity of the week award last weekend when he slipped off for a bit of French leave rather than get on with the job, what is it with these people? But then I witnessed a rabbit run twenty yards out of a field of wheat and head-but Mr FM who was standing there with his shotgun looking for rabbits. So the rabbit just beat Reid in stupidity stakes, but only just.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:00 AM
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May 31, 2006
Blair - Si monumentum requiris, circumspice
Telegraph | Opinion | An unaccountable mess by unaccountable people
Not a day passes now without further evidence of administrative incompetence emerging from our floundering Government. ...
There have been third-rate administrations before, packed with ministers of little ability or experience: but then the country could count on two factors to safeguard its interests. First, there was a "Rolls-Royce" Civil Service that could take over in times of trouble and ensure the business of government was carried on effectively and responsibly. And second, there was a constitutional understanding that accountability was clear, and the trail ended on the desk of the minister in charge of the department concerned. ...
This country has, in consequence, never been so badly run: and has never had a political elite so derelict, so self-serving, so cynical and so shameless in its management of its own decline.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 AM
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Why Prescott is safe.
Prescott allowed to limp on as his bosses close ranks - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Mr Blair wants Mr Prescott to remain until he stands down. If Mr Prescott were to go now, it would almost certainly mean a deputy leadership election at the Labour conference this autumn. With several candidates signalling their readiness to enter the ring, Labour would be preoccupied with an election when it needs to be trumpeting its recent policy changes on pensions and education.
The other risk for Mr Blair is that, if there were a deputy contest this year, he could come under pressure to go at the same time and give Labour the chance of a clean start.
Simple really, if he goes it all collapses. And he knows it and is enjoying it - at our expense of course.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM
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Agent McGuinness
Telegraph | News | Dirty tricks claim by Sinn Fein chief
Martin McGuinness claimed yesterday that his political opponents were behind allegations that he spied for the British and were waging a dirty tricks campaign to sabotage the restoration of the Northern Ireland assembly.
The reason why he is being exposed as a tout is simple - look at his piggy little eyes and ginger hair atop that weaselly face and it is quite obvious that he would sell his own grandmother for the price of a woodbine. Simply he is untrustworthy. I don't have any evidence I can share in a public place that he makes a canary seem like a Trappist monk, but if he told me my name I would check the tag in my shirt collar. But then if you elect a bunch of lying, murdering criminals it is no surprise if you find them hard to trust.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:29 AM
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May 28, 2006
Welcome to Comrade Brown's World
Britain's northern 'soviets' swell on Brown handouts - Sunday Times - Times Online
THE growth in public spending in northern areas of Britain is so rampant that it is resulting in the "sovietisation" of swathes of the country, new figures show.
Gordon Brown, the chancellor, has pushed up national public spending beyond the levels of former communist countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The dependence on the public sector of the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has grown so sharply over the past year that many areas are now significantly more reliant on public spending than countries such as Sweden, known for the bloated size of its welfare state.
The new figures, compiled by analysts at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and to be released in a report tomorrow, show that between 2001-02 and 2005-06, public spending grew from 38.9% to 43% of gross domestic product.
The national increase over the past year, from 42% to 43%, disguises the fact that in southern regions dependence on the state has barely risen, while in northern areas it has jumped sharply.
The reliance on the public sector varies between regions, from just 33.4% in London to 71.3% in Northern Ireland. The public spending share in Northern Ireland has risen from 65.2% to its present level in four years; Wales has gone up from 56.3% to 62.4%; the northeast from 56.4% to 61.5%; Scotland from 50% to 54.9% and the northwest from 47.8% to 52.6%.
The sovietisation of parts of Britain as a result of Browns huge increases in public spending looks even more dramatic when the figures are adjusted for comparison with other countries. On this basis, public spending is equivalent to 76.2% of the size of the Northern Ireland economy this year, 66.2% in Wales, 64.9% in the northeast, 57.7% in Scotland and 56.1% in the northwest.
This compares with 56.1% in high-spending Sweden, 54.1% in France, 51.9% in former communist Hungary, 51.5% in Denmark, 46% in Germany, 42.6% in the Czech Republic, 41.2% in Poland and 36.3% in Slovakia.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:31 AM
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May 27, 2006
State Pensions
I thought I might do some hard number crunching this morning on the latest pension news.
I am just amazed that this huge tax increase has slipped through with no outrage.
So I started by looking at (and getting depressed at)
GAD - Government Actuary's Department life tables.
Simply the government will increase your pension by a small amount if you don't retire for a three extra years, and pay more tax.
But if you don't retire until 68 you don't draw down 3 years of pension which is about 15% of what you would have done - so that is a huge amount added to the pot without the need for extra tax. You also will have paid in for an extra three years, and of course a significant number of you will fall off your perch in those three years. So just by raising the retirement age the public pension pot is increased by about 20% but the government couldn't resist dipping its fingers into our pockets as well.
But all further research is off now as the red mist is coming down as I look at this graphic from The Telegraph of how our lords and masters have looked after themselves in their old age.. I'm off to kick something very hard.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:46 AM
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May 26, 2006
Happy Retirement - hah
Telegraph | News | Pension plan will mean more work and saving
By "saving" in that headline they actually mean "tax" - another 7% (I think) tax on employment - or out of your wages - in return for a Government "promise" that they will look after you in your very old age.
So you will pay more tax, work for longer and some of it will come back to you as a state pension.
I'm not a licenced financial adviser and so can not give advice but if I were it would be don't trust the bastards, invest as much money as you can in your own pension provision which you control and has nothing to do with the government, or do you believe they are so wise and careful with your money that they can look after it better than you can do?
I can prod my pension fund with a stick and check it is still there every morning, and that is the way I like it.
Of course these strictures and advice doesn't apply to certain groups in society who will be feasting at the public pension trough at an age they can still enjoy it...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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May 25, 2006
The next question for the Home Office
As it appears the Home Office does not know the whereabouts of many serious and dangerous foreign criminals released from British prisons, the major concern now is how serious criminals, including paedophiles and sex offenders released from prisons within EU Member States are monitored.
There are no checks at passport control. Many EU countries do not even have a sex offenders register.
There appears to be no requirement to go on the UK Sex Offenders Register and no explanation from the Government as to how many potential paedophiles and serious sex offenders have entered the country perfectly legally under the free movement of people.
How many paedophiles and sex offenders, convicted in their own EU state or another EU Member State, are in this country?
If there are no checks at passport control and no requirement to declare any criminal convictions, how can they be monitored?
How many, if any, are any on the UKs National Sex Offenders' Register?
Neil Herron has sent an open letter to Geoff Hoon and John Reid asking.
I wonder what the reply will be.
And if any reader of another blog would like to copy this please do - I notice after Iain Dale's campaign to raise the profile of the Cheriegate affair its profile was well and truly raised. This issue is of far more importance - but it touches the sacred cow of the EU and so will be buried.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:37 AM
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May 24, 2006
The madness of King Tony
The madness of King Tony - Comment - Times Online
....the complete lack of strategy or vision at the top of the Government and their replacement by gimmicks.
Since the local elections (and, I know, many would say, before them, too) there has been nothing but gimmickry from No 10.
...
We have a Prime Minister who seems to believe that if only he had more power, flexed it more openly and wielded it more ruthlessly, he could get everything he wants. The Prime Minister has gone quite mad.
Go on then, tell us what you really think of him! If it wasn't a tragedy it would be a farce, and guess who is paying for it all..
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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Today's headlines - any connections?
Telegraph | News | Millions will be hit by new 'stealth tax' on pensions
BBC NEWS | Business | Britons face 'lifetime of debts'
Telegraph | News | Gordon shows us around his lovely home
This glimpse into the private life of the Chancellor and Prime Minister-in-waiting is contained in the latest issue of New Woman magazine. It found that behind the "dour Scotsman image" was "Gordon the affable". On a visit to Downing Street, Helen Johnston, the magazine's editor, found him amiable and relaxed. "Phew, in fact he's charming," she said.
Mr Brown showed her around the flat above No 10 - formerly occupied by successive Prime Ministers
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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May 23, 2006
Start spread - in' the news, la la lala la, I wan - na be a part _ of it New Labour Sleaze,...
Iain Dale's Diary: Cherie & the Hutton Report: It's Up to the Blogs to Make it Hit the Fan
Yesterday I reported on the sick scandal of Cherie Blair and Alastair Campbell signing a copy of the Hutton Report for auction at a Labour Party fundraising dinner last week. Click HERE to read the original post from yesterday. I expressed astonishment that none of the mainstream media had followed up Jonathan Oliver's Mail on Sunday story. .. I'd encourage everyone reading this who has a blog to post something on it...
Happy to help Boss.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:18 PM
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May 22, 2006
The view from Wiltshire
The essential John Brignell on his Number Watch site has an article called Greenflation - More sense there than you will get from the latest BBC Climate Chaos series that the wireless keeps promoting...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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Stop planning, start managing
Telegraph | News | The violent criminals who walk out of prison at will
Hundreds of prisoners, including murderers, rapists and robbers, have absconded from open prisons in a further embarrassment for a Government reeling from a series of Home Office blunders.
Prison Service figures show that offenders have been escaping from Leyhill Open Prison, Glos, at the rate of almost two a week for three years.
It is one of 13 open prisons in England. The Home Office last night refused to give absconding rates for the others, but did not suggest they would be any less serious.
Robbery and burglary offenders were the main absconders. But 22 murderers and seven rapists have fled Leyhill since 1999.
The Home Office suffered another bad weekend after admitting that hundreds of people had wrongly been labelled as criminals - pornographers, thieves and violent robbers - because of errors by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
The disclosure that more than 2,700 people were affected came as ministers and officials continued to grapple with the fall-out from the foreign prisoners fiasco.
The Home Office described the errors as "regrettable" but refused to apologise.
It said the problem arose from checks carried out by the CRB on people applying for jobs in positions of trust with young people and vulnerable adults. In a "tiny proportion" of cases, there had been "mismatches".
A spokesman said: "We make no apology for erring on the side of caution. We are talking about the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
"This is not about the CRB making 'mistakes':
No apologies? If I had been wrongly labelled as a Nonce to a local school and failed to get a job I would be down to m'learned friends first thing and enquiring about suing the arse of someone.
It is amazing what the media discovers once it starts to actually look at a government department instead of just regurgitating press releases. And the deepening fiasco shows what happens when the people running an enterprise are always planning changes, new initiatives, and reorganisations rather than the more boring task of actually managing the bloody thing - a curse that doesn't only affect the Home Office, or even government but many private firms as well.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM
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May 21, 2006
Damning opinion on Snake-oil Tony
Watchdog blasts PM over sleaze - Sunday Times - Times Online
BRITAINS sleaze watchdog has launched a personal attack on Tony Blair for failing to uphold standards in public life after a succession of scandals.
Sir Alistair Graham, appointed by the prime minister to oversee politicians behaviour, has criticised Blair for treating standards as a minor issue, not worthy of serious consideration and says the prime minister now faces repercussions for failing to give the issue sufficient emphasis. I think its a major error of judgment, he said this weekend in an interview in The Sunday Times.
....On cronyism, he says: We have given recommendations as to how the government could address that. They accepted many of our recommendations but they didnt accept those.
Overall, he says: We would have preferred more positive support from the prime minister.
We suspect he is pretty lukewarm to the work we do, though it is interesting where we suggested changes to improve ethical standards in local government, it [the government] accepted all of those recommendations because it was helpful to it.
...
Graham also lambasts the government for failing to tackle electoral fraud. Postal voting has been extended to everyone to encourage higher turnouts. But the government has ignored independent advice that individuals should register to vote rather than households. Critics have suggested that this is because more rigour would hit Labours share of the vote.
Graham says: It might be argued there was a party-political interest. There was a fear that if you increased the integrity of the electoral register, you might put at risk particularly in inner-city areas who exactly was on the register. And there might be party advantage in how these matters are dealt with.
Its not a very satisfactory situation where the professional body [the electoral commission] is saying one thing and the government is doing something else . . . it undermines trust in our democratic system and anything that does that is very worrying.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:53 AM
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May 20, 2006
If you are caught - just lie.
Telegraph | News | Five illegal migrants 'worked at Home Office for years'
The five illegal immigrants arrested this week while working as Home Office cleaners had worked there for years, it was alleged last night.
It emerged on Thursday that the five Nigerians had been detained when they first arrived for work at one of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's (IND) offices in London.
John Reid, the Home Secretary, even boasted that the system deserved "an accolade" for operating efficiently while Downing Street added: "They were caught... the system actually worked." ..
Last night, David Davis, the shadow home secretary, accused the Government of misleading the public. "Yet again we see the Home Office and now the Home Secretary have misled the public over a very serious breach of national and Home Office security."
Dominic Grieve, the shadow attorney general, asked whether in its statements yesterday, the Home Office had simply "said the first thing that comes into their heads for propaganda reasons".
- Legal note - "Any resemblance of government statements to the truth, living or dead is purely coincidental. They are completely the product of their authors' imaginations. All rights reserved. No animals were harmed in the making of this statement."
Posted by The Englishman at 8:20 AM
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May 18, 2006
No papers needed
Telegraph | News | Passport forgery law is repealed by accident
The Home Office faced fresh controversy last night after ministers were accused of accidentally repealing the law which makes it an offence to have a forged passport.
In an extraordinary development, it was claimed that Labour's Identity Cards Act had repealed the existing laws before the new laws to replace them come into force.
I would laugh if it wasn't so pathetic, though I am starting to wonder why we bother with passports at all.
When David Roberts, of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), said there was little point hunting individuals who overstayed their visas.
He also said he did not have the "faintest idea" how many illegal immigrants there were in the UK.
But Mr Roberts, who is head of removals at the directorate, said the directorate's resources were better targeted on firms employing illegal workers.
And the revelation that "we also hand out National Insurance numbers without checking up on a person's immigration status."(ibid)
Why bother with any ID?
Unless you are a law abiding citizen of the country when, of course, it is essential that you are branded by the Government as a symbol that they own you.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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May 16, 2006
A lack of British values
BBC NEWS | Education | British values classes considered
Harris Bokhari, from the Muslim Association of Britain, told the BBC's Five Live it was a "knee-jerk reaction" because teaching British values in schools would not have prevented the London bombings.
"What was the reason why these people actually committed these disgusting acts?
"And unfortunately it was our foreign policy, it was the issue of the illegal war, the illegal occupation of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the continuing abuses of the Palestinian people, the illegal occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state."
And quite how is blowing up commuters in London meant to stop the occupation of Palestine? Maybe a "British Value" that could be taught is that this sort of behaviour is simply wrong and inexcusable, or should we teach the modern British Value that if you terrorise enough the government will give in and greet the terrorist leaders as statesmen....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM
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The unasked question
Telegraph | News | Inquiry into identity thefts
It emerged at the end of last year that the identities of up to 13,000 civil servants from the Department for Work and Pensions had been stolen and used in tax credit fraud. However, there are concerns that this may be only a small part of a much wider problem, according to Richard Bacon, a Conservative MP on the public accounts committee.
He has written to Sir John Bourn, the head of the NAO, urging him to investigate the scale of identity theft at both the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Customs and Revenue.
"Obviously, 99.9 per cent of civil servants will be honest but it only takes a tiny minority to be working with criminals and passing on details for there to be a very significant problem," he said.
And how does this shattering revelation that among the millions of Gordon's Turkey Army there might be one or two who are as bent as a nine bob note impact the security reassurances of the ID Card?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:36 AM
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The Teaching of Britishness
Telegraph | Opinion | Roger Scruton: Values are not learnt through teaching
The Government's latest answer to Muslim disaffection is to teach core British values in schools. We know what those values will be: toleration, respect, freedom, consideration - the virtues of the "open society", detached from the religious absolutes that Muslims seem, on the whole, to prefer.
I cast my mind back to the way in which Britishness was taught to me by family, school, church and town. Those British values, as I recall, were seldom mentioned, and never taught. Britishness was a state of mind, imparted like the sense of family, as a collective "we". It was a matter of belonging, of being at home, of thinking by habit in the first person plural.
Our lessons were shaped accordingly. History was our history. It recounted battles that we had fought or lost; it dwelt on our achievements and our shortcomings (though the latter were strictly rationed). Literature was our literature, and all our lessons and activities were marked by the same proprietary feeling: we were being brought up as British, by authority figures infused with a love of the country that we shared.
It is not only Muslims who have problems with that kind of education. Labour, too, has never accepted it. Celtic bias and class resentment have made the party uncomfortable with our traditional forms of patriotic sentiment.
It is suspicious of national loyalty, and is looking for a set of "values" that will make no reference to a country or the people who inhabit it. It cannot stomach the island history of our ancestors, sneers at English institutions....It has been conciliatory towards Welsh and Scottish nationalism, not because they are nationalisms, but because they are not English....
You can be fairly sure that, within a few years, the ideals of toleration, fair-mindedness and the rest will be turned into anti-patriotic weapons. This will happen by an invisible hand, as teachers, many of them every bit as disaffected as their Muslim pupils, look for ways in which the British people have fallen short of the values preached in their name.
In studying freedom, much time will be spent on the British participation in the slave trade, but very little on our heroic attempt to abolish it. Under the heading of toleration, much attention will be paid to the religious persecutions of Reformation England, but little or no attention to the great blemish on the face of Islam, which is the punishment by death of apostasy.
"Fair-mindedness" will not be taught through the long history of the English common law, or through those edifying stories of self-abnegation that taught our ancestors to "play up and play the game". It will be taught through the great injustices of imperial government, from the massacre at Amritsar to the Zulu war.
It is not inevitable that this will happen. But it is very likely. For "British values", as understood by the Government, are really Enlightenment values, with no intrinsic connection to the history, loyalty and shared experience that define our country. They can be used as easily to undermine national sentiment as to uphold it.
And when the inspectors come round to tick the boxes, they will give a higher score to the teacher who covers all the stated "values" while also teaching his pupils to "think for themselves": in other words, to reject the very idea of Britishness as an offence to the Enlightenment values that they have learnt to discuss in class, though not necessarily to exemplify in their lives.
There is a fallacy at the heart of the Government's thinking, which is to think that, if children lack some vital accomplishment, then we must teach it in school. The Government conceives of values as a kind of knowledge, to be put up on the blackboard and discussed by the class.
But values are matters of practice, not of theory. They are not so much taught as imparted. You learn them by immersion, by joining with your contemporaries in team spirit, competition, and adventure - in short, by fashioning an "I" out of the collective "we". That is how I became both English and British: because I was immersed in them and they were part of me.
.....
Amen.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM
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Our mystery solved
In July 2004 I posted about a fax I had sent:
:An Englishman's Castle: They Work For You
...
My Query:
Dear Rt Hon Michael Ancram QC,
Late at night perusing the excellent www.theyworkforyou.com I notice on your register of interests that several of your trips have been financially supported by Flying Lion Ltd. I just wondered who they are, as the only information that is thrown up on a web search is, via a far right web site, which quotes them as "(A)company (that)owns one Dassault Falcon 900EX (registration VP-BMS) registered in Bermuda at the following address:
FLYING LION LIMITED
CEDAR HOUSE
41 CEDAR AVENUE
HAMILTON HM 12
BERMUDA"
Being curious I wonder why such a small airline is prepared to fly you, and apparently no other MPs to ;
Kabul and Baghdad, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and Afghanistan, Georgia and Turkey.
I am making this enquiry public on my website www.anenglishmanscastle.com and unless you request otherwise I will make the reply public. I hope that is OK.
He never replied, or to a follow up one and I gave up as he was helpful about another matter. But The Times has finally caught up and solved the mystery.
Senior Tories declare 50,000 of free flights - Britain - Times Online
FOUR senior Conservative MPs have declared more than 50,000 of free travel from an offshore company after an investigation by The Times.
Michael Ancram, the former deputy leader, Richard Spring, the party vice-chairman, and the Shadow ministers Caroline Spelman and Mark Simmonds flew across four continents from 2002 to 2004.
Mr Ancram's flights and hospitality amounted to 33,000 in gifts from an aviation company based in the Atlantic tax haven of Bermuda. The MP has told the Electoral Commission that the business is owned by Lord Ashcroft, the former party treasurer.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:13 AM
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May 12, 2006
Privacy matters
From February:
Neil Herron: DVLA Data Base and the 50m robbery
Our investigations are uncovering massive flaws in the availability and accessibility of data held by the DVLA.
Anyone can set up a 'parking company' and then access the DVLA data base. Private companies simply make the request at 2.50 a time. Hey presto, nameaddresss and postcode of the registered keeper.
Local authorities and / or their agents however, are not charged for their electronic requests and there is no scrutiny as to whether the request actually relates to an alleged contravention.
And today:
Scotsman.com News - UK - Call to get tough on traders of personal records
JAIL terms of up to two years should be introduced to tackle "widespread" illegal dealing in confidential personal records, a government watchdog will report today.
Hopefully a few "parking company" bosses will face some time playing mummies and daddies with a convicted armed robber...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:40 AM
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May 11, 2006
Who was Anthony Rice's Human Rights Lawyers?
Telegraph | News | His rights were put before her life
A dangerous criminal was released from a life sentence because his human rights were put before protecting the public, an official inquiry said yesterday.
Nine months later Anthony Rice strangled and stabbed Naomi Bryant 15 times.
Rice should never have been allowed out of jail but obtained legal aid to engage a lawyer to argue for his freedom.
The Parole Board - in deciding to let him out - and the Probation Service - which should have closely monitored him in the community - took undue account of his human rights, fearing legal action against them.
Despite some deep Googling I can't find out who his lawyers at the parole hearing were. But if I was looking for a firm that specialised in arguing "human rights" I would go to Matrix Chambers, and one Cherie Booth . If anyone can find the answer I would be most appreciative....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:15 AM
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May 10, 2006
Concrete them over - part 5
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Railways face biggest strike since 1926
The biggest rail stoppage since the 1926 general strike could take place next month after a decision by the main rail unions to ballot tens of thousands of workers yesterday.
Quick seize the moment! Close the whole bloody lot down - Face up to the facts:
Transport Watch UK - Road/rail comparisons across the uk
Road/rail comparisons - Summary findings
Very much against public and political sentiment roads managed to avoid congestion would offer 3 to 4 times the capacity to move freight and people at one quarter the cost of rail while using 20% to 25% less energy and reducing casualty costs suffered by rail passengers by a factor of 2.
The problem with the proposition is that (a) it is so very much against expectation (b) the numbers are so overwhelming as to inspire disbelief rather than belief (c) few people have ever seen a motor road managed to avoid congestion - the UK road network is (with the exception of motorways and some modern single carriageways) a collection of access roads never designed for motor traffic (d) rail is so romantic.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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You read it here first! Come on wake up Guardian!
Telegraph | News | New farms minister quits after a week
(Filed: 10/05/2006)
Labour's stewardship of the countryside was branded a "total shambles" yesterday after Tony Blair's new farms minister left after a week in office...
Lady Ashton is understood to have spent the weekend assuming that she was moving from the DCA to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
It was only yesterday that it emerged that Downing Street had double-booked the peer, leaving her with two jobs at two different departments.
Downing Street effectively acknowledged the error yesterday and named a new farms minister in the shape of Lord Rooker
But no one at the Guardian seems to have noticed yet...
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Wind of change
Wednesday May 10, 2006
...Meanwhile, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the fourth new member of the Defra team, replaces Lord Bach, whose disastrous handling of farm payments could still escalate and severely embarrass government. She, too, is desperately inexperienced about the environment, having spent most of her career working in childcare, health and family support. On the other hand, that could prove to be exactly the experience needed in the new Defra.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 AM
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May 9, 2006
Whoops - Defra Ministerial mistake!
On Friday it was announced that Baroness Ashton was appointed as the Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food, replacing Lord Bach who was sacked for his role as Minister with oversight for the botched Single Farm Payments. Defra, UK - About Defra - Ministers - Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Looks like someone forgot she still had another job:
Department for Constitutional Affairs - The Department - Ministerial Executive Board - Baroness Ashton of Upholland
So they have had to bring in Lord Rooker instead today.
And they wonder why Defra has a name for incompetence. Though to be fair to Defra it actually only illustrates how chaotic and rushed Tony's panic reshuffle was.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:01 PM
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EU ruining another Farmer's business
BBC NEWS | England | Suffolk | UK farmer sells gallows to Africa
A UK farmer who builds gallows and has sold them to African countries with poor human rights' records, has been condemned by Amnesty International.
The execution equipment he sells ranges from single gallows, at about 12,000 each, to "Multi-hanging Execution Systems" mounted on lorry trailers, costing about 100,000.
An Amnesty International spokesman said the new European Commission Trade Regulation, which comes into force on 31 July 2006, will make it unlawful to export gallows.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Trade and Industry said the government was pleased that the export of gallows was being made unlawful.
12,000 for three bits of wood and a length of rope! Haven't they got trees out there?
So the DTI is glad that a successful British exporting company is being forced to close, I wonder if DEFRA and that nice Mr Miliband will help him out with a Rural Enterprise Scheme grant before that scheme closes too?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 PM
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And the figures are in..
Support for Labour at lowest level since 1992 - Britain - Times Online
LABOUR'S poll rating has fallen to its lowest level for years amid the turmoil at the top of the party and the bad local election results, a poll for The Times suggests today.
Cut out and keep image here
It is getting harder to keep insisting this is just midterm wobbles. No wonder Gordon is getting desperate, at this rate all he will get is a short poisoned pill of a premiership. I almost feel sorry for him....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 AM
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May 8, 2006
The New Misguided Minister for the Environment - getting it wrong - the Cnut!
Oh Dear, this doesn't sound very hopeful. Cnut, "halting climate change", stopping the tide, keeping the flame of Blairism alive, all Cnutian or is it Canutian!
David Miliband on the challenges of his new job:
It is also humbling that Al Gore held his first Senate hearing on climate change 26 years ago, in 1980. His article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, which I read last weekend before I knew that this was to be my new focus, combines the passion and lucidity that marked out his book Earth in the Balance - the best book I have ever read by a politician. He starts with a really great point. The Chinese symbol for 'crisis' is in fact two symbols - one for danger and the other for opportunity. That is how I see the challenge of halting climate change - locally, nationally and internationally there are opportunities to advance economic and social progress, but there are also huge dangers. We need to use the dangers to motivate us to take up the opportunities.
And if Al Gore is the bestest book ever he has coloured in read by a politician may I suggest he pops down the Library and finds books by Churchill, Machiavelli or - well why don't you suggest "top books by Politicians"? And no, Jeffery Archer doesn't make the list.
And of course Al got it wrong -
"danger + opportunity" doesn't equal "crisis"
There is a widespread public misperception, particularly among the New Age sector, that the Chinese word for "crisis" is composed of elements that signify "danger" and "opportunity." ...
Now, however, the damage from this kind of pseudo-profundity has reached such gross proportions that I feel obliged, as a responsible Sinologist, to take counteraction....
A whole industry of pundits and therapists has grown up around this one grossly inaccurate formulation....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:39 PM
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Teflon Tony - Operation Weserbung
Labour faces civil war over Left's 'plot' to oust Blair - Britain - Times Online
Tony Blair will refuse mounting demands for him to name a day for his departure from No 10. He will say at a speedily arranged monthly press conference that he has no intention of allowing his hand to be forced by a group that wants to reverse Labour's reforms and go back to an "Old Labour" agenda....
But his fightback, in which John Reid, the new Home Secretary, played a prominent part, was denounced by supporters of Gordon Brown. ..
Mr Brown, angry at what he regards as a factional reshuffle in which the Prime Minister moved against ministers who were seen as sympathetic to him, ...
You read it here first, first the shoring up of the cabinet with cronies and now the threat to all we hold dear that only Tony can save us from...
An Englishman's Castle: Teflon Tony rides again
Tony will do a quick reshuffle, with the public behind the need for one he can do what he likes. He will present himself as the voice of the common man fighting against the government, lawyers and media - and all will be well again in his own little world - apart from the Gordon problem
The Headline?
Operation Weserbung - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Operation Weserbung was the German codename for Nazi Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during World War II and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. (The term means "Weser Exercise", the Weser being a German river.)
In the early morning of April 9, 1940 - Wesertag ("Weser Day") - Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive maneuver against a planned (and openly discussed) Franco-British occupation of both these countries; upon arrival envoys of the invading Germans informed both countries' governments that the Wehrmacht had come to "protect the countries' neutrality" against Franco-British aggression.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM
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May 6, 2006
Old Brown Nose Award of the month
Welsh Liberal Democrats - news
pik Reaction To Hain Reappointment
05/05/2006
Commenting on Peter Hains reappointment as Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland in todays Government reshuffle, Lembit pik, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Wales and Northern Ireland, said:
"Despite my differences with Peter Hain politically, it's never been a question of competence. He has always been highly professional and is clearly in charge of his Welsh brief. The same goes for Northern Ireland where I believe he has shown a good degree of leadership in what I hope will be the closing stages of the peace process.
"At a professional level Tony Blair is right to maintain a good man in two important jobs. At a personal level I'm pleased our working relationship continues at an important time for Wales and Northern Ireland."
Eh? Why would the well known anagram and general media tart pik be so lovey about the day-glo oleagenous twat? Limpbiscuit wouldn't be thinking of getting even cosier with nuLabour would he? If he had an ounce of political opposition in his body he would be asking questions about Hain and what Mrs Peter Law alleges....
Posted by The Englishman at 2:38 PM
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May 5, 2006
Fotherington Miliband
Well nice chap that he is - they have published my trackback as a comment - or was it a bug in the system that let it through? Will it still be there in the morning?
(And will this help me get my Single Farm Payment cheque any quicker?)
Posted by The Englishman at 9:22 PM
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Welcome to St Custards..
Fotherington-Thomas ... his questionable tendency to skip around the school saying such things as "hullo clouds, hullo sky".
Or as his new blog at Defra says:
David Miliband | Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs : Hello
Hello
Through the wonder of technology I now have an interim blog up and running.
It is particularly humbling to get the chance to help tackle climate change, an issue for which there are no quick answers, but which we can all play a part in addressing.
Defra is a department whose agenda touches everyone's life - from the cleanliness of our streets and the food on our plates, to the diversity of our wildlife and the future of the planet.
Ah, Bless him! But wait till Molesworth or Grabber pounce on him....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:28 PM
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The Scottish Raj in action.
So John Reid a Scottish politician voted in by Scottish voters to a Scottish constituency is given the task of running the the Home Office, which is responsible for internal affairs in England and Wales (but not Scotland).
Need I say more?
Posted by The Englishman at 8:10 PM
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Waste Fat News
In a bizarre twist of events, Defra agreed on Wednesday to allow renderers to ignore a ban on burning tallow (waste fat) for energy that had only been brought in two days earlier.
BBC NEWS | Politics | At-a-glance: Tony Blair reshuffle
John Prescott remains as deputy prime minister and in his elected role as deputy leader of the Labour Party but is losing his porfolio...
BBC NEWS | Politics | Clarke axed in Cabinet reshuffle
Charles Clarke has been sacked as home secretary in the biggest cabinet reshuffle of Tony Blair's career.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:39 PM
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Mark Oaten Campaigning?
(hattip for photo to Mr FM)
Posted by The Englishman at 12:20 PM
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25 years ago today
As I walked towards my morning coffee in the St Giles' Cafe in Oxford 25 years ago today I passed a newly painted graffito on the wall of The Lamb and Flag - "Bobby Sands - 1981 Daily Mirror Slimmer of the Year". If only, that might have been something to be proud of and remember. But it is worth remembering that 100,000 people turned up to his funeral to show support for the shitty scumbag, and their wallowing in the misery of being The Most Oppressed People Ever (tm - The Irish) means they share the guilt.
What a pity the leaders didn't starve to death along with their poor stupid footsoldiers.
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Republicans recall hunger strike
Bobby Sands died 5th May 1981..
Willie Frazer, director of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (Fair), said people had to remember why the hunger strikers had been jailed.
His group plans to publish a booklet showing the background of the seven IRA and three INLA prisoners who died.
"There is a lot of romanticism painted about the hunger strikers by republicans," he said.
"The booklet we are producing will show these men in their true light.
"We want to remind people these were not, as republicans like to portray it, freedom fighters who became martyrs. People need to remember what they did before they went to jail."
Posted by The Englishman at 8:00 AM
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Teflon Tony rides again
BBC NEWS | Politics | Labour suffers local poll losses
Tony Blair has suffered a poor night in England's local elections as Labour lost 210 councillors.
The main gainers were the Tories, who had their best results since 1992. The Lib Dems failed to make much headway.
Not too bad for Labour, not good enough for the Tories, and disastrous for Ming. Tony will do a quick reshuffle, with the public behind the need for one he can do what he likes. He will present himself as the voice of the common man fighting against the government, lawyers and media - and all will be well again in his own little world - apart from the Gordon problem, but we don't mention that - but as Dorothy says, and Tony believes - Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Bluebirds fly. Birds fly Over The Rainbow. Why then, oh why can't I? If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why cant I?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:59 AM
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Beckett must go
BBC NEWS | Politics | 'Costly' delays for farm subsidy
Farming subsidy changes were made by the EU last year
The government's delays in implementing a new scheme of European farm payments could end up costing the taxpayer at least 20 million, the Tories say.
Conservative agriculture spokesman Jim Paice said this was unacceptable as the government had been told last year that the system was heading for disaster.
Under EU rules, member countries must have made payments to farmers by the end of June, or face heavy fines.
..Farmers' leaders say the delays and mistakes in the way the system has been implemented in Britain are a "tragedy" and could lead to some bankruptcies.
Mr Paice said that even if Britain manages to pay the subsidies by the end of July, it is still facing a fine of 20m.
Two points - it is only the ENGLISH farmers who are missing their payments not Britain or the UK as the BBC and Conservatives say, but then "England" is nearly a banned word in politics now - the Welsh, Scots and NI farmers have all been paid on time because they were given a different system.
And Beckett should go - now she says:
Responding to criticism that her failings were causing farm businesses to go bankrupt, Mrs Beckett said farmers should not have set a date for receiving their payments.
"No farm business could ever have said with confidence that it would receive its payment before the end of the payment window, which is the end of June," she said.
At the launch of Defra's sustainable strategy for the food industry on Wednesday, she dismissed concerns about farms going bankrupt as a result of late SPS payments.
Compare that with this Defra Press release dated 31st January 2006:
English farmers will start receiving full payments in February under the Single Payment Scheme, Farming Minister Lord Bach confirmed today.
A total of 1.6 billion will be paid directly into farmers' and growers' bank accounts or by payable order, starting at the end of February and with the bulk complete in March. All payments will be well within the window set by EU legislation which runs until 30th June 2006.
Lord Bach said: I am very pleased to confirm what we said more than a year ago that full payments will begin in February. I hope this announcement will provide some reassurance to the farming industry.
The Rural Payments Agency will now press ahead to definitively establish entitlements on February 14th. Farmers will be informed of their individual details within two weeks of that date.
Farmers know nothing is certain in life but that sort of announcement gave a "reasonable expectation" of what was going to happen - and it hasn't - I'm still waiting for my entitlements statement and there is no sign of the cash either. I kept my side of the bargain, the Governement hasn't kept its side, and its failure is going to cost not just farmers dear but also the taxpayer.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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May 3, 2006
You are not from around here, are you?
BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Freedom group slams scanner plan
The head of the UK pressure group, The Freedom Association, has criticised plans to introduce finger scanning in Yeovil pubs and clubs.
The move is "the insidious low-level start of general population movement control", said Michael Plumbe.
Biometric scanners were installed in a number of venues in the town recently, with drinkers asked to register and provide a photograph and a finger scan.
Well I won't be going there then, bastards. Of course it is a bit like that in Pewsey, but there they want all twelve fingerprints before they will let you in as a local...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:10 AM
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Keeping it in the family
Prescott's office to deal with inquiry into his love affair - Britain - Times Online
Peter Housden, the permanent secretary in Mr Prescott's department, will also question the Deputy Prime Minister over the claims that Ms Temple was regularly chauffeur-driven from their sexual assignations in government cars. ..
Oh it is one of those full and frank investigations! I hope the ex-teacher Peter Housden has some guts - of course he is still without a gong, but I'm sure that will be rectified soon.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 AM
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Enough is enough
Engulfed by scandal and fighting to save his job, the ... prime minister made an emotional outburst in parliament yesterday, portraying himself as the victim of a "shameful" smear campaign.
I learnt the inky trade back in the days of lead type and the fiddle of assemblying them with tweezers. There were some sentences that you knew you would use again and they were "left in the set" to be reused. I have a feeling this story about the Frog PM is one of them...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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May 2, 2006
A "dirty old man" on who to vote for.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:44 AM
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One to contribute to
Iain Dale's Diary: The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze
You can help!
Posted by The Englishman at 9:37 AM
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None of the above
Labour fears poll disaster after week of scandals - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
It seems a pity we haven't got any elections down in these parts this week - but at least it saves me from having to decide between choosing a lesser evil, ignoring them all, spoiling my paper or dripping the old hypergolic Aerozine 50 into the box.
If you are voting this week how the hell do you choose?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:15 AM
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May 1, 2006
Dave Roberts, the head of UK Border Control Operations for the Immigration Service
Tim Worstall: Your Tax Money at Work points us to an article Martin Kelly: The Great Foreign Criminals Fiasco, Continued: Striking One For the Blogosphere which highlights some very strange actions by Dave Roberts - including:
"While the convicts were happily vanishing, senior managers from the IND were indulging in an exercise worthy of David Brent, deluded manager of The Office. More than 20 attended a visioning workshop organised by RSM Robson Rhodes, the management consultants.
They were told to use images, words and models to make flip-chart presentations about how to improve the IND. Some drew smiley faces, one a big umbrella. Another drew a picture of some lips and a hand with the caption Saying what well do; doing what we say. If only. Dave Roberts, a senior IND official, wrote the slogan Migration is good for Britain.
Roberts, who is known as the eternal flame apparently because he never goes out, is head of the INDs removals directorate. His task is to deport people, not let them in.
So David Roberts, a civil servant who is neither unimportant nor overly important, is reported to have bullied underlings while also expressing an ideological opinion that might directly conflict with the task with which he has been charged and for which he presumably volunteered."
The flipcharts are online and here is his page for your contemplation:
I wonder what he meant by "Withholding information"?
Posted by The Englishman at 9:54 PM
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Happy May Day
The working class
Can kiss my arse
I've got the foreman's job at last
I'm out of work
And on the dole
You can stuff the Red Flag
Up your hole.
't Was on a Gibraltar's rock, so fair
I saw a maiden lying there
And as she lay in sweet repose
A puff of wind blew up her clothes
A sailor who was passing by
Tipped his hat and winked his eye
And then he saw to his despair
She had the Red Flag flying there.
To the tune of the White Cockade, an old Jacobite song, but more well known to the tune of 'Tannenbaum'.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:01 AM
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April 30, 2006
Go and enjoy the newspapers over breakfast - it's good news week!
The week from hell for the new Labour project - Sunday Times - Times Online
TONY BLAIRS government is sleazy and incompetent and on its last legs, much as John Majors government was in the mid-1990s, according to a YouGov poll for The Sunday Times today.
And when you have digested the full range of stories about the sleaze-balls then this final item showing up the pathetic incompetence of boring bandwagon-jumping talentless twats is the cherry on the top!
Telegraph | News | How Coldplay's green hopes died in the arid soil of India
Posted by The Englishman at 8:13 AM
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April 29, 2006
Ducking the question
House of Commons Hansard Debates for 26 Apr 2006 (pt 3)
Mr. Robert N. Wareing (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab): When the Prime Minister hears about British soldiers losing their lives in Iraq, he usually - in fact, always, and correctly- makes a statement from the Dispatch Box expressing sympathy. Today, in Committee Room 16 at 12.30 there will be members of the families of those who have lost their lives in Iraq. Will the Prime Minister spare five or 10 minutes to meet them?
The Prime Minister: For the reasons that I have given on many occasions, I yield to nobody in my support and admiration for the work that the soldiers do in Iraq. It is also important, however, from my perspective and also from the perspective of those who are serving out in Iraq, that they know that we are fully behind the work that they are doing there. They are there with a United Nations resolution and the full support of the Iraqi Government. I believe that at this moment it is important that they know that they are doing a job that is right and worth while, and is absolutely necessary for this country's security.
So that will be a No then Prime Minister, will it? You snivelling little bit of dog turd, forget the rights and wrongs of the war, if you haven't got the guts to face the families of the soldiers you sent to be killed then you are a fucking low-life cheap-rent piece of shit. If you were right to send them to war, and many believe you were, then pretend to be a fucking man, thank them and tell them that their boys didn't die in vain; they know and understand what service to the country means. But you don't, do you? Just fuck off, and quickly.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:07 AM
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April 28, 2006
What he said
Telegraph | Money | Business teaches flawed ministers how to behave
For a Government that delights in over-regulating British business, meddling where it shouldn't, this shabby bunch should take a lesson from some of our leading industrialists on how to behave when things go horribly wrong...
It's a depressing example of why the state should run as little of our lives as possible...
I can't better this demolition of the sleazeballs so i just suggest you go and read it.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:07 AM
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The right way to act.
Wrong corpse halts military funeral - World - Times Online
A FULL military funeral for the first Australian soldier killed in Iraq was called off yesterday after his widow and parents learnt that the coffin flown from Baghdad contained the body of a soldier from Bosnia.
Private Jake Kovco, 25, a sniper and member of an Australian Army infantry parachute battalion, died a week ago after his pistol was accidentally discharged, shooting him in the head while he was off duty in Baghdad.
...
The error was discovered by military officers at Melbourne airport. Brendan Nelson, the Australian Defence Minister, and the Chief of the Army flew to tell Private Kovco's widow, Shelley, and his parents what had happened. Shelley Kovco demanded to speak to John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, who was awakened in Sydney to take her call. Mr Howard said that he was angered by the incident.
A terrible mistake - but note how the Australian leaders react, they put themselves out to give what comfort they can, good for them, how unlike our own sorry bunch, with their refusal to meet families.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM
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April 26, 2006
Dave stamps his pristine Converse trainer shod little feet.
David Cameron threw down the gauntlet to Eurosceptic Tory MPs yesterday by declaring that anyone who advocated withdrawal from the European Union would not serve on his front bench.
On the eve of the launch of a pressure group promoting withdrawal, the Tory leader effectively warned backbenchers not to get involved if they valued their careers.
Philip Davies, the Eurosceptic Tory MP for Shipley, will host the launch of the Better Off Out campaign, to which nearly 50 of his party colleagues and two Labour MPs have been invited.
Mr Cameron also unveiled plans to transform the party by ensuring that a tenth of candidates in winnable seats were from ethnic minorities. Addressing parliamentary journalists at Westminster, he made no apologies for setting up a secret group to promote the selection of women by announcing that the new "priority list" of top-quality candidates would have more women than men on it.
There you have it - a firm policy at last from Dave, wrong but at least he seems to have made his mind up about something at last.
But then I also noticed his speech in Norway
"The Norwegian and British people share many characteristics.
A sturdy sense of independence.
An identification with the sea.
A sensible and practical approach to life.
And a distrust of the EU - no sorry, I'm off message again..
"So I want us to get positive about climate change.
Sometimes, it feels as if rational debate on the subject is sandwiched between two extreme and negative views.
The sceptical views of some economists amount, albeit unwittingly, to a suicide note for the planet.
I know all that adding up and actually thinking about rational choices and resource allocation is jolly hard and not the sort of stuff a modern Tory needs to understand...
"To those who say that nothing serious is happening to our climate, I say look at the evidence from where I've just been."
Oh dear - he is now a bloody scientific expert based on on his day trip out...
We are witnessing more and more unusual and unpredictable weather events.
According to the international insurance firm Munich Re, before 1987 there was just one weather event worldwide that caused an insured loss of over $1 billion. Since 1987, there have been 46.
And being a house owner benefiting from the rise in property prices you can't think of any other factor in the rise in insurance claims?
Scientists are fiercely independent people. But on this subject they agree.
..
They agree not just on the fact of global warming, but on the need for urgent action.
Whoops - not all of them...
It's become fashionable in certain circles to dismiss the Kyoto agreement. That's a mistake.
Really? I'm struggling to remember anyone who isn't a raving Moonbat or on the EU payroll who still believes Kyoto wasn't an embarrassing mistake.
My fourth principle is an enthusiastic acknowledgement of the role of markets.... Normally, I'm all for politicians keeping well out of the way of business.
Hurrah - some sense. But sorry I spoke too soon - he wants the Government to set up the market...
Above all, however, British business and consumers are crying out for government to provide clear political leadership to make green markets work.
Government, as a partner to UK business, is failing to provide the necessary regulatory and fiscal frameworks, appropriate advice, support, direction and advocacy.
Hello Planet Cameron! This is earth calling. Please return and actually listen to some real people.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM
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Irrelevant but costly
How the BBC will remake itself to persuade the young to tune in - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Mark Thompson, the Director-General, announced a radical shake-up yesterday in the delivery of all the corporation's services after saying that the BBC was increasingly seen as irrelevant by younger audiences.
Oh Lord not yet more chasing of the yoof market - it is not just the young who are finding the BBC irrelevant, some of us who are a bit older struggle to think when we actually watched a BBC program, though we do remember the licence fee every month...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM
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Your council tax at work
Telegraph | News | Council pays 2,800 to chase 10p parking fee on 'free site'
A judge was left "speechless" after being told that a council that has pursued a motorist for an unpaid 10p parking charge is now allowing everyone to park free in the same place...
Nick Newby, a former Royal Marine, has so far attended six hearings in a case that has cost the public more than 2,800.
Legal discussion lasting a full day led to the case being adjourned...
Geoff Bell, the council's chief legal officer, said that requests for information by Mr Newby, who is conducting his own defence, had cost the legal department 1,235 and the highways department 1,491. The council will consider "how best to move forward".
So the 2800 is just the cost of his FOI requests and doesn't include what Kirklees council has spent on m'learned friends so far, and barrister for a day or so isn't small change.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 AM
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April 25, 2006
The head of the herd was calling ...
Far, far away
They met one night in the silver light
On the road to Mandalay
So Charlie the Safety Elephant packed his trunk ...
BBC NEWS | Politics | Clarke insists 'I will not quit'
The home secretary says he will not resign after it emerged 1,023 foreign prisoners had been freed without being considered for deportation.
Charles Clarke said he did not know where most of the inmates, who include three murderers and nine rapists, were.
Not just evil, but also incompetent; I do hope he goes before the Blogger bash tomorrow evening as it would add to the general gaiety of the event.
Paxo faced him down with the cost of 380 million to keep foreigners in our gaols and then the sheer stupidity of forgetting to deport the scum when they get out. Maybe in their desire to criminalise everybody else in the UK they have lost the ability to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys.
...
And trundled back to the jungle
Off he went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Posted by The Englishman at 11:12 PM
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April 24, 2006
A return to traditional values?
The Times - Cameron? He's so last year
...
Mr Cameron aspires to do the same, sprinkling himself with stardust (following Clinton/Blair) and triangulating into the space between new Labour (which has become old) and old Tory (which could not be remade new).
Yet, looking at the United States today suggests that the formula of the Nineties has faded. Who are the most popular politicians in America? Senator John McCain (particularly) and Rudolph Giuliani. They are offering themselves not on the basis of glitz and glamour, style or sophisticated triangulation, but as men of established weight who talk straight to the voters, not act as an echo chamber for short-term sentiment.
The new, new politics in the US is old-fashioned in nature. And beneath the headline numbers, British pollsters are detecting a similar rejection of the razzmatazz and realpolitik of the Clinton-Blair era and a desire to rediscover solemn, mature leadership without the make-up.
Maybe, just maybe those of us who have resisted the call of shallow popularism as the sole reason for political parties will be proved to have the longer staying power. Real politicians presenting real, tough, choices is much more appealling than the daytime sofa-jumping, glottal stopping, regular guy crassness we have now.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:29 AM
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A Tory speaks out
Via http://www.eureferendum.blogspot.com/
The Observer | Comment | An open letter to the Conservative leader
....
In no order of awfulness, this government has emasculated the House of Commons by the permanent use of guillotines. On the whim of the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellorship has been neutered, removing a voice of law from the cabinet.
Those instances are on the parliamentary front, but what the government has done to the liberty of the subject is far worse. Note that I say liberty of the subject, not the rights of the citizen. That is because liberties are boundless unless circumscribed by law and rights are, by their nature, circumscribed.
It has repealed the law on double jeopardy. With Asbos, it has sent to prison some of the young on hearsay evidence for things that are not even criminal. It has created a centralised register held by the government on all citizens and proposes to force them to have ID cards. It has formed a police force with unprecedented powers of arrest - the Serious Organised Crime Agency - over which the Home Secretary has authority no predecessor has previously enjoyed.
Through its control orders, it has introduced a system of deprivation of liberty without trial on the say-so of the executive. It has passed the Civil Contingencies Act that allows a minister to override any statute after the calling of a state of emergency and now there is the Regulatory Reform Bill, which has been described as 'the abolition of parliament bill' and against which our party did not even vote at second reading. This gives gauleiter-like powers to ministers which we are blandly told will not be used.
The government has allowed the retention by the police of DNA details of thousands of innocents and it has given us section 81 (6) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claims) Act 2004 which amends the Nationality, Immigration and Asylums Act 2002, creating a single-tier appeals procedure which Lord Steyn, in a recent lecture, described as, in effect, ousting the jurisdiction of ordinary courts. The government has introduced anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers that are constantly being misused, such as when the elderly Walter Wolfgang was ejected from the Labour conference.
This list is by no means comprehensive. What surprises, worries and depresses me is the apparent relative quietude on the part of the Conservative party on these issues. I repeat - it did not vote against the Regulatory Reform Bill on second reading. It has not remembered the great Edward Gibbon's comment on Augustus Caesar's Rome: 'The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.'
It was dozy on the Civil Contingencies Act until the excellent Peta Buscombe in our house took it up; this from the party which, since the restoration of Charles II, has been so jealous of our constitution. Have we a guilty secret? Remember Burke saying: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' Why are we not shouting from the hustings that we will return to the people their ancient liberties?
Why, Mr Cameron, is the Conservative party passing by on the other side while our old liberties fall among thieves?
Yours sincerely, Onslow
The Earl of Onslow is one of the 92 hereditary peers and takes the Conservative whip.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 AM
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April 21, 2006
Feckless Blogger
Tim Worstall: has "something in The Times.
Apologies, they did insist that I dropped the death penalty for Mr. Clarke, the feck, the fuck and the fucking.
Shame!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM
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The price of a silk purse
BBC NEWS | Politics | Labour defends Cherie's hair bill
The Labour Party has defended reports Cherie Blair left it with a 7,700 bill for a personal hair stylist at the last general election.
May I suggest that prudence and good houskeeping suggest that their money would have been better spent here
Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 AM
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A modest proposal
Iain Dale's Diary
People are fed up with the homogenisation of our High Streets. The challenge for the Conservatives is to decide what can be done about it.
May I be so bold as to suggest "Nothing" - micro managing the economy and intrusive planning are not what being a Tory is about - leave it to the bloody market to sort out and let people get on with their lives in peace.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM
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The Moral Right
BBC NEWS | Politics | Cameron proposes new carbon tax
"Mr Cameron's Norway trip is a photo opportunity"
UPDATE via EU Ref
I will never vote for a leader who makes an ethical spectacle of himself - Mick Hume - Comment - Times Online
"And there should surely be a moral right to reach for your gun any time a politician tries to play the ethical card."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:27 AM
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April 19, 2006
"Cut the fat"
BBC NEWS | Politics | Falconer grilled in funding probe
The Charlie Falconer Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine - Non-stick and wipes clean!
Posted by The Englishman at 12:57 PM
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Compensation Culture
BBC NEWS | UK | Crime appeal pay-outs to be cut
Plans to reduce the compensation paid to those wrongly convicted of crimes are to be announced.
Those who win their appeals at the first attempt will get no compensation. Others who have spent years in prison will see any pay-outs capped.
If the plans went ahead, people who appealed within the time limit set by the court would no longer be entitled to any compensation if they won.
Instead it would be regarded as the legal process taking its course.
This would rule out damages being awarded to someone like Angela Cannings, who was wrongly convicted of killing two of her sons.
She served 20 months in prison for murder before her convictions were overturned on her first appeal.
Her solicitor Bill Bache told BBC News the proposals did not recognise the impact of miscarriages of justice on people's lives.
"In the case of people who have had their lives quite needlessly ruined, why should they not be regarded just as much as victims as people who have been mugged in the street or something of that kind?
"Simply because the perpetrator of the injustice against one group of people is the state as opposed to say a criminal in the street or something of that kind, why should there be a distinction between those two?"
Of course if you are a poor homeless blind man you deserve 18,000 compensation if you have to leave your job, and you get to keep all the perks (tax-free) and you get your job back in a few months anyway - but have your life ruined with the most grotesque smear and incompetent expert imaginable and endure a spell in prison as a "child-killer" well that is just tough luck.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:13 AM
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A book for bedtime
I note Gordon Brown's son is approaching three years old, I wonder if his father reads bednight stories to him, and if he includes this classic:
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles ~Beatrix Potter
.....
Ginger and Pickles gave unlimited credit.
Now the meaning of "credit" is this--when a customer buys a bar of soap, instead of the customer pulling out a purse and paying for it--she says she will pay another time.
And Pickles makes a low bow and says, "With pleasure, madam," and it is written down in a book.
The customers come again and again, and buy quantities, in spite of being afraid of Ginger and Pickles.
But there is no money in what is called the "till."....
....
When it came to Jan. 1st there was still no money, and Pickles was unable to buy a dog licence.
"It is very unpleasant, I am afraid of the police," said Pickles.
....
Ginger and Pickles retired into the back parlour.
They did accounts. They added up sums and sums, and sums.
"Samuel Whiskers has run up a bill as long as his tail; he has had an ounce and three-quarters of snuff since October."
"What is seven pounds of butter at 1/3, and a stick of sealing wax and four matches?"
....
After a time they heard a noise in the shop, as if something had been pushed in at the door. They came out of the back parlour. There was an envelope lying on the counter, and a policeman writing in a note-book!
"Do you think that he has gone to fetch a real live policeman? I am afraid it is a summons," said Pickles.
"No," replied Ginger, who had opened the envelope, "it is the rates and taxes, 19 11 3/4 ."
"This is the last straw," said Pickles, "let us close the shop."
They put up the shutters, and left.
...
Do you think I ought to send him a copy just in case? It is such an important book for youngsters to understand, I'm sure there is a generation of politicians who missed out on it.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM
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April 18, 2006
We can make a rainbow..
Times Online - Vote blue, go green, Cameron urges
He will help distribute recycling boxes to residents in Brentwood, Essex, before launching a document setting out his environmental agenda under the slogan "vote blue, go green".
How appropriate - distribute the rubbish bins before the leaflet, now that is joined-up thinking and will ensure the smooth passage of the drivel straight from his hands into the most appropriate container...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:11 AM
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Tarzan nearly gets it right
Heseltine urges Tories to stop bashing public sector workers - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Lord Heseltine spelled out the dangers of alienating one in five workers and a vast chunk of the electorate. Too many Conservatives talk about the public sector as though it is a bloated, badly run, inefficient, impost on the taxpayers back, he said.
Guilty M'Lord. But I don't blame the workers who take Gordon's shilling, it is the only sane game in town. The trick for the Tories is to promise a rosy future outside of the Turkey Army after it has been trimmed to size.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:05 AM
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April 14, 2006
British bloggers defeat Tony?
Critics force climbdown on Bill for a 'British dictatorship' - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
THE Government has backed down over the so-called "dictatorship Bill", which would have allowed ministers to bypass parliamentary scrutiny.
This comes after trenchant criticism from a cross-party group of MPs, peers and senior lawyers, including six Cambridge law professors, who gave warning in a letter to The Times that it would allow the Government to rewrite almost any Act.
The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, which the Government said would help to cut red tape, also provoked a grassroots revolt when nearly 2,000 people signed up to a Save Parliament campaign.
Jim Murphy, the Cabinet Office Minister responsible for the Bill, has now indicated that he will amend the legislation to make clear "beyond doubt" that it will be used only to tackle red tape, known as better regulation.
As noted before the campaign started after : ""Daniel Finkelstein of The Times, and a couple more " journalists wrote about this bill - Daniel Finkelstein was alerted to it by Tim Worstall so kudos to him and the rest of the British Bloggers who kick started the campaign and kept the pressure on.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:13 AM
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April 13, 2006
The gang's all here
BBC NEWS
The Conservative front bench
I don't know about you but if this is the bunch that is meant to impress me consider me underwhelmed so far. With the total lack of opposition and the inability to hit the rotten barn door of a target that the present government presents what hope is there?
Tony is down and isolated, Gordon is wobbly as it unravels and he tries to charm, a skill he doesn't possess, the Labour party in infighting, Europe is a mess, the English question has started to be asked, nd what are the Tories doing? Flying off to see glaciers and enjoying reviewing policies - if they didn't know what they believed what the hell are they doing getting elected.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:48 AM
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April 12, 2006
Fly Tony !
Blair used royal jet for family holidays - Britain - Times Online
..it emerged that he had spent more than 130,000 of taxpayers' money on a string of family holidays.
In the first detailed breakdown of government air travel, it was revealed that the Prime Minister uses the royal flight up to 60 times a year and regularly commandeers it to fly him to and from his Sedgefield, Co Durham, constituency. He also uses it to go to Labour Party conferences. About half the flights were domestic, ranging from Birmingham to Devon and Scotland.
Sometimes I wish Santa had given me the Rapier Missile set I asked for - I really have been a very good boy....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:43 AM
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Needing Beauty Sleep
Minister pursues green brief as queen of the Royal Flight - Britain - Times Online
MARGARET BECKETT, the Cabinet minister responsible for the environment, is one of the most enthusiastic users of the Queen's Flight, regularly summoning its aircraft to collect her from her local airport.
Mrs Beckett, whose department is responsible for reducing carbon emissions and air travel across government, has cost the taxpayer more than 100,000 on 110 flights in three years. Her department has not offset the carbon emissions from the flights.
Other than ministers with an overseas brief and Tony Blair, Mrs Beckett cost the taxpayer more in flights than any other minister.
She has made repeated public statements about the environmental dangers of air travel....
Opposition MPs are furious that RAF aircraft have been ordered to collect the Environment Secretary from her Derby South constituency, so that she does not have to travel to Northolt, where the Royal Flight is based.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Beckett said that the minister was often unable to travel the 100 miles because meetings in Brussels were held too early.
If she bloody got up a bit earlier she could get there - or she could take her sodding caravan and park it up in Brussels. Getting the RAF to fly to pick you up because you want to stay in your bed, unbelievable - I suppose she has no qualms about getting the whole team to wake up early just for her! The woman is bloody disgrace.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:39 AM
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April 11, 2006
400 Not out
Flags waived - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
The Union Jack is 400 years old tomorrow, but 17th-century documents have revealed that Britain could have been saluting a different flag. A manuscript in the National Library of Scotland, drawn up by the commander of Queen Elizabeth's fleet who defeated the Spanish Armada, shows that at least six designs were considered. The Earl of Nottingham, trying to represent the union of England and Scotland, created the designs, above, in 1604. He chose the Union Jack, noting: "This is like man and wife without blemish one to the other."
It seems that the man and wife are heading for a divorce - I doubt the union flag will be flying so much for its 500th birthday.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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April 10, 2006
No mention of the elephant in the room
For goodness' sake don't mention Europe: it doesn't fit our new image - Comment - Times Online
Mr Cameron then decided, having done his bit to give the UKIP the publicity it badly needed, that he would be wise to shut up. He did not refer at all to Europe in his leader's speech in Manchester on Saturday. This omission, however, made his speech sound strangely lopsided, since most of his main themes had a European aspect that he did not mention.
Identity cards arise from European policies, as does the regionalisation to which he is so strongly opposed, while the environment is largely a European competence. Even if he did not wish to discuss the European integration, he should have recognised the European limitations on British policymaking. More than half of all our legislation now comes from Europe. Parliament is the rubber stamp for Brussels.
Yesterday Oliver Letwin further stirred these troubled waters. On the BBC Sunday AM programme, Andrew Marr asked him why there had been no reference to Europe in the leader's speech. Mr Letwin replied that the speech had concentrated on "mainline issues", clearly implying that Europe is not one. If Europe is not a mainline issue, what is?
No doubt the real motive for avoiding discussion of all European policy is that Europe does not fit the desired image of Mr Cameron's party. Euroscepticism could be as embarrassing as a striped polyester bow-tie at a Notting Hill party. To some people, the mention of Europe sounds obsessive or old-fashioned. But Conservative Party policy, while it needs a favourable image, cannot merely be a fashion statement. Europe matters because in wide areas Brussels makes the laws for Britain. Mr Cameron understands that perfectly well. Any policy without a European element is only half a policy, if that.