August 16, 2011

Read The Bill - Ask Your MP

Would it be unreasonable to ask your MP to promise to only vote on Bills she or he has read and understood? And if they refuse to so promise push them on why not?

I commend the idea to you all.

Posted by The Englishman at 3:46 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 4, 2008

The Triumph of Statism

Revenge of the Left across the world - Telegraph
It is not just that the Democrats will win a crushing victory in both houses of Congress, perhaps reaching the 60-seat Senate threshold that lets them steam-roll legislation. It is also that the incoming class of 2008 is of a new creed. Many no longer believe – or actively reject – the free trade and free market catechisms....will they deliver an electoral drubbing so thorough that it signals the utter rejection of conservative ideology and kills the notion that America is a 'center-right' country?

No matter that statist policies were responsible for this global crisis in the first place....But at this point I have given up hoping that we will draw the right conclusions from this crisis. The universal verdict is that capitalism has run amok.

...To those who still think that business can go on as normal now that EU taxpayers have had to rescue the financial system, I can only say: what will happen to London if EU exchange controls are imposed, or if leverage is restricted by draconian laws – as demanded by the German, Dutch, and Nordic Left?

Does the UK still have a blocking minority under EU voting rules to stop a blitz of directives that could shut down half the activities of the City – or the 'Casino' as they say in Brussels? I doubt it.

Who thinks that the three key Commission posts – single market, competition, and trade – will still be held by free marketeers when the new team comes in next year?

In Germany, Oskar Lafontaine's Linke party now has 23pc support in Saarland on a Marxist pledge to nationalize banks and utilities.

"Laissez-faire, c'est fini," said President Nicolas Sarkozy. "We will intervene massively whenever a strategic enterprise needs our money."

Such language can now be heard daily across Europe...

And just when there was a glimmer of hope that the poisonous doctrine was on its last legs, it all looks very bleak, and it may take thirty years to be destroyed again and for us to be free to enjoy prosperity.

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September 24, 2008

Conference Trimmings

Labour needs a wand to make Gordon Brown disappear | Alice Miles - Times Online
Oh that was painful. Agony. It was squirmingly, screamingly, startlingly bad. It was dull. It was plodding. It was morose....delegates lapped it up. This is Labour at its worst, introverted, dogmatic, and huddled around a loser.

It was “an excellent conference speech”, said David Blunkett afterwards - “it'll need a bit of assessment as to how much it reaches the public outside”. Nicely put.

Yes, we need a new settlement, with an exit door for Gordon Brown. He has to go and he will. In the strange otherworld that has passed for a conference this week - “taking tea on the Titanic”, as one minister put it - that much is absolutely clear. Mr Brown is a good, decent man but he cannot lead Labour to the next election

Sometimes I give thanks for MSM journalists as it is only they who are paid to, the deluded who want to and the bizarre who choose to, who actually listened to the ramblings from the conference platform. I had better things to do, and thank you, yes my toenails are now nicely trimmed.

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December 5, 2007

Danny is Practically Right

We're too busy to run the country | Daniel Finkelstein - Times Online

You see, I intend to put forward a truly plonking point. The only thing to be said in its favour is that it is right, important and not one you hear that often. And that, my friends, will have to do.

My prosaic point concerns smaller government. Despite 30 years of concerted effort, the Right hasn't got very far arguing for smaller government. Well, it occurs to me that perhaps the Right hasn't been making the best case. ....

The conclusion .... is unmistakable....the individuals at the top of government haven't the time to do all the things they are trying to do.

This is not an argument that will excite philosophers or make a good bumper sticker. But it might make sense to the practical British voter. Government ministers shouldn't have a reach greater than their grasp. They shouldn't seek to do more than they have hours in the day to do properly. That's my case. Plinkety plonk.

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August 18, 2007

For what avail?

IN the 1940s, George Raymond Walden, a British farmer, aged 65, was shot and killed by British police officers who were supporting members of the War Agricultural Committee in dispossessing him of his lawful property at Itchen Stoke in Hampshire

During both the First and Second World Wars the need to produce as much food as possible was paramount. In an attempt to increase food production, County War Agricultural Executive committees were set up to supervise agricultural production in their local areas. In practice the "War Ags" were the local arm of national government, especially in the over-seeing of the ploughing up land and the achievement of production targets.

The farmers were evicted - often without warning - under the Defence of the Realm Act, by the all-powerful County War Agricultural Executive Committees (the 'War Ags').

By 1946 more than 1,800 farms in England and Wales were still held by the 'War Ags'. Astonishingly, farmers were graded A, B or C by other locals and those graded C might in some cases be evicted.

Professor Brian Short (CCS), : "Families were made to feel like pariahs in their communities, although some War Ags took their roles more seriously than others." In one notorious 1940 case, a Hampshire farmer was shot dead by police for refusing to leave his life-long family farm.

"The case of George Walden was most incredible," said Brian. "When he refused to leave, police dropped gas bombs down his chimney. But he had his gas mask and refused to move. In the end they came back armed. The coroner's report described it as 'justifiable homicide'."

While it could be claimed that with wartime food-shortage emergencies, the 'War Ags' were basically successful in their aim to ensure continuity of food supplies, the social cost - arising from the sometimes callous treatment of farmers - is still felt today.

In 1952 A G Street wrote a novel "Shameful Harvest". This is the best study of how petty local bureaucrats for the best of reasons end up acting like the Gestapo and how sometimes the honourable thing to do is fight them.

This is an update of a post from a couple of years ago - I have now found the inquest report, reproduced below. It tells the full story of the clash between an Englishman in his Castle and the government taking our freedom and liberties in the name of defending them. How resonant that sounds today.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail

The Itchen Stoke Shooting Tragedy
George Raymond WALDEN

Verdict of Justifiable Homicide
From the Hampshire Chronicle archives 1940, with kind permission.

The adjourned inquest was held on Tuesday afternoon at the Guildhall, Winchester, on the death of George Raymond Walden, the 65 year old farmer of Borough Farm, Itchen Stoke, who died on Tuesday week following a siege of his farm by police officers. Mr Walden, who was a bachelor and had lived all his life at Borough Farm (which his father had farmed before him) had resisted the attempts to evict him from his home after his failure to comply with the cultivation directions of the Hampshire County War Agricultural Executive. The inquest was conducted by Mr Theo E Brown (Winchester City Coroner) sitting with a jury. There were also present Mr R Knox (Deputy Chief Constable of the County), Mr W G Stratton (Head Constable of Winchester), Mr C G Hickson (Deputy Clerk to the County Council, representing the police), Mr D C M Scott (representing the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Hampshire County War Agricultural Executive), Mr S A Pettifer (representing Sir Anthony Tichborne – the landlord – and Messrs James Harris and Son agents for the Tichborne Estate), Mr R R Geech (representing members of the deceased’s family), Supt Fielder, and others, Police constable Draper, who was shot during the incidents at Borough Farm, attended the court on a stretcher.

William Roland Meads, 82 High Street, Winchester, Cultivation Officer for the County War Agricultural Executive Committee – the Committee responsible for carrying out the Defence General Regulations under powers delegated by the Ministry of Agriculture, said that after due consideration, the Committee made a Cultivation Order in respect of property owned by Mr Walden – an order dated April 17th, 1940. The order directed the ploughing, summer fallowing, and preparing for cropping in 1941 of two areas amounting to approximately four acres. That order was not complied with. The matter was further considered in connection with both the landlord and the tenant and an order for taking possession on July 20th was issued. That was nothing to do with the landlord, but the action of the County War Agricultural Committee under authority from the Ministry of Agriculture.

John Reginald Morton, the Carfax Hotel, Winchester, Assistant County Land Officer, employed by the Hampshire County War Agricultural Committee, said he prepared a schedule of Borough Farm, in support of the application to the Ministry. He corroborated that notice to terminate the tenancy on June 20th was served on the deceased. On June 24th, Mrs Roskilly, the sister of Mr Walden, came to see him and he gave her some friendly advice, the following day and explained the position fully to him. He was not successful in persuading Mr Walden what the real position was. Notice of intention to take possession on July 20th was then served upon him. Arrangements were made with the Chief Constable of the County that two constables should be present at Borough Farm at 11.20 am on July 22nd to see that there was no breach of the peace. He was instructed to carry out the taking possession, and when he got there the police were already there. He tried the doors and found them locked. They found it necessary to break open the back door and the inner door. As they went though the inner door one of the two policemen with him call out to him, saying that Walden was inside with a gun and advising him to go outside. He went out and Walden re-fastened the outer door.

Police constable Draper, stationed at Ropley, said that at 11.30 am on July 22nd he went, on instructions, with Police constable Cripps to Borough Farm. He saw Walden standing at the back of the farmyard. Cripps went first and said “Good morning, Mr Walden, I want to speak to you” Walden said “No!” and something else which he could not catch. Walden then closed the door and bolted it top and bottom. Cripps shouted to him but there was no reply. The position was explained to Mr Morton (who had arrived) and then he and Police constable Cripps got through the back door into the scullery. They went on through the door into the kitchen (which was fastened on the inside) and Cripps then said “Look out. Here he comes with a gun.” Neither he nor Cripps had any firearms with them then, so they withdrew out to the yard. Cripps went off to inform the Police Superintendent, while he remained to watch Walden’s movements. At about 12.50 he was standing at the entrance to the cow pen yard when he heard the back door open. He stepped behind a board fence and he peeped over. He saw Walden about 12-15 yards away, so he said “Well, what are you going to do now?” Walden raised the gun and fired with one barrel of a double barrelled gun. He was struck in both legs and one arm. Walden said nothing to him at all then or at any time. A roadman and field workers came to his assistance. There were 15 pellets in the left leg, two in the right leg, and two in the left arm. He was taken home and later to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

Police constable Cripps, stationed at Preston Candover, said he was with Police constable Draper on July 22nd. He corroborated what Police constable Draper had said about the occurrences that day. He said that when he was in the kitchen he saw Walden creeping down the stairs with a gun. He went off to inform the Superintendent, while Draper remained. On his return he heard that Draper had been shot. In the afternoon he tried to get Walden to come out, but without success. He went away and returned about midnight with other officers under Inspector Hatcher. He and other constables threw four tear gas canisters into the house; they then heard movements and he and another office stood by the side of the door to arrest Walden as he came out. The door opened a little and Walden fired twice through the partly opened door without hitting anyone. Then a third shot was fired, presumably from another gun as he had not had time to reload. The door was shut again and barricaded from the inside.

A half an hour later they forced the house and at the foot of the stairs they found an empty civilian gas respirator case. The witness said he lifted the latch of the door at the bottom of the stairs but heard a movement on the stairs. He withdrew quickly and just got out of the way when another shot rang out. Later he went across the farmyard towards the front door and he was shot at again, this time receiving some of the shots in his right arm, right leg and chin, and Inspector Hatcher, who was with him was also slightly wounded in the left hand. He remained on duty outside the premises until 7 am the next morning, keeping out of sight of the house. Then he left and when he returned Walden was being carried out of the house suffering from severe injuries.

Inspector Hatcher, of the Hants Constabulary, stationed at Basingstoke, said he saw Draper after he had been shot at his home at Ropley. The same afternoon police officers were stationed all round Borough Farm. His intention was to arrest Walden on a charge of attempting to murder Police constable Draper. Tear gas canisters were thrown into the farm with the intention of making him come out and from this point on he corroborated Cripps evidence. Later additional police officers were brought to the farm and the house was surrounded. Shortly before 7 am both the outer doors of the house were forced and wedged open. Walden fired at the officers then.

Sgt Longman together with three constables entered the scullery by the back door and Sgt Longman called to Walden to surrender assuring him that no harm would befall him. Walden did not comply and said “You are going to kill me or I am going to kill you; I am not going to give in” The scullery door was forced and he heard several more shots fired the last in fairly close succession. He went in by the front door and found Walden lying on the floor of the kitchen in a kind of sitting posture and with a severe wound on the right side of his head. By his right was a double barrelled gun, which he did not have hold of but which was pointing towards his head. He searched the premises, and found, in addition to the double barrelled 12 bore gun by the side of Walden, a single barrelled 4.10 gun and a certain amount of ammunition for both guns, some of which had been fired. He gave evidence also of the shot marks which were on the walls of the premises, and said that there was no mark anywhere of any shots in the ceiling. Both the guns used by the police and Walden’s double barrelled gun were firing No. 6 cartridges.

Police sergeant Longman, stationed at Basingstoke, spoke of the final attack upon the house. He entered the scullery with three constables, and found that the door to the kitchen was secured. He forced the door open and saw the barrel of a gun pointing towards him from the stairs. He pushed the door to, and shots were fired. He called out to Walden, and said “Put your gun down and surrender.” Walden replied “I am going to kill you like you are going to kill me; I am not going to give in.” He said “Don’t be a silly man, put up your gun and come out.” Walden, however, fired and taking a gun which one of the constables gave him he fired back twice towards the stairs. He called out again to Walden telling him to come out, but Walden only fired in reply. One of these shots struck him in the neck, so he gave the gun to Police constable Cole, who also called on Walden to surrender and later fired. Hearing a groan he went into the kitchen and at that moment Inspector Hatcher came in at the front door with other constables.

Police constable Cole corroborated Sergeant Longman’s statement up to the time when the latter was hit by a shot and he took the gun. He then said to Walden “Come out and put that gun down.” And Walden replied “No, I am not coming out; I am going to shoot.” He looked out of the door and saw Walden standing on the stairs pointing the gun directly at him. He could see what looked like this elbow and he fired at that. Walden’s gun was then withdrawn and after a short time he heard a groan. He then went into the kitchen with Sergeant Longman and found Walden in the position that Inspector Hatcher had described.

Dr Charles Hall Wrigley, Pathologist to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, said that the deceased man died on the same day as that on which he was admitted to Hospital suffering from gun-shot wounds. He made a post-mortem examination, and found a gun-shot wound on one side of the head; there were 30 pellets there in a circle about 4 inches in diameter. One pellet went through the right eye and it was that one pellet which caused his death. There were no signs of scorching or powder marks. Death was due to injury to the brain, following gunshot wounds.

Howard Albert Davies, 6 Southgate Street, Winchester, a gunsmith, said that there were approximately 280 pellets in a No. 6 12 bore cartridge. He said that if such a cartridge had been fired at the head of a man from 2 ft range, there would certainly be some scorching. Moreover, if a man had fired it at himself from such a range there would be a total wound of the head; he did not think there would be much of the head left. At such a distance also one would find not also the pellets but the wad.

Summing up the case, the Coroner said that it had aroused some notoriety but when one came to boil it down there was really very little in it. Going shortly over the facts, he said that this man, George Raymond Walden had been ordered by the County War Agricultural Committee in the execution of their duty, to do certain acts upon his farm. A good many attempts were made to induce him to carry out what had been ordered; but he disregarded the order; in fact he flouted it, and he did not attempt in any shape or form to do what he had been ordered to do. In consequence, the War Agricultural Committee had applied to the Ministry of Agriculture, and they had been authorised to take a certain course, which was they if they failed to get their orders carried out they were to evict Walden from the farm. That eviction, as the evidence had showed, had nothing whatever to do with the landlord, Sir Anthony Tichborne, or his agents. That was the position of July 22nd. Eviction at all times was a somewhat difficult process of law, and the War Agricultural Committee, in their wisdom, made application to the Chief Constable of Hampshire for two police officers to accompany their representative to see that there was no breach of the peace. That was a very proper and very ordinary proceeding, and the two officers – Police constable Draper and Police constable Cripps – together with Mr Morton, went to the house, and made a peaceable approach to take possession of the land. He pointed out the significance of the answer given by one of them to his question to the effect that they were not armed at the time. One of these officers remained behind while the other officer went to report that Walden was armed. Then, without warning Walden shot at the constable who was left in what we could only describe as a murderous manner.

Reinforcements were obtained, and without going into the whole of the story, entrance was ultimately obtained to the house. But before that and after it and practically continuously until 7 o’clock the following morning, this man was shooting at every officer who appeared, and as a result he wounded four. They had all seen that afternoon the poor fellow who while standing there unarmed, had been fired at and badly wounded by the man who refused to carry out a lawful, command. After that the position was entirely changed. It passed from what he might call a civil proceeding to a criminal act. Walden, without any justification whatever, had fired at Police constable Draper and wounded him. The subsequent events which took place were done in the attempt to arrest Walden. If he had not been killed in this unfortunate affair he would undoubtedly have had to stand his trial on a charge of attempted murder. They Walden died of a gun shot no one would have any doubt whatever. In his humble opinion too, the evidence had entirely disposed of any suggestion that he committed suicide. The evidence, he thought, showed beyond all doubt that it was a shot from one of the policemen which caused the injury from which Walden died. If they came to that conclusion, he thought the proper verdict for them to return was that this man died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a police office in the proper execution of his duty, and was therefore justifiable homicide.

The law with regard to justifiable homicide in circumstances like these was they where a police officer was resisted in the legal execution of his duty he might repel force by force and if in so doing, without disproportionate violence, he killed the party resisting him, that was justifiable homicide. An officer was not bound to withdraw, but could stand his ground and attack a party who was attacking him – for who would submit quietly to arrest if, where resistance was offered, the police were bounds to retire. An officer in the course of the legal execution of his duty was entitled to the protection of the law and there was no doubt that they were carrying out their legal duties on this occasion. They were met by force – by murderous force – and they were entitled to repel it with force. He had no hesitation whatever in directing them in this case that, so far as the police were concerned, it was a case of justifiable homicide.

After a short retirement, the foreman of the jury announced that they found that Walden died of gunshot wounds inflicted by the police in self defence and in the execution of their duty. Their verdict therefore was one of justifiable homicide. On behalf of the jury the foreman expressed their sympathy with Police constable Draper and wished him a speedy recovery.

The same expression was made by Mr Geech on behalf of the relatives, and sympathy with the relatives was expressed by Mr Pettifer on behalf of his clients, mentioning that this unfortunate affair closed an association lasting many years. Mr Scott, on behalf of the County War Agriculture Committee, also expressed his regrets at the occurrence.

Transcribed from a report in the Hampshire Chronicle dated Saturday, 3rd August 1940

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December 21, 2006

Keeping Gordon's hands off the money

Sisters Pact Over House (from The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Sisters Joy and Sybil Burden have a pact that whoever lives the longest will set fire to their Ogbourne home to prevent Chancellor Gordon Brown getting any inheritance tax.

Last week the spinster sisters appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to be treated the same as lesbian and gay couples.

Same sex couples are treated the same as married couples and are exempt from having to pay inheritance tax if one of them dies.

However the exception does not extend to siblings and the Misses Burden have been fighting for more than 30 years to get the law changed.
...

The sisters said they had never taken a penny from the state and all they were asking for was to be treated the same as married couples or same sex couples.

Joy Burden said: "Over the years we have come to understand more and more how corrupt this country has begun."

Their father Frank was a Methodist preacher besides being a farmer and he instilled in his sons and daughters a sense of justice and value.

The elder sister said: "If one of us dies then we have vowed that the other one will burn the house down rather than let Gordon Brown get his hands on this money.

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He's making a list, he's checkin' it twice

Telegraph | News | Detectives seek more interviews in cash for honours investigation

Scotland Yard detectives investigating the cash for honours allegations yesterday stepped up their demands for documents and information from key figures in the inquiry.

Letters were sent out inviting them to be re-interviewed after Christmas as part of the inquiry led by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates.

The intensification of the inquiry came as Tony Blair returned to Britain after a tour of the Middle East that has kept him out of the country for almost a week since he became the first serving prime minister to be interviewed by police as part of a criminal investigation.

There were signs yesterday of growing tensions within Mr Blair's inner circle, with reports that Lord Levy, the Prime Minister's chief fundraiser, and Jonathan Powell, the No 10 chief of staff, were increasingly at odds.

Mr Powell is said to be "furious" over reports that he is to be re-interviewed by police under caution and is being viewed by police along with Lord Levy as one of main figures they are focusing on in the final weeks of their inquiry.

You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry
You'd better not pout, I'm telling you why
Yates of the Yard is coming to town
Yates of the Yard is coming to town
Yates of the Yard is coming to town

He's making a list, he's checkin' it twice
He's gonna find out whose naughty or nice
Yates of the Yard is coming to town
Yates of the Yard is coming to town
Yates of the Yard is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows if you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
(so you'd) better be good for goodness sake
Better be good for goodness sake

Yo Ho Ho Happy Christmas everyone!

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Labour's Not Working

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online

New Deal not working for youths
Anthony Browne, Chief Political Correspondent
The unemployment rate has risen to 14.5 per cent among young people, overtaking the 14.4 Labour inherited from the Tory Government

'Labour costs are too high if I employ Brits'
Lucy Alexander
Companies are finding themselves under increasing pressure to hire Poles because their cheaper labour rates enable his firm to remain competitive

Any connection between these two adjacent stories?

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December 20, 2006

Rawhide Prescott's New Title

Prescott spends £645 to spell out who's boss
John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, has spent £645 updating the sign on the front of his office. To ensure that visitors don’t get confused, the old sign, “Office of the Deputy Prime Mininster”, has been replaced by one saying “Deputy Prime Minister’s Office”.

Despite losing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Prescott has stayed in his actual physical office, at the palatial old Admiralty building in Whitehall. He no longer has thousands of officials working for him but still has 18 staff and a budget of £2 million a year in a new unit called the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, which has struggled to fight off accusations that it is pointless. Mr Prescott and his staff also spent £726 on new business cards.

If only they had asked - I would have resigned his office for free, I would have even bought a new aerosol can to spray paint the word across it - only four letters it would fit on easily....

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December 18, 2006

"It's the cover-up that brought him down"

The Times has this snippet hidden away...

Downing Street aides and Labour officials involved in the cash-for-honours inquiry are being investigated on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, The Times has learnt.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has advised detectives to look into suspected attempts to hamper the nine-month investigation. Some e-mails and documents have yet to be handed over to the police while others have apparently “disappeared”. Some individuals are suspected of colluding over evidence.

The disclosure shows that the investigation has widened to include a suspected cover-up by those around the Prime Minister. Until now, it has centred on the £14 million in secret loans made to the Labour Party by millionaire supporters.

A prosecution source said: “There is more than a suspicion that evidence has not been handed over, people have colluded and the police are not being helped.

“It has been noted that when the Watergate scandal forced President Nixon to resign, it was the cover-up, not the burglary, that brought him down. What these people should remember is that they are not dealing with a parliamentary inquiry; this is a criminal investigation and anyone failing to co-operate is participating in a criminal offence.”

A bit of good news for a Monday morning. That sounds like a copper getting a bit narked at the slimy suits and their condescending attitude. All over by Christmas? I don't think so. I think the flat feet will walking round No.10 again in the very near future. Oh Happy Days!

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December 17, 2006

Tis with Sharpers as ‘tis with Pikes

Telegraph | News | Blair refuses to back Levy in Labour's cash for honours scandal

A Wolf that had a mind to take his ease, stor’d himself privately with Provisions, and so kept close a-while. Why, how now Friend, says a Fox to him, we han’t seen you abroad at the Chase this many a Day! Why truly, says the Wolf, I have gotten an Indisposition that keeps me much at home, and I hope I shall have your Prayers for my Recovery. The Fox had a fetch in’t, and when he saw it would not fadge; away goes he presently to a Shepherd, and tells him where he might surprize a Wolf, if he had a mind to’t. The Shepherd follow’d his Directions, and destroy’d him. The Fox immediately, as his next Heir, repairs to his Cell, and takes Possession of his Stores; but he had little Joy of the Purchase, for in a very short time, the same Shepherd did as much for the Fox, as he had done before for the Wolf.
THE MORAL. ‘Tis with Sharpers as ‘tis with Pikes, they prey upon their own kind; and ‘tis a pleasant Scene enough, when Thieves fall out among themselves, to see the cutting of one Diamond with another.

Aesop's Fables: A WOLF AND A FOX trans . Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)

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December 16, 2006

Let Him Have It - Brown

Telegraph | News | Brown denies all knowledge of loans affair

Brown had a difficult upbringing during which he suffered serious injury from a V1 flying bomb and developed epilepsy. He was of limited intelligence (mental age of 11), easily influenced, and unable to read or write. Together with Tony Blair, aged 16, he broke into a warehouse in Croydon, Surrey, England on 2 November 1952. Tony had a revolver. The two youths were spotted climbing a drain pipe to the roof and the police were called.

When the police arrived, the two boys hid behind a lift-housing. Detective Constable Frederick Fairfax climbed the drain pipe onto the roof and managed to grab Brown. Brown managed to break free and was said by a number of police witnesses to have shouted "Let him have it, Tony". Tony opened fire with his revolver, grazing Fairfax's shoulder; nevertheless Fairfax managed to arrest Brown, who told him that Tony had a Colt .45 and plenty of ammunition. The weapon was in fact a Colt in .455 Eley calibre, for which Tony had a variety of undersized rounds, some of which he had had to modify to fit the gun. The weapon had also had more than half of its barrel sawn off by Tony, so that it would fit in his pocket.

Following the arrival of more policemen, a group was sent onto the roof. The first to reach the roof was Police Constable Sidney Miles, who was immediately killed by a shot to the head. After exhausting his ammunition, Tony jumped some ten metres from the roof, fracturing his spine and left wrist, at which point he was arrested.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/

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December 13, 2006

Slashing the troops' allowance

Telegraph | News | MPs "misled over troop payments"

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, was accused of misleading Parliament last night after he told MPs that plans to scrap allowances for troops who spend long periods away from home would "not take one penny away from anybody".

Mr Browne came under fire after a leaked Ministry of Defence document, seen by The Daily Telegraph, revealed he had been told a week before his statement in the Commons that there would be "losers" under the reforms.

It is a pity that "Des" won't be a bloody loser under this regime, I'm not the sort of person who recommends barrack room justice but just sometimes.....

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December 12, 2006

A Curate's Egg for Cameron

David Cameron faces fresh unease from the Conservative Right after a new poll showing a fall in the party’s rating to its lowest level since April.

The Populus poll for The Times, taken over the weekend, suggests that the main shift has been from the Tories to the UK Independence Party.

Support for the Tories has been level since the summer at 36 per cent, but has fallen by two points over the past month. Labour is unchanged on 33 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats down a point at 19 per cent. ....

...the UKIP on 2 per cent. While the numbers of voters here are very small, the drift away from the main parties is potentially significant.

The poll follows defections to UKIP by some prominent Tory activitists (sic) and rumblings of discontent on the Right about Mr Cameron’s leadership over his views on green policies, tax and Europe. A recent survey by the ConservativeHome website found that, next to their own party, 43 per cent of Tory members felt closest to UKIP.

Nevertheless, the poll shows that the Tories under Mr Cameron would still enjoy a big lead over Labour led by Gordon Brown at the next general election, of 39 to 32 per cent. This compares with a 38 to 34 per cent gap last month.

Dave's problem is that it the activists with fire in their bellies who he will need to drive the party machine to get the votes out - wishy-washy support won't pound the streets on a wet Wednesday - and the activists are either leaving or abstaining. The Tories should be like Shane Warne bowling against our Gentleman's Village Side with this shower in power, not scraping along. End of Michaelmas Term Report - "Could do better".

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December 11, 2006

Labour's Schooling Failure

No school, no work and little hope for 1.24m young Britons
The number of young people doing nothing with their lives has risen sharply since Labour came to power, government figures reveal.

There are now 1.24 million people aged between 15 and 24 who are neither in education, work or in a training scheme — a 15 per cent increase on 1997. The rise has been particuarly rapid for 16 to 17-year-olds and men, both up by almost a third.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, are an embarrassment for the Government, which has spent billions of pounds helping disadvantaged young people to stay on at school, train and get a job.

Both Labour and Conservatives yesterday placed the blame for social breakdown at the door of errant fathers....

David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, who uncovered the figures, said: “It shows an extraordinary failure of government policy. Even if you put in large amounts of money, if you haven’t got the basic policies right, you won’t get the results. For kids from the most deprived backgrounds, things are getting worse.”...

The study suggests that the rise in young people doing nothing is caused by failures in the school system, in vocational qualifications, and in the flagship New Deal for young people, launched with much fanfare just after Labour was elected.

This failed generation have spent nearly their whole education under a Labour Government, blaming the feckless fathers is to suggest human nature has changed, it hasn't. Everyone responds to the incentives, punishments, example and regime set for the country and it has been a failure.

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December 8, 2006

Nicholas Stern - wrong before

Were 364 Economists All Wrong?

In March 1981, 364 economists agreed to write to The Times arguing strongly against the then government's monetary and fiscal policy. However, the Thatcher government decided to ignore these voices and continue the pursuit of policies to defeat inflation and restore fiscal responsibility. To the opponents of the 364, this decision marked a turning point in British post-war economic history: every other post-war government had capitulated and returned to policies of reflation and direct control of prices and incomes in the face of intense political pressures when the going was tough. The 1981 Budget, which precipitated the letter, was also a turning point in other respects: from 1981 there was continual growth, falling inflation and eventually, employment growth. Arguably, the 1981 Budget set the scene for today's benign macro-economic outlook and political consensus in favour of stable prices and fiscal prudence.

Amongst the 364 were many economists who play a very prominent part in public life today...

Amongst those signatories, who were wrong and should have been cast into the wilderness for their wrongness was one Nicholas Stern - .

No wonder Gordon couldn't see eye to eye with him... Stern Quits

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December 7, 2006

There may be trouble ahead...But while there's .... Let's face the music and dance..

Factory output fall raises fears over shrinking demand - Industry sectors - Times Online

The sharpest drop in industrial production for a year has ignited fears that manufacturing is starting to suffer from the unravelling of global demand.
The production industries contracted by 0.8 per cent in October, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed, the worst such figure in 12 months...
Manufacturing, which makes up the bulk of the production sector, also suffered a drop of 0.4 per cent, defying expectations of a rise...
Industrial data can be volatile from month to month, but the ONS figures for the three-month trend growth of output were also weak, with overall production falling by 0.2 per cent, the weakest figure since last December. The statistics did not bode well for the ability of Britain’s exporters to compete against a weak dollar, especially as world growth is set to slow next year, analysts said. ...
Gordon Brown was bullish about the manufacturing sector in his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) yesterday. He forecast that industrial output would rise by about 2 per cent in each of the coming three years

"He would say that, wouldn't he?" The Mandy Rice Davies rule applies....

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No More Mr Prudent

Bloomberg.com: Europe

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, the favorite to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair, may have to increase borrowing by 18 billion pounds ($35.6 billion) over the next three years to pay for higher U.K. government spending.
...
``He will stand up in Parliament and tell everyone that growth is strong, although that hasn't prevented the public finances from deteriorating,'' said John Butler, chief European Economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in London. ``Since 2002, he has borrowed 100 billion pounds more than he said he would. He is leaving as his inheritance a deficit that is structural rather than cyclical.''

Economic growth at the fastest pace in two years last quarter wasn't enough to narrow the deficit. ...

In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, spending gained 7 percent, outpacing a 6.5 percent increase in revenue. The deficit was 22.9 billion pounds, compared with 20.6 billion pounds in the year-earlier period.

The U.K. has moved more slowly than other European countries toward reducing its deficit since 2003, when its budget gap soared above the EU's limit to 3.3 percent.

Britain's budget deficit will touch 2.8 percent of gross domestic product next year, compared with 2.6 percent in France, 1.6 percent in Germany and 2.4 percent in the U.S

``Under Gordon Brown the national mortgage is now bigger than out national income if we add up all the real liabilities of government,'' said George Osborne, who shadows Brown in Parliament for the Conservative Party. ``Britons will be making repayments on Brown's mortgage for years to come.''

He just can't help spending it faster than it comes in, even with a booming economy the debt keeps rising. And that is without all the off balance sheet debts such as PFI and Railtrack...
Prudence - my arse!

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It's all about the money

Telegraph | News | What made Mr Brown turn into Mr Green

He knows that David Cameron has promised to make the environment a tenet of his first year in office and knows that he will lose votes if he doesn't try to keep up. Now the polls show increasing exasperation that our politicians are doing so little about tackling global warming, Mr Brown also thinks he can get away with raising taxes.

It is all about another way to tax us - I think Brown is canny enough to know whilst Tesco Mum will bleat about wanting to go green she doesn't actually want to pay through the nose for her essential people carrier or short breaks to Tuscany, so unlike The Boy he is being canny about how much he says he is going to squeeze us.

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December 6, 2006

One to watch on Pre Budget Statement Day

Iain Dale's Diary: has the video of the day.....

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Sound Policy

Telegraph | Comment | Brown knows he will have to cut taxes
By Denis MacShane

When Gordon Brown rises to deliver his last Pre-Budget Statement today, will we discover something new and important about Britain's next prime minister? That he will be the next PM is no longer remotely in doubt. A few years ago the tea-room was full of muttering about Brown, but after the anger over the comic-opera September putsch, most Labour MPs are now discussing a Brown administration as a given.

The Pre-Budget Statement will offer further evidence of Brown's determination to carry on the reinvention of his beloved Labour Party, to make it fit for purpose for a long period in power. To achieve that end, he has caught the Tories bathing and is walking away with many of their clothes – above all, an admiration of Friedmanite market economics, a muscular pro-Americanism with no quarter given in the war against terror, and a willingness to breach the high walls of state administration to allow the energies of the private sector to roam freely.

The 19th-century political observer John Wilson Croker wrote of early Victorian politics: "There are two great antagonistic principles at the root of all government – stability and experiment. The former is Tory, and the latter Whig." Today it is Brown and Labour who are the party of stability. It is David Cameron's Whigs who have captured the Conservative Party and turned it into a laboratory of political experiment.
.....
Instead of sniping at Brown, David Cameron and George Osborne should learn from him. They appear to believe the spin that New Labour was about spin and are obsessing on image instead of proper thought-out policy. Britain is enjoying the benefit of sound Conservative economic theory, but it is Labour putting this into practice and delivering a huge increase in social justice at the same time.

Perhaps Cameron is right that there is a majority for a high-tax, big-government Conservative Party embracing the causers of crime rather than its victims, and planting windmills on every roof while simultaneously cutting links with Europe and distancing Britain from America.

Brown can afford to leave the Notting Hill Tory Whigs to their experimental politics. The Chancellor has discovered that a healthy dose of stable conservative financial management is the best way to deliver Labour values. When he is prime minister, Britain should expect more of the same.
# Denis MacShane is Labour MP for Rotherham

Nurse - the tablets! For once I'm in total agreement with MacShane, I hope Tory Central Office also read and note it.

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Nice work if you can get it

Telegraph | News | Jowell faces inquiry over lottery 'cronyism'

Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, was facing an official inquiry into allegations of cronyism last night after she packed a key lottery quango with Labour supporters.

Whitehall's official appointments watchdog was called in after it emerged that five of the 12 members of the Big Lottery Fund, which hands out ｣600 million a year, are members of the Labour Party.

The five include former Labour council leaders and active party members. However, none of the other parties are represented on the Fund....

The five Labour appointees are: Sir Clive Booth, 63, a Labour supporter who will earn £36,000 a year as chairman of the Big Lottery Fund; Sanjay Dighe, 49, the former Labour deputy leader of Harrow council, who will be paid £24,000 a year to chair the Fund in England; John Gartside, 61, the former Labour leader of Warrington council, though Labour claim he is no longer an active party member; Roland Doven, 45, a former Labour councillor and the surgery clerk for Keith Hill, MP, Tony Blair's parliamentary private secretary; and Albert Tucker, a Labour member and a director of a fair trade company.

Mr Gartside, Mr Doven and Mr Tucker will all be eligible to claim £208 for each day they work for the Fund.....

A Department for Culture spokesman last night rejected the criticism. "Appointments are made on merit and the needs of the BLF Board. Political activity plays no part in the selection process."

Only the tip of the iceberg of how "our friends" are rewarded...

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December 5, 2006

Lawson on the "fraudulant" Stern Report

From http://www.18doughtystreet.com/

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December 4, 2006

It's Monday Morning - Go Back To Bed

Labour 'has raised taxes by £9,000' - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Gordon Brown has increased taxes by nearly £9,000 per household since he came to power, according to a report out today. The money is being used, among other things, to pay for 27,000 tax inspectors.

The study, by a former World Bank and United Nations economist, says that taxpayers are paying twice as much council tax and income tax as they did in 1997, business taxes have risen almost as much and a welter of stealth taxes have been introduced.

In other news "a poll of economists carried out by the Taxpayers’ Alliance shows that they believe Brown’s tax and spending policies have damaged the economy. The survey, of 16 economists who contribute to the Treasury’s monthly compilation of independent forecasts, shows that 100% think higher public spending has damaged Britain’s long-run performance, 79% think higher taxes have had a similar effect and 71% say Britain’s corporate tax regime is no longer internationally competitive."

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Pensioners Being Screwed Again

Telegraph | News | Revealed: the real rate of inflation

The cost of living for many British households is up to four times the Government's published rate of inflation, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Millions of families are experiencing inflation far beyond the official rate of 2.4 per cent, new research suggests.

The Government was last night accused of neglecting hard-up families as the research shatters the illusion that the Consumer Price Index - used by the Bank of England to set interest rates - represents the true cost of living as experienced by many households.

Pensioners are the hardest hit, with inflation rates of almost nine per cent, as record gas and electricity bills take a massive slice out of their budgets.....

Hard-up families, getting by on £20,000 a year, saw their costs increase by 4.6 per cent — almost twice the national average and well above the annual rate of wage increases, 3.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the increasingly large number of young Britons living at home with their parents — and not paying mortgages or bills — experienced deflation of 2.1 per cent, since many of the items they spend their money on, such as clothes and electrical goods, are falling in price.

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Some Pensioners Doing Very Well

Telegraph | Money | Great Britain: a tale of two pension plans

MPs and mandarins can retire with saving plans the rest of us can only dream about, reports Faith Archer

Meagre improvements to state pensions for women in this week's Pensions Bill highlighted the gulf between the "gold-plated" pensions enjoyed by MPs and the public, experts said.

After 30 years of contributions, a backbench MP on £60,277 a year can look forward to retiring at age 60 on a final-salary pension of almost £39,000 a year, according to calculations by actuaries Watson Wyatt.
A person making the same contributions to a private pension could generate less than a fifth of the MP's risk-free returns, at £7,160 a year.

If they worked for a generous employer that topped up their 10 per cent money-purchase pension scheme contributions with a further 15 per cent, they could expect a pension of £18,000 a year.

To fund the same pension benefits as an MP, an individual would need to save a staggering £1.25m.....

While the Pensions Bill will raise the state pension retirement age to 68 by 2046, MPs and public sector employees can still retire at 60.

The Bill also announced that cash-strapped pensioners could endure another nine years of the state pension falling behind average earnings, in the same week that the Government confirmed that Paul Gray, the acting chairman of HM Revenue & Customs, is entitled to a pension pot of £1.7m.

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December 3, 2006

Christopher Booker's Censored Column

EU Referendum reveals that the Telegraph's love affair with David "Dave" Cameron is got to all that yucky tongue sharing stage and so the one essential read Christopher Booker's column has been "censored" - but it also supplies us with the copy -

As David Cameron ends his first year as leader of the Opposition, there are clear signs that the greatest gamble in modern British politics has not come off. The little group of ex-public schoolboys who last year hi-jacked the Conservative Party have seemed to gamble on just one strategy. List everything the Party used to stand for – low taxes, the family, rolling back the power of the state, encouraging business, upholding our defences, curbing criminals, common sense – then go for the opposite.

The essence of the gamble has been the belief that, in wooing the support of Lib Dems, would-be greenies, Guardian readers and the supposed "soft centre", they could take their supposed "core" supporters for granted. But as support for Cameron falters, all the evidence seems to suggest that those wished-for new recruits to his "Not The Conservative Party" are not forthcoming, while the Party's former natural supporters are left baffled, dismayed and increasingly angry.

All this was neatly symbolised by the recent photo-opportunities staged by the three men now competing for the role of Britain's prime minister. Mr Blair and Mr Brown, aware that defence and national security (not long ago rating 34 percent on a Mori poll) still rank very much higher as voter priorities than "environmental" issues (only 8 percent), flew out to the Iraq and Afghan battle-zones to pose in front of the largest guns they could find. Mr Cameron, at the same time, flew out to the Sudan, in Lord Ashcroft's CO2 emitting private jet, to be pictured cuddling a little refugee child. It was the "Men from Mars" against "the Boy from Venus". "Darfur Dave" did not come well out of the contrast.

The tragedy is that, confronted by the most corrupt, hypocritical, inefficient, illiberal, discredited government in history, what millions of voters are looking for is an alternative which might put an end to the sleazy, self-regarding sham of the Blair era by displaying some "masculine" firmness: in cutting back on the bloated public sector and the out-of-control bureaucracy which is destroying our health service, education and police; which might encourage enterprise; which might restore democracy to local government; bring back some balance into our public finances; sort out the shambles into which our Armed Forces are sliding; uphold Britain's national interest, as we suffocate under the malfunctioning system of government represented by the European Union.

In other words, what much of the country is crying out for is a party which represents precisely those values which Mr Cameron's Not-The-Conservative Party seems so hellbent on abandoning. As for what he stands for instead, almost the only clear message Darfur Dave seems to have put over to the voters is his sentimental "save the planet" greenery, on which his dotty little gimmicks and practical ignorance have simply made him a laughing stock.

What many voters sadly begin to conclude is that Dave and his cronies seem so hopelessly ill-equipped to take on the serious business of government that, if we have to choose between one gang of PR merchants and another, better stick with the devil we know. Hence the evidence of the latest polls appearing to show that the gamble has failed. Ever larger become the number of would-be Conservatives sorely tempted to join that 40 percent who already feel so alienated from politics that they just stay sullenly at home. But the Guardian readers are scarcely flocking to replace them. So where does all this leave our country?

"Much of this is based on material previously published on the EU Referendum blog, which sends the additional message. What is fit for the blogosphere is not suitable for the MSM, which has it own agenda. Our readers already know this, but pity the poor saps who rely for the MSM for their information and are naïve enough to believe what they are told.

Anyone who wishes to publish the missing column on their own blog - with due acknowledgements to Booker - is welcome."

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Our Friends Up North

Anti-enterprise Scotland go it alone? What a hoot - Sunday Times - Times Online

One recent calculation estimates that just 163,000 Scottish taxpayers, from a population of 5m, make any net contribution to the British exchequer. The rest receive more than they pay out in reliefs, subsidies and benefits.

The cynical view is that Scotland has remained part of the union only for the reason it joined in the first place: money. Scotland, according to unionists, is massively subsidised by the English taxpayer. Public spending, £1,503 per Scot above the English average, is financed by hardworking families in the home counties. Alone, Scotland would stagger into economic depression and collapse....

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The Scottish Reivers ride out raiding again

Scots won't have to pay £10-a-day road tolls | News | This is London

Motorists in England are facing punitive congestion charges of up to £10 a day but north of the border it's a different story.

Scotland will be exempt from Labour's new laws to be introduced in cities throughout England, a move which has infuriated English MPs.
...

The Government Bill backed by Transport Minister Douglas Alexander - who is also Secretary of State for Scotland - is to be published in the New Year.

It will lead to a string of schemes modelled on London's £8 congestion charge but in cities where public transport is far less well developed.

The move comes amid growing debate about the so-called West Lothian Question, the constitutional quirk which means Scottish MPs can vote on English laws while the English have only a limited say on what happens north of the border.

Veteran backbencher Andrew MacKinlay said that he was fed up with Scottish Ministers imposing levies on Middle England which their own constituents did not pay.

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November 30, 2006

Hello to all my fans - including that bald Sweaty at the Home Office

Guy Fawkes' blog reveals that the Home Office says:

We have 12 librarians that monitor blogs on a daily seven day week basis. These come in as feeds, the tools make the job easier, they cannot replace the skills of the professionals. Fundamental information professional skills of knowing your audience really comes to light. In just over a year it has become a key part of our department service, the benefits include a public enquiries unit that we can alert to media campaigns that are Home Office issues.

Twelve of them working like submariners hot-bunking it in the bowels of the Home Office to listen to the sound and fury of us bloggers, well I hope we help to get the message across and it is money well spent....

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November 29, 2006

Blair and the Democracy Deficit

Iain Dale's Diary: Blair Says the English Want Their Own Parliament

Mr Blair acknowledged that if people in England were asked if they wanted a Parliament like Scotland's they would overwhelmingly agree. But he added: "I think to then take it a step further and say, 'Actually we want to bust up the UK'... no, I don't think people want to bust up the UK."

So the PM agrees that the people of England want a Parliament. In 1997 he said it was what the people of Scotland wanted and so he granted them a referendum. Why won't he grant the same courtesy to the English?

Quite - basically he doesn't trust the English with democracy...

In other news:

Tony Blair is not Hitler: official | The Register

An advert showing a close-up picture of Tony Blair with a barcode on his top lip was not offensive, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.

NO2ID said the photograph of Tony Blair was expertly retouched to make it look like a 1930s portrait and the layout was designed to recall the Nazi era.

They said the photograph did not portray Tony Blair as Hitler but was intended to be a comparison of Tony Blair with Hitler based on policy, not personality.

NO2ID asserted that the ad contained an implicit claim that identity cards were useful to the implementation of Nazi policies across Europe; they argued that that was beyond doubt. They asserted that identity cards themselves had been used to control populations in occupied Europe and were very closely associated with the process of sorting victims for the concentration camps.

They said the ad was intended to be insulting to Tony Blair but argued that insulting a politician was unlikely to offend.

Indeed.

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November 26, 2006

Walls have ears....

POLICE and councils are considering monitoring conversations in the street using high-powered microphones attached to CCTV cameras, write Steven Swinford and Nicola Smith.

The microphones can detect conversations 100 yards away and record aggressive exchanges before they become violent.

The devices are used at 300 sites in Holland and police, councils and transport officials in London have shown an interest in installing them before the 2012 Olympics.

The interest in the equipment comes amid growing concern that Britain is becoming a “surveillance society”. It was recently highlighted that there are more than 4.2m CCTV cameras, with the average person being filmed more than 300 times a day. The addition of microphones would take surveillance into uncharted territory.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has warned that a full public debate over the microphones’ impact on privacy will be needed before they can be introduced.

They won't need a high powered microphone to hear my response!

FUCK OFF!

Who was it who said that the novel 1984 was meant to be a warning not a bloody instruction manual?

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November 24, 2006

Pretty Polly Cameron

Telegraph | News | Cameron's caring image comes unstuck

David Cameron faced a fierce Right-wing reaction yesterday after attempts to give the Conservatives a more caring image ran into trouble.

The Tory leader will today commit his party to following a new approach to tackling poverty endorsed by Polly Toynbee, the Left-wing commentator......

But the row over suggestions this week that the new approach amounted to "ditching" the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill are likely to overshadow the speech.

In a leaked report from the Tories' current wide-ranging policy review, Greg Clark, MP for Tunbridge Wells, advised Mr Cameron that Churchill's view that the welfare state should be no more than a safety net was "out of date". Instead, Mr Clark said the modern party should embrace Miss Toynbee's "imagery" that the state had a far wider duty to make sure that the gap between rich and poor did not become too great.

I suppose I should rant against this stupidity, but frankly I'm too hung-over, tired and bored with Mr Potato Head to bother...

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November 23, 2006

Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees

The lives of paratroopers were put in danger after the Ministry of Defence sent defective ammunition to Afghanistan, it can be revealed.

The situation became so serious that a platoon from the 3Bn The Parachute Regiment refused to go out on patrol until the problem was resolved. The troops had to borrow ammunition off Canadian and American special forces as they battled to fight off Taliban attacks.

The MoD, which yesterday unveiled plans for British troops to make a quicker-than-expected withdrawal from the front line in Iraq, has been unable to explain why defective ammunition for the .50 calibre Browning heavy machinegun was sent to Afghanistan.

It is thought that the batch was from either Pakistan or the Czech Republic, where a round costs 60 US cents. The price for British, Canadian or American ammunition is $1.50. With many thousands of rounds fired, using cheaper ammunition would have saved thousands of pounds.

A shocking demonstration of the poor quality rounds is shown on a video posted by a paratrooper on the YouTube website. It shows two soldiers in a sandbagged position struggling to operate the machinegun, which can also be mounted on Land Rovers.

One is shown constantly re-cocking the weapon as his colleague seeks to feed through the ammunition belt. At one point, the Para, who becomes exhausted with the strain of constantly pulling the cocking handle, drops the gun and swears in frustration. All the time incoming enemy fire can be heard.

Video Here

I think I will discuss this story with Kim du Toit later today over a few beers - after I have removed all the valuable crockery! Come the glorious day someone should pay for this.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

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November 22, 2006

All your kids are belong to us - The Verdict

Telegraph | News | Child database 'will ruin family privacy'

# Information Commissioner report

Parents will be devalued and family privacy shattered by the mass surveillance of all 12 million children in England and Wales, says a report today commissioned by Parliament's Information Commissioner.

In what is likely to be a major embarrassment to Tony Blair, it says proposals for a £224 million database containing details of every child will waste millions of pounds, undermine parental authority and actually put children in more danger.

Not just us "shrill" bloggers who are against it then!

Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 20, 2006

Harrods - Bastards

Harrods bans soldiers on Poppy Day | the Daily Mail

A serving Army officer was banned from entering Harrods on Remembrance Day in case his uniform upset other shoppers.
Lieutenant Daniel Lenherr had just taken part in a parade honouring Britain's war dead when the London department store turned him away at the door. ...

The store has stood by their dress policy, saying: "There is a long-standing tradition at Harrods that would normally preclude customers who are wearing non-civilian attire from entering the store.

"A lot of people assume that somebody in uniform is either there on official duty, which could cause them alarm, or they assume they're a member of staff and ask them where the lavatories are and so on."

Yet another reason not to use the old Knightsbridge corner shop - I don't think they felt the same in the days when Whatshisname was still flogging cheap jewellery to tourists in Cairo - for instance back on 17th Dec 1983 when three members of the public and three police officers were killed by an IRA bomb as they worked to clear the store...

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November 19, 2006

IPPR stinks

Telegraph | News | Call for new 'green tax' on disposable goods

Shoppers should pay new "green" taxes on disposable and hard-to-recycle goods, according to a report by an influential think-tank.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claims the move would help reduce Britain's 300 million tonne annual waste mountain. It could raise around £1.3 billion a year if levies similar to those already imposed in EU countries were introduced in Britain.

The Green Alliance, which wrote the report for the IPPR,..

So it is not by the IPPR at all, who pretend to actually do a bit of research and thinking - it is just a publicity puff by a pressure group that the IPPR have put a rubber stamp on - no wonder Guy Fawkes says:
The "IPPR gets funded by vested interests to create and influence legislation. It stinks."

Posted by The Englishman at 7:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 18, 2006

The 1970s catch up with Local Councils

BBC NEWS | UK | Councils want help for equal pay

Local councils have called on the government to help them finance equal pay for women, which is costing £3bn.

The LGE added that the cost of employee back-pay and the demand of income tax and national insurance on all payments could see the eventual bill reach £5bn...

"The largely unexpected scale of this problem means it is simply unrealistic to avoid providing local authorities with appropriate tools to manage this issue and ensure women feel the benefit of equal pay.

Oh another demand from Local Councils for more money. Quelle Surprise! But what a strange reason! Can you imagine the sympathy a firm would get if complained that it had been cocking up implementing equal pay and could the taxman see himself able to help out a bit.
You can hear the sneer in the response to the Councils from the Treasury ....

"But a Treasury spokesperson said it was up to local councils to deal with equal pay measures in an affordable manner....He added: "Employers have been required to pay male and female workers equally since equal pay legislation came into force in 1975. Equal pay is not a new pressure."

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November 17, 2006

House Prices in the South of England

Probably the most boring subject that ever arises whenever two or more are gathered together in the name of mortgage payers is property values.

In the south of England they are rising at a ridiculous rate. Which is good news for those of us who bought our houses some time ago.

But what fuels the continuing rise? An increasing demand.

The root cause is that it is is an artificial market rigged by the planners - without their say-so nothing gets built. Their signature can add millions to the value of a plot of land, but let us leave that there.

But what causes the increasing demand?

Immigration into the country is often blamed - the Optimum Population Trust: say that "Figures released by the Office for National Statistics on 2 November 2006 reveal population growth of more than 300,000 for the second successive year."
(This figure balances inward and outward migration - see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=950 for more details.)
This would mean an extra 130434 houses are needed if they lived at 2.3 per house.

But is that the main culprit?

In 1971 http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.more.ukpoptable.html gives the population as 55.928 million - who lived at 2.91 people per household ( http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/GHS04/GHS04_3Househ
oldsfamiliesandpeople.xls which gives 19,219,244 houses.
In 2004 (latest figures I have) the population is 59.835 million, people per house is 2.30 which equals 26,015,217 houses.

If the population had stayed the same the decrease in number living per house would mean 24,316,521 houses would be needed - or an increase of about 5 million houses.

So we can see that the increased population only demands about 2 million extra houses.

And of course there is the internal migration from north to south, so not only does the south have to house all its own spreading families, "its" immigrants and its second-home buyers, it also has all those horny-handed sons of toil coming down from "up north" on their bikes looking for somewhere to live.

So in this case the blame can be pointed at our own selfish ways of kicking granny and the kids out to keep our cramped houses bearable, tolerating the failure of the north so workers have to move south and a smidgen of guilt for wanting those East Europeans in to wait our tables.

So not as simple as you thought!

Posted by The Englishman at 11:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sneering at hoi polloi

BBC NEWS | Politics | Web 'fuelling crisis in politics'

Tony Blair's outgoing chief strategy adviser fears the internet could be fuelling a "crisis" in the relationship between politicians and voters. ..

"We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government," Mr Taylor told the audience....

...rather than work out these dilemmas in partnership with their elected leaders, they were encouraged to regard all politicians as corrupt or "mendacious" by the media, which he described as "a conspiracy to maintain the population in a perpetual state of self-righteous rage".

Whether media was left wing or right wing, the message was always that "leaders are out there to shaft you".

He went on: "At a time at which we need a richer relationship between politicians and citizens than we have ever had, to confront the shared challenges we face, arguably we have a more impoverished relationship between politicians and citizens than we have ever had.

"It seems to me this is something which is worth calling a crisis."

"The internet has immense potential but we face a real problem if the main way in which that potential expresses itself is through allowing citizens to participate in a shrill discourse of demands.

"If you look at the way in which citizens are using technology and the way that is growing up, there are worrying signs that that is the case.

"What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years? It's basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are.

I'm happy to take that condescending sneer as a badge of honour. Harking back to the good old days when hoi polloi - "not yet capable of self-government" tugged their forelocks at the master's of the universe and their superior knowledge isn't much use - the world has moved on and now simple yeomen like me can do our own research into the claims of the MotU and publicise when they are talking bollocks!

Hat tip Guido

Posted by The Englishman at 4:54 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

The shades of the prison wall draw near

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: YATES LETTER FULL TEXT

Officially, No 10 refused to comment. But last night a source questioned police motives for saying that they had uncovered significant material. “We intend to maintain the high moral ground. We will leave it to others to speculate why the police are writing a letter like this at a time like this,” the source told Channel 4 News. Tony Blair is expected to be interviewed imminently.

Downing Street sources are reportedly suggesting that they believe any trial would not now be fair.
(Times)

Maybe Tony has been advised by a human rights lawyer that the old "unfair trial" plea is his only chance, and that all this leaking of material only helps that defence...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 16, 2006

Petition

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to repeal the Hunting Act 2004.
Go and add your cross...
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to repeal the Hunting Act 2004.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Council Tax Rebel

Telegraph | News | Held in a tiny cage for 10 hours, thrown into a van with screaming drug addicts, then strip-searche

A retired serviceman jailed for refusing to pay his council tax yesterday described how he was forced to sit in a tiny cage, handcuffed, for more than 10 hours....

Yesterday, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said he hoped that his sentence would raise awareness of the millions of pensioners who were suffering under "crippling" tax rises.

And he criticised a justice system that sent pensioners to jail for not paying council tax, "while letting serious criminals free".

Mr Fitzmaurice, who served 20 years in the Logistics Corps, was jailed for 32 days on Monday morning by magistrates in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, seven months after he had cancelled his council tax direct debit to West Norfolk council because of 45 per cent tax rises in the last six years.

The final straw, he said, was a controversy involving the council leader, John Dobson, who had a complaint made against him by opposition councillors that ended with council taxpayers footing a £23,000 legal bill......

He said: "I've made my point. I didn't really want to spend 32 days in prison.

"I wrote to the authorities asking if they could give me a community sentence as it would be of more use to me and others, and would cost much less money, but I was told that there was nothing in the statute that allowed that.

"It's something they should look at. It's wrong to send pensioners to jail while criminals are walking free committing all sorts of crimes. It's just not right."

But he added: "I don't think there was anyone I met who was not sympathetic to my cause and who did not treat me with respect."

Mrs Fitzmaurice celebrated the news of her husband's release with a cup of tea.

"...I'm incredibly proud of him for standing up for himself. Not many people would have done it at his age, especially as he has high blood pressure.

"But I do feel sorry for the other bloke in his cell because my husband snores so much."

And next year the tax will rise again by more than the rate of inflation or pension increase........

Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2006

The Underclass

Telegraph | News | White, poor, male and doomed to fail

White working-class boys have become the new "underclass", a report by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, warns today.
Boys from low-income white families are bottom of the heap in school performance, trailing behind every other major ethnic group...

...culture, not ethnicity or cash, is the key to educational achievement.

And the white trash have a culture of feckless drunken glorification of stupidity - how you turn that around, I have no idea.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:54 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

November 13, 2006

Fighting like rats in a barrel

No 10 'fury' over police leaks on cash for peerages

DOWNING STREET has made an informal complaint about Scotland Yard’s handling of the cash-for-peerages investigation....

Lord MacKenzie of Framwellgate, the Labour peer and former head of the Police Superintendents’ Association, warned the Prime Minister not to try to wreck the inquiry. “The common ploy by criminals is to get their retaliation in first and make a complaint against the police to divert the attention of the authorities and put the heat on the police,” he told The Mail on Sunday. “But it rarely works.

Giggle...

Posted by The Englishman at 5:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 12, 2006

Circling the Wagons in Downing Street

Telegraph | News | Yates offers ministers a way to clear their names

Police have offered Cabinet ministers the chance to rule themselves out of suspicion in the "cash for honours" investigation, piling yet more pressure on Tony Blair.

Letters sent to senior Labour figures by John Yates, the detective in charge of Scotland Yard's inquiry, have listed the 10 individuals originally nominated for peerages by Mr Blair last year....

The letters, received by Cabinet ministers about 10 days ago, ask whether they played any part in nominating any of the people on the list.

A source close to the inquiry said: "What Yates is trying to do is to ensure that no senior figure is able to take the rap for the nominations at a later stage in the inquiry, saving Tony Blair and his inner circle."...

What the police do not expect them to do is to say they helped nominate any of the four lenders.

"This in turn will put the spotlight even more strongly on to Tony Blair and his inner circle at Number 10."

Mr Blair ... is expected to be interviewed under caution, as a potential suspect, before Christmas, but it is not thought that he will be arrested.

That's the way to do it, pick off the outriders and sentries one by one, leaving the wagonmasters sweating in the middle. Leaks like this are the whooping and hollering that soften up them up.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 9, 2006

Exclusive Photo from Downing Street

Telegraph | News | Blair tries to keep out 'peerage' police

Tony Blair is determined to keep the door to No 10 closed to detectives in an attempt to limit the embarrassment of being the first serving prime minister in 70 years to be interviewed in a political corruption inquiry.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 8, 2006

Make do and mend...

The Times can also disclose that David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, is investigating ways to encourage people to take responsibility for their own energy consumption. He is considering plans to issue every Briton with a “carbon credit card”, which he predicts would be the world’s biggest loyalty card. People would use cards to buy electricity, gas and fuel to persuade them to cut emissions in their personal life.

Everyone would have a set entitlement to consume and would win cash back if they used less than their allowance. But individuals wanting to consume more than their limit would have to buy spare points off the more thrifty.

I am becoming convinced that my dear old mother in her final confused days darning socks in front of a meagre fire, and listening to the wireless in case that nice Mr Attlee came on, by the light of one small bulb is the only sort of person who can make sense of this brave new world the Boy Miliband wants us to retreat to...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 7, 2006

Timmy on Cargoes

Tim Worstall: Timmy Elsewhere
...
A rational policy would be to stop throwing rocks in our own harbours and declare unilateral free trade. True, our European partners are unlikely to go along with such a plan. But as the economist Patrick Minford has calculated, even if the EU denied its citizens the benefits of our labour through tariffs, we would still be better off by about ｣30 billion a year if we followed the logic and quit the Brussels customs union.

Please, forgive me, but there's a certain whoop, whoop, a certain pride, in actually getting that view, the truth, into the national media.

Let me join him in whooping this morning. Well done.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 6, 2006

Cargoes

THE world’s largest container ship lifted its 29-ton anchor from British waters yesterday to begin its return voyage, gathering up scrap and waste from around Europe in exchange for its cargo of Christmas goods from China.

Having unloaded 3,000 containers of consumer goods in less than 24 hours, the Emma Maersk left Felixstowe last night reloaded with crates of waste plastic, paper and steel from Britain.

Relieved of tons of su doku puzzles, cocktail shakers and toy gorillas, the vessel’s vast belly has now also been filled with more mundane British exports, such as nail varnish remover, cleaning products, cigarettes and alcohol.

Many of the 1,600 boxes picked up during its British pitstop, however, contained nothing. The exchange — which, for the ship dubbed “SS Santa”, must be the economic equivalent of a mince pie and a glass of milk — is a telling symbol of the one-sided trading relationship between the UK and Asia.

Its speedy turnaround, thanks to six cranes, 300 dock workers and a complex computerised loading system, also shows the sophistication of the container ship industry which is now relied upon to transport about three quarters of global trade. The Times

Excellent news - I hope Gordon Brown realises that this is good economic news and is why he should carry on shouting about the advantages of globalisation and free trade. (But the salty old seaman that I am wistfully remembers the old days as well...)

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

John Masefield

Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Son of Kirckaldy on the advantages of Free Trade

GORDON BROWN has called for a new global alliance of governments, business leaders and public figures to fight the reactionary “Luddites” opposed to globalisation and break the “dangerous global log jam” that is threatening world trade.

The Chancellor, writing today in The Times, challenges leaders to show the determination necessary to stop the world slipping back into a new era of protectionism, comparing it to the effort needed to rebuild the international order after the Second World War.

One very simple step he could take with relish - have quiet word with Peter Mandelson in a dark alley and then announce a new vision for the EU...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

By the left, quick march

The TimesAn influential left-wing think-tank has taken the rare step of advocating a return to some of the structures associated with public schools — including the house system and forcing young people to take part in structured and uniformed activities — to help the working class to gain personal skills for the 21st century.

The recommendations may be aired commonly in society’s more conservative wings, but they have now emerged in a far more surprising quarter. The Institute for Public Policy Research ....“The evidence shows that wearing a uniform, be it in the Scouts or for martial arts, football or sports clubs, helps.”

I'm not sure why regimenting and marching children around in uniform is seen as particularly "conservative" - I seem to recall lots of pictures from our Socialist Paradise neighbours of happy children waving red flags as they march, so why shouldn't a national socialist regime like ours be a natural home for it as well. I just hope they get Hugo Boss to design the uniforms for the Tony Jugend...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 5, 2006

Squeezed until the pips squeaked

Telegraph | News | The road to ruin: how pay as you drive could cost families £3,000 every year

It has been sold as a price worth paying to free up the roads, not to mention help save the planet, but pay as you drive could cost a typical middle class family an extra £3,000 a year.

Council tax bills set to double | This is Money

At least half of English households face huge council tax increases under a nationwide reassessment of property values by a 'Big Brother' computer.

Telegraph | News | Labour tax plan that would turn us all green

Every autumn Gordon Brown is inundated with ideas from fellow Cabinet ministers for new taxes as he prepares his annual pre-Budget report.
Last week, Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, revealed that she has asked for higher taxes on alcopops to curb binge drinking among teenagers.

David Miliband wants to target air travel, extend congestion charging across the country and encourage recycling

But the submission sent earlier this month from David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, and leaked to the Mail on Sunday, is likely to have surprised even such a committed high-tax Chancellor as Mr Brown.
Mr Miliband, who last month admitted he had been "scared" by the scientific evidence on the impact of global warming, is proposing an eye-watering menu of hard-hitting green taxes.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 4, 2006

Justice is blind

LORD GOLDSMITH, the Attorney-General and close confidant of the Prime Minister, will advise the Crown Prosecution Service on whether it should bring charges in the cash-for-peerages inquiry, according to reports last night.

The involvement of Lord Goldsmith will be hugely controversial, and the police, who have been at pains to appear neutral throughout their investigation, are doubtful whether he would be politically able to recommend bringing criminal charges that could bring down the Government.

The Attorney-General’s role in advising the Government has been under intense scrutiny after his advice on the legality of invading Iraq appeared to alter in the light of discussions with Mr Blair.

How can anyone suggest that he would not be completely impartial as to whether Tony should be dragged down to the nick or not?

Posted by The Englishman at 7:00 AM

November 3, 2006

Imagine...

Troubled teens? All they need is love, says Cameron - Britain - Times Online
After 'hug a hoodie' the Tory leader now wants people to stop calling yobs 'feral' and offer them understanding instead

I've only just realised - he's John Lennon's bastard child - which one is Dave, which one is Julian?

Of course the good news the article reveals is that British youths are maintaining the standards that saw the Boche off a couple of times and built an Empire, whilst the Kindervolk are becoming a bunch of wusses - what became of the traditions of the Heidelberg duelling scars....

Almost half (44 per cent) of 15-year-olds have been in a physical fight in the past year compared with just 28 per cent in Germany.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 2, 2006

More Big Brother

Telegraph | News | Britain: the most spied on nation in the world

A stark warning that Britain is turning into a Big Brother society, where the lives of millions are routinely monitored and tracked from cradle to grave, is given today by the Government's privacy watchdog.

Old news to us readers of blogs....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 1, 2006

Dump the Olympics

Telegraph | News | Massive blow to London Olympics

Blow? What blow? They get an old boy in to run the brickies on time and on budget and he finds he can't. Because of the politicians, for instance:

Derek Wyatt, the Labour MP who chairs the all-party Olympics committee at Westminster, agreed that building costs were likely to be far higher than original estimates.

But Mr Wyatt dismissed Mr Lemley as "out of his depth" and said it was commonplace for Olympic project costs the world over to increase.

"Original costs spell 'x' and come out as a 'y'. I think Mr Lemley was out of his depth."

That is an old Labour Councillor who just scraped into Parliament (by 74 votes on the third recount) telling the boss of an international building consultancy he is out of his depth. It might be acceptable to expect the builder's estimate for your extension to be a wild fiction, but you are a fool if you don't actually work out what the real costs are going to be first. If you expected the estimate you told the public was going to be massively wrong then you lied to them.

Original Budget:

Costs

* £560 million for new venues, including £250 million for the Olympic Stadium.
* £65 million for the Olympic village.
* £1.5 billion to run the Games.
* £200 million on security.

Revenue

* £1.5 billion from a special Olympic National Lottery game.
* £625 million from a council tax surcharge of £20 per year for London households.
* £560 million from IOC television and marketing deals.
* £450 million from sponsorship and official suppliers.
* £300 million from ticket sales.
* £250 million from the London Development Agency.
* £60 million from licensing.

The bid team believed that London could end the Games with a surplus of more than £100 million.

Present Cost estimate "£2.4 billion but that is now believed to be approaching £5 billion." And I will bet it is really going to be 10 by the time they finish.

Is it really to late to dump this debacle back on Paris?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 30, 2006

Adam Smith Scores

£20 reward for the father of free trade - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Adam Smith will have his reputation fixed as the father of modern economics as he becomes the latest historical figure to appear on the £20 note.

Smith, who died in 1790, having lived out his days as a quiet Customs official with his mother, will become the first Scotsman to appear on a Bank of England note when he replaces Edward Elgar next spring.

I know Gordon claims to be a fan of his, born in the same town etc, so he is probably behind this excellent move - all we have got to do now is to get Gordon to actually read and understand him...

Posted by The Englishman at 5:53 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 29, 2006

Consigliere Levy breaks Blair's omertá

The Times reveals:
LABOUR’S chief fundraiser has implicated Tony Blair as the key figure in the cash-for-honours scandal, a well-placed source has revealed.

Lord Levy, a close associate of the prime minister, told Scotland Yard detectives last month that he was acting on the direct orders of Blair when he secretly obtained £14m in loans from businessmen to fund the party.

He has been questioned twice in the past four months after it emerged that four businessmen who lent Labour money were also recommended by Blair for peerages. The honours were blocked by an official watchdog.

Levy’s potentially incriminating testimony could prove crucial to the decision to question Blair — the culmination of a seven-month inquiry. Police hope to interview the prime minister within the next five weeks.

A prosecution source said: “Levy told the police that everything he did was for the top man. It wasn’t for anybody else, just for Blair. That’s why the PM has to be interviewed.”

Hey, that's no way to do it - has Blair's "compare" no honour, what is he? Some kind of cheap loanshark with coglione of water? The Capo won't like it, but I've got a bottle on ice ready to be opened on the glorious day.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2006

"Show him your cross" - Arch Bish

Let people wear cross or veil, says Archbishop - Britain - Times Online

I can't hear about the public display of religious symbols without remembering this...

Two nuns, Sister Catherine and Sister Helen, are traveling through
Europe in their car. They get to Transylvania and are stopped at a
traffic light.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tiny Dracula jumps onto the hood of the
car and hisses through the windshield.

"Quick, quick!" shouts Sister Catherine. "What shall we do?"

"Turn the windshield wipers on. That will get rid of the abomination,"
says Sister Helen.

Sister Catherine switches them on, knocking Dracula about, but he
clings on and continues hissing at the nuns. "What shall I do now?"
she shouts.

"Switch on the windshield washer. I filled it up with Holy Water at
the Vatican," says Sister Helen. Sister Catherine turns on the
windshield washer.
Dracula screams as the water burns his skin, but he clings on and
continues hissing at the nuns.

"Now what?" shouts Sister Catherine.

"Show him your cross," says Sister Helen. "Now you're talking," says
Sister Catherine.

She opens the window and shouts, "Get the fuck off the car!"

Posted by The Englishman at 7:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 26, 2006

Teasing Tony

Telegraph | News | Tories taunt Blair with prospect of prison

Mike Weir, the Scottish Nationalist MP for Angus, kept up the pressure. "When he is interviewed by the Metropolitan Police, what innocent explanation will he offer for the fact that 80p in every ｣1 donated to the Labour Party came from people who were subsequently honoured?" the MP said.

Mr Blair side-stepped the question, saying he had "absolutely no intention" of debating those issues with Mr Weir.

Or put it another way Princess Toni refused to answer a question properly put to him in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Question time. I bet he was stamping his little kitten heels in rage - I am sure anyone who was such a pretty boy at Fettes has no desire to go back to sharing the showers again....

Posted by The Englishman at 8:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Westminster Gossip - Trendy Eco-tory leaves wife for man

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: And They Say A Dog Is A Man's Best Friend... teases..The Telegraph reveals.

....I hadn't realised I was meant to think he was straight in the first place...

Posted by The Englishman at 7:42 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 25, 2006

An Englishman's house is the Councils

Telegraph | News | Law to open door to council tax valuers

Council tax inspectors will be given the right to enter homes and fine householders who refuse to cooperate under a new property revaluation scheme, the Conservatives claimed last night.

They accused ministers of "covertly" pushing through new laws that would give the inspectors power to levy fines of up to £1,000 to back up a revaluation that could see council tax bills soar.

The new powers are due to be rubber-stamped today by a little-noticed committee of MPs dealing with delegated legislation reforming the domestic rating system in Northern Ireland.
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The Conservatives said Ulster was being used as a testing ground for a looming council tax revaluation in England, which will put extra charges on homes that have double glazing, a scenic view, a swimming pool, or have more bedrooms than average.

The order extends the power of entry for gathering information to domestic properties in Northern Ireland, and obliges the occupier to give reasonable assistance when information is being sought for valuation.

Where a person fails to give reasonable assistance to a valuation officer, they will be guilty of a new offence and liable to a fine of up to £1,000. The offence will be recorded by local police and courts. A further £200-a-day fine can be imposed if householders continue to refuse to cooperate.

The powers are tougher than those already in England, where a fine of up to £500 can be imposed on anybody who "intentionally obstructs" Valuation Office Agency inspectors.

We have covered the existing law here before and how Labour lied about it last December - so don't believe any denials you hear today.
Snodgrass is going to come barging in photographing the inside of your home whether you want him to or not.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 24, 2006

Toni's Brave New World

Telegraph | News | DNA database 'should include all'

Tony Blair called yesterday for the national DNA database to be expanded to include every citizen.

He said there should be no limit on the development of the database because it was vital for catching serious criminals.

The Conservatives accused him of attempting to expand the DNA database by stealth and called for Parliament to vote on whether details of people who were innocent or not charged should be included against their wishes.

The Prime Minister said the public backed the extended use of DNA .. but he doesn't want us to debate it or have our representatives vote on it! Or is he too high and mighty now to worry about simple things like democracy. The Tories are right to concentrate on pointing out the need for informed debate and consent otherwise all we get is the "soft on crime" counterattack.

But I bet they don't raise the point that with free travel through the EU unless all the peoples in all the subjugated nations are on the database what's the point?

And why not start by first concentrating on stopping some crimes that never should happen -
ONE in five of the most high risk and dangerous offenders under supervision in the community broke the terms of their freedom or committed a further serious violent offence, according to figures published yesterday.

Overall, the figures show that more than 60 serious offences — defined as murder, attempted murder, rape, arson, manslaughter, kidnap and armed robbery — were carried out by offenders under the supervision of the probation service and other agencies. (The Times)

Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 23, 2006

The man who saved us

The man who saved Britain - Comment - Times Online

IDEAS SHAPE the world. Last week a very important promoter of ideas, Ralph Harris, died at the age of 81. The liberal economic ideas that he popularised in the 1960s and 1970s became the basis of the Conservative reforms of the 1980s, and have remained the accepted basis of the Blair administration.

No other British propagandist of ideas in the second half of the 20th century had anything like the same influence on national policy. Lord Harris of High Cross taught Margaret Thatcher. He converted a whole generation of politicians and journalists to the free-market ideas in which he believed; he converted most economists as well. We are all, or almost all, Harrisites nowadays...

Ralph Harris was a very likeable man who knew what he believed. He did not invent the ideas of a free society based on a free economy, but he did convert the British establishment from Fabianism to Thatcherism. His ideas — put into effect by Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s — saved Britain from the decline of 1960s and 1970s. The ideas that the IEA was advocating in the 1970s provided a large part of the intellectual basis of the Thatcherite revolution. He deserves a statue: he helped to save the freedom of his country.

Posted by The Englishman at 12:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 19, 2006

"Pay" you by not robbing you

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tory tax reform plans dismissed
...proposals by a Conservative Party policy group for a recommended £21bn a year in tax cuts.

Ed Balls Economic Secretary to Treasury: "The problem is there is no indication here at all as to how it will be paid for,"

..Tory leader David Cameron, who has also said he will not promise tax cuts unless they can be paid for...

Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell also criticised the plans.
"You can't produce plans for £21bn worth of tax cuts without saying how they would be paid for."

May I propose a simple rule of thumb - anyone who talks about "paying for" tax cuts should be hung up and beaten like a piñata donkey until the shit runs out of them. Tax cuts are not "paid for" - muggers do not "pay for" the money they don't mug. They may have to be "budgeted for" but to have the frame of mind that the Government "pays" people for not mulcting their honest earned money shows the statist bastards for what they are.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 16, 2006

Och Mon - I'm The Law

THE government is to extend the power to issue on-the-spot fines to “authority” figures other than the police. They could include teachers, council workers and even RSPCA inspectors, who would be given the same right as police officers to mete out summary justice for offences expected to include vandalism, antisocial behaviour and theft. ..
The proposal is contained in clause 15 of the Police and Justice Bill. It enables John Reid, the home secretary, to give any “persons” the power to hand out fixed-penalty notices of £80 or £100. Reid would be able to do this whenever he deemed it “necessary” and without primary legislation in parliament. (The Times)

Rather than read my intended intemperate rant on this usurpation of Justice I suggest you see the wise and measured response of Adam Smith - http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/index.php/blog/council_workers_to_have_police_powers/

Posted by The Englishman at 7:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Killing the Community

The local Tories were out in force on Saturday stopping people in the street and getting petitions signed under the banner:
Stop Brown's NHS cuts
They seemd to be getting a lot of support - but then I live in a Tory constituency where the local hospitals are under threat. If option "A" is adopted it will be nearly a thirty mile drive for me to my nearest one.

And I wasn't surprised at all by this in today's Times:

COMMUNITY hospitals that lie in Conservative or Liberal Democrat constituencies will bear the brunt of the Government’s closure programme, re-igniting accusations of political interference in the NHS.

The Times has learnt that seven times as many community hospitals have closed or are under threat in constituencies held by opposition MPs. There are 62 closed or at-risk hospitals in Conservative constituencies and 8 in Liberal Democrats seats, with 11 in Labour areas.

The hospitals threatend by closure are "old" - of course they bloody are, they were built and paid for by the local people before the N bloody H sodding S was even a wet dream of the socialists. Their closure is everything to do with centrist control and nothing to do with providing local needs.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 15, 2006

And the day after tomorrow isn't looking too hot either..

Pink Tories learn the art of being gay friendly - Sunday Times - Times Online

IT USED to be true blue, David Cameron gave it a greenish tinge and now it is going pink. The Conservative party has signed an agreement with Stonewall, the gay rights organisation, to turn itself into a model gay friendly employer and build up its appeal to homosexual voters.

And in other news today:

Tory tax cutters put squeeze on Cameron
DAVID CAMERON’S attempt to push tax cuts down the Tory agenda will be undermined this week by a report from the party’s own policy group recommending up to £21 billion of reductions to make Britain more competitive.

The Conservative Tax Reform Commission is expected to outline proposals to slash the basic rate of income tax, scrap inheritance tax for main homes and abandon the 10p starting rate of income tax.

The tax cuts would be worth more than £600 a year for higher earners.

The commission, chaired by Lord Forsyth, the former Conservative minister, will argue Britain needs lower taxes to compete in the world economy.

However, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, has emphasised the Tories will not rush into promising tax cuts and the party’s Thatcherite wing fears the report will be “kicked into the long grass”.

It will be kicked so far into the long grass it will be off the field completely - Dave has identified where his supporters come from and boring old fuddy-duddies who believe in stealing money from the state and putting it back in people's pockets are not there, it is the state's job to decide whose pockets it should go into.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I hate Mondays

Telegraph | News | Brown's raid on pensions costs Britain ｣100 billion

Gordon Brown's notorious "pension stealth tax" has reduced the value of retirement funds by at least ｣100 billion, independent research has disclosed.

This is more than twice as much as the combined pension deficits of the country's 350 biggest companies.

The calculation comes at an unwelcome time for Mr Brown, who has tried to reassure voters that he will be a prime minister "for Middle Britain" as he seeks an orderly hand-over from Tony Blair.

And in other news today:

Focus: It's mine... all mine!
Britain’s tax burden is growing faster than that of any other European country, with middle-class taxpayers working nearly half of every year for the state. David Smith on the new high-tax economy...

Under Gordon Brown’s management the tax burden is rising sharply. A report last week from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the share of national income taken in taxes is rising more sharply than anywhere else in Europe. It now stands at 37% of gross domestic product (GDP).

There is apparently no alternative. A commission appointed by the Conservatives will report this week and recommend significant tax cuts, but its findings are set to be rejected by David Cameron, the Tory leader.

This is despite the fact that according to calculations by the accountants Grant Thornton, many middle-class households can expect to see half their income disappear in taxes, either when they earn it or when they spend it.

Remind me again why we should bother to go to work on Monday morning, what little we manage to keep for our old age is going to be stolen anyway....

Posted by The Englishman at 8:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 14, 2006

Baa to the Council

Telegraph | News | Year-long probe to find council heckler

It has taken more than 12 months and cost about £10,000 but a council is finally on the verge of discovering the identity of a man who kept saying "baa" during a planning meeting.

After a wide-ranging investigation, Havering council, based in Romford, Essex, has prepared a 300-page report, according to the Romford Recorder newspaper.

Unfortunately, the downside is that the prime suspect is no longer a councillor and is, therefore, beyond the scope of any punishment that it might want to mete out....

I hope the good citizens of Romford start a new tradition and shout "Baa" at any passing Councillor and interupt any official stuffed shirt speaker with farmyard noices..

Posted by The Englishman at 7:04 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 13, 2006

Simple Simon met a Pieman

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Sion Shoots Himself in the Foot

Having broken bread with him at his table I'm reluctant to have a go at the prat Sion Simon so I will leave Guido and his commentators to do so....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 12, 2006

Bring back "On the Buses"

Race quotas 'needed to end divide in schools' - Britain - Times Online

STATE schools should introduce ethnic quotas into admissions criteria to break down the extreme segregation of pupils along cultural and religious lines, the head of the Local Government Association said yesterday....

It was unacceptable that non-white pupils should form 90 per cent of the population of one school, when white pupils formed 90 per cent of a neighbouring school down the road.

One solution, he suggested, would be for schools in areas with high concentrations of minority ethnic groups to incorporate some kind of ethnicity quota into admissions policies

It is all part of the 1970s revival isn't it? - it started with flares coming back into fashion, and now it is going to be bussing of kids acros the neighbourhood to fulfill race quotas - didn't the US give this up in the 1990s?.

Still it brings back memories of Blakey saying "I hate you Butler" while Jack had a quick grope with a clippy...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 11, 2006

Hull - Fat, Stupid Men with Poor Sex Lives

EDINBURGH is fit and clever but Glasgow is drunk, dangerous and lazy, according to a survey.

Scotland's capital city has been named the fittest and cleverest city in the UK in a study by Men's Health magazine.

But Glasgow walked away with three less attractive awards.

It was branded the most dangerous, lazy and drunk city in Britain in the study...

But it isn't all good news south of the border...

Across the UK, Hull was named the most stupid place in Britain.

Which follows up this story...

BBC NEWS

Hull has been branded the 'fattest' city in the UK and the worst location for men looking to live a healthy life.
The city's men also have the least satisfying sex lives, it claims.

Wolverhampton, meanwhile, is the most sober city in Britain yet, perhaps not surprisingly, also the dullest in the survey, said the report.

:: The top 10 stupidest places in Britain are:

1. Hull
2. Stoke
3. Liverpool
4. Bradford
5. Glasgow
6. Wolverhampton
7. Newcastle
8. Nottingham
9. Leicester
10. Birmingham

And I hardly need to remind you who is an MP from Hull do I?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Mussolini defends freedom - an idea for Iain Dale

Friends of the Amarone: MP drug expose' taken off the air

A television prank which threatened to expose widespread drug use among Italian MPs was suspended on Tuesday.
It was due to be included in Le Iene (The Hyenas), a popular satire show which begins a new series on Tuesday evening.
The show secretly tested 50 lawmakers for drug use with the results showing that one in three had apparently taken drugs in the previous 36 hours.
A total of 12 tested positive for cannabis and four for cocaine, according to Le Iene.
Amid parliamentary uproar over the prank, Italy's privacy authority intervened and ordered the piece to be deleted from the show.
....Alessandra Mussolini, hard-right MP and granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito, said the privacy regulator's decision amounted to censorship.

I wonder what the results would be here - maybe 18 Doughty Street could try it out. My wish is just that more of our MPs looked like Alessandra Mussolini

Posted by The Englishman at 6:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 10, 2006

Cameron D. - Must try harder

Labour neck and neck in the polls after conference season - Britain - Times Online

ANY Conservative bounce left after its conference last week was short-lived. The two main parties are at level pegging again as Parliament returns from its 11-week recess despite the leadership crisis that engulfed Labour in the summer.
... new Populus poll for The Times, undertaken over the weekend, showed that support for the Tories is unchanged from early September at 36 per cent. Labour has gained three points to reach 35 per cent and the Liberal Democrats are down two points at 18 per cent.

The poll suggests, however, that David Cameron would comfortably defeat Labour at the next general election in three or four years whether the party were led by Gordon Brown, John Reid or Alan Johnson. Support for the Tories would be 40 per cent or more in each of these cases with Labour reaching no higher than 34 per cent.

A small glimmer of hope there for the Tories but to only be on level pegging with the most corrupt incompetent lying bunch of bastards in living memeory isn't really good enough, is it?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 6, 2006

Vote Early - Vote Often

Play chess on your nearest e-voting machine | The Register

IT professionals in the Netherlands have demonstrated that the type of e-voting machines chosen by the Irish government for election counts can be secretly hacked.

Using documentation obtained from the Irish Department of the Environment, Dutch IT experts from anti e-voting group, "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (We don't trust voting computers), went on the "Een Vandaag" television programme on Wednesday to reveal that NEDAP e-voting machines could be made to record inaccurate voting preferences and even be reprogrammed to run a chess program...

The NEDAP e-voting machines were originally purchased by the Irish government for use in the local and European elections on 11 June 2004. However, the decision to introduce e-voting at that time had to be abandoned following the publication of an interim report from the Commission on Electronic Voting (CEV), which raised doubts over the accuracy of the software used in the system....

The total storage costs for the machines is around €700,000 per annum and it's estimated that the e-voting system itself has cost the taxpayer between €52m and €60m.

Fergus O'Dowd, Environment spokesman for the Irish opposition party Fine Gael, has criticised the government over its e-voting strategy, claiming that it was a "debacle" that was getting worse by the month.

"It is frightening to consider that, were it not for strong resistance by the opposition parties, this country would have had e-voting foisted upon us by Fianna Fail and the PDs and would be forced to use it in the upcoming General Election," said O'Dowd.

I expect to see the Labour Party call for their immediate use over here in some key constituencies....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 4, 2006

Local Market News

BBC NEWS | England | Wiltshire | Market town twins with Arab city

A market town in Wiltshire has become the first place in the UK to be twinned with a city from a Muslim Arab country.

Trowbridge, with a population of 40,000, has joined up with Oujda - which is 10 times bigger and the eastern capital of Morocco.

Moroccans in Trowbridge are the biggest ethnic minority group in Wiltshire and many originated from Oujda.

Strangely a man with an extensive taste in herbal cigarettes told me this last week in the pub, claimed it was worthwhile spending some of his dole money to go to Trowbridge where smoking requistes for the discerning gentleman were much cheaper than Devizes. The benefits of free trade and movement across borders are proved again.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Recognising the elephants in the room

BBC NEWS | Politics | Number of anti-EU Tories 'rising'

The number of Tory MPs who want to withdraw from the EU is growing, claims Euro-sceptic MP Philip Davies.

He says David Cameron is also happy for MPs to advocate that policy without fear of any sanctions inside the party.

Meanwhile Edward Leigh warned Tories could become recruiting agents for UKIP and the BNP if they do not speak up on tax, Europe and immigration.

He urged the leadership to pay attention to its traditional right-wing voters, or risk losing them

It isn't just the right wing voters, judging by the noise on the blogosphere (an unrepresentitive sample I know), the silence on the big issues is driving away all sorts.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Ch ch changes

BBC NEWS | Politics | Cameron's blog targeted by spoof

David Cameron's attempt to harness the power of the internet through his Webcameron blog has led to opponents setting up a spoof rival site.

UKIP backers have launched a site with a near-identical internet address, which launches to show a video parodying his likeness to Tony Blair.

Video here

Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 3, 2006

Broken Troopers

Telegraph | News | Wounded soldiers 'get appalling health care'

Senior Army officers and Service charities united last night in condemning the treatment of wounded troops as "an absolute disgrace".

Field Marshal Lord Bramall, a former chief of the defence staff, said the outpatient service for soldiers was "appalling". Charity chiefs believe there is a "lost battalion" of 500 troops who have been ignored or forgotten after leaving hospital.

Col Tim Collins, who commanded an infantry battalion during the Iraq invasion, said the public did not care about troops who had been wounded in an unpopular war and that they were not vote winners for the Government.

"The public perception is that these men are volunteers and if you get wounded then bad luck; you should have joined the fire service instead," he said. "We should start caring about our forces and demanding better standards."

There are also growing calls for the Government to build a dedicated military hospital. Seven of the eight military hospitals have been closed since the early 1990s.

While soldiers receive excellent treatment from military medical staff on operations, it is when they are returned to health service care that their difficulties begin.

The wounded are first treated at Selly Oak, where they are meant to be cared for in a military wing, but recently they have been placed in mixed wards with civilians, open to the public and with little security. By contrast, American military hospitals have armed guards and a strict entry system.

The hospital trust that runs Selly Oak has also recorded the highest rate of the superbug MRSA in Britain, figures showed this year.

The row follows The Daily Telegraph's report of security worries at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, where a paratrooper was threatened by a man who accused him of "killing my Muslim brothers in Afghanistan".

Oh for a Kipling to write with " the scorn of scorn"..

The Last of the Light Brigade
by Rudyard Kipling

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 straighen 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!

Posted by The Englishman at 6:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 2, 2006

Cameron aims for the "Ladies Home Journal" audience.

Call-me-Dave Cameron's condescending speech was too dire for me to fisk without vomiting so instead I thought I would see what level of audience he was aiming at. So I ran it through a SMOG Reading Level Calculator and the result was:

Detailed SMOG Analysis SMOG Grade 8.5

He used some long words towards the end of the speech which raised the reading level a bit but he still is only just above the semi-literate level.

SMOG Grade Educational Level Example
0 - 6 low-literate Soap Opera Weekly
7 junior high school True Confessions
8 junior high school Ladies Home Journal
9 some high school Reader's Digest

Posted by The Englishman at 6:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The right to be educated, or the right to be employed in education?

BBC NEWS | Education | School standards 'to take decade'

It will take another 10 years before government reforms raise standards in secondary schools, former education secretary David Blunkett has suggested.

Changes to primary school education saw test results improve sharply in the 1990s but improvements in secondary schools will take longer, he said.

He also acknowledged that his citizenship lessons project had failed.

If we believe his timetable, and we all know how elastic Government timetables are, then kids just entering primary school for the very first time are being written off as their secondary education will be substandard, and we know that now. More importantly the Education Department knows it and is content for the natural rate of change to hopefully correct it. Would parents be happy to learn that little Samantha and Joshua are being denied their right to the best damned education ther taxes could buy?
Adam Smith has other proposals. which would speed up changes by applying market forces.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 30, 2006

Prescott - a tribute

Numberwatch offers an elegant tribute to Our Deputy PrimeMinister which might be summed up:

Stand not on the order of your going, but go at once.Lady Macbeth

Posted by The Englishman at 9:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2006

Cash on Demand Justice

Muggers and thieves to be fined ｣100 on the spot - Britain - Times Online

SERIOUS crimes such as assaulting a police officer and mugging will be punished by instant fines of up to £100 from next year under plans to keep hundreds of thousands of offenders out of court.

Proposals drawn up by the Home Office, and seen by The Times, envisage a huge extension of fixed-penalty notices from early 2007. They would apply to nearly 30 offences, including assault, threatening behaviour, all types of theft up to a value of £100, obstructing or assaulting a police officer, possession of cannabis, and drunkenness.

Telegraph | News | The case for speed cameras destroyed in a flash

A review of the Government's speed cameras policy was demanded yesterday after official statistics showed that only five per cent of crashes are caused by drivers breaking the speed limit....

There are more than 5,400 camera sites in England and Wales, which raised £113 million in fines in 2004-5

Leaving alone for a minute a society which judges assaulting a Police Officer or Mugging (up to £100) as only as naughty as low level speeding what the hell is going on? Are we really becoming a place where at every turn some uniformed goon can demand cash with legal menaces? Oh there will be due process, if you demand it and don't mind your life being turned upside down for two years, but you won't demand it, will you? You will just swipe the card and get on with your prole like existence.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:59 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 27, 2006

Prescott not bent

Telegraph | News | Prescott in the clear over links with US billionaire

John Prescott will not face a formal criminal inquiry into a claim that he broke anti-corruption laws by staying on the ranch of an American billionaire who owns the Millennium Dome.

A bit of a relief, otherwise with the way other investigations are going they would have been holding Cabinet meetings inside the Scrubs soon....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Miss Manners advice to The Labour Party

Miss Manners: Guests Who Won't Leave - MSN Lifestyle - Relationships

Dear Miss Manners,
Is there any polite way to ask guests to leave? ..I understand when you host a party, the guests are expected to stay a couple hours. However, I feel that guests that come to our home more than overstay their welcome...I drop subtle (and not so subtle) hints that it is getting late and we need things to end. I make sure I am seen cleaning up plates and food. My husband has made comments of "Gee, it is getting late and I have to work tomorrow." I've made announcements such as "All the kids need to get out of the pool. They've been in there for eight hours now."
Nothing seems to work. Our comments are pretty much ignored... Is there a kind way to ask guests to leave?

Gentle Reader,
Don't give up ..
The least subtle way to get rid of guests that is still polite is to say goodbye to them. This is done almost as if you were the ones who were leaving. You stand up, approach them, and say, "It was wonderful having you here. We must do this soon again." If you remain standing in front of them, Miss Manners promises that they will arise, too, and then you can slowly walk toward the door.

Or you could just say, "Piss off Tony, pack your bags now and don't bother with the final final farewell tour".

Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

That Conference report in full

Times Online

Gordon, yawn; Prescott does his colouring book while Gordon, yawn, speaks; Cherie, ROFLUWRDML.....

Rolls on Floor Laughing Until Wee Runs Down My Legs in geek speak...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 25, 2006

The Runners and Riders

He's too old, he's Scottish, he's history. The Labour voters' verdict on Brown - Comment - Times Online

Frank Luntz is a leading US pollster. His interviews will be broadcast on Newsnight tonight but here he gives a potted formbook, as complied by Labour and Labour leaning voters:

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, the obvious frontrunner; - he looks and sounds just like every other politician in pre-Blair Britain: a canned stump speech and insincere sincerity... No one believed him. None...almost half the group opposed being led by a Scotsman. I pushed them hard — and they pushed back. “It’s not racist. I want someone who is English running England.”

John Reid, Home Secretary;- the clear winner in our session, but he has a way to go. Only a fraction of our participants could name Mr Reid just from his photograph. But two words immediately came to mind as their familiarity grew: “strong” and “tough”.

Alan Johnson, Education Secretary; - the perfect biography. Participants felt he had the right life-experience. ...But for almost everyone, his presentation is, in a word, boring.

Alan Milburn, former Health Secretary;- suffered the same fate. His repeated references to “the public” and “the people” in his speeches were not well-received by the public and the people.

and David Miliband, Environment Secretary earned exactly the opposite reaction. His official photograph drew laughter from the audience (several participants said he looked like a Tory Boy), and the initial reaction to his unbending defence of Mr Blair was poorly received...

The Anyone But Gordon crowd can draw some strength there, but they need to pick their challenger, though like an old fairground boxing booth it might be good tactics to put a young boy in first to soften up the old pro and absorb his wrath first, before putting forward the one carrying the money. Can Johnson's men fool Miliband into being that naive fool who gets a bloody nose in a hopeless attempt on the crown?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Dr Brown's Casebook

Telegraph | News | Poll blow for Brown as Blair refuses to back him

Earlier in the year, 36 per cent of voters thought he would prove to be a good prime minister. That figure has fallen to 27 per cent, while the proportion thinking he would probably fail as prime minister has risen from 33 per cent to 44.

The Conservative leader has a five-point lead over Mr Brown as "the best prime minister"

No wonder poor old Middle England is about to be hit with a charm offence from Old Brown who hopes our folk memories will see him as the trusty old Dr Finlay. I fear he may be as popular as the 90s remake of that fine program and sink with out a trace.

Not many people know it but Pigs and Humans share the same pheromones, it is just that pigs react to them more. Last week Dolly the 300lb Glouscester Old Spot was on heat, and feeling lonely. As soon as I walked into the pen she bounded over to me and whacked me round the back of the legs. She then planted her legs wide apart and stood stock still - this strangely familiar ritual is standard pig foreplay. Brown's entreaties to the English Middle Classes has the same subtlety and attractiveness...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 24, 2006

Fools seldom differ

Nigel Farage MEP, the leader of the UK Independence Party said:

"It is very simple. If people don't value a party enough to voluntarily pay for it then tough, it has failed in the marketplace of ideas".

He concluded: "Why should honest people now have to pay, just because the Labour Party can no longer count on living on the proceeds of acts currently under investigation?"

I said a couple of days earlier:here:

It is very simple; if people don't value a party enough to voluntarily pay for it then tough, it has failed in the marketplace of ideas. .. Why because you can no longer count on living on the proceeds of (an alleged) crime should honest people now have to pay?

Hattip The Devil

Posted by The Englishman at 6:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 23, 2006

Shock Horror - Oleaginous Hain nearly tells the truth

Telegraph | News | Hain: Labour must not be Big Brother

Labour is in danger of getting a reputation as a "big brother" Government with a tendency to ban everything and curb individual freedom, Peter Hain says today.

The Pope is also in danger of getting a reputation of being a Catholic and if Bears aren't careful they might be known to shit in the woods.
It is nice that the orange one has noticed he problem but would I trust the oily old criminal to do anything about it? Would I coco!

Posted by The Englishman at 7:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 22, 2006

Kennet Council rubbish bin charging idea

Now Well Charge To Collect Plastic (from The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

KENNET District Council is facing another PR disaster in the wake of the chip in the bin fiasco by looking to charge for the recycling of cardboard and plastic.

That was the message delivered at a meeting of Kennet's community development executive committee,...Mark Smith, Kennet's director of environment and leisure services, told the meeting that the council is under pressure from its council tax payers to provide facilities to recycle cardboard and plastic.

But the council's current waste minimisation and recycling strategy precluded officers from offering the service, unless it paid for itself.

So what you will need is a way to do it, some sort of recording device on the bins, something like an electronic bug,.... but that is impossible as Councillor Chris Humphries, Lord High Leader of Kennet District Council, has said there are no bugs on Kennet Bins, and no plans to introduce them, and that people like me who found a reprogrammable read-write RFID chip hidden under the lip of our bins are deluded...

Posted by The Englishman at 7:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Glos Police guilty of racism

Follow up and a result on a story we have covered before.

Times Online

A POLICE force that rejected 108 potential recruits because they were white men has admitted positive discrimination and agreed to pay compensation.

Gloucestershire Constabulary said that it had been trying to increase diversity with its policy of selecting women and candidates from ethnic minorities. But at an employment tribunal in Bristol yesterday, the force admitted that its actions were unlawful and agreed to pay compensation to one potential recruit. Further claims from the other 107 men, who were told by the force that they had been “randomly deselected”, could now follow.

Clive Tomer, chairman of the tribunal, said yesterday that Gloucestershire Constabulary had been “at the very least disingenuous and at worst misleading”.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Failing Whelk Stall owners seek Taxpayer support

Labour wants taxpayers 'to foot the bill for party's cash shortfall' - Britain - Times Online

LABOUR wants taxpayers to plug a gaping hole in the party’s finances caused by a collapse in donations after the cash-for-peerages allegations.

Hazel Blears, the party chairman, told The Times yesterday that Labour, as the party of government, should get more public money to support political work.

Why am I surprised that the Party itself is now a welfare scrounger whining that the taxpayer should support it in the manner it has become accustomed. It is very simple; if people don't value a party enough to voluntarily pay for it then tough, it has failed in the marketplace of ideas. Don't come whining to me that I should have my money mulcted to support your pampered lifestyle, your friends and the expensive habits of your advertising gurus. Why because you can no longer count on living on the proceeds of (an alleged) crime should honest people now have to pay?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

An old man mutters in his sleep

Campbell shows party who's boss with attack on 'unpleasant' Tories - Britain - Times Online

"And while you’re at it, Mr Disraeli, you should apologise for the last
Tory manifesto, which you wrote - one of the most reactionary,
unpleasant, right-wing manifestos of modern times.

But now, when it comes to policy, Disraeli’s Tories are a substance free zone.
Their idea of political principle is to say, tell us what you don’t like
and we’ll abandon it.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 21, 2006

The Prison Walls close in

BBC NEWS | Politics | Speculation over 'honours' arrest

Speculation continues about the identity of a third man arrested over Labour "cash for honours" allegations....

It couldn't be could it? I picture wailing Cherie joining all those other Scouse women crying out their man is a good man, he never did it..

"The third man arrested is not understood to be anyone who works in Downing Street"

Bugger - it seems according to the Telegraph that the arrested man was Prof Sir Christopher Evans, the founder of Merlin Biosciences, who lent the Labour Party ｣1 million between January and May last year....

Where's Guido when you need him?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2006

Make Love Not War

Some whining Cambridge Greenie is complaining that Iain Dale (PBUH) ignored alt.politics blogs in drawing up his Big Boy's Bouncy Book of Blogs - a quick flick through said East Anglian's scribbles - The Daily (Maybe) - brings me this, which illustrates in one picture far better than any number of pontificating articles the love that dares not speak its name behind Greens, anti-war, anti-capitalism, anti-whateverism:

Posted by The Englishman at 7:54 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 19, 2006

Bush and I agree on this.

The Scotsman - I can't eat broccoli, mum, it's my genes

SCIENTISTS have discovered just why it is so hard to get some children to eat their greens: some people, it seems, are genetically programmed to find vegetables such as broccoli more bitter than others.

The reason is that evolution has prejudiced them against foods that contain a compound called glucosinolate, which interferes with iodine getting to the thyroid gland.

A lack of iodine can cause mental and sexual problems as well as a condition called goitre...In tests, people with a certain genetic make-up found some vegetables, such as broccoli, turnips and watercress, about 60 per cent more bitter than others....The former US president, George Bush, famously disliked broccoli....

ScienceDaily: Natural Selection At Work In Genetic Variation To Taste

Date: June 28, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY - A genetic variation seen worldwide in which people either taste or do not taste a bitter, synthetic compound called PTC...People who can taste PTC are less likely to eat cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli...The ability to taste or not taste PTC was discovered in 1930..

I can't stand broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, radishes etc. and have known about these taster genes for ages so why the new press release? The children are force fed broccoli by their mother so I'm not sure if they have inherited it or not, but then they haven't inherited my eye colour or hair colour.. in fact they don't even look anything like me......

Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

The guns are out for Gordo's challenger

'Burying' primary results is bad news for Johnson - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

ALAN JOHNSON’S image as the “nice guy” of the Cabinet was dented yesterday when he became embroiled in allegations that his aides had attempted to bury the bad news of poor primary school test results last month. The news represents a blow to the Education Secretary, who will be a candidate for the position of deputy leader of the Labour Party and has been mentioned in connection with the leadership.
...
The dispute centres on the decision of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to publish two important sets of school results, primary school tests and GCSEs, on the same day. A series of e-mails made public yesterday showed that civil servants at the department had cautioned repeatedly against the clash, pointing out that they had been published on different days in previous years. But their concerns were overruled and officials were told that the Education Secretary’s special advisers “positively want” the results published on the same day. Both sets of figures were published at 9.30am on August 24. The GCSE results rose for the eighteenth successive year.

However, the primary school test results revealed falling standards in reading, writing and maths among seven-year-olds and standards among 11-year-olds which stalled well below government targets.

The smoking gun email which The Times doesn't link to - come on hyperlinky thingy are what the web is about chaps, get with it.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 18, 2006

Glad to be Grey

Young 'will lose half of their pay to taxes' - Britain - Times Online

YOUNG people will have to hand over almost half their salary to the taxman, according to a report which shows the escalating financial pressures facing new graduates.

Rising taxes and the overhaul of the pension system mean that students starting at university this year will be spending 48 per cent of their income on tax and other payments until they are 35. ...

The report by Nick Bosanquet, Professor of Health Policy at Imperial College, London, for the think-tank Reform, blames Labour’s changes to the tax and benefit system, which it says have “significantly penalised young workers”.

It gives warning of a crossover generation of people who pay the cost of the welfare state without being able to expect many of the benefits and labels them the IPOD generation — Insecure, Pressured, Over-taxed and Debt-Ridden. ...

No wonder the young are so studious as the aging bastards in charge have dropped the tab on them to pay for their "enjoy now - pay later" lifestyles. I just hope they carry on working their fingers to the bone to subsidise us, they won't wake up and realise the con, will they?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 17, 2006

If you are in you're in, if you're out, you're history

Iain Dale's full guide to Political Blogging in the UK

Posted by The Englishman at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 15, 2006

EU madness

EU Referendum brings news of yet another EU law. The rule here has been that if a farmer suspects a beast has BSE or other nasty disease he can call the man from the Ministry in, they take it away and he gets paid full compensation - from January he probably wont get any compensation under new EU rules, so have a guess what will happen. Do you think diseased animals will be pulled out of the food chain or will they be given the benefit of doubt and sent off to be minced up?

As Richard says:

With one fell swoop, therefore, the commission is putting at risk the whole world. It is also abandoning a system that has been in place in the UK for several centuries - before most EU member states were countries - which is well founded, relatively equitable (not that all farmers would agree) and which gives the authorities a fighting chance of containing disease epidemics.

But our government in Brussels has spoken. No longer in vast areas of public policy and lawmaking are we an independent nation and, in this case as with so many others, our job is but to obey – like it or not.

You sometimes wonder who has the spongy brains, the cows, the EU or us for letting it happen.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

nuLabout apply the NIMBY test to reform

Labour ploy to protect hospitals in marginals - Britain - Times Online

A SECRET meeting has been held by ministers and Labour Party officials to work out ways of closing hospitals without jeopardising key marginal seats, The Times can reveal...

Details of the meeting, revealed in e-mails passed to The Times, show that it included Hazel Blears, the Labour chairman, political advisers from No 10 and even — at the request of Ms Blears — a Labour Party representative...

The e-mails show that Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, called for those at the meeting to be provided with “heat maps”, showing marginal Labour seats where closures or reconfigurations of health services could cost votes. She also asked for lists showing hospitals where the European Working Time Directive is likely to hit hardest, making 24-hour rotas hard to sustain.

Ministers have always insisted that the directive will not affect hospitals, but the e-mails suggest otherwise....

The smell of panic is in the air as the electorate get restless - good!

Posted by The Englishman at 6:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lib Dem - whose to blame?

Telegraph | News | Oaten's wife blames scandal on Kennedy drink problem

Charles Kennedy's drink problem helped drive Mark Oaten into his encounters with a male prostitute, his wife claimed yesterday.

Makes a change from the tired old line - "my wife doesn't understand me" it is now "my leader doesn't understand me". I think we have all been under a bit of stress in our lifetimes, some of us under a huge amount. Maybe it is just me but whenever I have nearly been overwhelmed with it I have never though I know lets work our way through those cards in the phone box until I find a couple of nice young boys who will let me **** as they **** and ******* with ****** ********* and ******* gloves and a glass table. ****** ******* a line ***** ****** smooth ****** ******* ****** bottom.
Bu then I'm weird.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2006

Tally Ho!

Blair to see pink as hunt rides back into London after 60 years - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

THE first hunt on horseback in Central London in almost 60 years is to take place on Sunday.

About 25 men and women on horseback, and following hounds, will chase an artificial scent through Hyde Park.

The event has been organised by the Connaught Square Squirrel Hunt, which was set up to cock a snook at Parliament’s ban on the sport from February 18 last year. It is also an attempt to embarrass Tony Blair, who owns a townhouse in the square.

Poor Tony - he must be getting used to feeling like a defenseless animal being harried by slavering hounds by now....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cameron misses a chance

Telegraph | News | Cameron inspired by TV game shows

Mr Cameron will use his first conference as leader to transform the annual seaside gathering...
The debates will feature a wide-range of speakers. Rosie Boycott, the former Fleet Street editor and recovering alcoholic, and... George Monbiot,..

I've searched the rest of the article but while they seem to being having the Chief Moonbat in the hall I can find no mention of stocks, rotten eggs, cattle prods or horsewhips being provided, just electronic voting handsets. Call that a Tory conference?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2006

Community, Identity, Stability - Cameron's Brave New World

Maybe I was being a bit unfair here: An Englishman's Castle: Community, Identity, Stability - Blair's Brave New World - So to redress the balance...

David Cameron "I've spoken about community. Today I want to talk about the third vital part of our identity."

The Cameron Leadership Blog Archive » David Cameron: "a sense of national identity is becoming more, not less, important."

BBC NEWS | Politics | Speaking from India, Mr Cameron said: "If you have a choice, then stability must come first.

SparkNotes: Brave New World: ..its guiding motto: “Community, Identity, Stability".

Posted by The Englishman at 12:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Ask the Family

Telegraph | News | Cameron outlines new tax measures to help the family

"Everything I would do in government would have to pass one simple test. Will this help families to do more of what they do?"

Er, everything? Good to see an emphasis on the family but don't overdo it Dave. There are other things politicians decide on apart from the domestic and there are some families who do things which we don't want them to do more of, otherwise there won't be a car not on blocks nor a crack-free street for miles.

As an aside is it just an ugly rumour that David Cameron and family were one of those annoying smug teams on Robert Robinson's Ask the Family? I can see him now with his little fat eager face, rosy cheeks and greased down hair going "Mummy, Mummy I know that, it was Pitt the Younger". Nothing a good smacking round the back of the bike sheds wouldn't have put right.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 8, 2006

Who really runs Britain

Telegraph | News | EU judges impose overtime limit on British workers

The European Union's highest court yesterday banned many British employees from choosing how much overtime they want to work.

The ruling by the European Court of Justice struck down legal guidelines issued by the Department of Trade and Industry, which tried to give British employees the freedom to choose their hours of work, within the constraints of the EU's working time directive.

Thousands of workers in many industries will no longer be able to choose to work overtime that would stretch their working day to more than 13 hours, or to work through all seven days of the week.

The Tony and Gordon show is just an amusing distraction, the real seat of power is elsewhere.
As Article 37 of the 39 Articles, see above, has it:
THE Queen's Majesty hath the chief power in this realm of England and other her dominions, unto whom the chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not nor ought to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 7, 2006

You are all invited - bring a bottle.

With Guy Fawkes being as silent as Gordon Brown - (he couldn't be, could he? - has anyone ever seen them in the same room?) it is everyone round to Iain's today to watch the big fight - I'll bring the Party Seven if you can bring some Popcorn and Pringles..

Posted by The Englishman at 7:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 6, 2006

Tories for Gordon

rightlinks.co.uk - Campaign

Posted by The Englishman at 8:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Peace in our time

Best defence against terrorism is a split with US, say voters - Britain - Times Online

Three fifths (62 per cent) agree that “in order to reduce the risk of future terrorist attacks on Britain the Government should change its foreign policy, in particular by distancing itself from America, being more critical of Israel and declaring a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq”. Women (66 per cent) and Liberal Democrat voters (74 per cent) agree with this view particularly strongly.
Nonetheless, a similar proportion of voters (63 per cent) believe that “Muslim extremists hate democracy and the Western way of life, and if Britain’s foreign policy were different they would find another excuse for their terrorist activities”. This is a widely held view, backed by two thirds of Labour and Tory voters, but only just over a half (53 per cent) of Lib Dems.

Make of that what you will, our future leaders will take it as a vote for appeasement and responding to the muezzin's adhan.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Hey Hey ALB - How many days will it be?

The Devil's Kitchen: Blair's departure

One of the gossip moles works for labour and they've said that tomorrow is the most important day for Blair and if there is a major rally against him he will be out by the weekend. But it has been confirmed he will be out by May....
Anyway, let us intensify the pressure on Blair and get him to go at the very soonest opportunity. This weekend would be choice: anytime before Christmas would be a bonus.

The gong has sounded but he is refusing to leave the stage - in vaudeville days, the so-called 'stage hook' supposedly came out from the wings and and hooked the performer off the stage - we are waiting and not for the grand farewell tour the Pooterish detail of which were leaked yesterday.

Off , off, off....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 4, 2006

No Contratorydictions here

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories vow public services funds

The Conservatives are set to make an "unambiguous commitment" to giving more funds to public services.
A Tory policy group has called for the promise...the party's policy chief, Oliver Letwin, says the shadow cabinet is "almost certain" to back the demand. "We believe that all Conservatives should embrace an unambiguous commitment to the growth of public services, as part of a growth of general well being,".
However, the right-wing No Turning Back Group is proposing possible cuts to inheritance tax, income tax, stamp duty on homes and capital gains tax.

In a foreword to the pamphlet, former Cabinet minister John Redwood, said: "This is a plea for early action to cut our tax rates.

"If you keep tax rates down, the economy grows much quicker.

"Lower taxes are not a desirable extra you can add when everything is fine. Lower tax rates are the way to get everything going well."

Mr Letwin said there was no contradiction between the two themes.

I suppose it depends if the growth is greater or lesser than the general growth rate of the economy - of course only a cynic might think that there was a smidgen of fat and wastage that could be trimmed before further money was thrown in.

Posted by The Englishman at 11:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

FASBO candidate No.1

BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair details problem family plan

Oh sorry wrong story - other people's, poor people's, problem families, not his own disfunctional family with its problems that aren't mentioned...Glass houses and stones come to mind.

(FASBO = Foetal Anti Social Behaviour Order)

Posted by The Englishman at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Local Democracy and Prescott

Telegraph | News | Prescott's ethics fiasco 'hampering democracy'

The Deputy Prime Minister is accused today of undermining local democracy and stifling free speech by imposing "draconian" rules on thousands of councillors.
A damning report reveals how local authority members are being barred from speaking or voting on subjects simply because they are perceived to have taken a position on the issue.
Even councillors who have been elected specifically to fight a particular issue have fallen foul of the rules and found themselves told they cannot speak or vote on it.
The controversy centres on the Standards Board for England, which was launched by Mr Prescott in 2001.
...example, John Pickersgill, a member of Derwentside council in Co Durham, organised a local referendum on plans to build more wind turbines in his ward. His survey found that four out of five local people opposed the proposals.

However, when he tried to raise his findings in a council meeting on the issue, he was judged to have a "prejudicial interest" and was excluded from the room.

The crime of "predeterminism" in the larger world of politics would be called keeping to a manifesto - and it is strange how it is only "predetermined" ideas from car owners, non-greens, objectors to Government policy that are brought to book.
Prescott and ethics - cue old joke he the only ethics he knows is a place east of London...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 3, 2006

Trains, Planes and AutoTories

Guido pointed out writing about Sir Alfred Sherman R.I.P.
After doing an economic analysis of British Rail Sherman concluded that the best thing to do would be to tarmac over the railways and turn them into private autobahns. Mrs Thatcher found it a teensy bit too radical. Unacceptable politically, but practical and right because it would have saved billions in subsidies.

As the independent Transport Watch proves that is still the only sensible policy, so it is no surprise that the Tories are doing the opposite..

Telegraph Blogs: UK: David Millward: September 2006: Margaret Thatcher never loved trains

Politicians seem to be falling in love with the railways.

High-speed trains: the politician's friend
Earlier this week the Conservatives sent out a press release announcing that not only Chris Grayling, the party’s transport spokesman, but also George Osborne had taken a train journey.....
the party now seems to have gone full circle. Chris Grayling is making his mark as a huge supporter of the industry, lambasting the Government not for spending too much on the railways but for what he sees as its inability to cope with growing demand.

In many ways the Conservatives appear more excited by the whole concept of high speed rail travel than Labour
...
Perhaps the bottom line is that trains are an ideal backdrop for a photocall for any politician.

But then William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool, also thought it a good idea to be seen on the railways. Unfortunately he was killed when he was run over by George Stephenson’s rocket.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 2, 2006

That Banned Defra Wiki Page is here - including the Owl Magnet!

Poor Dave Miliband and his Wiki experiment.
This was the last publicly edited page before the Defra wonks pulled the plug.
Wonko's World ｻ Defra Wiki is another slightly different version - the more kept and displayed for history the better!

Apologies for the formatting and settle yourself down for a good read...

EnvironmentContract

What would an environmental contract for energy look like? Will look like my
face? My beautiful face?

Citizens will:

insulate homes they own through the use of generious grant schemes


buy the most efficient lights and appliances at a lower than cost price
(subsided through taxes... erm...)


reduce unnecessary energy use, e.g by turning off appliances when not used
choose low carbon modes of transport where available


buy the lowest carbon vehicles appropriate for their needs through the use
of generious grant schemes

drive efficiently which might involve travelling faster than the posted
speed limit


consider using new green technologies such as microgeneration where
affordable

encourage their family, friends and neighbours to do all these things and
saving the government the PR spend

In return government will

• 
  
  set clear targets for reducing carbon emissions and the reintroduction of
  mud huts
  
  
  
• 
  
  lead by example it its own activities and encourage local government to
  do likewise
  
  
• 
  
  support organisations and networks that deliver change at the local
  level
  
  
• 
  
  continue to use the tax system to encourage subsidise energy-saving
  choices
  
  
• 
  
  support businesses to green their consumer products and services,
  including through energy regulation, and
  
  
• 
  
  regulate to remove from the market products that are unnecessarily energy
  wasters.
  
  
• 
  
  develop policies that ensure nuclear power is a good thing

What would an environmental contract for water look like? Will that look
like my face too?

Citizens will:

• 
  
  think about water usage in their homes
  
  
• 
  
  turn off taps when not using them
  
  
• place a brick in their lavatories
  
  
• 
  
  never wash, use government promotional material to promote the benefits
  of uncleanliness (i.e the great benefits of sores and bubonic
  plague)
  
  
  
• 
  
  drink less tap water, only consume bottled water
  
  
  
• 
  
  use rainwater for watering garden, washing etc.
  
  
• 
  
  obey restrictions on water usage in times of water stress.

Government will:

• 
  
  ensure adequate supplies of safe, clean, affordable drinking water
  (so there will be no water restrictions to obey, right?)
  
  
  
• 
  
  regulate to ensure that new and renovated buildings incorporate water
  saving features as standard - except when building houses for Labour voters in
  marginal wards.
  
  
  
• 
  
  work with the industry and the regulator to tackle leakage and wasted PR
  opportunities
  
  
  
• 
  
  promote efficient use of water although will stop short of issuing
  penalties
  
  
• place a brick in all Westminster lavatories
  
  
• 
  
  provide incentives for companies to supply bottled tap water at a high
  price to citizens
  
  
  
• 
  
  offer rainwater barrels to citizens on a cost recovery
  basis
  
  
• 
  
  commission research into the effects of climate change on the
  availability and quality of water in the UK
  
  
• 
  
  ensure that planning authorities are obliged to take into account
  availability of water when considering planning applications
  
  
• 
  
  work with the farming and water industries to tackle the problem of
  diffuse water pollution from agriculture 

What would an environmental contract for sustainable finance look like? My
faaaaace. My beautiful faaaaaaace.

Citizens will:

• understand the impact of their savings and investments on environment and
  society;
  
• spend the financial gains from their savings and investments in a
  sustainable manner;
  
• explore ways that they can use their investments to support sustainable
  businesses and promote one planet living;
  
• ensure that their voice is heard by voting at company annual general
  meetings in a way that supports sustainable business;
  
• check that their fund manager is actively voting their shares in a way
  that is consistent with the principles of one planet living;
  
• request regular reports on the responsible ownership actions of their
  product providers;
  
• ask fund managers for the portfolio of companies where their money is
  invested and check that the companies in these portfolios are consistent with
  their own principles;
  
• encourage neighbours to think about the environment when saving and
  investing.

In return, government will:

• provide access to high quality, fictional information on how savings and
  investments impact on environment and society;
  
• ensure that consumers are asked whether they would want advice on one
  planet finance as part of their general financial advice;
  
• give simple advice to customers on what information they should ask
  financial institutions to provide;
  
• provide better access to information to consumers on company voting to
  individual investors.

The finance sector will:

• provide a range of sustainable savings and investment products that
  support one planet living;
  
• expand the range of financial products in which environmental and social
  factors are taken into account integrate environmental and social
  considerations within ‘mainstream’ financial analysis and decision making;
  
• be long-term in the way that it analyses companies and ensure that it does
  not actively encourage company directors to externalise costs on the
  environment;
  
• seek to grow assets under management in specialist sustainable and
  responsible investment funds (including both negatively and positively
  screened funds);
  
• bring market failures that are detrimental to sustainable development to
  the attention of government policy makers, and support corrective action;
  
• formally recognise in policy statements that there are responsibilities of
  share ownership that arise from electing company directors to represent their
  interests, including challenging and supporting these directors to ensure that
  the company is developing in a sustainable way;
  
• uphold the responsibilities of share ownership by actively voting at
  company annual general meetings;
  
• be transparent to its clients by providing information on performance,
  portfolio and votes;
  
• identify opportunities to increase resource productivity, reduce energy
  consumption and minimise waste.
  
• ensure charges to citizens do not exceed 10% annually
  
• move to a less rigidly regulated country, leaving the City of London in
  tatters.
  

In return government will

• give public recognition to financial institutions that practice
  sustainable and responsible investment;
  
• incentivise sustainable and responsible finance through fiscal measures;
  
• focus on changing investment culture and building long term sustainable
  mandates;
  
• launch a sustainable investment task force at a great expense to the tax
  payer;
  
• enforce regulations to prevent other financial institutions, such as the
  government, free riding on the responsible ownership activity of others;
  
• provide advice and support programmes to the finance sector, including
  specific guidance for pensions schemes promoting the production of an annual
  report explaining what actions have been taken in support of the social,
  ethical and environmental clause within the Statement of Investment
  Principles;
  
• not be afraid to legislate to deal with market failures in a way that
  enhances long term investment returns;
  
• ensure that all government funds are invested in a sustainable and
  responsible way;
  
• use all future public procurement of investment services to deliver
  Government policy commitments to sustainable development through markets
  
• sustain the DEFRA/DTI/HMT focus on environmental technologies (including
  renewable energy, water treatment, waste management etc) and sustainable
  production and consumption.
  
• blame the Tories and their policies when things go
  wrong.