An Englishman's Castle

November 18, 2009

The Dunning–Kruger effect

How the Dunning-Kruger effect will stop techies buying houses • The Register

The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which "people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it". The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than actuality; by contrast the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. This leads to a perverse result where less competent people will rate their own ability higher than relatively more competent people. It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding.

...Those in the FSA are, by definition, those not good enough, or not competent enough, to be making millions somewhere in the bowels of a bank. They are those only sufficiently competent to earn a pencil sharpener's salary, and that's why they are where they are.
Thus when you decide 18 months into your contracting life that you want to buy a house and find you cannot get the finance, you can nod knowingly and mutter 'Dunning-Kruger'. Those who made the rules were those who quite simply overvalued their own skills and knowledge, and thus made the rule that will trip you up.
We also see exactly the same effect right across the activities of those who would rule us. Take, for example, the EU's insistence that hedge funds must now be regulated. Hedge funds didn't have anything to do with the crash or the recession, but those making the rules in the EU are sufficiently incompetent that they've decided that because there were lots of people making lots of money, they must have had something to do with it.
Now we might think that there's a simple solution to this: string up the idiots from the lamp posts and let's get on with it ourselves. After all, we all know what should be done to make the world a better place. But that's where we come to the second part of our problem. We who do in fact know the right course of action don't think that we do: we suffer from illusory inferiority. So we just keep our heads down and get on with what we really do know how to do: coding, running large and complex systems, and, you know, just in general demonstrating competence and knowledge while those without either are the only ones who put themselves forward to try and run the world....
Quite what the solution to all of this might be is difficult. If it really is true that only the incompetent have the self-confidence to put themselves forward to try and rule us all, then it makes anarchy remarkably attractive.

Quite - and I'm sure you can supply your own examples....

Posted by The Englishman at 11:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 5, 2009

Refurbishing the Sty

Speaker orders £20,000 re-fit - Scotsman.com News

He needs to make it more suitable and safe for little people...£7,524.30 on a new sofa and window seat cushions for the drawing room....£3,600 has been spent on fitting locks to the windows and having workmen check that access ducts in the wall panelling are lockable or childproof....In the kitchen, a new large clock is being provided at a cost of £80, together with a noticeboard and blackboard, costing £86.73, a hob guard at £47.88. Quite right, you wouldn't want boiling oil tipping all over the little chap, would you.

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July 1, 2009

ID database to continue to grow

Labour in retreat as ID card plan is axed - Scotsman.com News

THE government was accused of being "in chaos" last night after it all but abandoned its flagship identity card scheme.

Not so fast - PR reports

And yet Johnson is resolutely refusing to simply scrap the scheme, claiming that it would save little money to do so. That implies to me that the Identity Database, with the details of every UK resident, will still be operational and (one presumes) compulsary - although instead of relying on ‘applications for ID cards’ it will rely on consolidating data from passport applications, CRB checks and other sources. The Database will still come into being, and will still need to be populated with information about every citizen if it is to be any use at all.
Given that this aspect, rather than the plastic cards themselves, was the original concern of civil liberties campaigners, the announcement that the expensive cards themselves will not be compulsory could quickly appear to be spectacularly hollow.

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August 8, 2008

Darling, say something, anything, or I won't be able to complete.

Deals cancelled as Chancellor stays silent on stamp duty - Times Online

Alistair Darling was resisting calls last night to make an announcement on stamp duty despite evidence that homebuyers are delaying purchases because of the uncertainty surrounding the tax.

Estate agents reported that buyers were pulling out of purchases and cancelling viewings in the hope that they would avoid paying the tax if they waited until later in the year.

The Chancellor withdrew from an interview linked to the subject last night, two days after refusing to rule out that he planned to suspend stamp duty temporarily in an attempt to stimulate the housing market.

Mr Darling had said that he was considering a number of measures to “help people with housing”. His remarks provoked widespread speculation that the measure would be introduced this autumn.

Brilliant - absolutely brilliant! Only an idiot would complete on a house purchase until this is ruled either way. So his leaking of how he will help the market has ruined it. I suppose he has to wait for the Ditherer to complete his sandcastle and come to a decision first.

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January 8, 2008

他人の不幸は蜜の味, tanin no fukou wa mitsu no aji,

Poll wipes the smile off Gordon Brown makeover - Times Online

Gordon Brown suffers a triple blow today in his attempt to relaunch his premiership as a Times poll reveals a big slide in his leadership ratings and a new report attacks the way that Labour has handled medical training.

The day after Mr Brown made health the centrepiece of his new year fightback, an influential report seen by The Times will propose that responsibility for doctor training should be taken from the Department of Health and handed to a new body.

Furthermore, Mr Brown today faces more unwelcome headlines over sleaze...

Hillary Clinton close to tears as cracks begin to show - Times Online

Hillary Clinton came close to tears during a campaign stop in New Hampshire as new polls showed her trailing Barack Obama on the eve of the crucial state primary.

Is it too early to crack open something bubbly to have with the Corn Flakes, as it does seem to be a day for good news.

(In Japanese, the phrase 他人の不幸は蜜の味, tanin no fukou wa mitsu no aji, translates literally as "others' misfortunes are the taste of honey" - Schadenfreude - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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December 29, 2007

What an Honour

The New Year Honours list - Telegraph

Tom Kelly, one of Tony Blair's official spokesmen is to be given The Order of the Bath.

Calling John George Haigh , there is work to be done....

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December 28, 2007

27% of Iain Dale's Readers are scum

- that is the only conclusion that can be reached from Iain Dale's Diary: End of Year Awards: Devolved & International Politicians.

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December 26, 2007

Peter Watt is likely to face prosecution for his role in Donorgate

Donorgate police 'to press criminal charges' - Telegraph

The scandal over the Labour Party's £670,000 illegal donations will return to haunt Gordon Brown in the New Year as criminal charges may be imminent, according to an authoritative Whitehall source.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that those leading the investigation into the so-called "donorgate" affair will complete their inquiries as early as the end of next month.

The source has said that Peter Watt, who resigned as Labour's general secretary, may be facing criminal charges over his role in the worst fundraising controversy since Labour took power in 1997.

The development will overshadow attempts by Mr Brown to regain the political initiative in the New Year after a disastrous last quarter of 2007.

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December 24, 2007

Churchill on The Home Secretary Detaining Suspects Without Trial

DEFENCE REGULATION 18B
A SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
OCTOBER 21, 1941

NOTE.—This speech was made in the course of a debate concerning the Home Secretary’s powers of detaining persons under Defence Regulation 18b and the prevention of Mr. McGovern, M.P., from visiting Northern Ireland.

THERE is no part of the powers conferred on His Majesty Government in this time of trial that I view with greater repugnance than these powers of exceptional process against the liberty of the subject without the ordinary safeguards which are inherent in British life. Those high-sounding familiar phrases like “ Habeas Corpus,” “ petitioner’s right,” “ charges made which known to the law,” and “ trial by jury “—all these are part of what we are fighting to preserve. We all care about them and understand them, and we are determined that they shall not be trespassed upon by anything except the need of self-preservation which arises in time of war.
I recognize that this legislation and the Regulations which are based upon it were passed at a moment of great danger. It possible that if in this lull—-and it is only a lull—the matter were considered, the House would be in a different temper. I must say that I should feel very proud and happy if I could come down to the House, even while the war was going on, and say, “Our position is now so good and solid, we now see the path before us so firm and clear, that even in time of war we can of our own free will give back these special powers.” Unhappily that is not the case at present. The time may come, but not now. In the meanwhile, I cannot conceive how Parliament can better keep control over the use of these abnormal powers than by insisting upon their being exercised in the discretion of a Minister present in the House and accountable to the House. The Minister has been made accountable to the House. He has come down to-day and has explained in the greatest detail his use of the powers in a particular case. I should think he feels it a most objectionable thing to have this discretionary power conferred on him ; but such a discretionary power there must be, and there must be a choosing between this and that. The House has given the power, and I am bound to say that the manner in which my right Hon. Friend has explained the whole position has brought home to the House, first, the submissiveness of the Executive to Parliamentary institutions, and secondly, the care with which these powers are exercised.
For my part, I hope that the day may come as speedily as possible, even before the end of the war, when we may be able to relieve ourselves of these exceptional powers, or some of them. In the meanwhile, I feel that we are entitled to ask from the House a general measure of support for the Minister charged with exercising them. There can be no question of going behind the powers of the House. The powers of the House are over-riding and inalienable, and everything that is done s done on the responsibility of the House, be it right or be it wrong The House has power to wreck the pro-posed action, provided, of course, it is confident that it is representing the country in the course which it is taking. Therefore, I hope the Debate when it ends may leave the impression that there has been no derogation from the authority and freedom of Parliamentary institutions I particularly resent the suggestion that we are adopting the methods of Fascist States We are not We are the Servants of the House. It may be true that the House will support its servants, but if it does not the powers in their hands are without effect, and so long as that fact is established it is absolutely improper, as well as unhelpful, to place us upon the level of totalitarian Governments which have no corrective legislature, no law but their own wills, no check on the enforcement of their own particular doctrines in any way they choose.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Iain and Tim both wrong

Iain Dale and Tim Worstall are at oppositie ends of the argument as to how much MPs should get paid.
Iain as a wannabe MP thinks MPs ought to be paid gazillions, and having learnt how he has had to sell the roof from over his head to finance his attempts to become one, he argues with some passion. His disinterested argument is simply, you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Tim can be summed up that as we only get monkeys they only deserve peanuts, and that is generous as a length of hempen rope and a lamp post would be more fitting for most.

There is a simple, fairer and more democratic answer. Let prospective MPs, like a job applicant say what their salary expectations are. Put it in their manifestos. "I'm worth £100,00 a year and double that in expenses because I'm jolly clever and will work hard". We will soon judge who is worth what.

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Pass the sick-bag, Alice

‘Judge not Tony Blair, for he is like St Paul’ -Times Online

The Roman Catholic priest who was instrumental in guiding Tony Blair on his path to Rome compared the former Prime Minister last night to St Paul.

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December 23, 2007

Before the fiddlers have fled..

Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park' - Telegraph

As central banks continue to splash their cash over the system, so far to little effect, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues things are rapidly spiralling out of their control

Twenty billion dollars here, $20bn there, and a lush half-trillion from the European Central Bank at give-away rates for Christmas. Buckets of liquidity are being splashed over the North Atlantic banking system, so far with meagre or fleeting effects....

"Liquidity doesn't do anything in this situation," says Anna Schwartz, the doyenne of US monetarism and life-time student (with Milton Friedman) of the Great Depression.

"It cannot deal with the underlying fear that lots of firms are going bankrupt. The banks and the hedge funds have not fully acknowledged who is in trouble. That is the critical issue," she adds....

York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, says the global authorities have just weeks to get this right, or trigger disaster.

"The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard," he says

"They still have another couple of months before this starts imploding. Things are very unstable and can move incredibly fast. I don't think the central banks are going to make a major policy error, but if they do, this could make 1929 look like a walk in the park,"
....

Worse, changes pushed through by Gordon Brown in 1998 have caused the de facto cash and liquid assets ratio to collapse from post-war levels above 30 per cent to near zero. "Brown hadn't got a clue what he was doing," he says.

The risk for Britain - as property buckles - is a twin banking and fiscal squeeze. The UK budget deficit is already 3 per cent of GDP at the peak of the economic cycle, shockingly out of line with its peers. America looks frugal by comparison.

Maastricht rules may force the Government to raise taxes or slash spending into a recession. This way lies crucifixion. The UK current account deficit was 5.7 per cent of GDP in the second quarter, the highest in half a century. Gordon Brown has disarmed us on every front....

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

Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill and while we still have the chance
Let's face the music and dance

Soon we'll be without the moon, humming a different tune and then
There may be teardrops to shed
So while there's moonlight and music and love and romance
Let's face the music and dance

Posted by The Englishman at 7:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Brittania in bondage

New power to seize passports - Times Online
GORDON BROWN has set himself on a collision course with the legal establishment over plans to give civil servants and government agencies the power to remove people’s passports without going through the courts.

As the new year approaches remember you are merely the State's chattel, your rights and freedoms dependent on the whim of the People's Leader, the Glorious Gordon, and his representatives on earth.....

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Brown Wounded by Lack Of Army Equipment

Brown hits back at ex-military chiefs' criticism of forces' equipment - Scotsman.com News

THE equipment available to British troops in the field is better than it has been for years, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, insisted yesterday
Mr Brown told British Forces Broadcasting Service that the country's troops deserved "nothing but the best," hitting back at retired military chiefs who have questioned his commitment to the armed forces.

The government has faced persistent accusations that the military is under-resourced and morale is low.

Mr Brown said it was "totally unfair" to question his commitment to the armed forces: "Over the last few years, despite difficult circumstances … we have tried our best not only to give decent settlements so that there is the money to do everything necessary, but also where there is an urgent operational requirement, we changed the system so that the equipment can get there more quickly.

"I think the evidence on the ground is that the equipment people have is a lot better than it was a few years ago

After his long and dangerous tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan Brown knows better than those pathetic grumblers in Uniform, why as soon as he landed he was issued with brand new well fitting body armour, what more could anyone want? And when needs are urgent he is the man to fiddle with "the system" so that procurement and budget agreement meetings can take only months to start happening, don't these ungrateful squaddies realise how hard it is to get things moving in the Civil Service, they should have more patience whilst he has to wrestle with the dangers of preparing a budget policy.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 21, 2007

Calling Doctor Principal Agent to cure the NHS

BBC NEWS | Health | Row breaks out over doctor hours
Doctors and the government are at loggerheads over getting GPs to work in the evenings and weekends.

The British Medical Association, the doctors' trade union, wants to offer two extra hours a week for every 6,000 patients.

The average GP has a list of 2,000 patients meaning doctors would only need to do an extra 40 minutes.

The government, however, wants to see three extra hours for every 6,000 patients.

Officials also said the profession has been offered £100m to do this

Another example of
how the market doesn't work properly when the real customers are those who commission a product rather than those who use it. It is, for example, businesses, not the householder, that choose the courier service that makes you stay in all day in case it calls...“Ah,” said Danny, “this conundrum is well known to economists. They call it the Principal-Agent Problem. There are whole chapters in textbooks about it.”

I'm not actually sure when my Doctor does actually see his patients as I haven't managed to get hold of him now for years...

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Out and Proud to be a Tory

Poll puts Tories 12 points ahead of Labour - Telegraph

The findings - which follow the Northern Rock crisis and the lost child benefits record scandal - underlines the reversal in Mr Brown's fortunes and the loss of public faith in him as Prime Minister.

I think more importantly people are now prepared to admit they are closet Tories, for too long it has been like admitting you wear mink lined underwear and listen to Daniel O'Donnell records. A combination of Dave's campaign to rid the party of the Nasty tag and the sheer unignorable ineptitude and incompetence of Labour seem to have finally worked.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 20, 2007

Good news for divorcing men and errant fathers

BBC NEWS | Politics | UK 'should outlaw paying for sex'

Commons Leader Harriet Harman has told the BBC she wants the law to be changed to make it illegal to pay for sex.

Posted by The Englishman at 9:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Follow the Star

The politics of fairylights | Robert Crampton - Times Online

Electrified Yuletide illumination is about more than mere decorations, it's about class warfare

Driving into my home town of Hull last weekend through the affluent villages and suburbs to its west, I was met by a blaze of light: snowmen, sleighs, Santas, each villa, semi and bungalow putting on a silvery show to rival Las Vegas. This is safe Tory territory, David Davis's seat no less, and a seasonal reminder that along with low tax and low immigration, traditional Conservatives love high camp. Probably for the best, then, that David Cameron has given up trying to wean his core voters off their addiction to ruinous electricity bills. ..

A mere three or four miles farther into town, you come to the Avenues, a Victorian enclave near the university, the Hampstead of Hull, home to the city's middle-class lefty community, such as it is. Here, in the safe Labour seat of Hull North, lies another feast for the student of flashing festive festoonery, the point being that there isn't any. Complete blackout. It's as if all the lecturers and teachers were worried the Luftwaffe is still overhead poised to unload. The Professor Emeritus of Economic History who lives opposite my parents has a wreath on his door the size of a saucer. My mum and dad, I notice, have gone for the single red star in the porch, Kremlin-style. Further up the road, someone (probably a Liberal) has gone for the single word display: HUMBUG. A compromise of sorts, yet not doing much to undermine the idea that of all the reasons the Left will never be truly popular in this country, the fact that it mistrusts anything popular is the strongest.

It is always the ex-Council House with the biggest display, the hard grafter who benefited from Thatcher's legacy, if Cameron can get them back voting Tory he is a certainty. But I fear he is of the miserablist school of decorations.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 19, 2007

Not one in a million is fit to it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity

"My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) - or to `unconstitutional' Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word state (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate!"... "If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and the process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to `King George's council, Winston and his gang', it would do a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy"..."The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit to it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity" - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995), p. 63- 64.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 18, 2007

Hick Clog Wins Lib Dem Thingy - The Musical

Clogging Videos and Music

Learn how to do the old time Appalachian style of clogging known as “flat-footing”.

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Data Loss Fines

Record fine for Norwich Union error that left 7m at risk - Times Online
Norwich Union was fined a record £1.26 million yesterday after security failures at its call centres allowed fraudsters access to policyholders’ details and put almost seven million customers at risk of financial fraud.

I'm still searching through the papers to find out how much Government Ministers are going to be fined for scattering our personal data around like confetti. That Ruth Kelly ought to be good for about half a Bernie at that going rate.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 17, 2007

Ding Dong Merrily on High - Gordon is losing his marbles

Brown's future in doubt as Labour slide in polls - Telegraph

Gordon Brown has been accused of leading a Government in paralysis after a new poll showed Labour falling even further behind the Conservatives....

His personal approval has now slumped from a 48 per cent net positive reading in the early weeks of his premiership to 26 per cent net negative now.

It came amid claims that Mr Brown is "too demoralised" to introduce new banking rules after the run on Northern Rock.

One senior Bank of England official told Irwin Stelzer, the economist and writer, that senior ministers were "unable to focus because morale throughout the Government is so low"...

However, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary regarded by Blairites as a possible successor to Mr Brown, insisted that the Government was not in crisis.

"It doesn't feel like meltdown at all," he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show. "This is a Government getting on with the big and difficult decisions. And Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog are going to have a really big adventure with lashings of ginger beer..."

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Had I a heart for falsehood framed - Sheridan

Had I a Heart for Falsehood Framed, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Had I a heart for falsehood framed,
I ne'er could injure you;
For though your tongue no promise claimed,
Your charms would make me true:
To you no soul shall bear deceit,
No stranger offer wrong;
But friends in all the aged you'll meet,
And lovers in the young.

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December 15, 2007

Brown's Bust is starting to hurt

Why the ‘R’ word can’t be ignored - Times Online

It is about now in the economic cycle that you hear the old refrain that we must not talk ourselves into a recession. With most indicators in the West pointing to a slowdown, business leaders and ministers frown at any mention of the R word, or worse, the S (for slump) word.

It sounds very responsible. Confidence, Keynes’s animal spirit, plays a huge part in determining economic outcomes. If every consumer stops spending, every businessman puts capital investment plans on hold, every investor retreats to cash, there will indeed be an economic freeze.

'Desperate' stores slash prices for Christmas - Telegraph

Retailers are offering their biggest pre-Christmas discounts as the credit crisis takes its toll on High Street spending.

Prices are being slashed at big-name stores, including Argos, BHS, Debenhams, Halfords, Toys R Us and Boots, with 80 per cent off the cost of some gifts in a "desperate attempt" to woo reluctant shoppers.

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December 14, 2007

Miliband - who dressed him?

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Friday Caption Contest has a picture of Gordon signing away the country. What took my eye was the boy Miliband standing alongside.
What a bloody disgrace he looks. Has he done the jacket up on the wrong buttons, or is it just a badly fitting cheap suit? He looks like a schoolboy whose Sunday Suit was bought last year and is being made to last for an extra year. Hasn't he got a mummy to dress him before he has a photo taken?

Prat.

And any excuse to republish his kiddie fiddler pose is good enough...

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Another Labour Success

Home Information Packs prove unpopular - Telegraph

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said only one per cent of potential buyers was asking to see the contents of a Hip when viewing a property.

From today, sellers of all residential properties in England and Wales are required to provide a Hip, at a cost of between £300 and £600.

James Scott-Lee, a spokesman for RICS, said: "The survey results clearly show the complete apathy potential buyers have for Hips. They are seen as an unnecessary added tax on the selling process that you can't even give away."

UK house prices now in freefall - RICS

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December 12, 2007

The true Labour vision of respect for law and due process

"Mr Clarkson had been accused of failing to name the driver on a speeding ticket, but the case was dropped before it even began."

"The summons was fatally flawed. They did not have any information as to who the driver was. They only had information as to who the car was loaned to.

"The form wasn't completed correctly."

Neil Harding ...stupid libertarian reason about incriminating yourself... for protecting the wealthy...procedural technicality...most people would not have found this loophole and would have paid the fine straight away without going to court and costing the taxpayer a fortune. Clarkson did the crime but refuses to pay the fine. You know it, I know it and so does he. He is immoral and smug and deserves punishment....I think the case should be resubmitted and Clarkson tried properly rather than getting away on a technicality.

So the CPS cock up, and our favourite Labourite wants to bang up a rich man just "because", thank goodness we still have an independent British Legal System, until the EU and nuLabour take it over...

Posted by The Englishman at 5:59 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Iraqi Interpreters - Government is “wriggling out” of its promise

Britain's breach of honour over Iraq interpreters - Times Online
More than half the Iraqi interpreters who applied to come to live in Britain have had their applications rejected, drawing accusations that the Government is “wriggling out” of its promise to help former Iraqi employees.

The Times has learnt that 125 of the 200 interpreters who took up the offer to resettle in Britain have failed to meet the strict criteria laid down for eligibility.

The revelation challenges Gordon Brown’s pledge in August that the Government would fulfil its “duty of care” to those who had served with British troops.

Utter utter shits - and as a commentator on the The Times says :"And yet, Britain actively seeks the return of those 4 inmates at Guantanamo Bay....."

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December 10, 2007

Move along, nothing to see.

Labour's 'secret' Scottish donor gave £300,000 - Telegraph

Labour has failed to disclose that it has received more than £300,000 from a Scottish entrepreneur whose identity was not disclosed to electoral watchdogs.

Imran Khand is said to have sent the money to the party via a "secretive front organisation".

Hidden away on the inside pages; this scandal is losing its legs, the crisis is nearly over unless a new major revelation is uncovered. The truth is that the public aren't bothered; "so they are a bunch of conniving crooks, they all are, so what? We knew that already....."

Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 9, 2007

Redwood vision

The EU and Africa sign up for democracy - who’s kidding who? | John Redwood's Diary
When I first heard the news that the EU-Africa summit would produce a declaration to promote democracy at its heart I marvelled that African dictators had a sense of humour forcing this statement onto a reluctant EU. The EU after all is famed for ignoring the wishes of voters at every turn. They tell countries that hold referenda to re-run them if they reach the wrong answer. They work with secretive governments to throttle promised referenda at all costs....

John Redwood is on top form, read the whole post and other recent ones such as Belgium shows you don’t need a government and how FI car manufacture sets the standards

The production areas are clean. Although they are cutting metal and using cooling fluids and oil, they ensure all floors and work surfaces are kept dirt free.

The production areas are uncluttered. There is no stock of parts and materials and discarded components littering the workplace.

There is a can do approach. People do not say they cannot change one of the car’s components this week because they are going on holiday or a bit busy. If it needs changing for the race, someone in the team changes it....If men in a car plant can deliver a required standard of cleanliness , can’t we expect the same of staff in a hospital? If it is possible to combine senior management making or agreeing all the big judgements with rapid decision making and devolved authority at an F1 factory, can’t we do the same in the NHS?

Posted by The Englishman at 10:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Bring on the Hounds

Maybe the Tories aren’t so barking mad after all | Rod Liddle - Times Online
Dogs are notoriously right-of-centre creatures, of course; loyal, patriotic, implacably pro-hunting, wedded to the idea of the monogamous heterosexual middle-class family unit, deeply suspicious – to the point of violence – of all aliens.

Dogs – even the most stupid dalmatian or red setter – understand such half-forgotten terms as obedience, duty and discipline. Tell them to chase a stick and they will do so, without questioning why or contacting a lawyer and filing a complaint to a tribunal. Tell them to shut up and sit down and they will do so, with a chastened expression.

Until quite recently they were the country’s favourite pet – but about 10 years ago (oddly enough) they were usurped by the sinister and poisonous cats. There are now many more of these insinuating, manipulative, indolent left-liberal beasts in Britain: ask a cat to chase a stick and it will yawn, urinate on your carpet and then sit on the roof of the shed for the rest of the day in a catatonic stupor. Decadent and idle, they rub themselves up against your leg in a sexually incontinent manner. They are urban creatures, symbolic of an atomised and insular society which has lost its way.

The political debate in this country always lags behind cultural changes; the good news for David Cameron is that dogs are back.

You just can't imagine Gordon Brown with a dog can you, stoking a white cat yes, but a solid dependable Labrador, leave that to David Cameron..

Posted by The Englishman at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 8, 2007

Illegal immigrant to face police questions after 50 years here.

Please look after this migrating bear – Paddington gets political - Times Online
The authorities have finally rumbled the nation’s most famous illegal immigrant.

At a time of heightened sensitivity to mass immigration, the refugee background of Paddington Bear has persuaded Michael Bond to write his first novel about him for 29 years.

In a surprisingly political opening chapter to Paddington Here and Now police interrogate the duffelcoat-wearing stowaway from darkest Peru about his residency status and right to remain in England.

The novel is to be published next June to mark the 50th anniversary of the debut of the character in A Bear Called Paddington

Jacqui Smith is promising an inquiry into this lapse and is blaming previous Tory and Blairite Governments for not tackling the problem sooner.

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Labour claimed to know the law on donations, at our expense.

Labour got a £180,000 grant to train staff about donations law - Times Online
Labour was paid £180,000 from public funds to help party officials to understand new funding rules shortly before it began accepting secret donations from a property developer, The Times can reveal.

The party applied for and received a “start-up grant” from the Electoral Commission to meet the costs of abiding by the law on declaring donations that Labour had itself enacted. It was for training staff in the duties imposed by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and was specifically for the party to prepare for its requirements on submitting accounts and declaring donations above £5,000.

Ouch, that makes the "Oh we thought they were legal" argument even flimsier, not that ignorance is any excuse.
Who actually received the training? It can't have been Peter Watt, or Jon Mendelson, or Jack Dromedary because they didn't know, did they.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:18 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 7, 2007

"It was the Joos wot done it"

David Abrahams: I feared Jewish conspiracy accusations - Times Online
The property developer at the centre of Labour’s “donorgate” crisis said last night that he had given money secretly to avoid accusations of being part of a Jewish conspiracy. David Abrahams also warned the Government he will come out fighting if ministers start “hammering” him over the row.

In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Mr Abrahams said all his money had been “earned legitimately”, and none of it had come from Israel, as had been alleged. Mr Abrahams said he was now being linked with Lord Levy, Tony Blair’s chief fundraiser who was investigated in the “cash for honours” inquiry, and Jon Mendelsohn, Labour’s new chief fundraiser. “Some of the things written about me have been terrible. Now they are saying there was a Jewish conspiracy, with Lord Levy, Jon Mendelsohn and me, and that is ridiculous.” ... “The real reason I wanted to remain anonymous was that I didn’t want Jewish money and the Labour Party being put together because this is what I feared would happen. People would say there’s a Jewish conspiracy.”

It has actually amazed and impressed me how the "Jewish" angle to Labour funding has been ignored. I hope it is a sign that we are all grown up enough not to indulge in sly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories rather than us all been too afraid to mention it.

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

December 6, 2007

Data Disc Losses - even more!

HMRC boss admits to more data losses - Telegraph

The boss of the HM Revenue and Customs, who has presided over the loss of two discs with the details of 25 million people on, has admitted there have been seven other significant data losses in recent years.

The Tories last night said his comments directly contradict assertions by Chancellor Alistair Darling, who has insisted that the loss was an isolated incident.

And that is the ones they know about. If you were a Junior who had posted off some discs and you get a call a day or so later asking where they were wouldn't you just press the copy button again and send them off again without telling anyone - it might be your fault they hadn't arrived and who needs the trouble?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Brown U-Turn due to lack of support

Retreat on 56-day terror detentions - Telegraph

Ministers are to abandon proposals to hold terrorist suspects for up to 56 days without charge under new plans.

Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will concede that they do not have the necessary support to increase the present limit of 28 days after a public outcry over the planned rise.

A "compromise arrangement" is to be proposed which would require the Home Secretary to seek the approval of Parliament if police wish to hold someone for more than 28 days.

The about-turn is an embarrassment to the Prime Minister who had pledged to increase the time terrorism suspects can be held without charge...

As he had no support from those at the sharp end of fighting terrorism , no support from many senior parliamentarians, no support from the opposition and an uneasy public worrying about this renewed assault on our liberties, all he had were the loyal Brownites to support it, and they are increasingly hard to find....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 5, 2007

Lost in News

BBC NEWS | News Front Page

Oh goody, a proper old Christmas Miss Marple story of the man with no memory, the run away wife, the insurance money; just the stuff to give the people - I mean there wasn't any other news fit for the front page, was there?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 4, 2007

The Daily Wendy - Like a Puppet on a string

‘You can’t quit over donations row – or Harman may be next’ - Times Online
Gordon Brown’s election chief, Douglas Alexander, ordered his sister not to resign as Scottish Labour Party leader for fear of causing fallout throughout the Cabinet.

The disclosure that Mr Alexander put pressure on his sister, Wendy Alexander, came as Peter Hain admitted failing to register donations properly and as the Prime Minister tried to rally his demoralised party at a meeting of backbenchers.

If Ms Alexander had resigned over an illegal £950 donation, pressure on Harriet Harman to step down as Mr Brown’s deputy over an illegal donation of £5,500 could have proved irresistible.

Labour sources told The Times that it had been made plain to Ms Alexander that if she fell on her sword over the illegal money from a Jersey-based businessman, it would be difficult for Ms Harman not to follow suit. “That would have left Gordon incredibly exposed,” the source said.

One source told The Times: “She was completely down and incredibly angry. She wanted to go but then the message came from London: you must stay. After that we had to decide how to present her decision as a decision made by her.”

She is being hung out to dry by her Lords and Masters in Westminster and bang goes any notion of the Scottish Labour Party being anything other than the plaything of the National Party. Standing by her man whilst she is walked all over - take it away Wendy!

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

December 3, 2007

Poster Boy

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy:
BBC NEWS HAIN "THERE ARE MORE DONATIONS"

Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wendy Alexander standing by her man

Scotsman.com News - Defiant Alexander says: I did nothing wrong

I see a great future for her as a Country and Western Singer bitching how her man has let her down....

Just letting you go
I did nothing wrong

You're the one who makes all the rules
Chatting with my friends
Telling me, girl you're the fool
And, I should give a call in him
Stop saying that I still love him
He knows
What he does
But he knows
How to get me back

I am letting you go
I did nothing wrong
Setting you free
It was not my bad at all

Just letting you go
I did nothing wrong
Take care of your heart
It was not my bad at all

Posted by The Englishman at 7:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 2, 2007

Vote for me I'm an Idiot.

We’re fools, not knaves, is a hollow defence, Mr Bean | Martin Ivens - Times Online

"Humbly beg to report, sir, I’m an idiot,” was the excuse the good soldier Schweik gave his army superiors for breaches of discipline. Labour is falling back on this humiliating but necessary scuttle in the “Donorgate” affair. The best defence they can now muster is that they are fools, not knaves.

And this seems to be the training scheme video...

Posted by The Englishman at 7:23 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Scottish Schadenfreude - Your Daily Wendy Alexander Update

Scotsman.com News - Alexander tycoon up for honour

THE businessman at the centre of the Wendy Alexander donation scandal was backed for an honour by senior figures in the Labour Party, it emerged last night.

MSP Charlie Gordon, who resigned last week as Labour's transport spokesman after it emerged he arranged an illegal donation from Jersey tycoon Paul Green, has now admitted he earlier supported the same businessman for an unspecified honour.

Green's spokeswoman last night confirmed he had been in line for an honour and claimed that four other Labour figures were involved in writing letters of recommendation....

Scotsman.com News - Scottish Labour Party - Alexander the not so great

PACING up and down her office on Thursday lunchtime, Wendy Alexander furiously surveyed the wreckage of her week. She had just been assailed by a media scrum not seen in the Scottish Parliament since the last, ghastly hours of Henry McLeish.

The Labour leader is not good in a crisis, says one aide who has worked alongside her for years. "When things go badly, she finds it difficult to accept - and she struggles to accept that somebody else might have a better idea about how to solve it." But her problems were just beginning. Today, this protege of Gordon Brown, who has always believed that she will one day lead her country as First Minister, is contemplating the battered remains of her career.

The SNP, meanwhile, is revelling in schadenfreude. When Labour introduced a law barring those not on the UK electoral register from donating to political parties, the Nationalists smelled a rat; this was clearly a ruse aimed at preventing Bahamas-based Sir Sean Connery from funding them. A decade on, that same change in the law has rebounded on Labour with a vengeance.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Looks like The Times has got Abrahams on side

Donorgate: 10 Labour bosses knew - Times Online
David Abrahams has claimed there are 10 party officials who were aware of his "illegal" arrangement to fund it secretly

How Abrahams could afford to give £670,000 to Labour

He needs a bit of good press to support him as his old friends in the Party turn nasty. I wonder whose Christmas Card list he is still on?

Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gunboat Diplomacy

Navy would struggle to fight a war - report - Telegraph

With an "under-resourced" fleet composed of "ageing and operationally defective ships", the Navy would struggle even to repeat its role in the Iraq war and is now "far more vulnerable to unexpected shocks", the top-level Ministry of Defence document says.

The report was ordered by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, who had intended to use it to "counter criticism" on the state of the Navy in the media and from opposition parties.

But in a damning conclusion, the report states: "The current material state of the fleet is not good; the Royal Navy would be challenged to mount a medium-scale operation in accordance with current policy against a technologically capable adversary." A medium-scale operation is similar to the naval involvement in the Iraq War.

The document adds that the Navy is too "thinly stretched", its fighting capability is being "eroded" and the fleet's ability to influence events at the strategic level is "under threat".

Underfunding and all that, but is it really the best use of naval funds to be splashing £4 billion?l out on the two new aircraft carriers. Their role is to be "power projection" or as it is normally known "willy waving". They will be too big and too valuable to be allowed near any conflict as a beardie in an inflatable with a "special" suitcase can disable them. We need the money spent on small agile adaptable kit, the sort of stuff that can be used for regime change, the sort of stuff that can sail up rivers and park outside Parliament buildings.....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 1, 2007

Inside No 10 this morning

Gordon Brown in the eye of the storm - Telegraph
"It's terrible," admits a minister close to Brown. "None of it is Gordon's fault, but life's not fair. Gordon is stoical: he's got his head down."

But others suggest that the Prime Minister is rather less than stoical. There are concerns about his temperament, with stories circulating in the Commons tea-room of his rages against the so-called "garden-room girls", the secretaries at Number 10. "There is talk of tempers, that he even threw a mobile phone," says one MP, who is not tied to the Brownite or Blairite camps.

"The most dangerous thing for Gordon is pity," says a former minister. "People are starting to pity him, and pity is much more worrying than fear or loathing."

Posted by The Englishman at 7:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 30, 2007

Looks like they could suck an hard boiled egg through a straw

Pete Burns and Wendy Alexander - which one is the washed up has been?

Posted by The Englishman at 7:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The bar has broken releasing the flood, the debacle starts.

Harman implicates Brown | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader, was forced to implicate Gordon Brown deeper into the donor scandal last night as Scotland Yard was called in to investigate the affair.

Harman revealed it had been Brown's campaign coordinator, former minister Chris Leslie, who was running Brown's leadership campaign, who had recommended she seek a donation from Janet Kidd, the proxy of David Abrahams, the controversial businessman who has secretly bankrolled the party with £600,000.

It gets better and better. The whole playground is full of kids now running round pointing fingers at each other, and all the time the head prefect, the one who boasted of his micromanagement and knowledge of everything that was going on, expresses surprise and ignorance of the causes of the whole debacle. He obviously never wondered where the money was coming from....

Philology note - My spell checker failed to recognise debacle so I double checked I had it right - I think it definitely ought to be word of the day...

de·ba·cle (dĭ-bä'kəl, -băk'əl, dĕb'ə-kəl)
n.

1. A sudden, disastrous collapse, downfall, or defeat; a rout.
2. A total, often ludicrous failure.
3. The breaking up of ice in a river.
4. A violent flood.

[French débâcle, from débâcler, to unbar, from Old French desbacler : des-, de- + bacler, to bar (from Vulgar Latin *bacculāre, from Latin baculum, rod).]

Posted by The Englishman at 7:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The Oleaginous One's Error

Hain failed to register donation | UK Latest | Guardian Unlimited
Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has admitted that he failed to register a £5,000 donation to his deputy leadership campaign by Labour's new chief fund raiser.

Mr Hain blamed an "administrative error" for the failure

It must only be an "administrative error" that prevents the orange faced bouffant bag of wind from decorating my local petrol station like Clara Petacci.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 29, 2007

Gordon Brown and The Home Secretary go the Police Station

Tough questioning to follow....

Hat Tip The Three Line Whip

Posted by The Englishman at 9:54 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Mr Brown's Record on Prudence

Northern Rock continues borrowing | Business | Reuters
Northern Rock may have borrowed as much as 29 billion pounds from the Bank of England since its crisis began, after a jump in loans last week, according to Bank data.

Northern Rock is likely to have borrowed 2.7 billion pounds last week, up from an estimated 1.1 billion pounds in the previous week, the latest Bank balance sheet data showed on Thursday.

What's the total going to be, and will we get it back?

Posted by The Englishman at 8:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Mr Brown's Record on the NHS

Hospital blunders 'kill 90,000 patients' - Telegraph

More than 90,000 patients die and almost one million are harmed each year because of hospital blunders, research suggests.

Mr Brown said he would be judged on his record for investing in the NHS and education.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Magi from the (North) East came bearing gifts

Hunt for 'mystery benefactor' in Gordon Brown's donations scandal - Telegraph

Fears are growing within the party that David Abrahams, who hid his identity by using four intermediaries, may himself have been a conduit for another mystery benefactor, after senior Labour figures questioned his personal wealth...

The Newcastle-based developer has few publicly declared assets and John Burton, Tony Blair's long-serving agent, said that he had never thought Mr Abrahams "had that sort of money"...

Last year he was pictured shaking hands with the then Israeli ambassador, Zvi Heifetz, who was questioned then cleared over money-laundering allegations. Mr Heifetz was recently appointed as an adviser to Mr Blair in his role as Middle East peace envoy.

Yesterday, a Downing Street source said Labour "had not seen any evidence" to suggest the money was not Mr Abrahams's. He added: "It would be very serious if it were the case. No one is aware of any such arrangement. It will be part of the inquiry."

A former business partner said that Mr Abrahams, who was unavailable for comment, was frugal and could therefore have amassed enough money to fund the donations.

David Abrahams is a man, it has emerged, with a lengthy track record of concealing the truth about the most basic facts of his life, including his name, his age and his marital status.
.. Mr Abrahams came to adulthood in a family well on its way to forming a minor Labour dynasty...in the nudge-wink politics of local government in 1960s Newcastle...

By 2007, the small-time landlord had established himself as a wealthy property developer and the failed local councillor had gained such influence in Labour circles that he was awarded a place in the front row of a hand-picked audience for Tony Blair’s farewell to the Sedgefield faithful.

The same names keep cropping up in the reports as the MSM dig deeper.

Newsnight has some questions we would like to throw at Mr Mendelsohn should anyone bump into him within the Westminster bubble:
1) Why did you ask Mr Abrahams to leave Labour Friends of Israel? There is a public interest in this matter since he was deemed by Labour’s general secretary a suitable donor, and by party officials suitable to be on the front row of Tony Blair’s leaving speech. Was Mr Abrahams’ behaviour in the LFI unsuitable?

And reminds us if the name Jon Mendelsohn is sounding familiar to viewers who have momentarily forgotten his role in the Labour cash-for-access scandal exposed by Newsnight irregular Greg Palast in 1998, you can update yourself here.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Treasurer's Role

Angry Jack Dromey declares he is victim of concealment - Times Online
Jack Dromey claimed that he was the victim of as Labour’s treasurer faced questions yesterday over how, for the second time, he had remained ignorant of hidden donations.

Mr Dromey was pitched into the row over David Abrahams when it was revealed that his wife, Harriet Harman, had taken money from Mr Abrahams through an intermediary.

In March 2006 Mr Dromey dramatically intervened in the cash-for-peer-ages affair, insisting that he had not known that Labour had accepted millions of pounds in secret loans, and describing them as “absolutely wrong”.

Mr Dromey, party treasurer since 2004.....

Usually when the treasurer of the Bowls Club is found to have not noticed a hole in the accounts and a shiny new car on their drive the phrase is "incompetent idiot or a crook". In this case I don't think we need worry ourselves that Jack is crooked, he just hasn't got a clue as to what is going on in the accounts he signs off.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Insult to Injury

Dear Child Benefit Customer

I am writing to make a personal apology. A copy of some HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data about families, including yours, who have received Child Benefit has been lost. The copy of the data is likely to still be on Government property. The police are now conducting a search, and there is no evidence that it is in the possession of anyone else. This will not affect your Child Benefit payments.

This data includes your and your children’s names and dates of birth, your address, your National Insurance number and, where relevant, the details of the bank or building society account into which your Child Benefit is or was paid. I would like to offer my personal apologies for any worry or concern this data loss may cause you. And I can assure you that all efforts are being made to ensure that such a loss can never happen again.

....I would like to offer my personal apologies for any worry or concern this data loss may cause you. And I can assure you that all efforts are being made to ensure that such a loss can never happen again.

Dave Hartnett

Thanks Dave, that's all right now is it? In my book a "personal apology" is one that is "Done, made, or performed in person" - are you going to pop round later for a cup of tea and biscuits and actually deliver your "personal apology" or do you think a mass mailed corporate PRspeak missive is one?

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

Wee Dougie's Sister Funding Investigation

Scotsman.com News - Did she break the rules?

WENDY Alexander became embroiled in a fresh Labour Party donor row last night, as it emerged the Electoral Commission was investigating a donation to her Scottish leadership campaign fund.

Paul Green, 65, a Labour supporter in the Channel Islands, is not allowed to give money to UK political parties because he is not on the UK electoral register. The retail developer, who is behind some of Scotland's highest-profile shopping centres, gave £995 to the fund set up to run Ms Alexander's summer campaign through one of his companies, Combined Property Services, which is registered in the UK.

It is understood that Ms Alexander's team approached him to make a donation...He routed the money through his Glasgow-based firm as a UK corporate donation. The pledge is just below the £1,000 limit, above which Ms Alexander would have had to register it at the outset with the Electoral Commission..

As they were happy it didn't break the rules why ask for a sum they didn't have to register...

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

November 28, 2007

The Ship of State

Slowly, slowly it is sinking...

Order more torpedoes!

Posted by The Englishman at 5:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Trouble up north

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Have a good Wednesday Mr. Brown

What is it about Labour’s friends in the North?

Sedgefield - in the North East.
Discs lost - from the North East
Northern Rock - HQ in the North East
Abrahams - in the North East
English Regional Breakup - defeated in the North East
Alan Milburn - represents the North East
and so on...

Still to cheer Gordon up it is PMQs today!

Posted by The Englishman at 7:23 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Poetic Justice

Tony Blair: I'm sorry for sleaze attacks - Telegraph

Tony Blair regrets attacking the Tories so hard over allegations of "sleaze" in the final years of John Major's government.

—Matthew 26:52 as Tony's new friends would say.

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November 27, 2007

Labour Sleaze - The Brownian Version

Gordon Brown in row over donations scandal - Telegraph

Gordon Brown has been plunged into a damaging sleaze row as the party donations scandal threatened to engulf two Cabinet ministers.

Douglas Alexander, Labour's fallen star
Peter Watt, head of the party machine
David Abrahams aka David Martin

On a day that saw the resignation of the Labour Party's general secretary, the International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, and the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, also found themselves embroiled in the controversy.

Now these are the sort of stories that makes it worthwhile having the morning paper ironed and presented at the breakfast table with the kippers. The more you read the more interesting it becomes, and every journalist and blogger worth their salt is happily digging in now; it is open season. Couldn't happen to nicer bunch of people.

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

November 26, 2007

'Cause you're too shy, shy, Hush, hush, eye to eye...

BBC NEWS | Politics | Concern over secret Labour donor
According to Electoral Commission records, Mr Ruddick, a builder, who drives a Ford Transit van and lives in a former council house in Newcastle, is Labour's third biggest donor.

When he was contacted by the Mail on Sunday newspaper he initially told it he knew nothing about the donations...

He told the paper's reporter: "I can't stand Labour. I can't stand any politicians."

A sensible man, speaks for us all. And his actions have dumped Labour even more in the doo-doo this weekend.

But I gather it is being put about that he was just being used as a friend of a friend, so that is all right then, isn't it?

Property Developers are often shy retiring types who don't like their name's to be linked to politicians. David Abrahams probably just didn't want any false insinuations or rumours starting after having seen how T Dan Smith, also of the North East, made people suspicious of links between Labour and Property Developers.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Two discs are just the tip of the iceberg

Judges’ details ‘posted on unencrypted discs’ - Times Online
This newspaper has been told that there are actually ten missing discs, including the two sent from offices in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to the National Audit Office in London and six lost in transit from tax offices in Preston. The discs were not registered properly or encrypted, leaving them open to fraudsters.

Staff from the Washington office are searching for another disc that contains “limited but sensitive” information related to child benefit claimants. Yet another, with the tax details of several hundred people appealing against previous Revenue & Customs decisions, is also being sought.

A source close to the investigation said: “There are other CDs yet to be accounted for — we have been told of ten so far, but basic checks are being carried out before any formal announcement.”

It looks like they have been leaking like a sieve, and how hard is it to make a copy of a copy of a CD? Much as I would like to just blame the badger faced bungler at No 11 it is actually an indictment of the whole bureaucratic machine. We are not safe in their hands.

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November 25, 2007

Darling's Discs

Running queries on the HMRC database fiasco | The Register takes a look at the technical elements of this case from the database/data perspective.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Religious news this Sunday

Tony Blair: Mention God and you're a 'nutter' - Telegraph

US is‘worst’ imperialist: archbishop -Times Online
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.

Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the worst of all worlds”.

In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.

He said the crisis was caused not just by America’s actions but also by its misguided sense of its own mission. He poured scorn on the “chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of God’s purpose for humanity”.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 24, 2007

Gordon tells the truth about Defence Funding

PM Gordon Brown | Armed Forces criticism | PM hits back | The Sun |HomePage|News

Meanwhile Mr Brown was 4,000 miles away for a Commonwealth summit with the Queen.

Yesterday, during a visit to a school in Kampala, he said: “I have got nothing but praise for our Armed Forces.

Quite, a bit of cash and equipment would more useful and welcome.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Jacqui Smith Caption Competition

From the Print edition of The Times

Posted by The Englishman at 11:27 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Gordon gets a warning not to get cocky

Christopher Foster: Why Britain is run badly - Telegraph
For nearly two years, the “great and good group” has been meeting in secret to discuss how to improve the way the country is run. An elite corps from the Civil Service, the military, academia and the City have been working out how to restore public trust in politicians.....

The group is about to publish its conclusions and its organiser, Sir Christopher Foster, an adviser to Labour and Tory governments, has agreed to give his first interview.....

The verdict of the Better Government Initiative, contained in a series of reports to be released over the next few weeks, is damning.

Government departments have “serious deficiencies”; the combined output of Parliament and the executive contain “too many disappointments and failures”; and “emphasis on ‘management’ has led to more bureaucracy at the expense of substance” in the Foreign Office.

He believes a crisis is brewing in the public services because the Government has been trying to micro-manage. “Health, education and the armed services have had constant change, insufficiently discussed and thought through.

“We’ve had nine revolutions within 10 years in the NHS. We’ve gone away from markets, then back to markets. It’s just disruptive and demoralising.”

Sir Christopher blames Tony Blair and his sofa for much of the decline. “He was the worst prime minister since Lord North, he’s lost us a form of government that creaked and groaned but worked reasonably well.”

In his view, Mr Blair saw politics as a permanent campaign. “He was obsessed by the media – he’d have an eye-catching initiative like marching hoodies to cashpoints and that would be it. That’s the wrong way round, you have to work out what the problem is before you come up with endless solutions.” ...

“No one person could run Britain. Absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. People get cocky. They start doing silly things. I hope Gordon Brown understands that.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 23, 2007

Good Morning, Darling!

Another bad day dawns for Alistair Darling as his Commons statements unravel and there are calls for him to resign as Gordon Brown faces meltdown.

You would have thought with all this serious news and the dawning realisation of the actual and potential financial burden his piss poor management of the economy has caused that he would grasp the gravity of the situation and stop wearing the joke Groucho Marx novelty glasses.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 22, 2007

Two Jobs Des and Gordo flee a Big Gun Barrage

Flight is the only refuge as the big guns turn on Gordon Brown and Two Jobs Des - Times Online
Amazing battle scenes in the Lords as a debate on defence turned nasty. Actually I think the Armed Forces have declared war — on their own Government. Yesterday it was not so much “we will fight them on the beaches” as “we will fight them on the benches”. The red benches, that is.

The attack was launched from land, sea and air by no fewer than five former Chiefs of the Defence Staff. I believe this is what the Americans call a “surge”. I understand it has been given the codename Operation Destroy Reputations...

They already have the Prime Minister on the run. Literally. For I couldn’t help but notice that Gordon Brown had not only fled the building but the country....

General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank certainly did. He had been chief of the defence staff from 1997 to 2001. “... He (Gordon Brown) must take much of the blame for the very serious situation in which we find the services today.”

No wonder Gordo was in Kampala. But if the Prime Minister was viewed with suspicion, Des Browne was treated with outright derision. Des’s crime is to have been appointed to two jobs: he is Defence Secretary and also Scottish Secretary. Thus his military knickname, “Two Jobs Des”. There was no sight of him yesterday. I’m sure Des had fled to somewhere safer, like Iraq.

Admiral Lord Boyce attacked Des and his multitasking. “This is seen as an insult by our soldiers on the front line and I know this because I have reason to speak to them a lot,” he said, his words biting so hard that you could see the teethmarks. “It is a demonstration of the disinterest and some might say contempt the Prime Minister and his Government have for our Armed Forces." ...

More analysis

Posted by The Englishman at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oh dear Darling, caught out again

£5,000 would have made HMRC discs safe - Telegraph

Alistair Darling is embroiled in a cover-up row after Whitehall e-mails revealed that a senior civil servant was involved in the blunders that led to the lost data crisis....

The newly-released internal emails revealed that the catastrophic decision not to filter out the sensitive information, made against the advice of the National Audit Office (NAO), was therefore not a low-level administrative error as the Chancellor claimed.

They also show that NAO officials urged HMRC to send the files 'as safely as possible'.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the procedure to delete the details - which would have removed much of the threat of identity fraud - would have cost just ｣5,000.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that Mr Darling's version of events appeared to be "inconsistent" with the information now being released.

What is the record for the shortest time of being Chancellor? This is the second strike for Darling, add in his incompetent budget review, as dictated by G.Brown Esq. and he has become a liability.

Posted by The Englishman at 10:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Badger Faced Lie?

Alistair Darling's delay is questioned by banks - Telegraph

The big banks were on a collision course with the Government last night after they disputed Alistair Darling's explanation of the delay in announcing details of the data protection crisis.

Mr Darling told BBC Radio Four's Today programme yesterday: "I spoke to the banks, they said they needed some time to put in place protective measures. Indeed, some of the banks wanted a lot longer but that simply wasn't possible." That followed his statement to MPs on Monday, in which he claimed that the banks were "adamant" that they wanted "as much time as possible".

The British Banking Association said: "The BBA did not ask for any more time. As soon as we were made aware of the security breach, banks put in place security measures to secure customer accounts.

"None of our members asked for any extra time. Clearly, everyone involved would have liked as much time as possible but banks unanimously agreed to go ahead without delay."

The Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) which manages how money moves around the banks, added: "We certainly did not ask HMRC for any time, or the Chancellor. We found out on Friday and were given a deadline of Monday to sort the information out. There was no request for a delay from us.

A spokesman for Lloyds TSB said: "Categorically, we did not ask for additional time." Barclays said: "We did not ask for any delay."

Maybe it was his friends at Northern Rock who asked, he wouldn't have been just not telling us the bad news in the hope that Postman Pat would come up trumps in time would he?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 21, 2007

Name, Rank and Serial Number Only

Iain Dale fisks THIS page on the Home Office website about identity theft. It had to be done...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 20, 2007

Breaking News - Secret Tax Data "Lost"

Iain Dale's Diary: Am I One of the 15,000?

I've just heard that the financial details of 15,000 Standard Life customers have been lost by HM Customs & Revenue. On top of this HM Revenue & Customs have lost more personal data in a much wider breach of security. It is scant consolation that the Chairman of HM Revenue & Customs has taken responsibility and resigned. I suppose it is too much to ask for a Treasury Minister to take responsibility too.

UPDATE: Unbelievable. They have lost 7.5 million records relating to child benefit.

BBC Discs with 15m tax records 'lost'

Confidential details of 15 million child benefit recipients are on a computer disc lost by HM Revenue and Customs, the BBC understands.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is to give a Commons statement on "a major operational problem" at 1530 GMT.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said he understood ministers had been aware for nine to 10 days.

UPDATE - BBC NEWS | Politics | Darling admits 25m records lost
Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing.

The Child Benefit data on them includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25m people.

Up to 25 million now, any advances?

Is this the death of the ID Card scheme? The shocking fact isn't that the CDs were lost in the post but that a clueless junior staffer was able to download them and burn them to CD without any authorisation.

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Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey! As Lord Emsworth would say.

Grace and favour showdown looms as Speaker fights for pension perk - Times Online
Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, is fighting an attempt by Gordon Brown to scrap the “grace and favour” pension that comes with his job, The Times has learnt.

Mr Brown — already embroiled in a pension battle with Lord Falconer of Thoroton — has now opened a second front in his attempts to end generous pay-outs to the State’s most senior servants.

Outgoing Prime Ministers, Speakers and Lord Chancellors are paid an annuity equal to half their salary — currently between £64,000 and £94,000 — regardless of how long they have served. The money, which comes directly from the public purse, is justified on the ground that it helps to “protect the dignity of the ‘Three Great Offices of State’ ”.

Tony Blair became the latest to draw the grace and favour pension when he stood down in June this year. It is believed that the annuity will form the mainstay of his income until he can start drawing his parliamentary pension in about ten years’ time.

As I lean over the gate watching my Gloucester Old Spots fighting and squealing over the last apple in the swill trough my mind sometimes is drawn to Westminster....

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Rough winds do shake the Darling...

Taxpayers may pay for Northern Rock fiasco - Telegraph

Taxpayers may be forced to pay for the Northern Rock crisis, the Government has admitted for the first time.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, refused to guarantee in Parliament that the £24 billion of public money propping up the bank - the equivalent of £1,000 for every taxpayer - would ever be repaid in full.

Mr Darling, who previously said he expected the money - which amounts to half the annual education budget - to be paid back with interest, would only say he was looking for the "best outcome for the public purse".

Best outcome for Brown's best friends - see Guido passim - and Labour MPs in the North East more likely. This is a massive expensive Government cock up, heads should roll. But then with Gordon only inserting a finger puppet into his old job what do we expect?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 18, 2007

The boy is mine

Blair adds to Brown's tension with Miliband - Telegraph

Rising tensions between Gordon Brown and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, have threatened to open a new rift at the heart of the Government, it emerged last night.

Relations between them, already rocky after Mr Miliband was forced to tone down a speech about the European Union, are understood to have worsened after comments by Tony Blair began to circulate at Westminster.

Mr Blair went out of his way to praise Mr Miliband, his one-time protégé, who earlier this year considered standing against Mr Brown for the Labour leadership, before pulling out and receiving his plum Cabinet post.

During a visit to Mr Miliband's South Shields constituency last week, the former prime minister said he was very proud of Mr Miliband's achievements and refused to deny that the Foreign Secretary had been his chosen successor.

A source close to Mr Brown denied there had been any briefing against Mr Miliband and insisted last night: "Gordon and David are working together very productively indeed."

They sound like a couple of school prefects arguing over a junior fag, "he likes me more than you..".
As the Brown Leadership unravels expect more of these petty tiffs, especially as Blair enjoys his revenge cold and comes not to praise...

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Who leaked and why?

Police phones tapped over honours inquiry leaks - Times Online
DETECTIVES involved in the cash for honours inquiry had their telephones tapped to find out whether they were leaking information to the media.

While Assistant Commissioner John Yates and his team were investigating Tony Blair and his aides, other police officers were watching and listening to the detectives.

The extensive bugging was carried out amid allegations by Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, that Scotland Yard was leaking information about the progress of the inquiry.

The leaks included newspaper stories that police were investigating an attempt by some Downing Street figures to pervert the course of justice, and a claim - later shown to be wrong - that Downing Street had a secret e-mail system that had been hidden from police.

Scotland Yard said the bugging operation was the key reason it remains so confident that No 10 was wrong to accuse the police of leaking.
...
Met officers have accused O’Donnell, the country’s most senior civil servant, of trying to put pressure on them throughout their 17-month inquiry....They say he made at least six calls to Paul Stephenson, the Met’s deputy commissioner, at critical junctures....
...
O’Donnell told a parliamentary committee last week that he was “puzzled” by suggestions that people connected to Downing Street had tried to hinder the investigation.

Quite, an absolute "puzzle" worthy of Miss Marple herself. Nothing odd about the investigation at all.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 14, 2007

Time to get the cheque book out.

NO2ID:Stop ID cards and the database state

The following message was sent on 14th November 2007 to all those who signed our original PledgeBank pledge:

Hello, you have received this message because you signed my pledge, "I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge" back in 2005. In fact 11360 other people also did. Thank you all.... Now is the time to call in the legal defence fund part of the pledge.
Please send your donation, by cheque made payable to 'NO2ID' to:
NO2ID (Legal Defence Fund)
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ

All other donations welcome as well.

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Either a fox or a lion

Gordon Brown reveals 'Fortress Britain' plan - Telegraph

Train passengers face routine airline-style bag checks and body searches as part of a new counter-terror crackdown announced by Gordon Brown.

He conjured up visions of ''Fortress Britain" as he unveiled a succession of security measures at airports, railway stations, sports venues and other public places.

More than 250 busy railway stations, airports and seaports as well as 100 ''sensitive" installations like power stations and electricity substations will be given extra security.

This could include screening luggage at major stations like London King's Cross or Manchester Piccadilly using mobile checking devices that can be moved around the country.

More buildings will be defended by barriers to stop car bomb attacks, extra blast-proofing, vehicle exclusion zones and metal detectors.

New security guidance is being sent out to sports venues, pubs, clubs and bars, shopping centres and tourist attractions together with thousands of cinemas and theatres, restaurants and hotels.

Advice will also be given to hospitals, schools and places of worship on how to keep visitors safe.

Some 160 counter-terrorism advisers will train civilian staff to identify suspect activity....

Machiavelli: The Prince: Chapter XVIII

...let a ruler have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

One ruler of the present time, whom it is not well to name, never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both he is most hostile, and either, if he had kept it, would have deprived him of reputation and kingdom many a time.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 13, 2007

Winter of Discontent

Fastest rise in food prices for 14 years - Telegraph

...Families are already struggling to cope with the effects of the credit crunch. Petrol prices exceed £1 for a litre of unleaded fuel, while mortgage payments and credit card fees are also rising.
Now the price of groceries is increasing as weekly staples shoot up in price in supermarkets. The cost of a pint of milk has reached an all-time high of 33½p and sliced bread costs a record £1.20 in big stores, a far cry from the 9p loaf that was available 15 years ago.
The company that makes Hovis said yesterday that it was raising prices by a further 4p a loaf, on top of the 12p by which they had risen in recent months, as it attempts to recover soaring wheat costs.

It is starting to hurt people in the wallet, just as Gordon wants to take out more tax, the councils are demanding more rates and incoming skilled labour is keeping wages down. The pressure is building.

(As an aside as a farmer the rise in the price of wheat is wonderful but the cost of the wheat in a loaf of Hovis has only risen by about six pence in total so their blaming the much larger rise on us poor old sons of the soil is a bit off.)

Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 9, 2007

Political Poofery

Gay hatred laws are anti-free speech - Telegraph
By Iain Dale

Opposing this legislation is not anti-gay. Rather, it is pro freedom of speech. ...
If, as is suggested by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, the burden of proof is on the accused to prove they didn't mean something in a hateful way, it will create a legal minefield. If someone calls a homosexual a ''poof", it can be meant in a number of ways, as this week's Ofcom ruling in favour of Channel 4 has shown. It can be meant in a hateful way but it can also be used as an affectionate term, believe it or not.

Having said that this legislation should be opposed by the Opposition, I have few expectations that they will do so. Tories will seek to amend the proposals but in the end political realities will dictate that they will not go into the ''no" lobby. A ''courageous" abstention will probably win the day.

In some ways I find it hard to criticise such a stance. Ideological purity may be a wonderful thing, but it can be terribly self-indulgent. It invariably results in losing elections. Politics is the art of the possible and sometimes serious politicians are forced to adopt policy positions while holding their noses. This may be one of those occasions.

I'm saddened, but not surprised, that Iain believes that it is right that the Tories should abandon our freedoms and liberties and their principles in order to maintain a point or two in the opinion polls. Power at any price, eh? No wonder the electorate hold politicians in contempt.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Catholic Church to join Tony Blair "within weeks".

Tony Blair to become Catholic 'within weeks' - Telegraph

He decided to remain an Anglican because of the potential complexities of conversion while in office.

Some lawyers believe the 1829 Emancipation Act, which gave Roman Catholics full civil rights, may still prevent a Catholic from becoming prime minister.

Clauses in the Act state that no Catholic adviser to the monarch can hold civil or military office.

Mr Blair's conversion will be controversial in the Catholic community because as an MP Mr Blair voted for abortion at up to 24 weeks which was publicly condemned by the late Cardinal Thomas Winning of Scotland. He also supported civil partnerships for homosexual couples.

All four of the Blair children were baptised as Catholics and the family used to attend Mass at St Joan of Arc Church in Islington when he was opposition leader.

After becoming prime minister he stopped doing so in public on the instructions of the then leader of Catholics in England and Wales, the late Cardinal Hume.

But he continued to attend private masses with Fr Michael Seed...

The Tablet reported that Mr Blair was invited to be received into the Church in Rome but his advisers discouraged the idea, believing it might seem like Catholic triumphalism.

I don't claim to be well versed in sky pilot matters but it seems obvious that Tony Blair put his ambition and desire to be Prime Minister ahead of his belief that the Catholic church is the one true way to salvation. Now if you believe that kissing the right ring gives you access to everlasting pleasure in heaven then risking losing that to continue to be Prime Minister (and does anyone really believe he would have been chucked out for being a left footer) seems to be a pretty bad bargain. Aren't avarice and vanity sins in Rome?

Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 7, 2007

The King, Queen and Darling

Rift with Darling puts King's job on the line - Telegraph

The future of Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, was under threat last night following a public split over the Northern Rock crisis with Alistair Darling, the Chancellor.

Mr King used a wide-ranging interview to suggest that the Chancellor could have prevented the run on the bank had he acted on options presented to him in the week leading up to the crisis.

So for pointing out, respectfully and subtlety, that Gordon's Darling didn't have a effing clue what to do he is being threaten - how nuLabour. The fact is that Gordon can't let go of the Treasury and his stopgap Chancellor isn't being allowed or isn't capable of running the department himself.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 6, 2007

The Queen's Speech

Gordon Brown to launch house-building boom - Telegraph

Local communities trying to block the plans will be warned that they will be "letting down" future generations by opposing development.

Don't you hate that pathetic teacher talk - Tracy, you have not just let yourself down, but you have let the school down, your mum down, your granny down... Tracy, now that isn't a very nice gesture to make is it....

Ministers will also announce a new Immigration Bill, drawn up in the past few weeks

in other words hasty measures cribbed from the Tories, which will then not work.

demand a doubling of the time suspects can be held without charge from 28 days to 56 days.

Let's keep increasing this, just because we can.

The speech could also usher in new rules for the funding of political parties in the wake of the cash-for-peerages scandal.

Despite the collapse last week of cross-party talks on financial reform, Mr Brown remains keen to reduce the main parties' dependence on wealthy donors. That could mean all parties getting millions of pounds more in taxpayers' money.

Many Labour MPs are also urging a change in the law to stop Lord Ashcroft,

Funny how wealthy donors no longer open their cheque books to Lord Levy, wonder why. And of course the big one

Climate Change Bill

Will propose putting legally-binding targets on government ministers to reduce Britain's CO2 emissions.

Of course no government can bind another, and if the Minister fail to reach the target will they be publicly dragged down Whitehall to the block - of course no, it is just a sound bite.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 5, 2007

The rate for the job

MPs demand an inflation-busting pay rise - Times Online
MPs face a battle with Gordon Brown to secure an above-inflation pay increase when the official recommendations on parliamentary salaries are published this month.

Ministers have already received a report from the Senior Salaries Review Body, which helps to set MPs’ pay and allowances every three years. It recommends that MPs receive an increase to the basic salary of £60,277 of more than the current rate of inflation, according to an official who has seen it.

The scene is now set for a clash with backbenchers from all parties. Some want their salaries raised to about £100,000, arguing that MPs have fallen far behind equivalent professions.

I will allow you to imagine what other "equivalent professions" are - the ones I can think of involve carrying a shovel or wearing fishnets...

As The Devil's Kitchen points out
One of the arguments advanced for the really rather generous remuneration received by our lords and masters in the House of Commons is that they would do very well outside of politics and we need to attract the best.

What we actually seem to end up with is the mediocre and the idiotic, so it is hardly surprising that they are near valueless once they have run their electoral course.

Politicians who lose their seats struggle to make a living in the real world, research has found.

The study said employers have little use for former MPs - and some take more than a year to find a job.

And those who do manage to find work often complain that they do not earn as much as they did in Westminster. Others sulk about losing the perks of the Commons.

So, they are, as we have long suspected, utterly shit. And what chance do these people have when so many of them have never had any real job?

Being a simple sort I wonder if the pay is so bad why do so many want to do the job? Simple supply and demand seems to indicate they are too well paid already.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 4, 2007

BraunJugend und Balls

Teenagers who refuse to work face on the spot fines - Times Online

TEENAGERS who refuse to work, attend training or go to school are to be issued with on the spot fines under government proposals. Any who still fail to comply would then be taken to court where they could face further penalties.

The measures are designed to enforce a new law which will be outlined in this week’s Queen’s speech. It will say that all teenagers must remain in education, training or employment until they are 18.

The change will be phased in by raising the age to 17 in 2013 and to 18 in 2015. Details of the new “age of participation” will be outlined by Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, in a television interview today and in a speech tomorrow.

According to Balls’s department, if they refuse to attend, they will be given a formal warning, in which the “local authority will clearly explain their duty to participate and the consequences of not doing so”.

Gordon Brown signals honours for UK heroes - Telegraph

Yep, old enough to marry, be buggered and join up (not necessarily all three at once though) BUT YOUR LIFE BELONGS TO THE STATE

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

November 3, 2007

The Libdem leadership story in a nutshell

Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
Mr Hughes said.. in good hands with either of the contenders .. he declared his preference for Mr Clegg, he had "greatly impressed" him on the ..bench. ...prosper and flourish .. get across urgently the real need... liberal values... the norm. ...regretted the absence of a female."
" ...delighted to have Mr Hughes's backing... devotion ... party ...commitment ..diversity ... immeasurable," Mr Clegg said.

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October 30, 2007

Miliband skives off work - but please don't mention it.

Foreign Office under pressure as David Miliband puts his family first - Times Online
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has taken an unspecified period of paternity leave after announcing that he and his wife have adopted a second child.

Mr Miliband and his wife, Louise Shackelton, who is American, flew back to Britain yesterday after adopting a newborn boy in the United States. They have named him Jacob.

The couple’s announcement coincided with Mr Miliband’s failure to arrive at a conference on British-Saudi relations in London. He was scheduled to attend with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud al-Faisal, but sent Kim Howells, a Foreign Office Minister, in his place.

The abrupt nature of the statement reflects a sensitivity on the part of the Milibands who, friends say, were deeply hurt by the media reaction after they adopted their first son, Isaac, in December 2004, also in the US.

The couple said that they were “delighted by the new arrival” and asked the media to protect their privacy.

The state visit by the King of Saudi Arabia was marred today by the last-minute cancellation of a high-profile engagement between David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and the Saudi Foreign Minister.

The Foreign Office announced this morning that the Foreign Secretary was calling off the meeting, which had been scheduled months in advance, citing the arrival of his newly adopted son.

Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi Foreign Minister, then also withdrew from the meeting because Mr Miliband's deputy, Kim Howells, was considered too junior to meet him according to diplomatic protocol.

And why wouldn't Isaac's and Jacob's Daddy turn up to work to meet and greet the Arabs? Paternity leave? No mucky sweating for David, all he had to do was sign a cheque, and now he needs a rest, ahh diddums. Of course, I sure, Diddy David is a strong supporter of the bizarre social experiment that is our adoption laws, but they just didn't suit him, bit like the inheritance tax rates. And assuming that the poor mite wasn't bought lastminute.com style he knew this was going to happen when he took the job, so why did he take it when he knew he was going to choose to do nappies at home rather than work alongside Gordon. Are we sure he hasn't been sent to sit on the naughty step for piss poor performance?

Posted by The Englishman at 8:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Labour Blogs, Living In The Past

I think I was the first to blog (on June 14th 2004) about Flying Lion Ltd - and followed it up when this was reported:

Senior Tories declare £50,000 of free flights - Times Online

The Times
May 16, 2006

“Flying Lion Ltd is owned by Lord Ashcroft of Chichester KC MG, formerly treasurer of the Conservative Party and now deputy chairman and a donor to the party of long standing.”

So earlier this week when Tom Watson asked I’m trying to find out more about a company called Flying Lion Ltd. my immediate thought was Just Fucking Google It or is that too difficult for you?

All the labour blogs are now wetting their knickers over it - as Bob Piper says: Some excellent work over the weekend by Westmonster and two pieces by Political Penguin here and here over the Flying Lion connection to Tory Party sugar daddy Michael Ashcroft.

As Guido says; ".. it is not news" But then the dinosaurs of the left like to live in the past.....

Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Out, Out, Out, Support The Miners......

Posted by The Englishman at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 29, 2007

Starvation Cheap

Our men are dying to save Whitehall’s pennies | William Rees-Mogg - Times Online
Historically, the Labour Party has a serious record in defence, particularly under Clement Attlee, the First World War army officer who became the first Prime Minister of the Cold War era; he took the decision to equip Britain with nuclear weapons.

However, the Blair Government after 1997 must be the least military administration ever to take Britain to war. It is said that there is no member of the present Government who has served in the Armed Forces. Even now, with Britain committed to fighting difficult campaigns on two fronts, social expenditure has been given a far higher priority than defence. The Defence Secretary himself, Des Browne, is only a part-time minister.

One can tell when a department of state feels ashamed of its own conduct. It puts out the news when it hopes nobody will be attending. This week is the tail end of the existing session of Parliament. Last Friday and Saturday, the Ministry of Defence was putting out the bad news, in the hope that no one was listening.....

Wherever one looks at the shortages of equipment, cost has been the limiting factor. British forces have had to fight their battles under Treasury rules. In Afghanistan, only 20 helicopters were available this summer, about half the requirement. Again one can make a comparison with US practice, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. US soldiers have helicopters, ours do not. Yet helicopters are essential.....

There is no such thing as a comfortable war. Soldiers and civilians get killed, or suffer crippling injuries. There is no such thing as a cheap war. Soldiers must be given support, both in battle and when they return from battle.

Their families also need support. On Poppy Day, we all need to reflect that our soldiers are putting their lives at risk for us; we should at least put our taxes on the line for them.

They won't allow a man to sweep the road without cones, a look out, Hi-vis clothing, diversity training and proper boots; but they will send young men to face death dangerously under-equipped, with his family in substandard housing. And we let them get away with it.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:52 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 26, 2007

His Lordship's Snout Trapped

Iain Dale has been leaked a copy of the Guardian's explosive front page story tomorrow. And boy is it explosive. It accuses Labour Peer Lord Hoyle (former Warrington MP Doug Hoyle) of taking money to intriduce arms dealers to the Defence Procurement Minister Lord Drayson.

Peer was paid to introduce lobbyist to minister | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
A Labour peer has admitted taking money to introduce an arms company lobbyist to the government minister in charge of weapons purchases. The case of "cash for access" in the House of Lords is likely to ignite fresh concern about ethical standards in parliament.

The lobbyist paid cash for an introduction to Lord Drayson, the defence minister in charge of billions of pounds of military procurement, according to evidence obtained by the Guardian...

Asked if he declared to the minister at the time that he was in the pay of a lobbyist, Lord Hoyle told the Guardian he "did not know" whether he had made the required declaration. The MoD says nothing was recorded about Lord Hoyle's position in the note taken at the time.....

Lord Hoyle did report to the Lords registrar that Mr Wood had hired him as a "consultant", claiming it was for matters unconnected to parliament. But the public register had not been updated at the time of the Drayson meeting.

Lord Hoyle now says he was not "specifically paid for [the] sole purpose" of introducing Mr Wood to the minister. But he could not identify any other services he provided. He said he had done "very little" for Mr Wood, who would ring up occasionally and talk "mainly about football".

Squeal piggy squeal....

Posted by The Englishman at 7:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gordon Brown leads all to that sunny land of freedom..

Gordon Brown's plan for human rights - Telegraph

..as part of what he called a "new British constitutional settlement for our generation" Mr Brown hinted at more legal changes to come.

Promising to "respect and extend freedom of assembly", Mr Brown spoke of new rights for the public expression of dissent.

Yesterday's package could also mean voters get new powers to access information held by the state, and new protections to stop others obtaining information about them and their families, Mr Brown said.

Britain could get a new "Bill of Rights and Duties," paving the way for a full written constitution, ministers said yesterday.

The Justice Secretary launched a consultation exercise on a single text setting out both the legal freedoms of British citizens and the responsibilities expected of them.

Michael Wills, Jack Straw's deputy and a close friend of the Prime Minister, later made clear that yesterday's proposals are intended to have far-reaching consequences for Britain.

He said: "These changes are going to be profound. This is going to change fundamentally the way power is distributed in this country."

Yup, we already know how power is going to be distributed, up to Brussels. Allowing us to wave flags in Parliament Square again or mock Ed Balls for his expenses is classic political misdirection. And the "rights and duties of British Citizens"? Fudk you sunshine, I remember when we were British Subjects whose fealty to the Crown was repaid with its protection - not miserable citizens of a vast European superstate which defines our "duties and rights" at its political whim.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Looking in the swill bucket

Balls and Cooper claim £300,000 in expenses - Telegraph

The Cabinet's golden couple claimed more than £300,000 in expenses in the last financial year, including £30,000 for the cost of their "second home", official figures have revealed.

The six-figure expenses bill was racked up by Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary and his wife, the Housing Minister Yvette Cooper. Both were only elected to Parliament in 2005.

Despite typically spending the working week in London, the couple are able legitimately to claim that their "main home" is in Mr Balls's constituency of Normanton in Yorkshire.

The total cost of the MPs' expenses has risen by an inflation-busting five per cent to £87.43 million in the past year....

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Commons climbdown on MPs' claims secrecy

THE House of Commons yesterday withdrew a High Court appeal to keep the details of a Scottish MP's travel expenses out of the public domain, paving the way for the breakdown of all Westminster MPs' expenses. MPs have fought attempts to force them to break down their costs, voting to exempt themselves from the FOI Act.

A spokesman for Mr Thomas, the Information Commissioner, welcomed the decision, adding that the public had the right to know about taxpayer-funded travel.

"The journeys for which an MP may claim reimbursement relate to official business and are therefore paid for out of public funds," the spokesman said.

"The public has a right to know how public money is spent by politicians and public officials.

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October 24, 2007

Brown Rubbishes Miliband's Rubbish Tax

Government scraps tax on rubbish | Environment | Guardian Unlimited
The government has postponed plans to introduce controversial "pay as you throw" charges for rubbish, according to reports today.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had been expected to unveil the charges this week.

Defra had prepared a document stating it would take steps to enable councils to charge people for collecting their rubbish as an incentive for recycling, but Downing Street had "poured cold water" on the plan, according to the BBC.

The plan to allow councils to penalise householders who do not recycle - and reward those who do - were backed by a majority of local authorities and waste management companies, according to a government consultation published today.

The Conservatives claimed the findings, published without fanfare on the Defra website, had been "slipped out" by the government to "bury bad news".

"Local authorities and waste management companies", of course they were in favour, who gets to run the charging scheme and get all the lovely cash for doing so! But has the idea been killed or merely going to be represented under a different guise when our guard is down?

Posted by The Englishman at 8:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The FibDims on that Treaty...

ALDE Group in the European Parliament : IGC: A complex Treaty that rekindles hope for European integration

Andrew DUFF (UK, LibDem), one of Parliament's three representatives throughout the intergovernmental negotiations and present at the Lisbon summit said that "for 26 countries this Treaty is a great step forward together towards European unity equal in historical importance to Maastricht.

In one country, this is not so. The British still seem intimidated by the success of the European Union, and have sought in the IGC to reduce the scope and force of common policies in the area of fundamental rights, freedom, security and justice and in common foreign, security and defence policies. Why this strategy of non-cooperation is thought to serve the interests of the British people is not entirely clear. Let it be as short-lived as possible", Mr Duff concluded.

There's a gate on the river down near Tower Bridge for scum like him...

Posted by The Englishman at 5:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 23, 2007

Militwat- take a letter

Prodicus:

Dear Foreign Secretary,...

A reasoned argument appealing to Miliband's senses of honour and morality, a waste of time I fear as such concepts are as pearls before swine. A cluebat might be more effective...

Posted by The Englishman at 8:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 21, 2007

The West Lothian Referendum Question

Alex Salmond and the stinking fish | William Rees-Mogg - Times Online
Last week Mr Brown accepted the reform treaty but he has backed out of his party’s commitment to a referendum, on the false pretence that the two treaties are different. This is not an action in good faith. If he persists in it, he deserves to be removed from office. For a man to obtain an advantage by a trick is inherently dishonest. For a prime minister to do so destroys his covenant of trust with the people he is governing.

Most of the parliamentary gossip is not concerned with the morality of the Prime Minister’s conduct, though there is a moral issue. In the lobbies they ask the pragmatic question: “Can he get away with it?” I am not sure that he will. It is quite unusual for a prime minister to be distrusted or despised by a significant part of the population and regarded essentially as a cheat.

Successful leadership depends on respect, on the moral consent of the governed. Even at his lowest point, John Major never found himself in this position. He – disgracefully enough – refused a referendum on the Maastricht treaty, but he had never promised one.

There does, however, seem to be a constitutional as well as a moral obstacle to Mr Brown’s policy. The treaty recasts Europe to bring the EU much closer to a United States of Europe ....

Yet these key transfers of sovereignty from Westminster to Brussels seem to include powers that have been devolved to Edinburgh. One example might prove to be the extension of qualified majority voting in the area of tourism. Will Scottish tourism become a European competence, or will it remain devolved to Scotland? Further examination of the reform treaty seems certain to discover that it would have a far reaching impact on Scottish self-rule. There is no red line to protect Scotland.

The Scots had a referendum to approve devolution. Any substantial reduction in the scope of Scottish self-government would require a further referendum. Mr Brown is refusing a referendum to the UK. Can he also refuse one to Scotland, a nation with its own government and First Minister, Alex Salmond?

Can Mr Salmond and the SNP allow Scottish powers to be transferred to Europe without Scottish consent? If that consent were sought from the Edinburgh Parliament, would there be a majority to ratify the reform treaty, in respect of Scottish affairs, without a referendum? In the UK Mr Brown may have the power to refuse a referendum, but Mr Salmond may decide to call one in Scotland, as a powerful precedent for the referendum he is already seeking on Scottish independence. I do not see who could stop him – it would not be the Black Watch. ...

This could be Gordon Brown's Maastricht - Telegraph
Imagine Mr Salmond, a brilliantly mischievous tactician, going to Mr Brown's constituency and telling the voters of Kirkcaldy that he, as First Minister of Scotland, wanted to give them the opportunity to vote on their destiny in Europe: an opportunity that their own MP, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was stubbornly denying them.

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October 19, 2007

MPs off

Scotsman.com News - Politics - MPs have run out of work to do... so it's time for an extra holiday

MPS are to get an extra week off at the end of this month - just weeks after coming back from their bumper three-month summer recess - because the government has run out of business.

Harriet Harman, the Commons leader, broke the good news to MPs yesterday, also outlining even more time away from Westminster for them over the coming year. MPs will spend one in three weeks out of Westminster - taking their time away from the Commons from 15 weeks to 18 weeks.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "If MPs spent longer in the House there'd be less badly drafted legislation."

No, no, no - the more holidays the less legislation, which is a good thing, full stop. If they turned up once a year for a couple of days to tidy up then that would be plenty.

The row over holidays came as Richard Bacon, the Tory MP for South Norfolk, called for the Commons shooting range to be replaced with a swimming pool.

The very idea of Prescott, or Soames, or any of them in their Speedos is enough for my morning bacon and eggs to almost make a second farewell appearance, especially when it would mean the closure of a shooting gallery, which could be so useful one day....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 18, 2007

Gordon's Real Vision Thing

Gordon Brown's taxes hit 20-year peak - Telegraph
Britain has become one of the most taxed countries in the world, with people handing over a greater share of their wealth to the Treasury than at any stage in the past 20 years.

The scale of the country's tax burden was laid bare in a report published yesterday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, one of the world's most respected economic groups.
....The OECD has ranked the tax take of the world's 30 richest nations, and for the first time since 1986 Britain is among the 10 most taxed countries, above the US, Australia, Spain, Italy and Germany.

The Treasury now takes 37.4 per cent of the gross domestic product as tax — the highest since 1986, and considerably higher than when Mr Brown took over the Treasury in 1997.

Mike Warburton, of the accountants Grant Thornton, said families were being hit hardest, with most personal taxes doubling. He said: "The big question is where has all this money gone? If it had all gone into hospitals, schools or roads and we could see they had improved, I don't think we would mind. But it hasn't."

Council taxes have doubled since 1997, with the average household paying more than £1,321 this year. And inheritance tax, even after the reforms announced last week, will net the Treasury an estimated £3.3 billion in 2009 — more than it took last year.

The Tories attacked the high tax burden, pointing out that the Treasury's own predictions showed it will continue to rise.

Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "The UK is set to have the highest tax burden in its peacetime history. Gordon Brown's appetite for cash is insatiable and hard-working families are paying the price."

Experts warned that the high tax burden would damage the economy. Corin Taylor, the research director at The TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "A decade ago this country had among the lowest taxes in the OECD, now we have some of the highest. Faced with the growing challenge of China and India, this is completely the wrong direction to go."

Tax and waste - that is the whole Gordon "thing" in a nutshell.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The result of the money splurged on Education

Secondary schools failing pupils, says Ofsted - Telegraph

Half of secondary schools in England fail to give pupils a good education, Ofsted has warned. ...

Lord Adonis, the schools minister, said it was the “most positive and encouraging assessment that we have seen of our schools”

Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2007

Robbing Peter to also rob Paul

Income tax 'could be set by councils' - Telegraph

Councils should be given the power to set the basic rate of income tax, one of Gordon Brown's most influential former advisers says.

Central government could also replace council tax with a new "national property tax", he adds.

Chris Wales, Mr Brown's principal tax adviser in opposition and at the Treasury, sets out his proposals in an online article for The Daily Telegraph.

He will unveil his ideas at a seminar on "fair taxation" to be held on Wednesday by the Smith Institute. The institute, which has held dozens of meetings in Downing Street, is run by one of the Prime Minister's closest friends and is regarded in Whitehall as Mr Brown's private policy unit.

Brownite shuffling deckchairs on the deck thinking that if we pay our income tax to the council and our rates to the government we will be happy. No, Dickhead, it is the total mulct the bastards take from us that matters. Playing at Paul Daniels swapping which pocket the coins disappear into won't work. Calling for "serious investment in public sector skills to capture the benefit of change." because "it is the design of the tax system, arguably more than the overall level of taxation, that shapes the economy, affects our livelihood and drives our behaviour." are the words of an out of touch wonk who has suckled for too long on the public teat. Is he still seeking employment?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Miliband - My Suffering!

David Miliband demands apology for Hitler jibe - Telegraph

The Foreign Secretary, who is the son of Jewish immigrants, reacted with horror..."Maybe I feel this particularly personally.." "We are all sensitive about it for quite good reason."..

Mr Miliband's father and grandfather both fled to England from Brussels to escape the advancing German army in May 1940. His mother stayed behind and joined his father after the war.

So he is playing the Jewish card is he? You can't insult me coz I'm Jewish and my people suffered. I note on his blog he is brown nosing the Muslims:

"I'm delighted to send you my very best wishes for the joyful occasion of Eid, a chance for us to recognise our common humanity, whether in Britain or around the world. I know that Eid represents a time of family, a time of community and a time of fellowship and it's very important that the 2 million British Muslims, along with Muslims around the world, know that the good wishes of people of all faiths and none are with them at this very, very important time. I know that in the Foreign Offrice (sic) we are determined to build links around the world that reflect our common humanity and reflect the fact that we're part of a global family. In that spirit, I am delighted to wish you Eid Mubarak." Prayer time of course continues but the fasting is nowover and the celebrations can now begin.

Forgets to mention how Jewish he feels when he bleeds when he is pricked.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:03 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Boy Miliband Furious at Chamberlain Jibe

David Miliband demands apology for Hitler jibe - Telegraph

A furious David Miliband has demanded an apology after a senior Labour MP compared his approach to the new EU treaty to Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1938.

Quite right too, Neville Chamberlain may have been wrong but he represented the mood of the country and of the Commons, he was a conviction politician of vast experience and a long, active and largely successful ministerial career. He had also been a "hands-on" chairman of successful industrial firms.

Milband is a juvenile lying policy wonk who hasn't done an honest days work in his life and only conviction in life is power at any price.

But still bringing back pieces of paper from Europe will be a handy jibe to wind up the little wank-rag.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2007

Politcal ISTAR

Mark wonders if I would mind taking a look at a new service he launched last month. http://votewise.co.uk

The site aims to serve all candidates, from all parties, in all election
campaigns - for the benefit of candidates, councils and voters alike.

Always glad to help, looks useful even if it is a bit thin so far but then I suppose we are missing out on an expected election...

ISTAR stands for Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance

Posted by The Englishman at 4:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dave's Hugh Grant Morning

I imagine that this mornings scene in Dave and Sam's house, as he suddenly faces the possibility of all those green yummy mummies swapping back tot the Fib Dims and slashing his popularity ratings reads something like the opening from the Four Weddings And A Funeral Script

Posted by The Englishman at 7:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One fo Ming

Welcome to Retirement Homesearch
And have the brave young yellow turks got enough on you to keep you quiet after your knifing? Or will you become the Ted Heath of the Fib Dims?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 15, 2007

Backburnerisation of Tony's Policys

Labour to scrap national road pricing plans - Telegraph
The sudden reversal on road pricing is the latest in a series of flagship policies advocated by Tony Blair to have been scrapped by Gordon Brown.

It follows the decision to abandon plans for a "super casino" and to review the current laws on cannabis and all-day drinking.

One senior Government source said national road pricing had fallen down the list of priorities – "it has been back burnered."

Tony who? as they are saying in corridors of power. But isn't this road pricing scheme all about supporting the EU Galileo project, the vanity system of satellites we are paying for? "The EU commission is determined that any European system should be based exclusively on Galileo for which use it will be charging national operators. Therein lies the prospect of a lucrative "Euro-tax", with motorists contributing to the EU coffers every time they take to the roads." I'm sure Eureferendum will be along with more on this Eu-turn.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 14, 2007

Darling, not like that, you are missing it, as usual

Scotsman.com Business - My faith in Chancellor is rocked by strange choice of mortgage

AM I the only one who is more than a touch concerned that the man we entrust with the nation's finances, Chancellor Alistair Darling, is happy to openly boast that he has a mortgage with Northern Rock?

I'm surprised he's got a mortgage at all. Most people try to get rid of them by the time they are approaching their mid-fifties. But that is entirely his affair.

If he has to have a mortgage, as he is perfectly entitled to do, why couldn't he have chosen a slightly less racy lender than the Northern Rock? Personally, I have never had an account of any description with them and wouldn't touch them with a barge-pole....

I guess it's all a question of judgment, which brings me on to the Pre-Budget Report, which must go down as one of the most bizarre in the party's history.

Leaving aside the huge increase in inheritance tax relief, which I know is popular with the public, but could scarcely be described as mainstream left-wing ideology, the most indefensible part of the package has to be the massive tax bonanza for second homeowners, and buy-to-let landlords, while offering no help whatsoever to first-time buyers and those otherwise priced out of the market.

To cut the tax due on profits made by second homeowners and landlords from 40% to 18% at a time when we are in the middle of a housing crisis strikes me as either the height of negligence or incompetence.

I find it impossible to believe the Chancellor understands what he has done. Just as the market was cooling he will unleash another boom, the rewards of which will be reaped by the wealthy. Great news for those of us who, like Mr Darling, are already firmly on our way up the property ladder, but disastrous for young buyers, whose first home will now slip further along the distant horizon.

It has been easy to forget that the Government isn't just Gordon Brown this week and that someone else in Chancellor, but I suppose we must raise our eyes from the enjoyable sport of Brown Bottle Baiting and look at the incompetence of the rest of the team. And Darling in his bid to obey orders to outTory the Torys, without copying them, has been hastily throwing together policies which simply don't add up.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 12, 2007

Too late to hold anyone to account.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Crime assets agency 'ill-planned'
The setting up of a government agency to seize criminals' wealth was ill-planned and unrealistic, an influential group of MPs has said.

The Home Office had set "unachievable delivery aims for" the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), the Commons public accounts committee added.

The agency was established in 2003 by the then home secretary David Blunkett.

Its powers were so extensive it could even seize assets from people who had not been convicted of any crime.

It was revealed earlier this year that the ARA had cost £65m over four years, but seized assets worth £23m.

The agency is set to be disbanded from next year.

With Gordon Brown claiming never to have been near the birth of this fiasco, which his treasury hoped it being a goldmine; with Saint Tony unable to remember anything about it, until his book is launched; I expect Blunkett will now claim it was his dog's idea.

It is a shame that there isn't an asset recovery agency we can use against politicians because by rights Tony and Cheriiiiiie should be fearing the bailiff's knock on the door as we demand repayment of all the government has stolen from us rather than eyeing up a minor stately home.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 11, 2007

We the undersigned

The Prime Minister: He talks about a clamour for an election. I looked at the Downing street website this morning. There is a petition on the website calling for an election. It is signed by 26 people...

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Just in Case You Want that Election

At one point in Gordon's battering at PMQs he claimed that hardly anyone had signed the petition for an election on the Downing Street website. Click here to sign.

3475 signed now when I just checked, an amazing increase since Gordon publicised it, I wonder how high it will go? His boast will come back to haunt him...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Corrida de Gordon

Great grizzly Gordon Brown is cut down by Tory bear-baiting - Times Online
It was a disastrous Prime Minister’s Questions for Gordon Brown. He must have known what was coming and yet he reacted to Tory taunts with the incoherent fury of a wounded grizzly bear: rearing back, teeth bared, claws extended, eyes ablaze. As I watched the Beast of Downing Street crash and burn, I felt that only one thing could save him and that was a tranquilliser dart gun.

He was in trouble from the start. Bob Neill, a deeply mediocre Tory, teasingly invited the Prime Minister to come to see a recycling scheme in his constituency. “I could take you and show you one of our bottle banks!” cried Mr Neill.

At the word “bottle” the Commons exploded in laughter but not Grizzly Brown, who only looked enraged. He charged directly at the tiny Tory, his voice booming out over the mocking laughter: “He will therefore be very pleased with the public expenditure settlement with its commitment to the environment!”

Labour MPs looked uneasy. In the Commons, in the space above the government benches, a collective “oh dear” thought bubble emerged. Someone needed to call NHS Direct and order a sense of humour implant, now.

What sport, what larks; Bottle, bottle, bottle, the Torys have a handy banderilla now to prick his skin, how many times will it be used in the next few months? And can Gordon's handlers program him to ignore the taunt?

And maybe Cameron should have a quick study tour in Spain
Corrida de toros or fiesta brava

The modern corrida is highly ritualized, with three distinct stages or tercios, the start of each being announced by a trumpet sound.
In the first stage, the tercio de varas ("the lancing third"), the matador first confronts the bull and observes his behavior in an initial section called suerte de capote. Next, a picador enters the arena on horseback armed with a varas ("lance"). The manner in which the bull charges the horse provides important clues to the matador on which side the bull is favoring. If the picador does his job well, the bull will hold its head and horns lower during the following stages of the fight. This makes it slightly less dangerous while enabling the matador to perform the elegant passes of modern bullfighting.

In the next stage, the tercio de banderillas ("the third of flags"), the three banderilleros each attempt to plant two razor sharp barbed sticks (called banderillas) on the bull's flanks, ideally as close as possible to the wound where the picador drew first blood. These further weaken the enormous ridges of neck and shoulder muscle through loss of blood, while also frequently spurring the bull into making more ferocious charges.

In the final stage, the tercio de muerte ("the third of death"), the matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape (muleta) and a sword. He uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, both demonstrating his control over it and risking his life by getting especially close to it. The faena ("work") is the entire performance with the muleta, which is usually broken down into "tandas" or "series". The faena ends with a final series of passes in which the matador with a muleta attempts to maneuver the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart. The act of thrusting the sword is called an estocada.

Now doesn't that sound like a sensible Tory gameplan....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No Pre-election Bribes Now

Scotsman.com News - Foot-and-mouth payouts for farmers dropped after U-turn on election

THE UK government was last night accused of playing politics with Scottish farmers' livelihoods as it was revealed plans for an £8.1 million compensation payout for foot-and-mouth disease were mysteriously scrapped after Gordon Brown decided not to call an election.

A mystery worthy of Hercule Poirot himself.....

Posted by The Englishman at 5:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 10, 2007

Gordon's Popularity Dive? The English are looking to their wallets.

You don’ t understand us, do you, Gordon? | Alice Miles - Times Online
Och, they’re all dreadful, said the sharp Scottish lady measuring up my curtains, when I explained that I had been away at the party conferences, “I’m that fed up with them. You don’t have to listen to it all, do you?”

Normally one can get away with muttering something smilingly non-committal at this point, but not with Fiona. She put down her measuring tape and challenged me: “So come on, does it mean any more to you than it does to the rest of us? Do you trust them? Because I can’t see any good in it.”

“Mind you,” she was musing, “it was different when I was in Scotland. You could see the benefit there. Everyone can see what they’re getting. Down here, they just pay and pay and get nothing for it.”

Fiona’s not an idiot. There you have, from the mouth of someone who has lived north and south, a near-perfect expression of the reason why Mr Brown suddenly looked like losing a general election last week. He doesn’t understand Southern England, he doesn’t understand that he doesn’t understand it, and he doesn’t see any need to respond to its concerns. Put baldly, the South is paying a lot of money and it isn’t getting a measurable return. It wants to know what the plan is.

Just handing out public money helps the North and Scotland, because their economies are carried by public money. Each year, the Centre for Economic and Business Research (cebr) calculates public spending as a share of GDP for every region of the UK. The cebr adds up government spending figures, benefits and pensions and apportions EU transactions, defence and debt spending on top.

The results are quite shocking. In Northern Ireland, Wales, the North East, Scotland and the North West, public spending as a share of regional GDP is not only far higher than the national average of 44.1 per cent, it is higher than in any EU or OECD country – at, respectively, 70.5, 64.3, 63.0, 55.6 and 54.0 per cent. Well over half the economy in those areas is funded by the taxpayer. In London and the South East, by contrast, public spending accounts for under a third of GDP, in the East of England it is 38.3 per cent and in the South West, 42 per cent. According to cebr, the gap is widening, not shrinking.

Now look at GB-AD and their Cabinet colleagues. They overwhelmingly represent Scotland and the North. Mr Brown has just a single full Cabinet minister with a parliamentary seat in the south, and he is the most junior, John Denham (who? Exactly). Apart from the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, in the Midlands, all the rest are in the north of England, Wales or Scotland. Not one from the East of England, the South East or the South West.

Tony Blair’s Cabinets had a northern bias too, but it didn’t matter so much because Mr Blair himself was so obviously Middle England at heart. And he always had a sprinkling of Southern and Middle England softies – Tessa Jowell, Harriet Harman, Chris Smith, Pat Hewitt – to leaven the mix.

So when a Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer stands up next to a Scottish Prime Minister, the English naturally look to their wallets.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 9, 2007

Shit before a shovel

Animal Farm - Chapter X by George Orwell

Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was Clover. Her old eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she tugged gently at his mane and led him round to the end of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood gazing at the tatted wall with its white lettering.

"My sight is failing," she said finally. "Even when I was young I could not have read what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall looks different. Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?"

For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set, were arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out subscriptions to John Bull, TitBits, and the Daily Mirror. It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth-no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones's clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on...

And in The House of Commons:

Before the recess the Speaker approved the Administration Committee’s recommendation that Members should have priority access to services throughout the Commons part of the Parliamentary Estate.

With effect from today, staff and other users should be prepared to give way to Members when queuing for retail and catering services, the post office, travel office or when using other facilities such as lifts, photocopiers, telephone cubicles, etc.

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October 8, 2007

Danny Bottles Labelling Brown

Comment Central - Times Online - Daniel Finkelstein: Why Brown is not a bottler
...

So if he isn't a bottler, what is he?

First, an obsessive. .. The upside is that he only moves when victory is assured. The downside is that the story gets out, putting him under huge pressure. It's made him look like a serial bottler.

Second, surrounded by unbelievably arrogant advisers and with an arrogant streak himself. ..

Third, unbelievably political...

And finally, what is he? In a lot of trouble.

Sorry, Danny you are wrong, he is also a bottler. When he didn't move against Blair in 94, or mount a putsch against him or call this election the odds may have been against him but that is the point of having bottle, risking it a bit. Only taking sure bets is the sign of a coward. There is a book about Courage he ought to read sometime - The Amazon synopsis reads
What is it that makes some men and women take difficult decisions and do the right thing against the odds when easier and far less dangerous alternatives are open to them? Why is it that some people - .. - have the courage to dare? To answer these questions, Gordon Brown.....

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

Brown's plans gang aft agley

Scotsman.com News - Politics - We elect politicians to manage risk not cynically to avoid it
....
So what went wrong for Labour? Brown's fateful tendency to hesitate? The bad advice of the Young Turks around him? The awkward, inaccurate and heavily spun press conference in Iraq? Or perhaps all the above plus a wilful inability to understand the shallow desires of Middle England?

Brown's predecessor and hero, the late John Smith, was once described by Peter Shore as "too Nordic to understand southern greed." It may seem to some that Brown has inherited the same fatal flaw. He's real old Labour. A genuine redistributionist in a way Tony Blair never was. Ex-Tory voters can sense this about him, and doubtless many in Labour believed it was just a matter of time before the pendulum swung. Last week, David Cameron didn't win, Gordon Brown didn't lose - Middle England simply woke up and smelt the coffee. I'm not sure this argument will wash.

From Wick to Weymouth, we elect politicians to manage risk not to avoid it. Gordon Brown has not just failed to amuse the fickle voters of Surrey. He has failed a test of political leadership his opponents David Cameron and Alex Salmond have largely passed.

To date, Labour has been content to believe Mr Cameron's success is to do with youth, novelty, good looks, and gift of the gab. In Scotland, Alex Salmond's success has been put down to gravitas, planning, longevity and that same gift of the gab. Strange that two such different men could outflank Labour through nothing more than the possession of silvery tongues. Strange and untrue.

After years of risk-free, interest-free political debate - where managing, massaging and careful control has been all that counts - the Toff and the Nationalist have broken the sound barrier. They speak off the cuff and evocatively and are not afraid to support policies that may prompt ridicule.

A week ago, Cameron's willingness to dabble with green taxes was scaring Tories now perfectly willing to overlook the "barmy" green taxes proposed by Zac Goldsmith. And Labour and Lib Dem voters seem to be giving Cameron credit for at least facing up to the challenge of climate change.

Is this entirely because of superficial presentational skills? Or is it because Brown chose to fudge and compromise, while Cameron and Salmond have appeared to face up to difficult choices?
....
Modern voters are strongly aspirational. Voters in Middle England may aspire to create wealth. Voters in Middle Scotland may aspire to achieve social fairness. But both sets of voters want the same thing. An aspirational government with motivating leadership.

To date, that profound desire has been misunderstood by Labour who think leadership has something to do with the right use of suits, jokes, smiles, whitened teeth and new haircuts. Brown aspires to many things but he isn't a natural motivator.
....
Like a choreographed fireworks display, the pre-set timers in Gordon Brown's now abandoned election will still cause rockets to explode all the way through the next fortnight. The Comprehensive Spending Review and Pre Budget Report tomorrow will let us see if Brown can respond to Cameron's ideas on Inheritance Tax and Stamp Duty. Or if the heavy footed Scots in Downing Street will be too cautious to rise to the challenge.

If Brown hoped to flush out some half baked Tory policies - he has failed. And given himself just three days to decide whether to adopt, reject or ignore their bold tax plans.

As a famous Scot who knew nothing of election dates once remarked: "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley."

Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Miliband Balls "Fingered"

Brown's young Turks who got it all wrong | the Daily Mail

Ed Balls, Labour election coordinator Douglas Alexander and Foreign Secretary David Miliband were being fingered as the chief architects of their leader's humiliation.

Furious MPs blamed the three influential Ministers "pumped with political testosterone" who put their own leadership desires ahead of the party good.

Until a few days ago, MPs looked to Mr Balls, 40, Mr Miliband, 42, and 40-year-old Mr Alexander as potential leaders who would assure Labour's grip on power long after Mr Brown is gone.

They have been vying with each other for Mr Brown's favour, and are widely seen to be jockeying already for the succession battle.
...
At a stroke, their claim to be the three best political minds of their generation is in question.

So far Miliband has been getting an easy ride by the press but deep inside the Party, where he has never been trusted, his card is now well and truely marked.

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October 7, 2007

If one brown bottle should accidentally fall

Analysis: Gordons colour now will be yellow - Telegraph
Mr Brown will be presented as a man frightened of a leadership contest, an EU referendum and an election. He only has himself to blame, writes Matthew d’Ancona.

The Conservative Party is cornering the market in bottles.

Bottle banners, bottle novelty toys, bottle pictures: you name it, they’re buying it.

For thirteen years, we have quaked before the mighty figure of Iron Gordon, master of all he surveys, untroubled by the anxieties of mere mortals.

Now, with the general election called off, "Bottler Brown" is about to become a very familiar character on the political landscape.
.....
The whole point of Mr Brown is that he is meant to be square-jawed, implacable, remorseless, unstoppable. He is, after all, the author of a (very good) book entitled Courage.

Now it turns out that he might be what I gather in Scotland is called a "feartie": a wuss, a girly-man, the Coward of the County (the county in this case being Fife, rather than somewhere in Texas as in the Kenny Rogers original).

The PM wanted to be seen as the mighty Father of the Nation, indomitable on his plinth, and succeeded to some extent in nurturing that image in his first few weeks in Number Ten.

But this farce has given the Tories the opportunity to change all that.

They will present him now as a man on the run from scrutiny and judgment: frightened of a leadership contest, frightened of an EU Referendum, frightened of an election.
.....

So now we have the referendum on the EU Constitution back in the frame. A major selling point of an early election was that it gave him a way out by bundling the "treaty" ratification into the manifesto - he can't do that now. And now he is "damaged goods" maybe one or two more of his backbenchers will show some "Courage ™ Gordon Brown" and defy the whip. Could be an interesting few weeks.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 6, 2007

Brown has bottled it. - First with the news

Google rightly puts this humble blog as first with the news that Brown has bottled it - why go elsewhere for your analysis?

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Iain Dale sticks it into Gordon as I would have done, (if I hadn't been drinking beer and watching rugby instead).

Iain Dale's Diary: Frit!

Gordon Brown has bottled it...
Make no mistake, David Cameron has got out of jail free. He has achieved the greatest political escape in modern history. Few of us would have been confident of a Tory victory, and Brown's decision has given the Party a chance to fight another day.

Brown will give all sorts of excuses for not calling the election - state of the electoral register, blue tongue, foot and mouth, boundaries in Northern Ireland not ready, not in the national interest, blah, blah, blah, but no one will believe a word of it.

Because everyone really knows that the reason Gordon Brown hasn't called an election is because he couldn't be confident of winning it.

One advantage of being a round ball enthusiast is you can put your thoughts together when the rest of us have more important things to think about.

Of course some of us refused to believe Gordon would ever call an election as he has a streak of yellow a mile wide running through him. But it gave the politico journos a cheap thrill to imagine he might.

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The Advice to Gordon from all the papers this morning

Don't be a Scaredy Cat - Image from Ava

Avoid the slurry pit, Gordon. Be brave. Do it
Matthew Parris

Will Gordon Brown make up his mind?
By Simon Heffer

Iain Dale

Uncle Tom Cobbley and all

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October 4, 2007

Cameron's Thoughts

Cameron's Speech Notes - PDF 17.76 MB
Kudos to him for not reading a script, and leaving his notes for The Times, saves me time from having to read/listen to the whole speech.

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Election Date - The Predictions

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Election Fever - Who Says When

* Peter Riddell - "it will almost certainly be on November 1 or 8."
* Tim Montgomerie - thought Gordon would call it during Labour conference.
* Iain Dale - thought Gordon might call it during Tory conference

* Team Cameron - we don't know but "we are on battle stations".

* Adam Boulton - told Guido he didn't think this autumn, but you never know.
* Mike Smithson - thinks Gordon will play it extra long, not before 2009.
* Fraser Nelson - can't see why Gordon would want to shorten his reign.
* Benedict Brogan - not now, according to his Brownite sources.

Where is Guido sticking his neck? The Brownies are a secretive cabal yet they have signalled a supposed snap election intention. Why would they signal their true intentions to the enemy? Gordon will stretch out his term as long as he can...

Iain Dale jumped off the fence some time ago by predicting that Brown would indeed call an autumn poll.

"The events of the past few days are making me a little nervous about that prediction but I still think it's 60-40 in favour. But if Ben is right, the quote I gave the Telegraph earlier today will be very aposite...

If the party has succeeded in putting Gordon Brown off calling an election they will have achieved one of the greatest feats in modern political history. They will have got out of jail. All credit to those who organised this conference."

As I said before I was in the Brown's bottled it camp before the Tory conference and after the glowing reports from Blackpool I think Gordon's nails are chewed to the quick and he hasn't got the balls to fight.

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October 3, 2007

Recommended Listening

IDS's speech is getting rave reviews - may I recommend you put it on in the background as you go blog surfing. Available here Conservative Party Conference 2007 - Conference TV

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Telegraph's Top Tory List

Analysis: Most influential Right-wingers in UK - Telegraph

....everyone will disagree with this list and everyone will have questions.

Where is Jackie Collins? Where is Nick Griffin? Why so few ex-Thatcher Ministers? Why so few industrialists and city brokers? Why no Tony Blair? Everyone will have their own answers and their own lists, so let us know.

This is our list, now shows (sic) us yours.

Umm, Jackie Collins - the smutty pot boiler writer? Nick Griffen a leader of a National Socialist Party, clue in the title to his left wing credentials and Tony Blair, you've got him in at No 10 - have you actually read the list?

And on reading the list my despair at any sort of leadership of the right of centre politics is compounded by the preponderance of shiny-faced shiny-suited estate agent look-a-likes thought to be the top Tories who infest that barren wasteland between the intellectual thinkers of policy, such as Think Tank writers, and the actual doers such as industrialists and businessmen.

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October 2, 2007

The Little Column of Boris

Boris, our man with a manifesto (of sorts) | Damian Whitworth - Times Online
There are gazillions of words of Boris on the Times database. As a service to readers I have boiled them down into a summary. I’ve had to compress the arguments, but I think that it’s pretty much all there. Here, then, is the candidate entirely in his own words.

What a great read, lots of Boris quotes! Do you know I think there could be a book in that idea, I must see if Top Tory Blogger and Author Iain Dale is interested...

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Osborne begins to get the idea

Tories to lift inheritance tax threshold to £1m - Telegraph

"We are the low-tax party," he said. "We have a new dividing line between a Labour Prime Minister who has taxed a generation out of home ownership and a Conservative government that will abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers.

"The dividing line between a Labour Prime Minister who takes away the homes of those who have saved all their lives and a Conservative government that takes people's homes and savings out of inheritance tax."

Now that is more like it, see it wasn't so hard to say was it, keep repeating every morning and build it up, more "low-tax", more "freedom" and you will be surprised what may happen.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 1, 2007

They've got your number

Phone data law extends surveillance powers - Telegraph

A massive extension of surveillance powers comes into force today, giving police, government officials and even local councils unprecedented access to everyone's telephone records.

The new regulations will force telecommunications companies to retain information about all landline and mobile calls made by members of the public for one year, and hand over the data to over 650 public bodies and quangos.

Six hundred and fifty different cunchs of bunts can trawl through my call records? If I bothered to make calls, I hate the telephone in a deep visceral way, then I suppose I would work out how Skype and PAYG phones work because, as ever, the Government is over reacting to the threat of old technology. And, of course, we can't hope for the Tories to protest because it would be seen as being soft on crime if they objected to this larceny of our right to privacy.

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

Brown has bottled it.

Trust isn’t a four-letter word, Gordon Brown | William Rees-Mogg - Times Online
It is reasonably clear where the polls stand at the start of the Conservative Party conference. Although a couple of polls taken in the middle of the Labour conference showed a larger Labour lead, the two published yesterday were very close to each other. BPIX in The Mail on Sunday gave Labour 41 per cent, Conservatives 34 and Liberal Democrats 12. Ipsos MORI in The Observer gave Labour 41, Conservatives 34, Lib Dems 16.

Gordon Brown’s problem is that he has to make adjustments to these figures to allow for the behaviour of the marginals, differences in turnout and the campaign itself. In 2001 these factors tended to cancel each other out. Nevertheless, the 2001 campaign is a warning to Labour’s election planners. The early polls in that campaign gave Labour 50 per cent of the vote, but in the actual result Labour only won 41 per cent, 9 per cent below the early expectations; the Conservatives were stable and the Lib Dems gained 4 per cent.

Historically, early polls have tended to exaggerate Labour support, and to underestimate the Lib Dems. Labour has greater difficulty in getting out its vote, while the Lib Dems benefit from the publicity of the campaign. If Mr Brown calls an election, he must expect at least some slippage of votes from Labour to the Lib Dems. From the present figures, in light of the 2001 result, there could be no overall majority in the next Parliament.

There is also the factor of the European constitution....

Brown is a coward, there has never been a political row or fight he hasn't walked away from. Despite having money on an early election I think he has bottled it. He will slip the EU constitution through with his majority, reasoning he doesn't want the election to turn into a referendum on Europe, he can then let the issue slide for a year or two as we won't see jackbooted bureaucrats taking over the streets it will lose its "danger". As for facing the electorate he "can't think about that right now. If he does, he'll go crazy. he'll think about that tomorrow."

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September 29, 2007

Cameron Picture Quiz

So which one to you want to punch for being a silly round pink thing on a stick?

Those very nice people at Sky sent me a pack of their Politician Top Trump cards, where David Cameron rates for his looks, but, but is it just me. I think his top Tory Toff looks count against him. He looks just that bit too well fed, manicured and buffed. No hint of work or worry has lined his face, and the idea of his physog beaming out of the telly is not an inducement for voting for him.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:16 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 28, 2007

Cameron to repent of youthful dabbling

David Cameron returns to core Tory values - Telegraph

David Cameron is preparing to move to core Tory policies on tax, marriage and crime and style himself as an heir to Margaret Thatcher - not Tony Blair.

In a shift that will see him distance himself from green tax proposals, the Tory leader will use next week's crucial conference to try to reinvigorate his leadership before a possible snap election.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph today, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, discloses that proposals that proved unpopular with ordinary Tory voters will be scrapped. They include taxing people for parking at supermarkets and for taking more than one short flight a year.

He also makes clear his intention to reform inheritance tax.

Mr Osborne says Gordon Brown is a "fake" and taunts the Labour leader by saying if he does not call an election now he will have "bottled it".

And after weeks of poor polls - the latest put Labour 11 points ahead - and watching the Prime Minister make direct appeals to Tory voters, Mr Osborne has been forced to fight back and stake Mr Cameron's claim for traditional backing.

Mr Brown used an interview with this paper and his conference speech on Monday to try to woo Middle England. Promises by the Government to review policies on crime and drugs have also been seen as an attempt to stake out traditional Tory ground.

By contrast, recent Conservative green proposals were greeted with astonishment.

Cabinet ministers at Labour's conference in Bournemouth this week could not contain their pleasure at Mr Cameron's clumsy attempts to use the multi-millionaire Zac Goldsmith to come up with green policies for "ordinary people". It threatened to be a millstone round the party's neck.

That will be put right next week when many of the plans are ditched....

Is the Boy growing up, putting behind him those embarrassing teenage trendy policies, will he acknowledge the traditional Tories have more appeal than Zac and Gummer? Time will tell but it is a welcome move, even if it is done under pressure from realising his present policies are as welcome as Granny's tongue in a goodnight kiss.

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September 27, 2007

Gordon stays Shrum

Comment Central - Times Online - Daniel Finkelstein

.....The heavy influence of Bob Shrum on Gordon Brown's speech....

there are plenty of phrases pretty directly lifted from speeches made by Shrum clients, many of which he admits he wrote. Here are just a few, there may well be many more:

Al Gore 2000 nomination acceptance speech: I know my own imperfections. I know that sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy.

Gordon Brown: Sometimes people say I am too serious and I fight too hard and maybe that's true......

Al Gore 2000 nomination acceptance speech: I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down. "

Gordon Brown: This is my pledge to the British people: I will not let you down.

John Kerry 2004 nomination acceptance speech: And what can I say about Teresa?  She has the strongest moral compass of anyone I know

Gordon Brown: And this is my moral compass

Bill Clinton's State of the Union 1995: As we move into this next century, everybody matters; we don't have a person to waste.

Gordon Brown: This is the century where our country cannot afford to waste the talents of anyone

Then there's the structure. So many Shrum speeches begin with a story about the candidate's mother and father and what they taught him. So did Brown on Monday. And the pointing out John Smeaton was straight out of a Clinton State of the Union speech.

.....

Not an original thought in that carefully coiffured head - imagine just cutting and pasting whole sections of text.....

Posted by The Englishman at 5:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 26, 2007

What Gordon Didn't Say

Here's some Politician's Quotes that folksy old Gordon failed to include, and I doubt Dave will either..

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Thomas Jefferson

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."

Judge Gideon J. Tucker

"The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare."

Daniel P. Moynihan

"The power to tax is the power to destroy. A government which lays taxes on
the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy
is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny."
--Calvin Coolidge

We have an army of bureaucrats laboring feverishly to convince us of the importance of government. There are few who work to convince us otherwise. The bureaucrats are paid for their work. No one is paid to point out the waste, graft, and corruption that is government.

Tom Gleinser

"When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence."

Gary Lloyd

"I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its “successful experiment” that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office."

Andrew Jackson, February 10, 1825

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

John Adams

The amount of donations a candidate receives is a direct indication of his level of corruption.

The most corruptible candidates receive the most money.

Tom Gleinser

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

C.S. Lewis

There’s a huge difference between Vegas and Washington. See, in Las Vegas, people gamble with their own money."

Jay Leno

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams

"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that
power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by
other things than power."

David Brin

"Politics is the art of stopping people from minding their own business."

Paul Valery

“I've had a tough time learning how to act like a congressman. Today I accidentally spent some of my own money.”

Joseph P. Kennedy

"Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you give it to others."

William Allen White

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program. "

Main's Law

"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments."

William H. Borah

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State wants to live at the expense of everyone."

Fredrick Bastiat

"The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it."

John Stuart Mill

There is no better way to provide for the "common good" that through the preservation of individual liberty.

Tom Gleinser

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

Sir Winston Churchill

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."

Tacitus

The world is a dangerous place to live... not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. - Albert Einstein

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."

Robert Heinlein

"Even a dumb free market is far more intelligent then a smart bureaucracy."

Joe Balyeat, in response to the "smart growth" psuedonym used by government regulators

“If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new
problem that may appear in your life, then you should not ask the government to do it for you."

Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right."

Lawrence Auster

"The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect."

Sam Ewing

Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.
-- Ayn Rand

Politicians and diapers need to be regularly changed for the same reason.

Unknown

Only Libertarians obey the Constitution rather than changing it to suit the desires of the special interests they owe.

When governments fear the people there is liberty.
When the people fear the government there is tyranny.

-Thomas Jefferson

"If a government were put in charge of the Sahara Desert, within five years, they'd have a shortage of sand." - Milton Friedman

Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny."

Barry Goldwater

Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Fisking Gordo Speech - saves me having to wade through it!

PJC Journal :: Gordon Brown's speech to Conference - what was he thinking?

Gordon Brown the Prime Minister said: "My father was a minister of the church, and his favourite story was the parable of the talents because he believed - and I do too - that each and every one of us has a talent and each and every one of us should be able to use that talent."

I tell you, that to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away
Luke 19:12-27

In other words, under Brown - The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.

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September 25, 2007

Andrew Robathan MP - Prick

Andrew Robathan MP is getting shafted by the comments on his blog after embedding a picture from another server - which has been tweaked!

http://conservative-future.blogspot.com/2006/06/subscription-rate.html

Click on the coin picture and you'll see that it says "Vote Labour" in the shadow.

Posted by The Englishman at 9:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The Unsinkable Gordon Brown

Second case of bluetongue as hobby farmers face foot-and-mouth backlash - Times Online

Hobby farmers failing to check their stock were held responsible for the resurgence of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey by trading standards officers last night....

The veterinary report suggests that the disease may have been missed because symptoms appeared in only a small number of animals, rather than affecting the whole herd, and this had not suggested an outbreak of foot-and-mouth. The report also says that there had been “insufficient examination of cattle” by their keepers.

The precise source for the spread of the disease from the original Surrey outbreak has not been identified but the strongest contender is thought to be via infected lorries from the Pirbright scientific laboratories, from where the live virus originally leaked, or infected farm vehicles or equipment. Transmission by wild deer, boar or birds are also remote possibilities.

The report makes uncomfortable reading for the Government because if tests had been conducted throughout Surrey and on high-risk hobby farms before Britain was declared disease-free, the resurgence of the virus would not have occurred.

Debbie Reynolds - was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress following her performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Debby Reynolds is the Chief Veterinary Officer who will be rewarded for her performance in The Unsinkable Gordon Brown by not allowing a Blairite panic over foot and mouth to ruin his choices for election dates.

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In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king

Gordon Brown sets out stall for Middle Britain - Times Online

He's a real nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else
lend you a hand.

He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody

(Note to self - reuse this post for Dave Cameron at the Tory conference)

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September 21, 2007

Rattled

Sir Menzies vows to 'rattle the political cage' - Telegraph
Vowing to “rattle the cage” of British politics and shatter the “cosy consensus” of Labour and the Tories, the 66-year-old Lib Dem leader insisted that his age was an advantage.

Unfortunate image - what do you rattle the bars of a cage with? Yup, a walking stick.....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 19, 2007

Bet early, bet often

politicalbetting.com ｻ Blog Archive ｻ Massive ICM blow for Cameron and the Tories....
my first action before starting this piece was to open up my Spreadfair account and buy Labour at the 310 seat level on the general election spread market. The latest Guardian ICM poll is out and shows Labour with their biggest lead from the pollster since September 2005 three months before David Cameron became leader.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 17, 2007

The Politics of Envy

Scotsman.com News - I'll hammer the rich who earn £70,000 or more, declares Ming (salary £60,227)

SIR Menzies Campbell yesterday pledged to "hammer" households earning more than £70,000 with higher taxes.

The Liberal Democrat leader said the rich have done "too well" under Labour and agreed the wealthiest 10 per cent should pay more taxes.....

A YouGov poll commissioned by the party shows that even 77 per cent of Conservative voters believe the gap between rich and poor is "too large" while 92 per cent of both Labour and Lib Dem voters agree. And 64 per cent believe the earnings gap has grown wider over the past decade under Labour.

The same number believe that the richest people in Britain should pay more tax while 5 per cent are opposed. But even among Conservative voters, there is a clear majority (55 per cent against 39 per cent).

The vast majority of people believe that wealth is a zero sum game, the rich only become richer at the expense of the poor, combine that with envy and you have the nasty poisonous ideas that have caused the economy to be mired in the past.

(It takes about two minutes to show twelve year olds that wealth isn't a zero sum game; scribble a picture, sell it to the kid for 5p, you are now 5p richer, he has a painting worth 5p so isn't any poorer etc. Wealth is like laughter, you can create it, increase it by passing it round but hoarding it destroys it.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 14, 2007

Mrs T back where she belongs

Scotsman.com News - UK - Well, that's one way to woo Tory voters

GORDON Brown charged deeper into traditional Conservative territory yesterday, warmly welcoming Margaret Thatcher back into 10 Downing Street.

In a move calculated to enrage David Cameron, the Tory leader, and Labour left-wingers in equal measure, a grinning Mr Brown posed on the steps of No 10 with the woman still regarded as a hate figure by some and worshipped as an icon by others.

The high-profile visit was the latest in a string of theatrical coups the Prime Minister has staged as he tries to broaden his electoral appeal and erode Mr Cameron's support among traditional Conservatives....

Mr Cameron's officials last night said he was "very relaxed" at Lady Thatcher's decision to accept Mr Brown's invitation. However, it is understood the Tory leader has not spoken to Lady Thatcher since February, and rumours abound that she is unhappy with the direction the party is taking.

Lady Thatcher's visit appeared to have divided grassroots Conservatives last night.

"I think she's telling us what she thinks of Cameron. Good for her," said one contributor to the ConservativeHome website, used by many Tory members.

Too busy listening to the Green muppets to learn a little statecraft? Says it all.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 11, 2007

The Toryban plays Happy Families

Tories to end out-of-town free parking - Telegraph

Shoppers using out-of-town supermarkets would be forced to pay car parking charges under new Conservative proposals to defend the traditional British high street....

The 800-page report tries to deflect the inevitable criticism by stressing that the parking charges would be no greater than the amount people would pay in the nearest town centre.

The policy review group, which was co-chaired by Zac Goldsmith, the millionaire environmental campaigner, and John Gummer, the former Tory environment secretary, added that the money raised by the new charges would be used by the local authority to fund improved public transport....party would impose new "green taxes" in an attempt to encourage people to cut the amount of carbon they produced...best way to deliver the green growth that must be our aim..."the poorest in our society have got poorer "

...local communities should be given more powers to resist plans for big superstores in order to defend local shops. It will say that there should be "guidance on issues such as the floor space -allocated to superstore development, including an upper limit cap if desirable."....tougher checks on the "wider sustainability" of plans for new out-of-town stores.

So Mr Bun the Baker and Mr Green the Grocer who are locals through and through and have been on the council man and boy will be able to tell Tesco how much cheap fresh food they can sell. As they look over their counters at the stale old rolls and wilting cabbage I suppose they may be happy to support the Tory Greenmail attempt, but consumers???

Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

September 8, 2007

Tony Who?

Tony Blair's peace quest isn't paying the bills - Telegraph
Tony Blair could be forgiven for congratulating himself on a seamless transition from world leader to world peace envoy....

As he lives a lifestyle more akin to that of a former United States president, Mr Blair's annual outgoings for his staff, office space and mortgages could soon top £1 million. Yet, so far, he has not made great progress in pursuing the book deals, speaking tours and directorships which might help to pay for it all...

Oh no, it has been such a nice break and now he is coming back and will be all over the TV plugging his book / tour / availability for weddings and bar mitzvahs in his fake mockney voice; better stock up on the bricks besides the sofa of sloth.

Posted by The Englishman at 8:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 6, 2007

Cameron unites the country

Iain Dale's Diary: A Tory Policy Everyone Can Unite Behind

"They will only complete the course after making a personal appearance in front of organisers. During this they must pledge allegiance to Britain, say what they have learned and declare which charity they have chosen and why."

Yep, it certainly has united everyone, in declaring the it is the most idiotic, pathetic, neo-fascist, idea yet to come out of the twats mouth - and it has some stiff competition there.

(Apologies to Iain for mocking his enthusiasm but really just think it through; it is never going to work, if it ever gets off the ground it will just swallow our money for no results apart from kids getting some free rock climbing. And it is not so much Gordon is going to steal it but that Cammy is stealing Gordon's frantic flag waving policies. Instead of pledges of allegiance how about Cameron actually growing a pair of balls so he can take on the bastards who are selling our country down the river; words are cheap, what about some action from him?

Posted by The Englishman at 5:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Up against the wall in a seedy cul-de-sac

Guide to the Government - Times Online

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate - (even a nuLabour apparatchik should be able to grasp it)

Steps

1. Engage your partner using foreplay. Stimulate their erogenous zones by kissing and caressing them. (If it is a fat bird you have just picked up, skip this)
2. Disrobe yourself and your partner, (but obviously not if you are in Downing Street with the Press present) and you might want to look around for a wall to lean against.
3. Position yourself either behind or in front of your partner depending on your preference. (If it is that fat bird mentioned above I recommend the "behind" position as it means you don't have to look at her.) There is some room for improvisation in standing sexual positions.
4. Find a standing position that makes both partners comfortable. Enter your partner while both standing and engage in sex.

Overall Tips & Warnings

* Go with the flow in the standing sexual position. People’s heights and flexibilities differ so much that you often have to make it your own by tweaking the position until both partners are comfortable.
* You can use the standing sexual position for both vaginal and anal sex.
* Always practice safe sex regardless of what position you’ve chosen.

Overall Things You'll Need

* Wall to lean against
* Sexual partner (If you a politics geek this is the hardest bit, so make the most of any fat bird that stands still long enough.)

Posted by The Englishman at 6:48 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Don't Know Much ’bout History..

Cameron issues a stern warning to party’s ‘blast from the past’ critics - Times Online
"When you make changes to a party you will get blasts from the past who signify absolutely nothing. I simply don’t agree with them. They are wrong.”

Mr Cameron made clear that he was angry with critics playing into Labour’s hands. He said: “I want all Conservatives to think carefully before they open their mouths.

“Political leadership is about taking the long-term approach. It’s about ignoring the noises off-stage. People in the party who are criticising me are just plain wrong. That’s all there is to it. I don’t think when Tony Blair was trying to change the Labour Party he spent his whole time worrying about what Tony Benn was saying. I have set a very clear course that has already reaped huge benefits for the party.”

There that has told them!, I'm the King of the Castle, it is all about me! Look how I have swept the Tories to stunning victory and popularity, all me, on my own!

Mr Cameron will reveal his plans today for a national citizen service. He wants 16-year-olds to devote all or part of their summer holiday to undertaking “patriotic” service. Youngsters could take part in a mini triathalon or military training. Others would work with elderly people and charities or help in Third World countries.

Mr Cameron said: “This will make people feel proud about themselves and about their country. It will mix people from different backgrounds. North and South, black and white, rich and poor. They will be putting something back into the community. It will be a way of learning respect for our country and each other, just like national service was.”

Talk about a "blast from the past" - the last National serviceman was discharged on 13 May 1963. The only people who can remember doing National Service are pensioners. And his wishy washy do good summer camps won't be compulsory so will be just a state subsidised holiday camp for middle class kids. A well meaning idea but five minutes thought would have made it obvious it is a pathetic idea to make a major policy announcement. But then he hasn't learnt that it wasn't his super "hug a hoody" or "stroke a seal" that gave him a poll bounce, but going back to the old fashioned Tory ideas on crime, or as he would put it a blast from the past.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 4, 2007

Top Ten Reasons Why Iain Dale Should.....

Iain Dale's Diary: Top Ten Reasons Michael Ancram Should....be leader... No. Looks like he has really upset the trendy Tories.

The PR cockup disaster is not Ancram's fault, it is Central Office and commentators like Iain's. FFS have none of them been to a board meeting, or shareholders meeting where some "stakeholder" puts forward an idea that doesn't fit with the new rebranding. Hissy fits don't work, think "big tent", "respect views", small giggle - "well I wouldn't have put it quite like that but as ever you are spot on". It is all about diffusing, listening and including. Not throwing toys out of the pram. When the traitorous Ken Clarke or Fatty Pang burp their poisonous thoughts where was the outrage then?

It is the first time I have felt a major party politician has been talking my language for a long time, but the reaction of the Metropolitan Elite show me that Central Office aren't Torys and will continue to condescendingly patronise us and hope we will vote for them whatever.

Download Michael Ancram's Pamphlet here (300k pdf)

Posted by The Englishman at 5:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

We all love Comrade Brown

Scotsman.com News - UK - Brown's loud boo to ya-boo politics

GORDON Brown yesterday pledged to break the adversarial mould of British politics, drafting in Conservative and Liberal Democrat advisers and promising to consult new "citizens' juries" on government policy.

"By creating a Party of National Unity the need for other parties is negated and their continued existence and funding is an expensive luxury and irrelevance we cannot afford in these days of national emergency (insert terrorism/ climate change/ plague as appropriate). The destabilising effect of dissenting views harms the British people and our efforts to defeat (as above). So as a interim measure during the emergency I am suspending all other political activities apart those of the Party of National Unity. To preserve the peace and our way of life severe penalties against transgressors...."

Update - BBC - Radio 2 - Shows - Jeremy Vine joins in by discussing: "ONE PARTY STATE" :
As two senior Conservatives become Labour policy advisors, we look at the increasing inevitability of the one party state.

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

Calling Marshal Wade!

Scotsman.com News - Battle for Britain's oil under way as SNP told: hands off

THE Westminster government will today launch a full-scale assault on Alex Salmond's push to seize control of oil and gas revenue, telling an industry conference that the Nationalists' plans are "flawed", "foolhardy" and "parochial".

Try "Treason"

The Devil's Kitchen: Alex Salmond And The Raising Of The Saltire In Edinburgh - Do None Dare Call This Treason?

....the unilateral decision of the Scottish National Party's minority administration to remove the Royal Coat of Arms from government offices and rename the Scottish Executive as the Scottish Government is not a 'rebranding'; it's a rebellion.

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the Queen.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Tory Vision from Devizes

David Cameron 'is trashing Thatcher legacy' - Telegraph
Michael Ancram, a former deputy leader of the party, calls for a return to the core values that won four successive elections by championing lower taxes, floating the prospect of withdrawal from the European Union, and for the party leadership to stop "trashing" its Thatcherite past.

."....Freedom comes in many forms: freedom from unnecessary or oppressive regulation, key to the creation of the smaller state well highlighted by John Redwood's report; freedom from fear, the ability to walk our streets without fear of being mugged, shot or even bombed; freedom to control one's own life, requiring an up-front commitment to the principle of lower taxes. I also hope we will look again at selection in education.

I strongly support clear recognition of the value of the family. Along with the importance of the twin concepts of the interdependent community and of "the good neighbour", the family is a crucial key to a more stable society.

The protection of our sovereignty, however, is probably the most important Conservative principle, because, without it, we can never as a nation guarantee to deliver on any other principles and pledges. Sovereignty belongs to the British people, and can be surrendered only with the express consent of the British people. ...

.......

We must make clear to our European colleagues that "a country called Europe" is incompatible with our sovereignty, and that we cannot remain part of an EU where that is the inevitable and swiftly approaching outcome. Above all we must have a simple creed.

We believe in people, in their individual freedom and right to choose; we believe in promoting aspiration and merit; we believe in the smaller state, in value for taxpayers' money and in being the "good neighbour"; we believe in the family; in protecting and conserving our environment; and above all in the resolute defence of our sovereignty and our realm.

With that creed, and with policies consistent with it, people should have a pretty clear idea what the Conservative Party in the 21st century stands for."

As my MP that is the sort of talk that gets my vote.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 3, 2007

Schoolboy Politics

Gordon Brown's Tory appeal ignites poll fever - Telegraph
Gordon Brown today heightens election fever with a direct pledge to Conservative Party supporters that he intends to be a prime minister who includes them in his government and acts on their behalf.
Gordon, hitting his stride, added:
"We should, and must, have a strong and reliable government to promote our interests in Europe and the World. In Britain, too, we must have a less casual government that must take drastic measures in solving our unemployment, economic, transport and local government problems. Not long ago we were looked upon as a strong country; now our only hope of survival in an age dominated by nuclear power is to link up with our stronger western allies. So you can see our status today leaves much to be desired. I conclude, we can and indeed must have a more dynamic government."

That second quote was from Gordon Brown aged 12 in 1963 - but his desire for a less casual government is well documented today and as for his linking up with our western allies, the traitorous sell out to Europe says it all. He is still the same little pompous prick he was as a precocious Kirkcaldy schoolboy with the same tired old socialist thoughts. It may fool the odd cod botherer (or maybe not), but it doesn't fool me, or I hope you.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 31, 2007

This boy is for turning

Yesterday

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the treaty was different in "absolute essence" from the defunct European constitution, so the Government was not obliged to follow through on its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum.

"We have not got a European constitution," Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Today

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has refused to rule out a referendum on the EU reform treaty as Labour infighting grows over Europe.

In the face of a mounting Labour rebellion, he insisted last night the final decision should be left to Parliament.

But asked to say that there was no possibility of an eventual referendum, Mr Miliband repeatedly ducked the question.

Some Labour MPs believe Mr Brown may be increasingly tempted to call an early election if the EU referendum campaign continues to gather pace. One idea is that he could include a commitment to ratify the treaty in the election manifesto and, if he wins, use this to say he has a mandate not to call a referendum

Oh dear Diddums sounds as though he is getting rattled. He is afraid he is going to be called into the headmasters study and have to explain why he can't deliver a compliant parliament and populace who accept Gordon's word. Very frightening when you are very little.

Will Gordon duck a referendum by calling an election? Tempting in that Dave is still in disarray, and that there are some many traitorous Tories who love the troughs of Brussels so Cammy couldn't run an anti-Eu campaign. But then old cowardy custard Brown has always run away from any fight and I don't think he will risk an election being turned into an EU referendum. If he calls an election he will have neutralised the problem first.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 30, 2007

The Drug War, Just Say No to it.

Give peace a chance. Forget the war on drugs | Anatole Kaletsky - Times Online
The fact is that many complex problems do have simple answers. What politicians mean when they say “there are no simple answers” is that the simple answers are not the same as easy ones. The easy answer to almost any political problem is to highlight its complexity, plead for patience, appoint a policy czar and set up a Royal Commission. The simple answer is often to do something bold and previously unthinkable. In other words, to cut the Gordian knot instead of trying to untie it.....
...there is a common thread linking the British Army’s failure to bring order to large parts of Afghanistan controlled by the Taleban and the British police’s failure to bring order to large parts of our inner cities controlled by gangs of gun-toting youths. That common thread is drugs....
what if, instead of looking for the root causes of crime and social breakdown, we consider what might have changed in recent years to encourage more teenagers to carry weapons? The answer then becomes much simpler. As in Helmand, many inner-city estates have created an alternative social order where the economics of the hugely profitable drug trade are far more attractive than any other choice.

And just as in Helmand, the efforts to suppress drug-use and trading have distracted the police and the courts from the infinitely more important tasks of preventing violence and keeping control of the streets. For example, tougher sentences for carrying knives or guns are pointless when the law already imposes even longer prison terms — up to life for large quantities — on people who carry drugs, which many of the teenage gangs habitually do. Similarly, zero-tolerance policing, which could certainly help to get weapons off the streets in the right conditions, is of little use if prisons are so overcrowded with drug offenders that there is no room for violent criminals carrying knives and even guns.

All these observations point to a simple conclusion: simple, though not easy. The global war against drugs is in contradiction to the war against violent crime at home and the war against terrorism internationally. Legalising, or at least decriminalising, drugs would, not on its own, end terrorism or gang violence — and it is no substitute for long-term measures to promote development abroad or improve education at home. But a ceasefire in the war against drugs would at least give peace a chance — not only in Afghanistan, but also in the streets of Britain.

And the chances of any of Gordon's ministers recognising that? As likely as Cherie Blair retiring to a nunnery.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 29, 2007

Community Involvement in the Criminal Justice System

Tar and feathers for Belfast ‘drug dealer’

The victim was tied to a lamppost as masked men poured tar over him then covered him in feathers as women and children looked on.

A placard around his neck declared: "I'm a drug dealing scumbag."

The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith QC said of the day:

This was an inspiring day. .... We are going to make community involvement and problem solving a reality here ... I am challenging prosecutors to think creatively about their role at the heart of community justice, from start to finish. What has been discussed here will blaze a trail across the country.

While old fatty Goldsmith might not have been talking of this particular day, with the Government retreating from the essential idea that the State acts as a fair judge of punishment with its calls for victims or the nebulous community to be "involved" this is what you will get. I note from the Sun that the victim didn't go to the police or hospital, so a fully privatised justice system then...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 28, 2007

Na Na I've got my fingers my ears, I can't hear you.

Referendum row closes in on Gordon Brown - Telegraph
Gordon Brown's fabled strengths as a political strategist are about to be tested to breaking point. Our revelation today that as many as 120 backbench Labour MPs (apparently with the tacit support of some ministers) support the call for a referendum on the EU reform treaty presents the Prime Minister with a serious challenge to his authority....

Labour's 2005 general election manifesto gave an explicit commitment to a referendum on the EU constitution.
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The new treaty is accepted across Europe as being a near-identical replica of the constitution which the votes of the French and Dutch consigned, briefly, to oblivion.

Mr Brown argues otherwise. He maintains that the Government has secured Britain's "red lines" and that, as a result, "the proper way of considering this is through detailed consideration in Parliament itself". In maintaining this position, the Prime Minister is defying the popular will...

The trade unions, which intend to use next month's TUC Congress to add their voice to the referendum clamour.

Mr Brown has already embarked on the job of buying them off with the kind of horse-trading that used to give Labour governments a bad name.
...
So how does he extricate himself from this impasse? We have frequently argued that for this risk-averse Prime Minister a snap general election capitalising on his political honeymoon is probably the surest way of achieving a fourth Labour term..

I don't think we are allowed to point out that Gordon Brown is over to the left on the autistic spectrum any more, but if he was, and I'm not saying he is the sort of man who sorts his socks for relaxation, but if he was then he has the wonderful advantage of being able to filter the outside world to his own comfort. He will be counting the spots on the political advisor's tie rather than listen to the news that the people are beginning to recognise him as an amoral scheming chancer rather than the solid bank manager he projects.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 22, 2007

Gordon's Big Fat Wedding

The money dance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are various cultures in which the Money Dance (or in some cultures Dollar Dance or Apron Dance) is a traditional part of the wedding reception.

Scotsman.com News - Politics - Labour got £500,000 in Brown's first three days as PM
The figures may fuel speculation about Mr Brown calling an early election.

However, Labour remains deep in debt, owing around £16.3 million, while the Tories have liabilities of only £9 million.

And one of the major donations to Labour risks exposing the Prime Minister to charges of hypocrisy. Shortly after Mr Brown's appointment, Labour took £150,000 from Bet 365, a gambling company.

Gordon waltzing around the Cabinet room with eager supplicants pinning banknotes to his suit, what a picture! And of course just to wish him well on his honeymoon....

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

Ruth Turner's Friend Praise Cold Blooded Killer as Icon of Peace

Anglo-Irish ties at all-time high as lord delivers Collins oration - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie
BRITISH peer and Oscar-winning film producer, Baron David Puttnam, will make history today by delivering the keynote address at the General Michael Collins commemoration at Beal na Blath.

It is the first time a member of the British parliament has been asked to deliver the address at one of Ireland's foremost political ceremonies.

The decision to invite 66-year-old Baron Puttnam has been hailed as a measure of close Anglo-Irish ties and the growing determination to properly address historic issues between the two countries.
...
Baron Puttnam -- who has lived in West Cork for more than a decade -- is renowned for his interest in politics and contemporary Irish history.

He is a good friend of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet organiser, Ruth Turner, and has for years been deeply interested in both Irish history and the Michael Collins story.

"Ireland was gifted a figure to rank alongside other 20th century leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela - men who, having freed their own people from the shackles of oppression, became icons for peace and reconciliation everywhere."

To say Michael Collins was a peacemaker is humbug: He was a cold-blooded killer - Analysis, Opinion - Independent.ie
Michael Collins, stamp-collector; Michael Collins, composer of string quartets; Michael Collins, basket-weaver; Michael Collins, pacifist; Michael Collins, lace-maker; Michael Collins, teetotal Buddhist monk; Michael Collins, flower-arranger.

At this time of year we're used to an entire gallery of ludicrously fictional Michael Collins being mellifluously wafted out of the Bael na mBlath clay by some Irish voice or other, so I suppose there's no reason why some tame Englishman like Lord David Puttnam shouldn't have been invited to add to the heap of poppycock about the most fictionalised man in Irish history.

And naturally, he didn't disappoint, labelling Michael Collins "an icon for peace and reconciliation" and an example of "how people ought to behave in the service of their country".

Well, as it happens, at the time of his death, this "icon of peace and reconciliation" had already started a war against the Northern state, which, in the Treaty of the previous year, he had already agreed should come into existence.

And with what did he equip the IRA units he unleashed on the North?

Why, the very guns supplied by the British for the self-defence of the new Free State Army, which he had given his word of honour would not be allowed to be used against the Northern state. To "refresh" your memories -- which probably have been misinformed by a criminally delinquent educational system, and by a general social consensus which prefers the annual farrago of falsehoods of the flowery meadow to the truth of the school of hard fact -- let me remind you of the truth about Michael Collins.

It was he who, with his murders of the men of the G Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, introduced the concept of a campaign of assassination in support of a political cause: in doing so, he injected a toxin into Irish life that has never left it.

Bad as this was in southern Ireland, it had perfectly catastrophic consequences in the North.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 19, 2007

State Snooper Redux

Army of snoopers to revalue homes - Times Online

HARD evidence that the government is preparing to train hundreds of inspectors to “snoop” on households has undermined ministers’ claims to have put the revaluation of millions of homes for council tax on hold.

Training manuals have been printed instructing staff how to identify marketable features of homes and how to score them so the homes can be put into a higher band.

The handbooks, disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act and in parliamentary answers, make suggestions to inspectors that they look for homes in “small pleasant rural villages”, “within the catchment area of a very popular school” or in a town with “good leisure, parks, schools and recreation facilities”.

Documents also show that staff at the Valuation Office, an arm of HM Revenue & Customs, are preparing to log marketable features such as conservatories, gardens, loft conversions, parking spaces, extra bedrooms and swimming pools.

Well before the last general election, ministers were claiming that proposals for revaluing properties had been shelved in England.

However, the new manuals explain “. . . it is imperative that every opportunity is taken to maintain and further improve the extensive electronic database”.

Eric Pickles, shadow local government secretary, said: “State snoopers are being trained to punish those who have improved their kitchens, live in a quiet rural community or have good schools nearby.”

eGov monitor |

State-sponsored snoopers gathering details of every home: The information collected via the Energy Performance Certificates includes the year of construction, the type of dwelling, total floor area, number of stories, central heating, window glazing and building materials. These are precisely the same property attributes which the council tax inspectors, are currently collecting for their own new ‘Big Brother’ council tax database. These property attributes were revealed in March when Conservatives forced the publication of the council tax inspectors’ revaluation handbook.

Yes I know we should keep banging on about the bastards but is the Sunday Times rerunning a story from March? I know it is August and stories are thin on the ground but....

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

August 18, 2007

Tax and Spend Tories

We’ll pay for any cuts in taxes by imposing green levies, say Tories - Times Online
The Conservative leadership gave notice yesterday that it would use green taxes to fund any tax reduction promises at the next election.

After a week in which the party high-lighted a policy group report calling for massive reductions in the burden of tax regulation and the abolition of inheritance tax, George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, dampened expectations by saying that the party would not be offering overall reductions in taxation. Any tax cuts that were identified would be balanced by tax increases elsewhere, such as green levies,

How depressing, how obvious. As a matter of interest has George Osbourne got any balls? If they are undescended I know it is embarrassing but it can be sorted out. It is just that the pasty faced tosser doesn't seem to have an ounce of determination or a scintilla of Toryness about him.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:37 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 17, 2007

First they came for the smokers…

While I have been busy numberwatching the Met Office John Brignell has been protecting an Englishman's liberties far better than I could; read it here..

Well, it was not long in coming. The zealous banners, fresh from their triumph over smoking in public buildings, have already turned to the next target, revealing their usual mixture of opportunism, perverse logic and orchestrated campaigning.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 13, 2007

Street Justice

Police issue on-the-spot penalty fines once every three minutes - Times Online
On-the-spot fines for crimes such as being drunk and disorderly, destroying property and shoplifting are being issued at a rate of one every three minutes, according to latest police figures.

The number handed in England and Wales rose by almost 40 per cent in a year as police officers on the streets made use of a swift and economical way of dealing with offenders. But the surge in the use of penalty notices for disorder (PND) has also helped police to meet a key government target because they count towards a ministerial pledge to increase the number of crimes “brought to justice”.

Police representatives claim that the need to meet the target of bringing 1.25 million offences to justice in 2007 to 2008 has “corrupted” the use of PNDs by encouraging officers to use them inappropriately.

Chief Superintendent Derek Barnett, vice-president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: “Experience suggests that when used sensibly PNDs have been a useful tool for the police service. But the emphasis on targets for ‘bringing offences to justice’ has corrupted their use.

“Policing is often about common sense and resolving difficult circumstances with discretion. But some individual officers are choosing not to use their discretion perhaps because they feel it is a way of fulfilling the Government’s target.”

Offenders pay either a £50 or £80 penalty even though they may have caused criminal damage of £500 or stolen up to £200 of goods from a shop. Representatives of shopkeepers bitterly oppose PNDs, claiming that they encourage shoplifting by effectively letting offenders off. Today’s figures, obtained by The Times, also fuel growing concern at the rise of a summary justice system parallel to the formal court process.

And to think we used to have a Bill of Rights that promised that " all ... fines and forfeitures ... before conviction are illegal and void" but all that tiresome lawyering stuff was too much for Tony - He was often mocked for using 1984 as an instruction manual but maybe he was also reading the 2000 AD comic
In the fictional future history of the series, the role of "Judge" combines those of judge and police officer, thus avoiding long legal wrangles by allowing for criminals to be tried and sentenced on the spot.
.. While there was heavy protest in Congress over the idea of abandoning due process, the electorate was in favour and the President .. was re-elected with a massive majority

Posted by The Englishman at 6:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Hoo noo Broon coo?

Scotsman.com News - Politics - How tongue-tied men o' pairts lose their Rs to the dark arts

TOP Scottish politicians barely know their rolled Rs from their elbows due to the pressure of the Westminster hothouse.

A study of the speech of major political figures has shown that senior Scots at Westminster have changed their accents to sound more akin to their English counterparts - dropping their pronounced Rs and changing their vowels.

Those who have altered their speech include Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Tory Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind and Lib-Dem leader Menzies Campbell. However, the study shows that SNP leader Alex Salmond has not changed his accent, despite spending two decades in the Commons.....

Brown's "mixed accent" saw him say words such as "bank", "long", "not", "after", "export" and "support" in Scottish style, but "start", "half", "all" and "workforce" with long English-style vowels. The analysts also found that sometimes he said "quarter" in a Scots style and sometimes in southern way....
...As Prime Minister, Tony Blair was known for discreetly switching accent according to the audience he was addressing...

And why wouldn't a Scot representing a Scottish public not remind us of his Scottishness when he is ruling on English matters that he has no mandate for?

Posted by The Englishman at 5:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 12, 2007

Something Right From the Tories

Tories plan £14bn cuts to red tape - Telegraph

The Conservatives have drawn up a radical programme of cuts in red tape and regulation aimed at saving British businesses £14 billion a year, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

The proposals, to be endorsed by David Cameron, would achieve savings by scrapping huge amounts of legislation imposed on businesses by both Whitehall and Brussels, including rules on working hours and employee protection and restrictions on financial services.

John Redwood, the former cabinet minister who will unveil the findings of his economic competitiveness policy review group this week, said his proposals would be a "tax cut by any other name".

The document is certain to come under heavy attack by Labour and risks setting up the Tories for more bruising clashes with Europe, the unions and the BBC - and even provoking potentially damaging internal Tory rows.

Quick election winning suggestion to the Tories - why not leave all the policy decisions to John Redwood and leave the the limp brained leadership to just wave their hands about and make jowly statements on the telly.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:59 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 11, 2007

I See Four Horsemen....

“

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and saw a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

”

Conquest, War, Famine, and Death - that'll be the EU silent conquest of Britain, the miserable Middle Eastern adventure, Foot and Mouth and the Stock Market Crash, and Death????

At least it is going to be a sunny day to enjoy in the garden, while I can.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 31, 2007

"Troops Out"

Northern Ireland: Troops out as operation ends - Telegraph
As the flag of 39 Infantry Brigade is lowered during an understated ceremony in Northern Ireland today, almost four decades of gallant military history will come to a quiet, yet dignified end.

Professional soldiering allows little time for sentiment, but at that moment veterans of the conflict could be forgiven for pausing to remember their 763 comrades who died as direct result of terrorism in Ulster.

Although the flag-lowering ritual at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, Co Antrim, has been kept deliberately low-key in order to avoid accusations of triumphalism, it represents the successful conclusion of the British Army’s longest ever military operation.

I suppose peace and the Union flag still flying over Stormont count as a successful conclusion, but while there are still murdering scum walking around free and being feted then I'll pass on the celebrations.

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Bureaucracy Kills

Farmers have poorest quality of life: report - Telegraph

Farmers have worse health, poorer quality of life and lower productivity than employees in any other sector, according to a new study.

A higher risk of accidents, concerns over a future they cannot control and the burden of red tape all add to the pressures of modern-day farming - an industry where the suicide rate is about twice the national average....

"The worst thing about farming is that you have a lot to worry about," ... "The various inspections and the level of bureaucracy mean that a simple mistake, like cutting your hedges too close, can cost you dearly.

"We have to prepare for inspections from the Accredited Crop Scheme and the supermarket audit and we can expect random checks by Defra at any time.

"The stress gets to many farmers.....

Farmers are merely at the forefront of living and working in a sector where every action is regulated, inspected and punished in almost arbitrary ways. Forget the risks of a teaspoon of salt, a cloud of smoke or deep fried Mars bar; unrelenting and uncontrollable stress and being ordered about is what does for more people than anything.

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July 29, 2007

French advice worth taking

Scotsman.com News - International - French told: work more and think less

FRANCE is the country that produced Descartes and his one-liner, "I think therefore I am," as well as the solemn pontifications of Jean-Paul Sartre and other celebrity philosophers.

But in the government of president Nicolas Sarkozy, thinking has lost its cachet.

In proposing a tax-cut law earlier this month, finance minister Christine Lagarde bluntly advised the French people to abandon their "old national habit".

"France is a country that thinks," she told the National Assembly. "There is hardly an ideology that we haven't turned into a theory. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves."

Citing Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, she said the French should work harder, earn more and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich.

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July 27, 2007

Iain is wrong on "useless" Tories

Iain Dale's Diary: It's Not Cameron Who Needs to Up His Game - It's The Shadow Cabinet....some of them are just useless...(at getting media coverage) which he links to Benedict Brogan's political blog which points out that of the Tory shadow cabinet 13 out of 29 listed are "part-timers" as they have outside business interests.

No, no, no Iain! They may well be useless but it isn't because they spend time in boardrooms, it is just that they are useless. Can Gordon Ramsey no longer fry an egg because on the telly? Can Richard Branson no longer be a professional Virgin because he is walking on in Bond films? Should Churchill given up because he needed to scribble articles to live? If you want something doing, give it to a busy man. The curse of modern politics are professional politicians who know nothing outside the Westminster bubble. We were far better governed when it was done by amateurs.

Now on the matter of that there is something wrong with the shadow cabinet, he is spot on.

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July 26, 2007

NuLabour offers Strength Through Joy to the Chavs...

BBC NEWS | UK | Unclaimed cash for youth services
Money from unused bank accounts is to be used by the government to provide a "youth centre in every town".

The scheme is part of the government's 10-year strategy for young people which is due to be unveiled by Children's Minister Beverly Hughes.

...Schools Secretary Ed Balls said every child should be able to take part in "fun" activities once lessons were over.

So the state steals borrows our money to give chavs fun? But it sounds like they are having fun already....

IPPR senior research fellow Julia Margo said: "British teenagers are more likely to get into fights, hang out with other teenagers, binge drink, take drugs and have underage and unprotected sex than teenagers in most other European countries.

"British teenagers spend more time 'hanging out' with their mates and less time with adults, while British adults are less likely to intervene to stop teenagers committing vandalism and other anti-social behaviour.

"Successive governments have left British youth to its own devices.

"The worry is that if the government is too touchy feely and just offers teenagers the kinds of activities they say they want, we will fail another generation."

I get it now, teenagers mustn't be allowed to choose what they do, the government must direct them in their leisure, strength through joy and all that, eh?
Strength Through Joy

Kraft durch Freude (KdF, literally "Strength Through Joy") was a large state-controlled leisure organization in the Third Reich, a part of the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeiterfront - DAF), the national German labour organization at that time. Set up as a tool to promote the advantages of National Socialism to the people, it soon became the world's largest tourism operator of the 1930s.
From 1933, KdF provided affordable leisure activities such as concerts, day-trips and holidays as in Prora. .... Above all, KdF would bridge the class divide by making middle-class leisure activities available to the masses. Borrowing from the Italian Fascist organization Dopolavoro ('After Work'), but extending its influence into the workplace as well, KdF rapidly developed a wide range of activities, and quickly mushroomed into one of the Third Reich's largest organizations.
KdF was awarded the Olympic Cup for the year 1939 by the International Olympic Committee.

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July 25, 2007

Department of Whelk-Stalls and Pissups-in-Breweries Annual Account Fiasco

DWP's accounts qualified for 18th time - Financial Director

Sir John Bourn unable to sign off on benefit department's accounts for the 18th consecutive year

The Department for Work and Pensions accounts have been qualified by the government's public spending watchdog.

Sir John Bourn could not sign off on the accounts because an estimated £2.5bn shortfall. Across the benefit schemes operated by DWP a total of £690m was lost to fraud, £1.01bn to customer error, and £850m to official error

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Two Cheers for Cameron

allAfrica.com: Rwanda: David Cameron

Mr. Cameron has also welcomed the suggestion of Policy Group, for a new campaign called Real Trade, to "put pressure on politicians in all developed countries to drop their trade barriers, unilaterally, and immediately".

The Conservative Leader criticised the way richer states seek concessions in return for trade deals, and declared: "Forget the endless tortuous negotiations about getting something in return. Just do it. We can afford it. Africa needs it. And we will all benefit from it."

Spot on, it is only fair to praise him when he is right and speaks out, but electorally he blew it; the danger of your home being flooded worries Middle England far more than the plight of the Rwandans...

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Labour Recycles Honours Promise

Honours for ordinary people - Guardian - November 24, 2003

The prime minister has trumpeted his commitment to diluting the list of the usual suspects - civil servants, City businessmen and the military - and giving more medals to community workers and other areas of national life.

Gordon Brown: Honours for ordinary people - Telegraph- 25/07/2007

Ordinary people who achieve extraordinary things are set to receive more honours under a shake-up of the controversial system to be unveiled by Prime Minister Gordon Brown today. Mr Brown is to propose that more people who volunteer are officially recognised.

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Flood Blames , Cameron Drowns

Why it is ministers who must carry the can - Telegraph

It wasn't going to be long, given the biblical scale of the flooding over the past few days, before questions were asked about the effectiveness of the embattled Environment Agency and its chief executive, Lady Young. Baroness Young of Old Scone, to give her full name, is a Scot who has benefited twice from the patronage of the Labour government, first by her appointment as a working peer and second by being given the ｣163,000-a-year job as chief executive of the agency.

As the excellent Sam Tarran says

It's another example of the utter incompetence of Labour. Cameron should be attacking Brown, Benn and all the fools at the Environment Agency non-stop. He should be touring the flooded towns and cities of Middle England, the group he needs to win over to triumph at the next election. He should be making himself the voice of those people who are seething at the stupidity of the Government.

But no. His defence is that he's visiting and raising awareness of the people who have no clean running water or electricity or don't enjoy all of our 'comforts'. Well there's hundreds of thousands of people in his own country now who have no running water or electricity, and they're only comforts are the efforts of the emergency services and the military who are working hour after hour, day after day, and night after night.

And there is even more bad news from the front.

Scotsman.com News - UK - Even Rwanda asks Cameron: Why aren't you back home?

DAVID Cameron's trip to Africa was plagued by further embarrassment yesterday when just 16 out of 80 Rwandan MPs turned up to hear him speak.
...
Yesterday, even Rwandan journalists joined in the chorus of disapproval, asking why he had not remained in crisis-hit Witney.
....
Mr Cameron defended his decision to go to Rwanda despite the ongoing crisis in Britain and the threat of a vote of no-confidence hanging over him.

After seeing for himself the effects of flooding in west Oxfordshire on Sunday and remaining in contact with the local council, he said was aware of the seriousness of the situation.

He told the audience: "There are some people in Britain who told me not to come. They said I should stay at home and worry about domestic concerns.

"Let me tell them and let me tell you - in the 21st century, a century of global trade, global migration and global terrorism, there is no domestic and foreign. We are all in it together."

Mr Cameron plans to return to his constituency later this week after arriving back in Britain this morning.

Oh, nice sense of urgency there, how long does it take to get from Heathrow to Witney, three or four day? Is he still relying on his native bearers?

And he insisted his visit to the east African country was essential to understanding 21st-century challenges such as flooding and climate change.

He told Rwandan MPs:

"We are seeing climate change bring floods in Britain while, at the same time, climate change is depleting water for your hydro-electric programme here. Our futures are linked as never before."

Prat, no wonder Lord Kalms, a Tory donor and former treasurer, said he and other supporters had concerns that Mr Cameron did not have the policies to win the next election.

He said: "I think his daily actions and his present programme isn't giving us the assurance we need to win the next election. I'm just sending warning signals from the back ranks, 'Look, chum, we need to do some rethinking'."

An ICM survey published today found Gordon Brown has risen in the estimation of 21 per cent of voters since becoming Prime Minister.

More than a fifth of those polled said their opinion of Mr Cameron had slumped. And among Conservative supporters, 42 per cent said that they liked the party, but disliked Mr Cameron.

Overall, Labour maintained a six-point lead on voting preference, taking 38 per cent compared with 32 per cent for the Conservatives.

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July 21, 2007

Guido Appeals

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Cash for Honours, now the blame game.

Relief swiftly turns to anger as MPs confirm that police will be questioned - Times Online
John Yates, the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is to be called before MPs to explain himself.

He will be asked why he took so seriously the complaint....In a statement yesterday Mr Yates failed to endorse the decision not to prosecute....

Tony Wright, chairman of the Public Administration Committee, said: “I don’t know the process by which they took it on. That is something that is going to be asked. Was it simply a Scottish Nationalist MP looking for a bit of mischief who walked in with an envelope of press cuttings?”

Asked if part of the inquiry would be to try to prevent a similar police investigation, he said: “I think we should try and sort these problems out. On any test, this has been profoundly damaging for the body politic and for individuals.” Mr Wright suggested that the police had been naive"....

Peter Mandelson criticised the police and said they had used media leaks during the inquiry to “create a false impression of Mr Blair and undermine the public trust in the government.”.....

Mr Blair said: “Those involved have been through a terrible, even traumatic, time. Much of what has been written and said about them has been deeply unfair, and I am very pleased for all of them that it is now over.” He added: “I want to make it clear that I level no criticism at the police. They were put in an invidious position by the SNP complaint and had a very difficult task to perform.”

Lord Levy spoke of his great relief. ..Ms Turner said that the decision was “an enormous relief”...The decision is a relief for the Prime Minister...

Relieving themselves all over the body politic... rather than blame the SNP and the police I think we know where the real blame lies, proving it though was always going to be hard.....

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July 20, 2007

Tony's Legacy - The State's Assault on Our Liberties

Are we a free country any more? -Times Online

History will remember this Government for its assault on liberty

....The State always wants to limit the liberties of its people. But it is normally restrained by an executive that understands the limits of illiberalism or is contained by a Parliament that considers itself to be a guardian of freedoms.

For a number of reasons, neither of these brakes was applied under Tony Blair’s premiership. The huge Commons majority he enjoyed, the craven pusillanimity of his party, the implosion of the Conservatives and the consequent absence of opposition, other than in the Lords – and, to an extent, in the courts – conspired with a genuine, though irrational, fear of terrorism and rising street crime to let the State take greater control over the citizen than it has enjoyed before in modern peacetime.

Under Mr Blair, the State recaptured territory that it must have thought had been buried forever under a mountain of human rights laws and beneath all the freedoms that would normally make it more difficult to control the individual, such as ease of communication and of movement. But the technology that has made us feel freer has also given the State the wherewithal to keep control over us and to say that it does so for our own good.

This assault has come from many directions. Surveillance of a sophistication never dreamt of in Orwell’s worst nightmares; the gradual dismantling of the judicial protections afforded to defendants in criminal cases, even to the point of questioning the presumption of innocence; the criminalisation of dozens of activities that would never previously have been considered unlawful; the limits on freedom of speech; restrictions on movement and detention without trial or even charge; and the creation of databases containing information on us all and which will track the movements of our children and theirs from cradle to grave.

As Mr Brown conceded in the Commons, freedom of expression is a basic liberty that risks being eroded, a statement that seems at odds with a world of incessant internet chatter and unrestrained blogging. Despite this, probably not since John Milton railed against restrictions on the press in the 17th century has this country been so confused about where the boundaries of free speech lie. People used to be free under the criminal law to speak their minds, provided they did not incite others to commit violence or infringe public order. .....

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Men of Substance (and David Cameron)

Scotsman.com News - Cannabis confessions and a Home Secretary called 'Spliff'
FIRST it was Jacqui. Then Tony. We had Ruth and Alistair. And let's not forget Hazel, Yvette, Andy, Vernon and John.

The final total was seven Cabinet ministers, including the Home Secretary and the Chancellor, and two junior ministers at the Home Office.

All yesterday admitted that they had smoked cannabis as students in an extraordinary day of confessions from our most senior elected politicians, who have typically remained guarded over their past indiscretions. The Tories, by contrast, refused to comment.

....While Mr Brown has been eager to show he will lead a more transparent government than Tony Blair, the move to allow Cabinet ministers to declare their status as reformed cannabis users was also a political tactic, for it put pressure on the Conservatives to be more transparent.

David Cameron, in contrast, has forbid his shadow cabinet from commenting on their drug use, after being personally dogged for months over whether he did or did not use cannabis and cocaine. A recent biography claimed he had been rebuked at Eton for smoking cannabis.

A Conservative insider said: "It does look a like this string of confessions is coincidentally well co-ordinated".

Finger on the pulse there Old Boy! I think "coincidentally well co-ordinated" means "the Labour News Machine has completely taken us by surprise and I don't know what to say". What a pity the Tories haven't the guts to seize the opportunity and start debating drugs like grown-ups. Whilst at least they have had the sense not to descend into playground fingerpointing, though I'm not sure whether that is a policy or just they have all gone on holiday, they first response was indulge in mutual bansturbation.

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Tory soundly thrashed by a minger

Cameron suffers in Brown election win double - Telegraph
Despite mounting a high-profile campaign - including no fewer than five visits from Mr Cameron - the Conservatives' flamboyant candidate Tony Lit trailed in in third place on 8,230 votes, 1,888 votes behind the Liberal Democrats.

Virendra Sharma, the victorious Labour candidate, said to great cheers from the crowd at Ealing town hall: "This is a great result for our new Prime Minister Gordon Brown and it is a humiliating rebuke from Britain’s most diverse constituency to David Cameron’s Conservatives.

"David Cameron staked his reputation on this by-election and the people of Ealing Southall have given David Cameron their verdict. We do not trust the Tories to represent us. It is policies that win elections, not slick PR."

Labour enjoyed a much more comfortable victory in Sedgefield, ....But there was bad news for Mr Cameron as the Tories slipped into third place on 4,082 votes, with the Lib Dems - who won 5,572 votes - leap-frogging them to finish second.

Maybe Dave should join Iain Dale in Rwanda and hug a Gorilla, he might pick up the Attenborough vote then. He needs to do something as it ain't working, and the Brown honeymoon seems to continue...

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July 19, 2007

Cash for Honours - Latest

BBC NEWS | Politics | No charges on 'cash for honours'

The Crown Prosecution Service is set to announce its decision in the morning

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July 17, 2007

Prison Works

30 prisoners freed early back in jail within days | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Thirty prisoners released early to ease the pressure on the country's overcrowded jails are already back behind bars.

Official figures from the Ministry of Justice showed six committed crimes within a week of being freed, while 18 are ''unlawfully at large'' after failing to meet the terms of their release.

More than 1,700 prisoners, including 344 convicted of violence against the person, were freed from jail early in the first week of emergency measures.

They were set free 18 days earlier...

So six crimes to be dropped on the Home Office doorstep, if they hadn't been so unfit for purpose the scum would still have been in jail, and the six are only the tip of the iceberg.

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McSporran Prosecutes Undertone Blogger Over Derogatory Remarks

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Blogger is sentenced for racist website postings
A SUPERMARKET worker who "blogged to shock" on his website by lampooning black people, Muslims, the Irish, homosexuals and the disabled has been sentenced to carry out 160 hours of community service.

....Love, a shelf-stacker at Morrisons supermarket in Falkirk, invited colleagues to log on to the website, www.sirdavisiv.com, which he set up in 2005.

Alistair McSporran, prosecuting, told Falkirk Sheriff court that the website's content acquired a darker tone after initially being filled with "amusing or supposedly amusing stories".

He said: "The site had started to take on undertones of racism and homophobia and contained derogatory remarks about disabled and unfortunate members of society."

Undertones, d'ye hear! and derogatory remarks , we canna be having that sort of thing - thank goodness www.archive.org only has a small snapshot of this outrage.

(In my ignorance I didn't realise McSporran was actually a real name, but if you think I'm going to make a cheap joke then you are mistaken)

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July 16, 2007

News from the Nursery

Scotsman.com News - Politics - Miliband asserts his authority

Bless! He has been allowed out to play and he tried to make his voice sound really deep and serious. And he didn't suck his thumb or his security blanket. He is a good little boy really, and no one giggled at him "asserting his authority", sweet.

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Lawless Out West

Rural areas see 25pc rise in robberies | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Violent crime and muggings have risen sharply in the past 12 months, despite Government pledges to crack down on the problem and increase the number of front line police officers, figures will show this week.

In some rural areas, robbery offences have risen by almost 25 per cent while crimes of violence against the person have risen by almost a fifth.

The figures, officially released on Thursday, represent a challenge to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, and will fuel fears that police officers are too tied up with paperwork.

And anecdotally the rate of non reporting of crime is rising even faster, there is just no bloody point unless you need a crime number for an insurance claim, it just surprises me that more people aren't applying Real Community Justice

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July 11, 2007

Easy Miliband Mistake to Make

More defections likely as Labour by-election campaign fractures - Times Online

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, visited two Sikh temples in Southall yesterday, joining worshippers during prayers at one and walking to the other for a brief meeting with community leaders.

Not to be confused with the Monty Python Gumbies...

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July 9, 2007

BJ for Me!

The Spectator Blog Boris for Mayor: A ten-step program

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July 7, 2007

It's all in the wife's name...

Brown flat deal could mean tax savings | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Gordon Brown gave his £700,000 flat in central London to his wife Sarah weeks before he moved into 10 Downing Street, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The Prime Minister’s wife then cashed in on recent soaring property prices by taking out a special type of mortgage against the value of the flat with a private bank.

....“She has got some money in the bank. But she does not have a steady income which would allow her to take out more than she has in the bank. All she is doing is using the value of the property as collateral in case she needs to borrow against it.”

Tax experts said Mrs Brown was likely to have used an equity release scheme to free some of the flat’s value. Such deals are used by pensioners to fund their retirement.

Tax experts said that if the Browns rented the property for £2,500 a month, bringing them £30,000 a year, the transfer of ownership could save them up to £7,000 a year in income tax....

A Downing Street spokesman said: “Sarah Brown’s financial arrangements are private and anything that would need to be declared would be declared.”

Nigel Evans, Tory MP for Ribble Valley, said: “This is the man who’s increased the tax burden on all families by £1,300 a year, who came to power promising a relentless war on tax avoidance. Now it seems he’s seeking to avoid paying any more tax himself. What utter hypocrisy.”


"A little bit woah, a little bit wayyy, a little bit whooosh!"

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July 6, 2007

Jelly Bellied Flag Flapper

Union Jack will fly over No 10 permanently ‘to show values’ - Times Online
The Union Jack is to fly permanently over Downing Street as an expression of the country’s values, Gordon Brown said last night. Two days after the Prime Minister suggested that the flag should be on show more than the 18 days permitted by regulations, it appeared above several departments, including No 10 and the Treasury.

In an interview with ITN marking the end of his first full week in power, Mr Brown confirmed that the flag would stay, on his instructions. It represented what the country had in common and the values it held dear, a sense of civic responsbility, a belief in fairness. He said that all “those things that unite us” were reflected in the symbols of the monarchy, Parliament and the Union Jack.

What larks we had as we got Gordon Brown to the top of the Google charts forJelly Bellied Flag Flapper - Worryingly The Treasury still think he is in charge.. Jelly Bellied Flag Flapper.

For those joining late to the party I can do no better than repeat the origin of the phrase Jelly Bellied Flag Flapper from Stalky & Co. by Kipling.

And so he worked towards his peroration - which, by the way, he used later with overwhelming success at a meeting of electors - while they sat, flushed and uneasy, in sour disgust. After many many words, he reached for the cloth-wrapped stick and thrust one hand in his bosom. This - this was the concrete symbol of their land - worthy of all honour and reverence! Let no boy look on this flag who did not purpose to worthily add to its imperishable lustre. He shook it before them - a large calico Union Jack, staring in all three colours, and waited for the thunder of applause that should crown his effort.

They looked in silence. They had certainly seen the thing before - down at the coastguard station, or through a telescope, half-mast high when a brig went ashore on Braunton sands; above the roof of the Golf Club, and in Keyte's window, where a certain kind of striped sweetmeat bore it in paper on each box. But the College never displayed it; it was no part of the scheme of their lives; the Head had never alluded to it; their fathers had not declared it unto them. It was a matter shut up, sacred and apart. What, in the name of everything caddish, was he driving at, who waved that horror before their eyes? Happy thought! Perhaps he was drunk...

They discussed the speech in the dormitories. There was not one dissentient voice. Mr. Raymond Martin, beyond question, was born in a gutter, and bred in a Board-school, where they played marbles. He was further (I give the barest handful from great store) a Flopshus Cad, an Outrageous Stinker, a Jelly-bellied Flag-flapper (this was Stalky's contribution), and several other things which it is not seemly to put down.

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July 4, 2007

All mouth and no trousers

Gordon Brown rules out referendum on EU | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Gordon Brown yesterday ruled out holding a referendum on a new European constitutional treaty as part of a wide-ranging package of reforms to give "more power to Parliament and the British people".

In his first Commons statement as Prime Minister, Mr Brown offered to give up powers ranging from appointing bishops to declaring war and hinted that general elections could be held at weekends. But he excluded two pressing constitutional issues from his package of reforms: the growing demand for "English votes for English laws" to balance devolution to Scotland and Wales and Labour's manifesto commitment at the last election to hold a referendum on the European Union constitution.

More power, except where it really matters; just when I thought there was a glimmer of hope that he was proposing some decent reforms he reveals himself to be the same old power hungry anti-democratic tosser as old what's name his predecessor.

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July 2, 2007

Join Iain's Campaign to save....

Iain Dale's Diary:

"We are hoping he will go off on his summer holidays with a pearl handled revolver in his suitcase," said one senior Lib Dem parliamentarian.

Now that isn't how nice Lib-Dems normally talk, who could they be talking about?

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July 1, 2007

Gordon's English NHS Priority

So that's his real NHS priority - a £2 billion stealth cut in England -Times Online
Rod Liddle

In one of his last acts as chancellor, Gordon Brown apparently slashed the NHS hospital building and equipment budget in England by almost a third, from £6.2 billion to £4.2 billion. That’s quite a big cut, isn’t it? He did not feel it either prudent or necessary to tell anyone about this at the time, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Upon opening the door to No 10 he announced the health service was his “immediate priority” – which, I suppose it was, although maybe not in the way in which you and I (or the Labour party, for that matter) might have expected. But then “it is my immediate priority to cut as much money as is humanly possible from the health service without anyone noticing, in order to balance the books” has a rather counterintuitive ring to it.

More interestingly still, while he cut the English NHS capital expenditure budget by two billion quid, he left the budgets for Wales and Scotland intact. One is forced to conclude that it is because he likes Scottish and Welsh people more than he likes English people and is thus less bothered if we die. Or perhaps he’s scared of getting a good kicking where it hurts from Alex Salmond. Either way, it is evidence yet again that north of Hadrian’s Wall and west of Offa’s Dyke, the same rules simply don’t apply.

One of these days a clever economist will produce a paper that explains how many weeks of the year we have to work to pay off in tax the money required to keep Scotland’s vast, profligate and expanding welfare state afloat. My guess is eight. Until then, the English will abide with a vague resentment and sense of chronic injustice: we let them run our affairs, vote on issues that are only of our concern, give them close to full political independence – and still continue to subsidise, subsidise, subsidise.

Yesterday the Treasury admitted – because it could not do otherwise – that the health service capital expenditure budget had been “adjusted”. My guess is that if your wage packet suddenly turned up 30% lighter you’d be tempted to use a more vigorous, apposite verb than “adjusted”.

The Treasury also indicated that the missing £2 billion would probably turn up in the spending plans for the three years from 2008-09. Yes, I bet it will. In an election year it will be suddenly announced there’s much more dosh for the NHS, a big juicy rabbit pulled straight out of Gordon’s hat.

So, to recap. Gordon Brown swipes two billion quid from the NHS in England and doesn’t tell anyone about it, keeping a straight face when he announces that the NHS is his priority. Out of political expediency there is no such cut in Scotland or Wales. In a year or so he will announce, for reasons of expediency, that, for lo, more money is available for the NHS. Whisper it quietly: Pretty. Straight. Kinda. Guy.

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June 30, 2007

In sympathy with the farmers

Vegetarian Benn takes charge of environment | Earth News | Earth | Telegraph
The arrival of the bean-eating Mr Benn in charge of livestock - as part of his brief as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - has caused sharp intakes of breath in the farming world.

Mr Benn, who eats neither meat nor fish, has been a vegetarian for the past 35 years, even converting his father, Tony, to the cause.

So no point in inviting him down for the Full English at the farmhouse table then.

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June 29, 2007

Two views on that London Bomb

Home Secretary Smith says UK faces 'serious, sustained threat' UPDATE - Forbes.com

'We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism,' she said outside Downing Street.

Beavis and Butthead in London jihad | The Register

Police and securocrats know that there aren't enough real terrorists in the world, which is why they have to keep manufacturing them. This is because citizens tire of being watched by cameras, frisked and x-rayed, having their belongings searched, giving fingerprints to so-called friendly nations on entry, contemplating the myriad government databases where their details and activities are preserved, and wondering if some dour little bureaucrat is reading their email or listening to them on the phone.

Citizens tire also of reading the rolls of the war dead fraudulently sacrificed in the name of counterterrorist "victory", and of seeing hundreds of billions spent on surveillance and private security, ridiculous wars, and security-related gimmicks and gizmos....

To keep the billions rolling in, they've got to produce a terrorist every now and then. Only real terrorists are hard to come by, so clowns and stooges with harebrained schemes end up doing bin Laden's perp walk periodically.

Today we have news from London, where a "big [explosive] device" was discovered inside a parked car near Piccadilly Circus. The device consisted of petrol, propane gas cylinders, and nails. The car containing it had been abandoned after its driver was observed piloting it erratically, crashing it, then running off, like a true professional. Ambulance workers called to assist nearby noticed what they initially thought was smoke inside the car, but which likely was petrol vapour, and contacted police.

Bomb disposal specialists made it safe, and police officials and politicians began slyly invoking the terrorist bogeyman. Heaven forbid the public should be starved of their regular fear rations.

"As the police and security services have said on so many occasions, we face a serious and continuous threat to our country", day-old PM Gordon Brown said. "But this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents."

And what an incident. "It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been serious injury or loss of life", Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke intoned gravely.

Ah, if it had detonated. Yes, it could have been a real horror. Only, the device could not have detonated. Not under any circumstances. You see, the terrorist wannabe clown who built it left out a crucial element: an oxidiser. The device was pure pre-teen boy fantasy.

"We'll heat up these propane cylinders with burning petrol, and they'll go off like bombs", boys the world over have remarked with glee. They don't realise that air is a poor oxidiser, and the only "explosion" they will get is when gas pressure inside the cylinders is great enough to burst them. Then the propane will ignite, and a nice fireball will blossom. A fireball, not an explosion.

Oh, the Piccadilly fireball would have blown the car's windows out, and popped its doors open, and sent various bits like mirrors and so forth into the air at velocities possibly fatal to people nearby. It would have looked really cool, that's for sure. But an explosive event...a detonation? Not in a million years. Sorry lads: you failed car bombing 101; you did not attend a single lecture; you did not even open the textbook.

Some stupid people did a stupid thing. Yes, they might have injured or killed one or two passers-by, but any body count would have come in spite of them, not as a product of their efforts. You and I are more likely to have been killed accidentally by the lousy driver than intentionally by his Beavis and Butthead car bomb.

This should have been dismissed for what it is: an event on the level of some teenagers getting a tremendously foolish notion, and being drunk enough for it to appeal to them. But we're hearing whispers of terrorism instead - much as we heard from the Americans when they foiled a "terrorist plot" to blow up fuel storage tanks at Kennedy International. It would have been devastating, prosecutors told us. Only that "plot" had the same hole in it: air makes a lousy oxidiser. If it had been carried out, it would certainly have made a bigger fireball than the one in London would have made. But that's about it.

So why is this such big news? Because clowns have got to be passed off as terrorists. Because a vast industry depends on terrorists, real and imagined, to justify its existence. We live now in the grip of the security-industrial complex, and that hungry beast demands to be fed. We feed it money hand over fist, and in return, it feeds us fear biscuits, which we are expected to accept with gratitude.

Roll over. Sit up and beg. See the bad man? Good citizen; here's your bickie. ®

Posted by The Englishman at 9:15 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

June 28, 2007

Today's all purpose news story

Now let the work of change begin | Uk News | News | Telegraph

After leaving jail the Treasury in which Paris Gordon Hilton Brown stayed for ten years, Hilton Brown vowed she he'd "never do wrong," according to media reports Thursday.

"I'm a good person. I'm a compassionate person. I have a big heart. I'm sincere, and they'll see," Hilton Brown told media in her his first comments.

Hilton Brown said that she he spent time in jail the Treasury reading the Bible and praying to God for strength.

"There was a nun who works at jail the Treasury for all the ladies, and she he would come every day and we would pray," she he said.

"All of the inmates were very supportive. There were girls next to me," she he said. "We could talk through the vents and they were just really sweet."

During her first week in jail the Treasury , Hilton Brown called television journalist Barbara Walters Jeremy Paxman and pledged to change her his party-going ways and give new meaning to her hislife by pursuing charity work, saying God had given her his a new chance.

"I was basically in the foetal position, basically in hysterics ... and having severe anxiety and panic attacks," she he said.

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June 27, 2007

Bill of Rights

Make the politicians listen to you | Dt Opinion | Opinion | Telegraph

....what hope do members of the public have of influencing the debate?

The temptation to throw up our hands and say a plague on all your houses may be great - and from the tone of the comments on the Telegraph website, some readers may have already succumbed - but this is not the time for cynicism.

The urge for parties to control the debate has been accompanied by a significant fall in voter turnout. Participation at the last two general elections has been the lowest since the war. Party leaders recognise that something needs to be done to reconnect the electorate with the political process.

Gordon Brown has already shown that he is aware of the scale of the challenge, promising to take action to build trust in our democracy, using his first speech as PM-in-waiting to call for a more open form of dialogue between citizens and politicians genuinely to debate problems and solutions.

When he committed himself to bringing forward reform proposals to renew our constitution - with the first draft constitutional reform Bill later this year - many sat up and took notice.

Although viewed by many as dry and dusty, constitutional reform has the ability to address the issue at the heart of the malaise in our democracy - the loss of trust in politicians of all parties.

The first step would be to construct a new Bill of Rights, rooted in Magna Carta and the settlements of the 17th century, but also reflecting modern notions of universal rights.

Such a document would embody traditional British values of fairness and tolerance while reminding us that we have responsibilities to one another. It would also protect the rights of the individual when they come into conflict with the power of an over-mighty executive.

Ultimately, a new Bill of Rights would provide politicians with a set of rules by which we the people consent to be governed - rules that would be known by all, unlike the present situation, whereby, under our currently invisible constitution, any government with a majority can simply move the goal-posts.

But who should frame this new settlement? Surely politicians have a conflict of interest in formulating the rules that govern their behaviour? While welcoming Brown's initiative on this issue, should we just sit back and wait for him - or David Cameron - to tell us what our rights are?

The fact that Brown already has a draft Bill planned has caused concern that any consultation will be bogus, providing merely a fig-leaf for more top-down decision-making.

The time has come for people of all political persuasions and none to become pro-active in this debate. Brown has set the agenda; let us take the initiative.....

Yes, but... I'm not sure Billy Bragg's enthusiasm for Citizens' Assemblies is the answer they sound terribly French revolutionary. And I'm not sure what use there is in formulating a new Bill of Rights when our leaders tramble all over our existing one. My first step would be a robust defence of what we already have, restore the liberties therein, and if it needs amendments then discuss those line by line - a bit like the American model.

...
And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, pursuant to their respective letters and elections, being now assembled in a full and free representative of this nation, taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the ends aforesaid, do in the first place (as their ancestors in like case have usually done) for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties declare

That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal;

That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal;

That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious;

That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time, or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal;

That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal;

That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;

That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;

That election of members of Parliament ought to be free;

That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;

That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted;

That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders;

That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void;

And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.
....
And that the oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the oaths have allegiance and supremacy might be required by law, instead of them; and that the said oaths of allegiance and supremacy be abrogated.
...... I do declare that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm. So help me God.

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

June 25, 2007

Chirac a Crook?

Corruption inquiry looms for Chirac - Times Online
Criminal investigators are to question Jacques Chirac, the former French President, over his role in corruption scandals dating from his time as Mayor of Paris before 1995, his lawyer said over the weekend.

The confirmation from Jean Veil of Mr Chirac’s imminent session with examining judges follows the lapse last week of the immunity from prosecution that he enjoyed for 12 years. Mr Chirac’s summons was regarded as inevitable because he has so far given no account of events under his 18-year tenure as mayor and Gaullist party chief, which led to suspended prison terms and heavy fines for his subordinates.....

Chirac's office said that, because he enjoyed constitutionally guaranteed judicial immunity while he was president, he cannot ``be ordered to provide testimony'' about incidents that happened during his tenure.

Of course we are lucky in this country that our leaders don't enjoy Prime Ministerial immunity otherwise we could face the humiliating spectacle of the Saviour of the Nation (tm) being dragged in front of the judges once he has stepped down.....

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June 21, 2007

The Bogeyeater Meme

The Devil's Kitchen: The Gordon Meme tags me...

Two things Gordon Brown should be proud of

Making us wistful for Tony Blair already.

Not beating the lying treacherous bastard who has lived next door for the last ten years to death with a blunt stick for stealing his job

Two things he should apologise for

For being born

For not dying yet

Two things he should do immediately when he becomes PM

I had to look this one up...

Symptoms of PM

Acne

Bloated abdomen

Constipation

Crying spells

Depression

Fast heartbeat

Feeling hungry

Feeling irritable or tense

Feeling tired

Feeling anxious

Headache

Joint pain

Mood swings

Not feeling as interested in sex

Tender and swollen breasts

Trouble concentrating

Trouble sleeping

Swollen hands or feet

Wanting to be alone

Weight gain

I think he should take the drugs and go for a lie down.

Two things he should do while he is PM

I believe knitting is therapeutic, if not he should just go off into a corner and die.

Oh and tag eight more: That is about seven more friends than I actually have, and that is including Randolph my imaginary one. So if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 19, 2007

Beyond Satire

Minister: ID cards 'another Great British Institution' | The Register

Sometimes the Reg likes to think it casts a satirical eye over the day's news. And sometimes government ministers are so out of touch with reality that they do our job for us.

Thank you then to Liam Byrne, the Home Office minister who is a dead ringer for Otto Flick from 'Allo 'Allo, for today's offering.

Speaking at Chatham House Byrne said the gov's beloved ID card scheme will soon be another great British institution: "Like the railways in the 19th century or the national grid last century, the national identity system will soon become part of the fabric of British life."
.......

Byrne said we should be reassured because: "My party has always been suspicious of growth in unregulated and unaccountable power and the risk of new inequalities."

A statement which is absolutely true provided you ignore the Labour government's concerted attack on our civil liberties including the right to silence, the right of peaceful protest, the right to trial by jury, rights of peaceful assembly and the assumption of innocence.

If you can take any more, Byrne's speech is here.

Posted by The Englishman at 4:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 18, 2007

I think we have aspired enough

Brown's aspirations aren't those of Thatcher | Dt Opinion | Opinion | Telegraph

We're all well and truly into aspiration now. The Chancellor has been uttering the word every five seconds as part of the repackaged New Gordon campaign, and now David Cameron is to make it a key concept in the Conservatives' next phase of development.

Cameron reveals his blueprint for Britain | Uk News | News | Telegraph
I joined this party because I believe in aspiration...
education in a way that delivers aspiration and opportunity for all...
problems like family breakdown, drug addiction, and poverty of aspiration. ...
Every true Conservative believes in aspiration and opportunity for all...
The way to win the fight for aspiration is to put those things that worked in grammars...
powers can be returned to member states - not as a vague aspiration, ...
David Cameron spoke of his aspiration of social cohesion...
make lower taxes a medium term aspiration. ...
It was a "natural aspiration" to own property....
If we are to be the party of aspiration,...

....Speech given by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, to the 2004 Labour party ... A great Britain of aspiration and ambition where there are no barriers to ...
...."no cap on aspiration", The Chancellor,... ad nauseam..

as·pi·ra·tion (ăs'pə-rā'shən)
n.

1. Expulsion of breath in speech.
2. Linguistics.
   1. The pronunciation of a consonant with an aspirate.
   2. A speech sound produced with an aspirate.
3. The act of breathing in; inhalation.
4. Medicine. The process of removing fluids or gases from the body with a suction device.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 17, 2007

Lightweight Cameron Rumbled in the Polls

Tories slip as 'charisma free' Brown outpolls Cameron-News-Politics-TimesOnline
...the Tory lead is back where it was when David Cameron took over as leader at the end of 2005. His honeymoon appears to be over while Brown’s may be beginning.

Asked about how they rated Brown and Cameron on a range of qualities, the Conservative leader came off second best on most. Brown was easily ahead on “sticking to his principles” (49%-19%); being strong (44%-11%); and being decisive (38%-12%). He also had a small lead on honesty (23%-18%).

Cameron, in contrast, stood out only on being charismatic; 30% said he was, against only 4% for Brown. In the Brown camp, where the decision has been taken not to try to compete with Cameron in the charisma stakes, these results will be regarded as reassuring. Asked whether they agreed with Blair’s description of Brown as a “big clunking fist”, only 35% of voters agreed.

For the Conservatives and their new director of communications Andy Coulson the challenge is to show that their man has weight and gravitas as well as an attractive public image.

Brown won when people were asked who they would prefer to share a foxhole with in the face of enemy gunfire. Cameron was ahead in the “agony aunt” stakes....

Ah - even the polls agree with my Officer Material Test.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 14, 2007

Out of His Mouth

Go on you know you want to fill the bubble....

Source The Telegraph

Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 12, 2007

The Officer Material Test

Much as I dislike Gordon Brown I think he passes the Officer Material test. He would be a misery to serve under but like Montgomery he would be careful in his build up, bold with his troops and claim all the credit that was going.
David Cameron would have a commission in a smart cavalry regiment but would be left behind in action to the relief of the troops and the ladies at home.
Tony Blair would somehow avoid the draft, having very important work to do somewhere safe and end up very rich.
David Davis would a nightmare to be commanded by if you worried for your own skin, he would disappear into the Balkan mountains for a year and come back without a few fingers and wearing strange headgear.
Ming - old buffer in charge of the Home Guard secretly hoping he could use the cold steel again.
Osbourne - might make a pilot
Willetts - the boffin who decides if it is a fly or no-fly night.
Labour Deputies - I give up....

Posted by The Englishman at 1:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 11, 2007

Memo to Conservative Central - Copy Success, not Failure.

‘Blue wave’ sweeps Sarkozy to poll victory-News-World-Europe-TimesOnline
The “blue wave” in favour of Mr Sarkozy reflects the optimism that has swept France since the reformist President defeated Ségolène Royal with promises to jolt the country out of its economic slide of the past two decades.

Mr Sarkozy and Mr Fillon are appealing to voters to endorse their crash programme of reforms, dominated by tax cuts and curbs on union powers, to “restore the value of work”....

As well as the Socialists, two other big losers of yesterday’s voting were the National Front party of Jean-Marie le Pen, who seem to have failed to gain a single seat, and the new Democratic Movement (MoDem) of François Bayrou, the centrist who for a while appeared within reach of the presidency

So that is the way to defeat socialists, racists and centrists - old fashioned Thatcherism. It would get my vote.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 10, 2007

Scotland - Only a call away

Scotland on Sunday - Hold the phone: the real story behind 'Gaddafigate' crisis

THE biggest constitutional row since devolution has been blamed on the British love of bank holidays, it emerged last night.

In a farcical twist to 'Gaddafigate' worthy of Yes, Prime Minister, it has been claimed Scotland was not informed of Tony Blair's plans to broker a deal on prisoner transfers from Libya because all civil servants north of the Border were enjoying a day off....

Last week, the failure to make contact led to fury in the Scottish Parliament, as party leaders accused Tony Blair of plotting a secret deal to repatriate the Lockerbie bomber.

First Minister Alex Salmond said that as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was in a Scottish jail, ministers should have been told of the ongoing negotiations.

According to the Whitehall insiders, the 'cock-up' began after the basis for the Memorandum of Understanding was agreed on Wednesday, May 23, in a meeting in London between the Libyan justice minister and his Whitehall counterparts. Officials rang Scotland on Friday, May 25 to let them know, only to discover it was a Scottish holiday.

The next working day, Monday, was an English Bank Holiday, meaning that all of Whitehall was at home. When both sets of officials were back in, on Tuesday, Blair was already in Libya to meet Gaddafi. ...

A source close to Salmond said: "I am afraid the more Downing Street spins, the worse it gets. It's a case of, 'oh what a tangled web we weave'. First they said the memorandum was a draft, that it wasn't signed, that it had nothing to do with prisoner transfer and Mr Megrahi - and now this."

The First Minister made an emergency statement to Parliament last week on the issue.

The UK government's embarrassment increased last night after it emerged that, while Scotland was out of the loop, officials in the European Commission were aware of the deal.

So for four days there was no way of contacting the Scottish Government? It gives you confidence in the way the Whitehall is run doesn't it! What a bunch of amateurs.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Phoney War Phase is over

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Why does Tony feel he has to apologise to Cameron?

Tony Blair has been forced to issue an unprecedented apology to David Cameron after a Tory anti-terrorism initiative was unveiled by Gordon Brown weeks after the Conservative leader passed on the idea in private to the Prime Minister.

An embarrassed Downing Street gave the Prime Minister's apologies to Cameron's office last week after the Tory leader expressed his anger when he found his idea trailed by Brown as a new tool for tackling terrorism.

This is the start of the main political story in today’s Observer and looks set to be the first Labour-Tory battle ground for Brown’s arrival at Number 10.

With both new leaders jostling to assert themselves this could be very dangerous territory.....

This tells us two things about the ending of the phoney political period that has gone on since Cameron became Tory leader: Brown will be ruthless in pursuing a strategy of policy triangulation to leave the Tories with little to talk about and that Blair is not going out of his way to be helpful to his successor.

For that Blair “apology”, if that is what it is, could give the Tories ammunition for a long time to come.

Meanwhile, on the betting markets, the price on whether Labour or the Tories will end up with most seats at the election has continued to converge. The Tories have eased to 0.81/1 while Labour have tightened to 1.18/1. In the aftermath of the May elections Labour was at 1.58/1.

I'm not sure "Dave" is ready for a real street brawl with the naked ambition of the Iron Fist, he will need to toughen up his act.

Posted by The Englishman at 5:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 8, 2007

Mon Dieu - The French Get The Plot

Sarkozy says non to tax on overtime to boost growth-Business-Markets-Europe-TimesOnline
President Sarkozy has laid out plans to end France’s leisurely lifestyle through a series of financial incentives designed to encourage workers to spend longer at the office....

The measure — a key plank of Mr Sarkozy’s campaign programme — is designed to attack the 35-hour legal maximum working week introduced by the Socialist Government in 2000.

“Les 35 heures” has encouraged long weekends throughout the year as Friday afternoons have become a time of rest for many French workers.

But the President says that the reduction in working time has undermined productivity, growth and wages. Under his “Work, Employment, and Spending Power” Bill, that will go before Parliament next month, hours over the 35 limit will not be subject to social charges or income tax.

Mr Fillon, who is leading the legislative election campaign, said: “We believe that more working hours means more growth, and therefore more wealth. This measure is destined to respond to two principal problems of French society: insufficient purchasing power and shortage of hours worked.”

Pushing hard work and lowering taxes, he won the election without having to hug a hoodie or a husky..

Posted by The Englishman at 6:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 7, 2007

Hain Offends

BBC NEWS | Politics | We offended supporters, says Hain

Labour has been "needlessly offensive" to its core supporters by chasing headlines in rightwing papers,

to say nothing of how his gurning oleaginous orange face offends decent people as well just by existing

...he said he welcomed the possibility of a "new approach" to civil liberties in relation to anti-terrorism laws.

He said the party had been "more concerned with colluding in fantasies and fallacies" about the Human Rights Act than defending it.

Mr Hain wrote that Labour's "conscious strategy" of "flirting with the anti-liberal prejudices of the right-wing media" was dangerous, when Tory leader David Cameron was willing to embrace progressive causes.

He said Labour should not assume "progressives have nowhere else to go".

Now that is worrying, when even Peter Hain believes his party is less "progressive", read "mad socialist", than David "Dave" Cameron.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Blair's Heir Alive and Well in Scotland

Scotsman.com News - 'Jail should be kept for long-term, serious criminals'

THOUSANDS of criminals, including thieves, housebreakers, vandals and fine-defaulters, will be spared prison sentences under radical plans announced yesterday by the new Scottish Executive.

Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said he wanted to adopt a more liberal approach to penal policy....

Mr MacAskill also announced the SNP government would recruit an extra 1,000 police officers and launch a crackdown on under-age drinkers and those who sell alcohol to them.

He intended to move to ban discounted alcohol promotions in shops and off-licences and launch an anti-violence agenda focusing on changing the culture on knives.
...
Stealing a well-known line from Tony Blair, Mr MacAskill said it was time to be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime".

He said the government would come down hard on serious offenders, but it would concentrate on the social and economic problems that led to many other crimes.

Lucky old Scotland to try out these policies again - I would advise any Scottish readers to keep a Mashie niblick handy around the house, just in case you want to take up golf at three in the morning.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 6, 2007

Cash for Honours Cash

Scotsman.com News - UK - Bill for honours inquiry tops £750,000

THE bill for Scotland Yard's inquiry into the cash-for-honours affair has topped £750,000.

The figure emerged as bail was extended in the past two days for three key figures - Labour's chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, Tony Blair's aide, Ruth Turner, and millionaire businessman and party donor Sir Christopher Evans....

That sort of money is almost enough to get a peerage... I'm sure once Tony has finished doing his farewell tour then it will all get interesting again.

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

June 5, 2007

Olympic Logo - Design Your Own

London 2012 - Create your own design

What does London 2012 mean to you? Create your own design and send us the result....

Download the design templates, do something creative with them and upload the results to our online gallery. Please note London 2012 reserves the right not to display all designs submitted.

In that case it is hardly worthwhile.....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Burning Our Money

Amateurs in charge of government business | Dt Leaders | Opinion | Telegraph

The Government's chronic inability to manage costly IT schemes effectively is well documented - indeed, it has become one of New Labour's trademarks. This morning's report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee helps to explain why Whitehall gets it so wrong, so often.

At the heart of the problem is a slapdash approach to the management of high-value projects that would not be tolerated in the private sector. The fact that the Government spends rather more than £500 billion of taxpayers' cash each year seems to have inculcated a cavalier approach to value for money that is costing the country dear.

The committee is even more exercised by the stupefying level of neglect shown by government ministers. The prudent expenditure of public funds should be a priority for all ministers of the Crown.....

What a sweet old-fashioned view, it is the priority of ministers now to spend all our money, that which they do spend for us they instruct us in how we may spend it.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 4, 2007

Ignorantia juris non excusat

Seven new laws for every day of Blair as PM | Uk News | News | Telegraph

More than seven new laws have come into force every day since Tony Blair came to power a decade ago, new research has shown.

The legislatively hyperactive Blair premiership has seen an average of 2,685 new laws introduced each year - a 22 per cent increase on the previous decade under the Tories.

A new law has come into being every three-and-a-quarter hours, and that's without adding on the new laws from Brussels, which had reached 2,100 by 2006.

Quick, name a new law that has made the country a better, safer or more pleasant place, just one out of the thousands. Nope, me neither.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 2, 2007

Cameron - time to wake up and smell the PG tips, not just the Fairtrade cappucinos

Come on, Dave. Don’t forget to woo your lumpentoriat-Comment-Columnists-Matthew Parris-TimesOnline

Mr Cameron does go out and about among constituency associations, and wherever he goes they like him a lot. He needs a real drive to do this more. Tory “activists” are not (like many Labour Party members) political nerds; indeed they are not for the most part activists at all; many are mercifully uninterested in Westminster politics. They are more useful than that: part of their communities – voluntary workers, supper-party givers, churchgoers, cottage-hospital fundraisers, magistrates, vilage-fête organisers. They talk to unaligned but Tory-inclined floating voters. What they are saying about Mr Cameron at present is that he seems quite nice but they aren’t sure what he stands for, and they’d like to hear him talk more about wasted taxes and the nanny state.

The parliamentary party are easy to mock, of mixed calibre and, for the moment, easy to disregard; but they murdered Thatcher, Major and almost every leader thereafter. True, there exist among them serious Neanderthals, but if the Tory whips are to target this minority, the leadership needs to inspire more affection among the middling majority. Mr Cameron may need more friends there one day.

The grammar-school storm, ridiculously unimportant as it ought to be, was not the right way to go about winning them. The impression that a small Cameroon clique is running the show may be unfair but it is an audible grumble in the Commons corridors.

And not just there, the view that an Old Etonian elite has hijacked the party for their soppy Notting Hill dinner party policies is growing.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 1, 2007

VC Hero Allowed to Settle

Iain Dale's Diary brings good news:

The Home Office has bowed to public opinion an decided to allow VC Here Tul Bahadur Pun to settle in Britain.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2007

Vote for "None of the Above"

We put up with terrible, inept government. Why?-Comment-Columnists-Guest contributors-TimesOnline
What should we make of the failure of the Home Office to operate control orders properly, the MTAS computer fiasco at the NHS, and Ruth Kelly’s climbdown on home information packs?

Almost everyone has one of two responses. Some say that these are isolated failures in an otherwise acceptable record, others that they are evidence of a general incompetence that has a simple solution – to put different backsides on Cabinet chairs.

Almost everyone is wrong. There’s a third possible reaction: that these episodes (and there are countless others) show that centralised hierarchy is a terrible way of getting things done. Policy failures aren’t due to having the wrong personnel in charge. Nor are they exceptions to the rule of general competence. They are the inevitable result of bad organisational structure.

There are four lines of thinking that tell us this. One comes from Friedrich Hayek....

Read the rest for an excellent summary of why we shouldn't vote for the bastards. As he says "It’s not just in the high street that hierarchy is being rejected. It’s also being rejected at the ballot box, with support for the hierarchical parties falling. Here, the political class is in denial. At the recent local elections in England, five out of six voters choose not to vote Conservative, mainly by not voting at all. And yet when David Cameron described this as a “stunning” result for his party, no one pointed out that he was talking rot."

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Pick a loser

Deputy Labour Leader - TimesOnline The new Labour legacy of Tony Blair was called into question last night as the six contenders to be Gordon Brown’s deputy revealed sharply differing views ......
In a largely good-natured debate with no clear winners,..

I watched about five minutes before retiring in hysterics at Hazel chipmunking away unseen behind her lectern, cruel bastards not giving her a box to stand on so she could be seen! A complete shower of evasive wannabees, either they should all be locked in a CCTV infested house for weeks for the public to vote on who they want evicted or I suggest choosing George Osborne, as he is apparently claiming to be Tony's true Heir on earth.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 29, 2007

Celebrating Mr Broon's Heritage

Labour plans a British Day to aid patriotism | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Gordon Broon is considerin' creatin' a new "british day" tae celebrate traditional national values an' th' best ay home-groon culture, accordin' tae laboor ceilidh soorces. Gordon Broon believes a greater sense ay national identity is necessary in an era ay globalisation the idea coods be floated durin' his first 100 days as prime minister as part ay a personal drife tae build a greater sense ay patriotism. Mr Broon, fa will tak' ower as prime minister oan juin 27, has sit stoatin stair oan th' idea ay celebratin' "britishness" in a series ay speeches in preparation fur takin' ower at nae 10.

In other news it is revealed that Mr Brown is sensitive to charges about a Scot running the country

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May 27, 2007

One's Dismay

Revealed: Queen's dismay at Blair legacy | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The Queen has been left "exasperated and frustrated" at the legacy of Tony Blair's 10 years in power, friends have disclosed.

She has been "deeply concerned" by many of New Labour's policies..

And I bet she is really looking forward to her weekly talks with Gordon.....

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Young Guns

Minister urges teenagers to take up shooting | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Anti-gun campaigners have accused the Government of making a U-turn on firearms after a minister urged teenagers to take up shooting to improve their behaviour.

Richard Caborn, the sports minister, has backed a drive by shooting groups to increase participation in the sport among children as young as 12. He believes that the sport helps young people to become more responsible and disciplined, and vowed that significant funds would be made available to help boost participation. ...

That sound you can hear is the GFWs crying. Generally I'm not in favour of taxpayers money subsidising people's sport, and all I think is needed is for the Government to leave the shooters alone for them to prosper.

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May 25, 2007

Miliband - stop dreaming and do some work!

Single farm payment position is worse than last year - 24/05/2007 - FarmersWeekly

The Rural Payments Agency has paid out less in 2006 single farm payments than at this point last year – meaning many farmers are in a worse situation than 12 months ago.

Although SFPs did start to flow much earlier this year, latest figures from the RPA reveal that the total amount of money paid to producers now stands at £1.274bn. This is 83.8% of the estimated total fund of £1.52 billion.

Yet at the same point in 2006 – when the agency was dealing with 2005 Single Payment Scheme claims - the agency had managed to pay a total of £1.32 billion or 87% of the fund.

Of course that nice Mr Miliband has far more important things to do, like saving the world from plastic bags, than actually do his frigging job and get his department to actually work.

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May 24, 2007

"Repugnant" Government's behaviour was "unlawful and an abuse of power"

Chagos Island exiles win right to return home | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Families expelled from the Chagos Islands by Britain to make way for an American airbase won their legal battle to return home yesterday.

Three judges led by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, refused a stay on the effect of their judgment, allowing the islanders to return immediately.

The judges had condemned as "repugnant" Whitehall's decision to "exile a whole population" in the 1960s and 1970s.

The only island that they will not be able to resettle under original High Court orders allowing their return will be Diego Garcia, where the airbase is situated.....

Lord Justice Sedley, who gave the lead ruling, said that by making an Order in Council under the Royal Prerogative to stop the islanders returning, the Government's behaviour was "unlawful and an abuse of power". The judges also rejected the Government's argument that the Royal Prerogative, discretionary powers that belong to the Queen but exercised by Government ministers in her name, were immune from judicial scrutiny.

Lord Justice Waller said that the decision had been taken by a minister "acting without any constraint".

"Indeed, the Crown may be doing something that - if she only knew the true position - she would prefer not to do, and yet it is then said that the Government can hide behind the Crown's prerogative."..

In 2000 the High Court overturned measures introduced by the Government in 1971 to keep the Chagossians in exile.

The court held the islanders had a right of return to the islands, although not to Diego Garcia. Robin Cook, the then foreign secretary, said there would be no appeal and a "feasibility study" would be conducted into the possibility of their return.

American military authorities were concerned that any attempt to resettle the islands would compromise the security of Diego Garcia, which was used to launch bombing missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Government then changed its mind and declared that no one had a "right of abode" in the territory.

That order was overturned by the High Court last May. The judges said at the time: "The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an Order in Council, exile a whole population from a British overseas territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is, to us, repugnant."

(It is worth studying a map of the Islands to see how far away Diego Garcia is from the nearest habitable Island - about fifty miles).

So good news for the islanders and an enjoyable right royal bitch slapping for the government, is it too early to have a celebratory rum punch?

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Bugs in your Bins

Microchips in dustbins spy on three million | Uk News | News | Telegraph

More than three million households in Britain have rubbish bins equipped with "waste stealth tax" technology, it was claimed last night.

Remember that , - Anyone who removed a bug and threw it away might not get their bins emptied, warned Paul Bettison, the Local Government Association's environment chief.

Mr Bettison, an advocate of charging, said: 'Removing one of these devices would not break any law as far as I know. Source

To remind you of what happened here last August and as a public service may I repost this:

An Englishman's Castle: Guess what I found in my Kennet Council Wheelie Bin this morning?

So I went outside and tipped my bin over to have a look under the lip at the top - and here is what I found...

Details on the bug's abilities are here

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May 23, 2007

Brownian Motion on HIPS

Brown 'was not behind HIPs climb-down' | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The Government was forced into a humiliating and chaotic climb-down over Home Information Packs yesterday, Ruth Kelly announcing that they would be postponed indefinitely for four out of five homes....Yesterday, experts predicted further confusion from new regulations that appeared to have been made up on the spot.

The packs will now come in two months later than planned, with no start date for smaller houses.

In a further sign of problems, ministers admitted they did not have a legal definition of what constituted a four-bedroom house....

Miss Kelly denied that Gordon Brown had been behind the delay because he feared that an adverse impact on the housing market next month could overshadow his arrival at No 10.

The Government is creating a "make work" scheme for hundreds of home energy inspectors, who face being unemployed for months. Councils and landlords of social housing will be "invited" to introduce EPCs on a voluntary basis to provide work.

Is it just me or does Ruth Kelly always sound as though, when she is speaking with that mouthful of marbles voice, she is debating whether to spit or swallow?

So Gordon's reign starts as it will continue; "nothing to do with him", fiascos, lies and "make work" schemes in the name of fatuous goals, and behind it all the unspoken kowtowing to EU directives.

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May 21, 2007

Would you want one living next door?

BBC NEWS | Politics | Hain rejects Hodge's housing call

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has said housing policy must not be made "on the hoof" after a minister said UK citizens should have priority.

There is one oleaginous orange immigrant who I would happily prevent having a tax payer subsidised home, or homes....

A No 10 spokesman said the government recognised it was an issue in some places, adding that the key was to keep boosting the amount of social housing. and hope that keeps the BNP vote down.

Mrs Hodge, who was born in Egypt - as Margaret Oppenheimer, the daughter of a refugee millionaire German Jewish steel trader and his Austrian Jewish wife - as the BBC doesn't add, maybe they want her to appear to be as one with the poor huddled Muslim masses. What's a poor girl going to do? Her old fashioned constituents have robust views on who should get the subsidised housing, them and their families, and don't take kindly to those fresh off the eurostar getting first dabs. And they are showing their disgust by not voting for her or her beloved party. But if she panders to their prejudices she is vilified by the Guardianistas. Shame isn't it?

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Nutories in a nutshell

When did wanting the best for your children become a crime? | Dt Opinion | Opinion | Telegraph

The Cameron project has, at a stroke, restored patrician condescension to the heart of Conservative philosophy. Apparently oblivious to the sinister aspect that their own upper-class, public-school backgrounds would inject into this debate, they have revived a species of class war that prevailed in this country long before the Marxist version: the aristocratic loathing of the middle-class upstart.

The destitute are sympathetic because they can be patronised and "helped": the real enemy is the striving, overly-conscientious burgher who insists on helping himself.

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May 20, 2007

Correcting a Policy Mistake

Mars blunders on chocolate recipes | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The food company that makes Mars Bars has been forced to change its chocolate recipes and ditch the use of animal products after a backlash from vegetarians.

Mars has admitted it "made a mistake" by switching a key ingredient in its confectionery to one that came from the stomachs of slaughtered calves. Thousands of consumers complained after the company admitted that it was using animal rennet, the enzymes from the stomachs of livestock, to make whey used in their chocolate products.

It meant that Britain's three million vegetarians and some religious groups would no longer eat popular brands such as Mars Bars, Snickers, Galaxy and Maltesers.

Fiona Dawson, managing director of Mars UK said: "At Mars UK we have recently changed the source of some of the whey which is used in our chocolate products. We made a mistake. We apologise."

The first changes to the manufacturing process will begin on Monday... The company will tomorrow publish adverts apologising for the change and explaining future plans

That is the power of the market and how capitalism works, don't make excuses, apologise, change and make what you can out of it. Maybe there is a lesson here for some politicians....

Cameron falls out over grammar schools | Uk News | News | Telegraph

David Cameron is being accused of riding roughshod over his shadow cabinet and policy groups after ignoring their advice when he announced that the Conservatives would not create more grammar schools.

The Tory leader brushed aside objections from senior members of his team to ditch his party's traditional support for selective schools. He also ignored a key policy document calling for a big increase in academic selection.

David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, risks inflaming the situation further today by repeating his view that grammar schools served the middle classes and declaring in The Sunday Telegraph that he is "proud" to continue Tony Blair's education reforms

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May 17, 2007

Reid - still unfit for purpose

Scotsman.com News - Politics - Reid still fails to give details over foreign prisoners

ONE year after first admitting that foreign prisoners released from jail had been wrongly allowed to remain in the UK, the Home Office still cannot say how many were freed in Scotland.

MPs who asked about the figures last year were assured by the Home Office that information would be published "shortly".

And 12 months after telling MPs he would investigate the foreign-prisoners fiasco in Scotland, John Reid, the Home Secretary, was last night unable to provide the answers he promised.

Too busy chasing dreams of glory to actually do your job, eh Dr Reid?

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Coronations

On Christmas Day 1066, less than three months after landing at Pevensey, William was crowned king of England. At the coronation, William of Poitiers writes that the English "all shouted their joyful assent, with no hesitation, as if heaven had granted them one mind and one voice." The Normans added their own voices as well, and the guards outside the Abbey, "hearing the loud clamour in an unknown tongue, thought some treachery was afoot and rashly set fire to houses near to the city." The fire spread from house to house, says Orderic, as those in the congregation frantically rushed outside, some to fight the fames, others to loot.

Only the bishops and a few clergy remained to complete the consecration of the new king, who was seen to be "trembling from head to foot."

So began William's reign: with fires burning all around him. And so would England burn for five more years until it finally was subjugated. The plundering of the country's wealth would begin immediately.

Scotsman.com News - Politics - Brown set for coronation

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May 16, 2007

Gordon's Off His Hospital Trolley

Save us from health service meddlers-Comment-Columnists-Alice Miles-TimesOnline

Here I quote directly from an interview Gordon Brown gave at the weekend, because it expresses his muddle quite clearly: “As far as the health service is concerned, you’ve got to understand it, it’s different from any other form of activity because you’ve got people who rely on the doctors for advice. I can’t normally diagnose myself.

“You’ve also got hospitals in an area that are essentially monopolies because they have accident and emergency and you’re not going to find an accident and emergency facility very near to where you are, and you’ve got maternity services, you’ve got emergency services including the accident and emergency. So healthcare is quite different from any other activity in the economy.”

Anyone have the faintest idea what he is talking about? I will make a wild guess: Mr Brown is going to reverse the hospital closure programme that has been frozen while the local elections were under way. Why do I think that? First, because it is phenomenally unpopular. If there is a case for it, it has not been made. Secondly, because if he carries on with it now, the closures will collide neatly with the next general election. Thirdly, because I cannot think what else he was getting at with all that stuff about A&E and maternity services, the very areas which are most under threat.

So that is the mighty brain of the Prudent One at work is it - talk bollocks and throw cash at a problem in the hope it goes away, rather than think things through.

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May 15, 2007

Blair's Legacy

Numberwatch - One man’s legacy

John gives us a full eulogy on the Blair years.

How different it is from Pericles' Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War :

"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the present. They dwelt in the country without break in the succession from generation to generation, and handed it down free to the present time by their valour. And if our more remote ancestors deserve praise, much more do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance the empire which we now possess, and spared no pains to be able to leave their acquisitions to us of the present generation. Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are still more or less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has been furnished by us with everything that can enable her to depend on her own resources whether for war or for peace....

But what was the road by which we reached our position, what the form of government under which our greatness grew, what the national habits out of which it sprang; these are questions which I may try to solve before I proceed to my panegyric upon these men; since I think this to be a subject upon which on the present occasion a speaker may properly dwell, and to which the whole assemblage, whether citizens or foreigners, may listen with advantage.

"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.

...We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger....
...
We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless...

...the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. ......

...you who are still of an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of having others in their stead; not only will they help you to forget those whom you have lost, but will be to the state at once a reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or just policy be expected of the citizen who does not, like his fellows, bring to the decision the interests and apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the thought that the best part of your life was fortunate, and that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame of the departed. For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness.

O tempora O mores - not a word of that now applies to our poor benighted country.

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Raining on Tony's Parade.

Brown to attack Blair's education 'failures' | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Tony Blair has failed to deliver a "world class" education system despite massive extra investment in schools during his decade in power, Gordon Brown will say today.

Further distancing himself from the Prime Minister's record, the Chancellor will describe numeracy rates among young children as "unacceptable" for one of the world's leading economies. "We are still some way off being world class," the Chancellor will say as he turns to schools policy on the latest leg of his campaign for the Labour leadership.

"It is unacceptable that we still have 150,000 children leaving primary school who aren't numerate.

And on the other side of town...

Blair begins farewell tour | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Tony Blair took off on a whistlestop cross-country tour today for a first farewell flourish to mark his decade at Number 10.

As Gordon Brown was busy forging ahead with his Labour leadership campaign, the outgoing prime minister highlighted his achievements after 10 years in office.

With 23 days to go until he leaves Downing Street following his resignation announcement last Thursday, Mr Blair started his long goodbye by lauding the changes in education made during his tenure.

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours,
Just a friendly wave each morning, helps to make a better day.
Neighbours, need to get to know each other, next day is only a footstep away.

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours,
With a little understanding, you can find a perfect plan.
Neighbours, should be there for one another.
That's when good neighbours become good friends...

I wonder if Gordon will stay on Tony's Christmas card list?

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Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Collect $200

Chirac exits 'tired, sad' and facing inquiry | International News | News | Telegraph

Jacques Chirac faces two contrasting fates when he hands over the keys to the Elysée palace to his successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, tomorrow - saving the planet or fighting corruption allegations...

How unlike our own dear Prime Minister who after he hands over the keys to No 10 is going to either save the planet or....

Posted by The Englishman at 6:14 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 12, 2007

Welcome to The Interregnum

Interregnum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An interregnum is a period between monarchs, between popes, emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, Polish kings (elective monarchy) or between consuls of the Roman Republic. It can also refer to the period between the pastorates of ministers in some Protestant churches, or generally, any gap in the continuity of a government, organization, or social order.

The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule in the land occupied by modern-day England and Wales after the English Civil War. It began with the regicide of Charles I in 1649 and ended with the restoration of Charles II in 1660.

Life during the English Interregnum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After the Parliamentarian victory in the Civil War, the Puritan views of the majority of Parliament and its supporters began to be imposed on the rest of the country. The Puritans advocated an austere lifestyle and restricted what they saw as the excesses of the previous regime.

Brown sweeps away the Blair glitz | Uk News | News | Telegraph

After 13 years of waiting, Gordon Brown's big day had finally arrived. And from the moment he hopped on to a Piccadilly line Tube train soon after 7am to meet activists in north London, it was clear the glitz of the Blair years was being swept unceremoniously away.

Twenty-four hours earlier Tony Blair had drawn his decade at Number 10 to a close with the help of private jets, motorcades, activists dancing hysterically to up-beat pop classics and a wave of emotion. Mr Brown's attempt to replace him, by contrast, was to be launched amid studied sobriety.

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May 11, 2007

Deblairisation - neologism of the day

DeBlairisation - Google Search
Results 1 - 1 of 1 for DeBlairisation

"deblairisation active de la dame!!!"

So not the first with the word "Deblairisation" - but a close second I think...

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DeBlairisation - The Party Starts The Process

Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Official Logo Change Signals New Labour is Dead

The end of New Labour | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Mr Brown's spokesman denied that the Chancellor was behind the rebranding exercise. He said it had been carried out by the Labour Party without consulting him to "freshen up" the party website during the leadership election.

Aye, of course not! - and by the time the photos have all been airbrushed history will be corrected - Did anyone mention Stalin?

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Yo Ho Ho Gordon's in Charge

David Miliband's Tales From The Cabinet - Chapter 1

I take up my pen in the year of grace 2010 and go back to the time when Tony kept No 10 and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof.

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when Tony appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the furniture and up at our plasma screen.

"This is a handy cove," says he at length; "and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?"

Tony told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you're at-- there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as a commander.

And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. ....

Poor Jim David, times are going to be rough under the new captain...

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May 10, 2007

June or July? Blair decides.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair to announce departure date

Betfair odds on it being July rather than June have dropped rapidly in the last few days - I got some money on July at 6/1 last week, it is now 5/4. 30th June is one date being bandied about so I wouldn't be interested at that price in a flutter.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 9, 2007

Slash England’s green and pleasant Land for the Olympics

Campaigners condemn Hardy Country road | Uk News | News | Telegraph
...
The 3.5-mile relief road between Dorchester and Weymouth will speed up traffic to the marina in Portland that will be used for the 2012 Olympics.

The road runs through a protected ancient woodland and will cut huge chalk gashes out of the Dorset Downs area of outstanding natural beauty....

Part of an ancient woodland, Two Mile Coppice, which is part of the Lorton Site of Special Scientific Interest, will be destroyed by the proposed road and more will be damaged by disturbance. A nature reserve will also be partly destroyed.

Tom Oliver, head of the CPRE's Rural Policy, said: "This shows a breathtaking disregard for the Government's own stated aim to protect nationally protected landscapes and wildlife sites.

"One reason advanced for building this road was that it was needed to support the sailing events at the 2012 Olympics, which will take place over a few weeks."

Of course that it is in one of the South's few Labour constituencies and the local MP, Jim Knight, is crowing about it is not a factor.

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Tories Throw Away Council Seats With Rubbish Policies

Kelly: Consult residents over bin collections | Uk News | News | Telegraph

On Kirklees council, West Yorks, the balance of power switched from Conservative to Labour in last Thursday's poll. The Tory-led council had announced the new collection system was being rolled out, but Labour pledged to reverse the change.

It picked up two extra seats to become the largest group, while the Conservatives lost one. The Tories also lost North Lincolnshire to Labour, and Salisbury, where no party has overall control. Both areas had experimented with alternate collections.

After the election the first Wiltshire results were Swindon and Salisbury and it was obvious the Tories weren't doing well. I assumed that this was that Dave's message wasn't selling in the heartlands. I might have been wrong, and owe an apology to Iain Dale who I thought was overegging the Tory victory. It looks like the Tories rush to embrace trendy Green policy is at fault and that local politics came to the fore.

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May 8, 2007

Scotland - Time for the Edward III option

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - After election fiasco, what happens next?

Obviously the Scots are incapable of forming a stable government, this sort of chaos in one of major oil suppliers and on our border could cause unacceptable upset to our economy and security. We haven't time to wait for the UN to act so I suggest we send a "peacekeeping force" north once again, as we have had to do so many times before, to restore order. It is for their own good.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:37 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 7, 2007

I'm just not playing any more.

Is Britain becoming ungovernable?-Comment-Columnists-William Rees-Mogg-TimesOnline

Somethingfishy suggests in sweary way it is.

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May 6, 2007

Miliband - taken from behind by a bit of rough trade.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Reid to resign as home secretary

Home Secretary John Reid says he will leave the Cabinet in June when "Tony Blair goes".

I awoke this morning to the whisper that a Scotsman was going to resign alongside Tony - I thought surely Gordon isn't clever enough to sacrifice his one chance of being PM to keep his legacy and reputation - if he stood down with Tony he would be remembered, rightly or wrongly, as The Prudent Chancellor whereas he is going to be seen now as a short term loser of a PM. But I was wrong.

John Reid has played a blinder, of course he wasn't going to win against Gordon so he wasn't going to stand. But now in the post electoral meltdown leadership battle which David "Dave" Miliband thinks he has in the bag suddenly he has chance. Dave will be highly prominent, and identified, with the failing Gordo years. Reid will be out in the working mens clubs and union meetings reigniting the true flame of Labour. And when the crunch vote comes from the massed ranks of the old Labour movement the question will be "how many tanks has Islington have?". For no one is more identified with the guacamole and warm white wine wonk set than Miliband, and with the demise of Tony they will have had their day.

On the other hand Iain Dale, who is much closer to the action than I am believes differently:

Iain Dale's Diary: Why Did John Reid Bottle It?

But even worse than that, he got to hear of a big tabloid scandal brewing, which portrayed him, shall we say, in a less than chivalrous light. It was clear that the newspaper concerned was preparing to run the story if and when he announced his candidacy.

And so Dr Reid shuffles off into the great political waiting room muttering "Enoch was right". All political careers do indeed end in failure.

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Voters turned on and turned out for real politics

Sarkozy elected president of France | International News | News | Telegraph

The interior ministry estimated turnout to be 85 per cent – the highest for decades.

Mr Sarkozy has campaigned on themes such as national identity, security and radical economic reforms, including curbing union powers, dropping social charges from those wanting to work longer than the 35-hour week and cutting punitive French taxes.

Calling Mr Cameron - the rush to occupy the centre ground by all parties means most feel disenfranchised and unwilling to vote.
Have some balls and define a real position that is different to the others.

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May 5, 2007

The Elections - The Lazy Man's Guide to All You Need to Know

John Redwood’s Diary

I think England is going to get heartily sick of Scottish politicians dominating our airwaves, squabbling over who is going to grab the spoils of office in their devolved Parliament and gain the right to spend all the money the Union votes them.

Whether Salmond ends up as First Minister or not, the endless wrangling and wriggling as the parties try to outmaneouvre each other and gradually ditch their promises to the electors will do two things. It will recruit more English nationalists, fed up with it all, and will turn many more people off oddball electoral experiments that confuse electors and muddle the message voters were trying to send to the government.
...

For a whole day the BBC voiced the Labour message - the Conservatives had failed to break through in the north, had failed to win enough seats and votes to win a general Election...

So what are the facts?

1. If the same voting were reproduced at a General Election there would be a majority Conservative government, with MPs from Bolton and Bury.

2. The Conservatives won control of 20 Councils in the north, more than Labour control there.

3. The Conservatives now control 205 Councils, more than 4 times as many as Labour.

4. Labour now only controls 46 Councils, and the Lib Dems a mere 27.

...

Scotland shows just what a bad idea PR is...

No-one has any idea in Scotland who is now going to form the government because the result was inconclusive. All the parties that want a role in the government will now ditch some of their promises to electors to try to cosy up to each other to form an administation. PR guarantees dishonesty by parties in an election, as they have to tear up their manifesto once the results are known and form a new programme with others. PR is the ultimate way to ensure a conspiracy of the political classes against the electorate, as they share out the spoils on some basis which suits them, rather than being the direct result of votes cast.

The electoral system like so much else has been badly damaged in the last ten years. There are now serious worries about electoral fraud, the postal vote system is weak, and the PR elements make it impossible for electors to stay in charge over who gets into government.

That saves me having to do the hard lifting of commenting on the election - Thanks John.

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May 4, 2007

Drinking to the Scotch tonight

Scotsman.com News - Politics - SNP beat Labour by one seat in Scottish election

THE Scottish Nationalists have become the largest party in the Scottish parliament, beating Labour by one seat,

Betfair have paid out on my bet that the SNP would win the most seats - if I had had more nerve I could have had some much better odds earlier today when the media were believing the Labour spin, but I'm happy with my modest winnings, and the egg on Tony and the invisible Gordon's face...

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Wiltshire - Not good news for Cameron

Swindon: Tories gained one seat, and now have 43 councillors.
Labour also gained one seat, to take their tally to 13.
The Lib Dems have three councillors and two "others" lost their seats.

Salisbury council is now hung after the Conservatives lost overall control.
Tories lost eight seats, and now have 30 councillors in place.
But the Lib Dems gained 10 seats, taking their total to 19. Labour lost one seat, giving them 10 councillors, and there are four "others".

Doesn't look like the voters down in the shires have flocked to the polls to support the boy wonder, what news from the north?

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Banana Republic Polls

Activists ‘meddling with postal votes for other parties’-News-Politics-TimesOnline

Ministers were urged to bring in new laws to ban political parties from handling postal votes amid growing concerns about electoral fraud.

As polling booths closed across Britain, with near-record turnouts in Scotland, council chief executives issued a statement claiming that party workers across Britain were interfering with postal votes.

The warning follows police investigations in Birmingham and Leeds into allegations of continued interference by political parties. Council chiefs claim that activists are taking completed ballot papers, opening them, and deliberately dumping or hoarding those backing a different party.

A scandal - Iain Dale has another worrying story

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May 3, 2007

Please...

Succumb to Iain Dale's breathless entreaties and make him a happy man, you know you will feel better for it.

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May 2, 2007

Ten Years of Blairism, nothing to do with me - Tony Blair.

Blair supports weekly bin collections as voters threaten backlash | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The Tories immediately accused Mr Blair of a shameless attempt to distance himself, ahead of Thursday's polls, from a disastrously unpopular strategy pioneered by his own Government...

Many Labour MPs say fortnightly collections are the number one issue on the doorstep. Even in areas where the Tories run the councils they say Labour is being blamed for the bin policy.

"Look, Guys, it is nothing to do with me, and in fact I'm leaving very very soon, in fact all the things that have gone wrong in the last ten years were nothing to do with me, remember all my triumphs, my legacy, you know something will come to mind, surely, and did I mention I'm resigning soon? Please vote Labour, please.....

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What a difference an E makes

-Gay Sex Resignation, Escourt Agency, lying in court, Brown, Peerage, Friend of Tony Blair, all came crackling through the radio as I left the pub last night, I nearly turned back to buy a large bottle of something. As I struggled to tune it in I eventually realised that it wasn't Brown but Browne - and even then not the Defence bloke. Damn, a no interest story - Browne of BP, of course he is a liar, no surprise there, haven't you seen how short he is? Never trust short men.

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April 30, 2007

Keeping the pack in order

Reid call for unity hands the crown to Brown | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The hasty scramble to back the Chancellor underlined the growing panic in Labour's high command about the humiliation the party faces in this week's local elections in England, as well as crucial polls for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.

Asked whether it was a "done deal" that Mr Brown would be the next Labour leader, Mr Reid told BBC1's Sunday AM: "I predict that we will not only see that unity up to this election, but beyond this election. And rather than the expected fracturing of Labour beyond it, we will see a coming together of all of the Labour leadership, beyond this election.

So the little Scotty Dog has been promised a nice big juicy bone if he doesn't bark. Obviously he was getting a bit jealous of all the attention on the chocolate lab puppy, who has been told he can have the biggest kennel if he behaves, so a little yapping and the treats are his.

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April 29, 2007

Bye bye Jack

Scotsman.com News - Desperate Jack begs for votes

JACK McConnell has issued a desperate plea to Tory and Liberal voters, urging them to vote tactically for Labour to stave off an SNP victory in Thursday's Holyrood election.

In a clear indication of the meltdown facing his party, the First Minister said Conservative and Lib Dem supporters should back him as the "only way" to stop Alex Salmond....

The new YouGov poll, commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), gives the SNP an eight point lead over Labour in the constituency vote, and a five point lead in the regional list vote.

Analysis by Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University shows that, if the swing is uniform across the country, the SNP will win 46 seats to Labour's 40. The Conservatives and the Liberals would get 18 each, with the Greens on five and others two.

The poll would leave the SNP and the Liberals one seat short of a majority in Parliament. But Scotland on Sunday can also reveal that the Greens now say they too would consider a formal coalition deal, in which they would accept ministerial jobs. It leaves open the possibility of a three-way coalition after Thursday's vote.

The Sunday Herald reveals who he blames:

JACK MCCONNELL has turned his fire on the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency, which he has represented for eight years. He said the Labour-controlled area reflected "careless, thoughtless decision-making" and condemned his local town centres.

He added: "The town centre here in Wishaw has never been properly thought through for the last 20 years. That town centre in Motherwell is a pigsty. It's dirty, it's untidy, it's ... bad planning decisions, bad architectural decisions, and it needs radical surgery."

He then blamed the plight of Scotland's towns on decisions made by successive governments. "We've got to break that dependency culture that was generated partly by the Labour policies of the 1970s and partly by the Tory economic decline of the 1980s."

Ah poor wee lad crying as he sees his toys slipping away, it is everyone else's fault, waaaaaah

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As the house of ID cards crumble, a shadowy figure moves onto the stage

Reid puts up 'Blairite' plan for police reform | Uk News | News | Telegraph

John Reid is to consider plans for directly elected police commissioners as he burnishes his Blairite credentials ahead of a possible bid for the Labour leadership.

John Reid is to consider new plans as he burnishes his Blairite credentials ahead of a possible bid for the Labour leadership
John Reid is said to be prepared to stand for Labour leader as a 'stop Brown candidate'

The policy, strikingly similar to police reform plans announced by David Cameron earlier this year

Is it Blairite or Cameronian? Or isn't there a difference?

Fraud fear as millions of NI numbers are lost | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The Government admitted in a recent parliamentary answer that there are now 76.7 million numbers on the database, well in excess of Britain's adult population of 49 million.

Some of the surplus numbers are legitimate. The DWP estimates that 16.5 million are registered in the names of dead people whose surviving spouses can lawfully claim a pension against their late spouse's NI contributions. Another 1.5 million are thought to belong to pensioners living abroad who can claim UK benefits.

However, a spokesman for the DWP said the remaining nine million had yet to be categorised.....

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said he was alarmed at the admission, primarily because the Home Office intends to use the NI database as the model for setting up Britain's national identity card scheme in 2009.

"The Government cannot know who is in this country and who is entitled to what," he said.

"How can they claim the integrity of their £20 billion ID card database, which will hold dozens of pieces of information on every citizen in the country, will be protected?"

Oh dear, another example of governmental cluelessness, so will John Reid be sharpening his axe and declare himself to be the only hard man capable of running the country by putting the civil service in order? In the immortal words of The Sweet..

Ahh Ahhh, Ahh Ahhh
You better beware, you better take care
You better watch out if you've got long black hair
He'll come from behind, you'll go out of your mind
You better not go, you never know what you'll find
Ahh Ahh, Ahh Ahhh

Don't look into his eyes, you'll be surprised
If don't know what going on behind his disguse
Nobody knows where Reidie goes
He'll steal your job right out from under your nose

Does anyone know the way, did we hear someone say
(We just haven't got a clue what to do)
Does anyone know the way, there's got to be a way
For John Reid

The cops are out, they're running about
Don't know if they'll ever be able to block Gordon out
He's gotta be caught, he's gotta be taught
Cause he is more evil then anyone here ever thought ...

Video here

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April 27, 2007

Channel 4 on the NHS IT scandal

Junior doctor job scandal deepens
---------------------------------
The junior doctor job application scandal deepens. The government is trying to hide behind the idea that some malicious leaker is responsible for disclosing all the details of those trying to find junior hospital doctoring jobs, and that this is why their personal details were so widely available on the internet.

Our own researches prove that it was the NHS IT systems that were blatantly insecure. Indeed, we have now found other aspects of their IT that are wide open to abuse. Details of a conference attended by consultants and doctors several months ago disclose the addresses, telephone numbers, mobile phones, email addresses, of some of the most prominent doctors in Britain.

It is increasingly obvious that ministers and civil servants have lost control of the security of their own IT systems. The only minister to speak thus far, Lord Hunt, has merely entered his conviction that it's all down to some malicious leaker.

There have been no leaks. There has simply been a wholesale breakdown of security, as Victoria Macdonald will be reporting. But as we shall also be indicating, this raises the whole spectre of the insecurity of ID cards and the IT systems that are supposedly designed to protect personal information.

Read and watch our reports on -
http://www.channel4.com/news/?intcmp=news_snowmail_juniordoctors

And these people want us all to have an ID card?

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Will he stay or will he go now?

Blair may resign as party leader on Tuesday | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Even Mr Blair's most loyal supporters concede his unpopularity is so deep that his resignation could actually improve the party's showing, particularly in Scotland which Labour may lose control to the nationalists.

The move could also wrongfoot his opponents and even cushion any political fallout for Gordon Brown if, as expected, there is a rout of Labour in the Chancellor's Scottish backyard.

The eve of poll announcement is being canvassed at a senior level within No 10 to let the Prime Minister regain the political momentum.
..

Mr Blair is anxious that he will not take the brunt of the blame if the grim opinion polls are borne out.

Brown dragging Labour to defeat in polls | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Gordon Brown is becoming a growing electoral liability to the Labour Party as a YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph today shows that he is falling even further behind David Cameron.

The poll points to Labour's worst local election performance in two decades, with the party poised to lose hundreds of seats in England and Wales. Labour is also facing a catastrophic loss of power to the nationalists in Scotland, opening up the prospect of a referendum on the end of the Union within four years.

Will Tony go before the election? He thinks Labour's unpopularity is Gordon's fault and doesn't see why he should sacrifice his glorious name to help the miserable old git out, but then if he does resign before then the elections are all about Gordon and so he can reassure himself that the dismal show is a vote on Gordon not himself.
I think his advisers will play the latter to his vanity so he can absolve himself from any responsibility of defeat., but his love of holding onto power is so strong they won't win. It is going to be a close call.

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April 26, 2007

Rubbish News

Miliband may face backlash over plan for new rubbish tax-News-UK-Health-TimesOnline

Householders will face a new tax on rubbish from next year under proposals to be announced by David Miliband next month, The Times has learnt.

The Environment Secretary will disclose much tougher targets to recycle waste and will give councils new powers to levy charges on nonrecyclable rubbish. New regulations are expected to be attached to the Climate Change Bill to be introduced in July.

The new proposals are likely to aggravate a public outcry over fortnightly collections of domestic waste brought in by cash-strapped authorities. Some councils, particularly those facing town hall elections, have changed back to weekly collections....

Alan Connett, leader of Teignbridge District Council, which is reverting from fortnightly to weekly collection, said: “I think people pay their council tax and expect a minimum standard as part of the service, which is something we ought to provide. Otherwise, what are they paying their council tax for?

“When you start to break down the charges and charge separately for collecting rubbish, why not charge separately for other services such as street lights?

Quite. The telegraph has been leading on the fortnightly bin collection story for some time now - today's leading story is :

Plans to end weekly bin round hushed up | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Town halls have been instructed by Whitehall to hush up plans to introduce fortnightly bin collections ahead of local elections.

Binmen at work; Plans to end weekly bin round hushed up
Four in 10 councils have dropped weekly bin collections

With Labour facing potential losses at next Thursday's polls, dropping weekly bin rounds has become a major political issue.

In what has been branded a cynical ploy to save votes by covering up an unpopular policy, a government agency told local authorities: "The timing of local elections may affect your thinking on when best to introduce the concept to members and to the public."

If it wasn't for those pesky voters councils could run the system just how they wanted. If I was standing as a Conservative Councillor and I wanted to win, more than I wanted to please Cameron, my campaign would be a simple one on retaining weekly bin collections. But local councillors are even wetter than Miliband and Tories are in the forefront of bleating about the advantages of leaving rotting rubbish on the doorstep for longer

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April 24, 2007

A Salty Sea Tale

Scotsman.com News - UK - Navy set to keep 30-year-old ships in service over ｣3.6bn carrier delays

THE Royal Navy could be forced to delay the retirement of Britain's ageing aircraft carriers because of delays in the programme to order replacement vessels, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.

The decision would mean the mainstay of Britain's naval power in the next decade will be two ships which are both more than 30 years old.

The prospect of prolonging the life of HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal will only heighten concerns about the state of the Royal Navy....

But not for another Scotsman writer; Scotsman.com News - UK - Shipshape?

...the military message imparted at today's event is clear: a quarter-century on, Britain is better equipped than ever to defend itself at sea, following a ｣14 billion investment package which, in the past ten years, has resulted in 28 new ships, including the HMS Albion, and one submarine.....

the Rear-Admiral exhibits the excitable nature of a head boy at school. The Royal Navy, he says, is in great shape as the result of the government's investment over the past decade.

"The new vessels have created an incredible flexibility," he says, "from which we now have global reach and greater influence. We can swing from humanitarian work to peacekeeping to actual war fighting; onboard we have all the skills necessary - engineers, electricians, plumbers, even dentists."

When I put it to him that we often read naval "sources" insisting that the service is badly underfunded, he neatly pooh-poohs any such notion: "We have enough ships to do what we are being asked because of our capability. But if the government wants us to do anything more, then that will have to change."

Serving Officer, on record, I think Mandy Rice Davies Applies - He would say that, wouldn't he.

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April 21, 2007

Crime News

Police are recommending two or three monkeys to be charged with inappropriate pan handling - no news yet on the organ grinder.

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April 20, 2007

Cry Devil For Freedom!

The Devil's Kitchen: Media in denial over EU has been making the running in protesting for our freedom of speech - I note with pride that his role has been acknowledged in the Telegraph:

Bloggers say EU law will end free speech | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Chris Mounsey, the 29 year old behind The Devil's Kitchen blog, said: "There is potential for this to have worldwide application. Free speech is at the centre of blogging. Part of the reason bloggers can tell the truth is because it is difficult to pin them down. This law tries to do it."

The legislation goes beyond German or Austrian-style bans on denial of the Holocaust to cover those people who question the official history of recent conflicts in Africa and the Balkans.

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April 18, 2007

Beckett Fritters Away Britain's Reputation

Beckett feels the heat after debate on climate-News-World-US & Americas-TimesOnline

A chorus of protests met Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, as she chaired the UN Security Council’s first debate on climate change yesterday.

China, Russia and some leading developing nations (The Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned Movement,) said that Britain was overstepping the council’s remit.

Britain pushed hard to get climate change on to the Security Council agenda in an effort inspired in part by the US initiative to hold an unprecedented council debate on Aids in 2000.

Officials succeeded, however, only by resorting to a procedural device that described the debate simply as a discussion of a British letter on “energy, security and climate”.

Italy and Slovakia were the only other Security Council members apart from Britain to send a minister to take part in the debate.

Britain got firm backing from the EU, however,...

What a triumph! Marvel at Britain's influence on the world! How respected Ma Beckett is! Italy AND Slovakia turned up along side a few coral reef islanders. Still the press reports it as a triumph for global concern so it must be, I suppose.

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April 17, 2007

As I have been saying

BBC NEWS | Politics | Miliband 'won't run for leader'

Environment Secretary David Miliband will not run for the Labour leadership, once Tony Blair stands down, the BBC understands.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Miliband wanted to end speculation he would run against Gordon Brown.

Mr Miliband told the BBC: "I'm not wavering...I am not a candidate."

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A plague o' both your houses!

Blair prepares for final test as polls plunge to new low-News-Politics-TimesOnline

Labour’s rating has sunk to a level previously seen in the early 1980s during Michael Foot’s troubled leadership.

But although the Conservatives have led for a year the survey suggests that their leader, David Cameron, has still not made the breakthrough to give him an overall majority at the next general election....

The steady rise of minority parties is a worry for both parties. The number voting for “others” has moved from 8-9 per cent at the last election to 10-11 per cent last November, and is now around 14 per cent.

Still with their cosy deal to grab taxpayer money to keep the old parties afloat they'll be alright, for a while...

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April 16, 2007

The Miliband Love-in

There Is An Alternative is his shiny new supporters blog - Dave we love you!

And The Telegraph reports:

Bring on the challengers, says Brown

Mr Murdoch's media empire, much of which has been broadly supportive of Mr Brown, might support a challenge from Mr Miliband.

The Left-leaning Guardian newspaper is also considering supporting a challenge by Mr Miliband.

All we need now is for us to be told he has the sweetest soft downy peachy bottom for me to lose my breakfast over the keyboard as the ABG - Anyone But Gordon - crowd push their reluctant hero forward.

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April 13, 2007

Even The Turkeys Wont Vote For Gordon

Disgruntled doctors turn their backs on Labour | Uk News | News | Telegraph

'nuff said.

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Getting Ready To Rumble

The curtain comes down on Blair's reign | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The May 3 ballots in more than 300 English councils, as well as the four-yearly polls for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, take place at a critical time.

Voters could be about to revise the political map of the UK, with huge implications for Labour, the Tories and even the 300-year-old Union between England and Scotland.

Outside London, which has no elections, and Northern Ireland, which voted recently for its restored assembly, almost every voter in the country will be entitled to go the the polls. The potential ramifications are huge.

Down here in the south we are just looking at the Dave effect to unseat some Lib Dems local councillors (Lib Dem councillors are often scary bearded (both the men and the women) fanatics so a soft cuddly Tory who "cares" is a friendlier choice). Up North the Tories don't show much sign of the break though they need - it is the acid test for Dave.
Wales has enjoyed a Labour lead Assembly, so no wonder Peter Hain is worried that the voters will not rush to renew their mandate.
And Scotland, ah Scotland - will the SNP give Labour the bloody nose it deserves?
And then that opens up the Gordon question with Tony out the door - the ABGs don't want the Loser leading but like an autistic kid with a playstation you aren't going to wrestle the prize away from easily.
I think I'm going to enjoy the 4th of May - maybe a decent bottle of something should be put aside to drink as we watch the catfight.

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April 12, 2007

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Browne fights to keep his job as storm over sailors rages on | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Des Browne's ability to survive as Defence Secretary was in serious doubt last night after Tony Blair and a fellow minister cut him adrift by criticising the way the Iran hostages were allowed to sell their stories to the press.

A mistake for sure but compared to the mistakes that this government has made and continues to make that cost troops their lives and limbs it is a minor one. But to Tony getting the PR wrong is a far worse error; he gets to see the headlines, but not the grieving widows.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 11, 2007

Miliband - can he fix it?

I'm in tune with the 'I can' generation
By David Miliband

I call it the politics of "I can". The era of "I can" is the culmination of the long decline of deference and automatic authority. It is the late flowering of individual autonomy and control. ...

In the battle against climate change, an "I can" society enables citizens to become producers as well as consumers of energy. Within ten years, all new homes will need to sell energy back to the national grid, with citizens getting a fair price for their electricity. The power stations of the future will draw energy from a million roofs, rather than just a central generator. "I can" must be combined with a sense of "we can"

It has taken me a while to identify the underlying political philosophy underpinning David's bold new approach but a few minutes of babysitting has given me the answer:

Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes we can!

Scoop, Muck and Dizzy,
And Roley too.
Lofty and Wendy
Join the crew.
Bob and the gang
Have so much fun.
Working together
They get the job done.

Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes we can! (I think so!)

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Gordo offers young boy sweeties to stay quiet

Brown's plan to halt Miliband challenge | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Gordon Brown is considering a plan to neutralise the threat of a possible leadership challenge from David Miliband by offering him the chance to run a new "eco super-ministry", it emerged yesterday.

Oh come on! Keep up at the back. We have been saying here for ages that all little David wants was a new shiny toy to play with while he watches Gordo crash and burn. He has crayoned into his activity chart "PM-in-waiting" only after the next election.

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April 10, 2007

"Going over the top" - Gordon would love to but his diary is full that day.

Brown gambles on Scottish election campaign | Uk News | News | Telegraph

Gordon Brown will today place himself at the head of Labour's campaign for the Scottish Parliament elections - despite warnings from MPs that a poor result could dent his leadership ambitions....

Some Labour MPs believe Mr Brown risks opening the door to a challenge by a leading Labour figure such as David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, if he identifies himself too strongly with unsuccessful campaigns north and south of the Border.

Mr Miliband has suggested in private that he may challenge the Chancellor, but only if the local election campaigns in England and polls for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly go disastrously.

Sources close to Mr Brown denied that he would take a low key role in the elections.

"Gordon is very much involved," one source said. "He has been instrumental in devising the entire strategy on how to make the economic case against the Nationalists.

"There is no truth whatsoever to suggestions that he will be taking a back seat."

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. He needs to show the ABG crowd he has the balls to be a leader, but he is desperate to avoid being identified too closely with what he will call Jack Whatshisnames election, just as it will be Tony's Local elections; at least the failures will be, the rare successes will be purely down to his masterful deployment of economic data....

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Something Fishy About Miliband

Sea anglers may be forced to buy a licence | Uk News | News | Telegraph

More than one million sea anglers will be forced for the first time to pay to fish under Government plans for a licensing system.

Ministers are proposing charges to cover beach anglers, boat fishing and charter trips, overturning a British tradition enshrined in common law nearly 800 years ago.

David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, wants to use the licence fee...

Captain Haddock of this fair shire is a keen sea angler, and not one to mince his words, I can't wait...

Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 9, 2007

Welcome to Dresden on Mersey

Watchdog to probe Prescott demolition scheme | Uk News | News | Telegraph

John Prescott's heavily criticised ｣5 billion scheme to renegerate the inner cities by demolishing thousands of Victorian terrace homes is to be the subject of an official inquiry.

The National Audit Office is to examine the Pathfinder regeneration scheme after Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, last week unleashed the bulldozers on 1,000 terrace homes in Liverpool.

By approving compulsory purchase orders for three inner city areas of the city, Miss Kelly has effectively signalled that she will continue with the policy devised by Mr Prescott in the face of opposition from his own Urban Task Force, led by the architect Lord Rogers.

Similar projects are under way in other parts of the North of England and Midlands.

The Government maintains that the demolition and replacement with modern housing will bring about economic and environmental improvements for the areas concerned.

Meanwhile in Prescott's spiritual homeland his policies are being recognised as having failed.

E German towns 'left to poverty' | International News | News | Telegraph

After two decades of promises to revitalise its former communist east, Germany has abandoned swathes of the ex-GDR to poverty and depopulation, a scathing new report has revealed.

The trend, which has seen hundreds of thousands flee westwards from the neglect, is so bad that the old communist east is now studded with "ghost towns", it says.

The report, released late last month and called the Future Atlas 2007, is the most detailed examination of 439 towns and regions in Germany, and shatters the pledges made almost 20 years ago.
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It reveals that investment worth hundreds of billions of pounds in selected eastern "hotspots" such as Dresden and Potsdam has helped resuscitate their once downtrodden economies.

But beyond these much publicised symbols of success, it says, is an economic desert where the concrete tenement blocks of communist times endure, but the communities, industries and jobs do not.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 8, 2007

Making a Proper Charlie of the Law

‘Millions to rebel’ over ID cards-News-UK-TimesOnline

The government is predicting that some 15m people will revolt against Tony Blair’s controversial ID card scheme by refusing to produce the new cards or provide personal data on demand.

Goodbye Magna Carta-News-UK-TimesOnline

The policeman rounded on me: “Look, who are you? Can you just move along?” I refused and pointed out that I wasn’t breaking the law. He became contrite and lowered his voice. “No, you’re not breaking the law, I’m just asking you out of courtesy if you’d move along because you’re adding to this disturbance.” I refused again and he said into his radio: “There are two of them holding an illegal demonstration. Can I have back-up?”

At this point, again to a vast array of boos from the crowd, another armed policeman emerged and asked Charlie his name and if he had any ID. A group of lads who looked like builders began to laugh, and one called out: “What’s his name? His name’s Charlie, you muppet!”

Again the swelling audience fell about. The policeman pleaded with Neil to move a few yards away to stop the crowd blocking the entrance to No 10. Charlie shuffled along, only for another two officers to approach him and ask again if he had any ID. Neil let go of his sign, revealing that it was chained to his wrist (so it wouldn’t get confiscated like the last one) — cue more laughter from the crowd — and began theatrically to look through his pockets. Eventually he found a scrap of paper which he unfolded as if he had all the time in the world and turned it's contents towards the crowd. “NO COMMENT” was written on it in large black letters.

There must have been 50 people at this point and they all began to cheer....

Posted by The Englishman at 9:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Village Gossip

Reid will back Miliband for PM to block Brown | Uk News | News | Telegraph

"John wants David to stand against Gordon," said a close friend of Mr Reid. "He believes he will do so - and that if he does, he can win. It will take balls to stand. But there is no use saying 'wait till next time', because there may not be a next time. John is making it clear he does not want to stand himself. He will be 60 next month. But if nobody else does, he will, as a last resort."

There will be a "next time" - in about two years time when Gordon has lost the election. John knows he is "damaged goods" after the Home Office crises, he may bluster but he knows he can't win against Gordon, the best he can do is keep his job, and Gordon might promise him that to ensure he doesn't stand. The ABG faction is getting desperate in their search for a kamikaze candidate.

Posted by The Englishman at 7:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 4, 2007

Prime Minister's Honours List - BBC pays Damages for Slur

Lady Falkender wins BBC drama damages | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The BBC is to pay Lady Falkender £75,000 in damages over a drama documentary claiming she conducted an adulterous affair with Harold Wilson and exercised undue influence over the compilation of his resignation honours list.

In an out-of-court settlement, the corporation has also agreed to pay an estimated £200,000 in costs and promised never to re-broadcast The Lavender List, shown on the cable channel BBC 4 last year. The latter condition will cost the corporation dear as the critically acclaimed drama would have been repeated regularly.

"As Lord Wilson always made clear throughout the period after he left office ... the 1976 list was his own work and included only those individuals he himself believed ought to be honoured."

An excellent drama which I enjoyed watching but how silly of the BBC to suggest a Prime Minister would award peerages on the say-so of an advisor and that the reason a couple of old fraudsters were ennobled was for anything less than the most honourable reasons. Of course it will be the licence payer who pays for their slip up.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:20 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 3, 2007

Gordon's Balls Retract

Brown aide’s claim on tax grab is completely untrue, says CBI-Business-Money-Pensions-TimesOnline
(Image stolen from Guido)

Gordon Brown has become embroiled in an unprecedented row with business leaders who effectively accused the Government yesterday of trying to lie its way out of the pensions furore.

As the Chancellor maintained his silence on the issue, the Confederation of British Industry went on the offensive, saying it was “completely untrue” that it had ever supported the hugely controversial £5 bil-lion-a-year tax raid on pensions in Labour’s first Budget in 1997. The extraordinary row is a blow to the Chancellor’s long-fought-for reputation as a friend of business.

Ed Balls, the Treasury Minister and close ally of Mr Brown, had to issue a statement retracting claims that he made on Saturday..

Nobody loves him, nobody wants him, will he still make it to the top?

Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Sinn Fein recognises the importance of education

Convicted IRA trio take top portfolios in Sinn Fein line-up-News-Politics-TimesOnline

Three convicted IRA members will take the majority of Sinn Fein’s ministries in Northern Ireland’s incoming power-sharing Executive next month...Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister, as well as Gerry Kelly and Conor Murphy.

Mr Kelly, 54, was convicted of the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, in which one person died and 180 were injured. In 1983 he led the Maze prison breakout by Provisional IRA prisoners, in which a prison officer died of a heart attack after being stabbed.

Mr Kelly was eventually found in the Netherlands, from where he was suspected of playing a role in the IRA’s mainland Europe campaign aimed at British Army bases.

He was extradited back to Northern Ireland and, after his release from prison, became a senior Sinn Fein member. At the time of the party’s first talks with the Government more than a decade ago, he was reportedly serving as the IRA’s “adjutant general”.

He represents North Belfast in the Assembly and has been Sinn Fein’s justice and police spokesman.

Conor Murphy, the MP for Newry and Armagh, served five years for possession of weapons and membership of the Provisional IRA. He has been tipped as a successor to Gerry Adams as party leader.

Mr McGuinness admitted to being an IRA leader at the time of Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972, and has been named as a former chief of staff of the Provisional IRA under parliamentary privilege, in books quoting senior republican sources and by senior security and government sources.

The same sources say that he, along with Mr Adams, remains a member of the IRA’s ruling “army council”

A lovely bunch, and par for the course. The interesting aspect is this:

Sinn Fein surprised Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists by choosing the education portfolio as its first choice under the d’Hondt system of distributing the Cabinet seats.

Mr McGuinness was Education Minister in the previous Executive, which was suspended in October 2002 over allegations of an IRA spy-ring at Stormont.

Mr McGuinness’s final act as Education Minister was to abolish Northern Ireland’s grammar school system

As the old Jesuit motto says: "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man."
Would you be happy to have this man in charge of the compulsory schooling of your child?

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

April 2, 2007

ABG faction grows

Pensions scandal hits Brown leadership bid-News-Politics-TimesOnline

Labour's "Anyone but Gordon" campaign gathers steam as MPs face the certainty to Labour losing under him, but I still don't believe Miliband will be rash enough to risk Labour losing under himself, though he is testing the water as anxiously as a Islington parent bathing their baby for the first time.

Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 1, 2007

Patricia Hewitt: I'm not a sex object

Celebrity gossip: Patricia Hewitt: I'm not a sex object - Now Magazine - for celebrity gossip, fashion & beauty secrets, recipes, diets, health, travel, blogs, free competitions and daily horoscopes

Politician is fed up of being famous for her breasts

It must be tough being Patricia Hewitt.

The politician says she's sick of landing ministerial roles where her main task is to flash her flesh.

'There's still a world full of people out there who think there's not much more to me than the girl who can wear tiny tops,' she tells Zoo magazine.

It's a turnaround for our Pat, 59, who previously claimed she LIKED people staring at her breasts, because they divert attention away from her less impressive body parts.

'There are a hundred other parts that I feel completely insecure about and would rather no one talked about,' she says. 'So if they focus on my breasts, it's fine by me,' she said.

'My boobs have a career of their own. I just accept them as a great accessory to every outfit.'

Make up your mind love.

Christopher Booker reports the comment by Patricia Hewitt on our 15 sailors and Royal Marines who were captured by just six Iranians. "It was deplorable," pronounced our tight-lipped Health Secretary, "that the woman hostage should be shown smoking. This sends completely the wrong message to our young people."

Warning - only half of this story is true, you guess which half.