Bag's Rants: September 2006

Saturday, September 30, 2006

The next general election will be a farce.

I despair for the UK. I fear the next general election will be a farce when in reality it is going to be one of the most important in our history. If it is a farce, as I think it will be, the one after that will have the biggest turnout for decades and they will be there to choose what will, in effect, be a wartime government. Not real war not even one like these clowns bullying countries that can't stand up to us. But one where we need to pull the country together to make our society better.

I've wondered for a while now who really is stupid enough to pick up this country at the next election? Who wants to be in charge during a very unpopular reign while it takes decades to fix what has been screwed up over the last 10 years? No new initiatives, hard policies and the only credit you will get is a hundred years down the line. When the analysis has been done and Blair's legacy is fully documented as a resounding failure. The person who fixes it will be credited as a savior but unrecognised during his time.

I thought this must be why the parties are all putting in crap candidates? They don't want to win. They know the situation and know they can't fix it and remain popular. After all the policies they are putting forward is not going to get us out of this mess. Green taxes, carbon points, Trident replacement, more wasteful foreign aid. More of the same crap policies. In ten years time we will be lucky if we can afford some shiny new rifles for our remaining troops with our public sector costs and pensions issues plus Brown's borrowing debt still be paid off. We are in a big hole and all the politicians bring only spades to the rescue party. A big mistake.

At the moment it appears that no one is going to stand up, be unpopular and grasp the nettle. Come out with policies, although unpopular will be the way to bring the Great back into Britain. Repair the last decade and make us a force to be reckoned with in the world again.

So. I'm considering voting Labour next general election. Now before you click on the red X in the corner hear me out.

To be perfectly honest the party politics laughingly called democracy is not working. It doesn't work here and it looks like the US is also having similar problems. We are all voting for things we don't want because there is a lot of things we do want in the package. Why can't we have everything the way we want it? All we do is weigh up the good things against the bad in all the parties and choose which one is not the worst. It's like being asked to choose which way you will die. I don't actually want to die but I have a choice of several ways and even if I don't pick a choice will be made. Of course there is still a hard core of people who vote for Labour because they are the party of the people and Tory because they are the party that will make the rich richer. Even now when that is clearly not the case. They still vote for the name only. Even the Lib-Dems, the *cough* alternative party, is as bad. The parties are the same useless tossers with different accents and pretty similar policies with minor variances. Which boils down to persecute us till we squeal then move on to the next topic and repeat. Ad infinitum.

History shows that the cock ups are always blamed on the previous government. Hell, Blair is still trying to blame Thatcher now. Sometimes this blame is justifiable. But us, the dim witted voters always end up split over who really to blame as it is never black and white so in the end those responsible always reflect blame to everyone else. If Labour win the next election and, as it must, the shit hits the fan they will have nobody else to blame. It's already starting to crack at the seams. It will be only to easy to see who is the culprit. The life long Labour supporters will be paying for what they have done to the country. Unfortunately, so will everyone else. But, maybe, just maybe, the hard core Labour voters will also rebel and nobody will ever vote Labour again. The face of politics could change. Hopefully our way of democracy with the separate parties will die and a new, more representative, way be implemented.

When we come to the next general election. My current plan is simple. If there is no party with the balls to grasp the nettle or the current regime has not spiraled into chaos then I'm going to vote for anarchy. I'll vote BNP or similar, if they stand, and if not, Labour out of the big three. I believe either way will lead to a major change in politics in the UK. The BNP will stir up their issues, get issued aired in a non PC way under parliament privilege. Labour, because nothing is screwed up enough that it's can't be fiddled with by politicians. Only this time it will lead to a breakdown in our society. Either way I would hate to be an immigrant into this country when it blows. These unfortunates are going to get the backlash from a people hyped up on fear.

Once the place settles down and people can see what has happened and gather together the evidence, maybe, just maybe we will use the extradition rule, if it's sorted, with the US to bring Blair back on charges of treason. We can use the Parliament Act to rush through the restoration of the Death Penalty for treason. That's one party political broadcast that would break all viewing records. Even the whingy whiney blood sports opponents would watch it. After all no animals will he injured and the guilt is clear to all.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Oh Goody. New crime fighting proposal.

Well looks like we have a new crime fighting proposal that will bring the crime statistic tumbling down to a new low. Read here.

Politicians really are a useless waste of oxygen. If they think that giving police the power to fine people for almost any reason will bring benefits then they have to be really insane.

Jeez, even now I'm looking at my next door neighbour, the one who I think bubbled me to the council for the hosepipe ban, and considering at £100 investment in revenge. No criminal record. Sounds good to me. Saves me having to pay Igor, the half mad muscle bound criminal up the road, to beat him up for me. As I live near Liverpool Igor charges a flat £100 anyway. A hit, I believe, is £5K, although at that price it must be an undercover policeman again.

Anyway, crap idea, the removal of the criminal conviction means that nobody is going to appeal so it's a masterstroke. £100 or potential for a lot more, a criminal conviction and another visit from the same copper upset you called him a liar. American Express? That will do nicely. Of course this could be a way to give our police chums more money without having to pay more from the central purse. These politicians are looking at saving us some money. Unless you meet one of them yourself of course. Plus, lower crime figures so the politicians get some good news as well. So to them this is another win win situation.

This surely must count as an admission of failure. Maybe not to our politicians but to everyone with a brain.

Career politicians are born not made.

Career politicians are born not made. It's the only way we can explain the sudden surge of totally useless politicians all over the place. People who have never held a decent job in the marketplace, have no idea about anything except politics and yet seem to aspire to be our masters. It seems that people that do know what they are doing don't seem to want to enter politics. Only those with a inflated sense of self worth go into it voluntarily. In the olden days they died at a young age when they got the crap beaten out of them or the poorer ones went into marketing or public service. The richer ones just leeched off their rich parents until they died and then lived off the money until they died. Society nowadays dilutes the gene pool by keeping these people alive so they can enter politics, if their self worth is off the scale and they can lie well enough, or the public sector if they can't.

It also seems like every career politician knows what to do from day one. Very few silly mistakes lately. It seems like they have a manual with all the tricks in. So there must be a course or something. I can imagine the blurb now;

How to be a Politician

Contains;

How to lie like a professional politician - Convince yourself it is the truth.
Public speaking - How to talk for ten minutes and not say anything.
Avoiding direct questions - Off on a tangent.
How to ignore facts - Don't learn any.
How to stay the right side of the law - Don't document anything.
Covering your arse - It's always someone else's fault.
Accountancy for politicians - 1+1 does not always come to 2.
How to get on - It only takes one slip up, Ass kissing for go getters.
Who to suck up to - Recognise the right buttocks to grip.
How to blame someone else - Five easy steps for a fall guy.
How to get the public on your side - It's all in the smile and posture.
How to appear sincere - Three easy tricks you could learn in an hour.
How to pretend to like people - No need to change they will want to like you.
These and more will be at your fingertips and be ready for your climb to power.

Entry level requirements are no soul, no conscience, little common sense, little knowledge, an inflated opinion of yourself and a natural ability to lie.

Soon you too could be out there earning money for nothing. No skills required. It's like being self employed but without the risk. Not getting paid enough, vote yourself a raise. You don't even have to turn up to claim your salary. Perks include parties at rich business men's homes, free travel, free holiday accommodation and more days off than you can count. Get away with most crimes and get protection by the UK's finest. Safe working environment with unlimited potential for abuse.

Brought to you by the same company that trains door to door salesmen and car salesmen.
Fees £7,500 + VAT. Money refunded on receipt of a peerage.
Cashback available on every training course of more than twenty people set up by you in your government role.

Alternative courses:
'How to make it in local government'. Entry level is no soul or conscience.
'How to be PM'. Entry level, 'How to be a Politician', married,children and messiah complex.
'How to be a Chief Constable'. Entry level any two O levels or GCSE's. No police experience and H&S experience preferred.

Servants of the people. Don't make me laugh.

It looks like although Scotland has not really been doing the government game all that long they still seem to know all the tricks. They are holding back information that would help voters decide on what a useless bunch they have in power at the moment. Read here on a what is going on in Scotland.

Seems like they to have a different meaning for the word democracy and servants of the people than everyone else. Must be modern day politicians. It's almost like they don't care what we think. Let's protect our jobs and not let the voters know what we are up to. They will not like it and we have elections coming up soon. Let's leave the bad news until we have been re-elected.

Now the cat's out of the bag there is bound to be a leak. With a bit of luck the people who have made these decisions will find that people don't really like being kept in the dark and fed bull. Could they get the punishment in Scotland that seems to avoid these lying and useless politicians in England?

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Statistics and the real world.

Reading this article about 'Fears over road casualty figures'. It seems that there are discrepancies between the figures in A&E and those reported to the police. Of course the police ones are the publicised ones and the ones the targets are set on. Don't actually see what there is to be afraid of though. Where is the fear coming from? We will never know.

Now I remember this was mentioned not too long ago but I can't find it so it looks like I didn't comment at the time.

Anyway, my thoughts were there is a very simple reasons for this discrepancy.

Nobody want the police involved in their business any more. All they will do is question everybody, ticket everything and people will get hit with £100 fines plus three points on top of their accident costs for stupidity. So only serious accidents or clear cut accidents get logged and recorded.

So it's win win. The police figures show accidents are coming down as per target. Yippee! The poor punter is not down £100 or so and three points for a mistake and still gets his treatment. The government is happy. Another target met, on paper anyway, and can be publicised. Most of the stats are rubbish anyway so what difference does this one make?

Personally, I don't see the problem but I'm sure there will be a law coming out of this somewhere.

So size does matter.

That is a bit of a blow.

The size of your fingers can indicate how good you are at certain things. Finger length is fixed at birth and defined by your genes. So far, in men it is linked to cognitive ability, aggression, sperm count and risk of heart attacks and with women it is linked to sporting ability and fertility. Read here and here.

Not as bad as I thought then.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Why career politicians always make daft choices.

Yet again. It seems like a politician with no experience, in the area he is responsible for, is making strange policy decisions that will impact on millions of people, cost a fortune and without any certainty his goal will be reached. Standard stuff really. Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, is "seriously considering" raising the compulsory education leaving age from 16 to 18 and having schools open on Saturdays. Read here. He also approves the opening of a 24 Hour school. Read here. Although this doesn't look like part of his policy. Yet!

As Frank Chalk points out very neatly. It's not really the best solution. Read here. Nor is it a solution IMO. Why would allowing kids to go to school when it suits them make them learn any better when they clearly have no interest at all now? At least at the moment you can tell who is skiving because all the kids who are learning are in school. You won't with the proposed method. More parents are going to have difficulty keeping track of their kids. In particular the ones whose kids don't want to go but the parents ensure they do currently will lose track. 'Where are you off to at two in the morning?' 'I'm going to school, Mum' while he goes out with his mates visiting people houses while they sleep. There will be a lot more skiving as they find out how easy it is especially with their mates encouraging them and it will become apparent quickly nobody can do anything about it. How are parents expected to keep track especially as a particular teachers skillset will mean that lessons can only be at particular times due to working time directives? The scheduling alone will be a nightmare. Jeremy's physics is at 07:30 but he can't do biology until 16:30. He can go home during the day. Yippee! Unfortunately his mates are doing Chemistry at 14:00. So he'll be bored and go shoplifting instead with his new mates. His new mates who have plenty of free time during the day as their work, advanced additions, using more than 1 digit, being at 18:30. That will go down well. How do we fit the ASBO curfews in when school times need to be considered? Sorry, John can't have a curfew at 19:00 as his stage two ethics classes are at 20:00. Unless of course we double or triple up on all skills and have class sizes of five or so. Who wants to pay for all that so a few dossers who can't be bothered have the world revolve around them. It's not cost effective. Better paying the dole for the hard core 20,000 dossers than spending a hundred times that in an attempt to educate them. Screw them if they can't be bothered. Most will end up in the nick anyway.

Politicians lately seem to react in a way that indicates they are not getting good advice. We pay a lot so that doesn't happen. Unfortunately, career politicians make their decisions based on criteria that is best for them not the public and, it seems, contrary to advice given to them by real experts. This enables them to do something to fix the problem in a fanfare of publicity so they can move on to the next step in their career in another area where they don't have any experience either. We have to put up with the botch up and later have to pay yet again to put it right. In the meantime, in this case, we end up with another generation of kids who are barely literate and with limited skillsets.

We seem to have this level of expertise in every government department at the moment. Does anyone know what they are doing? Even the non policy politicians seem not to be able to get anything right.

It's the politicians dilemma in action. We should really get rid of career politicians and get people that know what they are doing involved in politics. After all politicians only skills appear to be smiling, avoiding questions and lying. Our schools are churning out people with only those skills now. Jeez, unless we act we will have more useless people running for government.

Once we have sorted the politicians then we can move to individual areas and get skilled people in there as well. Without the politicians to help them we can get rid of the DH managers responsible for clinical issues who's sole skills are statistics. Police chiefs who's skills are in zoology or whatever. The list is endless. It's all jobs for the boys and it is currently screwing up everything just a little bit more than our politicians leave it. No initiative, no matter what state it is in, will be left without someone else sticking their oar into it and screwing it up that little bit more. Then on down to the next person in the chain. By the time it gets to us it doesn't work, it's plain it's crap and yet no one seems to take responsibility.

Why don't people in other careers enter politics after a lifetime, or a few decades of work in their fields? The experience they have would be immeasurable to the country. I would imagine that to make certain jobs, such as Chief Constable, etc. elected would be a good start. There must be something that could be done to encourage more of this sort of responsibility.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

What is going on with our police?

Now I think they need to be careful when they are planning these raids and deciding on how to go about it. A no knock raid or an ordinary arrest and search. Where the info came from should obviously be in the mix.

But to have to clear it with members of the public first. Something is far wrong. Read more here.

I know they need to do better after the fiascos all the way through the year. They need to get their act together but this is not it. It is a travesty that one section of the community gets preferential treatment especially as they are known to be intolerant and actually comprise 95% of the types of people we are looking for. This should get them special treatment all right. More scrutiny not hand holding.

Whoever agreed this needs to lose their job. Some CC with a sociology degree or something being all touchy feely. He should have been a social worker not a copper.

Bring back the Sweeney.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Cherie gets the timing wrong.

All the fuss about Cherie walking out when Brown was giving his speech and saying 'It was a lie' Read more here.

I think the issue is one of timing. Brown was talking about all the benefits that the Labour leadership had brought to the country and how well Britain was doing and then Cherie thought 'I'm out of here. He is a lying b4$^4&d'. Then by the time she had picked up her handbag and checked her makeup, does she use any?, Brown was on to his partnership part of the speech. Making it look like that was the reason.

Although to be honest it was a little lie compared to the big whoppers that Blair has told. I can't imagine him being any different at home. I bet he lies to Cherie while he is doing her. To get her all excited he tells her about the lies he has sold to the public today.

Now I think about it the reason that the pots are empty for all the parties is they all have 'lie boxes' proceeds going to charity. Charities are making a mint.

Although this has made me think about something else. Cherie is a lawyer. Isn't there a law saying that if she knows about a crime she must report it? How much does she know about what goes on in the government decision making process? Can she be prosecuted for keeping quiet about what she knows about our 45 minute launch and the rendition for starters? Jeez, she is a human rights lawyer. Talk about sleeping with the enemy.

The gloves come off.

Looks like instead of pussyfooting around Blair has refused to support Brown in his hour of need. Read more here. Maybe Brown will also take off the gloves and push for our glorious leaders demise sooner rather than later.

Fingers crossed.

We need a couple of new sections in the police force.

I was reading this article where the police are investigating the Hammond crash, Cherie Blairs almost slap, a badly sited garden gnome, revving with intent and a million and one other 'serious' crimes. There is a traffic division, a serious crimes division and a murder division. Having to do all the rest means the general police don't seem to have time to investigate the ones that are slightly more difficult you know robberies, stabbings and muggings. The ones where the leave a car outside a jewellers as a deterrent rather than setting up a watch to catch them. They should be relabeled the trivial crimes division. Promotions for these easy crimes should be more difficult plus the pay and conditions should be less. What is the risk of an attack from an old guy over his garden gnome?

Then what we need is a minor crimes squad. Which will in reality be our main police force. They can concentrate on the ones which our old forces seemed to do by default. Burglaries, muggings and the million and one other things that are not being done at the moment because it's easier, and safer, to arrest someone for revving their car engine.

The police have a hard enough time as it is. They are still, generally, respected but that respect is being lost due to the way it is operating due to bad management. Couple that with the travesties further down the chain where criminals get off with a slap on the wrist, if you can hit them, and the public sees justice is not being done. It just encourages like behavior. Crime and Punishment, without the punishment. Justice needs to be done and seen to be done to be effective. It's not rocket science and it's not happening now.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

What is going on with British Justice? With Britain?

We have a guy charged with revving an engine in a racial manner. Convicted of a breach of the peace. Read here.

We have a guy convicted of shouting something but only he really knows what. The witness thought it was "Sieg Heil" but is not really sure. Read here.

We have a guy persecuted over a garden gnome. Read here.

Man goes to court. Is cleared of all charges yet still gets a control order put on him. Read here.

A boy is forced into a river where he drowns. The soldiers who did it were acquitted. Read here.

A man is shot eight times in a crowded tube station. CCTV covers the area. There are several police men witnessing the attack plus at least a dozen members of the public. Forensics are able to identify the weapon used and who pulled the trigger. Several of those involved have perjured themselves to cover up. There is no doubt what happened at any stage in the event. The culprits are given holidays and promoted. Read here.

In the meantime the management in the police are looking at charging us for being arrested, loading costs on the prosecution so that it is a risk to plead not guilty. They are looking at getting powers for summary justice. That won't go away. Shoplifters won't go to prison unless they are really bad. If they only take low value items they won't even get punished. Burglars are the same. No nights in the cells for them. They can't afford it. Criminals who stab someone are not even investigated.

I think we are likely to see a lot more of these attacks on police and our confidence in them must be going down faster than labours bank balance. Personally I think that they have the very dirty end of the stick but when they actually persecute these cases it makes you wonder. As I said before a few bad apples and we need to purge them so the bulk of the coppers can get on with the real job.

In the meantime the fine for putting the wrong item in a bin is £1,000, not having a bell on your bike £2,500 yet you rob someone £50. Beat them up £150. No insurance £150. Who makes these up? Victimless crimes have the biggest fines. Is this really seen as justice?

What is going on with out justice system? Actually, thinking about it everything is screwed up. Justice, education, health care, foreign policy, pensions, social services, ..... is anything working? How can one man have screwed our entire country in ten short years?

If we are looking for justification to bring back the death penalty for treason this must be it. This must class as treason of the highest order. Let's all go for a walk down to tower bridge to watch.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

A very expensive hotel you can't refuse.

Seems that the police want to charge £200 for a night in the cells. Read more here.

What a brilliant idea. They walk out and find someone breathing in a racist manner. Bang him in the cells for two nights and then when he is convicted on the say so of one person who thought something not only does he get a fine he also gets a hotel bill.

I can see it now. 'Base to all PCs out and about. We still have a couple of spare cells. Let's make sure we don't leave them that way. There must be someone out there smoking or something. '

They would hardly have an incentive to process people quickly. The would be encouraged to delay a little to ensure they spent the maximum time in the cells. Joe the burglar, with no money, will be in and out so quick he wouldn't leave any DNA but Bob the builder, with a nice house and job, will be in for a week for looking at a traffic warden the wrong way.

I would imagine with the current bunch of tossers we have in change even if they are found not guilty they will still have to cough up the £200. After all they partook of the bed and breakfast facilities, were waited on hand and foot and were arrested for something.

What the hell is going on?

Remind me how this works.

I work for nobody and rely on people giving me money. In effect charity. This money needs to be declared because people can't be trusted. I set up a fiddle where it is a loan not a payment so I don't have to declare them. I repay them with favours and not cash. In effect I am fiddling the system. It is actually illegal. I'm found out. I look at setting up a system where I am paid directly from the taxpayer to stop me being put in a difficult situation. We all know I'll find a way around the new rules because they will be too strict for what I want. I'm also under investigation by the police but carry on as if nothing is wrong. I've a mole in the reporting structure so I can get my story straight.

Huh! How can I get some of this? It's like being in Italy except they speak English. If this was an individual or any company executive we would be looking at jail time. No doubt.

Just watched Paxman where it is talking about the funding. I particularly liked the wording that funding would be limited to extremist parties. Cool, that could mean that Labour, Tories and Lib Dems get their noses in the trough but the up and coming UKIP and the BNP are excluded because our current government classes them as extremist. What a bunch. No wonder people are disillusioned with politics. It should be all or nothing but they know if that is the case then other parties will start up and reduce the top threes stranglehold.

Simple mathematics. If people want to see a political party they fund it. If not then people obviously don't want that party simple as that. That is why all the main parties are in financial difficulty. Membership is down and looks like getting worse. If the party overspends then it goes out of business just like me as an individual or any other company or charity. Our political parties books must make interesting reading. Can't wait to see the Coop repossessing Labour HQ. I have an account with the Coop. I think I'll write in and make my view plain.

If they come out with a few proposals and put them out to referendum I bet they would get a better turn out for that than a normal election.

Is there anywhere else that someone in a position of power can skim funds from the taxpayer to fund something that nobody wants. Perhaps a third world country, but not the UK. I think the whole system has been shown to be unworkable. As I've said before with modern technology we can set up a system where we don't need political parties and can run the country with it's citizens making the decisions.

It's about time our political class was made extinct. One way or the other. I'm easy. Their time has been and gone. The country has moved on. The world moves on. And they do not deserve to come along with us.

Friday, September 22, 2006

A gang of thugs beating up two coppers.

Go and have a look at this on The Coppers Blog.

Err. Wrong way you stupid do gooders.

I was reading this about the proposal to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10, where it is now, to 14. Read more here. What the...

Now I don't know where you live but I've lost count of the number of times I've read in the local rag that youths, 9, 8 and so on have done this and that, all criminal activities, been nicked but due to their young age nothing can be done. They just get kicked out and back home laughing.

They should be lowering the ago of criminal responsibility to 8. With modifications so kids don't get banged up for five years, at least until they have amassed a couple of criminal convictions. Give them a different points rating. Make them go to a boarding type school in what would be a custodial sentence. What some undoubtedly need is a good shock whilst they are young enough to learn from it. Perhaps their parents having their benefits reduced because Colin does not live there while he is at first stop day ~~prison~~special school for a few weeks will hit home. The school where he is taught English, maths and some morals. Pass means you get out.

Who are these stupid do gooders in the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. One word there is Justice. Just been concentrating on the crime part and think it is harsh on the 10 year old? Do any of them have kids?

Oh! Can we find out where they live? I know a couple of 9 year olds that would love a free ride.

Leveling the playing field.

Looks like the tide may have turned. A white man has been awarded damages in a +ve discrimination case. He was deselected because the police force was looking to recruit more minority members. Read more here.

We will see a lot more of these in the future. Looks like our PCness is now waning. Couldn't be soon enough. Let's get these do gooders out of positions of power. That means the right person for the job will get it and no fiddling the figures. Massive change in recruitment policy for our government.

On an aside, I wonder what that means for the political parties all looking to increase their percentages of minorities. Now going to have to look at those that are better qualified.

On the downside it the poor taxpayer that gets hit with the compensation claims. Bugger.

Nevertheless Matt Powell needs to be remembered. Good luck with the job hunting Matt. Wonder if there are any jobs going for him at the Gloucestershire police force.

London prepared but rest of UK left with no idea.

I was looking at the website London Prepared. To be honest the link from the BBC took me to a site that left a lot to be desired. Look here. It was being revamped for release so this article was obviously a media pre release. But it should be up by now.

So based on the data we have in the article it would appear we have a one stop shop for Londoners. With data on all aspects of disasters and what to do. Excellent but it did make me think about the rest of the UK. Why don't we have one for my area. When the IRA were blowing things up it was not just London. London may be the prime target but let's face it they ain't going after the *cough* leadership. They are after civilians and civilians where I live are actually more vulnerable because we are not in a siege mentality.

One real attack, killing much less than the number killed by the IRA and we appear to have foiled a couple more. Yet we have changed our entire society to cater for this. So much undone in so little time. So much spent and so much wasted.

She must be a politician.

Reading this article about stabbings in the UK on the increase. Read here.

Besides the usual thoughts about how we are much safer, blah de blah I was just going on to the next article when I was intrigued by this quote from the article.

'Maralyn Woodford of the UK Trauma Audit and Research Network said: "There has been a significant increase in stabbing injuries since 2001. But it has remained at that 2001 level. There has not been a year on year increase since then in the UK."'

So, significant increase since 2001 but at the same time has remained at the 2001 level, which means no increase. So she confirms no increase by saying there has not been a year on year increase. Of course the last bit could mean one year it stayed static. The title of the article is 'Stabbings 'are on the increase' Gives you a certain view.

Let's see the numbers in these articles. That way we can add and subtract and make up our own minds.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

War criminals.

Interesting piece on the Geneva convention over at HotAir. It's talking about how little the Geneva convention applied to TWOT.

In it she makes the point that the Geneva convention applies to countries fighting and that Al Queda has not signed up to the Geneva convention anyway. Similar to what I've been saying for a while. But then of course we differ. She wants to remove all rights for terrorists because they are war criminals. But they are only war criminals in the eyes of the Geneva convention which we have agreed does not apply to them.

This unfortunately is the shape of what is to come. The bad guys know they can't face us according to rules we have made up to fit our advantage. Their advantage is the sneak attack, ability to hide, the fear and the response of our population to what is seen as us not following the rules we set up. Plus we can't really stop them. Anyone going against a modern army is going to get chopped into little bits. How stupid do we think these guys are? We have decided that you need to wear a uniform and stand up to be shot at. Whooosh. Maverick lands on top of you. No risk to us. This is how we like our wars. This war is going well. These guys know that doesn't work, after Vietnam, everyone, except our leaders, knows what works against us. How can you think they won't use it because of rules they have not signed up to nor were party to drafting?

I think that we need to go the other way from what is proposed. If they are not a country they are not at war as per our definition, let's ignore our War on Drugs etc. for this argument. If they are not at war they are simple criminals and should be subject to our existing laws. If they are not sufficient then we need to make new ones via our legal process. Proper ones not our knee jerk ones. They should not be treated any differently than any common murderer or given any extra privileges due to the Geneva convention. After all no matter how inhumane some of our murderers are we don't torture them or deny them basic rights.

Perhaps we need a Geneva II for this situation. A definition of what countries can and can't do. That way everyone is clear and this could, if necessary, define exactly what can be used on these guys and what can't. What rules we can follow and what criteria is needed to define them as terrorists. After all, in the UK, it looks like having car filler and photos of the Tower make you one here. Although, to be honest, that is a bit of overkill.

Isn't it funny though that the IRA acted in the UK for decades and we didn't treat them any differently. They were funded by the US as well which gives an interesting twist. Yet, we still had rights, trampled now, and they were treated as common criminals. What is wrong with that?

I think it boils down to one thing. We can't punish them. They die in the attacks. We can't bring them to justice so we don't get closure. Crime, punishment. It's as simple as that. They are beyond our justice system and we can't do anything about it. In our frustration we lash out irrationally.

They are no different from common criminals. They need to be treated as such. We still need to treat them as human even when they don't act like it to retain our own humanity.

Would you do it?

One thing I've always tried to do is think of what it would mean if I was in that situation. Think of yourself at the other side of the argument.

Now here we have the government, yet again, asking muslims to help root out extremists. He is asking muslims to turn their children in to the authorities if they suspect they are being influenced by extremists. Read more here.

I've thought about this. It all sounds so good to these guys. They expect us to spy on our own and turn them in. Brings back memories of Russia and Germany doesn't it. Both of them being ideal societies. Children turning their parents in, neighbours turning neighbours in. Of course our leaders would turn in their kids. Can you imagine Blair or Jack Straw turning in their kids for crimes? Cover up for them maybe but turn them in? No way.

Now, imagine you are a muslim. Your kid, a good lad at school or work, prays a lot, follows your religious path, doesn't steal, take drugs or drink. But you discover him talking to Abu Baba (or something) a person you think is an extremist because of the way he talks about Blair being a war criminal. Your son then becomes a bit more outspoken about the UKs role in the middle east, war crimes and the amount of people killed in TWOT. You think that he may be involved in similar discussion with Abu Baba and others. This I believe is radicalising people.

Now what do you do;
1) Turn your kid in to the authorities who will, at the very least, imprison him for a month. Raid his home and all his friends. Potential use interrogation techniques such as those approved by Bush recently. He could even die in custody. He could go away for life.
2) Have a word with him yourself. Try and find out what he is up to. You could always turn him in later. You may be able to talk him out of it.
3) Ignore it. He is a good son and wouldn't do anything bad anyway. In a way you actually believe that what he is doing is right.

So, what would you do if it was your son? Now what about other crimes? Your son has a bit of weed. He even has a Polish potato and wired an extension to the garage. The b4$^4&d. Have you turned him in yet?

I can assure you that it would take a lot for me and it would have to be something really serious to turn in a member of my family to our justice system. Never mind the bunch of sadists we must have now in our security services. I could never see me turning in someone to them. The laughable part is I consider myself extremely law abiding. Of course I am probably breaking the law at the moment because, to be honest, I only have heard about 100 of Blairs latest 3000 laws. For all I know the Smith & Wesson I have in the kitchen drawer is now illegal. Hell, the spoon I have in the kitchen drawer is probably illegal now.

Now when you thing about it to read half the blogs they are calling Blair a war criminal, discussion TWOT and the number of people killed. They are involved in similar discussions with others, some more extreme that are calling for Blairs death. Are we actually going to kill anyone? But thinking about it, I'm dobbing in TheDevil. He meets all the criteria. He is influencing people. Don't forget 95% or terrorists are muslims. He could be one of the 5%. And he is from Scotland. One of the most violent places on the planet. What more needs to be said?

It's a good plan to get muslims fighting among themselves. Unfortunately, these people are not labour politicians so it is not going to work. Their culture, in the UK, doesn't really seem to let them stab each other in the back figuratively speaking. All it will do will be to isolate them further when in reality we want them to integrate more. Maybe that actually is the plan. Isolate them then legislate them away. This will only lead to bloodshed.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Setting a limit on migrants. How will that help?

How exactly does a country in the EU put a limit on migration from other EU states? I know our government have not defined how they will do it but they do make the statement it cannot continue as before and imply limits will be set. Read here.

Now I thought the whole point of a EU superstate was to emulate the US model including areas like mobility. The EU was supposed to be similar to the US with all the shared infrastructure, labour moving to where it is required and the richer parts helping the poor. Was that not what we were told? So how can our EU lords and masters set up a continental superstate when barriers are in place? What is to stop these people migrating to France first then into the UK from there?

Anyway, surely our concerns are not really about workers coming in but the number coming in to claim social security. So you would think we can just set a limit on who can claim benefits and our issues will be solved. As a matter of fact if our EU master have their way it won't be long before we are funding them in Bulgaria or wherever from the UK without them actually having to move in. So in the medium term it will be irrelevant where they are now. If Bulgaria has 95% unemployment and we don't our taxes will undoubtedly increase to fund their social security.

So bottom line it doesn't really matter what our government does to stem this tide. Like the tide it will continue to grow until we are swamped. It's just another reaction to shut us up for a while.

Another socialist nightmare about to start. I'm still living the last few. Will it never end.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

How much longer can we ignore this?

After the Pope gave his speech about the muslims there was a little bit of a kerfuffle. Muslims complained that theirs was a religion of peace and should not be slighted. Or else. Made sense to me.

So anyway I was reading this article where it only once mentions beheadings. Clearly moderates were involved in writing this. Just the odd billion hot heads letting off a little steam and trying to convert us peacefully. Nothing to worry about at all and let's not be predudiced.

As our US chums keep on saying 'Wake up and smell the coffee'. These guys are not peaceful nor do they fit into our way of life at all. They have made their aims clear and our politicians just ignore it.

As for the exact process that they will use to subdue us. Read this article by a former Governor of Colorado. In case you are wondering we are well down this path in the UK and the US. Although having been disarmed we in the UK are obviously in a much weaker situation and will be subdued a hell of a lot quicker once it turns violent. Which is clearly a better choice in the EU countries than gradual conversion. The tipping point is much earlier with an unarmed populace.

Never mind global warming, our dependence on oil, low growth, high taxes and our corrupt politicians. Our priorities will change rather rapidly once we are under the shroud of a Caliphate.

How long can we go on ignoring this threat? It really would be the end of civilisation as we know it.

Chip and PIN working.

Well the Chip and PIN part seems to be. I've just had a letter from the fraud department of one of my credit cards. Fell through the door this morning dated 11-September. Suspicious activity on the account and could I ring up. So I did.

Seems that there have been three withdrawals of cash from my account this month. One on the 9th for £500 and two on the 10th for £200 each. Total of £900 plus cash withdrawal charges.

Must have been someone with your card and PIN. My heart sank. I don't keep things locked away from the kids and of course this means their friends as well. In reality anyone could have taken it and used it. But the PIN, how did that get found out? Some cards which I have never used still have the PIN in their little wrappers. I looked for the card and couldn't see it. I could have had it and a PIN wrapper nicked. So let's get some details on when to narrow it down.

As well as the cash withdrawals, which were from a bank at the other side of Chester, there was no other activity on the card. However, the branch used for all the withdrawals should have CCTV on the ATMs a bit of good news. Then it went surreal. On the 2nd of this month someone rang up, identified themselves with my DOB and mothers maiden name. They then changes the address for my account. On the 4th they rang again and ordered a new card and PIN. Card arrived on the 8th and was verified on the 9th. The first set of transactions took place 9th and 10th, then the card was stopped because of unusual activity. Smart computer not so sure about the processes though. The cheeky b4$^4&ds even made a phone call asking why the card was stopped, forgot to note the date, although they could not supply other info besides DOB and mothers maiden name.

How many times do you get a call from your bank asking for your DOB and your mothers maiden name? Is it always your bank? I suspect that is how they got mine although I'm usually a bit of a pain about giving information out. But let's face it facts like DOB and maiden names are always easy to come by. Soon they will all be in a super duper new computer system for one thing.

In the meantime I found my card and the, unopened, PIN number envelope.

So I had to phone the police and report the crime. Get a reference number. All the details were recorded. Now I have to write to the card issuer with all the facts and they will start the investigation. They have an address, phone number, should have some CCTV so that sounds like a good start.

The Chip and PIN worked perfectly though. They couldn't withdraw the money without having the right PIN number and the right card.

Massively worth it. Afghanistan?

Seems that we have finally admitted that the threat from the Taleban in Afghanistan has been underestimated. Their tenacity in the face of heavy losses has been a surprise. A surprise mainly to the guys sending in our poor troops. Read more here.

The article also mentions that the government is losing patience with the failure of NATO to find extra troops to bolster those already in Helmand. They at least have sense and I wonder how many now are actually considering their membership of NATO as a liability at the moment. Being used as cannon fodder by Bush.

I was also intrigued by the phrase 'massively worth it'. What does that mean? We will get back the billions we have spent on killing foreigners? We will get back the billions we have spent on reconstruction? Things we actually blew up ourselves. Will we get back our reputation? My understanding is that Afghanistan, even before we turned it into a hell hole, has always been one of the worst places on this planet to live. There are no natural resources and they only get by because poppies grow there and the inhabitants are meaner than a rattlesnake that has been stepped on. And that is before you annoy them. Just ask the Russians. Even then the Afghans were into killing in surprise attacks and cutting Russians prisoners heads off. Of course then we didn't like the Russians so we were pleased when they had their asses kicked and heads removed from screaming prisoners. Now we are realising that it wasn't because we supplied them with weapons, training and intelligence it is because they are some of the best fighters on the planet and they are willing to die by the truckful to get one of their enemies, which now includes us. Now, even if we nuked the place and left nothing alive. Didn't bother with infrastructure what is there that would be worth it, never mind massively?

One thing that has been proposed is that taking on the Taliban in Afghanistan means that they won't join the others fighting in Iraq. But wasn't Iraq supposed to be the battleground? We have fallen for the tactics that defeated many an army in the past. We have divided our forces. Does divide and conquer mean anything? Plus when you take on people in their own country they are more inclined to be helped by the local population, hell, they are the local population. They know the land, their supply lines are short and they are aided by people we can't, officially, shoot at. Wouldn't we prefer them in Iraq? These guys have so much fight in them they even fight amongst themselves over the drugs profits.

So, exacts what does 'massively worth it' mean? Nothing I can see is worth the lives of our troops.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Injustice in the UK again.

There seems to be a lot of blokes accused of rape lately who appear to be innocent. Even when four people give evidence the word of the woman is always believed over the men. Lucky for these guys one of them thought to record the slapper. Read more here.

I've said before that we all need to video our sexual encounters. It's the only way we are ever going to be believed. It's not just because I'm a pervert. Honest!

In addition I have been reading the articles in other blogs about the guys who have had cases overturned. Read one at DKs here. Now what I don't understand is that they say the liars involved can't be named. Why exactly is that? I can understand that they can't name them as the victim in the rape case but surely they can be named in the new case. You know, the one about wasting police time, perjury or whatever.

One thing is certain. If that was me just let out of jail when I was falsely accused I wouldn't just be picking up my life and ignoring the situation.

Interestingly enough I don't see our wonderful leaders jumping on the bandwagon here. No knee jerk about naming the women or changing the rules or even, god forbid, a new law. Oh wait. It's white and it's male. Of course nothing will be done.

Stating the obvious.

Seems like a politician has stated that they lied to win the last election. Read more here about the Hungarian prime minister. The also said water ran downhill in shock revelation.

People have asked for his resignation but I think that this guy is showing a bit of honesty that none of the others has ever had the guts to. They all lie to win elections but even when shown the truth they use smoke and mirrors to spin their way out of admitting it.

Interesting Islamic Site.

On my travels around the web yesterday I came across this site which takes the preachings of Muhammad and lays them out and examines each one. The site is called Prophet of Doom. Go and have a browse.

One of the most interesting things that has come out, since 911 really, is that no matter what is said and done the religion of peace always responds, not with reason or discussion, but with violence. There seems to be no logic behind what they preach that can be explained only believe or die. In my experiences through life I've found that only those that can't justify what they say have to resort to shouting and then bullying. So when people refuse to discuss things I know they are on shaky ground and don't want to discuss something because they know it will not stand up under examination. Islam is clearly one of those things.

I actually work alongside some muslims. Except for the requirement to pray at certain times of the day you wouldn't know any difference between us. They are all hard working, articulate and, seemingly, easy going. Of course I can't really test that by asking or commenting on their religion as no matter what happened it would be my fault. Such is the way of employment rules in this PC world nowadays. I don't know any well enough to take the chance. Our local lady muslims seem to support this religion as well but safely, from the UK and US, where they are rarely forced to wear a burka or take a forced marriage and can do what they want. From this position of safety we even have women defending their prophet and telling us we misunderstand this religion. Sounds like we need more of these in our feminist battalions. Bring them down from the inside.

One thing that the site also discusses is how Islam is responsible for 95% of the world's terrorism and that Islamic countries are by far the worst places to live on earth by any rational standard. Yet they come over here for a better standard of living and then want to drag it back down to the level of where they came from. It is clearly infiltration.

Go and have a read. It's well worth a visit. Prophet of Doom.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Finally thought of something I can do.

A while ago. So long ago that I can't find it. Another blog writer put out a challenge. It wasn't to me probably but it made a point that we were just ranting about things and not doing anything. The challenge was to actually do something.

Besides, blowing up all the MPs in parliament, a task well outside my capabilities¹, I couldn't think of a single issue I felt strongly enough about that I would be willing to commit to actually do something about. I've always had a perception of what is right and wrong and other ways to look at something, imo, but have not got the skills necessary to write it down in a way that would move someone who was not open to anything outside their point of view. I just get fed up and move on. My skills are in planning and tactics not in actually doing anything.

Last week I wrote an article in our local paper in response to all the whinges about the local recycling. In it I pointed out that this was much wider than them and that these complains were all over the UK. I supplied them a couple of URLs to help them on their way and suggested they find out what was really happening in the UK. They were Burning Our Money, EU Referendum, Nanny Knows Best, Not Proud of Britain and for those that could put up with a lot of swearing The Devils Kitchen. As the URLs were quite large I don't put too many down and all, except DK, have had good articles on the recycling and the EU. I put DK down as an eye opener for devilment. I didn't link to myself because I thought it would be to pretentious. It was a one off.

So yesterday I was looking at the local rags again and on the front page of one was an article on 'Clear The Air Talks for Town' Residents views are being sought. My heart sank. Then it occurred to me what I could do to make a difference. I could write articles for our local rag and try to show our local voters, mainly Labour I'm sad to say, that there is more going on that local issues. Try to get them on the web and see what is going on all over the UK.

So in response to what I'm going to do personally. I'm going to rant in our local rag. Take local issues and link them to UK wide issues. Open a few eyes. Our local MP who has voted with the government on all the main issues from a secure base needs to feel threatened. If his base is reduced then he may not feel so confident following the leaders line.

1) You never know who is reading.

Let's see some tolerance.

Seems the apology from the pope wasn't enough for our peace loving friends. Read more here.

The pope should tell them to get lost and show some of the tolerance that the muslims claim to have. Have not seen any tolerance from them yet so there must be plenty left in the tolerance pot.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Standing up for your beliefs.

How can we compete with Islam when even our religious leaders can't make a stand?

Being a Christian must mean that you don't believe in Islam. Hell, some Christians don't believe in other Christians beliefs. I would therefore surmise that they don't believe in Islamic teaching either. Especially since we left a similar level back before the 1,000s or so.

The best bit was yet again after a few words there were riots and burnings from our peaceful protestors. Lucky none of the extremists were out.

So why does a Christian Leader have to apologise for making a couple of statements anyway? Read more on how the Pope was praised here. Still don't hear any condemnation for cutting off peoples heads though. Oh, of course, they were only infidels.

Although the islamic faith seems to be stronger than Christianity in one way. Lots of muslims are willing to take a quick ticket to the afterlife. Our Pope has a bulletproof car and clearly isn't relying on divine intervention to save him for lunatic islamics.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Our new recycling centre.

Well, we have had a new recycling centre for a while now but I've just come to use it in ernest.

First of all it's all laid out in stalls where everything has to be sorted. Big space for cars. A row of big skips where you can put wood, but no hardboard, Ooops, I should have read the list before I unloaded but accidents happen. Concrete, glass, general waste etc. all have their own bays and they all seem to have at least two bays each. Must be about 15 bays in total. On the other side, about 25 yards away across the car area, is a little bay for paint, Ooops again, fluorescent tubes, fridges, TVs, the last two lockable units, batteries etc. No tyres are allowed at all.

Looks impressive but from the very start I had a problem. You see the trailer I used was too big. I needed a permit. It's free of course but you still need to apply. I'm off today of course so should have applied a while ago. So I had to leave the trailer and pack everything into the car. Not much room for a double bed frame inside my little car. Although it did explain how I spotted a double bed dumped by the side of the road near the recycling centre. Anyway, back to the dump and in the two hundred yards of winding road from the entrance to the exit there were nine big fuc&1ng humps. The pointy ones that even if you do 2MPH over there is still a drop where everything in your car which is not tied down moves. Of course, it's not a problem because nobody drives a fully laden car to a tip especially where you can't use certain trailers.

I know that certain things are out of their control but why is it our local government can always find a way to make a bad situation worse.

I may get a visit from the Gestapo soon as I noticed everything was on CCTV and I had a bit of a discussion with one of the men *cough* helping at the dump. It also clearly said putting the wrong items in the skips meant the load was unusable. Ooops, that's two loads gone. I'll get false plates for my car in future and wear a disguise.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Security cleared elastic bands. Must be special.

Now imagine you were working on a cure for cancer. You take your handwritten notes, there are no copies, to a flight and refused to put them in the hold. What will happen to you?

a) You are arrested and held incommunicado for hours perhaps days. Your notes are removed.
b) You get these new special elastic bands that make your notes safe for flight.

Now Harry Potter 7 is clearly something special.

Surprise and shock about Canada college shooting.

Reading about a Canadian gunman going crazy in a Canadian college and killing apparently indiscriminately. Another young life wasted by a nutter. Read the story here. Nothing but surprise and shock from all. Can't understand it with all the gun control there and gun control makes everything OK and stops this sort of thing.

Now if I remember correctly it was only a few years ago that Michael Moore's film about Columbine came out and the one thing I remember from it was that Canadians had just as many guns as their US cousins but one side of a river had thousands of deaths and the other side the policeman couldn't remember the year the last gun related death occurred. Guess which side was the US and which side was Canada. Of course that was not good enough for the do gooders, and Moore, and because there were still a few shootings they had to be stopped and Canada banned guns only for them to fall into the same trap as the UK and gun crimes have now spiraled out of control there.

When will these do gooder f4c&wits ever actually consider facts over their wishful thinking. No fact that goes against their perceived wisdom is good enough for consideration or discussion. Why do they have so much power in our societies?

I keep on wishing that it is these f4c&wits families that get wasted in the resulting chaos after their decisions. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Why is that? Local council provides crap service and charges a fortune. Man goes ballistic and shoots some poor kids who have nothing to do with his issue¹. Why is that?

1) Of course not knowing why this guy shot the kids this may not be the case. But, it's a good bet they had nothing to do with him.

UK threatened by Blairs gaffe.

Might be a slightly exaggerated title. What I was reading yesterday was the issue caused by Blair breaking protocol and using pre release employment data in a political speech. Read here. There may even be an investigation.

Both sides make it sound as if it is a big deal. There was even an apology. But, let's get it into perspective with all the other things in the UK. Why do they release it to the ~~liars~~politicians early if they are not expected to use it anyway? Much too much in this country is wrapped up in secrecy, kept away from prying eyes and covered by the official secrets act. As I've said before some things need to be kept quiet others should be published for all to see. Protecting a politicians ass is not a good reason to classify something.

And it seems that the data was wrong anyway. Read here. I says in the middle that unemployment is up.

So releasing figures that are a day early is a no no. Bad, must be punished. But lying is OK and doesn't get a mention. Go figure.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

UK Justice still the best you can afford.

Seems our police are getting their knickers in a twist over people actually pleading not guilty and being found not guilty. Read more here. The b4$^4&ds.

So much so that they are loading the costs for prosecution with lawyers and useless police paperwork so much that each prosecution will cost another £4K. This means that if you please not guilty and lose your costs will now come into the thousands. So only the rich can afford to take the risk. Weigh up a £250 fine and five points against a £250 fine, five points and £4.5K costs.

This is forcing people into a situation where justice is not served. Innocent people will elect to plead guilty just in case they lose as the costs will be too high.

In addition I liked the statement 'police say they will be keeping a close eye on drivers who they think have been wrongly acquitted of crimes'. Translated that means the police will wait until there are two police officers in a car with only the driver in the other car. The police will then prosecute him for dangerous driving and he won't have a leg to stand on. Teach him to dare argue against us.

And the police wonder why they are hated so much by the public. Well to all the good coppers out there, and they outweigh the bad, it's these bad apples in your midst. A bit like we are saying that our peaceful muslims need to do something about the bad ones. The police are exactly in the same situation. The police don't do anything yet expect the muslims to because, you know, it is the right thing to do. Heal yourself physician.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

White Star's marketing team come out of retirement.

I can only be a group like that that could put a title like this on the web.

Read more here about the hijack-proof plane. There is so much wrong with something that just watches people on CCTV and claims to offer so much.

One bit of good news is that it will watch and listen to you on the loo as well. So at least you can feel happy that your entry to the mile high club can now have a memento.

All in all, a good marketing pitch but pity the lawyers who will need to put so many caveats on this that the manual will be as thick as War and Peace (The Extended Directors Cut).

Monday, September 11, 2006

The day the West changed.

I can still remember walking through the town centre and seeing the news on a TV in an electrical shop. Thought it was a film at first and it was only when it was repeating the same things on different channels that I realised it was the news and not a film. The second plane flying in was like a physical shock.

It was the day everything came home to roost and everyone discovered how others around the world felt about our policies. The west changed that day. To our shame in our search for someone to punish we caused a lot of pain and hardship to a lot of innocent people by striking out without facts at the wrong people. It's done a lot of damage to our own society and our position in the world. I believe we have left the moral high ground and gone astray in our anger. It was our leaders that shaped the retaliation and they were wrong.

However, it did bring forcibly home the threat we have been facing for some time but did not fully recognise. Even now some in the west do not see it as the threat it really is. We need to negate the threat and if that means that innocent people must die then let it be the right innocent people and not more of us. We must also recognise that we need to change as well. Our policies are motivated by self interest and we need to consider the global impact if we want the threat to be removed. I would prefer by peaceful means but if the choice is annihilation then so be it. The gloves must come off but we must do things right and follow our morals because we are a civilised society.

911 will be remembered for a long time to come. Many innocent people died that day and we must remember that they were not even the first to die in this war but the first that brought the war to everyone. We must not forget.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Democracy in the West. Hardly a good advert.

Watching the video on Michelle Malkins site, Hot Air, where it was going on about the Democrats new campaign. Watch here. Her site is usually worth a visit even if some of it, like this, is only applicable to the US. And she is worth a look just for herself.

Back to the video. It's so sad to see a similar sort of situation over there as over here. I always thought of the US and free and, although not perfect, as best as a democratic society could be. Like over here it's amazing what a few rotten apples have done with a docile population. Democracy! Like here the population have little choice. It is one extreme or the other. In the UK of course it is only one extreme now. Nobody seems to be offering a middle course or even a rational course. What is the real difference between the west with it's democracy and the middle east solution to democracy like Iran?

Surely with the technology we have we can actually get down to an individual level and allow anyone to get involved in politics. I think we still need some sort of government but we have shown how corrupted our current method is. We need a smaller government, more involvement from the population, we need accountability for those in government.

Of course it will never happen. Like all dictators our government and it's sycophants have the power and they are not letting it go. Voting once every four years or so on groups that are indistinguishable is not working. Here and in the US by the looks of things.

In Europe we also have the EU. It's sold as democratic, as it's in Europe, but in reality it's run more along the lines of Iran. A few in power are dictating to the whole of Europe and their governments. Fortunately, all are not like the UK so there is more chance of rival groups screwing it up. We can't say anything without being classed as racist but the Turks¹ and the Greeks, among others, can and I'm sure will.

I despair. Here we are enforcing democracy on others. Remember it's not WMD or terrorism now, it's been democracy, has always been democracy and removing a tyrant.

1) That's of course if they stop changing the rules on the Turks. I think they are screwing them around until Iraq is in a better position and the Kurds issue is defined. It will then be 'and you need to agree to let the Kurds have that little bit of land there'. The slippery slope.

Below the surface the little legs are going like mad.

Of course it is now agreed the Blair is going, when seems to be less of an issue. The questions now being asked are is Brown the right man? Of course he isn't. In fact none of the useless tossers in the frame are any good as they are all cut from the same cloth.

Seems that despite the call for peace and the disappearance, again, of our beloved leader on his latest *cough* peace keeping mission there is still a lot of discussion on the leadership front. Under the quiet calm of little comment the rats are scurrying around making plans and building up their positions and consolidating their supporters. Like the terrorists they are they are undermining our current government. Won't someone send them to Gitmo?

While no actual firm dates are defined it is perceived that Blair will announce his departure in May 2007. It is assumed that Brown will take over as PM while they vote internally for a new leader. However, I don't see it being that slow as the other candidates won't want Brown consolidating his position and having an internal fight that late in the game. If Blair tries to make it a voting case before he leaves or tries to retain the PM title then it will be war between him and Brown. The other candidates need to make their move now Blair has said he is going and start putting forward why they are good for the job.

I see Blair being caught in the crossfire of this Brown or anyone but Brown politicking and forced out earlier. I will, of course, be sad to see our beloved leader go so soon but if it only saves one child in Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran then it will be worth it.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Another criminal faces justice.

While we complain about the fact that burglars and thugs get off with little on no punishment we must consider that the law has limited resources. They can't clamp down on the real criminals if they are wasting their time chasing people that only want to steal things and minor crime. Things not people folks. Let's get perspective.

Read here about a real criminal being persecuted by the law.

Admit it, it makes you happy to actually see the police doing something against crime lords. This must be one of SOCAs first cases.

Blair must be pretty confident.

After the last time he left his spineless companions off leash they tried to stage a coup. He has gone away on a ~~holiday anotherpointlesstrip~~mission to the middle east on what, hopefully, will become his farewell tour. He must be feeling confident to do so. I hope it is misplaced. Read more about his first stopover here.

Maybe I should send an Email to Brown saying he is my no 1 but this shows the lack of spine and makes him not look like a confident leader. May the plotting continue.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Amazon now has digital film downloads.

Amazon have just added a digital film download to their US site where you can download films and watch them. The site is here.

Now I've not tried any main films but when I tried to download the trial. It uses an Amazon Unbox Video player which means you can only watch it on a PC. Bugger.

I thought we could download it, blow to DVD and watch it without all those boring adverts and anti piracy clips that you can't bypass. They make you yearn for the pirated copy with just the film. Oh well. Better luck next time. I'll keep my eyes open for a Unbox decrypter that allows you to put it on DVD and watch on your TV.

Our government breaking the law yet again.

Ooops. Seems our government doesn't seem to understand it's own laws. Here is the latest example of the MoD breaking employment law.

Now don't you think it is strange that our own government who generates laws at the rate of one a day doesn't even seem to understand them themselves? How many times has the Home Office been in court lately and lost?

They say ignorance of the law is no excuse. Why don't we see more of the people who perform this law breaking prosecuted and put in jail or heavily fined. If they didn't have the protection of this lack of punishment then they would be more inclined to actually stay legal. Reid wouldn't do any more control orders because he wants to make a point if he spend time arrested or even jailed for illegal imprisonment. This taxi driver being a case in point.

I had a discussion with my dad a few days ago. We were talking about things he had heard was illegal. I laughed and said I've given up on worrying about that. I've got a spoon¹ in my cutlery drawer that is probably illegal now. We laughed but in a troubled way.

1) It is a big spoon. The bowl is about five inches long and about four wide. Handle of about nine inches. Clearly being non metric, made of some strange material and liable to encourage large portions it must be illegal in the UK today. Seriously though. I bet that if they went through any house in the UK today there would be something that was illegal or indicative of something suspicious.

Sound familiar?

Why is it that comedians seem to be ones who get it out best? Is it the video format and the delivery? Watch and tell me this is not spot on. Found this on Famous for 15 megapixels.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Clarke plays Politics.

Well, well. It seems that one of our favourite Blairites still can't forgive our wonderful leader for sacking him from Home Secretary. He isn't allowing the leadership crisis to go out. With the situation cooling down slightly in the leadership struggle along came Charles Clarke to throw some petrol on it. Read more here. Another Labour man who has gone up in my estimation. Still subterranean but nevertheless higher than before. The best bit is he can claim the high ground and say he was supporting Blair.

I should be clear now, even to Brown, that the transition from Blair to himself is not going to go smoothly. That's why I'm a bit puzzled about his stupid schoolboy grinning yesterday. Of course he only needs one day to collect the pension and the PM tag on his CV.

Although on the bright side if all these candidates are looking like they will go for the job who will end up as chancellor? That surely is going to be a very unpopular slot I would have thought at this stage. All the Blairites will have to go no matter who gets in. Plus any Brownites if he loses. Will there be any seasoned politicians in the new Labour cabinet next year?

Human nature. You can't beat it and politicians are some of the lowest in our society. There may be honour among thieves but there is none among politicians.

Stupid fangled computers.

Seems that our political class are using the net a lot more this year in their attempts to manipulate us. It's not just the BBC now it ranges from clone boy, Dave's blog, to Dave Miliband's wonderful Wiki adventure.

As you already know the best our government could do to bring people into the 21st century was postal voting. So it comes as no surprise to find our master playing politics with this new technology. Unfortunately they don't really know that much as we see here. A blatant attempt to spread rumours and lies caught out because of niavity.

Just confirming that politics is lies, smoke and mirrors and you don't have to be good at anything else to get on.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

A human success story.

This must be one of the best human success stories going. Read more here on the NASA robots still driving around Mars. Nearly three years after they first got there and way, way over their projected life of a few months.

When the radiation dies down and whatever creature have becomes the dominant lifeform on Earth makes its first ventures into space there will still be the few remains to point to the civilisation we once had.

I wonder what they will make of our civilisation?

Talk about inconsistent.

First we read that Blair was going to sack Tom Watson.

Then we read 'You did a good job as a Minister and I thank you for it'.

Which is it?

Oh! Silly me. Maybe he did do a good job. Doing a good job is not government policy so he had to go.

No inconsistency there then. My bad.

Coincidence or what?

After this article on the things Blair has done outside the UK. I read our local paper and in it was an article on our local Labour politician Andrew Miller following this unspoken policy.

Andrew Miller, by the way, has voted against government policy only 24 times out of 2,345 votes since 1997. He votes for ID cards, smoking bans, foxhunting ban, anti terrorism laws, student top up fees and the Iraqi war. All in line with government policy.

He is now calling on the government to take action to reduce the accident toll on the worlds road. Seems there is an EDM out about it. Of course now Labour have resolved all our own issues, usually by legislating against them and we all know that once a law is passed it is no longer a problem, we need to resolve issues with the rest of the world. Using, of course, our money.

Clearly he will go far in the Labour party.

What I find funny is...

We all talk about how Blair is screwing up the party and how he has made a right mess of things for the UK while he has been in power.

In the meantime there are quite a few people out there who actually think he is doing a good job. Read here and here. OK, the last link was to someone who said 'Blair should stay where he is and get rid of Brown'. It's in there somewhere among others defending Blair.

I tried to respond to the first link on Blairwatch but couldn't get past his anti-spam measures. In it the guys defends Blair but whilst doing this the only benefits were for foreigners. Nothing for us in the UK.

However the fact is with people like that it is not certain that Blair is finished quite yet. Especially if some of his followers are still in positions of power. It will just take longer.

The longer the better in my opinion. As long as they keep up the pressure and the fighting tears the party apart and make it impotent in the meantime.

Painting more and more into the corner.

Well it seems that Blair has been forced to announce a vague sort of plan to appease his party followers. Which is he will hand over power in May 2007. Read more here.

The only thing with that is that now other questions need to be asked such as; What about policy beyond that who makes the calls? What is the point of someone staying when they are past their sell by date? Outside organisation when they decide to get rid of a CEO either sack them immediately and use the deputy or another successor or they allow them to run the business without any policy or strategy while they recruit an internal or external replacement.

In this case we have a clear view that Blair is screwing up the party, his policies are not working yet they allow him to continue for nine months doing the same thing. I don't think so. He will be painted into a corner and in reality his proposals will take more than just him saying 'We will do this.' to become policy. He will have to give details on his policies because unless they are just for a few months it will be a poisoned chalice for the next PM. The more details he gives the more he is painted into a corner and the output from the government is reduced. Then the next question will be 'Who is your replacement?'. That should be interesting as now that they have some spines some of his followers are even considering themselves for the position. Hopefully he can dig his heels in and last for a while. The less we are governed the better.

Look out for him popping over to the US. He knows when he leaves the knives will be sharpened again and he will ensure that his time here while not PM is minimised. If he is not PM and the Yard calls where will that leave him? Even better once the veil falls from his eyes and he suddenly realises it is all over and he has done nothing but screw our country for ten years will be become suicidal? When his whole belief structure is under attack can his mind hold it together? Could the final straw be an arrest from the Yard? Fingers crossed. The type that believe they are the messiah and speak to God have a tendency to snap.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

It's easy to get confused.

The headline is 'Virtually untreatable' TB found. I thought of the trouble the Labour party was having and thought he is not as indestructible as he thinks he is. Then I read the story.

Seems we have a new strain of tuberculosis that is not only resistant to our main anti-TB drugs but also resistant to our secondary drugs as well. Seems the next step in the drug treatment can also kill us so it's not really classed as a cure.

It seems they are putting blame on people not finishing off their drug treatments and allowing a strain to develop an immunity. This claim has been around a while and it looks like this could be one of those that proves the case. Let's hope it doesn't get spread all over the world.

One questions remains though, what can we really do about these people that don't complete their treatment?

The Knives are out and first blood is drawn.

Well it looks like the first blood drawn in the final chapter is against Blair. Seems one of his loyal Blairites, Tom Watson, who was coincidently due to be sacked, has resigned quickly followed by Khalid Mahmood. Read more here.

I don't know but to be honest I don't see him lasting the year never mind lasting till mid 2007. His current time seems to be spent defending his decision not to give any dates for departure. Of course to be honest the more time he spends not screwing the country and looking after himself the better as far as I am concerned.

It looks like his pal Murdock has thrown his view in as they mention the 31-May as a date. If Blair wants his pal to keep a nice juicy job for him then he better not upset him by proving he is a liar.

I particularly was amused by the statement that leading Brownites are calling for the prime minister to make a public declaration about when he will go, so that he cannot go back on it. Have they never been involved in politics before. Elections promises turn to dust as soon as the winner is announced. Are they really so stupid that they think by letting this go on a statement that it will happen. By the time we get close to the date there will be another threat and we can't change leaders at this point. When Blair goes the Labour party will tear itself apart as the remainder of the pack fight to establish better positions for themselves.

Doug Henderson, a Brown supporter, says he cannot see what Mr Blair will achieve in the next 12 months. Neither do I but I also don't see what Brown is going to achieve either? His goal is to be PM for one day. Get the pension and the kudos and then sit while the party rips itself apart. Human nature.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Blair under pressure. But, nothing he can't ignore.

From leaked memos it appears that even Blairites want him to go and sooner rather than later. Read more here. They are even planning farewell tours. Unbelievable. All nice sweet personal letters to him from his chums. Of course he will just ignore them.

Although I think they are overdoing the praise. If they think complementing him is the way to get rid of him they are really showing that they just don't understand him. I found the vaudeville statement of 'leave them wanting more' to be particularly funny. Unless he is talking about showing his own execution on TV no one is going to want more. In fact the question should be 'More of what?' What has be actually done for us that merits any praise whatsoever?

They clearly want him to go. They are getting concerned now. Their own careers are on the line and it is becoming clear that something needs to be done but Blair is blindly going on as if everyone still loves him. He clearly does not get out much and his papers must be censored as not to upset him.

All these letters are just a waste of time. He isn't going to go easily. He is more likely to fly to the US and announce it over there. Bit like all the other dictators running to hide in the US. Once the dust settles and the truth comes out we will then discover a bit more about this UK/US extradition treaty and how useless it is for us.

I was also thinking that hopefully they stir him up so much he will stay as long as he can, until he leaves Maggies prize is still there and within his grasp, then off to the US, resign and call for a surprise general election. I can see him shouting 'That will teach you you traitorous scum' as he scuttles off for a last chat with Bush and to see what boardroom jobs he has going.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Is Afghanistan more of an issue for us than Iraq?

Just reading about the latest casualty in Afghanistan. Read more here.

It made me thing about how I seem to be reading more about that hell hole lately as regards British fatalities. I've thought for a while now that the death toll in these countries seems to be going up and up yet our coverage of the Lebanon and Blair's latest totalitarian gimmick seems to make it seem like everything is going smoothly. Especially with our strategic withdrawals from certain areas in Iraq.

Yet, the news from both these areas is not looking too good. Certain areas in Iraq are still no go areas, Sistani is no longer listened to, Sadr seems to be making a name for himself and that is not good. Afghanistan looks good to have a record opium crop next year. In the meantime our wonderful leaders tell us everything is going OK.

How 911 changed America. Not really useful.

Little article with some factual information on how 911 changed America. Read it here.

Now I must admit to some confusion. The only bits that looks like they are in direct response to the 911 attacks is the impact on air travel. The attacks on muslims and the news on Osama look like they are averaged out over the year so could be the result on 911 but it is not clear. The defence spending and presidents rating were all going in a particular direction before the 911 attacks. They then followed a trend for a while and then changed.

I'm not really sure this chart actually shows anything at all. Where is the charts on our freedoms that have been removed, how many arrests have been made with no prosecutions, how much more hated America is for it's policies since then?

Playing with Fire.

Steve Irwin is dead. The man who was insanely continually poking deadly creatures has finally succumbed to a Stingray. Read more here. When you play with fire you get burnt. Althought it seems very unlucky as Stingrays don't seem to attack people. I'm sure we will learn more over the next few days.

He will be missed because it was certainly entertaining particularly when he was feeding his offspring to crocs. He was certainly a character but how he was going to die was something no one would take bets on. He was going to get caught by one of these creature eventually. It was still a bit of a shock though to just hear it. I'll miss the guy.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Anti-Semitic violence has become endemic in Britain. But, has it?

There is an interesting article in the Telegraph saying Anti-Semitic violence has increased in the UK since the Lebanon crisis. Read it here.

To be honest I'm not surprised all the articles and talk about these poor terrorist organisations being attacked by a state are clearly going to have an effect on certain members of our society. And let's face it the average punter in the UK who just takes what he reads in the media at face value in this current climate ain't going to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

One thing I was confused about was statements like “In July, when the conflict in Lebanon began, we received reports of 92 incidents, which was the third-worst month since records began in 1984.” In 2000 the monthly average was between 10 and 30 incidents.

Err, OK. Is 10, 30 or even 92 a month actually a lot? How many attacks do mosques or muslims get each month? What about Scotsmen, Welshmen, Germans, French, Americans? Alone it is pretty well left up to the writer to make comparisons. This is why I like looking at the raw data.

It also had a spike in July when the conflict began but that was still only the third highest month since records began in 1984. What were the other two due to? When were they? Plus, why pick out 2000 for special mention? Where the article had a strange view on average as it was between 10 and 30. How can an average be between 10 and 30. Surely, adding them all up and dividing by 12 gives a single number as an average. Why pick on that year and then treat each month individually?

Actually, what did that article really say? It had loads of facts without any context and yet drew conclusions to show that, yet again, we are intolerant b4$^4&ds. Maybe I'm getting too paranoid now. I'm starting to question everything I read in the MSM and wonder who it is actually writing for. To me it looks like the Israelis are getting bad press and now want to revert to their normal tactic of hiding behind predudice and the Holocaust as a method of defence. Maybe I am paranoid but I wish they would stop doing that. It belittles them and they don't need to.

More political tinkering with education.

Seems that kids are now going to be taught cooking while at school as part of the crusade to reduce obesity. Read more here.

To be honest I actually thought they did that already having been the subject of many a experiment over the years. My daughters favourite dish to cook is one of those from school. Although the way she makes it is certainly not what I would class as healthy enough to fit into the new crusade on obesity.

The only thing I really wonder about is what they are going to replace on the curriculum. Will it be something like RE? After all churches will do that for free. More than likely it will actually be a subject like drama , history, geography. All things that most people don't actually use in their day to day lives but we still need to ensure they have a basic grounding in. Although knowing this government it is just as likely to be English reading. After all if they can ban books on flights then the power of the word is clearly dangerous.

Won't be long before everything you need to get on in life is taught in school, how to get up, dressed and have a nice healthy breakfast, basic maths, English language, cooking healthy meals, basic sciences and political science just to make sure you vote for 'democracy' and freedom. No reading or writing because it just is no longer required. The state is mother, father and God.

Choices over the next ten years on your voting screen are 'Blair, Prescott, Blunkett, Reid'. Support democracy.