My Thoughts My Country

What a beautiful Voice

2010-12-25T18:10:00.000Z

I was sent a link to a singer the other day, and she is an amazing singer for someone so young.

Have a listen and see what you think.

Her name is Lucy Kane.

Here's another;

Time for me to go

2010-12-17T15:25:00.000Z

Hello all.

Sorry for the lack posts, but I've been finalising my escape from this country.

As, some of you know this last year has been the shittiest year I have ever had.

First my wife left, to be with her wealthier scumbag, her reasons were that i was working to much, i was working 2 jobs to help pay for the bills, mainly hers. She took the kids with her and is refusing me access, due to the fact that the kids aren't mine (the kids are her sisters, we took them in when their parents died). I have been in contact through email and i have seen them without her knowledge, but only for a couple of hours at a time.

That was bad enough, but;

Then I was hospitalised because I got someone arrested for breaking in to my place of work.

I caught someone breaking into my place of work, I called the police, then I grabbed the little shit and literally sat on him till the police came.

Unfortunately, his friends didn't like the fact that I got him arrested. They were waiting till i was working nights again, and they pounced.

If you knew me, you would know I hate violence, but I knew i was going to get the shit beaten out of me so I thought let's do as much damage to them as possible. I took 2 of those fuckers out before the others took me out, one of them is now missing an ear, and the other one might have difficulty fathering children after I crushed his balls.

I was a mess, broken arm, broken ribs, concussion and internal bleeding to name a few of the injuries.

Now all of this was caught on the works CCTV system, the police took it away and with my evidence they were sure of a conviction for GBH.

Step in the CPS, The police were certain for a charge of GBH, but the CPS, for reasons of guaranteeing a conviction, they dropped it to assault.

The scum pleaded guilty to assault, and basically walked free from court. They were given suspended sentences of 2 years.

Thank you very much, another satisfied law abiding, tax paying member of the public. Justice doesn't happen in this country anymore.

Well I have now finalised everything for me to leave this country before it goes down the sewer.

Don't get me wrong, I love this country, but I can't stay here anymore.

I have sold my house, I've put some away for my kids, even though they aren't mine by blood, in my heart they are my kids. I'll pop back now and again to see them.

I've put the rest in an account, so it can't be touched by the government, but is easily accessible by me anywhere.

I'm going around the world, I'm going to do all the things I've wanted to do. I may end up in New Zealand, I have relatives there.

This blog was just my little place on the web, I have learnt a lot from the other bloggers out there. I have had a great time blogging and I hope the bloggers out there keep up the fight.

Thank you all out there who visited my blog and the friends i have made on twitter.

Take care, and be careful out there.

What do you have to do to get sent to prison?

2010-10-29T23:16:00.000+01:00

Take a look at this scum. His name is Reece Kent, 19.

This shit beat up this gandfather.

Now you would expect Reece Kent to be sent to jail wouldn't you, but no he walks out of court with a suspended sentence.

An extract from the article;

A drunken thug who attacked a terminally-ill grandfather and kicked his head 'like a football' has walked free from court.

Reece Kent, 19, repeatedly punched Ken Oliver in the head before kicking him on the floor after he mistakenly knocked on the 62-year-old's door at 3.30am.

Cancer sufferer Mr Oliver - who has been given just three months to live - was left in a pool of blood on his doorstep with horrific injuries.

He spent a week in intensive care following the assault, with bleeding on his brain.

Kent admitted carrying out the unprovoked attack - which was filmed on a mobile phone by his friends - and pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm.

But Mr Oliver, a grandfather-of-three from Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, watched in disbelief as his attacker walked free from court last week with a six-month suspended sentence.

What do you have to do to get sent to jail?

You're more likely to get sent to jail for not paying your council tax than for grievous bodily harm.

If there is karma in the world, i hope it comes down on Reece Kent like a ton of bricks.

Reece Kent should be sent to Afghanistan so he can see, while he is beating the crap out of a grandfather, what our soldiers are having to go through.

What about all the soldiers from WW1 and WW2. I doubt very much that they gave their lives so we could be free, so scum like Reece Kent can beat up a grandfather.

What ever happened to 'the punishment should fit the crime',

It's all well and good the government getting to grips with the nations finances, but it better get law and order sorted as well, because I'm sick and tired of all the lawlessness i see on the streets.

Can Labour explain this please

2010-10-22T15:33:00.000+01:00

As soldiers went short of kit, MoD wasted £½m on artwork like this

That is the headline to this article.

An extract;

Geoff Hoon spent nearly £560,000 of Ministry of Defence money on modern art while British soldiers were dying in Iraq and Afghanistan through lack of equipment.

The former Defence Secretary wasted the huge sum on 15 pieces of abstract art to hang on the walls of his department between 2003 and 2005.

Meanwhile, the Labour government faced criticism for putting servicemen and women in danger by scrimping on essential kit such as helicopters, radios and night goggles, and forcing their families to live in rundown military homes.

I want Hoon, and the rest of those Labour politicians to explain why did they spend so much money on art when there was a lack of equipment for our troops.

I wonder what was going through the mind of Hoon, other Labour politicians and civil service staff at the time.

Should we buy the best equipment for our troops or spend huge amounts of money on art to hang on the walls?
We all know the answer to that.

One word that comes to mind thinking of Hoon and the rest of the people who bought the art instead of equipment.

SCUM

EU Madness again

2010-10-22T14:30:00.000+01:00

I have just read the following on Ambush Predator, and i am so shocked.

Have a read and see what you think.

That’ll Do, Pig…

Cuddling up to their mother, these African piglets were more than an endearing attraction for zoo visitors.
They were also the successful product of a breeding programme aimed at keeping alive endangered species.

Awwww, look at their little snouts! Look at their tiny feet! Look at their…
Oh:

Zoo managers had hoped that many more of these rare Red River Hogs would be born in future. But yesterday it emerged the piglets had been killed by one of the zoo’s own vets.
The pair, named Sammi and Becca, were destroyed at Edinburgh Zoo to comply with the controversial requirements of a European breeding project – after being deemed ‘surplus to requirements’.

God lord, is there nothing the EU can’t screw up?

It is feared that three other piglets currently at the zoo could also be culled. The move has outraged staff and horrified animal welfare campaigners. One staff member said: ‘We didn’t have any say. I found it pretty disgusting and was rather upset.’

Once you cede control to any ghastly organisation hatched by Europe, you have no say.
You might be as proud as punch with your success in breeding an endangered species, indeed it may be the only one of it’s kind in the UK, but if there’s too many of that species in captivity across the continent to suit the suits in their cosy offices, then Piglet gets the Big Sleep.

No appeals, no last-minute phone calls…

The culls have come about because of the zoo’s membership of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, which runs the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). It manages the breeding of endangered animals in zoos.
Want to get out of Europe now, bunny-huggers? Or do you want to see more ~~Red~~ Dead River Hogs...?

Anyone fancy a change.

2010-10-21T18:18:00.000+01:00

I found the following on G.O.T. Blog, and it's called Climate Change Deniers Day. I think it's a great idea.

If your sick and tired of all the rubbish that is coming out of the warmist camp recently, take a look and see what you think.

If you want to 'Rage against the Machine', join the party.

Are the words savings and cuts in the EU dictionary?

2010-10-20T23:08:00.000+01:00

British payments to EU set to rise £900m next year

The European Parliament voted through a budget rise yesterday that will cost Britain an extra £900 million next year – on the day George Osborne announced deep cuts to public spending.

That is the headline to this article.

An Extract;

A £6.5 billion EU budget rise that would increase EU spending by six per cent to £114.5 billion – of which £9.2 billion would be the British contribution – was voted through by MEPs in Strasbourg.

The increase, which Britain has so far failed to block, will cost the British taxpayer an extra £884 million and is a sum equivalent to the costs of employing an additional 14,000 NHS doctors, 29,000 nurses, 34,000 police constables or 52,000 Army privates.

Today we have heard what the government is going to do to get the nations finances in order; it has had to make cuts, severe in places, to get the budget back on an even keel.

On the same day as the UK Government announces the cuts, the MEPs at the eu insane asylum parliament voted for an increase to the eu budget.

An extract;

Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP for South-east England, attacked his colleagues for voting through budget increases that would undermine attempts by national governments to cut public spending.

"This vote shows how utterly divorced MEPs are from reality and how far the European parliament is from a representative body," he said. "There is not a country in Europe that is not going through cuts but we have a situation where the EU is sucking up the savings."

MEPs also voted to double the parliament's budget for champagne receptions, increased spending on their courtesy limousines and maintained £8 million in funding for Europarl television, despite refusing to release the channel's viewing figures, thought to be in the hundreds.

Those MEPs who voted for the increase are only lining their own pockets with the taxpayer’s money of Europe.

We have people in France rioting against an increase in the age when they retire; we have also had demonstrations in the UK at the cuts announced today.

Why don't they go to Brussels and demonstrate and riot there. The eu is rotten to the core with the waste and fraud. If we didn't have to pay for the eu we would be better off.

If the UK Parliament won't put a stop to this, then it's time for all the people in Europe to rise up together and show the eu we mean business, we won't take this shit anymore.

Does Multiculturalism Work?

2010-10-17T12:06:00.001+01:00

The following was found on IanPJ Twitter.

Have a read of this article from Reuters.

Merkel says German multiculturalism has failed

(Reuters) - Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has "utterly failed," Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarising her conservative camp.

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

"This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin.
Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don't show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.

She said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her usual line that they should learn German in order to get by in school and have opportunities on the labour market.

The debate over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a book accusing Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.

Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved highly popular and polls showed a majority of Germans agreed with the thrust of his arguments.

Merkel has tried to accommodate both sides of the debate, talking tough on integration but also telling Germans that they must accept that mosques have become part of their landscape.

She said on Saturday that the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.

In a weekend newspaper interview, her Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to fight the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.

"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. "Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."
The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) says Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.

Yet Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's sister party, has rejected any relaxation of immigration laws and said last week there was no room in Germany for more people from "alien cultures.

(Writing by Sarah Marsh; editing by Noah Barkin)

The German government sees what is happening when you have immigrants who don't adapt to the country's own culture, so why can't the British Government see the same?

The UK has had 13 years of uncontrolled immigration, and we have seen what happens; eg. Religious Extremism, human trafficking of women forced into prostitution.

Yes they are some of the worst cases, but it has increased in the last decade.

We do need controls, not just from outside the eu, but from inside the eu as well.

Could this actually be true?

2010-10-17T09:43:00.000+01:00

I found the following on Captain Ranty's Blog. It's called 'Unbound, Released, Free.'

Have a look and listen carefully to what is said.

I ran this video a while back.

You should watch the whole thing for context but the fun starts at around 5 minutes and the jaw-dropper, the statement that finally convinced me that what I am doing is right, comes at around the 7 minute point.

Take a look. Be amazed at the pure simplicity of it all.

Those of you that don't get it didn't pay attention. Watch it until you do.

You are unbound. You are released. You are free.

In point of fact, you were never shackled in the first place.

You just assumed you were.

CR.

The eu Wasting Money, no, they would never waste our Money

2010-10-16T18:00:00.000+01:00

The following is taken from this article, originally found on Subrosa's Blog

EU president used official motorcade for 'family holiday' trip

Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, has come under fire for using his official motorcade as a taxi service to take his family on 325-mile round trip to Paris airport en route to a private holiday.

An extract;

Aides for Mr Van Rompuy admitted to The Daily Telegraph that he used official cars and chauffeurs to take him, his wife, four children, two of their spouses and two grandchildren more than 162 miles to France to catch a holiday flight in August.
His official motorcade was then waiting for the family group to bring them back to Brussels from Paris when they returned from their private vacation, thought to be in the Caribbean.

The cost of an equivalent trip, hiring three S-class Mercedes cars and drivers from the Brussels based "Belgian Limo" company, would be over £4,000.

The rail connections are considered secure enough for EU heads of state and government, including David Cameron, the Prime Minister, who, while considered a greater security risk than Mr Van Rompuy, regularly uses the Eurostar to travel from London to Brussels.

and;

Mr Van Rompuy's aides would not discuss the holiday but compared the family's security needs to those of Barack Obama, the American President and justified the use of the cars for the 325-mile private round trip as a necessary "securitisation" measure.

A security measure for the eu president?

I'm pretty damn sure a terrorist group doesn't have him on their radar.

Now the US President is the number one target for terrorists and other nutters out there, so you expect a large motorcade for the US President, but for Van Rompuy, don't make me laugh.

"All costs of the private part of the holiday, down to the last euro, were met by the president. The security requirement was paid for out of his office budget."

Excuse me, but who pays his wages and office budget?

Yes, the poor old taxpayers of Europe.

How many more ways can we get screwed by the eu?

Plenty, they are always thinking of ways to screw the Taxpayer.

Keep a close eye on them and you'll see.

The British Way of Life

2010-10-16T16:22:00.000+01:00

The following is the headline to this article

Islamic face-veil part of 'British way of life'

The full Islamic face-veil is a part of the “British way of life” and should be celebrated along with religious symbols such as the crucifix, according to a report published today.

An extract;

Opponents of the veil claim it oppresses women and presents a barrier between those who wear traditional dress and the rest of society.

But in a new report from think-tank Civitas, Alveena Malik, a former faith adviser to the last Labour government, said the test of whether religious symbols are appropriate should be based on whether they are practical.

In a new report, Women, Islam and Western Liberalism, Mrs Malik said: “We in Britain need to take a different direction from others in Europe and to accept the veil as part of a modern British way of life.”

Sorry sweetheart, but the British Way of Life doesn't include that.

An example of the British way of life is;

The Queen, the changing of the Guard, Winston Churchill, Fish & Chips, Spotted Dick, a pint of real ale, Cucumber sandwiches, cricket, football (or soccer if your from the US), rugby, Wimbledon & queuing to name just a few.

No matter how much ~~uncontrolled immigration~~ multicultural diversity we had under Labour,

THE BRITISH WAY OF LIFE WILL SURVIVE.

If you would like another opinion about this go to 'Ranting Penquin' blog and read his blog about the subject.

US physics professor: 'Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life'

2010-10-11T14:17:00.000+01:00

The following is taken from the James Delingpole Telegraph blog.

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Here is his letter of resignation to Curtis G. Callan Jr, Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society.

Anthony Watts describes it thus:
This is an important moment in science history. I would describe it as a letter on the scale of Martin Luther, nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door. It is worthy of repeating this letter in entirety on every blog that discusses science.

It’s so utterly damning that I’m going to run it in full without further comment. (H/T GWPF, Richard Brearley).

Dear Curt:

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.<

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Hal

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety

Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

I hope people share this article with as many people as possible.

Global warming is just a con and is just about certain people making money, Al Gore are you listening.

Barbaric

2010-09-06T17:33:00.002+01:00

I ask everyone to go to Catosays Blog.

The blog I'm asking you to go and see is titled Barbarians and words cannot descibe the shock and anger of what i saw.

I warn you it is GRAPHIC and very VIOLENT, so be warned.

Here is the video. Please be warned it is a Very violent video.

It shows what happens to women and girls in muslim countries.

An Open Letter to Sandwell council

2010-08-29T11:43:00.000+01:00

The following is taken from http://faulkstalks.blogspot.com/. It is a continuation from Anna Raccoon's blog Fighting them on the Sandwell

You can read the letter below or click on the link An Open Letter To Sandwell Council to go to the blog.

To Whom It May Concern

I understand from the press and legions of political bloggers that I read that once again you have excelled yourselves in your zeal for keeping a tidy district. I am sure that you are proud of your efforts to achieve this. I use the term 'once again,' because I understand that on various occasions you taken decisive action against people who have by their behaviour - knowingly or otherwise - transgressed your precise (or might I say 'exacting'?) standards, and who have been victimised accordingly.

Your action against a widow - whose 'offense' was to pinch out a cigarette she was smoking at a bus stop, thus dropping the lighted end on your immaculate street - has proved that you are a council that leads the way in mercilessness and malice. It is abundantly clear for all to see that you hold these qualities to the highest degree.

Permit me to courteously remind you of a few facts:

First of all, as a council, you are the servants of the area. You are not their lords/masters/despots/satraps/kings. This may not be how you would like it to be, but that is how it is. Please consider this - as painful as it may be to you.

Secondly, your local populace earns money which, through their hard work or investment, goes to pay for your wages. In other words, you are beholden to those whose living subsidises your way of life - and, doubtless the sumptuous premises in which you work and from where you issue your diktats and generate the various trendy 'diversity' projects upon which you lavish taxpayer's hard-earned cash.

Thirdly, this is still nominally a free country. It is not a Soviet Socialist republic or a fascist dictatorship - yet. I realise that as a Labour council, there are people in your ranks who have qualified as Common Purpose 'graduates,' and who have enthusiastically imbibed the anti-democratic values and practices that it is intended to subvert. That this country has not yet fully circumvented the vaguely democratic values that has under-girded it may not be to your liking, but again - that's how it is. Deal with it. This is still a free country. There are still regular, law-abiding people who pay your substantial wages who abhor the petty vindictiveness which you have displayed to the lady in question along with others who have also fallen foul of your nastiness. There are doubtless those in your very district who fought in the Second World War to oppose the very principles which you have so enthusiastically applied - authoritarian fascism. You have betrayed them - and all the others of the same generation who endured bereavement and a myriad of hardships and made sacrifices to fight oppression and tyranny for the sake of you and I. I hope you are pleased with yourselves.

Finally, let me remind you that until this country becomes a repressed third-world, third-rate vassal state of an emerging totalitarian socialist Utopia, there will continue to be people like this present writer who will vehemently oppose you and your despotic ways and will take every opportunity to publicly register their undying contempt for the supercilious attitude and inhuman ways in which you operate. And until we are silenced by some secret police force, we will continue to do so.

Now the above letter is about a specific incident at a specific council, but don't you think it could be about almost any council in the country?

Someone needing everyones support

2010-08-23T18:39:00.001+01:00

I have just read Anna Raccoon's Blog entry called Fighting ‘them’ on the Sandwell. After reading it I had to spread the word.

It involves a council who is taking an old lady to court over some litter. The litter in question is some burnt ash from a cigarette.

Read the whole story below;

70 years ago this week, Winston Churchill made his famous speech immortalising the words ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ He did so to rally every man and woman in these Isles to support the war effort: “because we have been nurtured in freedom and individual responsibility and are the products, not of totalitarian uniformity, but of tolerance and variety.”

Sheila Martin was a fragile babe in arms when her Mother heard those words. Too young to understand the menace behind the Messerschmitts and Heinkels screaming overhead and disturbing her slumber. She was the intended beneficiary of Churchill’s words, one of the generation of children that depended on the bravery of British men such as her Father, away in France fighting for the freedom, tolerance and variety that was Britain’s hallmark.

Today, Sheila is once more fragile; she is 70 years old and was widowed 30 years ago. She tells me she has survived five heart attacks; she suffers from asthma, angina and high blood pressure. She only smokes the occasional cigarette these days, partly for health reasons, partly because her minimal state pension doesn’t stretch to any more.

70 years after Churchill’s speech was made, she has retired from a lifetime of hard work.

She was part of that unsung army of hard working, clean living, decent individuals, who cheerfully got up every morning and trudged off to put in a decent days work for a paltry wage as a ‘Mrs Mop’, raised her family, nurtured her marriage, made ends meet, saved little, but asked little in return, save the freedom, and tolerance that her older relatives had fought to provide. She is not a politically aware lady, nor insolent, nor ambitious for financial rewards.

In common with other ‘Smokers’ who may not like the new laws prohibiting them from smoking where others may be offended by the practice, she respected the law of the land, and complied. She is no campaigner against such laws.

Thus it was that she found herself standing at a bus stop, waiting for the bus which would take her home, and taking the opportunity to smoke a cigarette in the open air – there was no bus shelter. She could no longer smoke a cigarette on the top deck of the bus. She had not been able to smoke a cigarette with the cup of tea she shared with her daughter in town. Now she must stand in the road to enjoy the ‘freedom, tolerance and variety’ of the British Isles.

She only smoked half the cigarette; as the time drew close for the bus to arrive, she ‘nibbed’ the cigarette, letting the lit end fall to the ground, and thriftily stowing the other half of the cigarette in her handbag for a later occasion. It was her last cigarette until pension day.

Two of Sandwell’s famed ‘enforcement wardens’ approached her – a man and a woman. They told her that they were issuing a ‘Fixed Penalty Fine’ of £75 under Section 87 (1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as amended by Section 18 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. This mouthful of gobblygook was lost on Sheila; she had no idea what she had done wrong and put the piece of paper in her pocket.
Once home, friends and neighbours clustered round to read this piece of officialdom. Sheila still had the ‘end’ of the cigarette, with its precious inch or so of un-smoked tobacco in her handbag, so how could she be accused of littering the street – it had to be the cigarette ash they were talking about?

I have spoken to Sandwell Council, they tell me that they do not issue fixed penalty notices for cigarette ‘ash’ – I am sure they don’t. I am equally sure that Mrs Martin is telling the truth when she tells me that the half cigarette with its ‘butt’ was still safely in her handbag when she returned home. So we are left with the quandary of whether the ‘lit’ end of a cigarette, which will become cigarette ‘ash’ within seconds, constitutes parliament’s intention when they defined litter as including:

In section 98 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (definitions), after subsection (5) insert—

“(5A)“Litter” includes—

(a) the discarded ends of cigarettes, cigars and like products, and

(b) discarded chewing-gum and the discarded remains of other products designed for chewing.”

If a court holds that it does, then every smoker is liable for a £75 fine every time they smoke a cigarette in the street. I do not believe that to be parliament’s intention.

On Friday, the threatening ‘Final Demand’ from Sandwell Council, warning her that she now faces a £2,500 fine plus costs (and possible imprisonment if she does not pay that) expired. The next opportunity for Mrs Martin to contest this matter will come in ‘some months time’ – the council cannot tell me when her case will arrive at the top of their back log of cases to appear in the Magistrates court.

Sheila Martin is frightened, intimidated, and feels helpless in the face of this prosecution. She is in delicate health, aggravated by stress, and I have asked the council to reconsider their decision to press ahead with what may well be an interesting test case defining a cigarette end, but which will be at the expense of a frail and elderly person. They have referred me to their ‘revised Enforcement Policy’ – which makes for terrifying reading, a fine example of the totalitarian government Sheila’s Father fought so bravely to prevent. (available HERE)

Nick Hogan, who I was instrumental in rescuing from prison after similar council action, has joined with me, the Libertarian Party and the Sunday Mercury, to ensure that Sheila suffers as little as possible from the council’s intransience.

We have already arranged for some very high powered legal representation for her, to put her mind at rest, and I have promised her that she will go to prison ‘over my dead body’ – she is obviously unable to pay this fine, or incremental increases of it, and I have personally guaranteed her that somehow I will make sure that she doesn’t have to pay it herself, nor go to prison.

There is no need for money at present, all the legal beagles so far involved are kindly donating their time and expertise free of charge – although if there are any other lawyers out there who would like to join the team, this is one broth that will not be spoiled by too many cooks. My e-mail address is on the contact section of this blog.

70 years ago we were prepared to ‘fight them on the beaches’ – how appropriate that today we prepare to f’ight them on the Sandwell……’

UPDATE:

CAMPAIGNERS have vowed to raise funds to help an elderly widow who has been threatened with a £2,500 fine for dropping cigarette ash on the pavement.

Sheila Martin, 70, was smoking at a bus stop when a Sandwell Council warden pounced and handed her the £75 fixed penalty for littering.

The frail granny, from Oldbury, has refused to pay – and now faces a £2,500 penalty or even prison.

But on-line campaigners who freed a pub landlord from jail for a similar offence earlier this year have now come forward to lend their support.

Nick Hogan, former landlord of The Swan and Barristers in Bolton, was jailed for six months for failing to pay fines and costs totalling £10,136 after being guilty of allowing customers to light up.

But he walked free after an internet campaign raised £10,000 to secure his early release in just 10 days.
Web blogger Anna Raccoon was instrumental in securing his freedom and has now vowed to help Mrs Martin.

She said: “As a result of articles I wrote, the generosity of my readers and with the co-operation of other bloggers, we managed to raise the money in 10 days and get Nick released from jail.

“Now we are prepared to turn our efforts to helping Sheila Martin. If she does not pay the fine, she could be sent to jail just as Nick Hogan was.

“That is oppressive persecution and we should not stand by and watch an elderly widow treated like this.

“My readers are happy to support Sheila in any way we can, to enable her to fight this penalty.”

Last night Mrs Martin said: “I am so touched by all the support people have been giving me all week.

“I thought I was all alone and now I realise I am not. It has made me feel so much better.”

Simon Clarke, Director of Pro-smoking Group FOREST, also offered his support. He said: “What is happening to her is just another example of the bully state.

“Smokers are easy targets and while we do not condone littering, this case is just a complete overreaction by Sandwell Council.

“We will not allow this frail old lady to be bullied and we will do everything we can to help her.”

I am so angry right now, How can this council take a frail old lady to court over something as trivial as burnt ash.

Spread the word and if you want go to Anna Raccoon's Blog and show your support.

Taking some leave.

2010-07-20T00:40:00.001+01:00

This might be my last blog entry for a while. I have some personal shit to sort out.

Life can be hard, but you work through it. You do what you think is best for you and your family, but then something blindsides you.

You work hard for your wife and kids and then something, or someone, out of know where comes along and kicks you in the arse so hard you land in another continent.

Today, I have landed in painville, nothing physical, but emotional.

This blog was always small fry compared to others, it was just my place to rant about what was, and is, happening to this country.

I will pop in now and again to read;.

Anna Raccoon,
Old Holborn,
Obo the Clown,
Cold Steel Rain,
Dick Puddlecote,
Barking Spider,
Thoughts of Oscar,
Bollogs, Uncle Marvo
Grumpy Old Twat

To name just a few of the many great bloggers.

Take Care guys and girls.

I may be back, but we will just have to see.

Real Heroes and Legends

2010-07-16T13:22:00.000+01:00

Below is Ian Collins, of Talksport' Speaking with Siobhan O'Dowd who created the 'Raoul Moat Legend facebook page.'

If, in her eyes, Moat was a hero and a legend, what does she think about the brave people who go out and risk their lives to help and save people; for example;

The Fire Service

The RNLI Lifeboat Crews, who are volunteers,

The Ambulance / Paramedic service,

The Police, yes people may say they are not heroes, but at heart I'm sure all policemen and women want to protect the public.

People may not agree with all of the above, but no one can disagree with the next one.

The Military, especially the ones in Afghanistan at the moment, and the ones who have served in conflicts, and wars, past.
WW1, WW2, Korea, The Falklands, Northern Ireland, The Gulf War, Kosova and Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq.

To Siobhan O'Dowd and to all those 'people' who think Raoul Moat is some sort of legend and hero. Click the link below and see real heroes and legends.

Real Legends and Real Heroes

Forced Adoptions

2010-07-13T14:55:00.001+01:00

Forced adoption is a truly dreadful scandal

Social workers are removing children from loving families without proper justification, says Christopher Booker

That is the headline to this article, by Christopher Booker

In recent months, I have been reporting on what is one of the most alarming scandals in Britain today – the secretive system that allows social workers to remove children from loving families without any proper justification, and to send them for adoption or fostering with no apparent concern for their interests.

Four more examples have come to light in the past week. The first came to my attention via Lynn Boleyn, a former councillor from Dudley, who first became concerned about "forced adoption" when she sat on various committees concerned with child care. Last week, she was in court with a mother of five girls, whose family tragedy began when her partner was sentenced to 14 years for abusing the eldest girl, who was sent to live with a relative. Although there was no evidence of their mother harming them in any way, the other four girls were seized by Dudley social services and placed in foster care. Three were kept together, separated from their two-year-old sister whom the council now wants to put out for adoption.

The three girls, aged 11, 10 and 7, are desperately unhappy, constantly asking to be reunited with their mother. But on Friday, a judge said he had no power to stop social services summarily withdrawing them from their local school to be sent to a new home. The 11-year-old was looking forward to being in the school play and the end of term Leavers' Service. She has now been torn away from friends she has known since she was four, the nearest thing to stability left in her life. The children's wishes were not taken into account.

A second case concerns another woman, for 20 years an NHS nurse who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the first Gulf War. Until recently, she was a semi-professional dog breeder, living happily at home with her eight-year-old son (his father having walked out when she was pregnant).

In March, their home was raided by two RSPCA officials and five policemen, complaining she had too many dogs in the house. Her home was untidy because she was clearing an attic, but the seizing of the dogs (breaking the leg of one of them) left it a befouled mess.

Acting on a tip-off from the RSPCA, Leeds social workers then intervened, and expressed surprise that the house was tidier than they expected. Nevertheless, they told the mother to bring her son's clothes to school, from where he was taken into foster care.

After three months, during which he has only been allowed short supervised "contact" with his mother, the boy is miserable, constantly asking when he can return home. His mother has repeatedly had to draw the social workers' attention to various conditions, such as head lice and threadworm, which indicated that he was not being properly cared for. Last week they announced that they were moving him to another foster home.

Although there was no evidence that she was anything other than an admirable mother, apart from the temporary mess made of the house in March, the social workers say her son cannot be allowed home until they have both undergone "psychiatric assessments". These cannot be arranged until October. Nor has the boy yet been given a guardian to represent him, as the law lays down.

My other two cases come from Ian Josephs, the former county councillor and businessman who runs the Forced Adoption website and has helped hundreds of families in a similar plight. When, in January, a couple brought their newborn son to hospital with a fractured arm, Coventry social services were called in on suspicion that the child might have been injured by his parents. After the mother had been arrested, handcuffed and held by the police for nine hours, the couple were terrified that their baby would be taken from them. Although not charged with any offence, they are on police bail, which prevents them from leaving the country.

The child's Irish grandmother took the baby to Ireland, where he is now surrounded by a large, supportive family. Social services are attempting to get an order through the courts for the grandmother to return to England with the baby.

My last case is so shocking that I will return to it in more detail at a later date. It centres on a London couple who, earlier this year, had their six children seized by social workers on what appears to be flimsy hearsay evidence (I have seen the court papers).

The mother was pregnant again. Last month, after the boy was born, three social workers and five policemen entered the hospital ward where she was breastfeeding at 3am, wresting the baby from her by force. They then discovered that they had nowhere to keep him. The boy was put into intensive care, where his mother was taken to breastfeed him for four days, until she was fit to leave the hospital. She saw her baby for the last time two weeks ago.

I will return to this story when I have had some explanation from the council responsible.

I have blogged about this, in my opinion, inhumane act before.

Why didn't these social workers going after the poor children that really needed to be taken into care like Baby Peter, Khyra Ishaq and Victoria Climbie.

It does look like they are going after soft targets instead of the ones that need the real help.

What worries me is that they are ignoring the children and their concerns and emotional well being.

Are the social workers putting children up for adoption because of quotas? Read here, here and here.

There are very good social workers out there working to protect children, and I do wish that their work was in the headlines more than the others, but we don't hear about their stories.

Raoul Moat

2010-07-12T16:49:00.000+01:00

I followed the news story regarding Raoul Moat, and i wasn't surprised by the ending, he was either going to commit suicide or put the police into a scenario where the police had to shoot him.

I was starting to write my thoughts on the subject when I read Anna Raccoon's blog post on the subject. Once I read her blog post I knew anything I came up with would never do the subject justice.

So I ask you to go to Anna Raccoon Blog and read her blog post regarding Raoul Moat. She hits the nail on the head in her post.

Finding Nemo

2010-07-12T12:51:00.000+01:00

Sorry kids.

UK V USA

2010-07-12T12:26:00.000+01:00

Israel

2010-07-10T19:33:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Not A Sheep for the find.

Have a watch of this and see what you think.

'Because No One Cares About Jewish Blood'

Human Rights Law is an ass

2010-07-08T12:10:00.000+01:00

Abu Hamza extradition halted by EU judges

Human rights judges have ordered a halt to the extraditions of Babar Ahmad and radical preacher Abu Hamza, both wanted in the US on terror charges.

That is the headline to this article

An extract;

The Strasbourg court said it wanted more time to examine possible human rights breaches if the men face trial on charges which could mean life sentences without parole.

Ahmad, a 36-year old computer expert, has been in a UK prison without trial for nearly six years, refused bail since his arrest in August 2004 on a US extradition warrant.

Radical preacher Hamza is also wanted on terror charges in the US.

Both appealed separately to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that their treatment and potential punishment could violate Human Rights Convention provisions on the ''prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment''.

Once again, the (In) Human Rights Laws are being used by alleged international terrorists to avoid facing trail.

Why is everything being tried to stop alleged international terrorists being extradited, but Gary McKinnon is just handed over to the US authorities?

This European court of ~~criminal and terrorists~~ human rights and the human rights law should be there to protect the innocent, not the criminal and terrorist.

It needs to be changed so the criminal and terrorist can't use it for their own needs.

In Local News, sort of

2010-07-05T14:16:00.004+01:00

Llandudno sea rescue - over 250 miles from home

A young crew member found himself playing a leading role in a dramatic sea rescue on Friday, over 250 miles away from North Wales, thanks to his RNLI training with Llandudno RNLI Lifeboat crew.

He received an urgent radio call from Thames Coastguard and was asked, as the nearest available boat, to go to the aid of a 12-metre pleasure craft reported on fire 15 miles from his position.

23 year-old Danny Jones, who’s 'day job' is a skipper of offshore support vessels, was in command of the 18-metre fast-response catamaran Offshore Progress working in the Thames estuary and carrying a group of engineers undergoing training in emergency drills.

Making full speed to the casualty, Danny brought his vessel alongside the disabled boat, the Princess Anne, whose petrol engine had caught fire. The vessel had two men onboard. He immediately transferred two of his engineer passengers, armed with a fire extinguisher, over to the casualty and they quickly put out the blaze.

Danny then ordered a towline to be rigged to the pleasure boat and after a 20 mile tow brought it safely into Brightlingsea harbour. Its two occupants were described as being shocked but otherwise unharmed.
Speaking afterwards Danny said:

'It was great that the specialist skills I've learned during my 6 years of studying, training and taking part in exercises with the RNLI volunteer crew at Llandudno were put to good use. It was very satisfying to be able to help other sea-users in this way and to bring the operation to a satisfactory conclusion'.

Well done lad.

I hope he will receive a commendation at the very least for his efforts in saving the people on the vessel.

Update;

Article from the Daily Post

Brave Danny saves crew on blazing boat

When I grow up

2010-07-05T13:56:00.000+01:00

Just been going through the blogs and I found this blog entry by Old Holborn.

It is shocking how Britain has lost so many manufacturing jobs. Have a read and see if you are as shocked as I am.

'SHOCKING NEWS' about Al-Megrahi

2010-07-04T14:23:00.006+01:00

'The Lockerbie bomber could survive for 10 years or longer, according to an embarrassed cancer specialist who only last year said he would be dead within three months of his release, a newspaper reported on Sunday.'

Professor Karol Sikora, who assessed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi for the Libyan authorities almost a year ago, told The Sunday Times it was "embarrassing" that he had outlived his three-month prognosis.

'It was embarrassing' he says. How many times has this professor got the timing wrong before, or is this the first time he got it wrong?

Council Pension Black Holes.

2010-06-30T12:35:00.000+01:00

I have just read Ambush Predator's Blog called "You've got to pick a pocket or two..."

An extract from the blog;

Colchester Council is set to use £250,000 of taxpayers’ money to increase its pensions contribution as it battles against a £51million blackhole.

That got me thinking for the reason why so many councils have employed more 'Parking ~~SS officers~~ Attendants'.

According to this article, in Conwy County;

ILLEGALLY parked motorists paid more than £1.15 million in parking charges across Conwy county in the last three years, it has emerged.

I wonder how much of the money obtained through the fines goes to pay for the wages and pensions of the council workers, not just in Conwy County, but all over the country

Supreme Court ruling: British soldiers abroad 'not protected by human rights laws'

2010-06-30T11:34:00.001+01:00

That is the headline to this article.

Soldiers are putting their lives on the line everyday.

The supreme court say that Soldiers are not protected by 'Human Rights Laws', but the soldiers DO have the right to have the best equipment and the best protection there is.

I have a question

2010-06-30T09:07:00.001+01:00

Are the Unions, like Unite, more upset by the 1.3 million public sector job losses or are the Unions more upset about the loss of income?

Is anyone really shocked by this?

2010-06-26T16:53:00.000+01:00

The Great Inertia Sector: A whistleblower's account of council work where staff pull six-month sickies

Most of us knew that this was going on, if you have tried to call a council department you know what I mean.

What should happen is that councils should be forced to work under what the private sector has work under. Every penny should be accounted for in every council. It is our money to begin with.

Any person who says they are sick should be forced to go to a known doctor and be assessed.

What has, and is still happening should never of been allowed to happen in the first place. The government should sack any and all slackers in the councils who refuse to change, and replace them with people who want to get things done for their communities.

Will it happen, who knows, but I'm not holding my breath.

Isn't he allowed to take a day off?

2010-06-20T11:25:00.005+01:00

After the ~~Spanish inquisition~~ Congress hearing, I think Tony Hayward is allowed to have a day off, but no ~~Barry~~ Barak Obama, through his chief of staff, says it is another gaff.

This coming from someone who promised so much in the Presidential race, who gave hope to millions of people, but has failed miserably since he has become president.

Will Obama be re-elected in 2 years time.

NO HE WON'T

Have a look at this blog entry by Anna Raccoon and also this article about what Obama could of done early on in the disaster, but didn't.

Update:

What did Obama do yesterday?

Mr Obama and Vice President Joe Biden enjoyed a round of golf yesterday near Washington, and Twitter feeds compared their day out to Mr Hayward's yachting - lumping them together as diversions of privileged people who should be paying more attention to the spill.

The Saville report

2010-06-18T15:09:00.000+01:00

The following is taken from Deniersaurus Rex Blog.

I believe this is very accurate of what is in the Saville report.

McGuiness Isn't Good For You
Having now had a chance to go through the Saville report on the 1972 Londonderry incident I now regret the flippancy of my previous post.

I am now of the opinion that the £200 million that the report has cost was real value for money. The complete list of conclusions is as follows :-

1. 14 peace loving, totally innocent, catholic, hug bunnies were callously gunned down by the evil Brits.

2. Martin McGuiness was only in the area armed with a machine gun because he was getting rid of moles from a friends lawn.

3. Adolf Hitler was a much misunderstood friend of the Jews.

4. Pol Pot never even visited Cambodia, let alone kill half it's population.

5. The 9/11 atrocity was perpetrated by Buddhists.

6. Muhammad liked to have his portrait painted.

7. David Kelly committed suicide.

8. Robert Mugabe really loves white folks.

9. Gordon Brown abolished boom and bust.

10. Tony Blair never lies and his wife is not an unspeakable whore.

11. The "Hockey Stick" graph represents a piece of well researched science.

12. Obama has a clue.

13. The Moon is made of cheese.

I think you will agree that these findings are well worth the cost.

As this is not a sweary blog I cannot fully express the contempt I have for Cleggeron 1 and his completely inappropriate apology. Suffice to say the man is a complete smeg head of a soaking wet liberal, shiny faced, can't even win an election against Gordon bloody Brown, sniveling, embarrassment.

All that's left now is for us taxpayers to pick up the compensation bill.

I am waiting for what will happen next.

Justice

2010-06-15T17:33:00.000+01:00

The families from Bloody Sunday have their justice, but what about all the people the terrorists have murdered during the troubles.

Go to Victims.org.uk and read the atrocities that happened. How many of those victims, and victims families, have received justice?

Where's Gordon

2010-06-15T12:55:00.000+01:00

Just read Prodicus' Blog where he asks the following;

Are the electors of of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath being properly represented by their highly-paid and highly-pensioned Member?

It is a genuine question, most MPs are at Westminster or at their constituencies, but where is Gordon Brown?

He was elected to represent Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, if Gordon Brown isn't representing them, who is?

Live Life to the fullest.

2010-06-13T23:26:00.000+01:00

It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

I think they should of let him in

2010-06-13T00:38:00.000+01:00

Just been reading this article, and I had a thought.

If this '42-year-old British man with a history of inciting racial violence' wanted to gain entry to South Africa they should of let him in.

This guy, if the article is correct, likes to incite racial violence here in the UK.

If this 42 year old wants to incite racial violence in South Africa, where it is predominantly black, I say let him in and take him to one of the townships, and lets see how long he would last in there.

It is right he was stopped from gaining entry to South Africa, but wouldn't it be nice to see how some hardcore racists act when they are in a country that is predominately black.

What are Labour trying to do?

2010-06-12T00:57:00.001+01:00

The following is another great article by Jeff Randell.

Gordon Brown's henchmen are rewriting history as we sink into the red

The time for delusion, deceit and dodgy economic figures is over, argues Jeff Randall

If you're less than thrilled by today's World Cup kick-off, fret not: there's plenty of good sport elsewhere on television. My favourite viewing is the disintegration of Labour's effort to defend its disgraceful record in government. Some of the own goals are spectacular. Faced with the horror of exclusion from office for at least five years, former ministers – Ed Balls, Lord Myners and others – are rewriting their part in the policies that helped wreck the United Kingdom's social cohesion and financial solidity. Not since Shaggy's chart-topping song It Wasn't Me have we been treated to such a ridiculous attempt at self-exculpation.

With the repudiation of Gordon Brown's locust years by his erstwhile henchmen gathering pace, it can be only a matter of time before one of the candidates to replace him calls for a truth and reconciliation commission. This is what happens when tyranny crumbles. Until then, Liam Byrne, the Clunking Fist's most visible apologist, has been given the task of justifying his old boss's budgetary vandalism. The poor chap looks like a second-hand car salesman, trying to persuade furious customers that the dodgy vehicles they bought were, in fact, perfectly sound motors at the time of purchase.

For those of us who flagged up the debilitating consequences of unbridled immigration and debt accumulation, the sound of Mr Balls and Lord Myners admitting Labour's mistakes (while shifting blame to others), produces a barely resistible urge to seek justice via the ducking stool. Any feeling of vindication is swamped by anger and disgust.

In communities that have been destabilised by the arrival of large numbers of non-English-speaking people, many with alien cultures, a change of government will not improve their circumstances. The deleterious impact on over-stretched social services, housing and jobs cannot easily be reversed. Mr Balls's Damascene conversion merely adds insult to injury.

As for the nation's finances, only now, it seems, when the damage has been done, and the taxpayer condemned to long-term impoverishment, do we hear voices of dissent emerging from the ranks of Labour's placemen. One month after Mr Brown threatened to cling on to power as the senior partner in a soi-disant Progressive Alliance, Lord Myners is recanting.

This week, he told fellow peers: "There is nothing progressive about a government who consistently spend more than they can raise in taxation, and certainly nothing progressive that endows generations to come with the liabilities incurred by the current generation. There will need to be significant cuts in public expenditure, but there is considerable waste in public expenditure. I have seen that in my own experience as a minister."

Hallelujah, brother! A sinner has seen the light. As disavowals go, this was a doozy. What a shame, though, that the former City minister did not have the courage to spill the beans during the election campaign. For a so-called hard man, who carried out the "drive-by shooting" of Sir Fred Goodwin, Lord Myners was a disappointingly soft touch for his master in Number 10.

Having cloaked themselves in the theatrical robes of Keynesianism, Mr Brown's little helpers must endure the humiliation of being stripped naked by events. As any serious student of Keynes will tell you, the great man believed that governments could help smooth the peaks and troughs of cyclical capitalism. He did not advocate management by profligacy or the indulgence of budget deficits at the peak of a boom.

That Mr Brown chose to do this (his average budget deficit from 2003-2007 was £32 billion) began the stockpiling of massive debts. Made strikingly worse by the downturn, Britain's borrowings are £770 billion and on course to hit £1.4 trillion by 2014-15. At that point, our annual interest bill will be £70 billion, about twice what we currently commit to defence.

First, we deluded ourselves into believing that maximum expenditure was an acceptable norm. Then, as the madness took hold, the norm became the minimum. Finally, with alarm bells ringing and red lights flashing, came the Cabinet's bogus cover of "supporting the economy" through recession.

As Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, explained in the Financial Times: "The relevant fact was that the UK [and others]... had over-borrowed for a decade, so a decline in consumption after 2007 was not an anomaly to be fought but an adjustment to be accepted." Such a change in mindset was always going to be resisted by a government that was hooked on the political attractiveness of spending increases, even though it had, in effect, run out of money. To square the circle and calm lenders, Alistair Darling was required to make ever more heroic assumptions about GDP growth. This was the fairy dust which, when sprinkled on the nation's accounts, would magic away our debt crisis.

The philosopher Roger Scruton in his latest book, The Uses of Pessimism, warns against "the danger of false hope" from "unscrupulous optimists" who dismiss constraints, while flogging gravity-defying solutions. Mr Darling and his Treasury team, Mr Balls, Yvette Cooper, and the hapless Mr Byrne fit that description with alarming precision.

Much as Labour's claim about the economic benefits of immigration was demolished by a House of Lords select committee, its growth forecasts are likely to be challenged by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. If, as expected, the new OBR downgrades our growth prospects from Mr Darling's fantasy 3.5 per cent to the City's consensus of about 2 per cent, the outlook for the deficit becomes even worse.

This is why Fitch, the ratings agency, describes the UK's fiscal challenge as "formidable" and calls for deficit reduction at a more aggressive pace than set out in the Labour's last Budget. "The rise in public debt ratios since 2008 is faster than any other AAA-rated sovereign [nation] and the primary balance adjustment required to stabilise debt is amongst the highest of advanced countries."

Remember this when the Opposition squeals, as it surely will, on June 22, the day of George Osborne's emergency Budget. The Coalition did not create the extraordinary mess that must be tackled now if we are to avoid locking our children and theirs into a lifetime of paying off this burden. Existing taxes will go up and new ones will be introduced. But too few taxes are not the problem. Labour expected tax income of £541 billion this year, £54 billion more than in 2005, the year of its third election victory. The trouble is, expenditure in that time rocketed from £519 billion to £704 billion. Only through a robust shrinking of the state's outlay can sanity be restored. As Professor Sachs concludes: "There are no short-term miracles, only the threat of more bubbles if we pursue economic illusions. To rebuild our economies, the watchword must be investment rather than stimulus."

I would love to see Jeff Randell interview, or interrogate, Gordon Brown on what he did as chancellor and as PM. What a bloodbath that would be.

Labour over the last 13 years have screwed this country up so badly that the Labour leadership candidates, and ex ministers are saying, ' It wasn't me.' and 'I tried to say something, but was over ruled.'

Bull****

How can we ever trust what they say, if they're trying to wriggle out of the responsibility they have for putting this country in the state it is now in.

I would love to know who did this.

2010-06-11T16:51:00.000+01:00

Vandals desecrate British WW1 graves in France with racist slogans

Another council wasting money.

2010-06-09T17:05:00.001+01:00

Status Quo hits back at Brighton council over 'insulting' website

Status Quo have lashed out at Brighton council over a bizarre new recruitment website which declares that fans of the rock band "need not apply" for four executive jobs.

That is the headline to this article

An extract;

Brighton and Hove City Council spent about £10,000 on the website SayNoToStatusQuo.co.uk, which is designed to attract radical candidates for four new £125,000 strategic director posts.

The website's home page is emblazoned with the words "Status Quo fans need not apply" in glittery gold lettering and pink thunderbolts.

Status Quo, who reached the peak of their popularity in the 1970s, now plan to hang a banner reading: "Councillors for Brighton and Hove need not attend" when they perform at the Brighton Centre in December.

Who gave the ok to spend £10,000 on this, and why pick on Status Quo fans?

The taxpayers of Brighton, and the whole country, are the ones who pay for the stupid ideas like this. We should be given value for money for all the millions we pay to the councils of this country.

Every council in the country needs to save money, so why does Brighton council need four £125,000, directors?

I hope the people of Brighton make the councils lives hell over this.

What Planet are these people on?

2010-06-08T20:56:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Corrugated Soundbite for this find.

I should warn you that some swearing is involved in this blog.

Good to see New Labour's internet army is still going strong:http://www.gordonbrown.org/

No new comments coming through at the moment. Presumably because whichever lesbian one legged Somali outreach and diversity management coordinator was typing them up is now suffering from severe RSI and preparing a £750k lawsuit.

Pay homage to the cunt ;-)

UPDATE: It appears that comments even with only the slightest hint of negativity are not being published at all, and those that were previously submitted have now been switched to private, along with a number of gushy comments from BBC staff.

No criticism of the disposed Dear Leader is allowed (as we probably expected). Gotta love socialism.

I have only read a few comments so far, but how long were these people brainwashed.

Two Videos about the building of a mosque at Ground Zero

2010-06-08T20:45:00.000+01:00

Watch this new video by Pat Condell.

Also watch this video, an Americans point of view on the Mosque at Ground Zero.

This is Shocking News

2010-06-03T04:26:00.000+01:00

Immigration soars 20% after Labour's 'crackdown'

I'm in total shock.

Labour lied to the public. This is shocking news.

Yeah right, did anyone believe them in the first place?

How many more lies and waste are going to come out?

I don't know how the new Government can bring this country back from the brink, when we see statistics and waste like this being found.

How many ways has 13 years of Labour rule screwed up this country.

Every time Labour comes out with something against the government, They should remind people of this type of thing.

There needs to be an audit of everything in government by a independent official, to show the public what mess this country is in.

A question on the EU bailouts.

2010-06-02T13:30:00.000+01:00

I found this video on Fausty's Libertarian Blog, have a look and ask yourself;

Where's the money coming from?

It's hard to comprehend the amount of money involved. It does make you wonder how the UK, and the rest of the EU, will ever pay off the debt?

How long till this happens in Llandudno

2010-06-02T11:37:00.000+01:00

I have just read this article at Big Brother Watch.

Another bird-feeding 'criminal' gets collared

Last year, Big Brother Watch covered the story of Vanessa Kelly - a young mum who had taken her toddler to the park and been issued with a £75 fine for throwing bread to the ducks. We fought a successful campaign in the media that led to Sandwell Council overturning the fine and admitting their error.

Today we have been dismayed to learn of another bird-feeding incident that has led to an elderly woman being slapped with an £80 on-the-spot fine (from SWNS):

A woman was fined £80 for littering after wardens caught her throwing bread crumbs – to the birds. Heartless rubbish spies spotted the frail woman sprinkling bread over her garden railings onto the pavement for starlings.

Voluntary group St Peter’s Neighbourhood Monitoring started the campaign to catch litter louts last year.

Spies record residents who litter then post the footage onto You tube. Neighbours are then encouraged to name and shame those dropping litter.

Footage of people who litter is passed to the local authority who are then able to use it as evidence to issue fines.

There are any number of authoritarian crimes here - from Neighbourhood Monitoring groups dishing out justice; to spying on residents and illegal covert camera recording - but once again the real tragedy is the victim: a law-abiding elderly woman who has been fined most of her weekly pension for feeding the birds.

Big Brother Watch intends to help this woman if possible - if anyone has any information about this incident please do contact us.

By Dylan Sharpe

With the town and county council running short of money will they start fining people for feeding birds on the West Shore?

Not forgetting the increase in council tax that is coming next year. I wonder how much that will be?

We already have council (SS) officers who have the right to enter your home without a warrant or a police presence.

How long before we have more council (SS) officers giving out fines so the council can get the money to pay for their ~~wages and pensions~~ essential services.

Purse Thief gets Attacked

2010-06-01T17:26:00.001+01:00

A bit of Community Spirit.

I wonder if this guy will steal another purse after this?

Purse Thief Gets Attacked - Watch more Funny Videos

Has the Met Office built a computer model that works?

2010-06-01T14:31:00.000+01:00

I am asking this because the met office have predicted the following;

Night-time temperatures could rise above 25C because of climate change

An extract;

The number of sweltering nights when the temperature in cities stays above 20C (68F) and the elderly become vulnerable to heat exhaustion will increase fivefold because of climate change, a Met Office study has found.

Opening the windows will make no difference because the outside temperature will be too warm for the heat in homes to escape. The “urban heat island effect”, in which buildings and roads absorb heat during the day and release it at night, could result in the temperature on the hottest nights remaining above 25C.

When will this happen then?

The Met Office study found that, by 2040, it could need to issue heatwave warnings for urban areas four times more frequently. The warning system was established after the 2003 heatwave to help people to protect those at risk, including the elderly, young children and those suffering with poor health caused by respiratory diseases.

So by 2040 the night time temperature will be at least 20C.

So they are predicting within 30 years what the temperature will be.

Does anyone remember this headline from March 2010;

Met Office drops seasonal forecast

An extract from the article;

Dave Britton, of the Met Office, admitted last night that it was just too difficult to give an accurate forecast for the seasons using the current science.
"Although we can identify general patterns of weather, the science does not exist to allow an exact forecast beyond five days, or to absolutely promise a certain type of weather.
"As a result, 'seasonal forecasts' cannot be as precise as our short-term forecast," he said.

The last line of the article reads;

The Met Office, based at Exeter in Devon, added that it would work towards developing the science of long range forecasting.

So has the Met Office built a new computer model that accurately predicts the weather in the future?

David Laws Expenses

2010-05-29T18:53:00.000+01:00

If David Laws had come clean about his expenses last year, or even before the election, he might of survived this, but when the coalition government announced a new open and honest government, for David Laws it was too late.

I admit it isn't as bad as some MPs, I mean £750 - £950 a month rent isn't too bad for London.

If he goes, which might be very soon if the news reports are true, it will be a shame because he looked like he was making a very good start at the treasury.

Who is winning the argument?

2010-05-29T17:01:00.000+01:00

I have been reading Gerald Warner's blog Latest climate climbdown: the Royal Society reviews its statements on global warming

I'm wondering who is winning the climate change / global warming argument?

An extract from the article;

The latest institutional retreat from uncritical support of the AGW hypothesis is one that will chill warmists to the core: the Royal Society has announced it is to review its public statements on climate change. The Society now believes that its previous communications did not properly distinguish between what was widely agreed on climate science and what is not fully understood. It has appointed a panel to review its statements, assisted by two critical sub-groups, including a number of Fellows who have doubts about the received view on the risks of increasing CO2 levels.

In previous blog entries I have written that I wanted to be told the truth about climate change and global warming. Up until last year I could of gone into either camp, but when the climategate files came to light I became a sceptic.

I have no scientific knowledge to go through all the data to come to any scientific conclusion, but I have read a lot from other sites like Watts Up With That and I became more sceptical about global warming.

An extract;

Clearly, that kind of blind commitment to the AGW cause will no longer be endorsed by the Royal Society. It is a sign of the times. Two months ago the Science Museum in London changed the name of its Climate Change Gallery to the Climate Science Gallery, as it began to distance itself from the partisan assumptions of the climate lobby. In fact it was abashed by the derision to which its previous posture had been subjected by visitors. Its director said: “We have come to realise, given the way this subject has become so polarised over the past three to four months, that we need to be respectful and welcoming of all views on it.”

If these societies and groups are, as the article says 'began to distance itself from the partisan assumptions of the climate lobby.' Then the government and the EU should think again about going down the path of carbon taxing, and cutting down the emissions, which will cost us billions.

The argument hasn't been won by any side yet.

There should be an open debate on climate change / global warming with all the facts and figures, for and against, to finally assure the public one way or the other on what is really happening to our climate.

Are we actually causing global warming with the carbon emissions, or is it a natural occurrence?

The public need to be told one way or the other.

Educating our children?

2010-05-26T18:20:00.001+01:00

Go to Dick Puddlecote's blog and read what his children have been taught this last week.

If this is being done throughout the country, no wonder children are leaving school with reading and writing problems.

Children are in school to be educated.

Is the EU trying make us all bankrupt?

2010-05-26T00:50:00.001+01:00

Not only did the UK helped bail out the euro the other week, even though we aren't part of the Euro, but now the EU want us to pay to cut greenhouse emissions.

EU sets toughest targets to fight global warming

That is the headline to this article.

An extract;

Europe will introduce a surprise new plan today to combat global warming, committing Britain and the rest of the EU to the most ambitious targets in the world. The plan proposes a massive increase in the target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in this decade.

The European Commission is determined to press ahead with the cuts despite the financial turmoil gripping the bloc, even though it would require Britain and other EU member states to impose far tougher financial penalties on their industries than are being considered by other large economies.

The plan, to cut emissions by 30 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, would cost the EU an extra £33 billion a year by 2020, according to a draft of the Commission’s communication leaked to The Times.

Do those bureaucrats in the EU not realise that the whole of the EU is in a financial mess, or don't they realise this because they live on another planet?

Sometimes I think that the bureaucrats want to bankrupt the countries in the EU on purpose, then they step in to take over the accounts of the countries, but on condition they give more powers to the bureaucrats.

These idiots who make these announcements, must live in a cocoon away from reality, because we all need to save money and make cuts to our spending, not spend more money to prevent something that could be a natural occurring event.

Has anyone wondered what the EU bureaucrats are doing to help save money?

Will they take a cut in their pay?

Will they save money, by cutting the amount of MEPs and bureaucrats?

What do you think?

I'm still trying to get my head around this case...

2010-05-25T00:58:00.000+01:00

Regarding the case of the 2 ten year olds.

I was trying to put into words what my thoughts were on the subject, until I saw this article. Philip Johnston says it all in the article

Was this really attempted rape – or children playing?

By Philip Johnston

Two boys aged 10 and 11 have been found guilty of the attempted rape of an eight year old girl. I find it almost impossible to get my head around this.

The evidence in the case suggested that they were indulging in the sort of curiosity that children have shown in each other’s bodies since the dawn of time. They were initially charged with rape until the little girl told the court that this had not actually happened.

Boys of that age are almost certainly pre-pubescent and their interest in the little girl almost certainly non-sexual. A jury at the Old Bailey heard the evidence and found them not guilty of rape but guilty of attempted rape. They will now be on the sex offenders register, though as the judge said he had no idea what that meant for children of this age.

Is there any other period in our history, or any other country in the world, where the pre-pubescent fumblings of children would result in a rape trial? We bombard children with sexual imagery and then are surprised when they show interest in what it means. It is astonishing that they were convicted but even more amazing is that it even came to court at all.

Have we lost all concept of childhood in this country?

“I don’t think anyone who has sat through this trial would think for a moment that the system that we employ is ideal,” said Mr Justice Saunders.

He can say that again.

Could this set a precedent or can common sense be brought in?

This case looks like it was just 3 children being curious, but the girl became scared and worried about what her mother would think.

The reasons why this case was brought to court needs to be looked at.

Now we have 2 boys found guilty of attempted rape, for just being curious. How will this effect their future lives?

What about the girl in this, how will she feel in the future about this, how will it effect her life in the future.

All the adults in this case, the police the CPS, the parents, the court system have to answer questions about this case and the future well being of the 3 children

Could this actually work?

2010-05-20T21:02:00.004+01:00

I found this article through Daniel Hannan's blog.

It is very interesting to read and it looks like it has some good ideas, but I don't have the economic knowledge to know if this could actually work.

Have a read and see what you think.

The Emperor’s New Clothes: How to Pay off the National Debt & Give a 28.5% Tax Cut
By Toby Baxendale.

I offer a £1,000 reward for anyone who can tell me why this logically won’t work, practical politics, for now, being another matter.

What follows is an attempt to show you that this can be done.

Remember the story about the Emperor whose only concern was not the welfare of his people but the state of his clothes? Lacking a new outfit for his procession, he instructs the finest clothe-makers to propose designs. Step forward Slimus and Slick, promising that only clever people will be able to see their splendiferous garments; they will be invisible to anyone stupid. In exchange for gold coin – real money – they make something special for the King. The King, seeing nothing when presented with these designs made out of thin air, worries that he must be stupid because he pretended to the fraudsters that they were wonderful. Word goes round that only clever people can see the garments, so everyone cheers the naked King during his procession. It takes a small child, on top of his father’s shoulders, to exclaim: “the Emperor has got nothing on!” Everyone falls silent. Then, one by one, they start muttering, “the Emperor is naked!”

I am going to tell you that our Emperor – the government – has no clothes and is indeed naked with respect to our money. The sooner we realise this the better. Then we can make real progress and prevent the imminent misery. Indeed, the realisation of its nakedness should reveal that we have a unique moment in history to do something very special: to make banking secure, pay off the national debt, and even enable a 28.5% income-tax cut.

We all know what notes and coins are: money, or cash. It allows us to exchange the fruits of our work for the goods of others. When we deposit cash in Bank A – say £100 – we lend this money to the bank. This may come as a surprise to most, as we think what we deposit in a bank actually remains “ours” beyond this point. But as soon as you make a deposit it becomes the bank’s i.e. “theirs.” They then lend what is called credit of £100 to an entrepreneur, who banks it in bank B. Like magic, we now have you, who have a claim to “your” £100, and the entrepreneur, who also has an equally valid claim to “his” £100. This happens 33 times for every £100 deposited in the UK economy on average, meaning that for every £100 deposited, it is lent out to 33 people. Some of the banks did this up to 60 times. This cash cannot exist in two places at the same time, let alone 60 places at once. So what bank A does, is write you an IOU. Yes, your bank-statement is a mere IOU, the bank saying “ bank A owes you £100 on demand.” This is called a demand-deposit. We now see that demand-deposits are created out of thin air! Indeed, these are just ledger-entries from one bank customer to another.

Tesco groceries can be paid by electronic transfer. All we are doing is moving our bank’s IOU to Tesco’s bank in exchange for their groceries. This is how the world works. Do we care that we are buying goods and services out of thin air? Like the Emperor, does he care – as long as all believe he is clothed? Well, the customers of Northern Rock did. So when more than a small percentage of them asked for their IOUs from Northern Rock to be repaid – or, as they thought, for “their” money back – it could not be, as the bank had already lent it many times, making it impossible to reimburse all they owed. Indeed, if the government had not pledged to underwrite all deposits, then there would be a very good chance that the whole system would have collapsed.

If we accept that the Emperor is naked then the path to solving all our current financial problems becomes clearer.

Consider this following programme of reform:

Print cash and replace all the demand-deposits/IOUs that exist in the system with that cash. This means the government printing approx £850 billion in cash and injecting it directly into the vaults of the banks and into the accounts of individuals. Thus, if you deposited £100 once thinking it was “yours,” it now really exists in cash, with the bank acting as custodian of your money.

Mandate all banks to hold your cash (100% reserved) on demand at all times.

Wipe from the bank ledgers all the demand-deposits/IOUs as banks would not owe you money anymore. This means the “thin air” money disappears, to be replaced exactly with cash money. Note: this is not inflationary, as the cash replaces the demand-deposit which acted as money. As we have established, it is only thin-air that the banking system has created to facilitate the multiplicity of lending of the same bit of money, so its total replacement with cash would mean the money supply stays exactly the same.

Require all banks to lend real savings that people knowingly place with banks to lend to businesses to get a return of interest and capital back when the business repays that loan. This is nice, simple and safe utility banking. This is what Mervyn King advocates.

As you are not a creditor of the bank anymore, the banking system will only have its assets and its capital, i.e. no liabilities. This means that there never again could be a bank run.

As for the banks, not having you the depositor as a liability anymore, they will suddenly be £850 billion better off, with no current liabilities and only assets (loans to business etc), post reform. The government can now put those assets into Mutuals, which would then immediately pay off the national debt, and leave the banks in exactly the same position net worth wise as they were prior to the reform, owned by their existing shareholders. As the national debt is still just under the £850 billion, which would be available as surplus assets of the banks, this could still be achieved.

No national debt means no interest costs (currently £40 billion p.a) associated with paying for our borrowing. Therefore, give an immediate 28.5% income-tax cut. Total income-tax raised is £142 billion.

The boy in the story stood on his father’s shoulders. I stand on the shoulders of great men who have advocated part of this reform: Irving Fisher, the greatest American economist, the Nobel Prize winners Soddy, Hayek, Buchanan, Tobin, and Allais. Recently, Kotlikoff of Boston University has published an excellent book, “Jimmy Stewart is Dead” advocating a similar reform. It is endorsed by more Nobel Winners: Akerlof, Lucas, Fogel, Prescott, and Phelps. I count 36 endorsements from the great and the good for the book. All endorse Kotlikoff’s move to what he calls Limited Purpose Banking which is another way to get 100% reserved (i.e. secure) deposits backed by cash rather than thin-air.

The Economist Huerta De Soto, in “Money, Bank Credit & Economic Cycles,” has seen the opportunity that presents itself to reform for 100% money while also paying off the National Debt. Following on from this, I suggest a substantial wealth-creating tax cut for the people. Just like the boy in the story, I do hope that people start to realise that the emperor really has no clothes, and that an enlightened approach can address this.

If this could work, will the politicians use it, or at least consider it?

Get a load of this.

2010-05-17T16:27:00.004+01:00

Health and safety checks for all families, says Nice

Inspections should be carried out on every household to make sure families are keeping children safe, according to government guidance.

That is the headline to this article

An extract;

All parents should allow health inspectors into their homes to check that windows, doors, cupboards and stairs do not pose a danger to children, it was claimed.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said that every family with sons and daughters under the age of five should agree to a home safety assessment.

Is this what these people do all day, think how to enrage the people of this country and waste our money as well?

At least this is just a recommendation, for now.

The country does need to save money and I think this is one quango that we could do without, or at least trim it down severely.

Government Priorities

2010-05-15T06:04:00.006+01:00

I have just been reading this article

I have copied the whole article for you to read.

Who dares mutinies: How the SAS defied orders to launch the most audacious rescue of the Iraq war

At Credenhill camp, their UK base near Hereford, officers and troopers of 22 SAS were on parade in their best bib and tucker. Their usual jeans and combat overalls were replaced by spotless dress uniforms for a ceremony to consecrate a new resting place for the regiment’s fallen heroes. But then the quiet was shattered by dozens of mobile phones ringing.

Nearly 3,000 miles away in hot, dusty Southern Iraq, two of their own were in desperate trouble. Captured by insurgents, banged up in a cell and physically beaten, they were under threat of summary execution.

Even worse, the message coming along the grapevine was that nothing much was being done by British forces in Basra to save them. There was every chance, it seemed, that the new graveyard would soon be getting its first occupants.

What was particularly frustrating was that a situation like this was meat and drink to the honed and highly motivated men of the special forces.

The SAS had won its unrivalled public reputation by springing the hostages from the siege of the Iranian embassy in London back in 1980. Surely they could do the same for their own guys in Iraq, in 2005?

Except that no one, it appeared, would authorise such a mission.

The SAS needed clearance from defence chiefs in Britain but, concerned about the effects an assault might have on the fragile political set-up in Basra, they were sitting on their hands. The word coming from the top was that there were more important issues at stake than the lives of two soldiers.

The troopers were furious. No wonder that — as the Daily Mail exclusively revealed last week — the SAS came close to mutiny.

Its officers talked of resigning their commissions; among the men, there were mutterings about going on strike until the Government showed some bottle. After all, the nature of the job meant any one of them could find themselves in a similar situation.

Earlier that day, September 19, the two soldiers in question — a staff sergeant and a lance corporal — had been in a beat up local car cruising through the dusty Basra streets on a covert surveillance mission.

With a handful of colleagues in a second car, they comprised the total SAS contingent in Basra, the southern city where 8,500 British troops were tasked to back up the local police force in maintaining some semblance of order in post-Saddam Iraq.

The main SAS presence, known as Task Force Black, was based in Baghdad, engaged alongside U.S. special forces in a full- on covert war against Al-Qaeda. To the SAS, Basra was a backwater, where its tiny force’s main job was protecting MI6 agents.

For the Army there, however, the pressing issue was the loyalty of the local police they were trying to train. And whether they were, in fact, secretly in league with the increasingly unruly Shia militiamen, the so-called Mahdi Army.

To that end, the SAS patrol was out early, keeping tabs on a dodgy police captain. Disguised as Arabs, their job was simply to find out where he lived so that the Army could snatch him.

They had done that — ‘finished the serial’, in SAS speak — and were heading back to base when the first car turned a corner and ran straight into a police checkpoint.

This was no random stop-and-search. Suspicion was two way traffic in Iraq, and the police had been watching the watchers. They moved in, rifles readied, and motioned the occupants out of their car.

The hands of the SAS men reached for hidden weapons. There was no knowing who these men manning the barricade really were.

Shots rang out from both sides in a firefight that resulted in one policeman being killed and three more being wounded.

The SAS car roared away from the scene in clouds of dust, police vehicles hot on its tail.

But there was no escape. Their dog of a car was no match for the souped-up police vehicles. The sergeant and lance-corporal just had time to radio in their position before skidding to a halt and getting out, hands in the air, hoping to talk their way out of trouble.

Their captors were in no mood for negotiations. They grabbed the British soldiers, hustled them into their vehicles and sped away.

The men in the other, undetected SAS car stayed at a distance and tracked the convoy to the walled compound of the Jamiat police station, where they saw their comrades being bundled inside.

Here was a situation guaranteed to fill the minds of the British military with dread. Seared in the collective memory were the two corporals in plain clothes murdered by a mob of IRA supporters in Belfast in 1988.

More recently, in June 2003, six military policemen in the Basra region had been captured by militants and butchered. The failure to mount an operation in time to rescue them had shocked the ranks. Was a repeat really going to be allowed to happen?

The news of their colleagues’ capture raced round A Squadron, the main SAS force, at their base in Baghdad, a luxury villa that had once belonged to a sidekick of Saddam’s.

Two dozen troopers kitted up and, together with a logistical back-up team, made for the nearby airport and a waiting Hercules transport plane. Soon they were in the air and heading south to Basra.

By contrast, the wheels of officialdom were grinding more slowly. The British Embassy’s response was to contact the Iraqi Interior Ministry and make a formal request for the men’s release. They might as well have sent a postcard for all the good it would do.

Meanwhile, in Basra, a 100-strong Quick Reaction Force of Coldstream Guards was soon on its way to the police station.

It had no instructions to mount a rescue operation — it had just been ordered to contain the situation by cordoning off the building.

Inside the police station, in a room on the top floor, the two SAS men were stripped down to their T-shirts. Punched and kicked, they were accused of being Israeli spies.

This being the age of 24-hour TV, their captors went for instant publicity. Slumped on chairs, the two men, their faces bloodied, were filmed alongside the weapons and radio equipment captured with them. The images shot around the world.

To watchers from the Army — and particularly the SAS — the pictures were deeply worrying. The incident was swiftly getting out of control.

And to make matters worse, the square outside the police station was filling with angry Iraqis.

Rumours spread like a firestorm through the predominantly Shi’ite area and they came in their hundreds to demand vengeance for the death of the policeman at the road block.

Major James Woodham of the Royal Anglian Regiment arrived outside the police station to find a near riot.

He regularly liaised with the local police, and he was sent by his Army superiors to get inside and use his contacts to defuse the situation.

But the gates were closed in his face, and he saw machine guns mounted on the roof, aiming at the thin line of nervous British soldiers, many experiencing their first confrontation with stone-throwing Iraqis.

Nor was there much prospect of the situation cooling as reinforcements were on their way — for both sides. Helicopters were ferrying in more troops and the British force would eventually number 600.

They were matched by Muslim militiamen, who sped to the scene in trucks. Youths poured petrol into bottles to make firebombs. Somewhere in the hostile crowd, which was growing by the minute, were rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles.

The cool-headed Major used all his negotiating skills to talk his way inside. He was taken to see the two men. ‘They were pleased to see me,’ he recalled. His presence seemed to reassure them that steps were being taken for their release. Weren’t they?

Major Woodham quickly cleared up the matter of identity. The prisoners were not spies but British soldiers, he told the Iraqi police. But this made no difference. The police were insisting that an investigating judge should interrogate the two men.

Out of his depth with these legal matters, the Major sent for an Arab-speaking Army lawyer to continue the negotiations.

Out at the UK base at Basra airport, the commander of A Squadron was pleading with the acting British field commander, Brigadier John Lorimer, for permission to send his SAS troops to the rescue.

The TV images indicated that the two men were in acute danger. At the very least, there was the risk of an embarrassing show trial broadcast across the world.

Or worse — 18 months earlier, militants had kept the cameras rolling as they sawed off the head of a captured U.S. civilian worker.

But the Ministry of Defence in London and the Joint Operations Headquarters at Northwood just outside the capital instructed Brigadier Lorimer not to do anything that might inflame matters.

Back at the police station, the lawyer had arrived, a glamorous female soldier, Major Rabia Siddique.

In the intimidating crowd of police around her, she spotted the faces of known Islamic militants.

As a Muslim woman, she felt extremely vulnerable. At one stage, she was spat at and called ‘a whore’.

But she stood her ground. For an hour she argued with the judge that the men were protected by a legal agreement between the Iraqi government and Coalition Forces, and should be released.

Asking for proof that the prisoners were still alive, she was taken to a cell, where they were huddled in a corner, chained up and blindfolded. ‘They were dragged over and plonked in front of me,’ she recalled. ‘I told them not to worry, that we’d get them out.’

But that prospect seemed slimmer than ever as, outside the station, a full-scale battle was breaking out. In the blazing heat, British troops tried to contain the waves of rioters surging towards them. Soldiers opened fire on the petrol bombers, and the casualties they inflicted further enraged the mob.

As the fighting spread in the narrow Basra backstreets, a Warrior armoured carrier was hit. A soldier was seized by the pursuing mob and beaten until he was unconscious. With machine guns blazing, he was rescued by comrades who dragged him away by his hair.

Another Warrior took a direct hit and a ball of fire shot up from the turret. Soldiers came cannoning out through the air, frantically beating out the flames with their hands.

In all, 19 British soldiers were badly wounded that day. The miracle, given the ferocity of the encounters, was that none died.

All this was captured on cameras in a Predator ‘spy-in-the-sky’ drone cruising overhead and flashing its pictures back to base and to armchair commanders in England.

But as the situation on the ground worsened by the minute, still nobody could be found to authorise a rescue mission. To this day, SAS sources believe a senior officer who could have made a decision was on the golf course and had his mobile phone switched off.

The implication is that he was deliberately not contactable.

There are now charges — from Tory MP Adam Holloway in a hard-hitting report on the incident — that politics were at the root of this studied inactivity.

The comforting picture presented by the MoD and the Government to the British people was of ‘our boys in Basra’ not at war but training and mentoring the Iraqi police.

This clear indication that local police — their ranks riddled with insurgents — were the problem rather than the solution, was a blow to that strategy. If two soldiers had to be sacrificed so as not to rock the boat, then so be it.

Inside the police station, things were in fact looking up as Major Siddique’s negotiations seemed to be making progress. The judge was willing to hand over the men into her custody in return for a signed letter from the Iraqi government authorising their release.

The letter was said to be on its way, if only a courier could get through the baying mob camped outside.

But then the mood changed dramatically. Dozens of militia in plain clothes poured into the room. She heard shouting and the ominous rattle of machine guns being primed. Pistols were waved in the air.

It was clear this was no longer a police matter. Shia militiamen were taking over. ‘I tried to carry on talking to the judge but he said: “I’m sorry. It’s no longer in my hands.” I felt control slipping through my fingers. I was afraid,’ said Major Siddique.

The intruders grabbed the two soldiers and took them away. Major Siddique was sure they were about to be shot. In fact, their captors — fearing a helicopter assault — had decided to move them to a safe house. They bundled them downstairs, dressed them in ankle-length Arab clothes and covered their heads with blankets as they emerged into the yard.

A scuffle broke out. The SAS men, co-operative until now, were not going quietly.

It was a good job they fought back, because overhead a keen-eyed observer in a circling Sea King helicopter spotted the fracas as the men were forced into the boots of waiting cars and driven away.

He relayed his commentary back to base — where SAS commanders realised time was running out.

From mobile phone calls intercepted by high-tech eavesdroppers, they discovered who had their boys — a militant group calling itself Iraqi Hezbollah. It didn’t augur well.

By now, the SAS force from Baghdad had arrived and was deployed a few miles away from the Jamiat police station. They were incandescent that political matters were reining them in. All they needed was the ‘go’ command.

And then they got it, in defiance of Whitehall — though precisely from whom remains unclear.

Some sources indicate it was the SAS commander on the spot who made the call. But other accounts say it was Brigadier Lorimer who seized the initiative by ordering an armoured column of regular forces to take the police station.

With helicopters buzzing overhead, Warriors and Challenger tanks brushed aside the crowds outside and crashed through the walls into the compound. Snatch squads burst into every room, ostensibly looking for the two SAS captives.

But the attack on the station — which Iraqi officials denounced as ‘barbaric, savage and irresponsible’ — was a feint. The real rescue mission was centred on a house nearby, where the SAS knew their men had been taken.

It was a classic assault of the type that they had practised so many times in the so- called Killing House at Hereford, blowing out windows and doors, hurling in stun grenades and storming in through the dust and smoke.

There was no opposition. In a locked bathroom, they found the sergeant and lance-corporal, bound but safe and alive. The militants holding them had melted away into the night.

In the aftermath of this success, all the supposed difficulties that had surrounded it melted away, too.

The rescue mission mysteriously assumed the mantle of having been authorised all along. A veil was drawn over the indecision of the top-brass back home.

But the SAS knew the truth — and at least one senior officer had now had enough of being a political pawn. In his report, Holloway reveals that the commander on the ground, who risked his career by going ahead with the rescue, subsequently left the Army because he was ‘disillusioned at the degeneration of the moral backbone of the British military generalship in the heart of Whitehall’.

The regiment had their men back, but no thanks, they felt, to high-ups on their own side. As the SAS motto goes, who dares wins — but it’s a damned sight harder if your hands are tied behind your back.

This proves one thing, the last government thought so little of our lads and lasses out there that they would let 2 of them die, just to keep the locals happy.

The following is taken from The Military Covenant

Soldiers will be called upon to make personal sacrifices - including the ultimate sacrifice - in the service of the Nation. In putting the needs of the Nation and the Army before their own, they fore go some of the rights enjoyed by those outside the Armed Forces. In return, British soldiers must always be able to expect fair treatment, to be valued and respected as individuals, and that they (and their families) will be sustained and rewarded by commensurate terms and conditions of service.

'Fair treatment and to be valued and respected', someone forgot about that on this day.

This must be just one of hundreds of examples of how the last government thought of our military.

Let's hope this new government will show the military the respect they deserve.

Is this a case of 'Do as we say and not as we do?'

2010-05-13T15:25:00.004+01:00

EU imposes wage cuts on Spanish 'Protectorate', calls for budget primacy over sovereign parliaments

Spain has followed Ireland and Greece in imposing 1930s-era wage cuts to slash the budget deficit, complying with EU demands for further austerity in exchange for the €720bn `shock and awe’ rescue for eurozone debtors.

That is the headline to this article

All nations who are in debt should find ways to save money, that isn't my problem.

What I find annoying is the EU demanding countries make cuts in pay, to be eligible for the 720bn euro rescue package, when the EU ministers increase their own pay.

See Daniel Hannan's video here

Let's not get into the fact that the accountants of the EU haven't signed off on the EU's budgets for about the last 15 years.

See Daniel Hannan's video here

If these countries want to save money, don't give any more money to the EU until they practice what they preach.

A new Government

2010-05-11T20:57:00.007+01:00

Well David Cameron is now Prime Minister.

A coalition government hasn't been seen in a long time, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

It will be a bumpy road, but I hope all in government will do what's right for the country and not what's right for their own party.

There is a lot of pain on it's way, due to our debt and deficit, but I hope the country comes through it stronger.

My father installed in me a great sense of pride in this country, but over the last few years this country hasn't had much to be proud of.

The country is in a big hole and it's going to take sacrifices from everyone to get us through it.

The situation we are in reminds me of a quote by President John F Kennedy in his inaugural speech.

'Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.'

I believe that we must look at that quote and do what we can to help this country through these difficult times.

There are a few people who have used the benefits system to get money for doing nothing, while the taxpayers of this country work their arses off to keep them in a better life than those who work for a living. They must be shown that that lifestyle is now over, and that they must man up and earn their money.

That is an example of my thinking when I look at that quote.

Some might say I'm being naive, but I want to be optimistic and have hope in this country, and for the future of this country.

The UK getting screwed by the EU again

2010-05-09T11:08:00.006+01:00

British taxpayers ordered to bail out euro

Britain faces paying out billions of pounds under a European Union deal intended to prevent another financial crisis like the one in Greece.

That is the headline to this article

When did we join the Euro?

We still have the Pound, so why is Britain helping to bail out Greece?

The reason is we were signed up to the European Constitution, oh sorry, the Lisbon Treaty by an unelected Prime Minister.

When Gordon Brown signed the treaty we lost the veto.

An extract from the article.

“When the markets reopen Monday we will have in place a mechanism to defend the euro,” said President Sarkozy yesterday. “This is a full-scale mobilisation.”

Euro-zone leaders are attempting to get round objections from countries such as Britain by invoking Article 122 of the Lisbon Treaty, intended to enable a collective response to natural disasters. This does not need unanimous agreement.

Sounds like a dictatorship to me..

By doing so, Mr Sarkozy has ensured a speedy confrontation with a new British prime minister and other leaders of non-euro currency countries. All 27 EU finance ministers must be present, but because decision will be taken by qualified majority vote, the 16 euro zone leaders can ensure its passage.

This is another example of how much power the EU has over the UK.

We didn't sign up to the Euro, so why should the British Tax payer help to bail it out. Any how, we haven't got any money left.

This has to be a joke

2010-05-08T11:33:00.003+01:00

The headline to the article

It's enough to make Dixon Of Dock Green blush: Security firms paid £23m to guard police stations

An extract;

Many will remember George Dixon faithfully standing guard underneath the old blue lamp.

But these days, you are just as likely to see private security staff outside a police station as an actual constable.

Figures have revealed police forces spend £23million on private security to protect their stations and headquarters

Far from the traditional image of a bobby keeping a lookout on the station steps - memorably portrayed by Jack Warner in the long-running TV series Dixon Of Dock Green - it seems that the safety of our police stations is being left in the hands of civilians.

Well, if it helps get the police out on the streets then I could live with that, but the police aren't on the streets they are still drowning in paperwork.

What will Happen?

2010-05-07T13:29:00.002+01:00

Well just woke up after a few hours sleep. I thought I was having a nightmare, because when I turned the TV on I saw Charlie Whealen.

Britain needs to see a stable government, because the country is on a cliff edge.

Gordon Brown, and Labour, has to resign, they have been thoroughly beaten in the polls. They have no mandate at all.

We need to see stability soon, or god help us.

Gordon Brown is deluded. He is truly desperate to stay in power.

Not What The Country Needed

2010-05-07T08:59:00.004+01:00

Well I was up all night, had an hours kip, and got the kids to school and now I'm back here.

The country needed a Tory majority to govern properly, but they didn't get that.

How?

I'll leave that to the experts.

Brown lost close to 100 seats, he has a smaller percentage of the vote, yet he still wants to govern.

There is a word for that.

It's called a dictatorship.

Brown has NO mandate, the public have spoken loud and clear.

The people of this nation doesn't want Gordon Brown as the Prime Minister.

Very curious, this election so far

2010-05-07T02:52:00.003+01:00

It's nearly 3am and I am still up watching the election.

I have seen a 16% swing to the Torys, an 11% swing to the Torys, and a 5% swing to the Torys.

Why aren't the Torys gaining more seats?

Take Edgbaston, the Torys need a 2% swing to gain the seat, but it is on a recount.

This is a very strange election so far.

In about 30 hours we will know...

2010-05-05T22:45:00.004+01:00

What future this Country has.

When Labour came to power in 1997, they promised so much.

13 years later look at what this country has become.

Labour have all but ruined this country. You just have to look at some of my blogs, and others on the blogosphere, to see what has happened to this country over the last 13 years.

Education - UK slipped to 24th on English and math, pupils running riot in schools, pupils being taught by classroom assistants not qualified teachers, league tables,
Law and order - crime up, no (real) police on the beat, social breakdown, knife crime up, gun crime up, League tables,
Justice - criminals let out early to commit more crimes, ASBOs, prison sentences that don't fit the crime,
Hospital infections, not enough nurses to cover wards, care assistants on wards instead of proper nurses, league tables,
Economy ruined, 1.5 trillion in debt, our children and grandchildren will pay off this debt,
Millions on benefits,
MPs expenses,
A promise of a referendum on Europe broken, Immigration out of control,
Gordon Brown,
Tony Blair,
War in Iraq, War in Afghanistan, Soldiers not given proper equipment, soldiers dying because of underfunding, soldiers dying because they weren't given the right vehicles, soldiers dying due to the lack of helicopters.

But the worst thing Labour has done is the breaking of the MILITARY COVENANT.

How can anyone vote for Labour after what they have done to this country?

I realise there is party loyalty, but for crying out loud what does it take for labour supporters to realise what 5 more years of labour will do to this country.

This country was once called GREAT BRITAIN, what Labour has done is reduce us to little Britain.

Labour should be sent, politically, to the stone age.

Postal Voting Fraud

2010-05-05T11:10:00.003+01:00

Going on from Journalist is attacked Investigating Postal Voting Fraud is another article on postal fraud.

Thanks to http://uknewsnetwork.blogspot.com/ for this find.

Labour election fraud ‘would disgrace a banana republic’

That is the headline to this article which was first published in April 2005.

An extract;

SIX middle-aged Muslim men, all pillars of their communities, won seats on Britain’s biggest local authority in the most corrupt election campaign since the Victorian era.

Vote-riggers exploited weaknesses in the postal voting system to steal thousands of ballot papers and mark them for Labour, helping the party to take first place in elections to Birmingham City Council.

They believed that their cheating would be hidden for ever in the secrecy of the strong boxes where counted votes are stored, never suspecting that a judge would take the rare step of smashing the seals and tracing the ballots back to the voters. Election corruption has been so rare in the past 100 years that lawyers have struggled to find examples since the late 19th century, when Britain was adjusting to the novelty of universal male suffrage.

If it was this bad 5 years ago, what could it be like now?

All postal votes must be scrutinised before being added to the votes of the ballot box. There is too much of a chance of fraud using postal votes.

I wonder if that is why Labour bought postal voting in?

13 years of Labour

2010-05-05T10:42:00.003+01:00

Remember when Labour came to power, and all that they promised?

No, well watch this.

Thanks to Guido Fawkes for this find.

The Naked Truth

2010-05-04T18:51:00.006+01:00

Anna Raccoon has another great find. The blog is called The Naked Truth

If you are still undecided in how you vote take a look at Anna's blog. It shows the promises Gordon Brown has made and what finally happened afterwards.

While you are at Anna's blog take a look at this blog entry.

http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/if-i-were-prime-minister/

Let's send Labour, politically, back to the stone age.

Who is Ed Balls?

2010-05-04T18:22:00.006+01:00

This video is doing the rounds on the blogs.

Take a look.

What does Balls think of our military?

Not much, because he feels that he should pay for a wreath on Remembrance Sunday with his expenses.

Why didn't he pay for the wreath out of his own pocket?

That is showing disrespect to our military past and present.

I hope the people of his constituency sees this video and see what he is really like.

I have asked this before, but I thought Labour was a working man's political party.

With Balls, Harman and the Milliband brothers, to name a few, all going to private schools, is there any Labour ministers actually from a working class background?

Journalist is attacked Investigating Postal Voting Fraud

2010-05-04T12:09:00.008+01:00

I found this article through http://twitter.com/torybear

An extract;

When I look back on it now what surprises me is how disarmingly polite my attackers were.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the two, seemingly inquisitive, Asian teenagers who approached me on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bow, east London, shortly after 1pm yesterday.

"There's been a photographer around here, do you know her?" he added.

I didn't, but I explained I was a journalist for The Independent looking to speak to a man at an address in the area, who was standing as a candidate in the local elections, about allegations of postal vote fraud. "Can we see your note pad," the boy asked.

I declined and then the first punch came – landing straight on my nose, sending blood and tears streaming down my face. Then another. Then another.

Well someone has something to hide where this journalist was investigating.

An extract;

What brought me to Bow yesterday were allegations of widespread postal voting fraud. Both the local Conservative and Respect parties in Tower Hamlets have been looking through the new electoral rolls for properties that have an alarmingly high number of adults registered to one address. The area has a large Bengali population and this type of fraud is unfortunately all too common. In some instances there have been as many as 20 Bengali names supposedly living in two or three-bedroom flats. When journalists have previously called, all too often there are far fewer living there. In some instances, no Bengalis at all.

It is worrying that the postal voting system can so easily be manipulated so people can commit fraud.

If it is that easy to commit fraud, then the postal voting system should be scrapped or severely changed so that it is near impossible to commit fraud.

A Broken Promise Too Far

2010-05-03T10:14:00.003+01:00

Mother of soldier killed in Afghanistan criticises Gordon Brown letter

A mother who received a promise from Gordon Brown that he would look into her son’s death in Afghanistan said she had been fobbed off with a standard letter and a copy of the Labour Party manifesto.

That is the headline to this article.

Gordon Brown promised so much when he became the dictator, sorry Prime Minister, but he has broken so many promises that we never believe what he says, but this broken promise can't ever be forgiven or forgotten.

An extract;

Ann Probyn asked Mr Brown to investigate the circumstances of the death of her son, Guardsman Daniel Probyn, when she appeared on BBC One’s Politics Show seven weeks ago.

She said her son had been killed by a Taliban bomb in 2007 after his patrol was sent out without electronic equipment designed to protect against such devices.

Appearing again on the programme yesterday, she tackled David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, over the lack of response from Mr Brown. “Your leader promised to look into the events of my son’s death,” she said. “I was given a card, I phoned this number, and for seven weeks I haven’t heard anything.

“They just sent me this through – the manifesto, and just a normal formality letter. Why should I vote Labour when they are not doing anything to help me?”

It is common knowledge that, as chancellor, Gordon Brown starved the military of funds and equipment. Just how many of our soldiers lives has that cost in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Now we have a situation where Gordon Brown promised to look into the death of Guardsman Daniel Probyn, and what does the mother receive, she is sent the Labour party manifesto. How insensitive is that?

Gordon Brown can say what he likes on the election campaign, because we don't believe what he says anyhow, but don't fob off a mother of one of our honoured dead and send her a manifesto.

She, and all of the families of our honoured dead deserves to know how and why their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers have been killed and injured.

I haven't got any family or friends out in Afghanistan, but I feel just as passionate about what is happening to our boys and girls out there.

Gordon Brown, as well as Tony Blair, should be taken before a court to answer why they sent our military into 2 wars without the proper equipment.

I want them to explain why there wasn't enough helicopters, better armoured vehicles, better equipment in general. The equipment the troops have seems to of been bought because it was the cheapest.

While the troops are getting sub standard equipment the civil servants at the MOD get bonuses. How screwed up is that?

The Military Covenant should of been an unbreakable promise, but it has been broken by Labour.

Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Labour should never be given the chance to have any control over our military ever again.

They have treated them and their families with utter disrespect, and that can never be forgiven ever.

Do as we say and not as we do.

2010-05-03T09:38:00.002+01:00

They're still at it.

'Hypocrite' Harman and her family's inheritance tax dodge on £750,000 estate'

An extract;

Harriet Harman was accused of 'hypocrisy' yesterday for attacking Tory plans to cut inheritance tax although her own family exploited loopholes to shelter their fortune from the levy.

Are they thinking, shaft the little people, as long as they, the politicians, are ok.

I hope some karma is on it's way to her, and the rest of those troughers.

How much to blame is Gordon Brown for our current Economic situation.

2010-05-02T08:41:00.006+01:00

Have a read of this blog by Subrosa It is a a great find.

Gordon Brown says this is a global financial problem. Yes it might be, but it was made a whole lot worse for this country by the decisions of Gordon Brown as chancellor and now as Prime Minister.

A few interesting facts about Gordon Brown

Something to think about when you vote.

2010-05-01T21:12:00.005+01:00

I have just read this blog at http://coldsteelrain.blogspot.com/

It is called;

Remember The Fallen

Every November I stand silently in thought. It is always cold and often raining. My arms are locked into my sides, my chest is pushed out and I am ramrod straight.

As the Bugler sounds last post it takes every last ounce of my self-discipline not to cry. I don't cry because remembrance day is a Military occasion. It dictates a formality of dignified mourning.

There have been so many Military funerals these last few years. All too often we see coffins draped in the Union flag. The dead soldiers comrades carry their fallen friends with a professionalism I am so very proud of. For I know that inside, these young soldiers hearts are breaking.

The incumbent Government has asked so much of our fighting men and women these last 13 years - and all the while they have starved them of the equipment and funds they need to carry out this most difficult of tasks.

It is with thoughts of the economy we will vote, as well as immigration and health care. But if you will, please remember those fallen soldiers. At this very moment British troops are fighting and they are dying - let them know that although the Labour Party cares little about them, to us the Covenant means everything.

Next Thursday we have an opportunity to place a cross in a box. I would ask you not to put yours against the Party that has put so many crosses above so many boxes.

Posted by Cold Steel Rain at 13:00

Labour have Broken The Military Covenant and should be punished, if not legally then by voting them out of government and sending Labour, politically, back to the stone age.

Where is the Treasury's release of documents?

2010-05-01T20:30:00.004+01:00

The following is taken from Not a sheep Blog

Back in March The Telegraph reported that

'Gordon Brown has been
ordered to release
information before the general election about his
controversial decision to
sell Britain's gold reserves.

The decision to
sell the gold – taken
by Mr Brown when he was Chancellor – is regarded as one of
the Treasury's
worst financial mistakes and has cost taxpayers almost £7
billion.

Mr Brown and the Treasury have repeatedly refused to disclose
information about the gold sale amid allegations that warnings were ignored.

Following a series of freedom of information requests from The Daily
Telegraph over the past four years, the Information Commissioner has ordered
the
Treasury to release some details. The Treasury must publish the
information
demanded within 35 calendar days – by the end of April.

The sale is
expected to be become a major election issue, casting
light on Mr Brown's
decisions while at the Treasury. '

Today is May 1 and I have not seen the release of this information. Has the Treasury disobeyed the Information Commissioner? If so, why? This information belongs to the people, if it's release is delayed until after the general election then this is a major scandal. I want every blog, every newspaper, every journalist to ask just one question of every Labour politician between now and Thursday - What have you got to hide that is so serious that you have not complied with the ICO?

Meanwhile gold reached $1,179 on Friday.

I hope Gordon Brown and Labour are asked about this.

Gordon Brown sold the Nation's gold at rock bottom prices and, in my opinion, wrong in so many ways. Those gold reserves belonged to the nation not to Gordon Brown and the Labour Party.

How is this not Racially Motivated

2010-05-01T08:21:00.004+01:00

Muslim daubs war memorial with 'Islam will dominate the world' - but walks free after CPS says he was NOT racially motivated

That is the headline to this article.

An Extract

A Muslim protester who daubed a war memorial with graffiti glorifying Osama Bin Laden and proclaiming 'Islam will dominate the world' walked free from court after prosecutors ruled his actions were not motivated by religion.

Tohseef Shah, 21, could have faced a tougher sentence if the court had accepted that the insults - which included a threat to kill the Prime Minister - were inspired by religious hatred.

But - citing a loophole in the law - the Crown Prosecution Service chose not to charge him with that offence and he escaped with only a two-year conditional discharge and an order to pay the council £500 compensation after admitting causing criminal damage.

All I have to say is, what would of happened if someone had written something like;

'Christians will dominate the world' On a muslim memorial?

Would the Christian be let off, like Tohseef Shah, with a £500 fine. I don't think so.

He would be up on a racial and religious hate crime, and probably be sent to prison.

Incidents like this must be punished properly by the law courts.

Victorian Extravaganza in Llandudno

2010-04-30T20:21:00.003+01:00

As you know I am a sceptic when it comes to climate change and global warming, but with the Victorian Extravaganza in Llandudno this bank holiday weekend, does anyone know what sort of carbon footprint Llandudno will have by Monday evening?

Picture from http://victorian-extravaganza.co.uk/

Gordon Brown can't Spin his way out of this.

2010-04-29T10:15:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was very interesting.

See the video below;

To be fair to Gordon Brown, I thought he did handle Gillian Duffy's questions very well, and if it ended there a lot of people would of been very pleased in the way he handled it, but for whatever reason Gordon Brown thought it ended badly.

Gillian Duffy raised concerns, among other subjects, about the amount of immigration into the country, and Gordon Brown was respectful when he was talking to her, but as soon as he was in the 'safety' of his car Gordon Brown had a temper tantrum and called Gillian Duffy, a 66 year old pensioner, a bigoted woman.

It is common knowledge that Gordon Brown isn't very good with the general public, that is why he has mainly been with the party faithful throughout the election so far.

Is Gordon Brown afraid of the general public?

Is he afraid of criticism, and if he is criticised does he always throw a tantrum?

Does he look down at the general public and think, oh no I have to mix with the great unwashed?

There has been talk of Gordon Brown's ability to be the Prime Minister, and if Gordon Brown can't take some criticism from a pensioner then it does question his ability to take the stress and criticism of being Prime Minister.

The rumours have been said that he has bullied his staff and thrown mobile phones and punched the front seat in his car, which if you listen carefully I think he actually does in the video.

This is the first time the public has seen, what might be, Gordon Brown's real personality, and you have to ask yourself do you want someone like this running the country.

There are a lot of subjects that worry the UK population, and immigration is one of them, and if Gordon Brown thinks that you are a bigot if you want to talk about immigration then he is not the person to run this country.

Gordon Brown and the Labour party cannot spin their way out of this.

An intersting article about what might of happened if it wasn't election time.
If it hadn't been election time, Mrs Duffy would have been interviewed by the thought police

Spot the difference

2010-04-28T15:02:00.019+01:00

I have just read this blog.

This is the blog in question.

Going back to a post I made on the 8th of March 'Dropping a Blog', I have to agree somewhat; that despite the sick pervert Oscar is taking his camera into a public toilets and snapping photos in a cubicle that could be next to you, a reader sent in this photo yesterday to prove the situation has gotten no better. There is now additional graffiti on the same door, see caption top of photograph, this follows further on Oscars campaign to stamp out graffiti once and for all. Maybe, just maybe he, he, he, she, they have a point.

Below are the pictures one from March and one from April.

Spot the difference?

Picture from March 2010.

Picture from April 2010.

Apart from the extra name, the picture is exactly the same.

It has the same angle, exactly the same amount of graffiti on it, the top and bottom of the picture is the same.

How much of a coincidence could it be to take the exact same picture with the same angle and the same amount of graffiti on it.

All the person has done is use his computer to add the name.

Total fail.

The blogger from Blog LLandudno is a retired professional and should be ashamed of him self. That is if he is a retired professional?

I don't think a retired professional would drop this low to insult another person. He sounds like a juvenile.

Update:
I have a reply from the blogger in question.

'My thoughts' are a certain blogger should get their eyes tested, and visit the toilets concerned.

My answer;

It's been over 6 weeks between 'pictures'.

Why isn't there more graffiti on the door, other than the one that is high lighted?

Update:

Well I had to find out, so I went to the infamous toilets and took this picture. I took it on the 1st of May.

So Victor, tell me the picture from your blog isn't fake now.

I wasn't going to say anything more about this, but I have been getting so many insulting and quite frankly disgusting comments, in my blog, about me and my family that I am now going to publish this picture.

The Military Covenant

2010-04-27T23:11:00.005+01:00

The Military Covenant

The Military Covenant is the mutual obligation between the Nation, the Army and each individual soldier; an unbreakable common bond of identity, loyalty and responsibility which has sustained the Army throughout its history.

Soldiers will be called upon to make personal sacrifices - including the ultimate sacrifice - in the service of the Nation. In putting the needs of the Nation and the Army before their own, they forego some of the rights enjoyed by those outside the Armed Forces. In return, British soldiers must always be able to expect fair treatment, to be valued and respected as individuals, and that they (and their families) will be sustained and rewarded by commensurate terms and conditions of service.

In the same way the unique nature of military land operations means that the Army differs from all other institutions, and must be sustained and provided for accordingly by the Nation. This mutual obligation forms the Military Covenant between the Nation, the Army and each individual soldier; an unbreakable common bond of identity, loyalty and responsibility which has sustained the Army throughout its history.

It has perhaps its greatest manifestation in the annual commemoration of Armistice Day, when the Nation keeps covenant with those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives in action.

The above is taken from http://www.army.mod.uk/join/terms/3111.aspx

The Royal British Legion has launched a campaign about the Military Covenant

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/campaigning/the-legion-manifesto/honour-the-covenant

THE MILITARY COVENANT MUST BE HONOURED

The MOD. A Military organisation run by civilians.

2010-04-27T22:46:00.004+01:00

Thanks to http://twitter.com/IanPJ and http://twitter.com/veterans_uk for this find.

The M OD: Unfit for Purpose from http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/standpoint

Here are some extracts from the article that was published in 2008;

I am often asked why the MOD makes so many strange decisions and seems to care so little about the welfare of its personnel. People are surprised to read about expensive computer systems that fail to pay service members their proper salaries — or pay them late. Some are shocked by the apparent dumping of severely wounded personnel from Afghanistan and Iraq into civilian hospital wards, remote from their regiments and families, or the massive contracts for systems that are delivered late and don’t work properly, or the strange failure to publicise genuine successes and minor victories achieved “against the odds” in Afghanistan and Iraq.

None of these scandals — or many others less well known — would surprise anyone who knows the MOD and what it has become.

Most people still believe that the MOD is essentially a military organisation. It is not. It is an organisation dominated numerically, culturally and structurally by civil servants and consultants, many of whom are unsympathetic to its underlying purpose or even hostile to the military and its ethos. You just have to spend a few days at the MOD before you realise that the culture there is not just non-military, but anti-military.

The MOD has slipped from being one of the top five ministries to one of second or even third rank. Moreover, even if our top generals wanted to oppose some aspect of defence policy, they would find the MOD’s structure is now rigged so that civil servants increasingly come between them and the government.

Now the ratio of civilians to service-members is closer to six to one — not including the ever-growing numbers of consultants and Spads (special advisers) or the parallel government structures in the cabinet office and the PM’s policy unit which may be driving the ratio towards 12 to one. Essentially the military has lost command of its own HQ.

Worse still, the civil servants who now dominate the MOD are a different breed from those who staffed it in the 1980s. In those days there were still many civil servants who had served in the Second World War or Korea, or who had at least done national service. They respected and understood the armed services; they believed an effective military was important and had usually learnt essential skills of leadership and management. They were loyal to the Queen (then the head of the Civil Service), to the Civil Service itself and to its code, and to the service arm they were working for. They have all gone.

The real point of most MOD contracts is industrial strategy. We buy planes or vehicles or systems not because they are the best we can afford for the task in hand but because they mean jobs in some part of the country. Or because they further European integration. This is why we buy helicopters like the Merlin that cost more than three times the price of the US Blackhawk. As a result we don’t have decent airlift capacity in Afghanistan, and our infantry in Basra were the first British troops to go into battle without dedicated “on-call” air cover since the First World War.

Because the services haven’t had the budget increases they need to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is running out of everything. We’re running out of trucks, for instance. And when things break they aren’t being replaced. Increasingly one gets the impression that the civil servants don’t care if the forces are broken — their careers will not be affected. But it may also be that some civil servants and a body of politicians, from both Left and Right, would actually be happy for the military to be broken in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then they will have truly achieved the Europeanisation of Britain’s armed forces along the lines of a purely defensive “UK Defence Force”. War will somehow have been abolished — until, of course, it returns at a time of our enemies’ choosing.

This has to change, the Government is sending our troops into battle with substandard equipment, if they're lucky.

The Government is meant to look after our military, why isn't it?

Old Holborn For MP

2010-04-26T14:57:00.004+01:00

I have received a few questions on why I have a link to another blogger who is standing to become an MP, in Cambridge, when I live in North Wales.

Well one of Old Holborn's latest blogs should explain why.

I should say there are some swear words in the following;

++What you actually want - Exclusive+++

Whilst the usual career politicians are wandering around telling you what you want and what you're going to get whether you like it or not, I'd like to refer my readers back to the whole reason I'm standing for Parliament in Cambridge.

You never get asked. Well, twice a decade, 10 times in your entire life if you're lucky. I've never voted in referendum because I've never been asked to and I'm two thirds of the way through my tobacco and Bordeaux soaked existence, I reckon.

I've seen war, recession, poverty, membership of an unelected EU stealing my money, terrorism, corruption, half my earnings grabbed by the State, DNA databases, Biometric profiling, my emails are read by the State along with my phone calls and I'm watched on CCTV everywhere I go.

And nobody asked me if this was OK. Well, they sort of did 5 years ago and 78% of the people who could vote, said FUCK OFF. But alas, our corrupt first past the post system means the 22% who did want it can now impose all of the above of me and my family. Regardless.

Here's the results from the Jury Team/Gallop poll that actually asked people, real people , (not policy wonks or Party Special Advisers) what they wanted, rather than telling them what they were going to get.

•A referendum on the EU - 83% - IGNORED
•Limiting Govt borrowing to 10% of expenditure - 47% - IGNORED
•Stopping Casino banking by nationalised banks - 72% - IGNORED
•Limiting benefits to no children claimants to 80% of minimum wage - 63% - IGNORED
•Harsher punishment for violent offenders - 78% - IGNORED
•Reducing troops in Afghanistan to match other Nato countries - 67% - IGNORED
•Private medical insurance for non EU citizens - 68% - IGNORED
•10 years to qualify for a British passport - 81% - IGNORED
•An English Parliament - 58% - IGNORED
•Proportional Representation - 54% - IGNORED
•5% on demand referendums - 71% - IGNORED

So those are the policies I'm standing on. The policies most of the people of this country actually want and most of the policies denied to them by a mere 646 self serving, union serving, big business serving, lobbyist serving bastards. When they can be bothered to ask you. Twice a decade.

I don't agree with all of them, but I don't count. WE do. And it's time we did.

Prepare to be brutally governed by yet another minority government for yet another 5 years. And if you count the unelected and unaccountable European Commission, for ever. You count for nothing, except your hard earned money, of course. They just can't get enough of that.

I would love to see more free thinking MPs who would vote to look after their constituents even if it's goes against their own party.

People say he hasn't got a chance, but if the idea of what Old Holborn is doing gets through to enough people then that, in my opinion, is a good thing.

I have been blogging for about 8 months now and what I have found in the blogoshere has opened my eyes to what is going on in the UK and the world in general.

I want people to be better informed on what is happening in Parliament and what the MPs and the Government are doing to this country. Like who is really pulling the strings in government. We have all heard the stories about the Unite Union owning the Labour Party, and that Peter Mandelson is the real power in government.

I ask you to have a look at Old Holborn's site and check out what he wants to see in Parliament.

Council Bullies

2010-04-26T14:35:00.005+01:00

I found this on Big Brother Watch.

Hauled into court over a cardboard box

The following tale is as classic a Big Brother Watch story as you are likely to find; as The Sun reports:

A grandmother was dragged to court - after carefully leaving a cardboard box next to a council recycling bin.

Lynne had taken the box which held her new washing machine to the recycling point at a Somerfield supermarket near her home in Wickford, Essex, in October.

It was too big to fit in the slot and the bin was nearly full. Lynne, 59, was filmed wedging it between two bins to stop it blowing away. Days later she got a card from Basildon Council asking her to call about "an incident".

An environmental officer later turned up at the fancy dress shop she runs and handed her a £300 fine. She threw it in a bin and ordered him out. On March 22 she received a letter charging her with "depositing controlled waste" and summoning her before JPs.

That's right people - just for putting a cardboard box in-between two bins which were too small to take the full box, Lynne Doyle was fined £300. Many would have been bullied by the council into paying up.

Luckily, Lynne did not...so she was ordered before a court. However on the advice of a lawyer she requested trial by jury. What do you think happened...?

She has now received a letter, without apology or explanation, saying the council was dropping the case.

So Lynne gets threatened with a fine and then trial; but when she pushes back the council retreats. It shouldn't end there - if you are outraged by this action by Basildon, the contact details for their refuse and recycling team are here. Why not ask them why they subjected a 59 year-old women to this ordeal?

By Dylan Sharpe

This is just another council thinking they could get some easy money out of someone.

Why don't they go after the real fly tippers?

The reason is because the councils would have to do some actual work.

Councils have enough workers to do the work, so what are all these workers doing? Not a lot.

Is Tony Blair in Trouble?

2010-04-24T14:22:00.006+01:00

Just been reading this article, found at http://uknewsnetwork.blogspot.com/.

Tony Blair Stands Accused
Malaysia must not allow this mass murderer to be immune from justice.

by Prof. Shad Saleem Faruqi

An extract;

It is distressing to note that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been invited to Malaysia as an honoured guest of an NGO when he stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by many learned and independent scholars of international law.

The case against him looks rock solid, especially after his confession to the BBC and the Chilcot Inquiry that he would have gone to war to topple Saddam Hussein regardless of the issue of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Indictments around the world:

> The international criminal court to which Britain is a signatory has received a record number of petitions against Blair.

> The World Tribunal on Iraq held in Istanbul in 2005 heard evidence from 54 witnesses and published rigorous indictments against Blair, former US president George W Bush and others.

> The Brussels War Crimes Tribunal, the Blair War Crimes Foundation and the American international law jurist Richard Falk have amassed impressive evidence of Blair’s complicity in international war crimes.

Spain’s celebrated judge Baltasar Garzon (who indicted former Chilean dictator and president Augusto Pinochet) has called for Bush, Blair and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to be prosecuted for the illegal invasion of Iraq, which Garzon has condemned as “one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history”.

Many UK jurists have described the invasion as a devastating attack on the rule of law that left the United Nations in tatters.

I will admit I was taken in by Blair's statements about Iraq and I supported the invasion, but after what I have read over the years either Blair was at best naive, or at worst incompetent and completely lying about weapons of mass destruction.

There are still too many unanswered questions about the Iraq invasion. There are still questions over the death of Dr David Kelly. Was it suicide or not, and why has his post mortem report being kept secret for 70 years?

I wonder what holiday destinations Tony Blair has crossed off his list?

The above article is an arguement for the arrest of Tony Blair.

If there is an article against the arrest of Tony Blair, I will post a blog about the reasons why Tony Blair shouldn't be arrested.

The Promise to our Military

2010-04-23T13:30:00.006+01:00

Thanks to Cold Steel Rain's Twitter for this find.

The Leaders last night made promises to our military.

Whoever is voted into power must make sure our military gets the best equipment, pay and care because if they break the promises they made, the public will never forgive them.

'Environmental Discrimination'

2010-04-20T17:09:00.003+01:00

Just read this article

The headline;

Worker wins £100,000 after 'environmental discrimination'

A worker has won almost £100,000 because his firm discriminated against his environmental views after a landmark legal ruling placed them on a par with religious beliefs.

An extract;

Tim Nicholson, 42, was made redundant in July 2008 from his £77,000-a-year post as head of sustainability with Grainger, the UK’s biggest residential landlord.

He was preparing to sue his former employer, alleging that his redundancy was a direct result of his green opinions about the dangers of climate change - which put him at odds with other senior executives within the firm.

At a preparatory hearing last year, a judge ruled that his belief in climate change was legally akin to a religious belief and should be protected from discrimination.

Well people have said that climate change has turned into a religion. Can it now becoming legal?

How the hell is belief in climate change the same as belief in a religion?

Who is their god, Al Gore?

Is this a late April fools joke?

I thought science and religion don't make good bed fellows.

The (In)Human Rights Act and Justice

2010-04-19T16:59:00.004+01:00

Here's another classic example of how the (In) human rights act is a cause for good, if you are a criminal.

The headline to the Daily Mail article, found through http://uknewsnetwork.blogspot.com/

Paedophile who abducted underage girls for sex wins deportation appeal to stay in UK

An extract;

A Pakistani paedophile who abducted and sexually abused two young girls cannot be deported back to his native country because it would breach his human rights, it emerged today.

Zulfar Hussain, 48, was due to be sent home when he is released from prison halfway through his sentence for plying two vulnerable girls with drugs and alcohol before having sex with them.

But there was fury today when it was revealed that he had won an appeal against his deportation on the grounds that he has a wife and child here, meaning it would breach his right to enjoy respect for his family life.

Can someone please tell me has there been any real good to come out of the human rights act, or is it a criminals rights act only.

How many more stories like this one can we take before the powers that be take notice and either scrap it or change it so the criminals can't take advantage of it.

The Ash Cloud and the Computer models

2010-04-19T04:23:00.004+01:00

I have been reading that the Met Office have been using their computer models to predict where the ash cloud is going.

I have a question.

Are these the same computer models that predicted our BBQ summer and our mild winter last year?

Just asking.

Every (Ash)Cloud has a silver lining

2010-04-19T00:35:00.003+01:00

There is some good news for the population of the UK during the flight chaos.

Volcanic ash cloud: Tony Blair stranded in Israel

Tony Blair role in the election campaign looks likely to be affected by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

Well at least the UK public won't have to endure listening to Tony Bliar for a few days more.

Explain this one Gordon

2010-04-18T04:05:00.006+01:00

At the Chilcot enquiry Gordon Brown said that the military got all the money they asked for, and that funding went up every year.

He did own up later that in some years it didn't go up, when he was found out of course.

Yesterday I read this article

An extract;

The Sunday Telegraph has been told that a £400,000 "contingency fund", financed by private donors, was used to purchase body armour for members of 21 SAS, one of the service's two territorial regiments, prior to their deployment to Helmand in 2008.

Cash from the fund was also used to pay for operational welfare equipment, personal kit and to pay-off the mortgages of two members of 23 SAS killed in southern Afghanistan in an earlier deployment.

The disclosure has been seized upon by opposition MPs and former Army commanders of proof that the Armed Forces have not been properly funded while Labour has been in power.

This is just one regiment of the whole British Army. If the government can't supply the SAS with proper equipment, then what are the other regiments supplies going to be like.

In the article, it says the fund was set up to help the families of soldiers killed or wounded.

An extract;

But after the regiment was mobilised in the spring of 2008, commanders feared the unit did not have access to enough equipment or body armour to properly prepare the SAS troops for their six month tour.

Gordon Brown has said in the past that the army is the best trained and best equipped. Please, Gordon tell us, if the army is the best trained and equipped why are they having to buy equipment through private donations?

The news of the army not being given the right equipment is not new, look at this article from December 15th 2006;

Soldier killed without body armour talked of 'disgraceful' lack of kit

An extract;

A British tank commander who died in Iraq because he had been ordered to give up his body armour described British military supplies as "disgraceful" and "a bit of a joke" in the days before his death, an inquest heard today.

When our troops go to war they know they may well pay the ultimate sacrifice, but they must be protected as much as possible, with the proper body armour, armoured vehicles and helicopters.

So I ask you Gordon Brown, Chancellor and now Prime Minister, if as you say the Army has been funded properly, why are we seeing stories about our troops buying their own equipment, AGAIN?

There are thieves and then there's this scum

2010-04-17T01:06:00.009+01:00

His name is Darren Pease.

The following is taken from this article

An extract

A disgraced banker who stole £315,000 from his disabled niece's charity fund has been ordered to pay back just £1.

Well-wishers donated hundreds of thousands of pounds into a trust for Ellie May Challis, 5, who had all her limbs amputated during a battle with meningitis in 2005.

Her uncle, banker Darren Pease, 33, was made a trustee of the account because of his financial knowledge but was jailed in November last year after admitted siphoning off £315,000 to splash out on jewellery, holidays and computer gadgets.

Pease was taken back to court yesterday after police went through his finances to check if he could repay any of Ellie May's money.

But it was revealed during the proceeds of crime hearing at Basildon Crown Court in Essex that he had spent the lot and was ordered to repay a nominal £1.

A pound, a single solitary £1.

This scum, who is in prison for 4 years, will be housed, fed and get paid to work in prison. I wonder when he will be up for parole? Not long with the way the prison system works.

When someone comes out of prison, they say, they have paid their debt to society, but what about the debt he owes this little girl?

If he ever gains employment, at least a third of his pay should be sent to the Ellie May Challis trust fund, the one he stole from.

I can't describe the anger I feel when I read articles like this.

You have a young girl who tragically loses her limbs, and people join together to donate money to pay for the care of Ellie.

Then you get scum like Darren Pease, who is actually related to Ellie, who was trusted to look after the money, but just stole it and spent all but £239 of the £315,000.

I wish he could spend just one day living the life of Ellie, with no limbs, and then see how he feels about what he has done.

The (IN) Human Rights Act and Justice

2010-04-16T14:50:00.004+01:00

Can the European Convention on Human Rights and the justice system ever run to the same tune.

I have blogged about the human rights act here, here and here.

Now we have another example.

Illegal immigrant rapist could stay in UK

An illegal immigrant who raped a woman but was not caught for 18 years could avoid deportation because of his human rights to a family life.

An extract;

Sukdarshan Singh, an Indian, arrived in Britain unlawfully in 1984 and raped a 59-year-old woman four years later.

He was only linked to the attack in 2006 after being arrested for drink driving and was jailed for four and a half years.

An immigration tribunal ruled he should be deported but the Court of Appeal yesterday overturned the decision because it had failed to take in to account his rights to family life as he now has a British wife and two teenage children.

If this guy entered the country illegally, how was he able to legally get married?

According to the appeal court, if you enter the country illegally, commit a serious crime, get away with it for 20 years, get jailed for a very short time, you can stay in the country.

An extract

Yesterday, he was appealing against the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) finding which upheld the decision of the Home Secretary to return him to India.

But Lord Justice Aikens said the "overall question" in the case was whether deportation would be a disproportionate interference with his private and family life protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lord Justice Aikens says, 'deportation would be a disproportionate interference with his private and family life under the human rights act.'

Once again I say, what about the human rights of the victim. She was raped by this scum, but as usual the rights of the victim is second to the rights of the scum who raped her.

An extract;

He said the AIT should have balanced the threat of family breakdown, the effect on the children and feasibility of a move to India with the aim of deportation in protecting the public.

The effect on the children and feasibility of moving to India. What about the effect on the children finding out their father is a rapist.

Send the father back to India and let the kids stay in the UK.

Everyone has a human right to live and feel safe in their community and their home. If someone commits a crime they should lose certain rights.

If an illegal immigrant commits a crime then that person should be sent back to the country he came from, even if he has a family here.

People are not getting justice due to the (In) Human Rights Act.

The Leaders Debate

2010-04-15T22:33:00.003+01:00

Not bad for the first debate.

I think the debate should be longer, maybe 2 even 3 hours to get more questions in, and more time for the leaders to debate each others answers. I believe they were cut off to early by the moderator.

Just on how the leaders came over tonight. I think Cameron was better than Clegg in some ways, but I think Clegg was better than Cameron in others, but Gordon Brown, in my opinion, was well behind.

For me Gordon Brown blew it when he went on about giving the military all the money they asked for. That was an utter lie.

I hope the next debate is better. With more debate between the leaders.

Health and Safety Madness

2010-04-14T18:54:00.003+01:00

I found this article through Ambush Predator on Twitter.

This is the headline to this article.

Bungling handyman puts ladder against branch he is sawing off... then sues bosses after breaking his foot

An extract

A handyman fell from a tree in a 'Laurel and Hardy moment' after he sawed off a branch that he had leaned his ladder against - and is now suing his bosses for his mistake.

Peter Aspinall, 64, a part-time handyman at a hotel, had climbed up a ladder to prune a sycamore tree.

But as he had leaned it against the branch he was sawing off instead of the tree trunk, he tumbled to the ground when the branch broke.

Didn't the guy realise where he was putting the ladder and what might happen?

An extract;

Lawyers claimed it had been a 'Laurel and Hardy moment' but the 14ft fall broke Mr Aspinall's heel. He damaged his ligaments and spent 10 days in hospital.

Health and safety officials began investigating and discovered that bosses at the 200-year old Egerton House Hotel near Bolton, Greater Manchester had failed to carry out at a risk assessment.

They said hotel bosses should have given training to workers on where to place the ladder.

'They should of given training on where to place the ladder.' I have two words, COMMON SENSE. Where was this guy's common sense.

An extract;

The 29-bedroom hotel, where rooms cost £69 a night, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 council costs and a £15 victim surcharge by magistrates in Bolton.

It pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations by failing to undertake risk assessments for employees working in the hotel gardens.

I understand having risk assessments for certain companies, eg chemical plants and engineering firms, but training to put a ladder against a tree, oh come on.

No one can be that thick to put a ladder against a branch that you are actually going to cut off. Well this Peter Aspinall guy was.

Health and safety is needed in certain areas, but how long is it till we have to do risk assessments before we do everyday things, like breathing.

Sometimes I feel like if a health and safety officer started talking to me about risk assessments, I will ask him the risk assessment of him being floored by me if he continued to talk rubbish health and safety regulations that is just common sense to the ordinary person.

This is the micro management stupidity that has come in over the last 13 years. Labour has stopped us from being a free thinking people.

I'd hate to think what Britain would be like after 5 more years under Labour.

Courage

2010-04-14T15:51:00.004+01:00

The following comes from http://coldsteelrain.blogspot.com/

The blog entry http://coldsteelrain.blogspot.com/2010/04/courage.html is copied below.

Lydia Cross is nine years old. She lost both her legs aged 2 after contracting meningitis.

She could have sat back and thought, as so many do in todays society - This isn't fair. Why me?

Instead though Lydia has decided to raise money for troops who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This courageous little girl can be seen here

I honestly don't know what breaks my heart more. Lydia's selfless determination to help wounded troops. Or the fact there are so many of them she feels she has to help.

Well done Lydia. You are quite simply a little gem.

Lydia is an inspiration to us all.

I hope her dreams come true, she deserves it.

£815 per Week

2010-04-13T20:48:00.006+01:00

I would love to get paid £815 per week.

I have 2 jobs. I work my arse off to keep a roof over my family's head to keep them fed and warm, but I barely take home £1150 per month, and today I read this;

Why work when I can get £42,000 in benefits a year AND drive a Mercedes?

An extract

The Davey family's £815-a-week state handouts pay for a four-bedroom home, top-of-the-range mod cons and two vehicles including a Mercedes people carrier.

Father-of-seven Peter gave up work because he could make more living on benefits.

Yet he and his wife Claire are still not happy with their lot.

With an eighth child on the way, they are demanding a bigger house, courtesy of the taxpayer.

Apart from about 4 months in the early 90s I have always been employed, hell I even had a paper round when I was a kid.

I work hard to try and get a good wage, but when I read an article like the above I get angry and depressed because my family and I could earn a lot more on benefits than in employment, but my father gave me a strong work ethic and I have always believed in paying my own way in life.

To all the hard working people out there who are struggling in the current financial climate, If you read the following you may explode with anger;

'It's really hard,' said Mrs Davey, 29, who is seven months pregnant. 'We can't afford holidays and I don't want my kids living on a council estate and struggling like I have.

'The price of living is going up but benefits are going down. My carer's allowance is only going up by 80p this year and petrol is so expensive now, I'm worried how we'll cope.

'We're still waiting for somewhere bigger.'

Mrs Davey has never had a full-time job while her 35-year-old husband gave up his post in administration nine years ago after realising they would be better off living off the state.

I have an idea for the wife, stop having babies.

I have another idea, if someone gives up his job just to go on benefits then that person shouldn't get any benefits.

How many people in this country are doing the same thing as the Davey family?

How much money are these people, in my opinion fraudulently, getting money from the working taxpayer?

Is there any wonder why this country is in so much debt when the taxpayer is paying for people like the Davey family

MPs using Legal Aid

2010-04-13T20:06:00.004+01:00

Now there is, quite rightly, utter outrage at the three MPs using legal aid to pay for their defense against the expenses charges.

If they do get to rip off the taxpayers, yet again, by using legal aid, might I suggest a tar and feathering party with 3 special guests;

David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine

ALL UK Legislation Passed Since 2000 Is Null And Void

2010-04-11T13:39:00.003+01:00

I found this blog entry through http://uknewsnetwork.blogspot.com/.

That is the headline from http://captainranty.blogspot.com/

You can read more about this here.

According to this.

Hang on to your hats. This could be very interesting for a variety of reasons.

Our government passed the House of Lords Act in 1999. This is known as General Legislation. The Act removed (hereditary) Peers of the Realm from the HoL. They were denied access to their seats. This is a no-no. A very big no-no.

So it transpires that:

"Removal of a Peer of the Realm from his seat in the House of Lords cannot be procured by General Legislation, such as the Blair Government’s House of Lords Act 1999.

This piece of General Legislation did NOT empower Her Majesty’s Government to impede a single Hereditary Peer who had taken his or her seat in the House of Lords after having sworn the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown, from continuing to carry out their solemn duties in the House of Lords as Councillors to the Crown, in accordance with the British Constitution."

Now, because they unlawfully interfered with the way the HoL operates, any and all legislation enacted since 2000 is null and void. Including, I am delighted to add, the vile and childish smoking ban, plus every single statute vomited on us from the EU. Naturally, the Lisbon Treaty is also null & void. Cool. We just left the European Union!

As previously stated, I am no legal expert. Perhaps some of my more astute readers (that would be all of you) could offer their opinions in the comments section?

The ramifications, of course, would be enormous.

Do read the whole article as it has a lot more nuggets than I placed here for your delectation. The author backs up his/her assertions with letters from members of the House of Lords and text from Hansard.

EDIT: some background info on the author.

CR.

Could this be true, could all legislation in the last decade be null and void?

What Immigration has done to a community

2010-04-10T11:40:00.006+01:00

If you want to know what happens when immigration runs out of control read this article and find out what happened in Cambridgeshire city of Peterborough

Read this article as well.

The headline.

Migrant city's cry for help: Anguished letter to Brown and Cameron reveals devastating toll of immigration on schools, housing and hospitals

An extract

The impact of uncontrolled mass immigration on the fabric of British life was driven home to the party leaders yesterday.

A letter to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg reveals in graphic detail the struggle of one community to cope.

It says public services - from schooling to housing, health care to police protection - are overstretched because councils have not been given the support they need.

An extract;

Their letter - which they also sent to constituents - was passed to the Daily Mail by a local resident concerned that its urgent message was being ignored.

The councillors say: 'At our local primary school, Fulbridge, which has a roll of 675 pupils, 27 different languages are spoken with only 200 of the pupils having English as a first language.

'The first-year reception class has 90 pupils, of which only 17 are white British. Every day new arrivals are turned away.

'Registration at the local doctors' surgery has rocketed with more than 90 per cent of the new arrivals being from the EU. There has been a substantial increase in women who are pregnant.

'The Health Service and Primary Care Trust in the city has overspent by millions in the past year.'

A key issue is the Government's failure to support councils.

But Mr Swift and Mr Sharp make clear that the local authority cannot track all new arrivals - crucial information in assessing what they need.

They say there were only four EU citizens on the local electoral roll in 2004. Now there are 537 and 'we know there are substantially more here'.

The councillors also voiced the local fears that immigration is fuelling a rise in crime.

They write: 'We had four police houses in the ward years ago. Everyone knew and respected the local constable. Now we have muggings, robberies, burglaries and neighbour disputes. We have prostitutes, drug dealers and an ever-increasing number of people who drive without road tax or insurance.'

Read the whole article and find out how the town has been changed.

This is just one town, this is going on throughout the country.

I have never been opposed to immigration, but we are only a small island, compared to France or Germany.

This country cannot keep on taking in the amount of immigrants it is taking in now.

Labour's great plan on immigration has failed.

Labour must take the blame for causing untold damage to communities like Peterborough.

What will the party leaders say, and do, about immigration during the election campaign?

Guy News Video Re - Stuart MacLennan

2010-04-09T14:30:00.005+01:00

Just a quick one.

Who, in the Labour party, knew what Stuart Maclennan was saying on Twitter.

Check out the Guy News Video (at 1.15) to see who in the Labour party was following him.

You have to ask yourself, why was nothing done to stop Stuart Maclennan tweeting all those offensive words for so long and nothing was said by anyone from the Labour party?

Senior members of the Labour party were following him and must of read what he was saying, so why didn't they do something about it?

It only became a problem when the the blogosphere and press started to make an issue of it.

A Warning from America

2010-04-09T00:45:00.005+01:00

I found this article at http://uknewsnetwork.blogspot.com/

This article is about the 'Cap and Trade' bill going through the system at the moment in the USA.

An extract;

A License Required for your house

Thinking about selling your house - A look at H.R. 2454 (Cap and trade bill) This is unbelievable!

Only the beginning from this administration! Home owners take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!

Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R. 2454, the "Cap & Trade" bill passed by the House of Representatives, if also passed by the Senate, will be the largest tax increase any of us has ever experienced.

An extract;

But wait. This awful bill (that no one in Congress has actually read) has many more surprises in it. Probably the worst one is this:

A year from now you won't be able to sell your house. Yes, you read that right.

The caveat is (there always is a caveat) that if you have enough money to make required major upgrades to your home, then you can sell it. But, if not, then forget it. Even pre-fabricated homes ("mobile homes") are included.

This is worrying, if America is doing this now, will it happen in the UK in the future?

With the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats all going on about global warming, will they produce something like what the Americans are doing right now.

We have the HIPs at the moment, what more could they do to the poor taxpayers of this country?

I'm pretty sure the EU has something up it's sleeve, similar to what the US up to.

They said they want to have an EU wide tax system.

Will they want to have an EU 'carbon neutral' home efficiency scheme in the pipeline?

Who would you think should get a heavier fine?

2010-04-08T22:26:00.004+01:00

A robber or a motorist who parked illegally?

Have a look at this article;

Robbers receive soft penalties than illegal parkers

Robbers are escaping with softer punishments than motorists who park illegally, it has emerged.

An extract;

Magistrates are handing out fines as little as £47 to convicted robbers, a drop of a third under Labour.

In contrast motorists who park unlawfully face fines of up to £70 outside London and up to £120 within the capital.

Your going to love this extract;

Magistrates admitted the fines are low because offenders cannot afford higher penalties and get discounts for guilty pleas.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow Justice Secretary, said: "Ministers have tried to bully magistrates to give fewer jail and community sentences, but it is no wonder that magistrates have little confidence in fines when Ministers haven't bothered to uprate fine levels in all the time they've been in power.

"As a result, fines for serious offences like robbery and criminal damage are cheaper than some parking tickets. No wonder public confidence in the justice system has been undermined."

Can you believe that?

Fine them £1000+, and if they can't pay the fine, jail them. It's simple.

Don't give them soft fines because the poor little mite can't afford to pay the fine.

Broken record time.

Is this what Labour meant when they said 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.'

Punishment should fit the crime.

Why has this been allowed to happen?

2010-04-08T02:01:00.004+01:00

I cannot believe this has been allowed to happen.

The following comes from this article

Eleven rapists and hundreds of other sex offenders 'let off with cautions'

Eleven rapists and hundreds of other self-confessed sex offenders have been let off with cautions over the past five years in one police force area alone, figures show.

An extract;

More than 600 cautions were issued for crimes that include rape and child abuse in Avon and Somerset since 2004, police admitted.

Cautions are handed out when guilt is admitted and mean offenders do not appear in court, do not have their names made public and they do not risk going to prison.

You have people committing some of the most serious crimes against a person and they get a caution. No wonder the reporting of rapes is at an all time low.

An extract;

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, showed cautions as punishment for sexual offences increased over the five years within the force area.

A total of 611 sex offenders were issued with cautions by the constabulary after the criminals admitted guilt, officers said.

Were they thinking that once the criminals were given the caution, they would be good and not do it again, yeah right

These included 11 rapists who confessed their crimes. Four of those had admitted the rape of a child under the age of 13.

How the **** can you not jail these scum, they admitted the crime. Why aren't they in jail now?

What about the safety to the public?

What is stopping them from committing the same crime again?

The figures also revealed 74 sexual assaults on women, seven on men and 28 on children were dealt with by caution rather being taken through the courts.

Four cautions were given for incest or familial sexual offences, two for abuse of children through prostitution or pornography and two for sexual grooming.

Who ever agreed to these cautions, for these serious crimes, should be put in jail themselves for endangering the public.

The country is a joke.

You get jailed for letting a few people smoke in your pub.

You have people going to jail for not paying the council tax.

But if you rape a child you get a caution

What a wonderful country we live in. NOT