Monday, October 31, 2005

Witanagemot Roundup #3

Gareth asked me to provide the latest Witanagemot round-up, let’s just hope I can live up to the tough standards set by Gareth and John.

One of the big stories has been the partial smoking ban in England and yet another example of Scots interfering in English-only legislation. Former health secretary John Reid, an MP with a Scottish constituency, effectively vetoed the full ban proposed for England – the full ban that his Scottish constituents will be getting next year courtesy of the Scottish Parliament. This unwanted intrusion by the Scottish Raj even managed to wind up Tony’s cronies at the Beeb who gave the story coverage. More on this - Englishman’s Castle, CEP, CEP again

The other major story, of course, was Trafalgar Day. Admiral Nelson said “England expects that every man will do his duty”. She certainly did and she wasn’t let down. England desperately needs every man to do his duty once again, 200 years on. More on this - Englishman’s Castle, Toque

This month has also seen the unfortunate demise of english-blogs.com. It seems that they have finally succumbed to the regular hacking of their server, the last one resulted in a racist (against English) slogan in place of the blogs.

Breaking news yesterday was the article in the Sunday Times by “Posh Scottish columnist with an English accent” A A Gill. The delightful Mr Gill managed a full 2 page diatribe on why he hates the English – the sort of article that, were the word English to be changed to say … “Muslims” or “Scottish” … he would currently be staring at 4 bare walls in the local nick waiting to be charged with a boatload of racism charges. More on this – CEP, Cross of St George, England Project, Waking Hereward

The clocks have gone back for the winter, which will apparently result in around 150 deaths. We are told that the British government looked at not putting the clocks back to try and save some of the lives lost as a result but were scuppered by the Scots who didn’t fancy waking up with a whiskey-fueled hangover at 9am and it still being dark. Assuming the number of deaths is spread evenly amongst the population, not putting the clocks back would save about 127 English lives and about 22 Scottish lives. Nice to see that the lives of 127 English people are worth less than the Scots waking up in daylight. More on this – CEP

The Labour Party have joined the ranks of the internet scum and taken to spamming email inboxes. Have you been receiving emails from the Labour Party to email addresses you’ve never given them? Perhaps you should send them an email asking them why they are breaking the law … again.

This month also saw race riots in Birmingham between the black and Asian communities. Considering the race riots spread over an entire weekend and resulted in a number of deaths and injuries, the anti-racism organisations have been strangely silent. There has been no list of demands for money, legislation and focus groups, which we have come to expect when there is, even the slightest hint of a white person being involved. More on this – Not proud of Britain again and again, View from Middle England

The Tory leadership race is hotting up with David Cameron (aka Tory Blair) apparently overtaking David Davis in the popularity stakes. There is a fairly even balance of support for both candidates amongst the Witanagemot club.

“Birdman” at Raised by Chaffinches is flying south for the winter to concentrate on writing his book. Have a good flight and wear a scarf – you don’t want to catch bird flu. Polly wanna Lemsip.

The Campaign for an English Parliament’s network of local branches are slowly starting to get themselves online. So far we have a website for Sussex branch and blogs for Shropshire, East Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Cumbria. There is some groundwork to be done with the CEP’s national website to enable us to produce a template for local blogs and websites which should hopefully result in more branches coming online.

It’s been such a busy few weeks since the last round-up that I have to draw the line somewhere so I’ll draw it here. Apologies if I've missed out anything of note or importance but it's time-consuming this round-up business and it's not as easy as it looks!

Letter: Shropshire Star

Lucky this one was published on the Shropshire Star website as our shitty new paperboy didn't bother turning up tonight.

Language is being promoted

The Shropshire Star published a letter from Eleanor Burnham which bemoaned the merger of the Welsh Language Board with the Welsh Assembly and expressed concern that there will now be no body to promote Welsh language and culture.

Perhaps Ms Burnham is not aware that the Assembly she works for is there to look after Wales’ interests.

The Welsh are to be commended for their success in reviving their defunct language.

Ms Burnham might like to cast her gaze over the border into England and see if she can find any Government organisations promoting English culture.

The Welsh, along with the Scots and Northern Irish, have a seemingly endless number of quango’s and organisations representing their interests and promoting their culture.

England, on the other hand, has seen the equivalent English organisations disbanded.

The trouble with our ’partners’ is that they just don’t realise how good they’ve got it.

I don’t want to see the English nationality deliberately wiped out and for that reason I support the Campaign for an English Parliament.

It’s time we started sticking up for ourselves.

Stuart Parr, Telford

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Poor foxes

The Countryside Alliance says that since the British government banned hunting with dogs, as many, if not more, foxes have been killed.

Animal Rights terrorists activists have been complaining about the poor vermin being killed.

You just can't win with these people.

Twat of the Week: A A Gill

The latest winner of the increasingly inappropriately named Twat of the Week is A A Gill.

Alfie aka Waking Hereward points out an article in this weeks Sunday Times in which the "Posh Scottish columnist with an English accent" tells us "I hate England".

He says "I don’t like the English. One at a time, I don’t mind them. I’ve loved some of them. It’s their collective persona I can’t warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England."

Gill has lived here for 50 years out of the 51 years he's been alive. "I was born and part bred in Edinburgh" he says. Part bred being for 1 year of his life.

He's embarrassed about England and even though he says he looks and sounds like he's English, he isn't. He says he's Scottish. Because he lived there from birth to 1 year old.

Here's a suggestion A A Gill - if you don't like England or the English, fuck off back to Scotland you foul mouthed ignorant twat.

Genius

According to the Mail on Sunday today, the Scottish Executive has spent £57,000 on a survey to find out why Scottish students are taking degrees in Social Work.

The conclusion was that they wanted to be social workers.

They're sharp up north.

Prison Service recruit illegal immigrant

Source: Cross of St George

The Prison Service has produced a flyer to promote ethnic recruitment. They used a prison officer named Mr Gadkari in the flyer only for a beady-eyed immigration officer to recognise him as an illegal immigrant.

As Ethelred says, are they so desperate to fulfil their multi-culti obligations that they don't vet ethnic prison officers any more?

Welcome to Blair's Britain.

Iran says it won't attack Israel

Source: BBC News

Iran says it won't attack Israel despite the president's comments.

The UN Security Council's statement about the president's speech said ...
The Security Council condemns the remarks about Israel attributed to Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranians said ...
The declaration published by the Security Council - proposed by the Zionist regime to cover its crimes and give an image at odds with reality - is unacceptable
They expressed surprise that the Security Council has never condemned threats made against Iran by the US and Israel or the crimes of the Israeli regime.

You know, I think they've got a point. Israel has openly defied the UN many, many times and gets away with it every single time.

If you have any doubts about Israel's record, check out this website which lists every UN resolution made against Israel and every UN resolution vetoed by the US - most resolutions vetoed by the US were approved by all 14 other members.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Some useful images

Someone by the name of Tommy Jackson (not sure who he is) sent a zip full of images for distribution amongst interested parties.

If you want to get a point across in a picture and a couple of words I'm sure you'll find something of interest.

To view the images, click here (not a great picture browser but it's free and simple).

Flu jab lottery

Helath workers in Nottingham are doing a prize draw for people who have a flu jab.

Last winter I asked my doctor for a flu jab as I'm asthmatic, overweight and have had flu twice in the last 4 years (and was hospitalised the first time).

My doctor told me I couldn't have one because I didn't fit the criteria.

A flu jab lottery in more ways than one.

Scotland want their own time zone

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Age Concern and the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety all want to stop putting clocks back in winter because they think it will save lives. A government survey also came to the same conclusion. So why haven't the British government stopped doing it? Because the Scots don't want to of course.

The Scots don't want to stop changing the clocks because if they did, it would be dark until about 9am. Instead, they think that they and the Northern Irish should be allowed to set their own time different to England and Wales. Presumably you would have EMT (Edinburgh Mean Time) and SMT (Scottish Miserable Time).

Why am I reminded of America's irritating habit of doing everything different just to prove they can?

BBC England

There is no BBC England. Don't let the England link on their news website fool you, there is BBC England to compliment the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish divisions of the BBC.

The inadequate partial ban on smoking in England is big news at the moment because the full ban was watered-down at the hands of a Scottish MP.

Where is this major story on the BBC News website? It is an English story, the ban doesn't affect the rest of the UK, so it must be on the England page right? Nope. It's on the politics page (there isn't an English politics page). Why is it on the politics page where people who aren't interested in politics rarely venture?

Go to the England page on the BBC website (link) and hover over any of the links to the news stories. All but one or two of the links will point to a story in a "region" of England. The smoking ban story doesn't relate to one of the BBC's regions so it doesn't make it onto the England page.

This is why we need a BBC England.

Friday, October 28, 2005

How to make friends and blow up people

At a time when Israel is looking for the support of the international community, including its Arab neighbours, over the Iranian president's speech calling for Israel to wiped off the planet, you'd have thought they might try to endear themselves in some way.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up 5 Israeli's in a market so Israel launched a rocket attack into Palestine, killing 8 people.

This is against international law because a military response to a threat must use appropriate force equivalent to the attack. Suicide bomber ... missiles attack. Sorry but that is not the same level of force.

Anyway, this is nothing special - it's been going on for long enough and nobody really expects any better from a country that has defied more UN resolutions than any other member and has the dubious honour of being the only country to share China's status of an occupying power (Tibet).

What is really going to piss people off is this quote from Israeli Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz ...
"We could reach interim agreements [but] I don't think that a Palestinian state
will see the light of day in the coming years."

I think Mr Mofaz will find that there is already a Palestinian state. It is recognised by the UN and pretty much every other country in the world except Israel. Israel is illegally occupying Palestine in defiance of an endless list of UN resolutions telling them to get out of Palestine and Jerusalem.

The Israeli's have nothing but contempt for anyone but themselves.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Welsh Assembly have permission to ban smoking

The British government has given permission to the Welsh Assembly to implement their own smoking ban. They are expected to follow the lead of Scotland and Northern Ireland in bring in a total ban on smoking in public places leaving England the only part of the UK where non-smokers will be forced to breath in other peoples' smoke - all thanks to a Scottish MP.

Soft on Crime

West Mercia Police is one of the best eprforming police authorities in England. All I can assume is that every force in the authority must be bloody fantastic to make up for the fact that Telford Police are so shit.

Yesterday Mrs Sane phoned me at work to say a man was walking round the street with a piece of paper in his hand trying a key in different doors. She had seen him the day before as well staggering around the street apparently drunk.

She had just phoned the police when she phoned me.

Fifteen minutes later she phoned me again to say they still hadn't been and she wanted to go out. I phoned the Police and told them what was going on and said my wife wanted to go out but she won't while the man is still out there. The woman on the end of the phone said there wasn't an officer available but when there was they would send someone round. She said "He's still outside number 170, is that right?" I told her that no, he wasn't still outside 170 - he had moved on to 171 and hadn't been seen for some time and suggested that if he was a burglar he may even be in the house. "We'll send an officer when one becomes available" she said.

Half an hour later Mrs Sane phoned me back again and said the police had just been. They had driven to the end of the street, turned around and driven off again. They didn't even get out of the car and we haven't heard from them since. Presumably nobody had broken in but who knows?

This is pretty much par for the course for Telford Police who are never there when you need them and when they eventually turn up do absolutely bugger all.

If West Mercia Police is one of the best in the country, how bad must the rest be?


Soft of Crime, Soft on the Causes of Crime

For gods sake, no more war, please.

The Iranians must be bloody suicidal. The Americans have been looking for an excuse to carpet bomb Iran for ages and noe they've got it.

The Iranian president has been on the TV saying he thanks god for attacks on Jews and that Israel should be wiped off the planet.

Of all the countries he should pick on, why did he choose Israel when everyone knows that the Americans think the sun shines out of their arse?

Traitor Blair has been on TV saying that he's consulted our allies (roughly translated as "I've had my instructions from George") and that action may follow.

It's not our job to police the world. Israel is America's pet, let them give their lives up. More than enough lives have been lost fighting America's "war on terror".

Government Spokesman denies Bird Flu scare

Half a smoking ban thanks to the Scottish Raj

Yesterday the British government debated a ban on smoking in public places in England.

The proposal was for a blanket ban on smoking in all public places and for smoking to be allowed only in sealed smoking rooms.

However, thanks to John Reid's interference, the smoking ban has been watered down to appease smokers who bleat about their right to smoke.

What is so damn irritating about all this is that John Reid is a former Health Secretary. More than that, John Reid is Scottish, represents a Scottish constituency and this ban only affects England.

This was an English bill relating only to England. The Scottish Parliament have already approved a ban for Scotland and no English MP's were present at that debate. Why the hell should a Scottish MP be able to vote at all, let alone to influence the bill to such an extent?

It's time the Scottish Raj were booted out of England.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

TV Awards ceremony on ITV

Just watching the TV Awards ceremony on ITV and they mentioned the cricket and introduced Freddy Flintoff to present a "Spirit of Cricket" Award and bugger me but what music do they play as he strolls in? Jerusalem! Nearly fell off my chair.

Eleanor Burnham AM complaining about Welsh Language Board merger

This was in the Shropshire Star the other night on the same page as my letter. A Welsh Assembly Member is complaining that with the incorporation of the Welsh Language Board into the Welsh Assembly, there is nobody to promote Welsh language and culture.

The poor dear has obviously forgotten that this is what the Welsh Assembly is for. This is a government function and if the government that she is a part of can't promote the Welsh language and culture without a special quango paid for with taxpayers money then she and her colleagues shouldn't be in the job.

Language in need of champion

Last week the Government's plan to abolish the Welsh Language Board was postponed by an opposition vote.

I and many other Assembly members have serious concerns about the Government's ill-thought out plans to take a greater responsibility for the Welsh Language. Alun Pugh heard but he hasn't addressed our concerns. The challenge for Mr Pugh is to prove whether he can be the champion for the Welsh language at this Thursday's first meeting of Fforwm laith. The Fforwm will enable the public to openly discuss the current and future state of the Welsh language.

If Mr Pugh can't make Fforwm laith work, face his critics and satisfy the public, what hope has he of championing the Welsh Language? I believe the Fforwm presents the minister with an opportunity to prove he has an ability to take on board constructive ideas and engage the public's enthusiasm for the language.

My challenge to Alun Pugh is this: Prove you can face your critics, listen to the public and give real answers. Then maybe we can begin to believe this Government is capable of safeguarding and promoting the language.

Eleanor Burnham AM
Welsh Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman for the Welsh language and Assembly Member for North Wales

Letter: Shropshire Star

England's elderly in the cold

Gas and electricity company n-Power is doing a tour of its offices with a portable "pensioners house" to give staff an insight into what it's like living in a cold house because you can't afford the heating bills.

The idea behind it is that staff will be more sympathetic with customers who have trouble paying their bills - very comendable, although knocking a few pounds off would help more.

With winter fast approaching and the promise of a cold snap in the next couple of weeks, there are bound to be a fair number of pensioners worrying about how they are going to pay their heating bills this year.

Not in Scotland though. The Scottish Executive is paying for every Scottish pensioner to have central heating fitted free of charge.

How can they do this? Because they have their own parliament.

Meanwhile 2.2 million English pensioners live below the poverty line.

There is nobody to speak up for England. We make up 85 per cent of the population of the UK yet we are the only part of the UK and the EU with no direct political representation. We can't rely on our neighbours to look after us. We need an English Parliament now.

Stuart Parr
Telford

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Wheelie Bin update

I had another marathon whinge with my colleagues at work about the wheelie bin/recycling scam that Telford & Wrekin are running and decided enough was enough and that I would phone the council to complain at them before my colleagues started a petition to have me moved to another building.

I phone the council and explained that we are a 6 person family, we have two wheelie bins and now that they are being collected fortnightly, the poxy red box they have given us for recycling is nowhere near enough and we have bags and boxes of rubbish all over the place.

Far from being haughty and defensive as I expected, they were actually very helpful.

They asked if I would like another recycling box. I said yes, they said it would be here tomorrow. They asked if I would like a third wheelie bin. I said yes, they said they would send me out a form to order one.

I'm amazed and ever so slightly cynical. I wait with baited breath.

Spam from the Labour Party

I've just fired off an email to the Nazi Labour Party to ask them how they have come across 3 of my email addresses and why they put them on their mailing lists.
Hi,

Can you please explain to me where you have obtained three of my email addresses from?

stuart.parr@xxxxxxxx.co.uk
xxxxxxx@wonkosworld.co.uk
ihatejunkmail@xxxxxxxx.co.uk

I don't appreciate unsolicited spam and especially not from facist political parties.

I would like to know exactly how you came to be in possession of my email addresses and how and when I indicated my consent for you to put them on your mailing list.

Thank you

Stuart Parr
Anyone else getting spammed by Labour?

Monday, October 24, 2005

Race riots in Birmingham

The weekend has seen race riots in Birmingham.

There's been little else on the news all weekend and all day today but there's a noticable lack of any statements and list of demands from the usual interested parties - the Commission for Racial Equality, the Muslim Council of Britain, etc.

I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's because there are no white people involved and we all know that only white people perpetrate racist crimes don't we?

The race riots in Birmingham are between Asian and Black groups. The thing that seems to have kicked it all off is a black illegal immigrant was apparently raped by a gang of Asians. Black people from all over the country have apparently come up to Birmingham to show their solidarity for the victim and to complain about the fact that the Police have done nothing to investigate the rape that the illegal immigrant won't report to them for fear of deportation.

What appears to have caused the widespread rioting and looting is the black community complaining that Asians own too many businesses and that they are undercutting prices in black businesses. Funny that, I always thought that was one of the key parts in making a profit.

I saw video footage of a gang forcing their way into a kebab shop and giving the owner a beating and then trashing the shop. It was a pretty savage beating but there's been no public outcry from the anti-racism organisations.

There was a black community leader on Central News this evening. The first thing he did was complain that the presenters were referring to the blacks causing trouble as "West Indian" and requested they refer to them as "Of West Indian Heritage" as they are not West Indian, they are Black British. He then rambled on for 5 minutes referring to them as West Indians, Afro Caribbeans, Asians, etc. himself.

His explanation of the problem was that the communities co-exist, they don't integrate. Well of course they don't and they never will for as long as they have their own community leaders, hold on to their own culture over and above our culture and continue to set up all these special interest focus groups that divide the community along ethnic and religious lines.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. As long as the government sits back and allows, or even helps, the creation of specialist representative groups for specific races and religions they are never going to integrate.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

British government can't ban wild bird imports

According to the Mail on Sunday, the British government wants to ban wild bird imports to prevent bird flu but can't because the EU haven't given their permission to do so.

Forgive me for being naive but perhaps it's time that we started to take the flexible attitude to European law that France and Germany do? Viz. if it doesn't suit us, ignore it.

Besides, there is provision for the British government to work on its own initiative in times of emergency. I'd say that this was emergency enough for those of us who aren't top of the bird flu vaccination list.

Welsh Conservatives "victory" speech

The Welsh Conservatives have published this "victory" speech.

In it they gloat about Labour being forced to back down on top-up fees - "thanks to a Welsh Conservative motion students in Wales will be saved from greater debt".

They also seem to be taking credit for Cardiff's Millenium Stadium hosting major sporting events despite the fact it is only getting them as it is the best equipped international stadium available while Wembley is being rebuilt - "As we approach the autumn internationals series we have a real opportunity to once again to showcase Cardiff as the world class location for sporting events that it is."

Back onto top-up fees and universities - "We have ensured that Welsh students escape top up fees. But we must do much more. The government must honour the agreement to ensure that our universities remain competitive and do not suffer from a funding gap with English higher education institutions."

On to the NHS - "Limited capacity restricts our health service from providing patients with the treatment that they so urgently require. The fact that Welsh heart patients have to be transferred to Wolverhampton, though necessary, acutely highlights the sorry state of affairs in the NHS."

The Welsh economy comes next - "It is clear that Labour has failed to breed the economic success Wales deserves. Wales is the poorest region of the UK. The GDP gap between Wales and the other regions continues to grow."

Council tax is next - "Unacceptable council tax rises have already placed an intolerable burden on our communities. Re-valuation has added insult to injury, hitting households in every community in Wales." ... "The government's U-turn in England is an acknowledgement of the explosive nature of this policy. The British people have had enough of Labour's stealth taxes."

This is all from the party that wants us to elect them next time round and from one of the countries we are supposed to trust to look after our interests in the British parliament.

The Welsh joined forces with the Scots to impose top-up fees on the English and revel in the fact they escaped them themselves courtesy of devolved education.

Welsh patients receive a better standard of care under the NHS with superior treatment and drugs courtesy of a devolved health service

Wales is the poorest region of the UK? So despite England pumping billions of pounds of tax into the country every year and trade and industry and tourism being devolved, they still fail to prosper? Perhaps there is something inherently wrong in the way they are approaching the situation that they should try and fix rather than asking for more money?

England still pays more council tax than anywhere else in the UK despite mbeing more highly taxed than the rest of the UK and having more of its tax misappropriated for the benefit of the rest of the UK. The Welsh, on the other hand, have lower council tax bills and receive subsidies from the Welsh Assembly to keep the costs down.

What are the Conservatives going to do for us other than milk us for more money to pay for their Welsh projects?

The great recycling scam

Telford & Wrekin Council is one of the many local authorities across England to start its own home recycling scheme. The schemes are passed off as an environmental scheme when really they are nothing more than an ill-thought-out, thinly-veiled scam.

Here's what happens ...

The local authority stop emptying your wheelie bins on a weekly basis and start collecting them fortnightly.

In the intervening week they empty your recycling and garden waste bins.

The recycling box that you get is about a quarter of the size of a wheelie bin.

The garden waste bin is the same size as a wheelie bin.

I have two wheelie bins - 2 adults, 4 kids (one a baby in nappies) and a 5 bedroom house means we produce a lot of rubbish. A lot of the time we only use one wheelie bin but sometimes we use the two.

Now we have our wheelie bins emptied once a fortnight and in the intervening week we have to make do with a little red box which holds 25% of what a wheelie bin does. We have boxes and bags of recycling all over the house because we can't leave the stuff in the box outside on account of it having no lid.

Now to the scam part of it ...

It costs money to empty wheelie bins and dispose of the rubbish. With recycling, the council receives washed and sorted recycling which it then sells. Sure, it doesn't pay for itself but our council tax is going up and up well over the rate of inflation while the cost of refuse collection is significantly reduced along with a reduction in the service we receive.

One of my mother-in-law's neighbours made three trips to the tip last week because he had so much rubbish lying around in the house. How can this be good for the environment? What about the risks of having rubbish lying around your house for up to two weeks?

This is a money-making scam poorly disguised as doing our bit for the environment. I don't mind recycling - in fact I am happy to recycle - but this should be provided as an additional service, not as a replacement for having your wheelie bins emptied.

Tesco's staff hiding stuff?

PG Tips are doing a free Wallace & Grommit mug with boxes of tea bags.

I love Walle & Grommit so Mrs Sane has been trying to get some. She's been to Tesco's twice in the last week to find that there aren't any on the shelves.

Today she saw a member of staff taking a whole box of them to the checkout.

Funny that ...

If Napolean had won ...

Athelstan has posted an excellent article on the Cross of St George blog ...

If Napoleon had won at Trafalgar we would have had:

  • A European President

  • The Abolition of the English Nation State

  • The abolition of imperial measures and the introduction of metric measures

  • A centralised unrepresentative European government

  • Rules and Regulations common to all Europe

  • Abolition of English Law and it substituted by diktat of European laws.

  • Removal of the right of English people to decide their own laws.

Traitor Blair - lying hypocrite exposed

Gareth at the CEP has once exposed Traitor Blair for the hypocritical liar that he is in this post.
What does Scotland mean to you? A warm welcome from family and friends. My father was brought up in Glasgow and I went to school in Edinburgh, so I've got plenty of both there.

What's your favourite place in Scotland? Why is it special to you?

I have very fond memories of Glasgow and Edinburgh and Cherie and I have had some wonderful holidays in Argyll, staying at a hotel overlooking the Isle of Lismore.

Who is your greatest Scottish hero? I prefer to look not so much for a hero as someone who has made a massive contribution to all our lives. Alexander Graham Bell (right) must have a pretty strong claim.

Are Scottish people really that different from the English? I think the differences are based more on caricature than reality.

What could England learn from Scotland? And vice-versa?The beauty of devolution is that it allows different parts of the UK to innovate and learn from one another. For example, we have a target in England to get 50 per cent of young people into further education but Scotland has already achieved this. In other areas, Scotland is learning from the experience in England, as in the success of measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Should Scotland, England and Wales field one national team in football and rugby?

Absolutely not. Such a move would be resisted by almost all supporters of both sports in the three countries. And I agree with them.
So Princess Tony didn't think a British Football or Rugby team would be a good idea back in January this year but since then we've had a British rugby team hyped by the government which nobody was even faintly interested in and he's been telling us all how wonderful a British Football team is going to be in the 2012 Olympic Games.

What does the government say about a British football team?
Ultimately, this is a matter for FIFA, the four home nations' football associations, and the organisers of the Olympic tournament. However, the Secretary of State has discussed the issue of a Great British football team for the Olympics with the Football Association of England on a number of occasions.

The Government believe that a GB Olympic football team at a 2012 London Olympics could be very exciting for football fans and discussions between the various parties continue.
And as for the Scots exceeding their target for getting students into further education, I agree - we can learn something from them.

1. Get our own parliament and control education ourselves
2. Abolish student fees so students can afford to go to university

Saturday, October 22, 2005

New CEP poster

An excellent new poster from the CEP.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Trafalgar Day

Happy Trafalgar Day.

Trafalgar Day is the day on which the English Admiral Nelson led an English fleet to victory over the French and Spanish navy which was gearing up to invade England.

Lord Nelson's rallying "cry" (using those semaphore flag things) was "England expects every man to do his duty".

65% of the crew on the Victory were English, so was Nelson. There were 2 Scottish captains. Most of the crew were press ganged into service from the Merchant Navy, not fighting for their country.

With so many clues, why does everyone (government, navy, BBC, etc.) insist on claiming this as a British victory?

Thursday, October 20, 2005

English Googlebombs

I've set up a blogroll for the current English googlebombs. If anyone wants the code to insert it into their blog/website, contact me. Ditto any corrections/additions.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Gutless Scousers

The gutless scousers at Liverpool City Council have officially apologised to the Welsh for flooding a village to make a reservoir 40 years ago.

If you want to know the reason the Welsh were whingeing, scroll down a few posts.

Full story on BBC News.

Callum's first tag rugby match

My eldest lad, Callum, had his first tag rugby game today. He didn't see much action but he did really well for his first ever match. The tournament had either 10 or 12 teams from local schools (not sure how many) and his team came joint third.

I've never seen tag rugby before, when I was at school we played proper rugby where you came off the pitch limping and covered in bruises. I was really impressed with the quality of play though considering it was a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds.

Olympics discussed in Parliament

Source: theyworkforyou.com
Hat-tip: Telford Live

One of the Telford Live crew have very kindly pointed out a discussion in Parliament on the Olympics. Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin (Telford), stayed true to form and completely failed to say anything of any interest or benefit to his constituency.

Apparently, the Olympics is going to be great, especially for Scotland and it's terrible that the SNP are trying to poison peoples' minds. This stuff you just can't make up. The daft bint that said that got a telling off by the Speaker.

The discussion is kicked off by an SNP MP asking Alistair Darling (one of the Scottish MP's lording over a department that has no jurisdiction in his own constituency) about a Scottish Olympics team. Alistair Darling fobs him off and the SNP flunky complains about an insulting letter he has received which suggests Scots competing in Team GB will do better than a Scottish team. I hate to admit it but Darling is right, the Scots are shit at sport. Oh yeah, apart from curling. Which is nice.

Someone else butts in with a comment about "the nations and regions" - when will they realise that nobody outside of Westminster wants regions?

Mark Pritchard then says it's unfortunate that the Scottish nationalists want to undermine the efforts of working together. No Mark, it's called patriotism. You know, that thing where you're proud of your country and you do what you can to try and protect it. Kind of like you in reverse you treacherous tosspot.

Typical stuff from the Conservative MP's who will do anything they can to suppress any form of nationalism in case it jeopardises their precious union whilst completely failing to understand that giving preferential treatment to 15% of the population at the expense (financially and democratically) of the other 85% is the thing that is going to break it up anyway.

Just when the Tories start to look vaguely electable they come out with shit like this.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

English-Blogs.com hacked

Had an email this morning from Gareth pointing out that English-Blogs.com had been hacked and replaced with the racist message "XTech Inc Group - fuck english".

This is, of course a crime, both in the sense that hacking is a crime and that racism and xenophobia are also crimes. The site has been down all day and I wish them the best of luck in getting the site back up and the content restored. I also urge them to report this crime to the police and demand that it be investigated as a racially motivated crime.

Freaky

Gavin at Gavpolitics has found something really freaky.

Click here (work safe - in fact your boss will probably appreciate it).

Letter: Shropshire Star

Had this published in last night's Shropshire Star.

Proud to be counted as English

One of the national newspapers published an article on October 10 under the headline "Fly the flag? That's racist".

The article tells the story of deputy chief fire officer Eugene Johnson, of Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority, ripping a three-by-two inch cross of St George sticker off a fire engine because "people would consider it racist and it has no place on a fire engine". Since when has our national flag been considered a racist symbol?

This is just the latest in a long line of attempts to discredit any symbol of England as racist and shameful.

But this is England and we don't exist, remember. We don't exist on EU maps, we don't exist on British government maps.

This once proud nation, which has produced some of the greatest people to ever walk the earth, has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self by deliberate and calculated acts of discrimination and prejudice by the British government.

We are the only country in Europe that has no specific representation for its people and one of the few countries under minority rule - the Labour Party lost the English vote by 66,000 votes in the General Election.

The only way England can be saved from Balkanisation and petty anglophobia is for us to have an English parliament for English people to represent English interests.

Stuart Parr
Telford


... and right next to it ...

Plot to destroy country may be Prescott's work

Bob Wydell asked me some weeks ago specifically why an old EU map referred to UK regions by name, but left out England.

The reason for the delay in reply is because I have been trying to find out, but without success. All I have established is that it was produced 25 years ago by some lowly official and was promptly corrected when the mistake was pointed out. Given that the same map included other member states by name, it is hardly strong evidence of a sinister EU plot to destroy this country.

There is a plot nonetheless, and it comes from John Prescott. County councils are often Conservative-controlled. Imposing regional government means he can get rid of county councils.

Stuart Parr, of Telford, agrees this would be a mistake - I would go further and say it would be an outrage.

Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP
European, Parliament, Brussels


Not exactly true as I understand it but he slags off Prescott so I thought I'd post it.

Shropshire Star Mailform
Let me know if you submit a letter so I can keep an eye out for it.

Foundation Hospitals buried in debt

Source: Campaign for an English Parliament

Foundation Hospitals, forced onto the statute books in England against the will of English MP's by Scottish and Welsh MP's, are being buried in debt.

They only have to break even every 5 years so they've been spending money they haven't got for the last few years and now they are cutting back on services to try and dig themselves out of a £37m hole.

So, to recap - we didn't want them, we didn't ask for them, we have to pay for them and now they are cutting services because they've wasted too much of our tax.

Democracy in action.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Misuse of the Terrorism Act ... again

From: The England Project

Police in Scotland, under orders from the Labour Stazi, have arrested a woman under the Terrorism Act for walking on a cycle path.

Full details here.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

52nd State

Source: BBC News

With the UK successfully incorporated as the 51st State of America, attentions in the Whitehouse have naturally turned to the future.

President Bush has broken out his lucky crayons and My Little Dictator(tm) Atlas and has started drawing up invasion plans for Iran.

We are currently at stage 1 of the battle plan (red crayon) which involves making up evidence of WMD (again), stories of collaboration with the "enemy" (again) and state-sponsorship of terrorism (again).

Condyolee Condalis Condoliez Condy has been helping him with the big words and so far he's fabricated stories of Iran supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents and a nuclear weapons programme. She's also been talking to Princess Tony to ask for the support of the UK.

Now he's going to the UN, which he respects so much that he totally ignored it over Iraq, to try and get some official and lawful reason to invade Iran.

The book is now wide open as to which US Middle Eastern client state will become the 52nd State. William Hill are offering 50/1 on Afghanistan, 7/3 on Iraq and 9/4 on Iran with an 250/1 accumulator on Osama Bin Laden marrying George Galloway in Eurodisney.

How weird are you?

A View from Middle England asks: how weird are you?

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about it!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Rough maths

Did some sums in my head while I was making a cup of tea.

Scotland receives £15bn a year from England and there are 60m people in England. That's £250 per person - man, woman and child. There are 5m people living in Scotland so that's £3,000 each from England.

Someone remind me why they hate us so much.

Speed Camera's lie - tell us something we don't know!

A Daily Mail investigation has show up Home Office approved speed cameras used by most police forces in the UK to be inconsistent and inaccurate. They also discovered that the CPS' expert witness on speed camera's has a bit fo a conflict of interests.

In speed camera cases the CPS usually calls Frank Garrat, the man who imports the speed guns from America to the UK.

The Daily Mail tested the speed guns on a brick wall, a parked car and a bicycle. The brick wall they clocked at 44mph, the parked car at 22mph and the bicycle at 66mph.

They also discovered that the when the courts ask for the police video footage as evidence, the CPS often drop the case rather than have the accuracy of these dodgy speed cameras brought before the scrutiny of a judge.

The problem stems from the fact that at only 300m the gun can pick up movement in a 12ft diameter of where it is being pointed whereas the average car is only 6ft wide. The gun has a claimed maximum range of 500m.

Sepp Blatter getting a bit of a pasting

I don't like Alex Fergusson much, don't know why but I've always found something irritating about him. Just for once, though, I have to praise him.

Sepp Blatter, FIFA chairman and outspoken anglophobe, has been criticising English football again. He apparently said that Alex Fergusson should be doing more to control Wayne Rooney and criticised Arsenal for not having many English players. He also said that the English Premiership is full of "semi-educated, sometimes foul-mouthed, players on £100,000 a week holding clubs to ransom for £120,000".

Alex Fergusson has told him to butt out, as has Arsene Wenger. Sir Alex said that Sepp Blatter should be concentrating on the bigger issues and not national football.

You know, Sepp Blatter might have a point but they're our players, our teams and it's our football league. We don't need his intereference or his opinions on English football. We already know he's an anglophobe who wants to destroy English football, hence his demand that the UK field a British football team in the 2012 Olympics.


Team Britain, Fuck NO!

Letter: Shropshire Star

Got another letter published in the Shropshire Star. I understand that newspapers have to edit letters to fit in the space available and to take out anything they think they can't get away with but sometimes the editing means the letter doesn't make as much sense as it did when it was written. This one is a case in point. On the up side, my last two letters have made the top spot on the letters page of their website where they only publish a selection.

Formation of English parliament necessary


The Scottish Parliament has rejected proposals to establish St Andrew's Day as a public holiday in Scotland by a narrow majority of 66/58.

It's a shame really, not for the people of Scotland who already have more public holidays than the English, but for the 50 million people who live in England.

You see, there are two things that get your average man on the street interested in politics - money and holidays.

Trying to explain to people about the democratic deficit in the UK is often an uphill battle.

Less people take an interest in politics nowadays as the issues that affect us have been legislated well out of reach of the common man.

Telling people that the British Government is deliberately eroding the English culture and nationality rarely produces a reaction.

Even explaining that that English people's lives are put at risk daily because so much money is pumped into the Scottish and Welsh health systems that there isn't enough left to offer the same standard of treatment to English people fails to motivate most people.

The thing that does motivate people, though, is the amount of English tax given away to our "partners" in the UK without us even having a say in the matter.

St George's Day isn't even on the agenda in Westminster.

The very fact that the Scots have the ability to even look at the prospect of a national holiday to celebrate their patron saint should be enough to make people realise that we are third-class citizens.

We need an English Parliament for English people.

Stuart Parr, Telford

Friday, October 14, 2005

Letter: Shropshire Star

Flag is symbol of pride, not racist tag

I have, for the second time in two days, read a newspaper article about somebody claiming the English flag is racist.

First it was Ann Owers, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, chastising prison officers at Wakefield Prison for wearing Cross of St George tie pins that they had bought in aid of a cancer charity.

She expressed concern that the flag could be misinterpreted as a racist symbol and should not be worn.

Heaven forbid that a prison officer should offend a convicted criminal by wearing his national flag on a charity tie pin.

Then it was Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, who said we should change the English flag and ditch St George as our patron saint because they are an insensitive reminder of the crusades.

Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

The English flag and good old St George have served us well for hundreds of years without a problem.

Am I the only one wondering why these people, who are so sensitive to these things that they are offended by OUR flag and OUR patron saint, are living in OUR country?

Will we be seeing the Crescent and Star symbol of Islam removed through out the country as it is an insensitive reminder of the Islamic invasion of the holy lands to Christians?

I would rate the chances of that happening at somewhere around zero.

Stuart Parr, Brookside, Telford

Removing the EU flag ...

A while ago I follwed Neil Herron's lead and contacted Telford & Wrekin Council to request they remove the EU fl rag from their buildings on account of them being there illegally.

The result of the polite but protracted conversation was the folloiwng email from the Chief Executive of Telford & Wrekin Council ...


Dear Mr Parr

Further to your email to one of my staff, Katrina Baker, let me conclude this correspondence by setting out the Council's policy position.

This was informed by a survey of the Community Panel, a representative sample of 1000 people from all parts of the Borough and all sections of the community. The European Union is part of the institutional structure of government in this country. Representative government operates at three levels, European, National and Local. This is represented by the three flags flown on Civic Offices. This also represents the three principal sources of funding of projects and services in Telford and Wrekin. The Borough has benefited greatly from the Council's success, working closely with partner agencies, in securing significant funds from Europe over very many years.

Just because some people (I presume including yourself) disagree with the fact that the EU exists and that Britain is a member does not make it political in the sense that it falls foul of the publicity guidelines. If that were a sufficient test the same argument could apply equally to matters relating to central and local government, and on that basis we would have to remove all flags.

I trust I have made the Council's position clear and would advise you that I now regard this correspondence as closed.

Yours sincerely


Michael Frater
Chief Executive

Neil Herron emailed me this morning to say that he would take this on if I got a fob off by the council. I couldn't resist a parting shot before Neil works his magic though ...

Mr Frater,

Thank you for your correspondence.

You are questioning my motivation, I will clarify this for you. I am not anti-European, I am an English nationalist. In contrast to the majority of my English nationalist friends I am in favour of the EU. I happen to believe, however, that an English local authority should fly the English flag and the British flag.

The EU flag should not take presedence over our national flag.

I am aware of the survery for the Community Panel, I have seen the results. This does not alter the legality of the situation.

In my previous emails I have set out why T&WC flying the EU flag is illegal, whether you choose to voluntarily remove it or whether you are compelled to do so is down to you.

I would like to point out a contradiction in your email. You state that the EU is part of representitive government but then go on to say it is not political. Which is it?

Whatever you decide, please be advised that Neil Herron of the Metric Martyrs/The People's No Campaign will be taking this matter forward. Please take this email as authority to release any relevant information/correspondence to him on request.

Regards,

Stuart

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Value for money BBC?

The BBC want to increase the annual TV tax (aka Licence Fee) to £180. They seem to think this is good value for money.

The TV tax is already too expensive, they should be made to carry adverts and then be allowed to make up the difference with a small licence fee. A public service broadcaster is important. Unfortunately, the BBC is fast losing its credibility as it completes its metamorphosis into a state puppet and £180 is too much to pay for an Anglophobic organisation such as the BBC.

ID Cards will cost £30 ... honest

Just heard on the news that the government has announced that ID cards will cost aaround £30 and could be in by 2010.

However, a combined passport/ID card will be £90. Why? Same card, same data so why is it going to cost an extra £60?

We should also question why the price includes VAT - a commodity tax - on something that will be a legal requirement and not a luxury.

Proud Dad Moment

It's been a good week for proud dad moments ...
  • Callum and Declan had glowing school reports.
  • Callum is staying on the gifted and talented register as he's still the cleverest kid in his year even after moving to a better school.
  • Joseph is the best behaved child in his nursery (still the spawn of Satan at home).
  • Sophie learnt her first sign - she can say "what" in sign language.
  • Callum made the school tag rugby team.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Apologise to Wales?

According to BBC News, Liverpool is close to apologising to Wales for displacing an entire village in 1965 to flood it to make the Bala reservoir.

The controversy was apparently that no Welsh MP voted for the Act of Parliament that authorised the compulsory purchase order that enabled the City of Liverpool to build the reservoir.

Wait a minute. Before an English city apologises for forcing through an Act of Parliament affecting only Wales despite Welsh MP's voting against it, can we also secure the promise of an apology by the Scottish and Welsh MP's that voted in Foundation Hospitals and University Tuition Fees for England against the will of English MP's?

You can email Liverpool City Council to suggest this to them at liverpool.direct@liverpool.gov.uk.

Secret Oil Finds Dossier released

According to BBC News, a previously confidential document has been released under the Freedom of Information Act claiming that with oil revenues, an independent Scotland could have been the strongest economy in Europe and would have had the hardest currency in Europe with the exception, perhaps, of the Norweigan Kroner.

The SNP predictably made a meal of it saying the report was proof of 30 years of official lies, cover-ups and betrayal.

Firstly, a massive chunk of "Scottish Oil" is, in fact, English oil. Because of the line of the English coastline, English territorial waters extend way out into the oilfields. It is only recently that the British government arbitrarily redrew the maritime border to ensure that Scotland got most of the oil.

Secondly, we've been carrying Scotland for hundreds of years, propping it's stagnant and bankrupt economy and subsidising its public services to the extent that the average Scot now receives a thousand pounds of English taxes each from English taxes in central government spending. This doesn't even take into account the amount of English tax that they get from our forced contributions to the Scottish government.

Another Tornado hits Birmingham

Just two months after a tornado hit Birmingham, causing millions of pounds worth of damage, another one has struck the same city.

I don't hold much truck with all this global warming stuff, I think changes in the climate we are seeing now are just natural fluctuations that have been taking place since time immemorial but I can't help but wonder what has caused two tornadoes in England in the space of two months.

Welsh National Police Force?

At a tiem when the British government is pursuing a policy of merging and regionalising the English police forces, the Welsh government is considering bringing their 4 forces under one national force.

England 2 - 1 Poland

England won a fairly convincing victory over Poland.

Frank Lampard's goal was particularly good I thought and Owen did well to resist the tempation to try and knock one in.

Once again, no Union Jack's in the crowd. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Tony.

Iranian involvement in Iraq

According to British troops there is evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq. Apparently the Iranians have been helping the Iraqi's by giving them weapons.

Forgive me for being a cynic but how bloody convenient is this? The Iranians hate the Iraqi's and vice versa. They fought a war on and off for how many years? George Bush is itching to carpet bomb Iran for aggrivated brown-ness and not stopping their development of nuclear power stations when America told them to.

No doubt these "British troops" will remain anonymous.

Guilty until proven innocent: welcome to Blair's Britain

When I was listening to BBC News this morning I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Unfortunately I wasn't.

Princess Tony has decided that the best way to deal with young yobs is to haul them before a judge to prove they are innocent.

In case you haven't quite understood the gravity of that statement let me reword it for you.

Children accused of yobbish behaviour will have to go to court to prove they are innocent of what they are being accused of. They will not be presumed innocent until proven guilty and will appear in court like an adult.

There is something very sinister going down here. For a start, yobs or not, they are children and are therefore less able to defend themselves. Secondly, the most fundamental thing about the law of this country is that you are innocent until proven guilty.

But why aren't I surprised that Princess Tony has even contemplated this, let alone indicated his intention to go ahead with it? I saw a quote the other day by Traitor Blair which I can't find now (if anyone has it to hand, please put it in the comments). He said something along the lines of the presumption of innocence was troublesome and it was a barrier to justice.

Welcome to Blair's Britain.

Busy, busy, busy

Rememebr me saying I'd be quiet over the weekend because I was busy at work? The observant amongst you will have noticed that I wasn't quiet over the weekend but have been the last couple of days. Let me just briefly fill you in ...

I changed jobs at the company I work for from a helpdesk to a support team for the problem management tools. I moved at what could be described as a good or a bad time depending on how you look at it.

Basically, I moved just as we were about to change problem management tools. We're migrating our existing collection of tools to a single one and my new team is heavily involved with this. On the positive side I am in there from day one gaining valuable experience, etc. On the negative side, I have been unbelievably busy. I haven't had a change to clear out my emails for about 3 days so if I have ignored anything from anyone, I apologise and I will respond as soon as possible.

Normally I have the opporunity to check my emails and even blog during the day when things are a bit slack. I don't take a proper lunch break usually so I break up my lunch hour during the day (that's my excuse anyway).

To give you some idea as to how busy I've been - I went to work at 11pm on Sunday night and got home in the early hours of Monday morning, had a few hours sleep and went back to work again. I'm lazy, this is uncharacteristic to say the least.

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to catch up now although I don't hold out much hope of getting up to date tonight.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Jessops have redemed themselves somewhat

A quick update on the Jessops saga before I go to bed.

I tried the replacement camera out at the weekend, had a look at the resulting picture taken at the highest quality and it was abysmal. The quality was something you would expect from a heavily compressed website graphic - lossy, grainy, etc.

I phoned Jessops' Service Centre who said I would have to send it in for repair again. Needless to say I explained in no uncertain terms that there was no way I would be sending this camera in for repair.

I then phoned the Telford branch of Jessops and ended up speaking to the manager who was a bit stroppy with me on Saturday. This time he was a bit more polite and apologised and went away to speak to the Service Centre. He called me back half an hour later saying the camera would be replaced free of charge as it was faulty from the store but as it is now an old model they will have trouble locating one so they will, instead, replace it with a new Centon DC8.

Mrs Sane went and picked it up today and ... is it wrong to get excited about a camera? It has a huge LCD screen which takes up most of the back of the camera. The menu is identical (very easy to use) to the previous one, the picture quality is excellent, everything is customisable (shutter speed, flash, etc.) and best of all, where the old camera was a fairly impressive 5.25 megapixels this one is a whopping 8 megapixels. Eight!

Still a bit pissed off with them for being shite but this has gone a long way to healing the rift.

Twat of the Week: Eugine Johnson

Another tosser telling people that the English flag is racist.

I've just about had it up to here (pointing to the top of my head) with these bigotted apologists trying to steal my flag in the name of political correctness.

I have a message for Eugine Johnson if anyone wants to pass it on. My flag is the Cross of St George, my country is England, my nationality is English. If you don't like it do us all a favour and get your shameful arse out of my country.

Eugine Johnson, for obvious reasons, you are this week's Twat of the Week.

Thanks to Steve for the nomination.

Someone else saying the English flag is racist

When will these overpaid, intelligence deficient idiots who have infested the higher ranks of public office ever stop trying to destroy our country?

It makes me angry to see English people so hell bent on destroying their own country. I can understand the likes of Princess Tony and Fatty Prescott (Scottish and Welsh respectively) wanting to kill off England because 1. it's not their country and 2. they have a political agenda which simply involves the destruction of the entire nation and culture of England.

Last week we had the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, telling prison guards not to wear Cross of St George tie pins because some poor sensitive prisoners might find it offensive and racist. Now we've got Deputy Chief Fire Officer Eugene Johnson of Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority telling a fire station they can't have a Cross of St George sticker on the back of their applicance because it's a racist symbol.

All I can say (without having one of my moments involving lots of traditional Anglo-Saxon words) is that it is people like Deputy Chief Fire Officer Eugene Johnson and HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers that are the racists in this country and it is they that are responsible for this utterly ridiculous, oppresively-PC society that we are being forced to endure.

I'll allow myself one expletive to make myself feel better - Eugene Johnson you are a pathetic arse- licking-cock-sucking-wanker-of-a-fuckwit ... what do you mean that's not in the dictionary?

New blog on the block

Just had an email from Richard Lewis, a regular reader of the CEP blog who has been motivated to start his own English blog.

Good luck Richard - if your first post is anything to go by, I'm sure you'll be a regular read pretty soon.

England the land equal rights forgot

Sunday, October 09, 2005

MSP's reject St Andrews Day public holiday

MSP's have rejected plans to introduce St Andrew's Day as a public holiday in Scotland by voting in an amendment to look at ways of celebrating it without losing a day of work. The amendment was passed by 66/58 votes.

Shame really, not for the Scots but for the English. Public holiday's come a close second to cold hard cash on your average working class Englishman's agenda and seeing the Scots vote themselves another extra day (they already get more than us anyway) would have made more people sit up and listen.

Ah well, we'll just have to rely on the fact that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between them take £15bn of English taxes every year to subsidise their public services.

Law Lord says new terror laws are illegal

Source: BBC News

The Law Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick and Lord Steyn have both concluded that the government's proposed anti-terrorism laws would be found to be unlawful, incompatible with human rights legislation and endanger people's liberty.

They also went on to say the legislation would be unenforceable as it doesn't actually clearly define what has to be done to commit the offence of glorifying terrorism and that "Experience shows that governments frequently ask for more powers than they need and when they get those powers they abuse them from time to time". Walter Wolfgang anyone?

So what's going to happen then? Charles Clarke has taken the bill back to the Home Office for some tweaking but insists that the right to hold suspects for three months without charge will stay. When the Lords reject the bill, which I am positive they will do even with the self-appointed government majority in the upper house, the government will merely force the bill through with the Parliament Act claiming it is in the interests of national security. Utter bollocks of course and a complete mockery of democracy but if the last 8 years has taught us anything it is that what Labour wants, Labour will get.

Tips for blog owners

Below are a few technical tips for blog owners. It's mostly Blogger/Haloscan orientated as this is what I use and recommend. Hopefully it's of use to you, any comments welcomed.
  1. Turn on spam protection.

    In blogger there are a couple of options available to you.

    You can choose to only allow comments by Blogger members. This doesn't necessarily stop comment spam but it stops anonymous spammers and gives you the opportunity to report blogger members who spam.

    By far the best method of spam protection is the word verification option. This displays random characters in a picture which must be typed in to the box underneath it before the comment will be posted.

    Both of these options are available from the Blogger dashboard.

  2. Consider different comments providers.

    You don't have to use Blogger's own comments service for your blog.

    The best known alternative is Haloscan which offers additional features such as trackbacks, banning, editing comments, etc. The comments page can also be customised to match the format of your blog.

  3. Use Trackbacks.

    Trackbacks are a way of giving reciprocal links for posts. The idea is that someone talking about your post can include a trackback ping to it so that readers of your blog can see who else is referring to it and vice versa.

    Haloscan is probably the most popular provider of trackback services.

  4. Make use of Feeds.

    Feeds are effectively a table of contents for your blog. Most major websites use them, as do most blogs.

    Feeds generally come in one of three flavours - RSS (Really Simple Syndication), Atom (based on XML) and Javascript (code).

    Blogger uses Atom for feeds but you can add RSS feeds using third party providers such FeedBurner.

    Feeds are used in Feed Readers. They allow your readers to see the first few lines of new posts to your blog. There are many Feed Readers out there and I recommend the WizzRSS plugin for Firefox.

    Display a link to your feed prominently on your blog - it is the most useful blogging feature in my humble opinion.

  5. Provide reciprocal links.

    If someone links to your blog, do them the courtesy of linking them back.

    Obviously, if the website or blog in question is inappropriate, irrelevant or you just don't like it then it's ok to ignore. In general, reciprocal links are good netiquette.

  6. Try to avoid proprietry technology.

    Remember, not everybody uses the same browser as you. The main two browsers out there are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox but you can't be sure what browser your readers are going to be using.

    If you are using a feature that won't work in one or more of the main browsers, make sure the other browsers still render the page in a satisfactory way.

    For instance, if you are reading this blog using Firefox, you will see a newspaper icon preceding the newspaper letters I post here and you will also see a Cross of St George icon before each entry in the Witanagemot blogroll and referrer links. If you are using Internet Explorer you won't see any of these cosmetic touches but, importantly, it doesn't affect the look of the page. If you didn't know they were there you wouldn't miss them.
Well, that's about it. Hope that's of some use to you.

Dudley Council pig ban exaggerated by press

Gavin Ayling has received an email from Dudley Council regarding the story that hit the press a week or so ago claiming that pigs had been banned from Dudley MBC offices because a muslim made a complaint.

It appears that the press simply had a field day and blew the story out of all proportion and that the hype over it was unwarranted.

However, it may have been over-exaggerated but it doesn't change the fact that a council department actually gave credence to one muslim's complaint about pig-shaped stress relievers.

He should have been told to go away and find some work to do. Anyone who has enough time on their hands to come up with that complaint obviously hasn't got enough work to do.

God didn't talk to Bush

The White House has denied that Bush had instructions from God.

I expect God came to him for instructions, he is American after all.

Scottish Tax Raising Powers

The Sunday Herald has an excellent article on the tax varying proposals for Scotland.

All four parties are offering some sort of tax cut to Scotland to try and secure that all important proxy vote on English legislation. There are over 50 Scottish Labour MP's sitting in the British parliament and when the government needs to force legislation on England against the will of our own elected MP's they use the Scottish MP's who generally don't give a shit what happens to England as long as their noses don't get shoved out of the trough.

The Sunday Herald article criticises the Barnett Formula and the fact that in some places over 70% of the local economy is provided by bloated Scottish government.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Letter: Shropshire Star

I've probably written more for the Shropshire Star this last couple of weeks than some of their reporters!

Every time I've tried to slip the CEP's phone number into a letter they've either edited it out or not printed the letter. This time they either missed it or decided to leave it in, either way it doesn't matter - the Shropshire Star is read by approximately 223,000 adults in England and Wales and covers the catchment area of at least one university campus.

Top-up fee ad won't give the full story

The Shropshire Star published a story on October 3 regarding the Government launching a new TV ad to reassure students about top-up fees.

Apparently, the Government has discovered that students are a bit concerned about top-up fees and the huge loans they have to take out for education costs.

So, being the caring Government they are, they have decided to reassure students with an advert to tell them all about the fees.

I have yet to see one of these adverts but I'm prepared to put money on it only telling half of the story.

I don't imagine it will explain that only English students have to pay university top-up fees in the UK or that the bill that introduced the fees was rejected by a majority of English MPs but passed on the strength of Scottish MPs' votes.

In Scotland they don't pay university top-up fees and the Welsh Assembly have now voted for their abolition in Wales. English students studying in Scotland or Wales do have to pay.

Once again English people are treated as third class citizens in their own country.

The Campaign for an English Parliament is trying to nelp English students claim back their fees with the help of a top English educational lawyer. They can be contacted on 07071220234.

Stuart Parr
Telford

Phew! 1-0 to England

Despite David Bekham getting sent off after 60 minutes for an Austrian taking a deliberate dive in front of him, England still managed to secure a 1-0 victory over Austria.

Princess Tony won't be happy though - as far as I could tell, the propoganda machine didn't manage to plant a single Union Flag in the crowd. It was a sea of red and white.

White Pupil's Achievement Programme

Snafu has this excellent post on his blog which really shows up the way "positive" discrimination has invaded our lives.

A government programme to narrow the gap between white and black pupils is apparently doing well. What news of the government programmes targetting white pupils? Ah well, that would be racist you see ...

Oh shit

England are beating Austria 1-0, David Bekham just got himself a yellow card for a bit of a dodgy tackle and then 30 seconds later an Austrian player trips up and Bekham gets sent off.

We're now down to 10 men with 30 minutes to go. Oo er.

Bush is talking to God

You'll like this. George Bush said that God told him to go to war in Afghanistan, God told him to go to war in Iraq and God told him to secure a state for Palestine, bring peace to the Middle East and security to Israel.

Not only is he president of the world's most powerful religion (Americanism) but he's got a direct line to God! The man is a prophet, perhaps even the reincarnation of Jesus? They both have about the same grasp of the English language.

What I cant figure out is whether he really, seriously believes that God is talking to him or whether this is some sort of pre-emptive insanity plea.

Letter to Jessops

Here's the letter I've just written to Jessops ...

Notice of Rejection of Goods

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to formally reject good supplied to me by the Jessops store in Telford as they the goods provided to me are not fit for the purpose for which they were sold.

I bought a Centon DC9 camera from Jessops in Telford on xxxx. In February 05 I had to send the camera in for repair. In August 05 I had to send the camera in for repair for the same fault.

The camera has now been replaced with another camera of the same model at the Telford branch of Jessops. However, the camera that has been given to me as a replacement is inferior to the camera it is replacing and is no longer fit for the purpose it was originally sold.

When I bought the camera originally it came with a 2 year guarantee meaning Jessops expected that camera to last for at least 2 years. The camera that has been provided to me as a replacement, whilst being the same model and new, only has a 6 month warranty and is therefore only expected to last for 6 months.

As I originally purchased a camera with an expected lifespan of 2 years and Jessops has now provided me with a camera with an expected lifespan of 6 months, I am formally rejecting the goods on the basis that they are inferior to the original product and not fit for the purpose for which the camera was originally sold to me. I will require either a camera of the same model with an expected lifespan of 2 years or a full refund of the original purchase price.

Regards,

Stuart Parr

Jessops are really shit

I went to pick up our replacement camera from Jessops today. They gave me a brand new camera, same model as before.

"I'll be getting a 12 month warranty on this won't I?" I asked. "No," I was told, "six months warranty". Wait a minute ... "But it's new so it should have a 12 month warranty shouldn't it?"

I'll stop there because you can guess the rest for yourself. I had a 5 minute "conversation" with the manager (unfortunately the store was empty) and got nowhere. I pointed out that it was a brand new camera and if I had just bought it off the shelf now it would have a 12 month warranty because Jessops expect the camera to last at least 12 months.

Then the manager said "It's ok, you've still got 12 months of your 2 year guarantee left". Hello ... "So you expect the camera to last at least 2 years then if you're giving a 2 year guarantee on it?" He indicated his agreement. "So you're giving me this camera which has only 12 months guarantee with it despite the fact it's new and if I had just bought it, it would have a 2 year guarantee with?" He indicated his agreement again. "So, you gave me a 2 year guarantee on the first camera because you expected it to last 2 years but in 12 months it's been in for repair twice so even though you're giving me a new camera, if this one becomes faulty in 12 months time when it should last at least 2 years then you won't repair it?"

He then muttered something about me having had the camera for 12 months already. "No, I had the other camera for a year, now you're giving me a new one and besides which, you've had the old camera for 3 months of the year being repaired." Then I walked out shaking my head.

I will be writing to Jessops formally rejecting the good as they are not fit for the purpose for which it is sold - ie. the camera, when new, is sold with a 2 year guarantee and is therefore sold on the basis that it is expected to last 2 years whereas the camera they have given me only has a 6 month warranty so they must therefore believe that the camera will only work for 6 months and is therefore inferior to the camera they are replacing.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Thank you Sky & T-Mobile, Jessops you're shit

Yesterday Mrs Sane phoned me to tell me she couldn't cope with looking after our 4 children and working 3 nights a week. Good news because I don't like her working anyway.

Loss of income means belts must be tightened of course so we plumped for ditching the Sky subscription in favour of the free to air channels and doing away with our contract mobile phones.

Mrs Sane phoned Sky and told them what was happening and they very kindly offered to give us the next 3 months at £10 a month instead of the usual £27 and after that it's up to us what we do. Thank you Sky.

She then phoned T-Mobile who then offered to change our tariff to something that would suit us better (I rarely use mine anyway) and also discount the package for the next 12 months. Thank you T-Mobile.

Today we got a letter from Jessops. We bought a digital camera a little over 12 months ago and it cost us about £200 - even now it's pretty high end at 5.25 megapixels. Anyway, in February we had to send it in for repair because it was locking up and losing pictures. After our holiday in August we had to send it off again for the same problem. "It won't take more than 28 days" we were told. Yes, well 6 weeks and a phone call to the service department later and we eventually get the thing repaired. The letter arrived today informing us that they have replaced the camera instead of repairing it. Mrs Sane phoned to ask what was going on and they said they knew it would happen again so they had arranged for the Telford branch of Jessops to replace it with a model they had in stock. Very nice, thank you Jessops. So Mrs Sane pops off to the shop only to be given our old camera. She informs them of the contents of the letter and was told that they probably meant they'd replaced the inside of the camera. She told the flunky that the service department had told her the whole camera would be replaced and was told "oh well, it's been repaired so hopefully it will work now". Um, not good enough. I phoned the service centre, had a conversation and will tomorrow be collecting a new camera. However, it's a little late to capture those unrepeatable moments where my daughter has gone from climbing up the furniture (6 weeks ago) to walking properly (a week ago). We have no photographic or video footage of her learning to walk thanks to Jessops. They knew the camera was inherently faulty back when it was sent in first time but still sent it back to us "repaired".

Jessops are shit.

CPS appeal over speeding policeman

Remember the story about the Telford policeman who was shockingly let off after accidently videoing himself driving at speeds of up to 159mph?

The CPS have filed an appeal and hope to get the ruling overturned.

Good luck to them I say. There is a time and a place for familiarising yourself with a new car and that is on a test track without pedestrians and other vehicles. I believe he managed to get up to 80mph in built up areas whilst "familiarising himself with his vehicle".

It's time we stopped all this one rule for us and one rule for them malarky and started treating everyone the same.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Going to be quiet

I'm probably going to be a bit quiet for a few days as I've got a really hectic weekend.

I work for the company that provides IT systems and support to HM Revenue and Customs and we're in the process of migrating myriad problem management tools to a new single system. Thousands of computers, millions of records from the old systems to migrate and vast sums of money at stake if we bugger it all up.

As I moved to the team which supports the problem management tools a couple of weeks ago I've got all caught up in the project so I'm working for part of the weekend and haven't really got much time during the day to hop on the internet like I normally would.

Anyway, long and short of it is I'm going to be busy so I may not manage to blog much, if anything, for a couple of days.

Blair wants devolution back for NI

The Traitor Blair has been talking to Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams about how he can get devolution back to Northern Ireland.

Lovely, what about devolution for the other 50 million people in the UK?

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

CEP Shropshire Blog

The Shropshire Branch of the CEP now has a blog. Website will be coming soon ...

Letter: Yorkshire Post

Unfair deal over sport

From: Stuart Parr, Briarwood, Telford.

MF OLDROYD is right in saying that doing away with Sport England is a good thing (Yorkshire Post, October 1).

However, I believe it is a good thing for different reasons.

Sport England, despite the name, has no clear remit for supporting English sport. In fact, when I took them to task over their sponsorship of the Tour of Britain which had no English team, they told me they would not want to support an English cycling team even if there was one.

It is for the reason that they have no interest in England and no desire to concentrate on English sport that they should disappear.

Both Sport England and UK Sport are being disbanded and they will be replaced with a new national body. On the other hand, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish national sports bodies will not be disbanded.

This means that our three "partners" in the UK will receive the support of both their national sports body and the new UK-wide sports body.

England, as usual, will be represented only by the new UK-wide sports body which will be concentrating on British sport as a whole and not English sport.

Yet again, England draws the short straw and loses another of its national organisations at the hands of the Anglophobic Scottish Raj in Westminster.

Time to change English flag (warning: bad language)

Source: Cross of St George

Ok, I'm going to swear a lot here because I'm really, really pissed off.

Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding has said we should change the English flag becuause it is an insensitive reminder of the crusades.

His own bigoted, treacherous words.

He also says that the Cross of St George has associations with the far right.

He says we should be looking for a new flag and patron saint who is "not associated with our bloody past and one we can all identify with."

What, like Princess fucking Tony Blair?

The only way I can sufficiently express my utter, utter contept for this man is to call him a racist, bigoted, treacherous, collaborating wanker. Even then I am moderating my language.

People like this should be tried as traitors, stuck on a boat and towed out and abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic.

The best thing Arabs can do to improve understanding with the British is to get rid of utterly contemptable, bigoted fuckwits like him.

The Cross of St George has been our flag for hundreds or years and good old St George has served us well as a patron saint for an equally long time.

Why the fuck should we change for the benefit of a few miserable failures who can't get over something that happened two thousand fucking years ago?

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Turkey to join EU

Jack Straw realised his and Tony's dream of spreading the infection of multiculturalist bullshit to Europe last night by convincing the Austrian foreign minister that admitting bankrupt, financially and democratically unstable Turkey into the EU would be a good idea.

Got to give him top marks for acheiving what should, in any sensible circumstances, be impossible. I wonder if he used his special demon headmaster powers?

Straw reckons that Turkey in the EU will be a beacon to Muslim countries and encourage them to embrace western-flavoured democracy. My arse. By embracing the west like this, Turkey will be joining Egypt outside of the Islamic circle of trust.

Turkey's entry into the EU will be a disaster. It'll cost us millions in subsidies and despite what the EU and our own government want to tell us, Islamic terrorists won't think twice about attacking an EU country even with Turkey as a member state. They bomb Turkey for christ's sake.

Square peg, round hole springs to mind. Anyone got a hammer?

More pigophobia

Source: American Imperialist
School bans pigs stories

A West Yorkshire head teacher has banned books containing stories about pigs from the classroom in case they offend Muslim children. The literature has been removed from classes for under-sevens at Park Road Junior Infant and Nursery School in Batley.

Head Barbara Harris said the books would remain in the school library for children to read. Sixty per cent of the school's pupils are of Pakistani or Indian origin and 99% of these pupils are Muslims.
What the hell is happening to this country? Primary school children are to be denied classic stories involving pigs in case (not because) it offends muslims.

I'm almost speechless.

Letter: Shropshire Star

Another letter in the Shropshire Star. That's three in the last week, things are looking up!

Chancellor Brown will not listen

At this week's Labour Party conference, Gordon Brown said the following:
"I will in the next year visit every region and nation of our country. With you I want to listen, hear and learn, to discuss the economic, social and constitutional changes we need to build for the future."

Which nations and. regions would this be then?

Well, there's Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - they're the nations - and then there's the nine made-up euro-regions of England.

When John Prescott had his dream - a dream of a network of unelected, ineffective regional assemblies - he said we would have a vote on whether we wanted them.

Then the first vote was held and over 80 per cent of the people in the North East who voted rejected their assembly.

Prescott panicked and cancelled all the planned referenda across the country while he worked out how he could get away without disbanding the regional assemblies he'd already put in place in anticipation of an expected yes vote.

His solution was to give them more powers.

Judging by Gordon Brown's speech, we can't expect much in the way of democracy when he takes over from Traitor Blair.

Stuart Parr
Telford

Twat of the Week: Ann Owers

Twat of the week this week didn't take much thinking about.

Ann Owers, the anglophobic Chief Inspector of Prisons is the clear winner of this weeks award.

For details of why, check out this post.

Ann Owers, you are this week's Twat of the Week.

Edit:
Thanks to Alfie for the nomination.

Don't upset the prisoners

Thank you to Alfred the Ok, Kev and someone called Ray (would be nice to put a name to a blog) for bringing this news story to my attention.

Chief Inspector of Prisons, Ann Owers, has told members of staff at Wakefield Prison that they mustn't wear their cancer charity Cross of St George tie pins at work.

Perhaps it's because of health and safety reasons - sharp objects and prisons can't be a good mix surely? Perhaps ... nope, I can't think of any other reasons so it's a good job we have a quote from the Chief Inspector herself to explain it all to us ...
We were concerned to see a number of staff wearing a flag of St George tie pin.

"While we were told that these had been bought in support of a cancer charity there was clear scope for misinterpretation.

What misinterpretation would that be? You've guessed it, they could be misinterpreted by the inmates as a racist symbol.

Presumably the same "black or minority ethnic" inmates that told her ...
"white staff had a lack of cultural understanding of their background and they were disadvantaged in systematic small ways that were not recognised'
... and ...
"the canteen list had an inadequate range of affordable skin and hair products for black prisoners"
Poor little darlings. Just think of those unfortunate, disadvantaged, misunderstood rapists, murderers, drug dealers and petty criminals having to do without their Head & Shoulders and Oil of bloody Ulay.

Edit:
The great "Ray" mystery has been solved. He just emailed me to say that he's not a blogger, just a reader and thought I would be interested. Thanks for thinking of me Ray and of course any information is very welcome from any readers in strict confidence or otherwise.

Labour face defeat over Welsh funding

The Labour party faces a defeat in the Welsh Assembly over funding by a coalition of Tories, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru.

It's good to see Labour getting a pasting but at what cost? The opposition are demanding more funding for universities to bring funding in line with England but don't mention the fact Welsh students don't pay top-up fees.

They also want another year of relief for council tax payers who went up a band in the revaluation. It cost £11m this year and who is going to be funding it?

Monday, October 03, 2005

How European Are You?

Good spot by Anoneumouse at the Anglo Saxon Chronicle ...

How European Are You?

I'm Mr & Mrs Costa Del Sol, eurosceptic and wanting Europe for nothing more than holidays and trade.

It's not strictly right but it's not a million miles away.

Edit:
Sorry for spelling your name wrong Anoneumouse. Twice.

Think of England Autumn issue out now

The Campaign for an English Parliament's quarterly newsletter is now available for download from the CEP website.

Think of England is published four times a year and features news and information for CEP members and the general public alike.

This edition even has one of my letters in it which was a nice surprise.

If you are a CEP member or even just a supporter of English devolution, might I suggest you print off a copy of the newsletter and leave it lying around at work, college, university, the pub, etc.?

Finally, the CEP is having a bit of a recruitment drive so if you want to help make a difference than please join. It's only £15 for a year or £10 for pensioners and students. The money goes on promotional literature, adverts, etc. From a personal point of view, it would be nice to see some more people from Shropshire join up - it's getting quite lonely in Shropshire branch. :-) £10/15 isn't much - the price of a packet of crisps a week - surely your country is worth 30p a week? England certainly needs it more than Walkers!

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Welsh Language Act would cost business

Welsh business leaders have warned that the proposed Welsh Language Act, which would make Welsh legally equal to English in Wales and would force all private sector companies to be bilingual, would increase costs by an estimated tenfold.

The director of CBI Wales said that many firms were concerned about the act and said that there appeared to be little demand from consumers in Wales for a bilingual service. As he quite sensibly points out, the consumer has the opportunity to vote with its feet - if it concerns them that much then they would shop at bilingual companies instead. The fact they don't sends out a pretty clear signal that the Welsh public in general don't really care all that much for their defunct language.

BT said that it is struggling to get people to use its Welsh language services despite spending big money on it.

Meanwhile, protesters in favour of the act have painted the slogan "Language Act - the only chance" in Welsh on the Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff.

Welsh MP Hywel Williams said "This is a basic question of social justice, and certainly one that requires a change in the law".

What the hell has compelling private businesses to speak Welsh got to do with social justice? 99.9999999999999% of Welsh people speak English perfectly well so they are not losing out on any services or benefits or anything whatsoever by private companies operating in English and not Welsh.

Davis for England?

David Davis, the Tory leadership candidate, has a fan over at optimates.

Davis is the candidate most likely to support any sort of fairness for England and I believe he was even once involved in a bill put before the British parliament for some form of devolution for England.

Optiomates is a new entry in the Witanagemot so it surprised me to see this logo on his blog the other day ...



Luckily my faith in Gareth's choice of Witangemot members was restored when, "by request", optimates posted this ...



But is he really for England? Only time will tell. He's certainly played down the idea of an English parliament in favour of the bizzare English Votes on English Matters proposal of late but that may just be a ploy to make himself more electable amonsgt the backward unionists in the Conservative Party.

All that remains for me to say is welcome to the club optimates.

"Crisis Talks" on Turkey's EU entry

The EU is holding "crisis talks" on Turkey's entry. The problems they are facing are Turkey's refusal to recognise the government of Cyprus (the only country not to do so) which is already in the EU and Austria's preference of half a membership.

I don't see what the problem is personally. Turkey won't recognise the legitimate government of a member state and one of the member states doesn't want Turkey as a member. The obvious solution is to tell Turkey to go away and think very carefully about where its priorities are. Does it want to carry on it's petty spat over Cyprus or does it want to join the EU?

Turkey knows which side of its bread is buttered. They want nothing less than full membership because they will then be entitled to multi-million pound aid packages and subsidies at the expense of the richer member states such as the EU cash cow, the UK.

Turkey would be a huge, wasteful drain on resources but the EU is hell bent on levering them in and for what reason? Because they are desparate to get a muslim country in the EU so they can show the world how tolerant and multicultural they are and please don't bomb us because we're your best friends really.

Edit:
Jack Straw says ...
The EU risks driving Christians and Muslims apart if Turkey is not allowed in
Erm ... NONSENSE!

Pope Benedict holds first synod

Pope Benedict is holding the first synod since he ascended to the papacy.

According to news reports they will be chewing over the same old issues - falling numbers of followers, falling numbers of priests, divorce, abortion, elderly priests buggering young boys. Ok, I made the last one up - they prefer to sweep that particular problem under the carpet and hope nobody notices that the carpet is now only inches from the ceiling.

Anyway, what really surprised me is the Pope's belief that the church should interefere with the state. He said ...

"A tolerance which allows God as a private opinion but which excludes Him from public life... is not tolerance but hypocrisy."

Church is separated from state for some very good reasons, the main one being that it doesn't work. Even Italy, which completely surrounds the Vatican and is possibly the most devout catholic country on the planet, is secular. The catholic church should stick to what it does best - preaching hypocracy and begging.

Little pig, little pig ...

Dudley Council has ordered its staff to remove any pigs from their desks.

They must cover up or remove any model pigs, pictures of pigs, pig toys, even a Whinnie the Pooh and Piglet tissue box. The reason? A muslim has complained that they are offensive.

I have only two things to say to the person who complained.

1. Get a life.
2. Fuck off.

I'm offended by this biggoted whinger, somebody please cover him up or remove him.

Witanagemot Roundup #3

The Witanagemot roundup #3 is up and running on the CEP blog.

It's been a few weeks since we had one but Gareth has made up for it by writing an essay.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

New website

Ok, I never actually got round to finishing the current Wonko's World website but I've made a new one anyway.

It's still under construction (aren't they always?) but there's enough to give it a public airing. Thanks to Gareth and Malcolm at Cross of St George for their feedback and suggestions.

You can find it here but please don't bookmark it or update your links (if you have any) yet as I will move it out of it's current folder if I get enough positive feedback.

Edit:
I've made some more changes so please take another look.

Edit 2:
I've made even more changes. A quick note to Internet Explorer users - because IE doesn't have a proper implementation of CSS2, the site doesn't look as good as it does in other browsers (Firefox for instance). Try installing Firefox if you haven't already and see how much better your internet browsing experience becomes.

Word Association

Gareth has decided (apparently randomly) to do an English word association exercise. The idea is to list the letters of the alphabet and then put the first English thing that comes into your head next to the letter.

Alfred the Great
Bombadier (beer)
Cross of St George
Duchy of Cornwall
England
Football
George (King)
Henry's Cat (cartoon)
Isle of Wight
Jerusalem (possible English national anthem)
King Charles (the one Cromwell did away with)
Liverpool (don't know why)
Monty Python
Norton (motorbikes)
Oliver ("You want more!?")
Parliament
Queen (the)
Runymede
Scarecrows
Tea
Umpires
Victoria (Queen)
Witanagemot
X-rays (an Englishman was important in their discovery)
Yorkshire
Zara (Princess, pretty hot for an inbred)