Archive for October 2006

Turkey’s EU membership looks a bit ropey

An interim report into Turkey’s future memebrship of the European Federation is highly critical and their bid is looking a bit “shaky”.

One of the main stumbling blocks is that Turkey had to open up its ports (including airports) to other EU member states – including Cyprus – but Cypriots are still not allowed free movement.  The Turks aren’t too keen on the Greeks and Cypriots because when the northern part of Cyprus declared itself independent of the rest of Cyprus, the Greeks supported the Cypriot authorities whilst the Turks supported the Islamic republic in the north which calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.  Nobody other than Turkey recognises Northern Cyprus.

Turkey is a crescent shaped peg trying to fit into a star shaped hole.

 

No inquiry into illegal war

How does he do it, eh?  Teflon Tony has somehow managed to avoid a proper inquiry into the lies and deceit that resulted in him taking us into an illegal war in Iraq on the back of completely fabricated “intelligence”.

Despite the fact that Labour’s wafer thin majority was already at risk by rebels in their own ranks, Bliar couldn’t even be bothered to turn up for the vote.

With a bit of luck he spent the time writing his resignation letter.

Global Warming – is anyone convinced?

The power-mad, money grabbing British government is losing the media war on global warming already.  The Stern Report has been rubbished and criticised by the media – even the Labour Press Office BBC.

Cobbett Rides Again puts the report into perspective superbly and the Adam Smith Institute gives the report a metaphorical kick in the teeth.  An Englishman’s Castle has a graph produced by the Met Office showing that temperatures in Central England rose an average of 1.5 degrees between 1695 and 1737, obviously caused by time travelling 4×4 drivers and those dastardly oil companies sending their polution back 400 years through a secret wormhole using techniques the Roswell aliens showed them.  Slightly more up-to-date, he gives the report a good going over pointing out some fundamental errors.

Still, at least Labour can pretend to be doing something in the run-up to next years local elections.

Update:
Ranting Stan has a transcript of an interview with historical climatologist, Dr Tim Ball, which basically debunks the whole global warming crap and proves the Stern Report to be worthless by pointing out that since 1940 – when we started pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in serious quantities – the earth has actually been cooling down.

What’s good for the goose …

Israel is stepping up an offensive into the Gaza Strip which started in retaliation for a cross-border raid by Palestinian militia.

Am I the only one who sees the double-standards in this?  Israel has been conducting one constant cross-border raid into Palestine since it invaded and illegally occupied the country in 1967.

In trying to sum this up in a single word, I’m torn between duplicity and hypocrisy.  What do you think?

Global Warming my arse

The Ignorant Jock is expected to hike up all sorts of taxes to combat global warming following a summit today that Tim Worstall abandoned his live reporting on because it was inaccurate and designed to come out with one answer – global warming is happening and it’s going to cost lots of money.

DK points out (again) that back in the 70’s the worlds scientists were almost unanimous in their belief that global cooling was happening and this was going to lead to war and famine and the end of civillisation as we know it.  Today they are almost unanimous in their belief that global warming is happening with the same reprecussions.

Forgive me for being a bit cynical in my belief that this report is a load of bollocks and an excuse to put up taxes.

Can you imagine this happening in reverse?

Bank of England £20 notes are having the picture of Elgar replaced with a picture of the North British economist, Adam Smith.

Can anybody, under any possible circumstances, imagine an English person ever appearing on the back of a Royal Bank of Scotland, HBoS or Clydesdale bank note?  Hell would freeze over first.

BBC where?

Mrs Sane tells me that from 11am today, BBC1 was bedecked with BBC Scotland logo’s.

It could just be Telewest getting things arse about face (it wouldn’t be the first time – Adventure 1 on Telewest has Dutch Teletext subtitles) or it could be that the Raj have finally taken over the BBC and Braveheart will be shown end to end on all the BBC kids TV channels to educate them about the evil Sassenach’s.

Move along, there’s nothing to see here

By way of an update to my previous post, more pointless laws, someone has pointed out that 30% of Islamic suicide bombers are women.  They also note that in an attack on a Shia mosque in Baghad recently in which over 70 people died and 158 were injured, of the 3 bombers, one was a woman and the other two were men disguised as women.

We have nothing to fear from the veil.  Honest.

More pointless laws proposed

Britains most senior muslim police officer (someone actually has a league table?), Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, has submitted plans to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, to make flag burning a crime.

This is to help the police deal with violent protests apparently.  I thought waving burning rags in a crowd of people was something the police could already arrest you over – reckless endangerment or something like that.

Also included in the plan is a proposal to make it illegal to cover your face during a protest so you can’t avoid police scrutiny.  Muslim women will be exempt of course and will be able to wear a veil over their face whilst inciting murder of English people on the streets of London.

Ghaffur got in a spot of bother a couple of months ago when he said that the new anti-terror laws were criminalising muslim communities.  Almost right, it criminalises muslim terrorists.  Unless he’s suggesting that all muslims are terrorists of course.  I don’t think they are but he is a policeman and a muslim so he’d have a better idea than me.

So, not only will I be banned from burning a flag if I choose to do so but if I were to go on a protest march I wouldn’t be allowed to cover my face to remain anonymous but a muslim woman (or disguised male suicide bomber) will be allowed to wear a veil or a burkha because of her (or his) religion.

Ok, I’m starting a new religion.  It’s called Wonkism and Wonkites (followers of Wonkism) worship St George.  It is against my newly-acquired religion to show my face when I’m protesting and my religion requires me to slap anyone who denies me my religious rights in the face with a rotting kipper.  It is also against my religion to pay taxes and use metric measurements.

Let’s pray:

Our patron, who art in England, St George be thy name, thy kingdom come, England will become, devolved as it is in Scotland.
Give us this day a hospital bed, and forgive those who discriminate against us.
Break us not into regions, but deliver us from Labour.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
England.

Anyone else want to join? 😉

Value for money?

The British government is, let’s be honest here, crap.  They do what they want which is mostly what we don’t want them to do.  They do what is in their own best interests which is mostly bad for us.  They discriminate against the English to secure the celtic vote and when we try and do something about it they tell us we’re racists or trying to break up the country.

And they cost the taxpayer the princely sum of … £85,000,000.  That’s right, count the zeroes – that’s 85 million English pounds of our money that could be better spent on hospitals, schools, police, etc. rather than spin doctors, propaganda merchants and piss poor self-serving dishonest politicians.

The worst thing is though, the MP’s that claimed the most money were those MP’s elected in North Britain where, unlike their English counterparts, they are prevented from doing pretty much anything for their constitutents because the Scottish Parliament runs the country.  Talk about overpaid and underworked!

Now if I was a cynical person …

The “security barrier” on the Israeli-Palestine border (or quite often not on the border but cutting into Palestine) has attracted worldwide criticism.  The Israeli’s have been accused of creating a modern-day Berlin wall and criticised for the damaging effects the barrier will have on Palestine and future relations with Israel and its neighbours.

The Americans rarely criticise Israel but when it’s something that attracts universal criticism – even within Israel itself – they will usually make a half-hearted criticism.  But not on this occassion.  I wonder what possible reason they could have for allowing Israel to steal large chunks of Palestine and cut them off from the rest of the world without a murmour … oh, I see.

Name that film

There was a black and white film from the 60’s (I think it was the 60’s anyway) that had, as it’s soundtrack, “I wanna be a hippy and I wanna get stoned”.  The film was really funny and all the way through it there was this talking fish smoking a spliff.

Anyone know what the film was called?

You can’t have your cake and dump it

Jack McConnell, the North British First Minister, wants their nuclear waste dumped in north England rather than in North Britain where it is produced.

The British government, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are currently thrashing out a deal.

North Britain is roughly 2/3rds of the size of England but has only 5m inhabitants with England having 50m.  Most of North Britain is unoccupied and undeveloped with hundreds of uninhabited and/or uninhabitable islands.  Dumping nuclear waste in the north of England where, if something were to go wrong, it coule affect millions of people rather than dumping it in the Scottish Highlands where, if something were to go wrong, it would affect a flock of sheep and a few badgers is plain stupid.

If we had an English government the idea wouldn’t have been entertained, let alone seriously discussed.  North Britain produced the waste, they use the power, they welcome the jobs, taxes and vast sums of money that the operators of nuclear power stations throw at the local area to keep them happy.

See also: English Crusade

Local Government reforms

The British government is releasing a white paper on local government reforms in England.

The white paper from Ruth Kelly’s department will pledge more powers to local authorities in return for new rules imposing elected mayors and giving the electorate the right to challenge their local authorities.

Lord Bruce-Lockhart, a Conservative peer, said “It is time for Whitehall to decentralise, devolve and deregulate to set people free of bureaucracy and improve the lives of millions of people”.  I agree but this isn’t devolution, it’s tokenism – the only devolution we need is to an English Parliament so we can tackle the real problems facing England such as the Barnett Formula, the denial of medical treatments on the basis of cost and the interference in English matters of foreign MP’s.

But back on the subject of this white paper, it could be a good move provided that this is only about localisation and not an attempt to sell localisation as the answer to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.  Local authorities are loose cannons – when they deign to hold public consultation they are merely paying lip service, the decisions have usually been made and often the wheels set in motion before the consultation.  For example, consultation has been promised in Telford for the City Region.  The decision was made months ago to join it, the council has committed itself to the City Region, their strategies are all centred on the City Region – and this is before the public consultation exercise.  Hopefully this change in local government will enable people to bring rogue local authorities to account but my guess is that they will continue to be free to do what they want as long as they’re following party policy.

Protest against regional government in the South East

WATCH YOUR BACK, YOU’RE UNDER ATTACK!

SEERA IS COMING TO GATWICK

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A STAND

AGAINST SEERA AND THE NEW ARC MANCHE REGION

(SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT IS BEING PLANNED)

AT LE MERIDIEN HOTEL, GATWICK, NORTH TERMINAL

ON

15TH NOVEMBER 2006 AT 9.30A.M.

AS USUAL BANNERS AND LEAFLETS WILL BE SUPPLIED,

OR BRING YOUR OWN

THE ARC MANCHE REGION IS TIED UP WITH ‘SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT’AND CURRENTLY RUTH KELLY IS PUTTING A LINKED ‘SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES’ BILL THROUGH PARLIAMENT

WE PLAN TO MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN

PLEASE COME

For further info or a map please contact Jenny Sleep 01628-829188

Give em an inch and they’ll take 91.44cm

Arden Forester points out the European Federation law coming into effect in 3 years time banning all references to non-metric measurements on goods manufactured or imported into the European Federation will not only cost billions to both the European Federation and the US but it will also breach US federal law which requires imperial measurements.

What most people fail to understand is the extent that these new laws will affect us in England.  Any expression of imperial measurements will be illegal.  That includes books, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, even written processes used internally in a company that will never be used by the public.

Talk about taking a liberty.  I can use metric and imperial measurements equally as well because I was taught both at school – mathematics was metric and practical maths was imperial.

English Constitutional Convention

The English Constitutional Convention launched officially today at Westminster Palace.  The ECC is a joint effort between the Campaign for an English Parliament and the English Democrats with a number of Lords and MP’s as patrons.

The official launch was prematurely reported yesterday in the North British press but has still made it into the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian today as well as the BBC News website which produced an unusually unbiased report spoilt only by failing to mention that Lord Falconer is an unelected North Briton and shouldn’t have any say on whether we have a parliament or not and by finishing on a quote from Wrekin (Telford) MP, Mark Pritchard bizarrely claiming that giving England a parliament would be playing into the hands of the EU!  Here’s some news for you Mark – the EU wants England broken into regions, not given a national parliament.

Scottish Constitutional Convention Chairman to call for a “strong English parliament”

The following press release was supposed to be made public tomorrow but the Scotsman and Herald newspapers both released it early so here it is:

PRESS RELEASE: 17 OCTOBER 2006
EMBARGOED: 05:00 24 OCTOBER 2006

SCOTTISH CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION CHAIRMAN TO CALL FOR A “STRONG ENGLISH PARLIAMENT” AT INAUGURAL MEETING OF PATRONS OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

“I have become convinced that England has a growing sense of national identity as strong as ours, and therefore that an English Parliament, if the people want it, is as much your right as we claimed it to be ours.”

Canon Dr Kenyon Wright, CBE, the former Chair of the Scottish Constitutional Convention that paved the way for devolution in Scotland, will call for a `strong English Parliament’ to be established, `alongside the Scottish Parliament and a strengthened Welsh legislature – all equal parts of a reformed and healthier UK’, when he addresses the inaugural meeting of the Patrons of the English Constitutional Convention at 4pm on Tuesday October 24, 2006, in the Strangers’ Dining Room, House of Commons, Westminster. The English Constitutional Convention has been established jointly by the English Democrats Party and the Campaign for an English Parliament.

Canon Wright, formerly an active campaigner for the regionalisation of England, will declare that he now believes only the establishment of a Parliament for England will answer “the so-called West Lothian Question”. He will describe the current constitutional settlement as “undemocratic nonsense” and argue that simply banning Scottish MPs from voting in the Commons on English legislation will “create more problems than it solves”.

Canon Wright will say: ” Two things have changed my personal view. First, it is now clear after the North East Referendum, that regional government is a non-starter in the foreseeable future, and we cannot wait for further change. Second, I have become convinced that England has a growing sense of national identity as strong as ours, and therefore that an English Parliament, if the people want it, is as much your right as we claimed it to be ours. Could the `Claim of Right for Scotland’ with which we began our work be followed now by a `Claim of Right for England’?”

Canon Wright will also state that, “the initiative must come from the people, not just the official political structures. In this context I commend to you the recent Report of the POWER Inquiry (chaired by Helena Kennedy). It brings out the growing disengagement with formal politics, and makes 30 important recommendations for change. It concludes with this statement: `An alliance for change needs to be built amongst the most clear sighted (politicians) but only a sustained campaign for change from OUTSIDE the democratic assemblies and parliaments of the UK will ensure that meaningful reform occurs. We, the people, have to stake our claim on power.’ That is what the Scottish Convention did. I believe it is what you will do.”

At the meeting Mark Gill, Head of Political Research at MORI, will also set out the results of a recent opinion poll that indicates 41 per cent of voters support `England as a whole to have it own national Parliament with similar law-making powers to the Scottish Parliament’.

Robin Tilbrook

Recycling Nazi’s

The recycling nazi’s in Swansea have prosecuted a man for putting a letter in with his glass recycling.  He denied putting the piece of junk mail in the bag but despite having no evidence that he did, the council managed to obtain a conviction resulting in a £100 fine and £100 costs.

In April he was given a warning for putting his bins out a day early because he was going on holiday and then in June he was summonsed for putting a letter in a bag of glass recycling.

Since getting the summons he has refused to recycle.  Full marks to the Swansea recycling nazi’s for actually damaging their recycling programme.  As the newly-criminalised Mr Reeves said “People are not going to recycle if they end up in court and it costs them £200.”

Straw plans Lords “reforms”

A leaked document from Jack Straw’s office contains plans for further “reforms” to the House of Lords in a barely disguised attempt to remove all opposition from the upper house by having 50% elected and 50% appointed Lords.

As I’ve said before, the “reforms” to the House of Lords are nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with politicising the upper house.  An elected House of Lords will be a disaster for democracy.