Archive for January 2009

Bloggers4UKIP: Total exposes Brown’s “British jobs” fraud

Total have exposed Gordon Brown’s “British jobs for British people” pledge for what it is – a big fat lie.

Gordon Brown can’t do a single thing to ensure that jobs in the UK are given to people from these isles because control of our borders was handed over to Federal Europe years ago.

Total has awarded a contract to an Italian company to put some new equipment into Lindsey Oil Refinery who are sending over 300 Italians to do the work instead of employing locals.  Workers at the refinery walked out on strike 3 days ago and thousands of other workers in the energy industry have walked out in support of them.

The British government can do nothing to stop this except abuse anti-terrorism laws to break the pickets.  They can’t give Total or their Italian contractor a bung to employ locals because that would be illegal under EU law.  They can’t stop the Italian workers from coming over to work here because that would be illegal under EU law.

The LibLabCon are all committed to keeping the UK in the EU, we have to leave and UKIP is the only major party committed to leaving the EU and running our country by ourselves, for ourselves.

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Croesco i England

It’s my birthday on Saturday and I’m off work tomorrow so, as tradition dictates, I popped to a nearby Chavda to buy some cakes and biscuits.

As I was driving back through some roadworks I noticed the roadsigns were all written in bloody Welsh with English translations underneath.  Welsh.  In Telford, which is about 40 miles as the crow flies from the nearest point of the Welsh border.

I phoned the council and they said that as long as it’d got English on there and it was legible it’s fine.  I pointed out that if you’re reading a road sign and the first line is foreign it means you’ve got to scan the sign for the English which takes longer and hence makes the signs less safe.  The disinterest went off the disinterest-o-meter.

If I’m down that way again before they finish I’ll find out who it is and ring them up and explain the different between Shropshire and Wales.

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Welcome to Telford, heathen capital of England!

Apparently, Telford is the most godless town in the UK.  Excellent!  Let’s keep it that way.
So godless are my fellow Telfordonians that the Church of England has seen fit to send a missionary to tame the savages redeem us.

According to the Church of England, Telford has the lowest per capita church attendance in the UK.  This really doesn’t surprise me, there aren’t many churches around for the people who want to go anyway.  Most of the housing estates in Telford have a single multi-faith church and the one by me is mostly used by the local Ghanaian immigrant population for a bit of happy clappy late night singing and praying.  I imagine most of them have been adopted by local immigrant groups who have a more zealous approach to religion.

I personally have no religion – I decided at a very young age that I didn’t believe and it was evidently such a revelation that I still remember it to this day.  However, I do respect the fact that not everybody is as well adjusted and able to cope with the realities of life, the universe and everything and feel the need to believe in a supernatural being.  Those people should be allowed to go about their god bothering if they want to whilst us right-thinking atheists go about our heathen business.  Missionaries prey on the vulnerable – the elderly, the young and the sick.  They may have good intentions but in reality they’re no better than pushy double glazing salesmen.

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Pan-EU “criminal” database

Via the Devils Kitchen, this from Raedwald:

Have you paid a parking fine recently? Got three points on your licence? Been formally warned by the council for your bin protruding on the footway? (yep, I have had the £1,000 fine threat on the last one) Been suspended from your Sunday football league for rough tackling? (yes, seriously) Congratulations! Your records could soon be added to a pan-European database of subversives.  This EU Council decision of 20th January on the establishment of a pan-EU ‘criminal’ database includes the following ‘offences’ :-

  • Offences related to waste
  • Unintentional environmental offences
  • Insult of the State, Nation or State symbols
  • Insult or resistance to a representative of public authority
  • Public order offences, breach of the public peace
  • Revealing a secret or breaching an obligation of secrecy
  • Unintentional damage or destruction of property
  • Offences against migration law – an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • Offences against military obligations – an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • Unauthorised entry or residence
  • Other offences an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • Other unintentional offences
  • Prohibition from frequenting some places
  • Prohibition from entry to a mass event
  • Placement under electronic surveillance (“fixed or mobile” – eg: home, car, mobile phone etc)
  • Withdrawal of a hunting / fishing license
  • Prohibition to play certain games/sports
  • Prohibition from national territory
  • Personal obligation – an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • “Fine” – all fines. inc minor non-criminal offences

All those of us who have ever accidentally spilled a cupful of diesel in the water when refuelling, dropped a piece of litter or called the EU circle of stars a fascist and totalitarian symbol are now, officially, criminals. Welcome to the club.

I am, quite literally, speechless.

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Israel pledges to defy the will of the international community

Israel has pledged to give protection to any Israeli terrorist charged with war crimes.

The use of white phosphorus in civilian areas and rounding up civilians so they can be bombed are two examples of the war crimes committed by the Israeli terrorist organisation, the IDF.

How was Israel described by the terrorist sympathisers while they were committing these war crimes again?  “A beacon of democracy in the Middle East” wasn’t it?  They’re no better than the arab militants they claim to be fighting.

I wonder what the apologists will come up with to justify Israel pledging to ignore the will of the international community again.  Post your predictions in the comments.

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Liebour Lords offer money for amending bills

Four Liebour Lords have been caught out by undercover reporters apparently offering to change bills for money.

The 4 Lords – Lord Truscott, Lord Moonie, Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Snape – were all approached by undercover reporters for the Sunday Times and allegedly agreed to introduce amendments to bills going through the House of Lords in exchange for a fee of up to £120k.

It’s worth noting that all four of the Lords in question are Life Peers, appointed to the House of Lords rather than inheriting their seat and further evidence that the appointment of Peers, or even their election, would be bad for democracy.

These Life Peers have made a career out of politics and shown themselves not to have the best interests of the country in mind but their own career and that has led them to the monumentally bad decision of apparantly accepting bribes.  Would a hereditary peer have taken the bribe?  There’s always the chance that they might because even Lords and Ladies get short of cash but it’s far less likely – they tend not to make a career out of politics and there are easier ways of getting your hands on cash if you’ve got a title than taking a bung off a dodgy businessman.

The problem with appointing people to the Lords or with electing them to the House is that they are reliant on the job for their income.  You only have to look at the amount of fraud and corruption amongst MPs to see what happens when you put people of limited substance into a position of power.  Corrupt politics on the scale experienced now is a relatively recent phenomenon.  A century ago most MPs were wealthly landowners, Lords, doctors, etc. – people with money, a career and a reputation.  The job of an MP was a philanthropic choice of career rather than one with a hugely inflated salary, an effective immunity from prosecution and a retirement package that will keep you in luxury for the rest of your natural.

Those who seek power are not worthy of that power.
– Plato

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Ashley Mote: British Revisionist

Ashley Mote, the former UKIP MEP for the South East (he was expelled from UKIP after admitting to benefit fraud and now sits as an independent), had a leaflet put in the latest edition of the Save Our Sovereignty newsletter calling for letter writing activists.

I couldn’t resist sending him an email after reading it, an English politician really should know the difference between England and Britain.

Dear Mr Mote,

I got a copy of your leaflet in with the Save Our Sovereignty newsletter and I’m afraid I didn’t read more than a few lines.  Nothing puts me off reading leaflets more than American-English and revisionism.

Could you please explain how you came to the conclusion that the 1689 Bill of Rights, passed into law by the English Parliament 18 years before the British Parliament came into existence with the 1707 Act of Union and not having legal effect in Scotland, is the “British” Bill of Rights?  You talk a lot about the “British” Constitution but there is, in reality, no such thing.  There is an English Constitution and a Scottish Constitution and depending on your interpretation of the Metric Martyrs ruling, there may even be a Welsh Constitution and a Northern Irish Constitution if you accept that the Acts of Parliament that created the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies were constitutional laws.

I see you even have a “British Constitution” section on your website.  Surely, as a politician elected in England, you should know the difference between England and Britain?

Stuart

It’s been a few days and I’ve still not heard back from him …

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Anyone but Murray

Andy “Anyone but England” Murray has progressed to the fourth round of the Australian Open and looks dangerously close to winning his first ever grand slam.

Don’t worry though, there’s still time to make your very own Andy “Anyone but England” Murray voodoo doll by following these simple instructions.

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David Wright MP supports hiding MP expenses

As suggested by Gareth, I wrote to my MP and asked him to vote against the attempt to change the Freedom of Information Act so that MPs can hide their expenses.  He actually replied to me for a change – normally he doesn’t bother, this time he might as well not have.

Dear Stuart Parr

Thank you for your recent email relating to members’ expenses.

I have to say I do not know how much more information needs to be published considering that the order to be put to the vote on Thursday means that the following categories of expenses will be reported:

(a) Administrative and Office Expenditure:

(i) Accommodation costs for offices, surgeries, etc;

(ii) office equipment and supplies;

(iii) telephones and other telecommunications;

(iv) professional fees and charges;

(v) agency and other staff costs;

(vi) travel costs;

(vii) utilities;

(b) Personal Additional Accommodation Expenditure:

(i) mortgage interest;

(ii) rent;

(iii) hotel costs;

(iv) council tax;

(v) fixtures, fitings and furnishings;

(vi) subsistence;

(vii) other household costs, including service charges, utilities, telecommunications, maintenance and repairs;

(c) Communications Expenditure:

(i) websites;

(ii) reports and surveys;

(iii) delivery charges, postage and stationery;

(iv) advertising;

(v) equipment;

(d) Staffing Expenditure;

(e) Travel Expenditure in relation to travel by Members:

(i) car, including third party vehicle rental and mileage;

(ii) rail;

(iii) air;

(iv) other UK and European travel;

(f) Resettlement Grant;

(g) Winding-up Expenditure.

A committee is also to be put in place to review these headings.

I am sure you will agree that this is reasonable.

Yours sincerely

David Wright

None of this is new information, it’s the same information packaged up in a different way.  What MPs have been ordered by the High Court to disclose and what they are proposing to change the law to avoid is the disclosure of their receipts so that we – the people who are paying their expenses – can see exactly what they’re spending our money on.  I know my employer wouldn’t be satisfied with me putting in an expenses claim without receipts so why should we, the MPs’ employers, be satisfied with it?  I’m not satisfied and I don’t think it’s reasonable so I sent this in reply:

Dear David,

I am disappointed but hardly surprised that you support your government’s attempt to keep MPs expenses secret from the people who pay for them.

Breaking down MPs expenses into categories doesn’t do anything to improve transparency – that information is already supposed to be available but without the headings.  If I want to know, for instance, how much taxpayers money you have spent on taxi’s or restaurants, why shouldn’t I be entitled to that information?  If I wanted to know how much taxpayers money you spent in the off-licence in Oakengates why shouldn’t I be able to find that out?  I can find it out for any other public servant under the Freedom of Information Act so why should you be treated any differently just because you’re an MP?

The High Court ruled last year that it was unlawful for MPs to hide their expenses from the taxpayer so rather than comply with the ruling, you and your colleagues are instead conspiring to change the law so that the judge’s ruling is no longer valid.  That is not improving transparency, that is an outright abuse of power and totally unacceptable.

I would strongly urge you to reconsider your support for this assault on democracy and accountability.  Or is your desire to hide your expenses, perhaps, because you have something to hide?

Stuart

I fully expect him to ignore me for the next 3 months which is what normally happens when he doesn’t like what I say.

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Bargain of the century

It was #2’s birthday today so, as I do with all the kids’ birthdays, I took the day off work.

I’ve been off work ill this week – some stomach bug I picked up at the weekend – and took advantage of a marked improvement today by going out shopping with Mrs Sane and #4 (aka “Daddy’s little princess”) this morning.  And then again this afternoon with Mrs Sane after dropping #4 off at nursery which is where we found the bargain of the century – a Blu Ray DVD player for £129!

If you’ve not experienced the joy of High Definition then get yourself down to your local Currys or Comet and take a look at the big plasma’s playing a DVD.  You’ll know it’s playing in HD because it looks like it’s playing on a computer monitor but on a grander scale.  Once you’ve seen a HD film there’s no going back – we watched Star Wars Clone Wars in Blu Ray tonight and even a cartoon looks stunning.  I even got the Wii hooked up to the surround sound system so it was a thoroughly productive day.

The only downer on the whole day was stupidly lifting the TV unit, complete with TV and all the other kit that goes with it, to move it back to the right place on my own and, I think, pulling a muscle in my stomach.  If I haven’t pulled the muscle, I’ve at least given it a good tug – it bloody hurts whenever I bend or straighten up.

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Daily Mail: Are the Scots racist against the English?

The Daily Mail has a poll on their website asking “Are the Scots racist against the English?

This, this, this, this, this and this should give you a bit of a clue.  As I write, 76% of people have voted “Yes”.

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MPs expenses: Transparently oblique

In May last year, the High Court ruled that MPs must release details of their expenses under the Freedom of Information Act.

It is now approaching the deadline for releasing those expenses and guess what?  Because MPs couldn’t lawfully hide their expenses, they are planning to change the law so that their expenses are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.  Morally corrupt bunch of thieving bastards.

Little Man in a Toque has some suggestions for things to do if you’re as pissed off about it as he is.  I’ve written to my MP, the thoroughly useless David Whip Wright MP:

Dear David,

As you are no doubt aware, the High Court ruled on the 16th of May last year that MPs expenses must be published under the Freedom of Information Act.  You are also no doubt aware that your government is now planning to introduce a change to the Freedom of Information Act to allow MPs to hide their expenses claims from the public.

I would urge you to vote against this disgraceful and unjustifiable attempt to avoid proper scrutiny of MPs expenses.  If you don’t think the people who pay your expenses should be allowed to see what they’re paying for, please explain why.

Stuart

No doubt he’ll ignore this email like he does with every other one I’ve sent him in the last few months.

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Israel starts to pull out of Gaza

Three weeks after illegally invading, Israel has begun to pull out of Gaza, leaving behind a humanitarian disaster and a very happy Hamas.

Israel says that it has achieved what it wanted to achieve but this is only partly true.  What Israel wanted to achieve was to terrorise Palestinians into withdrawing support for Hamas, to destroy infrastructure so the Palestinians can’t support themselves and to cause as much “collateral damage” as they could get away with.

Israel managed to destroy Palestinian infrastructure – half a million Palestinians in Gaza are without water, 4,000 homes have been destroyed, tens of thousands of people are homeless and schools and hospitals have been destroyed.  They managed to cause “collateral damage” – over 1,300 dead Palestinians so far and bodies are still being found.  But what they failed to achieve – and this was their stated aim – was to defeat Hamas, to take away Hamas’ ability to attack Israel and to turn people away from Hamas.

Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire, Hamas responded with a temporary ceasefire for a week to let Israel withdraw its troops.  Does that sound like the actions of a defeated Hamas or a Hamas that is taking the piss, rubbing the IDF’s noses in it?  Hamas is far from defeated and the indiscriminate attacks on Gaza and the deliberate targeting of civilians have done nothing to terrorise people into abandoning support for Hamas.

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Getting a seat on a train – who’d have thought it?

I went to Birmingham yesterday for a meeting of the National Council of the Campaign for an English Parliament.

Parking in Birmingham is a nightmare at the best of times, especially in the city centre where the National Council meets, so I catch the train.  This was the first time I’ve caught the train since Arriva finally added an extra pair of carriages to the train into Birmingham and it made all the difference.

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve stood all the way from Telford to Birmingham and again all the way back.  It’s not fun and when they charge nearly £8 for the privelege, it takes the piss.  But gone are the days of cattle class travel that wouldn’t look out of place in India – I had the luxury of sitting all the way there and all the way back in reasonable comfort.  There was no internet access and no power socket for my laptop but they don’t do first class on that route and I wouldn’t pay for it anyway!

The only complaints I had about my journey were, at Birmingham New Street station they had 8 members of staff at the ticket desk which nobody was using and only 2 on the enquiries desk where people were queueing to be served and the train on the way back was having some sort of mechanical problem, probably a dodgy clutch or gearbox, which meant that the thing kept juddering along before dropping down a gear for a while and then back up a gear and into juddering mode again.

Oh yeah and having all the safety signs on one side of the carriage written only in Welsh probably isn’t the best or safest way of doing things for a train that spends most of its journey in England.

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Gordo to Jinx Olympics

The walking, talking man-made disaster, El Gordo, has struck again.

On the 9th of January he visited Media Wales, part of Trinity Mirror, and was given a guided tour around the facilities by Managing Director, Keith Dye.  On the 13th of January Keith Dye was made redundant in a cost-cutting exercise.

Still, it could have been worse – remember John MacDougal?

The One Eyed Wonder of Wankistan is visiting the site of the Olympic village in London today.  We may as well write off 2012 now.

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Gordo abuses honours system to appoint another unelected minister

The One Eyed Wonder of Wankistan has abused the honours system again to appoint another unelected minister to his cabinet of all the talentless.

Mervyn Davies, the Chairman of the Standard Chartered Bank, will be given a peerage so that he can join the British government without the inconvenience of having to get elected.  Davies will join Paul Myners, who was also given a peerage so he could be appointed to the cabinet without being elected, in the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) where he will be serving under Peter Mandelson who was also given a peerage so he could join the British government without having to get elected.

Setting aside, for a moment, the fact that El Gordo – supposedly a socialist and diametrically opposed to the class system – is abusing the honours system to circumvent the democratic process, what it does tell us is that even El Gordo has no faith in his own MPs to weather the economic storm he was instrumental in creating which is why he’s having to cheat the system and bring in unelected outsiders.  Mandelson’s appointment shows just how inadequate the talent inside Liebour’s own ranks is – bringing back a failed communist politician who’s had to twice resign from government because of dodgy financial dealings smacks of desperation.

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Israel self-defences UN headquarters in Gaza

Israel took a break from blowing up schools today and decided to bomb the UN’s headquarters in Gaza instead, destroying supplies stored in the compound.

The reason?  Israel claims its terrorists came under fire from inside the compound.  That’s right, Israel is now accusing the UN of harbouring militants and facilitating terrorism.  They really have got to get a grip on reality and realise they can’t just blow the shit out of anything they feel like.

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Note to anti-racism campaigners: buy a dictionary

The hand-wringing liberals are at it again, this time demanding Prince Charles apologise for calling his friend Sooty.

The friend in question, Kolin Dhillon, said “I enjoy being called Sooty by my friends” but that hasn’t stopped the PC fascists from wailing hysterical about how insensitive and offensive Prince Charles has been.

Someone from Give Racism the Red Card, the unequal rights pressure group that started plying its trade at football matches, said “In our view there is no friendly banter where racism is concerned”.  Well clearly there fucking is you muppet, as evidenced by “Sooty” saying “I enjoy being called Sooty”.

Even the campaign manager of the anti-monarchy campaign, Republic, has got in on the act saying it shows how out of touch the royals are.  Which it doesn’t.  What it shows is how out of fucking touch people like Republic and Give Racism the Red Card are.  Has Prince Harry’s former colleague, the one he called “paki” three years ago, taken offence at being called “paki”?  No.  Has Kolin Dhillon complained about being called “Sooty”?  No.  Not every black or asian person is obsessed with being a victim.  Not every black or asian person sees racism in everything that is said or done to them.  It’s only the gobshite professional whingers, hand-wringing liberals and spineless politicians that blow things like this out of all proportion and they’re the ones creating this climate of fear where ordinary people are scared to speak their mind in case they get accused of racism.

But, strictly speaking, the jobsworth from Give Racism the Red Card is right.  There is no friendly banter where racism is concerned.  Racism is a hatred or intolerance of another race or other races or a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.  Did Prince Charles demonstrate a hatred or intolerance of Kolin Dhillon because of his race?  No.  Did Prince Charles express the idea that he was superior to Kolin Dhillon because of his race?  No.  So was Prince Charles being racist?  NO!

Publicity is the oxygen of the fascist groups “anti-racism” that are driving a wedge between the natives of these islands and rest of society.  Every time a newspaper quotes them it gives them an unhelpful and undeserved legitimacy.  They are the ones you can thank for the kind of society we now have where groups like the Muslim Council of Britain and Reach receive taxpayers money and have a seat at the decision making table but the Steadfast Trust, a charity dedicated to promoting English culture, is denounced as racist.

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An Isareli’s perspective on Gaza

When you speak out on a subject with a different viewpoint to what is presented by the media, the government or your peers as the “right” opinion to have, it often feels like you’re beating your head against a brick wall.  This is the case with Israel – the government sides with Israel, the media tries to come across as impartial but overcompensates in favour of Israel and the majority of my right of centre peers in the blogging world most definitely side with Israel.

That’s why it was a relief to read this article by Avi Shlaim, a former Israel soldier turned professor of international relations at Oxford University which says pretty much what I’ve been saying for the last few years.  I won’t reproduce the article because it’s too long but, as much as I dislike driving traffic to the Guardian, I would encourage you to go and read it.

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Another email to the Millibeast

The Millibeast didn’t reply to my email the other day so I sent him another one this evening:

Dear Millibeast,

I wrote to you a few days ago as you can see below but I haven’t received a reply as yet.  Perhaps your secretaries didn’t forward the email on or you’ve been too busy.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what’s happening in Gaza at the moment although you may not have seen the latest fatality figures.  According to the paper I read tonight the death toll is somewhere in the region of 13 of Gods Chosen People (3 of which self-defenced themselves loading one of their Weapons of Mass Self-Defence) compared to 870 Arabs.

The other day, some of Gods Chosen Soldiers rounded up some civilian terrorists and put them in a house for their own safety and then the next day they self-defenced the house, killing quite a few of the civilian terrorists, three of which were children.  After this the international community, through the UN, expressed its will by way of another UN resolution calling on Israel to stop self-defencing Gaza.  Israel has ignored the will of the international community again, when will you be taking the same hard stance that the British and American governments did with Iraq for the same offence?

Vive La Revolution!

Wonko

I reckon trying to get a reply from government ministers should be made an Olympic sport, it’d be a perfect addition to the list of Olympic sports we’re no good at.

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