Archive for February 2013

EDF suing eco-terrorists for £5m

French electricity company EDF is suing 21 eco-terrorists who shut down one of their power plants for a week last year.  The 21 activists from “No Dash for Gas” have been convicted of aggravated trespass.

The eco-terrorists are complaining that it’s not fair for a number of reasons which can largely be summed up as “EDF can afford the £5m loss” and “the police helped EDF”.  Naturally the extremist Green MP, Caroline Lucas, is supporting the “No Dash for Gas” eco-terrorists.

Let’s have a look at some of the things they say …

The amount of the claim represents just 0.3% of EDF’s annual UK profits, which rose by 7.5% this year to £1.7 billion.

Whether the company can afford to lose the money or not is irrelevant.  They have an obligation to make as much money for their shareholders as they can whilst staying within the law.  If a group of eco-terrorists shaves £5m off their profits by engaging in criminal activities then they don’t have much choice but to try and recoup some of those losses.  It’s not just EDF that stand to lose from the £5m cost of closing their plant down for a week either – the pension funds that earn money from investing in EDF will also lose out, hitting pensioners in their pockets.  It’s not just big business that loses out when big business loses money.

This is the first time an energy company has attempted such a claim, and campaigners say it represents the opening of a new front against peaceful direct action protesters

This is nothing to do with peaceful direct action protesters, it’s targeting eco-terrorists who committed criminal trespass and shut down a power station for a week costing the owner of the power station £5m.  Any peaceful direct action protester who stays within the law has nothing to worry about.

Sixteen campaigners occupied two chimneys at West Burton for a week in October 2012, stopping nearly 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions

That might be impressive if it was proven that CO2 causes changes to climate cycles which it doesn’t.  Quite the opposite in fact.  But regardless of whether you believe in the global warming claptrap this lot do, producing CO2 isn’t an illegal act so you can’t use it as a necessity defence.

The campaigners believe that Nottinghamshire Police’s support for the civil claim is part of a larger strategy to crack down on environmental protest, as evidenced by the use of extremely onerous bail conditions on the activists after their arrest. They were not allowed to associate with each other and most were subject to home curfews from 9pm to 7am.

What the eco-terrorists did is terrorism according to the Terrorism Act 2000 and they were treated no worse than any other terrorist suspect.

In another incident, Counter Terrorism Command officers visited an activist at her home to ‘remind’ her of her bail conditions and caution her against going within 50 metres of E.ON’s Grain Island Power Station.

Counter-terrorism police visit terrorist suspect to remind her she’s not allowed near a potential terrorist target.  Well there’s a shocker.

The police are meant to be working in the public interest, not acting as EDF’s private police force. If I wanted to sue EDF over their pollution or their price hikes, would you expect the police to deliver the legal papers to EDF on my behalf, or hand over the names and addresses of their top executives? Somehow, I don’t think so.

Perhaps if the EDF executives were suspected of terrorist offences and they’d cost you £5m they might.

The Committee also point out that a greater reliance on gas would increase household bills by up to six times more than a shift to renewable energy

Windmills are the most expensive form of electricity production we have and cost the taxpayer billions in subsidies to only produce enough electricity to power a large town.  It is the “green” electricity industry that is bumping up bills and all because some self-proclaimed “experts” have concocted some bullshit stories, repeatedly proven to be inaccurate, about global warming to access millions of pounds of government grants.

The case is reminiscent of the record-breaking “McLibel” case, when the fast food chain McDonalds sued two activists from North London from 1990-1997

No, it’s really not.  That was a libel case for a leaflet that was ruled to have made largely unfounded claims against a fast food chain that lost McDonalds such a little amount of business that they would probably have struggled to quantify it while this is a criminal act of terrorism that shut down a power plant and cost the operator £5m.

How are school leaving age changes in England going to work?

I’ve just fired off this email to the British Department for English Education.  It follows on from a previous missive I sent to them on the subject back in 2007.

Some time ago I wrote to you asking how the change to school leaving ages in England was going work.

In particular I’m interested to know what a Welsh or Scottish person who leaves school at 16 and moves to England is going to do about the fact that they’ve finished their secondary education but would be required to complete a further year or two of secondary education in England because they’re only 16. A Welsh or Scottish person of 16 or 17 years of age will effectively be barred from taking a job in England when the change comes into force.

There is also the reverse situation where a 16 year old moves from England to Wales or Scotland and there is nowhere to complete their secondary education.

The response I got from you didn’t offer any explanation as to how these situations would be handled but merely expressed a hope that Wales and Scotland would follow the British government’s lead and raise the age for mandatory secondary education to match that in England. Clearly this isn’t going to happen otherwise it would have been announced by now so please can you explain how these scenarios will be handled in future?

Lord Adonis proposes regional government in England again

Unelected Labour peer, Lord Adonis, is spearheading yet another campaign for the destruction of England by regionalisation.

Lord Adonis

78% of people don’t want regional government you say? I honestly don’t give a shit.

The Labour Party always refer to the deceitful referendum on the common market held in 1975, which nobody currently under the age of 56 was able to take part in, as giving legitimacy to our continued membership of the EU despite the majority of the population being opposed to it.  Yet the referendum on regional government held in the north east of England by his party just 8 and a half years ago which resulted in a 78% “no” vote can apparently be safely ignored.

Adonis is producing a report for Nick Clegg – another Deputy Prime Minister that wants to destroy England – on the economy of north east of England and wants regional governments in England with control over major budgets.  His vision is for a return of the unelected regional assemblies and regional development agencies that we’ve only just got rid of.  It’s a kick in the teeth for democracy and if he’s successful, another major broken promise from the British government.

Local authorities can work together perfectly well without an unaccountable, undemocratic regional quango taking powers and money away from elected representatives.  Local government is a devolved matter, the British government has no moral or democratic mandate to ride roughshod over our democratic wishes and dismantle our system of local government to suit their own political ambitions.  Labour is already behind a campaign for a regional parliament for the north of England and this renewed interest in “devolution” to regional quangos is a regionalist trojan horse.  The fact that it’s an unelected peer trying to dismantle our country makes it even more unacceptable.

NFU launches Buy British campaign in England

NFU Buy British - only applies to England

Only applies to England

The NFU launched a “Buy British” campaign today to promote “British” food.

Funnily enough, there is no mention of the campaign on the NFU Cymru website or the NFU Scotland website where they are encouraging people to buy Welsh and Scottish respectively.  The NFU England website … doesn’t exist because there is no such thing as NFU England.

The NFU is just another of those racist organisations that has Scottish, Welsh (often Northern Irish) and British arms.  I wouldn’t make a conscious effort to buy “British” anyway because if it’s not English it’s foreign but if there was some campaign that I was inclined to back I certainly wouldn’t do it if the organisation urging me to back it denied the existence of my country.

So fuck you NFU and shove your “Buy British” campaign up your arse.

Two governments gives Scotland “the best of both worlds”

I read this, got angry, used some traditional Anglo-Saxon words and then sent the following email to Cowardly Cameron …

I see in the news today that you believe that Scotland having 2 government’s is “the best of both worlds” and that because Scotland has its own devolved government they can make decisions needed “to meet the specific needs of Scotland”.

Can you please explain why you feel that England doesn’t deserve the best of both worlds and why England shouldn’t have its own government to meet the specific needs of England?

You are putting so much effort into making the case for the British union in Scotland that you’re forgetting that the 85% of the population lives in England where we have no self-government, where MPs elected in a different country make our laws and where the case for being part of the British union has never been weaker.

I urge you to end the institutional discrimination against the English and give us the devolved English Parliament that 7 out of 10 English people want.

English Democrats embracing militancy

English Democrats - Bringing English nationalism into disreputeThe English Democrats lost their “celebrity” elected mayor of Doncaster this week when he resigned from the party over the takeover of the party by BNP defectors.

Chairman of the English Democrats, Robin Tilbrook, took the news badly and smeared Mayor Peter Davies accusing him of being a gambling addict and heavily criticising him.  The day before, he was praising him and holding up as a shining example of the English Democrats’ “success” in an article which has since been deleted.

One of their 6 (yes, six) councillors, Mick Glynn, has resigned in disgust at Tilbrook’s outburst leaving them with just 2 parish councillors, 2 district councillors and a county councillor.

The takeover of the party by the BNP is one of the least worrying aspects of the English Democrats’ recent lurch to the far right.  More worrying is the forming of an alliance with anti-Muslim, white supremacist and British nationalist groups and the abandonment of the democratic process:

The political / elections route has always been the main focus for patriotic politics, but in recent years the emphasis has shifted away from elections towards militancy, campaigning and direct action

Thank god the English Democrats are in terminal decline, the thought of this bunch of racists, extremists and white supremacist militants in a position of power doesn’t bear thinking about.

Hippo meat found in sausages

The Ankh Morpork Times

The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret!

The Guild of Merchants and Traders has launched a formal investigation into allegations that sausages in Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler’s premium Sausage Inna Bun have been found to contain hippo meat.

Guild Vice President Rerpf said “The Guild was made aware of the allegations by a concerned resident of Ankh Morpork who purchased one of Mr Dibbler’s products in Fat Sally’s coffee shop in Squeezebelly Street. We have launched a full investigation into the allegations and Crysophrase’s Meat Futures Warehouse, which is the suspected source of the hippo meat, has been closed pending the outcome”.

Mr Dibbler of Sator Square said “Every Sausage Inna Bun contains 100% domesticated animal. I am confident that I will be exonner … exonnia … cleared of these malicious accusations”.

Crysophrase the Troll was unavailable for comment.

English Democrats lose their elected mayor

Peter DaviesSo the English Democrat elected mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies, has finally announced his intention to resign from the party over its links with the far right.

Davies claims to have only just discovered his party’s links to racist and extremist groups and is “concerned” about recent claims former BNP members have joined the English Democrats.  The takeover of the English Democrats by the BNP, EDL and other extremist groups has been widely publicised for the last few years and Steve Uncles’ attempt to form a partnership with Sinn Féin is well documented.  It is also well known that 4 in 10 of their candidates at the last local elections were former BNP members.

Hope Not Hate recently announced that they were targeting Peter Davies at the next mayoral election because of the English Democrats’ links to extremists and only a few days ago reported on the English Democrats’ new alliance with a new fascist group, English National Resistance.  Davies is either naive or telling porkies and you don’t get elected as mayor of a large city by being naive.

Dear Jim Telfer …

 

This …

England 38 -v- 18 Scotland

England 38 -v- 18 Scotland

… is why the English team are allowed to be arrogant.

Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate

Defending England on the BBC

Rugby Union World Cup 2003 Final England -v- AustraliaWe’ve had a double-dose of England-bashing in the last couple of days with former Scottish rugby coach Jim Telfer declaring the English team arrogant and French journalist Jean Jaffe (probably spelt that wrong) said that the English are arrogant and think they’re the centre of the world.

BBC Radio Five Live phoned me up this morning asking if I would go on their morning show and “defend the English”.  They bumped me even though I’d told them I was delaying going out to do the interview and then didn’t bother calling me back which was a bit rude!  But BBC Radio WM called me at lunchtime and asked me if I’d do an interview on their show instead which I did.

The interview was so well received the producer called me afterwards to tell me that they’d had so much positive feedback, including one person who sent in a text saying that I should be in charge of the country because I talk a lot of common sense.

This is what the French journalist said:

I don’t think the French are very taken you know with Beckham’s brands. You know, I’ve never seen many ads with Beckham in France in magazines or on the Paris Metro. Apparently his wife was a bit snooty and she didn’t want to come to Paris, it was not good enough for her career. Most of the English people you think you are the centre of the world and that we have to care about what happens in your country and we have to love you English and I don’t say the British, the English.

I think I defended the English and represented the normal, tolerant side of English nationalism quite well.  You can hear the interview on YouTube …