CoffeeHousers' Wall, 15 March - 21 March

AngloWelshDragon

Like many people I have long been unconvinced by the AGW lobby which seems to be politically motivated and self serving. Recent revelations about the science have left me even more distrustful. I sometimes read blogs on the subject which tend to make my head spin, particularly with their tendency to conflate climate change with all sorts of conspiracy theories – even about 9/11 which I find mind boggling.

One subject that all commentators seem to agree on however, is the sinister nature of the Carbon Disclosure Project. I have googled it and haven’t been much enlightened.

I would be most grateful for any explanations about the CDP and why it might be judged sinister.

Sorry if I am being thick!

radgie gadgie

PFI. Now there's something you dont hear too much about these days. From either side.

Andy

I'm hacked off that some thieving Lords are going to get away with fraud because the clerk has decreed that they can visit their main residence once a month and that suffices to claim generous allowances.

Most people visit the supermarket more often than they visit their 'main' home!

Surely someone can do something to stop this?

Ideas anyone?

Andy Carpark

Has anyone noticed the striking resemblance between rugby aficionado, the Princess Royal and Kim Jong Il, Dear Leader of the DPRK?

Alexsandr

I wonder which party will have the courage to legalise brothels? At present the law says that 2 or more girls worl=king from the same place constitues a brothel. But that has to be infinitely more safe than girls working alone. Ok, you need safeguards against traffiking and co-ercion but there are laws for that.

(And working from a flat has to be LOTS safer than working in the street which has to be the worst possible idea.)
(and not all girls regard prostitution as a last resort. some enjoy their work. There is another point of view to Harriet harperson and her cronies)
sorry for all the parentesis!

Yam Yam

radgie gadgie - PFI can be likened to a rather convoluted way for the husband (Gordon Brown) to borrow oodles of money on condition that the lender (the Private Financiers) conceals from the wife (the great British voting public) how all the new cars and foreign holidays (schools, NHS hospitals, etc) have been paid for.

Thirty years down the line, the kids will eventually receive the bill.

Michael Booth

Brown says he is going on and on and on as Labour Leader even if he loses the election...

Mind you, he goes on and on now...

"It's the right thing to do"

Neil Turner

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING

Has anyone else noticed the marked increase in Government advertising over the last month ?

Contraception / Think Bike / Jobs in Social Services / Stop Smoking / VAT online / etc etc

At first, I just thought this was about raising NewLab's profile for the election. But is also occurred to me that the sums of money involved must be huge

Who benefits ?...

- New Labour's election chances
- left-leaning actors / producers and film companies
- will ITV / Sky / TalkSport etc bite the hand that is feeding them all this money ? Not from what I've seen
- it empties the coffers, meaning that any incoming Government wil have less to spend

All in all, a cynical, expensive waste of my tax revenue

Echo34

Rhoda Klapp posted a few topics back about the standard and content of Coffeehouse.

The web has been a blessing in allowing people to express their opinions regardless of their positions in life. However recently especially here, i have witnessed many bloggers continually spouting the same message and opinion again and again.

It is getting tedious and any new readers to CH will read a couple of pages and move on, sseing the same old themes again and again. A daily troll to get wound up with, etc.

To me, it appears the medium as far as politics is concerned is eating itself. This would suit most politicians if it were allowed to carry on.

A request then, more facts, smaller direct posts, no more long gargantuan monologues and please stop all the petty insular argruments.

Ignore the trolls and FFS try to be positive in your posts!

AngloWelshDragon

@ Neil Turner

Yes I have noticed, and you can add to that list dementia, clamydia and the directgov website which is littered with celebs and must have cost a fortune.

This is all designed to give everyone a warm wooly feeling about how much we need a big state.

And what with ITV's propensity to turn the sound up on the ads there is always a mad scramble to hit the mute button in the ad breaks in our family.

Nicholas

Echo34 who made you Sheriff of Coffeehouseville? ;-)

And don't you think that "The web has been a blessing in allowing people to express their opinions regardless of their positions in life" is just a wee bit patronising? What are these "positions in life" that did not have permission to express opinions before the web came along?

For that matter who is going to monitor "standard and content" to make sure it passes muster - you?

John Bracewell

I have tried to be helpful, when the BBC asked for ideas to assist the leaders in the Leadership(Prime Minister) Debates, I gave some pointers to Mr Brown, they were:
1. Try not to answer any questions in case you incriminate yourself.
2. If the rotters holding the debates insist on an answer, then, do as you usually do, LIE.
3. Reel off as many nunbers and statistics as you can remember, the electorate like being given the facts.
4. If all else fails, then throw your papers on the floor and stamp your feet, the electorate will be delighted to see all your managerial skills in action.

Unfortunately, the BBC being biased against the Labour Party, did not see fit to publish my helpful comments, so Mr Brown will not be able to benefit.

Kevyn Bodman

Re. legalised brothels:
Perhaps 18 months or a couple of years ago the idiot Harman announced a goal of eliminating prostitution.

Where I work we have a culture of betting 2 trays of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a dozen each tray, on rugby matches,cricket matches and suchlike.

I don't think I'm taking a huge risk in offereing a bet of 4 such trays that Harman will not eliminate prostitution, no matter what laws are brought in.

But legalising brothels; none of the main parties are going to do it.Many individual MPs might think it makes sense but they haven't got the cojones to put up with the vociferous outrage and then calmly explain their reasoning.

Because most politicians are self-serving,self-interested cowardly (add your own abusive noun here.)

Thomas Rai

Can someone who knows about these things please explain why we don't have a British equivalent of Special Economic Zones? Surely low corporation taxes etc would be a perfect way to encourage growth in deprived regions particularly in the North. I'd be intrigued to know if they have ever been considered properly and if not, why not...

Verity

Echo 34 - I think you're going to be amazed that no one here has any intention of taking editorial direction from a wannabee such as yourself. Sorry. Coffee House already has editors, so there are no positions open, even for qualified candidates.

Chardonné

Alexsandr - "and not all girls regard prostitution as a last resort. some enjoy their work."

Of course they do, dear. And get big tips for saying so.

David Ossitt

Alexsandr

“I wonder which party will have the courage to legalise brothels?”

I think that it would be an excellent idea for those of us who are on pension to be given a monthly supply of brothel vouchers, that would entitle us to OAP discounts.

David Ossitt

A splendid example of health and safety gone loony, or to put it another way, evidence of a political suicide.

Some idiot politician in New York wants to bring in legislation to ban the use of salt in the cooking at all of all the restaurants, cafes and dinners, in New York.

He wants to see a fixed fine of about £650, for each and every infringement, although he will allow saltcellars to be on the dinning tables.

Needless to say the restaurateurs are up in arms.

Reminds me of that stupid labour woman; who a couple of years ago wanted our fish and chip shops to use salt dispensers with fewer holes in the top.

Silly bitch; did not realise that we would all shake the salt for a bit longer.

echo34

Nicholas,

Without getting too personal, i'm no great commenter on here, i usually read this blog for what i can learn from it.

Patronising? Too much... and quite defensive, all i'm trying to say is, can we try to be more constructive in our comments.

I'm certainly not suggesting censoring any comment, but the current bitching and going around in continuous circles is certainly getting boring and monotonous.

It also just plays straight into the hands of critics who claim infighting is all the tory supporter/fence sitter knows.

David Ossitt

Echo34

“It is getting tedious and any new readers to CH will read a couple of pages and move on, sseing [sic] the same old themes again and again.”

This is CoffeeHousers' Wall, it is ours, within very wide boundaries anything goes,
including your pompous drivel.

Read the posts or leave them but who do you think you are to tell us what we should or shouldn’t write?

Nicholas

@ Kevyn Bodman, when France was forced to close down its government licenced brothels by socialist prudes there was an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, assaults, murders and gang crime over pimping. The girls were forced out onto the streets to face its dangers. All it achieved was to take a well regulated activity and drive it underground where it became unregulated, dangerous and embedded with organised crime. When idiots like Harmon propose the abolition of such things its all about gestures and intentions - not the consequences. They are fools.

She is another one who, like Straw, needs her fingers prising away from the levers of power as soon as possible. A deranged, dangerous and deluded woman who thinks her public responsibilities give her some kind of prerogative to pursue her personal agenda.

The best solution to Britain's prostitution problems is to legalise government licenced brothels like other enlightened countries and ignore the puritans whose stupid ideas of ban this and ban that contribute to crime and nothing else.

Beer Moth

Echo34

Fair point well made.

Echo34

did not finish my last post. Ossitt - you are so sensitive, it's beyond parody.

I give up. Tried to make a minor point and get whip-lashed by the whinging brigade.

Daedalus

I was wondering if the polls may be being rigged. If someone was to ask me who I was going to vote for I would say Labour. There is no way they are going to get my vote on the day. I just want to p**** them off a bit.

Rhoda Klapp

David Ossitt, the problem with tedium is not on the Wall, heaven forbid. It is on those coffee house blogs from the editorial staff, all the Brown this, Cameron that, Balls the other stuff. Do you not find it repetitive? Do you not find the restatement of entrenched positions to be stale? If you think this is the best it could be, well...

Verity

Echo34 - The whinger is you. The rest of us skip through posts we're not interested in. There are a couple of posters around here who motivate me to hit the scroll button, stat.

It doesn't occur to us that anyone will accept editorial direction from a fellow poster.

If you don't like the cut of our jib, leave.

Wilhelm

This is the last communist joke I'll post.

Stalin, Brezhnev and Gorbacev are on a train, the train suddenly breaks down.

Stalin, '' lets kill the train driver.''

Brezhnev, '' No, lets close the curtains and pretend the train is moving. ''

Gorbachev, '' No, lets all get out and push the train. ''

The train of course being a symbol of the communist system.

John Richardson

Rhoda Klapp

Re-editorial staff blogs.

I think you are correct.
I think I can assume most folk reading these blogs are 'politicos'. Yet, when was the last time you read something here that made you say, 'Wow ! That's fascinating. I can't wait for the debate to begin.'
Surly it should happen every few months ?
Instead, the efforts you mention R.K., are sooo boring. Detached from reality. Politically correct. Often sloppy with detail. Never inspiring or honestly informative. Sometimes funny for all the wrong reasons (yesterday someone suggested the FT was a globally respected institution, or some such adolescent tripe. I don't think he has realised the country is bankrupted & the FT didn't notice it happening).
When was the last time that a discussion developed basically based upon the sage words above ?
The fact is that 'we' seem to be most inspired/informed by the comments of others.
It's as though those who earn their living writing about politics have decided to intellectually ignore the reality of the internet. Party politics as usual.
For example (no..not Neathergate) that speech by Cameron last week.
All that rubbish about 'no notes'. Really, who cares ?
I am trying not to be insulting here, but to be impressed by a man speaking without notes, when he's had years to get it right, seems pathetic to me.
How many people in the UK knew Cameron had made a speech ? 5% ?
In what way is it important outside Party Politics ?
It is so lazy of the commentariat to persist in this myopic notion that political speeches matter. They do not. They are the ground feed of debate.
The last time one mattered was John Major on his soap box; talking to the people, answering questions, battling hecklers.
Imagine Brown/Cameron doing that !

British politics resembles a job creation scheme.
Not a way of representing 'the will of the People'.
Hence it is corrupt.
Hence we have 'political class' verbiage served up to us.
Sigh.

--------------------------------------------

'Echo 34'

...don't want to kick you when you're down, but that 'Sheriff of Coffeehouseville' jibe made me laugh aloud.
Regs.

Herbert Thornton

Thomas Rai (March 15th, 2010 3:40pm) -

That's a novel idea. Perhaps it would be both welcome and ideally suited to increase activity and production in No Go areas? Middle East oil money could roll in and produce explosions of business activity.

Verity

John Richardson, I agree with you to a great extent, but don't blame the CH writers. They are answerable to an editor and the editor answers to the owners. This is how periodical publishing works, whether it's political publishing, business publishing or lifestyle magazines.

daniel maris

Re Echo 34 -

"What did yer last Sherrif die of?"

"Lead poisoning."

---------------

I've said elsewhere and will say it here again, I am going to be voting UKIP I've decided. Can't vote Labour, the party of bogus exam results, the welfare sofa, rampant criminals, mass immigration, EU statism and PC smothering of free speech.

Can't vote Conservative. They aren't taking us out of the EU, and so are helpless to prevent mass immigration. They don't believe in direct democracy. They seem to have become more and more politically correct and are doing nothing to stop the advance of Shariah.

Contrast that with UKIP who definitely tick the boxes on the EU, mass immigration, political correctness, Shariah and direct democracy.

David Ossitt

Rhoda Klapp

“David Ossitt, the problem with tedium is not on the Wall, heaven forbid.”

Rhoda; as is usual, you have a very fair and valid point, and yes some ideas are moth-eaten and some indeed do lack originality.

I simply glide past those that I have had enough of for the time being.

But echo34 is asking us to “be more constructive in our comments” I find that patronising.

Herbert Thornton

Andy Carpark (March 15th, 2010 12:42pm) -

No I hadn't noticed the resemblance until you mentioned it. It's worthy of Private Eye.

However I do trust that you didn't have this version in mind -

ttp://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/54/46/kim-jong-il.0.0.0x0.384x306.jpeg

P.S. - It seems that linking doesn't work in Coffee House, so this is my latest attempt to overcome the problem.

Just add an h before the ttp

Peter From Maidstone

Verity, I don't disagree with your post. But in that case I do wish that the Spectator would not pretend it was an independent thinking Conservative publication and would make it clear that it has a soft-left editorial line imposed on it. I find it very frustrating that so much of the Spectator content is essentially socialist while pretending to be Conservative.

John Richardson

'Verity'

Yep, 'tis true.

However, I'd contend that there remains a huge market for non-establishment political analysis.
A 'for instance' might be the 'Tax rises/spending cuts' dichotomy.
What about cutting.....Welfare ?
How about
'If you have claimed JSA (Dole) for 15 years....a £15 a fortnight cut. Ten years claiming ? £10 cut. Two years = £2 cut'
Simple.
Easy to explain & defend.
Appealing to the working poor who would cheer 'At last!'.
No-one could honestly say they were unprepared for the change as they would have had years of 'jobseeking' if facing any real reduction in income.
The savings could be used to raise the tax threshold; thus incentivising lower paid jobs and rewarding the decent working poor the most.
Don't get me wrong, I do not imagine the above will happen.
However, to investigate the numbers might be interesting. If the political class claimed those on years of benefit were at a 'subsistence' level, this lie could easily be exposed.
What would it cost to administer ?
How much could be transferred to the working poor?
Would it affect entry level jobs ?
Who knows as it is not PC to discuss ?
However, we are incubating a version of Weimar* if the public sphere remains a PC only zone.

*My apologies for the WWII ref., Mr Sheriff Sir.

Verity

Peter from Maidstone, you wish the Speccie "would make it clear that it has a soft-left editorial line imposed on it".

But they do, Peter. They do. From the tenor of the writing, this is not a Speccie that Frank Johnson would recognise. But you will concur that the owners can do anything they like with their property.

Jeffrey Barnard is ill.

cmp

John Richardson - Cameron on his soapbox! Pretty good too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzENO3QF9ng&feature=player_embedded

John Richardson

'cmp'

I wonder do you have the 'Youtube' ref. ?
Ta.

Sarnia

Place your bets on Gordo coming to the rescue in the BA v Unite game and in so doing furthering his chances for another demonic 5 years.

Peter From Maidstone

Verity, yes indeed the owners can do what they want with their publication, including running it into the ground. But surely there is a case for applying the Trade Descriptions law? In that we are being invited to buy the Spectator but are getting the New Statesman.

I have to admit that I have gone from buying the Spectator every week and reading almost every word, to buying less than one edition a month and finding it very hard to enjoy reading half of it.

Derek

6.30am in Shanghai and typical fare on the BBC's "Outlook" programme after a brief survey of international news - Afghanistan refugee in Denmark, the Darjeeling hill railway and the difficulty of a woman porter to feed her five teenage sons; Brad Pitt's involvement in helping architecture students in the reconstruction of New Orleans; followed by a trailer for a programme on Chinese censorship of the Internet and some chaps making a billion bucks in Silicon Valley,a St. Lucian poet and his anti-colonial views (Derek Walcott), something about Pashtuns and cultural anthropology, "crowd sourcing" ideas for museum exhibits in San José and Vietnam,etc. - all good stuff of course and more power to the Foreign & Col - whoops - Commonwealth Office; but, oh!, I wish there was a service which gave foreigners, and Englishman having home thoughts from abroad, to broadcast information about and insights into life in Great Britain. Who are these programmes for and why?

I think I'll make some buttered toast and have another cup of tea.

Verity

PfMaidstone - D'acuerdo.

EC

Derek, March 15th, 2010 10:37pm

You must be so excited to have Ed Milliband over there at the moment lecturing the Chinese about their responsibilities.

"I wish there was a service which gave foreigners, and Englishman having home thoughts from abroad, to broadcast information about and insights into life in Great Britain.

My brother, who has lived abroad for the last 45 years, assures me that both Al Jazeera(English service ) and 'Russia Today' have less slanted, more thoughtful and in-depth coverage of UK affairs than the BBC. [ apparently Al J's Arabic service is another matter but is nonetheless also very interesting! ]

Andy Carpark

Herbert Thornton 15.03.10 7:17 PM

Thank you for the picture, but without the bouffant hair-do the comparison is less robust.

We should nevertheless encourage CH-ers to inspect the likeness and form their own views, particularly if they have just taken a sip of tea. :0)

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Andy: most people visit the supermarket more often than they visit their 'main' home!

Surely someone can do something to stop this?

CUT THE HOURS THE SUPERMARKETS STAY OPEN!

Ideas anyone?

Peter From Maidstone

My Dad always watches Al Jazeera (English service) and much prefers it over the BBC and ITV offerings.

Vulture

Far be it for me to use the Spectator to advertise a rival publication, but those Tories who are pining for a true Conservative publication should try the 'Salisbury Review'.

Although a quarterly, rather than a monthly or weekly, its editorial line is robustly Tory. The current (Spring 2010) edition has the addded advantage of boasting not one but two pieces by mygoodself. (After all, if I don't blow my own trumpet, who else will?
Apart from Mrs V. of course).

http://www.salisburyreview.com

Wilhelm

Nick Griffin didnt publish his expenses.

Faster than a speeding bullet, Spectator's very own anti BNP, rapid, reaction, response squad swung into action with all guns blazing, with smear and more smear. Thanks a bunch lads, you did us all proud. yeah, you really did.

Pity then they cant get their arse into gear over Neathergate, the silence borders on the supernatural.

Peter From Maidstone

And which articles are those Vulture?

I will add the site to my Bookmarks and take a longer look later.

Derek

EC

Thanks for the heads up. There couldn't be less news about Great Britain on the Russian and Al Jazeera stations than on the BBC World Service. I will give them a try.

And, yes, everybody is tremendously excited to have Mr. Milliband here. There is a dashing photograph of him on page 11 of today's China Daily with "Chinese peacekeeping troops". It is not entirely clear what he is doing in the country.

Meanwhile, in the ever-growing powerhouse of Shanghai, the British Consulate-General has cut back its services to the average British subject. It wasn't possible to get a passport here anyway - the application was taken in by the Consulate and, for an additional postal fee, sent up to the Consulate in Beijing to handle.

That burden was apparently too much for the chaps in Shanghai or perhaps Mr. Brown has been looking for ways to reduce the
£789 billion national debt. Since 1st February, a British subject now has to get an application in Chinese from the Chinese post office and send his application himself to Beijing with the postal order. The fee (not including postage) is a couple of hundred bucks + U.S. in RMB for a 43-pager.

What the chaps and chappesses get up to the rest of the time on our behalf is anyone's guess. However, a notice pasted to the bullet-proof glass through which we can exchange a few words with our masters assures us that the new system has no problems and runs smoothly and is, effectively, jolly good.

Peter From Maidstone

Does anyone have the address of the owners of the Spectator? Is there value in contacting them to express our concerns at the present state of the publication? Can we find out what the circulation of the magazine is doing? I know that I am buying it a lot less, and it seems that others are cancelling subscriptions.

Derek

Well of course i rushed off to see who Vulture is, but was disappointed that the website of the Salisbury Review does not seem to show all the pieces for the current issue and their authors as there are no two by the same person.

However, someone here a couple of weeks ago was asking about that West Indian English chap who used to write honestly and well in the Spectator about immigration themes from the provinces. I remembered him as being eminently readable but couldn't think of his name to advise the CHer.

But there in the contents page was the name: ROY KERRIDGE and with a regular column, "Reputations".

Mr. Nelson, before you keep your promise to take a position on Neathergate, or much sooner if possible, could you please publish Roy Kerridge again?

Derek

Peter from Maidstone

Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay, according to the web, give their postal address as Le Montaigne, 7 Avenue de Grande Bretagne, 98000 Monaco.

You might however like to try and catch them in person at their mock-Gothic castle on Brecqhou in the Channel Islands.

Derek

Correction to my words on passport applications.The application from the Chinese Post Office to which I referred is for a postal order, not of course for a British passport... I apologize that I deleted the reference by mistake when I thought I was tidying up the grammar before posting the comment.

Verity

PfM - When people buy a publication, it is for a reason. The Barclay brothers bought The Speccie for a reason. They have not confided their corporate plans in us.

In2minds

Good to see the Salisbury Review get a mention. It was the SR that first reported the Ray Honeyford story.

paulg

@David Ossitt, you old wag you, asking for brothel vouchers. I suppose even Christians need some relief.

It looks like you will have to make your application for vouchers via a GP, as thats the only budget thats getting ring fences.

The Bellman

The only person with two articles in the Spring 2010 number is Helen Szamuely. Is Vulture a woman? Or is the shadowy 'Mrs V' a man? Is there a crisis of sexual identity at the heart of our finest Tory periodical? Or is it a nest of lesbicious vipers?

We must be told.

Peter From Maidstone

I see that Angela Merkel has agreed that teh creation of the European Monetary Fund would require a new treaty. Have the Conservatives said anything about this, and whether they would keep their promise THIS time and allow a referendum. (Why am I saying 'allow' as if they were our Lords and not our servants!)

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Peter from Maidstone: Hello, it was on Google.
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP .
Hope this is what you wanted,

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

The sudden death of Labour MP Ashok Kumar is of course a tragedy. He was a quite a young man, yet the cause of death is given as "natural". From the moment Mr Kumar's passing was announced, the police stated that nothing criminal was suspected. I am a natural cynic, but feel certain that the BBC would have given this death much more media coverage and sly innuendo if it had been a Tory MP.

Verity

Did Jack Straw and Gordon Brown pay a ransom for that kidnapped Pakistani kid out of exhausted, depleted coffers rightly belonging to the British taxpayer?

Lucy Jones

I'm glad that an innocent 5-year-old child has been released.
If it transpires that a ransom has indeed been paid by the UK government, then I take it that the the Chandlers can look forward to similar treatment so that their ordeal will soon be at an end? Or not? Now why might that be?

Nicholas

Who shot the Sheriff?

radgie gadgie

Peter from Maidstone. You can be sure that if the Germans require a referendum on a European Bailout Treaty we will not get one because dave hasnt offered a guaranteed cast iron definite undoubted certainty that we can have one. He is more likely to echo Blair's "move along there - nothing to see here, its just a 'tidying up exercise'" approach as per the Lisbon Constitution.

Kevyn Bodman

Gordon Brown has sent his good wishes for a speedy recovery to David Beckham.
Fair enough, but then No 10 announced that he had done it.

My suspicion is that the major reason he did it was so that he could announce it.

I very much dislike politicians and the way they pose like this.

Verity

So now we will see a tsunami of "kidnappings" of Pakistani kids and appeals to the British taxpayer for ransoms? Maybe the cabinet, who created this situation, should have clubbed together and paid this ransom themselves.

If it had been a genuinely British child kidnapped, would the generosity have been quite as hearty?

Why was the British taxpayer involved in dealing with criminals?

And the Chandlers, as mentioned above, genuinely British, moulder offshore Somalia, another hell hole whose citizens somehow become entitled to live in Britain on British charity. Why hasn't the Royal Navy been in and rescued them and strafed the whole coastline?

Peter From Maidstone

Verity, do you have any evidence that any tax-payer money was used to pay a ransom? The news had shown earlier in the week that the Pakistani community in Oldham was planning to club together to find the ransom money.

David Ossitt

Did anyone else see the local Yorkshire section of the BBC1 evening news this evening?

A woman who has successfully fostered before answered an advertisement in the Barnsley area for foster parents.

She telephoned to reply and during the course of her conversation as a result of a question asked told the chap at the other end that she was a member of the BNP.

He then told her that this fact would disqualify her from being a foster parent.

The newsreader who introduced this nasty piece of news, started of by saying that “a woman who is a member of an extremist political party” has been refused the right to apply to be a foster parent.

He then went on to interview a woman from Barnsley Council, (this is where it starts to get a bit sinister) she claimed that it was nothing to do with the council, because this was a separate fostering agency but then waffled on about it not being membership of the BNP that would be a reason for exclusion, rather the thought patters behind such membership.

We are now in a nasty evil place; where the powers that be will let a solitary sodomite foster but not a responsible woman who has past experience.

New labour bastards.

David Ossitt

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

“I am a natural cynic, but feel certain that the BBC would have given this death much more media coverage and sly innuendo if it had been a Tory MP.”

A.W.K.1. a girl after mine own heart.

Verity

PfM - No. I saw it inferred in one of the papers this morning. I think the Mailonline was giving that impression (not in so many words) when I read it first thing my time, but I've just been back to check and any such inference has been taken off. Or it may have been The Telegraph. I didn't make a note, as I was on my first cup of tea.

John Richardson

Well said 'Vulture'.
If anyone should wonder how good 'The Salisbury Review' can be, Exec. Editor Is Rodger Scruton & it was banned about six year ago, from libraries, because of it's political content.

One quibble would be the angst ridden almost despairing tone of some of the essays therin.
Enough wailing.
Action or submission.

Verity

Peter from Maidstone, from today's (Tuesday's) Times: "The Foreign Office rejected a suggestion from another Pakistani official that the British Government that had paid the ransom. "The United Kingdom does not make nor facilitate substantive concessions to hostage-takers," a spokeswoman said.

I wonder how the "spokeswoman" defines "substantive". That word was inserted for a reason. They're hiding something. (And no, I am not confusing substantive with substantial. I think, though, that the quote comes across as sneaky and shadowy.)

daniel maris

Verity - couldn't you start living up to your name?

John Richardson

David Ossit

Two things.
One.
Hell awaits them beyond death.
Two.
A nasty surprise awaits them in this life when the encounter that pesky Law of Unintended Consequences.
The child victims of their twisted experiments will meet normal people from real families. They will meet normal people who were denied foster children because they were fat, or smoked or were too middle class or whatever.
These children, perhaps in adulthood, will arrive at the logical, sensible conclusions.

The future does not belong to the wicked.

Regs.

Derek

Verity

"I saw it inferred in one of the papers this morning."

"implied" I think.

Verity

Derek - You are correct.

EC

Nicholas, March 16th, 2010 5:23pm

First it was Bob Marley, then it was Eric Clapton and now even Nigel Farage is gunning for him. Hell, everybody is at it!

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

This murderous government knows no bounds. Today, the NHS is once again in the news for filthy hygiene, blood spattered walls, and mouldy surgical instruments. No I am not quoting from "The Mail" which NuLabour supporters like to sneer at, rather I am mentioning a news item in "The Guardian", the official mouthpiece of NuLabour. The "Mail" too, puts the spotlight of disgusting NHS practices, but what is shown in the "Guardian" is damning enough. Maybe not enough pensioners and other vulnerable people are being murdered in NHS hospitals and other NHS facilities, such as Primary Care Trusts, since the Ministry of Health is launching a new 'final solution'. Hospital beds are to be drastically reduced, and patients will receive customised treatment in their own homes. Brilliant - the lack of hygiene, lack of carers, absent medical staff, can all be blamed on the poor housewife or husband. In one foul swoop, statistically hospital deaths will go down, whilst the growing problem of finding pensions and care for the elderly will be reduced.

Martin Denning

Lord Mandelson... He's been on again today (Radio 4 1PM News) blathering unctuously (he's one of the few who can do blather and unction simultaneously)about this and that important Government business. I know this has been said before, but why oh why should anyone take the slightest notice of this self-titled, overblown, unelected rascal (I'm trying to be polite).

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Martin Denning: Well, Sir, if you were the Denning who directed the report on Profumo, you might find an acceptable reason for listening to that vile creature Lady Mandelson.

cityboozer

Question:

We have known for years about the Ashcroft marginals machine. Why are we only now hearing about the Unite/Whelan one?

I suppose the possibilities are:
* It is genuinely new
* There is a conspiracy of silence about it, or
* It has been going on under the radar and the Tory intelligence efforts have only just revealed it

I think the last possibility worries me most.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

cityboozer: That is the one that worries me too. Is it negligence or what I in paranoia mode fear, may be a conspiracy.

Martin Denning

Anne Wotana Kaye 1 - although not related to Lord D. (deceased), I am too old to grasp your meaning. Could you please explain.

Thanks

Sam ARMSTRONG

Verity: "Why hasn't the Royal Navy been in and rescued them and strafed the whole coastline?"

Because their skins are white, and white is the new black.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Martin Denning: Alas I fear you are too young to comprehend my somewhat sick humour. It was long ago in the naughty sixties. Denning investigated a case where Profumo (only possible in Great Britain) brought down a government because of his hanky-panky.

Alexandrovich

Part of David Cameron's 'We'll change Black Britain" article in today's Guardian:

"A Conservative government will help tackle these barriers by turning Labour's failing welfare schemes into a radical plan to get Britain working. This will include funding for a national mentoring programme for black people who want to start a business. It will provide would-be black entrepreneurs with the targeted support, advice – and, crucially, role models – they need to access finance and work for themselves.

I've always believed that role models are incredibly important. You only have to look at how children copy their parents to see how big an impact role models can have. That's why I've worked so hard to get more black and ethnic minority Conservative party candidates."

And the Poor Bloody White Infantry?

Kevyn Bodman

Anne Wotana Kaye 1:
Your analysis of the Profumo case misses out some important points.
Profumo wasn't just engaged in hanky-panky;he was patronising a call-girl who also had an East German diplomat as a customer.

Profumo was Secretary for War.

Many/most/all men say many things that they strictly shouldn't say to get women into bed, and continue to say them afterwards,especially when the sexual connection is powerful.
What did Profumo say to Christine Keeler?

So: War Secretary has sex with woman who also has sex with East German diplomat,
that's a prima facie case of a security risk,I suggest.

Added to that Profumo lied about it to the House of Commons.

Now, many/most or perhaps all of us have lied about our sex lives but in nearly all cases it doesn't matter much.

But,as I said earlier, Profumo lied about his sexual connection with a woman who was also sexually connected to a diplomat from a non-friendly nation.

Even if every other statement he made about there being no security breach were true, would you trust those statements?

The Profumo case was very much more serious than hanky-panky.

It was a genuine national security matter.

Pure hanky-panky is usually just overlooked.
There are and were homosexuals (formerly that opened the possibility of blackmail),adulterers and homosexual adulterers in the House of Commons,in nearly all cases nobody cares.

But, quite rightly, the Profumo case didn't fit into the 'nobody cares' category.

Kevyn Bodman

I have copied this from an article in The Independent this morning.

What does 'voluntary' mean to you?

What does it mean to the authorities?

---------------------------------------

The new head of a Government agency has warned that food businesses which refuse to conform to a voluntary scheme on hygiene ratings will be closed down by repeated visits from health inspectors.

-----------------------------------------

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Kevyn Bodman: Yes, you are correct.

Vulture

Kevyn Boardman:

Kev, The diplomat Christine Keeler was shagging at the same time as she was shagging Jack Profumo wasn't East German. He was the Russian military attache - named Ivanov.
She memorably descibed him as a 'big huggy bear'.

Before my time too, but I've made a special study of scandals!!

oldtimer

Came across this the other day, free as air on the web as it were. Maybe it will provide some light relief - with apologies to Robert Burns.

"Oh what a sleekit horrible beastie
Lurks in yer belly efter the feastie
As ye sit doon amongst yer kin
There sterts tae stir an enormous win'

The neeps an' tatties an' mushy peas
Stert workin' like a gentle breeze
But soon the puddin' wi' the sonsie face
Will have ye blawin' a' ower the place.

Nae matter whit the hell ye dae
A'body's gonnae hae tae pay
Even if ye try tae stifle
It's like a bullet oot o' a rifle

Haud yer bum tight tae the chair
Tae try an' stop the leakin' air
Shift yersel fae cheek tae cheek
Pray tae God it disnae reek.

But aw yer efforts gan asunder
Oot it comes like a clap o' thunder
Ricochets aroon' the room
Michty me! A sonic boom

God Almichty, it fairly reeks!
Hope I huvnae s**t ma breeks!
Tae the bog ah'd better scurry,
Ach, whit the hell, it's no ma worry.

A'body roon aboot me chokin'
Yin or twa were nearly boakin'
I'll feel better for a while
Cannae help but raise a smile.

Wis him! I shout with accusin' glower,
Alas! Too late! He's just keeled ower
Ye dirty bugger, they shout and stare
A didnae feel welcome ony mair

Where e'r ye be let yer wind gan free
Sounds like just the job for me
Whit a fuss at Rabbie's party
Ower the sake o' one wee farty."

I do wonder if they have this problem in the Brown bunker - and it is an obvious hazard in the new Tory open plan election campaign office.

Verity

Why is Cameron so stupid? Under what arcane system did he turn out to be the winner of the competition to be Leader? He writes that he got “more black and ethnic minority candidates” … Did I miss something? Are there suddenly more black people in Britain than white people, who own the country? Why did he separate “black” and “ethnic minority”? Dave, black is an ethnic minority in Britain There is not such thing as black AND ethnic minority. It is all the same thing. So what were you playing at with this sentence? It was meant to deliver some subliminal message. For the slower learners among us, could you explain what that message is, please?

“Black AND ethnic minority” … Hmmmmm.

Cameron fancies himself as a very clever strategist, so this wrongful usage, which stands out a mile, is supposed to convey some subliminal message.

My submliminal message to Dave, re my vote, is, "Not in a million years, fella.

Oldtimer – thanks for buggering up one of the most touching poems to come from these islands.

Rhoda Klapp

A couple of weeks ago, we had the mystery of the Imelmann turn. Last week we had Michael Wittmann taking advantage of the unsuspecting Viscount Cranleigh. Now a poem in Scots about farting.

Truly the Wall is the best thing on this site. And no irony intended.

Verity

PS, why does Dave bang on about having dragged the party to the centre, when there are millions of us who are firmly on the right and will not be following him in the direction of the socialism.

Wilhelm

Oldtimer

Its a bit uncouth, a poem about flatulence.
How old are you, son ? 6 ?

Wilhelm

Here's a poem from William McGonnagall and I dont have to stoop to the vulgar Old Timer's childish level.

A poem about London

As I stood upon London bridge and viewed the mighty throng.
Of thousands of people in cabs and buses rapidly whirling along
All furiously driving to and fro.
Up one street and down another as quick as they could go.

Then I was struck with the discordant sound of human voices there. Which seemed like wild geese cackling in the air.
And the river Thames is a most beautiful sight.
To see the steamers sailing upon it by day and by night.

St Pauls Cathedral is the finest building that I ever did see.
There's nothiing can surpass it in the city of Dundee.
Because its most magnificent to behold.
With its beautiful dome and spire glittering like gold.

Then there's petticoat lane I venture to say.
Its wonderful place on the Sabbath day.
There wearing apparel can be bought to suit the young and old.
For ready cash, silver, coppers or gold.

Oh mighty city of London you are wonderful to see.
And thy beauties no doubt fill the tourists heart with glee.
But during my short stay and while wandering there.
Mr Spurgeon was the only man I heard speaking proper English I do declare.

It goes on like that for another 20 verses.
Its no wonder Peter Sellars and Spike Milligan loved William McGonnagall, he's so bad, he's good. They made a film about him in the 1970s.

Wilhelm

Another poem from the genius that is William McGonagall about Beecham's pills

Beecham's Pills

What Ho ! sickly people of high and low degree.
I pray ye all be warned by me.
No matter what may be your bodily ills.
The safest and quickest cure is Beecham's pills.

They are admiited to be worth a guinea a box.
For bilious and nervous disorders, also small pox
And dizziness and drowsiness, also cold chills.
And for such deseases nothing else can equal Beecham's pills.

They have been proved by thousands that have tried them.
So that the people cannot them condemn.
Be advised by me one and all.
Is the advice of the poet McGonagall.

Polly Gamma

Haha what a laugh Old Timer.

I needed that…Only this morning after hearing about Gawd’s resident UNITE official and his lies to Chilcot… I heard someone saying despairingly “Oh no I think I’ve lost the will to live … no cancel that… I lost the will to live months ago but now I’ve lost the will to pretend that I haven’t lost the will to live…. I know how he feels…. But having just listened to the Libdems election “song” [sic] on Pete Hoskins post and your ditty I am suitably restored. Thanks guys.

Wilhelm

Polly

You are easily pleased, Luv.
I didnt know the Spectator readership age range spanned from 4 to 7.

EC

Beer Moth,

This morning I came across this syndicated news story from the Bradford Telegraph and Argus: http://is.gd/aNJK5

It's been years since I was in Bradford and I didn't realise life there had got so stressful. The strain that this poor woman must have been under must has been immense. Since she didn't hurt anybody but herself I do hope that she is shown some compassion.

Scan down to 'More Bradford Stories' and it gets worse!!!

Polly Gamma

Ahh come on Wilhelm don't get all hoity toity on us I often get a good chuckle out of your posts too :)

Wilhelm

Frazer Nelson has just slagged off the entire readership of the Spectator, we are all coffin dodgers, thanks for nothing.

Mark Mellowkent

The English landscape looks deader than I’ve ever seen it before. It never is pretty at the butt-end of winter, but usually it’s enlivened by daffodils and blossoms on various non-native trees, so that you forget the clumps of mud, and the skid marks on the fields, and the skeletal hedgerows and copses. This year, however, there’s been no such relief, beyond a few, late, snowdrops . Last autumn’s leaves have been compacted flat, the undergrowth has been withered back to its roots, even the brambles look dead and bare. The low sun casts shadows from the remaining boughs, trunks, twigs, and stalks – all hard shapes, like iron bars – as if their owners were still prisoners of winter, waiting for and trusting in an inevitable spring.

Because of all the late frosts, everyone in Hampshire is forecasting a vegetable spectacular for 2010 with blooms galore, and say that when the flowers come, they will be awesome. I heard a daffodil grower on local radio admit that although missing mother’s day, when kids buy bunches of his flowers for 99p with their pocket-money, had been bad for business, he would have stock ready for Easter which would more than compensate. Sad to relate, it froze over that night and the night following and since daffodils possess ice-sensitive genes which only get switched on if the temperature stays above zero for a certain number of consecutive nights (i.e. they won’t come out until they’re good and ready for it) he may not even have daffodils to harvest until the holiday has come and gone.

It surprises me that the daffodils’ general reluctance to raise their heads from below the earth has attracted so little comment. Every year for at least the past decade their appearance has been celebrated. There are pictures of early blooms, quotes from Wordsworth, and leaders on global warming as evinced by increasingly precocious Narcissi hybrids. This year, however, the only article I’ve read about them has been a plea in the Daily Telegraph: “Tweet if you see Wordsworth’s golden daffodils.” Maybe they’re all dead, and with the election so close, and the Welsh vote so vital, an embargo has been placed on the news lest people fret about their absence and blame it on the government. Perhaps without the hope of daffodils we’d all fall apart each winter and emigrate to the sun. Perhaps, equally, there’s a tacit understanding between the public and the media - we don’t want to know, and they won’t go on about it: no daffodils now, nor any ever again.

daifromwales

I've just been looking at the headings on the Spectator web page (above).
There is nothing very unusual about the ommission, since the heading I'm looking for is missing from almost every "serious" publication.

Where is just a small heading reading "Science and Engineering"? It is, after all, what pays our society's bills, feeds, clothes and houses us...

Meanwhile out here the HSE are starting their very first Show Trial to obtain their first "corporate manslaughter" prosecution. If any of are providing career advice to your children - tell them to go in to banking and d***n the consequences for the future prosperity of this nation. Out here where some of us make difficult technical decisions, things are beginning to hot up - and the rewards are, frankly, not worth the risk.

Nicholas

I see Poor Richard prefers to post his New Labour propaganda in taxpayer funded time rather than his own.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Mark Mellowkent: That was really lovely prose. Especially the first paragraph. I'm listening to "Question Time" and listening and (even worse) seeing Margaret Beckett, so your description of the countryside was a breath of fresh air.

Verity

AWK - I am sorry you had to look at Margaret Beckett on TV and hope you had a drink handy to steady your nerves.

I understand that the unelected "Baroness" or whatever, Ashton, with her unelected bum esconsed on the EUSSR's Foreign Secretary chair, is Magaret Beckitt's ugly sister.

Austin Barry

On QT Margaret Beckett seemed to resemble a melting Christmas candle - a tapering red shroud topped by pale melting flesh - although it is her ineffable smugness that really horrifies.

It was, though, encouraging to see her defence of Brown's probity greeted by groans and laughter from an audience that seemed otherwise anti-Tory.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Verity & Austin Barry: My husband was once in the audience of a TV programme where Margaret Beckett appeared. He tells me, with horror, that she is even far worse in the flesh.

Nicholas

This was written about Obama but I thought it could be equally and fairly applied to Gordon Brown - since he drones on so much about equality and fairness.

"You only wish they gave the same level of attention to their jobs as they do attacking critics. You get the unmistakable feeling that one day there will be an international crisis, but the president will be in his bunker scrawling an angry rebuttal to a letter to the editor he saw in the Beaver Valley Gazette. Obama reminds me of a Zampolit, the Soviet officer watching over everyone to enforce political compliance. Except the Soviets were at least grown-ups. This president would rather keep campaigning to BE president rather than grow up and act like one."

New Labour have done a fairly good job of creating a government posture that mimics Orwell's 1984 and sustains itself by demonising a mythical opposition to their policies and exaggerating threats. So the main New Labour unique selling point is to point the finger at the Tories, spell out their "crimes" and ask "Do you want them in power?". It is government by party political tribalism and getting worse because the socialist cultural revolution in Britain that began under Wilson and was almost completed by Blair and Brown is suddenly under real threat.

Awkward questions are finally being asked (although not by the BBC) about the whole New Labour/Socialist PC thought control scam, about their assault on liberty, about the hypocrisy of their corruption, about the secretly planned tide of immigration, about their suborned, politicised public services, about the pervasive influence of the extreme left in the mainstream public narrative.

But even so, the basic tenet of "Keep the Tories out" sustains many disillusioned and disaffected left of centre voters. However disgusted they may feel about the Blair Brown years, party tribalism maintains their dogma about the alternatives. How many comments do we see across the web from people who describe themselves as ex-Labour voters, list all of New Labour's failures and then sign off by saying that they could never vote Tory.

Nicholas

To any of the old beat-pounders and collar-fingerers who I am confident haunt these pages may I commend Hitchens' 'The Abolition of Liberty' (originally published in 2003 as 'A Brief History of Crime'). I came late to this book but found within the somewhat overblown promise a very useful chapter which succinctly charts the politicised centralisation of Britain's police "service".

The chapter 'Bobbies on the Beat' is well researched and laid out. It surprised me by the early date at which this politicised centralisation process began. I was not surprised, however, to learn that a Labour government (Wilson & Jenkins) was responsible, or that the Conservative opposition of that time was totally ineffective in conserving any of the good as it was thrown out to make way for the mediocre in preparation for the bad that was to become entrenched by a later generation of East German clones and their ACPO partners in crime.

There are quite a few books on the recent history of the police in this country but unfortunately the centre ground of mainstream debate is already fully occupied by the forces of darkness, so the issues never get a full or impartial hearing. Frustratingly I include the Tories in this. They have focussed on the societal aspects of the symptoms rather than the essence of how to police effectively - even though a few New Labour placemen in blue have fired warning shots across their bows which you would think might have provoked the dozy pinstripe and loud tie brigade from their green benches. But the Tories have so far not dared to publically challenge the Home Office/CPS/ACPO hegemony or the smokescreen of crime that gets thrown across any attempt to explore the way that the police and laughably named "Justice Department" actually deal with it - or in most cases don't. Whether they will do so once in power remains to be seen but I suspect it is a blind spot or a battle they would rather avoid altogether. The current shadow minister appears unable to see beyond the cozy, vested-interest consultancy offered by ACPO which lies at the heart of the problems. A few clichés about "cutting paperwork" are not going to cut it - the problems are far more entrenched and ideological. They require root and branch review and reform, preferably by a completely independent body and would involve the wholesale sacking of the majority of Chief Constables as well as the savage clipping of ACPO wings.

And to magnify their challenge is the issue of Europe and another tier of politicised centralisation for the police coming to a SWAT van near you with rolled up copies of the Code Napoleon to batter down any last remaining notions of civilians in uniform, the rule of law, the independent discretion of constables or the precedence of personal liberty.

Even in Academia the market is cornered by a couple of establishments where a coterie of self-promoters who have never walked a dangerous beat in their lives pander to those who see policing as essentially an attractive career progression with a fine line in the usual pseudobabble. These two arrogant camps, the self-promoters and the personally ambitious, preclude any long hard and very public look at how far the police "service" has moved from the imperative that first brought it into being to a situation where Chief Constables feel that they can write letters to the victims of serious (property) crime chiding them for failing to take into account that the perpetrators are also victims. There are few better examples of a public service being brought into serious disrepute as a deliberate policy by those responsible for it and those accountable for it.

Verity

Re the police, Nicholas, I lived in a city in the US that has an elected chief of police. (I think that most cities and towns do, but a few, like New York, do not.)

People who stand for chief are already strongly committed to law and order, so they're motivated to serve. And obviously, if they want to be re-elected, they have to serve the community that elected them well.

I think most cities in Texas have elected police chiefs and Texas is a pretty good law and order state. (It also has the death penalty, which you can administer yourself if someone puts one uninvited foot over your threshhold.)

It was George W Bush who, as twice-elected Governor (chief executive officer) of Texas who pushed through the bill to allow citizens to "carry concealed". Meaning, you could carry a gun in your pocket, purse, glove compartment or briefcase. The argument was, criminals "carry concealed" so why shouldn't the citizenry? Pragmatic works. Touchy-feely doesn't.

In the US, there is a commitment to law and public order that has completely dissipated in Britain. (This was engineered intentionally, to demoralise normal people and make them more dependent on the state.)

Elected police chiefs, free of political patronage, are the solution to lawless Britain. As are the death penalty and harsh sentencing. Life in prison in Texas is hard. Prisoners have to work. And if they're taken outside prison to work - picking up litter along the highways eight hours a day, for example - their clothes bears the message in reflecting tape: Texas Department of Corrections. And they are supervised by a guard with a gun.

Once released, no one wants to go back to prison. (Of course, there are always stupid people who reoffend, but you can't cure stupidity.)

Beer Moth

EC

Just another day in paradise.

I don't know how you rated the place then, but I wouldn't recommend another visit. I doubt you would believe how it has ended up.

Bill Bryson was right about the city, but actually, things weren't too bad back then.

I like UKIP too.

Lord Pearson,leader of UKIP, has given a speech full of excellent content today.

The Speccie staff might not like his delivery style, we know they go weak-kneed at Dave 'without notes'. But read the content of Pearson's speech.
I would bet that that the regulars here would agree with 90% or more of it.

Far better than any of the Lib/Lab/Con tricksters.

I wonder if we'll get a proper report on it on Coffee House.

David Ossitt

Help.

I have not visited Paris for well over forty year’s and she who must be obeyed has never been to Paris.

Neither of us has yet travelled on Eurostar and so I intend to remedy this by taking my beloved to Paris in April for a four or five night stay.

The Eurostar booking will be easy, what I am finding difficult is in selecting a hotel; ‘she’ likes comfort and a good breakfast, whilst I do not want to break the bank.

Can anyone make a suitable recommendation?

James Murphy

Dave O - Anywhere in the Latin Quarter - doubt you'll get away with less than £100 a night - per room that is, not person. have a great time. And don't forget to make your wife have the escargots at least once! Bon voyage!

Kevyn Bodman

David Ossitt:
When you book a ticket on the Eurostar site there is an option to add a hotel to the train ticket, and they guarantee it'll be cheaper than buying the two separately.
And I think you can choose by area of the city.
So decide what you want to do in Paris and choose a hotel near most of the places you want to go to.Yes, of course there is the Metro system, but the best way of seeing a city is on foot.

I like impersonal chain hotels,partly because I don't want any interested conversation from proprietors when I register and they see where I live. I never get that from desk clerks at a Hilton,Sheraton,Marriott etc.

I last visited Paris in November 2009 and stayed in a Novotel.Efficient,not much character.

There are loads of boutique hotels too,maybe someone else can advise you on those.

Paris taxi drivers are not as good as London cabbies,so when you get a taxi at Gare du Nord have the hotel address,including post code, handy.You might have to show it to the cab driver.

EC

Beer Moth,

We, the family, did Haworth, Bradford, Shipley canal etc. 21 years ago when we 'borrowed' a friend's place in Harden for a week at Easter.

Bradford didn't seem too bad back then. I would never have dreamt that there would have been riots there. I remember Harden as being quite a pleasant spot and it had a great little F&C shop(shed) that opened up about four times a week.

I have noted your comments and would never dream of stopping off in Bradford now, except to refuel. I imagine the surrounding countryside is largely unchanged and best thing about Shipley these days, for me, would have to be Alan Jeffries BMW Motorrad dealership.

Ghengis

Nicholas -- in the case of you having not previously done so, I recommend you read the late Pat Malloy's A shilling for Carmarthen Gomer Press)as a thunderingly good and entertaining piece of history.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

David Ossitt: How lovely. Paris, a wonderful city. Ten years ago, my husband and I had a wonderful week staying at the Hotel Axel. 15 Rue de Montyon 75000, Paris. FAX 01 47 70 43 37. It is very central, Montmarte and full of atmosphere. My friends call me "Picky" but I found nothing to complain about. Clean, excellent bedroom with shower etc. Simple but with TV and bar. Breakfast was a buffet, a veritable banquet. Prices, very fair and won't break the bank. Look it up on the internet, they have a site. Bon voyage!

Derek

Mark Mellowkent's piece on the dearth of daffodils struck home and this Englishman will go the local flower market tomorrow in Shanghai to buy some. At this time of year, they also sell narcissi bulbs to flowering, some in ceramic dishes with a little water in them which you can stand on a table in your place in the stink of the city, close your eyes, breath deep and think of England.

I wonder though if Mark Mellowkent's piece wasn't an exercise in metaphor? I indulged myself in further daydreaming by checking out the Hotel Axel online and noted that it is a Best Western hotel, which should satisfy those looking for the impersonal as well as for cleanliness and service. I then had a bitter awakening when I clicked on the Daily Mail site and saw the following item on developments in the cathedral city of Peterborough near the fens, which Mr. Fraser Nelson should ponder as he considers the wisdom of breaking his promise to take a stand on NEATHERGATE:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259279/Residents-powerless-remove-illegal-immigrants-gardens.html.

While England is a fen of stagnant waters, the daffodil remains a symbol of hope. Please post here then, Mark Mellowkent, if they are seen this year in England growing as they have done wild and outside government control. I want the daffodil, not the cuckoo's song from No. 10, to be the herald of our Spring this year.

Nicholas

Genghis - thank you for that. I have not read it but will make it my business to do so.

Frank P

PETROL PRICES

We are supinely accepting the rip off by the oil companies and the government in collusion. £1.15 per litre for petrol where I live at present, despite the fact that crude oil is much lower that at the peak of petrol prices last year.

I received this meme today which seems to contain a good idea: pass it on to all your friends. Action this day, as Winston would have said.

>"PETROL PRICES
The price of oil is as low as it has been for a while, the oil companies have simply jacked their prices up and the government will not do anything as they rake in extra VAT for every increase.

See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it

We are hitting 114.9 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying 1.50 a ltr. Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT,whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt,all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 90p a LITRE RANGE

It's easy to make this happen. Just join this group and get all your FB friends to join or forward as an email to everyone in your address book, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e.. boycott BP and Esso" <

h/t Furriskey

Marya

So how many of those nasty foreign measurements to a gallon then? And you're willing to pay a quid for it? I need to know so that I can convert to USD as well, and compare the prices.

Actually - that's another reason I can't stand the BBC World Service, though. They require us to accept everything in foreign measurements; it sounds horrible, and I can't understand what they're on about anyway - so I switch off as soon as they start.

daniel maris

The Spectator are determined to shoo in their dinner party pal David (not "Dave" - don't pretend you call him Dave, Sarah). UKIP can expect brickbats, thumbscrews and ordure coming their way.

But, as the poster above says, Lord Pearson made a good speech, style aside.

One never wants to hero worship politicians, but Pearson has effectively put his own life on the line for his country by showing Fitna in the Lords. And he has spoken a lot of good sense.

There are plenty of good things in the UKIP policy portfolio. I don't like everything. I think they are not being realistic in their assessment of the future of the UK or the monarchy for a couple of things. But I am pretty much determined to vote for them, unless something deeply unpleasant about them emerges in the next few weeks.

Frank P

Something like seven and a half bucks a gallon here, Marya (don't ask me to work out the conversion exactly). Shape of things to come over there, too, buddy. Tomorrow it begins in earnest. You need to get that Trojan Horse of yours to the knacker's yard. And you are quite right - stay away from anything marked BBC - it mean Bollocks, Bullshit and Codswallop.

Maria

Ed Balls told us on Any Questions Friday/Saturday that he is a member of Unite. Apparently Gordon Brown is also. I have never heard of this before. Are the rules of membership so loose? Perhaps we can all join?

David Ossitt

Anne Wotana Kaye 1 James Murphy Kevyn Bodman

Thank you all.

David Ossitt

Has a post from Verity been removed?

In it; the final sentence, were her wishes for a particular group.

I replied agreeing with her but that has also disappeared

Fabian the Fabulous

The pope's apologies to Ireland have somehow pushed the strike on the UK's national airline off the top spot on BBC radio 4 news.
On Downing street they must be singing a hymn we used to have to sing at school - God Bless Our Pope.

Noa Zrk

I went through 13 years of schooling in Roman Catholic primary and secondary schools with never a hint of sexual interference or buggery from the many priests who taught me or effected my education.

They did warn though, that homosexuals were often predatory and often sought to corrupt the young and gullible. Those warnings proved to be correct and I was grateful for them.

Fabian the Fabulous

They did warn though, that homosexuals were often predatory
Worse than that, Noah - they are mortal sinners, condemned to an eternity in Hell.
But really I was amused (to put it politely) about the Beeb's news priorities

Beer Moth

Noa Zrk

Ditto. I - as millions of unreported others - was never molested by any of those who taught me at RC schools. Mindst you, this could mean I was simply unattractive. This might have saved me also, from the attentions of those rough stokers in my subsequent days with the Grey Funnel Line.

Looked everywhere but I never did find that golden rivet?

David Ossitt

Fabian the Fabulous

Fabian will you; please elucidate, precisely what skills, talents or qualities that you have, to make you so fabulous?

Fabian the Fabulous

David Ossitt - I thought you'd never ask.
I was inspired by the fact that a political movement - The Fabians - chose to name themselves after a rather minor US pop singer of the late 1950s.
I take it you've never heard of him, otherwise you would, perhaps, remember that he was known as Fabian The Fabulous.
Having said that, I myself am neither a Fabian, nor particularly fabulous.

Noa Zrk

Fabulous Fabian

I can't say I was ever particularly inculcated by the buggery is sin thing. The Jesuits who taught me were Aristotelian in approach and encouraged both tolerance and an independence in thought.

Yup - the BBC is not as other organisations, with priorities which are the exact opposite of the one remaining white hetro reasonable man on the Clapham bendybus.

Personally I'd like to see the BBC largely stripped of the licence fee and de-politicised.
Programmes such as Today, and the bottomless cadre of PC producers, reporters and interviewers feeding them demonstrate an overt leftist imbalance, reflecting the political bias inculcated by 13 years of neo-communist rule.

But why should the BBC not look to condemn paedophile priests whilst promoting the cause and status homosexuality? No conflict there? government.f freed of the blight of politicalorrectnanchised and then offered sold off NCHISED

In2minds

Just back from working away from home so I'm late with my support for Nicholas @ 11.09am March 19th. It's all very well getting furious with the police for what happened, as an example, with the Ali Dizaei case but he only took what Jack Straw offered.

As we have got a politicised police force by stealth we might as well formalise it and have elected police chiefs.

Austin Barry

And as we leave St. Patrick's week a thought to ponder from Irishcentral.com:

"Muslim website calls for 'Sharia' Islamic law in Ireland

An Irish Islamic website which argues for the introduction of "Sharia" law in Ireland had nearly 270,000 hits last month alone. The site is targeted at what it calls Irish "O'Muslims," the Muslim Public Affairs Council website, www.mpac.ie."

Where's Geert O'Wilders when you need him?

Verity

Austen Barry: "Where's Geert O'Wilders when you need him?"

And where's a Gerry Wilders in England or Scotland?

The vile, fat "expenses" claimer - and, most unaccountably, British Home Secretary - Jaqui Smith banned this legally elected Dutch MP from landing in Britain because the British government is as complicit and fascist as the E German government was with the Stazi.

Congratulations to the bold and civilised Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Perhaps his lordship is our Geert Wilders. I predict if he goes on like this, and if the MSM cover it, he will be smothered in support. I will be voting for UKIP, and I think that smug Camera-on, to use my favourite Bushism, mis-underestimates them.

Verity

Sounds like the Irish were taking the O'Mickey.

Fabian the Fabulous

The Jesuits who taught me were Aristotelian in approach and encouraged both tolerance and an independence in thought.
Crikey, they don't sound like the monks who made a half hearted attempt to educate me.
Don't you realise that carnal lust in any form is sinful outside of the sacrament of matrimony?
With ideas like that I'm afraid you're destined to damnation.
Dominus vobiscum!

Kennymac825

I haven't visited for about 6 weeks but I see it's still the usual drivel here. I'll come back in the summer to see if things have improved.

Marya

Thanks, Frank P - right now it's heading for $3/gallon where I am (well - $2.85 or so). For now I'm not using the iron horse so much...

btw - for Noa et al, I also went to a couple of RC schools and suffered no abuse; just good grounding in Latin. Later, the er... ?female? teachers in secular education were threatening, but I didn't understand anything about it at the time; and since the situations didn't involve boarding I stayed safe.

So I can't believe pederasty has anything to do with 'religion' - I think it's just a product of perverted and predatory human nature. And right now, of course, I think that AntiChrist of the euSSR is playing its own version of the game. Maybe it works as a pincer movement with the religion we can't mention on CH.

Verity

Camera-on is chasing employees in the quilt-lined public sector. In other words, they are vying with Labour for the Marxist, free-rider vote.

They appear to think that Tories will vote for them automatically, that's in the bag ... but truth to tell, the Tories under the aspirational jellyfish Cameron, have hemorrhaged Tory votes. People are fleeing in droves.

And Dave thinks he's doing just great, armoured by the armory of impentrable smug.

David Cameron is a nasty piece of work.

Rhoda Klapp

Kennymac, if the site doesn't reach your high standards there is no reason why you should feel obliged to continue reading here.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Austin Barry: Now this is too much! The Emerald Isle desecrated by those loony towelheads. How would I ever recognise a leprechaun if it was garbed in a burkah? Seriously, keep the buggers out!

Sam Armstrong

Sharia in Ireland:

Don't be surprised by this. What with one thing or another, Ireland is no longer what it was. Most young Irish people are now signed up to lifestyle choice. Dublin is now multicultural, expensive and snobby with a similar cultural elite to London's. They now look straight over the Taoiseach's head and directly to Brussels HQ. I never expected this of them, I thought they were too anti-corporate. Oh well.

Peter From Maidstone

I see that a woman who runs a B&B has been reported to the police because she refused to accommodate two homosexual men. I hope that there is some group which will support her as it is truly horrible that a person's principles and beliefs can be made illegal by this corrupt and wicked government.

David Ossitt

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

“Seriously, keep the buggers out!”

The buggers; as well as the towel heads Anne?

I agree.

Verity

PfromMaidstone - Nightmareish. The malignity comes glinting through. The sheer spite and malice against the indigenous people of these isles, and envy of everything they have accomplished over 2,000 years, takes the breath away. Who, in a million years, would ever have entertained the notion of this happening in Britain?

The malice is so strong it almost knocks one over with its lowering presence. Jack Straw and the coterie are very sick dudes.

Verity

Does anyone else have a suspicion that Blair is mentoring Camera-on? He is Blair's prodigy, after all, and if Camera-on got in, that could be very handy for Tony.

And it would keep things cozy for when they both eventually end up at the top table in Brussels.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Peter from Maidstone, David Ossitt and Verity:

In answer to David, Surely all towel heads are also buggers.
S & G stand for "Sodom and Gomorrah", but alas, can also stand for what Straw and Galloway are doing to our country.
Peter from Maidstone: What you havwe mentioned about the B&B is an exsmple of S&G.

rollzone

hello. shocking revelation today that our peaceful resistance to progressives-left takeover of 48% of the American economy, without consent of the people; fell well short of stopping their agenda: as globalists buy control of our government.

Frank P

If anyone can report today's main event better than this, than do so pronto - please!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Happy Dependence Day! [Mark Steyn]

Well, it seems to be in the bag now. I try to be a sunny the-glass-is-one-sixteenth-full kinda guy, but it's hard to overestimate the magnitude of what the Democrats have accomplished. Whatever is in the bill is an intermediate stage: As the graph posted earlier shows, the governmentalization of health care will accelerate, private insurers will no longer be free to be "insurers" in any meaningful sense of that term (ie, evaluators of risk), and once that's clear we'll be on the fast track to Obama's desired destination of single payer as a fait accomplis.

If Barack Obama does nothing else in his term in office, this will make him one of the most consequential presidents in history. It's a huge transformative event in Americans' view of themselves and of the role of government. You can say, oh, well, the polls show most people opposed to it, but, if that mattered, the Dems wouldn't be doing what they're doing. Their bet is that it can't be undone, and that over time, as I've been saying for years now, governmentalized health care not only changes the relationship of the citizen to the state but the very character of the people. As I wrote in NR recently, there's plenty of evidence to support that from Britain, Canada and elsewhere.

More prosaically, it's also unaffordable. That's why one of the first things that middle-rank powers abandon once they go down this road is a global military capability. If you take the view that the US is an imperialist aggressor, congratulations: You can cease worrying. But, if you think that America has been the ultimate guarantor of the post-war global order, it's less cheery. Five years from now, just as in Canada and Europe two generations ago, we'll be getting used to announcements of defense cuts to prop up the unsustainable costs of big government at home. And, as the superpower retrenches, America's enemies will be quick to scent opportunity.

Longer wait times, fewer doctors, more bureaucracy, massive IRS expansion, explosive debt, the end of the Pax Americana, and global Armageddon. Must try to look on the bright side...

[As opposed to James Forsyth's rather limp piece on Coffee House tonight]:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5857008/obama-will-get-his-healthcare-bill-but-it-comes-at-a-cost.thtml

Is that the best you can do James?

Verity

Thank you so much for pointing us to the brilliant Mark Steyn on this, Frank P!

The communists slither slyly forward, as did their slavvering predecessors in the Soviet Union, and as do Jack Straw and fellow denizens of the British vipers' nest.

What a toxic mix! The underclasses (couchist non-producers) who think they deserve the same as everything the achieving class has (encouraged by the Obama class infantry), ie, the people who work and have insurance with their employers.

Welcome to the rubbish tip that is the NHS - "the envy of the world". (Copy Patricia Hewitt, now engaged in other pursuits). Yet uncopied by any other wealthy country ... until now ...

This programme will prove the end of America's dominance as No 1 nation. And the West. Snap! Just like that!

India and China will be the oncoming powers. The Chinese are probably the most talented planners in the new world order. The Indians the most creative thinkers.

But with around 2.3bn people between them, and Obama having ceded the United States to Marxism, China and India are the way to go. What a shift to see in our lifetime!

I recognise that 2 a.m. GMT is probably not a good time to post.

James Murphy

Vis-a-vis Obama (apparently his name means 'he-who-drips-with-self-regard' in Arabic): herewith another concisely brilliant quote by a poster in the Mail:

"This is Obama's slippery slope leading to a cozy marriage of state and corporate power: the shining example of which resides in Brussels. Did you really think the spending of millions by the NHS on 'Swine Flu vaccine' was good value? Did you really quake in your beds with the 'horror' of 'bird flu'? Do you close your mind to any alternative to the 'flagship NHS'? Do you trust politicians to spend your money in providing you with a service: filthy hospitals run by overpaid bureaucrats, childcare agencies who 'oversee' a child starved or beaten to death? Police who would rather serve their political masters than catch a thief? Just look at Bliar who has sells his political services to corporate interests to enrich himself. Those who look for security by giving up their liberty deserve neither."
- Derek Sibthorpe, Belves France

Ghengis

Spud has spoken, can we now have a fresh start.

Greenslime

This was posted on The Gartman Letter today:
From the Gartman Letter on the US cash for clunkers scheme but you could almost certainly find many many other such 'efficiencies':

EFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT...................
Think of it this way: A clunker that travels
12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.

A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224
million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.

More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars. So, the government paid $3 Billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.
I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.