Ramblings

La w and Order?

2006-04-26T20:35:00.000+01:00

After all the stuff from Blair about security and law and order, it does seem a trifle careless to allow hundreds of foreign nationals who have committed, in some cases serious crimes, to disappear into the ether. Mind you, it also looks like a stitch up by malcontents at the Home Office in putting the knife into poor Charlie!

Bush Legacy

2006-04-10T12:37:00.000+01:00

Respected journalist Seymour Herst has written an article in the New Yorker concluding that Bush is determined to bring about regime change in Iran.

Now his "success" at regime change in Iraq may make some people a little more retrospective, but good ol' George, he wants a legacy and if nuking Iran brings him one - well, yipeee!

I'm not sure what argument will be this time. Bringing democracy to Iran, the argument eventually used in Iraq when WMDs were spectacularly absent, can hardly be applied to a country that has had a democratic tradition since the Puppet of Persia was overthrown. It may be a different tradition to the typical western method, but it brough about a democratic result - indeed, not the result that hierachy in Iran were expecting!

So the message from Bush seems to be, elect the right leaders or we will make you change them. And if diplomacy doesn't work, well we already got the nukes and you ain't!

Madness

2006-03-28T16:20:00.000+01:00

In Australia, Blair has referred to "The "madness" of anti-Americanism in Europe" . It seems to have escaped the poodle's attention that the dislike of the Bush administration is shared by some 70% of the American people. So Blair thinks that 70% of Yanks are mad?

And this report about British involvement in extraordinary redition casts further shame on British Government! Although, of course, Blair, Straw and Hoon will have known nothing about it.....

Paying for Labour? Or worse, the Tories!

2006-03-23T19:07:00.000Z

The sad demise of the Labour Party as the voice of the working person continues. Rather than funding from the Trade Union movement, with the now unwelcome input into policy that this should engender, the Labour Party garners its financial support from the bosses, some of whom get direct power through the House of Lords. I suppose this should be no surprise - the public school boys on both sides of the House are just protecting their own.

However, the real concern here is what is going to happen when Blair and Cameron get together to "reform" this situation. Will they simply abolish the hereditary and patronage that creates the Lords? Will they hell! That will all continue but we, the working people, will be required to fund the political parties - all in the name of fairness and transparency....

How this will work is anybodies' guess, but I bet it will be to the advantage of the two major parties and the detriment of anyone trying to break their grip on power.

Education, education, education

2006-03-15T18:53:00.000Z

Hopefully tonight's vote on the Education Bill will be a deathknell for Blair. He can then go and ask God to judge him in peace and quiet. What has amazed me is that Two Jags (and apparently three homes) Prescott has said that the Labour Party will never forgive those MPs who vote against this appalling Bill. He clearly is in touch with grassroots . But nothing surprising about that.

It really is hard to see why Blair is so insistent on trying to privatise schools, for that is what it amounts to. OK, he's a public school boy and has inside knowledge of the advantages to a private education, but surely even he must realise that this Bill will lead us back to selection. To think that selection can be done on a non-academic basis is utter rubbish. Selection by aptitude - with the subsequent "improvement" in that school's ratings - will happen in whatever disguised form the school can get away with. Post codes, interviewing parents, removals of the less able on spurious grounds and many other methods will be used by these Trust schools. It will be the old grammar and secondary modern system all over again, annd devil take the hindmost.

Iraq all over again?

2006-03-08T14:27:00.000Z

The UN report, and the US response to it, on nuclear processing in Iran sounded very familiar. A report by Mohamed El Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Eergy Agency (IAEA), announced that it contained no solid evidence that Iran used its nuclear programme for military purposes, noting however that there is a set of vague points regarding the current operations of the country.

This sounds like the same "prove the negative" used against Iraq. In other words, we have no evidence but unless you prove there is nothing there we will assume you are guilty. Proving a negative is always near impossible.

The UN's position will be interesting. Their failure to do anything about Israel's nuclear arsenal (or the number of resolutions regarding Israel that Jerusalem has ignored) or the US support of India's nuclear programme, lay it open to cries of hypocrisy. No-one can be happy about Iran developing nuclear weapon capability, but neither should we be content with other countries, including the UK, possessing them either.

Naive or stupid?

2006-03-04T11:00:00.000Z

And that's just us! So let's get this right. You sign a legal document for a mortgage of £400k. A couple of weeks later your partner pays off this mortgage and you don't know? This person is supposed to be part of the Labour movement! What the hell have any of these Labour front benchers got in common with us peasants? Blair buys £2 million flats (OK his wife, and he didn't know either...) Blunkett is still living in a £3m Belgravia property gratis despite being a back bencher now. New Labour? Old corrupt bastards more likely.

Democracy - where?

2006-02-25T16:40:00.000Z

An excellent article in the Guardian comments on two aspects of modern life, the appalling lack of service from many organisations and the encroachment of the police state.

On the first point, business spends a fortune on advertising that they are there for the punter and then treats the punter like dirt. Want service? Well, phone this hot line, probably based in India. What will happen when you do - nothing really, no-one knows what you are talking about and fewer care.

As to the police state, it goes hand in hand with the loss of democracy. What is the point of voting? You get the same rubbish whoever you vote for - and if you get someone you actually want, like Londoners voted massively for Ken Livingstone, an unelected quango (containing the former Chief Executive of East Riding - a man who is the byword for confrontation with workers) will suspend him for speaking his mind.

Up in Smoke

2006-02-15T18:50:00.000Z

Predictably, there has been an outcry against the smoking ban in pubs as an infringement on liberty. The usual argument is that if you don't like smoke, don't go into a smoky pub. Well, here in Barnsley, virtually every pub is a smoky pub, yet often it is a minority of individuals who are creating this atmosphere. I like a pint in a pub, but I object to sore eyes and stinking like an ashtray at the end of the evening. If pub landlords had made a bit of effort at providing smoke free areas - real smoke free, not just a small area where people can't smoke but smoke can drift all over the place - then a lot of this issue would have been defused.

So tough, smokers - a little more consideration on your part could have avoided this, but as you all couldn't give a toss about my right to not suffer the effects of smoke, so I don't give a toss about your supposed loss of freedom.

How much more weird can it get?

2006-02-13T09:32:00.001Z

Probably a lot! The past few weeks have seen more and more weirdness in the world. The Danish cartoons - yes, they were nasty and unaceptable but the reaction to them was out of all proportion.

Gordon Brown seems to be all ministers now. His pronouncements on security and terror are the province of the Home Secretary, but Brown sees it his place now. Not to mention he seems to be trying to place himself to the right of Blair....

Berlusconi likens himself to Jesus......

The US lackeys in the WTO tell the rest of us that we must accept GM products from the Yanks (fat chance). In the same week, the Land of the Free refuses entry to Jose Bove, anti-GM campaigner into the country to give a speech for which he had been invited...

Cheney manages to shoot a lawyer whilst out Quail hunting...

British soldiers behave disgracefully and are stupid enough to video themselves doing it...

People seem to think Pete Doherty is an important poet...

Middlesborough beat Chelsea 3-0...

Weirder and weirder - and as HTS said, "When the going turns weird, the weird turn professional".

Tony Speaks

2006-01-31T20:01:00.000Z

As the 100th British soldier dies in Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair expresses his regret but insists that the people of the region are crying out to be rid of extremists and embrace democracy. That'll be the election of Hamas then.....

So Simon Comes Out

2006-01-26T16:10:00.000Z

So Simon Hughes has finally admitted to having gay affairs. Normally I would say, so what? It makes no difference at all etc. However, I remember the role of the Liberal Party in the disgraceful homophobic campaign against Peter Tatchell in the Bermondsey by-election, where Hughes was victorious. Male Liberals with "I have Kissed Peter Tatchell" badges, females with "I have not Kissed Peter Tatchell". And all the time, their candidate was hidden in the closet.

Who Benefits?

2006-01-25T12:33:00.000Z

The Government has announced changes to Invalidity Benefit. I am surprised that there seems to be little comment on the obvious fact that the standard rate of IB (after 28 weeks) is £68.20 rising to £76.45 after 52 weeks. The standard rate for Job Seekers Allowance is £56.20. So it is no surprise that the Government want to kick the sick off IB and onto JSA and save at least £12 per week - some 15%.

Anyone who has been through the system knows it is not as easy as many claim to be classed as unable to perform any work. I was kicked off IB shortly after being retired on medical grounds despite having a report from a Harley Street psychiatrist specialising in Occupational Health stating I was currently unfit for any form of work and permanently unfit for my job. The assessors thought I could probably manage a job such as stacking in a supermarket. I have represently people whose only ability was that they could stand and lost their cases on the grounds that they "could be a lift operator".

It is very difficult to get a job when you have physical and mental disabilities. The Job Centre is worse than useless. Al they have done for me is give me a reading, writing and arithmatic test - helpful to assess someone who has held a responsible post involving many writing skills etc. for many years. They then decided I must have undertaken office administration tasks in the past (I used to type (two fingered) my own letters....) so sent me for a stream of office administrators posts. Funnily, never got past the application stage.

Now, to a degree I don't care about my personal problems with the system. I only claim NI credit, no actual money at all. But if I did not have an decent pension, I could be in a system that would pay me an amount that would be totally inadequate for normal life or force me into a job that may well bring about a total mental collapse. And that is clearly what will happen to many people.

I know nothing...

2006-01-19T15:50:00.000Z

It seems pretty clear that the Yanks have been flying people around the world to be tortured. Of course, the US Government denies it, but admits they carry out rendition.

Now our leaders have claimed they've never heard of it. But now it appears that The Foreign Secretary's Office and the Prime Minister's Office were well aware of the issue, but didn't tell their political masters.

So what are we to make of it all? People are flown around for questioning, despite there being a quite adequate facility at Guantanamo Bay- why? British politicians say they know even when their offices do. And anyway, at the end of the day Condoleezza Rice says its OK. So that's that then. Probably not!

Respect - what?

2006-01-14T14:52:00.000Z

Going into the Big Brother House may seem like a pretty stupid idea for anyone, other than a Z-list has been who needs the money. For the leader of a political party (and a serving MP), it is pathetic. Gorgeous George has often shown poor judgement - grovelling to Saddam was a pretty daft thing to do - but pretending to be a cat removes any semblance of respect anyone could have for him.

Oddly, neither Respect or their bedfellows The SWP seem to have much to say about it.

Over to you Voltaire

2006-01-12T10:12:00.000Z

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council, is under police investigation. He has denounced homosexuality as harmful, he said: "It is not acceptable. Each of our faiths tells us that it is harmful and, I think, if you look into the scientific evidence that has been available in terms of the various forms of other illnesses and diseases that are there, surely it points out that where homosexuality is practised there is a greater concern in that area."

He is being investigated under either the telecommunications laws or the 1986 Public Order Act, which forbids the use of "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress or thereby".

Firstly, I must say I deplore Sir Iqbal's views. But should he be allowed to express such opinions? Part of me says of course he should or freedom of speech and views means nothing. However, what if it had been the BNP saying this? I object to giving them the "oxygen of publicity" and would prefer to see them silenced. Sounds like I'm in danger of being a bit hypocritical here! It will be interesting to see the left's response to this.

The Compass Points to Money For????

2006-01-10T12:01:00.000Z

2005 was apparently the "most difficult" year in the history of Compass, the largest catering company in the world. There were three profit warnings and a potential fraud scandal. So how was Chief Executive, Mike Bailey, held to account for this state of affairs? He was awarded more than £1 million in shares or options and his total pay packet was more than £1 million year to year. To add insult to injury for the shareholders, who have seen shares go from 550p in 2001 to under 250p now, he also received a boost of £1.4 million on his pension.

The Chairman, Sir Francis Mackay, got shares worth £730,000 on top of his "salary" of £546,000 and a pension top-up of £1 million.

A number of other board members also made huge sums of money. Source - The Guardian

Apparently, the payments were there as an incentive for managers.

Wonder what the workers got as an incentive. Ahh, here it is It has drawn up plans to cut benefits to pension scheme members.

What IS she talking about?

2006-01-09T14:52:00.000Z

Following on with the theme of profound words from our polititions, thesed words of wisdom come from Radio 5 interview with Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, quoted in The Times:-

RUTH KELLY ON 5 LIVE YESTERDAY

Ruth Kelly: In 1998 we outlawed in primary legislation the ability to elect by academic ability.

Nicky Campbell: Yes, so schools will never be able to admit on academic ability . . . just on sporting ability and musical ability and other abilities? That makes no sense.

RK: If you say that 10 per cent, one in ten of . . . er . . . pupils at a school have some talent in sport of music or art . . . er . . . and then that the school builds up an expertise which it then shares and has to be able to share by sharing teachers and facilities and so forth with other neighbouring schools. I think people think that that is just sensible . . .

NC: What if 10 per cent have a particular ability in Latin and French and history — what is the difference?

RK: Well you know we’re talking about an 11 plus system . . .

NC: I didn’t mention the 11 plus at all.

RK: Well academic . . . er . . . selection by academic ability . . . er . . . generally is on a system that you either pass . . . er . . . or fail, that you are either seen as a success or written off as a failure. I think that is totally divisive, I would never want to go back to that sort of system, completely different to the Conservatives, who now say . . . er . . . that the main difference between them and us is that they want to see a . . . er . . . school able to select by academic ability. Instead what we are doing is saying that schools ought to play to their strengths . . .

Errr, right, that's all clear then.....

Value of Words

2006-01-06T14:52:00.000Z

Listening to "Symphony of the Air" by Aaron Copland, I was struck by the timelessness of words of Abraham Lincoln that were being quoted. I thought to compare three quotes:-

Abraham Lincoln - Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is; the tree is the real thing.

George Bush - When Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried, and persecuted as a war criminal.

Tony Blair - I never know, although I use the term myself occasionally, quite what people mean when they talk about multiculturalism.

And Lincoln didn't have a University education!

Here We Go Again?

2006-01-04T12:57:00.000Z

There is something familiar about the large splash in the press about Iran's nuclear ambitions. Clearly, a country like Iran possessing a long-range nuclear capability is a worrying situation - although that is not to say that the USA, Israel, Russia, India, Pakistan having the same capability is not worrying! However, how will we know? The debacle over intelligence in Iraq casts a long shadow over my trust of the intelligence services.

What will be interesting to see is whether there will be a drip feed of nuclear/WMD stories about Iran. It is hard to see that public opinion is going to be swayed towards taking action against Iran. But a significant number of us did not support action against Iraq, even when presented with the "incontrovertable" evidence of WMDs, so whether public support means much remains to be seen.

Welcome to 2006

2006-01-03T12:59:00.000Z

I suppose it will be an interesting year politically, but whether the people will benefit from it is another matter.

It appears that all the major party leaders are at odds with their own parties. Blair's worshipping of the market is alienating his backbenches. The boy Dave seems to have kept his backbenches together but his core support does not seem to sure. Melanie Phillips in The Daily Mail bemoans "This leaves millions of natural conservatives effectively disenfranchised...." And poor Charlie seems to have every Lib-Dem trying to put a knife in his back.

Where that leaves us (us being what is usually called the "loony left" i.e. the people who kept the hope of socialism alive during Thatcher's reign of terror) I am not sure - the bizarre coalition of the SWP and George Galloway? And... well that's about it!

St Naive

2005-12-28T18:19:00.000Z

Bob Geldolf is to advise the Conservative Party on poverty. He says he is non-partisan. I say he is pathetically naive. Does he really think the Tories will not use him to promote their policies? Does he really think this is not part of a political strategy? Is he really as stupid as I think?

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T07:25:00.000Z

Although a long time confirmed atheist, I dislike intensely this idea that we must dump the name "Christmas" from our seasonal greeting and say "Happy Holiday". I tend to celebrate the fact that the winter solstice has come and gone - the days are getting longer, but the celebration here is for Christmas and that is how it should stay!

Ignorance is Bliss

2005-12-23T11:35:00.000Z

Anyone who has followed the "extraordinary rendition" story is likely to conclude that there is something in it. Yet apparently our Prime Minister knows nothing. In response to a request for an inquiry he stated:-

I, I have no evidence to suggest that anything illegal has been here at all, and I'm not going to start ordering inquiries into this, that and the next thing when I've got no evidence to show whether this is right or not - and I honestly, and you know, it's like all this stuff about camps in Europe or something - I don't know, I've never heard of such a thing. I can't tell you whether such a thing exists - because, er - I don't know.

Thanks to Blairwatch for this quote!

US Judge shows Intelligence

2005-12-21T12:21:00.000Z

It's good to see some sense is still shown in the US. A District Judge has rules that "intelligent design" is unconstitutional as it "a particular version of Christianity" which violates the notion of the separation of church and state.

It is interesting that creationists, because that is what intelligent design is about, explain that evolution does not explain the "purpose" of life, only having some "power that can manipulate matter and energy" can. In otherwords, these people cannot imagine that they are not here for some purpose, that they really are not important and are just the result of a cosmic accident (for the want of a better expression).

And this is the problem! Once you believe you are here for a purpose, you must also believe in destiny and the need to fulfil that destiny. As people who believe this usually also believe utterly in the "rightness" of themselves, we end up with people thinking they are the chosen ones and anything they do is right. With 45% of the population of the USA, and virtually all their current leadership, believing this, it is hardly surprising their foreign policy is as disasterous as it is. Hopefully, people like Judge John Jones will make the other 55% wake up and realise what is happening.