Punishment or Mercy

Occasionally I scour the web looking for stories that might interest my esteemed readers. But most of the time the story jumps out. As an erstwhile journalist one gets a gut feeling about what's hot and what's not and at the risk of sounding immodest I can usually predict what the media will lead on that day. That is more a function of the lazy. unimaginative mainstream media becoming predictable, rather than any special skill.

But far more interesting are the stories that are not big news; they are a blip on my radar and only register subliminally. And then a weird thing happens. They bubble under and won't go away. They sit fermenting in the back of your mind and then....

42 years ago a former soldier and petty criminal, Harry Roberts was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three policemen. The year was 1966. There were no mitigating circumstances: the officers confronted Roberts, a career criminal and others after stopping their car. All carried guns and they decided to shoot it out. The officers who died were:

PC Geoffrey Fox, 41
Sgt Christopher Head,30
Detective Constable David Wombwell,, 25

I am against capital punishment. It serves no purpose, is not a deterrent and is frankly barbaric. Not only that, too many innocent people could be wrongly executed.

However, and this is a big however. Criminals and murderers should be in no uncertaintly that crimes as wicked as this one should carry life imprisonment, meaning LIFE. The prospect of spending the rest of ones life in prison should be enough to make scum like Roberts think twice about carrying a gun. And on the subject of guns, all those youths who carry weapons should be imprisoned for several years, just for carrying them. It is the only way. If they are not apprehended and go on to kill, they should be under no illusion about what awaits them. Life means LIFE.

Well, somebody has to do it

The British Board of Film Classification are embroiled in a difficult dispute about their examiners, who have complained about new conditions in which they must view porn films.

Apparently, the Board has recommended that one examiner on his own views the films, instead of two, in order to cut costs. Well, they don't like this.

According to The Register

The "examiners", however, say that "films that are refused an R18 certificate often include scenes that many find disturbing, including sadomasochism and sexual violence", adding that "viewing pornographic content alone will increase the chances of being sexually aroused by the material".

Well, bugger me. I knew there were side effects associated with viewing porn (so I am told) but sexual arousal did not occur to me.

If you tolerate this..you are an idiot.

Some people may be aware that Ryanair flights do not deliver all they appear to promise. Scantily clad flight attendants is one of them, but the disappointment does not stop there.

The Times has a story today about Ryanair's putative plans to put a coin slot on the lavatory doors of their aircraft. Where I live, people will pee themselves rather than spend a pound to use a loo.

But it was The Times' headline that made me sigh. "Ryanair sparks outrage over pound toilet charge plan"

The Times is really out to get Ryanair and for some reason, they feel they have a legitimate case. Alongside this article is another one, a list of 40 Ryanair alleged misdemeanors.

The airline has a record of nasty public relations. They can and will dump you in any part of the world and cancel flights when it suits them. They can be nasty to people who complain about it. It is virtually impossible to book a flight with Ryanair for the headline price, because, unless you have Visa Electron, you must pay a £10 credit/debit card charge. The list, as they say, is endless.

So next time you are arrested at your home, and forcibly marched onto a Ryanair flight, get in touch and I will do all I can to help.

Lord Ahmed

Lord Ahmed has been jailed for 12 weeks (out in six) for dangerous driving, in an incident in which a man died.

A few things.

Ahmed has been spun here and there as confessing straight away. He did not. He said nothing until he was confronted by the evidence that he was texting.

It is claimed his speed was about 60 mph on a motorway, yet he was in the outside lane. Was he overtaking a horse and cart?

Phone records are not accurate enough to prove he was not texting at the moment of impact. The judge was wrong. (Ahmed may have been preparing a text that was never sent)

12 weeks is acknowledged to be a negligible sentence, many ordinary white people have been given years for the same offense.

My belief is that the sentence was unduly light. Make of that what you will.

At least he is now out of politics and hopfully the House of Lords.

Ivan Cameron

(The severely disabled son of David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition has died, aged 6)

Out of respect to the Cameron family I will not be posting today. At times like this, all you can do is to sympathise with their loss of Ivan and try and understand the love and joy he brought to their lives.

Another Donkey Jacket moment for Labour

A sombre moment at the unveiling of the new statue of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother today in The Mall.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham's wife Frankie was clearly misinformed about the event. In the spirit of the recession, Andy himself is wearing a snazzy three-quarter length mac from The Cat Protection Society Shop and has clearly junked his Corby Trouser Press in order to save the planet.

Any ideas what Frankie and Andy thought they were attending?

Comments to other blogs

I am experiencing difficulty leaving comments on other blogs. Conan and Flying war pigs in particular.

Anybody know why this might be. All I get is a little "loading" notice on the word verification field.

Liars and War Criminals

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4799701/Jack-Straw-bans-release-of-Iraq-invasion-minutes.html

Words fail me.

This is F Onederful!

Great news for petrolheads everywhere. The BBC, oh, bless them, I would gladly pay three times the licence fee, kiss their sweet ass, has relaunched the Formula One Grands Prix with the old "Chain" musical intro. Probably the most spine-tingling intro to any programme ever. And, unless I am very much mistaken, I don't have a copy... wait a minute I am very much mistaken!

When it is funny and when it is not

There is a cartoon, a wicked satire on the moribund John Major government, which had suffered, by that time, an ignominious departure from the ERM, known as Black Wednesday. It shows the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, dressed as a dominatrix, laying into the Prime Minister with a whip.

This needs some explanation. The picture appeared on 10th June 1993, the day after Lamont gave his resignation speech to Parliament, in which he described a Government that "gives the impression of being in office but not in power". It did not go down well in Tory ranks. Why the dominatrix? You will have to look up the story but it relates to a former tenant of Lamont's, professionally known as "Miss Whiplash". The fetish theme re-emerged sometime later during a notorious moment at an awards ceremony, when camp comedian, Julian Clary, made a reference to a meeting with Lamont on Hampstead Heath, a venue for gay cruisers. It was probably the funniest moment in TV history.

Years later, July, 2008, in fact, another satirical cartoon appears on the cover of the New Yorker, at the height of the Presidential race. It depicts Barack Obama in Muslim garb, with his wife who is drawn carrying a rifle, the implication being that they are terrorists. The editor of the New Yorker said it was meant to be a satire on the crazy rumours surrounding Obama. The reaction of the public was somewhat different. They didn't think it was funny and it disturbed the liberal sensitivities of the NY demographic. Maggie Van Ostrand, an American humorist/columnist, describe the cover thus:

If you haven't seen the cover of July 21st issue of The New Yorker, you're lucky. It's the most gross, sick and pathetic attempt at satire I've ever seen in my life.

I can't describe it to you because that would only add to the disgrace. Fox will show this more often than they did the Wright byte, and call it "humor."

As a (former) subscriber of that publication all my adult life, I will miss the way it used to be.

Not Lenny Bruce nor George Carlin nor even rap lyrics made me think that Freedom of the Press could go too far.
This cover does.

Shame on The New Yorker for stooping so low to increase their circulation, which must be in the toilet, where it belongs.

She certainly nailed her colours to the mast.

I am possibly guilty of not understanding the parameters of American humour, but I find it hard to agree with Ms Van Ostrand. It looks like a bit of silliness; a jape, a jest, a not very funny take on the daft paranoia of survivalists and KKK members.

In an attempt to understand it I looked into what American comedians were saying about Obama in July last year. Not a lot it seems. It looks as if none of them could bring themseleves to be funny about a black candidate. The International Herald Tribune (the international version of the NY Times), in a piece entitled "Comedians find Obama a tough sell" declared,

When Stewart on "The Daily Show" recently tried to joke about Obama changing his position on campaign financing, for instance, he met with such obvious resistance from the audience, he said, "You know, you're allowed to laugh at him." Stewart said in an interview by telephone on Monday, "People have a tendency to react as far as their ideology allows them."

It continues:

Of course, the question of race is also mentioned as one reason Obama has proved to be so elusive a target for satire.

"Anything that has even a whiff of being racist, no one is going to laugh," said Rob Burnett, the executive producer for Letterman.

Sure, nobody is going to laugh at racist jokes, but audiences are very insecure on this issue.

Still, perhaps the two cartoons provide you with an illustration of the vast spectrum of what is and what is not acceptable.

Now I come to the news that, in reaction to the controversial Bishop Richard Williamson's views on the Holocaust, an Israeli TV comedian has done a satirical skit on Israeli TV which by any understanding of the word is blasphemous.

The Sydney Morning Herald:

SANGUINE is not a word that rushes to mind when appraising the current state of relations between Israel and the Vatican.

First, Pope Benedict made the unwise decision in January to rehabilitate Bishop Richard Williamson, who a week before the lifting of his excommunication had gone on Swedish television to affirm cheerfully that no Jews had been gassed by the Nazis.

As could be expected, Bishop Williamson's bizarre take on the Holocaust didn't exactly endear him to many Israelis and, after a few agonising weeks, the Pope offered a scant apology.

Trying to make light of the Vatican's clumsy mishandling of a predicament that it should never have found itself in, Israeli comedian and late-night TV host Lior Shlein went to air last week with a skit that sarcastically "denied" a few Christian shibboleths to teach the Curia a lesson.

Titled Like A Virgin, the skit denied that Jesus had walked on water and claimed that not only was Mary not a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus but had had sex with many men.

Sounds like a barrel of laughs, and yes, if this was Mohammed being satirized, things would have been a whole lot more serious.

So we can now come to some sort of overview of controversial subject matter and the question of what can be funny, or more specifically, what is "allowed" to be funny. It can be personal and scurrilous. It can be vaguely obscene, like the Lamont example, as long as the subject is ludicrous, as Lamont easily became. It cannot depict black people in anyway that is disrespectful - that is not my assumption, it is the declared will of white liberal consensus.

So all that leaves is the question of Religion and whether you can not only make fun of it, but whether you can ascribe serious vices to its spiritual figureheads in the name of humour. I don't know the answer to that.

On reflection, it seems to me that what constitutes safe humour and proscribed humour, depends very much on where you are and who you are - in other words it is extraordinarily relative and thus impervious to any meaningful legislation. Thank God.

Crosby Steals My Stash

See post below
01 Suite Judy Blue Eyes.mp3

Glasto - the hippy nightmare - Springsteen to headline

Now here is another bit of Weasel Trivia: I have never been to a Music Festival, unless you count a day at Greenbelt 20 years ago. I am slightly claustrophobic, selectively. It means that, if I was in a crowed field with thousands of others on a perfect day, I would have a background feeling of discomfort, and would be glad to get out.

I am also a reconstructed hippy. That means I wash and don't take drugs and enjoy good glassware on the tablecloth.

So here we are with Glasonbury, the mother of festivals, headlining this year with "The Boss". Even his title makes me cringe. Well, the idea of being stuck in the mud in Pilton with 50,000 call centre workers does not bring back memories of tie-dyes, Levis Gypsies and Patchouli. It brings back the memories of job centres and banks and starbucks and people who tell me my call is important but for now, fuck off.

Is it me or do you think Glastonbury is past its sell by date? Young Weasel, who is almost as cool as I am, does a lot of festivals because unlike me, he doesn't burst into tears if he runs out of moist toilet tissue. He goes to lots of very nice little festivals with people one has never heard of.

So what's it with the Glasto vibe? Merely the age of the dilletante writ large? Peace man and back to making enough bread to bulk buy tickets for next year's event?

Summer of Rage

According to Reuters news agency:

Police said on Monday they feared a "summer of rage" with mass protests over the economic crisis that could mar Prime Minister Gordon Brown's G20 summit in London in April.

What makes this potentially more explosive is the discontent generally felt by all.

Environmental campaigners are planning to set up a camp in the capital's financial district on April 1 when the G20 leaders arrive, while other groups are planning action for what they have dubbed "Financial Fools Day."

say Reuters.

Other groups are also planning rallies to protest at Israeli action in Gaza and ongoing military action in Afghanistan.

So it seems it is going to be a confederacy of protesters. What is dangerous about this is that it is no longer a single issue. It is all the issues coming together for one big party and they are talking to each other and they are all f mad.

Now this may be the cynic in me, but your humble Plod are not known for their gallantry and politeness when it comes to dealing with the great unwashed. I am therefore not convinced that the rushing through of the rule on photographing Police Officers is totally unconnected with events that will take place in April.

This Land is Your Land

This land is your land.mp3

A heart-rending email

I just received this email from someone I don't know:

Dear Sir

My name is Gordon Ubangi Brown. I am high up in the government of my country. Your name has been given to me because you are an esteemed member of the British Empire. I have proposal for you, and you alone. I have misappropriated on your esteemed behalf, a sum of £2,000,000,000,000. It is sitting in a bank somewhere, but I am afraid that I am unable to access it due to the terrible regime in my country. I need to find an honest person who can bank this money for me, and you Mr Weasel seem eminently suited to the task.

I plead with you to help me, and not tell someone called Harriet Harman. If you wish to assist me please send, forthwith the details of your bank account and your password. As you know, I already take a considerable amount of your income from you already, so you can trust me. If you could also provide the details of all the final salary schemes, and where I can plunder them, I would be in your debt.

Yours sincerely

Gordon

Robert Maxwell is Alive

I am rather at a low ebb right now but I couldn't let this one go by.

The next bit of madness is the proposal that the ailing Private Finance Initiative plunders the pension funds of local government employees.

The Times has it.

PFI, the official propaganda states, "provides a way of funding major capital investments, without immediate recourse to the public purse".

That, of course, is a lie. It is merely a way of keeping the massive public debt commitment to PFI off the balance sheet. The word to watch is "immediate". Long after the gerry built hospitals and schools fall down we will be still servicing the debts on the public share of of the finance. These schemes extend way into the future. Many have simply stalled when the private interests have taken our money and run.
The cost of servicing the debts (not paying them off) on hospital PFI schemes in one year is £500 million.

So the next plan is to steal from pension funds to shore this obscene scheme up. It is yet another example of Labour's scorched earth policy that will ensure that you and I are paying for their misdemeanours for the next few decades, and in this case, specifically, massive hikes in council tax.

Confessions of a Snuff Taker

I have been thinking for some time that I should come out of the closet.

I now confess; The Weasel is an habitual Snuff -taker. That's right, I take a pinch of tobacco and....stick it up my nose.

Interested parties should contact

http://www.snuffstore.co.uk/

who are my main man.

Should any Snuff manufacturers or snuff takers be reading this and wish to appear in a motion picture on the subject, please email me.

Anyone wishing to read my award winning reviews of different blends can zoom to

http://snuffreviews.com/

Comment moderation

I have been surfing the Labour blogs. I notice that Labour blogs are much more likely to apply comment moderation than right wing or libertarian blogs. Control? No, surely not.

Anna Politkovskaya: Happy Birthday, Mr President

This is the story of a murdered Moscow journalist who was critical of Putin. The trial of those suspected of the killing has just finished. The accused, one of whom was your stereotypical lieutenant-colonel in the FSB (Why are they always Colonels? Don't you get a Corporal in the FSB?) were all aquitted this week, amid claims that lots of crucial evidence had been shredded, burned or just plain not there, your Honour.

Politkovskaya was shot dead in her Moscow apartment in October, 7th 2006.

Ostensibly the murders were thought to have been carried out by a criminal gang, but in Russia the boundaries between the criminal fraternity and the government are very thin indeed and it is thought that all of the gang were linked to the FSB. There is also the issue of what kind of message was being sent to dissidents without too much inconvenient attribution but with enough wit to make sure you know.

Quite recently a contact who has had long term business interests in Russia and an office in Moscow told me that the Government kills people as a matter of routine. That bit is not very big news, MI5 believes that the Russian Secret Service behaves with far more autonomy than the state sponsored security services in other countries, but what he also said was that the way it is done is so diffuse that it is systemically resistant to detection. It is not necessary, he said, for Putin to have ordered the killing - even in the case of Alexander Litvinenko. It is merely understood that those who have become "a nuisance" can be "taken care of" without too many questions being asked. After that, the judiciary and the police merely get the nod and make sure the evidence disappears. In the case of Litvinenko, with the smoking gun being so close to Lugovoy that he may as well have eaten it, the suspect was placed far beyond legal powers by being very quickly made a deputy of the State Duma.

Glance up for a moment and read the date of this woman's assassination. The killers could have chosen any day to do it, but they chose October 7th. It was Vladimir Putin's birthday.

UPDATE1: Some interesting analysis of the early parts of the trial can be found here: http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/politkovskaya-s-murder-solved-or-fudged

Al Jolson - without blacking up

Gosh! This is a bit edgy! A guy dressed in a diaper. But he is B.L.A.C.K.. And that Jesus, he's a bit Gay. I am totally confused and my white liberal sensitivities are jarring as I write. Some things are OK and some things are not. I do find it very hard to keep up with what I am supposed to cheer and what I am supposed to boo.

This week in Edinburgh sees the opening of Jolson & Co, a bio-musical of Al Jolson, who famously was in the first "talkie". Jolson was a white Jew who favoured the not unusual stage image of a "blacked up" negro.

Except that in this production, the Jolson character will not wear black face paint because, said the producer, "In this day and age we are not out to offend anyone".

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but I don't remember this level of sensitivity being brought to bear on "Jerry Springer, the Opera"

When those who work in the arts tell us they are not out to "offend" anyone, you need to be afraid, very afraid.

White Christians attempt to blow up plane. NOT

"As you find your way through this site you will discover that Islam is a peaceful religion. You will see that Muslims are not the threat as often portrayed.."

(http://www.islamispeace.org.uk/)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4679863/Airliner-bomb-trial-Eight-men-tried-to-blow-flights-with-liquid-bombs-planes.html

UPDATE:
The founder of a television station which aims to counteract negative stereotypes of Muslims in America has been charged with beheading his wife, according to The Times

You know, I am ashamed. I just can't get them pesky negative stereotypes out of my head. I must go for diversity training at the Ministry of Truth.

Trouble in the Fields

Maybe I have too much time on my hands (not true) but I started wondering what people have on their keyrings. Mrs Weasel has a sporran. This to me indicates her wholehearted adoption of the country we live in. I have a John Deere Tractor. I think it indicates I want a John Deere Tractor. I did consider getting a John Deer cap, just like the one Seasick Steve has, but I don't live in Missiispiispsipspi and I don't drink Miller or own a plantation.

What do you have on your keyring? Does it have a story?

While you are thinking about that, here is a little song, by Nanci Griffith, quite relevant to mine. It's a song that is relevant to today and it always makes me cry.

05 Trouble in the Fields.mp3

My thumbs have gone weird

A thing appears on your finger. You are certain that mole wasn't there last week. One of your toes has gone red. I ache in the places where I used to play. Ever wondered who buys Anusol? I fell over on the ice weeks ago and my wrist still hurts a bit from taking the fall.

This, dear friends, is the onset of age, the arena of the perpetually, vaguely unwell.

The other day, I forgot what this: ( ) was. (a bracket). I got to it by describing that thing which people use in texts to denote a smiley face. The word "bracket" eluded me.

I am playing the slots in Vegas and now, penny by penny, I'm paying back the jackpot I won in '74.

A message to Alfie Patten

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The child is father of the man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety

(Wordsworth)

Like for Like

Is

Mohammed Aziz

going to be sent for compulsory Integrational Training anytime soon?

Why Section 76 should be repealed

You can no longer take a photograph of a police officer.

According to The Guardian:

Under section 76, eliciting, publishing or communicating information on members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers which is "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" will be an offence carrying a maximum jail term of 10 years.

Marc Vallee, a photojournalist who specialises in covering protests, said photographers were frequently harassed by police using stop and search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The new powers would be too vague to prevent abuse.

First, let's get rid of the otiose reply from the Home Office in response to the criticism that photographers will be routinely harrassed:

"For an offence to be committed, the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practical assistance to terrorists. Taking photographs of police officers would not, except in very exceptional circumstances, be caught by this offence"

Well then, what about Walter Wolfgang? Bundled out of the Labour Party Conference when he shouted "rubbish" during Jack Straw's speech defending the war in Iraq. Wolfgang, a Labour Party member for over 50 years, an escapee from Nazi Germany, later attempted to re-enter the conference, whereupon the police used powers under the terrorism act to prevent the 82 year-old from entering the building.

This is not a one off. The police do this sort of thing all the time, particularly when they don't want witnesses.

Gordon Brown talked about liberty in the early days; this is what Brown said declared in a speech of 25th October 2007:

* respecting and extending freedom of assembly, new rights for the public expression of dissent;

* respecting freedom to organise and petition, new freedoms that guarantee the independence of non-governmental organisations;

* respecting freedoms for our press, the removal of barriers to investigative journalism;

* respecting the public right to know, new rights to access public information where previously it has been withheld;

* respecting privacy in the home, new rights against arbitrary intrusion;

* in a world of new technology, new rights to protect your private information;

* and respecting the need for freedom from arbitrary treatment, new provision for independent judicial scrutiny and open parliamentary oversight.

Of course, it was all meaningless rhetoric, but it demonstrates that to Brown, Black is White. It is stark evil propaganda.

The papers run a daily roster of stories about the restrictions on liberty since the Labour party gained power. They range from the Wolfgang affair, a one off, to the institutional snoopers charter known as RIPA.

In a democracy, public accountability is everything. We must not forget that the police and the security services are our servants. They are not there to protect themselves from scrutiny.

The question I ask about this latest erosion of liberty is this ( and I reprise it with delicious irony) If the police have nothing to hide, how could they object to being photographed?

SMIDSY

(Sorry mate, I didn't see you)

A British and a French Submarine have collided in the Atlantic reports the Telegraph.

I wonder what kind of conversation ensues after such an event?

Do they scratch around for a pen and an old fuel receipt in order to exchange insurance details?

Do you drive on the left or the right in the Atlantic. We need to be told.

Pop Goes the Weasel

Fancy a bit of music? Dr Feelgood does it right

She Does it Right.mp3

whitey is a scumbag - Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle is preturbed by the "diversity training" industry. And well he might be.

He writes in The Times:

"There’s too much money to be made, too much white liberal guilt to be assuaged, too many black or Asian people siphoned into these pseudo-job ghettos, for common sense to be allowed to intrude"

This sort of material is not novel on my blog. What makes it astonishing is who is saying it. Rod Liddle is a former producer on the BBC's Today Programme, a former speechwriter for the Labour Party. When people like Liddle wake up and smell the fairly traded coffee, you know the game will be up. One day.

Liddle has the perfect solution, a quickie diversity course of his own, which even I can sign up to:

I even devised my own course once: it lasted nine seconds and consisted of those attending reading aloud the following from a piece of paper: “I will not discriminate against anyone on the grounds of their race, gender or sexual orientation.”

I wonder how much we spend on so called diversity training/ brainwashing in commerce and the public sector?

Is Brown Dorian Gray or Richard Nixon?

In The Spectator, James Forsyth likens Gordon Brown to Richard Nixon.

I remember the last days of US President Richard Nixon. His face was wracked with agony and ravaged by his ignominious descent into moral decay. To me, he was Dorian Gray without the benefit of a painting in the attic.

Nixon, however, had some mitigating traits as a leader. His inaugural speech was monolithic.

During it he uttered these words:

We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.
We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them.
To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.

Gordon Brown showed no such idealism in his first days. Indeed if he heeded these words things might have been different. But he started low and went lower. He is a haunted man, his visage scarred with unbeautiful obsessions. As Oscar Wilde wrote of the eponymous hero:

"The consciousness of being hunted, snared, tracked down, had begun to dominate him" (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Here is a portrait of a man in decay, a moribund leader who is about to implode. Does it remind you of anyone?

Art Garfunkel/Martin McGuinness. I do worry when this happens

One of the dubious pleasures of blogging and contributing to some of the great blogs is that you get accused of being what you are not.

I won't go into a list, but I have had everything thrown at me, and for all I know, some of it is true, for I am always prepared to consider another point of view.

But the funniest thing I get called is a Tory, usually because I hang around at Iain Dale's.

Now, some of this I put down to ignorance. People assume that Dale's is a Tory love in, but anybody who has read it for as long as I have, about four years, knows this is not true, and indeed is indicative of right of centre discourse which generally will not shut down debate, as Labour blogs do when they are inevitably cornered with the fatuousness of their own logic.

For those who somehow think I am a Tory, I ask this question; what is the current Tory political agenda?

I don't know. The Conservative Party is a broad church as they say. Many in the party are quietly despairing of David Cameron's lack of backbone - his obsession with the way things look, as opposed to a clear direction, or as they say these days a coherent "narrative". Despite having the worst Government in history he frequently fails to put up a robust opposition.

For the record, I vote SNP, since they espouse common sense Socialist policies that are about serving the people and not tyrannising them. New Labour is not a Socialist party - let's get that straight. They are an authoritarian, nihilist left-leaning liberal party, more Mussolini Fascist than Marxist, that believes in revenge and destruction of our way of life, on the tenuous premise that it will do us good and is somehow "right". Their aim is to create a master race, an unthinking ochlocracy that will obey and follow.

Gradually, the public sector has been populated by those who obey. Those who do not obey or have different views are ostracised.

So now to the point.

If I lived in England I would not know how to vote. There is no where to go except to the right and straight into the hands of the BNP.

Fans

Whoopie! I've got four followers, after a week! That's only eight less than Jesus!

Thanks folks. I will try not to disappoint you!

We hold these truths to be self-evident..

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...

It is the duty of everyone in the blogosphere who believes this to publish the Wilders film, not because it is agreeable, but because nobody should be allowed to suppress it.

From here, all roads lead to Harare

The title is a quote from Jeff Randall's piece in the Terrygraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/4605022/Bit-by-bit-Gordon-Browns-fantasy-is-being-pulled-apart-by-the-facts.html

And this is a quote from Martin Kettle in the Grauniad:

this was the week when both Brown's implausible strategy, as well as his over-dependence on tactical moves, caught up with him

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/13/gordon-brown-financial-crisis

There is nothing to add, not from me, anyway.

VICTIMS, VILLAINS, and RESCUERS - Guest Post - Reg Varney

Dear Reg,

Please get in touch. I don't know how to ask your permission for this, but your Speccie post is more than worthy of being re-printed here, since it adds significantly to the debate re:

THIS POST

Mr Weasel - You won't know me under my present moniker but we once exchanged some vaguely salacious banter about Hazel Blears cooling off in the Trevi Fountain and it is always a pleasure to read your posts.

I rather like the characterisation made by Thomas Sowell ("The Vision of the Anointed: Self Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy" (1995)). He draws the basic distinction between the tragic vision (directly related to the Biblical fall) and the vision of the anointed (as held by the sort of people you are talking about). I quote from an online review.

"Without a sense of the tragedy of the human condition, and of the painful tradeoffs implied by inherent constraints," Sowell argues, "the anointed are free to believe that the unhappiness they observe and the anomalies they encounter are due to the public's not being as wise or virtuous as themselves. . . . It is a world of victims, villains, and rescuers, with the anointed cast in the last and most heroic of these roles." This is why political correctness in politics, education, culture, history, and literature is so important to these anointed social engineers. Through this means, they hope, the human mind can be wiped clean and filled with the preconceived ideas and myths that will enable them to control those whom they desire to have mastery over. [End of quote]

While I agree with the thrust of this, I think the analysis is incomplete. The jack-in-office class consists not wholly, probably not even mainly, of starry-eyed zealots and social engineers. Its typical member is more likely to be heedless of the effects of official policy, so long as their implementation of it serves some fashionable abstract value such as inclusivity or "the environment" (biofuels might be one example). To quote from A N Wilson's rather enjoyable biography of Tolstoy, "He [LT] put the sanctity of his own conscience above the public good."

If you were formerly unsure about the way it's going, see this

Google are today celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin. Isn't it indicative of the times we live in that Google saw fit to ignore the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ?

Which of the two have had the greatest impact on global culture, spirituality and moral philosophy?

Which is currently de rigeur and which is currently persona non-grata?

Why?

British jobs for ...foreign workers

Fresh statistics showed that the number of non-UK born workers increased by 214,000 in the year up to December while the number of British workers fell by 278,000 over the same period. (Office of National Statistics)

You know, what worries me about Gordon Brown is not that he lies, which he does, but that he flies in the face of reality.

Just a diary entry

Had a long day in London via the Caledonian Sleeper. Drank several of those shitty little bottles of Gordon's in the club car and had a pleasant conversation with a financial guy, (quite high up) who said we are all fecked and the worst is yet to come. Entered my shared economy berth to find a large smelly bloke who looked like Stelios from EasyJet. Took a plastic cup from the shelf and poured myself some water, only to find that my cup not only runneth over, but was split. Wet bed. Steward relocated me to empty berth. Problem solved. I didn't sleep a wink as the heating was off and anyway, calling it "The Sleeper" contravenes the Trades Descriptions Act.

London is a bit of a shock to somebody who goes every two years. It was mitigated by many things, including a stellar Martini Cocktail (Stolly based) at Le Méridien in Piccadilly (service impeccable), followed by a great evening at the Pizza on the Park in the company of Sir Richard Rodney Bennet and Claire Martin. ( I would recommend the gig, but it is mostly sold out). The coat check girl was very nice to me.

Came back on the Sleeper, with a cabin to myself.

London smells of coffee. In my day it was Patchouli.

I walked everywhere because I never had enough change for a bus ticket.

Most irritating thing: Having dozens of gits leaping into your path and trying to foist free newspapers onto you. They are very agressive and they should be stopped. It happened to me about 12 times in Picccadilly.

Best thing: Quite a lot, but enjoying the National Gallery for free was great.

Not recommended: The London Transport Museum. Run by and for embryos and filled with overmodulated "sound experiences" that made me want to flee. Also not particularly informative. Also, they want all your personal details including a DNA swab, and they add a stealth charge to the ticket of £2 as a "charity" donation. Altogether a negative experience.

Very recommended: Wagamama. I was a Wagamama virgin. Not anymore. No wonder people are saying it's better than the Ivy. Sat next to two delightful old ladies who discussed bra fittings.

Purchases: Some magic from Davenports. A book from Waterstones. A rather jaunty french beret from Bates' hat shop in Jermyn Street.

Greatest relief. Hanging around Piccadilly but being too old to be mistaken for a rent boy.

They played real good for free

Last night I went to an "open mike" session - where musicians meet at a pub or a club and play their songs. For free. (KT Tunstall started out just like this, and many others).

There were about eight acts, gathered in a tiny pub in Scotland, with players from all over the United Kingdom and beyond; one group performed traditional Swedish Folk songs, another sang in Portuguese. Someone else did a pitch perfect a-cappella folk ballad.

The standard was astonishing. We sat there listening to act after act of committed, original performances from people who had turned up to play for the love of it. It cost me the price of a few pints of beer. There were no nightmare parking scenarios and no crushes.

I see a lot of these events and I come into contact with musicians on all levels of the business. It appalls me that there is so much talent out there and so much apathy among the general public here in Scotland. Nobody wants to take a chance on an unknown performer.

So why pay fifty quid to see a sixties has-been well past their sell-by date, when you may chance upon some stellar talent. Look around? Open your ears. They play real good for free.

And ditch the bloody television while you are at it!

A day's pay for a day's work

You get paid for working, ok?

Apparently some people disagree. They think they should be paid for not working.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5692181.ece

You wouldn't know this if you rely on the MSM, number one.

My usual standards of research for this piece have had to be ditched. It has been almost impossible to find any connection between the subject below, and the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.

The death of Harry Potter actor Rob Knox has been widely reported. What has not been widely reported is that the alleged killer, who was previously convicted for violent crimes, is black.

The facts are very simple. More young men convicted of knife crimes are black. More victims are white. There is more black on white knife crime than black on black knife crime.

This is in relation to population and the figures, if you can find them, are statisically compelling.

These figures, by the way, are largely suppressed, the Metropolitan Police are in the forefront, aided and abetted by the Home Office, hence the mysterious absence of Smith's name and the issue of black youth knife crime.

There is no outrage, to discussion and no debate about the problem of black youths who commit knife crime. The word "black" is rarely mentioned, which renders the substantial statistical anomaly useless in informing the debate. Instead, we are falsely led to believe that this is a problem for the general population, when it clearly is not.

This is not the way to deal with problems, just because they aren't in accord with the narrative. I don't see any of this being mentioned on Newsnight, or Today or Question Time.


This is not about finding scapegoats. This is about identifying the origins of the problem, something the politicians are unwilling to face.

The Ubiquity of Lying

“..the fashion of lying has almost fallen into disrepute”

(Oscar Wilde)


Wilde lived at a time when the political classes did not do “Today” or “Newsnight”. They hid away and pronounced from on high. There was no justification, no obfuscation, no flicking the mirrors and no spin doctors. Indeed he wrote:

They never rise beyond the level of misrepresentation, and actually condescend to prove, to discuss, to argue. How different from the temper of the true liar, with his frank, fearless statements, his superb irresponsibility, his healthy, natural disdain of proof of any kind.

I believe politicians have moved on since then, for, in the glare of instant media, they do indeed lie and lie with “superb irresponsibility, his healthy, natural disdain of proof of any kind.”

We are referred to, by Spin Doctors, as “the reality based community”. They have what they call a “narrative truth”, which is what they want you to believe, not what the reality is.

It is almost impossible for me to exaggerate my disdain for the lies that led us to the war in Iraq and yet, the “narrative” is a daily diet of untruth. “Disdain of proof” is particularly apparent with Gordon Brown. He quotes figures that slew reality, he buries the bad news and refuses to face the simplest of contradictions in his own “narrative”.

Honesty, I believe, is a sword that can conquer many of the evils we face. Honesty may have prevented the deaths of children in care. Honesty may have prevented war in Iraq and honesty may have mitigated our present financial troubles.

Lies are shit.

Driver's Scrotum

Driver's Scrotum. An uncomfortable car seat, a long journey and the wrong trousers.
Anyone else get it?

Jack Buchanan

Once touted as England's "Fred Astaire", Jack Buchanan was a debonair song and dance man. He summed up the aspirations of many who desired escape from the drab reality of life in the 1930's.

Urbane, charming and generous, he had few enemies and many friends. He was successful and wealthy, and knew how to spend it. At the height of his success he commuted regularly to New York on the Aquitania, staying at the Algonquin and making sure that his dress shirts were laundered properly by sending them back to his London tailors. He owned a Rolls Royce, dozens of Hawes and Curtis suits and retained a butler to keep them in good condition. There was a raft of glamorous women who joined him for his routines, but by far the favourite was Elsie Randolph.

Jack Buchanan died on 21st October 1957. His recorded legacy is not great as much of it was committed to old shellac 78rpm records and sadly, the best CD, with a cleaned up audio track, is no longer available.

The poverty of public office

These days, low-level officials often take it upon themselves to make arbitrary calls on the lives of other people, based upon their own prejudices, and because we are in a predominantly liberal-nihilist phase of the cultural cycle, their decisions reflect this world view.

There is a dangerous propensity of government and bureaucracy to believe they know what is right for us, when in fact, they don’t have a clue. But it’s worse than that. They are poisoned by prejudices of which they are unaware.

There is a cliché that all blog threads eventually come around to Hitler or spontaneous human combustion.

The question of why the population of Germany supported National Socialism has puzzled me for decades and the answer, or part of the answer, is beginning to dawn on me.

So it goes something like this:

You don’t start by gassing Jews, you start by restricting their freedom and declaring it to be in the public interest.

The lumpenproletariat and their apparatchiks coalesce through fear, intimidation and ignorance. It is at this point that the tyrant has won the first stage of his power play, ignorance being the strongest tool, which is why Maximilien Robespierre wrote:

“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. ”

The tyranny of which I write is inculcated by a raft of statutes that have given certain groups uncritical carte-blanche and government sanctioned hegemony. The paucity of intellectual rigour and values accompanying these statutes has combined to allow what you might call “lowest common-denominatorism” in which values, morals and ideas, have diminished to the extent that they no longer have any meaning.

Related article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138701/Foster-parent-looked-80-children-struck--Muslim-girl-care-Christian.html

Two years off - and now what?

I stopped posting on this blog two years ago, for pretty much the reason I gave. However, I think there is a gap in the market.

Too few bloggers see this as anything more than a here today, gone tomorrow ranting platform, on whatever is on their minds at the moment.

So there will be at least two substantial blog posts each week, with un-moderated access. It won't be instant and it won't be the kind of knee jerk stuff I am used to.

So there. Make of it what you will.

The temptation of definitive silence inhabits every writer. However - and it is a remarkable fact - very few succumb to it, as if a mysterious force had deprived them of that right, and even of the power to make such a grave decision.

Louis-René des Forêts