Symphony of Destruction

Fraser Nelson and the Heisenberg Compensator

A day or two ago, Iain Dale sent out a plea to the geeks and techies among his readership for advice on how to set up an ISDN line in his home, in order to facilitate a high quality live feed to radio studios.

I could see that he was getting a lot of technical advice, much of it incomprehensible to me, so I decided to send in a spoof comment, with my own advice:

You have been getting a lot of strange advice here, Iain.

What you need is a bog standard Quark interfold, with paralell quadriplexed flux capacitor as standard (don't bother with the Heisenberg Compensator unless you want it to double up as a transporter).

Use your PC or Mac to control the linear transvernal audicable, get yourself a decent voice carapace and a Raytheon Mk11 nargle and Bob's your uncle.

Piece of piss really, if you know what you are talking about.

I actually sell everything you need for a turnkey operation, together with an extended warranty which includes call-out and annual virulence check (fully noded), for only £399

Now, those of you who follow Star Trek or Back to the Future, or indeed any Geek worth the name, would instantly spot the less than truthful nature of my "advice"

Not so, one high profile MSM editor and pundit, none other than Fraser Nelson of the Spectator.

I recieved the following email yesterday:

Dear Wicked Weasel,

I saw you post on Iain Dale's blog - I have the same problem. Am fed

up with going into BBC studios and would like quality voice from home

- but are you saying that your solution (not sure what it's called) is

as good as ISDN and compatible with whatever broadcasters use? If so,

where could I get hold of it and how much would line rental etc be?

Yours hopefully,

Fraser Nelson

The Spectator

It does make you wonder doesn't it? And strangely, I am now "Wicked" Weasel, which I believe is a brand of skimpy beach wear. Defamation and Infamy!

A feted underclass that deserves nothing more than disdain

New Labour has always fed on the politics of envy and hatred. Michael Martin is an exemplar of all that is wrong with the idea. His brand of inverted snobbery, his hatred for anybody that wasn't born in a slum and his subsequent egregious milking of the system that enabled him to rise to the highest rank, is evidence, as if you needed it, that there is nothing noble about the lower classes. Lower they are, in thought and word and deed.

To rise above your surroundings, you have to be a believer. You have to believe in the pursuit of the common good, the power of education and moral authority. To some extent, you must surmount your lowly background and play the winners at their own game, except you must go one better, and do it the good way. That means in practice, that you do well at school, or in business or just work hard, believing that working hard is a badge of honour in itself.

It does not mean, necessarily, material success. It means though that you must certainly buy into a concept of public and private morality.

My first home was a council house. I am the first person in my family, my entire family who got a degree. (So is Mrs Weasel or Dr Weasel, as she is now) There is no doubt that I was held back by my modest beginning in life, but I am not bitter, nor do I feel anger about those with priviledge. Indeed, I accept they are privileged and accordingly, it is incumbent on the privileged to do better, to excel and to lead.

My own children went to independent schools. The main reason for this was because of the poor levels of support offered to kids with dyslexia. Had there not been money to do this, I would have considered home schooling - something that has increased year on year since Labour gained power for reasons that should be obvious.

I have a feeling that my position can be criticised, as if I am a sort of white version of an "Uncle Tom" character, who yearns to be like the white man. Of course, I don't buy into either the speciousness of the Black model, or the White model. You do not simply throw out something that works, just because you are not its natural constituent. That is the function of true integration - you integrate.

What Labour has done is to pander to the underclass, to make them a cause celebre, when in fact, they not only do not deserve it, they should be punished for it.

I was beaten senseless by the underclass. I was held back by those contemporaries who resented my upward mobility. Those who welcomed me were the elite, the educated, those who were secure in themselves. At one point in my career, I was working on a national newspaper with those who had all been to top universities (at the time before I got a degree). I was there on merit, and for no other reason.

And so it brings me to the reason I wrote this.

We read today that a mob beat up a man in Derry and killed him, ostensibly because he was a Catholic.

My contention is that the real reason they did this was because of hatred and an inability to rise above the foetid miasma of moral degeneracy that is so prevalent among the so called have nots.

Derek Walcott and the Bitch

Possibly one of the most bizarre stories to emerge over the weekend is the sorry tale of an academic and poet who was up for the prestige position of Professor of Poetry of Oxford University and decided to take out a fellow contender with a couple of smear emails that were sent to journalists.

Her name is Ruth Padel. She decided to dredge up some allegations - over twenty years old - about Derek Walcott, the West Indian writer and artist and Nobel Prize winner.

You can read the story here and make up your own mind

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/poetry/article6360730.ece

but the woman is clearly a complete and utter bitch.

Diane Abbott gives an even tempered defense of Walcott, in the Jamaica Observer, so it is possible you did not catch it.

I think it is a sorry indication of our times that a female academic can believe in her wildest dreams that circulating twenty year old "sexual harassment" gossip and unsupportable allegations, in order to further her career, is in any sense socially or morally acceptable. Indeed it is yet again the tyranny of those who use political correctness as a weapon.

Swedes invade British Way of life in shock village purchase

The Shock news that Stefan Persson, 61 is about to buy the Linkenholt estate near Andover, Hampshire, for £25 million, reports the Telegaph:

The deal includes an Edwardian-style manor house, 1,500 acres of farmland, a 425-acre wood, a cricket pitch and 21 cottages leased to villagers, reports said.

Well Mr Perrson, we don't want you over here with your Absulut Vodka, your chic furniture, Your Rorstrand Red Top ovenware, Your high achieving schools and attractive social model,Your Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni Frid, your well built cars, Meatballs, your Swedish sex videos, your...

Oh. Wait a minute. Are any of these cottages available for rent, dear Mr Persson?

Unleashing Typhon? - A ravage out of season

"I returned on Thursday to find my country in one of its periodic fits of moral horror. At such times, witches have been burnt, monkeys hanged as French spies and Catholics hounded out of office". (Matthew Parris)

"The continuing systematic humiliation of politicians itself threatens to carry a heavy price in terms of our ability to salvage some confidence in our democracy.” (Archbishop of Canterbury)

"I think both MPs and Parliament itself are undoubtedly on the brink of a nervous breakdown." (Daniel Finkelstein)

"after a fortnight of bloodshed on the green benches of Westminster, the public reaction to this matter is in danger of getting out of hand" (Independent)

A number of high profile talking heads are now starting to suggest that public reaction to the MPs expenses scandal is over the top. Is it though? Without rehearsing the sorry tales of fraud, theft and suppression of the truth, perpetrated by our Parliament, some seem to be saying that the public mood needs to be taken down a decibel or two.

The Independent makes the assertion that "the row is now in danger of eroding the democratic health of the nation". Well, yes it would, wouldn't it? Those who love to feather their nests, those who have fucked us with a rusty rasp and told us how we must all pull together in the financial crisis, those who tell us that all the CCTV, all the DNA collections, all the databases and all the snooping on our communications, have said it is all for our own good, and that if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear.

After 18 months of this Parliament trying to suppress the details of their own misdemeanours, by statute, by the courts, by ministerial diktat, and by sheer bloodymindedness, they now have a taste of what Freedom of Information means. It works both ways suckers.

What do all these worthies fear? Why, suddenly, after unleashing Typhon they are fleeing in terror?

Do they really believe the people-without-pants will once again run riot, a drooling ochlocracy hell bent on decapitation and properly audited accounts?

I think it's much more subtle than that, despite the rhetoric. MPs and media pundits love to tell us that "the public are intelligent and understand the issues", in that rather condescending way that they are very good at. How come then that they have suddenly turned into a baying mob?

I think the British public are one ahead of the talking heads on this. They know full well what the stakes are, but like catching your partner in-flagrante, they wish to engage in a frank exchange of views. The establishment is terrified of losing its grip on control, which says more about them than the intentions of the British Public.

Today, the only story in town is that the Daily Telegraph have had Nadine Dorries blog removed by a legal challenge. Nadine has been having a very public nervous breakdown over the expenses scandal and has become increasingly hysterical on TV and Radio, making rather desperate claims about conspiracies and that there will be mass suicides from the ranks of MPs, due to their sudden loss of public esteem (yeah).


So where does it leave the people who matter, that is, you and me?

I think we need to maintain the pressure. If Parliament is weak, it will fall, and good riddence. There is no rule that such instutions should last forever. There are compelling alternatives, but of course, they do not want you to consider them for a moment.

A ravage out of season, made by thoughts

Unhealthy and vexatious. With the hour,

That from the press of Paris duly brought

Its freight of public news, the fever came,

A punctual visitant, to shake this man,

Disarmed his voice and fanned his yellow cheek

Into a thousand colours; while he read,

Or mused, his sword was haunted by his touch

Continually, like an uneasy place

In his own body. 'Twas in truth an hour

Of universal ferment; mildest men

Were agitated, and commotions, strife

Of passion and opinion, filled the walls

Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds.

The soil of common life was, at that time,

Too hot to tread upon.

Written by William Wordsworth, from The Prelude - observations on a visit to Paris during the Revolution.

The people are not some ruthless mob, they seek only justice and change. I believe, like Wordsworth, that a "benignant spirit was abroad, which might not be withstood" Bring on the Revolution.

UPDATE:

"it is simply impossible for Gordon Brown to reform any of this properly. He would be destroying the system that gives him power."
Charles Moore in The Telegraph

how to say ur gay in mandarin

The above is a Google search term that has brought someone from Cheyenne WY, all the way to this blog.

Sadly, I could not help them, unless I have become homophobic and a fluent colloquial Mandarin speaker without my knowing.

Have a nice weekend. For those with grass, may it get cut. For those without, thank your lucky stars.

This week, I lost three chickens to a fox. I had to finish the last one this afternoon - she had badly infected wounds and internal injuries.

RIP Juniper, Brighton, Until Recently.

I am going to support my protege, Bob, tonight - www.jukboxjudy.com

Let's have a General Election soon and vote the crooks and fraudsters out. And will someone please section Nadine Dorries before she tops herself.

11 seconds

This is video footage of a police chase in Alabama. The suspect shows no regard for other drivers and is seen to deliberately drive at a police officer who is deploying a stinger and gets hit. The suspect then crashes, is thrown out of the vehicle and lies motionless on the ground. What happens next is the story.



The suspect, Anthony Warren, had an extensive criminal record including convictions for theft, receiving stolen property, and escape.

The police officers have not only been sacked, but who face compensation claims (from a career criminal) and prosecution, while Warren, is now serving 20 years for first degree assault.

My worry about this case is that it takes place in Alabama against a historical backdrop of hideous racial oppression. Warren is black, as is the chief of police and the mayor. The police officers involved were white. It transpires that the mayor had first hand experience of racial violence against himself, from the police, in the days when racial abuse was routine and endemic. You can see from the video that the mayor is straining to control his emotion. On this occasion, the cops did not. They took out their emotions in eleven seconds of animal ferocity which has collectively ended 50 years of police service.

What is your verdict?

Real life has taken over the blogging lark

All of a sudden, the creatures who depend on me for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are taking a lot more of my time. Until recently we had 17 chickens. We now have 15, and one of those is badly injured. Two others have gone broody, which necessitates their removal to an enclose pen, and two others need watching for ailments. Our losses are due to a fox attack. Foxes will tear their prey to shreds. They will kill and maim far more than they need to eat. I am nursing one of my girls back to health; she has survived now for three days, despite being very badly lacerated and crushed. She's tough, but it is still touch and go. Another one, who fell out of the mouth of a fox as I caught it three mornings ago, seems to be doing well. Another simply vanished on the morning of the disaster. It has affected me quite badly this time. Ultimately, if they are sick and dying, I am the one who has to finish them off. Not something I recommend.

But it is better to have lived and loved.

The weather is playing a cat and mouse game with me, making it impossible to cut the grass or do much work on the estate.

Things are now starting to get a head of steam also, in my other bit of life, which is managing musicians and developing promotional tools for them.

All in all, I am distracted and not really able to give this a fair crack of the whip. Please forgive me, but for now, I need to take it easy.

Tony Wright MP "the blogosphere could exchange rant for reason"

I have long admired Tony Wright, an intelligent voice of reason, good temper and integrity.

In a recent lecture which was an exhortation to change the culture of British Politics, instead of the mechanics of it...here are the thoughts of Chairman Wright.

On politicians: "The class of people is intrinsic to the activity"

On the political environment: "There is a permanent election campaign...the impression is that of a triumph of process over product"

On the relationship between structures and cultures in politics:

"culture matters"

The Commons: "an adversarial pantomime...voters yearn for a proper conversation among grown ups"

"The more that the ideological territory on which the parties compete has narrowed, the more vigorously synthetic becomes the battle."

"There now seems to be a complete mis-match between the tribalism of party politics, and what has happened to the world outside"

On specious party dividing lines: "consensus is always elusive...every issue has to be fed into the adversarial mill..belief in consensus is sometimes proclaimed, but only as a drunk proclaims belief in sobriety"

On the sovereignty of Parliament in which Mr Wright argues a case for the strengthening of Parliament over the executive:

"It's a funny kind of legislature, in which the ambition of most members is to join the executive".

"We are in a civic crisis, but it will not be solved by versions of anti-politics..a list of institutional reforms is not the answer...there is always a tendency to think that a problem can be solved by a new piece of machinery..we can do politics differently now, if we want to..politicians could play it straight, journalists could play it fair, parties could resist the rise of a political class, ministers could make sure that cabinet government works, MPs could decide that Parliament matters...the blogosphere could exchange rant for reason..none of this requires a written constitution, a bill of rights, proportional representation or an elected Hous of Lords..but it does require a change of culture...Politics has to be a continuous civic conversation.

The above is lifted from a speech for the 2009 annual Political Quarterly lecture of the 4th March; given by co-editor Tony Wright MP, entitled “Doing Politics Differently”, and is available to view here: http://www.wiley.com/bw/podcast/poqu.asp

I worry when this happens No 2953349

Here are pictures of Eric Pickles, the Tory, and Jabba, the Hutt. I wonder, etc.

Why we need a Black Deputy Comm at Scotland Yard

Mike Fuller, currently Kent's Police chief, is on the shortlist for the position of Deputy Commisioner at Scotland Yard. Why do I think we need a Black DC? Because we need someone who will address the realities of the situation in Britain vis a vis the truth about black crime, without the inevitable taunts of "racism". The facts are that more crime is committed by blacks. More stabbings are committed by blacks. More blacks attack whites in racially motivated cases than the opposite. Black on Black crime is out of control. Nobody wants to touch it. In fact the statistics are hard to come by because it is an inconvenient truth that the Met do not want to address.

Fuller has a lot of support. He is liked, he is intelligent and he is no knee jerk black martyr. He recently refused to call the Met "institutionally racist", describing the epithet as "offensive". A commenter on the Police Forum described him as "a gentleman"

It is clear that experiments with minority officers at this level have not worked, mainly because the individuals involved were elevated to high rank for reasons of political correctness, rather than real ability. Not so, I think, with Fuller.

I am not saying he should get the job because he is black. Oh no, not that. But if he can demonstrate the skills and personality needed for this high-profile job, and a determination to tackle ethnic crime head on, I wish him the very best of luck

Insider claims "car scrap deal is a con"

The Government's Car Scrappage Scheme, much love by Gordon and Mandy, is a confidence trick, according to Car Dealers.

There is also an issue over VAT which has caused some manufacturers to delay signing up to the scheme. Under the scheme, the Government will pay £1000 of the cost of a new car, and the sales outlets provide the other £1000 discount, if you trade in a vehicle which is over ten years old and roadworthy.

• In the current climate, almost any dealer will give you £2000 off the forecourt price anyway.
• You cannot just go to a scrapyard, buy a banger for fifty quid and turn up at the local BMW concession. The scrapped car must have a current MOT and Tax disc, be at least ten years old, and must have belonged to you personally for12 months.
• A new car depreciates by several hundred pounds as you drive it away (you lose £2000 of value after 88 days)
  
• The insurance costs will soar.

Many cars, though officially worth less than £2000 are perfectly serviceable. The "green" dividend makes no sense either.

If the car you are trading in is worth anything near the £2000 limit, you are better off selling privately or giving it away. Insiders tell me it all adds up to a nothing deal and a con.

After the fire a still small voice?

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (The King James Bible: 1 Kings 19:12)

This is thought to refer to he still small voice of conscience, the wind of change after the earthquake.

What will be left after the next General Election? I am afraid the answer is, that after the fires, there will be no clean sweep. It does not work that way. Those responsible for the worst excesses of the last 12 years will still hold their positions as Members of Parliament. They have, for the most part, safe seats, and those favoured ones will be moved, rewarded for their loyalty with safe seats if it looks as though they are in trouble. There are some arcane reasons why Labour safe seats are safer than Tory ones, but one of those reasons is the number of voters. According to an article in The Times:

The average size of the electorate in Labour seats is 65,000, compared with 73,000 for Conservative constituencies — an unequal division of voters thought to be worth at least 30 Members in the House of Commons.

I used to think of there being a shake up at the next GE. I think now that there will not be. For a start, our system does not favour fringe parties. Secondly, The Tories' stated manifesto does not suggest to me a radical departure from Labour. And thirdly, for the reason I gave above, the same dead wood, the same rotting carcasses that are party toadies, will, by their safe majorities, have hung on to fight another day.

If there remains a still small voice of conscience, it had better raise the volume.

Patti Pravo on KYFO Newsbreak, from the USA interviews HM the Queen

Once again, I have acquired the exclusive rights to the Patti Pravo show on KYFO Television from America. On this edition, Patti interviews Her Majesty, the Queen.

Be Afraid of This Man

This man is in politics. You may not have heard of him but you soon will. He wants to change our British way of life.

He is an MP and his name is

Adam Afriyie

His maiden speech to the Commons contained the chilling words:

"Friends, I am determined that people should regain a sense of control over their lives. We have had a lot of talk today about civil liberties, and I am determined that we shall continue that push towards civil liberties, towards a country free from unnecessary interference from state and government."

You won't find him in the news over fiddling on second homes, because he has never claimed a penny for one. In fact, his expenses are very low; in the expenses league table he ranks 629 out of 645. His Additional Allowance costs for 2007/08 were

£0.00

Be afraid of this man. I am talking to you, all the bent MPs who think we owe you a life of luxury. He has ideas you may not want to hear.

Speaker Martin - semi live commentary

Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons has undermined his great office. It is time he went. More soon when he speaks.

It sounds as if he is going to try and hang on for as long as possible.

Motion of no confidence. Kicked into the grass.

Carswell: Martin is arguing with him.

It's already descended into chaos of procedures because Martin does not know!

David Winnick: Give an indication of his intention to retire.

David Heath for Lib Dems: A not very subtle suggestion that the bad guys remove themselves.

Sir Patrick Cormack (Con): "profound concern about motion to remove Martin"

Several members want to bring the inquiry forward.

Richard Shepherd (con): People will not be serious about changes while Martin is there.


Sir Stuart Bell (Lab): a typical toady message of "support"

Martin: "HOC commission has a responsibility" What does this mean?

David Davis: "A sad day for all of us"

Martin again tries to push responsibility for his position on to the Government.

Martin is clearly going to carry on fighting. He is not going to allow debate about it!

Mark Field (Conservative): "Fraudulent" claims.

Martins response is "caution" and shuts him up.

The whole session is a fiasco. A nothing. Worse than nothing, no pledges to leave and anybody who objects is shut up.

A very bad day for Parliament and the Speaker has totally failed to live up to his position.

Reaction: "Speaker did not sense the feeling..He just doesn't get" - it Lyn Featherstone.

Douglas Carswell: "He's flunked it" "The anger of constituents.. not aware of the scale of the anger" "If after all of this, MPs will not put names to motion of no confidence, they are not interested in cleaning Westminster up" "the voice of the Speaker..taking a step back"

John Sopel (BBC): "Speaker fighting for his life in an undignified scramble for votes" "the Speaker has to have the unanimous support, surely?"

So, Michael Martin has refused to say when he is going.

Good to see James Landale (BBC) back.

Sir Patrick Cormack (Con): " A serious and sad situation. Deeply shocked. "If the Speaker had said he was going to step down, that would have been the right way."
"I don't look upon Martin as a scapegoat"

QUOTE OF THE DAY (Sir Stuart Bell, (Lab):

"The Majority of the House of Commons supports the Speaker"

The bombshell is that Martin has not revealed his intentions about standing down, something much trailed by the pundits.

"I'm as straight as they come" - Shahid Malik

This picture carries a message. This message is trying to tell you a lie. I am not going to patronise my readers with telling you what it is.

As more heads roll, particularly today those who sought to actively cover up their crimes, I have decided to tell you how I am going to vote in the forthcoming Euro elections.

Some will not like it, but tough. I feel I need to send politicians a message. The message is, you are either crooks, or, you tacitly approved of the crookedness, or you may have been one of the few who did not fiddle the system and voted against the FOI amendment bill which sought to cover up the crimes you have committed.


These men tried to prevent us from finding out about their fiddles by enshrining their right to keep their theft a secret in UK law.

UKIP are not saints. I don't believe that for a minute, but I believe I shall vote UKIP for three reasons. The first is that I believe we should get out of Europe and remove, at a stroke, a very top heavy tier of fiddling, extortion and waste. Secondly, I believe the issue of immigration and loss of our national identity must be tackled head on. The Tories are not touching this and the BNP is not, and was never under consideration as far as I am concerned. Thirdly, I want to send a message to the main parties, Gordon Brown and Labour in particular, that I am angry. Very angry. Almost as angry as I was about the War in Iraq.

Come the General Election, I shall revert to voting SNP, something I have done since coming to Scotland and something I shall continue to do for the foreseeable future.

And finally (updated)

This is what Shahid Malik really thinks:

"In 1997 we got our first Muslim MP. In 2001 we had two Muslim MPs. In 2005 we had four Muslim MPs. In ša Allah, in 2009 (or) 2010 we'll have eight or ten Muslim MPs. In 2014 we'll have 16 Muslim MPs. At this rate the whole parliament will be Muslim."

and:

"I am confident, as Britain's first Muslim minister, that, in ša Allah, in the next thirty years or so, we'll see a prime minister who happens to share my faith."

(Hat tip Labour Home!)

Fox attack

Today did not start well. I looked out of my bedroom window to see a fox with one of our chickens in its mouth. Several others have been attacked. The fox dropped Juniper (for it was she) when it saw me. At least two chickens are injured, one quite badly, and naturally they are all traumatised. It's horrible.

Good? I nearly voted Tory

It is possible that DC has caught on to the idea that we are grown ups, with brains, who can spot bull shit.

It is a refreshing piece of work; contrast this with the piece of toss from the Labour party - as fake as gravy granules from the sick simulator - and totally negative and a complete failure to address the issues.

I do feel, however, that he could say a lot more. Immigration is never mentioned by Conservatives. Never. Why are you running scared on it?

If you all bit the bullet and told us the truth about immigration and Islamic Fascism, you might rescue some people from making a voting mistake they may later regret.

Kewl tip just 4 U - Eurovision Winner prediction

Two years ago, Weasel correctly predicted that Lordi would win. I have form.

This will win. Just believe me.

UPDATE: Sunday. 12th! ...I'll erm, get me coat.





Sadly, I shall miss the whole thing. It is our German friend, Lotte Von Madhaus' going away party. This week, Lotte has mainly been looking at willies in Glasgow. She has finally become an economic refugee and is going down to live in London and look at willies in London. We will miss her because she does not have cats, is a fantastic cook, makes lethal cocktails. is quite comfortable mentioning the war. (which we won) and knows a lot about willies.

Wrinkled Weasel's Friday Friends

This week on KYFO, your genial host, Patti Pravo, asks Gordon Brown about the week in Parliament, and his strange need to speak in German..

8 things I hate

Tagged by Screech. Out of sympathy.

1. The woman in front of you at the check-out suddenly realises she is in a Supermarket. She then thinks (after all of her goods have been checked) that maybe, she should look for her purse. Then she realises it is not in her handbag. Whoops! It was in her pocket all the time! Do they still accept cheques? Can they put £20 on a card and the rest in cash? Can an assistant swap this, there is a dent in it? Is this sheaf of vouchers really out of date? Yes madam, of course. Never mind all the miserable fuckers behind you whose Ice Cream is melting. Take your time.
2. Able bodied bastards who park in disabled parking spaces. Cunts.
3. Tailgaters. Yes, love, just follow my tail lights and spend the other 95% of your attention on texting Kyle.
4. Everybody drinking when I am the driver. It is like watching Zombie Nation. Everyone thinks they are being hugely witty. Only you know the truth.
5. Television (I don't have one because I refuse to pay the licence fee)
6. Public Urinals. I can barely pee in them.
7. Poor customer services, call centres, people who say, "computer says no"
8. Reality Television. What a contradiction in terms that is. Like odourless shit and perfumed farts.

I guess I must tag somebody.

I shall tag Ruth at "Diary of a Mad Gardener" because she is nice and I cannot believe it will be easy for her.

Do you know who Stanley Milgram was?

Do you know who Stanley Milgram was? You should. His research into human behaviour was literally shocking. Still not there? Then follow me...

People have a tendency to obey authority. Once people accept an authority, they will be willing to relinquish moral authority also and do things that would normally conflict with their idea of right and wrong. The upshot is that you get people saying "We were only obeying orders" when subsequently challenged about behaviour that is morally abhorrent. Also, you get people who say "It was within the RULES".

Lets go back to Milgram and put you out of your misery.

In the early 1960s, Yale social psychologist Stanley Milgram, PhD, conducted an experiment whose purpose was supposedly to study the effects of punishment on learning. The experimenter told the subject that his job was to teach a learner in an adjacent room to memorize a list of word-pairs, and every time the learner made an error, the teacher-subject was to punish the learner by giving him increasingly severe shocks by pressing levers on a shock machine. There were 30 levers whose shock values ranged from a low of 15 volts to the maximum of 450 volts. (In actuality, no electric shock was involved. The "learner" was an actor who only pretended receiving them, but the subject did not know this.) Despite the learner's increasingly pitiful screams and pleas to stop, a majority of subjects (over 60%) obeyed the experimenter's commands to continue and ended up giving the maximum "shock" of 450 volts.

( http://www.psychologymatters.org/milgram.html )

The article continues:

We did not need Milgram's research to inform us that people have a propensity to obey authority; what it did enlighten us about is the surprising strength of that tendency-that many people are willing to obey destructive orders that conflict with their moral principles and commit acts which they would not carry out on their own initiative. Once people have accepted the right of an authority to direct our actions, Milgram argued, we relinquish responsibility to him or her and allow that person to define for us what is right or wrong.

If the expenses scandal has taught me one thing, it is that our MPs and Ministers have such a poor grasp of personal morality, that they are prepared to devolve this valuable human trait to a junior clerk at the HoC Fees Office. On the whole, the defense has been "it is within the rules". It reveals them to be moral midgets with a breathtaking inability to think for themselves. But we knew that, didn't we?

Perhaps a few of them, on reflection, realise that, had they consulted their consciences, this theft, this treason, would have been seen for what it is.

What does this tell us? Well it tells me that they are, as individuals, unfit for office. Surely, what we need of our Government is leadership; the kind that wins the Victoria Cross, the kind that conquers inhospitable territories, the pioneers, the brave, the independent thinkers who went against the grain; Emmeline Pankhurst, Captain Scott, Churchill, Thatcher, Wilberforce,Montgomery, Nelson.

Instead what we have is something that is truly representative of the population - a group of people. Members of Parliament, with such blind faith in authority that, ultimately, they would send Jews to the Gas chambers or reduce personal freedom to a minimum if Gordon Brown told them to do it. As I have said before, you do not start by gassing Jews, you start by taking away democratic freedoms and telling lies, and they have already gone along with that.

And they are running the country. I ask all who read this to think very carefully where they place their votes on June 4th.

Science Today

Hebephrenic Schizophrenia is defined by the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1992, thus:

A form of schizophrenia in which affective changes are prominent, delusions and hallucinations fleeting and fragmentary, behaviour irresponsible and unpredictable, and mannerisms common. The mood is shallow and inappropirate and often accompanied by giggling or self-satisfied, self-absorbed smiling, or by a lofty manner, grimaces, mannerisms, pranks, hypochondriacal complaints, and reiterated phrases. Thought is disorganized and speech rambling and incoherent. There is a tendency to remain solitary, and behaviour seems empty of purpose and feeling.

Gay News

That's me all over. I make friends and then proceed to lose them. But I tell it as I see it.
Having made a recent, passionate appeal in support of Scott Rennie, I now have the painful task of being not so nice about the gays of Cambridge who have accused the council of not being gay friendly enough.

Apparently

Pride said the Conservative-run city council was not doing its best to attract "pink tourism" – drawing visitors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Oh come on. Do just drop it and quit while you are way ahead.

The article continues:

Chief executive Colin Carmichael said it had provided Pride in Canterbury with more than £4,000 funding since 2005 to help identify the needs of the gay community and promote their concerns.

£4000! It is absurd that they are spending that kind of taxpayer's money on any such thing. I really do feel the gays are now tyrannising the weak willed twats at the local council who dare not say boo to them lest they be accused of being homophobic. What a piece of utter gravy granules from the sick simulator.

The Weasel of course is doing all he can to make Weasel Hall gay friendly. I have a whole raft of Abba records, a shelf full of personal hygiene products, which, being straight, I never use and I can buy in some French and Saunders DVDs if you are desperate. My collection of the complete oeuvre (that's your actual French) of Julian and Sandy, from Round the Horne, is available to pink pals for general merriment.

Our wonderful Lothian and Borders Police have won awards for being LGBT friendly, so if you are also inclined to break the law, at least they will treat you like the rest of us. I shall also continue to make sure that my chickens (not a euphemism) are aware of LGBT considerations, though judging by my Cockerel's predilictions, I am fairly confident which side he bats for.

Don't hold a gun to Bernie's head unless you are prepared to pull the trigger

I have just seen that Renault have joined Ferrari in pulling out of Formula One Grands Prix if the FIA insist on capping team expenditure at £40 million.

As Max Mosley might say, they are on a hiding to nothing. Nobody messes with Bernie Ecclestone unless they have the resources of the La Cosa Nostra or NASA.

Says Bernie:

I hope common sense will prevail because the last thing we want to do is lose any of the manufacturers or teams currently in Formula One

which is Bernie speak for "If they don't like it, they can fuck off"

Why the BNP are important

I find it difficult to be in the same room as BNP politicians without feeling like having a shower (Iain Dale)

Social and political change is always littered with invective and career-changing positioning, whether it is the casual remark that "I need a shower after being in the same room" or a resignation, such as that of Anthony Eden from the Chamberlain Government. Both are part of the process, but only the brave, the clever, the morally strong can withstand the lemming like quality of going with the flow.

We look at being Gay, for example, from the perspective of putative acceptance and equality. We look at votes for women as natural, and a given. A hundred years ago, the majority took the opposite view. Women had no vote and homosexuals were sent to prison - all, and this is important, with the tacit consent of the majority.

Opinion can turn 90 degrees and become, subsequently, the status quo.

The problem with the issues surrounding the BNP is that at the core of their arguments, they have a point. The point is the destruction of our national identity in favour of those who have no interest in perpetuating it, and further, want to destroy it.

It is exactly as if the Saltire was banned in Scotland to avoid upsetting the English.

Currently the main parties are falling over themselves to provide halal meat in schools, and language services, and advisors and grants to foreigners. 80 percent of our laws are outsourced to Brussels. It cannot go on. In sheer practical and economic terms it cannot go on. You cannot point to one country, where these immigrants come from, who would reciprocate in favour of British people, in their country of origin. Not one. And that is because the whole concept of multiculturalism is absurd. At its heart is cynicism about the indigenous population and colonial guilt.

The language used against the BNP is not novel. The shower remark could have been made of Oscar Wilde. If you trouble to read the transcripts of the summing up at his trial, you could only conclude that he was an utter monster. Ditto the women who dared to demand the right to vote.

I am not saying that the BNP is the answer, but no one else is daring to ask the question.

Eurovision

For the first time in history, the Weasel is going to miss the Eurovision Song Contest.

I am elsewhere on that night.

To be honest, I am not that bothered anymore. It has ceased to be a celebration of camp schlock and become some sort of politically-correct-o-meter of thinly disguised national allegiance voting. It has also become so foully bad. Despite predicting that Lordi would win by a mile two years ago, my interest in it is now at an all time low. Like Sir Terry, I am done with it.

The British entry is, as could be predicted, dire. Total and utter gravy granules from the sick simulator.

It's here if you don't believe me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-RJc1i9q34

The opening words are "I've been down". The woman, Jade, does not go into detail about who she has been down on, but I guess she had to kiss a lot of frogs to get the gig. The song is called "It's my time". Yes, Jade, it may be your time - about five minutes max.

Any hot tips for a winner would be appreciated, but don't work too hard on it.

An alternative use for Euro flagpoles

A friend who has just returned from Brussels has sent me this pic of some fifty foot high stainless steel flagpoles. Any suggestions for what might be hung from them instead of flags? mm. now let me see..

Newsnight tonight

I have just watched Newsnight. I didn't take notes, so this is from memory.

The three-way discussion between Shaun Woodward, Helena Kennedy and David Steele kind of got close to being informative. I particularly found Helena Kennedy's pitch worthy of reporting here. The gist of what she said was that the Parliamentary Expenses issue can be linked to a socio-cultural headlong dive into crass materialism, and that the root of the problem was a consequence of a belief in keeping up with our neighbours. She said that MPs, most of whom went to university, would see those outwith Westminster as having bigger salaries and better things. She linked it with the way mortgage lenders gave loans to unsuitable borrowers because of a general belief in acquisition as being essentially a good thing. (Curiously the entire New Labour drive to get us out of recession is predicated on us spending more!)

I was quite surprised to hear her say this, mainly because it is true and because it goes against the policy of her party, which is to get us to spend more.

I also learned that the Scottish Parliament has total transparency on expenses, all of which have to be published. (This is yet another reason why I think Scotland is pulling away from the rest of the UK in its political evolution)

Shaun Woodward has been criticised for his office ordering Crunch Corners and Pizzas from ASDA, but he appears to have some honour, for he does not claim his full ministerial salary. He actually managed to look contrite.

I am not sure about David Steel.

A marriage made in la la land

So Katie Price, her of the superannuated tits and Peter Andre, he of the bulge in his Y-Fronts, are to separate. They met on television in a preposterous "reality" show and decided it was love. That just about says it all, except that their kids will become another victim of stupid people.

Weasel over the World

One of the pleasant surprises about this blogging is the amazing places I get visits from and the search terms that bring them here.

Of course, a lot of the search terms are a bit crazy; a recent one was "how to blow up an aeroplane" - disturbing to say the least. Well, it makes a change from "kinky sex".

Vistors come from all continents. I seem to get regular visits from someone in or near Lausanne, Vaud - my favourite bit of Switzerland, and Eilean Siar, which you will have to look up! I wish they would leave a comment!

And thanks to people who come here regularly, especially those who leave comments.

The fortunes of War

Iain Dale has posted a story today about some arsehole of an MP who took a photo of a terminally injured soldier being unloaded from a transport plane in Afghanistan. Whilst I agree this was totally inappropriate, I commented thus:





Ok so the guy was a terrible James Blunt, but...

Where are the pictures of wounded, dying hideously disfigured soldiers?
Why aren't they plastered over every page of every newspaper and blog?
They effing should be, to remind the leisure suited, fat arsed voters who think Afhanistan is where fluffy coats come from.
Remember how powerful the Napalm Girl picture was?
War is shitty and horrible and an affront to the dignity of man. I say, show it like it is, not give us sanitized pictures of Gordon Brown in front of a tank surrounded by soldiers in their best battle dress.
Let's just remind all those young men, the ones who are recession recruits, who will return like aged philosophers and the mothers who shed tears for their sons and the sweethearts and wives, alone with their memories - just what it is all about.

What I didn't write is where I got the last bit from. It comes from a song called "Golden Ribbons" by Loggins and Messina. It is about the fortunes of war and those who are left behind. Here it is:


My stepfather, who died some years ago, saw war service in Burma, during WW2, as a member of the RAF regiment. He signed up at the age of 17, having faked his age as 18. Within two years, he was back, hospitalized and shattered mentally by what he saw. He spent months in the jungle, in perpetual fear of what would happen if he had been captured by the Japanese. He saw death and destruction everywhere, even back in England. One day, come airmen called him over to look at a bucket, which was by the wreck of a German airplane. In the bucket were the remains of a German gunner who had been scraped out of the remnants of his turret. Many of his friends never talked about their experiences. It is noble and honourable to serve your country, but death in war is violent and shabby and reduces dignity to a bucket of butcher's offal.

When no one sets the rules

(Inspired by a comment from Spartan who also offered the quote) This should be played as you read the next post down!

21st Century Schizoid Man: (It begins very quietly)



These words are from Epitaph on the King Crimson Album IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING.

Knowledge is a deadly friend When no one sets the rules. The fate of all mankind I see Is in the hands of fools

Who should set the rules? What should they be? Christianity served us pretty well for nearly two thousand years (please don't bore me with your "religion leads to violence/doesn't exist, blah di blah di blah " platitudes) and it was shitloads better than the nihilistic, existential liberalism and relativism that has given us political correctness and the most corrupt government since the Borgias. So, suggestions and alternatives welcomed.

The decay of dissent

You know how, when you have a row with somebody, almost always it is about something trivial, something that, in slightly different circumstances would go unnoticed? A thousand words of laser-guided invective can come from a missed appointment. When a bombshell comes, I am often lost for words. When really big things happen, I find myself unable to speak. Somebody tells me they are dying of cancer - my ego deflates to the size of an amoeba and my mouth opens and closes, but is mute.

And so it is with the litany of MPs expenses revelations this week. This is huge, it goes to the heart of our civilisation, our heritage and our sense of what we are as a society. As Daniel Hannan puts it:

This affair has now gone beyond sleaze or election results or individual resignations. Nothing less than the legitimacy of our way of government is at stake.

This affair has been a bombshell revelation to me. Not that some MPs are bent as nine-bob notes, but that they nearly all are and they have milked the system beyond the limit, into the realms of fraud, then theft, then treason. The latter being the despicable and mendacious way that the Government moved heaven and earth to prevent publication of the facts about how our money is spent.

They have forgotten that society is a de facto social construct. We all have to agree to go along with it. But for how much longer? When will the Sans Culottes take to the streets? When will ordinary people simply cease to believe in the chimera that is now Democracy?

The beginning of the Twenty First Century has not been auspicious. We appear to be on course for top-down fragmentation of trust and, more importantly, honesty. The way to deal with the expenses problem is simple, to institute a system of payments that is transparent and unequivocal. Unfortunately it has gone beyond this scandal into bursting the bubble of public propriety and order, whilst at the same time, those who are stealing from us have introduced draconian powers of command and control. The most telling response to the debacle has been for the Government to call in the police to hound the whistleblower. If they go down that route, be afraid. It is merely another act, of hundreds, meted out to those who simply, and without danger to national security, dare to dissent.

Sadly, there will be no riots. There will be no heads rolling in Westminster. The BBC will not suddenly take on the mantle of public advocate. The mainstream media will not exhort the masses to rise up. And the reason is, ourselves. We are, at heart, content with our lot. Yes, we sigh and we curse, but we also watch, struck dumb and paralyzed by our own complacency. Where are the student campuses ablaze with youthful ardour for change? Where are the radical speakers? Where are the movements, the rallies, the sense of there being an unstoppable force for change? Where are the ordinary people who can make the changes?

They are sitting at home, watching television, and hoping to catch the revolution on the Ten o'clock News.

Reflections on the week

In 1910, 99 years ago, some daring individual had printed, probably at his own expense, a small volume of aphorisms. These small gems of wisdom were considered valuable enough to be bound in red kid leather, decorated with a garland of roses and embossed with gold. This slender, fey folio bore the legend, "Osacariana". Oscar Wilde was still in disgrace, dead ten years before, in exile, in Paris. It rests on my desk now.

Thinking about this week, and my earlier post about the plight of Scott Rennie, the Minister of Queen's Cross Parish Church in Aberdeen I was minded to share with you these few lines from "Oscariana".

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live: and unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them."

We live in an era where, not only are others constantly asking us to do what they do, they go further and try to proscribe what we do, what we say and how we think.

On the subject of MPs' expenses, I see there is a contradiction between Parliament's frantic attempts to suppress the details of what our elected representatives claim, and their protestations of innocence. After all, if you have nothing to hide, why would you object to us delving into your publicly funded finances?

It is too early to say if Swine Flu will become a serious pandemic, but so far, up and down the country, the NHS is working overtime, on your behalf. Mainly this is to ensure that, if you are feeling a bit shit, after eating a Fajita, it is probably not Mexican Flu and you can go back to bed. (Unlike the on call medics and clinicians who have spent the last week being woken up at four in the morning to assure frontline staff that they have ticked the "cover your ass" boxes)

On a more personal note, C.J. Sebright is missing. CJ disappeared two days ago and we are naturally very worried. It was only a few months ago that we collected her from a rescue centre, where she had been handed in, after being found wandering about, having been seperated from her original owners. I hope she is alright.

Last Saturday we had a fine lunch at Petit Paris in Edinburgh with Charles Crawford, who writes a very closely written and excellent blog from the perspective of a former career diplomat and ambassador. Charles is among the most genial and satisfying people I have ever met to enjoy food with. It figures really, if you think about his career.

The grass is growing and it is too wet to cut. Tonight I shall listen to the final mix of my friend's album before we commit it to the various music media. I shall be writing more about this in a month or two when it is launched. My daughter has forgotten to Skype me from the Ardeche, where she is running outdoor adventure courses. I guess she is having a good time, but with kids, well, they never tell you anyway.

Have a nice weekend.

UPDATE:
CJ Sebright has returned. She declined to say where she has been for the past two days. As a precaution, we have sentenced her to three days in the sin bin, currently shared with Brigid and Eithne, in order to make sure she remembers where she lives.

nb The Sin bin is an enclosed run, with all mod cons, designated for broody chickens and originally constructed during the SARS scare. (remember that?)

I am a ABBA fan. live with it.

This is a brand new song written by Benny and Bjorn. Why isn't Agnetha and Anni Frid in it?
This sends me to another planet. It would wipe the board on Eurovision.

Wrinkled Weasel's Friday Friends

To begin a regular Friday slot on Wrinkled Weasel's World, I have been able to get the syndicated, international version of the Patti Pravo show, in which she interviews Gordon Brown. Exclusive to the Weasel.

White Mischief

In December 1942 a troubled aristocrat checked into a room at the Adelphi hotel in Ranelagh Place,Liverpool. He was carrying a lethal quantity of Medinal, a barbiturate that depresses most metabolic functions in high doses. He proceeded to inject himself with the substance, at least fourteen times, until he sank into unconsciousness and died.

His name was Sir John Henry "Jock" Delves Broughton. A few months earlier, in Kenya, he had been acquitted at a trial for the murder of Josslyn Victor Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, who had been having an affair with Broughton's wife, formerly Diana Caldwell, later Diana Cholmondeley, Baroness Delamere.

From the information available now, mainly from an accomplice whose papers were published after his death, Broughton was indeed guilty of killing Erroll in 1941. Such was his influence at the time, that he was able to pursuade many friends and servants alike, to keep silent.

And now the Cholmondeleys are in trouble over a death in Africa, a death from among the tight community of white Africans known originally as the Happy Valley set. This time it is Thomas Cholmondeley, heir apparent to the Delamere Baronetcy, who was in court this week, accused of shooting a poacher. In what has been trailed as a politically significant prosecution, Thomas Cholmondeley has been found guilty of manslaughter. He has already spent three years in jail, and it remains to be seen whether he is freed or made to do more time.


These days, with the White Man being the embodiment of evil in Africa, Thomas Cholmondely has no such recourse. Local politics demands that he should be found guilty, on the slenderest of evidence.

"Fred Ojiambo, Cholmondeley’s lawyer, said that he was “amazed” by the verdict and would prepare an appeal after sentencing next Tuesday. “The judge ignores the scientific evidence."

The extent of Cholmondeley's culpability in the affair is not clear, but it seems that justice, in both cases, justice does not seem to have been served and modern prejudice and discrimination have merely changed partners by exchanging White hegemony for Black. Justice should be blind to colour. In Africa, it wasn't 70 years ago under white rule, and it appears not to be now under black rule.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6244297.ece

Cat lovers responsible for 60 million deaths

A great headline and it's true, according to Chris Packham, the new eco punk on the block who is taking over from Bill Oddie on Springwatch and presumably enjoying watching Kate Humble's blue tits as much as we do.

According to Mr Packham:

"Sixty million songbirds are killed every year by cats. If cats were kept in at night, predation would be cut by 50 per cent."

He even manages to get a bit political:

Since New Labour came to power, between a third and two thirds of our cuckoos, swifts, pied and spotted flycatchers, nightingales, turtle doves and wood warblers have vanished from these shores

I assume he knows what he is talking about.

I don't understand this nation's obsession with cats. I am not a great cat lover, and anyway I am very badly allergic to them. I am certainly not a fan of cat owners who pretend that "he never goes on the table/bedroom/kitchen counter". I have been tempted in the past to say "Mind if I do a poo in a tray on your kitchen floor, tread in it and then walk on the dining table?"

A far better way of keeping felines is to follow the good advice of the long-established website, Bonsai-Kitten. It's clean, efficient, space-saving, non-allergenic and fun!

Oprah sparks nationwide KFC riot

It never happened to Richard and Judy

Riots across the USA today ensued when plump chat show host Oprah Winfrey signalled to all of her sofa-ridden daytime TV fans that Chicken was FREE at KFC!



As one might have predicted to one of the most influential women in the States, there were friction burns on thighs, leisure suits were donned, and fried chicken lovers all over America waddled, as fast as their legs could carry them, to claim their free chicken pieces - and the franchise couldn't cope with the rush.

In New York, it was even reported that punters staged a slouch-in when a local manager refused to redeem coupons.

The Gothamist takes up the story:

And now this harrowing report from the scene of a KFC on 42nd Street between Madison and Park has landed in our inbox:

I went over to our nearest KFC a few minutes ago...and chaos ensued. Despite the very visible grilled chicken behind the register, the manager told everyone with coupons to leave and that the promotion was over for the day. The people there are currently holding a sit-in and refusing to leave until they get their free chicken...or the cops are called. Racial epithets were being spewed, people who actually wanted to pay for chicken were facing a potential beatdown, and the manager ran from the screaming horde. Oprah, what have ye wrought?

More than a dozen calls placed to the KFC in question have been met with an ominous busy signal. We can only assume a riot squad is currently cracking skulls to save that last defenseless grilled chicken from the freeloading mob. Developing...

(Col Sanders was never a real Colonel. Dr Pepper was never a real Doctor. And don't even think about Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Kind of shatters your worldview when you discover these subterfuges.)

Guest Blogger C.J. Sebright (a chicken)

Got any food?

It's all very well humans moaning about the cost of things and debt and shit, but maybe they don't realise that cereal yields per acre in this country have doubled in the last thirty years due to science and technology. Since the subject of grain is close to my heart, I find this very exciting. Must fly, got to do an egg.

Got any food? Gizza Banana?

If Brown went now, Labour could redeem itself

Watching Newsnight last night, and reading the papers and the blogs, received wisdom is that a.Brown wont go, and b.if he did go, there is no obvious replacement. The is a "c", a rather nasty and cynical "c", which is that Labour will lose anyway so why not bugger it up completely for the Tories and pursue a scorched earth policy. Of "c", I can believe this. I believe there are influential elelments in the Labour Party who would rather destroy this country than see it recover under the Conservatives. (Never mind whether the Conservatives are capable of effecting a recovery)

There are compelling reasons for this. There is the poisoned chalice scenario, in which a new incumbent would almost certainly have to call an early General Election which he or she would then most certainly lose. There is the no suitable candidate scenario, and linked to this the myth that Labor does not stab it leaders in the back. Then there are the polls which suggest that a change of leader would not increase their electoral chances.

Nobody seems to be talking about the long game. By which, I mean that the next General Election is lost for Labour. They face years in the wilderness, so why not start to recover now? Why not begin the process of re-building the Party under a leader who could perhaps be the John the Baptist, the John Smith of the Labour party who begins the process, but perhaps will then hand the mantle of leader to he or she who is yet to come.

Labour needs catharsis, a painful purging and reconstruction; a re-examination of core values and new people, unencumbered by sleaze and brazen amorality and ambition. Brown is a disaster, a grinning fool who has no vision but a tawdry grasping for power. He is on a collision course with the consequences of his moral and intellectual vacuity. Sensible people in the Labour Party know this. Of course they know this - they have been saying this and voting accordingly. And the sooner they face facts, the sooner they will be able to begin again.

Everybody is saying Gordon will not go before May 2010, but the plain fact is that this week, it is the only story in town.

Scottish Kirk in disarray over Gay Minister

The Scottish Kirk has erupted in controversy over the appointment of an openly gay minister. Individual churches appoint their ministers, and Scott Rennie got over 80% in support of his appointment to Queen's Cross Parish Church in Aberdeen. Those who voted in favour did so with the full knowledge of his private life.

He is now the subject of an online campaign to remove him.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Gay-minister--39battered39-by.5233513.jp

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6222672.ece

The petition reads:

We urge the Assembly to support the position of those who stood to defend Christian orthodoxy in Aberdeen Presbytery, and ensure instead that the Church will apply and assert in practice its clear doctrinal position on all matters of marriage and human sexuality, by refusing to condone homosexual practice in general, and among its leaders in particular.

I was tempted to provide quotes from Scott Rennie about his long and complicated journey in dealing with his sexuality, and his heartfelt agony over it, but for me, that is not the point. For me, the point is that this is another example of a heavy handed attempt to impose top-down governance. It makes me angry that others consider it their duty to tell a local community what they should do.

I feel, however, that I have to add that it is incomprehensible to me that someone with a vocation for the Church should be hounded like this. It places the Church in a position of judgement and actually, arch nastiness. I have no problem with them having an opinion, or even telling me that homosexuality is a sin. I just do not think it sits well with the intent of their founder:

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17)

As a Christian, I believe that each of us will give an account of ourselves before God, on the Day of Judgement. Until then, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, or fuck off.

Who's minding Brown?

Which minder allowed Gordon Brown to be photographed with a Swastika in the background, during a recent visit to a school? Ve hef vays of finding out.

Funnily enough, this has happened before. Some shite "initiative" called "promoting prosperity" (it cost the tax payer£250,000 to put on and achieved nothing) was to be launched by the bogey man himself with this symbol:

When it was pointed out, by several astute bloggers, they quickly removed it and the logo became a random daub of colour:

Ian Dale remarked at the time:

And who says bloggers don't have any influence? The laughable thing was the Labour spinners pretending that the original really didn't look anything like a Swastika. No one has yet been able to explain how it got through the vetting process, or maybe there wasn;t one. Another sign of the chaos that rules in Downing Street, or is another sign of Gordon having the reverse midas touch - i.e. anything he touches becomes a disaster?