Checks and balances

Before governments became so obsessed by what we think and do and all the unnecessary checks that the busybodies put into the systemwhen women who'd had a baby wanted to go back into the jobs market they could usually find a minder, often enough a family member, but occasionally a neighbour, essentially someone they trusted. Sometimes it cost them a few quid, but the whole point of doing it was so that yes they could work, but yes at the end of the day they had something to show for working. Even the registered childminders for all they weren't cheap, were still affordable, at least until health and safety regulations, followed by the now mandatory CRB checks came into force. The end result has of course been inevitable...
Express.

THE soaring cost of childcare forced 32,000 working mothers to quit their jobs in the past year, a study revealed yesterday.

Women working part-time and earning on average £8,557 are £98 worse off at the end of the month if they have to pay nursery charges.

Research by insurers Aviva found that 32,000 mothers left work to look after their children while their husbands become the sole earners.

The study also found that those in full-time work, earning an average of £17,513, have just £120 left over after paying for childcare, which can cost around £385 per month.

For children under two this soars to £729 a month.

Yep, if you can't find family or friends, you're buggered as the price you pay now goes way above what you earn if you're in the low paid sector/minimum wage area of the market. It means even if you want to work you're better off on benefits looking after your kids. Of course if you work you lose other housing and income support benefits too such is the system that has been foisted upon us.
The governments insistence on Criminal Record Bureau checks on anyone who comes into contact with kids has pushed the costs up as this cost is now factored into any payments working mums shell out, plus if you have a high turnover of staff, each new member needs a check, whether they were approved at their old place of work or not.

What the end result of this will be I do not know, it may be that more stay at home mums means better educated and behaved kids, it might even lead to the regeneration of our society back into a self help one. I doubt that was the original intention of the government though, it was all purely another attempt to dip their hands into our pockets. But as ever in these things, they've pushed it too far and some unintended circumstances has kicked in. They're losing workers in the jobs market, but kids are seeing more of their mums.
Might be a light at the end of the tunnel after all, only time will tell.

The gift that keeps on giving

The UK defence forces face £34 billion in cuts, the state itself is snipping back in various areas (the wrong ones to be sure but still snipping) and yet still the lunatics in charge of the Ministry of Defence manage to give away £1.7 million to Uganda in the way of a gift of helmets and body armour.
Express.

DEFENCE chiefs squandered nearly £1.7million of taxpayers’ cash on helmets and body armour for the Ugandan army last year.

The equipment was handed to the African nation as a “gift”, the Ministry of Defence’s annual accounts showed yesterday.

Rank and file military personnel, many of whom face redundancy as a result of £34billion of defence cuts, will be outraged that equipment is being given away to foreign armies.

It follows complaints that the lives of British service personnel have been put at risk by a failure to deliver body armour, helicopters and other equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Other financial losses range from £5.4billion for scrapping aircraft to £2.4million for repairs after the nuclear submarine HMS Acute ran aground in a training exercise.

Another £1.7million was lost in a bizarre legal row over supply of furniture.

Yes I know that £1.7 million is just a drop in the ocean, but these days it could be the difference between some squaddie having decent gear without having to buy his own. Personally I think I could have made wholesale cuts to the nations budget, yet actually increased the money going to frontline services. Course that would mean leaving the EU, scrapping the foreign aid budget, placing a cap on council executive salaries, scrapping 90% of quango's. refusing funding for translation services, scrapping the HRA and removing foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, placing all minimum wage jobs for UK residents only and scrapping benefits for any other than mums, sick/disabled and pensioners who refuse to take them.
And that would just be in my first week as I don't believe in pushing too hard, following week I'd be taking a chainsaw to the civil service upper management (probably figuratively)
That's always been the problem with public services, they don't see what they do as being with our money, they don't have to balance budgets as there's always next year and the magic taxpayer money tree.
This needs to change.

Getting it wrong, twice

Sectarianism is a problem in parts of Scotland, Rangers and Celtic being the prime example of two competing factions vying through the tribal fan system of football to make their mark over a hated rival. It isn't racism as you'd be very hard put to tell the difference between the supporters without their colours, it isn't religious either, though a difference in religion goes deep within the two communities.
It's not something we're used too in England, the religious aspect anyway, though the tribal rivalries of football fans we're well used too. However what we wouldn't do, is call for a football clubs fans to not fly a flag that represents their country, after all, that would be a bit racist, wouldn't it?
Mail.

For almost 130 years the proud supporters of Berwick Rangers have revelled in the fact that they are a British team playing in the Scottish Football League.

Ok, lets get the sodding obvious bit out of the way first, whilst Berwick Rangers are a British club, so are the rest of the teams playing in the Scottish Football League! Berwick are different only in the fact that they are based in England!

They call themselves The Borderers, and proudly display both the St Andrew's cross and the St George's cross on their scarves and merchandise.
But now the club's supporters have been told that they can't show the St George's cross when attending away games - because it incites sectarian tension.

As sectarian implies religion, I cannot see how flying a flag of St George is being sectarian, what it does imply that this club is English and that it's not sectarianism we're talking about here, but racism. They aren't particularly protestant, they certainly aren't Scottish (much as many Scots would claim)
Personally I think it's rank hypocrisy of Stranraer FC to claim sectarianism, when the plain facts speak for themselves, they are indulging in racism. However by calling it sectarianism they hope to get away with it, save only that the idiots at the Daily Mail decided to do an article on it.

Someone is channeling me

I really should stop giving people ideas for free, not so long ago I blogged about my take on workfare in the post Talking up a Storm.I suggested that people should not receive benefits unless they take some form of job and it seems that I'm not the only one thinking along those lines, though it's a bit disturbing when it's a left wing think tank doing it.
Mail.

Workshy should be FORCED to take jobs at minimum wage or lose their benefits: Shock
A leading think-tank has urged the Government to crack down on Britain's workshy - and force them to take jobs at minimum wage.
The hard-hitting Institute for Public Policy Research report recommends people on the dole for more than a year should work or lose their benefits.
It wants a state-run scheme to guarantee a job on the minimum wage after 12 months unemployment.

The Labour-leaning think-tank said the jobs should last a maximum of six months and be no more than 30 hours a week to allow people time to hunt for more permanent jobs.
But if a job-seeker refuses to take it, he or she would lose their welfare entitlements.

Now I disagree with the government providing jobs, as they are useless at that sort of thing, however yes there is enough to do in this country to warrant some form of workfare and not at minimum wage either, could make the workfare jobs at only £1 an hour with the rest topped up in benefits. Certainly it is a way to get men espescially back into work and inculate a work ethic within them. Ladies with children though present a different problem, at least until the kids reach school age. Though call me old fashioned, I do believe that mums should be there for their kids, though balancing the system to prevent certain women having "benefit kids" perhaps setting child benefit for only the first two might get around that.
This scheme also cannot be used against the sick/disabled and pensioners, I suspect that stringent safeguards would need to be put in to prevent it becoming the thin end of the wedge.
Benefit reform has to happen, most people can see it, though everyone has a different idea as to how to go about it. I see my taxes as keeping people comfy on the state and the state unfortunately want to keep taxation high but pay it to themselves. I prefer my method of at least getting something useful out of the unemployed and unemployable, though I place most politicians in the unemployable category.
There are things that need doing, this is a way to get them done, it's definitely worth a try.

The Annual Boarding Up of properties Event

A commenter on my previous post wondered when the police would have the guts to ban the Notting Hill carnival. I suspect we all know why it's the last thing they'd do, although to put it specifically would leave them wide open to accusations of racism, far, far, easier to ban a march by the EDL despite the fact that it costs less to police an EDL event than the potentially riotous Carnival.
In the past, despite having 11,000 officers on the streets during 2008, around 40 troublemakers threw bottles and bricks at officers once the carnival had finished, while there were 330 arrests.
In 2009 the number of arrests fell to 215, including a group of 38 youths who had planned violence during the event. A 15-year-old youth was also stabbed.
In 2010 there were also two stabbings, resulting in minor injuries to the victims and were 230 arrests across the weekend, with most being for drugs offences and public disorder.
Plus the huge number of police compares with the Royal Wedding, which was deemed a terrorist threat.
Mail. 

Battening down the hatches: Shopkeepers board up windows over riot fears as record police numbers prepare for Notting Hill Carnival
Shopkeepers were today boarding up their windows over fears that the Notting Hill Carnival could descend into the violent scenes that rocked London earlier this month.
Record numbers of police will take to the streets in a desperate bid to deter the rioting and looting that spread across the capital.
There were fears that the carnival could become a focal point for unrest which lead to suggestions that the annual event could be cancelled.
But instead the annual carnival will see the highest number of police officers on duty in the event's 47-year history in the wake of the London riots.
Double the number of officers that policed the Royal Wedding will be on duty at the carnival next weekend, with the Met planning 20,000 shifts split over the two-day event, it is understood.
It is Scotland Yard's biggest public order test since the riots during an unprecedented security operation at the two-day carnival.
Businesses were boarding up their shop fronts earlier today as a precaution in the wake of the widespread violence and looting.
Police received criticism about their handling of the riots and will be keen to ensure there are no repeat disturbances.
More than a million revellers are expected to descend on the capital over the coming days for what is Europe's biggest street festival.

To be honest, unless there was actual rioting going on in London on the days leading up to the event I didn't expect a ban. Though I do expect one of two things, either it will go without a hitch as everyone will be at pains to make sure the event isn't tarnished by the riots (unlikely but possible) Or it will start off quiet and explode as it gets later. (more likely)
 Still, Scotland Yard has staged a series of dawn swoops in a pre-emptive strike to avoid trouble at this year's carnival. A total of 40 suspects have been arrested in raids across the capital which suggests some forethought by the police, but will have done little to ease tensions in the communities involved. Plus I'm quite uneasy about arresting people simply because you think they might be a problem.
I think personally that the Notting Hill Carnival has to be seen as a success by the powers that be who were quite badly shaken by the riots and if that means draconian policing it will be seen as worth it despite our civil liberties being dragged through the gutter again. Problem with overt policing though is that it does have negative consequences too.
It will be interesting to see how this goes, but I predict trouble will erupt at some stage.

Being careful about what you ask for

The EDL were planning a march in Tower Hamlets which is their democratic right to do, various other groups were planning on opposing the march which is also their right to do. That those who oppose such marches by the EDL tend to be violent thugs and that they have been leafleting Tower Hamlets in attempts to stir up the local populace into a riot is also known. The recent riots and the actions of Islamic extremists in Tower Hamlets has provided the far left who see violence as the only form of legitimate protest with a heady brew in which to promulgate their lies, slander and scare stories. There were calls for a ban on the EDL march from the local council and from other groups and eventually the Home Secretary at the urging of the police stepped in to ban the EDL march, which should have been good news for the idiot socialists and extreme Islamists within and without Tower Hamlets.
Except the Home Secretary went further and banned all marches for a month in Tower Hamlets including those who oppose the EDL, cue immediate hypocritical denouncements by the left who wanted to ban an EDL march yet cannot see why their own marches should be banned as well. A classic case of the biter bit...
Socialist Worker.

We have a right to march against the EDL racists
In an unprecedented step, Scotland Yard has applied to the home secretary to ban all marches in five London boroughs for 30 days starting from 2 September.
This means that the English Defence League march in Tower Hamlets, east London, set for 3 September will be banned. But the blanket ban will also cover the counter-demonstration organised by Unite against Fascism and United East End.
The English Defence League still plan to come to Tower Hamlets to hold a static protest.
Already anti-racist activists in Tower Hamlets have put out calls for the counter-demonstration to go ahead. Socialist Worker backs all those who want to stand up to the racists. We call on everyone to come to Tower Hamlets to show that the racist EDL is not welcome.

Yes, the hypocrites believe that only they have the right to march, but it goes further, their actions have also prevented the lefts 75th anniversary of the "Battle of cable Street" march and all because they were incapable of acting like adults and were calling for violence and protest against another march.
They are only just coming to terms that if you call to take away the democratic rights of one group, it also takes away your democratic rights too.
Epic Fail socialists, Epic Fail.

Money for nothing

Once again the looters as Richard North of EU Referendum calls them are making off with our hard earned cash without any regrets or shame.
Mail.

Quango chiefs are pocketing payoffs of up to £250,000 each as their discredited agencies are wound up.
Nine bodies set up to boost local economies are to be scrapped next year after being criticised as wasteful and bureaucratic.
Figures obtained by the Daily Mail reveal the generous deals for senior executives at the Regional Development Agencies created and championed by John Prescott.
Advantage West Midlands admitted that one unnamed official received £200,000 to £250,000. The body’s corporate director Tim Gebbels also walked away with £109,512 when he left.
To date, 15 senior quango executives have received payments of more than £100,000.
Seven of the quangos have so far revealed that they have laid off 799 staff at a total cost of £23.4million, equal to almost £30,000 each.
But the top officials are getting much more. Stacy Hall, director of communications and tourism at One North East, received £120,890 when she took voluntary redundancy last September.
Stephen Peacock, enterprise and innovation director at the South West RDA, was handed £113,701 in a taxpayer-funded deal. In many cases, senior staff appear to have been given the equivalent of a year’s salary.

 One thing the Mail fails to mention is that many of these looters then move onto another well paid sinecure at another Quango or local authority and the whole ghastly process of robbing the taxpayer begins again.
What they seem to forget is names are being taken, faces remembered and lengths of hempen rope and/or piano wire being imagined around their necks for the inevitable day our patience breaks and our wrath is forthcoming. Every day brings it closer and the more they rob us the greater it becomes.
All we need is a powercut during the X Factor final and we'll have the bastards...
Well I can dream can't I?

Better safe than sorry?

Safety is an odd thing, at work the management of the place where I work have tried by fencing off the conveyors that move pallets around to make things safer for the staff who drive the forklifts by denying them access to the areas. It works after a fashion, at least until the guy who has to come along and fix a problem with the conveyors (that would be me) finds that the area is fenced off and he cannot gain reasonable access to work due to space limitations making the job in some areas quite dangerous for the engineers. Turns out all they needed was a "Do not approach/enter sign" but decided to play safe and put up barriers thus activating the law of unforeseen consequences. It's only a minor instance, but they aren't alone in their zeal to remove risk entirely from peoples lives.
HSE.

Health and safety legislation exists to protect people from real risks at, or connected with, work. But it can be hard to see this from some of the stories that are reported. Below are 10 of the most bizarre health bans or restrictions spotted in media coverage by HSE over the last year.

1. Wimbledon officials citing health and safety as a reason to close Murray Mount when it was wet
   Example media story: Daily Mail: 'Elf 'n' safety shuts Murray Mount: Fans might slip on the grass, warn officials', 21 June 2011
2. Stopping dodgem cars from bumping into each other at Butlins in Skegness
   Example media story: BBC News: 'Bosses at Butlins ban bumper cars over health and safety fears', 27 April 2011
3. Banning Royal wedding street parties
   Example media story: Daily Mail: 'Royal wedding street party? You'll need £5m insurance, love...', 13 April 2011
4. Removing an unwanted, bulky TV from a pensioner's home for recycling
   Example media story: Daily Mail, 'Pensioner, 85, paid council to remove old TV...and was ordered to drag it outside herself so workmen didn't injure themselves', 7 June 2011
5. Carnivals with fancy dress parades
   Example media story: http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk
6. Kite flying on a popular tourist beach in east Yorkshire
   Example media story: Hull Daily Mail: 'Outrage at kite-flying ban on East Riding beaches', 10 June 2011
7. Stopping pupils from using playground monkey bars unsupervised in Oxfordshire
   Example media story: Daily Mail: 'Children banned from their own playground as health and safety officials decide monkey bars are too dangerous', 8 May 2011
8. Using pins to secure commemorative poppies
   Example media story: http://www.obantimes.co.uk
9. Schoolyard football games banned - unless the ball is made of sponge
   Example media story: BBC News: 'Huyton school leather football ban safety row', 24 February 2011
10. Children no longer allowed to take part in a sack race at Sports Day
    Example media story: Metro: 'Three-legged race is given the sack'

Even the Health and Safety Executive recognises that Councils and companies are using health and safety rules as an excuse to make "unpopular decisions" banning low-risk activities often enough to make their lives easier, rather than properly evaluate the risk and train/warn the people involved. After all it's cheaper to ban than it is to buy the equipment or train the staff. Employment minister Chris Grayling said members of the public should "challenge health and safety myths" and over-zealous practices. However that's easier said than done as most people don't exactly know what the regulations are, plus have a tendency to "believe" the officials making their lives a misery. The law as it stands simply requires people to approach risks in a balanced and proportionate manner. Banning something is far often disproportionate yet it seems to be the tool of choice for those in charge, whether this is due to the current compo culture is debatable, but it certainly doesn't help. Most people actually enjoy a bit of risk or adventure in their lives it's why fairground rides are so popular and why some of us climb mountains, often enough without ropes. Perhaps we should return to the old days of "enter at your own risk" and simply seek to reduce a risk, not eliminate it altogether.

Leave us alone!

Just been scanning the various news sites I haunt looking for stuff that interests me enough to put fingers too the keyboard, it's not all I do by a long shot, I sometimes play Baldurs Gate as well.
One of the things you tend to notice after a while is the number of health and safety scare stories out there, either designed to outrage us by over sensationalising the story, or ones that show the "health experts" don't appear to live in the same world as the rest of us.
Outrage in the Telegraph.

For 15 years, a set of disused milk crates had been providing children at an Oxfordshire school with old-fashioned fun. But that was before the health and safety zealots caught sight of them.

Now the 25 crates, which have been used as props for countless games involving ships, cars, dens and castles, have been taken away over fears that pupils could be injured on them.

"In all the time we have had the crates, we have not had a single child hurt themselves," said Anne Bardsley, a teacher at Wychwood Primary school, who described the decision to remove them as "outrageous".

The crates, once donated by a friendly milkman, were seized by Dairy Crest during a routine delivery.

Lyndsey Anderson, from the company, apologised for any distress. "Whilst we understand their disappointment at losing something they had come to view as playground equipment, it remains a fact that milk crates are not toys and current health and safety guidelines require that they should not be used as such," she said.

Mrs Bardsley explained that the pupils were always supervised while playing with the crates and that they helped creative learning. "The children absolutely loved them," she added.

No-one had ever been injured, no harm was being done, they were simply useful props. Now I'm sure the company (Dairy Crest) were simply covering themselves from some sort of claim, but after 15 years? It does seem a tad ridiculous, it's probably also cost the school some money in getting a replacement. Whatever happened to the disclaimer "you do this at your own risk"?
Idiocy in the BBC.

Experts say the health hazards of obesity may have been grossly underestimated because we are not measuring the condition adequately.

Risk calculations have focused on severity of weight gain alone and not how long it persists.

Latest research suggests every additional decade of being obese more than doubles death risk.

The researchers told the International Journal of Epidemiology a new measure is needed - the "obese-year".

Similar to the "pack-year" used for smoking, it gives a further quantification that can be used to help estimate the associated health risks.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, agreed: "Obesity is starting to become a problem at supremely young ages. We could see people dying before their parents because of obesity."

He said the findings could be a much needed wake up call for some.

"If the GP can say 'You have got to do something about your weight otherwise you will die at 65 rather than 75' that could be a useful scare tactic."

Yep, apparently we can't be trusted to live our lives the way we want too, someone always knows best and so they'll come up with ways to try and live longer (and more miserable) lives giving up all that can be fun in life, our own personal little pleasures simply to add a few extra years on our lives.
We pay our taxes, we fund our health service, they should simply advise us and leave it at that, not attempt to make us live healthy lives. If we want to smoke, drink or eat our way into an early grave then that is our problem, they should simply tell us the risks not try and implement policies to prevent us doing it anyway.
Most people just want to be left alone to enjoy their lives, is this so hard for the "experts" to understand?

Sounds good in theory

Lot of things sound good in theory, but in practice are either very complex or don't work the way they were originally intended, like the UK benefits system, which was originally supposed to be a safety net for people between jobs, but eventually has turned into a comfort zone for some who see no point in working.
This idea also seems good in theory...
BBC.

Proposals to charge utility companies for digging up roads during busy times in England are being put forward by the government in a national consultation.

Ministers propose that companies carrying out roadworks at peak times pay councils to rent the road space.

They would be able to avoid the charges by carrying out works during quieter periods or, if appropriate, at night.

As the 12-week consultation begins, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said such disruption was "expensive".

I'm thinking that this is a case of no one in the government using joined up thinking. Utility companies wont be bothered about renting the road space, guess where they'll pass any costs on too?
I suspect the next excuse for a rise in energy bills will be blamed on "road rental" The utility companies have no incentive whatsoever to stop digging up roads at peak periods with this plan, because they will be able to recoup their costs by passing them on via their billing system to consumers.
Or perhaps the government do know this and are just allowing the utility companies to screw us over again, like they have with wind farms and solar energy.
The easiest way around it would be to give local authorities the power to enforce 24 hour working on any work that needs doing or to prevent any disruption during peak periods. Though again, how do they cope with emergency repairs...
As I said it sounds good in theory, but in practice?

We're paying for this?

I'd never heard of the Government Art Collection (GAC) before, but apparently in the past they'ver managed to buy up (with our money) 13,000 works of art by British artists in a variety of media including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, textiles and video works, from the sixteenth century to the present day.
Artists represented in the collection include John Constable, William Hogarth, Lucian Freud, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth, Michael Landy, Bridget Riley, Emma Kay and Zarina Bhimji. And I suppose that because some of those have stood the test of time well and increased in value it could be considered a valuable resource, other than the fact that the government is unlikely ever to sell these things.
Telegraph.

If the art works hanging on a wall reflect the frame of mind of the residents, the current mood within Downing Street appears to be a mixture of gloom and dry humour.

Among the new works recently hung in the Prime Minister's official residence is Grim's Ditch, a dark, some might say depressing painting depicting a muddy, waterlogged ditch.

The enamel and oil on aluminium work by the contemporary artist Clare Woods, was bought for £11,985 by the Government Art Collection (GAC), which supplies art for ministerial offices.

At first glance, two other works resemble a pair old newspapers – Financial Times: Billboard Wednesday, September 17 1986 and The Wall Street Journal: Billboard Saturday, July 15, 1985 – by Conrad Atkinson. But on closer inspection, they appear to hint at a sense of humour within Downing Street.

The lithographs, which cost £4,500 for the pair, are spoof versions of the newspapers, with headlines that include: "Premier Thatcher declares new campaign to send intellectuals into the countryside for re-education", "Sir Geoffrey Howe introduces Foucault texts on the nature of power & culture to a packed house," and "Kinnock and Raphael in bust-up about the meaning of beauty."
Another work recently purchased for the GAC includes the abstract work Fireeye Elevator by the artist Michael Stubbs.
The picture features a series of swirls and streaked lines, and came with a £9,500 price tag. It is made from household paint and tinted floor varnish.
Amid a stalling economy, public spending cuts and the threat of another recession, the Government might be expected to tighten its belt when decorating the walls of Whitehall.
But figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph reveal that the GAC has cost more than half a million pounds in the last year.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, has decorated his office with an etching by Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing artist, aptly titled Print for a Politician.
It depicts a battle scene with warring tribes carrying labels such as "provincials", "agnostics" and "homosexuals".
The office of Ed Vaizey, the Culture Minister, is decorated with a cartoon entitled The Mystery of British Culture by Adam Dant, and two prints by Tracey Emin, Margate 1 Sand and Still Love You Margate.
The Government spent £541,000 on the GAC in the last year, and has faced criticism for continuing to purchase art, despite the economic downturn.

Most places of work don't spend their profits on art, only the public sector seem to have this self aggrandisement going on with raids on the public purse to decorate their offices and buildings with (so called) art work that frequently costs thousands of pounds and all coming from the taxpayer. In a time of austerity for all (supposedly) the government should not be wasting money on buying up cheap tat called art only because it has a thousand pound bill attached.
This is an area where savings could be made, in fact there are lots of areas where savings could be made, but yes, this is one of the more obvious ones. No, this isn't a tilt at modern art either, like with a lot of things, I know what I like and most modern art, particularly that which seeks to make some sort of political point leaves me cold, but there are some pieces I like too. That said, I wouldn't waste my money on any of them nor do I see any reason for the government to waste my money on them either.
Museums and art galleries often have "spare" stuff in storage, the government could request some of that to be displayed in government buildings if they want some new decor.

The idiot that is Nick Lowles

Nick Lowles is an anti-extremist campaigner and writes for Searchlight Magazine he also tweets a lot too. Searchlight's "mandate" as they put it is to campaign Against Racism and Fascism as part of the Hope not Hate campaign. Essentially what they do is only campaign against the BNP and the EDL whilst ignoring real racism or fascism exhibited by anyone other than white people. In other words it's a typical lefty/socialist site full of blinkered Trots and their fellow travellers, you know the type, the ones who believe "only white people can be racist."
Normally I don't give them the time of day, but in their continuing attempts to somehow link the EDL to the Norway massacre, I felt this article couldn't go unanswered.
Linky.

Anders Behring Breivik was in contact with the English Defence League, supported its aims and was involved in the Norwegian Defence League, Searchlight can reveal.

Only months before he went on his murderous killing spree he exchanged numerous messages with EDL supporters using his internet pseudonym Sigurd Jorsalfare, after the 12th century King of Norway who led one of the Crusades.

In one message on the EDL forum, dated 9 March 2011, he wrote:

Now clearly the EDL would have to be clairvoyant to somehow know that a) Sigurd Jorsalfare was Anders Behring Breivik and b) that somehow he was going to kill all those people before 22 July 2011. But why let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

"Hello. To you all good English men and women, just wanted to say that you're a blessing to all in Europe, in these dark times all of Europe are looking to you in surch [sic] of inspiration, courage and even hope that we might turn this evil trend with islamisation all across our continent. Well, just wanted to say keep up the good work it's good to see others that care about their country and heritage. All the best to you all Sigurd".

Clear signs of being an utter nutter there, I've said worse here about Islam and its adherents and no, oddly enough I don't feel any urges to go and kill the youth wing of the Labour Party.

In another posting he attacked Britain's multicultural society and expressed his interested in joining an EDL demonstration:

"i've seen with my own eyes what has happened to england, i was in bradford some years ago, me and a friend walked down to the football stadium of bradford, real Cnice' neighborhood, same thing in the suburbs of london. well thinking about taking a little trip over the sea and join you in a demo. would be nice with a norwegian flag alongside with union jack or the english flag, that is if a norwegian would be welcome offcourse?"

Again as this was asked before 22 July 2011 he would have been made welcome had he turned up (he didn't) with a Norwegian flag as at an EDL demo a lot of flags of different nations are flown from their supporters from all over the world.

Breivik was told by EDL supporters that he would be most welcome, to which he replied: "I hoped so:) it's our common struggle against the islamofacists."

EDL supporters were keen to have his support. 'Concerned' replied: 'Bravo sigurd admire your views and courage. no surrender and welcome."

Again, why would he not be made welcome on an EDL forum, can anyone see any reason why someone calling themselves  Sigurd Jorsalfare would not be welcome? No insults, no threats, just an intro and a indication he'd like to come to an EDL demo.

Among the EDL supporters in dialogue with Breivik was someone who uses the name "ujac". He is Darren Jackson, the Preston EDL Facebook administrator and the organiser of Casuals United, a group of football hooligans who threw their lot in with the EDL soon after it was formed. Jackson has extensive links with the Norwegian Defence League, including a friendship with Lena Andreassen, the group's organiser.

Ok, trust me on this, ujac is not  Darren Jackson though he does know him, nor was Breivik ever a member of the NDL or even knew of its existence, in his manifesto he mentioned trying to set up an NDL some 6 months after it had formed anyway.

In his exchange with "ujac" and others, Breivik boasted of his support for the NDL. Asked if he was active in the NDL, Breivik replied:
"I was but, the site has been put down now. There was to be a demo in Oslo on the 26 of February but after the police security service put us on the 'danger-list' the internet site was sadly shut down."

 No it wasn't the site is still there.

Perhaps more importantly than the individual contacts, Breivik and the EDL share the same ideology and worldview. There are numerous references in Breivik's 1,500-page book and internet postings to Fjordman, a Norwegian anti-Muslim blogger and writer. Fjordman is a strong supporter of the EDL and knows Alan Lake, the Christian fundamentalist who helped set up and funded the EDL.

Brievik said in his manifesto that the EDL were "naive fools ... that still believe the democratic system can solve Britain's problems" so clearly the same ideology at work there. Fjordman himself has stated that he never met Breivik and the Alan Lake thing is really stretching credulity as he never met Breivik either, but as he's a Christian and a millionaire he must be a bad guy.

Among those whom Lake believes are worthy of execution are David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Blimey I'm Alan Lake. (not really)

Following last week's atrocities, Lake wrote: "Apparently, in a long screed Anders Behring Breivik posted on line, he did this attack to protest against the way that Islam is taking over large parts of Europe. By attacking the leftist politicians that are enabling this, the chickens have actually come home to roost – altho I'm sure it won't be depicted that way."

Well it certainly wasn't by Nick Lowles and no the EDL have no plans to massacre anyone as the tagline on their site states "If you, like us, are fed up and sick to the back teeth of Islamic Extremism in the UK, then sign up and join the struggle with the English Defence League and start protesting peacefully with us today"
Not exactly what Breivik wanted or most of the left come to that who seek to demonise what they don't understand but instinctively hate.

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?

I really don't see what people see in Ken Livingstone, the man strikes me as being the worst/best example of socialist thinking and should be unelectable by any standards, never mind my own. Even his jokes (assuming this is a joke) are crass and frankly unfunny, bit like Ben Elton, though without the charisma.
BBC.

London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has compared his battle to regain City Hall from Boris Johnson with the "great struggle between Churchill and Hitler".

Mr Livingstone's comments feature in Total Politics magazine.

Croydon Tory MP Gavin Barwell said: "Comparing rival politicians to Hitler is in incredibly poor taste."

But Mr Livingstone's aides said his comments were "light-hearted". City Hall declined to comment.

In comments, reported in the latest issue of the magazine, the former London Labour mayor said next year's mayoral race was "a simple choice between good and evil - I don't think it's been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler."

'Burn forever'

"The people that don't vote for me will be weighed in the balance, come Judgment Day," he continued.

"The Archangel Gabriel will say 'You didn't vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012.

"Oh dear, burn forever. Your skin flayed for all eternity.'"

Mr Livingstone added he would "come round with a serious pitch nearer the time".

Ok once we get passed the absurdity of any politician actually making it into heaven, just what exactly was he thinking? The joke wasn't even that funny, there was bound to be some sort of reaction vs the Godwins Law effect, so I suspect Ken as usual knew exactly what he was doing, he's way too experienced a politician to be caught off guard this way.
Ken of course has form on various "blunders" of this type, the Jewish journalist he accused of being like a concentration camp guard being the most famous. He also claimed that "capitalism has killed more people than Hitler". But for sheer offensive idiocy it is hard to beat his comparison of the hardline Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi with  Pope John XXIII. He also claimed once that "what Britain did in Ireland was worse than what Hitler did to the Jews". Even John Prescott said: "I wouldn't trust him as far as I could bloody throw him."

So, I have to figure as ever that Ken is playing to some sort of audience, I know the hard left will have loved it as they consider anyone not of the hard left to be some sort of fascist, they've practically debased the term to the extent that a lot of people don't realise what an actual fascist is, simply regarding it as an insulting term for a racist. Still, comparing your opponents to Hitler or Nazi's though is a staple tactic of the left, the SWP and the UAF do it all the time, though a quick check will actually tell you just who the real fascists or Nazi's are their very tactics give them away. So all I can think of is that it was some sort of sop to the "Tory Cuts" campaign I suspect he's going to try and base his campaign on the back of and putting the thought of the Tories in some peoples minds to be the equivalent of some sort of titanic struggle with the powers of darkness.
Either that or he's just an utter dickhead.

Talking up a storm

Immigration is a problem, you know this and I know this, it's even starting to percolate up to the levels of government ministers that there's a problem. The one thing they wont admit though is that currently they can't do anything about the problem except talk about it as that's not illegal (yet)
Express. 

MIGRANTS ROB YOUNG BRITONS OF JOBS
IMMIGRANTS have taken 289,000 jobs in the last year while one in five young Britons is now out of work, shocking figures revealed last night.
British-born workers are swelling the dole queue as unemployment has soared to 2.49 million, according to employment statistics. 

An astonishing 20 per cent of those aged under 24 are signing on, raising concerns about the Government’s drive to curb mass immigration.
But overseas-born workers have enjoyed a jobs boom and a record 4.15 million are now living in Britain. And fears that British-born workers are being squeezed out of the jobs market have been heightened after the influx of migrant workers in the last year outstripped the 241,000 new jobs that were created.
Sir Andrew Green, of the think-tank MigrationWatch, said: “We need to face up to the facts of the impact that immigration is having on the prospects for British workers.
“It is no good academics repeating time and time again that there is no strong evidence; it is perfectly clear that the employment of immigrants is increasing while the employment of British-born workers is decreasing.

The article as usual skirts around various factors as to why economic migration is a problem here simply falling back on partially blaming the last government (true) and the Lib Dems on border controls (true) and does mention reform of the benefits system which does encourage people not to take low paid work.
It fails however to mention the elephant in the room that is the EU other than the government implementing transitional controls over new members because even at government levels they realise the implications for them of 40 million Turks coming here.
EU rules on freedom of movement of labour though mean that the government can actually do damn all about economic migration from within the EU. If a migrant can reach the EU, get an EU passport (available on condition you don't stay here from several EU states) then they can come here and work for peanuts by our standards but still share a flat with 20 other people and live cheaply and send money home to the family plus if you have kids then child benefit too. From a migrants point of view, what's not to like?
Ok, step 1) we have to leave the EU, without that other measures will fail.
Step 2) No immigrant gets benefits of any kind unless they've paid by taxation a minimum amount equivalent to 10 years taxation at minimum wage levels. More qualified they are, easier it is to get into the safety net by way of higher paid jobs. You bring your family here then same rules apply, no house, no health benefits, no income support. You pay your way or you leave.
Step 3) Reform our benefits system so that if you don't have a job or kids under 18 you don't get benefits like income support or housing benefit unless there is no work in the area.you can do, also get rid of the minimum wage too and use some of the money you save on benefits to pay into an apprenticeship scheme for our kids to get trades.
Step 4) Having a kid does not get you a house or a bump up on the housing market, the kid gets benefits, not you. Also child support stops after the second child, you want more, you better have the means to support them.
Exceptions would be sickness and invalidity benefits, but you'd better be sick or an invalid...
Unless we make work something you have to do to get benefits (sliding scale or universal it matters not) then because it's more economic not to work people wont. If you have to have a job even if it's only £1 an hour but you get benefits then people will work, if you don't work, you get nothing.
Yes I know there might be exceptions and fine tuning, but we have to do something to make people get a work ethic.

 

None sicker?

David Cameron said recently that there's "there’s none sicker than the EDL" in a debate over the riots in England That was the riots the EDL didn't cause and didn't participate in other than to assist in defending their areas and help in the cleanup. It was in response to a question by Clive Efford MP and showed a total lack of understanding of what was actually going on.
Telegraph.

13.25 Cameron wheels on the English Defence League following claims their supporters were among gangs of vigilantes who attacked police in Eltham last night, saying: "I described parts of our society as sick and there is none sicker than the EDL"

Yet strangely enough "Local police denied the group were comprised of EDL members"But as the media are always keen to have a go at the EDL this tends to be hidden away at the bottom of any article. Still it's a well known fact now that the EDL are violent criminals who are vile racist knuckledraggers who'd rob their own granny's if it weren't for the fact that she's probably harder than they are.

Doubt you'll see this in the MSM, though it was in the local paper in Luton and not on its online version either. Doesn't exactly fir the narrative either does it? Hardly the act of someone derided by politicians as sick.
I have often wondered just why it is that our politicians pander to Islam,  but then most politicians are not stupid. Islam is an excellent way to control the population--even better than socialism. While it might not give any rights or freedoms to the people reading this blog, the guys supposedly on top, politicians for example are pretty much sitting as pretty as it gets. The same crap was happening before the second world war. A lot of the politicians and a huge chunk of royal family had no issue with Nazism . Churchill himself was seen as an outcast and war monger.
This in essence is why I believe that politicians and other interested parties want the EDL stopped, they are interfering with the natural order of things and highlighting a problem that politicians would rather we didn't look to closely at.
Just a shame really that the EDL does not and will not fit into the narrative laid down for them. There’s none sicker than the EDL? Only an idiot (or socialist) could come out with that sort of hypocrisy when to most peoples minds, there’s none sicker than the politicians.

Setting yourself up for a fall

I accidentally deleted my blog this morning when I was tinkering with the account email settings and deleted the access account by mistake as I never really use it because I already have another gmail account along with 3 hotmail accounts and a yahoo account too. Fortunately the good people at google blogger were able to retrieve my mistake, something I suspect from the speed of response they are used too. As to why I have 5 email accounts? Well, I use them for different things, work, family, play, research (FOI requests, writing email campaigns and to politicians) I'm not alone in this, it's not paranoia as such, though there is an element of caution in it, simply good sense to compartmentalise what I do out here and keep my real name and family out of sight to all but the most determined of snoopers. I'm fairly sure minions of the state know who I am and who I'm linked too, but your average stalker/troll wont and long may it remain that way.
A bit of a rambling intro I know, but it allowed me to show you an example of what happens when you tinker around with something you shouldn't.
Express.

JUDGES and magistrates have been given the go-ahead to jail rioters after a signal from Whitehall, it appeared Yesterday.
The message was to forget normal soft sentencing and get the thugs and looters behind bars.
This was claimed as magistrate Novello Noades jailed a man for six months for hoarding property looted from a music shop.
Mr Noades, chairman of London’s Camberwell Green Magistrates Court, dismissed a request from the man’s solicitor for bail and a pre-sentence report.
Mr Noades replied: “Our directive for anyone in the rioting is a custodial sentence.”
However last night mystery over the supposedly emailed directive deepened when the Judicial Office, which represents judges, denied any instruction had been issued.

Now whilst I'm all in favour of locking away criminals, including looters and rioters, I can see a massive problem looming if this is indeed the case. I can already see the first appeals winging their way through the system if as has been claimed someone has told judges to ignore sentencing guidelines. The guidelines are there to serve a purpose and whilst judges are given a degree of latitude in enforcing those guidelines (they can choose to ignore if the circumstances warrant it) normally they follow them because when they don't an appeal due to the severity of the sentence will follow as sure as night follows day. We do complain often enough when the sentencing is too light, we rarely complain (unless we're involved) that the sentence was too harsh, but we do generally expect the judges to follow some sort of criteria when sentencing, we don't expect the state to step in capriciously and say the guidelines don't apply in this instance.
If the government thinks the sentencing guidelines aren't tough enough, it's up to the government (or the people electing them) to get them changed. What we don't want is the government stepping in and telling judges to just ignore them. That leads to the HRA and compo claims and we already shell out enough in taxes without paying some scumbag millions for banging them up without following the rules.
I want the scumbags put away for a long time, I want the sentence to fit the crime. What I don't want is the government to have the ability to tell judges to ignore the rules, because even if it's only for scumbags this time, at some future stage it might be me (or you) next.

Fuel for thought

Imagine what you could do with an extra £500 a year, ok, it's not a lot in the great scheme of things, but it's an extra £40 a month or a tenner a week. A lot of people might not notice the difference, but to pensioners shivering in the depths of winter because they dare not put the heating on or people living at the edge of their budget month in month out it might just be enough to make keeping going a little easier.
Express.

EVERY family in the UK pays £500 a year too much in “ineffective and fiercely costly” green taxes, a new book claims today.
Let Them Eat Carbon says domestic green taxes – like fuel duty, the fossil-fuel levy and landfill tax – raise £39billion a year, £13billion more than can be justified.
Its author, , says: “The biggest threat to taxpayers is expensive new green taxes and subsidies.”
He cites Government figures which put the annual social cost of Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions at £16.9billion which, together with the £9.2billion spent on roads, leaves a green tax surplus of around £13billion – or £500 for every family.
He adds: “Excessive green taxes make everything from driving to work to taking a well-earned holiday more expensive and make it a lot harder for manufacturers to compete.”

 It's not just the £500 a year for families heating bills, it's the cost of food and transportation, it's part of the subsidy we pay for useless windfarms and solar panels. It all adds up and it costs everyone who pays a fuel bill and every taxpayer in the UK at least £500 and probably a lot more so deep does this scam go. It's not just the UK government either, it goes all the way up to the EU and beyond to the U.N. and its International Panel for Climate Control a hubristic misnomer of a title if ever there was one.
We are being robbed by those who know it's a scam yet pretend that somehow or other we wont notice and will carry on shelling out year in year out whilst they chant the mantra of carbon capture/climate change whilst jetting off to conferences in exotic locations often enough at our expense too.
Sooner or later though we'll call a halt to it or they'll quietly let it drop in favour of a new scam. But what they don't realise is just how close they have pushed people to the edge now. 10 years ago we all had a bit more cash to spare, now more and more are living on the edge and making personal cuts to their budgets. The riots were a symptom of this in part with the looting and the sheer anger of ordinary people at the powers that be. The Romans used bread and circuses to keep the mob happy, that's in part of what the Olympics are supposed to be a part of, but it's a year away and things aren't getting better, plus the bread (cheap food and drink) isn't available either. One of the reasons the Communist block carried on so long is that they kept the price of bread down, people could always get cheap food, when they finally ran out of money that's when it collapsed. Our politicians and other powers are playing with fire, when people feel they no longer have control over their finances they'll look to someone who will promise they can take care of it.
Might not be today or tomorrow, but unless there is a change in policy to put money back in working peoples pockets it will come.

Those insidious Chinese

A war memorial in the Hermitage Memorial Park, Wapping, has been continually attacked by graffiti vandals painting racist slogans on it since its unveiling 3 years ago.
Mail.

A war memorial to honour civilians killed in the London Blitz has had to have protective 5ft high metal railings built around it after youths scrawled offensive slogans on it including ‘Kill the Brits’.
The elegant modern sculpture of a dove in flight, the traditional sign of peace, sits in the Hermitage Memorial Park, Wapping, overlooking the River Thames in London’s East End and has been subjected to continual graffiti attacks since its unveiling three years ago.
Residents of the borough of Tower Hamlets, one of the capital’s most ethnically diverse communities, have long blamed local youths for the attacks on the £80,000 memorial, which some think may be racially motivated.
One, who asked not to be named, said that some of the vandalism on the side of the monument facing the river was ‘hostile and horrible’.
‘Anyone walking along the path in front of the park would have noticed that the front of the memorial was covered in Asian names and what appeared to be the tags of Asian gangs,’ the resident said.

I cannot believe that the normally law abiding Chinese would so such a thing any more than I could believe that a law abiding Indian Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist or Jain would do such a thing. I also would find it difficult to believe that even a Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Korean, Gurkha or any other South East Asian person would do such a thing, it simply beggars belief.
Personally I think the media campaign to tar Asians with any form of discriminatory comments like this is bordering on racist as I cannot believe that the vast majority of Asians would do such a thing.
That said, both you and I know exactly which "Asians" did this and they were from the Indian Sub-continent and were of either Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent, in other words they were Muslims. But the rules the MSM use seem to be clear, if it's Muslims doing good or nice things then they can be Muslims, if they are vandalising war memorials then they are "Asians"
The double standards and media obfuscation are really not fooling anyone, not anymore, but still they try.

Richard Mannington Bowes RIP

Much has been made of the deaths of three young Muslim males in the rioting in Birmingham, Haroon Jahan, Shahzad Ali and Abdul Musavir were protecting property, residents say though details of who drove the car aren't known yet, though suspected (Put it this way if they were white we'd probably have it trumpeted throughout the media). The father of one of the young men has also been on the media praising their actions and calling for calm and not retribution, all very noteworthy and quite honourable and pretty much front page news in the MSM wherever you read it.
Richard Mannington Bowes however it seems has been almost forgotten by the media in their quest to be multicultural and integrational and forget just who exactly was rioting.
BBC.

A 68-year-old man who was critically injured while he tried to stamp out a fire during riots in west London has died, Scotland Yard says.

Richard Mannington Bowes suffered head injuries in an attack in Ealing on Monday night and was left in a coma.
A 22-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Police have said four other deaths - a man found shot in a car in Croydon and three men hit by a car in Birmingham - may be linked to the recent disorder.

The suspect

No media circus, no mass meetings between the Bishop of wherever and the local community just the sad death of a pensioner beaten to death by rioters who to me appears to have been the wrong colour to get the attention of the media as some sort of martyr.
It of course gets worse
Mail.

The man beaten and robbed by thugs during the London riots died in hospital late last night as it emerged he had suffered at the hands of yobs for years.
And as detectives today questioned a 22-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder, it has emerged Mr Mannington Bowes was a civic-minded man of old fashioned values who had been forced to confront yobs on his own doorstep for years.
The reclusive former accountant had long been tormented by thugs who urinated on his front door and threw litter outside his home, according to friends and neighbours.
However, his courage and habit of never walking away from something he considered wrong eventually cost him his life.

Not only a hero, but a man of conscience too. RIP Richard Mannington Bowes, some wont forget you even if you're the wrong religion and the wrong colour to really get media attention.

That's gotta hurt (USA version)

I love technology and I wander around various scientific sites looking to see what the future will bring, some things are boldly announced (cold fusion) only to vanish without trace and some are predicted on an almost monthly basis only to never quite seem to make it off the drawing board (fusion power) Others like the first hypersonic plane have reached the test stage and look to revolutionise transport turning the potential flight time from London to New York to 15 minutes.
However sadly the first test hit a snag, a $300 million snag.
Mail.

It promises to revolutionise air travel, slashing the flying time from London to Sydney to just an hour.
Yesterday the 13,000mph aircraft of the future took off for a crucial test flight.
Within hours however, the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 appeared to have failed the test.
It was launched from a Californian rocket pad to the edge of space and was due to glide back down to Earth at roughly four miles per second.
But all contact was lost and the craft was thought to have crashed.
It was a cruel anti-climax after all the hype, and a case of back to the drawing board for its developers at the Pentagon.

Fortunately this is the USA military we're talking about so they are unlikely just to give up unlike the U.S. government or more likely our own would still $300 million is gonna hurt pretty bad and I'm fairly sure the Senate Military appropriations committee (or whatever it's called) will have something to say about it.

 I hope they carry on with these experiments, the withdrawal of civilian manned space flight means that it's projects like this which will eventually lead us back into space.

Just who were rioting again?

I am livid at the moment, that utter cretin and turncoat David Cameron got up in Parliament and condemned a group of patriots who were not rioting, were not causing trouble and who did not attack the police.
Telegraph

13.25 Cameron wheels on the English Defence League following claims their supporters were among gangs of vigilantes who attacked police in Eltham last night, saying: "I described parts of our society as sick and there is none sicker than the EDL"

So who was responsible for 5 days of rioting in the major cities of England? Not the EDL!
Who was responsible for the deaths of two Muslims in Birmingham mown down by a car? Not the EDL!
Who was holidaying in Tuscany when this all kicked off? Not the EDL!
Who was responsible for cuts in the police budget and the destruction of police morale? Not the EDL!
Who was out distributing leaflets telling rioters how to cover their tracks? Not the EDL! 

People praised the Turks, Kurds, Muslims etc. when they came out to defend their homes and property, but when patriotic Englishmen did the same in Eltham they were condemned by police and politicians. No mention either has been made of the efforts of Patriotic EDL members holding the line between their districts in Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and Manchester despite the fact that they were often outnumbered in the region of 10 to 1 preventing the riots spreading  and letting the police get on with their jobs knowing they didn't have to worry about what was going on elsewhere.

The EDL even put out a call for volunteers to help clean up the mess, the mess they didn't make!

Already EDL supporters have taken to the streets to help defend their communities and prepare for the clean-up operations that must follow the last few days of rioting of looting.
We already have members organising themselves in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich and Birmingham, and are also looking to organise efforts in Bristol, Leeds, Wolverhampton, Salford, Nottingham, Leicester and Hull.
If you live near to any of these areas, please contact your Division Leaders and Regional Organisers to find out what you can do to help, or speak to members on our forums or the official EDL Facebook page.

David Cameron's comments are a disgrace and an affront to all loyal patriotic Englishmen who only wish to defend their homes and families. He has totally sickened me and many others today and his party will never get our votes whilst he is a member or does not apologise.

You can always rely on the left to shoot themselves in the foot even when they think they are offering sound advice

Indymedia.

DON'T PANIC :: DON'T TALK

Published: August 09, 2011 02:23 by riot good advice |

Tagged as: advice demo2011 legal londonriots social_struggles solidarity workers_struggles
Neighbourhoods: camden croydon dalston ealing enfield hackney holloway islington london tottenham uk

This article has been hidden under the site's editorial guidelines.

If you think that you might be identified from photos or footage from recent events, then here's some advice....

DON'T panic. The photos released are not necessarily evidence. Just because the police have a blurry photo that might be of you doesn't mean they know who you are.

DON'T Hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to “come forward” when they don't know who you are or have any evidence against you.

DON'T assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. “That isn't me” has got many a person off before.

DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the person in the video is not you if the clothes they are wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were waring when you were out, incluing YOUR SHOES, your bag and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the ttime.

DO keep a low profile for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos for people they have put on their “wanted” list.

DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time foa make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses.

DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff and dodgy tests/photos on your phone. Don't make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything else illegal in the house.

DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement ONLY to people you really trust. Be very careful what you say on the internet.

DO try and contrl the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with life as normal. Otherwise you'll be serving the sentence before you know it.

This leaflet was being handed out to the rioters in England  by the obnoxious UAF who seem to be under the mistaken impression that the events of the last few days were the harbingers of some sort of socialist revolution and/or protest against government cuts of which they were clearly nothing of the kind. The riots were simply about looting and violence, yes I know the excuse that was used initially, but that hardly excuses what happened in any other area or anything that happened after the initial protest at the police station.
Yes, I know what they are doing isn't precisely illegal, but it does show the mentality of some of those on the left who cannot understand the misery and wrecked lives and businesses these scum have left behind them.
I doubt you'll see this on the BBC any time soon.

Feeling an "I told you so" moment coming on

I've occasionally had a go at speed cameras and their supporters who often referred to them as safety cameras despite the lack of any evidence they made roads safer.
Telegraph.

According to the latest statistics released by the Department for Transport fatalities dropped by 10 per cent, falling to 1,870 for the 12 months ending in March.

Over the same period the number of people killed and seriously injured fell to 24,770, a decline of five per cent.

This coincided with an even more dramatic 35 per cent reduction in people killed in drink-drive accidents, with 250 deaths last year compared with 380 in 2009.

The apparent improvement in road safety will hearten ministers, who had been under attack for withdrawing funding from speed cameras and also slashing the amount spent on anti-drink drive campaigns.

Spending cuts over the past year have seen cameras switched off across the country as safety police and councils have seen their budgets squeezed.

Now amidst the disclaimers by various group like "Brake" who cannot understand why their precious cameras have to go despite the road safety figures the fact remains that it is a combination of things that prevent accidents of which often enough speed plays little part. Nor have any speed cameras caught drivers tailgating, driving recklessly, driving whilst drunk or any other manner of issues which have been known to cause accidents. No, despite the claims that the cameras were there for our safety they were really there to raise revenue and the minute they failed to do that by government grant they went.
It's nice to be proven right after all these years, just a shame about all the bloody money wasted on the damn things.

Pandering

This is what multiculturalism ends up as.
This is what diversity will get you.
This is what happens when you go soft on minorities because of the above.
This is what lowering standards to get minorities into positions of authority (aka tokenism) brings you.
This is what failure to assure excellence in our education system has brought us too.
This is the price we now have to pay for the failure of the political classes, socialists and the MSM to listen to the concerns of the ordinary people of England.
Our cities burn, minorities riot, the followers of a foreign and malignant fascistic political system dressed in the trappings of a religion have been allowed to settle in numbers in some of our cities and demand their own laws. The indigenous population have been derided by politicians as being bigoted to even question it. When they marched in protest they were called Nazi's, scum, vermin, knuckle draggers, right wing and racist, yet it was not they who rioted.
And when the dust settles, the cover up will begin, those who burned our cities and attacked our police and ordinary folk will claim victim status yet again, it's already happening on the BBC as excuse after excuse is trotted out about cuts and police brutality by so called community leaders.The usual soundbite fools like Ken Livingstone are being dragged out too to try and put a political slant on the mindless looting by trying to blame the current government for a mess of the previous governments making.
There have even been attempts by some on the left to draw parallels with violence exhibited at EDL protests in an effort to divert blame or ameliorate the situation, save only the EDL have never burnt buses, set fire to buildings, looted shops, attacked homeowners and robbed them. These were the same people who hunted desperately for any kind of link between Anders Brievik and the EDL even to the extent of inventing a few.
This is what happens when those in power and their accomplices simply don't listen to ordinary people.

A cause worth supporting

I'm an English Nationalist of the civic kind not the ethnic kind in that I don't believe you have to be of Anglo-Saxon stock and trace your ancestry back for God knows how many generations to be accepted by various ethno-Nationalist groups. My thinking runs along the lines of Anglo ergo sum, if you think you're English and live here and obey the laws of the land (with the casual disdain for jobsworths the English have) then you're English, your skin colour, religion blood type, don't matter, it's how you feel. If however you tag "Brit" onto the end of a racial description such as a Pakistani Brit or other adaptations then you aren't English because you don't think of yourself as English, same with those who describe themselves only as Muslims. Norman Tebbit approached it via the cricket test and it's a reasonably valid point but only if applied to an anyone but England attitude, I quite expect if I lived abroad I'd support England if they played my adopted country, but only when they played England otherwise I'd support my new country. So while in essence I'm all for people adopting and fitting in with their new countries, in England there has been a distinct lack of support for those of us who were born here and consider ourselves English rather than as the government does British.
Anyway, for those of us who are English and wish to support England, I'd like to introduce you to The Steadfast Trust charity for the ethnic English community. 

The Steadfast Trust is the first and only registered charity which undertakes work specifically for the ethnic English community. It exists to promote the education, legal rights, welfare, and overall interests of the community within England. Our work is driven by the belief that the English, and in particular the young, would gain greater self-respect and self-confidence if they had a better appreciation and understanding of their unique culture and heritage.

There is growing evidence from various reports (view reports) that many English school children are falling behind those from other ethnic groups. They are also increasingly engaging in anti-social behaviour and leading increasingly unruly and destructive lives.  Bold action is needed to tackle these problems.

We believe that the English are a community like any other and that our Englishness should be promoted as something that is positive in our lives and the lives of our children. A strong sense of communal identity helps develop a strong sense of communal responsibility; it helps bring people together and counter the alienation from society that many feel. The young people of all ethnic groups should feel confident in who they are and should be inspired by their own cultural background to reach their full potential in society. We aim to promote practical schemes that will help bring this about for the English.
It is of the utmost importance that our charity grows and prospers. Unlike the charities and communal organizations which pursue the interests of other ethnic groups, it is unlikely that we will receive any public money.  We will have to find the necessary resources from within our own community. We are confident that the English can show the same ambition and enterprise that has enabled other communities to build cultural institutions that further their interests and address their needs. There is much to do but we at the Steadfast Trust are eager to get on with the task that faces us.

 So not a fake charity and unlikely to get any government money, which in my eyes as an Englishman makes it a cause worth supporting. I know many of you out there like to give only to causes that have no political agenda or are not funded by the government and this is one, like the RNLI in which your money will go to help those who should be brought up to be proud of their country yet have been abandoned by successive governments and the political establishment to see the English as something we are not. No other nation in the UK has had the vilification that the English have had to put up with, where our flag is described in the media as that of hooligans where politicians have apologised for our history and tried to pretend that somehow British = English, but only to the English, never to any other national group.
The fightback began after devolution, the English are slowly awakening to see what has been done against them, this charity is a start, I hope you will give it moral support if you cannot give it financial support.

An utter waste of time

Seems there's going to be a new (all expenses paid) independent commission to discuss a new UK Bill of Rights as people are not too happy with the European Court of Human Rights interfering in our system using the Human Rights Act as justification for its meddling (thanks Labour).
BBC.

An independent commission has started to seek views from the public on the need for a UK Bill of Rights.
The Commission on a UK Bill of Rights was set up by the government in March to explore a range of issues around human rights law.
It came amid a row over a 2005 European Court of Human Rights' ruling that the UK was unlawfully operating a blanket ban preventing prisoners from voting.
MPs voted overwhelmingly to defy the ruling and maintain the ban.
The free vote took place in parliament in February.
Prime Minister David Cameron famously said that the prospect of lifting the ban made him feel "physically ill".
The controversy was one of many in which the application of human rights law infuriated parts of the press and the country.

Sounds great so far, though here's the main problem, the source of all the complaints will have to remain in place and be the building block of any new Bill of Rights...

However, the Commission's terms of reference make it clear that a British Bill of Rights will build on the UK's obligations under the European Convention and ensure that the convention's rights continue to be enshrined in British law.

In other words they are wasting our time and money doing something which isn't going to work anyway.
The only way a UK bill of Rights will work is if we remove the Human Rights Actand go from earlier Bills of Rights which suit our people and not an amorphous EU whole. That's not to say I don't think people, even criminals have rights, just that some rights aren't actually a right at all. With rights there equally should come responsibilities, if you break the law, you lose certain rights including the right to roam free and commit further crimes and also the right to respect for family life and privacy along with any opportunity to vote too. A complex system of equal rights for all simply will not work if the villain has exactly the same rights as the victim. The only rights a villain should have are the right to a fair trial, the right to appeal and the right to be housed and fed securely and safely at her majesties pleasure. That's all the basic rights they need, the law abiding rest of us get the full package.
Cameron was supposed to be getting rid of the HRA, naturally enough he hasn't, he really even tried for a British Bill of Rights, he got told by Ken Clarke that such a bill would have to lie on top of EU law anyway and not supersede it. No-one in government it seems is prepared to do anything about injustices within the HRA system, no one in government it seems is willing to leave the EU, the ECHR and scrap the hideous legislation foisted upon us by the previous government such as the HRA and the abysmal Equalities Act.
Seems they'd rather ignore abuse than do something about it and then they wonder why we hold them in contempt.

False economy

No, not about cheap flyspray or weedkiller but about the MSM's obsession with spurious data and trying to make themselves look like consumer champions.
Mail.

Cutting through the sales patter when buying a TV is difficult at the best of times.
But now it seems that the cables can trip us up, too.
High Street chains have been accused of ripping off customers by encouraging them to spend up to £100 on high-definition leads which are no more effective than ones costing as little as £2.
However, when a technology magazine showed experts footage using a £100 cable from electronics company Monster and an unbranded version costing about £2, they found the picture quality to be identical.
Ruslan Kogan, the boss of cable manufacturer Kogan Technologies, claims retailers are carrying out a marketing scam.

The only scam going on here is the sales patter to get people to buy an expensive lead, sure £100 pound is far too much to spend on an HDMI cable, but rest assured, £2 is far too little unless it meets certain requirements.
Yes a £2 cable will work perfectly at first, that's because when you get it, it wont have any oxidisation on the terminals. Now oxidisation is bad news on any signal carrying cable as oxidised matter (rust) does not transmit an electrical signal very well and when it goes on for too long it will have an effect. You also have an anode/cathode effect between dissimilar materials too which will accelerate corrosion, essentially a cheap cable made from cheap materials will deteriorate quite badly possibly within a year and may not just damage itself but the connection to your device.
Oddly enough there's one material which does not corrode or oxidise and which is a very good conductor of electrical current and frequencies and that material is gold. Gold is not cheap, gold plated connectors are however still pretty cheap and you can find them online for about £1.70. However the savings you make there will be offset by the quality of the product as the plating itself will be so thin (0.7 micron) as to have a chance of wearing away, gold is expensive, but it's also soft too.
Essentially you should when connecting an HDMI cable from the dvd player/sky/virgin connection box use a quality cable. No, don't spend over £100 on one, you'd be daft if you do. But on the otherhand don't spend any more than £15 which will give you a better level of plating (1.5 micron) and a better level of shielding from other interference.
But it's up to you in the end what you do, unlike the government I'm not about to force a minimum standard on you, but one of life's basic rules when playing in a market is that you get exactly what you pay for.
Same with cheap sausages.