The idiocy of the easily offended

The are those out there who are easily offended, they are the type who can get a program suspended with one complaint, cause major offence to others by being offended in their name, even find offence where there essentially is none. They tend to be self loathing types who look for problems and issues where there are none and who seek the glare of publicity for their fifteen minutes of fame to highlight an 'issue' which essentially isn't...
Telegraph.

Customers say the £3 St George's Cross, with the word "England" on the red cross looks like the hoods worn by the racist US organisation
Supermarket Asda has defended a "wearable England flag" it has launched for the World Cup after claims it resembles a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
The £3 St George's Cross, with the word "England" on the red cross, features a hood which Asda said was to allow fans to wear it and stay dry despite the unpredictable British weather.
But some fans took to Twitter to point out what they believe were similarities with the hoods worn by the racist US organisation, also known by its initials "KKK".
One user called Kieran posted a picture of himself at his @KieranCPhoto account, writing: "Asda are selling wearable England flags, they look dodgy to say the least ..."
Another user called Simon replied on his @HungryHatter account: "'ENGLAND RULES OKKK' Honestly, do Asda simply not bother to see how these things look when worn? *sigh*"

As the KKK aren't an English organisation, nor do they have much if any support in England clearly this is a case of morons with too much time on their hands. Nor as far as I can tell do the hoodie flags cover the face and have eye holes in them as the KKK outfits do.

England fan

KKK member

Rather easy to spot the difference you might think.
I'm rather surprised that local witches and wizards haven't come out of the woodwork to complain about associating to their beliefs by wearing a pointy hat, nor anyone who wore a dunces cap either complaining about the memories invoked either come to that.
I suppose you could even get complaints about the Guatemalan cucurucho garb being mocked if you really want to get down to some serious being offended.

Cucurucho style

You see its only a flag, not an outfit and not meant to offend anyone, though the easily offended will no doubt continue to believe that anyone who drapes themselves with the flag of St George is a racist (closet or otherwise) simply because their self loathing will not allow them to do anything else.
It's one of those things where if you go looking for something long enough and hard enough, you'll find it, even if no one else save a few of your fellow morons can see it or wants to see it.

Cry God for England and St George!

St George & England

• St Adomnán, the Abbot of Iona in Scotland, provides Britain’s earliest recorded reference to Saint George in the 7th Century. He details the story of the Saint’s exploits, which had been told to him by a French bishop named Arcuif who had travelled to Jerusalem with the crusaders
• St Bede the Venerable (c.a. 673-735) from Northern England, also made reference to St George in his writings
• As the Crusaders returned to England from foreign shores, they brought with them tales of St George, and his reputation grew
• A church in Fordington, Dorset, records the ‘miracle appearance’, where St George presented himself outside Jerusalem in 1099 and led the Crusaders into battle. The story is etched into stone over the southern door of the church which still stands today. It is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to the patron Saint
• English soldiers wore a sign of St George on their chest and on their backs in the 14th century, as the Saint was regarded as a special protector of the English
• King Edward III (1312-1377) founded the Order of the Garter (1348), the premier order of chivalry or knighthood in England. The Order was put under Saint George’s patronage and the medal is awarded on the 23rd April by the reigning Monarch
• The King’s predecessors Edward IV & Henry VII, oversaw the construction of the beautiful St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, which presented itself as the chapel of the Order
• It was in the year 1415 AD that St. George became the Patron Saint of England when English Soldiers under Henry V when he won the battle of Agincourt
• In 1497, during the reign of Henry VIII, the pennant of the Cross of St. George was flown by John Cabot when he sailed to Newfoundland and it was also flown by Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh
• In 1620 it was the flag that was flown by the Mayflower when the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is also the flag of the Church of England and as such is known throughout Christendom
• In the year 1728 AD Maximilian II Emanuel, the Elector of Bavaria, established by Papal Bull The Royal Military Order of St George, as a means of honouring distinguished military service for it was clear that by this time, his name had become associated with the purity of spirit, selfless devotion to duty and boundless courage and valour in the face of adversity
• In more recent times, St George was chosen as the patron saint of Scouting, because of the ideals that he represents and it is interesting to note that he is also the Patron Saint of Barcelona in Catalonia, Aragon, Russia, Bavaria, Beirut, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Lithuania and Hungary, to name but a few. Virtually every country in Europe and the Commonwealth has a church dedicated to St. George
• During World War II King George VI established the George Cross for outstanding acts of Civilian Valour and one of the earliest recipients was the Island of Malta, for its outstanding courage in the face of the constant bombardment by the Italian and German Air forces. It is, coincidentally, the Island that was closely associated and governed by the Crusaders who arrived from the Island of Rhodes in the 14” Century, following their 200 year war with the Turks
• In the 13th Century, there was a Guild of St. George to which the Honourable Company of Pikemen were related before evolving into the Honourable Artillery Company. Many regiments of the Army still celebrate St. George’s Day with great ceremony

With thanks to stgeorgesday.com for the information.

The St Crispin's Day speech from Henry V from whence the blog post title stems...

Giving to your own

Labour have announced their intentions to allow English cities more power over transport, housing and employment should they win the next UK election. On the surface this looks like a good idea, however, anyone who knows how voting demographics work will realise that all Labour are doing is handing cash over to be wasted by mostly Labour Councils and away from government scrutiny.
BBC.

Labour is to promise English cities more powers over transport, housing and employment to help close the "productivity gap" with London.
If elected, the party will commit to handing £20bn to councils to spend on skills, back-to-work schemes and infrastructure, leader Ed Miliband is expected to say in a speech on Tuesday.
Local authorities will have to bid for cash and put private sector jobs first.
The Labour leader will say the UK needs to "build prosperity" outside London.

This is pretty much on a par with the BBC moving to Manchester and racking up massive transport bills as staff commute from there to London or the big civil servant projects to build large departments outside of the capital. London simply got bigger as more and more people moved there for the range of services it provides in various categories. Yes Labour look like they'll insist on private sector priority, but the private sector will only go where there are skilled workers and Government interference with education has already turned out masses of failed students into the UK. Capital cities always attract both services and industry unless they are simply administrative places. Reversing the tide with the likes of London will simply not work by throwing money at (mostly) Labour local government, it's not like they have a great track record with taxpayers cash now is it? We'll end up with make-work grandiose projects such as tram systems but precious few jobs at the end of them, oh and probably obscenely paid chief executives too as jobs for the political class drones.
I doubt this has been thought out more than simply a good idea to thrill the voters and Labour supporters in the rest of England. It can't work the way they think it will and most of the money will no doubt be wasted.

Observations

I'm back, stepdaughter is now ok and the grandkids have exhausted me.
I did note a few things whilst on my travels down to Devon and back, they may be specific to me, but I thought I'd get them down whilst I'm recovering...

In no specific order of importance...

• In the case of drivers who have suffered the equivalent of a full frontal lobotomy, why do they all gravitate to either a black VW Polo (if young) or a silver merc (if an old/middle age fart)?
• When travelling on a single carriageway (max mph) why do some folk happily tootle along at 50 to 55 mph with a large entourage behind them (cursing like as not) then when hitting a dual carriageway stretch immediately floor it to 70+ mph only to return to 50 to 55 mph when the dual carriageway ends and no one can get past?
• Why do Devonians put jam on their cream tea scones first then the cream and Cornish people put the cream on first? Is it just to be different?
• I did wonder at a host of missing cat posters in the Bideford/Clovelly area in which I was staying, at least until I spotted this...

Yes, it's an eagle owl!

• Gliding across the field from where I was staying and it all became clear, I suspect the local falconry establishment have much to hide...
•  Devonians love playing with the English language to fool pretty much everyone, after all who but the English would come up with the spelling of the village of Woolfardisworthy only to pronounce it Woolsery.

Normal service will probably restart tomorrow.

Not nearly enough

Can you imagine what sentence you'd get if you went on a twenty minute racist rant at a sports referee during a match? Particularly if you are already in breach of a 32 weeks suspended prison term for assault.
You'd expect the book thrown at you, you'd expect like Emma West to be caught up in the system for over a year whilst every inch of your private life is gone over with a fine toothed comb.
Well you'd expect that if you were English at least...
Mail.

An Asian footballer who racially abused a referee and threatened to kill his family after he was sent off during a match has been jailed for his 20-minute rant.
Wasar Ahmed, 23, launched a foul-mouthed racist tirade against Ian Fraser after he gave him a red card warning the official: 'I’m going to break every white bone in your white face.'
As the other players and spectators looked on, angry Ahmed was escorted off the field shouting: 'I’m going to burn your white house down and kill your wife and kids - I know where you live. I’m going to come and find your house.'
After the game finished, Ahmed stood near to Mr Fraser’s car and stared at him as he got in.
He was arrested soon after when the referee, who has 30 years' experience in officiating at matches, went to a police station and made a formal complaint to officers and the East Lancashire Football League.
At Burnley Crown Court, jobless Ahmed, from Burnley, admitted causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress and was jailed for eight weeks after a judge said referees were entitled to protection from badly behaved footballers.
Ahmed later said he could not remember exactly what he said but admitted he had lost his temper.
It was also revealed he was in breach of a 32 weeks suspended prison term for assault.

Yep, 8 weeks which essentially means he'll be out and about in three, if he isn't out already.
There's also the 'Asian' thing again, though the name is a giveaway as Wasar Ahmed is a muslim of Pakistani descent.
Does anyone here believe that if a white person had done the same he'd have received the same kid glove treatment? I suppose it's possible, though judging from what has happened to racists who are white it does seem unlikely. Emma West for example got a 24 month community order, granted no prison, but she's still dealing with it.
Also of note is the guy with the bomb tattoo at the EDL demo was arrested and seems likely to be charged with “inciting religious or racial hatred” which if he's found guilty of will mean jail.
It will be interesting to see what sentence he gets as all he had was a picture... hell the poppy burners only got a £50 fine...

 

And this is news???

Apparently there's some concern about the English actually believing themselves to be... well, English. Apparently the English are supposed to consider themselves as British, rather than English as it gives the UK government a tea towel of legitimacy with regards to the Scots, Welsh and Irish having their own parliaments/assemblies. The fact that the English alone of the indigenous peoples of Europe do not have their own parliament seems to have escaped the people concerned who appears would rather we simply went away and became British again...
Express.

MORE than a third of people living in the UK identify themselves as English, rather than British, a new report has revealed.
The landmark report has found that the numbers in England voluntarily describing themselves as British is the lowest of any survey since 1996.
The news came as plans emerged allowing England’s MPs a veto on issues not affecting Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
35 per cent of those living in Britain place their English identity before any sense of Britishness, the report has said, while just one-in-ten claims “to be more British than English”.
“Englishness is emerging more clearly as a result of devolution elsewhere in the UK,” says Welsh academic, Richard Wyn Jones, the co-author of England and its Two Unions, the report published by the Institute of Public Policy Research.
“What has emerged is a different kind of Anglo-British identity in which the ‘Anglo’ component is increasingly considered the primary source of identity,” the report said.

You can almost feel the collective horror of the liberal leftist ruling classes as they suddenly believe themselves assailed by the horribly racist English  For indeed that is what it is to be English in their eyes and why they spent the last 70 years trying to stamp it out.
Even minor reforms such as giving English MP's the power of veto over any legislation regarding England alone does not seem to have stemmed the tide as more and more of the indigenous population regard themselves as something the political classes regard as rather beyond the pale.
You can often see the surprise when you confront a liberal/leftist with the details that the only British thing about you is your passport and you'd change that if you could. The fact that most have no problems with the other countries of the UK saying the same rather shows them up as the narrow minded bigots that they are.
I expect Englishness and the belief that people are English first and foremost to grow amongst the indigenous population of England. It's a form of rebellion and frankly more than overdue.

Offended? Well yes, I suppose 'you' would be...

Well I'm back from Egypt having had a great time, I'll write about my experiences at some other time though, possibly the weekend when I have a bit more time.
One of the first things to hit me upon my return to England was the work of property management firm Places for People who apparently finf my countries flag so offensive that despite it being on a blokes door for over 10 years decided that it would have to go, despite the guy having won awards for the upkeep of his house.
The Sun.

A PATRIOTIC ex-soldier who painted a St George’s flag on his front door has been ordered to cover it up by his housing association landlords who claim it could be considered "offensive" and may bring "distress" to neighbours.
Steven Rolfe, 52, painted the red and white colours of the English flag on his rented home in Preston, Lancs, 10 years ago and added hanging baskets to celebrate his love of England and mark his former career in the forces.
But despite being runner up in a council "best kept house" competition, he has now received a letter from an official at property management firm Places for People saying neighbours could be "alarmed" by the symbol.
The letter also warned the design could place him in a category of "nuisance neighbours" and said it could see him being evicted if he failed to cover it up.
In a letter to Mr Rolfe, Neighbourhood Officer Leanne Hardy gave him 14 days to repaint the door saying: "It has been brought to my attention that you have painted your front door in a way that could be considered offensive."
When he asked for permission to keep the flag, Ms Hardy sent another letter refusing his request and giving him seven days to paint over it in one colour.
She also warned him that failure could see him being in breach of his tenancy agreement.
In her letter Ms Hardy said the flag design fell foul of rules tackling unruly tenants who caused "a nuisance, annoyance, disturbance or harassment" of others.
Ms Hardy also said his conduct breached tenancy conditions concerning those tenants who were "injurious to the interests of neighbours" and those who "cause distress, alarm or interfere with the peace and comfort of any other person."
Mr Rolfe, who served in Northern Ireland, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I got the letter.

Why am I not surprised that Ms hardy is a Ms...
As it is, you have to wonder at what Places for People are playing at, sure the guy didn't have permission to paint the door, but considering that he did do it in 2003, you have to suspect that if there were a real problem, it would have surfaced by now.
Places for People have since apologised for calling the flag offensive, though one suspects that Ms Hardy doesn't agree with with their 'official' position, they are however still trying to evict the guy for having painted it 10 years ago without 'official' permission. This is the fallback position of any organisation where the actions of one of their officials however barmy need to be backed up no matter what the fallout from the decision.
It's interesting that only the company seems to have a problem with what Mr Rolfe has done, no one else from the local community or Labour Party seems to have an issue with the door. But, that's what happens when someone gets offended by proxy...

Cry God! For England and St George!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In England's green and pleasant Land

Have a good patriotic St George's day

Out thought, out fought and out played

Well the England grand Slam dream crashed and burned yesterday as Wales totally dominated the match to run away at 30 : 3.
It was a match where the Welsh showed that passion combined with experience is a very potent mix as they completely destroyed the England side in all aspects of the game. They also 'gamed' the referee beautifully over the scrum decisions and left England with an awful lot of questions to answer.
In the end I believe England will learn from this, that they will come back and that this is a lesson they badly needed in what it's like to play in a partisan atmosphere with a team carried on a wave of enthusiasm. They failed to close down the Welsh attack and their own initiatives looked clumsy and predictable. Gone were the last few matches of brilliant, competent defence as the Welsh were able to punch through with ease particularly in the second half.
Was there anything England could have done to turn things around?
Well they could have changed things around in the rucks and mauls when it became obvious that the Welsh had their lack of numbers sussed and were getting their in strength to keep the ball moving forward in a straight line. A little more disciple in the line outs (again we lost far too many)  and a lot more savvy in the scrum. Still that's what coaches are for and experience will bring. So long as the lessons really are learned...

One nation, one language

It has always struck me as odd and costly that local councils, public services and national government bureaus translate documents into various different languages for the people who live here in England (Scotland and Wales, different rules apply) Seems I'm not the only one who thinks this, though i suspect eric Pickles will find himself ignored by local government, it seems to be a habit of theirs.
Telegraph.

Councils must stop spending tens of millions of pounds pointlessly translating leaflets and documents into foreign languages, Eric Pickles has said.
The Communities and Local Government secretary said translating documents was a “very expensive and poor use of taxpayers’ money”. Mr Pickles told MPs in the House of Commons he was concerned that the costs were being driven by human rights and equality laws and actually served to divide communities rather than unite them. Independent figures show that local authorities spend nearly £20million a year translating documents into a variety of different languages. Mr Pickles issued a Written Ministerial Statement urging councils to stop spending the money on the translation services. The statement replaced existing guidance on translation services, issued by former Communities secretary Hazel Blears in December 2007. Mr Pickles said: “Some local authorities translate a range of documents and other materials into languages spoken by their residents, and provide interpretation services.
“Whilst there may be rare occasions in which this is entirely necessary – for instance in emergency situations.
“I am concerned that such services are in many cases being provided unnecessarily because of a misinterpretation of equality or human rights legislation.”

Ah yes, it's a human right innit.
Thing is if you live in England you should at least make the effort to speak English and we should be like France where if you want something from the state local or national you do it in French, or you get an interpreter at your own expense.
And that's the rub isn't it, translation services don't come at the expense of those who need them, they come from the pockets of the taxpayer both local and national. To me (and probably you) it's quite simple, to those in charge and have budgets to maintain it's a necessity, though they'll never convince anyone other than their own feckless types that it is.
What we have are ghettoised areas where instead of having to integrate, the state has made it unnecessary for them. So naturally they don't, after all if we went to a foreign country to settle and they insisted in dealing with us in English we'd never integrate, we'd have no reason too.
Translation services should only be provided by the state in the case of an emergency. All others, you want it in Urdu, Gujarati, Polska, Arabic, you pay for it yourself.
Simple really.

 

Viva Italia!

Well if England ever needed proof that there are no easy games in international Rugby nor that they are destined to win at the Millennium Stadium Cardiff because they beat the team that beat Wales previously then yesterdays match hopefully will have knocked that out of them. That's not to say England were awful, they weren't, they produced some very good play at times, though looked terribly flat in their lines and lacked ruthlessness at critical moments. A series of unforced errors in kicking and a lack of discipline in tackling and marking didn't help either as they allowed Italy to dominate play at various times. Indeed the only try of the match came from Italy, all England's points came from penalties harking back to the days of Johnny Wilkinson and the grinding tactics of the past.
Even so, as I alluded too, this may have been a good thing for England giving them pause for thought and improvement. It may (though this is more unlikely) make Wales more complacent at Cardiff as they will look at England's performance and think 'well they can be beaten easily'
That said, the England starting line up will not be the one that walked out against Italy and I think that this is the year of an English Grand Slam. I just hope yesterdays poor performance will have knocked the arrogance out of England, because if they go into Cardiff with the belief that they can beat anyone, they'll lose and probably lose badly.

You're welcome to it...

Apparently the Scots are in love with the EU regarding it as some sort of paradise compared to what they consider to be English rule (not all Scots by any means) That there isn't really any English rule and the Scots have far more control over their country than the English do doesn't appear to matter to the person making this statement...
Telegraph.

Scotland is a pro-European nation that rejects David Cameron’s referendum on wresting back powers from the EU, Nicola Sturgeon has told an audience in Brussels.
The Deputy First Minister said Scots are far less sceptical of Europe than the English and pledged that a separate Scotland would be “proud and constructive partners in the European family”. She said the Prime Minister was “sleepwalking towards the exit” from Europe by promising an in-out EU referendum after he negotiates the repatriation of some powers back to the UK. Speaking to an audience that included representatives of countries like Andorra and Montenegro, but none of the major powers like Spain or Germany, she admitted for the first time Scotland's EU membership cannot be taken "for granted". But she faced accusations of departing from reality after claiming a separate Scotland could negotiate membership within only 16 months, while at the same time obtaining special treatment on the euro and the UK’s £3 billion rebate. Her statements on Scottish attitudes to the EU partly clashed with an opinion poll published earlier this month, which found 58 per cent of people backed the EU referendum planned for 2017 and 36 per cent are opposed.

Well that last bit seems to make the statement appear to be a bit of wishful thinking on Sturgeon's part, though in this she's actually toeing the SNP party line in that rule by England = bad, rule by Brussels = good. This is despite having their own parliament (which is more than the English have) as well as more control over what happens to their countrymen and women (ditto)
Frankly if the SNP want to go their own way most English would cheer them on, if they want to take our place in the EU we'd no doubt assist them in doing so. Problem is, most English cannot see them doing so, but we hope. Perhaps if the SNP had allowed the English a vote as to whether we wanted to keep Scotland, the referendum on independence might have been a foregone conclusion.
It does rather strike me that the SNP's narrative vis the English seems to be more a figment of their own imaginings, most of us have far more contempt of Westminster than they do seeing it as British rule of the English nation. Certainly the MP's elected there don't seem to go out of their way to look after the largest nation.
Still I suppose it's a case of the big lie theory. Keep pushing the English = bad and no doubt some will believe it, certainly the number of violent attacks on the English by Scots as well as casual bigotry by some would appear to indicate that hate is a stronger binding factor than persuasion.
Still it might be the ultimate act of revenge by the English on the Scots, pushing through their membership of the EU as we get out.

Vive la différence

Definitely a game of two halves, though sorry for parroting a football cliché.
England 23 : 13 France though anyone who'd simply watched the first half would have thought it a travesty as France dominated the early stages with a strong pack and some breathtaking running skills. England did hold their own in the kicking department though as Owen Farrell kept England in contention despite a brilliant French try. The sheer power of the French pack had England knocked back on their heels and it was a very different France who had failed in their previous two Six nations attempts against Italy and Wales.Indeed England were extremely fortuitous to hold the score to a one point deficit at half time to England 9 : 10 France.
And then, and then...
It was the difference in the strength of the two sides coupled by some bizarre substitutions by France taking off some of their better players and bringing on others who took them back to the previous two match indiscipline and lack of coordination. This along with some 'lucky' refereeing decisions in England's favour meant that it was England who totally dominated the second half and drove the French back on their heels with a try and three conversions two of whom came from Toby Flood who replaced the injured Owen Farrell. It was this strength in depth where England could replace like for like that put France to the sword, despite the French having a more talented initial starting line drawn from their domestic sides who are currently dominating the Heineken cup and with good reason.
In the end the score did not do France justice on their first half performance, but, overall it did underline the strength that England can bring to bear as the minutes tick by and tired bodies and minor injuries necessitate the interchanging of players. France were undone by a lack of strength in depth and at the end it showed as their discipline slipped and a series of unforced errors kept them well away from England's 22.
I doubt Italy will stand in much better stead in two weeks time at Twickenham, though stranger things have happened. Wales though at the Millennium Stadium in three weeks, that I think will decide just whether this England side will have a decent chance in the up and coming world cup...

♫ When Irish eyes are crying ♪

Another day another England victory, though this was a far harder test than Scotland at home. England had not won in Dublin for ten years and our record against the Irish in recent years has not been that great, though the Welsh still can be considered our hoodoo team in the Six Nations. Still this was a (relatively) inexperienced England side (250 caps) vs a more experienced Irish one (500 caps) yet it didn't show at all in a scrappy first half not helped by the weather which led to a lot of handling errors though mostly on the Irish side of things. One major area of failing though for England was the line up throws, for some reason or other the communication skills were not so great yesterday and there were a lot of unforced errors though the Irish were unable to capitalise on them. Still England led at half time by 0 to 6 courtesy of some well taken penalties.
The second half started badly as a series of unforced errors led to Ireland getting three points back on the board followed up by equalising the score after James Haskell was given a yellow card for hitting the ball with his foot when attempting to leave a ruck. At this point with Haskell off the pitch for ten minutes you'd suspect a game change opportunity for Ireland and indeed they got one with England suddenly putting the lock down with two more penalties and an almost try for Tuilagi leaving the score at Ireland 6 : 12 England. It was a scrappy match and Ireland can complain about key injuries on the pitch, though they certainly could consider themselves lucky that Cian Healy remained on the pitch after a vicious stamp on an England players ankle during a first half ruck.
So a good victory for England, grinding out a result against an Irish side which dominated the possession, though did not look like scoring any tries and indeed very rarely looked threatening or able to gain ball possession in England's 22'. A mark of a good side is its ability to grind out results when the conditions or opposition make it necessary. This England side are not a great side yet, but it looks quite promising.

Oh Calcutta

Ever since England Rugby's win against the All Blacks back in December of lasy year I have been looking forward to the Six Nations championship just to see if the promises hinted at during that final match of the Autumn  campaign were coming to fruition.
I was not disappointed.
Yes certainly there were areas in which England could improve, however the stupid mistakes and unforced error count which was almost sky high when England were in either their own or their opponents 22' were virtually gone and they have moved away from grinding down their opponents with endless frontal assaults to a game of rapid movement from the ball being moved quickly if possible out of the ruck's and mauls.
Yes it left them exposed at times particularly to a counter attack which Scotland were able to use magnificently on two occasions to get two very good tries, but in the end it left England dominating the field for long periods in which they were the ones forcing the errors rather than has been in the past having errors forced upon them.

The Calcutta cup

Btw, did anyone notice that England appeared to have a very young Brian Blessed playing for them?

Yes, him on the left

Racism

Not normally a subject spoken about when talking about white on white, though in the UK it's apparently ok if the people being discriminated against are the majority. Not that those who commit this type of discrimination or racism consider it to be racist of course, they cannot countenance that their behaviour might be wrong...
Telegraph.

Anti-English rhetoric is at risk of “creeping” into Scottish society after police reported a record number of racist attacks against white Britons, it was claimed last night.
Police recorded 1,295 racist incidents in 2011/12 where the victim was white and British. The total is up a quarter on the previous year and 57 per cent more than in 2004/05.
The category includes both attacks on English people and incidents where the victim is Scottish and the perpetrator is from an ethnic minority.
But the vast majority of perpetrators were also white, suggesting that many cases involved racism against the English.
SNP ministers said they were “very disappointed” by the figures but opposition parties said racist attacks against English people should be treated with the same seriousness as those directed at ethnic minorities.
The overall number of racist attacks increased by 10 per cent last year, with the largest number of incidents directed against the Pakistani community.

Thing is the Scottish Nation (though not individual Scots as such) have a history of anti-English violence along with a history of sectarianism which has often been excused as apparently the English 'ruled' them from Westminster and because the English were 'occupiers' that somehow justified bigotry, hatred and discrimination. Recent cases include the 'brave' Scot who attacked an English schoolboy for wearing an England top. Along with a woman beaten up simply because she was English. All condemned of course yet a symptom of a deep malaise or perhaps an inferiority complex in Scotland itself after all defining yourself by who you hate does not seem to be terribly healthy, yet I cannot recall any other nation selling 'anyone but...' tee shirts. No, I'm not talking about incidents where people have made light-hearted comments about English people, this is obviously going beyond that, there's nothing wrong with banter and the English are no strangers to it. But you don't hear of cases where people of known Scottish origin are beaten up in England simply because they are Scottish, do you?
The Scots will soon vote on going their own way, I wish them every success in this, perhaps it will help some of them at least 'grow up' Though I have my doubts...

Too good to be true?

One of the many problems this country faces is its energy dependence on foreign suppliers, from Russian gas to Islamic oil, neither having our best interests at heart. Yet essentially we're a technological society that depends on the burning of hydrocarbons to produce the power we need, for transport and power generation. Despite the claims of the greens, a hell of a lot of hydrocarbons go into the making of their bird-mincers and sunshine panels, environmentally friendly they aren't save at the point of use and they aren't even particularly efficient there either. Still when someone comes up with a formula to produce petrol from air you have to wonder just what medication they're on (and could we have some)
Telegraph.

A small company in the north of England has developed the “air capture” technology to create synthetic petrol using only air and electricity.
Experts tonight hailed the astonishing breakthrough as a potential “game-changer” in the battle against climate change and a saviour for the world’s energy crisis.
The technology, presented to a London engineering conference this week, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The “petrol from air” technology involves taking sodium hydroxide and mixing it with carbon dioxide before "electrolysing" the sodium carbonate that it produces to form pure carbon dioxide.
Hydrogen is then produced by electrolysing water vapour captured with a dehumidifier.
The company, Air Fuel Syndication, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol.
Company officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months from a small refinery in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside.

As an engineer having worked occasionally in the chemicals industry at first I thought this must be complete bollocks (and my engineering hindbrain is still telling me that too) I'm also wondering about the laws of conservation of energy too, it simply doesn't happen that you get more out than you put in, you can release energy, you can't create it so to speak. Yet if the process is economically viable in producing a petrol substitute at less (or equivalent too) the current market cost then these guys are onto a winner. Though again the usual caveats involving cold fusion apply here, if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.
Nor can we expect that the big fuel companies will be interested, not unless of course they can see at least as much profit for themselves in it, still a chemical plant in a nice safe democracy has got to be a better bet than an unstable theocracy...
If we can break the ties to foreign energy supply via shale and now this process we may be able to turn back some of the overt influences those suppliers have forced upon us too (yes we're looking at you Saudi Arabia) so I'm going to watch this one very carefully and hope some middle east cartel doesn't buy it and bury it...

I thought that was the point?

My thoughts generally on Scottish independence run to the lines that it's up to the Scots, I'm far more interested in English independence, though sadly no-one is suggesting we get a vote to drop out of the Union. Yet you have to wonder at the mentality of certain politicians involved in the debate.
BBC.

Former UK chancellor Alistair Darling has launched the bid to keep the Union, saying there will be no way back from Scottish independence.
He compared independence to buying "a one-way ticket to send our children to a deeply uncertain destination".
Mr Darling argued Scotland could have the "best of both worlds", with a strong parliament at Holyrood and a secure place in the United Kingdom.

Bit of a no shit Sherlock moment for old badger brows there, as I thought the entire point of Scotland going alone would mean that there was no going back, I'd presume that if for some reason or other they wanted to come back that we (the rest of us) would have to be asked if we wanted them. As currently there is a majority of the English who want them to go (another reason we'll never be asked) I can see that would be a rather tricky referendum for any government. So I guess from their point of view it would be much easier for the Scots to stay and the English under no circumstances whatsoever be asked what they actually think of the Union, much easier to pretend presume we like it.
The breathtaking hypocrisy of old badger brows can also be recognised in the second  statement too when he states Scotland could have the "best of both worlds", with a strong parliament at Holyrood and a secure place in the United Kingdom. No mention of the fact that the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish all have their own parliaments with their own local MP's dealing with local devolved issues. I doubt the elephant in the room of an English parliament has ever occurred to him, or if it has then totally dismissed, he's far happier after all having the best of both worlds.
And that's really the nub of the entire Unionist argument, having the best of both worlds and to hell with what the English want. The fact that they have their own parliament, make their own decisions on what's best for them never translates into equality for all. They ignore the utter hypocrisy of non English MP's voting on English matters in the UK parliament. After all, they're all right...

England 0 : 0 Italy England go out on penalties.

What is it with penalties and England sides? Yes we struggled, yes Italy were far the better side, yes they were deserved winners. But, how come our players can't take penalties to save their lives?
It's truly weird...

Not my flag, not my country #2

I do wish the government would give up on its ideas to try and make me (and the rest of the UK) something that a majority of us think we aren't. Yes I'm talking about 'Britishness' something I believe only applies to recent immigrants and deluded politicians (along with occasional royalists)
Mail.

The Union Jack is to be displayed on driving licences under Government plans to 'reinforce a sense of Britishness'.
Currently, plastic photocard UK licences bear the European Union flag but no British national symbol.
But Downing Street and the Department for Transport say they will use the introduction of new licences in three years' time to change the design to include the British flag and possibly also the Royal coat of arms.

OK, back to the QM straw poll, when the jubilee was being celebrated there were two union flags being flown from houses on my estates I'm not sure how many cars had them, but it was in the single figures, if not none at all. During Euro 2012, there are currently seven Cross of St George flags flying on houses and fifteen cars (at least) have England flags fluttering above them and that doesn't include my own England fluffy dice either.
I'm not British, I refuse to be British other than as a description as to coming from the British Isles, it's not my nationality it's not my country. It's a made up catch all term used to describe the ruling class of the country, it had some meaning from before 1997, though the mask started to slip a little in Euro 1996 when at least we had one parliament to govern us. Now the Scots and Welsh (along with the Northern Irish)  have their own parliaments and we're ruled by a British parliament including Scot's and Welsh MP's who make decisions with regard to the whole of Britain and the UK, not just the bit of it called England. Nor do they usually even mention England, it's always 'this country' or 'our country' as if they are ashamed of England or the word England, yet when they speak of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland they are always specific.
The people judging by my straw poll are as ever one step ahead of the political classes (at least) and this move will not help unite us, if anything it simply alienates the indigenous people of the UK even more.