Defending our interests

In recent years the governments ideas of what our interests are and what they actually are differs by a great degree. They'll often use humanitarian interests to excuse a military adventure in support of economic interests, which is not the same thing at all. After all, other than oil, we didn't have any real interest in what Saddam Hussein got up too in Iraq, sure he was a destabilising influence on the region, but what isn't?
We interfered in the Balkans, again an area ripe for civil war and if anything left an even bigger mess than when we started as we basically supported the wrong sides and handed over Kosovo to those who didn't own or have a right to it in the first place. The seeds of WW2 were sown in the armistice of WW1 and that's pretty much what we've done in the Balkans...
Again and again we've in recent years taken military action in areas that aren't our concern and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Still, at least some of our MP's are beginning to realise this...
Express.

THE large number of military veterans among MPs is likely to make the House of Commons “more cautious” when voting on sending troops abroad, a Sunday Express survey has found.
A total of 62 MPs, almost 10 per cent of the 650, have served in the Armed Forces.
However, rather than making for a more gung-ho chamber, those who have “felt the heat and smelled the cordite” are likely to be more hesitant in voting for military action overseas.
All the 15 MPs surveyed by the Sunday Express agreed that experience of active service has taught them the importance of caution.
Dan Jarvis, a former paratrooper and special forces major who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said: “There is no doubt those who experience conflict first-hand are extremely cautious about making sure that deploying troops is only done as a final resort. The fact that I’ve been to war in two places means I understand the implications of putting boots on the ground.” Mr Jarvis, the only Labour MP with an Army background, added: “History will look very carefully at some of the advice provided in the mid-Nineties about our abilities to sustain activities in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Yes, hindsight is a great tool in judging the mistakes of the past, though a little foresight would do our MP's far more good. I mean can you imagine us sending troops to Afghanistan or Iraq? Allowing mass uncontrolled immigration, multiculturalism rather than integration... even the Labour Party electing Gordon Brown.
Then again some leftards believe that mass uncontrolled immigration was and is a good idea...
I don't really ascribe to conspiracy theories, but I do suspect that economic influences rather than humanitarian interests have been at the core of British and the EU's foreign policies for the last couple of decades. Oil being one economic factor, precious metals being another, I suspect water will be the next.
Perhaps it's time to bring the troops home and withdraw from the world for a while whilst we sort out the internal threats to this country from those who live here and hate the very idea of England.
Then, and only then should we look to sorting out other peoples problems, but not with troops, voluntary aid sounds about right and the government doesn't get to volunteer us either...
We certainly need the ability to deal with any direct threats to our country, but Afghanistan or Iraq... even the Balkans were no threat and if anything we made things worse.
Let the world sort itself out, we have enough problems of our own without sticking our noses in elsewhere.

Amoral Familism

Amoral Familism is a term used to describe the institution in certain groups by which they place value on the immediate family/tribe rather than say the common good or what's good for all. Western civilisation shed this concept when it entered the age of the nation state and society extended its outlook from the immediate to the inclusive. We have the concept of England and English and the strong bonds within whereby we'll act according to the concepts of the national interest rather than what's good for me, my family, or my tribe. That's not to say we don't have self interests and don't look after our families, but that it's not the be all and end all of the way we look at things.
Sadly other societies, including some who have settled amongst us do not have this outlook.
BBC.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve has said politicians need to "wake up" to the issue of corruption in some minority communities.
Mr Grieve told the Daily Telegraph it was not restricted to "any one community" but he was referring mainly to "the Pakistani community".
He said it must be made "absolutely clear" that a "favour culture" is unacceptable in Britain.
One Pakistan-born MP accused Mr Grieve of "dividing" communities.
Mr Grieve told the Telegraph he would be "wary of saying" it was just a Pakistani problem, pointing out corruption was found in the "white Anglo-Saxon" community too.

The favour culture is endemic in societies who are amoral familists, it means that in order to get something done, you need to be related to the people doing it or pay over the odds and still have to wait if a family member wants something done first. It also means that certain communities will only vote for their own and will use criminal methods to ensure that a member of that community will get ahead, hence the electoral postal vote fraud in certain communities.
The other problem with amoral familists is that they do not see other communities as 'people' hence high-profile stories involving child abuse, Islamist extremism, slavery and corruption within those communities committed against those who are not are often prevalent in the news and brought to your attention by blogs like this. It's also why those communities are often closed to outsiders, paranoid, defensive and subject to violence if their way of life and beliefs are challenged. That the moronic left are willing to stand and defend them is simply a bonus to them and reinforces their supremacism. This is despite the fact that once those communities gain real power, the left are usually the first up against the wall.
As my previous post said, we are storing up a dreadful legacy for our children by allowing these communities to abuse our way of life.
It will end in tears.

Normalising a debased religion

I don't like islam, I believe that those who bomb, maim, mutilate, rob, steal, rape, groom underage children are all following in the exact words of its founder. That's not to say that all muslims are bad people, it's just my opinion that many are good people in spite of their religion, rather than because of it.
So it comes as no surprise that a leftard headmistress jumped the gun by telling parents that children would be marked down for racial discrimination if they did not attend a workshop on Islam. This is despite the fact that islam, nor muslim is actually a race despite the best attempts by the moronic left to insist that it is...
Mail.

Parents today accused a primary school of trying to 'blackmail' them after they were told their children would be marked down for racial discrimination if they did not attend a workshop on Islam.
The headmistress of Littleton Green Community School, in Huntington, Staffordshire, wrote to parents telling them about the school trip to the Explore Islam workshop at Staffordshire University next week.
They were told the Years Four and Six children would be looking at religious artefacts on their visit - and threatened with being labelled as racists 'throughout their school career' if they did not go.

Going through the various comments also displays a staggering ignorance with few being able to tell the difference between a religion and race. As for the schools reasoning that they have to study another religion, you'd think they'd opt to avoid one with a history of barbarism that stretches through to today. This comes on top of a threat of another twin towers outrage by muslim groups in Norway if they don't get a part of Oslo declared a muslim enclave under shariah law.
This is why there is no place for islam in any civilised society and this is why the left who have been complicit in apologising for these barbarians have no place in government, power or influence in the UK as they too are the enemies of civilisation.
We are storing up a dreadful legacy for our children by allowing this religion a place in our society in pretty much the same way as the left supported Hitler at the beginning of WW2 because of the pact between Hitler and Stalin and ended up horrified by the invasion of the barbaric Soviet Union.
You reap what you sow, something leftards and other apologists for the religion of hate seem to forget.

You've been googled...

I've played around with Google Earth looking for my house and my (various) places of work. It's interesting enough, but limited in the use I normally use for road maps to get from A to B.
That said, I suspect that there are some people in a housing estate in Hoylake, Wirral who would rather Google Earth didn't exist...
Telegraph.

People living on a UK street fear house prices could suffer after Google Earth images showed their estate resembles a giant penis.
Locals on George Road, Edward Road, and Yeoman Cottages in Hoylake, Wirral, fear potential house-hunters wouldn't want to buy a property in the phallic-shaped area.
When viewed from above, the red roofs on the homes – which have an average £200,000 price tag – make the cul-de-sac look like a penis.

AKA Cock and Balls Road.

 I'm sure someone somewhere would have taken an aerial shot at some stage and posted it, but for potential homebuyers, well Google Earth is one of the tools of choice and whoever designed the estate has certainly put a certain je ne sais quoi into the world of real estate blunders.
Definitely a case of caveat emptor...

Nice one

Or perhaps that should read eco-terrorists freed on bail.
On a day when HRH Juglugs announced that there could be more natural disasters because of global warming when referencing the recent cyclone in the Philippines and most of us looked askance at the word natural as in happening naturally, rather than unnaturally, after all, if it's natural then there's no stopping it. The Russians showed the world how to deal with the eco-terrorists of Greenpeace.
Mail.

Three of the British activists arrested by Russian authorities during a Greenpeace protest against drilling in the Arctic have been granted bail.
Activists Alex Harris, 27, from Devon, and Anthony Perrett, 32, from Newport and London journalist Kieron Bryan, 29, are the first of the six Britons in the so-called Arctic 30 to be given bail, following similar decisions affecting 12 others.
Mr Bryan's family said in a statement: 'It's amazing news to know that Kieron will be released from prison soon. We have been thinking of him every minute of every day and we can't wait to speak to him and see him.
'Our relief is obviously tempered by the fact that he is still facing absurd charges, despite the fact that he was just doing his job.

Odd that people believe that piracy is a 'job' these days. The good news is that it's Greenpeace who are being taken for upwards of  £2 million in bail charges, most of which they won't get back if their eco-terrorists pirates skip bail, which is a smart move by the Russians as it gets them foreign cash and means they don't have to feed and house the ecoloons if they do skip bail as they are allowed to leave the country. In essence Russia is fining Greenpeace and making sure the loons don't return... not if they don't want the same thing happening.
I guess that ticks Russia off the list of countries to pester to keep Greenpeace in the news, no doubt they'll go back to trespass against oil drilling in their anti-fracking protests.
Well done Russia.

This is why we need to return to the Peelian principles.

The Peelian principles were introduced by the founder of the modern police force Robert Peel, they are simple, straightforward and very easy to comprehend, something that the righteous and ACPO absolutely hate as they take no account of political correctness or league tables...

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it

Telegraph.

Police forces are routinely massaging crime figures to make hundreds of offences “disappear in a puff of smoke”, MPs have been told.
Official crime statistics are regularly skewed to make a police force’s performance appear far better than it is in reality, the House of Commons Public Administration Committee heard.
Retired and serving police officers gave evidence about techniques used to manipulate the figures - which they said were sanctioned by senior officers - such as downgrading offences to less serious crimes or persuading victims not to make a complaint.
In some cases crimes were only recorded if they were solved, and others were kept completely off the books if an offender could not be traced, the committee heard.
The disclosures will further undermine confidence in official Home Office statistics which claim crime is at its lowest level for more than 30 years.

I don't know where the Telegraph gets the idea that the Home Office data on crime statistics is actually believed by anyone with an IQ over 90. Just chat to most people and you'd come away with the impression that crime both petty and major is a factor in their lives and they do not believe that somehow or other society is safer than it was. Indeed cases such as the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes and the death of Ian Tomlinson suggest that the police themselves are perfectly willing to absolve themselves of criminal behaviour if so required. Nor have such high profile corruption cases such as Ali Dizaei helped the perception of the public towards the police being people you can trust.
It does seem at times that the police are no better than the criminals they are supposed to deal with and ACPO lead the way.
The old saying that 'a fish rots from the head' seems remarkably apt here.

Waste of time

Now I don't like child abusers, both mental, sexual and physical, unlike the current justice system we have in the UK my own preferred methods would be quick and permanent for those who abused beyond reasonable disciplinary bounds for physical abuse with the same applied to sexual abuse of a clear minor. Naturally I'd approach said justice with the use of common sense and not precedent nor would I be in support of any waste of time methods used simply to garner votes.
In my eyes it would have to work...
BBC.

Leading search engine companies Google and Microsoft have agreed measures to make it harder to find child abuse images online.
As many as 100,000 search terms will now return no results that find illegal material, and will trigger warnings that child abuse imagery is illegal.
PM David Cameron has welcomed the move but said it must be delivered or he would bring forward new legislation.
Child protection experts have warned most images are on hidden networks.
In July, Mr Cameron called on Google and Microsoft's Bing - which together account for 95% of search traffic - to do more to prevent people getting access to illegal images.

The part in bold is the crux of the matter, considering how Google (at least) scans everything you type into it in order to target you for adverts (Note, if you're getting something for free, chances are you aren't a recipient, but a product, and sold as such) Does anyone else here suspect that those who wish to look at images of child abuse are not going to use Google or Bing? Hell I even expect that they aren't (if they are smart) using a mainstream browser or operating system either.
In essence this is probably simply a method by the two search engine operators to prevent idiots like Cameron coming up with stupid legislation to cripple their operations. You can almost see the mission creep from such legislation creeping into other areas such as MP scandals etc with the introduction at a later date of addendum's to the original bill. After all, look at the abuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 since it was introduced to combat terrorism. It's been used to check on abuse of school catchment areas, improper use of recycling bins, neighbourhood disputes etc.
The government knows that any move to combat child abuse will be popular, the problem is that the government can't be trusted to not add to any such moves.
You can bet if the two search engine operators fail to do as the government wants that such legislation will be waiting in the wings.
You can bet it will be popular.
You can bet it won't work as planned.
You can bet that it will be expanded into other areas the government doesn't want us to look at...

And when they simply leave?

A lot of people like me dislike taxation, particularly taxation that ends up being spent on what we consider frivolities, translation services, quango's, fake charities, community groups, particularly those groups which benefit no one other than an insular community, politicians expenses etc. I'm not opposed to all taxes, however I'm a great believer that we should only be paying the government the bare minimum required to keep the country going, defence, infrastructure, law enforcement etc.
Unfortunately the political classes and the various faux leftards and libtards who infest them disagree with this philosophy and have the oddest set of criteria for grabbing cash from people...
Telegraph.

Nick Clegg says he wants the “super wealthy” to pay an extra £1 billion in tax to fund a cut in income tax for lower-paid workers.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he wanted the Coalition to increase the starting threshold for income tax above £10,000, cutting taxes for basic-rate workers.
His call comes as senior Conservatives debate increasing the threshold before the next election to appeal to lower-paid voters.
Mr Clegg said the tax cut would cost around £1 billion, money he said could be raised by imposing new taxes on the better-off, perhaps a “mansion tax” on expensive homes.
The Coalition has already set out plans to increase the threshold to £10,000, a policy ministers say will cut tax for more than 20 million workers.

Classic smash and grab socialism, looks brilliant to those who seem to believe that the super rich will actually hang around long enough to be taxed. As ever though the problem is that if you start penalising a group with the wherewithal to up and move, guess what they'll do? Instead of looking for ways to cut government spending, the boy Clegg (and other politicians) always reaches for the option of tax more and as ever tries to justify a tax increase by specifically targeting a group that he knows some people out there would love to see hit.
The best way to reduce taxation for all in this country, would be to take a chainsaw to government spending both national and local. Get rid of frivolous spending and remove funding for anything unnecessary to the actual running of the country, this includes removing whole swaths of middle management in the NHS, simply let nurses and doctors treat the sick and set their own priorities including getting people in to keep the wards clean. Destroy the race/discrimination industry, everyone is equal, we have laws to ensure that so stop funding 'special groups'
Make the benefits system a safety net for the unemployed, a comfort for the old and sick and a bloody uncomfortable place to be for anyone capable of working who believes that having more than three kids is a lifestyle choice if they can't pay for them.
We start by hanging the politicians and the lawyers who say we can't do this...

You what?

Apparently if the government goes ahead and reduces (should be removes, but its a tax and they won't) the green levy on power generation then the price of our gas and electricity may rise! In an argument that only an enviroloony could love, never mind comprehend the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee announced this rather startling conclusion yesterday...
Telegraph.

David Cameron’s push to cut “green” levies on gas and electricity bills could end up increasing energy bills, MPs have said.
The Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee said that cutting support for renewable energy generation will drive away vital investment in the energy sector, pushing up prices.
The committee’s warning came as officials finalised a list of options for changing levies applied to bills, with a scheme that funds home insulation among those facing cuts.
The Government says the UK energy industry needs £110 billion of new generators and transmission networks to remain functional in 2020.

One can only assume these people are bonkers as they seem to believe that such a move will cut investment, although as far as I can see it would only cut investment in bird mincers and solar panelling. There are much, much cheaper ways of generating electricity than the carbon free methods as required by the EU, you can even get lean burn coal generating plants with very low emissions, but sadly the investors behind the bird mincers have used a non-existent fear of the planet warming to push through damaging and costly legislation to line their own pockets via the hidden taxation of the green levy. This has pushed fuel bills up by at least 10% and led to the closing down of far more efficient power stations leaving the country pushed to the limit to keep the lights on... although the reserve means that brownouts are still unlikely despite some alarmist claims.
In the meantime, companies still build bird mincers that don't work when there's no wind (or too much) and sell us solar panel which don't work in the dark and then charge us via the levy for the expensive electricity they produce at the wrong times.
When a cheap means of generating carbon free electricity comes along, I'll get behind it, however I doubt there's any such beast and I shouldn't be paying the cost of finding it, nor should anyone else. People will die because they can't afford to heat their homes this winter, their blood is on the governments and the enviroloonies hands...

Their problem, not ours

I honestly don't know why the boy Clegg bothers, his defence of the EU now borders on the ridiculous as he seems to believe that the EU will be impoverished without us...
Express.

A BRITISH exit from the European Union would "impoverish" the continent as a whole, Nick Clegg has warned.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the Conservatives' "flirtations" with withdrawal would not succeed and claimed the EU was needed to help secure the UK's economic recovery and beat crime.
Mr Clegg, speaking after bilateral talks with his Irish counterpart Eamon Gilmore, said: "Reform is one thing, flirting with exit - which is what the Conservative Party appears to be doing - is something that I think, if it were ever to happen, which I don't believe it will, would be hugely damaging to the United Kingdom.
"I think it would be damaging to Ireland since we're joined at the hip economically and I think it would also in many ways impoverish the European Union as a whole.

 Usual claptrap about us not managing without the EU, although Norway and Switzerland seem to do fine outside. Why he seems to think that the UK leaving the EU will impoverish the EU as an argument for staying in is somehow going to garner sympathy is a bit perplexing to say the least. It really isn't our problem, it's the EU's and I doubt that other than electoral bribes in some sort of media campaign that the money we pay in will even come close to being repaid.
The EU itself is corrupt to the core as only a political organisation can be, it even surpasses our bloodsucking parasites politicians and the boy Clegg surely knows this, yet wishes us to remain in. I believe this is what's known as putting party political interests first, something that the Labour and Tory leadership seem to manage pretty well too.
It's not for me to tell anyone reading this how to vote, all I can say is that if you do vote for the Lib/Lab/Con, you're voting to perpetuate the situation we're already in and politicians like Clegg will keep coming out with the vacuous statements that the EUphiles believe make good reading... though only to other EUphiles, hopefully an endangered species, though sadly not amongst the political classes.

Caveat Emptor

Caveat emptor is basically the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made. However with pre-packaged goods and gift wrapped goods, a level of trust is required on the part of the buyer. However if the goods are faulty, then the buyer usually has the option of a refund, the best of establishments particularly at Christmas, don't even require a receipt. However there are some who seem to have not taken the old maxim that 'the buyer is always right' to heart...
Mail.

A businessman sold a lump of clay instead of an iPad by Tesco was arrested on suspicion of fraud when he complained to the supermarket giant.
Colin Marsh, 47, paid £470 for the Apple tablet computer in Whitstable, Kent, as a Christmas present last year for his young daughters - but he opened the box to find it contained three lumps of clay.
The father, who runs two bakeries, immediately took it back to the store for a refund - but instead of reimbursing him, Tesco staff became suspicious and reported him to Kent Police.
Two days later Mr Marsh, father to Maddie, 11, and Daisy, eight - got a call asking him to report to his local police station where he was held for three hours, and accused of trying to scam Tesco.
He spent two months on bail before being told he faced no further action. The iPad that should have been in the box was tracked down to Wales, more than 200 miles from where he had bought it.

Now Tesco have of course apologised and the errant iPad has been found some 200 miles away in Wales, though how it somehow managed to have been registered to him, Tesco have yet to explain, nor have they explained just how the supposed tamper proof seals were bypassed. I'm still not entirely sure whay a story of last Christmas has eventually turned up at the Mail some 11 months later.
Still, you do have to wonder at just what the hell the police and Tesco were thinking, tracking an iPad isn't too difficult as they have a unique registration IP for each pad which means one can be located to a server within hours and presumably a call to the address in question would have given them answers including who sold it too them (assumption on my part) or what link they have to Whitstable Tesco's in Kent.
Still I suppose the police can congratulate themselves on another addition to the DNA database...
After all, 'Every little helps' as a certain consumer giant is known to say.

Sorry, don't believe he did...

It does strike me as odd the court decision on the spy found locked in a bag in that Scotland yard are convinced he locked himself in it and died.
Mail.

Police today admitted that they are unable to explain the death of an MI6 spy whose body was found locked in a holdall bag.
Gareth Williams' mysterious death has been the subject of fierce speculation since he was found dead in his Central London flat three years ago.
Following a year-long investigation by Scotland Yard, officers today announced that they believe his death was accidental and that no one else was involved, although they concluded that it is impossible to reach a definite verdict on the case.
The finding contravenes the verdict of a coroner who last year ruled that Mr Williams had 'probably' been killed by someone else.
Scotland Yard detectives said that since it was possible for the codebreaker to climb in to the bag and lock it unaided, it is not necessary to posit any outside involvement.

Now other than the possibility that the guy was absolutely way out bonkers and had some sort of locking himself in a case fetish, it does rather strike me that climbing into a bag and locking yourself in it is a rather stupid way to kill yourself, even a yoga expert struggled with the task, nor can anyone explain why he did in in a bath.
Admittedly it is (sort of) possible for someone to do something as daft, which doesn't quite rule out the possibility of misadventure, but in this case the simplest solution (because he could) does rather strike me as a rather tenuous set of conclusions to come too, especially as the police found 15 sets of other peoples DNA in the flat whom they've been unable to identify.
There is of course the possibility of suicide and a bit of an attempt to wind up the investigators, but those who knew the guy didn't think he was suicidal either.
I guess we'll never know, but I'm with those who suspect foul play, even if it looks like something no competent murderer would do either come to that.