Bring it on...

Seems our overpaid union bosses in the public sector are trying to justify their obscene wages by calling for a general strike in the coming months.

Picture courtesy of Taxpayers Alliance http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/2011/09/taxpayers-alliance-reveals-union-fat-cats.html

BBC.

Britain is facing the threat of mass walkouts by public sector workers after the biggest unions announced strike ballots over pensions.

Unison, Unite, the GMB and the Fire Brigades' Union will consult members about co-ordinated industrial action starting in November.
Unison's leader Dave Prentis told the TUC's annual conference the strikes would involve the "fight of our lives".
But the government said widespread action would leave the public "angry".
Ministers are seeking increases in pension contributions from next April, while millions of workers continue to face a pay freeze.
The coalition argues that rises in payments are fair and will make schemes sustainable despite an ageing population.

If it goes anything like the last lot, I wonder if anyone other than the mums of schoolkids will actually notice. Sure there might be problems if the fire brigade strike and the RMT have shown a tendency to strike over trivia (The EDL, yet not the people who support bombing tubes MAC) but overall other than inconveniencing the general public for whom they rely on for support, I rather think they will be digging their own graves. Their members will lose money, lose public support and in the end will have to bend to simple economics in that the country simply cannot afford the largesse of their current pension schemes. Still I'm sure that the union leaders themselves won't mind a bit, not as if they are going to lose out particularly, their attitude over all seems to be one of "Never mind the results, if I'm still in charge, Then everything went well" a similar attitude to many WW1 generals who felt any amount of deaths to gain a few yards of territory was justifiable so long as it wasn't their deaths.
The public will suffer (perhaps) the ordinary union member will suffer (definitely)and I'm pretty sure that if anyone dies due to the fire brigade being on strike that the headlines will reflect the anger.
Quite frankly other than the government giving up and increasing our taxes (thus committing electoral suicide) I cannot see any way for the public service unions to win this.
I suspect the ordinary members know this too, though sadly they aren't the ones who make the decisions, just the idiots on the so called left who think no price is too high to pay to have a go at a Tory government.

More about → Bring it on...

I don't think this will work the way they expect

Kudos to the judge who decided to send Munir Farooqi to jail for recruiting jihadi's with a cumulative set of 4 life sentences, but there's a bit of a flaw in the reasoning that I can see here unless they decide that Munir Farooqi is going to be kept in solitary confinement for the rest of his sentence.
Telegraph.

A former Taliban fighter who ran a ''recruitment centre'' in Manchester for extremist Muslims to go to Afghanistan to kill British troops was today jailed for life. 

Pakistani-born British citizen Munir Farooqi, 54, was at the centre of a plot to radicalise and persuade vulnerable young men to ''fight, kill and die'' in a jihad in Afghanistan, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Farooqi, of Victoria Terrace, Longsight, Manchester, and two others were captured in a police sting when two undercover anti-terrorism police officers infiltrated his group.

Farooqi bragged to the officers how he had fought with the Taliban and told them they could become ''martyrs'' for the jihad cause.

He also found ''amusement'' in the sight of the flag draped coffins of fallen allied troops returning from Afghanistan, the court heard.

Today Farooqi was given four life sentences and told he must serve a minimum of nine years before he can be considered for parole.

Ok, once you get past the idiocy of giving someone 4 life sentences and then stating he must serve at least 9 years before becoming eligible for parole you can guess what's going to happen once Farooqi finally gets settled into the system. He's going to start recruiting new convert jihadi's, it's what he does and prisons have a problem with Muslm extremists.
Sunday Mercury.

Amid the forests and foliage of leafy Littleton sits the forbidding fortress of HMP Long Lartin, where some of the world’s most dangerous Islamic extremists swap stories, prayers and even plots.
New research from inside the lock-up’s specialist terror suspect unit suggests that regular inmates are being converted to radical Islam by the dangerous militants who are allowed to mix with other lags – and even lead prayers.
Fanatics inside the Worcestershire prison include Mohammed Hamid, 51, dubbed Osama Bin London, who encouraged teenagers to become suicide bombers during camping trips in the Lake District.

Among his cellmates are Adel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian linked to Al Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman Al-Zawihiri, who is fighting extradition to the US for the 1998 African embassy bombings which killed more than 200 people.
Mustapha Taleb, a disciple of hook-handed terror preacher Abu Hamza, kept a prison diary about how ordinary Muslim prisoners initially avoided extremists during his time inside Long Lartin.
“When we came here first, it was harsh, harsh treatment and harsh life,’’ he said. ‘‘Even the prisoners were like scared of us, because the system here told them that these people are very dangerous, you can’t mix with them.”
But ordinary Muslims’ initial fear of the detainees soon evaporated.
“With the brothers here, our Muslim brothers in the prison, it’s OK, it is as God wills it,” Taleb wrote. “There is some kind of harmony, connection between brothers in here, praise be to God.”
They have access to controversial Islamic texts, with terror detainee Barbar Ahmad writing in a blog from his cell that: “I understand now why prison is known as the University of Islamic Knowledge.”
They are reportedly allowed to share meals, and even lead prayers with other prisoners, raising fears that radicalisation could spread to other Muslims and even non-Muslim converts.

Why do I have the feeling that we're setting the cat amongst the pigeons here and prison is the last place we want to be sending this guy? Personally I think a parachute and just the clothing he's wearing along with a plane trip over central Afghanistan is the perfect solution for Farooqi seeing as he's so enamoured of the place, if we want to be really cruel we could always shave the beard and tattoo I love Israel  to his forehead in the local dialect.
Yes I know it would breach his human rights, but I'm having a hard job regarding jihadi's and their recruiters as actually being human at the moment, something Islam at its most extreme seems to strip away from ordinary people.
What appears to have happened looks just a bit like giving a fox the keys to the henhouse.

More about → I don't think this will work the way they expect

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.

More about → The gift that keeps on giving

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.

More about → Being careful about what you ask for

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?

More about → Leave us alone!

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.

More about → The idiot that is Nick Lowles

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.

More about → Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?

Things you just don't do

Rupert Murdoch is not a man I care for, his media empire is not something I care for either as its attempts to "enhance" its stories have crossed lines from the morally reprehensible if legal to the utterly repulsive and illegal hacking into peoples voicemails. How much of this he knew about? I don't know, I suspect I never will, he might be very good at covering his tracks or there simply wont be any tracks to find, either way I'm not the one doing the looking.
However, what you don't do is go up to an 80 year old guy, whatever your feelings about him or the matter in hand and try and land him one with a foam filled "custard pie"
Express.

THE man millions of TV viewers saw attacking Rupert Murdoch with shaving foam was warned yesterday that he faces a jail sentence.

His attack was staged last week as Mr Murdoch was answering MPs’ questions on the phone hacking scandal. He shoved a foam-covered plastic plate at the 80-year-old media mogul during the Home Affairs select committee hearing.

May-Bowles was stopped in his tracks by Mr Murdoch’s 41-year-old wife Wendi, who lunged forward and slapped him. Dressed in a check shirt and black combat trousers yesterday, 26-year-old May-Bowles spoke clearly to confirm his name, address and date of birth.

No doubt his (few) fans think he's hilarious, me I just think anyone who physically attacks an 80 year old guy has something wrong with their head.
I doubt he'll go to prison, though perhaps he should, I doubt he'd like it very much if anyone tried something similar on his grandparents, but no doubt in his weird world of black/white, good/evil Murdoch deserved a pie in the face, save only that it made him out to be an utter cretin in my eyes and merely distracted from the proceedings and gained Murdoch a measure of sympathy he may well not have deserved.

More about → Things you just don't do

Contraband

The government is currently tying itself up in knots over various policies in which it's trying to either raise revenue by increased taxation or social engineer us into taking better care of our health often enough by increased taxation and restrictions on where and when we can do certain things. The smoking ban and various on street drinking bans spring to mind along with the yearly above inflation duty increases that come with each budget. Of course one of the things that happens when prices go too high is that people will look for alternatives, even banning a product will not work, look at just how well prohibition worked in the USA to see a classic example of meddling with the market, consumer simply went to those who were prepared to supply them with what they wanted, in that case it was criminal gangs, which is where most drug users in the UK go as simply banning a product doesn't prevent people from getting what they want anyway.
BBC.

Twelve million counterfeit cigarettes have been discovered during a search of a warehouse in Gateshead.
HM Revenue and Customs officers said it took three lorries to remove the haul and a full day to count the cigarettes.
The haul, worth £2.2m, was found during checks on industrial sites in the area on Wednesday.
HMRC spokesman Michael Connolly said the find was "staggering" and the largest ever seizure of its kind in the North East.
"This was a staggering amount of cigarettes to uncover in one place and shows the scale of this type of crime," he said.
"Each year the British economy loses over two billion pounds in duty from the sale of illicit tobacco, money that is ploughed straight back into funding other criminal activity in our neighbourhoods."

 A classic example, the government makes the price too high by piling on the duty and the criminal element see an opening and sell people cheap cigarettes and no doubt make a large profit as there wont be much in the way of quality control or other checks. You also have the HMRC complaining about the loss in revenue and yet who is to blame for this situation? Well the pointing finger goes straight back to those who made the product too expensive in the first place, Her Majesties Government and the anti-smoking lobby who encouraged the authoritarian anti liberty ban and the various duty hikes, although the government has always used drinkers, smokers and motorists as cash cows anyway and didn't need much encouraging.
This, all in all is a classic example of free market policies, make something too expensive and people will look for alternatives. If the government want to increase revenue then it needs to lower duty to the point where people will buy the legit product and the criminals will move onto something else.

More about → Contraband

You what????

I do not believe we can win in Afghanistan, I do not believe we should be in that barbarous place, I believe that we should have gone in to be sure, but should have wrecked the terrorist training camps and their support mechanisms from one end of the country to the other killed every terrorist we could get our hands on and simply left. We should have then kept an eye on the place and if they attempted to rebuild, do the same again (including in Pakistan) ad infinitum. As we are there, I expected that we would deal with any problems in a robust manner. I would have been wrong of course.

Telegraph.

British soldiers who spot Taliban fighters planting roadside bombs are told not to shoot them because they do not pose an immediate threat, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.

They are instead being ordered to just observe insurgents and record their position to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.

The controversial policy emerged at an inquest into the death of Sgt Peter Rayner, 34, a soldier from the 2nd Batallion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment who was killed in October last year by an improvised explosive device as he led a patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Wendy Rayner, 40, disclosed that in the days leading up to his death her husband been told that it was not his job to attack insurgents laying bombs.

Mrs Rayner, who lives with their young son in Bradford, told the inquest that the insurgents were being allowed to get away with the murder of British troops.

She said: “They are not allowed to fire on these terrorists. If they can see people leaving these IEDs, why can’t they take them out? One officer even told him 'I am an army Captain and you will do your job'.
"We have lost too many men out there, they had seen people planting IEDs yet could not open fire or make contact with them. I believe strongly if people had taken on board what he was saying more he might have been here today.” 
Under the Geneva Convention and the nationally administered Rules of Engagement the 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan are told they can only attack if there is an immediate threat to life.

I would have said that planting an IED would have been an immediate threat to life as the next person past it would have been killed or maimed. Besides, these people need to learn if they do this sort of thing, there are consequences and the terrorists there certainly do not follow the Geneva Convention and the nationally administered Rules of Engagement so neither should we. They will kill our troops given any opportunity, the only thing they really understand is strength and we appear to be anything but strong. No, I'm not advocating random violence nor reprisals, though I do believe there might be a case for reprisals but anyone seen planting a bomb should simply be shot pour encourager les autres, to coin a phrase.
Our troops have a hard enough job on their hands as it is, our idiotic politicians, the U.N. and the Ministry of defence have hobbled them and tied one hand behind their backs by insisting on civilised rules for dealing with barbarians.
Either let loose the dogs of war or leave, what we are doing now will never work in a million years.

More about → You what????

Must?

Committing political suicide seems to run in the veins of the Lib Dems, or rather those of the Lib Dems who are pro EU and pro Euro.

Telegraph.

Nick Clegg angered critics by insisting Britain’s fortunes were tied to the eurozone.
He said the UK could not stand by while countries like Greece ­teeter on the brink.

I know he's an ex EU something or other and has to say such crap in order to hold onto his pension, but really, how out of touch is the deputy leader of the coagulation?
The UK more by accident than design managed to stay outside the Euro currency and thus managed to keep a measure of control over our interest rates and economy, something which the individual countries in the Eurozone do not have, much to Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy's detriment.
This should have meant that we simply tut tutted as those economies slid into oblivion at least until they pulled out of the Euro and took control of their "new" old currencies and devalued them to the correct levels of their debt. Something they can't do with the Euro. What we shouldn't be doing as the boy Clegg is suggesting is bailing out the Euro, it's not our currency and although the EU do lord it over us to an extent (at the moment) it isn't our problem. If the Greek economy does go tits up because they can't pay their debts, then it's not our business to be throwing good money after bad and simply stave off the inevitable.
Out of touch and clearly out of his mind, Nick Clegg clearly has no idea what the UK public at large actually think about the EU or if he does, doesn't give a damn about representing that feeling in Parliament or abroad.
Sooner his party goes into oblivion the better.

More about → Must?

You couldn't make it up.

I'm an engineer, I've done some daft things in my time going against the prevailing wisdom, following orders from the boss to the letter (and not the spirit) but I've always managed to avoid making a complete laughing stock of myself.

BBC.

Council bosses have admitted scoring an "own goal" after a fence was built through the middle of football goalposts in a park in York.

The new fencing was installed at a cost of £6,000 on playing fields in Heworth.
It was erected before £37,000 worth of new play equipment is phased in at the park over the next few weeks.
Dave Meigh, City of York Council's head of parks and open spaces, said: "We recognise that the failure to relocate the goalposts is a real own goal."
It has left local people who use the park to play football confused.
Mr Meigh said the council had asked the contractors to "resolve the issue as a matter of urgency and can only apologise for the error".

Spot the slight problem?

Truly a situation that mobile phones were made for, I mean what the hell were the contractors thinking? Nobody comes out looking that great from this, not the workers, the contracting firm or the council itself for not having any sort of oversight or input.
Made me smile though.

More about → You couldn't make it up.

You what?

The problem as I see it for the Equality and Human Rights Commission is that they have to find racists or discriminators under every stone or they'd be out of a job. Sometimes however they pick on the wrong target and get a wtf reaction.

Telegraph.

Muslims are integrating into British society better than many Christians, according to the head of the Government's equality watchdog. 

Trevor Phillips warned that "an old time religion incompatible with modern society" is driving the revival in the Anglican and Catholic Churches and clashing with mainstream views, especially on homosexuality.

He accused Christians, particularly evangelicals, of being more militant than Muslims in complaining about discrimination, arguing that many of the claims are motivated by a desire for greater political influence.

However the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission expressed concern that people of faith are "under siege" from atheists whom he accused of attempting to "drive religion underground".

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph ahead of a landmark report on religious discrimination in Britain, he said the Commission wants to protect Christians and Muslims from discrimination, admitting his body had not been seen to stand up for the people discriminated against because of their faith in the past.

While the equalities boss promised to fight for the rights of Christians, he expressed concern that many cases were driven by fundamentalist Christians who are holding increasing sway over the mainstream churches because of the influence of African and Caribbean immigrants with "intolerant" views.

In contrast, Muslims are less vociferous because they are trying to integrate into British "liberal democracy", he said.

Trying to integrate seems to mean it's ok to blow up tubes and buses, drive cars with gas canisters wrapped in explosives and nails into airport entrances, try to set of nail bombs in cafe's, go over to Sweden to set off bombs, travel to Israel to blow up a bar in Tel Aviv, plot to kill thousands by blowing up trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives hidden in soda bottles, as consulate staff supply weapons to Hamas in Jerusalem, try to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb, run paedophile grooming gangs, beat up religious teachers, demand gay free zones, abuse returning troops...

Some integrating Muslims

Don't see radical Christians trying those sort of things in the UK do you? Might get more respect if they did.though.
Trevor Phillips and his Equality and Human Rights Commission are clearly taking the mickey if they think that radical Christianity is a problem, radical Islam now clearly has issues with, well with just about everyone who isn't a radical Islamist. Again we have a government quango trying to persuade us that one side is as bad as the other (equality in action?) when it is self evident that this is clearly not the case! They are so frightened to appear to demonise a minority that they target a law abiding majority. Yes Christians take employers to court for discrimination, what they don't do is threaten to kill them for perceived discrimination, that's the difference between radical Christians in the UK and radical islamists and the percentage of radical Islamists is far higher than radical Christians. Almost a third of British Muslim students believe killing in the name of Islam can be justified, according to a you gov poll.Doubt you'd find that attitude amongst Christians, which say it all really.

More about → You what?

They lost that one too.

The public service unions after 13 years of cosseting and enlarging by labour are now beginning to feel the pinch of the coagulations slow down in borrowing and the squeeze that is being put on their gold plated retirement funds along with their early retirement age. It's obvious to anyone outside of the public service that things couldn't continue the way they were going and that in order to pay for their pensions they were either going to have to pay more or work longer. It was also fairly obvious that other than direct frontline services where the public come into contact with public services, police, nurses, doctors and firemen along with a healthy respect for the armed services, the rest of them are not held in such high esteem. So when a public union apparatchik boasts of a general strike bigger than the one in 1926, you can imagine the rejoicing.

Telegraph.

Britain is facing the biggest wave of industrial action since the 1926 general strike, Dave Prentis, the leader of the largest public sector union, has warned. 

In issuing his threat, Mr Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, has stoked the row over Government pension reforms. Unions are considering walking out on negotiations over plans to make most public sector employees work longer and pay more for less generous pensions.

Mr Prentis said: “It will be the biggest since the general strike. It won’t be the miners’ strike. We are going to win.”

Danny Alexander, The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, provoked union anger by warning public sector workers it would be a “colossal mistake” to reject a deal that was the best they could hope for.

The reforms include increasing the general retirement age in the public sector from 60 to 66, moving from a final salary system to benefits based on career-average earnings and raising contributions by an average 3.2%.

But Mr Alexander insisted that those on the lowest incomes would not have to pay any more and that low and middle earners would get roughly the same benefits as they do now.

Question is, will those of us in employment even notice the vast majority of those who go on strike? Food will be delivered, taxes paid by employers, fuel delivered papers on sale life will go on as normal. We might notice the strike during abnormal circumstances, needing medical attention, or the police/fire service but the blame for their absence will shift to the unions, not necessarily the members.
Oh I'm sure some of those on the left are licking their chops at the chance of bringing the government down, but I suspect that all they'll do is harden resolve, the public aren't stupid, they know the pot has run dry. What they might end up with is a new government with a Tory majority and one hell bent on revenge. The unions hated what Thatcher did to them, but they forget it was they who tipped her hand, it will be interesting to see who wins this, but I suspect it wont be the public services. Push hard enough and I expect we'll see the echelons of the public sector gutted, some areas privatised and much in the way of background services reduced.
Perhaps this strike will be a good thing after all, return us to the days where public servants were just that, public servants and not a massive bloated bureaucracy dedicated to the upkeep of the bureaucracy. Fact is we don't need so many of them working in the background and they know it, that's why they'll push the case of those who do work in the frontline as a smokescreen.
They'll lose, they may win a battle or two, but they'll lose.

More about → They lost that one too.

Crime and punishment

No not the boring novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky (well I found it boring, mental anguish and moral dilemmas about murder are not my cup of tea) No this is a rant at the Supreme Court of the UK and their (mis)use of the Human Rights Act.

Telegraph.

Thousands of sex offenders, including rapists and paedophiles, will be able to apply to be removed from the sex crimes register under human rights laws, the Government has announced. 

A Supreme Court ruling has forced the Government reluctantly to draw up new rules allowing serious sex offenders put on the register for life to have their place on the list reconsidered.

The Home Office plans were opposed by child protection campaigners and Conservative MPs, who said some offenders could never be considered completely “safe”. The new rules were drawn up because the Supreme Court ruled that automatic lifetime inclusion on the register breached the Human Rights Act.

David Cameron said the ruling was “offensive,” but ministers say they have no choice but to comply by changing the rules on the register.

The case is the latest involving the Act to set judges against political opinion. It has increased calls for reform of the Act, which is being reviewed by a Coalition committee.

Under current rules, anyone sentenced to more than 30 months in jail for a sexual offence is put on the register for life on release. Those on the register are monitored by police and visited regularly by officers. The Home Office estimates that there are about 44,000 people on the register, about 25,000 of them for life.

Now normally I'm of the opinion that once you've paid your debt to society as a criminal then other than a period of time in which an employer can ask if you have a criminal record, that's it, your life is yours to lead as you see fit barring a few areas of employment where there might be some conflict of interest such as the police or security forces. A fully rehabilitated ex con is an asset to society providing they can find work and pay their way (though that's a different story) and shouldn't be further punished once his/her time is done.
Sexual predators though are a different story, in some cases it's more in the way of a mental illness, psychological rather than sociological in that it's about the way they think rather than the effects of society upon them. Like any patient with a history of mental illness they need keeping an eye on, if necessary for the rest of their lives as many of them don't see anything wrong with what they do/did nor feel any remorse.
Simple fact is, some people do need keeping an eye on permanently and kept from contact in some employment areas or other association with their potential victims, be it women, children or in odd cases men. Even I can see the point of this, you don't put wolves into the sheep pen, because whilst you can rehabilitate a dog, a wolf remains a wolf and though there are times we probably ought too, we no longer cull wolves.
Again the courts come out with a judgement that might put ordinary people at risk, all to do with the poorly legislated Human Rights Act which placed all rights on a level playing field instead of grading them from basic to full. Criminals and sexual predators should only have restricted rights, once an ordinary criminal is released though he gets his full rights back. A sexual (or violent) predator who is still deemed to be a danger to the public though should remain on a far tighter chain as we're supposed to with mental patients and care in the community.
Truly the law is an ass!

More about → Crime and punishment

An inconvenient lie

Normally you expect the MSM to slavishly follow the global warming, climate change, climate disruption mantra, though in the last year or so the wheels have been slowly falling off this ruinous theory that we can do something about the climate of the planet, or indeed that the so called experts who claimed rising seas and mass polar bear die offs were inevitable if we didn't all stop breathing out CO2 and live a nice medieval lifestyle, with no power, homespun sack-cloth and obeyed an elite environmental dictatorship as they flew around in their private jets telling us how to live. But enough of the BBC, this article popped up in the Express.

WITH ­energy firms poised to hike their prices by up to 22 per cent, consumers may well feel it is time to question the growing burden of so-called green taxes.

While energy experts will point to a rise in the price of oil, the Government’s commitment to renewable energy is the real reason behind the increases, as we ­already have 14 per cent added to our bills to fund projects which cut carbon emissions and global warming.

However a leading scientist who worked for Australia’s Department for Climate Change for many years, says experts got their predictions wrong and the whole idea that ­carbon dioxide is the main cause of any global warming is in fact a lie.

David Evans, who was a consultant for the then Australian Greenhouse ­Office until last year, said: “The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of any warming is based on a guess made in 1980 that was proved totally wrong by scientists as far back as the mid-Nineties.

The whole thing is now a train wreck. Although no one started out to scam or mislead, really the ­climate scientists are a bit corrupt now as they know they are exaggerating, but there are now too many jobs, ­industries, trading profits and ­political careers riding along on this nonsense to admit it is just that.

Now leaving aside my suspicion that energy companies owned by foreign companies are using this country as a cash cow to subsidise their own countries, much of the higher bills we face is due to an environmental levy (or tax) to fund or subsidise so called "green" initiatives which in a lot of cases weren't particularly green, efficient or cheap. When questioned about these "scams" the case was often put forward that the technology would improve, though in the case of bird choppers, it is difficult to see how they could make the wind blow all the time and for solar, the sun shine all day (and night). The other low carbon alternative and the one that actually works was of course denied any subsidies by Chris Huhne the (allegedly) motoring ban dodging Energy Secretary.

Chris Huhne:
I can certainly confirm that we will not be providing public subsidy to nuclear and that we see nuclear as part of the energy mix for the future provided that safety concerns are met.

 So, we're being ripped off by the energy companies, ripped off by the government and lied to by environmentalists who are happy with the fact that we're being ripped off as it means it forestalls the imaginary ecospasm where the planet melts (or something) and there's nothing we can do about it unless or until there is a viable alternative to the LibLabCon power sharing scheme.
In the mean time the old will freeze and die in winter and the rest of us will wonder where all our spare cash has gone, yet many will still vote in the bastards that did this to us!
I'll leave the last word to David Evans...

“Yes, carbon ­dioxide is a cause of global warming, but it is so minor it’s not worth doing much about.”

More about → An inconvenient lie

The fear factor

Enviroloons thrive on fear, fear of the future, fear of resources running out etc. in a sense they are the ultimate in glass half empty types in that the "professional" greenies know if a solution is ever found for our energy problems they'll be out of a well paid job where it's a case of money for simply objecting to anything.
Shale gas extraction is a case in point, it might well sort out our long to mid term energy problems and move us away from foreign suppliers, at least or until someone somewhere finally manages to sort out fusion power.

BBC.

Green campaigners are objecting to plans to explore for gas on farmland in Kent, which they fear will lead to controversial shale gas extraction.

Coastal Oil and Gas Ltd, based in Mid Glamorgan, wants permission to drill an exploratory borehole at Woodnesborough to test coal and shale for gas.

The company said it mainly wanted to extract methane from coal, but did not rule out shale extraction in future.

The Kent Green Party said it was sceptical about Coastal's claims.

Green Party spokesman Steve Dawe said it believed that if gas was found in shale at the site, the company would later seek to remove it using the controversial fracking method.

Fracking was being used in Lancashire but was suspended last week as a precaution after two earthquakes in the county.

The process involves shattering hard shale rocks underground to release gas using either hydraulic pressure or tiny explosions.

"If they find the possibility of exploiting shale gas they will," Mr Dawe said.

"We wish to rule out such exploitation because it is a deeply polluting activity."

 Controversial, check, deeply polluting, check, earthquakes, check. Yep all seems to be in order for the standard enviroloon dogma output. Shale gas extraction is only controversial because greenies say it is, the method itself is not controversial at all just simple physics and chemistry. Nor I suspect does it cause earthquakes, land settlement perhaps, but not real earthquakes, what happened in Lancashire was an earth tremor, they got them before shale extraction started as well, Blackpool had an earth tremor of about 2.2 on the Richter Scale back in 2009 long before they started to extract shale gas. But any excuse by enviroloons to shut down a process they know will put a spanner in the works of driving us all back to a brutal medieval existence (except for those at the top of the tree) It's the same with nuclear power, greenies hate anything that actually works, they'd rather we played about with environmentally flawed and useless bird mincers that only run at 20% capacity and only if the wind blows at the right speed. They're even happy for the generating companies to be paid not to use them when they aren't needed.
Now, I'm all for protecting the environment from pollution and the unnecessary destruction of the landscape (which oddly enough is what a bird mincer does) I'm also very much for an energy policy that works when its needed and when I want it and not simply because the wind is blowing that day. That gives several options non of which are in favour of by enviroloons. We're sitting on masses of coal, we can build nuclear plants (and are) or we can (also) extract shale gas any of which will keep us warm and energy supplied for decades. Personally I don't want to see our old, our sick and our very young dying off from cold during a bad winter, but that I suspect is what the greenies will think is a price worth paying for their destruction of our civilisation.

More about → The fear factor

Save the bluebells, kill a dog

Some people don't get it, they have a passion for a certain subject that borders on fanaticism and then wonder why they get slated by commenter's and people like me.

Mail.

Dogs should be killed to protect Britain's bluebells according to feminist Germaine Greer who blames the pets for killing the woodland flowers.
The outspoken academic told the Hay on Wye literary festival that dog owners walking their pets through bluebells are killing off a fungus necessary for them to grow.
Professor Greer, who owns a one-acre bluebell wood in Essex, said that mycorrhiza fungi is being killed off by dogs' faeces.
She also said the British bluebell is under threat from a Spanish variety of the plant.
'But the real threat to our bluebells is not a foreign invader,' she said. 'It is the use we make of the woodlands, people running through them, taking photos of each other standing on trampled bluebells.
'And, at the risk of making you all very cross, may I suggest it is also time that the British gave up on their endless love affair with the dog.
'If you love your bluebells, kill your dog.'

Of course you could apply common sense and go for a cull of feminists/environmental extremists and save ourselves from comments like that of Germaine Greer. But wandering around Kent this year with my dog Coal I saw an abundance of bluebells for the first time in Places like High Elms near Downe and Ashenbank Woods near Cobham the woodlands despite the dogs are beautiful in late April and Early May with masses of bluebells.
Yes, anyone who owns a dog will watch them immediately head for a patch of bluebells for a crap (not), yes dogs do crap in the woods, but the chances of it being on the bluebells is the same as anywhere else.
So whilst there might be a problem with bluebells and dog faeces, it certainly doesn't seem to be the problem that Germaine Greer seems to think it is, not enough to start a cull of the canine population.

Paul Hetherington from the Woodlands Trust said: 'All UK woods have existed and developed with the presence of badgers and foxes; species of similar size and activity.

It's easy enough to keep people off the bluebells, dog faeces is usually gathered by responsible owners (not pleasant, but necessary) and oddly enough, the stuff that is left is often recycled by other denizens of the woodlands.

Bluebells if left alone will return, the Spanish variety is by far the biggest problem to overcome all the rest just needs to be a case of education and not some sort of barbaric cull by dog hating feminazi enviroloons.

More about → Save the bluebells, kill a dog

Do they really think people are that stupid?

The BBC is known for some oddities, making radio presenters wear evening dress in the early days right down to today and support for global warming and the Labour party. Still, if this is what they believe then there really is no hope for the place.

Express.

LISTENERS to BBC Radio 4 may have been confused about the time yesterday when the station’s pips machine went on the blink.
The machine uses the Greenwich Time Signal – a series of six short tones broadcast at one-second intervals to mark the start of the hour. But they failed to play at 5pm.
A BBC spokesman said Radio 4 was “aware” of the problem and was getting to the bottom of what happened.
He said: “The pips didn’t play out at the 5 hour which they usually do. We don’t know exactly why yet but are looking into it.”
They are used on several BBC stations after being introduced in 1924. On Radio 4 the pips are broadcast every hour, except for the 6pm and midnight news when the hour chimes of Big Ben, known as the “bongs”, are used instead.
The BBC discourages any other sound being broadcast at the same time as the pips, doing so is known as “crashing the pips”.

Now I'm not sure whether or not this is just the Express making a filler story, but somehow or other I very much doubt that the listeners to Radio 4 were for a moment even confused as to what time it was, the vast majority of them having clocks or watches.
So someone out there really thinks that people are stupid, and whilst some people are stupid, most are not stupid in the way that this article presumes, particularly not those who tend to listen to Radio 4. I might believe it of those who listen to Magic FM but not Radio 4 as it isn't the station of choice for the underclass.
There are times I think that dumbing down has gone too far and there are times like this which give me the evidence I need to prove that assumption.
Someone, somewhere out there believes that people not hearing the radio pips might not know what time it is, you honestly couldn't make it up.

More about → Do they really think people are that stupid?

Taking the mickey

Seems our idiot government has decided that it might be a good idea to pay people who shouldn't be here to go home.

Express.

FOREIGN criminals have been handed up to £25million of taxpayers’ cash to go home despite having no right to remain here, it emerged yesterday.
State “bribes” dished out under the Home Office’s voluntary return programme were given to nearly half of all overseas prisoners removed in the past 16 months alone at a cost of up to £12million, according to leaked documents.
The figure is about the same amount paid out in the first three years of the scheme and shows how common the controversial handouts are becoming.
Just one in three prisoners deported in 2009 left under the voluntary programme. Last year that figure was closer to one in two.
The UK Border Agency defended the payments of up to £1,500, saying they help avoid costly deportation battles, but critics yesterday hit out at the idea of paying money to convicts, who include rapists and muggers.

Costly deportation battles? I'm sorry but they shouldn't be here and shouldn't even get the option to fight deportation, even if they've settled and have families. And, what's to stop them simply coming back after they leave? It really is simple, we should not be using taxpayers money as a bribe to get anyone to leave, nor should we be allowing them any attempt to appeal deportation for being here illegally. If you're caught, you're gone, simple as that and all your worldly goods other than the clothes you stand in are sold off to pay your fare and fine. This should especially apply to criminals if you're here illegally and break the law then your feet should not touch the ground once you've served your sentence, you have no right to be here and secondly you've broken other laws as well!
I would not have believed we would do something so stupid as to give criminals money to go away as little as even 15 years ago. Now it's producing nothing other than a tut and a typical comment from most around me.
Welcome to the mad house that is the UK.

More about → Taking the mickey