Khamenei Defiles Islam
Evil Hypocrite
When you see an old man like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei talking such absolute drivel it is tempting to think that he is either senile or mad. Clearly though, the truth is he is simply bad. His conduct will do more to set back the cause of Islam than almost anything else. This is why the name of Islam is shamed throughout the world. If followers of the Prophet can not find some honest, intelligent and sincere spokesmen then their religion and the culture that surrounds it will be forever condemned as a medieval anachronism.
His speech today is a catastrophic mistake and misjudgment but it will lead to a better future. I believe it will enrage the educated and intelligent people of Iran. He obviously believes that the people are stupid and that they can be bullied or terrorised into accepting that the elections were fair and that there is no corruption. It would be easier to claim that he is deluded but no, I think this man is simply evil and it would be in the best interest of all mankind, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, non-believer if he were gone.
Who will rid us of this turbulent priest?
Thug Plod On The Loose
How many weeks on and we still have no progress on the police murder at the G20 protest? What is the IPCC up to?
Brutal Assault
Now, again, we have crystal clear proof of outrageous, unjustified police assault. It is a huge failure of leadership that the Chief Constable Of Nottingham has not already had the officers concerned in this scandal suspended and charged. More than that, I believe that his failure to do so is a criminal offence in itself. He is not just dithering, he is failing in his most fundamental duty – to protect the public.
Our tolerance level for this sort of police conduct is already terrifyingly high. If he does not act then the Home Secretary should step in immediately. This is not time for enquiries. This is time for police thugs to be treated like any other lowlife pig and put in irons.
Size 0 – The Politically Incorrect Truth
Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue, has accused leading fashion designers of ignoring concerns about size zero models.
Poor, Pitiful Girl!
See here.
The uncomfortable truth is that all these designers are either homosexual or entirely submerged in the “gay” culture that infects their industry. They aren’t interested in designing for beautiful women. They want pretty boys.
The vast majority of us have a healthy interest in beautiful women in beautiful clothes. These trivial but talented individuals are out of step, out of time and out of any more excuses. They are responsible for too much misery and suffering. The modern prevalence of anorexia and bulimia is almost entirely down to these brightly coloured, beautifully tailored, perverted fools.
It is time that wiser minds with far better taste prevailed. Do what you want to do in the privacy of your own homes but leave our young women’s minds alone and turn your talent in a positive direction.
A Real Woman
Where Are The Police – Again?
Mob Rule
In one of the most tightly policed locations in the country a mob is allowed to shout down, assault and drive off Nick Griffin, the new BNP MEP without any police intervention? See the full story here.
I am very, very frightened by this. Much more so than by the election of a couple of idiots to a stage where they will be able to make even bigger fools of themselves.
Sir Paul Stephenson! Are you a man or a mouse, a police officer or a political servant?
Man Or Mouse?
You seem to act under ruling party political direction when it is unnecessary – Damian Green. You fail to act when it is crucial – banker robbers, MPs expenses, police violence and today’s blatant blind eye.
MPs Evading Justice
So are we supposed to be surprised that Gordon Brown is still clinging by his fingernails to the architrave at the door of number 10? They couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, an orgy in an whorehouse or a coup in the Labour Party. Why? Because they all have nothing but their own interests at heart. Their last year in office, their pensions, their resettlement grants. These are not men. They are manipulative, morally microscopic mice.
Phwooaar! Gerrumorrf darlin'!
Plod PR, the go-getting communications agency, wholly owned by the police with exclusively the police as clients summoned all its collective intelligence and wisdom to determine that last Friday, the day after the European and local elections would be a busy news day, a perfect occasion to bury their cowardly, disgraceful announcement that MPs will not be prosecuted.
In fact, the expenses scandal has now morphed into an excuse for poor performance in the elections. This is a triumph of misinformation over truth. Over the weekend, we were asked to sympathise over the “assault on MPs about their expenses”. If what has happened has constitued assault then my feeling is that it’s time for some GBH with intent.
Everything has now been re-geared to enable them all to get away with it. Perhaps even more worrying is that this marks a new development in the politicisation of the police. Increasingly the police are being used to support and enforce the whim of government, irrespective of the law or justice.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance is still chasing down MPs (see here) but what has happened to the Telegraph? Have they had a visit in the middle of the night from the police or have big, fat, brown envelopes been distributed around Telegraph Towers – or both?
A True Messiah
Seems to me that you can either be cynical and disbelieving about Barack Obama or you have to buy him completely.
His power is in his integrity and it shines through every word that he speaks. Again, it is easy to say that they are just words but you, I and every human being knows in their soul when words have value.
Thank You
The man is awe inspiring. In simple, direct statements he cuts through the murk and mud which mankind creates for itself. He is the man for our time, delivered to us apparently as an exact solution for our problems, he reveals the wisdom which all of us understand. He delivers huge confidence, trust and belief.
There will be others desperate to catch him out, to discover some inconsistency or failing. I doubt that they will succeed.
We are in the presence of greatness and we should value our good fortune.
The Man On The Clapham Omnibus Is Watching…
…and he says “If you walk out of the supermarket with a bag of sugar it’s no good saying you’ll pay the money back. It’s too late”.
Get Real Alistair!
Scumbag Thief
NO! You cannot be Chancellor Of The Exchequer, guardian and keeper of the nation’s purse and play fast and loose, anything less than perfection, with your expenses!
“It would be quite wrong to claim on two homes at the same time”. Those are your words but that is exactly what you did. The fact that you have repaid around £700 of the service charge is cast iron proof. It is not good enough for any MP, certainly not you, to fail to manage your affairs in such a way that an advance payment such as this would not be identified and repaid in a timely manner.
You fall far short of the standard that we are entitled to expect of an occupant of your office.
Let us say that this was a housing benefit claim and you were a poorly educated, perhaps only semi-literate individual. If you had duped two different local authorities as you moved between them and “forgotten” or “overlooked” the money you had been paid in advance, made such a “mistake”, then you would be facing interviews under caution and quite possibly prosecution.
But you are Chancellor of The Exchequer! This is only one of the difficult questions that you have to answer about your integrity. What about the flipping? What about claiming for tax advice on expenses?
To begin with, you should be sacked. Then there should be a police investigation.
The double standards that you pompous, self-important politicans live by are almost beyond belief. As each day passes and you grub around in the muck of your own behaviour, desperately trying to justify and excuse your avarice, greed and fraud, so every last vestige of any dignity or public respect evaporates – and you still don’t get it!
Boris To Decide MP Prosecutions?
Up and down the country Chief Constables have been deluged with complaints about local MPs. Many constituents believe that their MP’s conduct has gone beyond error and misjudgement to the point where the police need to investigate. There is huge anger and if Harriet Harman’s “Court Of Public Opinion” gets its way then there is to be much humiliation and many prison sentences for miscreant MPs.
The Man For The Job
Chief Constables are accused of sitting on their hands and being in fear of taking on such high profile suspects. In fact, there is confusion about jurisdiction and about what recourse is open to the public if the police will not take action.
An attempt has already been made to bring a private prosecution against Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. District Judge Bruce Morgan at Redditch Magistrates Court adjourned the application for a summons and referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police, saying that the applicant could *come back to court” if the Met failed to investigate.
The Association Of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) says that the Met is taking the lead and that jurisdiction for all MPs is likely to be in the Met’s hands as expenses claims are paid out from Parliament and not in the constituencies.
The Met’s current position is still that it’s thinking about it. It “needs to understand the Parliamentary processes for expenses” as part of its assessment as to whether to launch an investigation. After its clumsy and inept handling of the Damian Green affair it’s not surprising that discretion should be the better part of its valour but really, it’s a shabby response to what is probably the greatest ever betrayal of public trust.
Perhaps that’s what the problem is. It all just seems too big, too grand, too important. In reality, the sordid, self-serving decisions that so many MPs have taken are just as small and pathetic as any shoplifter or petty thief.
What we need here is clarity and courage. We deserve a police service that can see through the obfuscation, blather and bluff. If you look at them in the same way as you would a shoplifter or a petty thief , brush away their pathetic excuses, well, officer, what are you going to do now?
If the police fail to take action, where will the public turn? The Independent Police Complaints Commission has a very narrow remit. It can only address questions of police misconduct. Questions of policy, or the conduct of Chief Constables are a matter for the local police authority and in London, that means the Metropolitan Police Authority, chairman of which is ex-MP, Boris Johnson. The Association of Police Authorities (APA) is waking up to this fast approaching buck and where it might be stopping. Let’s hope Boris is too.
Why Are We Waiting?
What are they up to? The robbery has taken place, much of it caught on CCTV. They were called weeks ago. Are they just sitting on their backsides finishing their tea? Maybe their sluggish response is due to flat feet or learning difficulties? We, the victims, are still waiting. Meanwhile the crooks are desperately trying to cover up the evidence, even returning some of what they have stolen, cooking their books, arm twisting the judges, launching PR and propaganda campaigns to distort the truth.
Where Is He Hiding?
Where are the police? Are we back in the day when the village bobby cowtows to the local squire, tugs his forelock and turns a blind eye?
Perhaps they’re being held back by corrupt senior officers, or their lawyers are fiddling while Rome burns and they’re too scared to uphold the law?
Who Else Will Stand Up For Justice?
Each and every Chief Constable in the country should by now have launched an investigation into his or her local MPs. Sir Paul Stephenson of the Met, supposedly went into a meeting with the CPS about a fortnight ago. What the hell are they up to? There’s much more urgency when a hungry single mother steals food for her children from Sainsburys. The sirens blare out quickly enough then!
This is a disgraceful state of affairs and the police are letting us down. This must be more work for the Independent Police Complaints Commission or are we left with no option but to turn to Batman and Robin? Who else will stand up for justice?
Meanwhile, Mrs Patel is up before the beak in Harrow today under The Fraud Act 2006 for telling fibs about her address to get her child into a better school. See the story here
This is the state of justice in Britain today.
Jim Knight, Jiminy Cricket.
Do The Right Thing Jim!
Jim Knight told the Dorset Echo: “…at no time has he given me tax advice on my personal affairs…”.
But Jim! Jim! Jiminy Cricket, conscience of the world! Jim!
The bill that you claimed for said “…in connection with your personal tax affairs”. Jim, Jim, Jiminy Cricket, the game is up!
Jim Knight MP, Scumbag Thief
Jim Knight – The Scumbag Thief Of Dorset
So I learned today that my own MP, Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, has his snout in the trough too.
He is one of several MPs who have claimed and been paid for tax advice from Dennis Bates, ex-Inland Revenue employee and wife of Labour MP, Meg Munn. Mr Bates’ bill to Jim Knight explicitly stated “professional services in connection with your personal tax affairs”.
Scumbag Thief
No reasonable person can believe that claiming such an expense is legitimate. I have therefore written today to the Chief Constable of Dorset, Martin Baker, making a complaint of dishonesty. I take no pleasure in this. I regard it as my duty.
Jim Knight states on his own website on the subject of MPs expenses: “…more serious abuses must be referred to the police and action taken that matches any other employment and any other citizen…”
Let us see what happens.
Alistair Darling And The Rest – Liars, Cheats And Thieves
What exactly is it that entitles cabinet ministers to have their accountants’ fees paid for by the taxpayer?
All nine ministers must be sacked and the police brought in to investigate. There is not the slightest excuse for this blatant thievery.
Scumbag Thief
This is perhaps the most disgraceful episode of all. While you can argue (well you can try) that duck houses and food bills have something to do with a second home which is necessitated by Parliamentary duties, claiming your accountants fees on expenses is nothing short of cheating the taxpayer.
Alistair Darling, Jacqui Smith, Hazel Blears, David Miliband, James Purnell, Douglas Alexander, Geoff Hoon and Hilary Benn – you are liars, cheats and thieves. You should all be behind bars.
Keep The Church Out Of Elections
I do not support the BNP but I defend its right to state its case and campaign for election. I have considerable sympathy with its complaint that it is not considered racist to have a black association or a Muslim group but the BNP is branded racist for seeking to represent the white British. This is unjust.
It’s fair game for other politicians to attack the BNP but the call made today by the Church? This is outrageous. While there are certainly many good Christians and Church members, this week we have had to listen to the horrific truth of child abuse by the Church in Ireland. Only the following day the new Catholic Archbishop Nichols of Westminster is enthroned and makes the disgraceful judgment that it was courageous for some of the priests to confess their dreadful crimes.
The most eloquent advice I have ever heard on the subject of the Church comes from Messrs Crosby, Stills and Nash:
“Too many people have died in the name of Christ for anyone to heed the call”
Too much evil and wickedness has been perpetrated across hundreds of years by the Church for it to have any relevance or role in our elections. Stick to pastoral work with individuals and you’re entitled to promote your individual doctrine and beliefs but stay out of the business of parliament and government.
Out Of Touch, Deluded, Extraordinary
Another MP who needs to be locked up. This time though he doesn’t deserve prison. He needs a lunatic asylum.
Is “Unacceptable” Acceptable From Cabinet Ministers?
I could almost feel sorry for Gordon on this one because as much as he wriggles, he isn’t going to get away. He has said that Hazel Blears’ conduct in flipping her second home to save £13,000 CGT was unacceptable. She has to go.
She Has To Go
Talking about the “rules” isn’t good enough when they are clearly inadequate. The guidelines say that expenses may only be charged when incurred “wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the course of parliamentary duties”. That standard should now be applied as the rule. So, Gordon, your Sky subscription including sports channels, fails that test. A reasonable claim would be for half of the cost.
In your own interests, as well as that of Parliament and the country, there are cabinet ministers and senior Labour MPs who have to go.
I Shall Vote UKIP On June 4th
For two reasons:
1. Because I agree completely that we should withdraw from membership of the EU and establish trading agreements as an independent nation.
2. Because I want to send a message to the main parties showing my disgust for the venal and corrupt behaviour of so many MPs.
I shall vote Tory in the next general election because David Cameron is the only credible candidate for PM.
Wholly, Exclusively And Necessarily
If your expenses do not pass that test then you have broken the rules. It’s black and white. Forget the background, the explanation, that you deserve a bigger salary, how busy you were at the time, saying you were only obeying the rules (”orders” in the Nuremberg defence). All these miscreant MPs must be brought to account and if the police are not going to have the courage to take the necessary steps then some other method must be devised by which to bring these cheats before the courts.
The Plague Is In Both Your Houses
I believe in the media. I think it’s a power for good. OK, so The Daily Telegraph has turned into The News Of The World and there is much else that is crass and false and wrong but it is the media that reveals truth and brings about change.
There can be no option now but jail for some MPs, dismissal for some, resignation for many and shame for most. Those dishonest and corrupt members of the House Of Lords deserve even worse. I also wrote much the same a few weeks ago about the police after the disgrace of the G20 murder and assaults – and what has happened? Nothing! For anyone else charges would already have been brought. Undoubtedly the violent policemen are free on bail and strings are being pulled to breaking point to keep them free.
Well let them break. We all saw it with our own eyes as we have seen the crimes of our politicians. We need no more prevarication.
This is the power of the media and I look forward to the day when we see these politicians, policemen and, yes, the bankers too, chained together as they are led into jail.
“Cheques Are Being Written Out As I Speak”
David Cameron
A magnificent, politically astute and very clever move by David Cameron to seize the initiative from every other party leader. See here. Nobody’s perfect but this is the sort of man we want running the country. Someone who’s smart, understands the public and isn’t frightened of taking action – everything that Gordon Brown isn’t.
They Still Don’t Get It Do They?
How the Speaker has the nerve to get up in the House this afternoon and fail to apologise for his own and his colleagues shenanigans is beyond belief.
Michael Martin
He is, quite clearly, more interested in a police investigation into why details of MPs’ expenses were leaked than he is in the substantive issue itself.
Mr Martin’s reputation is already in tatters. He failed to protect the confidentiality of Parliament in the Damian Green affair. Now as the worst blunderer amongst a herd of buffoons, he misses the chance to take the lead where he should be in the very vanguard of restoring the integrity of Parliament.
Why? Can we have any doubt? He is more interested in protecting his own vested interests and so he piles disgrace upon disgrace and insult onto injury.
What hope is there when even he fails to understand what needs to be done?
Castration Is The Answer
How can a man rape a two year old girl?
I mean the question in both senses. How, physically, is it possible without vile and serious physical trauma? How is it possible for any human being with any degree of conscience or decency?
These questions are unanswerable. So is the crime. No punishment can be sufficient. A death sentence would be both too forgiving and morally indefensible. Surely life must mean life? Perhaps we should consider “hard labour” or some other definition of the way that this man must spend his time in prison?
But of course this is not a man. This is a sentient being that has behaved at a level beneath a dumb animal. I doubt that he is “mad” in any sense that we can define. He is simply bad. For the full story see here.
Louis Theroux’s recent documentary, “A Place For Paedophiles”, gave an extraordinary insight into Coalinga mental hospital in California where more than 500 paedophiles who have served their sentence have been detained because they are too dangerous to release. The BBC has already removed this from the iPlayer so am I happy to direct you elsewhere: (download it here via BitTorrent).
In Coalinga more than 70% of the inmates refuse to participate in the therapy that is their only remote possibility of release. Otherwise they are destined to spend the rest of their days locked up, even if in relative luxury. One inmate who was participating in therapy had gone as far as having himself surgically castrated in the hope of release.
Now this may be a way forward. Why not make surgical castration an option for depraved, out of control monsters such as the one convicted yesterday? It could be optional, as part of rehabilitation, or in the most serious cases enforced as part of the sentence. For someone guilty of such appalling crimes I do not see this as any infringement of his rights.
Disgraceful Betrayal Of Gurkha Heroes
What shambolic, cowardly, civil servant-jobsworth, treacherous nonsense has come out of the Home Office today?
See here for the full story.
The disgusting conduct of Jacqui Smith’s department shames Britain and everyone of us who enjoys freedom won at the cost of Gurkha lives. While she fritters away her expenses and her downtrodden, frustrated husband amuses himself with porn (who can blame him?), these brave, honourable men who have already won their case in the High Court have been knocked back again after months of unnecessary delay.
Not only is the decision itself a disgrace but the way it has been handled is an example of the very worst of Britain. What are these fools in government up to? They really have lost touch with the people and with reality. Gordon’s YouTube cock-up on expenses – can you think of a more stupid idea? A budget based on fantasy, delusion and deceit. Crass stupidity is too generous a description. Gordon, Jacqui, Alistair, you are a laughing stock! You have demonstrated your incompetence and lack of integrity again and again and again. Please just go!
The State Of Israel According To Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran
I am more than a little concerned about this pre-planned walkout in response to President Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations anti-racism conference. I am no friend of his xenophobic, oppressive government and there is no doubt that his speech was inflammatory but there was a deal of truth in it too. This walkout was not in the spirit of “We will offer the hand of friendship if you will unclench your fist”.
There is no doubt that Israel is a racist government and a repressive and cruel one. These are matters of fact which were dramatically proved in the recent invasion of Gaza and which continue every day.
The boycott of this conference by many western countries and this petulant display by the British and the French do nothing to advance the cause against racism.
Three Questions
1. Why do we need an enquiry into the policing of demonstrations when all we are asking for is that all those involved should obey the law?
2. Why were any files about Hillsborough secret in the first place?
3. Can you think of a more inappropriate person to be posting anything on YouTube than Alistair Darling?
Stop Police!
We have now reached the tipping point. Enough is enough. The disgraceful oppression at the Gaza demonstration in Kensington, Ian Tomlinson’s death, the six-foot plus thug who beats five-foot minus women, the deliberate disguise of identity, the arrogant invasion of the mother of parliaments, the Stasi-like investigation of Damian Green extending to Shami Chakrabati. Stop Police!
I respect the challenge and difficulty of the job you do and the vital necessity of your role. There will always be more good policemen than bad but, yet again, you are losing our trust. Now is the time to stop, sort out the bad apples and start afresh before the problem becomes systemic. There is a failure of command and leadership as well so I expect some policemen to go to prison, some policemen to be sacked, some required to resign and some to be disciplined.
Nursing Council Needs Treatment
Yesterday, Margaret Haywood, a nurse at the Royal Sussex Hospital, who helped expose appalling standards of care of elderly people was struck off the nursing register by the Nursing & Midwifery Council. For the full story go here.
Margaret Haywood
This is an example of the very worst of Britain. What prehistoric, myopic, downright stupid bunch of idiots managed to come up with a decision like this? Amidst this country’s many wonderful attributes one of our worst is this inability to move forward, to catch up with the times. I’m afraid that the members of the panel responsible for this ruling have made real fools of themselves.
It is 100% clear that Ms Haywood’s actions were in the interests of patients and this must override any other consideration. Any set of rules or procedures that doesn’t allow for this fundamental priority needs to be changed. Surely a High Court action (the Royal College of Nursing should fund it) will sweep away this ruling and reinstate Ms Haywood with compensation and an unreserved public apology.
Paradise Valley – Heaven On Earth
Today I started a new blog on Paradise Valley, the beautiful heaven on earth where I am so fortunate to live.
This will be where I write about walking my dogs , Capone and Carla, and all our adventures in deepest Dorset.
Violent Pigs Shame British Police
There have always been bullies and violent individuals in the police. Much has been done to reduce the problem but at the expense of overburdening all officers with paperwork. The two brutal thugs who have been caught in the act of murder and assault at the G20 protests must be dealt with as severely as possible. They are guilty not only of inexcusable violence but of breach of trust which hugely magnifies the seriousness of their crimes.
Yes, the enquiries must be allowed to run their course but no reasonable person can have any doubt that what we have seen on our television screens are crimes, both of which will require long prison sentences where, perhaps, these individuals will get the treatment they really deserve.
One of the most worrying aspects of both these cases is that both officers, against all the rules, appear to have removed their identifying numbers. This indicates a premeditated intent to behave in a way that they do not want to be held accountable for.
This no time for the sort of weasel words and pathetic excuses which we are already seeing. This is a case of “THUG PLOD, STUPID PLOD, DUMB PLOD”. The Tactical Support Group (TSG) must be disbanded immediately. Any unit that can demonstrate such inept, cynical, criminal behaviour must go and now!
Barack Does It For Me
Yes, the expectation is ridiculous but Barack Obama continues to fulfil his promise at every stage.
His “First 100 days” is the point at which everyone will seek to pass judgment but I acknowledge him now. This man remains a beacon of hope. His personality and integrity shines through everything. His direct, considered and incisive answers to questions reveal a leader who is exactly what the world needs. I believe we deserve
Barack Obama In London
him too. Other current political issues show the seedy, self-serving, mediocre individuals we have had to put up with for far too long.
I was immensely impressed with his announcement on plans for the US car industry which was an object lesson in how to deliver bad news, how to tell all parties involved that it is time to get real.
He arrives in London and with supreme capability immediately addresses the world economic crisis and arms reduction, apparently making more progress on both in hours than other politicians have made in years.
Hail to the Chief!
BBC Gives Tiscali The Kicking It Deserves
It was wonderful to see Tiscali exposed on Watchdog this evening. For years it has demonstrated itself to be a company to avoid. It is so clearly focused on profit rather than on customers that its death wish is about to be fulfilled.
When will the dumb suits that run businesses like this wake up to real life? This is a tale of greed and disrespect for consumers – just like the banks. The company has consumed itself with avarice and aspiration rather than delivering a service
Paradise Valley
I’ve lived in Sutton Poyntz for six months now. A mile to the south is the sea. A mile to the east is Osmington and half a mile to the north but up a very steep hill is the “top of my mountain”. Walking my dogs around this wonderful area has fulfilled every dream that I dared hope for when I first arrived.
The Mysteries Of the East
We have perhaps half a dozen standard walks that we’ve learned, each one of which can be varied with diversions, extensions or shortcuts. Usually we walk for about and hour and a half. The one delight that is always there is a succession of dramatic and quite beautiful views. I never tire of these wonderful vistas across the valley, to the sea, the Isle of Portland and beyond.
I believe that being able to see some distance is fundamentally good for your psyche. Even in the midst of our ghastly capital city on the 12th floor of a vile 1970s tower block there was some consolation to be gained from
Go West Young Man
the view. In Paradise Valley the views move me every day as they change and develop with the seasons. Quite why just looking can make me well up and seems to touch my soul, I do not know but it fascinates me that the dogs will do the same thing. We reach the peak of a hill or come round a corner and they will stand on a wall or look over a hedge – and just look.
After one false start, spring is here. In the great national blizzard we got off lightly with merely an inch or so. A fortnight later though and we had our own intense Dorset storm and we woke up to four inches and twelve hours without power.
Taking In The View
Another fortnight on and the daffodils and crocuses are out. There is already some intensity in the warmth of the sun and all around gardeners are beginning to dig and to sow, to dream of runner beans and strawberries. Up on the hill they were burning the gorse. Quite why I’m not sure. Then this week they brought in a formidable machine which seemed to crawl up and down the sides of the mountain completely demolishing the gorse bushes and leaving an apparently smooth and fresh sward of pasture.
This required immediate investigation and so the dogs and I struck out for the top. Up closer we discovered a compact bulldozer on caterpillar tracks with a vicious flail mounted on front. The driver told me that it weighs 
six tons and guiding it across the slope sometimes it would slip and
slide and nearly give him a heart attack. He explained that the gorse needs to be cut back simply to keep it under control. He’s a braver man than me. Perhaps he doesn’t know that others deliberately throw themselves off the mountain underneath paragliders.
So in a deepening wamth, for the first time since winter took hold, I find time to sit. With the absence of movement, without having to worry about negotiating the hills and the fields, with time just to sit and contemplate, the valley bursts into life. It’s like sitting in a huge and magnificent amphitheatre but there’s not just the single focus of a sport or contest. Every single part of the valley throbs with activity. A family of deer watch the dogs in trepidation.
Countless beautiful, big, brown buzzards soar and swoop. A pair of kestrels hover over the gorse bushes. The biggest rabbit warren I have ever seen, a city full of bunnies, teems with bobbing white tails. The trees are developing that slightly misty look as millions of buds begin to swell and fill. The insect population is burgeoning and heading towards a total that must surely be in the billions, surely exceeding even the number of humans across the whole of our world.
Paradise Valley is blossoming and as it blooms with it will come ever more intense beauty and experience. This, surely, is one of the most beautiful places on the planet and I live right here. For me it truly is paradise.
Iomega – How To Lose Your Data
I’ve had two Iomega Storcenters now. The first was 1 TB and after about 18 months it failed for no reason I can understand and took nearly a terabyte of movies and backups with it. The second was 3 TB – yes, you may well ask, why did I do it again? That has failed now after about 12 months with about 2.5 terabytes of my data on it.
Iomega support is as useless now as it was the first time. I’d already tried everything they could suggest before I rang them. Being told in a thick French accent that the Iomega warranty does not cover any data loss and that I may want to contact a local data recovery expert just doesn’t do it for me. It leaves me extremely fed up.
The problem is these NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices are a RAID array of disks interrupted by a Linux subsystem so if anything goes wrong you’ve got no chance of using a Windows PC to do anything about it.
Having failed to learn my lesson the first time, now I know that I will never, ever even consider Iomega or NAS as a solution again. These are inevitable disasters in big shiny boxes just waiting to happen. I have seven SATA hard disks in my system that I can monitor and maintain under Windows. If the worst happens I know I can at least try to recover some of the data and will almost certainly succeed to some degree.
Stay well away from NAS.
Rugby Is Life
BBC News And The Fritzl Story
Now I am an “out and proud” news junkie. The BBC News channel runs on at least one screen in my house for at least 12 hours a day but even for me, the coverage of the Fritzl trial has been totally over the top: boring, repetitive and not even news.
The news all happened when this evil man was discovered. He pleaded guilty right at the beginning of his trial and was clearly going to be sentenced to life imprisonment. Why has the BBC gone over and over it, again and again?
Turgid would be a gentle criticism of this coverage. Most people can’t stand the degree to which I will watch the news so when you begin to bore and irritate me you really are in trouble!
Mad Men
It’s hit British TV already so I’m a little bit late but I’m delighted and enthralled by this “Desperate Housewives” about the Madison Avenue ad business in the early 60s. I think that the hiatus and hysteria that I participated in thirty years later in London was the fantasy fulfilment of those earlier years.
Mad Men is the story of Donald Draper, a handsome creative director (in the days when they wore suits!) who has everything: a beautiful, adoring wife; a beautiful, adoring secretary; a beautiful mistress who kicks him out even before he gets his breath back and a host of adoring colleagues and staff. He seems to have just one skelton in the cupboard: a long, lost half brother who he doesn’t want to know any more. The story is still unfolding but, thank heavens for the internet, I have the whole of seasons one and two waiting to be watched.
You have to be an ad man to get all the in jokes. If you don’t understand the significance of the DDB VW ads then you’ll miss out on much of the point of episode three. The indolence and last minute, off the top of the head ideas are the truth about the ad business as are the enormous quantities of alcohol and the pampering and pimping for clients. The almost constant cigarette smoking by every member of the cast is the truth about the 60s too.
So who put these ideas down on paper and sold them to the production company? It’s Matthew Weiner, writer of The Sopranos and, as far as I can tell, no background as an ad man so all credit to his talent as a researcher. It’s a great show and demonstrates the sort of quality TV that we just don’t do in the UK.
Women Are Violent Too
The latest strictly politically correct announcement totally overlooks, again, the violence perpetrated by deceitful, wicked women against men. I should know. I spent five years locked in an abusive relationship with an apparently charming and sophisticated “lady” who would frequently beat me with her fists and anything else she could lay her hands on.
I vividly remember the day I retreated to a mutual friend around the corner who received me hesitatingly, sceptically and then with horror as I revealed a fresh, massive bruise covering half my arm. “But she’s so sweet and gentle!”, she said. “I can’t believe it!” but there was the evidence in front of her.
On one occasion she beat me with a baseball bat until the blood drenched my hair and ran down my face. On another she chased me from room to room with a pick axe handle and an X-ray later revealed a fracture of one of my vertabrae.
So it makes me very angry when the media and the police talk about domestic violence as if it’s always men attacking women. Being a “battered husband” is much more common than I believed until I started talking about it. Women get away with it much more easily. They lie and weep and if you put your hands up to defend yourself then you’re the one who’s being aggressive.
Any violence is unacceptable but it would be good to see a more even hand smartly applied to what actually goes on in relationships.
World’s Worst Banker
http://www.worldsworstbanker.com/
I urge you to go to this site and sign the two petitions listed there.
The first is about the reduction of his pension. Personally, I think he should lose it all. I would have no objection to the introduction of the Fred Goodwin Pension Confiscation Act 2009. As the Prime Minister endlessly repeats: “These are extraordinary times…”
The second is on the Number 10 website and calls for the removal of his knighthood “for services to banking”… cough, cough, choke, gag, choke, cough…
Pundits talk about whether the future of democracy is in online participation. There’s no doubt that it is worth making the effort and signing these two petitions.
Cannabis
God's Herb
I have smoked cannabis since I was 14. There have been a few breaks, some of a few months, some of a year or two but those apart, I have smoked cannabis every day of my life for nearly 40 years.
I have come to regard weed or hash, in all seriousness, as the Rastafarians do, as “God’s herb”. It is a sacrament, a truly positive, honourable and precious thing in my life. Something that I thank God, I did not miss.
I grew up with smokin’ dope. It was a fundamental part of my adolescent culture with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, with a heady summer living the love and peace dream in Amsterdam. LSD blew my mind in those days but a joint was always a sustaining experience. Something I held onto.
As I grew up and got interested in business, I relished the delicious and maverick escape that I enjoyed. I took it seriously and wrote a 40 page report for the Home Affairs Committee entitled “An Unaffordable Prejudice”.
The prejudice, misinformation and sheer nonsense has continued throughout my life. The idiocy of downgrading cannabis to a Class C drug and then, just two years later, back up to Class B is only outdone by the crass stupidity of failing to decriminalise it completely. Prohibition has proved time after time to be an ineffective solution. Worse than that, the law makes a complete ass of itself by sustaining the criminal supply and distribution of a product that is never going to go away.
Regulation is the only viable solution and would provide the framework to care for those very few who may suffer from cannabis use.
What are the dangers? Clearly any intoxicant offers more potential for harm when used by the young, when the brain is still developing. Despite my own experience, cannabis use should be for adults only. In adults it has been proved to be one of the least harmful substances known to man time and time again – despite the fact that most have actually set out to prove the opposite.
Recently the popular argument has been against skunk, a strain of cannabis that can be up to 20 times stronger than that previously known.
To claim this is a recent development is simply wrong. For at least 20 years it has been difficult to buy anything but skunk and other F1/F2 hybrids of the plant. There are many others: Northern Lights, Haze, Blueberry, etc. In my teens it was difficult to buy anything but Lebanese or Moroccan hashish. In Holland where the market is partly regulated there has always been a wide choice of grass or hash from all parts of the world grown and/or processed in many different ways.
The latest suggestion is that skunk is causing psychoses in adolescents – yet the incidence of psychoses in adolescents has remained constant since records began. This is just the lastest scaremongering. 60 years ago it was said that cannabis caused young women to be promiscuous with black men. The standard of the argument has not improved.
It really is time that this hopeless policy against a benign, natural herbal product was stopped. Hemp is one of the most ecologically friendly, sustainable crops in the world. As regulated cannabis it would pull the rug from underneath a great swathe of criminality and produce billions in additional tax income. As biofuel, building materials, fabrics and cattle feed it could help to revitalise agriculture and many other businesses.
Criminal Deception
In a cold hearted, clinical and utterly callous way, we must bring “Sir” Fred Goodwin to heel, to the gutter, to grovel and to ignominy as he richly and deeply deserves.
There are many ways that the government can do this. I suggest that the most effective is simply not to pay him and let him sue. This is a 
pragmatic and commercial approach but, irrespective of its outcome, simultaneously we must prosecute this fundamentally evil individual with all the vigour that honourable and decent society can muster.
If we force him to sue for the rewards of failure then he will have to make his case and I do not believe he wil be able to under the overriding doctrine of “reasonableness”.
However, in the interests of justice, denying him money is insufficient. Nothing less than criminal punishment will suffice. Surely, if our tradition of common law has any relevance, it must be able to sanction his behaviour.
Lawyers must consider whether there is a case for criminal negligence, for conspiracy, for perjury or for any derivative of theft. Our Judges must package his offences in a way that can produce serious and effective penalties.
Without doubt though this “man”, this “Sir” has deceived. He lied to the Select Committee saying that he had received no compensation for loss of office. He has cheated us all. Whether he retains his obscene pension or not he must be jailed. Only then will justice be done.
A Conspiracy Of Shabby, Venal Thieves
It is truly pathetic isn’t it to see these pathetic, small men grubbing around in the gutter to try and save themselves?
“Sir” James Crosby runs HBOS into the ground then bails out at the last minute to become vice-chairman of the FSA. You really couldn’t make these things up unless you were writing a Mafia or organised crime novel.
He becomes one of the Prime Minister’s cronies and overpaid advisors but then is caught out by the whistleblower who he sacked.
They are tumbling like nine pins now but who is still getting away with it? Who has been in post for longer than any of these bank robbers? Who was responsible for settiong up the regulatory system that has proved to be corrupt and incompetent? Gordon Brown, the worst, most corrupt, most incompetent, most myopic, most venal of them all.
There is no more time. This tyrant must be overthrown now. All these knighthoods must be withdrawn. Criminal investigations and personal bankruptcies must follow.
Out Of Touch With Reality
When “Sir” Fred Goodwin lost the plot this morning and started wandering off in his hallucinatory world about how he could legitimately re-package sub-prime mortgages as a AAA security, well then we saw the truth.
The man is stark, raving mad. He continues in his delusion that the world he helped to create makes some sense. He should be sectioned immediately.
Tiscali Dumps Homechoice
In this competitive internet world, what happens when your ISP (and your long-established email address) gets taken over or merged into another organisation?
In a market where there are no prizes for customer service at all, what can you expect from a provider who already has a reputation as the blackest of the black sheep?
When Tiscali took over Homechoice about a year ago, the Homechoice website continued up until early this month. Last year there was a downtime of far too many days on the Homechoice POP servers and all sorts of problems with trying to administer email accounts. There was no explanation at all, let alone any apology.
Early this month everything went down again for several days. When the POP server came back up the website had disappeared leaving just a re-direct to the Tiscali homepage.
Then last week everything stopped again. Emails to Homechoice support were returned as undeliverable and those to Tiscali went unanswered. I went to Tiscali’s PR agency and then direct to the Tiscali’s Chief of PR and my own email address started working again.
I discovered today that Tiscali has dumped Homechoice. Apparently “legacy” Homechoice email addresses have been ported over to Tiscali’s own servers but it’s quite clear that there will be noi more support for creating or deleting email accounts or changing passwords.
The Tiscali insider I spoke to said himself “You’d think they could have sent out a letter or an email or something”.
Unfortunately, of course, this is just par for the course for this industry and Tiscali’s reputation is such that it seems to set the standards for abysmal and irresponsible customer service.
No explanation. No communication. No apology.
What Can We Do About The Zionist Nazi Pigs?
Displaying their cynical cowardice and fundamental immorality, the Nazi Israelis withdrew their troops just in time for the inauguration. Behind them they leave a trail of war crimes for which they must be held to account. Any decent person would find it difficult to imagine how any group could behave so badly as to overshadow the evil perpertrated on them in the Holocaust but you bunch of brutal, evil thugs have surprised us all
Israel is now the Nazi power in the world. It is beyond forgiveness or redemption. Gaza is the new Auschwitz. The only difference is that your method of death is not Zyklon B. It may be bullet, shrapnel, falling masonry, illegal phosphorous bomb, starvation or something else.
Israel is running a death camp in Gaza and those responsible must be held to account as the Nazis were.
How Can the BBC Get It So Wrong Again…And Again
You’re going to be sacked now aren’t you Mr DG? What are you – some sort of Zionist Nazi collaborator? Your judgement is so poor, so out of touch, so utterly incompetent. Move on and let someone with some intelligence and wisdom take the helm of this great organisation that deserves so much better.
Lord Taylor The Slut
It’s hardly a surprise that members of the House Of Lords have been lining their own pockets by charging for political influence. M’Lord Taylor you are just the first or the latest rather naive, bumbling old fool to be caught with your trousers down. You can have no excuse. You are “bang to rights”. There is no room for such venal, inept corruption in our modern world. Do the decent thing.
European Culture 77, English Chavs 2
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It must be the first football match I’ve watched in 18 months. I thought it was worth investing the time. After all, it was hyped to the level where it became an event rather than just a sports occasion. But then really, football lost all that years ago. When the various mafiosi, the agents, the primadonnas and the gross, obscene salaries took hold, football lost
everything it ever had of value.
So, hilariously, ITV’s HD coverage stepped into the rhythm, just four minutes before half time and cut, bizarrely, to shots of bleach blonde, just-retired footballers in the usual badly fitting suits, adjusting their lunchboxes and utterly tasteless ties, commentators preparing for their imminent incisive anlayses, wiping away the smears of mayonnaise and more exotic “amuse bouche” from their lips.
Perfectly appropriate, I thought!
What happened to Roy Of The Rovers and football as a role model? These spoilt, vastly over paid, perversions of sporting talent, ill mannered, conceited, ignorant individuals. They are porn stars and nothing more. They don’t even deliver. Give me a third rate club rugby player, or a rower, a cyclist, a swimmer. Why is the world infected with this football virus?
The beautiful game? In the eye of the beholder without lager, violence, chav celebrity culture, we can do much. much better than this!
Truth is, 10 minutes into the second half, I turned over to watch “The Apprentice”.
Written by Peter Reynolds
May 27, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Posted in Consumerism, Politics, The Media, sport
Tagged with "amuse bouche", agent, analysis, badly fitting suits, Barcelona, commentator, cyclist, football, ITV, ITV HD, lunchbox, mafiosi, Manchester United, obscene, perversion, porn, porn star, primadonna, rower, Roy Of The Rovers, rugby, soccer, spoilt, swimmer, tasteless, The Apprentice, value