Friday, January 18, 2008

The Full Brazilian

There is an amazing Survey in the Telegraph today which shows that more than half of women would leave their husbands if it were not for the money. 2000 Couples were surveyed and 59 % said they would leave if their financial future was assured. 37% were staying together only for the kids The survey was commissioned by Dewey Screwum and Howe ( Seddons) the Solicitors and I have no doubt they are trying to drum up business but it is still testimony to the unhappiness of the ordinary family under desperate pressure from taxes and Mortgages which is all they get from Brown’s “Growth
On the other hand maybe women are just fickle .The Sun has evidence that they can be
'It was Simon Branch's ultimate fantasy to watch his girlfriend have sex with another man. And after months of him trying to persuade her to give it a try, Jilly Marionette finally agreed. But his dream turned into a nightmare as she went on to DUMP him for the man he hired to have sex with her. The couple found £150-an-hour 18-year-old Brazilian Marco Vervez after trawling websites. Two hours later he knocked on their door - and within minutes Marco and Jilly were writhing on the bed as Simon watched amazed and delighted. But what he didn't know was that Jilly had fallen head over heels for her new lover' - The Sun.
So it would appear women want the kids , the money , no fat worried bloke boring them about possible redundancy and an eighteen year old expensive Brazilian lover to “squirm” with.
Put it like that and it all makes sense.

Nipples Like Angry Missiles


I watched Louise Bagshawe last night on Question time. Well she was ok , bright , confident a bit smarmy but faintly funny on occasion. Judging by the following quote “Her nipples were still up and full, pointing out at him like angry missiles.” , from A Kept Woman” ...she may be a girl with much more to offer than we have yet seen
( She is the PPC for Corby and an author of dippy tart books ,)
It woz the Sun wot spotted that quote the same paper that introduced us to Sarkozy`s friend Carkla Bruni as " The botty that drove Mick( Jagger) potty ". With this sort of quality it amazes me that the Sun dipped under 3 million in December .It was in 1978 that the Sun overtook the Mirror at which point the latter ceased to express working class views. It now has less than half the sales of the Sun and yet there was Kevin Macguire on with the lovely Bagshawe as a "Working Class" smart Alec. Years ago what he said would have been relevant . With the spread of the Web and the new sophistication of an amorphous lower middleclass the Sun will have to change and I hope it does . The Mirror... can proceed to the dust heap of history

Winston Scissor Hands



New Scientist recently reported that the best opening move in the game "Stone Paper Scissors " ,was scissors .
Research shows that stone is the most popular of the three possible moves in the game of quick fire hand gestures. If your opponent expects you to pick stone, they will choose paper to outwit you. Therefore, by going with scissors, you will win, because scissors beat paper.
The Mail picked it up and added that the scissors strategy is so successful that it secured auction house Christie's a £10million deal in 2005. .( when a loon Jap told Christies to compete with Sotheby’s at the school yards game and the scissors strategy was successful)
.
For some of us the news that scissors is the best choice was established long ago when we biffed the Hun under our greatest Leader.

Scientology


Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars,the best way would be to start his own religion
Hubbard ........hmmmmm
It is rumoured that there has been a hysterical Tom Cruise rant about Scientology loose on the inter-web . It was posted up on Philipa`s Fortean Times site on the blogroll ... . I do not share the obsession with celebrity that seems to dominate much of the news but I was curious to see what on earth this scientology ,mularky was all about .
A quick dabble in the virtual pond and I think I have it . We are all immortals, or Thetans , who live for trillions of years, a period longer than the life of the Universe inhabiting many bodies .We would be happy but our past lives accumulate unhappy experiences , an inadvisable fashion choice in the mediaeval period perhaps , a rough suitor during our time as a Venetian Courtesan, who can say ,but rest assured scientology can help you unburden yourself of this ancient baggage and become ...like Tom Cruise.
There are other problems facing the adept though , look out for Xenu

...”
Xenu (sometimes Xemu), introduced as an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy." According to this story, 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living and continue to do this today. Hubbard *( The originator of Scientology) called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and advanced-level Scientologists place considerable emphasis on isolating these alien souls and neutralizing their ill effects

Naturally it has only been necessary for me to come into contact with thse convincing ideas to be converted from my weak adherence to the Church of England. And now I am so special and wonderfully enlightened , I must rush around doing good ....when I have had a coffee and read the Papers a bit

Thursday, January 17, 2008

'No Shit Sherlock' Headline Of The Day







'Grim Life For Bangladeshi Prostitutes' - The BBC Website.



Labour Blame Publicans For Failing Pubs

“Publicans should really learn to shut up whingeing about the death of their business due to the smoking ban or cheap alcohol from off licences. The smoking ban made their premises more habitable for the vast majority of people.” Says Labour Home ...who else

This piece of profoundly misinformed hectoring arrogance are from Labour Home ( where else) under Tony Hannon’s ten ways to improve Britain. Well allow me to retort. Firstly 80% of pub goers are smokers secondly there was no desire anywhere for an outright ban and thirdly it is no business of the government to undermine institutions that in many cases predate Parliament.
In my own town Publicans tell me they are not going to be able to continue with the horrendous downturn in trade and in place like Lewes , our cultural and social life will be dealt an irreparable blow . Where else to the heterogeneous denizens exchange views ? No where. Pubs like churches are a vital components of our civil lives and the outrage of Labour’s attack cannot be forgotten or forgiven. Compromises were available for those who do not like the smell and as for the passive smoking myth that is precisely what it is
Christopher Booker
“In 1998 and 2003 came the results of by far the biggest studies of passive smoking ever carried out. One was conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation. The other, run by Prof James Enstrom and Geoffrey Kabat for the American Cancer Society, was a mammoth 40-year-long study of 35,000 non-smokers living with smokers. In each case, when the sponsors saw the results they were horrified. The evidence inescapably showed that passive smoking posed no significant risk. This confirmed Sir Richard Doll's own comment in 2001: "The effects of other people's smoking in my presence is so small it doesn't worry me".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/01/nbook101.xml
As ever our supposedly Liberal MP Norman Baker did nothing to save us from this Stalinist act of aggression whose face was Bimbo Flints but whose true author is the miserable bossy life hating people despising Brown.

Boris Shows Sound Judgement.

The news that the ring leader of Garry Newlove’s killers, Adam Swellings, had only just been released from custody on bail dominates the Mail,and Sun today .It was hours later, that he ( and others ) kicked Mr Newlove to death. . Mrs Newlove`s remarks are magnificently focussed … .“The justice system does not do enough to protect decent hard working people." , she says , and ,“ Life should mean life, but the defendants would still be younger than her husband when they are released.”. ..
With 11 previous convictions, including assault, battery and restraining order breaches Swellings had been arrested a week earlier for punching a man who caught the gang damaging his car. How can the Police and the justice system have failed so utterly ? Well god forbid he should take responsibility but Brown`s hands are all over it .24 hour drinking , the creation of the no fault society and a justice system that cares nothing for the victim are his doing . Policemen never out of their cars ,a Home Office collapsed into tragic-comic inertia, and the maintenance of benefits slums are his campaign strategy.
I recall the bitter words of another bereaved women ...“'And I'm angry that Stephen is six feet under but the boys who stabbed him can laugh and drink. Their families can still have an interaction with them, but I'm never going to have that again with Stephen.” Doreen Lawrence ; as much a sufferer of social breakdown as Mrs. Newlove. She recently used her status to attack Boris Johnson, over his criticism of the Macpherson report . Boris was right though. The witch hunt at the time was part of a long process whereby the Met in particular has become more political than effective and the underpriveliged communites of London above all ,have suffered the consequences .
Boris has made crime central to his campaign. He is not a racist as everyone ,bar none, knows full well and he cares deeply about the debilitating fear of violence in the Streets . Ken`s campaign has consisted of getting his tax payer funded City Hall chums to accuse Boris of racism even going so far as to wheel out poor deluded Doreen Lawrence .This rubbish is wasting time when there are real problems like the tribes of drug crazed violence addicts that stalk the leperous orange night ? Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian does not get it ..

Today he commented on the Hilary and Obama race row .The provenance of phrases like”shuck and jive”, and the sub text of, “ It took a President to get it done ( ie not just Martin Luther King ) “ ,have been thrown into a simmering cauldron . Sadly he uses this interesting subject to drag us back to a boring one . Another reprise of the anti Boris ,Compass ,“racism” smear . He says the various sound bites are even worse in context which is an outright lie and repeats them !.


So Jonathan with 27 teenage deaths in London last year is this your contribution ….”ooo Sir Boris used a bad word when he was 6...sir sir !”, and you complain that no-one is interested ? His triumphant evidence that Boris is not fit to run London is that Boris once said to him …” You are full of shit “…… … “ How would that play in America ? “ he squeals like the privileged little creep he is .
Boris Johnson has shown sound judgement , in my opinion , which can only enhance his Mayoral CV .I would only add that after Freedland`s latest corrupt article he must be a little less full of it than he was.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Vote Clegg Get Brown

I have been exchanging views with Mr. Cicero`s songs , quite an erudite blog from a Liberal perspective but as partisan as Liberals usually are whilst holding their noses at the partisanship of others. In doing so I have synthesised some of my complaints about the Liberal Party( as Clegg now calls them). I find as we are all socially Liberal more or less the differences are stark only abroad especially on the EU. On domestic policy they are somewhat to the left old the Blairites in reality and cannot be taken seriously as Libertarian when they want to take all your money away and redistribute it to worthy causes of their own choosing. On Academies for example Blair started to try and introduce independence .Brown has dropped it but the Liberals would retain strategic Council control which is , as I say , left of Blair and a nothing Policy really . This shade of opinion is happily contained within the Labour party and to some extent in the Conservative Party so there is little to add. I have reorganised into answers to accusations although the context was different. I t cannot be said often enough , vote Clegg , get brown , Vote Clegg get Brown vote Clegg get Brown ....


Liberals are as patriotic as anyone :
Liberals do care less about the people of this country specifically which they would call “a “little Englander” attitude . The reason for this is that the Liberal party embraces , to a greater extent , ‘Liberalism’ which claims you derive values from your humanity. Thus it loves the hated human rights act , and the minimum wage and the thought of a world order in which Europe has a part (nightmare …See Ulrick Hech in the Guardian today) The English are usually communitarian , to put it simply , believing that values emanate from specific communities and that a country is like a club into which you pay in some sense .
This is why on the left and right there is great suspicion of immigration whereas Liberal think it is a simply wonderful thing and applaud the end of the ties and bonds that once were the nation This universalism even extends to animals who many Liberals appear to believe are people in little furry coats .
A communitarian attitude is far less prone to subscribing activities enshrined in a community halal butchery poses a problem for you , not us . Hunting you loathe we are indifferent. You ban it , we leave it whatever we think of the practice .

Liberals support the US and NATO:
You would not support the US in Iraq you would have dropped the alliance . Words mean nothing . You would have imperilled our defence and that is one reason above all you will always be a small party .You did not want to renew Trident either (listen to Huhne on that …and listen to him attacking Clegg). You cannot , in short , be trusted. This makes you very popular in some circles but they are fickle fashion voters. Your support for NATO is weak (you cannot have it both ways ) despite the fact that NATO has delivered peace while the EU cannot even sort out its own back yard.
This is the value of strong nation states acting intergovernmentaly . English lives will never be lost ‘only’ to save Poles they will be risked only for their countrymen. You see little difference between Watford and Warsaw , I do .You are concerned with bureaucracies not honour or loyalty. You applaud extreme localism like the Cornish so as to undermining this national loyalty but this is an illusion and the seeming of independence only.

The EU is a binary choice and a referendum to be real would only allow in or out . Ming s Position was therefore honest and Camerons is not :

You always say the EU can be reformed have you changed your mind then ? It cannot be by you certainly because you have no stomach for it and also because you are dishonest about you motives which are actually super national. You say the cost is huge but you have absolutely no idea if that is true . I have seen convincing arguments made to the contrary and the growth of Euro scepticism has y followed the decreasing relative importance of Europe as a market. Others manage well. Increasing democratic control of Brussels is not the way because that is further establishing a European state which we do not want , we do not want federalism we wish to remain a country and providing legitimacy for the EU would be even worse .That is why Polly Toynbee that hater of the English is so keen . No it should move back to being a trade association of independent states as it was sold to the British in the first place . If that is not possible and the other way is towards “Ever close union “…then we are heading for a the completion of your project to outlaw the country and I would say even violence along the way from the vast majority who will rightly regard this as treason….All the more reason why we must have a referendum.

We are accused of being socialists as well as of being Conservatives:
You are not accused of being Conservatives only Socialists. Your problem is this , the ‘social’ Conservatism you talk about is in the past. Liberals had a role in the 20th century on gay rights and women’s rights and so on. Various views about tinkering with the result do not justify a Party . Individual Liberty you have relinquished to the Conservatives and you are bugger all use in defending smoking , pubs , hunting if helpful on ID . Even on Surveillance you are not much good . None of the trenchant criticism that emerges form our ranks does from yours . You are noticeably bossy locally . This lack of a role domestically is why such great prominence is given to the rest of the world where the focus of Liberal attention has drifted. That is why the EU is so central , Clegg is like an old Heathite Tory in many ways .

Liberals Do Not Exist To make Alliances We Have Principles
I do not say anything about your beliefs which are , in general , far less important than you seem to think. I only say you have a history of duplicity and deal making , ( it comes with the territory to be fair ) your membership will not have an alliance with the Conservatives so you will do a deal with Brown. There you will force PR and engineer so as to establish a thousand year Reich of the centre left such as has appeared elsewhere in Europe. Given the momentous possibility all those who are wavering and thinking of supporting the Liberals must be aware of the realities of their position In the absence of undertakings to the contrary it will be justifiably assumed to be where the shortest and only route to power . It is quite reasonable that this fact should be advertised.

Vote Clegg get Brown

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Rape The Horrifying Truth

I like to be cheeky with the girls and I do not accept that the answer to the low conviction rate on rape is to assume men to be guilty by one means or another. Perhaps its good to be reminded of just how horrifying an experience it can be and this account is chilling
The victim`s account : ( Name changed)

"I was raped in 1991 by a client when I was working for an escort agency. It was completely premeditated: he had the rope ready to tie me with, and the implements on hand to torture me with. When I finally got free, after a 4½ hour ordeal, I phoned the police. The policewoman I spoke to said it was "unfortunate", but as it was my word against his - and I was a sex worker - no one would believe me.
I insisted on making a statement because I was sure he would strike again. Nothing was done, ..(she decribes her long fight for justice) ... He eventually served just seven (years )
I was the one given the life sentence. He destroyed my life: because of the instruments he used to torture me, I had to have a total hysterectomy, and couldn't work or look after my children, and my marriage eventually broke down. The trial was a terrible ordeal,........
"

Jesus !Seven Years ? Why should he ever come out ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2241023,00.html

The Best Possible taste




Pin Up ? Which one , Godfrey or Kate



Hugh Muir`s Diary drew my attention to to Godfrey Bloom the UKIP MEP today . These are some of his thoughts :
1 Complaining that the woman’s committee is always discussing prostitution and rape he commented “None of them are in danger if the first or could earn their living from the second “…..tee (guilty ) hee
2 Defending Patrick mercer , jettisoned by Cameron for inadvisably racial comments , he said “ Colonel Mercer put his cock in the custard” ….its pithy come on …
3 Reflecting in his shy way on the fact that John Sentamu said there was racism in the Church he said “ I would have though the fact he was an Archbishop with a face as black as Newgates knocker would belie that”…well you would wouldn’t you

Coarse he may be but Martin Daubney editor of Loaded may take the palm by featuring Kate McCann in his list of pin ups.” Sensitive one this “ he says “ but there’s nothing more erotic to some than a pained woman in need of some good lovin` and “ Nothing like grief to make a woman really up for it “

Nice

The End Of Nations

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2240950,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfron
Read this by Ulrich Beck if you want to know what drives the Euro extremists . This is what they say when they are not trying to mislead you.

Take The Test



Well I feel a bit emasculated I don`t seem to be all that right wing at all.Slightly authoritarian though phew! God knows what you have to reply to be really right wing .I was pro death penalty , "My country right or wrong,".... Oh well just a mushy Liberal (Pinched from the amazing Devils Kitchen)

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

Thanks to Nick Drew I feel much better...I did let the inner Attila loose a bit though

http://www.politicalsurvey2005.com/

Your position on this axis is 3.4You are likely to be fairly punitive and isolationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is 3.0You are likely to be fairly free-market and pro-war.
Comparisons

We`ve Come For Your Organs



I am lolloping along belatedly behind the organ donation opiners . The point , should anyone have missed it , is that you will have to opt out of organ donation under Brown`s new plans and initial reaction of some of the right has to talk about the state nationalising your body . I think overall this is misguided.
Some 1000 people a year die is dreadful circumstances due to the lack of organs . 90% of the population favour organ donation and yet only 25% get round to carrying an organ donor card. So are we entitled to assume we can harvest their flesh after death ? . Polly Toynbee puts the figure into what appears a devastating context

“How many is 1,000 lives a year? Imagine if the government promised there would be no murders next year (755), plus no pedal cycle deaths (146); or no pedestrian deaths (675); or no motorbike deaths (599); or no deaths from falling down stairs (1,000). Imagine if the NHS could promise no deaths from cervical cancer (1,061) or from bone cancer (1,007). In that context, a government saving 1,000 lives a year with a stroke of a pen is an easy win. Then add in the 10,000 other very sick or blind people who will be helped”

By her logic , of course , we should ban running in the house if not walking on the pavement nonetheless I don’t deny the force of the argument. People are quite reasonably concerned that Doctors , used to making pragmatic decisions will be tempted to harvest organs with a little too much enthusiasm . Furthermore all those with a residual sense of the sacredness of the body will be horrified at the prospect of the organ harvesters attending the death bed like vultures not to say the habitual bureaucratic barbarism of the state in dealing with objections .

On balance though I support the idea . We cannot be endlessly responsible for other people’s indolence and if their feelings are strong then they should act ,as can their relatives after death. Suppose we denied organs to those who have not agreed to donate theirs? No-one would be so inhumane and yet there is a primitive justice. Given that using organs is the choice of 99.9% when they need them I think the safeguards are sufficient and the Conservative Party should back the proposal.

So....this is a first , I think I am saying Gordon brown has done a good thing....shudder.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Clegg , Brown`s Trojan Horse



I have been wondering , since Huhne got so close with his leftish agenda , just how Nick Clegg was going to lead his party. His speech attempted the tricky manoeuvre of trying to appear decisive when he is in no position to be anything of the sort “ Freedom choice ,diversity , he said , these are Liberal words lets take them back “.
Having said that he also said , “ The state must intervene to allocate money on a fair basis in our health and education systems “. this sounds faintly redistributive but chew on it and the texture is blancmange . Lo speaketh he more, in riddles “ We would never advocate change for the sake of it …” but he also says” but neither should we defenders of the status quo .” Does any one , and I mean anyone ,have the slightest idea what this means ?.
He attempts to say he is different to David Cameron..” They claim to care for poor people but their only spending commitment is a tax cut for the richest people in the country” This would be the tax cut so popular that Labour were obliged to rush out a copy and which persuaded the Liberal that they had to stop drifting further left even if no one did take them seriously . He also objects to the Conservative suggestion that the tax system might stop actually discriminating against married couples “ They want to use the tax system to make moral judgments about whether people are married or not “ So he does not support marriage .
Nick Clegg `s suggestion of attenuated academies still run by the local authority but a bit less so is feeble stuff. The educational establishment own the Liberal party and the status quo will move not a millimetre thanks to them .To summarise the thrust is this .They will be tax neutral which means nothing but by Liberal standards is an explosion of sense. They are however different to the Conservative because they care about poor people and don’t like marriage . There was a little window dressing about local involvement but it was really dragging the Party after the Conservatives on “How” with a bit of guff about caring thrown in. I found it a dishonest speech he was trying to suggest that you can have redistribution without coercion and you can’t. he was trying to suggest you can have greater efficiency and total equality of result and you cannot . He was trying to pretend the Liberals do not love bossing us around when they do. It has a deep incoherence and was an arse splitting feat of sitting on the fence
Never forget the objective , which is to cut into the Conservative vote so they can do a deal with Brown for PR and establish a left centre progressive dictatorship. A vote Liberal is not only a vote Brown but a vote for eternal Brown. A Trojan horses go it looked a bit suspicious to let into Troy and we must sound the alarm.

Laws and Agent Smith



"So if laws can be personified as actively seeking to copy themselves (like conceptual Agent Smiths ) , what are their weapons , what claws , eyes what defences ?"

It has always impressed me that those enlightened Icelandic people had a marvellous way of stopping the irresponsible breeding habits of new laws of . They required that a law-sayer should be able to recite all the laws, and as he had reached the limit of his prodigious memory, when another was added it was obliged to replace one that preceded it. The choice before the men of beard and axe was therefore a little more complex that that facing the smoothly be-suited modern keyboard warrior . They also had to decide which one to cut …and remember they did not have cooing flights of them in a back shed left over from previous law breeders and keeper .
Under such an arrangement we can well imagine the law -sayer , sleepless , twitching ; rolling his eyes piteously should Wolfstan (the pernickety) start wondering about banning smoking in cars buying sex or hunting vermin

.Sometimes it helps to take a step back and as someone who has religiously avoided knowing much specifically , I generally recommend it anyway . The Romans originally limited themselves to ten Tables in about 450BC , this became twelve which formed the original breeding population . Like rats they multiplied until in 533 AD when the Western Empire was gone, the Eastern half alone was able to publish a ‘digest’, which itself ran to 2000 volumes.
While life might have become a little more complex it is clear that there is natural; tendency to procreate driven by the needs of laws themselves .Richard Dawkins took similarly long view about things that exist . Blindingly simple really , but things that are around and especially those that there are lots of , like laws , have capabilities that have ensured their survival and procreation .He applied this to the selfish gene but more impishly to systems of ideas like religion , called ‘memes ‘a semi serious concept misused by the barbarian elements of the blogasphere .
Religion for example is a complex , of faith , punishment , and security that powerfully replicates in empty cultural space. He sees it as a virus which short circuits the process of living by merit ( Like fire making skills say) , and exploits a healthy body, sucking as much energy as is safe to survive and multiply . I do not agree with him about religion but it is an idea should ,with more rigour, be applied to laws. Let us briefly translate this into modern terms…

The cost of government has gone up by over 50% under Labour (Public Expenditure Analysis 2001-5) , The Civil Service now has 554,000 employees , more than the population of Liverpool (Public Sector Employment Statistics Dec2006). I forget the number of new taxes but , Tacitus, who looked upon the Roans and saw the madness of endless law making would have been unimpressed at than 3000 new criminal offences .
So if laws can be personified as actively seeking to copy themselves (like conceptual Agent Smiths ) , what are their weapons , what claws , eyes what defences ?

The first and most obvious is that the world adapts to anything new , and like an Oyster turns any old grit into a pearl it can live with .Shrapnel-like , it may do more damage moved , than left to fester. So undoing is hard. The cry goes out , for example ,that London should be a 20 MPH zone . Wasn’t there recently an campaign saying “Its 30mph “ for a reason ? The reason was presumably that this was as much as they could get away with. Who is to say what freedoms are lost or money spent on enforcement and what injury skewing the world this may cause . We can say that a few children die because cars are going at 25 mph not 20 .
A seconds thought will satisfy you that a law to require the elderly to wear jumper in Winter would save many lives as would anti coughing legislation or indeed anti running around in your own home where prodigious numbers of accidents occur. However we do not have a weary law-sayer to remind us of the balance . We see pictures of dead children which , for good evolutionary reasons , we treat , not as statistics but as close friends .. So we might say laws use our innate inability to see the whole and attract our magpie tendency to the shiny part. The “Something must be done “syndrome . The ‘something must be undone’ syndrome is a rare beast.
Then as we know laws must be enforced . Coffehouse blog has an interesting motif on Welfare reform which , it is clear , is now open veldt , with Labour twitching like a bed sored catatonic between accusations of Plagiarism and callousness. Norman Fowler , however , had some cold water to pour on hopes of turning around the good ship “Scrounge”

Norman Fowler took him (Richard Litrtlejohn actually ) out to Washington and Baltimore in the 1980s when he was a Labour Correspondent to show him workfare, and pledged to introduce workfare to Britain. Nothing happened. “If Thatch couldn’t force it through, it’s not going to happen now,” he says today. It’s unclear just how hard Thatch tried – but it’s true that the Cameroon team may underestimate how hard it is to get the civil service to do anything.’

Aha yes , like selfish genes laws, ally with close relatives to form powerful phenotypes (characteristics like long necks ), each one requires a law minder who becomes a guardian of the Matrix himself .
A slight sophistication of “ Something must be done “ , is “Something must be done about them“. If I hear Jeremy Clarkson posing as Libertarian hero , I think “Where you for the fox hunters then ?“. When I hear Norman Baker our local FOI Miss Marple resist ID cards , I think “Where were you for smoking ?“. It is always possible to argue that some good can be done by attacking the minority “Them”. An instinctive fear of the way they use this lies behind the broad smirks when the Liberal party promise only increase tax on the rich. Somehow we dimly sense we have to hold firm for all we have little time for Private Equity , or fox hunters , or smokers , or those who do not want a booster seat for their eight year old, we will be next . While the forces of law making are by their nature as unrelenting as tidal erosion the forces of liberty are quixotic .Herding cats is easier than getting them to agree with eachother .
There is good old fashioned greed of course. Someone’s empire always needs building. So if laws are a tape worm, under what circumstances might it die ? Well think of the country as a herd and its clear. In a lean Summer when the Deer are already starving those riddled with parasites will die leaving a healthy population to bound onto to new and better grazing . With perhaps 8,000,000 in the public sector now it is clear than in the worldwide “fat Years “ the herd has indeed become infested , and it took a sort of die back…Callaghan’s 70s , to rid us of the pest last time. This is why Conservatives look at economic bad news with grim satisfaction .
My concern is this , is the world getting too rich for freedom which requires periods of ill health to kill off the maggots . Are we heading for battery chicken status , not because of someone’s evil plan but because of the blind ability of laws to infest any excess health or wealth created . If the “Something must be done “ bleeding-heart Liberal hold the balance of power after the next GE , they may force PR and an endless left centre political class government in which my they and the theory will be tested to apocalypse , (or Sweden , if you will.)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The People Of Lewes


The view from the kitchen window this morning
Today was so beautiful I couldn’t be bothered with the world . We went for a walk on the Downs but over our preparatory porridge and yoghurt we looked at the local Paper. Our lovely English Town has a fizzy little journal which, like many of its type , is chiefly interesting for the letters column. This week , there was plentiful crop and I thought it might be nice ,in an admittedly twee way , to put one or two here as a flavour . This involves a heroic acts of typing on my part but in compensation , little thinking. The first is a exquisitely barbed put down of local busy bodies . Paul Leader of Framfield is still sticking it to the man with rare panache … ( and at his age :)

Being officially one of the elderly and vulnerable , I was alarmed to read the recent dire warning s from Diana Grice Director of Public health., …(etc.) Her advice to my ‘at risk’ sector is that when Winter sets in we crumblies should ‘heat the room’…’wear a good coat , hat, scarf and gloves’ …wear flat soled non slip shoes’ and eat and drink hot meals and drinks throughout the day .So , no more wandering around Tescos in my underpants then or throwing open my windows ant the first sign of frost, or supping ice cube soup.
This advice comes , of course, from the burgeoning Ministry Of The Bleeding Obvious and is an affront to anyone with an IQ higher than a pigeon’s. Though meant to be helpful, ( to interplanetary visitors perhaps ? ) and possibly translated, at the tax payers expense, into Urdu Polish Bengali , Mandarin and Braille - this drivel verges on ageism, hinting that anyone who has survived over six decades and is not in a locked ward for their own protection must be approaching vegetable bed wetting status and has forgotten how to keep warm
Bill Bentley , East Sussex County Councillor , clearly a black belt in patronising , also warns that ‘living in a cold house can have an effect on your health’ There goes my dream of igloo life in 2008. Who on earth do these twits think they are talking to ? Moreover infantile council-speak obfuscates advice on warming and insulating homes which needs repetition and publicity. Idiotic proclamations from the office in the clouds of nanny Grice only serve to infuriate and alienate many of those she aims to assist. Where’s me thong and sandals , Sainsburys here I come…..

Genius .Peter Messer a local artist recently made the news by saying that newcomers were destroying the character of Lewes. This provoked a storm of debate and the letter I like best was this thoughtful effort by Kathleen Seymour . Along the way she gives a politely acidic description of the class and types of people that mingle in our English Eden to be cherished.….
Peter Messer is scathing about what he sees as the wrong kind of newcomers to the town. He is appalled by its gentrification , Lewes , he says, ‘is losing its identity ‘.
He may be a respected local painter but he`s not so hot on local history.. Lewes has changed and changed again throughout the centuries , from bustling prosperity to rural backwater and back. The arrival of the railways made it accessible and by the early 20th century both grand houses and ugly council estate s were being built on the town’s boundaries for newcomers, who began to outnumber the townsfolk, and then became the townsfolk. The arrival of Sussex University (and later Brighton University) staff from the 1960s onwards changed Lewes again . They favoured back street artisan’s houses , preferably two , three or more which they could knock together to form stylish ‘Town Houses’. Since then Lewes has taken in an arty crowd( including Mr. Messer), the vegan sandal wearing lentil eaters , and a substantial literati element .
The towns identity is further influenced by the huge numbers of people who come into Lewes each day to work in the Local Authority headquarters , the ambulance headquarters and the prison etc. This has been going on for lost of Mr. Messer’s life . Their presence contributes to the success of local businesses, thus benefiting those who live here; That they are also the cause of out traffic problems is also relevant to the nature of the town.
So what identity is Lewes losing Mr. Messer.? The Lewes you remember is not the older one I remember and mine is no the Lewes of the previous generation. My daughter’s Lewes is again
different to your and mine

I`m afraid as I was already in this week`s , abusing Ms. Marple ( Norman Baker) , my effort was not included but I just love Kathleen Seymour’s style .
I wore an a sort of walking garment all day today , when for years I have inhabited the a Johnny Boy (out of Mean Streets) Leather Coat and Jeans . The spell of the place is falling on me . Church tomorrow , and a local pantomime . Bliss.

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