The Modern Nativity Leaves Out Joseph

The Islington gazette has a front page headline ..........

No Room for mum and baby

MARY and Joseph had to make do with a stable and this Christmas young mother Nichola Katsaras and her baby Jayden are having to sleep in a garage.The homeless 23-year-old has been on the waiting list for a property since before her six-month old son was born - but Islington Council has still not found one for her. So Miss Katsaras sleeps in the garage with her baby in Hatchard Road, Archway.She said: "It hasn't been plastered or insulated and it's not meant to be lived in.I have my bed, wardrobe, sofa and a chest of drawers in there and I had to buy a portable radiator. Now it is winter it is starting to get really cold in there."Miss Katsaras has been living in the garage, which is part of the property her mother rents, since August 2005. When she discovered she was pregnant she made an application at the Housing Aid Centre to be classed as "homeless from home" and therefore get a property of her own……………………


This was my take on it .


I `m sure we all found the heart rending tale of Mother Nichola and baby Jayden`s housing difficulties, desperately moving. The first line the story specifically referred to Mary and Joseph .The comparison with the nativity was poignant throughout
I know nothing about this poor woman and her circumstances ,and I wish to avoid assumptions about her case . On the other hand , I am certain almost everyone who read the story asked themselves ;where is Joseph? We are asking that question far to often nowadays,
Government policies have decimated the family. Let me make it quite clear; by family, I mean mother , children, and father. Britain has the worst level of family breakdown in Europe and one on three children will experience divorce or separation before sixteen . Two out of five children are born to unmarried parents. All of these statistics are vastly worse if we look at benefit supported Council tenants. With 70% of Council tenant receiving assistance in Islington, we are at the sharp end .
The absent father has been a betrayal of white working class boys above all. Only 17% of these gain five or more A to C grades at GCSE .With today’s exams that means the rest are virtually unemployable.
Misguided benefit systems, and a housing policy that rewards irresponsible behaviour are to blame . Consequently, drug related violence terrorises Islington and all we hear is , CCTV , ID cards, and other coercive measures. These are boys who have no-one there to tell them how to be a man. The state cannot be their father.
Remember ,“Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime” ? The greatest cause of all is family breakdown , but this is not on the “New” Labour agenda. .The Child support agency has been a fiasco only rivalled by the tax credit system, and the ineffective “Sure Start“ initiative. I attend “Sure Start” with an awfully nice architect , and an alternative comedian. It isn’t working.
My heart goes out to Nichola Katsaras and I beg her not to take these words as an attack on her .My anger is directed at the government who have wrecked the lives of so many decent people . We must adjust our housing and welfare policy, reintroduce the transferable tax allowance ,and remove vicious marginal rates of taxation We must not forget , ever , that Joseph was there at the first Christmas;watching over the manger .

Brit Flicks are Awful

On the subject of the British film industry and its subsidies. I was chatting elsewhere today as follows (On EU criteria for a British film). I had read the Boris piece in today’s telegraph and Brassed of that dreadful cocktail of self pity and cliché popped into my mind .

I think when old dad coughed up coal dust ,rivals the hanging clown as the most hysterically awful moments in it . Ugh…….Boris was explaining that in order to get a subsidy the film has to be truly British in an number of ridiculous ways …

.Why the hell should tax payers prop up the "British Fim Industry"You are aware that such is the awfulness of its product that film goers actively avoid it until American Audiences have approved.Where is your silly parochial pride in the artistic deadweight of our turgid output then? Nowhere.Let me remind you of the horror of "Brassed Off" as symbolic of all the inward looking special pleading fetid off all our "creative" class dump on us . Consider "The Matrix " as an exemplar of the muscular invention of the US based world of ideas.

We sit around wondering why the media is so religiously attached to a statist agenda , It isn't hard is it ,that's who pays them which goes most of all for the BBC which should be burnt to the ground tomorrow . This is all comes form the French and their Language need for a domestic Film Industry. Also their constant wish to subvert the EU to their own utterly selfish and entirely nationalist ends.

What would Churchill Say

I have been indulging a fantasy...................


The decimation of the Cities by uncontrolled migration has been deliberately allowed because the increase in red tape has destroyed the real economy. With inflation and unemployment rising there it is clear the economy cannot withstand increased demand. In any case this is beyond the Chancellors remit , the only good thing he ever did . Unreformed Public Sector resource munchers have been hosed down with taxpayer's cash and like all their kind only react by needing more.
The endless long Summer of growth (actually begun under the chancellor ship of Norman Lamont) , can only be sustained by reducing costs to big business who collude in raising entry barriers to the markets and finance large Lobbying groups , like the Smith Institute ( see Guido). Broon has to have this growth to pay the political pipers of the public sector and he is selling out the country to do it .
It is for this reason that immigration has been allowed to balloon and will continue to be allowed to replace the indigenous people with the flood of further migrants from Bulgaria and Romania next year ( One of the1038 unanswered questions) . Meanwhile One in ten Britain's actually live abroad and 500 permanently relocate every day (replaced by 1500 immigrants)
I am way past pansying around with the whole subject. The answer is lowering taxes reducing administrative burden getting out of the EU , restoring honesty to public finances . My side is winning the argument and will win in the end as the horror unfolds .Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron have signalled they knwo it . What a shame David Cameron has to be dragged like a scraggy old donkey, by the nose ,by the resurgent right .
The Green Party cannot help they are wedded to proto Socialist policies that destroy business and are useful idiots for the Socialists at best. The worst of this operates through the EU .( See new "Green "measures announced yesterday due to undermine the chemical industry) . They also encourage childish non engagement with big policy and single issue fraud of a typical Liberal kind .
When will we defend our land. The whole position is far far worse than it appears and we , the English are fast becoming no more than a scattering of aboriginies paid lip service but irrelevant to policy. I `m with Le Pen . “Love this country or leave it” . I `m with Winston Churchill I wish he was here to day to warn us we are sleepwalking towards the end of our nation. I wish he was here to tell the people who the traitors are and what they have done .This was following the betrayal of the Munich appeasement


"They ,( That’s us), should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history."

Resonates for us I think

Worst Christmas Present Ideas ?

Mutley the Dog, (that snickering hound), has had a simply ripping idea and I am stealing it . I didn`t ask , I do not care. Don`t vist his blog if either .........

a Your gut is delicate amd prone to busting
b Your sides have a tendency to split

This was my pathetic stab , any better ideas ?


http://mutleythedogsdayout.blogspot.com/

1 The Big book of Genocide- for the Arab Islamic Government of Sudan
2 A gun -for someone who hates me and is crackers
3 Some Myrrh - Don’t ask , it was a long journey and any old shit would do
4 The gift of sight - For a blind boy( he wanted socks )
5 Five more years of show biz- For Bruce Forsyth , his immortal soul was required but he seemed please with the deal
6 An exciting roof ornament - For Rod Hull and Emu
7 Addresses of the childer- For Herod , well its what he wanted
8Um…..
8 Pork sausage - For an Orthodox Jewish vegan who had in any case dies some years ago
9 Sixteen high class whores all night - For myself …I `m so ashamed

10.A Partridge in a Pear Tree -My true love (wanted socks)

I like David Cameron

-and on the family he is getting it right:

As the subject of the Nulab assault on the family has cropped up I have diligently attempted to make a gestalt of the seething swarm of grievances that madden me between dusk and darkness. Somewhat unusually I find it difficult. It has been the soufflé that will not rise and I feel more that usually clumsy male and brutish . I do hope such qualities are still attractive.The reason a delicate trout tickling finger is required is that there are competing claims all of which one feels are self evidently super . The rights of women , the prevention of dire poverty the maintenance of the family and the protection of children. We tick all those boxes do we not , so where is the problem ?

Firstly the position of women in marriage . The operation of the divorce courts currently treats the man as under a duty amounting to strict Liability. Whatever the circumstances , be she the scarlet whore of Babylon , the man must lose . He must lose because the children are the state first responsibility. It cannot be doubted that if the explicitly political appointment of judges operated in the UK we would not be stuck with this and other Liberal anachronisms. Nu Lab as we know leaves the legal profession alone.(Tony Blair will I trust be needing the help of an excellent lawyer very soon.) . Part of the effect of this has been to increase to divorce rate but clearly this will be increasingly at the behest of women. The family there fore has be come lop sided . In any dispute the state stands as an alternative provider . In particular a provider of housing . The man is excess baggage . We can see how some of our good motives have lead to evil ends but where is the balance ?

The operation nationally of subsidised housing is well known ,of course ,to have driven a coach and horse through the web of familial connections that the working classes relied upon . It has been one of the most malign errors of political correctness that we have been denied respectability when telling the truth . Women do get pregnant in order to acquire points . Couples are prevented from acknowledging their connection by marginal tax benefits bribery The absent father has been a disaster for young white men in particular. Incidentally the poor white "underclass" perform very much worse than their immigrant opposite numbers . Briefly this is because immigrant s are often temporarily poor middleclass aspirants obliged to start at the bottom . This is not the same as being beaten into losing all self respect as the urban non-working class have been . The destruction of the family in this context has had dire consequences .Sure start has not even connected with it and its failure tells you much about the incomprehension NuLab has for real life.

Only 17 % of white working class boys gain 5 or more A to C grades at GCSE. This means they are unable to spell their own name in the degraded currency left from grade inflation. Britain has the worst level of family breakdown in Europe and around 1 in 3 British children will experience divorce or separation by the age of sixteen. Two out of five children are born to unmarried parents Make no mistake this is not a soft subject for daytime TV , this is a disease that grips the patient by the throat. It is like a sickness that attacks all the organs simultaneously . Education ,social behaviour ,drugs and crime . At the centre of it all is the family. The keystone removed the Arch must crumble and under the rubble children of ten and eleven are routinely involved in drugs crime . The single largest driving force behind this is the maintenance of a housing policy suitable for the austere need of the fifties into the new millennium. ,....and yet do we want mother and child on the street ? Where is the balance?

Perhaps the problem of the absent and derided father has been given enough air . What about the despised mother. Don your flak jackets and accompany me if you will to the Mummy war zone. Nearly half of all women in a sample of 2134 felt they were under an equal obligation to provide for the family as the man .Many of these despise the, "Housewife". On the other side significant percentage of non working mothers report their contempt for the selfishness of the worker mum and, feel that it is they who are failing in the most important role .How the Nu Labs lie . They claim , rightly , that time spent with mother and child together has increased since the sixties . When you factor in the "accessible time" measurement though the situation is very much worse .Accessible time is that time not spent cooking cleaning and working at home.What do we want then ? Get those uppity fillies back in the kitchen, and back into character? Should we have a law requiring women to be able to.." stuff a goose with one hand while whipping up a tarte fine aux pommes with the other, at the same time as having great sex with their adoring husbands". Many men will be scratching their heads in search of an objection , but lets be serious . Not in this life my friends.I need hardly add that the male has become a miserable primate picking his ears in solitary confusion. He is miserable .

A strange pottage , in all, of good , if bossy , intentions , we can all see something is going badly wrong but but to introduce sudden doctrinaire changes would only fall as foul of the law of unintended consequences as the Blair disaster. Now here comes the sting the tail ..wait for it ...any minute now . David Cameron is getting right!What , that callow matinee fraud ,...has newmania lost his solitary marble... ?Against considerable evidence to the contrary I would argue no. David cameron is listening to women . He has signalled this by fast tracking the Priti Patels and Joanne Cash`s into the loathed A list , he has spent much capital on the project . His language does not , like president Bushes`, include reference to Blair's "cojones" he does not require a "Clunking fist" You have to read he runes a little but then women are especially good at that. They have responded by backing over the Socialist Scot by 42% to 30%He is listening to suggestions that women require flexible working hours . His indifference to Big Business is a sign that their need will not come first. Most importantly he has suggested a scheme to convert Council rents into mortgages. He does not have to say how he values the countries institutions , remember he has come into the centre from the right ! Why do you think he and Boris get on so well !

Above all he has winked as much as he possible can at the party on taxes. He cannot be clearer . He wishes to simplify . As everyone knows that means reduce by the only electorally possible means . By this method he will help the poverty trap .The credit system ...let us not speak of it ! He is tied into distancing us from Europe , an essential prerequisite to doing anything at all .It all forms a picture Take the disaster of literacy he does not demand we return to the 194os as some Tories secretly wish he would . He persuaded the Education secretary to reintroduce synthetic phonics. He is interested in practical solutions

We are in early days and there is no pointing giving Nu Lab clothes to steal or policies to cost This is not a subject for big ideas and sweeping changes it is a subject for feeling our way to a new definition for the family . My reading is that David Cameron is doing just that . Some of us so hate the Labour Party that we cannot bare the reasonableness of his approach .I have begun to think we all need to grow up. David Cameron is a fine Leader , a caring man and a brave man. He is not an insider. The Party chose him because they needed him. David Davies agrees , so does Boris .The women of the country sense he has something and are saying so . What then of the men ?

Well , when the women are happy , rest assured , life becomes sweet indeed for those of us with real "cojones"

The Utopian Fallacy

It is essentially un Conservative to dream of Utopias which are generally academic jokes or religious bunkum. Nic Boles .Gay Tory Etonian Policy Wonk and prospective Mayoral Candidate quoted this the other day from Michale Oakshott
Michael Oakeshott had no doubt about a Conservative's proper response: "to be conservative ... is to prefer the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant ... the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss".
What a good description that is and we Conservatives seem to be winning . We see few sincere Utopian ideas in the ether What has happened to Utopias ? I believe the last Utopia was" A Modern Utopia " by HG Wells , Thomas Mores imagined one and some bod name of Plato may have had a stab at the genre . From Aldous Huxley on though we seem unable to imagine the future without fear and trembling .My life is full of the fearful the worthy the tedious and the humourless (Raincoaster?)There is no heaven on earth and thank god for that . Even Milton had a lot more fun in hell than with that smug know all god .
Consider the humanity of Satan:
Satan, now back on earth, has a moment of doubt and despair in which he says that "the hell I suffer seems a heav'n."
I want my parking space back , that is my Utopia


Oh and just to keep it at the top of Google. Nic Boles is a useless candidate for London Mayor . Useless

Green Belt Development is Political

Boris had something a bit flavourless to say about the Green belt and it seemed to spark a bout of the old rant juice . made me feel better anyway



"Wa" and "ffle" Boris . Meaning waffle and not even joined up waffle , as you very well know .There is absolutely no reason to trample on the green belt whether or not parts of it may be less than Haywain material (afternoon Constable). London has oodles of spare space and mega oodles of cheap housing . Why is it cheap Mr . to lazy -to -run -for -mayor ?No-one wants to live there of course . You would be staggered given the vibrant rainbow nations of Peckham Lambeth and most of your own manor , that floods of unhappy commuters , bored with English food and starved of "urban community" theatre are not flocking into the streets that go nowhere, and characterise the real London. Our blissful Parklands , the envy of the world , are but the throw of a flick-knife away. For reasons I dare not speculate about ,however ,they are , unsnapped up , left to rust , ever the bridesmaid. Thus the price remains low , thus Bethnal Green Harringay and a host of handy little bolt hole retain there "distinctive character".Well you could hardly expect the residents to move out could you , after all most of them are on call at the City Honey pot 24 hours a day aren't they ? Oddly no.In many of the most salubrious areas ,potentially , working anywhere at all is a mystery , much as the Roman remains were to dark age savages , who imagines giants once staked the land. The vast majority are occupied by state subsidised one parent families who could equally accept the largesse of the weary working stiff, in the Hebrides . Predictably , all attempts to create artificial pools of "affordable " housing soon acquire there own special aroma of affluence or is it effluence , one of the two ; and defeat their supposed purpose immediately .Perhaps some might not like what I say but at least we can all agree that demand for housing has nothing , absolutely nothing , to do with available space in the metropolis. It is a political matter and incidentally , a matter of fiddling the books .As Hertfordshire squeals in dismay at the 3% Social housing barrier being broken , we live here in Borisania with the 70% barrier about to be airily flicked aside with a gallic shrug of the shoulders . The problem is not people moving into London it is people moving out ! George Walden , who has had some simply darling things to say about Cameron ,pointed out the role of honour amongst white flight deniers . Polly Toynbee (kids at public school), Dianne Abbot ,(same), Emily Thorn berry ..now let me see was a "the local school" or b A Grammar school yes a GRAMMAR SCHOOL she wangled with a second home . They have all bought themselves out .Cameron ? Is anyone taking bets because I `ll take a slice of that sweet actionIt isn`t race , its immigration as the majority of immigrants agree. It isn't immigration its uncontrolled exploding cheap Labour needed by Mac Broon to disguise his supply side catastrophe. It is also the location of the nations Social problems in what is rapidly becoming a wildlife park . Gentrified Barnnsbury and Nottinghill dwellers do not live in it . They pass through it in the economic equivalent of a nice big 4 by 4. How there privileged children squeal and coo at the collapsing schools , the daily knifings and other exotica. How snug and safe they are. As they glide past they might be lucky and spot a rare , "new best friend" Trevor Phillips .Look he is waving his arms and warning us of some sort of cultural war , did you catch it sweetums ?..going to the dogs did he say ?
Over the next twenty years London is predicted to double its population . The white working class are shattered and there are 500,000 more EU migrants lined up for next year. Meanwhile the damned Socialists have £156billion of Private Finance Initiative Borrowing guaranteed by the tax payer but off the balance book when Council house sales go straight into the pocket of the state . This all, ratchets up the ease with which ever increasing amounts of benefit collecting subsidised communities are concentrated in London .Always in London , nowhere else would put up with it nowhere else can it be hidden. That why we have to turn the country into a car park . That why we have take our birthright and desecrate it .
Noone will take on the absurdity of free houses or at least start putting them somewhere else . Noone will take on Urban Social collapse . If the state wasn't handing out free houses there wouldn't be a London housing problem and the answer...much much much more of the same courtesy of my special favourite little popette Ken bloody Livingstone .
Aaaaaargh!

Gratuitous Pictures of Us

Not much more to say really but i am getting back to the serious busines of boring the pants off anyone unfortunate enough to fall down the well in a tick

I`m bloody Busy

Well I have discovered that what with working having a family and trying to have a poltical life i do not have much time for this . Sorry .

Liberal Hunting- a boy can dream....

This isn`t irony , this is a call to arms . Look out Kempton we have you in range

( Stolen from the amazing raincoaster a sort of media poet who irritates amuses , entertains and all sorts have a look)

http://raincoaster.com/

In Praise of Joe Dolce

In “About a boy”, Nick Hornby the hero Will , makes a living from royalties from an ancient Christmas hit always on a new advert somewhere in The East , I think Asia is pretty key in all this actually .The “friend” in Bridget Jones` Diaries had one hit in the 80s and found this enough to get shagged forever. I saw one of the Bros brothers saying something rather mournful which was that you cease to be “hot” but the pure recognition stays forever . That right isn’t it you don’t forget people they cease to be interesting like a pile of junk in the basement .Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a truly awful one hit wonder , they wander this penumbral region of virtual half life like unquiet spirits. Croydonian ,the worlds greatest blogger noticed them disputing rights to the name.

I love one hit wonders though.

People are always saying what a tragedy it was that the sublime ( I don1t think) “Vienna “ was kept of the top spot by Joe Doce and Shaddup you face .Au contraire Vienna was manure in a raincoat and Joe Dolce was a genius with much to say about life and art .
Let us examine the La Dolce Vita

Art Forum examines the work of J Dolce


Hello, I'ma Guiseppi, I gottta something speciala for you, Ready, uno, duo, tres, quatro.

(…………..calling to the muse clearly Homeric in inspiration… ),

When I was a boy just about a fiftha grade, Mama used to say don'ta stay out alateWith the badda boys, always shoota pool, Guiseppi goin-ta flunka school

( Immediately savage social commentary is commenced with the mother making explicit , the moral centre of the piece)

Boy it make-a me sick, everyting I gotta doI can'ta getta no kicks, always gotta follow rulesBoy it make-a me sick, just to make-a lousy bucksGotta a feela like a fool

( the hero chafes at the discipline required for the nation to succeed . Shakespeare dealt with similar material in Henry V part 1, the hero must cast the childish , the Falstaffian aside.)

And the mama used to say all the time,What'sa matter you, hey, gotta no respectWhatta you tink you do, why you looka so sadItsa not so bad, Itsa nice-a place, Ahh shaddupa you face

( In the Greek style chorus the emotional counterpoint mirrors the dialectic between conformity and inspiration , resolved with the a plea for silence as the hero struggles to find reconciliation)

Newmainia is a sensitive feeling person and always looking for beauty.

See link to Croydonian the worlds greatest blogger in the below post

What tax would you cut ?

Somebody asked which taxes you would reduce , I had a few quick thoughts and suddenly its all so clear…………..


Well what a marvellous suggestion this is .
1 Corporation tax I must urgently be reduced as I think even the lobotomised left accept
2 The tax allowance must be raised
3 VAT should immediately be scrapped on all goods with a proven green effect . This would have a massive knock on result for the placement of resources and research into efficiency . Similarly tax breaks should be available for green cars and UK holidays .(Actually labour want to tax UK holidays by adding a surcharge on B and Bs )
(Beneath this green dressing the secret agenda would be to scrap VAT altogether it is a vicious regressive tax we were ,until fairly recently, better off without )

4 Tax allowances for exam results payable to parents .
5 Scrap Stamp duty there is no reason for it whatsoever
6 Scrap inheritance tax or at least tie it to house prices ..obviously
7 Scrap IPT .
8 Return tax benefits to dividends in pension funds ,,obviously

........And so on , a series of virtuous tax advantages by which happy means we also reduce the size of the state encouraging better behaviours and responsibility. This would be paid for by the slow dismantling of the benefits system , the selective introduction of privatisation, less waste , greater tax yield and better growth..


Cut the state away slice out the tumour of dependency the country needs surgery

The Brown Tartan

Thats the Brown tartan up there and Mac Broon trying to flog a dead horse.Apt ?


Perhaps my favourite Tory Blogger is Croydonian . Let me recommend anyone who wants up to the minute repartee, gossip and sheer good humour to his blog . I look in very day and generally lower the tone . He has been doing all the work as usual comparing the heterogeneous origins of London MPs to the racially selected Scottish ones. I must also recommend Praguetory , another superb commentator whose idea it all was. Hat tips and genuine admiration to both.
http://www.croydonian.blogspot.com/
http://praguetory.blogspot.com/



I decided to have a look at the situation in these parts and took on London: out of 70 MPs I can offer - by birth - seven Scots, two Welsh, two Northern Irish, two Germans, one Egyptian (hello Margaret Hodge), one Swede, one Hollander, one American and one Indian. Beyond that, there are six MPs from the Midlands and 12 Northerners of various stripes. There are a further four from the SE or the West and four who have kept their place of birth well away from the public gaze, so if anyone can help out on the origins of the members for Ruislip, Islington South, Ealing North and Hackney South, I would be much obliged. Unambiguously London born MPs make up 26 of the 70, so on a like for like basis, 91% of Scottish seats have Scottish MPs, whereas only 37% of London seats have London MPs.

Now to me this is all about the end of the Union and the attempt of the Broon to hide it from the English . I had this to say:

Scottish attitudes are driving the Union apart and this process has been going on for a long time.When I am not happily giggling at Lord Snooty and his merry capers in the Beano I leaf through such books as “Death of Tory England” In it there is good chapter ,“celtic fringes”, charting the decline of the Conservative Party ,“Unionist Party”, in this context” in those areas. As late as 1955 the Conservative party had 36 Scottish seats in Scotland, Labour 34. Astounding don’t you think how strong that “British National “sentiment was , and when you think of what British National means now .. Oh dear .

The death of the Conservative party in Scotland especially is bound up with the death of the concept of Union . People who echo Margaret Thatcher ,”every Conservative should be a unionist in their bones” are like Angels beating their wings in a vacuum , to misquote Mathew Arnold.. There is no point applying the kiss of life to a corpse and Margaret Thatcher never believed it anyway. It will be interesting to see if nationalistic themes come to predominate in England , I suspect it will not be quite the same .

. By the way this staggering shift since the 50s is one of many that are dealt with in the book “The Chosen People”. Sometimes we think , by a sort of chronological illusion we are in the same period as the Coronation of our present Monarch . We are more remote than they were from the Victorians . You notice this trick of time when , in Alan Clarks diaries he writes “thirty years ago when the Luftwaffe flew over London “ in 1973!!! Thirty years ago was the Sexpistols. Times they are a changing and the attitude of the English to the UK is about to change . Scotland behaves entirely as you would expect any nationalist sovereign country to.It has felt that way about itself for along time now . It has been hidden from the English because Conservatives are still sentimental about the old days and the Labour party , more venally , need the votes

All of this of course has one important point for us . It is the Laird MacBroon of the clan Broon unwilling to let Scots in England vote on devolution , let is not forget , is in a sticky spot. Let us join with Alec Salmon in shouting “the Mac King has no clothes” He is going to try to govern England with Scottish votes and it will be the greatest imposture on any electorate in this land in all history .

God I do feel sorry for the Scots Tories though , what marvellous people they are .

Social JusticeWhat class am I ?

I see an active role for the state in disrupting what you might call class monopolies of opportunity . This could be through the educational system , which means taking on the NUT . This could be through providing outlets by grammar style streaming . It must include buttressing the working class communities from within , protecting them from without .

Not all of this is pretty , most of it will fly in the face of what I think of as the "Liberal "consensus" about the benefits of multiculturalism and undermining traditional family structure .

One thing that horrifies me is the disappearance of working class political representation from parliament . On this basis it is hardly likely that much will be achieved . I would like to see the Conservative party reconnect with its working class support , not focus exclusively on the centre "Liberal " voter. I would like to see more talk about social justice and less about image friendly subjects like the "environment ". I am concerned at the rampant inequality between classes that widens daily .What we get as our "representative MP s ? Priti thingymabob . Asian , oh goody, but the sprig of a long line of bureaucrats last seen getting kicked out of Uganda by the blacks for feathering their nests at their expense. She knows nothing of disadvantage .

I want to see class back in the political agenda and Bennetton ad smarm dispensed with . By the way inside the EU all of this is somewhat problematical.

Here is a thought . What about a what class am I quiz ?


1 Did either of your parents have tatttoo ?
2 Were you educated at the states expense
3 Do you like X factor
4 Did you ever devote a lot of time to dance impressively at clubs
5Did you play out ?
6 Did either of your parents attend any educational establishment after 16
7Can you fight , or have you ?
8 has anyone in your family ever done anything creative for a living


I may come up with some more ideas

Toyn Bee in the Tory Bonnet

Subtle eh ?

Well this has been going on all week one way or another and I think it raises interesting issues about poverty and exclusion. Polly Toynbee however has nothing to add, and I fear it is more toffish Liberals agreeing about what nice people they are

I have just had an awful week , I `ve got gastric flue and the tinnitus I always struggle with is out of control . My hollow voice echoes directly from white faced Hades.
What is the Toyn bee in the Tory bonnet ? .A political philosophy cannot be only a means for safeguarding the privileged the successful and the lucky . How glib and fatuous it is to say "yaaas well you are giving disincentives to pile up more cash as a Lawyer by obliging me to support this "work -shy" family " ; as if the disincentivised one would exchange places for a second .
People are not of fundamentally different sorts ,given any numbers ; the barriers between classes are higher than they were in the 60s . Quite clearly new Labour have little interest in the poor except to infantilise pacify and bribe. Conservatives , if they were sincere , and many have doubts , must think of new approaches.

One point is ,that the most worrying trend is not relative poverty but, "absolute poverty." Absolute poverty, in a bottom detached level of the population, has worsened ,and in the context of overall growth ,and increasing incomes ,it is like a chasm. We have created a whole culture that exists not inside but beneath society , parasitic on it becomes and detested as a carrions feeder. This is something we must be concerned about , it is expensive , it creates nihilism and terrifying crime It is wasteful and wrong .

Other fissures have grown ;the barriers between those outside private education and without capital as compared to those with those advantages . It is telling that top Public schools are now abandoning the A levels , the last redoubt of reliability, because they are worthless internationally . All of those in public education with money are stratified away from the remnant . These escapees include the children of Polly Toynbee . Naturellement.

Liberals like to bleet loudly about all this, mostly to advertise their own class qualifications . Graduate , professional , Guardian reader was , for a long time a statement of class superiority , it still is in the less "with it" Universities like Oxbridge . They are safe in the knowledge that they will not live with the objects of their staged concern and their children will never meet . Time and time again this nauseating double standard is replayed . This is why many Conservatives hate Polly Toynbee , not her supposed "caring qualifications ". Her sickening hard hearted hypocrisy

In my youth working-class credibility if not solidarity was something to aspire to .Now it has been replaced by a faint smear of social concern worn more or less like an accessory.People forget that some of us became Conservatives out of moral outrage at the duplicitous smarm of middleclass ,"worriers". Norman Tebbit is a hero to all of us who have this thread in the skein. Neo Con monetarist thinking makes for a good essay and a cogent argument . It is fairly useless to deal with education , opportunity and social exclusion but without a strong policy here Conservativism , for me , implodes.

Margaret Thatcher`s "Right To Buy " , was brave attack on entrenched positions on behalf of the poor . . One hopes the rumours about a Cameron rent to Mortgage scheme are true . I equally hope the Conservatives will immediately come to the aid of leaseholders who have been the doctrinal whipping boy of the inner city hard left ever since.

So Clark , who is himself a creepy little wonk has touched , perhaps accidentally, on a key issue . Society is drifting apart. "Opportunity" the prerequisite for moral Capitalism does not exits for whole geographical and social trenches. We can hardly suggest more credits , more benefits , more means tested goodies which has been an unparalleled disaster . So what can we do ?

Not easy is it . Firstly accept that the state cannot solve the problem it can only try to create better conditions for people to solve it for themselves.

Cuts on Reggressive indirect taxes
An increase in the tax allowance
A slow squeeze on points based Council housing and benefits
The development of new mortgage products and housing association schemes
The reintroduction of grammar schools by some other name ( which T Blair quite obviously sees as essential himself)
Major public investment in education which must be keyed directly into work , not floating in a NUT dreamland
Tight curbs on further immigration
Rigorous policies of cultural coherence for those here , especially on language
Schools with eight languages should not be inflicted on the most dis- advantaged
All of this would help working class communities to re -establish
The end of the state will provide assumption
AND A Large tax allowance for married couples
.Cash rewards for exam results
I also think you have to attack the glacial snobbery that has descended on the country by finding ways to mix people and extend the experience of everyone .
Perhaps the internet will help , thus far I'm not greatly encouraged
The Trade Unions have a vital role to play in all of this especially in training schemes

David Cameron has talked about a Responsibility revolution. I wonder if he means it. So far he has shown little appetite for political risk taking .The concept of responsibility is exactly what must be reintroduced to the deserts where the poorest live.
re. Let us hope not

Can anyone draw ?

Now what I need is someone who can draw . I had an idea for a cartoon as below but can I draw it . Nope . The idea , obviously , is the end of the planet of the apes but it was the line itself I like .

. A man crawls along a beach , ........he does not recognise the land , ...before him is the rotting disregarded symbol of past glories.........It is titled “Planet of the Liberals”,

The statue is of Margaret Thatcher,.... half in the sand ......

He cries to the pitiless sun

"Damn them all! Damn them all to hell!!"

The Sound of Music !!!

A bit of a break really , having seen the Sound of Music I can vouch for the brilliance of Connie Fisher and the strength of the whole production. This week there has been a lot about paedophiles in the news . The absurd BA ban on men sitting next to children . The publication of names on the web and Michael Jackson .After being booed of stage he says he`ll never sing in public again . If only we had known it was that easy .
Lets forget all that and remind ourselves of innocence and hope . The Sound of Music is a show you have to take on its own terms . If you are able to do so the rewards are considerable

We think of it as something that's just there; overly sentimental and , those worst crimes against the modern (in)- sensibility, light , comic , poetic and sophisticated. It opened on Broadway in 1959 and, I would guess , was the last show of the incomparable duo R and H. There is an elegiac delicacy about it that is absolutely not what you expect Few big numbers for the coach party , but music scenery character and story knitted almost magically
It is strongly thematic .Music , life and the Hills of Austria are the subject of the arresting overture stating the main symbols, that will gather meaning. In the Nunnery Maria is, significantly, still out on the mountain ,, she is a "problem" , but Maria "makes me laugh" . The moral centre of the story is the Abbess, and in the show ,shorn of the need for cluttering reality ,the importance of the Nuns is more to the fore than one expects . The abbess sends her to find ,"Her dream "., to find herself In the house of the Von Trapps she meets a bereaved man ,distant from his children and headed for a marriage he feels would be "appropriate", with a Viennese sophisticate . She is everything that Maria is not She is rich , knowing and glamorous , but she cannot speak to the children and she does not know the mountains of Austria in her heart . Typically she is treated kindly as a divided character who seeing the nobility of Von Trapp , but unable to share it .Crucially she makes an accommodation with the Nazis. The Captain cannot
Maria rediscovers the Von Trapp music and through the course of some of the best songs. "Doe a deer .." , "favourite things" , reawakens the family through musical fun . Half childlike herself she and the children create a new hope, "When you know the notes to sing , you can sing most everything " This is music that does not advertise its complexity it appears to flow from the situation . The captain joins the life that Maria has brought
She dances with Von Trapp , a much older man than her , and says ."Its different to when you are girl isn't it ". All is decided , "lets ask the children". She returns ,once more, to the nunnery , now a woman ,and they are married.
Max the impecunious social butterfly ,who provides a cynical counterpoint , has mischeviosuly arranged that they appear in Salzburg for the folk festival . With the Nazi threat looming, Captain Von Trapp is offered a commission , and cannot refuse it outright . They must escape . He agrees to go as the newly invented ,Von Trapp family singers . They win the competition with Edelweiss. Edelweiss is the national flower of Austria and the song articulates mourning for its loss to the fascist jackboot . The children play their part ,with a comic orchestration of their play songs . Max finally shows the goodness we suspected ,and , by sacrificing himself ,allows them to escape to the nunnery.
Evil shows its dark face, as the family hide from stalking soldiers silhouetted in the moon light .Lisel , who herself is "sixteen going on seventeen" , sees Rolf , her first love for the last time as he redeems himself by passing the family by. Another passing from childhood to adulthood .
Then how will they escape , what can save them ? The roads are blocked .They must go to the mountains .
Finally the forces of good combine. The Nuns and the children climb through the night , the mountain protects them as the Nunnery had .The last tableau is of the iconic group looking down on Switzerland . The bright dawn is rising. The show builds to this end which coincides with the reprise of "Climb every mountain " . Not the strongest song in the show but its placement is powerful. With all the threads tied ,and Leslie Garret on hand as the Abbess ,to give it some serious welly , the happy ending is entirely satisfying.
I would argue that the American wave was the cultural fact of the last century , that Rogers and Hammerstein are the best exponents of its most distinctive form .In this their swan song they created the most complete work of art ,bar none ,in the last hundred years . It is as perfect as Pride and Prejudice . It will last forever .

Cameron`s Camelot

( Who will be his Lancelot )

Boris of course
. I have been raving about this titanic Conservative .



Boris , who I have just watched on question time performing brilliantly , reiterated the point that Reid is posturing by framing a law that will be resisted on Libertarian ground, so as to appear to be tougher on Terrorism, than thou .This is typical of the sophisticated news handling that Nu Lab have made the signature of their government . In this case they are appearing the opposite of what they are . From the Blackpool conference onwards ,they have been a party without the rudder of principle. As a result, the natural tendency for bureaucrats to want more power, for interest groups to want more tax money, and for politicians to want more laws has drifted calamitously. This is what the electorate have had enough of .They must therefore appear decisive, but it is sham . Most of the queens speech initiatives have no chance of becoming law, and exists for pantomimic effect. Reid ,( between the lines), is the worst offender .
There is an interesting code going on here . Nick Griffin has just been discovered ( oh my goodness) to be racist , or not, because he says Muslims are evil people intent on no good . We are , apparently , in such imminent Terrorist peril that we must be bunged in chokey , at the whim of plod . Meanwhile, further laws are being framed to deny me the right to say this is all the fault of Islam with its encouragement to ,"find the faithless and slay them". It is absolutely no coincidence that Boris mentions the telling fact about the number of Muslims who believe in Sharia law . The dove Muslim majority is largely a myth.
Behind all of this is the revolt of the white working class against Labour and often into the hands of the BNP . The Labour front bench have over the last two months made endless anti Islamic comments , ( quite rightly ) for the benefit of this audience , but they dare not take on their multicultural support .So , despite the official abandonment of catastrophic multicultural policy the Labour party ,hugely in the thrall of minority pressure groups , cannot act . As Boris points out there will be no compulsory English or cultural, induction of any sort.. No move to value the working people of this country to won two world wars for us .They will continue to be betrayed . Labours answer is to threaten to lock everyone up and to drag out M15 and Plod to back up their need to be tough .As if they were immune to political pressure ; I don't think.
Its birthday and Christmas for me . News lead legislative initiatives , coded racism, ( with no real help on immigration and housing), Braun Haus fire emergency shouting and illiberal statist bullying. Well done Boris well done indeed !You are the smiling cavalier who ,with a laugh and a swagger, impales the NuLab deceit time and time again.
What a fine cabinet minister you will be. Personally I hope to see you ,as Deputy Prime Minister ,Lancelot to Cameron`s Arthur in the new Camelot of the Conservative Administration.

Huzzahh!!!!!

The good the bad and the ugly

The Good

Sickened by the tainting slither of Blair we must turn to reminders we have something in this country worth saving . I have a small story. Sentimental I know but something that just happened:

Getting of the tube I bought a poppy and while I was there as little boy ran over , from his mother and asked “Why is everyone wearing them then ? “ The smiling lady on duty said, ” To remember the soldiers that died for us and help the ones that didn’t.” He said “That’s so sad “ ,and the woman replied;“ Yes but it makes you proud as well “.

Now he knows .A small act of a nation remembering.

I thought of this driving home and later reading WF Deede`s reminder that Earl Haig was hero to his men and devoted his life to their welfare after the war.Now you won’t find that version of Haig on the BBC will you .

The Bad

I thought that the Blair thing on identity cards was one of the single most mendacious statements from any politician I can remember for a long time . He constantly implied that immigration was a problem for which ID cards were urgently needed . In other words, he was stirring racial fear in an oblique and sickly sanctimonious way that was the textual equivalent of an icing sugar covered turd.

Immigration chaos has been caused by the shambolic execution, of the bad policy for which his government is responsible . Similarly , crime and anti social behaviour , caused by deluded Liberalism in the judiciary and inactivity on badly need police reform , has nothing to do with the absence of ID cards . As for terrorism it has become the Braun Haus Fire emergency for every acquisitive little Bureaucrat from Ian Blair to the Spy Woman . We do not , I repeat NOT curtail our freedoms out of a hysterical fear on a few mad terrorists .

The single thing that impressed me was that the cost was mostly incurred by the introduction of bio metric passports . I discovered the next day that this was an outright lie and the computer systems for tracking us all were the main expense , Entirely unrelated. Lies lies and more lies.

True he raised the issue of freedom “The Issue !!!!”. What next the issue of whether abundant air might be helpful for breathing. It is not an issue Blair you maniac. You are building your bridge over he river Kwai . Stop!I believe there is no reason for doing this beyond an instinct to control and a wish to be the busy busy busy little pest he has become in his snippy dotage .Away with you and give us Brown nose . I have high hopes that his brief reign will be , if possible , even worse!

The Ugly

Blair has no right to this country I hope he buggers of and does lectures abroad . Its all he really cares about .

Getting hot hot hot!

You have to listen very carefully, but once in a while the truth pops out . This Council loves your money, and hates your car.
It is no surprise that cabbies think Islington is London’s worst borough for drivers . Answering them , Councillor Lucy Watt let the cat out of the bag . She said ,“ We get money from Transport for London to set up 20 MPH zones - this money cannot be used for anything else.”. Now we know .The real reason for more driver persecution is to get a new budget .Such things are like the smell of bisto to bureaucrats . They cannot resist.
The Liberals say the 20mph scheme was, “In the manifesto”. In fact, they are perilously close to losing control of the council largely as a result of tormenting motorists. This does not spell “mandate” to me.
Another truth that bobbed to the surface was Chief Executive Helen Bailey`s. In the Council’s prodigiously well funded propaganda magazine, she sighed, “Imagine Islington without any cars“ , continuing with the usual green liturgy . This is exactly what they would like. Actually, in the early medieval period, the climate here was about the same as in the Loire valley today. Getting a bit chilly isn’t it.! We obviously need more carbon emissions .
Speed bumps are irritating , sometimes justifiably, they do not collect revenue though and are therefore due to be replaced with surveillance technology. Consultation will be circumvented, as usual, by asking only the beneficiaries. Soon, yet another source of fine income will available . Gas guzzler taxes and , most importantly , the house price tax , are also on their way.
The Sterne report reassures us that the end of the world continues to be nigh. Having survived, mad cow disease, bird flu, dangerous dogs and the ice age ,due in the 70s, I am sceptical of apocalyptic prophecies. I will make one prediction though. For anyone who owns a house and a car in Islington, a 600% increase in local fines licences and taxation can be expected.
As we may all be obliged to holiday at home, perhaps it would be nice to get a tan .Keep driving; it’s worth a try.

Elephants , Angels and Abortion

As a lifetime atheist I have experienced of late what you might call a ,“crisis of faith”. There are a number of reasons for this , not least that it may be convenient for getting my son into a decent school . Apart from the obvious social benefit though, I notice , for example , the unreality surrounding the abortion debate as it proceeds outside a religious context .

Nadine Dorries ten minute bill concerning the termination of pregnancy. It provoked much discussion centred on what science can tell us about drawing the line .
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2006/10/nadine_dorries_.html


To me it seems clear it can tell us very little, so I made a “Reasonable proposal “ ,
…
.” The relevance of foetal sentience seems to me to be fairly moot out side a religious frame work that draws an absolute distinction between a human being and any other sort of life. A fish, I suppose, is sentient, probably more so, and we are not yet seriously discussing banning anglers. The ability to sustain life outside the womb is similarly free floating. A three year old would not last long unaided.I suspect then, , that the discussion of medical or scientific boundaries is a code for religious or metaphysical beliefs which perhaps should be more explicit than they are .

The notion of allowing abortion after full term, might be justified scientifically, on the basis that the foetal stage in humans, as compared to our near relatives, continues long after full term. This is a very distinctive adaptive feature of humans, and key to some of the variant features we have, as compared to other apes.I would not make such an argument of course, but if science is the answer, I do not see any special reason, why one should not . I could scientifically construct numerous reasonable proposals, up to and including chasing miscreant teenagers down the street with a baseball bat, if they failed the boy David’s, “Adult “test. In fact he’s a bit young himself…..

The Christian view says the unborn child has a Soul and would not countenance any sort of abortion. The non religious view might conceivably take us to a disgusting end point . As I am not able to find any good reason except squeamishness and mess to stop the culling of a three month year old child , less sentient than a cat say , I am inclined to the view that the Christians are right and its murder from day one .This will no doubt be a disaster for the mother on occasion , also the father and ,very possibly, the child. Shame ; the continued health of my current employer is quite astonishingly inconvenient to me and this brings me onto euthanasia.

So here is my point , as Science is quite clearly not the moral point and nor is convenience , is this a question of morality , or is it something else . If so what ? “

Then this week , the Daily Mail ran an editorial Titled “Do animals deserve human rights ”, in which , “scientific proof “, shows the following:

“ Elephants can join the small elite of species that have true self awareness ".This is following “Happy , Maxine and Patty” , Asian Elephants, demonstrating full sentience by means of self recognition in a mirror . So, we can flush a three month year old baby down the toilet, but we had better leave the elephants alone . You might think this was an absurd extrapolation, but what do I see today ?….

Roy Nikkah ( DT) “A leading medical college has called on the medical profession to consider euthanasia for seriously disabled new born babies ."


Sounds ghastly doesn’t it but their point is more subtle . They point to the fact that late abortions ,which sometimes are based on incorrect prognostications, might not proceed with this possibility of post birth"abortion" ,and some healthy babies saved .

Strangely then, what I intended as an irreverent conundrum, turns out to be seriously problematical ,and out there in the real world .

Richard Dawkins is currently number one in the best sellers list
http://richarddawkins.net/godDelusion#firstChapter with the God delusion. He has pointed out the continuum between us and animals ,“scientifically” , so has Desmond Morris .

Scientifically we are atoms and forces and one set is much as another . Is it not obvious that in any discussion where you admit there is a moral problem we must look elsewhere for guidance? For the modern man there is no obvious home for these doubts to rest in. Mathew Arnold’s exquisite corpse is all that is left of Christian certainty


.“A beautiful ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain”







Its has sentience . So what ?

Good Old Dick

I rather like the idea of a Dick Whittington theme to the Archway development . The consultative schemes , I have seen are , resolutely ugly and modernists , as you would expect , and this would be a welcome relief. Thanks for your efforts Councillor Stefan Kasprzyk .
I wonder what Richard Whittington (1350-1423 ) would make of Islington today . His tale in one of inspiring independent business enterprise . He arrived at Highgate Hill with nothing but a cat , as many still do , made a fortune and became three times, Lord Mayor of London . Like most celebrities, he ended up in “panto”, for what feels like centuries.
I `m not sure he would like the anti business dispensation of modern Islington. His licence to catch rats would be denied on ,“elfansafety”, grounds. His shop could not survive Islington’s draconian parking policy. Between completing endless council forms and paying flabbergasting local taxes , it is likely his domestic arrangements would suffer . Before long the social services would come to take tiddles. .
Richard Whittington was a real and generous man . His philanthropic will, still benefits disadvantaged Londoners today . By contrast The “Whittington” Hospital , with other London hospitals , profits to the tune of £12,000,000 per year, by taxing illness, through its extortionate parking charges. You can still make a fortune though . Bob Kiley the notably unsuccessful London transport commissioner ,was paid £1,000,000 in his years tenure .Perhaps Dick would have followed suit , become a government “rat “commissioner “ sat on his hands , and taken the money .
Don`t be such a kill joy Kate Calvert of Archway Forum , let us have our statue of Dick . Councillor Kasprzyk might like to consider why, today ,ghostly imprecations to ,“turn again”, not withstanding , our hero would have trudged straight back home to Gloucesteshire

Mayoral Hopeless ?Turn again Newman.

Good old Coucillor Stefan Kasprzyk , well half of that is true , is trying to get Dick Wittington some sort of shrine ,in the new Archway development . It is an inspiring story isn’t it . A man arrives in London with nothing but his wits and , possibly , a cat , makes a fortune, and becomes Lord Mayor of London. There really was a Richard Wittington, but the pantomime character probably accounts for most of his continued fame . What is Stefan up to then . Just the usual Lib Dummery I `m afraid ;advertising some vague niceness with no substance behind it . The real Dick Wittington , an independent small businessman , would have loathed the sort of politics Stefan believes in with its high taxes, busy bodying and anti individualism .

I `m afraid the way to become Mayor now is rather different . A career starting in Lambeth Council and avoiding economically productive activity at all is the way the current incumbent chose . I `m not all that keen on the Tory suggestion either, at the moment . Nic Boles is absolutely not what we need and it was as a protest I submitted my own application . I really don’t take myself that seriously but who knows , it might be interesting seeing what they have to say.
Here is what I wrote ( I had really no idea how to do it so no laughing…)



9. LONDON’S TOP PRIORITIES
In no more than 600 words state what you consider to be the most important challenges facing London, and explain how you would approach them in your role as Mayor.
KEY POINT
The legend is that Margaret Thatcher said "There is no such thing as Society". but in fact she added "Only Community" My vision of London is not of a Grandiose single entity but as a series of communities. These communities may be geographical, religious or virtual for example but it is London’s ability to include difference that I would like to re -emphasise. This would have a number of implications only some of which I have room for here.
1)
In my own Borough we have recently been the subject of GLA bullying over the number of new and Social accommodation to be inflicted on Islington. The Mayors targets are nothing short of a new Hells Kitchen and this is repeated throughout the Capital. I do not agree with much our locally elected Liberal Council do, but I deplore the Mayors creeping influence over planning and strategic decisions. My vision of London is of one that has a less important Mayor. I am entirely happy with the paradox.
2)
The acceleration of net migration into the Capital for example is not sustainable and to pretend it is, is to sacrifice all commonsense in order to dance around the politically correct maypole. As many who worry about immigration, unfortunately, are racists, those who worry but are not, must be crystal clear about their ground. It is quality of life within communities for Londoners, all Londoners, that is a stake. My own family will, I hope, demostrate, this is a workaday problem for us all.
The effects of Home Office blunders and Policy in this area are felt disproportionately in London, we have little control. The role of Mayor is highly plastic however, as we well know, and my ideas for a new type of Mayor would enable him to speak effectively for London against Central Governement when required.

3)
The use of any Regional authorities has been chiefly to confuse the voters, esepcially with regard to national planning strategy. I would like to unravel the Central Government, Regional Authority, Local Authority knot and engage in continual transparent debate. This debate would include, vitally, a direct, formal and strong decision making role for London’s Boroughs. It may be counter intuitive, but increasing the Mayors paper powers leaves him powerless to affect London’s real problems which to a large extent are the remit of national Government. A population the size of Scotland with much larger tax revenues should be able to wield political power. We call Ken Livingstone "King Ken" but he is a King of America, a nonentity in representing us to the outside world . To speak for London the Mayor must be more Presidential, a conduit for democratically expressed wishes. Not a Dictator or worse still an apologist for New Labour mistakes.
KEY POINT
The Mayor is currently too powerful, we know. That he is, as a consequence, isolated and powerless is a problem that deserves our attention as well.
4)
The problem, encroaching state coercion. Measures? For example, I would remove the pointless congestion charge and press hard for less draconian and anti car local policy, where possible. I would try to work with Local Authorities in adjusting their increasingly intrusive policies on the use of CCTV and I would leave cyclists alone. The logic of public safety is capable of infinite extension.
KEY POINT
William Pitt "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the arguement of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves".
5)
I have the space for a mention of crime. Until such time as the police are properly accountable to the "local" people they serve I would use the position to apply whatever pressure I could for greater value for money. It is my belief that of all the institutions we rely on this is the worst performing and local Councils are currently fobbed off without proper information or any real input . Again my imagined City is locally empowered. Improving trust and performance here is a vital balancing strut to the Libertarian agenda but we should not forget the role of strenth in earning respect.
KEY POINT
A politically powerful but formally weak Mayor will about face to represent all of London against Central Government policy not to its liking. My London would have been recognisable in some ways to its Medieaval citizens, free, plural, local, independent and on occasion a nuisance to its National Rulers.

10. TIME AVAILABILITY
How much time could you give to the role as Conservative Mayoral Candidate? Please be as specific as possible.

I have full time job. Other than that all my time. In many ways this is the heart of what is partly a protest application . David Cameron has encounterd the problem a lot of reformers do . Unitl he mentioned it we hadn`t noticed how bad things were . ...... ( I call it "Now you`ll have to do the whole thing syndrome").

The Sterne Report and the Threat of the Super State

This was a post on Boris Johnson`s site . It is a reaction to three things
1 The new research assistant (Rachel)
2 The suggestion that laws are the only thing that stops us beating our wives
3 The suggestion that buying a Toyota Prius was a “Move in the right direction

Rachel: Newmania, I'm not going to give you my measurements, so don't ask-
No need to. Good old Boris, I like her already. I feel certain she has great things ahead of her.


...and this is more serious bit .

THE FALLACY OF PATERNALISM

Gamon - You make the classic mistake of all bureaucrats . You assume that the reason for social development is because laws were made. Sometimes this is the case, but more usually it isn't . Governments don`t exist to make us nicer people , they exists for the careers of the governors . Insiders are far worse than everyone else nowadays ,but its been better . I think in the 19th century they may have been ahead of the game. The main drive towards social improvement came from below .

In Britain, in the Victorian period, it came from fear of the French Revolution ,and the various Liberal rebellions of 1845. The British ruling class were preserving as much of the old order as they could, in the face of, a loss of confidence within, and the possibility of armed rebellion without .

Disraeli`s Great Reform Act was intended to hegemony of the Aristocracy ( of whom he had romantic ideas which informed everything he did ). Also, it had an immediate electoral aim which was to out flank Gladstone and his non conformist middle class support . The invention of "One Nation Conservatism " was early spin . Disraeli , a dodgy pot boiler scibbler, and money grabber ,was always a bit of a genius and a bit of a Geoffrey Archer. His marriage was worthy of the "Producers " ,(does anyone gets the reference?).Pressure from below forced him to act.

The often quoted Factory acts were driven by the new non conformist conscience. They were fought by vested interests who were well entrenched in Government, as they always are. Opinion movers were outside . Notable amongst them were, Charles Dickens and the Romantic Poets ,none of whom , like me, would get on the Z list .This remember, I have accepted, was a good phase of government.

Now, if we take other countries, the position is worse .Take a mental trip around Africa , which I gather you lose sleep about . I don't think. It is a common-place that the "aid" cash ,that floods in ( 10% of the GDP on average in sub Saharan Africa) does no good whatsoever .It does extract torturous trading terms, in return for guns and dams and palaces . I cannot think of any African regime that has not added to the problems, with the possible exception of the South African one ;overall .
Germany ,Russia Japan etc. ,I need hardly mention.

Incidentally you , who no doubt think South Africa was evil incarnate ,might pause to wonder why we were so shocked at the racism of the White South Africans, and not by the rest of Africa`s racial genocides . I know why , can you own up to it?
THE TOYOTA PRIUS LIE

No it is not a "move in the right direction." Perhaps you noticed today, that the Sterne report was out . I happened to see Ruth Lea discussing it with some green, jobs-worth, in a corduroy jacket . When Ruth Lea says something , we had all better start listening . She predicted, in detail ,the events leading to Black Wednesday ,which destroyed the Conservative Party for years . To my great pleasure, she recently dismantled the "reputation for economic prudence " that Brown-nose found left in the desk, like an old stapler, as well She knows her onions . So indeed, does the ,under-tall but Leonine Boris , whose phrase ,"breaking wind in a hurricane ", I wheel out like the children in a Christmas single. It sums up domestic action on climate change exquisitely . It is a myth. Most of what passes for environmental policy would be better called "Tidying up ", and its mostly to employ more blood suckers in Brussels anyway

With the Sterne Report , thank god , the subject can move onto an adult plane . Ahead of the mainstream media ,as usual, I was quoting figures like this last week."If we all stopped driving completely the carbon emission slack would be taken up by Chinas growth in 60 days " . This morning Ruth Lea added that if we shut down all the power stations, you could add 80 days . So basically, if we all , tomorrow ,went back the horse and cart plus wood fire and bodkin , we would have saved four months. Into this context you plop the Toyota Prius ;the acquisition of which we can now see is like pissing into the Grand Canyon.

By the way the Sterne report is pro Green but in a realistic way . So am I .

Meanwhile, back at the fort, Emily Thornberry our local Nulab, and the worlds most spherical hypocrite, sits in her mouth watering Georgian pad, with her kids safely at Grammar school . What does she think ? She thinks , hmmm, I `m far to stupid to provide anything worthwhile ,so what can I do that may impress a few and will look as if I am in that ideal position ;for good ,and against evil.
Could it be ; risk my career by agitating for huge taxes on air travel ?
Could it be; annoy the PM by attacking the US for maintaining petrol and about a farthing per tonne ?
Could it be ;announce that we have to give up growth or better still apply cynical pressure to the emerging economies so as to pull the ladder up?
Or..... Shall I buy a Toyota Prius which does nothing net for the climate ( actually).

...........I bet she thought long and hard .

It trivialises the debate , implies we can have our cake and eat it and distracts attention . Incidentally Thornberry weighs about 30 stone ,and claims to cycle everywhere, so she is a big fat liar in every way. Paul Newman, film star ,has a Prius and runs racing team . Prince Charles has one in his collection of posh mota`s requiring the oil output of Quatar to start in the morning. Typical ; and with these frauds you want to ally your self Sir Gamon.? Shame shame shame!

The Chinese have a good point .Their emissions per head , to take one measure, are a bit over 2 . Ours are a bit under 10 . Why exactly should they care ,until they have quintupled their economy ? Tough negotiations will be needed , and as, in reality, neither you or I are going to go back to 1490 to save the world , this means twisting the arms of Asia and the far east. It also means stopping the poor from flying, and applying brutally regressive taxation to everyone.( Because Green taxes are indirect).

I can understand the value of a pointless gesture , I liked the toga party in Animal House, but this is so stupid as to be damaging . Its only possible justification is symbolic, and as a symbol it is just wrong.
Idlex is absolutely spot on with his concern that the green global threat will be used to brush aside freedom , so are all emergencies . As I have explained above, Governments are necessary evils at best . The trick is to organise things so as to have state intervention where it works best ,the NHS say, and by permanent vigilance, keep them from becoming the crooks they by nature are .

As the only real green issues are Global it will require Global supranational action.. Years ago Boris , ,apparently, lurched down a Brussels street crying "Someone`s killed nanny" ..and then we pitched into the demos free democracy of the EU, disaster ! What on earth are the collection of chancers, crooks and little Hitler's, worldwide going to do ,when their services are actually need . Sadly I `m afraid they are . The only possible stance is to believe nothing , find out for yourself and refuse to be befuddled by asinine gestures like a Toyota Prius. Are you with me Gamon , are you ready to cast childish things aside ?

Hope so .

Broken Fridges and the Government

Inspired (ahem…) by my fridge and the following snippet from Croydonian
“Over in Gotham there are plans afoot to make "restaurants with highly standardized menu items and portions that already make their caloric content available" (that's Maitre D's, Starbucks etc) publish "calorie counts next to menu items in type that is as large 'as the name or price of the item'””.
PS Croydonian is my new favourite blog , have a look it brilliant
http://croydonian.blogspot.com/2006/10/coming-soon-to-place-near-you.html#comments


It doesn’t do exactly what is says on the tin.

I `m not at work , and the reason is that the fridge has broken . Two years old , a solid German name "NEFF" , and its cream crackered. This slipstreams neatly into neatly into a flock of thoughts that have swirling around ,as I watch the pound notes drift out of the window ,like confetti. For a long time consumer products were very good. ,“Which “ ,became redundant as competition drove greater utility and value into the customer’s hands . Then came the “sophisticating” of brand value selling, and out -sourcing. The chap who is now emasculating me, by talking to my wife about mechanical things , laughed when I said “German” .“Put the label on in Germany maybe “ he said . I gather even the phrase ,” Made in the EU “ does not by any means guarantee it actually was .

So now the consumer is at sea again .They are even doing it with cars , Mercedes notably , ie running down the quality to maximise brand value in the short term.Recently it has been reported that the number of crisps in a packet chave been getting slowly less . Then a big maxi size pack is popped in , only slightly larger than the old crisp packet, but much more expensive. It is easy to see why having established the value of a brand there is short term profit in selling it out, to the point of actually removing the contents.In this environment of caveat emptor, the seller and the consumer are in an escalating war of withholding, and finding information .

Long ago we established the principle of varying contract law so as to protect the Consumer . This Statute is fairly unique, in that it removes responsibility from one party to a contract . The justification for this is that the seller is better informed ,and will use his advantage to warp the “consensus ad idem” until it invalidates the whole basis of any contract .I very much doubt any of it has a net beneficial effect myself. Nonetheless we can see that the consumer is uniquely protected . We can also see that misinformation about the provenance of a product of indeed its contents will be tempting. The market is a garden , not a wilderness and weeding the garden is a legitimate area for state intervention

.All well and good and the advert “It does exactly what it says on the tin” has been super effective as we flounder to obtain reliable information. Its as if everything we bought was on the basis of a Time Out review . ( Never Never see anything because Time out said so).

Now ,reflecting dietary concerns, there are a variety of codes in the air to oblige packets to reveal, in a simple and coherent way ,the levels of salt , fat and so on . I don’t , just for once, have a huge problem that such a requirement should be extended to fast food .In a supermarket, packaging requirements are there to allow the market to work towards beneficial ends, by stopping sellers from lying, and freeing choice. I can see that with fast food this might be a good way to proceed . Much better at least than denying health care to the fat, or taxing fatness. Both of these are on the table ( that’s not more food fatties) ,and I would guess the health care one ,is happening already . They are doing it to smokers in Nottingham and its a similar fascist principle .


I daresay , if anyone has bothered getting this far, its pretty obvious where I am going ……There is a dastardly group of cowboy suppliers are guilty of the following crimes.
1 Operating dishonestly by splitting areas of trade into regions and so as to confuse the national consumer on price and value.
( Are they beer sellers often taken to a task for this by the monopolies commission ?)
2 Selling a policy that costs far more than to would appear by hiding the costs in various ways .
3 Deferring costs but tying the buyer in so as to misinform at the point of purchase.( Is it the Pensions sellers now beaten daily by the FSA?).
.4 Operating as Cartel with the only other supplier in the market whenever their mutual interests are served?(Could it be the Supermarkets themselves whose market share is monitored assiduously?)

IT IS OF COURSE THE GOVERNMENT ! They would-be in court in a second ,and never let out ,if any of the rules of honest trading

Quick translation:

1 The deliberate use of Regional assemblies to obscure responsibility for Housing Policy and thereby to obscure the consequences of misguided immigration policy ( and much more especially the GLA)
The growing tendency to implement unpopular legislation region by region since the poll tax riots
2 Escalating stealth taxes
Indexing to inflation by increasing indirect taxation
Indexed to house prices no less and failing to index bands
Destroying pensions
Inheritance tax
And so on ad infinitum
3 Europe Taxation
Criminal Justice


So to get back to showing the calories in a Pizza. More information is basically good . Stipulating that the Consumer is protected , yes if that means requiring information to prevent anti market short termism and rip offs . Maintaining the integrity of the relationship between the Consumer`s choice and the product .Abso -bleeding-lutely !For all these reasons we need to move towards flat tax , no regional assemblies and clear costed decisions for the tax payer .We must also stop branding British laws “British” when they were outsourced the to the EU many years ago