Ironic Ducks

I`ve been having one of those conversations that you might call wide ranging. I was tossed out on the street, by Mrs. N ,with Elliot ,to go and spend time with his cousins ,and my brother.

Pedro my younger sib has had a slightly odd career. He worked for Paribas Frere (The Merchant Bank) or bonk Paribas as I called it …don`t ask. Tiring of that life ,he qualified as a teacher . He and his partner sell their skills at a very good comprehensive in Highbury . Pedro is head of economics and Shazzer teaches Art . They have two very young boys , a lovely house , a flat they let in a good catchments area ,and a place in France . This is all financed by Pedros astute early buy-to-let ,and Shazzer’s parents.

With what Pedro calls a secure, ‘part time‘, job ,and no financial worries , life is pretty good for them ,as mon frere happily acknowledges. Any way, we hadn’t seen each other for a while ,and ,as ever ,we railed about the injustice of the world as we both see it.

Brighton:

The first thing that cropped up was the experiment in lottery systems for schools . I was in favour . I agree with George Orwell who called Public schools festering breeding grounds of snobbery and the state system has become as bad . By such means as, Buying flats and letting them out in the right area, ,the better off ,cheat the system ,and get their children into what were often ex Grammar schools . Emily Thornberry is typical cheap lying hag, of this variety , and so , of course, is Ruth Kelly .

One of things I like about the idea , is that the hypocritical lying socialists will be forced to put up or shut up. At the moment these MP`s ,including Tony Blair ,ship their children into good catchments area schools ,if by some astonishing feat they have not managed to make their wealth tell another way. They would then have to do the full ‘Dianne Abbot ’, and go private, whilst publicly spitting on the educational system they recommend for their constituents.
Pedro replied, “ Fuck that! ,after we scrimped to get ourselves a flat in the catchments area, they change the rules .”
I mentioned that actually this was financed by ‘your bird’s dad’ ,and so the conversation went amiably on……

My overarching point is this . There is no justice in the Conservative low tax argument, if the majority are not given a chance to join the competition ,win or lose,. We have to have early state intrusion to level the playing field. After that you should be free to fail . I see it as akin to Monopoly legislation and not Social engineering . It is liberating social movement that happens naturally .
We should indeed have strict lotteries on academic lines ,within wide catchments and ,above all, we cannot justify Private schools . At the very least it is an insult , that the already privileged ,should buy further advantages for their children ,and it is called a charity.

With fair access to education ,a less class ridden society would be less full of envy and the need to shore up infantilised basket cases, would diminish. It is an essential corollary to Conservatism that opportunity exists ,otherwise all we are doing is defending class injustice.

So I applaud this move in Brighton . I know the Libertarians want to be free to take everyone else’s Liberty ,but I have always thought that doctrinaire Libertarianism was bollocks ,and stems from an overly literal and legalistic view of Society . Liberty is something we make from rules , the natural state is the enslavement of the majority ,as it was in all Classical cultures. They have it back to front.

KEY WORKERS- The hysterical abuse of the Key worker grants that teachers are merrily engaged in continues to delight and amuse . They say that they should be given say £50,000 of tax payers money so they can have a slightly larger place close to where they work. The taxes that pay for this are, for the most part , extracted from people living on tight budgets ,worse off then the beneficiaries, or commuting ,the very thing they say they cannot be expected to do.

Mon Frere says this is a case of Policy lag . There was a shortage of teachers years ago but this was solved by the training grant. There are now ample teachers and he agrees that to take the food away from tables so teachers can have pleasant morning stroll is farcical . It is one of the ways the Public Sector has earned the loathing of the suffering Private wealth producing class. Incidentally there were never shortages of teachers in most subjects but the NUT will not have differential deals . As for the Police ,the queues to join are endless and they have to be given a house ? Madness

THE TRUTH
The government is buying up trenches of Property with other peoples money. This means that this those who not “Key ( = Public sector ),are paying taxes to take the property they market, further out of their reach because it increases prices.
God, that’s what we needed wasn’t it a load of State money into the Housing Market . I could scream!. It’s a sort of super stealth tax on aspiration and it is destroying the ability to move from the Working Class to the middleclass. This , of course , suit’s the damned State nicely. The biggest single contributor to Social mobility ion the 20th Century was Property Ownership . No wonder they want to make it as hard as possible…., and don’t get me started on Stamp Duty !

Benefits and education
. I would to see benefits higher ,but for a short fixed duration. This is not unlike my view of early state input on education. With full employment only avoided by prissiness about jobs ,it is bizarre that scrounging should become an ‘life choice’ . Do the middle-class Socilaists know what happens ? Many young women acquire children, to get a flat , move out of that flat, to live with their boyfriend ,and sub-let informally ,for an income . This practice is wide spread ,and typical of the endemic soviet style petty corruption that inevitably follows moral breakdown ,and state micro management . You can almost smell the cheap cleaning fluid as you enter parts of Islington , it is like going to the old Eastern Block.
We have our Sure Start State crèche , how long before we get the State dungarees and vouchers for cabbage broth !The sort of pupils that come from this environment make the whole education debate fraught . The aspirationals are desperate to avoid them, and this is really what the demos in Brighton are about . I would not have started from here as one so often says .I can see that there will be a lot of resentment and for this reason I would like to see the process move forward ,with rigorous benefits and housing reform


Freakonomics
So we wandered along the leafy garden path of educational opportunity and class and mentioned the hit book Freakonomics. In it ,there are lots interesting correlations ,and Pedro mentioned some of them.

A telling tit bit was that, if you have moved into at better area, it is not a good correlator with the educational success for your child . If you have just moved up you are likely to have the attitudes of your previous status . If you have books in the house it is a good correlation but if you read to your children it is not . This is because reading to your children is a working class activity the middle classes tend to make sure they can read and let them get on with it. It may , of course befit the individual child. This is all fun and I must read the book

. I said I expect that people with plaster Ducks up on the wall are less likely to have successful children , but , turning round ,noticed that my host actually had a set of Plaster Ducks flying Heavenward across the Living-room wall.

‘Goodness there not much chance for yours is there’ I said .
‘Ah but those are Ironic Ducks !’
I know what he means. Is it just me ?


Anyway it’s a lovely sunny day and I `m of to get my motorbike fixed. My copy of ‘Margaret Thatcher the Westminster Years ,’ has just arrived and I have a title for my blog .

UPDATE
THANKS- Thankyou to those who have contributed. Whilst I have defended my points as well as I can I think some good counter arguments have been made , especially that we are not in a perfect starting place and its hopeless to wish we were . Naturally I will not be owning up to what exactly but some of the ’issues’ raised are actually quite convincing. It is possible that I may at some future time have to admit that I may in some sense not have been entirely , in the fullest meaning of the word and all things considered ….right.

..and that’s as far as I `m going .

Cough cough , as Hitch would say.

And thanks to Marjorie for defending Key Worker grants. Brave woman !

We`re a Couple Of Gems

'A Chinese businessman has advertised on the internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress. "When the woman found out her husband had a mistress, she insisted on beating her up," the Beijing Youth Daily said, citing the advertisement posted on a popular online jobs forum on sina.com. More than 10 people had applied for the job, the newspaper said. The "successful" candidate would be 35 and originally from northeastern China and would be paid 3,000 yuan ($573) per 10 minutes, it said' - NZ Herald



'Police have condemned hecklers who urged a man to "get on with it" as he threatened to jump off the top of a multi-storey car park. A crowd gathered as the 21-year-old was perched on the eight-storey building in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, while officers tried to calm him down. But some onlookers started shouting at the man, urging him to jump. Trained negotiators later arrived at the scene near the town centre and persuaded the man to come down' - The BBC website.

Remember Pete and Dud....

"Jump, you fucker jump. Jump down into this blanket what we are holding. He jumped down to the deck, broke his fucking neck. There was no blanket. Laugh? I nearly cried." etc

And the Paddy Bashing Goes On

As reported by the fine publication that is Galway First:

'A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised "to get out and meet people," the local court heard last week.

'Thomas Aloysius McCarney with an address in south Galway was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.

'Solicitor for the accused Ms Sharon Fitzhenry said that her client had been through a difficult time lately and that his wife had left him and that his life had become increasingly lonely.

'"Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey," she said. She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like, "Isn't that right, Donkey?"'

The Direct approach

Update
I see my assumption that Blog people follow the rumour mill of football was unjustified some background then.Ahem ...prepare for careful phrasing. This was months ago but the rumours are persistent.



Anti-Chelsea propaganda or what really happened?......... ((9.11.06)



Apparently on the internet message boards it is alleged that John Terry told Ledley King to 'Shut up you lippy black monkey' before getting
sent off on Sunday. This would explain the following:
Why King went mad, when normally he is mild tempered and the incident appeared harmless
Why Chimbonda went berserk and had to be physically restrained
Why Zakora went mad also
Why Drogba, who was there and always gets involved, did nothing
Why Terry calmly walked away expecting to be sent off for what appeared on TV to be nothing

Terry was accused by Eto of making racist comments in the Barcelona game last year.
Apparently a Spurs player has leaked this, but Chelsea are working overtime to keep it quiet
Ashley Cole has said that Poll told him the lack of discipline by Chelsea was out of order and Chelsea are trying to discredit Poll, but
he cannot possibly come out and say what Terry did as he is the England captain, preferring to say he was sent off for 'ungentlemanly conduct'.
Finally, Rio Ferdinand said in his book that a current England player was a known racist. Wonder who he meant?

If this story is true, it will be massive and I can't believe the press haven't got hold of it yet. Chelsea must be weighing journalists out
left, right and centre.





I thought evryone knew this , next you`ll be saying you don`t think Robbie Fowler has a Cocaine habit ?

Double Jeopardy

This is worthy of Hitchcock. Police in China were baffled when DNA evidence the same perosn was responsible for crimes in two places at once. Identical twins from Shuangcheng had been commiting burglaries and rapes at the same time .


Spooky stuff eh ..I thought they were all pretty identical but then they think I`m a round eyed devil.

..I have no idea what the comments are about

Shooting Yourself in the Foot

But not if you are disabled. This party who say a lot of sensible things continue to make themselves look ridiculous in large and small ways.
'A man claimed yesterday the UK Independence Party dumped him as a candidate as he has FALSE KNEES. Jack Biggs, 65, who was registered disabled for two years after a double knee replacement, branded the decision "disgusting". But UKIP insists it is an "act of kindness" so he won't have to canvass and deliver leaflets'

Edit .Typical , not only is it all nonsense but has been dealt with By Dizzy Croydonian DK and so on the details are in the comments . what do I know I saw it in the Sun !

Day Off

Mrs. N will probably kill me but this is Master Elliot Horatio Newman(ia).He said Mummy for the foirst time the day before yesterday . Aaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!

I Hate the Young .....( and the Old)

I do not like young people much they have far to good a time. I shuffle to work everyday like a miserable Monk, being harvested by the State for my life force, while they skip and cavort with sexy new media projects ,and have ,“ vibrant “ web communities of smarmy Conservative Future members .

I see them laughing in that revoltingly carefree way and the bile rises in my throat ,the bitter acrid fumes sting my nostrils. I crush a paper cup with silent disgust. Oh bugger off and have a ,“Crave” ,or whatever it is you do, I shout , waving an imaginary stick ,and expectorating vilely multicoloured mucus ….well not quite but you get the picture. Cull them!

So today is a good schadenfreude day for me ,for what do I discover ,but that I am stealing their money. Excellent news ,and here’s how I do it .

Firstly, I may have lost it now, but at least for goodly while I was on a superb final salary pension, and as at that time, I was earning some pretty sweet action , that is still a nice thing to have tucked into your back pocket. Secondly , again , its all gone now with having to move ,but for years I had free dental care, and most of all, I was able to get into the property ladder. Badly , to late and to timidly ,true, but yes the famille Newmania are”in property”, and we regularly dance little jigs of joy at the latest news ,that a single London Brick is actually worth more than the equivalent amount of gold .

They, the young , get pies in the face from all angles. Poor them ,a typical 22 year old graduate may leave, “ Uni”, with about £22,000 of debt at a time when I degree is hardly worth having anyway. What a superb twist of the knife that should be ,asked to voluntarily give back any cash they do make, in contributions to their alma mater. The next thing they do, is hop off and pay rent with their groovy chums , and I love this bit . They are probably paying of the Mortageg of an older buyer ,and actually sending the first rung of the property ladder further away with their own money . Oh Sweet sweet sweet ;Oh brave new world that has such ( stupid) people in it.

The average age for buying that first property is now 34 only ten years ago it was 26. In fact with Mortgages now extending to 50 years ,even if they got on the ladder it is far from clear that they themselves, will ever benefit. They will be just in time to hand over the Capital to their children. Oh dear , I cannot contain my mirth.

Excuse me while I get comfy ah yes that’s better. I just want to lean a little harder on the young ,and I can do it politically. You see the demographic has turned on its head. Instead of a large young population supporting a small old one it’s the other way round . Now heres where I start to have a concern. I lost my super pension paid through the nose for property and ¸ I am, certainly not one of the leisured class of grey wasters. I am in the working population and do not therefore qualify from mist of the freebies.

I am 43 and it is older folk than me who are rally riding the gravy train

FACT: At the time of the 2005 election MORI calculated that the over 55s had 4.2 times the voting power of the 18 to 34 years olds.

FACT:In the UK the number of people over 40 will overtake the under forties by 2021 …
..and this voting power is really biting The oldies .and I `m, getting less and less happy , are hogging all the wealth and I mean ,the really old .

FACT: On average 55 to 69 year old s have £109,000 of amassed assets ,

That’s the average , but anecdotally ,every old person I ever meet is planning a SKI holiday( spend kid`s inheritance ), which very much includes my parents. Now its true, that there is a large minority of pensioners, say 17 % classified as poor, that have not got property or private pensions. They are hit badly by Council tax fuel and other bills but they are a minority.

FACT: 70% of those worth over £500,000 in this country are over 55

…and let not forget it . Blimey more and more I begin to think I `v got more in common with the young. I `m certainly with them on this half the absurd taxes I pay for which I get pretty much nothing goes on pensions , ,healthcare and social services and a great deal of this is for the old . They , having spent all their property doubloons, relax onto the warm duvet provided by the state courtesy of the long suffering working population.

Sod it; I `m not quite old enough after all .The thing to be is a teenager in the 60s then you vote for loads of state control when you are young , low taxes when you are really earning , in the 80s and then now you are an old wreck you turn the state taps back on again. Well that’s lovely isn`t it and I `m one of the ones being eaten not ,,as I thought , visa versa.
So perhaps I should join hands with my new young chums and we can all go to a “Grave” ..or something together. I am one of the exploited by these greedy oldsters.

CONSERVATIVE FUTURE ARE STILL GUILTY

One problem. Most of the ghastly glib shiny faced members of Conservative Future are not suffering at all. They have the huge advantage I did not, of being around when people are actually looking for young people, so have high earning power. They are usually the recipients of generational wealth ,that cascades down from property allowing them not to work ,so they can be a nuisance in politics ,and cash in on property themselves. They are in fact the lottery of life winners

For all you other young people though. Tough luck, I `m basically in the same boat. We are being sucked dry, by the thin mean wizened lips of the old. So in the end, it turns out I hate the old and the young.

That what’s called a mid life crisis

Citizen Journalists Are We ....( The Hitch Item)

If anyone missed it that Private Eye article was as follows typed by my own unwilling fingers . Incidentally it’s a good issue and worth buying the very first but deals with the£35,000,000,000 of balance sheet PFI borrowings that I have been puzzling about for the last years and predicts that the Financial Reporting Advisory Board are going to recommend scrapping “Technical Note One by which all this borrowing disappears . The timing of this showdown which has been the body rotting under Broons bed will be crucial with inflation and unemployment going wrong . His reputation for prudence will be shot. When you come to think of it its not as if the Labour party would have saved us from the ERM debacle anyway

The Hitch

“ the advent of blogging and “citizens Journalism” prompted a number if frenzied predictions , but it is probably fair to say that the image of “Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens ,hammering on the door of a suburban house ,while his doppelganger cowered inside in his underpants was not among them.
That however was the scenario that unfolded when the author of, “the Abolition of Britain” ,resolved to challenge the man ,who has, for the past few months ,been posting abusive messages on his website ,and running his own blog under the name Peter Hitchens. It is claimed in this person’s defence that this is parody,” the real Hitchens complains .”But most of what this person writes is coarse and he ceaselessly uses Lavatory wall language something any reader of mine knows I loathe“.
Having managed to acquire the home address of “Peter Hitchens “ by “perfectly legitimate means “peter Hitchens cycled there . “Peter Hitchens “ refused to answer the door on the grounds he outlined to a fellow Blogger
1 He didn’t ring the bell
2 I was wearing nothing but my underwear
3 I thought “ No fucking way is that Peter Hitchens”
-but having said that he admires his balls ( a compliment Hitchens would no doubt have returned had he been able to see beyond the door ), he has agreed from hereon to post his own particular brand of right wing vitriol under the name “The Hitch “. Oddly enough this is the name Christopher Hitchens is known by observes the Mystery Blogger, “ But bugger him I don’t like him and if he complains he can get lost”. The Eye suggests it would be simpler the real Peter Hitchens to start calling himself Bonkers Like everyone else does.
PS Hitchens may not be the only hack to be the victim of cyber mischief. ……..blah blah

Pretty funny eh? I choked on my coffee.By the way Arthur`s Legend has got a terrific post up on the development of Blair`s Foreign Policy myopia. In fact his blog is always superb

I hate Blogger

God I hate blogger , I hope you are listening you bastards. Uploading pictures is a lottery I rarely win , my functions are reduced for no reason ,and not a day goes past with out some problem. I would pay for something that worked, and some back up to sort out problems .Now it won`t let me have any pictures honestly I just despair. with it . Why do we all put up with such a shoddy product? Don`t ask me

Day Off

I was having a day off today Mrs N and I have some things to attend to but the land of blog follows you everwhere. Private Eye has a long piece about The Fake Peter Hitchens and Mrs. N`s Grazia featured The Wife Of The North.

The funniest thing was the tale of Peter Hichens though, including our very own "The Hitch" in cowering in his underpants behind the front door.He is a celebrity !

Who`s that Girl

This nasty looking piece of work is all over the place . Two brilliant posts by Dizzy and Guidot ( proper Bloggers ...ahem) that I am bringing to a smaller audience.


Dizzy
According to the Health Minister, Andy Burnham, the NHS consultation "Your health, your care, your say" which closed in November 2005 had a total bill to the taxpayer of £1.39 million out of the department's running cost budget.

Of that money, 75%, or £1.05 million went to Opinion Leader Research. That is the same Opinion Leader Research headed by long standing Labour Party consultant, member of the Smith Institute, and friend to Gordon Brown, Deborah Mattinson.

Given that the NHS running cost budget is ultimately in the hands of the Treasury it makes sense to square the circle

Guidot
The Brownite response, today's Guardian reports on a survey of a hundred "opinion leaders" which shows Gordon outperforming Dave on a whole range of indicators - scoring a modest 92% on integrity.

Who conducted this highly scientific "survey"? None other than Opinion Leader Research run by Deborah Mattinson, the long time Labour Party consultant who is now Gordon Brown's unofficial pollster and sits on the advisory committee of the Smith Institute - alongside the veteran U.S. pollster Bob Shrum. It was Shrum's anti-Cameron advice to the Sith that forced the Charity Commission's official investigation.

( This survey appeared in the Sun duly that day and I have seen nothing about its appalling provenance , by the way you would be amazed how little it costs to get marketing material into the Sun`s news. I know people who can do it for you)


Deborah Mattinson

In 1992, she co founded research agency, Opinion Leader Research to specialise in research and consultation amongst opinion formers, with clients including Accenture, BBC, BT, the Environment Agency, Esso, GlaxoSmithKline, Department of Health, DfES and the South Bank Centre. OLR led the development of public involvement methods such as Citizens’ Juries and Citizens' Forums. She is joint Chair and Chief Executive.


Yes yes yes but who does she know ? This reeks of cronyism and when you think of the rate at which the NHS is wasting money its rather sweet that she crops up there.
I `m just a dull plodder and not snooper and finder like the two mentioned above . Croydonian has a bit more from Hansard but there has to be a key here , someone she knows , a relative? How did her company get hooked in with all that lovely labour Party, and Public money . I have a feeling we are going to be reading about her


Oh it hardly need saying that I`m only following the big beasts of the Jungle like a cowardly hyenah YIP YIP YIP

Hot Air From Al Gore

Ive got an inconvenient truth for you ...you are full of shit !


The difficulty is that Hollywood sees itself as a community of sophisticated kingmakers. It was more embarrassing than funny to see leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio, during the ceremony, trying to convince former vice president and 2000 presidential nominee Al Gore to announce his plans to run in 2008. The Academy was celebrating Gore's hard-hitting and enjoyable global warming film, The Inconvenient Truth( Andrew Hagan)

'Al Gore's mansion consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES). The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh-more than 20 times the national average. In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006' - The Tennessee Center for Policy Research turns the heat on Gore, winner of an Oscar this week for' An Inconvenient Truth', his film about global warming and the importance of energy conservation.

And lets not forget as previously mentioned

Why did Al Gore emote about the snows leaving Kilimanjaro when he knows there has been no rise in temperature and it is entirely the result of deforestation and consequent dehydration ? He is absolutely aware of this ; even if you are not .

Marvell...ous Pun

......My vegatable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state;
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingEd chariot hurying near;.....


Thanks to Croydonian for whose intellectual, blog this is to silly. He knows me so well.I hope by quoting " To his coy Mistress " ..I can disguise the fact that this is basically any old nonsense in between proper posts as promised. On the subject of Puns I liked " The Adoration of the Maggie", when the new statue went up.




Poetry Note

Incidentally the line " My vegetable love " is an interesting one alluding to the medieval categories of life in which the quality of “Vegetable “ was growth in what CS Lewis called the “Medieval Model” in “Discarded Image”. It is an allusion to a body of quasi scientific knowledge which still has currency at that time as well as an implicit bawdy pun and a stylistic grace note . Having only the quality of growth the poet imagines the process reaching absurd lengths.Its hard to recaputure now ,but to the Medieval and early moden mind this quality of growth was god given and so even in a bawdy and fantastical episiode like this there is a suggestion of the sacred.


( ..and I`ve spent all morning learining to sell a new Health and Safety Product ..is this justice? NO!!!)

More Diddlee Mocking

Good to see that this protestor outside Croke Park at the weekend, demonstrating against the use of the GAA stadium for a Rugby Union match, had chosen his attire astutely...

(Just for the Girls that’s a Celtic shirt)

Women to Win ( however useless?)

No idea who this is but she is on the W2W web site .

“ Women2Win Director, Lorraine Fullbrook said: ………….Women2Win was set up to help more Conservative women get elected to Parliament and we are already showing signs of improvement in the number of women selected to stand at the next election. Long gone are the days where we can all stick our heads in the sand and think that the level of female representation in the House of Commons is acceptable".

Well that all sounds good doesn’t it but Justin Hinchcliffe has got an absolutely fascinating post up at the moment . (See Hunter and Shooter on the blog roll ). Its really quite acerbic, for him, he’s a very ”progressive” modernising ,Liberal- Conservative so this final comment should ring some alarm bells.

“Most of the them are aged between 25 and 45, have rich husbands or partners and see politics and the Conservative Party as a “fun hobby”. I know of one young woman, who seriously lacks people skills and political nous, who has been short-listed for a very winnable seat. What the devil is going on? After almost 10 years of listening and watching Blair’s Brain-Dead Babes in the Chamber, could Dave’s Dishy Dolls be even worse? The jury’s out.”Justin Hinchcliffe

He is obviously somewhat unimpressed although the allegation of being between 25 and 45 is “wide ranging “. That actually would include Myself and Justin which is a very big tent indeed . He has obviously touched a nerve though . This is one of the contributions on this subject

“Justin but you are bang on the nail with it, couldn't agree with you more. To my certain knowledge there is one of Dave's Debs who at the last GE got the worst possible report from both her Assoc and from the relevant area team but is still short listed for a safe seat purely because she put a lot of effort, not into campaigning, but into shmoozing W2W and its' leading lights”

Matt Davies


This chimes in rather neatly with the first quote on the W2W site

Sunday Herald: May points the way ahead for Scottish businesswomen
"One interesting lesson from women2win has been how important networking is, and giving each other a helping hand. Women have to catch up on delivering for each other,"

Sounds to me as if there are some rather unpleasant characters involved . I `d love to know more , who are the shirkers and who is it that is undermining what in the face if it seems like a good idea ? Of course any positive discrimination is always going to cause resentment and I would have expected the women to be sensitive to this.


Details anyone ? I sense there is story here and some digging might be worth while

Poltical Language ( Ask the Focus Group )

Political Language

I`ve been thinking about how it is that activists and Telegraph readers so get so very hot under the collar with nice David Cameron, when he doing so well. We have all spent all week, gloating about the prospect of forming government and ridding the country of , one assumes , Gordon Brown ,not to say the disgusting Peter Hain ,and his antiquated politics of envy. All around however, I see weeping , wailing ,and constant harrying from the conservative Blogaspghere.
On Friday there I was ,rubbing shoulders with “Top Bloggers”…..( ?) Like Dizzy , Croydonian and even Guidot . One thing I noticed was the these people tend to come at Conservatism by way of anarchism ,or at least extreme Libertarianism. They are political theorists ,which a Conservative is not almost by definition,.
Perhaps that is why I have this worrying feeling that a lot of the heat in the world of sub mainstream commentators is just far to separate from real political language ,to get to the source of the pain. A country is not defined by dry theories of a contract posited in the 18th century ,it is to do with living traditions and an almost tribal loyalty .These roots predate political theory by a very long way. It is a felt rather than an explicated phenomenon as are the voting intentions of most of the country.

Take Dizzy for example , perhaps as well respected a writer on Politics as anyone , often asked for help by the national Press ,and with a clear sense of setting the agenda for the intelligentsia. In order to do this, he will typically be ferreting around in public documents for unregarded morsels of waste and dishonesty to embarrass the Labour Party. Guidot goes further, and actually prowls the very sewers of Westminster ,acting as an investigative Journalist . If he changed sides though, would the stories really be so very different ?
There are numerous people in the Labour ranks, adept at this game ,and very happy to swap accusations . It is a fair point of Dizzy`s that the Labour Party used the sleaze card brutally ,with little reason , and to great effect, in the Major period .Waste is also a fair intellectual target of statist government ,as well as an ad hoc moan . Nonetheless, I am unconvinced that this is where elections are won.
For me you must always keep the focus on the bankruptcy of the idea of Socialism and the fact that this is still what the Labour party are selling for all their claims otherwise. This is their great weakness ,they must always pretend to be not what they are ,and I really worry that they love to get back to swapping insults..
They like it ,because with no philosophy they can admit to, they have no positive account of themselves to give.David Cameron is able to “Propose", rather than always “Oppose “ .This difference is vital in the felt opinions of the voters.

We can see then that voters and politicos differ widely in their apprehension of the debate , in fact they scarcely cross over at all. To follow this thought up I have invented a Focus Group,

The Focus Group
.In it I have one political obsessive ,I have called ,at random, Dizonian , a non combatant I have called “normal person” ,and one who is able to bridge these disparate worlds; a little-bears-porridge , just right ,sort of person ,I have chosen to call …me..( at random again).
I am going to have look back at Cameron’s progress to his commanding position and submit various points of interest to the imaginary collection. Just to remind us this us this is where we are now this is the ICM Poll which was corroborated by the U Gov Poll later in the week ,Conservatives 40% ,( up 3%),Labour 32% (Steady),Lib Dums ,(18% down4 %) ,Activists moaning .. ( Unchanged position).


Cameron`s Brilliance- Part One - Let The Others Do The Hard Work

David Cameron, once, openly insulted Margaret Thatcher it was during a speech he gave commemorating 9.11 when he distanced himself from her commitment to support America , come what may . It was a miscalculation he has not repeated ,and immediately caused great concern in the party ,which communicated itself as ,treason , to the voter. Since then he has wisely let others define his distance from the our greatest Post war Prime Minister
When Tim Congdon announced his defection to UKIP ,he did so in these terms . “ At some point in her career Margaret Thatcher should have said this , the man in Whitehall doesn’t know best”. He went on...” People were being freed so they could free themselves”. Lumme that’s a bit ideological isn’t it ? Meanwhile to the utter disgust of Congdon ,The boy David was talking about,… “preparing young people for their adult responsibilities to create a greater sense of cohesion “.Congdon ,looked at this ,and with ill concealed contempt ,decided that either he was a charlatan, or he was vaguely endorsing the European Union’s model of Socialist Top Down super state,. The key point is that for him is doesn’t mater much which. What really infuriates him is that a Political intellectual like him , is left out of the equation entirely. David Cameron has a dialogue with the country that is not about “What you say “ but about “WHAT THEY HEAR” ( Frank Luntz).
Tim Congdon would like us to return to traditional political debate of the sort at which he was successful and the sort Gordon Brown also thrived in ,in the 80s. Gordon Brown is the old style of Politician, a...“political battering ram armed to the teeth with statistics “.
Nothing is more obvious to day than that the country has changed ,and Gordon Brown is incapable of changing his language and rhetoric to suit its new mood. Even his body language is determinedly ugly where Cameron naturally dances the ballet of the “Inclusive hands”. Even among blogs only Iain Dale ,I can think of , understands this broad generalist audience at all ,and he is very far from good at it partly because he tries to hard.

Ok so lets pass this over the Focus Group

Dizonian- Blank incomprehension, bitter hilarity at the Third World do goodism ,and social inclusiveness. Fury at the perceived betrayal of the Libertarian agenda ,(Not the Conservative cause which might easily include Paternalism ala Disraeli). More than this ,an irritation at the “My Little Policy “,kiddies Saturday Morning brain dead level of it all. A lot of shouting , a lot of statistics . Sounds Like Gordon Brown

Normal- I can’t see anything I actually dislike about him , and he’s not like that Margaret Thatcher , wasn’t she the nasty one ? ( The spitting image Puppet that is ). At least he’s not bellowing in that boring self important way…
.(normal may well be a woman by the way.)

Quite positive

Me ( Correct person)-Good Work David, well done for dragging our marketing out of the dark ages ,and realising that is what we are doing here .I seriously hope you aren’t expecting me to take any of this as other than mood music though. The point of winning is to enact policies, and I do have a Consevative wish list tucked in my back pocket.

Positive

David Cameron’s Brilliance Part Two- Never be against anything,

Janet Daley who I enjoy in the way an adult retains a taste for sweets into middle age , grew so incandescent with rage , recently, that she actually began to admit the logic of her position ,which is to support Gordon Brown .” If Cameron’s Conservatives succeed ,the electoral future belongs to image consultants. But if Mr. Brown prevails, there might be a return to the real politics . We might find ourselves arguing about the basic principles of taxation, spending , welfare and dependency “ . She concretely identified that Cameron is in agreement with the Blair image, and against Brown. Given that the country overwhelmingly voted for what they thought was Blair ,and loathe Brown ,this is not a bad starting point .In fact ,when I look at what back at Tone said he wanted to do, with Frank Field ,I am not sure this sounds like the worst sort of government even now, but I digress.
So Cameron is not disagreeing with Blair-ism in some ways ,he wants to inherit its popularity as smiley faced Thatcherism . What we got was quite different , and that has to be the best place to attack. Cameron doesn’t say you got it wrong to the voter, he says you got it right, but you were betrayed. Newspapers like to shout and Politicos often have a legal background . People out in the economy selling for a living , know that this is the way you sell . By agreeing

Lets put it to the Focus Group

Dizonian- I would rather lose the noble way than win by a process of rebranding ,this is just not politics.
I hate him
Normal-Oh I `m so glad they’ve stopped arguing ..well; except for that nasty Scottish man. I just fancy a change .I `m really starting to like this David chap
Me ( Correct ) -It is inevitable that Cameron would be the new Blair ,as Blair was the new Thatcher.I see he has to aim at the centre but having got it where will he take it ?Good work but I`m not voting for a Liberal ,they have to move to me .

Cameron’s Brilliance Part 3 .” Know when to shut the Fuck up”

This change of tone I attribute to Newmania senior who , in his day, was red hot broker ,and he always said to me .” When they are about to sign say Nothing . You will be tempted to talk about why you agree, but you don’t know, and it can only get worse ”
Good advice . Look at where we are. There was a worry for a long time ,that active enthusiasm for the Conservatives was flat lining ,and we still were not over the magical 40%. Anthony King complained, “ All he has achieved is to show he doesn’t frighten the horses.”. If that’s all you need to do ,then don’t do any more. Unemployment is at a seven years high thanks to Brown regulatory mania.The pension system is in ruins. Real inflation is hitting important voter groups like the old ( and hasn’t David been quick to give them a friendly ear,), productivity is feeble ,and education is an international joke.
To enter a debate about any of this would be to confuse it . David Cameron lets New Labour burn as they deserve ,and if anyone doubts his leadership qualities they should take a glance at the icy restraint the shows here. How many politicians could so sublimate their ego`s this way. As Peter Kay would put it . He is not playing

The Focus Group
Dizonian- Look at that big chin hanging out there can`t he just hit it , punch him kick him spit at hime ,pull his hair for god`s sake!

Normal- There is such a lot of bad news and that nice David Cameron is never mentioned around it . We definitely need a change

Me( Correct ) Saying nothing is right but you are vulnerable to the accusation that you have nothing to offer. The answers have to be carefully fleshed out




Cameron’s Brilliance Parts ,…oh just loads of it really

You might be surprised at the people that have been praising Team Cameron
1-Simon Heffer “His left leaning PR campaign for the past 12 months has neutralised the BBC. Having achieved that the Guardian and Independent should be easy
2-The education secretary has been obliged to reintroduce synthetic Phonics
3-The Home Secretary has been forced to drop plans for local Police Forced merging
4 Simon Heffer and in fact the rest of the Party now agree that our Iraq Policy was misguidedly pro US, and should been critically Pro US. On other words ,concerned with our defensive coalition ,not with some stupid idea of putting the world right. Enoch Powell would have approved
5He has taken the liberal’s only consistent card “We are against adversarial Politics” . Let us not forget it is votes from the Liberal Party that are just as important, and he has of course Made Ming the Useless look exactly that
6 Somehow made himself the darling of the women’s vote largely by saying little, and letting the Labour Government destroy the Family .
This has been done with nothing concrete ,but with a manner he has got right for the daytime TV sofa, which Gordon brown cannot emulate . Look for example the way he dealt with ,“Lousie “, single mother and therefore ,supposedly, the scourge of society ,on "You and Yours". Louise asked him what he thought of her and…” he expressed huge admiration for her efforts and only tactfully suggested that fathers should be obliged to pull their weight to”. He could not have played it more perfectly. Brown would have been lost.
7 Regained the trust of the voters on the NHS, by actively campaigning for its improvement, in what was frankly a childishly policy free way. I was staggered it worked myself ,but it did.
8 Lost the racist and homophobic stain that was electoral poison and a non negotiable barrier to the centre voter

You will see looking back at all these field of conquest that almost none this is ever dealt with by right wing commentators who have little interests in PR and Consultancy ,and treat everything as if they were in a Politics debate at University . This is why I fear that arguments are being won while clients,( voters ) are being lost. The entire rhetoric sounds alarmingly like Old Labour locally sometimes and we need more positive messages .

If there is one thing that I would like the committed right for all their marvellous qualities to take to heart it is this . Politics is always about what they hear not what you say ,and we have to learn the code on the right of the party to get our agenda listened to.


IMMEDIATE RETRACTION IN CASE I APPEARED ILL MANNERED

Well I assume noone bothers much with me but within seconds of that appearing Dizzy ..( as in the top blogger) popped in to tell me off. Let me make it entirely clear that Dizzy and Croydonian do proper Blogs both of which are far in the stratosphere compared to a little ,“ I think this “exercise “, like this one. The invented person Dizonian was not meant to be taken either seriously or overly literally. As far as i know it bears no special relation whatsoever to the characters of these two Blogging Titans.
Dizzy has made a number of criticisms and this is one .

“Where we disagreed is that you considered your position to be the only one that matters. That is simply not true and it is a thoroughly unconservative thing to do to rely on some grand theory and negate complexity.”

Can I make it quite clear that I did not wish to criticise any real person. Yes of course all sorts of approaches are necessary .I think my suggestion is this . “Am I wrong that there us a lack of willingness to sell the "right" agenda ?”
But the Dizonian thing was only supposed to be a bit of fun

Many apols if it seemed otherwise just to be on the safe side.

Irish Money Laundering

Reports the RTE website:

'A 32-year-old chef from Co Cork has been convicted of membership of an illegal organisation by the Special Criminal Court.

'Don Bullman, from Fernwood Crescent in Wilton, was arrested during a garda investigation into IRA money laundering after the 2004 Northern Bank robbery.

'He was found with a washing powder box with over 94,000 Euros inside it, after he was arrested outside Hueston Station in Dublin in February 2005.'

Does anyone else think he got completely the wrong end of the stick when he was told to launder the money?

Blair The Dead Pig

Do you remember the high hopes many in this country had for “New Labour” in 1997. As we turn our faces from the rotting carcass of moral decay and mendacity that is the death of this vile administration ,that early optimism is hard to recall. Look at these quotes on which no comment is really needed.

"Education will be our number one priority";
"we will rebuild the NHS";
"we will help build strong families and strong communities";
"we will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime";
"we will clean up politics and put the funding of political parties on a proper and accountable basis".
It is almost beyond belief that so much good will , and there was considerable good will, was wasted . I happened to read this poem about the utter deadness of a slaughtered pig which reminded me of that strange thing , time ,passing and this governement. Can it be that this is the same Blair who said those things , who made those promises? His administration has no right to persist, and yet it lies there like the pig , inert and pointless. Remembering what it was all supposed to be for is almost impossible but once ..once it was all going to be Cool Brittannia…..


View of a Pig

The pig lay on a barrow dead.
It weighed, they said, as much as three men.
Its eyes closed, pink white eyelashes.
Its trotters stuck straight out.
Such weight and thick pink bulk
Set in death seemed not just dead.
It was less than lifeless, further off.
It was like a sack of wheat.
I thumped it without feeling remorse.
One feels guilty insulting the dead,
Walking on graves. But this pig
Did not seem able to accuse.
It was too dead. Just so much
A poundage of lard and pork.
Its last dignity had entirely gone.
It was not a figure of fun.
Too dead now to pity.
To remember its life, din, stronghold
Of earthly pleasure as it had been,
Seemed a false effort, and off the point.
Too deadly factual. Its weight
Oppressed me — how could it be moved?
And the trouble of cutting it up!
The gash in its throat was shocking, but not pathetic.

Once I ran at a fair in the noise
To catch a greased piglet
That was faster and nimbler than a cat,
Its squeal was the rending of metal.
Pigs must have hot blood, they feel like ovens.
Their bite is worse than a horse’s —
They chop a half–moon clean out.
They eat cinders, dead cats.
Distinctions and admirations such
As this one was long finished with.

I stared at it a long time.
They were going to scald it,
Scald it and scour it like a doorstep.


...and good riddance say I

We Need Men`s "Ishews"

The end of Marriage has been in the Press all week and Ellee has got a super post up about it specifically on the fairness or otherwise of the current divorce laws. She is on my Blog Roll and I never miss a day , do visit

This was my comment in which I think I have discovered why men get treated so badly in this country

. It is obviously not going to be fair to have prenuptial agreements on an voluntary basis which will leave the husband, generally, in a lottery. Clearly divorce does not happen when the feelings that pertained to the marriage are still current so if there is a decision at that time it will, be sheer luck as to whether it was the right one
I `m not sure there are not two different subjects here . The end of marriage as predicted in the Press this week does not seem to have stopped all of my friends getting married .. It does stop young girls who are hoping to collect the maximum benefits and accommodation even admitting to a relationship.
This single piece of ham fisted benefits and welfarism must be responsible for about as much woe and misery as any ,and Frank Field foresaw all of this before he was ambushed by Gordon Brown and the old Left.
Higher up the income scale there is problem about an imbalance of power in the relationship that is inherently destabilising. The woman can at any time decide she has had enough of the marriage and , once there are children , walk off with an assured income and a family .The man will walk away ruined, with little prospect of restarting life, and separated from the children he , for the most part, will have centered his hopes around. It is no wonder that men are simply refusing to cooperate with this manifest injustice and are not paying the money due .If the courts actually enforced access it would help, but generally the woman eventually starts a new relationship and the children will become part of that supported by the law.
I saw David Cameron’s silly remark about stigmatising fathers, you have to treat fathers fairly for them to accept there is a guilt to be had and at the moment they are treated disgracefully in the divorce courts.

I put this favouring of women down to the strange quirk that women vote on women’s issue, whereas, men vote of national issues . Women are more likely to change their vote, and this voting pattern, has slowly turned men into beaten farm animals expected to work and sacrifice but sent down to the knackers yard like dear Old Boxer if it happens to suit the woman.

Boris Peeved With Tabloids Shock Story

Boris, who I love dearly , is furious about the rampant double standards of those dreadful Tabloid Newspapers .His fulminations have been has been sparked by the gold hurled at the QUANTAS flight attendant who indulged in heavy petting , if not diving and bombing ,at 35000ft , with some film star or other. Look at his foaming below.



“They denounce the daily exposure of our children to sexual material; and yet how do they stuff their news pages? They get their ace reporter to fly half way round the world, laden with hundreds of thousands of pounds, and they buy the story of some poor misguided girl who should have known better, and then they quote her in the manner of a Readers' Wives column “

Tut tut tut There is of course some history here back in 20004 this was the Times


BORIS JOHNSON, the Tory MP and editor of The Spectator magazine, was last night sacked as a frontbench spokesman by Michael Howard for lying about his private life.
The move came as details of a four-year affair with Petronella Wyatt, the daughter of the late Lord Wyatt, were revealed by her mother.
Johnson, 40, who became a household name through his appearances on the television show Have I Got News for You, had previously denied any romance. He said last night that he felt as if he had been hit by “an express train” over the allegations.
Speaking from the mansion in St John’s Wood, north London, where she lives with her daughter, Lady Verushka Wyatt disclosed that her daughter had an abortion last month as a result of an affair with Johnson, who is married with four children.
Last night she told The Sunday Times: “In the beginning, the reason she went out with him was because he said he was going to marry her. (Otherwise)Petronella never went out with a married man.”


And all in all it reminds me of the immortal words of Mandy Rice Davies

When the prosecuting counsel pointed out that Lord Astor denied having an affair or having even met her, she replied, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?". ...

I commented

Well I laughed at this in the train this morning . Boris, I wonder at what point was it that you began to notice the terrible hypocrisy of the tabloid Moralisers. Was it a point in time roughly contemporaneous with you being caught with your giant elasticised pantaloons around your ankles. Was it once or twice I cannot recall ? Furthermore as I am myself pure in body and mind I have no reason whosoever not to go on enjoying this feast smug coated delicacies.
I find it entirely acceptable to , on the one hand to enjoy salacious tittle tattle and on the other hand be shocked and mortified that my betters have feet of clay. Did I say feet of clay ? I think I mean underpants of Velcrome equipped with a quick release system and handy draw strings for back window escapeeism.
You poor old Sausage Boris , like an elephant maddened with mosquitoes you plunge and buck at the bloody unfairness of it all but the rule are simple . Don't get caught. Its much the same with drugs as you know so you are still ahead of the game , unless you really are a god awful prig.

Equal Pay ? Why not Equal Play

The Wimbledon Championships will hand women and men equal prize money for the first time at this year's tournament.
The announcement, due at 1100 GMT from the All England Club, brings it into line with other Grand Slams after criticism from officials and players.
Similar to the US and Australian Opens, equal rewards will be offered across the board, from the champions down to the first-round losers in all events.
The French Open only offers the same cheque to the champions.


I `ve got a good idea why don`t they have all the prize money in one pot and then they can all compete on entirely equal terms in one competition. Of course that would mean that in the next one hundred years not a single woman would win anything but it would be fair . Typical , even when it is absurd to suggest otherwise , the notion that men might actually be better at something is prohibited .

Featuring Phillipa

Quick Thought For Political Obsessives

Statistically speaking, on election day, it is more likely that you will be run over on the way to the polling station, then that your vote will count for anything.


Sobering thought isn’t it ,and while I am busy working, I am going to "Feature ", my friend Phillipa`s latest Piece on Fortean Times . As Arthur’s legend puts it , "bringing it to a smaller audience" . She is , I think it is fair to say , a complex character , and here she is writing at her best on subjects she feels passionately about .I do not agree with all of this by the way and argued at length with her.



Cameron IS NuLab?
Could you get a cigarette paper betweeen the approaches of Cameron and NuLab to the recent report on children? Today, I understand that DC has advocated tax breaks to make fathers stay with their families as absent fathers are the reason for all the ills in society apparently? Well, makes a change from blaming women. Quite how forcing a man to stay in a miserable household they don't want to be in is going to help is beyond me. If it's a feckless father then the extra money will end up being spent on alcohol or drugs or something other than the child. Just forcing people to live in the same space does not happiness make. Neither does it make a good parent.

Where does this fluffy idea of fathers come from? Hark back to the Victorian era? Where 'childhood' was invented and children were very definately seen and not heard. Even as recent as my own childhood (say nothing) it was the norm for the mother to rear the children and the father to come home after work and the children to be quiet and not bother him. Given that women worked and children played outside, you could pretty much live until a teenager before having a conversation with your father. Rich kids who had nannies and went to private school didn't see 'daddy' much at all. Hang on, aren't they the ones running the country right now? Yup.

They did alright. Look at history and the posh model and you will see that fathers aren't essential. People have overcome some pretty awful mothers too. So what was different then? The social structure was such that children were subject to discipline. I think employment plays a part in that children would see a future, have a direction, an expectation. The decline in manufacturing and the restructuring of the welfare/housing system does not help (neither does immigration) Also they had activities and those were more freely available and spontaneous than is possible now. The law is such that now, doing anything with children is seen as dangerous for the good people and continues to attract the bad. Once again this government has reacted to a genuine concern stupidly, making the problem worse.

There was discipline in schools, backed up by discipline in the home (which is near impossible now) and discipline by policemen on the streets (again, totally impossible).

Single mothers are nothing new. There were many many men killed in the Great War and so a great many 'single' mothers. Ah, but there's the difference? You're not really talking of a generation of people sadly widowed are you? You're talking of a generation of feckless parents of both sexes, led by the nose to this end from the onset of puberty by stupid State interference. Educated into sex and drugs and rock and roll by NuLab. Don't work, there is none, take a computer course and spend your time downloading 'gangsta rap'. The only activities after school are drug dealers? There's no police presence and no boxing clubs or boys clubs (remember those?) What role models are there?

The worst child in ASBO terms I heard about recently lived near Wolverhampton. Quite young, about 12 years old I think. The only child of a single dad, whom he lived with, who was unemployed and had bugger all to do all day but be a father to his son. When his son was out and about doing all this vandalism, where was his dad? His father and his girlfriend said that people were too hard on the lad and he was just being boisterous.

Boisterous eh? Just goes to show that when 'daddy' does live at home he's not necessarily any bloody use!

The Conservative government will NOT stop the sex ed programme in schools.

In fact they have, as yet, shown no sign of doing anything genuinely constructive. And I honestly think it will be another victory for Labour if Bliar holds off long enough for a new leader to seem a shiny new hope for Britain. And that, my friends, will be a very very sad day indeed.


AND THIS WAS A COMMENT OF MINE

I have re read and I think what you are saying is that other social developments are to blame for social problems we have and that single motherhood is not in itself a worthy target. I`m not so sure you can have it all ways It is not necessary to suggest that all fathers are paragons of virtue to have an opinion that a father and mother would generally be a better bet for the child . I will admit that finding evidence for this will be next to impossible given the impossibility of establishing a class neutral sample but still it is something we see around us . We should therefore be setting policies in place to encourage this desirable state and least stop the state taking over the role of the father usually with his money.
Your conclusion , in that there are any , seem to tend the way of all silly feminist thought which is that men are an unfortunate encumbrance to the happy home there , if anything , to get drunk and be abusive.

Not so. The absence of father figures from estates and schools has been “catastrophic” for white working class boys and part of the difference between them and there far better socio economic equivalents is exactly that Asians and Chinese families , for example have retained a nuclear family and are ascending . Educational results and crime figures for these fatherless groups , whites and Afro Caribbean are staggeringly worse that for others in exactly the same social circumstances. Of course you are right to say that the fact that the single mother is generally contributing so little to the community or the treasury takes a further framework of value away. True , you cannot hide this from children and she will tend to be treated as the child she has chosen to remain by young males. Quite clearly a woman who lives as a serf will command little authority and in any case the link between action and reward has been fatally broken .Does one blame the actual women for allowing herself to get into this circumstance . Partly yes . My wife as you know came from a very poor part of London and was the daughter of a single mother who came to Islington to get a Council flat. However she did not do this deliberately and the fact her marriage had failed was not because the intention that it should work was never there .More than this, she was prepared to work FULL TIME and leave Marian in what were inadequate care facilities. It is my opinion than while today a lot more help would be available that lesson ,that if you make problems with your own mistakes you pay for them, was more important in her life than any number of state crèches . Now it is to easy to sit around saying oh dear I can’t be head of the BBC I there will get no job at all. Additionally , by far the largest group are those who actively chose this way of life. Remember this , they are not only resented by men . They are also fiercely resented by the many other young women who are obliged to live with their parents work full time and
Make endless sacrifice to while they watch there efforts squandered on the most feckless of the community living a far better life in every way
It is certain that men are just as bad but they do not happen to have this choice
I know you are always on the side of single mothers but you take it more personally than is useful. You are one single mother , not all of them . You do not speak for them all a lot of what you say is sensible but what you do not discuss is what w the taxpayer should or should not be paying for . To actually be paying to undermine socially useful structures like the nuclear family is an outrage and unless you are suggesting that policy should be set to further undermine the family I `m not clear where this sort of special pleading takes us

Priorities

In view of drinking commitments both tonight and tomorrow night nothing to see here until the weekend .

MOVE ALONG MOVE ALONG

Dullest Lunch Ever Recorded ?

"There's now a posse of us bloggers with book deals with a secret forum - and over the last few months we have happily procrastinated by sending emails round, encouraged each other, shared whinges and victories and tips for writer's block and deadline hell. A few weeks ago we all went out to lunch and some of us carried on until the evening."

( Rachel North London)

Astonishingly I was not invited .Just think of that all of those tedious media creeps gathered in one place .... What an opportunity... I wonder who belongs to this clandestine society of the dishonest blogger. I look forward to seeing the roll of shame published. I only ask that they should be pursued with pitch forks and burning torches through the night until they leave this land and never return .....but noone ever listens to me.


DALE - I was suprised to see him in the Telgraph this morning . It was a pretty vanilla flavoured article but on refelection there wasn`t much more he could do with it . Its a dull story .I do think he might have put a bit more effort into the title though." Keep The Champagne on Ice" ..that really is " as old as the quills ".
Still , good to see Iain doing well no doubt the next one will have a bit more personality to it

Quick One

On the Chinese written language, the ideograph that stands for "trouble" represents two women under one roof.


I`m saying nuffin

Race and The English

Race and English Nationalism

As some may know ,my family is of mixed race, and I can’t say this would have occurred to me as an issue, but ,lovely soft skinned and delicately scented David Allen , mentioned the dislocation of ethnic minorities, and, looking at the paper today, it has cropped up again, in an article by Martin Beckford.

More Blacks and Asians see Themselves as British

“ More black and Asian people regard themselves as British than whites, a survey has found ….the study also discovers that fewer people in general see themselves as British ,as they identify with England , Scotland, Wales or Ireland.
The Institute for Public Policy Research , a left wing think tank, found fifty-one percent of ethnic minority respondents describe themselves as British, compared with twenty-nine percent of white people..”
In 1996 , fifty-two percent called themselves British out of preference and the report concludes .
“ Britain’s identity crisis looks set to continue and the implications for community cohesion look clear.” Looking back over the past week or two, the last really impassioned defence I can find for the Union was mounted by none other than ,( new best friend) ,Trevor Phillips , who has so delighted me by irritating world record cab fare holder Ken Livingstone. This is his much improved recent track record

Trevor Phillips

“After supporting multiculturalism for many years, Phillips is now one of its most outspoken mainstream critics. He expressed fears that multiculturalism could cause Britain to "sleepwalk towards segregation" and has argued for school selection to be amended to prevent segregation in British schools.
In 2006 he was appointed the head of a new organisation known as the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights,”

Trevor Philips on Britain … ( abridged version)


Perhaps if we want to see what it truly means to be British, we should ask hard-working, Indians, Eastern Europeans, Chinese and Filipinos……...
Vietnamese and Eastern European families arrive barely speaking English; within two years, their children are rising to the top of the class and qualifying for our best universities….
.Modern Britishness does not define you by your colour, your ancestry or your tribe; but rather it asks you to treat fellow citizens with respect and fairness, to share basic rules of conduct and to contribute to our common good……..
He wants measures to actively foster this inclusiveness
1)Over the past twelve months, English classes have been quietly disappearing from local colleges, to the despair of new migrants and their employers.
2) efforts to bring young people of different backgrounds together – say English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish — in voluntary, cultural or sporting activities.
3)a major drive to encourage initiatives such as summer camps for teenagers
4)citizenship ceremonies

Why it is that Trevor Phillips feels Englishness is so much less likely to be inclusive than Britishness.? Why would you not use the phrase Black -English ? You see I think there is fault line here ,and while I applaud to some extent, what he tries to do , essentially ,he is still denying the that the England is a country in the sense that others are.

What is Englishness and Where has it Gone ?

What do we want ? Larry the lamb, knee length bathing trunks, steam engines , foxtrots and all male cricket clubs. Probably not . I locate the heart of it in institutions like Common Law, our Literature music and customs. All old cultures are under threat from globalisation and the media . The land loses its personal face and the English have begun to feel they are noone and they live nowhere special. They also seem to hate themselves……

Prescribed Ethnicity

In 1999 during selections to the European Parliament 78 year old George Staunton was putting up UKIP posters in Liverpool . On a derelict wall he painted the words “Don’t forget the 1945 war” and “Free speech for England “ . He was arrested by the Merseyside police and charged with “Racially aggravated damage”. Racially ,was on account of the gratuitous reference to England, a country for whom the defendant had fought a war. Pubs have refused to extend opening hours for St . Georges day because it would be provocative and jingoistic. To be English has become to be a “little Englander” a small mean and embarrassing thing . A blot , as Trevor Phillips implies, on the bland vision of “Britishness “in which uniquely , England , and English ethnicity, is abolished.
As we well know ,to Europe, England does not even exist. The official map of the European union, issued by the European commission of Brussels ,which divides the continent into regions ,makes absolutely no mention of England . It would be a vast deal easier to drop Nelson from the curriculum than Nelson Mandella but this seems to concern no-one ..until recently .

The English Wake Up

We are waking from a long sleep, and remembering without triumphalism, the value and distinctive nature of our own history . Is this is a dangerous Pandora’s box , I see the worry but I hope not . Tolerance has always been a leading motif ,but the fact that this country is England ,and the dominant culture in it is that of the English, cannot go on being treated as a shameful secret.

Back to Race.

I know why Trevor Phillips and others fear English ethnicity. It is because he is more comfortable to give us no identity at all in order that others can maintain theirs. “Racism “will be bandied about as it always is ,but it is to do with culture and a real commitment to the “home” ,you live in. Britain is not a country ,it is a political unit . It is something you can join ,and leave ,to whatever extent you like , with full entitlements. “England” ,on the other hand , is a country , a thing made of love, time ,and a thousand bonds of affection .It is not enough for those who come here to tolerate it . This is not racist it is asking for a real joining over the years , not simply ”Parking up “. For some communities it may be a challenge ,but in the context of our reasonable ness I trust we will find a new accommodation.



“English Nationalism is not a question of race, it is a question of being proud of our way of life (ethnicity), our heritage and our culture and about loyalty and a sense of community. All races are welcome as members.”

( English National Party Manifesto)

..and I would want top be a bit more plural than that…just to be on the safe side !!

Dull Husband in the South ( of London)

Oh god I’m so depressed . Absolutely everyone in the whole world is fighting through a blizzard of publishing quids except me . There`s Wife in the North , now rich well connected writer in the North , but never mind . There’s … well one is far to many and what gets me is that some mysterious ingredient called ,“ the quality of the writing “, is the catnip in the garden. As far as I can tell this “quality of writing “, consists of over blown similes and being sad every now and then . So fighting through a haze of anti biotics I don’t see why I shouldn’t have a go . The core material is a bit weak granted, but I soldier on regardless.

I walked to the tube station , like a nifty little speedboat zipping into cut sapphire Aegean inlets . I picked up the paper and the news danced and sang with the Technicolor joy of a young Dick van Dyke. I looked at a grubby old bag lady ,( didn’t really shhh ..), and her face was a blossom falling from the Cherry tree in our house one spring . When I got to work I perused a Liability Policy which called like a Venetian courtesan’s scent caught by her entrapped lover on the bridge of sighs and goodness I felt a bit sad…..
I sat feeling sorry for myself and my soul skittered through the whispered aspens like a prayer. Oh blimey I realised I forgot my packed lunch.. But in such a strange enchanted day , a golden day , I made do with a Kit Kat from the machine……not bad not bad

Honest I can do it with a perforated edge if you prefer ? No takers ? Blast !. Not even a fiver? Ok Ok…….

Ha I prefer the griitty reality of being hard up anyway

England`s Future Decided in Scotland

“Shortly after the defeated Jacobite army withdrew from the battlefield on Drumossie Moor, the Duke of Cumberland rode into Inverness clutching a drawn sword to show he was the victor. It was a gesture full of menace for Highland people. The battle was over, but the killing was not.The roads into the town from the east were scattered with the bodies of men, women and children cut down at random by his advancing dragoons, while on the battlefield, parties of infantry, encouraged by their officers, covered themselves in blood as they ranged the ground stabbing or hacking to death any enemy wounded who caught their attention.
The day after the battle, patrols were sent back to the area and found and butchered 70 more injured Jacobites. And on the day after that, another 72 were discovered and executed, 32 of them being deliberately burnt alive as they sheltered in a barn at Leanach “

That was the battle of Culloden and while things have clamed down a bit this ancient battle line is now re drawn and ascrucial for Gordon Brown as it is for the hopes of the English right.

New Labour are seriously scared about the upcoming Scottish local elections on May the 3rd. We can tell this from the cavalcades of heavy weights that have been dispatched to the chilly land o` the Jocks recently to plead the Unionist cause. Alec Salmonella welcomed ( boomerang) Blair`s attention as his best weapon post Iraq but the Prez rarely blinks and he is busy assuring the Glasgow Herald that for countries the size of England and Scotland (?) to separate was “regressive and old fashioned”. He does however concede that these elections are” huge and fundamentally important “, but has to be careful . Something the Labour position can be seen from his description of the SNP as an “£8 bn. Betting slip” , what about the other £12bn?He is quick to remind us down here that “England also benefit from the Union” and must not overly criticise the devolved settlement by implication, “We must not just point ou the disasters of independence” .I have though for some time that the most pivotal shift in British politics was that of the English from Unionists to Nationalists and for Labour it brings a horrifying prospect of the end of Socialism under the first past the post system. For us , the English , there is much to hope for . The means to decide our own destiny in Europe , the freedom to settle the social ills that Celtic powered socialism have wrought upon us , a fiscal bonanza and more important than all of this the chance to rediscover a pride in our heritage as free Englishmen and women. I am going to try to do a survey of where we are now and then look forward to the prize on offer. As ever the forces of established interest are ranged against the people’s wishes but the cracks are now so wide that they cannot , simply cannot , be papered over indefinitely .I may well have to go and rest in the scented garden of Miss Smack by the time I`ve finished but duty calls .

Counting up the money

The current English taxpayer’s subsidy to the Scottish Exchequer is some £20 billion per year and growing, which approximately equates to over £1,000 per English taxpayer. Public spending in Scotland is now 23%, (Government spending of £5,271 per head in Scotland), above the English average. In Northern Ireland the figure is 39%, (£5,939 per head), and 18%, (£5,052 per head), in Wales. This compares with a figure of £4,283 for England. If the subsidies to all parts of the United Kingdom were taken into account it is likely that each English taxpayer is paying £3,000 each year to subsidise the other parts of the former United Kingdom. If the subsidy to the European Union was taken into account, that figure would rise to over £4000 every year.
We know of course that the SNP have convinced the Scottish that without the encumbrance the English they will be like either Norway( Oil ) or failing that the EU will bal them out like Eire. The oil point revenue is highly questionable, especially as the Shetlands may well pull out .I have no doubt that behind all the misty moors and tartan waffle this is the real calculation going on. The fact that Scottish people live such poor lives despite huge subsidy shows how worthless dead state money is to the economy and we have to fair . There is also dim sense that they cannot go on living like serfs and must take control of their destiny . I think they are quite right

That Famous Question

Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP for West-Lothian asked it, and its still the neatest way to put the problem ‘Why should the representative from West Lothian (or any other Scottish constituency, for that matter) be able to sit in the Westminster Parliament and vote on parochial matters affecting the English, when the English members who sat in the same parliament (are) entirely unable to vote on parochial matters affecting the Scots, for those matters (are) now to be considered by Scotland’s own parliament?’
The House of Commons currently has 659 members with only 529 parliamentary seats allocated to England. While England does not have a national assembly, on really democratic principles, England should have greater representation than the devolved nations, but should certainly at worst should not have lesser representation.
In fact the system discriminates heavily against England and although England represents c. 86.3% of the population of the former United Kingdom and accordingly England should therefore have 569 seats in the House of Commons, while in reality, it is 40 seats short of its minimum proper representation. At present nearly 20% of the seats in the House of Commons have been allocated to c. 13.8% of the population of the former United Kingdom. This means that the devolved parts of the United Kingdom, in addition to having their own assembly, are nearly 50% over represented in Westminster. Whereas on any fair answer to the West-Lothian question they should be substantially under-represented at Westminster.

We talk nowadays about the “democratic deficits “ but it is worth reminding ourselves to what extent we are mistreated in England . As each new problem . Fees ., Road tax and so on crops up the problem will open up like a raw wound . It is clear we cannot stop where we are .

The Nation that was Britain

Thomas Carlyle writing from his home in Dumfriesshire competed his address with “ North Britain?”, and in the Victorian period the English and most Scots completely bought into the idea of British one nation . There were destinies to be found abroad . A white man’s burden to pick up and great commercial opportunities for the Scots both in London and in the empire.”. We can see that the English used this ruse to dominate the “Nation” by the premierships of Macmillan, Home Roseberry, Campbell Bannerman, Balfour and the Ulster Scot Bonar law .Britain” itself was an invention dug up from pre Roman times to give some sense wholeness to the politically expediency of the union of two countries 300 years ago Gordon brown was prominent in the cabinet that sought to diffuse nationalism in Scotland with an act of constitutional vandalism without equal the current devolved parliaments. The Liberal Democrats were his partners in cynical manoeuvring and we mustn’t forget that their strength has great ties with the outlying Celtic regions and the attitude of Ming will be crucial to the future in Scotland if there is to be a pro independence coalition as there may well be .

WALES

Welsh National Assembly achieved a very dubious mandate (c 25%) from a tiny majority of voters in a poorly attended referendum, Should the Welsh prefer to be independent I would hope that such independence was "independence under the Crown" at least, thus maintaining our historical association with the people of Wales The position of Monmouthshire in this context is anomalous, as historically it had been part of England until recent boundary re-organisation and may require special treatment Historically, since Medieval times, Wales has been an integral part of England .On the basis that the Welsh National Assembly is dissolved and Wales is represented in parliament and subsidised on a principle of absolute equality with England I personally would like to continue to be connected with the principality. The very different relationship between the countries should not at least be conflated into one out of bureaucratic convenience.



Where we are now

The latest ICM poll put support for independence in Scotland at 52% and this is the really important news .“68% of the English support the idea of having a parliament for ourselves.” So we must turn away from staring balefully at Hadrian’s wall and look at ourselves and what has happened to us .. What has happened is this . Britain was never more than an extension of England for us and the speed with which all that affection has disappeared is because it has quite easily settled on its true home “England “. It may well be that eventually it is from England the break will come especially if Labour seek to impose its legislative will on England with a programme entirely reliant on the fifty or so seats they have in the their client state. The position elect orally is tricky . The SNP have 33% a lead over Labour on 31%. The Lib Dems may well hold the balance of power but they are wedded to the Nationalist cause and cannot act entirely for the cynical good of the Westminster Party . Ming is currently standing firm but this is a fractious and fast moving position . The local elections if they are bad for the labour Party will be the proof that it “Can” be done. For the Liberal Democrats to sit on the fence will be commensurately more difficult . Personally I see the idea of ruling England with Scottish votes becoming the crow bar between the counties but the process could be a lot quicker.

Well that’s enough or today I think . Tomorrow its.

1 False reasons for the Union
2 Britain is no nationality (answering Trevor Phillips )
3 What is Englishness
4 The forbidding of Englishness


I appreciate that this is not exactly fresh and minty stuff but I hope it will be a good summary as we approach the Local elections.