Priestly Castes and Political Exclusion

Other bloggers are up the minute so I spurn the zowee powee nowee . I am having a rumination on the state of stuff in general. In particular the Conservative Party and the emergence of a new Priestly caste. There was a prompt today , the ditching of the A list ,which I picked on the Blog Boss Iain Dale`s post. I have never exactly known what it stood for but have guessed

1 Apple shiner List
2 Advertising List
3 Aggravating List
…and more.

It was predicted in the DT ,a while ago, that Cameron would offer this sop to the suffering Party, and also that it would be at a point when its work was done . So it has been , so no-one should care much . It appears that CPHQ will still be ensuring “female quotas”, are delivered to the Commissar’s on time and Iain Dale is greatly pleased. He will not of course be offering to trade his own , richly deserved A list spot .with a woman of less talent .No hypocrisy there then…….

Actually , I don’t blame him for attaching himself to a clever marketing ruse ,and it has certainly worked at the polls . David Cameron has attracted swooning women in their droves with his nebulous caring and there’s nothing wrong with that. Why then has the A list ,and its Benneton Ad. fake inclusiveness ,caused such affront to the party and increasingly to everyone else ?

To understand this you have to put it in the context of the New Priestly Caste. Lets start with a brute fact , 95% and more of the adult population ,men or women ,are entirely excluded from any important role in the political process. Immediately we see that we are polishing the bonnet and ignoring the engine, but I want to make it a bit more personal. I want to talk about me …what else!

This was “My Great Struggle “ into political activism . It went through the following gears pretty smoothly ,three years ago.

1 The Council removed my Parking Space
2 I wrote several deeply embarrassing Pooterish letters
3 I received several meretricious slabs of verbiage in return
4 I realised noone was listening , the Consultation was farce and if I didn’t like it I would have to get involved
5 I joined the Conservative party, wrote to the Gazette and started to wonder what the hell we were doing in Europe actually anyway…..etc.

So you see the sort of normal person some pretend to be , I actually am . I spent my twenties drinking and worrying about girls not networking and I have wondered into this strange land like a ingénue seeing things , to some extent , afresh .What I found amazed me,. Young lads of 25 were already experienced politicians ..whatever that means and a whole conveyor belt existing to deliver them to power. The process goes like this. Public School , Oxford, Muck around in Local Politics , Join Policy group of some sort ,get a job as an MP`s gopher and then “Robert est Votre Oncle” you are onto the list . These are not bad people but there is another more sinister side to it . Anyone engaged in normal employment , ie taxpayers , almost all of them have less than no chance of grabbing the train once it has left the station..

What can we expect from such system . Public School Boys who are lifetime Politicians who know nothing of our lives. In other words David Cameron and , lets not forget , Tony Blair .
This micro exclusion reflect one that is growing in the country . It is largely caused by the abject failure of the Comprehensive System, means tested benefits and Housing Policy , but for whatever reason our Society is changing swiftly into a world of priests and worshippers. Some more facts…..

1 Half the senior Journalists in the country are from Public School (Including Guido). They come from a pool of 7% of the country. Did the A list address this . Oh no!
2 OECD studies show that our Independent schools are about as good as they get but the gulf between them and the rest is greater than anywhere else in the Western World
3 Despite rigorous reverse discrimination the proportion of students from under privileged backgrounds entering Oxbridge is declining annually
4 Only 20% of White working class boys get five CGCSE`s at a satisfactory level and you are aware that means they can hardly spell their names
5 OECD studies find this country the least meritocratic in the Western World

So systemic exclusion at the top is accentuating exclusion throughout society. It has got to the point where what was a living democracy has become the oligarchic rule of hermetically sealed specialists and this is why I call them Priests .I am thinking of the pagan priests of the Egyptian religion.

What does Priest do ?Well these priest (and there are echoes in many religions), were Janus like. On a trip to Egypt Mrs. N and I were told to imagine modern Hinduism. It exists at a highly cerebral level for some initiates ,but to most followers it is all superstition ,signs and cheap tricks. There was a baby crocodile that spoke to women needing reassurance about fertility. The priest would crawl down a tunnel and talk in a crocodile way , as it sat in an adjacent cage . The Priest did not take it seriously but assumed that it filled a need .In any case they with their higher grasp were looking out for the lower classes.That is the relatioship they think they have with us. The truth would just upset our little minds.


This sort of thing can only work when you have a separation between the masses and the inner sanctum and that of course is exactly what we have . Back to the real world . I have to admit David Cameron doesn’t frighten the horses but look at the underlying trends for political engagement . Members of the Conservative party number 250000 down from 350000 in 1997 , hardly the finest hour. Its worse still for the Labour Party ( but I don’t care).In the last election no party poled more than 10,000,000 votes . This was the first time this had happened since 1929.

One of the things a mysteriously powerful group of quasi Priests must have is a secret Language. Well that hasn’t been long coming . You will see the young novices practising theirs on Conservative Home they probably believe it is so they can show a grasp of this or that , but we know from working that it is hardly ever relevant to be so specialised. Its main purpose is to exclude those who are unable to spend 15 years learning the codes and symbols . Even such a brilliant man as David Davies was unable to catch up .

There is no need to blame the incumbents excessively, I have the distinct feeling that David Cameron is aware of the problem he does occasionally talk to Conservatives so it would be hard for him not to be . It is not something we can trust the beneficiaries to put right though. I`ll throw out a couple of telling quotes ..

“..More concerned with looking down with pity than with enabling the objects of this pity to look up with hope ..”( George walden)

“The French man is constantly looking above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his gaze to those below with satisfaction “ ( De Toqueville)

We have to do it ourselves.

STRANGE COLLISIONS

Strange collisions occur in this word where the Parties are so alike at the top that they are the Pigs and Farmers at the end of Animal Farm to the activists.
Polly Toynbee
Suddenly we are friends with Polly Toynbee,and Cameron wishes us to jump aboard he caravan. As wonderful Boris pointed out , why not ? She sends her children to the best Public school in the country and has the most delightful Italian Bolt hole, which to get to, she regularly leaves her muddy carbon prints all over the place . Boris could only gleefully anticipate his invitation …marvellous isn’t he .

Nic Boles
What are we to make of this typically fatuous piece of essaying for teacher “The chances of a modern Britain escaping from the circumstances in which they are born are falling fast”..yes do go on Nic whats the answer …,”Mr. Cameron needs to make it an overriding mission..” ,uh oh..he`s waffling ,“to give the poorest families an alternative to failing schools “..oh I see just charitable do gooding ..”and to encourage the best teachers to offer their inspiration..” OH SHUT UP!!!. Not a mention of course about the vast majority treated like cattle a who do all he work. There wouldn’t be . How would an Etonian Policy Wonk know anything of the country he lives in. Only by reading books about it.

Incidentally I am pretty sure this epitome of the problem is posing as Atreides on Conservative Home and trying out this speeches for the next few weeks . Do go and tell him its no good if you get it from a book. Apart from anything lese it’s the last thing David Cameron needs .It would be like Stan and …um Stan..we need an Olly.

THE BIG CONCLUSION

I have tried to show a picture of a political class dangerously divided from the voters and the people . I have suggested they make ex cathedra pronouncements often by image and icon and have floated free of any engagement with other groups . The bicycle with the Bentley behind was a reductio ad absurdum and the A list a mockery of a gesture. It is my hope that the growth of new groups on the web may make a contribution to reengaging our lives with the power that guides us.

We must all do what we can to pull the Priests out of their temple and make them see what their gestures mean in the light of day. Often it is very little . We cannot however disengage with the reality of the present. There is still a vital need to remove Gordon brown and only David Cameron can do it .

( which one would you vote for ?)

Chaucer Versus Socialism

Splitters , they have certain characteristics in common , they always believe that they are the holy chalice in which the soul of the mother party rests, and ,they are , to some extent, right.

If you wanted to know what a lot of Conservative activists would privately like , read what a member of UKIP publicly advocates as policy. Similarly, if you want to know what Labour activists really feel ,read the Socialist Worker .

Particularly on the left ,this is the case . UKIP has specific reasons for springing into existence but there is little need for the Socialist Worker Party other than to be Jiminy Cricket to Blair’s Pinocchio …( and yes I am rather pleased with that).
In a time when , for transparently opportunistic reasons, the Lying Scotsman is pretending to care about the Union, it is instructive to see how the Socialist Worker Party feels about the idea of national culture . Follow me , if you will through the looking glass to a topsy turvy land where Gordon Brown is considered too patriotic. It will surprise you not at all that the arena for their mighty Gladiators is “English Literature” and its study . I plucked this from a duffle coated Das Kapital clutching museum exhibit as he stomped of to protest. Or something…..

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10518

Its marvellous stuff .First of all how do we leap from political reality to the safe haven of the classroom..
“the kind of rhetoric Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are going in for is supported and sustained by conversations and study in the cultural sphere.”
Well quite, a sense of nation has been brutally imposed on an unwilling people by the iron fist of the NUT , I don`t think , but never mind let us probe a little more deeply.. Why is the teaching of English Literature such a dreadful imposition on the Socialist spirit, . There have been attempts , it appears ,to dilute this cultural poison ,“people will end up with something much less rigid with American, African, Caribbean or post-colonial literature being available. But “….. here`s the rub…,” there remains a problem – the narrative of a national English literature remains intact.”

Catastrophe !

This hysterically myopic piece stamps its foot because Derek Pearson has looked at the cannon of Eng Lit and attempted to find lines of continuity that might be termed an English Character. Naturally Duffle-coat`s first problem is the Power to the People classic . Why is it called English Literature when it includes Scots and Americans and Africans and so on ? Tricky isn`t it …the clue is in the language I feel ,and from then on we are into what used to be called Marxist criticism. This strange phenomena took various artefacts , textual or otherwise and squeezed them under a grubby plank of dogma extracting any political juice they might . The entire exercise is a little perverse but it really is worth it for the entertainment .
Poor Mr. Pearsall has evidently detected qualities such as “Irony , commonsense, geniality and morality.” ( I would add smut) He reckoned without Duffle coat who has noticed many of the characters are …not very nice . Also , and this is typical , there is no evidence that Chaucer was very nice. Poor old Duffle undoubtedly a professional Litter bug and yet he does jot understand the first thing about a work of fiction. It wouldn’t mater if Chaucer were the poisoner of Olde medieval London town. The tales are a construct. There is actually a character gentle Geoffrey who is equally a construct for the purposes of self deprecation and courtly grace notes . We spend lives interpreting the moral framework of the book but Socialist worker operate at this level.” If there is a baddy then the book is advocating badness. “Words do not fail me but I `m trying to crack on so insert sneers , to taste . He goes on to mention that the stories draw heavily on the French tradition and they do . They did not spring into being from a rock ,no . They are developments of what has gone before of course but Chaucer spoke Norman French as did his audience . The primary fact of the book is that he chose to use the previously despised English . Consider the famous lewd Millers tale in which parochialism is used for comic affect.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/webcore/murphy/canterbury/4miller.pdf
“ We have a small English University Town , where students lodge in the houses of the townspeople. The girl in question is no damsel but the young pretty discontented wife of an old carpenter…(carry on , you might say).. The cheeks kissed are famously not those of the face.”. The whole tale slyly undercuts the grand opening Knights tale which precedes it. When the story is introduced noone objects , none of the dignitaries but of course the querulous Reeve ,a carpenter ,does …and hence the merry badinage of competitive tale telling begins. “

Well nothing we recognise there then
Now I do not have the space to argue at length to what extent this can be put at the head of English Literature and to me it is so perverse to argue otherwise that it defeats the patience so lets hurry onto Duffle coat’s gripe .
In essence it is that by seeking a continuity between the great English Cannon you exclude new , perhaps immigrant, influence and in any case it is all a big con to fool us into rushing of and killing Muslims for the oil…….gulp.Lastly he bewails that labour have any truck with national culture at all when class should be the true loyalty da de da de dah.

Some another time I will bore you on the bright fresh spring of English writing and how it informs and criticises and “lives” most especially with the English . Today my point is this .Socialists hate this country, and any country . They hate its culture , they deny its culture has value, and they deny the “Dear people of this land “ as the Queen mum called us ,are more that the odds and sods who happen to be sitting here. Housing policy in London is in the hands of Ken Livingston , who might have written this tripe., Gordon Browns support is entirely composed of near relatives . This real poison is in the heart of government
What Brown and his followers think of this county and its proudest achievements is this .

Inessential.

Questioning Climate Concensus

.
On the climate I have some questions.....

Thoughts in a Garden was written by Andrew Marvell who dies in 1678.

What a wondrous life is this I lead
Ripe apples drop about my head
The luscious clusters of the vine
About my mouth do crush their wine
The nectarines and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach
Stumbling on melons as I pass
Ensnared with Flowers I fall on grass

Judging by the Loire valley conditions evidently prevailing it would appear the world has got a lot colder. Then the questions keep coming …

Why are air taxes set at such a level as to not to make any change in behaviour?
Why at the same time are airports allowed to keep growing so that by 2030 the number of passengers will have risen from £228,000,000 to £465,000,000

Why are other emissions ignored although there supposed to be a 2.7 times as great affect from them (International Governmental Panel on Climate Change)

Why do we continue to subsidise air travel then?

In 1421 why was a Chinese naval squadron able to sail around the North Pole and find no ice?

Why has the Antarctic been gaining ice consistently over the past 30 years ?

6000 bore holes world wide show that temperatures were higher in the middle ages than now ,
why is this problem absent from UN assessments ?

Why is the fact that the doomsday predictions of climatologists are often disproved ignored. For example James Hansen in 1988told the US Congress in 1988 that the sea would rise several feet by 2000. It rose one inch ?

Why are questions of scale so childishly misrepresented by scare mongers who openly refer to the weather as the “climate”?

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 .

Why are the most conspicuous consumers always the most self righteous . Prince Charles bought his “staff” bikes?
(He has asked for a Greener fleet of vehicles but will retain his Bentley , a Jaguar and an Aston Martin)

Why would the government rather monitor every car from the sky and feed that information into combined data bases than increase fuel tax ?

Why do people refer to a consensus on “climate change” when there is no such thing ?

Why , when the UK is respnsible for 2% of emmissions do we bother with domestic policy ?

How is Gordon Brown going to pay for his wastefulness.?

The Brown Maggot

Posted this on Croydonian ...well I like it anyway....................


Blair says his lines and smiles , and here ........... you touch on the problem facing the saintly David Cameron. I `m never quite sure if you are a Conservative or an anarchist but it has been worrying me that you, and you are not alone , so dislike David Cameron. I put this down to a violent dissatisfaction with both the main parties.While those who would vote UKIP are actively engaged in a game of cat and mouse , seeking to re-make a Conservative party they can join others , many more, have a visceral loathing of the options before them. I couldn’t care less about the disembodied ghost of Marxism but why are perfectly sensible people prepared to rush like lemmings into five more years of Socialism .
I think it stems from what a Conservative at heart really is

.A Conservative believes in people .. He believes that without the state twisting them into beggary and nihilism they are responsible , loyal and even heroic. He believes these good qualities are expressed in notions of duty , love of family and of country, by extension, as the emblem of the tribe. Within this frame work of free individuals tied by a thousand bonds of tradition and affection ,he naturally wishes to help the unfortunate . He will be sceptical of the new and modern but amenable to adjustment coming from experience not dogma. Naturally he will loathe all ideological claims to know an answer and most particularly when it stifles this natural good in people that he cannot forget.With his focus always on people he is reasonable , a trader before a warrior .Sometimes this can be misunderstood , because he distrusts dogma he is identified with the empirical , the pragmatic . From his honouring traditions comes the misconception he is stiff and disconnected. None of this is the truth . Everything springs from an innate delight in the possibilities of free men and women. A classicist thinks that people are buckets and that only by rigorous organisation can they be turned into something worthwhile . After its early mysticism statist socialist have become such an animal. A Conservative sees people as wells . Things of endless depth . He is in short a romantic.

I think it is the romantic that David Cameron offends . Conservatives have been out of power for along time and while they have been events have conspired to bring that romantic core to the surface . As the new Labour project drained of any vison it ever had we increasingly saw ourselves as chalices of truth. An embattled remainder …“free, and to none accountable, preferring hard liberty before the easy yoke of servile pomp."

.Blair claimed he saw a man by a Sierra and realised every thing the Labour party had stood for was wrong . An inauspicious start but it became worse. Born in opportunism he was not long wearing his new clothes . Pivotally , Frank Field was defeated in his astonishingly rightist agenda by the Party . This party were the slime left when the idealistic lefts after Blackpool and that slime congealed about one man . Gordon Brown.. From then on Blair had to either risk everything or go along for the ride . We all know which way he went . He smiled like a ballroom dancer whose legs have gone beneath him but he just keeps pretending its all marvellous.
Politics became a matter of hiding taxes , bribing dependants , misleading the voter and above it all always that smile. Now as the myth of economic competence collapses the Union buckles and the bribed cannot be bribed any more there is none of the body left . Only , like the Cheshire cat .. a pointlessly lingering sickening pleading smile.

You want to smash it down his throat , you want revenge and yet what do we get .We get another rather well presented compromiser. We know that Cameron cannot promise tax cuts as he would lose the public service vote , now too swollen to ignore. We know he shouldn’t nail down policy when the best attack is to keep the focus on Brown’s record. We know he must seek rapprochement with the centre and we also know we aren’t going to like it much .In the past one would have smirked at the cynicism and kept our council but we have become idealists . The romantic that was always in the gut has crawled to the throat thrown out a howl; of disgust a at what has been done to the country , the family , the people.
I believe that much of the hatred directed at David Cameron from the right is in fact a hatred of the world, made by Blair .What hideous irony if the true architect of the decline were to benefit from a rage whose beginnings , he was responsible for.The real heart of evil the pale twitching maggot in the centre of the stinking fruit . GORDON BROWN.


Help the party. Losing is unthinkable

PS on Links ...Groan

A quick note I have now linked to Istanbultory. I was only vaguely aware he had a blog but having read it he is like me with brains ,so I will steal regularly . Also Justin our marvellous neighbour who is a Catherine Wheel shooting off sparks of Conservative invention. He is the only person I have ever seen using the phrase "Get her" ,in a poltical context, it is clear he is destined for great things . I very much hope so anyway.

I `d better link City Unslicker is which is really good but that is absolutely absolutely no exceptions; it!!!

All Aboard The Lying scotsman

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I Link therefore I am

Under intense pressure from Praguetory I have finally persuaded Croydonian to help me put some links up . I `m not a fan of blogs about bloggery with its incestuous and fetid atmosphere. I think its a medium for reaching out or its a chat room without the sex . I `m taking a different tack than some who fill their pages with hundreds of links. I have linked to Blogs I actually read and like .I will not link to any more.I do look at others, City Slicker for example but I want to give new entrants something manageable.

I hope anyone whose arm I twist to look at mine will give them a glance they are all , in their different ways ,well worth reading .

1 Top of my list is Croydonian . He takes the gold medal by a shirts width. His stories are several days ahead of the mainstream media and his speed in picking them out and presenting them is quite astonishing . He interacts with contributors often deepening a comment with background material and never fails to be courteous and amusing. He posts several items a day and for his readers is a running on the minute news source. If you look at one ;look at his .
2 In no particular order from this point Praguetory is what I regard as the Boggers blogger. He is the sort of Conservative Socialist cannot abide . Combatitive and ferociously clever , nothing seems to escape him. You don’t get the humour of the more clubbable Croydonian but you do get an informed Party Political view. His slant is more to mainstream Conservative Politics and without him the “sphere” would lose a commentator of real worth and substance. You will know more than you did before after a few moments in his company.
3 Fortean Times is written by the lovely Phillipa whose presence is one of the great attractions of Boris`s Blog. This is more , like mine, a personal and occasional Blog concerning her interests . She is , in my view, the best writer of all and at times produces imaginative and lyrical flights of ironic invention that are a delight. Beguiling , warm complicated sexy and Conservative to her fingertips .The perfect women . To visit her is to meet her. Please do.
4 Ellee- I sometimes find Elee a bit alarmingly left wing…well compared to me anyway!! . She does like her environmental issues and is nice to everyone ,which I cannot be. I love her blog though . She is more journalistic in style able to present issues clearly with depth balance and always a pleasure to read. There is a sort of calm and good nature about her that is a welcome change form the over heated atmosphere of virtual shouting .
It seems astonishing that you are not required to pay for her posts which are limpid pools of sense with wonderfully presented supporting information.
5 Raincoaster- rain coaster is based in Vancouver and in this bog has little to say about politics . I include it in the hope that people may see what is possible with the medium. She creates a sort of media work of art in which oddments and cultural snippets float like glittering fish in her aquarium Her persona is acerbic and a performance that is an integral part of the experience. If you want a glimpse of the possibilities the new virtual world go and see her. Her Political views are woeful so be warned.
6 Cramner is well known enough not to need further praise from me. In his capacity as the ghostly wraith of the Protestant Martyr Cranmner comments on religious and political matters. One of the best things about this blog are the contributions of Voyager .If there is a more knowledgeable human being currently trotting about the orb I am yet to meet him. Here you will find wit and wisdom in an artfully ironic context.Not to be missed
7 Suz Blog is here because she is local . She seems very nice and as she has just been kicked out of the Liberal Party there may be hope for her. I have found her views ridiculous in the past and I hate pink.

8 Huntin and shootin is the new Blog started by Justin Hinchcliffe . He is the leader of the Conservatives in the next Borough along and ..I see that I haven’t done the link yet . I’ll get back to him….

9 Mutley the Dog makes me laugh. What more is there to say…?

So that’s it , those are my recommendations Iain Dale Conservative Home Boris and Guido are more like institutions and no doubt you will find them but these are the ones I read with the most personal pleasure.
Go on , have a browse.

Where do we go after Sure Start ?

Lovely isn`t he , some thoughts on the demise of Sure Start

Sure Start is due to be wound up in March and its services will be much missed by the large numbers of Islington parents who appreciate the superb staff and nurturing facilities. Paradoxically it is generally reckoned to have been a failure. It t was supposed to patch the patches of misguided benefits and housing policy ,which have undermined working class communities and families. With disgraceful presumption , it was envisioned as part of a state replacement for the two parent family and a safety net for girls who were tempted into early pregnancy by the promise of independence. Points awarded to for needy lifestyles of all sorts have been exactly the disaster that Frank Field predicted when he was charged to, “think the unthinkable.”
“ No free society can function when very large sections of the working population are so imprisoned by the welfare system that their own efforts can make little difference to their income”. Gordon Brown was prominent amongst those who stopped this admirable Labour politician giving the country a firm basis for the future. The tax payer has increasingly been treated like a medieval serf ever since.
The allegation made of Sure Start has been , that underprivileged parents have stayed away and it has instead become a meeting place for the “middle classes”. There is something in this . At the Mitford centre I met a few other local fathers this morning at the aptly named “fathers only morning”. There are usually a couple of solicitors ,an architect ,and a most engaging alternative comedian. I chalked it up as yet another failed Labour policy. Good riddance
My good lady wife was unimpressed. As she pointed out ,we have had to move for work and training and like a lot of people in Islington have become isolated from our families and neighbours. Women at home in particular have no supporting community in a Borough where ,“community”, is a myth ,repeated out of mere habit. For these reasons, the Sure Start and other post natal supports have been vital in establishing new links between ourselves.
Sure Start may not be filling the need that New labour intended it to but it has been a solution to a real problem . It was entirely by accident but they got something right . Alternative facilities are likely to be arranged but is rumoured that they will not be as well funded or staffed. The Council will have amore important role and I think we would all like to be reassured that this wonderful service will be adequately maintained. .

I am a very bad person . It turns out that in addition to accusing Croydonian of being a Socialist I pursued along line of enquiry as to his sexual predilections . Oh dear oh dear ..its lucky he has an imperturbable sense of humour . ..phew.
Additional evidence of my dreadful morals came when I got to the father’s morning at the local Mitford Centre. This is a wonderful facility where they provide a creative and safe environment for toddlers and babies which little Elliot adores. It will be closing soon I `m afraid as part of the demise of Sure Start .
I was so hung over that I was obliged to drink the entire carton of Strawberry and Banana smoothy that Ruben , the kindly helper, had set out for the children. I also scoffed quite a bit of their food . Pretty evil eh.

Well Mrs . N has finally put her foot down and there is now written constitution in place in the household.

Blogging Constitution.
Saturday
Two hours Blogging on Saturday Morning after spending at least two hours with your son
A further two hours in the evening
None of these time periods to be carried over. Its use it or lose it .
Sunday
As above
Weekdays
Anytime after “I” am in bed ( nice of her)
Weekdays two full evenings but absolutely no other computer time at all.
Elliot duties to be shared equally at the weekends only

I think thats pretty fair really and in this new spirit of accord a mug of soup and a peice of chocalate cake has just arrived. I still have half an hour to go .....life is sweet

Working Class ? Whats That

Mmmm, went out for a few beers with Croydonian last night , I seem to recall threatening to out him as a socialist..well it seemed funny ( to me ) at the time .He is not , of course , a socialist but he is quite creative and thats always suspicious.I `ll be watching


Sent this in to the Gazette with my new snazzy title the other day.

Chris Graham, and others, persist in telling us that money can be created from nothing.” Council Rents are a Third of Private …because private landlords exploit a shortage. ”.By “exploit a shortage”, he means, “The price set by the market “. His choice of words tells all you need to know about the antiquated Socialism he believes in. The absence of a direct, “Subsidy”, is irrelevant.
He is counting the wrong way .There is no value except that set by the market .By withholding large tracts of hot-spot inner City housing, the price everyone else pays for property is inflated. This works by a mechanism called, “scarcity”. When some pay less the rest pay more; its that simple. To add insult to injury I notice Sharon Hayward from the local hard left claiming that the treasury benefits from the government’s having wisely investing the country’s wealth in property .The bricks and mortar are almost valueless. “We” create the value by borrowing up to five times our salaries and slaving like dogs to keep pace. The same is true of the £45,000,000 Islington Council are raising from selling property assets
Leaseholders are property owners and mortgage payers; they are almost universally working people making no claims on the tax payer. In fact they are often in the relatively low income brackets suffering 70 % marginal taxation form the vicious Brownite tax and spend government. Uniquely they pay twice, in the form of absurdly inflated Service charges that disappear into the general waste of the state
Pat Wagland smugly refers to “Working Class Tenants”.70% of Council tenants are on benefits whereas almost all leaseholders work. It is a bitter irony that she excludes these ordinarily heroic people from the, “Working “class.



Interesting that we are always supposed to be worrying about the so called, "working class", isn`t it. In fact, generally speaking, non membership of this mythical communion is defined by working . They are closing down Sure Start because it wasn`t reaching the parts other state nurturing schemes cannot reach..ie the "working class". I am going in a second with my son . Marian , my wife , made a good point . I said well you can see why, when I go there are two sollicitors an architect and an alternative comedian. She said yes and these are exactly the people who have had to move for work or training that have no support.In other words , entirely by accident the governement filled need that was very much felt by those who actually work. It is no suprise then that it has weeks to live.

Typical!!

Feeling fat anyone?

Sent into the Gazette. ( Written with a little help from me )

Poor Achilles ,the adorable Spaniel, ( Sarah Harvey’s article ), was left alone with a box of Choccies and scoffed the lot. I `m so glad he recovered ,but regrettably Achilles wasn’t the only one who over indulged recently. Unaccountably all our clothes seem to have shrunk over Christmas , does anyone recognise the problem? There is a new wonder diet pill , called Slendrol on the market. Unfortunately its for dogs.
For we non-canines the fun is over , and while we feel our sensitive bank accounts gingerly, the self loathing really kicks in .Gosh isn’t everyone queuing up to make you feel even worse? A day doesn’t` pass without our being told that weight problems are a plague of biblical proportions. Dark rumours circulate of the NHS refusing treatment unless you are thin , the fat tax looks set to become a reality ,and they will soon be labelling Mars bars, “Death dealing poison”.
We can’t even be nice to ourselves. In a recent survey 97 % of women admitted to looking at other women and thinking , “Goodness she’s fat” .A woman of 31 has been on an average of 38 diets ! Then the panic really sets in. We read that 23 people were trapped behind a particularly large lady who got stuck on a tour of the Cango caves of South Africa .She was freed by greasing the cave walls with liquid paraffin and some sturdy pulleys . Put the sausage roll down and back slowly away !
What are we to do ? Well the only answer is to eat sensibly , take some exercise and find someone , or something , even more bloated and disgusting than you .I have a suggestion. The grotesquely swollen State .
Gordon Brown has created a “target a day” since arriving in Government including a target for the Cabinet office to provide more targets. The cost of all this is estimated at £15 billion .After 2001,vast amounts have been spent on the public sector, spiralling public finances into deficit .As services are ,if anything ,worse ,they presumably ate the money. Mrs. Taylor said Achilles ,”hadn’t learnt his lesson“, and I `m afraid Mr. Brown never will.
So cheer up everyone , we might be on a gruel and guilt for a month, but we are Kate Moss look-alikes compared to the morbidly obese Government .
Marian Newman

The story

http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/content/islington/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=ISLGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsislg&itemid=WeED03%20Jan%202007%2012%3A52%3A35%3A343

Lets Get Serious

Simon Heffer (DT) was saying to day what I have been saying ever since the quite outstanding Boris piece on the boundary commission ..Brown may go early . We may in fact be in an election year. If this is the case , and it is as likely as not , the question of what `we` must do is somewhat more urgent than it might appear. My advice I `m afraid is rather boring but its getting time to be serious. .


Dear David
Please do not be tempted into making hard policy decisions , all the time you do not the enemy only make one criticism. If Brown seeks to bounce the electorate into an endorsement, this will provide you with cover. Don't fret about the Neo Cons and UKIP defectors, they are playing at rebellion . Remember this must be a game of reaction not pro-action if we are to win . Control and discipline is all leave showboating to the bloggers.
You appreciate that Brown will try to put right what he sees as the major obstacle to a Nu lab victory. You know roughly what these are. The leaked memo said ,"we have been outflanked on patriotism , been assailed for broken promises and spin ...the New labour Brand has been contaminated" You also know Brown is highly sensitive to the iniquitous Scottish dispensation . Dennis McShane put his likely strategy well ..." to catch the Tories bathing and walk off with most of their clothes." This was in an article entitled Brown knows he has to cut taxes". Worth reading David
You have taken the centre and Brown will try to grab it back .Moreover he will portray himself as the man of substance who will deliver the New labour Agenda ..the spin and lies will be Tony`s fault He will say you can have low taxes , reformed public services, reduced red tape and yet maintain social justice , the NHS and a caring smile. Don`t write policies ,prepare your arguments and take up the weapon he has left...............

Tell them every day that Labour said all of this ten years ago.

Mention Frank Field , told to think the unthinkable , reform the disastrous benefits system ,eliminate the poverty trap and the dependency culture. Remind them it was the back bench opposition and in particular the opposition of Gordon Brown that derailed the supposed Blair project. . Constantly entangle brown in his past and suggest he cannot be trusted.
Be prepared for a flashy gesture like ditching inheritance tax. . On 30% ( ICM) he has nothing to lose. You must be quick to smile at him him as a man who will promise anything but whose political constituency will pull left.

Never forget to say . "You've had ten years and now you admit you were wrong ?"

Keep you nerve you are getting it right . Steer clear of Iraq ,steer clear of "immigration" the EU even ( hard I know) just match the Brown moves . Keep the focus on what Blair promised ten years ago and what has happened since.

Give the Conservative Party a friendly splash of cold water they have forgotten we could lose.

Demand their support quietly we must appear unified against the certain factionalism that will erupt after president Blair. Drop the A list (Its work is done ) and throw out afew hints . They are Conservatives , they will knuckle downAt the moment the Labour party is wrestler on the mat . We have to keep them where they are ,they move , we move , nothing risky but instincts and caution are the watchwords. Play out the time and we will win . You political instincts have been supernatural , they know they picked a winner and they know they will have to grow up.

David, there is a lot to do to get this country back to where it should be but the constituency of agreement for a reforming agenda comes after victory not before . Remember this in 1979 Margaret Thatcher was highly conciliatory to the centre ground . I believe you have the talent to be one of the great Conservatives and with the economy's wheels squeaking you might just get the support for a radical agenda sooner than you think. When that happens ;don't let us down .

Yours Sincerely

Newmania

Am I bovvered ?

Following the just execution of the dreadful Saddam Hussein I have been trying to organise my feelings on the death penalty which I support

Justice is a word for rightness and has no meaning outside system of belief including right and wrong. Such a system may have religious underpinning but it is not necessary. The wish for and sense of good is in our hearts whether or not God put it there .An injustice or crime , imbalances the "Scales of Justice ". Our wish for goodness makes us want to correct this balance and the meaning of the traditional Scales is the difficulty of weighing and measuring this response . It does not mean it is easy to decide ; quite the reverse . If we do not allow this model though , we are left with "convenience ". In that case all those I dislike may expect to be bagged up and fed to the pigs by tomorrow . Why not , if there is no such thing as justice ?
Justice cannot be disassociated from revenge although the distaste for it is a real problem( the "deeds creature" problem of Hamlet). In the case of murder it is the revenge taken by the living in behalf of the dead. Like all revenge it is prompted by love and respect for the victim. I have a parable ..(it was only a matter of time .......)

Hundreds of years ago in the Village of Blogham nestled in loamy Blog shire a good man lived and by his work acquired a small cottage . A bad man seeing this thought that the world would suit him better rearranged a little . He killed Good man and occupied his house .The villager's first instinct was to drag him from his bed and after public torture and humiliation, so all should know ,dispatch him to hell. Bad man was a clever arguer though .He made suggestions that troubled them ." Retribution , he sneered , why ? I have done you no personal harm and Good man cannot be revived by this means ""Listen " he said as a pitchfork approached his temple "In order to have done this I must surely be mad .I am not responsible and as for deterrent , well it is unlikely anyone else is as mad as me . I can't see what you gain by any of this ?"Perhaps it was he screaming of good man's wife and children ..who knows but still the villagers advance upon bad man...now he began to panic "Wait wait he pleads at about this time Ghengis Khan is spending happy weeks killing and torturing hundreds of thousands ...I mean compared to him I `m really astonishingly moral "
The villagers appear to agree that this would be convenient , it is after all quite confusing and aside from the growing stench of Goodman's corpse life would certainly be easier if they forgot about him entirely. As Bad man breathed a sigh of relief however they laughed telling him that it was only a cruel joke and that his soon to be over life held nothing but pain. They did this because they loved and still love Goodman and they cannot abide the injustice.

In real life we do not know who is Good and who is bad and we resolve this by Jurisprudence in which we seek to recreate impersonal justice in the world . Some things seem clear to me . Death may very well be justice and as such should be available. We are right to worry about weighing the scales and our limited view of what justice is .We are wrong to be so bamboozled that we forget the point and create complexity when there is none . We are wrong to give to much weight to what the murderer has to say because it is "easier".

It has rarely been easier to see that justice has been done

JOHN BOWIS MEP "Better off in"

JOHN BOWIS MEP OBE suggests “BETTER OFF IN”
http://www.johnbowis.com/

A while ago John , a simply delightful chap , came along to help the troops with the (feeble ) NHS campaign. I asked him if he would write something positive about our continued membership of the EU . As I said at the time , I am scratching my head as to what that might be but I rely on your great sagacity.
He has been as good as his word and I must say that he was a fellow of great charm , humour and reasonableness. He clearly wishes only for the best and criticism of him personally is not acceptable here !!!
Views on the big question ,”Better off out ? Or not …. “Would be welcome.

( John is an OBE by the way . My first thought was crumbs if you were an Earl you would be an Earlobe ….not A list material ? Could be …could be )


"John Bowis MEP writes:

We have a love-hate relationship with Europe. We love their quaint villages and their food and their pageants and their arts; but we are not sure about their strange languages; and we hate their attempts to abolish our weights and measures. We are after all an Island Race and one that ruled half the world and built our wealth on their raw materials and our genius.
Now we are not so sure what we are, who we are, or why we are. We don't feel "European"; we don't want their Constitution; we certainly want to keep our £. And yet we have a sort of feeling that we are connected in some way with those peoples whose lands we visit on holiday.
So what is the European dimension to our lives - apart from the origins of most of our English language and our affinity with the music and painting and opera and writing of our neighbours? Perhaps it is the things that are central to the new Europe - the Europe of the 25, not the old centralising, harmonising Europe of twenty years ago. New Europe has Competitiveness at the top of its agenda; it has a mission to reduce red tape and bureaucracy; it understands that prerequisites to that agenda of a healthy European economy are healthy people and a healthy environment.
That is why we work together to protect our environment, cutting emissions, reducing global warming, improving the air quality of cities like London, ensuring the food safety of the produce we import from across Europe and making our drinking, ground and bathing waters fit for human use. Some of what we do is by setting good and achievable standards but much is not by legislation at al; it is by sharing experience, identifying good practice and then sharing that too. Europe is at its best when it does not irritate but when it adds value to national debate and policy making."

Thanks John .
I do hope I can tempt local sceptic JT into a few words? We shall see. Perhaps one of the uber-bloggers would pick it up ?Croydonian ...

The Little Details

I discovered something about Patrick Keilty the compeer and (supposedly) comedian today . His father was killed by a Protestant “Group” in a revenge killing . God knows I wouldn’t want to pretend that I understood Northern Ireland . I don’t need to in order to disapprove of the Mayor of London having tea with known Terrorists.Doesn’t that unpleasant reality undercut the smear of normalcy the gelled hair would imply though .I had a similar thought when I noticed that Miss Israel was going to be let off carrying her rifle during national Service in case her modelling career was disrupted. Just the little detail opens your eyes to the difference in everything birth to deathThe Guardian reading fraternity go wrong in foreign affairs , in my view , my arrogantly disregarding the cultural and circumstantial gulf between geographical areas. They transpose ideas appropriate for London unaltered to wherever they can make disguised domestic and self congratulatory points.

A Window in Time

Courtesy of Croydonian( The Master) I discovered these exerts from the Magna Carta today. Lord Mowbray , venerable Tory Peer and Wordsworthian character died on Tuesday and his direct ancestor was one of the signatories . His family was straight from Evelyn Waugh but he seemed such a charming gentleman. When badly injured he was indifferent to a doctor but demanded the attendance of a Priest. I like that, Ive never trusted Doctors. I suspect that when you are deaths door they may well pull you though .


Magna Carta
+ (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.
+ (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
(41) All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs.
(45) We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.

WE seem to have gone backwards...in so many ways

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)