Nick Coen Turns The Heat Up Under Livingstone

Newmania is unwell and this tremendous reminder of the sort of reptile Livingstone is cannot be improved upon. Suspicions that GLA money has found its way into the coffers of hard left agitators Compass continue to buzz around the web but with no proof yet avaiable.Nick Coen write about the Standard’s investigation into why public money ended up in companies and charities controlled by the friends of Lee Jasper, his adviser on equality and policing......


"Like everyone else, Jasper is innocent until proved guilty. If we were demanding that he be punished without due process or damned without evidence, Livingstone would have every right to complain. Instead he choose to bring Lord (Herman) Ouseley, Richard Taylor, father of Damilola Taylor and other black leaders to the Mayoral press conference to denounce the Standard as “racist”. You had to listen very carefully to notice that during his bloodcurdling condemnation of a newspaper “hate campaign” against London’s blacks, Livingstone did concede that, yes, well, auditors would be checking to see if the story was true.
Innocent readers will wonder why Livingstone had to bring racism into it. Either the funds were used for their intended purpose or not. As Lord Ouseley and Livingstone’s other guests hadn’t audited the books, their opinions were beside the point. Surely the argument is about accountancy not bigotry.
Such naïve thoughts take no account of how Livingstone fights. He can’t see a belt without hitting below it.Today he denounces the Standard as “racist” for applying the same criteria to black organisations as any other organisation. A few weeks back it wasn’t race but religion as he denounced newspapers that criticised the Holocaust deniers in the Iranian regime and a BBC investigation into the links between the totalitarian right and his allies on the Muslim Council of Britain as “Islamophobic”. Before that he said that Trevor Phillips would “soon be joining the BNP,” a revolting insult against the black chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality that was provoked by Phillips’ failure to agree with the crude multiculturalism of the Mayor and his allies.
The pattern of wild assertion against real and imagined enemies has been there from the start. Early in his career, Livingstone formed an alliance with a Trotskyist sect called the Workers Revolutionary Party. It’s remembered now for having Vanessa and Corin Redgrave among its cultists, when it should be known as the nastiest organisation on the late 20th century Left. The WRP spied on Iraqi dissidents for Saddam Hussein and took money from Colonel Gaddafi. Its primary purpose, however, was to worship the sect’s leader: Gerry Healy, a squat little Hitler – and a rapist to boot. In 1985, 26 women members came forward and accused him of ‘cruel and systematic debauchery’ on party premises.
Only the Redgraves and Healy’s most adoring fans stuck by him after that. Tellingly, Livingstone was among them. At Healy’s funeral in 1990, he dismissed the abused women as conspirators. Their testimony was a part of a “sustained and deliberate decision by MI5 to smash the organisation”.
Then as now it wasn’t enough to argue with those who disagreed with him. Criticisms can never be legitimate. There always has to be a scandalous motive. In 1990, those who upset his allies were the pawns of a dark plot by the security services. In 2007 they are racists or Islamophobes. The years pass, but his frenzy never fades."

The Stars Come Out

Celebrity Blogger Dizzy and equally celebrated blogger Devils Kitchen will be floating down from Mount Olympus to hob nob with the usual suspects . These will include highly respected Croydonian Erudite Nick Drew witty City Unslicker and Ed.Do pop in for a splosh of egg nog if you cannot resist ,6.30 PM 1-3 Tooley Street,Southwark,London,SE1 2PF

The Death Of The Nation

... for I will into the vale of Avilion to heal me of my grievous wound: and if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul."
( Arthur`s Last words )

Today is actually it isn`t it? Might be a bit of yap in the HOP but basically we are now a part of the United States of Europe and nothing is going to change that.
Denied referendum despite 8 out of 10 wanting one ,lied to about the Constitution at the Election ,the EC to set Welfare handouts,foreign Police to arrest UK citizens in Britain,the EU to dictate new shop floor rules ,a new directly elected EU president, an EU Foreign Minister, a ratchet within the Constitution for “Ever Close Union” without further consultation and if that wasn`t enough....
A European Anthem to be shoe-horned into the treaty which will be to the tune of ‘Ode To Joy’

Ode To A Traitor
My suggested Lyrics are under comments as I though they detracted from the funereal atmophere


PS Thanks TO Cassilis For the excellent new look. No more fiddling."What Never?".. " Well hardly ever"

Nothing To Fear But Beer Itself

Blimey , time to get out the opera hat and cape.Naturally the hostesses of London will miss me dreadfully but I really ought to go and throw some Maundi Money at these socially beknighted waifs and strays...It sounds ghastly I know, but to see their shining faces all glistening with gratitude makes it all worthwhile.Oh and anyone else who wnat to come along is welcome. It is rumoured that the famous anmd fabulous Devil`s Kitchen will be making an appearance

From City Unslickers Blog

"Mr Drew and I are having a few drinks this Thursday. In a wild bid to increase the entertainment we thought it might be nice if the odd visitor from here were to join. We have already couple of trusty loudmouths to make-up for our somewhat dull conversation in the form of Ed, Newmania and Croydonian.

See you HERE from 6.30 - if you email me at dominicdm@yahoo.com then I can give you my mobile so that you will be able to recognise us (as if a group of bloggerati was unrecognisable, don't you watch Doughty Street?)

See you there. Don't expect Mr Drew to buy any drinks...."

Mr. Drew , I should explain is a legend for the tightness with which his fist grasps his wallet. I have heard that a shark`s arse is about the tightest thing in the world but its close.Apparently he never breathes out ! He once dropped 50p and bent down so quickly it hit him on the back of the head.Last year we were going to give some money to charity and Mr. Drew suggested we threw it in the air and whatever god wanted he would catch....and so on ..... and so on

Feebles Excuses No. 94

I tend to be wary of Liberals who often sound reasonable but turn out to be busy bodying fidgety socialists when you scratch them. However , you have to hand it to Vince Cable who has been laying into the newly christened Mr. Bean with terrific verve and élan. I am find increasingly difficult to dislike him when I discover that he shares my guilty obsession with “Strictly Come Dancing” According to Hugh Muir ( Guardian) he skipped a tedious Liberal chat about Party Administration to attend the Christmas edition of strictly . Well you would .
The chance to see a national institution , I mean of course Sir Bruce Forsyth..( well he should be Sir) , enjoy his last gallop. The chance to see the colour and movement , the magnificent live orchestra, with just a suggestion of the Music Hall in the great tradition. The chance to see..........Aleesha............mmmmmmmmm . I would kiss her on a first date , I would you know

For You Tommy , Ze Education Iz Over

Continuing the education theme , its is hard to listen to the platitudes coming from the mouth of Balls when we know the raised leaving age is to artificially get the NEETs numbers down, as well as crime . It is no coincidence that policemen are going to be permanently stationed at these schools, in towers I should think . I know from friends what the state of discipline at some inner city Comprehensives and the though of the men they propose to intern for two years and what they will do fills me with dread. It is akin to a social concerntration camp , literally concerntrating all your problems in one building .

I can see the good side of it though . My wife who had a typical Bermondsey childhood said it would have helped her and things don`t look so bad from inside . But once again ill thought out and the sort of plan only those who attended posh schools could come up with. as it stands.

At the other end of the scale Lisa Harker in the Guardian suggests convincingly that the school entering age should be raised. I have a lot of time for this in theory , internationally there is evidence that the higher entering age not only helps the child’s learning but would also lessen the great disadvantage that Summer children have .Fins and S Korean Children start at six and seven respectively France Germany Spain Canada and the US, Denmark and Sweden all have higher entering ages and seem to do well at it .

Is this really a mystery though?. The reason that children appear to do better is because they are taught at home in a play /learning one on one nurturing environment. AKA their mum. Well when you put it like that they would do better wouldn’t they. We will not be having this in this country though as you now need two incomes for a house and the five year stretch is already beyond snapping point . I know I am in that one income poverty trap now . This problem is really what is driving earlier and earlier state care provision , ‘Sure start’ , now two year old`s at free nursery and then starting school for the most part at four years old . What we have is a crèche that I evolves into a prison for young offenders . What we used to have was a family and parents. They call that progress you know

So take a step back and it is the desperate financial pressure on families that mean they cannot give their children the early nurturing start they need .For this reason many of them have to be locked up in policed “schools” where they terrorise the real sixth formers .

The indigenous English birth rate has slightly increased to 1.7 but is still far below the immigrant birth rate of 2.7 overall with some groups like Pakistanis at 5. A survey came out yesterday showing that most people are made miserable by having the few children they do have . This is undoubtedly the pressure of over -population on services , housing and money. So again we come to the problem at the heart of every problem , too many people, the unique housing problems in this country , high taxes on families and the attempt of the state to take over from parents .There is not a quick solution but we are moving in the wrong direction on almost every front

Turn Over Your Papers

1 Emily Thorn berry , Dianne Abbot and of course nuclear powered, coach built ,silk lined velour upholstered hypocrite ,Ruth Kelly got their kids out of what

A Burning building
B State Education

2 Funds thrown at education in the last ten eyars
A £400million
B £400 billion

3 What proportion of teachers have been attacked at school.
A 20% B50%

4 Children will be obliged to declare their parents degree applying for university
TRUE/ FALSE

5 The share of working-class children attending University is lower than in the 60s
TRUE/FALSE

6 Proportion of Parents backing selection at 11 A 92% B 61%

7 Proportion of exams taken in Independent schools were awarded 'A' s an A 23.3% B50.8 %

8 Proportion of exams taken at Comprehensive awarded 'A's
A50.8% B15.3 %

9-1 in 5 Teenagers are unable to point to Britain on a map
TRUE/FALSE

Maths Labour style .
10-No1 Educational priority for labour too simplify the system whereby selective status can be challenged ( as it embarrasses the Conservatives ) guess how many occasions in the past decade there have been when parents have tried to challenge selective status … A 36 B 1

11-Teenagers read so badly they are now unable to use a Karoake machine , they have had to dumb down the lyrics. TRUE/ FALSE

12 Compose A Long and Tedious Grumble About The Failure of New Labour`s Educational Policies




On Sunday I watched the rather creepy Mr. Balls adopting the classic apologists opening on education.” Things have got a lot better but we have to do better still”. It is the sort of smarm that leaves you speechless and a necessary lie for the Brown interregnum because he was there. They cannot admit that they have been wrong for years . The gross facts are these . Three quarters of children from low income families in England and Wales failed to get five good passes at grade A in 2005 and 980,000 are in failing schools by the Governments admission and they are probably lying . David Cameron lanced the boil of fake statistics when he pointed out English and Maths were declining amongst the snow storm of useless and stupid subjects . Since then this has become to key marker amd lately there has been a lot of evidence that our international position is sliding sharply

.When we read that parents are asked to produce six forms of identification to prove they are in the catchment area they claim, we know something has gone badly wrong. . 16 London Boroughs have caught people , but then if you are the Blairs you simply get a Mr. Robinson to buy a flat in the right road and you are sorted . By this and sundry other devices the middle classes have colonised the best schools now far more privileged than Grammars .

Not that it is easy to tell if the school is any good or not . A levels have slipped into utter disrepair I lose track a bit but they were going to have an A * back in Blair`s days I remember Johnson announcing it . funding for schools to offer a Baccalaureate . Why not just stop lying about exam results ? The study of modern languages has disappeared. You see its difficult to claim you speak German when you palpably cannot . Beauty therapy , oh well we have oodles of proficient little girls in that rigorous discipline .Nearly 75 % of all pupils at state schools have dropped all languages by 15.

Education attainment and its measurement is like walking into a hall of distorting mirrors . It is said by some that Faith schools , for example do no better than others when you take their intake into account . How could you possibly measure such a thing ? These statements are trotted out on the basis of vapid assertions and self sustaining methodology. Polly Toynbee`s classic tactic is to appear to be referring to neutral research when she is referring to politically motivated number adverts which academia churns out to order. .I read in New Statesman that it was proven that grammar schools did not do particularly well if you discount for their intake.. Really ,what we know in the real world is that in N Ireland where the system has until recently remained, results are about 10 %better across the board . The point is that those not attending the Grammar benefit . What is the excuse now ?

“Well you see N Ireland has a cohesive and structured faith based society. “
“ So that improves results does it ?
“ Aha ha ha I didn’t say that now did I ….”

I was recently told off for using anecdotal information. I think as a Conservative you will tend to trust you own eyes before somebodies statistical white Rabbit .Sir John Bourne took a minute from lunching the tell the Home Office that all its measurements were so unrealisable as to be useless for prediction. We see government tables with superb schools languishing at the bottom of the table because of social intake discounts and we must again wonder if there is any science in it at all.
The Public seems to agree with 76% wanting a return to more rigorous streaming . Psssst Blair agreed hence the idea of getting religious groups to run academies ….sadly Brown has brought then back under the Council.( A little noticed but dramatic shift to the left).

13 Compose A Trite and Self Satisfied Cure All In The Manner Of A Taxi Driver

1 Allow Teachers to exclude Pupils quickly and easily . Make them legally strong and pupils weak
2 School Uniforms strictly adhered to
3 Schools rules strictly adhered to and the evolution of traditions. Brutal discipline if necessary
4 Setting in schools and a top stream , a Grammar stream.
5 Reset O and A levels back to meaningful; difficulty don`t ditch them they worked and have one national standard. Appoint a body to maintain that standard and ditch al other measures.
6 Pay teachers in difficult subjects more ( The NUT are against idea of course), also make it easier to fire failing teachers of which there are many
7 Reintroduce school sport and make it inclusive but competitive as in the class competitions we had
8 Abandon many of the foolish ~”personal teaching “ideas on the teaching colleges .
9 Defeat the teaching Unions
10 Remove charitable status from Public schools and oblige then to teach the national syllabus which will be exactly the same as everyone else and vastly simplified for all
11 Introduce vouchers and allow a wide variety of bodies to start schools in competition with the state


14 Have a dig at Progressives

Some of this may well be be Conservative Party Policy and certainly many parents would be relieved.Andy Warhol had a gorgeous collection of renaissance classics in his New York flat, well he had to live with them didn`t he I wonder how many progressives would , like Ruth Kelly , send their child to a newmania model school if no-one was looking and they thought sheer social privilege wasn’t going to be enough.


PENCILS DOWN !

TEST ANSWERS

Answers are all B and TRUE , of course

Read Them and Weep

Since 97 taxes have risen by nearly £10,000 per family in cash terms ( see HM treasury Public Finances databank )Weekly disposable incomes fell in 2005-6 and have grown by an average of only £2.15 a year a staggering achievement .( ONS 05/06) The length of the Yellow tax Handbook has doubled to 9000 pages and the British Chamber of Commerce say the cost of additional labour regulation has topped £50 billion. In 97 we were the 9th lowest taxed in the OECD now we are the 14th./ Stamp duty has quadrupled to over £10 billion( HM Treasury Budget 1998). Over 60,000 occupational pension schemes have been wound up( Hansard6.2.06) Frank Field said "5/6 of final salary schemes that have closed have done so since 2000 . In other words they have closed under our watch“. Britain has dropped from fourth to tenth in the international competitiveness league ( Global Competitiveness report 06/07) and productivity growth slumped from 2.6% per year (92-7)to 22.1% peryear(97-2001)

Meanwhile …
The tax payer is now bankrolling 3259 press officers across Whitehall and its quangos ( Hansard 6.7.06),)In 2005/6 £2.7 billion was lost to benefit fraud and error. Neither has social justice been served The difference between the life expectancy of the richest and poorest is greater than at any time since Queen Victoria( BMJ 30.4.05)The gap between mortality rates between professional and unskilled men is to and half times greater today than in 1930( Tackling health Inequalities Dept of health 11.8.07)

In an unprecedented period of prosperity Labour have failed the nation on a cataclysmic scale . In the past their errors were quickly found but early caution and global conditions have hidden it .With brown in the Indians have got hold of the whiskey and they simply must be rounded up and sent to their teepees before it gest even worse

If I was not hard as nails I would indeed weep hot salty tears ,( but I am)

Been Chatting

The Tories stand for arrogance and idleness - what else explains a £2m IHT threshold (OK £1m if you're thick)? Tory kids will be able to retire nice and young and waste their days in inane pursuits such as reading your drivel.



The Labour Part is the one which pays people for idleness. Incapacity benefit is well known to be a sick note culture, as even so colossal a prat as Peter Hain admitted . The whole point is to encourage working, which the Labour Party has not by taxing at extreme marginal rates..
On IHT , taken in isolation you views would make some sense but the history of IHT and the tax environment ,pensions , and so on make it a different issue. The Public sector who vote Labour retire five years earlier with gold plated pensions which are a liability of about £40,000 per household . THGos efunding them often have none themelves . 4000 ex civil servants have £1millionm pension pots .Ordinary working families work forever to maintain Labour’s slums


the Englaish are demonstrably more tolerant than the competing cultures"

Since when? During the 1000 year story you are so obsessed with, where is your evidence of that?Tell it to the European cities and tourist resorts are lovely youths delight in trashing, and wallowing in greasy "full" breakfasts.
THe Dam Busters theme, anyone? Lovely.


Inventing Parliamentary Democracy
Inventing Unions
First Industrialised Country
Inventor of capitalism, modern Insurance especially
Philosophical heart of the enlightenment
Inventor of football, rugby etc.
Leading light in Women’s emancipation
Protection of children
Invention of modern science and the scientific method
Universal suffrage
Birthplace of the world`s greatest writer and the world’s leading language
Resisted Napoleon, Philip of Spain and (since you mention Damn busters) Hitler
Home of Common Law and principles of jurisprudence admired and copied the world over
Banned Slavery .( Muslims are still enslaving black Africans to this day)
Sorry about the greasy spoon but the “English Breakfast “ is an internationally loved repast, in fact one of our few food exports.



It is a measure of the backwardness of the Muslim world that the Jewish world with a population of 12 million has won 163 Nobel prizes, 151 of them in science, while the Muslim world has produced only two Nobel laureates in science.
You have to go back to the dark ages and that myth has been exploded onn many occasions http://mwillett.org/atheism/islamicgoldenage.htm

....now what did the Muslims bring to the Party then ...remind me ?

The Lure Of Mucking About

I have just spent about an hour and a half mucking around with the title which I still can`t get right . Others appear a tad more savvy than me at this mularky and its too big. Still thats it , had enough now it is staying there. What a pathetic waste of time.span

One Large Donor Please.....

This information is taken from the Electoral Commission website and shows the sum total of donations of some key people between January 2001 and late 2007 , I stole it from super Tony Sharp . I do have slight nervousness about the reticence of Lord Ashcroft on his tax status but then he has a clean bill of health and thems the rules.In terms of large donors we can see the Labour Party are vastly more indebted to Supermarkets , Private Equity , Mr.Mittall,shadowy Muslims and of course,the Unions



CONSERVATIVE PARTY

Bearwood (Lord Ashcroft's UK based company) - £ 2,585,931.31
Types of donations:
Cash (146 donations) totalling: £ 1,297,365.69
Non cash (16 donations) totalling: £ 1,288,565.62

Lord Ashcroft (personal donations) - £ 111,726.09
Types of donations:
Cash (3 donations) totalling: £ 36,996.09
Non cash (5 donations) totalling: £ 74,730.00

Midlands Industrial Council - £ 1,430,470.23 (membership declared transparently)
Types of donations:
Cash (58 donations) totalling: £ 1,417,570.23
Non cash (2 donations) totalling: £ 12,900.00

Individual Donations (over £250,000) - £ 25,006,311.91
(excluding Public Funds)
Types of donations:
Cash (34 donations) totalling: £ 24,581,352.91
Non cash (1 donations) totalling: £ 424,959.00

Total -
Cash - £ 27,758,243.92 Non cash - £ 1,801,154.62


==================================

LABOUR PARTY


Lord Sainsbury - £ 8,516,000.00
Types of donations:
Cash (8 donations) totalling: £ 8,516,000.00

Lakshmi Mittal - £ 4,125,000.00
Types of donations:
Cash (3 donations) totalling: £ 4,125,000.00

Lord Drayson - £ 1,105,000.00
Types of donations:
Cash (4 donations) totalling: £ 1,105,000.00

Sir Ronnie Cohen - £ 1,800,000.00
Types of donations:
Cash (8 donations) totalling: £ 1,800,000.00

Muslim Friends of Labour - £ 330,950.00 (members not declared)
Types of donations:
Cash (12 donations) totalling: £ 330,950.00

Individual Donations (over £250,000) - £ 47,289,543.50
(excluding Public Funds) (mainly from unions)
Types of donations:
Cash (97 donations) totalling: £ 47,289,543.50

Total - (exluding more than £ 600,000 from David Abrahams of course...)
Cash - £ 63,166,493.50 Non cash - £ 0


** Please note these are not exhaustive details of all donors, which would be far too long to post here - these are just illustrative and comparative examples.

Mathew`s Passion

What Did They Do In Gomorrah ?


Mathew Parris disapproves of proposed “ Hatred On The Grounds Of Sexual Orientation” legislation ,in the Speccie Finding a formula which allowed Jacobean hot poker scenes whilst prescribing rap`s batty boy baiting will be impossible . With,“ High thresholds for prosecutions “ ,it is clearly only there to “send a message “.“Sending a message “is an inappropriate use of the statute book ,to put it mildly.The mind wanders into deliciously absurd actions . The bible , for example , is fairly unpleasant about Sodom and if anyone knows what they did in Gomorrah it was not very nice about their bizarre and mysterious habits either. 2000 years of incitement ?.I like Saintly Matthew’s conclusion.
“ I hate homophobia and I have no doubt that it is stupid and wrong . I feel the same about racism, and about the demeaning of the disabled or women. My mind is made up and my opposition ferocious. Yet in no way would this incline me to legislate .”

Its A Farce That Charlie`s Aunt

The attempts of the PC constituency to reduce our courts to a farce is superfluous . We have enough comedy.I was watching 100 great stand-ups yesterday and there was fascinating interplay of class tension between the alternative or modern comedians and the working class crafts men. Chubby Brown, Manning , of course and in the US Dice Man sat uncomfortably with Perrier award winners .Peter Kay and Jimmy Carr are both reconnecting intelligent comedy with anarchic amorality but I still enjoy the politically correct Eddie Izzard on the Empire as the “Cunning use of flags “

“ I pronounce this continent British “
“ Hey hang on we`ve all been here for ages there are load of us ..”
“ Do you have a flag ?….”
“ Well no not exactly …”
“ Then it is all now ours … ha ha ”

The EU Flag is not dissimilarly ridiculous.

My Name Is Newmania And I Laughed At Jim Davidson

Primitive tribes often have formal sort of humour consisting of elegantly avoiding the taboo word . There is an example where “ Bees “ are the unmentionable creatures “Those little buzzing creatures , I would not hint at their yellow and black stripes … oh no not I” would be the Oscar Wilde of the tribe .Why do we have this desire to say the unsayable , I wonder if it has a balancing function.I could not watch him for long but the bit that I laughed at most, was this from Jim Davidson …pure succinct tabboo breaking …

“ You would not believe what I get paid for doing this , its ridiculous , makes you think , there are people in Africa that could live half a life on what I make tonight ……
( Turns into profile and inhales deeply and thoughtfully on a fag…… quickly turns head surreptitiously to face the audience )
“Fuck ` em”

Add an old pros timing though and it still works . .Iain dale and David Cameron found out in Rwanda,you can go a bit too far and then they start laughing.As Johnson said "That's cant, Sir. ..: publick affairs vex no man.".True enough.

A lot of the more aggressive humour around is reacting to being pushed too far but before you know it jokes petrify into attitudes and the tolerance we prize is injured.So stop sending stupid messages with the law and start using it to send criminals into unpleasant prisons for a long time.Thats my message

A Shiver With No Spine

More disturbing signs of the mental breakdown of Gordon Brown. I have previously reported rumours of anti-depressants he has been taking and Peter Oborne, a trustworthy journalist, hinted at a physical abuse of the secretarial staff at No. 10 . He apparently flung a girl , in a rage , from her seat to use the keyboard.There is obviously a source form within who has been distressed . Today we read that he reduced a grown man to tears . That is Spencer Livermore the mis-director of political strategy at No. 10 . I have to wonder quite how difficult that would be .The dopey looking 32 year old Labour maggot has little to fall back on but the life of a ligger. Nonetheless a pattern is emerging ,of a piece with his bizarre physical betrayals at question time.
.Peter Watts has allowed it to be known that he was not impressed with Brown scuttling away from the funding scandal like a rat .It was after all , for him , that the money was collected .
Meanwhile Bonkers Broon says , or rather his dead eyed acolytes say for him ,‘This government will be judged on its record .’ Well ,he has increased revenue to the exchequer by £250 billion every year and yet miraculously managed to acquire very little . The Health budget has doubled to no good effect and education ,despite a Niagra of funds ,is actually getting worse. I seriously begin to wonder if Mc Bean has lost his grip entirely

There is a rather ripping story in the Hornblower oeuvre when the ship is in the command of Captain who has gone mad. Below decks the officers cannot believe what they are seeing . Many are opposed by instinct to mutiny that most dreadful of naval sins .Others fear the consequences In the end the behaviour of the foaming Captain , his cruelty and delusion provoke a series of ill lit furtive meetings, in whispers they plot, and finally the Captain is taken prisoner. Then the awful question…now what ?

No doubt such meetings are taking place and the air is thick with rumours but , as Harold Wilson put it it’s a “ Shiver with no spine to run down” . Where is the alternative . Milliband is not ready and Balls is seen as the Brown poodle . Alan Johnson pronounced himself too stupid to run on Desert island Disks . A party that endured Michael Foot for three years and Neal Kinnock for nine is unlikely to find the cojones to act decisively. The truth is they have the leader they deserve . The guts left the Labour Party at Blackpool , now they are left with screaming bitchy courtiers .who dominate the Harem but are little use otherwise.

Cherie Baby Spill The Beans

Peter Oborne reports in the Mail this morning that Brown’s plans include a regional tour, a possible cabinet reshuffle and a rapprochement with the Blairites ,.... oo thats gonna be painful to watch. Oborne reveals: “There is now lively talk inside Downing Street that Alastair Campbell might be brought back in a senior strategic role in the New Year and, apparently, there are indications that Blair's controversial former Press Secretary would welcome such a role.

Cherie Blair is now certain to receive a peerage says the rumour factory but will be enough to ensure that Cherie’s autobiography glosses over the Blair – Brown feud as tactfully as Campbell’s The Blair Years did. Cherie’s book is scheduled to be dominating the news at the Labour conference next year, the Brownites are desperate to minimise the damage that the book will do.


What do you think , will she take the gonmg and shut up or will she not be able to resist " Thats a lie "

Norman Baker

This is the picture of Norman baker our nauseating local MP I found . He is one of theose MPs who is busy doing nothing . Thanks to Flo for pointing out his pointless trip to Tasmania to comment on the Rainforest there. We already know about the silly and lucrative book and his support for faddy causes like Animal Rights.If he has ever done anyhting for Lewes I am yet to hear it. Typically despite a life of far left opining he has clung onto bookies favoutire Nick Clegg...Fancy...

Being The Change

Still trying to get into then local paper sadly this is too long …,happily I can be as boring as I like here

As a committed Conservative , Councillor Susan Murray (See letter 7.12.07) is of a type I used to back away from with a raised crucifix. Not any more ,in an effort our beloved leader would appreciate, I am trying to “Be The Change“ ,and determined to seek areas of agreement.

She wanted to hijack Remembrance Day to express the startling insight that no nuclear weapons would be safer .I agree; with the addition of three little words ;“In”, “Iran”, and ,“ever“. That only ‘some’ of the Councillors though the gesture outside the scope of a provincial district Council has left my eyebrows in a permanent gothic arch. Only some? Still it’s a good start.

Admittedly her letter on Post Office closures piles error upon error like a glutinous trifle.“ Neo Liberalism “ cannot be said to be responsible the destruction of public services as she claims as we have not had any. If public spending were now at 1997 levels income tax could be abolished, state governed expenditure has risen from 38% to 45% and the public sector is now more bloated than Germany’s . Naturally the gentlest puff of global chilly wind has us stocking up on tinned foods and gold but just imagine what the Green Party would have done to us. Think medieval period. I appreciate it was warmer then, but it was more the dentistry and leeches I had in mind .

Ms Murray’s charming generosity with other people's money is not altogether to my taste either so this isn’t going very well, sorry Dave. She wants a to give 6,000,000 Public sector workers job security not enjoyed by the over taxed private sector employees who pay for them and their pensions ?These are presumably not, “ordinary people “,a class she boldly speak for en masse. Then we come to her brilliant plot to force people to pay benefits into post offices by which quixotic route she arrives at what is in effect a subsidy. Well Councillor, we either chuck the money in or not but lets not pretend we can un-invent the internet re-monopolise services or maintain luddite practices, much as you might like us to be returned to the wood fire and bodkin. These are the real reasons for the £260 million down the plug`ole (2005)and worse since .

Fortunately for “Being the change",in the matter of Post Office closures we are one.Of course they should be subsidised .If it costs £250 million, so what! In the context of torturous New Labour waste and squander that’s a light tickle. The pointless development agencies have a budget of £2.3 billion. We are spending £5 billion and rising on a detested ID card scheme,£30 billion goes straight to Scotland,£60 billion to the EU we are £30 billion in debt with another £30 billion hidden under the carpet in PFI contracts. Absolutely we should subsidise these vital engines of precious communities. The money involved would hardly cover a Northern Rock Bonus .

It gets better . I also agree with her that, as usual, the EU ,which quietly makes 70% of our laws, has taken away our right to make any decision on then matter at all so we are wasting our time talking about it.I presume she agrees with me that this disgraceful position which is about to get much much worse should have us asking why our politicians are so determined to do to us what Phillip of Spain Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolph Hitler could not.

All in all then a spirit of delightful accord has broken out. I agree that we should treat the environment responsibly and to cap it all I am a great admirer of their Party’s leader. Or at least I might be if they are ever got serious enough to choose one

Newmania

Lewes Conservative .




Newmania

Lewes Consevative .

If Greens Ruled The World...

Local Greens Susan Murray and Nicola McGilligan

Good god Lewes has three District Councillors who are in that silly Green Party. Two of them are shown here for your delectation. Its not all Marina Pepper down here you know . Anway the one I have noticed is Cllr. Susan Murray who immediately earnt my stifled snort and this months deluded egomaniac prize . When remembrance day came around her first instinct was to try and hi jack it for a “Peace Initiative “ to campaign against all nuclear weapons . With withering understatement the some of the veteran Councillors suggested it was ,‘beyond the scope of the Council.’ I would have said beneath the dignity of anyone except a Miss World bimbo passing an idle second with Terry Wogan What’s the betting this means ours first eh …know the type ?The local Paper which has a dated Liberal provincialism about it that stales quickly ands they seem to publish all her fluffy witter. Half a page suggesting a luddite fantasy from the 60s this week its charming in a way I suppose .Anyway the effort will be to attack her and her faded counter-culture nonsense .

WE have a Liberal infestation ,as well and they are always having opinions . One is so very tempted to remark . Nothing you think matters , you are not a Party you are a soiree for intimate friends at best and nationally quite quite irrelevant . Goodbye

Compass Should Come Clean

Now we know that that GLA funds were being channelled into campaigning groups ( Blink), what about Compass who , 'out of the goodness of their hearts’ mounted an astonishing and sustained attack on Boris . , a subject that they , as a national and international far left ginger group , have nothing to do with. It is far from easy to discover the source of their funding ,I have tried ,but they are closely associated with Ken, and just to give you an idea of tCompass, they have retained Miranda Grell on their board after her conviction for false representations .She claimed her opponent was a paedophile .“ Have you heard about him sleeping with Thai boys , his boyfriend is sixteen and , he is dirty”…said the ambitious associate of Ken Livingstone . And yet she is still on the board. Compass with its close associations with Ken Livintsone and its gratis campaigning and its being Ken`s favourite think tank are bound to come under scrutiny now as the GLAs corrupt practices bubble to the surface .The deliberate obscurity of the ultimate benefactors must cease and the GLA must give a full account of the depth of its corruption

The Creature Alone

It seems that David Cameron met Arnold Swarchenegger at a Policy Exchange Crimbo bash on Monday reporting delightedly that he was taller than the girly-man. The Gubernatorial top ten films were presented to Boy David and they included two of the action man’s efforts,“Twins”, a barely functional comedy, and the marvellous sequel Terminator 2.We are in a period of political sequels are we not? “Heir to Blair “, Cameron, and the bogey gobbler, are trying to achieve a similarly elusive blend of new and familiar themes.

A brace of films with the typical failures and successes of sequels is Alien and Aliens .The original comprises dissonant elements ;the dialogue and acting style are theatre work shop with sections of improv' providing an ultra realistic feel accentuated by the high background noise. The artistic vision is contrastingly high Gothic with pornographic images of corrupted flesh woven into dark arterial structures.The scaffolding is is an old B movie plot with traditional chase scenes , a secret identity and a female in peril. These ingredients complement each other in a creative tension.Pseuds corner here I come ;but it is an alchemical achievement .

The follow-up was an artisans delight and importantly a new film in old clothing. Wisely,it ditched the ambition of the first and settled for a high class actioner The Elstree,(Bond), wizards, incoporated the look into superlative product.A thrill ride replaces existential terror,but if its aims were limited,it delivered a satisfying experience to the oft cheated franchise follower. It was only when Universal threw the whole years budget at Aliens 3 that the series “Jumped-the-shark ”.

Don safety goggles while I stretch metaphor to breaking point; ready ? The Blair period appeared to contain internal oppositions.The weakness of the Conservative party brought this about but also the New Labour versus old Labour battles as personified by Blair and Brown.While neither predominated the government maintained energy,( all the wrong sort in my view, but bear with me).Cameron was initially impressed and set out to be Blair Project 2. But trying to pick up the story and pretend it was always written that way ( See Matrix Re-loaded) always fails .You have to make a 'new film' and that uses its ancestor rather than wears it like a posh boy affecting incongruous (political) bling. Had it gone on this way I would have been concerned ,but following Iain Duncan Smiths work and the policy reviews, not to say the vigorous debate on Grammars , Europe and so on over a decade, the Conservatives have forged what looks like a Government in waiting. Intellectual ferment and even disagreement can be productive and the paucity of Browns bench is the result of the silent "Terror" of life under the Talibrown.People have a sense that something is happening on the right and it feels like the future.

Brown is not a sequel , Blair did that himself , he is a spin off.No doubt he hoped to be ‘Frasier’, but he was too large a character in the original hit . Its more like having Punch wandering about pointlessly with no Judy to hit .Alien climaxed in a duel between the sleek black carnivore and Sigourney Weaver.Brown , remember, caught his prey and ate him. Imagine that had happened in the Ridley Scott film and the sequel consisted of hours of the creature, sitting about picking its teeth alone in space , whistling , perhaps flipping place mats into the bin ?

Bums are beginning to ache already Gordon ,and the two years of this non government stretch before us like an interview with Alan Shearer..

1-Anyone not come across “Jump-the-shark moment”. Google it

When You Walk Through A Storm......

Looking at the posters for Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd ,I was , like others , amused to see Big Ben , looming outside his attic window a good 50 years before it was built . Similarly, I think we all enjoyed Robin Hood and his “ Saracen” stalker , alighting at Dover and walking to Hadrian’s wall in a stout days yomp .The spirit if Tony Curtis’s ,“Yonder Lies the castle of my fodder”, is alive and well in Hollywood we murmur ,chuckling in that evil, way the English always employ , in Hollywood .

Now what I `m doing here is that Vicar thing , I `m going to be tediously sententious any minute now but I `m creeping up on it in the manner of “What’s the time Mr. Wolf “ . It will take constant vigilance to spot the elegant segue ….

Right then , morality ( Did you notice ?).Like the above examples it is a question of the right proportion . Jane Austen`s thematic polyphonies lean heavily on this metaphor . A rightness in art a rightness in society a rightness in manners and morals. The study of moral philosophy might be termed the study of what we ‘ought’ to do. If I believe in the immortal soul then I ‘ought ‘to see life as not defined by its flesh but by its creation. I ‘ought’ to feel abortion is a form of murder and I ought to etc……. This is actually the case, hence the dance macabre when Liberals suggest early abortion is made easier, and Conservatives are almost obliged to approve, having borrowed medical rags they secretly find uncomfortable and thin.

The problem with this “ought to” business is that it is not two dimensional and unless you have things in the right ‘proportion’ you will get lost. . Moral decisions have fewer signposts. Transport planning may yield a chaotic infrastructure provides a clue but in the flat featureless plain the modern man surveys confronted with right and wrong , he lacks the ancestral compass. Secular and floundering he is aware of competing questions but has no language or system to resolve them… .Here is a recent moral conundrum:

Should sexual orientation be used against prospective adopters ?
Should sexual orientation be the only factor which it is illegal to hold against a prospective adopter ?
Should the government have the right to impose on religious organisations as to the rightnes of minority sexuality
Should the government sacrifice lives of 1500 children stuck in care by creating a system complex and slow enough masticate on every conceivable risk
Should a member of that Government avoid the problem and go to America (Milliband)

Or should teenagers be obliged to endure sex education as provided by the state so there are none to adopt ? . Polly Toynbee , the woman from Italy she says yes! There may be a case that such a programme would reduce early pregnancy. It sounds logical . There should be relationship counselling on a compulsory nationwide basis , morning after pills and greater access to early abortion. Polly pours scorn on the “Sex Is For Marriage “ Group by quoting numerous members of her political coterie who happen to occupy bodies producing authoritative reports . Yet ,“Sex Is For Marriage “, would cut out STD`s were anyone to listen and our European record in teenage pregnancies accompanies a socially Liberal country . I have a dim sense that we need to recreate the moral responsibility of the past but in a new way. I have doubts about continuing the factory farming methods employed to pre-mature children for the market. How can she be so doubt free ,certain enough to impose on other people’s children ?Her own went to Public school so can she understand how sex operates in the bog standard London Comp and how seriously these ”Lessons “might be taken ?

Science pushes us further away from the comfort of daily pragmatism . Modern man expected quite the reverse and he is almost enraged and having to confront old problems . Should I abort a child late because it has a cleft palette as a “serious handicap” ?. Embryos with squints can be destroyed , parents can select IVF babies to be saviour donors to their sibling with blood disorders . How does the baby feel about that ? If you could grow a human with no mind and farm the body , should you ?More than 100 babies with minor disabilities were aborted in one region over a three year period ,54 babies with club feet , 37 cleft palettes, 26 extra I webbed toes in the South West between 2002 -2005 .way above the national average . Do you find this troubling , I do ?

I have tried to describe a state dimly lit uncertainly and groped unsuccessfully for the door , but there are more hazards yet. How can we know if we have the right perspective when we cannot ‘feel’ what it`s like to be in another’s shoes. I am ending with a story on the front page of the Mail where I have some experience of how it feels :

IVF clinics were ordered to cut multiple pregnancies by up to a half to day. Walter Merrick., head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said “maximum safety means one child at a time , it cannot be right for numbers of children ending up in neo natal units just because of decisions made in the treatment designed to help the mother conceive “

Here is the problem.126 babies die each year as a result of being part of multiple births. It is dangerous for the mother and , no doubt a bad thing ……So should the planting of multiple embryos be guidelined out of business an if not why not ? Well here are the reasons why not

Many come to IVF desperate and having to pay for themselves
Two healthy Embryos double your chance
Many can only afford one or two cycles at about £10,000 a throw and the three cycles you are suppsed to get is not available in many post codes ( Not at all if you have a child )
They have a roughly one in four chance of success per go with multiple embryos
One in four double embryos implantations results in twins
So without the second chance the success rate would be drastically reduced
Would be parents are more than aware of the risk to themselves and this cannot be a factor
The increased risk to the child is an increased risk to a child who would otherwise have had no chance of life at all.

I see there are risks and I see there are competing claims of the new born child who has , lets not forget , a very good chance indeed of a life otherwise nonexistent . I think I have looked at this from every angle and I find it a heartless and poor moral direction. What strikes me moreover is this . With such desperately subtle and difficult balancing to be done who the hell gave Doctors the right to decide for us all. ?Its like leaving a cannibal to baby-sit and if I am sure of one thing it is this .The faux medical language in which arguments of principles are couched should be ditched and replaced with the real issues they thinly disguise . Desperate for any sign modern man clings to the white coated chap who likes bossing us around .This is absolutely , “wrong “

Thanks for listening if you did,go on treat yourself to this . http://www.desertwebcenter.com/YouNeverWalkAlone.html