Friday, October 19, 2007
Arts Funding Increased
Fact of the day- The average wage of a the man who paints the lines on the road is £53,000 pa ,....and that’s the average - Metro
Its Good To Be The King
I have usually taken the view that women are exploiting men who get treated like a Turkey at Christmas in Divorce . It does seem that way . Poor old Paul McCartney will have to struggle on with only £725 million and Thierry Henri will have to make do with only the four cars .
Oddly , the vision I have of the newly divorced woman flinging herself onto a bed covered in currency is not born out by the figures . A study earlier this year showed that a ditched chaps income rises on average by about 11% after divorce while the painted harlot of the piece plummets by 17%. The Fawcett Society also shows that women have on average 33% less savings than men . Finally the office of national Statistics shows that 40% of divorced women over 65 were poor enough to qualify for income support. Only 1% of married women were.
Bad news for my argument but on the other hand good news for my continued rule in the home .I am practicing thre use of this power now ,and attaching a moustache with the express intention of twirling it .
“ Ahem….Do my bidding worthless chattel or you will drink rain water and run through the night in the Winter snow Now lets set a few rules .For breakfast I will require …two rashers ….not the smoky kind ….. Not that runny marmalade …etc.”
Its good to be the king
Lisbon Made Simple
Over the coming weeks there will be much debate at an arcane and esoteric level about infinitesimally small distinctions of meaning and intent in the new European Constitution. This will make it appear that what happens in Lisbon is beyond the competence of the ordinary man . In fact they will quite deliberately do so. This is 99% the sheet of zee bull. Europe revolves around simple questions and if out representatives were not so deeply in love with deceit they would put the thing to us on a sheet of A 4 . All questions can be reduced to a sheet of A 4 if you leave out the lying embellishment and legal stuff. In life we are quite familiar with this . We make a deal and then give it to a solicitor to turn it into 30 pages of binding contract. The deal ,nonetheless ,is as agreed between principles .
This is the question. Do you , or do you not, wish to be ruled by foreigners ?
The vast majority would say no...not out of spite of xenophobia but because your nation is like an extension of family and requires loyalty and a web of familiarity to function." We" decide between us what "we" will do. Europe does not contain a "we"..or to put it in a more pretentious way A demos .
It is clear that a democracy or real Parliament would be meaningless without the dialogue carried on at instinctive level by our country, and it quite hard enough to retain this balance in such an organic Parliamentary system as ours .( Not that the EU even tries but that’s another point)
Were you to ask Joe Public if he wished to order the lives of Poles or Belgians he would scratch his head and say..“ None of my business”. You see simple
. Its easy to see why nationalism was so feared in the 20th century but that time is past. We can also see why some left wing elements prefer policies of one sort or another imposed on us from outside . I dislike it myself but the quality of the laws are not the point . France is a nice place , they might very well make lovely laws for us …I still , out of sentimental attachment, prefer that they are in no such position. I wish to choose . I certainly do not wish to be ordered around by someone to whom I owe nothing and have no “contract “with. The contract by which regime are exchanged without violence and war in a democracy.
WE entered this arrangement out of weakness in the 70s when the Continent was out-performing us . That is gone . We were not told about the Federal Dream and the surreptitious efforts to make that real , now we know . Europe dominated the world economy and was supposed to be a third block against Pact and the US. That is a distant and tiny little world now . The economic benefits are no longer there , which was the real reason Conservatives initially like the idea and the costs are huge . The Third way , like Norway or Switzerland is clear enough with bilateral arrangements being made with the EU block and freedom to deal with the rest of the world.
People with guilt on their hands act dumb . They say ..“What do you mean ,?Maastricht was more wide ranging change”… to which the majority will say ,“ Yes I am just starting to realise what you have done without consulting me and I want my say , the fact that each step is now small will not defer my say forever so of not now then when ? Well ..when !?”.
The villains are terrified . I read Polly`s rant in the Guardian.. She claims the Federal dream is dead but we know very well it is not from the pronouncements of the rest of Europe . Les Lignes rouges were in place when the referendum was promised in the first place and have not substantially changed . The treaty is a Constitution because the Treaty of Rome is a Constitution . It was impossible for it not to be as it allots competence to national and supranational governments . Amendments therefore are inevitably of Constitutional Character. £5000 per household membership costs, for which we get nothing good I can think of.
. There is , in reality , no defence of this Constitution without a defence of the whole project and that is the can of worms Gordon wishes to remain unopened .Brown does not have the character to break out of this cycle . He will continue to lie until we can quote his won words back at him,
” There is nothing you can say now , that I will ever believe “
No change for me there
This is the question. Do you , or do you not, wish to be ruled by foreigners ?
The vast majority would say no...not out of spite of xenophobia but because your nation is like an extension of family and requires loyalty and a web of familiarity to function." We" decide between us what "we" will do. Europe does not contain a "we"..or to put it in a more pretentious way A demos .
It is clear that a democracy or real Parliament would be meaningless without the dialogue carried on at instinctive level by our country, and it quite hard enough to retain this balance in such an organic Parliamentary system as ours .( Not that the EU even tries but that’s another point)
Were you to ask Joe Public if he wished to order the lives of Poles or Belgians he would scratch his head and say..“ None of my business”. You see simple
. Its easy to see why nationalism was so feared in the 20th century but that time is past. We can also see why some left wing elements prefer policies of one sort or another imposed on us from outside . I dislike it myself but the quality of the laws are not the point . France is a nice place , they might very well make lovely laws for us …I still , out of sentimental attachment, prefer that they are in no such position. I wish to choose . I certainly do not wish to be ordered around by someone to whom I owe nothing and have no “contract “with. The contract by which regime are exchanged without violence and war in a democracy.
WE entered this arrangement out of weakness in the 70s when the Continent was out-performing us . That is gone . We were not told about the Federal Dream and the surreptitious efforts to make that real , now we know . Europe dominated the world economy and was supposed to be a third block against Pact and the US. That is a distant and tiny little world now . The economic benefits are no longer there , which was the real reason Conservatives initially like the idea and the costs are huge . The Third way , like Norway or Switzerland is clear enough with bilateral arrangements being made with the EU block and freedom to deal with the rest of the world.
People with guilt on their hands act dumb . They say ..“What do you mean ,?Maastricht was more wide ranging change”… to which the majority will say ,“ Yes I am just starting to realise what you have done without consulting me and I want my say , the fact that each step is now small will not defer my say forever so of not now then when ? Well ..when !?”.
The villains are terrified . I read Polly`s rant in the Guardian.. She claims the Federal dream is dead but we know very well it is not from the pronouncements of the rest of Europe . Les Lignes rouges were in place when the referendum was promised in the first place and have not substantially changed . The treaty is a Constitution because the Treaty of Rome is a Constitution . It was impossible for it not to be as it allots competence to national and supranational governments . Amendments therefore are inevitably of Constitutional Character. £5000 per household membership costs, for which we get nothing good I can think of.
. There is , in reality , no defence of this Constitution without a defence of the whole project and that is the can of worms Gordon wishes to remain unopened .Brown does not have the character to break out of this cycle . He will continue to lie until we can quote his won words back at him,
” There is nothing you can say now , that I will ever believe “
No change for me there
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The Naming Of A Politician
A passing tramp models the new Lib Dem Footwear of choice
Whats In A Name
What any politician needs are sound instincts , rhetorical abilities and, nowadays, a full head of hair . Above all though he needs a funny name and an unnamed Tory MP has come up with a doozy for Clegg. , someone said ...” .Nick Clegg is a screaming Euro fanatic man child , he’s half Dutch , he should be called Nick Clog "There you have it Nick Clog. It has all the elements. It sounds funny, it points out his weak ties with the country and rips straight into the reason why no Conservative and increasingly few Lib Dems should have anything to do with him. To the question at the heart of Europe ..” Do you want to be ruled by foreigners ?” His answer is yes.
Infamy infamy....
Notes : The predominance of the Murdoch Press has been well publicised recently in anticipation of the Lisbon charade of red lines and obfuscation. I have read articles attacking the monopoly of Murdoch, in the Guardian , the Independent and today the New Statesman . I haven’t looked at the Mirror but I expect it’s the same . Needles to say Private Eye continues its fun and games at the expense of the Dirty Digger. At what point this Press barrage directed at Murdoch starts to look ridiculous. Its not as if the Mail or the Telegraph on the side of International Capitalism.
It strikes me that this is smashing the window with the hammer provided, and getting out the emergency argument before the game begins. The Euro loons are scared to death, not at the additional loss of sovereignty, but that people will see how far we have gone . That is the real issue and always was. Not this Constitution but the whole misguided endeavour. Put it this way . They say Maastricht was more fundamental. I say that’s the main reason we need a referendum now .
Football Does Not Exist
Football: Now theres a subject where I feel European. Why the hell did we have to have an English manager? Sven , I recall, waltzed us through the qualifiers and we had to enter the Grand Prix with a British Leyland TR 7 . I missed it yesterday but last I heard the score was One Nil . I planned to sit twiddling my abdomen hair and relishing the victory over a cup of tea . When I got home Mrs. N said to me “Oh dear they lost 2:1 ...still its on now I suppose you will want to watch”
Jaw slack with disbelief I of course replied ,”No I f****** well do not . I `m quite miserable enough thanks . Quick talk about something else...Jesus ... etc.”
It didn`t Work Last Time
"I'll tell you, we're still fighting for this title, and he's still got to go to Middlesbrough and get something. I'll tell ya, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it." Kevin Keegan, 1996.
"We're not giving up. We'll take it to the end. It's a tough place to go, Israel. Russia, the pressure's on again. They have to go and win. [I'll tell ya, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it.]" Steve McClaren, 2007
deep deep sigh..............
My Wife Doesn’t Understand Me
Women do not get it do they. Years ago, a friend at little school, asked for an Arsenal shirt ( Hurrah !), for Christmas . His mother , on finding they had run out bought a Spurs ( yuk) nonsense instead. He was , of course , traumatised and remains emotionally disturbed to this day. His mother was uncomprehending .....” you meant a specific sort of shirt ..? Aren`t they the same ? “Women , know your place .....
Thick Blue Wavy Lines
Any way on with the Rugby ...Come On Engerland ! Confusion to Nick Clog and lets replace some thin red lines with a big fat stretch of sea. The Channel.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Devil V Polly Celebrity Fight
I was reading La Toynbee yesterday as she used all her witchy wiles to brand Euroscepticism as 'crazed'. As I read I thought ...lumme Devil`s Kitchen may explode if he sees this ..Well sure enough...
"Newmania,
I shall indeed be commenting on Toynbee's fatuity."
Fight fight fight ....I shall be looking forward to Devil v Polly and suggest you popm into his blog soon. There may be ...language ( On Blog roll)
"Newmania,
I shall indeed be commenting on Toynbee's fatuity."
Fight fight fight ....I shall be looking forward to Devil v Polly and suggest you popm into his blog soon. There may be ...language ( On Blog roll)
Great Excuses ..No. 94
Following yesterdays Priest, who pretended to be a gay sex pest to smoke out a Satanic plot; I give you the Dental approach...
'A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson's lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem'-MSNBC.
'A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson's lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem'-MSNBC.
All I Ask Is The Chance....
Jonah
I have met Iain Dale twice .He’s a nice chap, perhaps slightly difficult to relax around, in that he is doing his job when you are just arseing around. He is something of a Jonah though, isn`t he. It is not one, but two car crash PR stunts he has been involved in .That Speech” ( Davis ) and the ill fated trip to Rwanda. Does this make him a little sensitive ?
Piety
On Blogger TV ,talking about the translators in Iraq he made the entirely irrelevant point that you go into politics( which I haven’t ) in order to help people. I `d say "shrill" was the mot juste .Well that’s one reason I suppose , but , this does not mean the suffering of the world are suddenly welcome at my front door and nor I expect at Dale Acres. I detected a residual defensiveness. I think ID was aghast at the bored contempt with which his own readers reacted to the Rwanderer debacle. With ‘that speech ‘now part of legend ..I feel a bit sorry for him.
Never Mind ….
Mathew Paris had a good article in the Spectator recently in which he pronounced himself a “ Epihenomenalist, meaning ,the tears cause the sadness not visa versa. He argues that the Party didn’t turn from David Davis because he made a rotten speech , they heard a rotten speech because they were turning away from him. This lets Dale off the hook and for finding this succour ..I claim my £5. By this means he explains the over praise of Cameron and the,odd suprise of the media on discovering Brown is boring.
Wit Cures All
I see Oscar Wilde has been voted the top wit in a survey to mark the opening of the digital TV channel. People who spoil Dinner by emoting about Africa, should reacquaint themselves with his sharp claws, usually to be found slicing into the tender flesh of the concerned classes. I offer this an instant corrective to earnestness
“One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”
I `m afraid my poor heart gets the better of me on such occasions….
Clarkson’s Saving Grace
Another name on the list of wits was Jeremy Clarkson which rather dents our confidence in its provenance. I have always thought Jeremy Clarkson was Esther Ranthzen for fat men , and not PJ O ` Rourke . Well, if he is PJ O Rourke then Cliff is Elvis ,(and he isn’t) . He voted Liberal most if his life and is in fact a bog standard media tart…......sorry but he is; so stop crying . Having said that, he did smoke on air , a Pipe actually. A spokesperson for Action On Smoking For Health ( ASH) has demanded an apology from the BBC,Clarkson…can`t be all bad then.
A Joke
On the subject of wit and humour I laughed and laughed at the suggestion that the Management of Northern Rock should cost the tax Payer £13 billion and keep their jobs . …Just fancy ; its quite true .
Seconds Out
With the Lisbon Red Line fest coming up there is palpable feeling that tanks are drawing into position. Ruth Lea , and Gisela Stuart have attacked but on the other side Polly Toynbee sweetly implores “Don’t Let The Euro-crazie`s Drag Us Out Of The Club ".Breezing though it the main points I can summarise as follows
1 Murdoch Conspiracy
2 We wrote it .
3 Actually we get more sovereignty because we can pre-scrutinise and send back legislation
4 Qualified majority voting essential with 27 members
5 Can’t keep a 6 month Presidency
6 The Federal Dream is dead …?
7 If we vote it down we will be chucked out ..
8 Its technical and too complicated for a referendum
9 Thanks to Murdoch the very word Europe will get a no.
And positively ..we need it for the Environment , terror , crime , global warming , to stop the US in Iran..blah blah. As well as having to deal with EU single market without affecting it , like Norway or Switzerland .
Media Bias
It’s a bit confused and mostly argument by assertion , but I `ll just pick up one point , the supposed Murdoch media conspiracy. When I go into the shop to buy a Paper there is the Guardian and the Mirror and the New Statesman all of which I buy occasionally . If Murdoch dominates the Media its because his editors and in tune with the readers . If they weren’t ; he wouldn’t .With the BBC , I have no choice . The fact Polly relies on this patently weak scaffold suggests to me she is not telling the truth about her real motives . International Social Democracy mayhap ……..could be .
BBC Cracks Bias
Speaking of media bias, gosh what a lot of anti Liberal Jokes there were on the new “ News Quiz” presented by life long Liberal Sandi Toksvig… eerm not one just the usual Tory bashing . Not a single Brown joke yet on the Beeb despite the ample material he provides gleefully used by Private Eye.
Crack House
( BTW On Murdoch`s new Fox News they have a presenter called Greg Gutfield who said of
I’m-a-dinner-jacket’s visit ,“ So the foul smelling fruit bat Almadinejad spoke at that crack house known as Columbia University today.” …sounds impartial to me !)
Poll Dancing
Yes Conservatives have been Poll dancing for the last week but should we .Peter Kellner of U Gov said we saw .."The most violent earthquake of in public opinion in 25 years” in fact ,since the Falkland’s War. I have suspected for while, that we are in a new territory in which Poll results are untrustworthy rafts on a sea of volatility. When you see descriptions like “Black Tuesday”, you cannot help but notice the “scale” problem. With the long weeks of Lisbon squirming ahead there is at least a good chance of firming the lead into magnificent tumescence .
..and if the Lisbon ordeal doesn’t do him Cherie Blair`s Auto biography is coming out and its rumoured to paint a pretty appalling picture of Mac Broon…She`s baaaaaaack. Damn, I `ll have to buy it. It is said to include furious rows between B1 and B2..yummy
Finally Esther / Jeremy Clarkson( delete as applic)
Proof positive that anything is possible , Claire Short has found love again at 61 and with Mo Mowlam`s ex Jon Norton. It seems to have changed her a bit she said ..”
“Life is beautiful- despite all the bad stuff. You know nature is beautiful and a lot of people are lovely
Sweet. I feel sorry Paul McCartney had to find out ”Money can’t buy me love “ the hard way, but I `m still with second placed wit and long time hero Spike Milligan
All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy."
I have met Iain Dale twice .He’s a nice chap, perhaps slightly difficult to relax around, in that he is doing his job when you are just arseing around. He is something of a Jonah though, isn`t he. It is not one, but two car crash PR stunts he has been involved in .That Speech” ( Davis ) and the ill fated trip to Rwanda. Does this make him a little sensitive ?
Piety
On Blogger TV ,talking about the translators in Iraq he made the entirely irrelevant point that you go into politics( which I haven’t ) in order to help people. I `d say "shrill" was the mot juste .Well that’s one reason I suppose , but , this does not mean the suffering of the world are suddenly welcome at my front door and nor I expect at Dale Acres. I detected a residual defensiveness. I think ID was aghast at the bored contempt with which his own readers reacted to the Rwanderer debacle. With ‘that speech ‘now part of legend ..I feel a bit sorry for him.
Never Mind ….
Mathew Paris had a good article in the Spectator recently in which he pronounced himself a “ Epihenomenalist, meaning ,the tears cause the sadness not visa versa. He argues that the Party didn’t turn from David Davis because he made a rotten speech , they heard a rotten speech because they were turning away from him. This lets Dale off the hook and for finding this succour ..I claim my £5. By this means he explains the over praise of Cameron and the,odd suprise of the media on discovering Brown is boring.
Wit Cures All
I see Oscar Wilde has been voted the top wit in a survey to mark the opening of the digital TV channel. People who spoil Dinner by emoting about Africa, should reacquaint themselves with his sharp claws, usually to be found slicing into the tender flesh of the concerned classes. I offer this an instant corrective to earnestness
“One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”
I `m afraid my poor heart gets the better of me on such occasions….
Clarkson’s Saving Grace
Another name on the list of wits was Jeremy Clarkson which rather dents our confidence in its provenance. I have always thought Jeremy Clarkson was Esther Ranthzen for fat men , and not PJ O ` Rourke . Well, if he is PJ O Rourke then Cliff is Elvis ,(and he isn’t) . He voted Liberal most if his life and is in fact a bog standard media tart…......sorry but he is; so stop crying . Having said that, he did smoke on air , a Pipe actually. A spokesperson for Action On Smoking For Health ( ASH) has demanded an apology from the BBC,Clarkson…can`t be all bad then.
A Joke
On the subject of wit and humour I laughed and laughed at the suggestion that the Management of Northern Rock should cost the tax Payer £13 billion and keep their jobs . …Just fancy ; its quite true .
Seconds Out
With the Lisbon Red Line fest coming up there is palpable feeling that tanks are drawing into position. Ruth Lea , and Gisela Stuart have attacked but on the other side Polly Toynbee sweetly implores “Don’t Let The Euro-crazie`s Drag Us Out Of The Club ".Breezing though it the main points I can summarise as follows
1 Murdoch Conspiracy
2 We wrote it .
3 Actually we get more sovereignty because we can pre-scrutinise and send back legislation
4 Qualified majority voting essential with 27 members
5 Can’t keep a 6 month Presidency
6 The Federal Dream is dead …?
7 If we vote it down we will be chucked out ..
8 Its technical and too complicated for a referendum
9 Thanks to Murdoch the very word Europe will get a no.
And positively ..we need it for the Environment , terror , crime , global warming , to stop the US in Iran..blah blah. As well as having to deal with EU single market without affecting it , like Norway or Switzerland .
Media Bias
It’s a bit confused and mostly argument by assertion , but I `ll just pick up one point , the supposed Murdoch media conspiracy. When I go into the shop to buy a Paper there is the Guardian and the Mirror and the New Statesman all of which I buy occasionally . If Murdoch dominates the Media its because his editors and in tune with the readers . If they weren’t ; he wouldn’t .With the BBC , I have no choice . The fact Polly relies on this patently weak scaffold suggests to me she is not telling the truth about her real motives . International Social Democracy mayhap ……..could be .
BBC Cracks Bias
Speaking of media bias, gosh what a lot of anti Liberal Jokes there were on the new “ News Quiz” presented by life long Liberal Sandi Toksvig… eerm not one just the usual Tory bashing . Not a single Brown joke yet on the Beeb despite the ample material he provides gleefully used by Private Eye.
Crack House
( BTW On Murdoch`s new Fox News they have a presenter called Greg Gutfield who said of
I’m-a-dinner-jacket’s visit ,“ So the foul smelling fruit bat Almadinejad spoke at that crack house known as Columbia University today.” …sounds impartial to me !)
Poll Dancing
Yes Conservatives have been Poll dancing for the last week but should we .Peter Kellner of U Gov said we saw .."The most violent earthquake of in public opinion in 25 years” in fact ,since the Falkland’s War. I have suspected for while, that we are in a new territory in which Poll results are untrustworthy rafts on a sea of volatility. When you see descriptions like “Black Tuesday”, you cannot help but notice the “scale” problem. With the long weeks of Lisbon squirming ahead there is at least a good chance of firming the lead into magnificent tumescence .
..and if the Lisbon ordeal doesn’t do him Cherie Blair`s Auto biography is coming out and its rumoured to paint a pretty appalling picture of Mac Broon…She`s baaaaaaack. Damn, I `ll have to buy it. It is said to include furious rows between B1 and B2..yummy
Finally Esther / Jeremy Clarkson( delete as applic)
Proof positive that anything is possible , Claire Short has found love again at 61 and with Mo Mowlam`s ex Jon Norton. It seems to have changed her a bit she said ..”
“Life is beautiful- despite all the bad stuff. You know nature is beautiful and a lot of people are lovely
Sweet. I feel sorry Paul McCartney had to find out ”Money can’t buy me love “ the hard way, but I `m still with second placed wit and long time hero Spike Milligan
All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy."
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Vatican Sex Manual
Oh dear those Catholics do get themsleves into a pickle about sex don`t they
'The Vatican was last night at the centre of an unusually public s*x scandal after acknowledging it had suspended a senior official who was filmed apparently propositioning a young man in his office. Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, a capo ufficio, or section head, at the Vatican ministry responsible for the clergy, insisted yesterday he was not gay. He said he had posed as a homosexual to research a plot by satanists. A programme broadcast on October 1 by La7 - the only national channel not owned by Silvio Berlusconi or the state - included a sequence it said had been filmed secretly in a Vatican office. The six-minute sequence was said to have been captured by a young man who had come into contact with a Vatican official via an internet chatroom' - The Guardian
Because You`re Worth It ...
'England's rugby heroes are being urged to ruffle South Africa's feathers in the World Cup final - by messing up Percy Montgomery's precious hairstyle. Percy the Peacock's luxuriantly highlighted and coiffured barnet is his pride and joy. And the Springboks' deadly goal kicker HATES it being disturbed. He has scored the most points of any South African in history. Yet one of his hobbies - jewellery design - sounds decidedly girly. And his ex-coach says he may go into interior design when he hangs up his boots' - The Sun.
Time To Unite Against Europe
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I have been reading Devilled Kitchen of late and while I feel he would be improved by a thrashing before being obliged to stand for the national anthem , he does know his stuff on the Great Satan( Brussels ). He does jolly well puncturing the gaseous presumption of others but like all anarchists has little to suggest positively
.
I have myself accompanied the very fragrant Arthurian legend to the Bruges group and made pow wow with U Kippers. There is a cigarette paper between them and the Euro sceptic Conservative Party nowadays .A little emphasis aside we are brothers, that should be united in defeating Brown`s plot to turn this green land into a foul gulag . I do not therefore see the point of UKIP which may well do much harm
Mr. Kitchen would no doubt say that Conservatives want to reform the EU but are , (amazingly) , conservative about actually leaving it .True enough.. In the 70s our economy was stuck and the European power houses were racing ahead , Suez had crushed the belief of the country and we felt we could not accept a role and America`s Athens . The war was still a fresh memory, people forget that a midway point between now and the Luftwaffe flying over London was 1976 the year the Pistols came out . The words, “ Ever closer union “, had a quite different resonance . None foresaw that a peace promoting customs Union, would become the United states of Europe . If this Constitution is waved though that’s is exactly what we will have.
It was economic insecurity that propelled us in and the threat of it has been wielded effectively at Conservatives who , reasonably , appreciate independence , but less so than their mortgages. I am always telling UKIP ultras that they should emphasise the problems and expense of the EU less, and concentrate on establishing the firm economic case for life outside. Less of the past and more of the future, in other words .
I am delighted, therefore, to see Ruth Lea doing just that through an organisation called “Global Vision. The argument must be that in return for regaining control over our country and getting back £5000 for every household . We will be as rich as Norway and Switzerland who struggle by with a raft of bilateral treaties, the so called third way.
The word has changed since the 70s we are now the Daddy, while their economies sink into deeper sclerosis every year. Conservatives only need reassurance and I am one of them.
The time has come for UKIP to rejoin the Party and make the case, they will be pushing an open door and one held by timidity not principle .The great advantage of this would be to expose Nick Cleggs weak Euro flank..
The Perfect European Nick Clegg
Son of Russian Banker and Dutch mother this fluent multi-linguist was educated at Westminster, Cambridge and then Brussels internship, posting the usual apple for teacher articles in the Guardian en route . He has , of course , never had a real job or a real English life in any sense at all .He is a gilded gypsy internationalist with weed- shallow roots in the loam of England . He and his Spanish wife Gonzlaez Durantez ( not Clegg) can pitch up anywhere . We, however , have become attached to the drizzly beauty of the place over the last 1000 years . What right has he got to tell us what “we” should do when he does not accept there is a “we” and certainly does not belong to it For him “Flag A ( spit ...) means as much as Flag B. Such a man knows nothing of this country for all his good intentions
Monday, October 15, 2007
Another Posh Boy ?
So Farewell then Ming ....cards otherwise known as ,Nick Drew, have suggested the Liberals go further into gerontocracy by digging up Jeremy Thorpe, but sadly I think Cleggy is the boy. This will be a bit of a problem for our David . I have seen Clegg at a question time recording and he scrubs up well for a Liberal in a dull way.
He brings all the negative baggage Cameron does, he is a posh Westminster media princeling who has wastreled about in European sinecures and self congratulatory CV filling . He is stuck so far up the arse of the establishment only his feet can be seen. That’s his weakness; he’s a yes man and a creep , in fact he is David Milliband .He also has the classic achilles heel of Liberals ,opposing Trident, advocating the smoking ban and suggesting we dump America for the EU. On tax he is confused , he wishes to cut it , but typically for a liberals is unable to make hard choices about where.
A little quick to jump on Mings corpse as well. , if he accentuates his right wing modernising credentials he risks making the Liberals position entirely superfluous. His Liberalising domestic noises are somewhat undermined by his willingness to see democracy sold to Brussels. Not without admirable qualities but lacking definition , he has no discernible over arching philosophy.
Personally ,you might say posh boys are in vogue so why not another . I would say Cameron has succeeded despite the very great disadvantage of his background by his undeniable talent and bravery. If Clegg fails to match him , and he surely will , then he could be just the man to finish of this party for good . He risks appearing entirely ineffectual . On the the hand perhaps we can work with him.
The sayings of Clegg:
Moderniser
Mr Clegg, a moderniser, is one of the small group of economic liberals attempting to get the party to accept a more "credible" policy on tax and spend, as he tells us himself. The party, he says, needs to break some "taboos" on the NHS and make it more responsive to public needs.( Guardian 2005)
Libertarian
If legislation was a guarantee of greater public safety, this country would be the safest nation on earth. Since 1997, the Labour government has passed over 114,000 pages of legislation, and today's Queen's Speech offers us thousands of pages more.
The greatest burden of legislation has issued forth from the Home Office, which has produced a total of 59 bills since 1997. Undeterred by the fact that 10 years in office has led them to create over 3,000 new offences, today we learn that the Home Office is set to go into legislative overdrive once again with five more bills and the chance of another later in the year.......... More than 50 sections of the 2003 Criminal Justice Act haven't been put into effect, and yet John Reid is proposing new legislation to replace it altogether.....This is panic, push-button government at its worst. Labour uses legislation as a proxy for governing, …We also find ourselves with a country less free than before. The innocent will continue to be harassed by illiberal legislation - like identity cards and the DNA database - forced onto the statute book on little more than a ministerial whim.....
Immigration
The public debate on immigration is changing. In part, this is because of a step change in the number of economic migrants coming to the UK since the mid-1990s, and a sharp increase in those coming from central and eastern Europe following the latest enlargement of the EU…it now consistently features in the top three issues that voters say are of greatest concern to them……The government estimates this number to be up to 600,000 individuals. Do the Conservatives ….That is why the Liberal Democrats will be debating a policy proposal, at our party conference in mid-September, that a route of earned legalisation should be made available to those who have lived here unauthorised for many years.
Islam
Our aim must be to refute the medievalism of Al-Qaeda’s perverted world view, while ensuring that members of our mainstream Muslim communities feel that our liberal values of tolerance and diversity are their values too. We must combine critical engagement with the many grievances held among mainstream Muslims, without necessarily accepting them, drawing a clear red line beyond which liberal respect for other views does not exten
Europe
always tempting to believe you can have your cake and eat it, remain everyone's friend, playing one off against the other, never needing to make a choice. If only.
The EU and America are not enemies. Doctrinaire anti-Americanism is pointless. Little can be achieved on the global stage without a working partnership between Europe and the US. Nor is the EU perfect. While Blair and Bush may have committed a monumental error of judgment in Iraq, the opposition from Chirac and Schröder smacked of political opportunism. But Europe and America are different, starkly so when Washington is run by a cabal of neoconservative ideologues. Sometimes, a choice between the two is unavoidable. And membership of the EU does imply minimal standards of solidarity with its other members, and commitment to the principles of multilateralism and negotiation upon which the EU is founded.
He has voted for the smoking ban and against Trident
Braveheart Broon Mocks English
Just off to support England ...what did you think ?
The RFU have confirmed Mac Broon of broon`s invite to the final. If he dares show his face can’t we get some alternative lyrics going ? He has no right to be there . He is not English and he detests rugby’s rural strongholds and lower middle England profile .
Swing low ,sweet Polls for Brown
Phoney Scots can run along home
Swing low sweet Polls for Brown
Phoney Scots can run along home
I looked over Gordon and what did I see
( Phoney Scots can run along home )
A fraud who` s trying to crucify me
(Phoney Scots can run along home )
Swing low .....etc.
There he stands the thieving jock
(Phoney Scots can run along home)
He`ll be cheering for the Boks
(Phoney Scots can run along home )
He slaps my back and steals my purse
Phoney Scots ....
The sight of him makes us play worse
Phoney Scots .....
The Pictish Horde once stole our sheep
( Phoney Scots ..
Now he turns up here to creep
( Phoney Scots
Thirty billion pounds in crates
( Phoney Scots
Bound for Gordon’s client State
( Phoney Scots
Swing low ,sweet Polls for Brown
Phoney Scots can run along home
Swing low sweet Polls for Brown
Phoney Scots can run along home
There must be more verses
Blind Justice
Once envisioned as pure alabaster Blind Jutice is now a lascivious whore asking for a good seeing to. Convenience , Political Correctness and Moral Cowardice are all turning up for the gang bang
At least it could cure her headache:
By The Copenhagen Post
Published 15.10.07 10:00
A team of Danish researchers has found that having sex helps relieve even the strongest of headaches
The next time your partner says: ‘Not tonight honey, I’ve got a headache,’ you can show them the latest research results from a team of doctors at University Hospital’s sexology clinic that indicate sex actually helps relieve that painful pounding between the ears
Whether she thinks the pain in the arse is worth it is another matter
Burn Them With Ice
Frost bite . Ice can burn !
After a tremendous weekend of achievement there will be a temptation to gloat which I intend to give in to. The Labour Party have bravely run away at the first sniff of cordite smashing the Harriet Haraman-isation of yore . Iain Duncan Smith is reputed to have reacted to Burnham’s admission that marriage should be supported with one word “Shameless”. They have recanted their faith in Road tolls opting for mix and match local approach identical to the Conservatives . We know of course they currently stand like a guilty school girl in mummies big shoes with a sop to the IHT revolt. They have not begun to understand what it was all about though which was the principle that after tax I own what is mine not provisionally but eternally until I lose it or sell it .Nor are they likely to make much headway pointing at unearned property appreciation when people are sacrificing everything to be involved and it is mostly driven by immigration anyway.
Blairy beasts are creeping from the night to wards the camp fire and behind dangerously glittering eyes fatty Falconer has started muttering about the lack of a vision .
A vision , of course, is something you take to the electorate and hope to gain their mandate to enact . Not something you demonstarte whilst in power.
Les Bleus en Angleterre are soaring majestically aloft with a five point lead over the Labour Party and there is every reason to hope this will improve with the Lisbon summit to come where Flash Gordon will be obliged to dig furiously despite being in a deep deep mendacious hole on Europe . Brown’s plot to come back bloody and unbowed squealing “ red lines “, is prepared for . I fully expect Devil’s Kitchen to write his script in anticipation for the amusement of one and all.
On top of this as I may have mentioned England out beefed Les Bleus en France with a performance nothing like as stoic as some have suggested. In fact they threw the ball out whenever it seems advantageous to do so and I won`t have this Southern hemisphere whinging . What , I ask , do you call the 7th and 8th place pay off . Answer “The Bledisloe, cup”
Wilko and Cameron face similar problems now . Rewoodite cavaliers may be tempted t go haring off after the stragglers where they will be picked off by BBC snipers. The discipline of a balanced approach to the country may be abandoned in the thrill of it all . this would be fatal for the Conservative Party. I would suggest changing tack completely and diving into Labour territory with some serious thinking on the demographic time bomb of care for the elderly . England`s rugby players similarly risk losing focus and discipline. They have won so far by being more in the zone than their opponents and they will have to maintain superhuman levels of intensity to beat South Africa .
If there is one thing that defines a winner its how he reacts when victory is near but not won. Does he get the proverbial nose bleed in the penalty area and sky the ball of does he carefully pick his spot and administer the coup de grace with a deadly control. Keep to the middle ground Cameron. Maintain the intensity England .
Burn them with ice !
What Kind Of Dick Is He ?
The subject of Brown’s personality is entirely valid as this is the only thing that has changed from the hugely unpopular Blair regime. He has made it the issue . As he is a weird obsessive who eats Lizards and digests them in a pouch down the left hand side of his face , it was unwise of him. I was wondering who he was most like
Richard The Third ?
Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this son (or sun) of York
(The speech reveals Richard's jealousy and ambition, as his brother, King Edward the Fourth rules the country successfully. Richard is an ugly hunchback, describing himself as "rudely stamp'd" and "deformed, unfinish'd", who cannot "strut before a wanton ambling nymph." He responds to the anguish of his condition with an outcast's credo: "I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days.")
Richard Nixon?
“……years of campaigning and losing had worn Nixon down. In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon famously blamed the media for favoring his opponent. At a post election press conference, a bitter Nixon lashed out at reporters who, he said "are so delighted that I have lost." He added:
“ For 16 years, ever since the Hiss case, you've had a lot of—a lot of fun—that you've had an opportunity to attack me and I think I've given as good as I've taken.....But as I leave you I want you to know—just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference. [5]”
I wont` say which I think is more Brown-like but I will say ‘ For god`s sake guard the Princes”
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Free Education For All
Well at least Compass who I really must stop irritating ...snicker
So many slaps to hand out and so little time....
RED LINES
The red lines are worthless or , at the very least, subject to quiet legal challenge, which is , of course , the point . Even the Labour dominated scrutiny committee agrees . What more do you want ? The Union was sold off by Labour over devolution and now exists only as a shameless exercise in Gerrymandering anyway . The horse has bolted but you are right to see the way the division will finally come . Freedom within Europe says Salmon.... good luck with that !
EU DOMINANCE
The Treaty of Rome is necessarily a Constitution in that it sorts areas of competence between national supra national level. Amendments to it are therefore inevitably Constructional by nature. The renaming of the Constitution as a Treaty relies on collective amnesia regarding this fact for its effect and is a monstrous fraud . It’s a Constitution
LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY
You would like to see concrete examples of how we are losing our sovereignty ? Are you serious?!
Well what about the right to decide who may or may not come and live in this country “ henceforth referred to as the “car park”. What about the right to make our own laws ? Trade with whom we wish ? What about , as a small example , the right to govern the provision of services like Employers Liability…you thought FSA? Think again. Back to the big picture no-one disputes that between 70 and 80% of our laws now emanate from the EU. Remember the EU parliament is no such thing is does not develop or offer policy is rubber stamps the commission which is a bunch of un-elected bureaucrats . Do you want to me to list some ….it would be boring n but very easy. Why not just have a look at Devil’s Kitchen. 61 vetos will be lost by the Constitution including such peccadilloes as our own foreign Policy. Does no-one here care about this country at all , except as an illusion by which everyone tries to get everyone else to pay for them ?
THE EU ISSUE
There is a lot of humbug talked about the EU it is not a complex issue . Do we as the 5th largest economy in the world want to be ruled by foreigners or not is the only question? The foreign role of the EU is laughable , it has to ask the US to help sort out its own back yard provoking the usual bitter inferiority complex and carping . What about domestically ? Many would say …whats the problem , they make nice laws about rights and employees ..Well fine . Why not then, take no further part in the joke we casually refer to as democracy and hand that expensive pantomime over to Germany who will , I am sure , make some lovely laws for us . After all Germany is quite a nice country they may well do a great job.
Personally I have a sentimental attachment to the idea of having some say in the future of my own country but with such estimable goodies to be had , no wonder so many people couldn’t give a toss.
PRO EU MEDIA BIAS
As far as a warped debate is concerned there is perhaps no subject about which the BBC has been so resolutely biased and paternalist in its arrogant attitude to its paymasters ..us . It began when Jack De Manio ..( you will not know him) was expelled from the Today programme for his anti EEC views ( confirmed by then pre senile Hattersley. This bias pertains directly to Brown’s current and self inflicted travails ,(he allowed others to believe he was not a Euro-phile but now we see he is )
Evidence of BBC bias
In the Summer of 2004 the Centre fro Policy Studies published a damming report about the coverage given by the BBC to Blair’s announcement that he was minded to have a referendum on the Constitution( AKA the end of the country).The author s established that during the European elections of 1999 in 250 hours of main national news coverage by the BBC not a single Labour Euro sceptic had appeared on air !! Incredible .
ARROGANCE OF THE PROGRESSIVE ( Faux gressive)
I happened to be reading the Guardian the other day and I noticed this telling remark from Michael White . Describing Brown he said…
“ Now he sounds relentlessly defensive as he manoeuvres to see off the referendum which the usual suspects , Tories , media and Union Slow Learners , demand “
Union slow learners ….lovely . I think the progressives are forgetting who pays for their careers and the media is considerably more pro EU than the people largely due to the unflagging efforts of the state broadcaster . A majority are against the Constitution by whatever means . Obviously it is a different matter to other laws as it is signing away the right of all future electorates to vote on policies effecting their country.
JT WRONG ON PR
Why , by the way do you always say that FPTP allows a quarter of the electorate to dictate . The Conservatives are on 43% to Labour `s 36 today (ICM).In an English parliament this would equate to something approaching 60% of the popular vote in England in which more voted Conservative than Labour in the last election.43 % would give only a single figure majority to the Conservatives due to the boundary system and Scottish small constituencies . For a good majority they would need say 45% .
Thats an awful lot more than a quarter so you are profoundly misrepresenting the PR case. Its 45% not 25% . Simple
ICM today report that a majority of labour voters as well as others want nothing to do with signing the country away. The Angels in Marble …they may save us yet . Brown is lying and I believe the timing of the next EU round may have decided him in his electorus interruptus
MORE BBC BIAS- THE POLITICS SHOW
PS Having just watched the politics show I see the BBC is beyond reform . Twenty minute on Party funding with no mention of the Unions , cash for Honours or Cameron’s offer of a £50,000 cap per donation. Ten minutes on care referring to funds as “Government Money“ not ‘tax payers money’ throughout .David ..where -did - my -brain -go Lammy for afters . Does this count as a Party political broadcast by the Labour Party and if not why not ?
Grrrrrrr….pay attention at the back
So many slaps to hand out and so little time....
RED LINES
The red lines are worthless or , at the very least, subject to quiet legal challenge, which is , of course , the point . Even the Labour dominated scrutiny committee agrees . What more do you want ? The Union was sold off by Labour over devolution and now exists only as a shameless exercise in Gerrymandering anyway . The horse has bolted but you are right to see the way the division will finally come . Freedom within Europe says Salmon.... good luck with that !
EU DOMINANCE
The Treaty of Rome is necessarily a Constitution in that it sorts areas of competence between national supra national level. Amendments to it are therefore inevitably Constructional by nature. The renaming of the Constitution as a Treaty relies on collective amnesia regarding this fact for its effect and is a monstrous fraud . It’s a Constitution
LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY
You would like to see concrete examples of how we are losing our sovereignty ? Are you serious?!
Well what about the right to decide who may or may not come and live in this country “ henceforth referred to as the “car park”. What about the right to make our own laws ? Trade with whom we wish ? What about , as a small example , the right to govern the provision of services like Employers Liability…you thought FSA? Think again. Back to the big picture no-one disputes that between 70 and 80% of our laws now emanate from the EU. Remember the EU parliament is no such thing is does not develop or offer policy is rubber stamps the commission which is a bunch of un-elected bureaucrats . Do you want to me to list some ….it would be boring n but very easy. Why not just have a look at Devil’s Kitchen. 61 vetos will be lost by the Constitution including such peccadilloes as our own foreign Policy. Does no-one here care about this country at all , except as an illusion by which everyone tries to get everyone else to pay for them ?
THE EU ISSUE
There is a lot of humbug talked about the EU it is not a complex issue . Do we as the 5th largest economy in the world want to be ruled by foreigners or not is the only question? The foreign role of the EU is laughable , it has to ask the US to help sort out its own back yard provoking the usual bitter inferiority complex and carping . What about domestically ? Many would say …whats the problem , they make nice laws about rights and employees ..Well fine . Why not then, take no further part in the joke we casually refer to as democracy and hand that expensive pantomime over to Germany who will , I am sure , make some lovely laws for us . After all Germany is quite a nice country they may well do a great job.
Personally I have a sentimental attachment to the idea of having some say in the future of my own country but with such estimable goodies to be had , no wonder so many people couldn’t give a toss.
PRO EU MEDIA BIAS
As far as a warped debate is concerned there is perhaps no subject about which the BBC has been so resolutely biased and paternalist in its arrogant attitude to its paymasters ..us . It began when Jack De Manio ..( you will not know him) was expelled from the Today programme for his anti EEC views ( confirmed by then pre senile Hattersley. This bias pertains directly to Brown’s current and self inflicted travails ,(he allowed others to believe he was not a Euro-phile but now we see he is )
Evidence of BBC bias
In the Summer of 2004 the Centre fro Policy Studies published a damming report about the coverage given by the BBC to Blair’s announcement that he was minded to have a referendum on the Constitution( AKA the end of the country).The author s established that during the European elections of 1999 in 250 hours of main national news coverage by the BBC not a single Labour Euro sceptic had appeared on air !! Incredible .
ARROGANCE OF THE PROGRESSIVE ( Faux gressive)
I happened to be reading the Guardian the other day and I noticed this telling remark from Michael White . Describing Brown he said…
“ Now he sounds relentlessly defensive as he manoeuvres to see off the referendum which the usual suspects , Tories , media and Union Slow Learners , demand “
Union slow learners ….lovely . I think the progressives are forgetting who pays for their careers and the media is considerably more pro EU than the people largely due to the unflagging efforts of the state broadcaster . A majority are against the Constitution by whatever means . Obviously it is a different matter to other laws as it is signing away the right of all future electorates to vote on policies effecting their country.
JT WRONG ON PR
Why , by the way do you always say that FPTP allows a quarter of the electorate to dictate . The Conservatives are on 43% to Labour `s 36 today (ICM).In an English parliament this would equate to something approaching 60% of the popular vote in England in which more voted Conservative than Labour in the last election.43 % would give only a single figure majority to the Conservatives due to the boundary system and Scottish small constituencies . For a good majority they would need say 45% .
Thats an awful lot more than a quarter so you are profoundly misrepresenting the PR case. Its 45% not 25% . Simple
ICM today report that a majority of labour voters as well as others want nothing to do with signing the country away. The Angels in Marble …they may save us yet . Brown is lying and I believe the timing of the next EU round may have decided him in his electorus interruptus
MORE BBC BIAS- THE POLITICS SHOW
PS Having just watched the politics show I see the BBC is beyond reform . Twenty minute on Party funding with no mention of the Unions , cash for Honours or Cameron’s offer of a £50,000 cap per donation. Ten minutes on care referring to funds as “Government Money“ not ‘tax payers money’ throughout .David ..where -did - my -brain -go Lammy for afters . Does this count as a Party political broadcast by the Labour Party and if not why not ?
Grrrrrrr….pay attention at the back
Engerland , Engerland ...
For some reason I seem to have come over all English Nationalist over on the Compass Left Site . I feel a bit mean actually , Eleanor seems quite nice…..still , you have to bash those sweaties
Hey Newmania from London
I'm seriously worried about you, is your medication overdue.
If your not talking a load of old ihts. Your going off on one about the scots.
Are you Kelvin Mckenzie in disguise?
Seriously, I wouldn't sink to your lower levels by insulting anyone down south.
Intollerant scots and gentler English people Eh! Your living in the land of make believe.
I will actually be visiting London soon,
is it just the Queen we bow to or all our great benefactors in London? Please no more regurgitated bile about how we sponge off you. We all pay our taxes
and work for minimum wage. Things are different in London from elsewhere in Britain. So don't kid yourself.
Eleneor
I "sink" therfore I am. ...
Can we have our £30 billion back then ? Can we have free further education then ? Can we have free care for the elderly then ? Can we have free prescriptions as well ?
Can we have the same right to determine the future of our country as you do ? Is that too much to ask ?
Can we have more than one man in the cabinet from the South of England where all the money comes from and most of the people (Hutton)?
The connection between the Nationalist movement in Scotland and a tribal notion of the country is often ignored but very much there. Are you really confident that , Like London , the indigenous people could be out-numbered in the course of ten years with so little trouble. I doubt it .
Its easy to be superior in an all white homogenous cohesive country. We need no lectures about tolerance from the Scots .
It is quite clear that the two countries want nothing to do with one another and the opinion of the English has swung dramatically behind an English Parliament over the last few years . The idea that we should support Scottish sportsmen has died confronted with the unrelenting bile poured on the English for as long as I can remember. Britain exists , in peoples minds the way the Empire did n the 60s for old buffers on Park benches . When Scotland went our of the world cup England cheered for the first time .
Its over . Cordial relations will not be resumed until the a a fair dispensation is re-established . There is absolutely no argument for the current inequity except that it benefit’s the Labour Party. Yet again , we are log jammed by a Party concerned with nothing but keeping power by any means . Remember it was the Conservative party that tried to defend the union , 200 rebelled at the time. The Labour Party did not care about the consequences but acted to save its sorry hide.
How we laugh at Gordon Brown’s newly acquired Union Jack Underpants. Phoney , empty , dishonest and finished . His flirtations with PR are , by the way , motivated by the impending Celtic crisis for the left. You are not much interested in Constitutional issues here are you but you may rest assured that Mr. Brown is ….Britain this ..Britain that ….what a clown.
Come On England ! Wilkinson , Tait , Worsley Sheridan heroes all !!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
WE WON WE WON WE WON!!
I always thought it was going to be France’s year . I fancied their pack to give the All Blacks trouble up front and thats the only way to beat them .When they came off that astonishing win , I just thought , …at home , strength class and some terrific impact players on the bench , I think they are going to take this one.
I didn’t even feel bad about it . The way England came into this tournament a noble exit at the semi final stage would have been more than you hoped for . We had improved with every game true, but my money was on France to carry the momentum through, and win the world cup . It was not to be; and how England have turn this around since losing by 36 points to the Boks is a sporting legend playing out in real time .
Its starts up front with Sheridan and co. and if there is one thing that has propelled England it has been their brutal efficiency in the tight and line out time maul. The line out has been effective with the throw in a great improvement on the days of Thompson and the fitness throughout a revelation. Behind ,the technique of Andy Gomarsall has been a joy to watch . My brother in law knows him quite well and I have watched him stuck behind Dawson for years , always ,always, a class act . It was his bad luck to be in a queue behind the best English scrum half we have had , but in many ways he has a lot more to offer .His service is far better than Dawson’s , his kicking infinitely ahead and all round linking play very good indeed.
Wilkinson has not been kicking at his very best, especially out of hand ,but he seems to galvanise the rest with his decision making and solidity. Sackie has been magnificent and I have just loved the old man Jason Robinson showing he is still a sportsman from another dimension. Surely the outstanding player in both codes of our generation . He managed a marvellous run tonight England should have capitalised on.
Tonight was the night that Mathew Tait fulfilled the promise he has long shown. Always quick he showed how a lighter centre can flourish by getting the man down and getting back into the line at breathtaking speed. England were not once short of numbers . Ipkiss came on to great effect as well.
The defining moment of the night , apart from Wilko`s kicks , was Worsely tapping the froggie winger when he was in for a try . The ensuing support keeping Chagal away from that precious line showed all the qualities that have made this team of written off no - hopers into potential champions.
What now ? They have to have a chance . They have played and beaten better teams than either of those in the other semi ,., in my view, but this sort of thinking is not needed. Somehow they have to maintain the awesome test rugby mental zone they are in. In the next week , think about nothing but what you can do better ,what your job is , do not think about what it means and how close you are . It will take superhuman concentration but only now do I start to think we might just win it .
Come On England You Have Made Us Proud History Awaits !!!
Friday, October 12, 2007
England Expects
Andrew Sheridan
Age: 27 Caps: 17
Measures: 6ft 5ins/19 stone
Nickname: Big Ted
I realise of course, that there are far more important thing than Politics namely the chance that England can come together as a Team and beat France . I predicted as long time ago that France would give the All Blacks scare . They have a mighty pack and class from 1 to 15 .. With England’s perceived strength in the pack as well we can expect a titanic clash of the big men this weekend and Sheridan has to dominate .
Josh Lewsey will be qualified to give the team talk. He has demonstrated a subtle grasp of team dynamics as we see in this discussion of ‘ having a settled side’ in the Sunday Times
“.....in the absence of a settled society history has shown law and order break down, the social hierarchy constantly changes , organisation disintegrates and eventually the tribe fragments ( This is rugby he`s on about ).In desperate time humans will call ,for desperate measures so the quickest and most natural successor to a time of chaos is usually in the form of one voice – a sole decisions maker with a clear and precise vision for the people to follow ( still on rugby remember...)1790s France and 1920s Russia spring to mind ...( ..and the rugby ?)”
...Yeeeuck. Lets hope he is a little more focussed tomorrow . We have won the adolescent poseurs world cup at least
PS and I am not having a semi naked man without some babe action as well . Football related actually but England supporters at least
Rule One...No Cheating
You might wonder if there was a politician anywhere who looked more pitiful than newly duffed up Judy Brown who was so amazed that Mr. Punch out in a appearance ate HOP.
“That’s the way to do it “. I believe I have found one ....
'A former Mexican presidential candidate who was disqualified from the Berlin marathon for taking a short cut denies cheating. Roberto Madrazo clocked the best time for his age but officials found he had skipped a nine mile section of the course. But Mr Madrazo, 55, says he never claimed to have finished the race and walked to the finishing line after having to stop running. He blamed political opponents for the furore surrounding the incident, which has seen him lampooned in his home country' - Ananova.
Reeeb a reeeba Caaaarnival!!!!
Kill The Pig .....humanely
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning"
Mr.,has-to-be-first-with-everything Dale has blogged about the Polly volte face already today and sure enough she tears into Brown , like a posh hypocritical tigress in this morning’s Grauniad..
“ When Cameron threw phoney at him in PMQs it stuck like napalm , he can duck the bottles but phoney will stick....his comprehensive spending review smacked of panicky comprehensive cowardice “ she shrieks .
Can this be the same woman who with unerring political instinct summed up the forthcoming Age of Brown in the following gushing and now hysterically funny terms .? ...I think it can(* barely restrained giggling fit *)......
“Change will not be cosmetic, not just swapping a dapper smile for an old sobersides . There will come a main of conviction , of brain, intensity and seriousness , a strategist not a mere tactician; a long termist , not a quick fixer, a man on a moral mission....”
The Metropolitan University of Toynbee( previously Toynee Polly) is an important figure for the left. He true wish , often stated , is to see taxes rise to Swedish levels at about 70% of GDP . In this she is typical of the Labour activist. They has been happy to look the other way while Brown has fostered a Nationalist ( almost racists) small c Conservative relationship with the Mail as long as he was free on taxation . This constituency has chuckled quietly as brown has spun successfully, concealing his true mission “ Labour at its best when it is Labour “
. Now she has realised that by continuing dishonesty Blair and then Flash have succeeded in surreptitiously nudging the state forward but have forfeited the debate, which they have lost. Her terror now is that the Conservatives will push another Pawn forward and that’s why she signals a 'Grande Non'.... "Your licence to deceive has expired Flash, you must get back in the game and justify tax rises.”
This will be suicide for Brown. Go on Dave ...... he cannot follow you any more , how about a tweak on income tax at low levels. Why not ? Gord –help-us has just borrowed another £4 billion , use that for a fig leaf..
Poor Brown , trapped blind and helpless... ....ooer a strange violence is clouding my brain
“ Come away There's going to be trouble. Kill the beast! Kill the beast!
Kill the pig! Slit her throat! Bash her in!”
‘Lord of the Flies’ ?....I don`t condone it ...I do understand it
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Immoral Compass
Moral Compass
Interesting isn’t it how selectively outraged some folk can be. As we know Councillor Miranda Grell was convicted under the Representations of People Act 1983 when she invented a story that her Lib Dem rival was a paedophile .The ruse worked, allowing her to overturn a 6oo majority in the Leyton ward. The fiction was all the more disgraceful, becaus her rival , Barry Smith, is openly gay and has lived with his Malaysian partner for 13 years .
She said:
“ Don`t vote for barry because he is a paedophile “
And .....
“Have you heard about him sleeping with Thai boys ? His boyfriend is sixteen and he is dirty”
Lovely......
She has lost her job working for Ken Livingstone’s aide Nicky Gavron but remains on the board of that estimable collection of 70s refugee lefties Compass They are ”Standing by her”. We recall that Compass published a nasty dossier branding Boris a racists on the basis of limericks written when he was six but obviously homophobic and vicious slurs in the real world are quite alright . I have speculated at the close links with the GLA this body seems to have .We are unable to track its funding which is swathed in mystery .We can only guess ; but if the activities of Compass are anything to go by , her fall from grace will not last long .
Head of Sleazy Lies ? ...probably pays a bit in the GLA. I look forward to congratulating her on promotion
Interesting isn’t it how selectively outraged some folk can be. As we know Councillor Miranda Grell was convicted under the Representations of People Act 1983 when she invented a story that her Lib Dem rival was a paedophile .The ruse worked, allowing her to overturn a 6oo majority in the Leyton ward. The fiction was all the more disgraceful, becaus her rival , Barry Smith, is openly gay and has lived with his Malaysian partner for 13 years .
She said:
“ Don`t vote for barry because he is a paedophile “
And .....
“Have you heard about him sleeping with Thai boys ? His boyfriend is sixteen and he is dirty”
Lovely......
She has lost her job working for Ken Livingstone’s aide Nicky Gavron but remains on the board of that estimable collection of 70s refugee lefties Compass They are ”Standing by her”. We recall that Compass published a nasty dossier branding Boris a racists on the basis of limericks written when he was six but obviously homophobic and vicious slurs in the real world are quite alright . I have speculated at the close links with the GLA this body seems to have .We are unable to track its funding which is swathed in mystery .We can only guess ; but if the activities of Compass are anything to go by , her fall from grace will not last long .
Head of Sleazy Lies ? ...probably pays a bit in the GLA. I look forward to congratulating her on promotion
He Towers Above Us
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The news that David Cameron is picking the wings from Brown like a ruffianly boy with an insect at PMQs does not improve my mood as the odour of mendacity permeates everything while this toxicity infects the country.. You almost start to believe anything can be good and true.....I `m sick of it
I did, however, see a really heart-warming programme last night, about the oddly unlikely subject of tall people . Chris Greening has been the tallest man in the UK for about 40 years , or at least until recently he was, and he was just one of those delightful characters that restores your faith in Televisions ability move and entertain.
There are now 25 people over 7 ft in the UK but when Chris hit his colossal top out, in the 60s , there were none except him . He suffered from a tumour on the pituitary gland which has hurt his health and bones as well as supercharging his growth ; life must have been difficult . When you saw this giant smile ruefully at his inability to get out of a car you immediately warmed to him.
He has turned his difficulties to his advantage and has made a living from adverts .A lonely life in some ways, but he had a marvellous gentle self effacing sense of humour about it.
The day came when his agent , himself a “ small person” of similar vintage turned up to reveal his tallest man title was gone . He took the news with equanimity and the two friends wandered off into a wood chatting about the future.
The sight of this most odd of couples was straight from Tolkein , and their obvious liking for eachother informed one of the most affecting scenes I can recall. The agent hopped on crutches enthusing, while the gentle giant boomed lugubriously down at him .An elegiac picture of extraordinary and surprising beauty
What a nice bloke . Good luck Chris a big man in more ways than one .
Drowning In Lies
Am I starting to become psychotically obsessed? It is a distinct possibility; or is that every time I turn around a new autumnal offering of freshly fallen Brown lies wimples tremulously in the wind and settles on me ,as if I were a babe in the wood ?
ABUSE OF POWERS
Alistair Darling, he if the eyebrows that waggle like mating catepillars, confidently asserts that there is nothing like the £3.5 billion claimed by Osborne for the IHT revolution. £650 million he knows, as a fact , is all the Piggy bank contains .
How does he know ? Nicholas McPherson , the permanent secretary, has been refusing access to the estimates he has of this windfall for months, on the basis that it would deny the government the, “ Opportunity to present its polices in a coherent fashion” and that it would “weaken the governments decision making “... . This may strike some of you as like denying a fish its right to Pole Vault but that , oh best beloved , was the story..
This noble posture was abandoned within minutes when the government ordered him to spit it out so they could use figures against the Conservatives in time for the Evening news. As we see , this is the new politics in which the politicisation of civil servants will not continue ..... grrrrrrrr.
LYING ABOUT MOD MONEY
One of the many areas of disgraceful incompetence we have “ enjoyed “ is the appalling state military accommodation has been allowed to fall into. Here, once again, we meet that increasingly commonplace beast, the ‘free floating number’ .With the political integrity, which has become this governments ‘leit motif’, Darling responded belatedly to outrage of our brave lads and lasses were living in badger sets He promised of £80 million of brand new shiny unaccounted-for money. It becomes like the wearying 69th refrain of “On The Good Ship Venus “, does it not ? Turns out, this £80 million is not for repairs but is in fact going into SLAM the pot for new accommodation for singles . Furthermore, the money was not new but was netted from the sale of Connaught barracks for development.
In fact family accommodation is owned by Annington a subsidiary of a Japanese Bank and the MOD keeps only 25% of the profits when they sell the homes which they do not recycle into upkeep. Darling posed in front of the irrelevant SLAM beds waffling about this, “ free floating number” , avoiding the dosser hovels they stuff heroes into , the family accommodation.
HIDING DEBT
Every paper , looks askance at Brown’s bid to solve debt by further borrowing . behind the scenes he is keeping up the fight to keep £30 billion private finance initiative borrowing off the balance sheet and create increasingly elaborate fictions to save his 40% rule . We thought that when the treasury agreed to adopt international accountancy standards the news would be out but the Treasury are now sating these rules do not apply to them . Thus Darling continues to use the flattering old figures keeping the corpse tucked none to subtly under the carpet. It stinks .
THE MIRROR
Did I say every paper ? Sorry the Mirror is going with McAnn story...
WHATS GOING ON ?
My next post is going to be good news story. I `m just sick to my stomach of this endless miasma of half truths lies and cynical disrespect for the electorate . What the hell is going on brown
Like Wilson he could justifiably answer “ I `m going on”
PLay The Brown Game
This is good game for the car . Who is the first to run out of valid criticisms of BROWN....
1 Selling our Gold reserves at half price
2 .Let Westinghouse -together with Britain`s leading edge nuclear power base- be sold to Toshiba weeks before he decided we needed nuclear capacity after all..”
3 The delivery and conception of tax credits which have got no one into work and have caused endless misery
4 Sabotaging Frank Fields proposed welfare reforms and thereby causing unimaginable social degradation
4The handling of the NHS Computers overspend and impossibly incompletion delivery
5 The Doctors Contracts
6 the electorus interrruptus …of course
7 The attempt to fool us with a ludicrously obvious conjuring trick over income tax
8 the attempt to do the same again with the non tax cut of IHT
9 The attempt to use British troops to disrupt a Conservative Party Conference and to misrepresent the cut
10 Alienating the Press by announcing his electoru interruptus to Andrew Marr only , his pet Poodle
11 Flirting with Public sector Unions on better deals to calm them before his abortive election and thereby creating unrest .( Strikes now to follow)
12 Continuing to employ discredited Chime Research group headed by Deborah Mattison despite her association w with the Smith Institute and NHS contracts won coincidentally to her free survey work
13 Reheating all that old Blairite crap about a big tent and “ above the fray” with Mercer and Bercow and others none of whom are more than pygmy sized
14 .Omitting to foresee that he would be claiming to be an admirer when he said of Margaret Thatcher “There simply aren’t enough City speculators without a conscience to keep her in power”
15 Neutering Academies whilst pretending to support them by handing control back control to the LA
16Dropping experiments in privatisation for the NHS
17 Creating a target for targets
Wow there are just hundreds …… You are welcome to augment but I can do this all the way to Scotland
1 Selling our Gold reserves at half price
2 .Let Westinghouse -together with Britain`s leading edge nuclear power base- be sold to Toshiba weeks before he decided we needed nuclear capacity after all..”
3 The delivery and conception of tax credits which have got no one into work and have caused endless misery
4 Sabotaging Frank Fields proposed welfare reforms and thereby causing unimaginable social degradation
4The handling of the NHS Computers overspend and impossibly incompletion delivery
5 The Doctors Contracts
6 the electorus interrruptus …of course
7 The attempt to fool us with a ludicrously obvious conjuring trick over income tax
8 the attempt to do the same again with the non tax cut of IHT
9 The attempt to use British troops to disrupt a Conservative Party Conference and to misrepresent the cut
10 Alienating the Press by announcing his electoru interruptus to Andrew Marr only , his pet Poodle
11 Flirting with Public sector Unions on better deals to calm them before his abortive election and thereby creating unrest .( Strikes now to follow)
12 Continuing to employ discredited Chime Research group headed by Deborah Mattison despite her association w with the Smith Institute and NHS contracts won coincidentally to her free survey work
13 Reheating all that old Blairite crap about a big tent and “ above the fray” with Mercer and Bercow and others none of whom are more than pygmy sized
14 .Omitting to foresee that he would be claiming to be an admirer when he said of Margaret Thatcher “There simply aren’t enough City speculators without a conscience to keep her in power”
15 Neutering Academies whilst pretending to support them by handing control back control to the LA
16Dropping experiments in privatisation for the NHS
17 Creating a target for targets
Wow there are just hundreds …… You are welcome to augment but I can do this all the way to Scotland
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Dear Aquaintance ...
New mania ,him see many great posts on Croydonian ; him laugh ha ha .
Love the last one in which the linguistically sensitive Mr.C suffers unbearable agonies confronted with 'The Scottish Government’s response to the UK Government Consultation on the “Future of Nuclear Power”. In vast rolling tundra of a document the great man has discovered ‘90 references to Scotland and Scottish (excluding the footnotes) in around 3,600 words - let's say one 'scot' per 40 words. There are however “ no references to Westminster, national government or the United Kingdom (just 'the UK'), and one 'British' . "The UK Government “ is the perpetual villain of the peace . Ooooo its like that is it ‘The UK government’ .Its as if I started calling my father by his first name. Thus Salmon snips with cold malevolence at the remaining threads holding the countries together. Cue Brown’s new book “ Union Jack Underpants Why Are They So Comfy?”.
Vision On ?
“I `m sorry we can`t return your policies to you "
George Osbourne accused the prime minister of having to wait for the Tories to tell him what his vision for the country was. "Now a week after we put forward our plans the prime minister and the chancellor are scrabbling around in a panic trying to think of something to say."
You`ve seen the copy cat policies on Non Doms and IHT ? This is new and uncharted territory surely? First of all the opinion polls set the date for the election for this rancid and bankrupt government and now they are setting their headline Policy according to the same Polls . Naturally they have slightly changed it but can you imagine the conversations that must have taken place
“Darling How can we pretend we were going to do this ? “
“Darling how can we make it look as if it is not stealing the Conservative’s Policy”
“Darling have you called CCHQ to ask them what my next vision is ?”
“Darling I ....just want to be Prime minister...boo hoo hoo....waaa!”
Something quite sinister is happening here, this is no longer government a system of belief or leadership leadership , its an exercise in mortal limbo . Surely the British people are not as protoplasmicly formless as to accommodate this new low and react with less brains than Pavlov’s yipping canines. ...... Surely ?
Our Broken Society is "Fixed"
Its all in the breeding y`know ( A Lippizana prances)
The Telegraph does make me laugh. The poor Editor must have huge sympathy with David Cameron trying to free the Conservatives from the grip of gerontocracy but how can he inject youth ? Answer ;they breed them like posh little ponies . All their ‘rays of sunshine’ are out of, and by, some faded celeb writer of pundit . Sam Leith , the Gordon gel and Celia Walden for starters . Celia Walden who does a harmlessly skippable chit chat collation is , of course ,the daughter of former Conservative Party Member of Parliament George Walden.
There is no little irony here .George Walden has railed , this past two years ,against the nepotism and privilege from whence Conservative Leader came . An excerpt of his book “ The New Elites” was trailed in the Daily Mail as “ George Walden turns the flame thrower of on David Cameron” The book, a sometimes perceptive , rantothon ,sets out describe the media /class nexus of the really powerful . Gorgeous , in his estimation, George came through the Grammar school route, now closed in our increasingly classist society. He seems as insecure about his literary learning as the geekiest autodidact.
If I found , “ New Elites “, mixed ,” Time To Emigrate “, his next, is a sour preening hymn to the talent and ,( apparently ), wealth , of George Walden . I recommend you avoid it .I wonder how this acid tongued Thersites spitting hate at privilege and cant, squared his posture, with wangling his dull daughter a job ant the Telegraph ?
A while ago the DT featured a girl who was ordinary but happened to be a good . She wrote about how it might be possible for her to buy a flat if she stayed in for ten years but in reality she’d be enjoying herself when she could . She took you into the world pubs and buses you know. A world that has not been much chronicled by the high stepping Lipizzanas .I have not seen her since. If talent like this continues to be suffocated by the rigor vitae of old degree life will pass out of more institutions than just the Daily Telegraph
Conservatism is not stasis it is renewal .It is a vital matter on every level that access to power is retuned to ordinary people .Our broken society must be fixed , not “fixed” . That includes access to the media .I heard Judie Birchill screeching her customary inchoate consternation in which the was some truth.
“It used to be that they got to be Bankers and Judges and things but at least we could be actors and journalists. Now they want everything and they’re all bloody useless......I would say dyslexic if that wasn’t another lie”
I wonder how Old Etonian Devil`s Kitchen feels about this ?....snicker
Its A Long Way To Tipperary ( Thank God )
From Ireland Online's report on the conviction of a Tipperary man for attempted murder:
'Sgt O'Riordan said that when Crowe was interview he asked gardaà what evidence they had against him. They told him he had been identified at the scene. Crowe replied "that's bullshit. Nobody saw me. I had a balaclava and gloves.'
We Need To Get A Wide On
I have lost count of the number of times I have read articles saying the real story of the Polls is the decline of the Liberals now down as far as 11%This is not a Party so much as a small gathering of close friends but Consevatives have less to gloat about than they might think and must pursue a rapprochement with true Liberals.There are old grudges to overcome ...
It is, for exmaple , infuriating to see a Party , soi disant , operate as a franchise for any local gripe from immigration to environment .Nonetheless ,swings and roundabouts accounted for , FPTP in which tactical voting thrives ,is still infinitely better than PR . Under PR a Byzantine Political Court Eunuchery would carve up the territory after a non-decision.
Onn the other hand Iain Dale reminded me that the Lib Dems are a coalition of social democrats and Liberals and while there may be some point in the Liberal Party there is absolutely no point in the “SDP” . Those pallid socialists with Muesli gone back to Labour which cleans out a lot of the dishonesty
David Cameron has , as yet , failed to convince reamining Liberals that they can join us in resisting the authoritarian bumblin’ Brown and this asymmetry of defections is a real problem . It gives the lie to the Liberal claim to have been other than socialists thus far .Equally they can hardly claim to stand for Liberality; the canyon of emptiness where purpose should be , defeats attempts to claim any special territory . Even their teeny squeaks about surveillance would not survive the first death notionally attributable to the lack of dawn to dusk snooping.
For all this there are some great ideas emerging for this quixotic pick and mix selection. Their ideas on community housing were echoed in the Conservative Party and represent a thoughtful attempt to solve the great problem of the day . The concept of restitution to the ‘victim of injustice’ under the Law ,is one the Conservative Party would do well to consider.
On this blog and around the right of centre blogashere there have been certain individuals who have irresponsibly and impolitely abused members of the Liberal Party as adolescent onanists who have rushed to their room and slammed the door on reality( ahem...) but the truth is this .
For a Conservative administration to succeed the forces ranged against
Brown must grown by another 11%. In order to do this we must call on the vestigial sense of those UKIP members unimpressed by those seeking makes careers out of a trainer pony in the media . The coalition also has to include real Liberals ( often Euro sceptics by the way) who surely must wince to be bulwarking the most centralising and coercive government we have had since the war under the banner “Liberal”. That is the task. Only a Party which can contain a spectrum from Nigel Farrage to Nick Clegg can take this country back from its abusers and we should stop imagining we can all agree about everything .
Liberals I clutch you to my bosom , I love and I would like us to put our petty differences aside.Let us work together against Jabba The Hut and his Mephistophelean schemes to destroy this beautiful green land and its free people .I `m sorry this will oblige you to abandon your Party but your views will command respect and consideration in the Conservative Party.
It is, for exmaple , infuriating to see a Party , soi disant , operate as a franchise for any local gripe from immigration to environment .Nonetheless ,swings and roundabouts accounted for , FPTP in which tactical voting thrives ,is still infinitely better than PR . Under PR a Byzantine Political Court Eunuchery would carve up the territory after a non-decision.
Onn the other hand Iain Dale reminded me that the Lib Dems are a coalition of social democrats and Liberals and while there may be some point in the Liberal Party there is absolutely no point in the “SDP” . Those pallid socialists with Muesli gone back to Labour which cleans out a lot of the dishonesty
David Cameron has , as yet , failed to convince reamining Liberals that they can join us in resisting the authoritarian bumblin’ Brown and this asymmetry of defections is a real problem . It gives the lie to the Liberal claim to have been other than socialists thus far .Equally they can hardly claim to stand for Liberality; the canyon of emptiness where purpose should be , defeats attempts to claim any special territory . Even their teeny squeaks about surveillance would not survive the first death notionally attributable to the lack of dawn to dusk snooping.
For all this there are some great ideas emerging for this quixotic pick and mix selection. Their ideas on community housing were echoed in the Conservative Party and represent a thoughtful attempt to solve the great problem of the day . The concept of restitution to the ‘victim of injustice’ under the Law ,is one the Conservative Party would do well to consider.
On this blog and around the right of centre blogashere there have been certain individuals who have irresponsibly and impolitely abused members of the Liberal Party as adolescent onanists who have rushed to their room and slammed the door on reality( ahem...) but the truth is this .
For a Conservative administration to succeed the forces ranged against
Brown must grown by another 11%. In order to do this we must call on the vestigial sense of those UKIP members unimpressed by those seeking makes careers out of a trainer pony in the media . The coalition also has to include real Liberals ( often Euro sceptics by the way) who surely must wince to be bulwarking the most centralising and coercive government we have had since the war under the banner “Liberal”. That is the task. Only a Party which can contain a spectrum from Nigel Farrage to Nick Clegg can take this country back from its abusers and we should stop imagining we can all agree about everything .
Liberals I clutch you to my bosom , I love and I would like us to put our petty differences aside.Let us work together against Jabba The Hut and his Mephistophelean schemes to destroy this beautiful green land and its free people .I `m sorry this will oblige you to abandon your Party but your views will command respect and consideration in the Conservative Party.
Monday, October 08, 2007
When will I learn ....
Well Doughty Street was an experience , it’s a very odd environment to be in and I `m afraid the whole business of letting other people speak somewhat eluded me. I was amazed , to be honest at how ‘in my depth’ I felt but the Tasmanian Devil impression was not exactly what I had in mind . Oh well I daresay it will be a while before an outbreak of plague amongst important people recurs so 18 Doughty Street is likely to lollop along without me.( It was fun needling Devil`s kitchen a bit though.)
http://doughty.gdbtv.com/player.php?channel=262
View the horror
OH and reason for feeling a bit stupid No. 2 I `ve had a good long think about the time I can commit to organising a group blog and the fact is I do not have the time to do what I am already involved in. Its a shame because I belive there is such a lot of unsung talent and the idea is basically sound but ...money and family must come first........
All in all feeling a bit ....feeble
What Is MOSAIC ?
Gordon Brown held the door slightly ajar for the prospect of fixed term parliament,(Dale )
Its awfully hard for a socialist of or indeed anyone to understand this but some things work well because they are imperfect. Polling used to be a rough and ready business John Major confounded successive predictions of his imminent demise with a spectacular victory won in old style from his box on the street . Such mistake would not be possible now. The politicians have worked on it and got it better....( I `m joking of course).... Seriously Tescos and the like have improved their marketing over the years under the pressure of competition and it is now exceedingly sophisticated. Labour’s soft ware is called MOSAIC uses the technology and it subdivides categories into tiny constituencies. ‘Coronation Street Woman’, ‘White Van Man’,are typical “ Urban genius “....is me
This technology as revealed by Martin Bright was used by Gordon Brown to judge the moment of electorus interruptus . Given the risks we may surmise that the picture was even bleaker than the marginal Polls when you really started to pull it apart.
We are running into problems here. There is an asymmetry of knowledge between the state and the individual now that has the effect of denying us a real vote by the use of electoral timing . Polling works too well and I think we are going to have to move to fixed terms despite all its many drawbacks. In this swirl of frightening new exactitude it pleasing that women are continuing to give Pollsters the heebie jeebies. In the past two weeks men have drifted within an average oscillation of 8% . Women have vacillated and dithered over a colossal 23%. I cannot imagine why this might be but apropos of nothing let us take a visit to the dress shop....
Her“ Do I look good in the Brown?”
He” Yes “
Her” Oh but I really like the bluey green”
He” Yes”
Her” But this is a new Brown ....”
He “ Yes “
Her “ No No I like the bluey green , I `m decided ....unless......
He ( loses will to live )
Women know your place
Shooting An Elephant
Schools and Elephants
I was told a interesting story by my brother yesterday who is the head of Economics at what was a very good local, Comprehensive. Coming from the private sector , he is constantly amazed at the short hours and deluded attitudes of teachers who really believe they are all Robin Williams in Dead Poets society. This, in a system where many of the pupils are unable to read adequately when they leave .
The headline pass rate, % boys with five O levels including English and Maths , has dropped from a rather good 60% to 40 % over the last few years .Into this equation you usually have to feed the number with paid school meals which is an average intake or London with now below average outcomes. There are all the usual problem ,of course ,a level of motivation that is highly varied amongst staff; but the root from which this slump grows, is a lack of discipline .
The other day an incident happened that summed up the problem.. Newmania Junior was walking along a corridor when he saw two boys having a play fight . He told them to stop . They continued . He repeated the instruction requiring names . He was ignored and they would not give their names. He told them they would be in detention and demanded their identifications. At this point there were a number of other boys watching and the younger of the two simply said “Why don’t you shut up !”
You can see, can’t you, the implications for the boys that allowing anarchy of that sort has .Newms minor took action to ensure that the strongest possible punishment was meted out to the perpetrators . Some time later he discovered that aside from a chat about their attitude no action whatsoever had been taken............
In all the talk about policy, selection, and Whitehall levers we should never forget that the will to use existing powers must be there amongst the front line educators . At this time they are hopelessly infected with absurd visions of the’ child’, and in denial about their failure to provide the essential service they are paid for. The work of politics goes on at many levels and one thing we have to do, is reacquaint Teaching Colleges with Conservatism and its corrective to 60s Liberalism . The Upper Middleclass can accommodate self indulgence but it the end of all hopes for working class boys .
I do not think that teachers are dreadful people they are simply living in a dated orthodoxy There is opportunity to engage with them , but the Dave Sparts will have to be rooted out and ejected from class!
PS Excerpt from Orwell’s shooting an elephant
“when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant”
True a teacher does wear a mask and many fine teachers have always adopted a persona not their own. Why should they not . It’s the result that maters not the “honesty of the relationship with the pupil" . In many ways it does not matter what the elephant is . Uniforms, politeness , respect. Whatever it is though for discipline and learning to continues “The Elephant must be shot “ ....although Orwell at this stage did not agree ....
Magazine Project Update
Looking back on the previous thread I see there is some real interest in this idea and I am convinced there is a gap. I was delighted to see Jon Teunon , who you will not know but is about the best of the lefties on Compas.Now that would really question a few orthodoxies in a most uncomfortgable way. Others like Norfolk Blogger , the best Lib Dem, might contribute and we would have a distinctive and interesting package . This all has to be less silly and a more interesting. Otherwise it would be just another blog. Blogs are great but the writers can do better and deserve better notice.
I am debating as to whether I should purchase some soft ware of have go at using a web thing . Frankly I am about the worst person in the world for this and I was hoping to persuade someone to help. That is the next step and I will have sorted it out by next week . After that an editorial meeting and I think a month to get going
I am debating as to whether I should purchase some soft ware of have go at using a web thing . Frankly I am about the worst person in the world for this and I was hoping to persuade someone to help. That is the next step and I will have sorted it out by next week . After that an editorial meeting and I think a month to get going
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