Saturday 31 October 2009

Spare The Rod, Spoil The Child Footballer...

Arsene Wenger believes Marlon King still has a future in football once he serves his prison sentence.
As what? A groundskeeper?
...Arsenal boss Wenger said: 'I believe that you have justice and it’s not my justice, it’s the justice England has decided to apply to any case.

'When he has paid his sentence, of course you would consider it (signing King). That means you would never forgive anybody anything his whole life.

'When he paid his sentence some clubs, if they want, they will take him.’
Let's recap on this case, shall we? This is a man who has been 'forgiven' again and again and again:
It also emerged that King - who intends to appeal -had 13 previous convictions, including theft, assault and wounding, and he will be sacked by Wigan Athletic.
So, it's not like he's being hounded after a first offence, is it? And let's not forget the sort of people he pals around with, and their view of the justice system. Is any club going to take on that kind of risk?

But Arsene is quick to avoid any issue of his job being at fault:
Wenger said: 'That he is a football player or isn’t a football player has nothing to do with what Marlon King did. He’s an individual.
Nothing to do with it? Really?

Let's just remind ourselves of the words of Latics chairman Dave Whelan:
'We will not tolerate football players who get sent to jail for 18 months. As far as we are concerned, he is finished with football at Wigan Athletic.'
Do any of these football managers not think that by tolerating anything and everything up to this arbitrary sentence that they are simply giving these people license to behave as they wish, with no fears of any consequences?

British 'Justice'...

A jealous husband who stabbed his wife more than 30 times could be out of prison in just three years, despite the judge likening the killing to a 'slaughter'.
It wasn't like a slaughter at all. It was a slaughter.
The former computer consultant flew at her in the kitchen and used several knives to inflict terrible injuries, while she pleaded for mercy.

The horrific act was seen by two children, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
How much worse does it have to get?

Why Does Remembrance Day Always Bring Out The Worst In Some People?

First, we have the now-obligatory 'no shaking of tins! warning from the Charity Commission, despite high street chuggers seemingly allowed free license:
Poppy sellers from the Royal British Legion have been banned from shaking their collection tins in case they are seen as a 'public menace'.

Asking anyone if they want to buy one and even approaching people have also been declared illegal.

Instead volunteers have been told they must remain still and silent or face being removed from their stands or prosecuted.
And as if that wasn't bad enough...
Landlady Bernice Walsh, of The Windmill, in Weald, Kent, told former RAF serviceman David Marchant that people could buy poppies 'somewhere else' when he asked her permission to leave a poppy tray in her pub.
Happily, this has now sparked a boycott of the pub.
Another villager, who did not want to be named, said: 'It's a shame because people in the village want to support her, but she keeps rubbing people up the wrong way.

'We need a pub - it was closed for six months and then she came and everyone was really pleased about it, but immediately she banned dogs and it's a village pub and people lilke to take their dogs in so it's upset an awful lot of people.'
Seriously, why would you open a business like a pub if you have this attitude to the people you depend upon for your living? I just can't understand it...
Miss Walsh also said that she was aware of some villagers boycotting her bar, but said that it was mainly 'old people'.

She added: 'There are customers who are boycotting the pub, but it's the older people who are doing that.'

The mother-of-two said the pub was previously closed down because it was a 'dump' and only a small group of men had drunk there and said that since she took over in July it was more popular with youngsters and women.

She said that the people boycotting her needed to stop the campaign against her, adding: 'They need to stop bad mouthing me.'
They don't need to do anything. They don't need you.

You need them.

Friday 30 October 2009

"I don't understand how this many people capable of such atrocious behaviour could be in one place at one time."

Don't you, Lieutenant Mark Gagan? Don't you really?

From the WikiPedia entry:
The school has a low direct to college rate, with many students choosing to attend a community college with intentions of transferring to a four-year university. Many students do not end up completing the transfer, however.

According to Richmond High's School Accountability Report Card (SARC), which is required to be published annually, the school has a predominantly "Hispanic or Latino" student base, accounting for 76.43% of their total enrollment. The SARC report also cites that 75% of the student base is "Socioeconomically Disadvantaged", with 54% designated as "English Learners".
If one opens and maintains a ghetto school, one must expect it to be attended by ghetto inhabitants, mustn't one?

Post Of The Month (Extra 'Question Time' Edition)

There's only one entrant for this! Go read, it's masterful.

Oooh, A Hate Crime!

An illegal worker begged to be rescued from (censored), in Wickford, after he was beaten up.

The French man, 27, believed to be unofficially working for (censored) and living on the site, ran into the nearby Jet service station, in Hovefields Avenue, pleading for help.

Garage staff called police and an ambulance after the man arrived with facial injuries.

This is the second time an illegal worker from (censored) has sought refuge at the Jet garage after an attack.

In 2005, an illegal immigrant ran there for help after sustaining an axe wound to the head.
Well, well, well...

Will this attract a storm of protest from the left and the usual suspects? Will they hold a march to this site and ensure that illegal workers' rights are respected and their persecutors dealt with to the fullest extent of the law?

And...(adopts Rolf Harris accent)...can you tell what it is yet?

Quote Of The Month (Extra 'Question Time' Edition)

Several to choose from here.

First up, Mr Eugenides:
"The BNP have less support than even the Greens, and their ideas considerably less influence. As Chris Dillow points out, their membership is less than the circulation of Cage & Aviary Birds magazine, and would struggle to fill even one stand in the average Premiership football ground. The BNP are what happens when you start a putsch in a beerhall, and no-one shows up."
Then Longrider points out they've achieved the opposite of their aims:
"Had these idiots engaged in rational and calm debate rather than hysterical screeching, they might have exposed Griffin for the arse that he is. As it was, they made themselves look like a bunch of nasty thugs, unable to put together a logical argument and it worked out pretty well for the BNP. They like to play the underdog, and the Beeb, Dimblebore, the panel and the audience handed it to them on a plate."
And finally, even uber-leftie Chicken Yoghurt isn't swallowing the lie that NuLab are any different any more:
"Half the country seems up in arms that Nick Griffin is being allowed near a television studio but when a man, who has done things to foreigners that would give Griffin wet dreams from here to eternity goes, goes on GMTV barely anybody squeaks. Hell, a huge chunk of them voted for him."

Thursday 29 October 2009

At Last, A Sensible Outcome...

It seems this one was worth keeping an eye on:
Mrs Ritchie-Fallon, of Long Close, Pennington, was found not guilty of assault by beating at Southampton Magistrates' Court.
Thank the lord, a victory for common sen..

Oh:
Councillor David Kirk, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for children’s services, said: “Hampshire County Council guidelines will be followed which means we will be carrying out an internal inquiry to determine if any further action is required.

Eve Ritchie-Fallon’s suspension will continue until the outcome of that inquiry.”
You're guilty until proven innocent, and sometimes not even then...

Clacton-on-Sea: Twinned With Hell-on-Earth...

A school which puts unruly pupils in a store room is facing a backlash from furious parents who are planning a protest.

Disruptive children are sent to the 8ft by 4ft room, which has no handles on the inside and only a window in the door, until they calm down.
And what else are they supposed to do, then? Let the little hellions scream, shout, kick, bite and rampage through the school?
But mothers and fathers have compared the punishment to 'something from the dark ages' and are threatening to keep their children out of classes and picket the main gate until the school changes its policy.
To what?

They don't say, but a good look at what they are saying will show you what the school has to deal with:
Coppins Green Primary School in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, has refused to back down, however, saying it is necessary to control 'extreme, disturbed children in a safe way'.
Children like this little treasure:
Mother of three Michelle Evans, 37, has had her daughter Rebecca, nine, locked in the room three times last week after being disruptive in class.

She said: 'There is no window to the outside world, there is just a window in the door.

'There is no handle on the inside, the door opens inwards. What if a child is asthmatic or epileptic and has a fit and falls against the door?

'It is like something from the dark ages. I don't want to send my child to a concentration camp.'

She added: 'My daughter's claustrophobic and hates confined spaces. It's awful.'
So, let's sum up.

Mummy's little angel still hasn't learned her lesson despite being sent to this ghastly oubliette three times in one week, her mother believes that rather than question why she has raised a child that can't behave, the proper thing to do is whine about someone else instilling the discipline she should have instilled, the mother is so dim that she doesn't realise that 'school cupboard' ≠ 'German-run death camp' and she clearly is unaware that if her little treasure really was claustrophobic, she'd be the best behaved kid in the school in order to avoid the dreaded cupboard.

I'm starting to get a picture of the type of parents that are complaining here, and it isn't a pretty one.

This clinches it:
About 50 parents are expected to protest at the school gates on Monday and organisers claim up to 120 children will be kept away from classes.

Many are also angry about a rewards system based on attendance, punctuality, behaviour and dress code which blocks some children from going on school trips.
What!!?! They get rewards for behaving, and none for acting like savages!? Monsters! ALL MUST HAVE PRIZES!

Now, surely these few 'parents' won't find anyone to back them with their...

Oh, FFS!
A 2006 study of school isolation techniques for Investing In Children, an organisation which promotes the rights of young people, argued they did not work.

The report concluded: 'Isolation has a bad effect on young people's physical and mental health. It makes people feel inadequate; it can take away their confidence and self-esteem.'
Let me tell you something, 'Investing in Children', the problem with these kids isn't a lack of self-esteem or confidence.

It's far too much self esteem, all of it totally undeserved. It's an excess of confidence, buoyed up by the knowledge that they are untouchable, and that whatever they do in school, instead of hiding their heads in shame, their knuckle-dragging birth-unit or sperm-donor will shamble into school to defend them.

Clacton-on-Sea. One to cross off the 'might like to move there someday' list...

Quote of the Month

From Squander Two, on a truly appalling case from Canada:
Turns out, in the latest rules of Victimhood Poker, mentally ill trumps female. Like, really, really trumps it. Trumps it so hard it's not going to bloody try that again, the jumped-up bitch.

Post of the Month

This month, Stuart Sharpe sums up the Trafigura Affair (and particularly, the role played by social media) perfectly.

Mr 13 Points...

...as a commenter so amusingly dubs him:
Who is running London? That was my first thought when Radio 5 Live called me last week to talk about the armed police forces patrolling the streets of Tottenham, my London constituency.

There must be a mistake, I replied. Surely the national media wouldn't know about something as serious as this before the elected representatives of the areas involved.
Sadly for you, Lammy, you aren't even worth a second's consideration by anyone.

And your pointless (heh...) attempts to make this somehow an anti-Boris attack piece are skillfully and thoroughly dismantled by the CiF crowd.

You might have started, but you, and your party, aren't going to get a chance to finish...

Storm, Meet Teacup...

A Buckinghamshire hospital has begun an investigation after a woman about to give birth allegedly objected to non-white staff being in the delivery room.
An investigation? What for?

We aren't told - at least, not in the Beeb report:
"A specific request was made, but due to patient confidentiality, we cannot go into detail," a hospital spokeswoman said.

"At present we can say that the baby was not delivered by an all-white team of staff and the mother and baby were not cared for by an all-white team.

"We did not change medical rotas."
So, why the fuss? Woman in labour makes request, request turned down, mother and baby well.

No problem, right?

Wrong:
Navrita Atwal, of Milton Keynes Equality Council, said: "I'm absolutely surprised by the circumstances of this case.

"What if there had not been a white doctor available? What would have happened then?

"I think the hospital staff should go through relevant training about how to think on their feet when this situation arises."
Sorry? Where's the evidence that they didn't think on their feet then?

And what sort of 'relevant training' do you think they should all have, Navrita? The sort that keeps race-baiting grievance mongers like you in a job with the local council, perhaps?

Ah, but if we turn to the 'Mail', a quite different picture emerges:
...an insider said: ‘The mother objected to one type of ethnic minority members of staff being there.
One type, eh? Not all of them?

And the mystery deepens:
...But the Equality and Human Rights Commission has written to the hospital after receiving a complaint from a member of staff.

According to some reports, a consultant agreed to the mother-to-be’s demands.
Aha!
If a senior member of staff asked an employee to leave the delivery room then he or she and the hospital could face civil action at an employment tribunal on the grounds of discrimination.

The mother could also face action in a county court. Unlimited compensation could be awarded in both cases.
Follow the money. Always follow the money...

Now, without the spectre of 'unlimited compensation', would even the mention of Teh Eeeevul Racism be more than a storm in a teacup here?

I bet it wouldn't...

If You Don't Like It Here, You Can Just Go Elsewhere...

Back when the ISA was being hammered in all the blogs for their ridiculous, nanny-state control freakery, many commenters mused that the next logical step was to ensure all parents were checked and registered too.

Someone in Watford must have read one of those comments and thought 'Eureka!':
A council has banned parents from supervising their children in public playgrounds until they have undergone criminal record checks.

Adults have been excluded from two adventure play areas in Watford, apart from a handful of council-vetted 'play rangers' who will assist youngsters, it emerged today.

Parents will be forced to watch their children from outside the perimeter fence.
See? You should never joke about how far they can go. They can always go that one step further...

And is the council embarassed by the disclosure of this new policy? Far from it:
Council Mayor Dorothy Thornhill said they are merely enforcing government policy at the play areas, in Vicarage Road and Leggatts Way.

She said: 'Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground and the adventure playground is not a meeting place for adults.

'We have reviewed our procedures, so although previously some parents have stayed with their children at the discretion of our play workers, this is not something we can continue to do.

'There are other places in the town for parents with small children to go.'
Nice! 'If you don't like it here, go elsewhere.'

Now, I can see how a commercial enterprise can get away with saying that. But, presumably, this is run with taxpayer moolah, isn't it?

So, Dotty, where do these parents who 'go elsewhere' apply for their refunds then?

Update: This one's even made it across the water. The Yanks must think we've all gone collectively nuts...

"She's had death threats because of it, and it's negatively affected her health..."

Good.

Not half as 'negatively affected' as your health would have been if I'd caught you attempting to poison a neighbour's cats, Katherine Hall from Airth, in Stirlingshire.

We don't have the stocks for people like you any more, more's the pity, but if all those outraged Twatterers are getting a bit tired of hounding legal sports hunters, well, there are other deserving targets out there...

Wednesday 28 October 2009

What If We Gave A Party With 'Ethnic Minority Arts', And Nobody Came..?

A councillor has criticised a free night-time festival for failing to encourage non-white people along.
And why does he think this?
He was speaking after a complaint was sent to all the city’s councillors and the local authority’s chief executive suggesting the festival alienated people.
One complaint? One?!

But that's all it seems to take these days. Witness the single complaint that sent a man from Inverness Council scurrying to take down the Skull and Crossbones raised above the Town Hall for Halloween, after a former merchant seaman complained it was 'in bad taste'.

Because of events in Somalia...

But back to Brighton and Hove, where we discover the councillor in question is a Green. And he has a blog:
Speaking on his blog, Coun Duncan said: "I think he might have a point: White Lights was fantastic. Although there were events specifically focused on ethnic minority arts, it still felt mono-cultural. "According to the 2001 census (now hopelessly out of date, of course) the city's Black and Minority Ethnic Population is about 15,000 people. Not many of them were out and about last night.
The ungrateful swines...

How's a council supposed to be able to meet its diversity targets if people don't co-operate?

Comments, as always, are well worth reading. One misguided soul says:
pancaker, Lewes says...
3:13pm Tue 27 Oct 09
Just when the Green Party was gaining credibility we have to have this.
It was?!?

You Sure About That?

A 10-week-old puppy was kicked to death when it ran up to a group of people in a Cambridgeshire park in what the RSPCA called a "sickening" attack.

The puppy ran over to three people in a wooded area of the park, and one of them kicked it in the head. It died almost instantly.
The RSPCA mouthpiece is in high dudgeon, and appealing for witnesses:
RSPCA inspector Cherry Evans said: "This is an absolutely shocking and sickening incident which caused a great deal of pain to this small puppy, and left her owners devastated.
But whoa there, Cherry.

Not so long ago...
A callous animal killer will not face cruelty charges from the RSPCA - because the dog he kicked to death did not suffer, according to inspectors.
Say what?
Phoebe, a miniature Yorkshire Terrier, was killed instantly when she was kicked across the room during a domestic row in Arnolds Way, Cirencester, on November 2 last year.
...
But revelations that the RSPCA concluded that, as the dog died instantly, it did not suffer and there was no case of animal cruelty.
Can't have your cake and eat it, RSPCA. All the defence has to do, if these scum are ever caught, is point to this case.

Well, The UK Has One Area Of Growth, At Least…

The number of sex offenders has increased by almost half in just five years sparking public safety concerns that they cannot all be monitored.
I wonder...

Is it because we have more sex crimes, or because things like this are now classed as sex crimes and registered, despite not posing any threat to anyone?
In some parts of the country the number of sex offenders the police now have to monitor has almost doubled, figures obtained by the Tories reveal.

It comes as the Government will today publish figures on how many serious sex or violent offenders are closely monitored under the so-called Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) .
Mmmm, and we have all seen how well they do that
David Ruffley, the shadow policing minister, said: "The increase in the number of sex offenders being registered is a sign of progress but it also underlines the need to allow police to do their jobs."
It's a sign of progress that we now have more and more people on the SOR? Even people who do what they do behind locked doors and with no other person present?

This must be some odd new definition of the word 'progress' I've not come across so far...
But the probation union has warned changes in the way the Mappa statistics are presented will give a false impression that there has been a fall in the number of serious violent offenders.

Previous reports have provided data on the total number of people who go through Mappa in any one year but today's report is expected to give a snapshot from a single day, understood to be March 31.

As a result it is expected to show a sharp fall in the number of violent offenders under Mappa but critics said it is misleading.
The government fiddling the figures? Perish the thought!
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the Probation Union, said: "The Mappa figures will show a huge decline in the number of violent offenders under supervision, by 50 per cent.

"However, on close inspection, this is because the Ministry has changed the way they record statistics. There has not been a fall in crime, in fact, the reverse. There has probably been an increase."
I don't think there's much of a 'probably' about it, but frankly, I'd rather they concentrated their attention on real threats, and not on people who mistook the expression 'She's the office bike and a bit of a goer!' to mean something quite different...

"Someone said to me earlier that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

"...but I said that he was in the right place at the right time. An Englishman's home is his castle."

That was then. This is now.
Before the hearing, CPS lawyer Ian Cunningham said: 'I have decided that when Omari Roberts disturbed two burglars and caused injuries to them - in one case fatally - his actions were not reasonable.

'I have looked very carefully at the public interest in this case, and I am satisfied that it requires a prosecution.

'I also discussed the case with the CPS principal legal adviser and have decided there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.'
I wonder what the jury will think?

Changing Attitudes Towards State Control...

Simon Carr in the ‘Indy’ highlights the way in which attitudes towards the state are being changed, oh so subtly:
So, we were in conversation, my Muslim friend and I, over the Tories' "free schools" policy. She said it was dangerous because Islamicists could set up their own schools to indoctrinate children into West-hating ways, and I said that yes, that might happen, but it was the parents' responsibility. She replied that the State not only had a duty to prevent it, but that we had to get away from the idea that parents owned their children. How's that again? The State rightfully had "partial ownership" of its citizen's children, she said.
Oh, dear. Another of those ‘benefits’ of multiculturalism?
I said that was "un-British" and we retreated to our respective positions and glared at each other a bit.
For that sort of remark, just think yourself lucky you aren’t getting a visit from the PC PCs…

So, how has our relationship with the state come about?
We all spin different narratives out of English history, and here's mine. Since the Conquest, English institutions have contested with each other for supremacy. The Crown and the aristocracy. The aristocracy and the yeomanry. The Crown and the church. The Church and the sects. The Crown and the judiciary. The Crown and parliament. And the curiously English result was that nobody won.
Not sure I agree totally with that, but it makes a lot more sense than what has historically been the case across the water:
Our institutions came to exist in a state of dynamic tension. Not that we are "committed to diversity" but that it became clear it was easier and probably better to live and let live. It wasn't the same in continental Europe, where different estates frequently managed to win a supremacy. When revolutionaries got hold of the State, the subsequent crushing and purging were spectacular.
Weren’t they just…
But the English thing – or the British thing, if we must – came to be that the Crown doesn't rule, the army doesn't rule, the judiciary doesn't rule, commercial corporations don't rule, the Unions don't rule, the administrative apparatus doesn't rule and Parliament doesn't rule. It's supposed to, but it doesn't.
So what does that mean for our future?
So the optimistic view of immigrants and the host population is that there will be a struggle as things settle down, and then things will settle down. Unless of course, a new rule takes hold that allows one estate of the realm to become supreme. The political class, say, which decides to take ownership of the country's children. Then anything could happen.
Indeed…

Gimme That Old Time Religion…

A man carried a police-style baton, nunchucks and a ceremonial throwing knife because of his religious beliefs, a court heard.
Which might come as a bit of a surprise to practitioners of the world’s religions…
Fry was also charged with two further counts of possession of an offensive weapon, after being found with two sets of nunchucks and the knife at the same time on February 14 this year.

But those charges were dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted he brought them out of the house by mistake, and owns them because they are part of his following of the pagan religion.
Funny. I’ve read quite a bit about the ancient and modern pagans, and never realised Bruce Lee was a practitioner!
Lynne Shirley, defending, said: “There is no suggestion he brandished these items, or he intended to use them dangerously. They are important to him as they are part of his paganism.

“He also uses the nun-chucks to strengthen his wrists.”
Strengthen them for what? Or shouldn’t we ask…?
Fry has adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, which makes it difficult for him to concentrate and leaves him particularly susceptible to stressful situations.
And I think we’d all agree that’s just the sort of person who ought to be allowed to carry nunchuks in the street….

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Their Lust For Control Doesn’t Stop At The Real World…

…it now encompasses Norrath and Northrend, among others:
Online computer games like Second Life and World of Warcraft face cinema-style age classifications under new Government plans.
And why?
Margaret Hodge, the culture minister, said ministers want to see new rules put in place to cover children's access to games. She spoke as she published a consultation document setting out the options for a new system of age classifications.
Of course. It’s ‘for the children!’, yet again.

That one never gets old, apparently…
"For children under 12 who cannot make the distinction between fantasy and reality, we need tough regulation," Mrs Hodge said. Under the current rules, the BBFC's legally-enforceable age limits only have to applied to games containing violent or sexual content.
And has the current system not worked? We aren’t told.
Mrs Hodge also revealed that ministers are looking closely at online games amid growing concerns at Westminster about their use.

Multi-user internet-based games such as World of warcraft and Everquest allow players to share a virtual world with thousands of other people from around the world.
You can see why they’d be concerned, can’t you?

We can’t have people logging on and freely mixing with their fellows around the world, harmlessly co-operating to slay a pixillated demon. Why, all sorts of things might happen. They might…



Well, what?
The growing popularity of such games has sparked calls for new regulation.
Anyone surprised to see the spectre raised in order to promote this?
The Culture Committee of MPs this week raised fears that paedophiles are making growing use of virtual worlds for activities including simulated sex with children.
Of course! It’d have to be, wouldn’t it?

And don’t bother asking what evidence there is for this. There’s nothing whatsoever in the article, of course.

Far be it from me to suggest the ‘Telegraph’ journalist who regurgitated this government press release should have asked for some
Mrs Hodge told BBC Radio Four that the growing popularity of online games required new rules.

"We are moving into an internet world - half of under 12s are playing their games online, so we have a whole new set of challenges with regulation," Mrs Hodge said.
You can’t deal with the real-world problems, Hodge.

What on earth makes you feel competent to start in on the unreal world ones?

As Secret Bases Go, It’s Not Very ‘Tracy Island’, Is It?

‘BNP has secret base!’ screams the headline in the ‘Lancashire Telegraph’, conjuring visions of palm trees slowly folding to the ground and a runway appearing amongst the fast food shops, to launch Nick Griffin skyward at the next election.

Sadly, the truth is a little less exciting than that.
The British National Party has been quietly running an office in Burnley town centre for up to nine years, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

The low-key office, just metres from Burnley town hall, is not mentioned in the far-right party’s literature or on its website - and most residents and even seasoned local politicians were unaware it existed.
Unaware? Or uninterested?
But Lib Dem council leader Gordon Birtwistle said only “very, very few” people were aware of it.

He added: “Outside their membership I would not have thought anyone knew. If they had been open about it, they would not have used a pseudonym and it would be on their leaflets.

“If they want to be taken seriously they should be open so people know if they want to visit them they can do.”
What sort of people, Gordon?

These sort of people?

Yeah, can see why they aren’t happy to advertise…
Elaine Heywood, 37, of East Road, said: “It makes you wonder what they have got to hide. They are supposed to be a major political party now, but they are not being open and transparent. You can’t have your cake and eat it.”
Why not, Elaine?

All the other major political parties are more than happy to have their cake and eat it, particularly when it’s been paid for by the taxpayer.

And when it comes to being ‘open and transparent’, well, take a look at what we learned over the weekend.

Still think they need to be more like the other parties, Elaine?

Because It’s Different When We Do It!

The ‘Indy’ is indulging in a spot of pre-pantomime season booing practice, centred on the villain A A Gill.

His crime? Hunting:
His hunting credentials include pheasant-seeking missions to Wiltshire with Jeremy Clarkson, and trigger-happy deliberations with the chef Marco Pierre White moments before they despatched a deer.
Oh noes!
But now AA Gill, the outspoken restaurant critic and self-appointed arbiter of British culinary standards, might have just taken a pop too far with a column revelling in the demise of his latest gunshot victim – an entirely inedible African baboon.
You mean, if he’d eaten it, it would have been perfectly ok with you?

And since when have apes and monkeys been ‘inedible’? If you meant ‘unpalatable to Western tastes’, then fine.

Never heard of bushmeat, ‘Indy’?
Writing in yesterday's Sunday Times Style Magazine, Gill described a trip to Tanzania where, driven by the urge to embody a "recreational primate killer", he shot the ape during a safari.

"I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he said. "Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument for cull and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil of naughty fun."
And fun, naughty or otherwise, is to be frowned on…
The comments, which to his critics will smack of Oscar Wilde's famous quotation about fox-hunters ("the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"), have angered animal welfare charities, which yesterday brandished the act "utterly morally reprehensible".
To them. To others, not so much.

And it doesn’t prevent them from lying to advance their cause:
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "There is no excuse for taking potshots at such endangered species."
Endangered species?

Hardly. The Hamadryas is, but that's hardly likely to have been the species Gill shot. More likely, this was a yellow (or olive) baboon. They are a known crop pest in Africa.
But a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the incident highlighted the growing perception of Africa's baboons as vermin or problem animals. "We are working to shift this perception and are completely opposed to the act of cold killing, which is especially rife among farmers in Africa," he added.
The act of hot killing is presumably ok?
Mr Batchelor went even further, saying: "Baboons might not be in the same league as endangered elephants but that's not the point. Even if the world was overrun with such animals, it is not for a journalist to make the call of culling them."
And why not? They seem to call for all other things that tickle their fancy or happen to coincide with their own prejudices, and I don’t see you attacking them.

I suppose it’s different when it’s your ox being gored baboon being shot.

Not that Gill is going to worry unduly, possessed as he is of quite a good sense of humour:
In a column in 2003, Gill wrote: "Somebody asked me what I was going to do in Scotland. Stalking, I said. 'Oh, how exciting. Who?' 'Who? No, I'm shooting.' 'Ooh, with a long lens? I suppose it's Balmoral. You journalists are real scum.' 'No, no, I'm stalking deer and shooting them with bullets. 'Oh God, not Bambi's mother? 'No, no, of course not – Bambi's absentee father.'"
Heh…

And just because this happened perfectly legally in a land far, far away, don’t think the UK’s premier lobbying industry wanted to miss out on the hounding:
A spokesman for the RSPCA also condemned Gill's actions but said it could not act against him because the shooting took place beyond its UK jurisdiction.
Not because they’ve no proof any cruelty occurred, you note…

And would this be that same RSPCA who recently blotted its copybook with the slaughter of ten Alsatians by non-approved methods, for convenience’s sake?
The dogs, which had been kept indoors for several weeks and were said to be aggressive and in poor condition, were killed with a captive bolt gun of the kind used in abattoirs to stun livestock before slaughter. The use of captive bolt guns is deemed “inhumane” and “unacceptable” for the destruction of dogs by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
Whoops!

This incident has prompted a campaign against the RSPCA by various dog charities, both for their lack of re-homing effort and the method of destruction.
The charity says that it would have been impossible to rehome the dogs and there was no alternative to having them destroyed.But instead of being put down with a pain-free injection, they were caught with a “grab” pole — a noose at the end of a stick — before being dragged outside and shot in the head with the bolt gun, which fires a metal bar about three inches long into the animal’s brain. In an abattoir, stunning is followed either by bleeding or use of a “pithing” stick to destroy the brain, causing instant death.

According to the WSPA, use of the captive bolt gun to put down domestic animals is “unacceptable” because of the difficulty of ensuring a clean kill. It states that it is “not recommended for euthanasia, as other methods are more practicable and humane”.
So how does the RSPCA justify it?

Well, apparently, nothing is inhumane if you can get enough senior managers to agree with it:
An RSPCA spokesman said: “It was an absolutely extreme case. I have never heard of this method being used before but apparently eight inspectors, including some very senior and experienced, decided it was the best course of action.”
So, you can’t have any objection to the Facebook campaign against you, can you?

Since you’ve already established that the will of the majority rules….

Yasmin Just Can’t Keep Her Trap Shut, Can She?

Even while across the sea, she revels in the opportunity to slam her adopted homeland:
Pennsylvania: The BNP row feels remote and oddly more unsettling from here; distant thunder portending a calamitous coming one can sense, but not yet quite define. "What's going on, what happened to polite old England?" asks my best friend, a family physician in Pittsburgh, who, like me, is an Asian from Uganda.
Well, of course! No diversity in the friends list for our Yasmin. Two birds of the same feather, flocking together...
She is shocked after listening on radio to some of the grumpy old folk from these isles and their practised grievances about immigrants, people of colour, Muslims, white liberals, politicians, and the other usual suspects.

I explain.
Oh, this’ll be good…
These punters have lost out as global capitalism sweeps away job security and certainties. Their terror is understandable but not their faith in the Nazi and racist BNP, which promises to vigorously wash off foreign muck and make Britain linen white again.
Oh, it’s capitalism that’s the culprit here, is it?

Somehow, I think your ‘explanation’ is a little lacking in facts.

But then, I think, be charitable. Maybe she hadn’t seen the weekend papers when she wrote this column?
Once Nick Griffin is in 10 Downing Street, they must believe, Vicky Pollard and Waynetta Slob will at long last run Goldman Sachs, all-night corner shops will be opened by ambitious aboriginal Brits and Prince William will be available to marry the chimney sweep's illegitimate daughter. I mock, but it is only to deflect my own fears of what the future may hold.
If any white columnist had written such a caricature of an ethnic minority, can you imagine the outcry? In fact, can you imagine an editor letting it through?

Me neither. So I’m not entirely sure what she has to fear…
In Britain, meanwhile, even though it has been hugely comforting to watch white Britons recoiling from Mr Griffin…
For ‘white Britons’ read ‘all the white people in Yasmin’s circle’…
…22 per cent of those polled after his Question Time appearance said they would consider voting for his hate-loaded band, some of whom are violent.
I’m confused.

Some of the 22 per cent are violent? Or some of the BNP? Does this woman have an editor?
Things can only get worse. Sleepless in Pittsburgh, I struggle with the woeful possibility that my unborn grandchildren may still have to fight to be accepted in Britain. They could move to North America.
Well, you certainly didn’t let the grass grow under your feet when things got uncomfortable under Idi Amin, did you?

Let’s hope, though, that if it comes to that, your grandchildren are a little more grateful to their host nation than you’ve proved yourself to be…
Have we wasted all those years, trying to get our adopted homeland to embrace its diverse history and multifarious soul? I fear so, but we soldier on.
You brave little trooper, you…

Because it’s all about you, isn’t it, Yasmin?

Monday 26 October 2009

Put Out An APB On Van Helsing, Sarge…

Australian police have posted a $1m (pounds 490,000) reward for a man who is believed to have organised the murder of a self-proclaimed vampire.
Can you kill that which has no life?
At the time of his death, Chartres-Abbott was on trial for allegedly raping a client and biting off part of her tongue.

He also allegedly told the woman, a former girlfriend of Mr Perry's, that he was a centuries-old vampire who drank blood to survive.
I guess she wasn’t convinced…

Musical Theatre Revival Revisionism...

David Lister in the 'Indy' is a musical theatre fan:
Those who like musicals will know that Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun has one of the great scores.
Well, not in the latest production:
But as the show ended, something niggled. I was sure that the score also contained a song called "I'm an Indian Too". But the number, sung by Annie Oakley when she is adopted by Chief Sitting Bull into the Sioux tribe, had been cut.
Yes, the people keen to whitewash history and airbrush actors who smoke out of thhe picture have moved their ambitions to the stage too.

Why? Because 'audiences want it', apparently:
David Lan, the artistic director of this excellent, innovative and challenging theatre, tells me that the song is an "unpleasant" one, that "although the song has many good qualities, it is hard to present to a modern audience whose awareness of racism and cultural sensitivities has shifted since the song was written".
Which is just about the weakest excuse to remove a song from a show ever, but at least he didn't lie that it was for 'running time' reasons.

Which is a sign of just how confident these people are that they are unassailable:
Why do artistic directors assume that we can't cope, that their audiences don't have the wit and imagination to accept that these songs were written in a different age, an age of different sensibilities, that we listen knowing that, and indeed are curious to know what people were writing then and what audiences were listening to.

Isn't it somewhat condescending of artistic directors to decide what will and what will not offend our sensibilities?
Yes. It is.
It's a dangerous game, this censorship on behalf of what you assume are the sensibilities of the audience. After, all there is a playwright who wrote one play about a Jewish man who demanded a pound of flesh, and another play about a black man with uncontrollable rages, who strangled his white wife. Modern sensibilities may shrink at that. But I don't think we should ban him. Not even at the Young Vic.
Give them time, David. Give them time...

Spreading The Message Of Love...

An aspiring rap artist who was caught with a knife in an unexplained blood-stained bag walked free from court – and told the Echo he had learned his lesson.
Really? First offence, then?

Err, no:
Mark Larkin, prosecuting, told the court Ajewole had been reprimanded for carrying a knife at school in 2004, and also had convictions for robbery and aggravated vehicle taking.
*sigh*
Cyrus Shroff, defending, said Ajewole had worked hard to gain good educational qualifications and was thought to have a promising career ahead of him in the music industry.
Is it me, or do those two statements not really hang together?

So, what was his explanation excuse?
He initially refused to explain the findings to police, but later said he had agreed to carry it for someone he feared to prevent them being caught with it by police.
And the magistrates bought that?

And we wonder why we have a crime problem. Last words go to the defendant:
After the hearing Ajewole told the Echo: "I would always say that carrying a knife is the wrong thing to do. You are likely to end up getting stabbed or going to jail.

"I'm glad to get this second chance so we can continue to spread the message of love with our music."
Yes, that's what I always think when I hear rap music. 'Oh, listen, they're spreading the message of love...'

Sunday 25 October 2009

You Really, Really Can't Make It Up Any Longer...

During the trial, the court heard Le Moine had an IQ of just 84, relied heavily on his mother to help him out with letters, struggled to read and had memory problems.
His job?

Essex PCSO.
Roger Grimwade, a police spokesman, said there were no formal educational requirements, but applicants must satisfy an entry procedure.
And that is...?

Checking they have a pulse, presumably.

Oh, and the offence for which he was on trial? Driving without insurance:
The 22-year-old of Buckfast Avenue, Kirby Cross, was involved in a car crash in February 2008 when he was driving without insurance.

He told police he was insured and took an insurance certificate to a police station which he knew was invalid, the court found.

He denied the charge on the grounds his dyslexia affected his ability to take things in and remember them, which was why he had failed to register he was not insured, despite speaking to insurer Direct Line a week earlier.
*sigh*

In Loco Parentis...

An official review into a "racist" hammer attack on a schoolboy was unacceptably delayed because his school's insurers feared it would effect (Ed:sic) their liability, a judge ruled yesterday.
The board should have told the insurers where to get off.

Sack the lot of them...

More Of Those Benefits Of The Multicultural Society

A shop worker stabbed a colleague for calling him a slave, a Court was told.
Just a figure of speech?

No:
Sadiq Salam claimed fellow Sudanese worker Waleed Bashir said people from his region should be wiped out like insects.
Not one they covered on the 'Working with Colleagues' induction training event, then?
Salam told a jury at Lewes Crown Court that he attacked his victim in anger at the Welldone store in North Street, Brighton, with a piece of glass from a broken bottle.
No doubt the shop has CCTV and will have caught the event on tape.
...the 20-year-old, of Charlotte Mews, Kemp Town, Brighton, denies attempted murder, making threats to kill and assault.
Good luck with that...

Sunday Funnies...

Scientists. When they aren't bowing to political pressure to try and hoodwink us all, they are planning our doom.

Our insane, hilariously ineffective doom...

Saturday 24 October 2009

Tom Utley Isn’t Going To Win ‘Father Of The Year’ Either…

Tom Utley in the ‘Mail’ compares himself to parenting disaster-zone Mr Walton, and smugly assumes that he comes off the better by comparison.

In recounting his own tale, however, he proves he misses the point spectacularly
One of my most distressing experiences as a father came when I was summoned to a meeting with my son's headmaster after the boy had been accused of causing criminal damage at his school.
So, what had young Master Utley done?
As I burned with shame over my failings as a parent, the young teacher opened the case for the prosecution.

One day, the previous week, he said, my boy had gone into the bike sheds with two of his friends. This was during the lunch hour, when the sheds were out of bounds.

There, they had 'jumped on' and smashed three bicycles belonging to younger boys - by which I assumed he meant that they'd thrown the bikes on the ground and leapt up and down on them.
Oh, Tom, you know what they say about assumptions, don’t you?
I just couldn't believe him capable of doing anything so cruel as maliciously destroying younger pupils' bikes, with all the ugly connotations of bullying that implied.

I knew and liked his two fellow-accused, too, since they'd often been for sleep-overs at our house. This just didn't sound like the sort of thing that any of them would do.

But the young teacher was adamant that they were guilty as charged. He had 'video footage' to prove it, he said - and that seemed to clinch it.
So Tom did what any sane person would do – asked to see the evidence.
But when I asked if I could see the CCTV, just to make sure that I really had been deluded about my son all these years, he seemed a little shifty.

No, he said. This footage wasn't actually CCTV. It had been recorded on a pupil's mobile phone and shown to him in confidence. He couldn't let me see it, because that would mean identifying the boy who had reported the incident to him. Also, the images weren't very clear.
Now, most people would smell a rat here, and so far, Tom has proved himself no different to most people.
I felt like making a magnificent speech about the fundamental principle of British justice that every defendant has the right to see the evidence on which he's charged - and, anyway, why would showing me the footage mean identifying the boy who'd filmed it?
So, why didn’t you?
But I restrained myself and asked only if the teacher would describe roughly what the pictures showed. He said they showed some boys - though not clearly enough to identify them - sitting on bikes in the racks and swaying from side to side.

So these boys were sitting on the bikes (as my son had freely confessed), not 'jumping' on them - except in the loose sense that one might say somebody jumped on a horse.
So you’d been lied to, Tom, and lied to blatantly, and to your face. How did that make you feel?

And the lying wasn’t over:
After further grilling, it emerged that the bikes hadn't actually been 'smashed'. If I remember rightly, one of them had a bent wheel, another a broken rear light (which all three boys hotly denied breaking - and I believe them) and the third was unscathed.

With his colourful talk of jumping, smashing and destruction, this young teacher had greatly exaggerated the offence.
Did you point this out to him, and to the headmaster? Did you consider this a useful object lesson for your son in how power corrupts, and how some people are content to let the ends justify the means?

Sadly for you and your son, you didn’t:
As other parents may understand, I found myself in an extremely uncomfortable position. My paternal instincts made me want to stand up for my beloved son against the teacher who seemed prepared to get him expelled by presenting the case against him in the most lurid possible terms.
No. By lying. Let’s call a spade a spade.
On the other hand, everything I've ever been taught made me believe it very wrong indeed to undermine a teacher's authority in front of his pupils. And anyway, my boy clearly deserved to be punished for breaking the rules.
Yes, he did. But what authority did that teacher have after their dismal performance?

You’ve admitted that he had lied to you and been caught out. Any authority he had at the start of the interview he’d squandered by the end of it.
So I choked back my paternal instincts and roundly rebuked my son in the presence of his accusers. I promised to pay for all the damage and thanked the teacher and headmaster profusely for agreeing to suspend the boy instead of expelling him.
What?! Oh, give me strength…
I know I made the right decision.
Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried…

And having told your little story, you then lay into Walton with merry abandon:
Give me strength! If this is the sort of parent teachers have to deal with nowadays, is it any wonder that so many schools have discipline problems - or that so many teenagers have lost all respect for authority, both inside and outside the school gates?
But you are the mirror-image of Walton, can’t you see that?

Walton insists that until he’s seen evidence of something to respect, he sees no need to. You, on the other hand, see evidence of something to disrespect, yet meekly kowtow to authority anyway!

Walton’s a boor and an idiot, but you? You’re worse…
As for my son, his taste of rough justice on that charge of malicious damage seems to have been just the kick up the backside he needed. He'd been heading for Bs and Cs before his suspension. After it, he sailed through his exams with straight As.
Because his qualifications are all that matters, right Tom?

So what if he’s also learned never to stand up for his rights, always to cower before someone in authority even when the facts are clear, and that ‘might makes right’?

You have nothing whatsoever to congratulate yourself for when it comes to parenting.

”… you have to expect that if you come to an anti-fascist demonstration with a BNP banner.”

A rather triumphant article in the ‘Indy’ on the QT debacle:
From mid-afternoon they came, in their hundreds, to the gates of Television Centre, waving banners, lighting flares and chanting "BBC! Shame on you."
Oh, that’s good, is it? Well, I suppose it is, in the sense that people are free to have their say, so long as no-one gets hurt.

Ah:
Wooden poles that held placards were thrown at the four-deep cordon of police. By the time filming began at around 7.30pm, six people had been arrested and three police officers had been injured. One was taken to hospital with a head injury.
As I said over at another blog: ‘Riot shields. Water cannon. Job done…’
Shimal Thakrar, 33, from Edgware, London, said the audience hissed and booed during the filming and shouted "liar" and "get out the door" at Mr Griffin.
You’re a little early for pantomime season, aren’t you? Also a bit old…

But it’s the UAF idiot that reveals the true danger in our society today.

And that isn’t the temporary political success of a small left-wing nationalist party:
Martin Smith, the Unite Against Fascism organiser, who directed protesters to the gate at Television Centre through which many surged, had vowed to resist police attempts to break up the demonstration and insisted it was essentially peaceful. But he did admit that one far-right supporter had been attacked earlier in the afternoon. "A guy came with a BNP banner. That was ripped from him and he was hit on the head, but you have to expect that if you come to an anti-fascist demonstration with a BNP banner," said Mr Smith.
No.

No, you don’t, any more than a black man or woman has to ‘expect’ to have racist violence directed at them because they inadvertently wandered into a BNP rally.

Both are wrong. And the fact that you can’t see that makes you even worse than Griffin…

Friday 23 October 2009

Well, It Beats The Usual Aubergine Or Watermelon…

A "miracle" baby has brought hope to people in Russia's mostly Muslim southern fringe who are increasingly desperate in the face of Islamist violence.

Thousands of pilgrims queued up this week in blazing sunshine to get a glimpse of 9-month-old baby Ali Yakubov, on whose body verses from the Koran are said to appear and fade every few days.
And they didn’t even need to cut the baby in half to see this..!
Pinkish in colour and several centimetres high, the Koranic verse "Be grateful to Allah" was printed on the infant's right leg in clearly legible Arabic script this week, religious leaders said. Visiting foreign journalists later saw a single letter after the rest had vanished.
Are felt-tip pens common in that part of the world, I wonder?

1001 Uses For A Dead Cat Rabbit…

A rural town in New Zealand has been forced to cancel its annual rabbit-throwing competition after complaints from animal rights groups.
Well, I’m not surprised! For once, the RSPCA is doing a good jo…
In the contest, which is held each year to coincide with the start of the pig hunt, children see how far they can throw a dead rabbit.
Wait, what?
But the RSPCA said the rabbit-throw sent a message to children that dead animals were fun and could legitimately be used as a form of entertainment.
And food. Don’t forget food!

Mind you, this makes the old admonition ‘Don’t play with your food’ look a little stupid. Just what possessed someone to complain about this? What sort of idiot thinks that dead animals are the remit of the RSPCA?
Charles Cadwallader, animal cruelty inspector, said the rabbit-throw was also cruel.

"Do you throw your dead grandmother around for a joke at her funeral?" he said.
Well, Chuck, my name’s not Fiver or Bigwig, so my dead grandmother isn’t likely to be a bloody rabbit…

And I fail to see how you could possibly be ‘cruel’ to an already dead animal…
The organiser of the pig hunt, Jo Moriarty, said the decision to can the event was political correctness gone mad.
For once, that hackneyed phrase is perfectly apt, isn’t it?

Victim Selection EPIC FAIL!

A waitress at a fashionable London restaurant, Gema Revelles, has been jailed for nine months for inventing a sexual assault allegation against her gay boss after he sacked her.
Whoops!

They’re getting bolder every day, aren’t they?
Revelles, 21, made up the story because she was too ashamed to tell her family she was jobless. But her sister was so outraged at her apparent ordeal she insisted she tell police.
Thanks, sis! Bet you’re sorry now…
Charles John-Jules, prosecuting, said unfortunately for the Spanish national she got her dates mixed up, reckoned without CCTV and was apparently unaware of her alleged attacker's sexual orientation.
Pretty fortunately for her alleged attacker, though…

Mind you, the defence valiantly attempted a novel excuse in a futile attempt to get the lying cow client off the hook of a prison sentence:
Mr Green said the defendant now ''realised what she did was wrong, that it had a massive impact on Mr Jacobs and on the investigatory process and the process of justice as a whole.

''In addition, she had no idea the English authorities would take the attitude they did and believes in Spain nothing like the steps that were taken here would have been taken there in response to such an allegation,'' he added.
Well, that one’ll rock ‘em in chambers, I’m sure…

Harriet! Here’s An Achievement For You!

Violent crime committed by women has soared since Labour came to power, it is revealed today.
Heh…

Sisters, it seems, are doing it for themselves in spite of that glass ceiling:
The number of women found guilty of murder, vicious assault and other attacks has risen by 81 per cent since 1998.
Well done, Hattie…

Of course, this is being pounced on by the usual suspects, who are mounting their hobby horses and galloping off furiously:
Police are warning that the rise is a legacy of the 'ladette' culture, which they say has fuelled an unprecedented escalation in the severity of female crime.

They blame increasing levels of drunkenness brought about by 24-hour licensing and cultural pressure for women to behave more like men.
Of course! Without the drink in them, these children of the permissive age/’no responsibility’ age/’you can’t touch me, I know my rights’ age wouldn’t dream of behaving like…well, like the men. Would they?
And has this ever been true?
The Police Federation said the days when officers could rely on women to be a 'calming influence' on male drinkers were no more.
Maybe a long, long time ago. But certainly not in the last twenty years.

Chris Grayling takes aim at these awful stats, and hits his foot:
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: 'These figures are very alarming and it's pretty clear that they are at least in part a consequence of the binge drinking culture that has grown up around the country.

'It's now clear that Labour's licensing reforms were a big mistake and we will take major steps to reform the system to tax super strength alcohol and to stop supermarkets selling booze at a low cost price.'
Yup. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Enjoy a cheap bottle of wine after a long day at work? Well, you can’t.

What, you think you’re a responsible adult? Not in Call-Me-Dave’s future world, you aren’t. You’re just one more child, to be punished along with the whole class because to single out the naughty kid is just too difficult….

'Father of the Year' EPIC FAIL!

Determined to improve manners at his 900-pupil secondary school, headmaster Kevin Harrison decided to pass on a lesson from the past.

He reinstated the tradition that pupils get to their feet when he enters the classroom.

But yesterday he found himself at the centre of an extraordinary stand-off with a parent after a 15-year-old boy defiantly remained seated.
Because naturally, one ‘parent’ objected to anyone telling his offspring what to do…
Daniel Walton was suspended from the school, Macclesfield High in Cheshire, when he barged past a teacher after being ordered to sit in an 'isolation' room for refusing to stand.

And rather than remonstrate with his son, jobless 40-year-old Tim Walton is supporting him.
Is anyone surprised?

As Ross points out, the 'Mail' were no doubt quite happy to sit back and watch this cretin dig himself deeper and deeper into the role of UberChav every time he opened his mouth:
He says Daniel was entirely justified in remaining seated because 55-year-old Mr Harrison, who joined the school as acting head this year, has yet to earn the pupils' respect.
How much respect do you think you are earning from the people who pay for you to wallow in indolence? Not that it matters, as long as the lager money keeps rolling in, eh?
Mr Walton, a father of three, insisted that when the four-and-a-half-day suspension ends tomorrow Daniel will still refuse to stand for the head. 'I've had enough of my kids being punished because of these so-called rules which have nothing to do with their education,' he said.

'I teach my kids that respect is earned. The head hasn't been there long enough to earn my son's respect so why should he stand up for him?'
Because if your yob boy has no respect for institutional hierarchy (sorry for the big words) how is he planning on finding a job, in the unlikely event he doesn’t plan on following in his father’s footsteps?

Who is going to employ someone with the social graces of a shaved gibbon but even less ability to read and write?
Mr Walton said: 'The school sent a letter saying that I told Dan, "Kick the headteacher in the nuts if he kept you against your will".

'I think it's diabolical. My boy shouldn't be excluded for something I have said. I don't regret it.'
Your offspring isn’t being excluded for something you said – he’s being excluded for his own actions. The letter mentioning your bolshie attitude is just to remind all readers of why this future McDonald’s sweeper is the way he is – you and your deplorable attitude.

And least anyone thinks this is a one off, it’s clear that the parenting skills of pere Walton extend to the distaff side too:
He said his daughter also objected to another rule at the school - no make-up - and would tell the head 'where to get off'.
Like father, like brother, like daughter...
He added: 'She won't go the wheelie bin without make-up on. If they tell her to take off her make-up, she will get her coat. '
Splendid!

Then she too can turn into an unemployed (and probably unemployable) yob like her father and her brother…

Anyone wondering why we haven’t heard from Mrs Walton?

Where's The Tory Party's Backbone Gone..?

Plans to introduce secret inquiries into controversial deaths from which the public and bereaved families could be banned are to be pushed through the House of Commons by the Government.
Because, what have they got to lose? They can’t possibly sink any lower in the public estimation. Can they?
Last night ministers suffered a humiliating defeat for the proposals in the House of Lords, but insisted that they were "clear" that "harmful material" must not be made public, and would reintroduce the measures in the Commons.
Well, here’s a chance for the Tories to stand up and show the leadership that we all hope (against all evidence) that they will show in government, isn’t it?

And what do we get? Silence…
Baroness Miller, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokeswoman in the Lords, whose party tabled an amendment which succeeded in removing the secret inquiry clause, said that the Government had suffered a "self-inflicted" defeat.
Just like all the recent defeats…

I can’t say this any better than LfaT has put it:
“You see, what you anti-democratic authoritarian powermongers in the Labour Party don’t understand is that in a truly functioning free democracy, no-one can be above the law. That includes you, your fellow politicians, the police, the armed forces, the secret service and every other British citizen, regardless of what they do or who they work for. “

'Question Time' Reflection

Interesting that the 'Daily Fail' headline is 'Jeered, scorned and ridiculed - still BNP's Nick Griffin milks his moment in spotlight on Question Time'.

Do they really not see that the one thing leads to the other..?

Thursday 22 October 2009

BNP On Parade...

Well, in a few hours we'll know how the Great BNP Debate went down.

This morning, the intensity reached fever pitch among the Righteous:
A BBC presenter has attacked the decision to invite the leader of the British National Party (BNP) on to BBC1's Question Time tonight, warning that the move "completely contradicts" rules on impartiality and would erode the public's trust in the Corporation.
Hmm, which one? One of the big political presenters – Huw Edwards? Jeremy Vine?
Michael Rosen, the former children's laureate
Ah…
…accused the broadcaster of "hiding behind" the BNP's European election victories to justify its decision, adding that executives "were relishing" the ratings that the broadcast is expected to receive. "It is failing in the very impartiality that it claims to be trying to uphold," he said.
He didn’t elaborate on how allowing an elected party member onto a tv debate would do that, which is just as well.
He added that the BBC's championing of the "trust agenda", introduced after controversy over a documentary about the Queen, had been ignored in pushing ahead with Mr Griffin's appearance. "It will lose my trust and that of others if it goes ahead with this," he said. "The BBC is not just any ordinary organisation. It is like a public place – we all own it and need to be a part of it. It has a responsibility to everyone.

"They make this very clear when you work for them. If I were to say anything remotely similar to the things Nick Griffin has said and will say tonight, I would not be allowed on. The BNP's whole notion of reversing immigration rests on the notion that many people shouldn't be here ... the people that the BNP target are licence-fee payers."
And so are the people that have voted for them.

Quite a dilemma, eh, Mikey?
He added: "The BBC is obsessed with putting things 'through compliance', to ensure no one will find programmes politically, sexually or socially offensive. I have been stopped from reading a poem that contained one swear word before. Yet while they go into palpitations over things Jonathan Ross says, they are allowing Nick Griffin airtime to say things that will offend millions."
Because no-one voted for you or Jonathon Ross. You are just employees on contract.

This man, like it or not, is an elected official, and is therefore entitled to present his case.

What are you all worried about? The BNP will likely condemn themselves out of their own mouths, so why not let them speak? After all, as DumbJon points out, the creme de la creme of diversity is aligned against them. Surely Sayeeds Warsi will have no trouble swaying us all?

But it seems that some aren’t so sure, and would rather subvert democracy:
Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather outside the BBC tonight, and police are poised for violent clashes. The programme may be moved to a secret location should it prove too dangerous to ferry guests to the studio in BBC Television Centre, west London.
It shouldn’t prove ‘too dangerous’ – the slightest hint from the UAF and other rent-a-mob scum intent on undermining democracy and the riot gear and water cannon should be deployed.
Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said: "The BBC will be responsible for any increase in racist attacks that take place after they have gone ahead with this."
No, they won’t. The people that commit them will be responsible.

Or would you accept being held responsible for the actions of your members?

No? Thought not…

There Are Old Pilots, And Bold Pilots…

A man who was arrested after he shone a torch at an Apache attack helicopter flying "10ft" above his garden will not be charged, police have said.
I’d think not. Who’d convict, after hearing the details?
Torben Merriott, 63, of Stradbroke, Suffolk, was arrested on "suspicion of "acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft" on 18 September.
But as he pointed out, he had no choice:
Mr Merriott, who runs a stage lighting firm, criticised police for being "heavy-handed" and "wasting resources". He said he might complain.

He said he was awoken by an "almighty noise and vibration" at 0100 BST on 18 September.

"My first reaction was that it was an earthquake," he said.

"It was a clear night but pitch black and I could feel the vibrations beating against my chest - very frightening.

"That was when I realised it must be a helicopter really low and very close. I couldn't see any navigation lights from the direction of the noise so I shone my torch."
How else was he supposed to see what the hell was hovering over his house?

And what were they doing there in the first place? If the MOD don’t want people shining torches at their choppers, then don’t hover over remote farmhouses at the dead on night. Simples!
Mr Merriott said he found it hard to be believe the pilot would have lost control in the face of his torch.

"Don't tell the Taliban that all they need is a 10-quid torch to bring down some of our finest young fliers in their multi-million pound, high-tech gunships," he said.
Well, it’s not a gunship, but this one certainly wasn’t brought down by the Taliban, or by a recently-awakened citizen with a torch:
An RAF helicopter pilot swore as he flew his aircraft just 5ft above a taxi before a fatal crash in North Yorkshire, an inquest has heard.

Pilot Dave Sale was heard to say "let's scare the shit out of this taxi", two hours before the Puma crashed near Catterick Garrison on 8 August 2007.

The inquest also heard that the Johnny Cash hit Ring Of Fire was being played over the cockpit speaker.
No need to worry about light sleepers, RAF. Try worrying about some of your pilots instead!

They Can Feel Power And Influence Slipping Through Their Fingers...

Helen Bamber isn’t letting the grass grow under her feet in an attempt to win back ground from the disaster of the lack of actual evidence of trafficking:
Knowledge about the wider picture of trafficking can be accumulated only over time and gleaned from a detailed and dedicated approach to the cases of individual victims. This requires improved systems for protection and assistance, which is the only way that frightened and vulnerable trafficked people are enabled to come forward. So the comparison made in today's report between the existence of trafficking victims and that of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was overblown and inappropriate.
I thought so too, Helen, but I suspect for far different reasons than you…
Through our work we find those who have been trafficked are often realistically afraid of being penalised as "immigration offenders"; they feel stigmatised by their history of exploitation, sexual or otherwise; do not realise that they have any legal rights to protection; or fear reprisals against themselves or their families by the traffickers.

They face difficulties in talking about their experiences due to a profound fear that they will not be believed. This is compounded by complex psychological trauma.
Not quite sure why the term immigration offender is in scare quotes there; that is exactly what they are.
With improved access to appropriately specialised legal advice and mainstream medical services, there is greater potential to identify and therefore assist victims of trafficking.
Ahh, the familiar old cry: ‘We need more resources!’.

Don’t know if you’ve notice, Helen, but there’s a recession on…
The trafficked people we work with may not have been identified for years, either while being exploited or after their escape from the control of traffickers; and we find that the long-term influence of traffickers over individual lives is often underestimated.
What ‘individual lives’?

Do you need to see those figures again, Helen? They were ‘zero’…
There is no room for complacency on this issue, or dismissal because the problem is not considered to be on a significant scale – it involves servitude, and therefore the devastation of human lives. Any debate about the wider picture of trafficking can be helpful, but only if it leads to a reasoned approach and further investigation of the problem, rather than shutting down vital public interest and resources.
Oh, that’s science, that is. We should only look closely at something if we know that the results will prove that we are right….

You Shake And Shake And Shake The Bottle…

A father has complained to Kent police after his teenage son was added to the national DNA database for slamming ketchup on to a girl's head.
We’ve all been there. Mind you, I usually try standing it in warm water first...
Kent Police said officers had followed the Home Office code of practice.
Ah, the usual Robocop response: ‘We followed the guidelines’…
Zach's father James said: "What he did was stupid, I'm not going to argue that. I think the police do a wonderful job, but it seems to me their hands were tied.

"To stick him on the DNA database alongside rapists, murderers, burglars, what I would class as proper criminals, just seems a bit excessive to me."
Not to the people for whom we are all criminals, though…
Det Ins Dave Berry, from Kent Police, said Zach can apply to have the details removed from the database.

"There is a well-established appeals process for people feel that they shouldn't have their DNA on the DNA database," he added.
Yes. There’s also a recent ruling on the innocent having their details expunged; tell me, DI Berry, just how did that get dealt with?

Thought so….

Let’s See Where This Goes, Shall We?

Southampton Magistrates' Court was told that Eve Ritchie-Fallon confronted the 15-year-old student as he stood smoking with friends in the grounds of the Forest Education Centre, Dibden Purlieu, Hampshire.

The court heard that an angry exchange followed during which the 57-year-old allegedly ripped a pair of earmuffs from his head and slapped him around the face.
Well, she can always claim to be Muslim
The teenager, who had previously suffered a broken jaw, said that the alleged assault caused his face to throb and he attended hospital three days later to have it checked.

He said: 'I couldn't eat properly without it getting worse.'
Diddums!
The boy's mother told the court that her son suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and was capable of becoming verbally aggressive although less likely to become violent as he grew older.
Really..?
Ritchie-Fallon, of Long Close, Pennington, Hants, denies a charge of assault by beating on November 21, 2008.

She claims the assault did not happen and that the student had ignored her when she asked him to put out the cigarette.

She claims he pretended to not hear her because of the earmuffs he was wearing which she says she removed in a non-aggressive manner.
I’ll be watching this one with interest…

Light Blue Touchpaper, Retire…

Peter Tatchell. Like him or loathe him,you can’t deny that he has big brass ones:
October is Black History Month in Britain – a wonderful celebration of the huge, important and valuable contribution that black people have made to humanity and to popular culture.
You can just see a ‘But…’ there about to form, can’t you?
It is also worth celebrating that many leading black icons have been lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), most notably the US black liberation hero Malcolm X.
Aaaaaannnnd we’re off!
Few of these prominent black LGBT achievers are listed on the most comprehensive UK Black History Month website, which hosts biographies of notable black men and women.
Perhaps they are short of server space?

Yeah, that must be it…
Why these omissions? Black people are not one homogenous heterosexual mass. Where is the recognition of sexual diversity within the black communities and black history?
Peter, you really know the answer to that, don’t you?

You must do – you spent long enough banging on about ‘homophobia’ in Caribbean and Jamaican music for the last few months.
Perhaps it is unintentional but Black History Month sometimes feels like Straight Black History Month. Famous black LGBT people are not acknowledged and celebrated. Either their contribution to black history and culture is ignored or their sexuality is airbrushed out of their biographies.
Yeah. It’s not unintentional, is it? It’s the elephant in the room, and Tatchell has just taken a pot shot at it.

Who’s going to get trampled, I wonder?
Right now, there is not a single living black person who is a worldwide household name and who is also openly gay. That's why the issue of Malcolm X's sexuality is so important. Having an internationally renowned gay or bisexual black icon would do much to help challenge homophobia, especially in the black communities and particularly in Africa and the Caribbean where homosexuality and bisexuality are often dismissed as a "white man's disease".
I’m sure it would, Peter, but it’s not going to happen, is it?
It is now time for Black History Month to speak the truth. Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it.
Hmmm, I think this will generate a lot of column inches elsewhere…

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Scientists Want To Have Their Cake And Eat It….

Global food production needs to be increased by between 50 and 100 per cent if widespread famine is to be avoided in the coming decades as the human population expands rapidly, leading scientists said.
Well, OK. How are we going to do that then?

Well, they don’t know. But some of their suggestions will put them on a collision course with the Greens and the other environmental nutcases:
The experts, drawn from the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of scientists, believe that a variety of short-term and longer-term measures will have to be adopted urgently if agricultural production is to meet the demands made by the growth in human numbers.

They cite the original green revolution of the 1960s when new crop varieties, greater use of agro-chemicals, and a change in farming practices led to a dramatic increase in food production: it leapt from 1.84 billion tonnes in 1961 to 4.38 billion tonnes in 2007. But scientists accept that this increase came at great environmental cost, and the Royal Society report warns that a second green revolution has to be based on a sustainable increase in global food production without a significant expansion in the area of land turned over to farming.
So, if there’s no chance of expanding the land, we’ll have to tinker with the methods, won’t we?
"There is insufficient water to support an increase in the cultivated areas, and the environmental consequences of increasing cultivated areas are undesirable. Additional production will have to take place without further damage to [the environment]," the Royal Society report says. The area of land available to sustain each human being is "dangerously declining" because of soil degradation, the report says.
And that means GM…
The Royal Society report says that a range of measures, from new ways of managing crops – such as changes to the way they are irrigated – to the introduction of GM varieties that are drought-resistant or salt-tolerant, will all have to be called upon to boost food production.
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

Who’s going to be the first watermelon to declare ‘Let them all starve!’..?