Does "Non" mean Non?

The French vote Non and immediately the European Union high-ups speak with relish of how the French have behaved stupidly, badly, in a misinformed way, or are a bunch of fascists! The epithets keep coming.

What an outfit the EU is. Our way or no way! That seems to be the message. Well, surely in a democracy the people's view must count. The real message here is that voters in most of the western side of the European Union are unsettled by the direction of the EU, whatever their conniving politicians think or do. History tells us that being oblivious to the wishes of the electorate on such major issues allows real extremism to fester and grow.

Can the EU Commission and Council of Ministers reflect on this? I hope so!

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Non! Je ne regrette rien!

So the French have voted Non in the referendum on the EU Constitution. This means nothing changes for a while, as the existing treaties carry on. However, those up at the front of the Brussels gravy train, in the loco stoking the fires for a new head of steam, show no inclination in changing their undemocratic thinking.

Peter Mandelson, the British commissioner, in best weasel wordsmithing, menacingly suggests the French should think carefully about the debate from now on, and in six months time vote again. Sort of Robert Mugabe stuff, but without the violence!

The EU Commission appears wedded to only one version of the truth, one version of democracy, and one version of internal accountability. I think the French people have rumbled them. The Brussels hierachy would do well to listen and learn. Something Tony Blair says he is doing!

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Too Many Disability Bays?

On a trip to Redditch I was quite surprised to see the Kingfisher shopping centre car park providing complete floors to disabled drivers. Bay after bay and only two cars on one floor! Now I'm the first to support measures for assisting disabled people to have better lives but I have a hunch the authorities have either no clue or overcompensate in case of possible legal action. This sloppy approach allows able-bodied people to feel that they are being inadequately catered for. Does the entrance gate with its computerised system detect whether a driver is disabled or not? What happens when all the non-disabled bays are used up and a poor hapless driver is tempted to park in a disabled bay? Are they clamped and charged the earth to be set free? Perish the thought!

The same thing happens in supermarket car parks. In my local Sainsbury's car park there are vast numbers of disabled bays, with 4x4's, Land Rovers, etc, in some of them. I see a lot of very able-bodied people getting out! Also, the infirm and elderly are brought to the supermarket in council run mini-buses! The whole thing causes abuse of the system by people's natural annoyance at the lack of sympathetic thinking by those in authority.

Who is co-ordinating all this. One wonders!

Baywatch Campaign is an organisation that cares about this, but seems to asume all the abuse is from able-bodied drivers. What about the clueless powers that be?
http://www.baywatchcampaign.org/

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ABC TV Nostalgia

Anyone who remembers ABC Television, with the logo dropping into vision with the boom-di-boom-boom jingle, will be happy to view this excellent site.

ABC was pushed into a marriage of convenience with what the newspapers used to call "London" but the real TV afficionados recall as Associated Rediffusion - London's Television, later just Rediffussion. The nuptials resulted in Thames Television.

Back to ABC, which served the Midlands (as well as the North) at weekends. The late great John Benson was chief announcer (remember a later incarnation "Live, from Norwich, it's the Sale of the Century!") and he is rightly described here as the herald of them all.
http://www.transdiffusion.org/abc/index.htm

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Goldsmith Stands Firm

Lord Goldsmith has come out of his election purdah to claim his advice was all his own thinking. No heavy-handed shoulder-tapping was involved to get a re-write. Well, OK. But he has no real answers for why he went from doubting the legality of war to complete certainty that battle could commence.

10 days of mind-changing evolution. Did it involve pill-taking?

One interesting piece from his 7th March advice is paragraph 23. About the French. Goldsmith was "impressed by the strength and sincerity of the views of the US Administration which I heard in Washington..." The French are painted as providing little hard evidence of their views. What I find odd is that the French were known to have views which were against pre-emptive, non-UN backed warfare. Surely, under oath in a court and being examined thoroughly by counsel, a pattern of opinion-forming would emerge. Unless all who were called to support the French view were discredited as unreliable witnesses, the court would quickly realise that the 2nd Resolution was indeed what the French were seeking, and not just "further discussion and no more".

Legal opinions are just that. If the matter of legality had ever, or will ever, be tested, only the facts and evidence will prove the point. Lord Goldsmith is now known for providing the view, in paragraph 27, that the safest legal course would be the securing of a 2nd Resolution. What changed his mind?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/28_04_05_attorney_general.pdf

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BNP in Voodoo Wings Treat!

Those redneck bubbas from the BNP are off to Louisiana to see David Duke so as to chew the fat at "a three day conference aimed at bringing together European nationalists and American patriots of European descent".

Duke was head honcho in the Ku Klux Klan in the 70's although he claims now to be reconstructed! He urged Klan members to "get out of the cow pasture and into hotel meeting rooms." Let's hope the conference isn't being held in one of those rooms with big southern fans whirring on the ceiling. Wouldn't want those cowpats hitting them, would we?

As a real treat, click on the Bubbagump link, with volume turned up!
http://www.adl.org/learn/default.asp
http://www.bubbagump.com/

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ID - Identity Disasters!

Further to the ID fiasco of New Labour, it occurs to me that Enoch Powell was right on this matter. When challenged at the gates of the House of Commons to produce ID, Powell said to the policeman, "You know who I am!". Whereupon, the policeman said, "I know, Mr.Powell, but, erm......." and proceeded to explain away the vagaries of nonensical rules.

I too had an interesting time at the bank recently. Whilst rejigging some loans, I was asked for ID ("your passport will do!") as it was a new loan technically. I said, "But you know me!". "Yes, I know we do, but we have to ask, as it's the rules". So I was safe from money-laundering accusations! Relief indeed!!

These biometric tests now apparently have a down on disabled people and black people. They have a much lower recognition factor in both categories. I can understand the logic of having fool-proof passports, but why on earth ID cards with every detail possible on them? Also, if the government says they are not going to insist on people carrying them at all times, how are the police going to believe an innocent Kurd walking down the street?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4567191.stm

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Leader of the Band!

Can the Tories get the leader they really want? Michael Howard did the honorable thing and chose to admit that he felt he was too old to lead the party to a further General Election. However, he must have known that this would have led to a vacuum into which would go only leadership talk. A meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs was described as "fiery and angry", with some saying they had been given a fait accompli. Now they have the proposals for a new election process -

1. Any MP with the support of 10% of parliamentary colleagues would be proposed as a candidate to the Conservative national convention
2. The convention, which includes about 900 local party chairmen and other senior party figures, would rank the candidates in order of popularity
3. MPs would have the final say on who becomes leader.

This all sounds fine, but what if the 900 worthies chose a pecking order of David Davis, David Cameron, Malcolm Rifkind, Alan Duncan, and Ken Clarke taking up the rear, and then the MP's go and pick Ken Clarke! Surely it would be the exact reversal of the leadership of IDS. Duncan Smith had the backing of the party in the country but not parliament. Ken Clarke, if he was picked, could have the backing of the Commons party, but not necessarily the constituencies. Case of deja vu looking at a mirror?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4574685.stm

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Playing your ID Card

ID Cards are now back on the agenda, with Charles Clarke pushing ahead with great gusto. The New Labour thinking is that new technology will help them solve all old problems, like where are the undesirables. These are allegedly Al Quaeda fifth columnists, illegal immigrants, and "bogus" asylum seekers. The government hopes to clean up here.

My problem with all this is trust. First, how is Mr. Clarke going to implement this law, assuming he gets it through Parliament. Is he going to have round-up squads, clearing the streets of people who don't have the right papers to get an ID card? Are the police going to be asked to be complicit in this? Probably! The Home Office should be getting their own priorities right by really checking the ports. The ID nonsense will cost millions if not billions. Surely a bruiser like Clarke could get his mind around employing more immigration officers that are paid well so feel good about their job, instead of cutting the force back to concentrate on Heathrow only.

Second, is this ID stuff going to be used by government departments to keep track of people and their daily affairs? My trust in New Labour is fairly low, not through any paranoia but by their actions, which have shown deviousness and sophistry.

See my favourite link to NO2ID. Here is a link about Charles Clarke.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4577087.stm

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EU Constitution lays path to USE

The Constitution of the European Union is, and has always been, about a political as well as economic union. Hans Martin Bury, Germany's minister for Europe, has stated the facts most succinctly, when he says "This constitution is, in spite of all justified calls for further regulations, a milestone. Yes, it is more than that. The EU constitution is the birth certificate of the United States of Europe".

Isn't it a marvel to hear Denis McShane ponderously trying to confuse the British electorate by saying it is only a tidying up exercise. Jack Straw waffles along in the same vein. Do they take us for fools? One is either in favour or against this Constitution. Fair do's! But to try to sell it as something it is not is deception of a very unpatriotic kind.
http://thebusinessonline.com/33162/The_EU_s_judicial_land_grab

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New Labour dispatches Real People

Channel Four's Dispatches Programme revealed tonight (8pm) how crafty and downright underhand New Labour now is. The sending of "spontaneous" letters to local papers, signed by "Real People", professing dying admiration for the government's policies, even though most of the signatories were Labour apparatchics told to do so. The fake crowds of Labour Party workers at New Labour policy launches apparently clapping as if they were won-over local voters! These machiavellian deeds of Tony and his Cronies serve only to show what a shallow organisation New Labour has become.

As Tony Benn says "Weathervanes or Signposts? Which are you?" New Labour are weathervanes to a man and woman! All cosy focus groups saying this way Tony, that way Tony, we've changed your mind Tony.

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