Spilling the beans?

Two men charged under the Official Secrets Act over the alleged leak of a secret government memo have appeared before magistrates in London. The memo is supposed to reveal that George Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters, but that Tony Blair dissuaded him. The stuff of high politics! The White House has dismissed reports of the conversation as "outlandish". However, in court when the time comes, these two will start talking. There does appear to be some element of truth in all this as the British government is prosecuting them for leaking the document.

Either the document is just a piece of paper, sort of Neville Chamerlain style, in which case they will be rapped over the knuckles, or it's the dynamite that Bush wants kept quiet. Either way, it's not looking good for the hapless governments on either side of the Atlantic.

Today, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has launched a stinging attack on US Vice-President Dick Cheney over abuse of prisoners by US troops. It's all beginning to unravel like Auntie's sweaters! Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson accused Mr Cheney of ignoring a decision by President Bush on the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror. Asked by the BBC's Today programme if Mr Cheney could be accused of war crimes, he said "It's an interesting question. Certainly it is a domestic crime to advocate terror, and I would suspect, for whatever it's worth, it's an international crime as well."

So Dick Cheney, who thought by now he and his Haliburton chums would be celebrating a year's worth of oil pumping is getting his brains pumped instead! That's the price to pay for dodgy warmongering! This war on terror is becoming a terrible war, and Bush and his cronies have no real plausible explanation as to what happens next! In the end it will have to be talking the talk rather than walking the walk!

Here's the transcript of the Wilkerson interview on BBC Radio
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4481092.stm

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Pension Problems!

It really is amazing the way the government sees the pensions crisis in the UK! It's rather like an ostrich, not exactly with its head in the sand rather pecking at all who walk by it a crazed manner.

There was a time when people could expect to leave their companies with a decent pension. Then the likes of Robert Maxwell started to "borrow" from the nest eggs of others. Then the borrowing became bankruptcy in many cases with harrowing tales being told on TV. Corporate stealing went on. The legendary Frank Field, a Labour MP with a conscience, began to say publicly that people's pensions would be inadequate. Mostly he was told to be quiet by the likes of Gordon Brown.

Brown is an odd cove! He talks about prudence or did. Now he seems to be keen on means testing people. 40 years ago such talk would have him strung up at a Labour Party conference! He leaks or gets someone to leak the Turner report, so he can snort at its findings. This Turner commission cost £1.5 million so we shouldn't waste it should we? Both Brown and Blair now say this report is only a prelude for further debate.

These two cowboys need to know. The time for debate is over. Otherwise more old folk will be on the streets and they've got the steely determination to cause trouble!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2005/turner_report/default.stm

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A Tale of Two Poppies

Eleven days ago was Armistice Day, the 11th November when people in the UK and elsewhere wear red poppies as a mark of respect and for the remembrance of the fallen in wars. Red poppies represent the blood spilt on the battlefields of Flanders in the Great War. How different it is for the white poppy that has the misfortune to have a stimulating content much prized by fallen humans of another nature.

The opium poppy is Afghanistan's main crop. The conundrum now facing the powers that be, including no doubt Bush's "advisors" is that the farmers who grow it get far more on the black market than they would if they grew it for an organised programme, which is geared to running the production down. So it would appear that Aghan farmers carry on as normal. So much for spreading democracy and best business practice when this is the main export product!

My suggestion is for these good farmers to be offered a bonus for entering the British supermarket bean growing club. After all, this seems to be highly lucrative. Why not get them to grow exotic vegetables? The only problem, though, might be they get only a fraction of the retail price. This would need to be addressed, to avoid another Afghan war!

Surely it is better to grow fine food than mind-fixing fodder?

http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/opium/default.asp

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Alfred the Great!

Today Alfred Anderson died in a nursing home in Angus, Scotland. Normally most people who die are only known to family and friends. Some not even to this number. Alfred was a bit different as he was famous for being Scotland's oldest man and has been a "star" of several recent TV programmes on the Great War, in which Alfred participated and eventually witnessed the Christmas truce of 1914 when British and German troops climbed out of their trenches in France and walked across the mud of no-man's-land to shake hands. He lived a long life, met the high and the low of society, took tea with Prince Charles and was, at 109, in finer shape than men old enough to be his grandson!

The Reverend Neil Gardner, of Alyth Parish Church, in Perthshire, said "Alfred passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning. He was Scotland's oldest man but he remained lucid almost until the end. He was a very gracious and unassuming man. Alfred was a fine old soldier who was a brilliant example of old world courtliness. He was the last surviving veteran anywhere to have served in the First World War in 1914 and lived a truly remarkable life."

And I think we are enriched, through the modern media, to have had a glimpse of this remarkable life!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4456234.stm

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Open Doors! Close Doors! Chinese Puzzle?

George Bush, on his tour of China, is having a good time with doors. He has quite rightly pointed out that China should open the door to freedom more. "As China reforms its economy," said Mr Bush, "its leaders are finding that once the door to freedom is opened even a crack, it cannot be closed. As the people of China grow in prosperity, their demands for political freedom will grow as well." This is obviously true, as the internet, television and all manner of media will help to push this door open. How China deals with it is of paramount importance to us all. The startling fact is that one quarter of the globe is Chinese. Put's the rest of us all in our place really!

As George Bush ends his tour, and having been given a hectic schedule by his "advisors" which included mountain bike riding, he rounds off with the press niggling him, to the extent that he left a press conference tetchily trying to open a door that refused to budge. Joking that he was trying to escape from them, the TV pictures showed a rather humiliated Bush. I do think his entourage should have made it less easy for such a public humiliation to take place. Jay Leno is going to bed tonight all excited. Just wait for Monday night's onslaught of satirical humour!

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Bradford Shooting Shock!

Yesterday the Yorkshire city of Bradford was thrown into shock at the brutal killing of a young policewoman, only a year or two into the job. Her colleague, just as new to policing, was badly injured. Naturally there is revulsion at such a crime. We can only feel a tiny part of the grief now being experienced in that community.

My thoughts turned last night to the likely "inquiry" that will eventually happen. It is interesting that in an area of ethnic diversity, the news reporting goes very odd, to say the least. By this I mean innuedo creeps in rather than factual news. It seems likely, although not confirmed, that the robbers were of Asian descent. This was not stated but every kind of Asian representative was pumped in a sly way to try to get them to reveal something! This is a very cynical approach to news gathering. Asian people are no less law abiding than anyone else. But it is not a good idea to use weasel words in reporting, in a bid to get a revelation of some kind!

Then there is the "panic button" used by the travel agent. This must be a cause of concern, as these young women knew nothing apparently of the nature of the call they were responding to. And then there is the amount of cash in the travel agent that attracted the robbers in the first place. The Asian business fraternity does do a lot of cash transactions. This may be a wake-up call for them to rely more on cheques and credit cards and for the banks to avail themselves of the services that these business people require!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/4451508.stm

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Being English is bad for you!

Gisela Stuart, the German born Labour MP for Birmingham-Edgbaston says that the rise of Englishness is a threat to democracy. She is worried by the number of her constituents who now claim to be English rather than British. "It has only been in the last five years or so that I have heard people in my constituency telling me 'I'm not British - I am English'. That worries me".

This is the headline in today's Birmingham Mail!

Well, I'm English, can't do anything about it, like being so, but don't try to be superior about it, although I am proud of England and English achievements.

Gisela is from Bavaria. I know a few proud Bavarians. She's talking rubbish here and should not scaremonger where there are no scares!!

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/birminghampost/news/tm_objectid=16385637%26method=full%26siteid=50002%26headline=being%2denglish%2dis%2dbad%2dfor%2dyou%2d%2dinsists%2dmp-name_page.html

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Chemical Weapons?

So, after several denials from the Bush administration, a lieutenant-colonel from the Pentagon admits that the US have used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja. "It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC. He then went on to deny that the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - constituted a banned chemical weapon. So nice to be so subtle in your aruments!

The truth here is that there have been lies and this in no way helps to bring about peace. I can't really see the difference between a person melting away from acid burns through the actions of Saddam Hussein and the same effect being caused by the US Army in its desire to "shake and bake" those they deem unfit for any form of dialogue. The niceties of Pentagon-speak are lost on me!

As I have said before, General Sherman said that "war is hell" and George Bush should recognise this. If he is going to go on "waging his war on terror" wouldn't it be a good idea to play it by the rules and not let the gung-ho generals out of the bubba box?

This use of "chemical weapons" does the cause of spreading democracy no good at all. Those who preach need to practice first. As with charity, democracy begins at home. What democratic rights did the poor folk left behind by Katrina have? Two weeks of hand-wringing and a faded memory it seems!

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Bobby on the Beat?

New Labour is keen to reduce the number of county police forces in England on the basis that this will assist efficiency. It will help fight crime and bring justice to our land more quickly! Another fantasy, I fear, and one that most people don't want.

Devon & Cornwall Police are having to consider merging with other forces after being given Home Office "options". Home Secretary Charles Clarke has announced two options for the police forces of the South West. In both of them, Avon & Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire constabularies will disappear into a bigger "regional" force. The same options are being touted for the West Midlands, with Warwickshire, West Mercia & West Midlands (the smaller "county" not the "region") being put together in a marriage of inconvenience!

All this is in the name of efficiency. However, even now my local police station is closed for daily business, I have to phone a call centre (thankfully not in India!) and eventually speak to a disinterested civilian who says "my problem" will be looked into. The only way to get any real action in the West Midlands is to call 999. Now that really shakes the leaves off the trees! But it is not a responsible action in most cases, is it?

These apparatchiks of New Labour have lost the plot! What we need is a national crime prevention unit dealing with organised crime, drug dealing, corporate fraud, smuggling and immigration rackets. We need local police forces, based on counties that people recognise, to handle house burglaries, street crime, traffic offences and all other "local" offending.

How on earth is it going to help efficiency if police come into a town from the other side of the "region" and know precious little about the place? Large "regional" forces are doomed to failure and we should stand up now to say so -
LOUDLY!

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Bush Blames 'revisionism'

George Bush is now out to blame those he claims are trying to rewrite history. He says too much is at stake in Iraq for politicians to make "false charges" about the reasons for going to war. Well that's a bit rich! He and his cronies were dead set on war with Iraq well before he became president. He decided the "intelligence reports" said there were WMD strewn all over Iraq and Blair got his mate Alastair Campbell to get the press to believe London would be hit within 45 minutes of a weapons launch.

These people have no shame it seems. I am deeply distressed that a fine political party such as the Republican Party has been infected by corporate sleeze (on the look out for oil contracts in a "rebuilt democratic" Iraq), fundamentalism, and a bevvy of bubba boys all seemingly leading the USA to some kind of repeat of the Vietnam saga.

I don't normally feel at home with Democratic thinking. However, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said this week that Americans deserved to "get the truth about why the White House cherry-picked and leaked intelligence to sell the war in Iraq". Very true! At the very best and being fair to the President, he didn't do a good job presenting the case. At worst he peddled lies on a regular basis! Harry Reid went on to say "The president may think this matter can be swept under the rug or pardoned away, but Democrats know America can do better." I think a vast number of Americans, of all shades of opinion, know that America can do better, or put another way, the government that represents them can do better!

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A Policeman's lot is.....LOBBYING???

Is it any wonder we have the police in a bind over their subservient role in the New Labour fantasyland? Now we have ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) lobbying MPs and acting like a think tank. A spokeswoman said "This was a police service proposal. We were asked some time ago to put forward a proposal of 90 days. It is our opinion that we have a duty to back up that professional judgement with evidence. Of course we were contacting MPs. They needed to be informed before they made a decision."

What does she think she is saying? Who asked the police to "put forward a proposal of 90 days" and why was ACPO contacting MPs? In the UK it is Parliament that hears of the concerns or views of the police from ministers. It is certainly not the duty of police officers, servants of the Crown, to be digging around in political lobbying practices.

This confused woman misunderstands the term duty, misunderstands the role of policing and misunderstands the separation of political decisions and employment as a servant of the Crown!

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Blair's In Touch? Ummm!!

Tony Blair has accused some MPs of being out of touch with the public and of failing to face the terror threat. He bases this on public opinion polls which probably asked fairly simple questions. Seeing that he didn't really offer MPs an adequate explanation of his views, why on earth should they take him at face value?

This is the man who duped Parliament over WMD and the whole Iraq intelligence fiasco. Then the public were mainly against him and he thought they were out of touch!

If it's Monday the public are confused, if it's Tuesday the MPs are confused but on Wednesday the Prime Minister tries to confuse us all at PMQ's.

He really does have a nerve!

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The Sun should set!

Rebekah Wade , the "editor" of the Sun newspaper is in no place to castigate others and call them traitors. Here's a woman who gives her husband a good hiding and ends up in trouble with the police. "Sun slapper in slammer!" Now there's a good headline for a woman who runs this rag under the eagle eye of Murdoch, a man who has little loyalty to this country (or any other it seems!)

She has a downright cheek in calling sentient MPs traitors. The headline should read as "wot I wrote it!" to use Sun-speak!

Here's a link to the rag. (shame on me!)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,2,00.html

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Blair not quite out for the count!

So Tony Blair suffers his first defeat in the House of Commons since becoming Prime Minister. And on a measure he staked his reputation on! His style has been that of the cocky know-it-all, bruisingly using bullies to get his own way. Now the Labour party is beginning to strike back.

Blair sounds like a shrill preacher on terrorism. Those of us who believe his arguments are flawed, are less than studied, and have an element of control about them, are dismissed as closet traitors! This is of course rubbish, but he never has thought debate mattered. It is the result that is important to him. Clare Short was right tonight when she said no Prime Minister can act alone. This is not a dictatorship but a parliamentary democracy.

The 50-plus rebels now have a taste for rebelling. They will do it again. This is the beginning of the end of a premiership that will have a historical legacy of spinning and subterfuge. And the Iraq War will cloud the desire of New Labour to have a legacy wrapped in the memory of "winning" three elections!

Have a vote in my November poll. The runners and riders are listed here!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk_politics/03/the_cabinet/html/default.stm

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New Labour? New Horrors!

Some people say, in exasperation, that toddlers can be little horrors. Well, they will need to know that there are other horrors out there and one of them is Beverley Hughes, the New Labour aparatchik, who has said "We want to establish a coherent framework that defines progression for young children from nought to five". And she means it!

Another outcry at New Labour control! Watch out maternity wards, lock your doors! The New Labour horrors are about!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4420138.stm

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Brown Man in the Ring?

The Sunday papers in Britain were well tuned into the Tory party leadership battle and the prospect of one of them sparring against Gordon Brown, the man that nearly all the press sees as heir apparent. In fact, Brown has a better chance of succeeding Blair than Prince Charles has of being King! The shoe-in certainty is somewhat disconcerting for democrats, though. Why should Brown get moved in as PM just because Blair made a sleazy deal in the Granita restaurant? I don't think he should. He's looking more like a bear with a sore head as the days go by.

Blair, on the other hand, is now talked of as being on his way out. Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to Washington, has said that Blair's period of premiership is coming to an end. "You can smell these things!" he said, remembering the similar reasons for the end of the John Major times. Meyer has also said that "there is plenty of evidence" that "home-grown terrorism was partly radicalised and fuelled" by Iraq. These comments were rubbished by David Miliband, the Blairite "fire extinquisher" who rather cattily said, "Christopher Meyer, I think I am right in saying, is an expert on foreign policy. He is not an expert on the domestic issues that are going on inside communities in this country."

Well, Miliband appears to be no expert on domestic issues himself and Blair is certainly no expert on foreign policy! So they're in no place to preach. However, Blair is probably going sooner than later (so take a look at my November poll, folks!) and I don't really expect Gordon Brown to be eased in like an eel to the water! I think there will be a contest and Brown will get really ticked off with Blair.

Opinion about Blair is now becoming adverse. The Sunday Telegraph gives Dario Fo, the left-wing Italian playwright and provocateur a platform for his views. Discussing his plans for a new career with the Sunday Telegraph, Fo, 79, was keen to display his contempt for other political leaders, notably Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian premier, and Tony Blair.

"Blair is a horrible man," Fo said, sitting on a sofa in his fifth-floor Milan apartment, which is decorated with theatrical masks. "He is a complete liar, very crafty and would fit in perfectly in Berlusconi's cabinet. He comes across as pleasant and charming but he has just peddled in lies and duped the nation. I'm amazed the Labour Party hasn't got rid of him. His policies have been disastrous and he has taken Britain into a war in Iraq from which it cannot now withdraw. Both he and Berlusconi are very similar. They are horrendous liars who have cheated the electorate. Italy has been ruined by Berlusconi. He's nothing short of a spiv, a travelling salesman".

Powerful talk indeed! But it is starting already and Blair may not be able to spin his way out of other people's webs!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/07/nblair07.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/07/ixhome.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/06/wfo06.xml

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Blair Shifts Ground!

So Tony Blair is going to announce tomorrow that he is rethinking his plans to allow terror suspects to be held for up to 90 days without charge. This is not, apparently, because he had a dream that told him it was wrong, but because Downing Street conceded he may struggle to get the measures through Parliament. All very neat and tidy, then!

What Blair fails to realise when he mocks the opposition to his plans is that the concerns expressed are not about terrorists as such, but about his inability to have laws drafted properly and when laws are enacted, for the police (who currently appear to be in some kind of trance when it comes to New Labour's bidding) to go around using them against people such as aged hecklers of long-standing Labour party membership. It is because the vast majority in this country now no longer trust Blair's words that the detail of his anti-terrorism measures are being so avidly scrutinised.

We are all against terrorist acts, as the Conservative (David Davis) and Liberal Democrat (Mark Oaten) Home Affairs spokesmen said. We just don't want to live in a society where free speech is curtailed and liberty abused because the police don't have the necessary resources to do a proper job!

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A Right Reverend Row!

The row in the Anglican Church over the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire simmers along and has just had the heat turned up recently. Robinson is in England for the 10th anniversary of the gay Christian pressure group Changing Attitude. For those who don't know, Gene Robinson became the first openly gay man to be consecrated a bishop anywhere in the Anglican Church worldwide. And because of the dissension it has caused he is the only one!

However, I was very alarmed to hear him say today that when he was consecrated he wore a bullet proof vest and had security all around him. He had received death threats! Whatever one believes about this thorny question of homosexuality and the Church (and I am on, I suppose, the traditionalist wing, but without any desire to be censorious), it is certainly NOT a Christian person's place to be issuing death threats! It would be far better that these people take stock of their own minds and consider the evil they are bringing towards themselves. And also reflect on the words "Let both grow together until the harvest." (Matt. xiii. 30).

Whatever Gene Robinson is or is not, it is certainly not our place as Christians to judge his soul. I will not be one who worries unduly on this and I will not be waking in the middle of the night screaming epithets about the devil and all his works!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4405844.stm

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