Impeaching Blair

Downing Street has warned of "very real consequences" for British troops in Iraq if MPs defeat the government over calls for an inquiry into the war. That's not true. It will be "very real consequences" for Blair and his inner court of weasel wordsmiths! The Commons has just begun debating a Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru call for a probe into the war and its aftermath, backed by the Lib Dems. The Tories say they may also support it if ministers do not agree to hold a broader inquiry once troops leave.

Can it be done? I have my doubts. But some parliamentarians have had enough. This is down for debate in the House of Commons.

CONDUCT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY IN RELATION TO THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ That this House believes that there should be a select committee of seven honourable Members, being members of Her Majesty's Privy Council, to review the way in which the responsibilities of Government were discharged in relation to Iraq and all matters relevant thereto, in the period leading up to military action in that country in March 2003 and in its aftermath.

If they do get a Select Committee formed, then Blair's had it. All the sneaky stuff he and his former fixer, Alastair Campbell, got up to will come out. Those honourable people who did work for him but have felt ever so guilty since will what a clean breast of it. They will be happy to sing their tunes to the committee! Then we will see that all the stitch-up reports he concocted will start to unravel and the TRUTH will reign supreme at last!

I do hope.

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Via Media or Via Terminus?

Within 30 years, the Episcopal Church of the USA has gone from being a denomination that had clarity and an accepted degree of comprehensiveness to one which is about to be run by a female prelate with a discordant bunch of parishes offering everything from same-sex marriages to new age folk religion! Is it any wonder that people are confused?

So what happens when the Diocese of South Carolina elects a new bishop? Why, an organisation called Via Media, which claims to support the Historic Episcopate, suggests that he "would represent a threat to the unity of our church and to the cohesion" of the diocese. Why, exactly? Because he is trying to support that very Historic Episcopate rather than bow the knee to new innovations, liturgical novelties, and suspend his conscience over the altar of Mrs Katharine Jefferts Schori's incumbency as head of the Church!

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Standards of the Sneak

The so-called Standards Board for England is no more than a busybodies' career centre. It is the right and proper place for the school sneak to thrive. This is an intimidating outfit employing 100 staff and a team of ethical standards officers each paid £61,000 a year. No wonder it suits the sneaks!

"What are you going to do when you leave school, Jenkins?" "Oh, I'm joining the Standards Board, sir." "Well done, should do well there!" "I thought so, sir. After all, I've been the best prefect with regards to....there was the smoking behind the bike sheds, that missing book - Perkins was to blame for that - and that incident in the junior schoolroom. Tidied that up jolly well!" "Yes, you'll go far Jenkins. Monitoring Officers need resilience and a nose for trouble!"

Yes, it's just the place for the school sneak to thrive.

Robin Page, a councillor of some thirty years standing on South Cambridgeshire District Council is resigning. He is fed up with the posturing, the stifling of proper debate, and the constant threat that some jumped-up clerical person, described as a "Monitoring Officer", will come forward to "do him". He is already in the grips of this Blairite kangaroo court. Anybody from outside England should understand this -

Tony Blair is an uncontrollable control freak whose legislative programme is based on stifling local democracy and peddling untruths when it suits.

We need a Boston Tea Party to save us from this slide into a voiceless hell for the people of England!

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Blairite Dissembling

I can't wait to see the back of this government. Control freaks and crooks, that's what they are. All wrapped up in their New Labour dream. I find it amazing that the 80% of the electorate that didn't go out to vote for these bozos are still unable to agree as to how to get rid of them. Yes 80% didn't vote for them.

We've got a vindictive dimwit as Defence Secretary, who has taken umbrage at ITN for disclosing that the Ministry of Defence was sneaking injured soldiers back from Afghanistan at nightime so they could conceal how bad things had got. So what does Des Browne do? He orders the MoD to ban ITN journalists from making Remembrance Day broadcasts from Iraq or Afghanistan!

Then we get a hypocritical Ben Bradshaw, the Environment minister, who is preaching recycling is best but fails to do it for himself with his own garbage. We've still got the horrendous Standards Board stifling debate in our local councils, and then there is the Deputy Prime Minister swanning it around south-east Asia telling the likes of Malaysia how "tolerant" they are!

But the best is yet to come. Lord Levy has apparently spilt the beans to the Met that it was Tony himself "that told me to do it" over the cash for peerages scandal. The Tories are making hay!

False accounting charges could be brought against anyone who the police believe
was involved in an alleged conspiracy. As well as Labour officials, it could include politicians such as Mr Blair. Detectives have so far been investigating two main allegations. One is whether, by offering honours in return for financial support, the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act has been breached. Any offence under this law carries a maximum two-year jail term.

Let's hope one Blair is about to feel the collar of another Blair and the cheesy spiv gets his marching orders at last!

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Cheney's Water Torture Views

US President George Bush has reiterated his position that the US administration does not condone torture, following comments by Vice President Dick Cheney. In a radio interview, Mr Cheney said the simulated drowning of terrorism suspects during questioning in order to save American lives was a "no-brainer". The conservative radio host, Scott Hennen, asked Mr Cheney if he agreed that "a dunk in water is a no-brainer" if it would unearth information of pending attacks and save lives. Mr Cheney replied: "Well, it's a no-brainer for me." He went on to say that he was not condoning torture but said you can have a robust interrogation programme without torture. He is assumed by human rights groups to have been referring to "water boarding" - a technique in which suspects are made to think that they are drowning.

This all comes from a man who helped engineer the war in Iraq so that his chums in Haliburton could make big bucks mopping up after the war. A man who thought that the oil in Iraq mattered more than anything else. A man who wanted war to save the United states petro-dollar from the maverick Saddam Hussein and his flirting with the euro. A man who is not above bending the rules to suit himself.

So George Bush is defending another nasty episode using the much tested Humpty Dumpty technique. Using words to mean what he wants them to mean! Wow!

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Sleazy Politics!

Michael J Fox has Parkinson's disease. I know someone with this disease. It is a frightening condition for the onlooker but more so for the sufferer. It can lead to all sorts of additional ailments such as depression, mood swings, constipation, etc. All unpleasant, either on their own or combined. So why do I mention this?

Rush Limbaugh, a so-called right wing commentator, or more precisely, a rather vulgar man, seemed to take exception to Fox appearing on a television item supporting stem cell research and waving his arms about. Limbaugh mocked this uncontrollable behaviour by suggesting Fox was exaggerating his symptoms. You know, in a democracy, free speech is great. But do we really want unnecessary cruelty, mean and petty sniping? Limbaugh has plunged to new depths of depravity.

I would like to think decent Americans can rise above all the nastiness that seems to be spreading through their democracy and say enough is enough. The founding fathers would be sorely distressed at the way some Americans today think other folk should be treated!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15415763/

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EU Menace?

Whatever our crazed politicians may say, the European Union is becoming a de facto Federal Government. The Commission wants to run everything from territorial waters to telling us we can't drink from pint mugs. And all the while the ozone layer is getting thinner. Probably these bozos will be sucked up by some raincloud and shoot through the great hole into the void beyond! Wonders never cease.

An extraordinary row, involving major European and US industries, is blowing up over the European Commission's determination to make it illegal, in three years' time, for any products made in or imported into the EU to carry any reference to non-metric measures. Not only will this cost industries on both sides of the Atlantic billions of dollars and euros, but it is in direct breach of US federal law.

Oh dear. What a complete waste of time and money. What was that about Nero and Rome's fire precautions?

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House of Lords?

They've been talking about it for 100 years. I am almost certain the House of Lords will be around for another 100! Unless, of course, we've been swallowed whole by the European Union.

Politicians of all three main parties keep on about democracy but giving the second chamber any elected members will prove the undoing of the House of Commons as the new "Senate" will begin to flex its muscles. Quite frankly, I don't think the present system is too bad. Anyone can lobby a peer, they are courteous and spend time with people, and generally they don't have a slippery political pole to worry about.

The trouble is that most people, believing the House of Lords to be undemocratic, think it is totally inaccessible as well. It isn't. In fact, for putting a case forward in Parliament a peer comes quite high up on the list. It's a pity there are not more people promoting a positive case for them rather than pushing for yet more faceless politicians!

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More water problems

This morning I woke up feeling quite a lot better. Made myself a cup of tea. All very good. Then I thought about shaving and shower. Hold on, what's with the water pressure. Very much a weak stream! Couldn't get any hot water as we have a combi condenser boiler. After a brief discussion with my wife about it, I went round to the neighbours. Same trouble. Came back to phone Severn Trent.

Now Severn Trent is much like any other utility company. Quick on the profit motive, but rather less keen on the service side of things. I spoke to an obliging young man who asked for my address and the nature of the problem. "The water pressure is down" "Oh!" he said, as if I was the only one to have the problem. Then he said it may take four hours to rectify. I got a job reference number and he said someone would call when things were put right. I then said my neighbour was having the same problem. He was not really offering much in the way of further information but suggested she rang in as well, as the job references would be different. I asked if he knew whether the whole road was affected. He appeared a bit vague but then said he'd had a call from a road nearby. Anyway, eventually he spilt the beans by admitting there were calls from all over the area and it was already being worked on!

Now if I hadn't persisted he might have left me with the idea that this was a localised matter affecting only my house! But to add to the interest, when the water came back to pressure it was TWICE as powerful as before, with a hint of mud in it!

This all goes to suggest that they have been living with a massive leak somewhere in the vicinity for at least four years (the time we've been in the house) because we've never had pressure like this. The boiler works a treat, the hot and cold taps don't compete anymore and we get water at twice the speed we did.

But Severn Trent!?! Can you be a little less evasive and a bit more persuasive in your approach to service matters?

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A man's problematic life

Normally I like to post daily on this blog. Sometimes I can't upload because there's an outage on the system. Or my broadband supplier seems to be overloaded and I'm not online. Or I'm just too busy on other matters. However, none of these apply as the reason for absence is that I've just come out of a 48-hour stay in hospital. What was wrong? Well, I've got a man's problem - with my prostate.

I should have done something more about it, I know! Just a visit four years ago when the doctor advised that it was "just getting older" as the likely problem! If I was still in the USA then some doctor would have given me four physicals by now - and probably found the engorging gland quite a while back. This, though, is England, where you have to have a real problem occur before the NHS takes it seriously. On Tuesday morning, my weeing facility packed up entirely, causing my bladder to extend somewhat. In agony, and near desperation, I went via the doctor and ambulance to the hospital, where I got the catheter treatment. Wow! what pain indeed but what a relief too!

After two nights, blood and urine tests, and hospital life to be experienced, I came through. I am indeed lucky. Some in there had cancers and tumours and serious pains. I had only a benign swelling. But as one "inmate" said, "you had a wake-up call" and I did.

I do wish, though, that the doctors in the UK would give all men a regular screening. How much money would be saved? Loads, I've no doubt. I took up a bed for two days and two nights when I wasn't ill as such. Being there, though, gave me a crash course in modern NHS workings. I got the impression that the system is like a medical factory. Nurses no longer seem connected with the patients, the doctors are remote (although the one who saw me was great!) and the food is nowhere near Jamie Oliver stuff. Patients get mixed messages from the staff, especially about things like going home.

"Are you going home today?" (Nurse)
"Yes, I think so"
"Anybody told you about whether you're going home?" (Another nurse)
"Not really, but I think I am" (patient still hoping!)
"I'll check with the doctor to see if it's OK for you to go home" (Staff Nurse)
"Thanks"

And then it's confounded more if pills from the pharmacy are required. More forms, more legwork, more possible confusion. If the patients didn't band together to act as a mutual information centre, then getting to know about anything can be something where a diplomat's notebook would come in handy.

However, it would be untrue to say that the treatment received is not thoroughly professional. It is. It is just the bureaucratic atmosphere that pervades the wards. Little niggles seem just below the surface. The staff have a canny knowledge of the pettiness lurking in the system. Whatever money is thrown into the NHS, they don't seem to be receiving enough to give them a proper level of professional pride. They do their best despite the circumstances.

Perhaps those in charge, both ministers and executives, could spend a night in a ward bed. It would tell them all they needed to know. I went in with prostate problems (which was fantastically sorted!) but came out with backache (the bed!), constipation (the food!) and a severe lack of sleep! The thing about hospitals is the low level noise - doors, walking, trollies, buckets, aircon, they all add to the noise. And then the lights - far brighter than at home.

I came out Thursday afternoon. I'm still not quite back on form, but after tonight's sleep I should be feeling as I was! Oh, and the pills I'm on. Medical science at it's best.

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Bush aides 'mocked evangelicals'

Does this surprise me? Not really. For a man from a New England preppy background who decides to become a born-again Texan (accent included!), it isn't really surprising if the roots sometimes overcome the new tree! Those around Bush, and it is no exception with him as with any other leader, are usually seeking to please. If they think Bush wants to hear something, well why not say it, seems the tack!

David Kuo, a former top political adviser, alleges senior aides to the president described, in private, evangelical leaders as "nuts" and "goofy", while acknowledging their political use in securing election wins. It's all back to that good old British pantomime routine, "you said it" "no, I didn't" kind of stuff.

The trouble is that the more a leader is prepared to be economical with the truth the more some people are prepared to stand up with either the truth, a version of the truth, or a complete concoction. Whatever, it's best to be straight with people.

My inkling is that Bush, from an Episcopalian background, where eccentricities are quietly accepted, is ill at ease with these stiff-necked moralists who sound like preachers from hell most times. I don't know why he didn't kick them into the long grass years ago, stand up for his own beliefs and be the guy he should have been!

Both Bush and Blair appear to be like rabbits in the headlights of a car when it comes to supposedly powerful people and those with a greasy palm! Oh dear!!!

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More nonsense from nasty people

Well, it just carries on, doesn't it. A teacher at a school, who agreed not to wear the veil in class, now complains about being victimised because she changed her mind. Seeing her on TV tonight I'm very much of the opinion that the kids in her care would be taken aback by this image of mock piety. Whatever her own beliefs tell her, being truthful appears not high on the list! She should grow up and be adult enough to understand that teaching children in an English school requires at least the minimum that you can feel at ease with the teacher. Not seeing her face would be very upsetting indeed! And the school said they would be quite happy for her to walk about veiled in any other part of the building. Compromise at its best. Sadly lost on this provocative lass!

In another school nonsensical episode, in fact, rather sinister, a boy of ten was excluded from his school's dining hall because he came with the "wrong kind of food". His head teacher, of the Blairite fascist tendency no doubt, a certain Malcolm Goddard (however did he get to be a head teacher?) said "We take healthy eating very seriously and everyone is aware of our new policy. A lunch was brought in which was not in keeping with our new guidelines and the pupil was given the chance to have his dinner outside the hall with supervision".

What did the poor boy bring? Fromage frais, cake and cheese biscuits. May not be right at the top of the healthy pole but it won't kill him. The boy was distressed. What a cruel man you are, Malcolm Goddard, another of this country's new fascists, prowling around causing such hurt. Couldn't you have been a little less the zealot and more the caring professional?

With "diversity training" a new fad for companies (it means getting on with, and knowing about, people you may have conscientious disagreement with), those who tread a non-political correctness path are likely to be got at. So it is with Nadia Eweida, a Coptic Christian, who wears a small cross around her neck. She also works for British Airways. The Customer Services manager, another signed-up jobsworth, Ms Caroline Girling, wrote to Miss Eweida saying "You have been sent home because you failed to comply with a reasonable request. You were asked to cover up or remove your cross and chain which you refused to do" See, another of the politically correct zealots at it again. Quite rightly, Miss Eweida is challenging Ms Girling's nonsensical request. Ms Girling allows other religious "expressions" and no sensible person is going to go balmy or mad or angry at the sight of a BA person in a hijab, turban or whatever.

I say get a life Ms Girling and don't make BA look so foolish!

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Try Something New Today

I am a regular contributor to the tills at Sainsbury's and find their new makeover quite OK. After all, the chief executive, Justin King, is a local Solihull man, a Silhillian, so I may be biased. He has turned the company around, which suggests that the old adage "you can choose your friends but not your family" has paid off with regard to the Sainsbury clan.

However, I have a few musings I would like to share. Recently all customers have become accustomed to "Need any help with your packing?" to which I have been very tempted to say yes. However, I'm assured that if I did say so, I would be "very lucky". Lucky that is to find anyone willing to do it!! The conundrum here is that am I to think that this is to prevent me sueing them if I ruptured my back with handling heavy merchandise (should have said YES!) or is it some kind of political statement of the catchall variety? I'm not sure.

When discussing this recently at the checkout, I was told "We can't say 'Do you want any cashback or do you want to use your points?' " but the assistant was at a loss to know why? She looked to the ceiling as if to seek guidance into the thoughts of middle management. I would think it may have something to do with not encouraging reckless spending in some patrician sense, but again, I'm really quite mystified too.

Another odd thing. I was eating some ham recently. "This is really good" I told my wife. "It's just like we had it when I was a child. My mother used to get ham like this" "It's Taste the difference ham" my wife said. So, I thought, I'm tasting the difference from water-pumped ham that I've been eating for nigh on 40 years and now have to pay a premium for the stuff we got before the meat slicers took a back row position. I really feel it should be "Remember the Difference?" - a far more descriptive and "Oh, yes, I dooooo" tone to the whole thing!

At least these bon mots at Sainsbury's takes my mind off a few things! Oh, and I see Anna Ford is helping out on the board. Perhaps she may influence the company with her experiences at the checkout.

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Crazy!

It get's worse. A teenage schoolgirl, Codie Stott, from Greater Manchester was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English. Apparently, she said she had not been in school the day before due to a hospital appointment and had missed the start of a project, so the teacher allocated her a group to sit with.

"She said I had to sit there with five Asian pupils," said Codie yesterday. "Only one could speak English, so she had to tell that one what to do so she could explain in their language. Then she sat me with them and said 'Discuss'." According to Codie, the five - four boys and a girl - then began talking in a language she didn't understand, thought to be Urdu, so she went to speak to the teacher. "I said 'I'm not being funny, but can I change groups because I can't understand them?' But she started shouting and screaming, saying 'It's racist, you're going to get done by the police'." And it seems she was. Political correctness gone mad!!

My attention goes to the point in the Daily Mail's story that "A complaint was made to a police officer based full-time at the school". FULL-TIME?? What's going on? Blair's Britain. Don't you just love it!

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Generally Speaking

Well, the cat's out of the bag. The head of the British Army has said the presence of UK armed forces in Iraq "exacerbates the security problems". Is the guy in charge of the country listening? Doubt it. He's sorting out his lecture tour of the United States and other lucrative venues around the globe.

Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, says the British should "get out some time soon. Let's face it, the military campaign we fought in 2003, effectively kicked the door in." And kicked it down, with all those lives with it. A complete tragedy. And North Korea, where the nutter running that poor god-forsaken country has allowed over two million people to starve to death, is kept at arm's length. No oil in them there hills!

It is said that Sir Richard might be issuing a "very public warning" to the next prime minister. Pity the spiv already there wasn't taken to one side and told a few home truths. Blimey, he didn't even know the difference between battlefield weapons and long-range missiles, or at least, he didn't ask in relation to the 45-minute claim! And Des Browne, the hapless moron in charge of defence? Sir Richard gave the apparatchik a dressing down about the "unaccepatble" treatment of injured soldiers, warning him that the government was in danger of breaking the "covenant" between a nation and its Army and should not "let the Army down." New Labour - new perils. I hope we won't be deceived a fourth time, or more correctly, not be so mistaken as to let the 20% who actively voted to support this gang rule the 80% who didn't!

What a world!!

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Veiled threats?

Jack Straw, former British Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, is in hot water with some Muslim community leaders for asking (yes, he asks, not demands!) Muslim women visitors to his political constituency surgeries to remove their veils. Mr Straw explained the impact he thought veils could have in a society where watching facial expressions was important for contact between different people. He said, "Communities are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers - people being able to acknowledge each other in the street or being able pass the time of day. That's made more difficult if people are wearing a veil. That's just a fact of life. I understand the concerns but I hope, however, there can be a mature debate about this. I come to this out of a profound commitment to equal rights for Muslim communities and an equal concern about adverse development about parallel communities."

I say hear, hear to Jack Straw on this. I have been extremely critical of him over the Iraq war, but on this he is correct. By no stretch of the imagination is he trying to be offensive. It is only a tiny, but growing, minority of Muslim women who do this. Those that have spoken up seem to be very aggressive in their tones regarding other people's disquiet. Frankly, it is unnerving to have a masked person speaking to you. There can be no proper discourse.

In an islamic country where this is the custom, then OK. But whatever happened to "when in Rome"? In a country like Britain it is definitely a devisive move. As someone said today, there are Muslims who are happy to integrate whilst keeping to their faith, and then there are those who desire separation. Who is shunning who?

And finally! What about those banks and other places who demand that motorcyclists remove crash helmets (for security reasons, of course!). Are they going to be consistent and ask these dear ladies the same question?

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Christian America?

That born again Christian, President George W. Bush, now esconced in the United Methodist church, having left the Episcopal Church of his forebears, sees no harm in "waterboarding". Bible in one hand, tubthumping the other, with thoughts of torture fleeting through his mind? What a thought!

Come on, Mr. President! Is "waterboarding," a procedure in which a detainee is strapped down, dunked under water and made to believe that he might be drowned, an act of Christian men and women? Fight the good fight with all your might, but NOT with underhand measures!

John Bellinger, an apologist and legal advisor to the CIA, muddies the waters quite well here! I would hope for better!

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