Speaking My Mind!

New Labour's attempt to muzzle free speech was given a smack in the face tonight. The third-rate placeman, Paul Goggins, who moonlights as a Home Office minister, told MPs that moves to combat religious hatred would not damage freedom of speech and only those who intending to "stir up hatred" would be caught by the government's plans. It's all Alice in Wonderland stuff from a government that is so flaky on truth that they have to resort to Oliver Cromwell tactics to keep us in line.

Well, I'm glad these knee-jerk losers got a drubbing. Maybe they might just think a bit in future before fobbing us with daft ideas. They only did it to assuage perceived Muslim upset. Well, in a democracy robust debate is perfectly OK. I'd rather be called a ****** or a *****, than have my hands cut off or whipped within an inch of my life!

Oh dear, too much free speech. Goodnight, folks!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4664398.stm

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Liberal Thinking?

It seems that a lot of politicians are lacking in common sense. They may have the skills for political teamwork and fallout, but they sometimes seem hellbent on personal, and therefore, subsequent party freefall.

The Liberal Democrats are now in the spotlight. One wonders if it ever occurred to them that by ditching a popular leader, who happened to have a drink problem almost totally unknown to the general public, they were about to open a can of worms. After giving Kennedy the bum's rush, they get an eager deputy thrust upon them, who fluffs his lines at PMQ's. Then their home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, is outed as a man who had a relationship with a male prostitute, and their party president, Simon Hughes, admits now that he too is a man less than honest about his private life (which should be private but is not so when deliberate untruths are spread abroad).

Don't they ever stop to think that the British press, under the iron grip of that Australian self-righteous born-again American (for financial rather than loyalty reasons), will jump on any perceived wrongdoing and blow it back in spadefuls. I'm not really bothered about all this as such, except for Oaten's two young children. I know of no-one who, having grown up with such family history, enjoyed knowing it. It sticks for life! Human frailty is all around us. I am not judging these politicians, but simply saying - please, next time can't you just think before you act?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2006/liberal_democrat_leadership_contest/default.stm

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Renditions and Renditions!

The Americans have almost certainly been up to some kind of "rendition", as they rather quaintly put it, which has resulted in the secret transport of prisoners via Europe to third countries where they may have been tortured . So says Swiss MP Dick Marty, who has been doing a report for the human rights watchdog the Council of Europe. Abu Hamza is doing a "rendition" in court on a daily basis. When asked if there were Jihad training camps in the UK, Hamza dismissed it as "a silly idea".

So there may be camps for Jihadists, there may not. There may be camps for the USA, there may not. There is definititely Guantanamo, which is a blot on the landscape of America's justice process. Don't we hear US crime and legal shows talking of "due process"? Where is it now?

Can anyone seriously say where this so called War On Terror is going?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4641810.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4643720.stm

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Abu Hamza in the dock

I'm beginning to think that putting Abu Hamza on trial is faintly ridiculous. But then the whole Blair regime is faintly ridiculous, with it's spinning, cheating, deceptions, and ambivalence to the truth. Hamza may be a rough bluff overweight cleric, but I think it was not a good idea trying him in a court of law. The hapless prosecutor David Perry does his best, but the nuances of legal English are seemingly lost on Hamza and Hamza's canny use of middle eastern imagery make the prosecution look a little bit hamfisted.

What on earth did they think they would gain by all this? On another front the CPS (who make justice look like a lottery) have declined to prosecute Iqbal Sacrani, of the Muslim Council, for his "homophobic views". Probably thought a hornet's nest would fall on them!

Instead of going after the real criminals, those that beat up dissenting voices within the Muslim community, drug barons, people traffickers (the dozy Tony McNulty, Home Office minister, has lost touch on immigration), and all the other misery makers, Blair's lot have made a real mess of dealing with free speech, democratic rights, and citizenship.

The daily bloodshed in Iraq is not something that Blair has NO responsibility for. He thought he, and George Bush, would be doing Iraq a favour. His actions are rather like a cricket umpire refereeing a football match. That is, not likely to work well in the first place!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4640946.stm

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Truthful Portrayal?

Channel 4 Television has had a thing about Tony Blair ever since he sprung himself on the Labour Party as its leader. On Thursday night we were shown the marvellous documentary "Tony Blair - Rock Star" which told of "Tony's" life from his last years at Fettes to his early years in London. It was a treat. Always good viewing, these programmes. Blair, or "Tony" as the voiceover kept saying in a slightly derogatory way, was well remembered by various people for his attempts to be a rock star based on Mick Jagger's persona. They had memories of his grin, his attempts to ingratiate, his eagerness, his pushiness, and his abilities in persuading those around him of the rightfulness of the project in hand.

So much of then could be seen in our present day. Much of this is the same, except that Tony Blair is a lot more experienced and more alert to the ways of the world. The gauche side has definitely gone. However, these programmes do well to show us that Blair is a character whose views are not necessarily based on dogma and doctrine, but more on opportunity and practicalities. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it all comes across that Blair is a bit of a narcissist, always keen on manipulating the situation or subject matter to suit his own excitement.

Robin Cook was concerned enough to say that he thought Blair got a high out of the workings of politics. Being centre stage was his version of rock star status. Maybe no guitar but still strutting his stuff!

I have this vision of Tony Blair on To Tell The Truth. "Hi, my name's Tony Blair and I am Prime Minister of Great Britain. Once I wanted to be a rock star, oh yes, but I had to give it all up when I joined the Labour Party. My claim to fame is that I changed it completely without any problems to being New Labour, totally new, oh yes. I am the real Tony Blair. Yes, my name is Tony Blair".

http://www.channel4.com/music/ontv/T/tonyblair.html

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Suffer Little Children?

In some ways I blame the Government, in some ways I don't. The whole sorry tale of divorce, misery, anger, and whatever, associated with the break-up of families carries on now into a further chapter. Private debt collectors are to be used to collect money from absent parents who fail to pay child support money, as if this is going to help the cause of family life. Blair and his cronies sound tough, and yes, his "respect" agenda may do some good, but sending round the heavies who, in the absence of hard cash, will cast a beady eye round for saleable items such as TVs, hi-fi, and computers. All likely to make a child's life happy!

The Child Support Agency must cost a fortune to run, and it's not spectacularly well run at that! Their computer is on the blink, probably due to dodgy dealings in the procurement office! Most of the lot in Blair's cabinet sit alongside him on the front bench looking like they're all out of ideas.

First, they should scrap the CSA. Put the penpushers to better use. Then seek an amnesty of all absentee fathers, who must, within a period, make themselves known (added to the CSA's existing lists) for assessment. In a word, a means test of actual income, not some notional arithment figure, to obtain regular payments. If a father is out of work, he pays nothing, if he regains work then he pays. Alongside this the courts get their act together to work for harmony rather than animosity. The Inland Revenue deducts the cash (which, thankfully the Government is considering)! As Philip Hammond, the Tory spokesman said of the CSA, "The problem goes right back to the assessment-processing stage, and then it is the management of the casework within the new computer system." All too true!

Today Fathers4 Justice announced it is to disband, following reports linking it to a plan to kidnap Tony Blair's son, founder member Matt O'Connor has said. Whilst the message may have been sound, the messengers were somewhat deranged, or at least a few of them were.

So the children still suffer. What a world!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4625228.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4626106.stm

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Church at a Crossroads?

Women Bishops from USA, Canada, & NZ visiting England.


Today the Church of England published the Guildford Group's report. What's this report? Well it is from the Bishop of Guildford with regard to the synod of the CofE proposing that women should become bishops. Trouble is that quite a few of us don't believe in this novelty with regard to the Faith. However, we are in a minority so the Guildford Group was charged with coming up with some ideas. In a roundabout way they are saying like it or lump it!

Traditionalists want a third province to allow the continuation of the Faith as Anglicans have undestood it. The current hierachy of the CofE seems more concerned with the world's opinion rather than discerning what has been believed "by all in all places at all times".

We are being given the nod that a beefed up version of Flying Bishops is on offer. This is, at first glance, rather odd because it suggests that a parish would still have to recognise legally a woman as a bishop in order to petition for the new "Transferred Episcopal Arrangements". Under TEA, as illustrated in the report, parishes opposed to women priests and women bishops could opt, by resolution of a Special Parochial Church Meeting, for the Diocesan Bishop to request the Archbishop of the Province to arrange for episcopal ministry to be provided by a Provincial Regional Bishop (PRB). The PRB would exercise jurisdiction over such a parish in certain matters, while the diocesan bishop continued to exercise jurisdiction in others.

So the Diocesan bishop, if a woman, would still have some role in the life of a parish that could not accept female ordination as sacramentally valid. Fudge indeed!

Sad as it all is, and I realise the world outside the confines of this debate probably view it all with a curiosity verging on disbelief, the two elements of Anglicanism (traditionalists and liberal) are moving further away because the core understanding of the nature of the Faith is so different.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr0606.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4618780.stm

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Brown's Britishness?

One of the things being discussed is Gordon Brown's call for a British Day. In an address (yesterday - Saturday) to the Fabian Society in London, he said it is important the flag is recaptured from the far right. Too true, but New Labour shows an odd attitude to patriotism. Mr Brown said it is time for the modern Labour party and its supporters to be unashamedly patriotic as, for too long, such feelings have been caricatured as being tied up with right-wing beliefs, when in fact they encompass "progressive" ideas of liberty, fairness and responsibility. And with New Labour they also encompass republican sentiments, constitutional desecration and a penchant for peeping in on others' business! With Old Labour we always wondered if they were hankering after tea and biscuits with foreign comrades. Blair might have ditched Clause 4, but they will need a better basis than this for expressing patriotism.

This has all come about because of the London bombs and New Labour's botched attempts to round-up suspect Islamic clerics. This is more likely to result in flag burning than flag waving. I'm all in favour of "liberty, fairness and responsibility" but I'm a tad suspicious about all this from Brown's point of view.

He talks about holding a British Day so that "all the United Kingdom should honour it, not ignore it. We should assert that the Union flag by definition is a flag for tolerance and inclusion." But this is glossing over the major problem that his lot have caused. Devolution!!!

Scotland, his homeland, was given its own parliament. Scotland proudly promotes Scottishness as do the Welsh and Irish accordingly. The English were not mentioned yesterday. Why? Because New Labour doesn't want to let us think we are English. They have placemen, like Michael Wills, MP for Swindon, who has been working on the idea with Mr Brown, who said the chancellor wanted a special day to "focus on the things that bring us together... whatever our backgrounds". So the English are welcome?

However, Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said Britishness "went bust long ago" north of the border. He said Labour's opposition to a Scottish holiday on St Andrew's Day was a "fatal weakness" in the argument. And for St.David and St.George?

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I'm Still Here!

The new valves in the computer are still OK but the stimulants must have been suspect. The whole house seems to be plagued with deep-seated coughing or headaches or sneezing. In some cases, all three! I for one find computers hard going when subjected to such afflictions. I'm not sure how those who do it full time fare. But the brain thankfully doesn't shut down and my mind has been buzzing with all the crazy things happening at the start of 2006. Happy New Year. Britain is still producing the news!

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