Female guard strangled in prison chapel

I've never understood why the American authorities call their prisons correctional centers when very little correction seems to take place. Washington State is the latest to find out they have made a grave error - a dereliction of duty in fact. Female guard Jayme Biendl has been strangled in the chapel by an inmate trying to escape. The guard had been telling people that she felt unsafe as the sole person guarding this part of the prison.

Equal opportunities? Political correctness? No, it's just the stupid way things are done these days. Any fool could have told the authorities that this was not a good idea. A life has been taken. No doubt they will seek to fry the culprit in a grisly manner, yet totally misunderstanding that it was they who had a duty in the first place. It seems Pontius Pilate may have had a hand in drafting the regulations.

The whole thing stinks!

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John Barry the composer dies at 77

John Barry has died. Tributes have been paid to him for his contribution to film music. They were good but for me the best he ever did was far more of a hit than it ever was a miss.

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Heroin use down

I heard on the Today Programme that heroin use is down. This is partly due apparently to the poppy fields of Afghanistan not producing so much. The crop spraying has been a failure. In fact, the whole Afghan adventure is a disaster. The Taliban is not our enemy as such. However, the drug barons are. If the two are mixed up together then both are against us. But I suspect the powers-that-be are not that bothered about it all. If they were they would have destroyed those poppy fields years ago.

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Mubarak is the dimmest man in the world!

Hosni Mubarak must be the dimmest man in the world. Virtually the whole of Egypt thinks he is past his sell-by-date for whatever reason. He thinks otherwise. Just on that level only he is not fit to be in power. Has he read history? If he hasn't he should be given a few good books to thumb through. His best bet is to go with a bit of dignity. Leave it any longer and he will be joining the likes of Mussolini in ignomy.

I saw John Kerry, erstwhile US presidential candidate who is in Davos, waxing on about Mubarak. His waffle and double speak did him no favours. Democrats should be democrats for all and not suggest that a tyrant can be tamed just to suit American foreign policy. On that note alone I'm glad John Kerry never got to be president.

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Practising Muslims to overtake churchgoers

Damian Thompson has a piece on his blog about practising Muslims outnumbering churchgoing Britons. Shock horror! I think this needs to be taken apart as a statement of "fact". Just turning up at a mosque doesn't make one a believer practising or otherwise. It just acts as a number cruncher.

When I moved to a parish in Surrey at the age of 5, our local church was responsible for 5,000 souls. Most of these lived in their own homes. There were some flats, subdivided Victorian houses, but not much else. 500 souls fairly regularly attended church. In the middle of the 1950's we had "Holy Communion", Mattins and Evensong and a service for the local prep school. Excluding the school, around 10% of the parish were known attenders. Over the years the parish grew in numbers, mainly by new flats and knocking the old Victorian houses down to make way for executive homes. Interestingly quite a few of the newcomers were not from church backgrounds. We got to 10,000 in the parish, but our congregation had dwindled to 100 regulars. We were now down to 1% of the parish. Mattins had gone into the ecclesiastical history book, Evensong was attended by stalwarts ("I'm not a Eucharist man, myself!" was one remark I will always remember) and the new, but not always reliable, Sung Eucharist. We soldiered on, or they did, because I'm not there now. I believe it's still around the same number of 100 today.

A lot of Muslim men go to the mosque today very much like CofE men did in the Fifties. A core belief in God was there, no question. But the meeting of friends, catching up with gossip and, it has to be said, being seen to be there was essential. As soon as the social stigma of not being in church receded, so those not so sure of it all drifted away. Many Muslims will drift away as they are doing now. I don't say this with any sense of pride, pleasure, sadness or bewilderment. It's merely an observation and comment. But I think it is valid.

When I was 5 we had no Muslims in our parish. There was one Hungarian! Muslims were generally known as Mohammedans and I had a visions of ragheaded men with long swords brandishing their weapons at each other whilst on horseback. Or else they were being thrown from turreted towers in sandy deserts. There were a lot of books like this for children then. And adults sometimes gave lurid descriptions of the Middle East. Now it is all very different. Mosques are in this country just as much as in the Middle East.

This isn't so much about adherents to a religion as about our attitudes to immigration. The British discuss immigration in rather the same way as they do sexual activity. It's all innuendo, half-truths and involvement with carpets and sweepers!

I now go to a church in a parish that is overwhelmingly Muslim. It's Birmingham, multi-cultural, and lively. We are a catholic parish in a brave new world. I don't sense I have much to worry about with my Muslim neighbours. No, it's more the illiberal attitudes of so-called liberal Christians who can't stand anyone with a view they do not hold. The Church of England is currently not as inclusive as they like to think.

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Humpty Mubarak sat on a wall...

Humpty Mubarak had a great fall! Well, not quite yet, but he's going either tomorrow or some time soon. This erstwhile "friend" of theWest is nothing more than a nicely suited bully, keen on the old Stasi type tactics of whispering campaigns mixed in with a liberal amount of genital torture and iron bar bashing.

First Tunisia, now Egypt. I hope it ends with those thugs in Riyadh. All circling each other as the masses encroach on their evil empire.

Every person in the world deserves to live in peace and freedom. What is the Muslim greeting? Peace be upon you. Not much peace in Mubarak's peaceless piece of the world.

Humpty Mubarak will have a great fall!

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Vincent Tabak case lines up legal eagles

The Joanna Yeates murder case is intriguing from a criminal justice viewpoint. Some murders are so low profile nobody outside the local nick knows they ever happened. Some are the exact opposite. This case is the latter. It has all the ingredients to make the press excited. What they tend to forget is that people are involved, both victim's family and accused's family. In this case, others are drawn into the case by just the mere fact they lived nearby or just happened to be close by at the time.

I see that Tabak (whose name is Tobacco in Dutch) has Paul Cook as his barrister. He appears to be a suitable choice. The prosecutor will be Ann Reddropp, head of the Complex Case unit at the CPS South west group. She once came a cropper up against a judge who criticised the CPS for bringing a case of racial aggravation.

A man was up in court for saying "F*** off you Paki, I want an English doctor, not a f***ing Paki." Judge Darlow remarked: "This was a single sentence to a man who should not have taken it so seriously. He is a man of some considerable standing in society and I cannot see that it caused him any distress or hurt. It should not have caused a problem in this case. To charge rather than let it go by with a caution strikes me as rather odd. We let people hit each other and break into people's homes and they are not charged." Ann Reddrop, prosecuting, said: "When there is a burglary and it is in the public interest there will be a prosecution. This was a police surgeon and he is entitled to the same protection as anyone else."
The judge then stated: "So next time call him a fat bastard and don't say anything about his colour."

There's something about the English legal system that never changes. I don't know about fat bastards but I get the impression it's sometimes about fat ladies waiting to sing. Even when they do, it's not always over. That's why I find the case of Vincent Tabak intriguing. Something is stopping the fat lady singing in my mind.

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Sexist views in the news for Sky News

I was wondering what had happened to Richard Keys. Sort of. Then I hear he's been talking in that blokish way Sky blokes talk. Does it surprise me? Not really. I can't think what all the fuss is about. Football is full of blokish blokes. It's year's since I went to a top flight football game. It was all blokish stuff then. If young women want to mix with the lads' game, they will need cloth ears. Also an ability to absorb four letter words as if Noddy spoke them.

Sky Sports or News or Whatever has taken Keys and his mate to task. I never watch Sky Sports. Sort of watch Sky News. Too much Murdoch gives me the collywobbles. All a storm in a tea cup. I mention this only because some seem to think it matters. I don't think so. Football will implode under a mountain of debt or be crushed in the stampede of angry fans trying to get at greedy foreign owners. It's not a game anymore. It's a cynical business.

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Vincent Tabak's family hire a "professional spokesman"

According to De Telegraaf, one of the top newspapers in the Netherlands, the family of Dutchman Vincent Tabak, the man accused of murdering Joanna Yeates, has hired a media man to protect their side of the events. They have suggested that the British media has not portrayed them in a favourable light. The family is convinced of his innocence and now feel the need to present their views in this way.

I suspect that certain cultural differences may be beginning to emerge. This story is full of twist and turns. I just don't get the sense that it is going to be that straightforward.

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Gordon Brown hacked off with hackers

Gordon Brown may not have been the best prime minister, but he did get to be in that office. Whatever one may think of the leadership of the country, it is no excuse to try to listen in on phone conversations. I have no clue what the News of the World got up to when trying to get stories. We do know someone went to jail for phonehacking. We do know that many famous people are rightly concerned that their phones may have been hacked into. We do know that Andy Coulson has resigned because he can't give 110% to the job. What we don't know and should is if there has been anything going on greater than that already prosecuted. The Metropolitan Police seem to have put this matter on a back burner.

Newspapers should investigate wrongdoing, report on all manner of issues and allow the publication of comment and opinion. It's called a free press. What they can't do is listen into private conversations in order to inflame passions in others. Do I want to know what goes on in a famous person's bedroom? I do not! However, should I know whether a policeman on duty is cavorting with a politician's wife whilst ostensibly protecting that polician from harm? Yes, because it tells me whether a lack of integrity exists where integrity should exist.

Why Scotland Yard is so cavalier about all this I do not know. But they should start turning over a few stones to see what crawls out from under. Something is going on and if it is not all sorted out soon, it will fester causing unnecessary trouble all round.

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Vincent Tabak charged with the murder of Joanna Yeates

Vincent Tabak, a Dutch architectural engineer, who lives in the same apartment block as Joanna Yeates, has been charged with her murder. He will appear in court on Monday.

This is progress in the case, but it does not mean it is the conclusion. Depending on his plea, Tabak will be able to have a defence or instruct his counsel otherwise. There should be no rush to judgement. There has been too much of that already in this matter and in other cases down the years a similar attitude has prevailed. The media needs restraint now as before.

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BBC institutionally Left-wing or just plain biased?

Daniel Hannan, in his Telegraph blog, suggests that the BBC is not impartial but that it should be. He asks the question "How is this impartiality to be secured?" and answers by sayng," By the best possible method: the new chairman will be subject to a confirmation hearing by MPs. Instead of being, as in the past, a government placeman, the successful candidate will have to satisfy MPs of all factions – for no party has an absolute majority on the Select Committee – that he will be disinterested."

The BBC is rather peculiar, has irrational tendencies at times and moves through life with some very odd views in tow. I think they are completely and utterly incomprehensible regarding the Ordinariate. It would never suit their purpose to have on Thought for the Day anyone from it. I've never heard anyone from Forward in Faith given airtime, other than to be pilloried for antiquated views, but they've got half a dozen female clerics on hand as if everyone accepts this as the norm. The country may well do. Many have no clue or interest in matters of faith. But why should some be excluded? Has the BBC made a pact with female clerics?

The same is true about those they cannot abide. The BNP is one such organisation. Instead of simply saying that Nick Griffin was able to appear on Question Time in a similar way to Respect or the Green Party due to advancement in electoral support, a whole rigmarole of committee talk is put in place with the eventual programme being a bad joke.

It's as though only certain opinion is permitted, anything else is strictly monitored and given short shrift. We may not agree with some views. That's OK, but a fair hearing is what the BBC should offer, without appearing to be some kind of Stasi-light filtering service. When it came to Griffin's appearance on Question Time all we got was Dimbleby acting like some kind of second rate schoolmaster bating an errant boy.

Peter Sissons has a piece in the Daily Mail claiming standards have fallen at the BBC and accusing producers of being too mired in political correctness to do anything about it. I wish they could see how they are seen by others. Maybe they don't have any mirrors in the corporation?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199104/Peter-Sissons-BBC-standards-falling--bosses-scared-it.html#ixzz1BmnPRd65

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Banks to be broken up?

The BBC reports, "The head of the commission reviewing whether the UK's biggest banks should be broken up is expected to say later that wide-ranging reform is needed. In a speech in London, Sir John Vickers is set to confirm he is considering plans to separate banks' trading and retail operations."

We've got big banks but it's not certain whether there is adequate competition. Santander took over a bunch of banks and now most high streets have three Santander branches, maybe with two stuck beside each other. Do banks compete? Or are they all they same?

Fractional reserve banking means that they can make money out of very little. But that's to suit themselves. If HSBC was broken up, we might get the Hong, the Kong, the Shang and the Hai banks, but would we notice any difference? I don't think so! We need root and branch reform, not just cosmetic tweaking.

HSBC has warned it would consider moving its headquarters from the UK if the commission recommended a break-up. Hong Kong or Shanghai boys?

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Tony Blair sat on the wall - Tony Blair had a great fall?

The one thing Tony Blair will never have is a great fall. He may have a slow slide into ignomy, but his unbelievable "well, look, right, yeah!" talent gets him out of any spot of bother. Honed to perfection whilst at Fettes, where he practiced his arts on housemasters and fellow pupils alike, it has taken him through life as the master of spin and political double entendre. No puns are ever intended. Just double meanings that the listener conveniently hears in single measure.

John Chilcot got a few "rights" from Blair yesterday at the Iraq Inquiry. I think the panel deserve a medal just for sitting it out. None of this will change a thing. Blair is convinced he is correct in his thinking. He now is quite at ease saying it was all about regime change. Getting the unvarnished truth out of him is like trying to get ferrets out of a sack without being bitten. Virtually impossible. That's probably why Chilcot has such a weary look about him at the end of sessions.

I saw some of it, but after a while I lost interest. I don't think I'm alone. Adam Boulton wasn't heaving his shoulders so much on Sky News. Always a sign that somebody is yesterday's man. Blair was that man yesterday.

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Facebook faces of Vincent Tabak

Facebook is keen on faces. Join up and you post a face online. Sometimes in the most comical of poses. Vincent Tabak is seen on Facebook in various guises. One in a bow tie, one by Stonehenge. The photos look like anyone's snaps. Why did I see these? Because they are plastered all over The Sun's website. Why is that? Because Vincent Tabak has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the Jo Yeates case.

Fifty years ago no such stuff would be available to see. Not even ten years ago. It's a salutory lesson for all of us. Anyone could be caught up in a criminal investigation. Now we can have, if we've posted Facebook with holiday snaps, our old polaroids and grainy pics pored over. "Look at her! Is that really him? Is that his mother? Did she have hair like that then?" and so on, and so on.

The police are still saying they don't have a name to give for the person they arrested. Fair enough. Quite right of them. But things do leak out and when they do our modern obessions are going to meet traditional moralising. Two and two are still making ten.

It would help all concerned in this murder investigation if the culprit owned up. But that would be asking too much of human nature. So, in the absence of such a revelation, we should all be wary of what we think we see. They say the camera never lies, but I have my doubts about believing all we see in Facebook photos.

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Ron Paul mulling over 2012 presidential bid

Despite speculation that Ron Paul was eying up the Senate seat of Kay Bailey Hutchinson in Texas, he has told the National Journal that a presidential bid in 2012 is still the more viable option. Last time round Ron Paul was the most successful candidate on the internet but the least successful candidate as far as fair shares of TV time and Republican Party favours were concerned.

2012 will be different. No more Fox News manipulation. No more sidelining by the GOP establishment. I bet that if it were a Ron Paul versus Barack Obama contest, the older man would win. Why? Because Ron Paul has seen through the profligacy of big government as well as the short-sightedness of status quo politicians.

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Andy Coulson resigns as Cameron's spin doctor

So there was some fire behind his smokescreen? Andy Coulson has gone because he can't give 110% to the job. I suspect it's because a load of court cases are piling up and he will have to appear in each and every one, giving his usual denial that he knew nowt!

Transparency awaits another day!

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Alan Johnson not protected by a fair cop!

Alan Johnson's resignation was described as a personal affair. When I told my wife I thought he should have just said he wanted a change of job she said that it wouldn't be left there. "You know the press," she said, "they'll keep digging". They didn't need long to find out that his quitting the front bench was after his wife was alleged to have had an affair with his police bodyguard. That's a bit rich. The constable is now being quizzed.

I think it is now up to the police to envigorate their staff and remind them that undercover work or protection work is no excuse for philandering. I well remember watching a play by Jack Rosenthal about The Knowledge, when would-be taxi drivers had to ride around London memorising street names. One of the cabbies had a mistress. He told one young lad that, in his opinion, the knowledge was the "best thing in the whole history of how's your father!".

It seems such attitudes have pernmeated the police. Apart from the dwindling band of milkmen, policemen are the last lot likely to be tempted in such a way. We have only recently heard of such straying, but are there more?

Alan Johnson is liked by all sides of the House. He apparently is a great one to have at dinner parties. Baroness Warsi take note! He does not deserve to be cuckolded in such a way. I hope it all works out for him whilst he takes a step back from front line politics.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/01/21/alan-johnson-quits-as-shadow-chancellor-amid-claims-wife-had-affair-with-his-bodyguard-115875-22864296/#ixzz1BfHyxpAU
Go Camping for 95p! Vouchers collectable in the Daily and Sunday Mirror until 11th August . Click here for more information

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Richard Barnbrook AM to join English Democrats?

Richard Barnbrook is the Assembly member on the Greater London Assembly who was elected as a list member for the BNP. Somehow he fell out with the BNP and drifted off into the nether regions of nationalist politics. Now I see that he is being courted by the English Democrats. Barnbrook is not one for membership of a party that says it is an inclusive organisation I would have thought.

The leader of the English Democrats is Robin Tilbrook, a pillar of legal and Anglican circles. I cannot understand why he thinks Barnbrook would be a suitable standard bearer, unless of course it's just opportunist politics with integrity on the back burner.

This from The Cross of St George Forum with all the shinanigans!

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Live chicken thrown through KFC window

When I first heard about this, at the Nuneaton Kentucky Fried Chicken, I thought it was some stunt by animal liberation types. It was not. It was a couple of moronic pranksters who thought it a good joke to chuck a startled chicken in at the drive-thru window of this KFC branch. Their brainless giggles say it all. The chicken came out OK apparently, but was, according to the RSPCA, a "bit stressed".

However, if I were that chicken, I'd be a bit stressed by the RSPCA deciding to call me Mrs Sanders. Now there must be some reason for that, surely?

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How the Dutch report about a Dutch suspect

De Telegraaf, one of the Netherlands top newspapers, writes about the arrest on suspicion of murder of a Dutch citizen with a certain degree of circumspection. Certainly not so dramatic as some British newspapers.

Just a tad different, I think.

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Alan Johnson 'to quit frontline politics'

So he's going and not staying. He says he had "found it difficult" to cope with issues in his private life while shadow chancellor. Very strange? He didn't have such issues when in government. Why just as shadow chancellor? He leaves it all with an "I will make no further comment about this matter" approach.

Now he's just going to get more questions than answers. He'd have been far better off just saying that the brief was not really for him. Aren't we all looking for transparent answers? He wasn't a bad minister, he's a pretty good MP, articulate, etc. This just seems like a smokescreen. Even if it isn't, I don't think this "private life" line is what we need to hear about.

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Tale of two suspects - Jo Yeates murder inquiry

The Daily Mail says "Police withhold suspect's name because of worries over media coverage". Reading the story one would be given the idea that the Daily Mail was a paragon of virtue when it comes to reporting about people. The "Daily Mail Reporter" says -

It is understood that police have withheld the name of the arrested man because of the media frenzy that followed the first arrest in the case, that of Jo's landlord Chris Jefferies, 65. There are strict instructions on what media outlets can and cannot report during police investigations and it is understood that investigators were extremely unhappy with some coverage that they felt overstepped the mark, potentially jeopardising their enquiries.

Mr Jefferies is said to be considering suing police for wrongful arrest after his name and photograph were widely circulated in connection with the case. His friend Irving Steggles, said 'He is preparing a case against the media and the police, I believe. This has completely shattered his life.' As part of the statement released to confirm the arrest this morning, police gave a firm instruction to media outlets covering the case. It read: 'Proceedings are active and everyone is reminded of the Contempt of Court Act and therefore you will understand that we cannot discuss any more details'.

All sounds neat and dandy. The Daily Mail never got up to anything so remotely unhelpful as writing about Christopher Jefferies in a prurient way, did they? Vincent Tabak can only be thankful that someone has muzzled the media. Should it ever come to a matter of trial, it is the right of all defendants that their trial is fair. Free speech is about the lawful dissemination of comment. It is not about inflaming public opinion with unsubstantiated facts and mere tittle-tattle before justice is upheld.

Maybe the police have been advised what sort of civil penalties they might face if found on the wrong end of a lawsuit? Maybe the press have had similar figures bandied about? I don't know, but all with an interest in such matters seem of a very different disposition. The real problem here is that the modern media seems so morally bankrupt that they cannot draw themselves up short in front of tabloid temptation. If Christopher Jerfferies does sue, then he will be making a stand for proper justice with due process and not for a kangaroo court aided and abetted by the lynch mob tendencies of the more scurrilous journals.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348832/Joanna-Yeates-murder-Vincent-Tabaks-flat-searched-man-32-arrested.html#ixzz1Bb1F1GHk

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Jo Yeates murder inquiry yields second suspect

The police in Bristol have arrested another man. His name is being given locally as Vincent Tabak, a 32 year old Dutch National. The BBC reports that a flat in the same building which Jo Yeates occupied with her boyfriend is being searched and scaffolding has gone up.

Mr. Tabak finds himself in a similar position to Christopher Jefferies. That of being arrested on suspicion of murder. What I find odd is that the media is not seeking to reveal details of Mr. Tabak as they did Mr. Jefferies. Is this because they have been told to say nothing or because they don't see any mileage for boosting circulation?

I hope all involved in this are treated fairly and receive equal treatment. Somehow my antennae are twitching, telling me that the media is not fair and fairness is something that we can only hope for rather than expect.

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Warsi on warpath over Islamophobia

Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Party chairman, is highlighting today the fact, as she sees it, that prejudice against Muslims has "passed the dinner-table test" and become socially acceptable in the UK. Whether she has used the term "islamophobia" I do not know, but the media is suggesting she has done. These social phobias are cropping up all over the place. A phobia is an irrational dislike, hatred even, of some aspect of life, a thing or people. I know people who are claustrophobic. That is they go quite crazy when shut in a room. They can't abide cars, planes or even trains. Arachnophobic people even squeal at the mention of spiders. None of it makes much sense to those who don't have such phobias.

Now the modern society has taken the word phobia and stuck it onto Islam and come up with Islamophobia. Are there people who become irrational in the presence of Muslims? If there are perhaps they can be cured of their phobia. However, I doubt that it is a phobia. In fact it isn't. What it is is a hatred or dislike of the Muslim faith and of some Muslims in particular. Literally a prejudice. I have no doubt that there are some who sit around a dinner table and mutter disparagingly about Islam. Most probably have no clue and allow themselves to say, "In the school, the kids say: 'The family next door are Muslim but they're not too bad'" as Baroness Warsi says they do. "And in the road, as a woman walks past wearing a burka, the passers-by think: 'That woman's either oppressed or is making a political statement'." She has a point.

But I don't think Muslims need to be singled out for protection against the bigots. One could say that about Christians, about anyone who does not conform to the prevailing secular attitudes. I know that not all priests are paedophiles, but I bet a few dinner parties have discussed that topic and it being concluded that they are. Were all Catholics murderers in the Irish troubles? Were all Protestants anti-catholic bomb plotters? Of course they were not.

When it comes to understanding Muslims in Britain we need people like Baroness Warsi to stand up and say why Muslims, like her, make good citizens. She says "the patronising, superficial way faith is discussed in certain quarters, including the media", is making Britain a less tolerant place for believers. Don't we just know it. Look at the way the media is portraying the Ordinariate. How they portray Christians generally.

What I would say is that it would help considerably if there was some sort of Chief Imam who could express Islam in a way that is more freely understood by the non-Muslim population. And I think that cultural aspects should be separated from religious ones. For example, it is not necessary to be a good Muslim by wearing garments of a particular type. But if people want to wear certain clothing then that should be respected.

In short, we live currently in a secular, un-churched, non-religious country. Many are spiritual in many ways, but most just go with the flow. I'm still pondering how those who are not in the current flow can determine whether they should be in those waters at all.

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Not so enthusiastic about the Coalition

When the Coalition government was formed after last year's general election, I decided that I would be an enthusiastic supporter. New Labour had been a total disaster in my mind. Tony Blair, master of the grease and spin method of politics, had vulgarised government. If anyone disagreed it was a "well, yeah, OK" type of putdown one got. The Coalition would be a change for the better. I was signed up so to speak.

Many conservatives, both with and without a big C, were apprehensive. So were many LibDems. The good thing is it is still sticking together in a brave attempt to stabilise the finances of the country. However, I am getting queasy thoughts. One is Nick Clegg's obsession with voting. Everything has to be voted for, rather like in the USA where it was said even the town's dogcatcher has to have a view on non-dogcatching topics. The House of Lords is being attacked by his oddly thought out democracy ideas.

But that aside, it is the economy. I doubt if there are enough private sector jobs going to mop up those being told to quit government service. Today unemployment is up and the number of those in work is down. Incomes are being squeezed. Funnily enough, if that Cayman Island banker who has just wikileaked a whole load of stuff about high profile tax dodgers is correct, then all this in-it-together mantra may need rewriting. Apparently the Swiss Banks have enough illicit cash in their accounts to balance the books and give George Osborne a bit on top to do good things with.

So my enthusiasm is waning (not evaporating!) because I want the all-in-it-together business to mean just that. So I'm now an optimistic supporter of the Coalition. That's one down from enthusiastic.

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Tony Blair's Iraq War finally undone by Lord Goldsmith

It had to come to it. Lord Goldsmith has spent years looking like a man who knows he's keeping the truth clenched behind his teeth. The Chilcott Committee, inquiring into the Iraq War decisions, submitted a written question to Lord Goldsmith. This arose because Lord Goldsmith was "uncomfortable" with Tony Blair's remarks in 2003. Blair told MPs that while a second UN resolution was "preferable" there were circumstances in which it was "not necessary" - in the event of the use of an "unreasonable veto" by a Security Council member. He also told the BBC's Newsnight programme on 6 February 2003 that if a country vetoed a further resolution "unreasonably" then "I would consider action outside of that".

The inquiry panel asked Lord Goldsmith if he felt those words were "compatible with the advice you had given him".

Lord Goldsmith replied simply "no".

We sort of knew that all along. The trouble with this war and all the carry-ons surrounding it is that Blair's government might as well have consulted a couple of educated weasels in getting their arguments across. The vast majority of the country still think Blair cooked up his reasons. He was going to war and that was that.

None of the main players comes out of this well. And for all their posturing Iraq is still a place that offers little or no security, a government of dubious merit, and a people desiring real peace instead of petty violence, car bombings and crime of all sorts.

Blair goes before the inquiry on Friday. Maybe this time he will crack, but I'm not holding my breath!

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Tories whispering against Speaker says Mrs Bercow

Sally Bercow knows all there is to know about a whispering campaign. Twitter does her whispering quite well. I don't think Conservative MPs need to worry. Most don't bother with whispering. Muttering might be on the agenda. Some even say it out loud. "You're not f*****g royalty!"

Here's Squeaker Bercow conducting a whispering campaign against the Conservative chief whip!

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We believed Kraft, say Cadbury workers - who wouldn't!

Krafty Kraft. They lied through gritted teeth. Having promised to keep open the Somerdale plant, near Bristol, they up sticks for Poland. Amoree Radford, who campaigned to keep Somerdale open, said she had no reason to think Kraft would go back on its pledge. "I believed them and the employees believed them," she said. "The plant is very productive, it is very profitable. Kraft said they wanted to expand it and wanted to be environmentally-friendly. So of course we believed them - who wouldn't?"

But as soon as the takeover was complete, Kraft said plans for a move of manufacturing to Poland were too advanced and the Somerdale plant was doomed.

Isn't it marvellous how so many corporate business types think they can tell lies, run rings round people and just imagine the world carries on in sublime disregard? So now we get Polish chocolate done up as Cadbury's with an American twang in the promotion. Not exactly a traditional confectionery item anymore.

Cadbury Polska gets a nice little handout from the Polish government. Level playing field? Not really, but then British jobs for British workers is a con regardless of who's saying it - Brown or Griffin!

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Tunisian despot Ben Ali turns up in Jeddah

It was always a likely destinaton. What other country on earth welcomes despots and dictators of such ilk. Ben Ali is welcome to his bolthole. He's going to continue in some kind of luxury lap. A Saudi palace statement said, "Out of concern for the exceptional circumstances facing the brotherly Tunisian people and in support of the security and stability of their country... the Saudi government has welcomed President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family to the kingdom."

If such a man is welcomed, what sort of man is shunned?

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Tunisia in torment and turmoil with street protests

Here's another greedy president on his way out. President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia may think he's been God's gift to his people but the people want a refund. He's probably best off trying to find digs in some Saudi prince's harem. Otherwise he could end up like that rotten little man Ceaucescu in Romania. Or worse still like Mussolini. Something for that philandering Berlusconi to think about too!

These characters must think everyone else is barking mad, or supinely foolish. Anyway, the world knows now that he is a crook, with a crooked wife in tow. It's time he went.

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Sarah Palin more sure about White House run

Sarah Palin does have one thing in common with the wild animals that surround her in Alaska. She has a tough hide! She's not bothered much about what is said about her. Which in one way is admirable. However, I don't think she stands much credit or merit for being put before the American people as a candidate for the presidency.

She talks about business doing the stuff of government. That government should be wound down. Sounds good, but all business needs a market to succeed. Her simple solutions do not create markets.

She talks about lowering taxes, yet would spend what it takes to fight wars, especially in Afghanistan. So no charity at home, where most think it should start.

She talks about Christian values, yet, as in the clip below, she likens humans to a mother bear. Sort of survival of the fittest. So if you are in any way physically or mentally disabled, then don't complain if you can't get at the salmon too quickly.

All her rhetoric is simple and rather cruel in all honesty. She sees it as her own reality. Personally, I just see a woman who is hard as nails underneath with not a lot of the caring soul about her. I wish I didn't think like that. She has hijacked the word conservative and given it a thorough going over. Out comes an altogether different meaning. Authoritarian, ruthless and rather dispassionate.

I feel I'm a conservative. I wish to conserve what is good about the human condition and change what needs changing. Maybe I'm oldfashioned. Anyway, she's at home on Fox News. Nobody there got where they are without fangs and finely-toned fingers!

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Oldham by-election result - the winners and losers

Labour is celebrating its win in Oldham East and Saddleworth. The majority of more than 3,500 was better than they had hoped for earlier in the day. Somehow Ed Miliband sees this as a slap in the face for the Coalition. But he sees everything from a critical viewpoint rather than offering anything positive.

The winner was obviously Debbie Abrahams who came through despite never really acknowledging the reason for the by-election. Probably as so many lies were told last time round, she felt it prudent not to saddle the voters with any policies, new or old. The other party in the winners enclosure was UKIP who managed to beat the BNP and retain that all important deposit. That's the dividing line in by-elections. In fact, UKIP swapped positions with the BNP from the general election.

The losers included the Greens who seem to have been mistaken for SaLaDs. The BNP who seem to have been mistaken for the lower echelons of the rough diamond trade and the Pirate Party UK, who were confused with being a joke party (particularly by Jon Sopel on BBC News as the candidates walked on stage). Talking of joke parties, the English Democrats failed to beat the Monster Raving Loony. By one vote! Memories of the SDP? And I suppose the Conservatives were the biggest losers as their vote collapsed by more than half. Did folk stay at home or go elsewhere? My guess is they did a lot of things. But we will never really know.

And in some ways the Liberal Democrats can be said to have won some comfort from the election. Elwyn Watkins stood up to blatant lying and the party achieved a far better result than a meltdown third place, as had been predicted.

Result -

• Debbie Abrahams (Labour) 14,718 (42.1%)
• Elwyn Watkins (Lib Dems) 11,160 (31.9%)
• Kasif Ali (Conservatives) 4,481 (12.8%)
• Paul Nuttall (UKIP) 2,029 (5.8%)
• Derek Adams (BNP) 1,560 (4.5%)
• Peter Allen (Green Party) 530 (1.5%)
• Nick Delves (Monster Raving Loony Party) 145 (0.4%)
• Stephen Morris (English Democrats) 144 (0.4%)
• Loz Kaye (Pirate Party) 96 (0.2%)
• David Bishop (Bus Pass Elvis Party) 67 (0.1%)

The Labour majority was 3,558

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Labour win Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election

Labour have won the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election with a majority of over 3,000. Ed Miliband can continue smiling. Also in a similar vein, Nigel Farage will be smiling as UKIP came fourth beating the BNP. The LibDems did OK and the Tories got squeezed. I couldn't help thinking that the one thing that is different is that Greater Manchester Police look oddly weird in those black shirts. They just don't go with traditional helmets. Just a thought.

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New York inmate sues for penis bite by prison rodent

Peter Solomon was jailed in the Nassau County Correctional Center near New York City, pending trial on charges he had menaced his wife. However, he got more than he bargained for. A rodent took a liking to his penis whilst he slept and had a bite. Solomon later had to endure a course of rabies jabs and he says jailers knew the ward in which they placed him was infested with rodents.

So he's going to sue the jail. Lawyers for Nassau County sought to have his suit dismissed. Among other arguments, its experts said they saw no evidence of serious injury. Serious injury? So there were signs of some kind of injury? I'd say the county were in a bit of difficulty. They place him in a part of the jail where rats were known to roam and they do not apparently deny that one rodent bit this man's penis.

The judge said, "The parties dispute whether the rodent was a mouse or a rat, whether Solomon was bitten or scratched, and the nature and extent of his injuries." I suppose time will tell whether the authorities think rats and mice should be in prisons anyway. Maybe if Solomon had a finger or toe bitten then it might have been different. Having your penis bitten whilst being in jail for allegedly menacing your wife may be seen by some in the system as poetic justice!

However, there is a serious side to all this. How do those considered to be mentally ill fare in penal establishments? Is it OK for a rodent to bite a mentally ill man's penis? And what if newly jailed Tom DeLay gets his penis nipped by some nocturnal ferret? He won't take it lying down! Will such hullabaloo be cause for intervention? It seems that authorities today are quick to absolve themselves of responsibility in the first instance, then if that fails, try to find a remedy that gives them credit for innovative change.

If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well. And that includes proper care in prisons.

Postscript - I see DeLay is out pending appeal. No worries about rats then?

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Eric Illsley to leave Commons within the month

Eric Illsley is going to do the decent thing. He's resigning as an MP. Barnsley Central constituents won't need to be prison visitors unless of course they want to be.

What Illsley should have done was to step aside at the General Election. He knew then what he knows now. He pushed the bounds of political decency beyond a certain point. It's been said he just followed the system. In fact, he's on record as saying it was all seen as a pay top-up. In some ways the House of Commons is very much like a public school. All MPs who cravenly accepted the "fees" basis for getting a bit extra on the side are guilty of trying to run a secret system. They got found out. Illsley just took it a bit too far for the others to accept. He's guilty as charged, but is he any more morally wrong than the others?

David Cameron said last week that politics isn't always fair. No its not. And the way the expenses scandal has been handled that statement is very true. Some MPs got away with it (just paid it back), others got thrown out by fellow members they had never got on with, and some, like Illsley, end up as convicts. In some ways I feel a bit sorry for Eric Illsley. He forged a few documents in order to gain some extra cash. Others just presented original documents for things they never really needed. In reality, it was all some fantastical forgery, a con on the public. Just as at school, the ones that let the side down big time get the stick.

If only they had had the guts to present a proper pay structure that all could see.

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Jewish groups regret Sarah Palin's ignorance of blood libel meaning

The Anti-Defamation League, America's top body for countering defamation against Jews (and others as well) calls Sarah Palin's use of "Blood Libel" unfortunate. It stops short of accusing her of defaming anyone as this was not her intention. However, her remarks have exposed her as an ignoramus (not for the first time) and one wholly unsuitable to be in the higher echelons of the Republican Party.

Apparently Palin had seen the term used on right-wing blogs (probably not that clever) and took to the term. If she thought she had been wronged she has gone about it it all the wrong way. Now she'll have to backtrack rather speedily. She's got foot-in-mouth syndrome. What she needs is a good mentor. Someone to put her on the right tracks. Otherwise she will just become known as some kookie mom-type figure who has a reputation for clueless remarks.

Not exactly what we need in the White House!

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Sarah Palin re-emerges with "Blood Libel" offensive

I was wondering why she had been silent. Now, like a shrill volcano, she has attacked as a "blood libel" suggestions that political rhetoric contributed to Saturday's fatal shootings in Arizona. She says it is "reprehensible" and that "journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn".

What she fails to have comprehended is that Loughner was surrounded by anti-government literature in his bedroom. Probably there are any number of similar weirdos with immature political thoughts based on hatreds and angers. She did tell supporters to "reload". She sounded as though the gun and politics were inextricably linked, if only in an allegorical way. Yet she says she is not to blame. Well, not directly so, that is abundantly true. But she must surely see that such language excites the feeble-minded.

In her rebuttal, she declares, "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election." What is she trying to say here? That whatever the rhetoric, such criminality as was witnessed on Saturday in Tucson, is nothing to do with the outside world? She must be leaving reason behind. Loughner may not have directly linked her with his actions. But he went out and targeted a politician because of his delusions about the state of the nation. What is being said is that loose talk like hers is dangerous in a febrile political environment. That's all. No reasoned person is suggestion she is the cause. Just that she should acknowledge that her rhetoric is not helpful. In that she has stubbornly and steadfastly refused to concede an inch.

And does she know what Blood Libel means? This Wikipedia entry might help!

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Wild rhetoric and vitriolic rantings tend to lead to disaster

People are saying that the massacre in Tucson was in some part triggered by a response to Sarah Palin's cry to "reload". I've suggested it myself. Not to be nasty to Mrs Palin, but to suggest that she tones down her rhetoric. As it happens, she's gone awfully quiet. Perhaps this was her personal wake-up call?

I see that Damian Thompson, in his Telegraph blog, has highlighted the hypocrisy of some Democrats. One such person is Paul Kanjorski. He got all mouthy about Governor Rick Scott of Florida, saying -

“That Scott down there that’s running for governor of Florida. Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he’s running for governor of Florida. He’s a millionaire and a billionaire. He’s no hero. He’s a damn crook. It’s just we don’t prosecute big crooks.”

The good folk of Florida didn't heed these remarks and voted Scott in. In the US the issue of money doesn't seem to unsettle a lot. Now if Kanjorski was talking about sex......well, that's a whole different ball game.

All throughout history those who shout the odds, using language likely to incite, tend to get results that they may not have foreseen. Bad consequences, you could say. Thomas Becket was described as a turbulent priest by his king. The king wondered aloud if anyone could get rid of the cleric. A number of ingratiating souls suitably obliged and knifed Becket right in front of the high altar in Canterbury Cathedral. A bloody business all round. What the difference between that remark and any of the present day political diatribes is difficult to see. I can't really think there is. Henry II is reputed to have regetted the action for the rest of his reign, remarking "in happier times he had been a friend".

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Religious protesters banned from Tucson funeral - by law!

The state legislators have banned Fred Phelps and his zealots from at least 100 metres from the funeral. I'd have thought a 100 miles would be better. Better still let him stay in Topeka and watch the trains go by.

More here on update

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Funeral of Tucson shooting victim Christina-Taylor Green to be violated by baptist pastor!

Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas announced his group will protest at the funeral of Christina-Taylor Green who was gunned down in Tucson. Phelps takes the spirit of free speech to the farthest bounds of the earth and then lets his vitriol thwack back. To call him a Baptist is mistaken indeed. Any similarity with Christianity has left his mind and heart long ago.

To say "the child is better of dead" is thoroughly wicked. Jesus had strong words about those who defile the innocence of children. He also had strong words about judging others. It would seem that Phelps is going to get his millstone cast around his neck very shortly if he doesn't just SHUT UP!

I may think some of the things Sarah Palin says are less than credible. However, that's just democratic debate and comment. Phelps describes her as a witch. He's the modern day version of those frightful Salem witch trial protagonists.

Fred Phelps is a horrible little man by all accounts. He hates anyone and everyone it seems, save himself and his coterie of fellow haters. Only God loves him and God is having a hard time currently.


Read more at Suite101: Westboro Church to Picket Funeral of Nine-Year-Old Tucson Victim http://www.suite101.com/content/westboro-church-to-picket-funeral-of-nine-year-old-tucson-victim-a330943#ixzz1AlzIEWBD

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Labour MP admits expenses fraud

Labour MP Eric Illsley has admitted he fraudulently claimed more than £20,000 in parliamentary expenses. Appearing at Southwark Crown Court, he admitted three charges of false accounting. This after he strenuously denied any wrongdoing. I get the impression that for quite a few MPs, the culture of shoving things down as expenses was a completely OK thing because they felt aggrieved at their "low pay". They should get real. Let them have proper salaries and proper expenses. Even now the whole remuneration system is creaking alongside mutterings and moanings.

No doubt Illsley will do time. Will his constituents have to become prison visitors if they want to see him or will there be a by-election? We should all be told!

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Tom DeLay in de dog house - 3 years jail time

Former US House Republican Leader Tom DeLay has been sentenced to three years in prison on conspiracy charges. The Texas politician was convicted of conspiring to funnel corporate campaign contributions to legislative races in Texas, in violation of state law. He says, "I can't be remorseful for something I don't think I did". He probably hasn't heard of Mandy Rice Davies, but I'll quote her. "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"

It's funny how some politicians delude themselves. In Britain, David Chaytor, former Labour MP, denied any wrongdoing until it was all put in front of him in big bold print. Now he got only 18 months. DeLay has got twice as much. That's the thing about America. Everything's just that bit bigger!

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Jared Lee Loughner - ideal gun owner!

This is the picture that the authorities in Arizona have issued of Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged gunman of the Tucson murder spree. Just one look at him should have been enough to convince the powers-that-be that such a character should never have been let near a gun. But, hey, maybe not?

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Arizona shooting should be a wake-up call!

It seems the polarisation in American politics is going to change. Let's hope for the better. Having lived a time in the US, I know that debate is raw in tooth and claw for many. The problem is that the real problems facing Americans, like the British and others, are never really addressed. Ron Paul has done his best. He's tried telling an eye-blinking Bernanke that printing money is no use. What happens? The computers are still spewing out dollars in some kind of Mary Poppins meets Willie Wonka fantasy. If ever the dollar ceased being a reserve currency.....well, I suppose that's why conspiracy theories are better than reality. Reality hurts.

Guns, guns and more guns. A woman in Tucson thinks that the whole USA should have towns with armed citizenry. It doesn't seem to stop. Jared Loughner was by all accounts a depressed loner who, for everyone who came into contact with him, thought odd at best. Most gave him a wide berth if he hadn't chosen to avoid them himself. Yet this paranoid loner was still capable of walking into a gun shop and purchasing a semi-automatic weapon. The gun shop owner just looked him up on a list and found he wasn't a proscribed person. One has to wonder what sort of character you need to be in order not to get a gun in the USA. If those who are now saying how much they thought was odd about him had been able to say he shouldn't have a gun, we would all be better off. But they weren't called to give character assessments. I'm all in favour of people have the freedom to own guns. But not all and sundry bar a few known hoodlums.

I never wanted a gun or felt the need for a gun in America. I was near a shooting in Atlanta. We've all known of some crazed outburst of gunfire. Is it all necessary? The Constitution is paraded as an excuse for Tea Party types to bristle with bazookas. It was never meant to be an such thing. I doubt the Founding Fathers had any notion that "the right to bear arms" was a right for deluded souls to fire off at them. Benjamin Franklin would be horrified if he thought unstable types could brandish firearms willy-nilly, let alone use them in dastardly circumstances. No, "the right to bear arms" is all about the local citizenry guarding themselves from outside ambush. That, and that alone, is what they meant by the right to bear arms. 240 odd years ago the United States was in need of citizens looking after themselves. In 2010, it should be another matter entirely. The police, the sheriffs, FBI, et al. Can they not cope?

Loughner bought his weapon either to fondle in his bedroom or to create uncivil mayhem. Only a lunatic legislator could gainsay that! I hope attitudes change. If this doesn't do it, well...!! Can anyone say that another loner like Loughner isn't buying such a weapon right now in some gun shop? These guns aren't for hunting. They are not for defence. So what the hell are they for?

The man in custody is being charged with upteen charges. Vengeance will take centre stage and he will no doubt be executed if found guilty. As it was his desire, apparently, to shoot himself, such an outcome may be just be to his liking. If nothing changes then another execution will be just another spectacle to assuage those who like such spectacles. It won't stop people going into gun shops with intent to commit murder, it won't change those who know "loners" and "weirdos" in their lives but say diddly-squat to anyone until the shots ring out. Life and death will just carry on.

Unless, of course, some people on Capitol Hill think differently!

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BNP candidate Derek Adams ejected from hustings by police

Democracy is on our minds now. In Arizona and in Oldham. A nutter goes on the rampage in Tucson. In Oldham it's a different matter. Greater Manchester Police are now the arbiters of democratic free speech. Whatever the chief constable might think, and "think" is something that he might be short of here, Derek Adams is a LEGITIMATE candidate. Who are the police to meddle in democracy?

Adams may not be the brightest candidate. He may have petty prejudices. His party is a rather authoritarian statist outfit. If allowed to speak he may well have put his foot in it. Now Greater Manchester Police have just given him every incentive to go out and say we live in a police state. What fools they are!

Let the people decide. Not a bunch of coppers doing some sort of political cleansing on behalf of apparatchiks.

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Reload, said Sarah Palin, and one nutter did just that!

I cannot for the life of me understand why so many Americans are infatuated with the hairbrain solutions that Sarah Palin offers them. I know she looks and sounds like your average mom dishing out cookies and desserts to adoring kids. But most of what she says publicly has not much intellectual stimulus in it at all. Using metaphors about guns she tells supporters to "target" Democrats. She exhorts them "Don't retreat - instead, RELOAD!" I bet she thought that immensely funny at the time. Perhaps her porcelain smile has been wiped from her face now?

We can only hope that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords makes as full a recovery as possible. She was doing a very brave thing. Meeting her constituents in public. That surely is the stuff of democratic politics. The local sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, speaks volumes when he says, "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry. That may be free speech. But it's not without consequence." It's not free speech with any meaning, just prejudice and bigotry.

The consequence outside this Safeway store (some irony there!) is a grave tragedy for American democracy. The likes of Sarah Palin need to think before they speak. If not all she will be is a common rabblerouser.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345460/Sarah-Palin-Arizona-sheriff-blames-political-vitriol-triggering-unstable-Safeway-gunmans-massacre.html#ixzz1AXZ5SeBU

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Mixed sex handshakes banned

Things have got so bad with political correctness that I immediately jumped to the conclusion that a link on the BBC's website was directed at some metropolitan council somewhere in Britain. I just don't like thinking like this. Should I be relieved it's not in Britain but in Somalia? I don't think so. Because people in any part of the world should not have their personal liberties proscribed by a bunch of closeted hypocrites. The group proposing this nonsense is called al-Shabab. A select band of delectibles! It's their sort of social engineering that encourages young men in Derby to commit unspeakable crimes.

Chatting in public is to be banned too! Pity chatting in private by al-Shabab can't be banned also.

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Kangaroo courts on our high streets?

Shoplifting is a petty crime that is far from petty. It is estimated that it costs £1 billion a year. Some is done by organised gangs, some by desperate drug users, and some by cash-strapped folk just at their wits end. Not right in any case. However, there are instances where innocent mistakes occur. When these happen it is no longer a case of understanding the situation, but keeping to a prescribed set of rules, many times draconian in nature, and literally getting a profit out error.

I am disturbed by the antics of an organisation called Retail Loss Prevention. Its managing director, Jackie Lambert, says, "Many thieves are not prosecuted in the criminal courts. Retailers are increasingly having to take responsibility themselves to redress this balance”. What she doesn't say is that she puts in a tidy profit and is keen to see even innocent people pay 100% for her work. This is rather like a losing side in a court battle demanding costs as of right. A sort of loser takes all. She implies that no defence can be mounted, the word of the store is paramount and that she is the queen bee of all matters arising.

This is not justice. This is just Ms Lambert setting up a business where she knows she will make money regardless of the legalities of the situation. The police are now concerned. Assistant Chief Constable Allyn Thomas, of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), says: "Some retailers feel frustrated by the courts and the police who see shoplifting at the lower end of offending, and we support their efforts to remedy that, but the problem comes when some companies respond disproportionately. It would be wholly inappropriate if individuals were being brow beaten into an admission of guilt."

I do hope Ms Lambert doesn't condone browbeating. It's kind of medieval. Has she watched Garrow's Law? Maybe she thinks deportation is a possibility? I can only think that her organisation is primarily concerned with making money. If a shoplifter is bang to rights, let the courts decide. I would suggest anyone who feels framed should put up a fight. Anyone who has made an honest mistake, like the one in this BBC report, should not be browbeaten into paying "fines" to Ms Lambert and her organisation.

We have a justice system. It may be creaking but we fought hard and long for it. I for one don't like kangaroo courts. They should be a thing of the past.

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Edinburgh Airport closed due to snow

Edinburgh Airport is closed again due to a snowfall hitting the runway. Whilst safety is obviously paramount, one has to wonder if BAA is really fit for purpose running airports. There has been much talk of underinvestment. Simple planning would tell them how many snow ploughs, etc they need to keep operational. Other airports manage. Instead of addressing investment, they just seem to look up at the skies and blame the environment. If this winter has been so bad for them, what are they expecting next winter? Maybe they just put everything on a bet at William Hill.

When it comes to advice for passengers it is always recommended that they contact their airline. Not bad in itself, but it always sounds a bit of a copout. I think a bunch of flowers might be a good gesture. Then frustrated passengers could pull off petals one by one. "The airport opens, the airport opens not".

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Paedophile Pakistani serial sex abusers sent to jail

On Friday, Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27, were jailed at Nottingham Crown Court after being found guilty at a trial in November of charges including rape. The judge in the case said the race of the victims and their abusers was "coincidental". So reports the BBC. And Jack Straw has come out of the politically correct closet to speak up about all this. This being the predatory paedophile abuse of gang cultured British Asians, predominately from a Pakistani Muslim background.

As with all matters relating to sex and race and culture it is difficult to know where to start. What I do know is that the powers-that-be tried to sweep it under the carpet, including Jack Straw. He redeemed himself in my eyes last night on Newsnight. But he knew even when he was Home Secretary that this was going on. He was a cabinet member until the election last year. He knew then, we now know he knows now.

Yorkshire police and other forces were in denial. Some said they would investigate but only on the hush hush. Only goes to show how infected with political stupidity (correctness is really the wrong word!) the modern police are. They cravenly said that the BNP would exploit it all. So for TEN YEARS the BNP exploited it as a conspiracy by the establishment. Even now the judge in the case is too blinkered to see that, in this particular case, the race of the victims and their abusers was anything but coincidental. They would never have dreamed of abusing Pakistani girls. The judge has a slate loose in this regard.

I've known and know people from a Muslim background. I know that the entire Islamic world is virtually similar to the entire Christian world or agnostic world or any other. Nearly all Muslims are pretty decent people, sometimes given to good deeds sometimes not. 99.9% would see such activity as being wrong. However, there is a truth that needs to be addressed. And it won't come from the politically stupid in their ivory towers.

A large number of Pakistanis living in Britain do have feelings of an anti-colonial type. It colours some of their thinking. Just as some servants rounded on their masters when the Upstairs Downstairs way of life collapsed as a result of the Second World War, so there is a residual resentment over imperialism. Britain is seen by some as a place for exploitation. Link this with modern day problems such as the radicalisation of Islamic youth, attitudes resulting from the War in Iraq and culural imperatives, such as marrying a pure bride from Pakistan, then it is perfectly possible to concoct a heady cocktail of feelings leading to such activity. The criminals now starting their jail time are no doubt highly resentful men. By not addressing the situation all sides have let the victims down.

Let us not have enquiries. Just let those who think their covering up helped come forward and admit they got it wrong. Don't all rush! The only people gloating are the BNP. They plan a demonstration in Oldham. Perhaps, instead of Giglamps Rentamouth and his UAF brigade as the sole opposition, we could get those responsible for the ten year enforced silence to arrive in Oldham and publicly say sorry. No sackcloth and ashes stuff. Just sorry will do. The victims deserve it.

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