Author Archive
Who Is The Unfairest Of Them All?
Amidst the roar of gunfire from the deliberate, calculated massacre by evil Israeli stormtroopers and the tragedy of a crazed lunatic in Cumbria, there is yet another political scandal that cannot be allowed to pass.
Overpaid, Incompetent And Unfair
John Fingleton, Chief Executive of the Office Of Fair Trading, the man who let the British banks off the £40 billion they stole from British consumers, turns out to be the highest paid civil servant in the country. See here. This is the most unfair trading of all and makes a mockery of any concept of “fairness”.
He is responsible for the disastrous failure to protect British consumers from the greedy banker robbers who plundered their accounts with outrageous and illegal charges. He led the badly organised legal challenge to the banks thievery which the Supreme Court turned away as misdirected. The Supreme Court then invited the OFT to revert to them on a different basis but for reasons that have never been properly explained, Fingleton just gave up. See here for the full story.
This man is not only unfair but incompetent. No one is responsible for more unfair treatment of British consumers than he. It is a scandal that he is even still in his job let alone paid at such an exorbitant rate.
What’s Good For Al Qaeda Is Good For The Israelis
Netanyahu. On the Nose
We seem to accept the taking out of Al Qaeda leaders (and their wives and children) with drone-launched missiles. See the story about Mustafa Abu al-Yazid here. Why aren’t we going after the Israeli leaders in the same way?
There’s no difference between them. They’re all evil, Godless terrorists.
Israeli Pirates Claim “Self-Defence”
A highly trained team of crack commandos from a an army with a reputation for efficiency and ruthlessness abseil down onto your unarmed ship just before dawn. Others attack from the sea from high speed RIBs with grappling hooks. They are clad all in black with the most advanced military helmets, body armour and night vision goggles. Each is armed with an ultra- modern, silenced machine pistol and at least one handgun. They undoubtedly have grenades and other personal weaponry. They are backed up by missile ships with heavy machine guns and cannons.
They are resisted with any weapon you have available – metal bars, sticks, chairs, knives, anything you can turn to your defence. Despite their overwhelming weaponry you manage to overpower one or two but they end up opening fire and killing many.
Then they claim self-defence. They seek sympathy for the fact that you resisted their attack. They seek to portray themselves as victims.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
That Which Is Demonstrates Itself.
Send British Troops To Gaza. Nazi Israel Must Be Stopped.
The Israeli pirate assault on aid ships seeking to relieve the besieged people of Gaza is just the latest atrocity from this vile and inhuman regime.
Stormtroopers Against Saints
Israel now represents just as much a threat to civilisation as did Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It constantly flouts UN resolutions, commits war crimes and we are certain that it has weapons of mass destruction. The civilised world needs to step in. Israel must be stopped at all costs and this is a cause that it is worth our troops dying for. It is more urgent and pressing than Afghanistan. British troops would be better employed in crushing the evil Israelis than they are in fighting the Taliban. If we do not stand up against the great Nazi evil that Israel has become then we have no right to call ourselves civilised
We should send in the Navy and smash the Israeli blockade, open up a sea corridor to allow aid and relief in. HMS Daring, with the most advanced anti-aircraft weaponry in the world, should stop tootling up and down the south coast and blast the Israeli air force out of the sky. The time for negotiating with and appeasing this pariah state is past. We must take decisive action now.
Israel
I am not anti-semitic because Arabs are Semites just as much as Jews. I am not anti-Jewish but I don’t understand the relationship betwen the state of Israel and the Jewish religion. I am anti-Israel and all men of honour, decency and common sense must be. Its conduct in Gaza and throughout Palestine is beyond any justification. Its conduct is always disproportionate. Its whinging about the little fireworks that the Palestinians shoot in is pathetic. If my country was being oppressed and bullied then I would react at least the same. Suicide bombers against Israeli targets are equally as justified and heroic as any suicide mission against the Nazis in the Second World War.
War Criminal
This may well be my generation’s equivalent of the Spanish Civil War. Give me a chance to fight against the fascist Israelis and I don’t see how my conscience could deny it. They need to be given a dose of their own medicine and pulverised into submission, forced to withdraw from the settlements, forced to abandon their entire national strategy and policy. It is clear that the world made a great mistake in establishing the state of Israel. Perhaps we should have left them to their fate.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is presently in Canada, a nation famed for its defence of freedom and justice. He should be immediately arrested and detained as a war criminal.
The onus is now on us. Obama and Cameron must step up to the plate and condemn this action outright. US and UK forces must join in this most urgent mission. Leave the rest of Europe to dither as usual. We must get on with the job.
Cameron Stumbles Over Kerb Crawlers
Oh dear! Here comes the first knee-kerk reaction. Next thing we’ll be hanging and flogging them. The law against kerb crawling is of very dubious value or common sense anyway. It’s the oldest profession. Men want to pay women for sex and women want to sell sex. It’s been going on since time began and silly, pointless little laws aren’t going to change it.
Can I Put You Down As A Researcher?
Fair enough, stop drivers kerb crawling in residential streets and harrassing your daughters but if you don’t pair such laws with legalised brothels or designated red light districts you are just making the problem worse.
I understand David Cameron’s desire to want to do something to declare his horror at the Bradford murders but I thought we were supposed to be past this sort of politicking now? I thought legislation was now going to based on a rational, properly researched approach to problems.
What we need to do is make it safer for women who want to work as prostitutes and call a halt to the pressures that force women into prostitution. That means some sort of regulated sex industry and the legalisation and regulation of drugs.
It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense. It means you may have to face down the self-righteous, moral crusaders so it takes a modicum of courage but I thought that’s where we are now. This is the first crack in the veneer. Let’s hope it’s quickly mended.
It’s Not Drugs, It’s Drug Laws That Killed the Bradford Girls
Forced Here By The Law
If heroin was legally available on prescription the three Bradford prostitutes would be alive today. It is our discredited, ludicrous policy of prohibition that has led these women to their terrible deaths. Cowardly, self-serving politicians who will not address the real issues about drugs policy have blood on their hands.
Today we also learned that the sensationalist, exploitative treatment of the death of two young men in Humberside “linked with mephedrone” was nothing but hysteria. See the story here. Humberside Police shares responsiblity with the media for leaping on a bandwagon, seeking kudos or some unknown advantage through lies, propaganda and misinformation. Trying to look tough.
It’s not a good idea to use heroin or mephedrone but criminalising users and creating a lucrative black market for criminals to exploit is an absurd idea. It’s exactly what America did with alcohol in the prohibition era when, in fact, it created organised crime.
Created By The Law
For those who become addicted to illegal drugs there is very little help available. Almost all street crime is related to feeding a drug habit. If, instead of the unwinnable “war on drugs” we put our money into a regulated supply and treatment facilities we would massively reduce the harm that current laws cause.
The girls in Bradford, the poor people of Jamaica, our young heroes who are dying in Afghanistan, the young man who is selling his body right this minute in Manchester, Baltimore, Hamburg or Singapore, the downtrodden people of Columbia. They are all victims of our absurd, self-defeating drug laws. When will our politicians and leaders stop chasing cheap political points (and expensive bribes) and face the facts?
Fighting For The Law
Legalise, regulate, tax – you pull the rug from under organised crime, you eliminate the need for most street crime, you have the resources to address the issue as a public health problem.
Transform Drug Policy Foundation has the answer.
Sex And The City
I Don't Think Much Of Yours
The sight of these four pitifully deluded women on the sofa today promoting their new film…..eurrghh! It has to be one of the most embarrassing things I have seen. I saw the much-more-gorgeous-than-them Susanna Reid interviewing these hags on BBC Breakfast this morning. I had to switch over urgently it was so excruciating.
The expression “mutton dressed as lamb” isn’t quite right. It’s more like “sad fifty-something dressed as bad taste hooker”. In fact, I thought the Bradford hookers also being interviewed today were much better looking.
How can these four preposterous women display themselves in such gaudy, tacky, cringeworthy fashion – fashion? Do they think those ridiculous shoes, those absurd hairdos, those undignified dresses have any appeal at all?
This is about as far away from sexy as you can get. It’s almost enough to make me start looking at boys!
I Weep For Jamaica
Ocho Rios
The events unfolding in Jamaica are disastrous for the country, its reputation, tourist industry and economy. They give an impression that is completely false. In reality it is a wonderful place, full of kind, warm, generous people. I was astonished on my first visit to find the countryside lush and green, rather like Cornwall or Wales and the people more friendly than anywhere else I have ever been.
I was very privileged to be introduced to Jamaica by a Jamaican. It was no all-inclusive tourist resort for me. There the poor Brits hunker down and never move anywhere. They seem to believe that right outside the gates are a bunch of Uzi-toting crack dealers but it’s simply not true. I’ve been back several times and I love the place. I recommend Ocho Rios on the north coast of the island.
True, the murder rate is one of the highest in the world but it all happens in a very small area of Kingston. The rest of the island is peaceful and probably safer than London. I have been through the Tivoli Gardens and Trench Town districts where all the trouble is. It’s not a good place. You lock the car doors and windows and you don’t stop but it is tiny. According to my memory it’s not much bigger than, say, Regent’s Park so it’s easy to avoid.
My Local
Undoubtedly at the root of these problems is high level corruption and I wouldn’t be surprised if that extended to US officials as well as Jamaican. The cocaine trade is a huge curse on the country but while the world continues with its ludicrous, discredited policy of prohibition it will never solve the problem. Drug laws support and encourage organised crime and corruption. If we stay on our present course things will only get worse.
I weep for Jamaica and its wonderful people. Without radical international action, I have no idea how this problem can be solved.
Theresa May Must Act On Gary McKinnon And Ian Tomlinson
It's Decision Time
After defence there can be no higher priority for any government than justice. The new government’s honeymoon period is over. The cases of Gary McKinnon and Ian Tomlinson need urgent attention from our new Home Secretary.
A Victim Not A Villain
Gary McKinnon’s case raises profound issues. He is in danger of “extradition” to the US but any idea that this is some legitimate process is nonsense. He is actually in danger of illegal rendition or kidnapping which the previous Labour government seemed ready to sanction. Any alleged crime was committed on British soil so there isn’t even any question of “extradition”. If he is to be tried he must be tried where the alleged crime was committed.
There seems though to be no progress at all on the murder of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests. This is a scandal and injustice of the very highest order and those responsible for prevaricating and filibustering over bringing charges are criminals themselves.
Murder
Ian Tomlinson’s family waits helpless while the dilatory DPP, Keir Starmer, and the CPS quibble and procrastinate over facts that the whole country has seen revealed on its TV screens. Obviously they intend to delay long enough so that the case be consigned to history like the murder of Blair Peach by a police officer in 1979. It was only last month that the Metropolitan Police came clean on this, 30 years too late.
There is some nonsense excuse being peddled that there is a problem with obtaining expert medical evidence. This is a dreadful miscarriage of justice. These are issues for a jury to decide. Keir Starmer should be dismissed for gross misconduct and should consider himself lucky if he doesn’t go to jail for perverting the course of justice.
Thug
We have already seen the inexcuseable acquittal of Sergeant Delroy Smellie, the thug who assaulted Nicola Fisher at the G20 protests (see here). This must be one of the lowest points ever in the history of British justice. There can be no other description of this verdict and District Judge Daphne Wickham who made the decision than corrupt. She deserves to be tarred and feathered for what she has done.
What can be higher in priority on Theresa May’s todo list than these matters of great principle and injustice? She should put everything else aside. There can be no more excuses.
Facebook – It’s A Snide, Snide World
I don’t know the name of the geek from Facebook who said that he wanted everyone on the planet to become a member of his website but he follows Adolf, Joseph, Benito, Francisco and other tyrants in having ambitions that must be thwarted at all costs.
Let me be clear, yes, you can find me on Facebook. It’s true, with nearly half a billion members it is difficult to ignore it. I use it to publicise this blog to as wide an audience as possible. You can call me a hypocrite if you want but I don’t and won’t participate in the snide, puerile and thoroughly unhealthy relationships and lifestyle that it promotes.
Is This The Real Life Or Is It Just Fantasy?
If there are nearly a half a billion members on the site there must be at least a billion virtually identical photographs that consist of two or three faces (usually inane blondes at a party) pressed together cheek to cheek with vile grimaces or smiles. If it’s supposed to be about individuals why does everyone look exactly the same, talk exactly the same and behave exactly the same?
There are now an extraordinary number of sad, dysfunctional people who live their life, vicariously and actually, on Facebook. This, I believe, should be of great concern to all of us. More than that, the site encourages behaviour that is dishonest, underhand and snide. It’s not a force for good. It’s a force for evil. It’s a perversion and abuse of the internet, probably mankind’s greatest ever invention.
You know the sort of person who’d rather text than make a phone call? It’s often very dishonest communication, the ideal way for a coward to make excuses, lie or deceive. It’s said that 80% of communication is non-verbal and you certainly get a lot of that extra meaning over the phone. You get none at all by text. It’s just the bare, badly, carelessly or deceptively chosen words. Facebook goes even further, it encourages members to post messages and pictures so that they’re seen by third parties as well. In fact, often the message or picture is posted mainly for their benefit, to embarass or annoy. This is the real wickedness. It’s already led to murders and countless, countless, arguments and disputes which have ended in violence. Of course, it depends on you. You or your friends can behave badly through any medium or face to face. The point is Facebook encourages you to be snide. It’s not nice.
I don’t know what the answer is. I certainly wouldn’t be encouraging children to use it. For many it’s already become a substitute for real life. Its most well known deficiency is the way it makes you collect an ever greater quantity of friends with no regard whatsoever for quality. My sons and all their real world friends have in excess of 1,000 Facebook friends. I have 24 so that must make me – what?
There’s no doubt that there are business opportunities presented by Facebook. With that many members there’s bound to be. In that context it’s not surprising that Cheryl Cole has 1,698,477 friends. Mind you, Paul Macartney only has 11!
So I’ll be staying on Facebook but I won’t be participating in it. I think it should have a big warning flash up on the screen every time you log in: “GET A LIFE”
Peter Reynolds 