Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
The Third Milliband Brother?
James Brokenshire
I have very mixed feelings about young James Brokenshire. He’s a Tory and so am I, so I don’t really want to be too derogatory about him. It’s very difficult though, just keeping a straight face, let alone seeing anything positive. Most difficult of all to ignore is the Milliband in him. I mean, come on, tell me I’m wrong!
One of my more erudite commenters mentioned the phenomenon of Nominative Determinism. According to Wikipedia:
Nominative determinism refers to the theory that a person’s name is given an influential role in reflecting key attributes of his job, profession, or general life. It was a commonly held philosophy in the ancient world.
It’s not just that he looks like a Milliband. It goes much deeper than that. Alright, so George Osborne is right in there as well and I just know I’ve seen at least a dozen other clones. I just can’t quite remember their names or distinguish them. They’re the generation that’s heir to Cameron and Clegg. They’ve gone from graduate to researcher, never had a real job, eternally trapped within the political bubble. You know the type. And yes, our politics and our society are broken, broken because of the sort of policies, attitudes and behaviour that James exhibits.
Of course, I’m on the libertarian side of the party and James is way, way opposite. He comes across as not just a hanger and flogger but a hanger, drawer and quarterer – and that’s just for parking tickets. The trouble is, I fear he’s making such an twit of himself that he’s doing my party a grave disservice. For such a young and youngish man he is a very old, very old reactionary Tory.
James is the new Minister of State for Crime Prevention. Congratulations to him on his appointment at such an early stage in his career. What an important job! He does rather bring to mind all those old jokes about policemen looking like they should still be in short trousers. Does anyone take him seriously?
He’s the government’s front man for the drugs issue. That’s right, it’s not a minister from the Department of Health who deals with drugs. It’s the Home Office! Anyway, even before the current furore, I’d seen James in action in reply to a question about drugs policy. He’s authoritarian, repressive, intransigent and far, far too sure of himself even when he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. This is not someone who believes in “small” government. Like the Millibands and other illiberal socialists he wants close control of our lives. I’m sorry but the boy looks silly and he behaves like an idiot. He’s being taken to pieces all over the internet – ridiculed, abused and condemned. David Cameron, please get rid of him now!
The trouble is that James is trying to come over all tough and spunky but he doesn’t realise that even men of my sons’ ages have seen it all before. Eager young politicians who think they know best when they know nothing have been making similar fools of themselves since time began. To coin a counterfeit phrase, I’d smoked more joints than he’s had hot dinners before there was even a twinkle in his daddy’s eye! So many of us had thought through and argued out the drugs issue a hundred times before James even left nursery school.
I can’t really expect a replacement who agrees with me 100% on drugs policy. What I do expect is someone who is credible, sensible, well informed and committed to evidence-based policy and truth. James is none of these. He is making a fool of the government.
What’s really serious is that the man is misguided. He’s flying in the face of the facts and all the experts. Drugs policy has huge impact on our society and we need to move away from our present disastrous and oppressive course. James Brokenshire is the wrong man for the job.
If I Was Blair I’d Cancel My Donation
The Times, 21st August 2010
There are plenty of other organisations looking after our heroes and their families who would behave far, far better. Tony Blair should cancel his donation and give it to a different charity.
Chris Simpkins, the Royal British Legion’s director-general is an ungrateful, ill-mannered oaf. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut. He has dishonoured the generous intent behind Blair’s donation and he should be ashamed of himself. The Times also needs to have its motives examined for running this shabby, despicable story.
Our heroes do not give their lives so that fat cat, small-minded, cowardly administrators and journalists can get their names in the papers. Shame on them!
I am no blind supporter of Tony Blair. I said what I thought about the donation just five days ago. I stand by that.
The Poppy Appeal has been my first choice charity throughout my life. This appalling, graceless behaviour will make me re-think where my money will go this year.
Pakistan. The Uncomfortable Truth
This may be a very uncomfortable truth but I think the world has made its moral judgement on Pakistan. In a sense it is wonderful that the world has a collective moral conscience but it is a tragedy for the innocent Pakistanis.
Disaster
The professional aid givers, campaigners and do gooders will do their best but the simple truth is that there is a complete inertia, an ambivalence about Pakistan because of the treason that it has committed against the human race. Sympathy for individual suffering will continue but Pakistan is reaping what it has sown.
This may lead to even bigger problems. There are thousands yet to die as a result of the floods. Extremist Islamists, as the psychopaths that they are, will seek to exploit this and they may succeed. Nevertheless, it will not alter, in fact it will probably reinforce the world’s antipathy for Pakistan.
As in all such crises what is needed is leadership. Obama emerged from nowhere to rescue America from its descent into shame. Let us pray that a real leader comes forward for Pakistan.
Home Office Drug Strategy Consultation
All over the BBC this morning is the story that addicts may have their benefits withdrawn if they refuse treatment. This, apparently, is a proposal included in the Home Office’s new Drug Strategy consultation document.
Where is this document? It’s not on the Home Office website. That’s a bit strange for something that purports to be about consulting with the public isn’t it?
I had to phone the Home Office press office to get a copy. I shouldn’t have to be doing this for the government but you can download it here:
Home Office Drug Strategy Consultation Document
Theresa May and James Brokenshire, the ministers responsible for this, should remember that they are not in office to preserve the status quo or cook up policies between themselves based on the misinformation that the Home Office currently promotes. Their first responsiblity after their duty to the Queen is to the public. Consultation is not something they should pay lip service to, nor is it something they can pick or choose. It should determine their actions.
As part of this consultation, the Home Office should take into account the tens of thousands of people who have used the Your Freedom website to call for relaxation in the drug laws and particularly the legalisation of cannabis.
I urge everybody with any interest in the drugs issue to download, complete and return the consultation document. It’s presented as a Q&A form. I also suggest that you keep a copy and send a copy to your MP. Regrettably the Home Office doesn’t have a good record on keeping track of what the public says to it. It loses a lot of things.
On the face of it, I support the idea that if you’re a heroin, cocaine, alcohol or prescription drug addict and you’re offered treatment but refuse it then you shouldn’t be able to live on benefits. That seems entirely just. The danger is that just as current drug laws drive addicts to crime and prostitution so will this. This is progress though. There has to be personal responsibility but also some flexibility to ensure this doesn’t become another self-defeating policy. Most important of all, possession of drugs for personal use and/or social supply must be taken out of the criminal law.
The other headline grabbing proposal is that the government should be able to impose a temporary 12 month ban on “new substances”. This is designed to tackle the danger of “legal highs” – a danger mainly of the government’s own making because of its policy of prohibition. There is a real glimmer of hope and intelligence here though because “Possession of a temporarily banned substance for personal use would not be a criminal offence to prevent the unnecessary criminalisation of young people”. I applaud this. It shows that it is possible to get common sense from the Home Office. There is hope yet!
***UPDATE***
As I go to press (oh, alright, as my finger hovers over the “publish” button), the consultation document has become available on the Home Office website. A little tardy but better late than never.
You can respond to this consultation until 30th September 2010. Make sure you do.
Republicans Reveal True Colours To Brits
The story about the mosque being built at Ground Zero has been bubbling away for a few days. This evening, on BBC Radio 4’s “PM” programme an interview with Scott Wheeler of the National Republican Trust fired my interest. In fact, it made me explode with anger.
To start the interview Eddie Mair, the PM frontman, played a radio commercial opposing the construction of the mosque. The NRT has paid for its production and broadcast. It is outrageous. I think it would probably fall foul of the law here for “incitement to racial hatred”.
Here’s the TV version which uses the same audio track. Setting Brush Fires, a US blogger, found this for me.
I’ll repeat that name for you: Scott Wheeler, of the National Republican Trust. He’s the individual promoting these ideas. If the boot was on the other foot he would now be at 30,000 feet on his way to Guantanamo Bay.
I hope that US Republicans are going to tell me that I’m wrong, that he’s a bit of a nutter and he and his cronies are unrepresentative of the mainstream. I hope so because if this is what represents American free speech, for the first time ever, I’m not jealous of their written constitution.
These ideas are every bit as wicked as the preachings of Abu Hamza or Anjem Choudary, the Islamist extremists who have tried to influence Britain. Scott Wheeler is exactly the same but the opposite.
These are the scum of the earth.
Israel And Palestine To Hold Direct Peace Talks
Allahu Akbar and Shalom
This is the news the whole world has been waiting for. Israel has been driven to the negotiating table by the outcry against its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people. Perhaps those nine heroes who sacrificed their lives on the Gaza convoy can take much of the credit for this.
See the BBC News story here
Fantastic news!
Peace and goodwill to all mankind.
A Levels
We All Came First
I am hardly a pace setter when it comes to formal qualifications. I’m still studying for my third doctorate at the University of Life. I just can’t get the practicals right.
Nevertheless, in this year’s A level results 27% of candidates were awarded an A or A-star. Absurd. That’s like nearly a third of the drivers in a Grand Prix race ending up on the podium.
What use is that to employers trying to seperate Jensen Button in his 800 bhp Maclaren from Delboy in his 40 bhp Reliant Robin?
The Red Arrows
Portland Harbour 2010
At five o’clock yesterday evening I stood on top of White Horse hill and watched the Red Arrows perform for Weymouth carnival.
From this perfect vantage point I could see them soar a mile high above me then swoop down five or six miles to my left (east), climb again and explode out of formation five or six miles to my right (west).
Portland Harbour 1940
They say the Red Arrows are the best recruiting sergeant that the RAF could possibly have. That is if we have the RAF for very much longer. It looks likely that soon we will have just one integrated service. That makes sense though. In modern times we need an integrated approach using land, sea and air.
Nothing can extinguish or outshine the honour of the RAF or the Army or the Navy, whatever the future holds. As we remember the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the Red Arrows flew yesterday through the same skies that our young heroes did then in their Spitfires and Hurricanes. Nothing can ever repay our debt to those who enabled Britain to stand alone for more than a year against the Nazis. It is no exaggeration to say that through those dark days they and Britain saved the world. See brilliant BBC story here.
We shall honour them for ever.
The Drugs Debate
It won’t go away will it? It seems like at least once a month now some new high profile figure comes out against prohibition. The latest, Sir Ian Gilmore, outgoing president of the Royal College of Physicians, is hot on the heels of Nicholas Green QC, chairman of the Bar Council in July and three eminent co-authors in The Lancet in May. The National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee have also criticised government for failing to implement an evidence-based drugs policy and instead giving more weight to opinion.
Meanwhile the Humpty Dumpties at the Home Office keep on building their big walls, refusing to listen, refusing to think, refusing to care. Their response is no, no, no, out of the question, no and no again. In fact, I don’t think the ministers even think about it at all. They just replay the same old no, no and no again as written by some civil servant, probably in the days of the golf ball typewriter. Remember those?
It won’t go away though. I first submitted a report to the Home Affairs Committee on the cannabis laws in 1978. It was called “An Unaffordable Prejudice”. I’ve been giving them the facts and the evidence ever since and so have hundreds of other individuals and organisations. I’m in direct correspondence with the Home Office at the moment. I’ve received one three page response and replied with four. That’s how long it takes to get a dialogue going with our “responsive” government. I started in May, immediately after my new MP was elected, and it takes a good three months to get anywhere – or perhaps I mean nowhere. Still, I expect it was worse in the USSR.
It won’t go away. Aside from the Home Office the only people in favour of our current drugs policy are the drug dealers and the Taliban. They certainly don’t want things to change.
The Home Office can’t even get its story straight. Today its latest pearls are: “Drugs such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis are extremely harmful and can cause misery to communities across the country.” This is nothing short of crass stupidity and irresponsible misinformation. Lumping in cannabis with heroin and cocaine is simply ridiculous. Describing cannabis as “extremely harmful” is in direct contradiction to every one of the Home Office’s own scientific experts. These are the people who are supposed to be protecting our children, the vulnerable and the uneducated. They should be ashamed of themselves.
When Proposition 19 passes on 2nd November (see here), the world will sit up and take notice. Even Humpty Dumpty will have to engage his brain then because when 37 million Californians get the right to enjoy God’s herb without interference, well it ain’t gonna stop there. If for no other reason than that our avaricious politicians will soon put aside their “principles” when they realise the oodles of cash and brownie points they’re missing out on. California reckons it will create up to 110,000 new jobs, £1.4 billion in new tax revenue and a saving of $200 million in law enforcement costs. When Humpty Dumpty takes off his blindfold of prejudice, ignorance and propaganda he’ll soon be gagging for the cash.
There are a million quotes from world leaders, politicians, doctors, scientists and “experts” of all sorts stating how ridiculous and self-defeating current drugs policy is. It never seems to make any difference though. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both called for change many times but once they get into power what happens? However, just to get right up the nose of Humpty Dumpty (that’s right, snort it up there), here’s what one very, very senior civil servant said just two years ago:
“I think what was truly depressing about my time in UKADCU was that the overwhelming majority of professionals I met, including those from the police, the health service, the government and voluntary sectors held the same view: the illegality of drugs causes far more problems for society and the individual than it solves. Yet publicly, all those intelligent, knowledgeable people were forced to repeat the nonsensical mantra that the government would be ‘tough on drugs’, even though they all knew the government’s policy was actually causing harm.”
Julian Critchley, Director, Cabinet Office UK Anti-Drug Coordination Unit. 13-08-08
It won’t go away. Just Say No has become Just Say Now and the slimy dissembling oiks who insist on running our lives (and ruining many) will soon be in retreat. It won’t go away.
Peter Reynolds 