Peter Reynolds

The life and times of Peter Reynolds

Vive Brittania, Rule La France. The End Of The United Kingdom.

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Non!  C’est impossible.  This treaty is treason.

Ratty & Mr Toad

I don’t want the French having anything to do with the defence of my country.  I’m happy to have them as allies but at arm’s length, please.  They have shown all too often how ready they are to turn and run, to pursue their own obscure and strange ideas and to fail to support us.  We don’t need the French and we don’t want them.   David Cameron has betrayed us.

It is ridiculous.  It is a shabby politician’s compromise.  With a searing bolt of shining light I realise the danger of the coalition.  This is a disastrous fudge by two Euro-politicians intent on a grubby deal to reinforce each other.  I thought David Cameron was so much more his own man yet the longer the coalition continues I see that it promises little more than mediocrity and mutual back scratching.  Nick Clegg has become a poodle.  David Cameron is just a committee chairman and all politicans are now even more focused on their own personal advantage and gain than they were in the days of the expenses free for all.  There is no integrity left in parliament at all.

This shameful abdication of our sovereignty is the worst of all worlds. It is politicians doing all they can to lock themselves into power with no regard or concern for the people, for our honour or our independence. It is all about politicians and nothing to do with the people.

This devious scheme has been cooked up behind closed doors without any recourse or consultation.  It is undemocratic, un-British and a disgrace.  I can no longer support the coalition.  I cannot vote for Mr Toad.  He is a liar, a cheat and a conman.

Written by Peter Reynolds

November 3, 2010 at 12:09 pm

Politics.Co.Uk, Comment: The War On Drugs Is Already Lost

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An excellent article by Ian Dunt here that argues that the prohibitionists are already defeated.

My comment:

There is a deep, deep inertia about drugs policy amongst all politicians. Well that’s the polite way to put it, the political way. The truth is they’re all a bunch of self-serving, hypoctical cowards who don’t give a damn about the misery, suffering and death which their policies cause.

Of course the intellectual argument is won. It was won 20 years ago. Every single life lost, ruined, corrupted and wasted since then is the responsibility of those who have waged the “war on drugs” because it was never a war on drugs, it was a war on people. It pretended to be in those people’s interests but it was exactly the opposite. It was based on lies and propaganda.

It is not over yet. David Cameron and Nick Clegg both have a long record of claiming liberal and enlightened views on drug policy. Now they have their ministerial cars everything has changed. In the front line they have placed the snide and obnoxious James “Broken Britain” Brokenshire. He is playing the repressive, Ronald Regan, hang ’em and flog ’em role with glee. Of course he will be dumped as useless cannon fodder if Proposition 19 passes and sets off a wave of reform but I am not optimistic, even though I want to be.

We have a serious fight on our hands still. Until we can expose and overturn the lies and deceit of people like Brokenshire the people have not yet won.

Home Office Plays A Cruel Game Of Media Spin

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There is no logic nor common sense nor science nor rationale in UK government drug policy.  Everyone knows that.  Nearly every commentator, scientist, doctor, even most politicians in private, acknowledge that there is no reasonable basis for our current drug laws.   They do more harm than good and in the process they waste billions of pounds in law enforcement costs and create massive harm to society and to public health.   The report issued today by Professor Nutt and his colleagues reveals the appalling incompetence of our drug policy.  See here.

Monster

Unlike every other country in Europe, the UK places drug policy in the hands of the Home Office rather than the Department of Health.  Nothing reveals the idiocy of this more than the current debacle over medicinal cannabis.  See BBC Inside Out London tonight at 7.30pm or here on the iPlayer tomorrow.

What is truly disgraceful about the Home Office is the way it plays the media game with complete disrespect for and by ignoring citizens to whom it owes a duty of care.  While it issues conflicting messages to the media, it fails to respond at all to dozens of individuals suffering from debilitating diseases who have sought its advice on obtaining their medicine.  Hundreds of individuals have written repeatedly to the Home Office but have received no reply. The conduct of the minister responsible for this scandalous episode, James Brokenshire, can only be described as cruel, negligent and irresponsible. While the rest of us may debate the political issues around drug laws, thousands continue in pain and suffering while this monster continues his game of media spin.

There is no justice or truth in government drug policy but in this instance there is blatant evil and disregard for human suffering in James Brokenshire.  The man is a disgrace and not fit to hold public office.

BBC Blanks Proposition 19

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According to the Home Office there are six million regular users of cannabis in the UK.  I have seen just one report on the BBC news about the Proposition 19 vote in California on 2nd November which promises legalisation.

Compare this with the recent wall to wall coverage of the Pope’s visit.  How many regular supporters of the Catholic Church are there in Britain?  Just 887,000.

This is an appalling failure by the BBC and a dereliction of its duty to provide fair and balanced coverage.  Please make a complaint.  It will take you less than five minutes and it will make a difference if enough of you take the time.

Here is a direct link to the BBC complaints website.  Please do it now!

Written by Peter Reynolds

October 31, 2010 at 11:05 am

The Guardian Dances To The Home Office Tune

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An astonishing article in The Guardian today on the Home Office’s attempts to prevent UK patients gaining access to medicinal cannabis.  See here.

The Home Office’s position is no surprise.  What is astonishing is The Guardian’s inaccurate and poodle-like treatment of the story.  The article is little more than an obedient reproduction of a Home Office press release.  It takes no account of the gross injustice and cruelty perpetrated by Home Office ministers.  Neither does it challenge a position that is cleary unsustainable under EU law.

No one can have expected the Home Office to give in on this issue without a fight.  I think we would all have expected far more courage and support from The Guardian.

The Guardian’s editor is Alan Rusbridger.  His email address is: alan.rusbridger@guardian.co.uk.  I would urge everyone to write to him now to protest at this weak and rather pathetic coverage of an important story.

This is my email.  Feel free to copy, edit or use it as you will.

 

 

 

 

Written by Peter Reynolds

October 29, 2010 at 12:39 pm

Paradise Valley

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Come with me into the crisp, sparkling air of the Dorset countryside.  Let the salted breeze blow away your cobwebs and the sheer beauty still your soul.

This is real life.  All the rest is illusion.

Go here.

Nineteen Nervous Breakdown

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I am worried about the neck and neck race in California.   The polls are getting tighter and tighter.  If Proposition 19 fails it will be a disaster for the cannabis campaign.  Certainly in Britain, no politician will want to know.  They will say if you can’t get California to vote for it, there are no votes in it at all.

It could knock us back at least five years.

That’s why it’s essential that we win.  Whatever it takes.  The polls say it depends on turnout by young voters so please, get the lazy stoners off their backsides and down to the polling booth.

Now is the time to get serious and take responsibility.  Don’t let us down now!

GO CALIFORNIA!  We’re depending on you!

Written by Peter Reynolds

October 24, 2010 at 9:16 am

The Robin Hood Tax

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Isn’t Bill Nighy absolutely fantastic?

Go here for more information and to sign up to the campaign.

Written by Peter Reynolds

October 22, 2010 at 5:01 pm

Should Be Legalised

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Quite easy on the eye this video for reasons that become very obvious.  She’s more than enough to keep me glued to the screen and a very sensible, well written message too.

Well worth watching!

Written by Peter Reynolds

October 22, 2010 at 4:54 pm

The Severn Scandal Of Huhne

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Artist's Impression

If there is idiocy in the coalition this is it.

Chris Huhne, the so-called progressive LibDem Energy Minister has called off the Severn barrage, the biggest tidal energy project ever in Britain.  See here.

What more sustainable, reliable, self-evidently ideal source of energy is there than the tide?  Until the earth spins off its axis or the moon melts into green cheese, the tides will continue to work.  The Severn estuary has the second highest tidal reach in the world.  The power inherent in its cycle is unimaginable.  When we find a way to harness it efficiently we will have achieved something every bit as revolutionary as cold fusion.

Blind

Yet our short sighted Energy Minister has cancelled the project and says that investment in such new energy sources should come from the private sector. Then he says that private sector investment is unrealistic.  There is something seriously wrong with this man’s thinking.  This is not the sort of project that you judge on the basis of some nit picking consultant’s report.  This is akin to the invention of flight or the microprocessor.  This requires vision.  This is a project that stretches across centuries and dwarfs Chris Huhne and his shameful decision.

This is exactly, precisely and properly the sort of project that government should be investing in heavily.  Only government can promote this sort of essential, long term development.  As for the pathetic whinging of the RSPB et al, this reveals how many small minded fools there are in the green movement.  The birds will find somewhere else soon enough.

A disastrous and terrible decision that will define and should destroy Chris Huhne’s career.