Peter Reynolds

The life and times of Peter Reynolds

Posts Tagged ‘Tory

She Did Make It Up. She Is A Liar. She Is Unfit To Be A Minister Of the Crown.

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Theresa May

How to make a twat of yourself over a pussy.

Ms May really is the most dimwitted, out of touch dinosaur, eclipsing even historical relics like George Osborne or Alan Johnson.

Quite how she ever became Home Secretary I do not understand. She appeared from nowhere and was immediately elevated to high office. The most obvious explanation isn’t credible because, without wishing to be unkind, she’s not exactly a honey trap is she?

The Human Rights Act is, in any case, very much a British creation. It is simply false to blame it on Europe. It was drafted by British legislators and, in general, is a proud and noble achievement. The very last thing we need is to abandon it on the say so of some third rate politician. It isn’t going to happen anyway. Ms May is just being used as a stool pigeon to appease the Tory right. She’s a muppet – sorry, I mean a puppet. Actually, I mean both.

Written by Peter Reynolds

October 4, 2011 at 9:20 pm

“War On Drugs Has Failed, Say Former Heads Of MI5, CPS And BBC”, The Daily Telegraph, 21st March 2011

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The “war on drugs” has failed and should be abandoned in favour of evidence-based policies that treat addiction as a health problem, according to prominent public figures including former heads of MI5 and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Drug availability and use has increased with up to 250 million people worldwide using narcotics such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin

Leading peers – including prominent Tories – say that despite governments worldwide drawing up tough laws against dealers and users over the past 50 years, illegal drugs have become more accessible.

Vast amounts of money have been wasted on unsuccessful crackdowns, while criminals have made fortunes importing drugs into this country.

The increasing use of the most harmful drugs such as heroin has also led to “enormous health problems”, according to the group.

The MPs and members of the House of Lords, who have formed a new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, are calling for new policies to be drawn up on the basis of scientific evidence.

It could lead to calls for the British government to decriminalise drugs, or at least for the police and Crown Prosecution Service not to jail people for possession of small amounts of banned substances.

Their intervention could receive a sympathetic audience in Whitehall, where ministers and civil servants are trying to cut the numbers and cost of the prison population. The Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, has already announced plans to help offenders kick drug habits rather than keeping them behind bars.

The former Labour government changed its mind repeatedly on the risks posed by cannabis use and was criticised for sacking its chief drug adviser, Prof David Nutt, when he claimed that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.

The chairman of the new group, Baroness Meacher – who is also chairman of an NHS trust – told The Daily Telegraph: “Criminalising drug users has been an expensive catastrophe for individuals and communities.

“In the UK the time has come for a review of our 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. I call on our Government to heed the advice of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime that drug addiction should be recognised as a health problem and not punished.

“We have the example of other countries to follow. The best is Portugal which has decriminalised drug use for 10 years. Portugal still has one of the lowest drug addiction rates in Europe, the trend of young people’s drug addiction is falling in Portugal against an upward trend in the surrounding countries, and the Portuguese prison population has fallen over time.”

Lord Lawson, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, said: “I have no doubt that the present policy is a disaster.

“This is an important issue, which I have thought about for many years. But I still don’t know what the right answer is – I have joined the APPG in the hope that it may help us to find the right answer.”

Other high-profile figures in the group include Baroness Manningham-Buller, who served as Director General of MI5, the security service, between 2002 and 2007; Lord Birt, the former Director-General of the BBC who went on to become a “blue-sky thinker” for Tony Blair; Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, until recently the Director of Public Prosecutions; and Lord Walton of Detchant, a former president of the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council.

Current MPs on the group include Peter Bottomley, who served as a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher; Mike Weatherley, the newly elected Tory MP for Hove and Portslade; and Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge.

The group’s formation coincides with the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which paved the way for a war on drugs by describing addiction as a “serious evil”, attempting to limit production for medicinal and scientific uses only, and coordinating international action against traffickers.

The peers and MPs say that despite governments “pouring vast resources” into the attempt to control drug markets, availability and use has increased, with up to 250 million people worldwide using narcotics such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin in 2008.

By Martin Beckford, Health Correspondent

They believe the trade in illegal drugs makes more than £200 billion a year for criminals and terrorists, as well as destabilising entire nations such as Afghanistan and Mexico.

As a result, the all-party group is working with the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust, to review current policies and scientific evidence in order to draw up proposed new ways to deal with the problem.

This Vile Punk Needs To Be Stripped Of His Arrogance, His Dignity And His Title!

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“Tory Peer: Bus Drivers And Waitresses ‘Unimportant'”, The Daily Telegraph, 9th February 2011

Oaf

A senior Government adviser employed to monitor former ministers working in business has claimed bus drivers, waitresses and people in other “unimportant” jobs would be unfit to join his panel.

Lord Lang, the Conservative peer, said people in ordinary jobs were not sufficiently qualified to pass judgement on the employment of former ministers in the private sector.

The Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business appointments has come under pressure to dilute the “Establishment” make-up of his panel, which comprises four peers, two knights and a dame.

But he defended the composition of his committee, despite accusations the arrangement was too “cosy”.

Lord Lang told MPs he would be prepared to accept a “lay member”, but added that is should be someone “who had experience and proven success in a relatively important profession or trade – somebody who had achieved distinction – rather than a waitress or bus driver.”

The Commons Public Administration Committee, which is looking into the employment of former ministers in big business, did not receive his comments well.

Paul Flynn, a Labour MP who formerly worked as a bus driver, said: “Speaking as a bus driver of long standing who married a waitress, could you explain why neither I nor my wife have any contribution to make to your committee?”

Lord Lang, who was himself a trade secretary and now has sizeable business interests, said a committee made up of people who “knew nothing at all about the issues involved” would make the wrong decisions.

See the full story by Nick Collins here.

Written by Peter Reynolds

February 9, 2011 at 9:55 pm

Go Gove Go!

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Michael Gove has to be the most impressive politician of our age.  His performance on Question Time tonight was sensational.   In comparison, Cameron is an awkward schoolboy.

Michael inspires me.  He reminds me why I am a Tory and why I am proud of it!  The other panel members tonight were visibly in awe of him.

He talks common sense.   He subverts run of the mill, mediocre politics. He rises above every other pretender on the political stage.

This is a man who I would follow, I could trust, I can believe in.

Written by Peter Reynolds

January 14, 2011 at 1:00 am

Politicians’ Negligent Response To The Drugs Debate

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Shamefully Slandered

The Independent in its leader today, says “It is depressing how stale and weary have been the responses” to Bob Ainsworth’s initiative on drug policy reform.  See here.  As with all the media it has failed dismally to point out that he was supported by Peter Lilley, former deputy leader of the Tory party,  Tom Brake from the LibDems and Paul Flynn from Labour.

The BBC, with appalling inaccuracy, stated that  “all three main parties at Westminster remain opposed to legalisation”.  See here. In fact the LibDems’ published policy is “In the longer term, seeking to put the supply of cannabis on a legal, regulated basis”.  It matters little though because almost never has any political party been more irrelevant.   The LibDems now command less respect than the Monster Raving Loonies.

The Most Dangerous Man In Britain

The responses of our political leaders are not just depressing, they are grossly irresponsible and negligent.  James “Broken Britain” Brokenshire is the most dangerous man in Britain and will be responsible for far more death, misery and degradation in our country than any terrorist.  As The Independent says, “such is the hysteria about drugs in Britain that there is no political space for a reasoned debate by those in authority.”  The evidence that the war on drugs is an expensive failure is overwhelming but politicians prefer to waste money and lives rather than grasp this nettle.

The cowardly hypocrites, Cameron and his poodle, sit back while they allow Brokenshire, a preppy-faced apologist for gangsters to oppress, pillage and brutalise our fellow citizens.

Brokenshire is doing all he can to break Britain and British society.

He is a criminal of the first order.

Vile Police Website Reveals Violent Conspiracy

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The disgusting Inspector Gadget website is at it again.  Go take a look if you want your eyes opened to the corrupt, barely literate, violence-obsessed, rabid scum that masquerades as our police force. They are salivating in delight at their frenzy of brutality on Thursday and eagerly anticipating more opportunities to beat up our children next week.

I support the real police.  There are evil, subversive forces hiding behind and amongst the students.  Those who are violent and only trying to ferment anarchy need to be stopped but they are on both sides.  There are far too many of them wearing a police uniform and they deserve the most severe punishment of all.

It is outrageous that they are allowed to commune,  plot and scheme with each other like this.   They are paid not to have opinions like these and to stay calm and neutral.  They are incapable of doing the job.  Inspector Gadget should be closed down.  Any officer who participates in it is not fit to hold the Queen’s warrant.

These are a selection of comments made by those who we pay to protect our children:

“I don’t think you can hurt a student by hitting them on the head.” Posted by “Fee”

“Good point, get chainsaws and cut their legs off then. That will slow them down a bit.” Posted by Taff Taff

“Shields advance… Fix bayonets.  Charge…..Good luck troops.” Posted by BeePee

“Good cavalry charge at that protest, the only thing missing were the pig sticklers used in days of Yore.” Posted by Bodrules

“Time to get hard and nasty!” Posted by Ranter

“A few well placed live rounds and the ‘protest’ would stop in an instant.” Posted by ExTrafficBiker

See more of this disgusting behaviour here.

And this, the Taser equivalent of a claymore mine, is the sort of weapon that the Inspector and his cronies want for next time:

“absofuckinglutely ideal for this situation” Posted by Taff Taff

“I WANT THESE. SWEEEEET.” Posted by Goinwibblebobby

Wake up Britain! This is the mindset of the overpaid, mindless thugs and sadists that are supposed to be protecting our children.

This is the consequence of a government that hides in its ivory towers, refuses to engage with the people, conspires with the media to silence dissent and is a betrayal of everything that democracy stands for. And I speak as a Tory!

The Bean Counter And The Ponce. A Pair Of Hypocrites.

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There is no more integrity.

This government is even more corrupt than the last.  Not just widespread financial corruption amongst MPs, now ministers have abandoned all pretence at listening or consulting.   Britain has become an oligarchy and both politicians and the media are complicit.

I and many other Tories were prepared to accept and defend the financial squeeze but I can no longer support this government.  I could not vote Tory again given the level of betrayal and arrogance from David Cameron.  As for the LibDems,  they have sacrificed their integrity completely.  I see nothing unfair with the present proposals for tuition fees but deplore and condemn the LibDem’s broken promises.  They are ruined.  Clegg is beyond, in fact, beneath redemption.

Ministers in this government have become more remote than ever before.  They sit in their feather-bedded ivory towers and just ignore correspondence.  This is now par for the course in the respect and courtesy that our government pays us.  One can write again and again, send email reminders and never get even an acknowledgement.  This is disregard so serious that it is corruption.

Clegg’s “Your Freedom” website was canned as quickly as it started.  No, no, no, that gave the people far too loud a voice.

And the press are involved too.  They protect and serve only their own comfort in the politics bubble.  The editors of the national newspapers follow their own agenda with no regard for their readers.  Normal rules of supply and demand do not apply.  They have so much power that most only know what they are given.   They distort the truth as it suits them.  Only what serves them gets published.

We have some recourse with the BBC.  It is obliged to provide balance but the complaints system is worse than useless and the director-general receives a ludicrous bribe of £838,000 per annum.

Over just the last 12 months there have been massive demonstrations in London where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets but we do not hear of  them.  It is entirely true that were it not for the violence we would never have heard of the 52,000 students that marched on Millbank earlier this month.  The blood spilled and the damage caused is on the hands of the media.  They are a corrupt and pernicious influence on our society.  Much as I believe in smaller government, the media now have too much power.  Effective regulation is needed.

The Tory promise never to allow more power to slip to Brussels has also been broken and Cameron is exposed as nothing more than a procedural clerk.  All his bold, inspirational philosophy of freedom and fairness is gone.  I have never seen such hostility from those who were previously firm Tory supporters.

This corrupt and self-serving government is going down the pan.

SECOND UPDATE On Legal Medicinal Cannabis In Britain

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This is the third instalment in this story.

1. Legal Medicinal Cannabis In Britain

2. Update On Legal Medicinal Cannabis In Britain

Eventually The Guardian took some notice.   See here.

Despite the pleas of those in pain and suffering, the Home Office was talking to Mary O’Hara of The Guardian but not to them.   Dozens if not hundreds of medicinal cannabis users had written to the Home Office asking for confirmation that they could go to Holland for a prescription.  Not a word was heard.

Jim Starr, the subject of this story, wrote to his MP, and then he wrote again.  He heard nothing.  He wrote to the Home Office, chasing up his application for a personal import licence.  He heard nothing.  He wrote again.

Dilatory

Richard Drax, the first timer, newly elected Tory MP for Dorset South just happens to be my MP too, so I wrote to him on Jim’s behalf.

Jim has heard nothing.  Richard Drax asked me not to mention his name in any article about Jim. Jim wrote again.  I wrote again.  We have heard nothing.

Jim’s medicine has run out.  We told the Home Office and Richard Drax that it was an urgent medical emergency.  We have heard nothing.

I spent the last week on the telephone and exchanging emails with the Home Office.  This is the result:

A Home Office spokesperson said:

The UK’s position is clear – cannabis is dangerous and has no medicinal benefits in herbal form. It remains illegal for UK residents to possess cannabis in any form.

Britons benefit from reciprocal laws which allow EU nationals, in limited circumstances, to travel with controlled medicines. We are working with European authorities to ensure the system is robust and not open to abuse.

The Home Office says you can import cannabis to the UK and use it without restriction provided you “are resident in a country where that drug is legally prescribed”.  So it’s OK for the Dutch and the Belgians and the Spanish and the Italians and the Czechs and the Poles (and many others) to smoke weed in Britain but not if you’re British.

We Won't Give Up

This is clearly unequal, discriminatory, unjust and unsustainable in law but the Home Office is not about to give in.  The only way to resolve this is that either someone must appeal a conviction all the way to the Supreme Court or there must be an application for judicial review.

Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment.

In the meantime, Jim and thousands like him will manage as best as they can.

He’s still heard nothing from either the Home Office or Richard Drax.

Alan Johnson – An Absence Of Integrity

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Shadow

I used to be an admirer.  Even as a rabid Tory, in fact, very much as a Tory, I thought the story of postman to Minister of the Crown was Boy’s Own stuff.

He has a sharp intellect and an easy charm with nothing of the snide trade union whinger that he might have been.   Then came Professor Nutt and, almost as never before, a politician’s true colours were revealed.  Not the gentle pink blush of embarrassment but a black deception and dishonour.  It was an astonishing position to take.  As David Nutt recalls, “Alan Johnson famously said in the House that he was “big enough, strong enough, bold enough” to sack me for saying cannabis was less harmful than alcohol.”  And he did.  See here.

Even worse, as a replacement he appointed Professor Les Iversen, author of  “Cannabis, Why It Is Safe” and  countless other publications extolling the innocuous nature of the plant.  He is on the record as saying that “cannabis should be legalised, not just decriminalized”.  The complete absurdity of Alan Johnson’s actions were astonishing.  He was stating boldly and without apology that whatever the science said he wouldn’t listen to it.  Even more than that, he would try to silence the truth.

This is a politician without a shred of integrity.  A man of great achievement and intelligence who has shamed himself and destroyed his own career.  He is not fit to be in the shadow cabinet.  That he has been appointed shadow chancellor is a hollow and sickening joke.

The Labour Leadership

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Four Men And One Woman In A Sinking Boat

I suppose I should get my six ha’porth in, if that’s the correct expression, before the result is announced.

The very entertaining More 4 programme, Miliband Of Brothers, finally corrected my spelling last night.  There may be two brothers but there’s only one “l”.  I’ve been getting it wrong all the way through this thoroughly underwhelming campaign.  At least it will be all over this afternoon.  Then we’ll be treated to the appalling spectre of Gordon Brown making a farewell speech.  Farewell and good riddance I say.  The worst British prime minister in my lifetime.  No doubt about that.

David Miliband is the obvious choice.  He has the gravitas that you would expect from an ex-foreign secretary but I fear that he will be yesterday’s man by the time of the next election.

Ed Miliband has most of the qualities that his brother offers but with a spark of individuality that I think would serve his party well.  If I was a a Labour supporter, wanting to see the party succeed, Ed would be my choice.

Andy Burnham can be very proud of the campaign he has run.  He is coherent, honourable, very telegenic and, I should think, every Labour mum’s toyboy fantasy. He hasn’t got a hope in hell.

Ed Balls?  Now as a Tory he gets my vote.  What a total plonker!  He would be disastrous for the Labour Party but it would make wonderful entertainment for the rest of us.   I can dream!

I’m very fond of Diane Abbott.  Along with all my fellow political junkies I love the Michael & Diane sofa partnership on “This Week”.   They’re the real stars of the show, forget the leering old lothario in the corner.  Trouble is, Diane isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.  In fact she’s probably the bluntest in the entire kitchen so I’ll be looking forward to seeing her back on the sofa with Michael next Thursday.