Do the BBC hate the disabled?

I am growing increasingly incensed at how much it seems the BBC do not care for the disabled.

The coverage of the Paralymics is derisory.

I have just watched the sport report on BBC News 24.

The lead item was very brief, Lance Armstrong making a comeback.

Then football news.

Then the very briefest mention that we may have a passing interest in an event involving some cripples.

Well, cheers. F*cking cheers you useless mindless bunch of ignorant left wing useless w*nkers.

I, and several other able bodied friends are actually quite interested in the paralympics, our team our doing us proud thank you very much though they would be doing very well to beat their performance last time, when they came second in the medal table.

I mean, for pities sake, we have a one legged cyclist who's record beats the Los Angeles Olympic record of 1984, and is but 5 seconds behind Chris Hoy's record. I would love to be able to tell you his name, but alas it is not clear on the BBC's website, nor is that fact noted there that I could find.

The medals table is not there in an updated form either.

Mind you, the BBC has form for hating the disabled. You may recall the other day seeing a blind correspondent. He stuck in my mind because I had never seen one on TV before. He was not the best looking of people, and his obvious all white eyes were striking, but then so what? The BBC has plenty of not that good looking male reporters, (though now I come to think of it, not that many not so good looking women ones, are they sexist as well?) who cares if he is blind? His name was Gary O'Donoghue. His report seemed fair enough.

Well according to Private Eye, and indeed his wikipedia entry he was the man on the scene about to break the news of the political fallout over foot and mouth last year. He is after all an experienced political correspondent and was the on duty man at the time.

So there he was about to broadcast to the nation on the Friday night 10 o'clock news, a blind man, and as an observation, the first one to do so that I can recall, when, according to both Private Eye and Wikipedia, an hour before he was due on air the deputy editor, Daniel Pearl decided he did not want a cripple on TV.

The BBC has had to pay lots of money for that, as they were sued. Daniel Pearl looks set for promotion.

So there you have it. The BBC promotes those who discriminate against the disabled, and treats the paralympics as so second class it can't be arsed to give it air time, outside its good coverage on BBC2 for 1 hour in the evenings. (The Olympics had the same but on BBC1).

This is wrong. So very very wrong.

And whilst I am at it, I listen to the very good correspondent Peter White on BBC Radio 4, why don't we see him on TV?

Is the economy about to turn the corner?

Well, there is good news about, or at least better than the utterly dire news we have been getting.

The US government has effectively taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who cover half the US mortgage market. Although leaving shareholders severely out of pocket, it seems the US government is going to make mortgage cash available helping the US housing market.

Markets around the world have reacted positively to this news. Had either or both of those institutions collapsed things would have been very grim indeed.

Also oil is down, as are raw materials prices leading to lower output figures.

Make no mistake, it will take quite a while for confidence to return to the market, but we may now be moving along the bottom and up again, in terms of confidence.

The BBC has this on the US and this on factory output prices.

Kevin Keegan not resigned or sacked shocker!

The whole world of journalism was thrown into turmoil last night after it emerged that Kevin Keegan had not been sacked and had not resigned.

Several journalists who had banked on a good lunch by making something out of nothing were completely dumbfounded.

One journalist who did not wish to be made said:

I don't know what's going on! We spend years talking to people, then take one unguarded comment completely out of context, misquote it, make a story and ruin someones life, sells lots of news papers and so on, but this time, it seems not to have worked. I am shocked!

Another older and wiser journalist intervened saying:

Yes, but if we keep this rubbish up long enough, and tell each side lies about each other, you never know what might happen. There are legs on this story yet.

So there we are then. A story journalists have made.... or what?

The BBC has this.

PS sorry for not posting for a while.

Northerners: Leave your homes and all move South!

Well, that is not actually quite the message of the Policy Exchange report released today but it sure does sound like it.

Iain Dale has his take here, with a helpful extract from the introduction. The full document is here, I no I have not as yet read it.

The premise seems to be that regeneration money has not actually kept the cities of the north with growth of the south. Obviously you would have to ask just how bad would it be had the money not been spent.

The point is well made, and the reports introduction does scream the answer, alas the report seems to miss the answer it is screaming on page one and prefers the answer that John Prescott obviously feels a bit insulting and David Cameron thinks is mad, which is that people should move to the same corner of the country. Is anyone going to ask us southerners if we want to take all this internal migration? What of the cities of the north now denuded of all their aspirational talent? Is this not just going to make some very bad situations worse?

As Iain points out above, Cardiff is doing well in its regeneration.

So what is the answer? Well the introduction of the report states:

Places that enjoyed the conditions for creating wealth in the coal-powered 19th-century often do not do so today. Port cities had an advantage in an era when exporting manufactured goods by sea was a vital source of prosperity; today the sea is a barrier to their potential for expansion and they are cut off from the main road transport routes.

Just re read that several times. Particularly "and they are cut off from the main road transport routes."

If you look at every deprived area of the country, and they exist in the south east as well as the north, you will note the lack of proper transport links. Hastings is an example of relative deprivation as is Weymouth.

The short answer is to build better road, rail and air transport to all these areas. Build the transport links and the business will come, its basic O level geography. What is more, the person representing the report on the news today seemed to know that transport is what built these cities, he just has not worked out that if those modes of transport have moved on, we can build new ones.

Something that is clear to me though, is that if the Conservative party wishes to build a prosperous Conservative country it needs to build road and rail like never before.

The BBC has this.

Russia withdraws from Georgia!

Russian troops have throughout the day been withdrawing from Georgia in accordance with statements made by President Dmitry Medvedev.

This would normally have been treated as good news, however there is a problem, and that is that either their navigational equipment is broken, or that their definition of "withdrawal" is a one with which we are not familiar with.

It beggars belief that Russian troops have been filmed by both Channel 4 and the BBC in and around Gori.

Iain Dale laments the tales of Georgian refugees in this article here. I have not been there, but I can tell you that I have been to the former Yugoslavia when it was at war, and this sort of things happen both ways. That is of course no excuse for anything, but I will say this: I suspect that if you went to Tshinvali* and sat and had a coffee with a few local Ossetians you would come away with the impression that these were good solid honest hospitable and above all friendly people. You would feel exactly the same way having spent the afternoon in the company of Georgians in Gori. You would however, as I was in the former Yugoslavia be dreadfully shocked at the bestial violence they seem to meet out amongst themselves.

I have heard much about the atrocities the Russians claim have been committed and those committed by them and the Ossetians. With regret I can believe and disbelieve both at the same time. What is of course needed is hard evidence and in war that is hard to come by. Is that dead child a Georgian killed by the evil Russians, and Ossetian killed by the evil Georgians, or just a casualty of war.

Two things are clear though, Mikheil Saakashvili is not the sort of person I would want to be able to declare war on my behalf, and Russia needs sorting out.

*Please note that a correct transliteration would probably spell that Tsinvali though other alternatives are Tschinvali. It is pronounced roughly as Shinvali but try to imagine a T being there, at the front, but just a bit.

The BBC has this.

What was Georgia thinking of?

You do have to ask, don't you.

It is true that at this time of year that the separatist parts of Georgia kick off. Conspiracy theorists might suspect that Russians are advising this is a good time of year to act as international leaders are on holiday. Such skirmishes happen every year it seems.

Yet this time Georgia responded.

I am not saying that Georgia does not have the right to defend itself or its citizens and so on and so forth, but the people threatening them are, at heart a super power of sorts.

So why now, and why like this?

Good question. I have no idea why now.

Why like this? It was nuts. There are Russian troops in Georgia and it must have been obvious that they would be reinforced if there was any sort of threat. Georgia is separated from Russia via a fairly defensible mountain range. The only rational thing to do would have been to only "go for it" if they could seal all mountain roads before reinforcements could be sent. That rather obvious part of the plan seems not to have made it on to the plan.

Georgia was provoked, and was aware of the large build up of Russian troops. It does beg the question what were they playing at?

War in Georgia: What do we do?

This is a question that Iain Dale poses on his blog, quoting some interesting articles including some from Cicero's songs. I like Cicero and find him pleasant company and very knowledgeable on Russia and its former imperial possessions of which Georgia is one. Cicero's songs has this and this. One of those articles says that Russian troops have turned up in Abkhazia, Georgia's other break away region which shows Russia's true intentions.

So what do we do? Well, I would not start from here.

Cicero makes the point that this is a bit like the Rhineland. For those who are not as well versed in history that refers to Nazi Germany sending in their army into the Rhineland breaching the Versailles treaty of 1919. You might ask what is wrong with the Germans stationing their troops in Germany. Well, it was the first test of international resolve and lead to ever greater ones until the invasion of Poland in September 1939 which led to war.

However the problem is this: Whilst we would have had trade with Germany which we could have stopped with sanctions (but did not) we can't do the same with Russia. Firstly we have too much money there but more crucially Europe is reliant on Russian oil and gas. The only other way of getting the stuff out of central Asia is.. yes you guessed it, via a pipeline in Georgia the Russians have just bombed. In short the Russians have us by both out wallets and our heating and lighting.

We do seriously look at the way we have taxed our oil companies out of our own oil fields. Europe also needs to do no important trade with Russia, because frankly we can't trust their government.

The BBC has this.

Government dithering smashes housing market

Government dithering over stamp duty is set to cause an even worse crash than we were headed for.

The problem is this: Some journalists got the idea that Alistair Darling was going to introduce a stamp duty holiday in a similar way to that introduced by the Conservative government in the last housing crash.

The problem is that now we have uncertainty. Buyers who have to pay the tax may wait until they know because there could be a few thousand pounds in it.

This could all be a story cooked up by the media but the problem with that thesis is that we know that this Labour government (including the Tony Blair years) likes to manage news. Whereas in years gone by if a budget measure was in the press before it was announced to parliament, the chancellor resigned New Labour's news management has gone to such levels that we know about most of the budget from well briefed journalists long before hand. In other words this government has form for this sort of thing.

However no actual announcement has been made so the housing market is in limbo. The Conservative party have rightly asked for an end to the uncertainty and rightly so. We can stymie the housing market until October's pre budget report.

This is of course the problem with Labour and indeed its news management. It has no idea why things are as they are so sees no reason not to change. It sees no boundaries in common conventions. Frankly they have not got a clue and never had one either.

The BBC has this and the Daily Mail has this.

A Woman's place is in the home: Official!

Hold on, don't shoot the messenger, I am only commenting on this survey conducted by Professor Jacqueline Scott of Cambridge university.

It seems that attitudes to working mums has begun to change back to thinking that perhaps it is better for women to be at home.

That is an interesting change and what is more it has begun to swing as more parents put their children with minders and go out to work.

From a personal point of view I can see why attitudes are changing and in some ways that is no bad thing. There seemed to be a building disdain for women who stayed at home to look after kids and it is also a job which is under appreciated.

However it would be a very bad thing if people started feeling constrained by others. After all people do need to make their own decisions. In quite a few cases it can make more sense for the man to stay at home for example. I am not sure it does make sense for both parents to work full time at the same time thus having their children in full time care though sometimes that is necessary.

Any way, I think I ought to shut up now before I did an even deeper hole for myself!

The BBC has this.

I have just bought £130 of Northern Rock Shares!

I know, I know, you must think I am mad, and I have to say I see your point, but I have just bought £130 of Northern Rock shares anyway.

The transaction was easy and fairly painless as far as I was concerned. I did not have to sign any papers, call any stock brokers or anything like that.

In fact coming to think about it, I wasn't even asked. Someone just dipped their hands in my pocket, just took the money and bought the shares.

Still the paper work is easy. No share certificates or anything like that.

On the upside its not like there will be any profits to pay tax on, on the downside I will not be able to write my losses of against the already murderous tax I pay.

The BBC has this.

Richard Dawkins and the non existence of God

I have to say I have heard a few snippets of what Richard Dawkins has had to say on the subject of religion, but never quite realised what a plonker he is.

Channel 4 have just screened a documentary billed as being about Charles Darwin whereas it was in fact about Richard Dawkins using the Origin of Species as an attack on religion. A bot of a shame really as Charles Darwin was a clever fellow, whom I would have liked to hear about. Richard Dawkins on the other hand I can live without.

His theory on the non existence of God seems to go along the lines of:

Christianity says the world was created in 6 days.

Evolution says it wasn't, ergo God does not exist.

Needless to say with thinking like that, it is no surprise to find h is a biologist rather than a mathematician or physicist.

The problem with Dawkins proposition is that he us taking the bible far too literally. For example what about the earth being created in 6 days? Well who's days? Ours? God's? Where is the evidence to say?

Further more, the bible and others like it have not only been passed down for generations often orally, but also crucially is not supposed to be a scientific treatise which is why it does not mention quantum theory, but a treatise on the way people should interact with each other and with God.

Gordon Brown declared Bankrupt!

You will not have read this in any of the national news papers but Gordon Brown has been declared bankrupt.

Personally I feel sorry for him. I don't know what is worse. Being declared bankrupt or having as a namesake the most unpopular Prime minister in history.

Curiously though it was in the High Court which is an odd place to make a window cleaner bankrupt. I wish him luck, he is going to need it.

Whatever you do, don't catch an unfashionable disease

Please don't.

There are fashionable diseases, like AIDS or breast cancer, then there are unfashionable ones like prostate cancer, malaria or Alzheimer's.

If you look at how many people who are going get a given disease and how much is spent on research and treatment there are clearly fashionable diseases and unfashionable ones.

Barry George guilty! but not of murder...

Well, the worst you say say about Barry George is that he is a bit odd, which combined wit the fact that he lived near Jill Dando about sums up the prosecution case against him.

I am very pleased he has been acquitted because last time I looked being a bit odd was not a criminal offence.

I wonder of the police will investigate the murder properly. Somehow I doubt it.

The BBC has this.

Record house Price drop reported by Nationwide.

The Nationwide building society has released their latest price survey indicating the largest drop in house prices in a single year since their records began in 1991, during the last housing collapse. Prices fell by 8.1% back to levels last seen in mid 2006.

Grim news indeed. So what happened to no more boom and bust?

The BBC has this.

Labour at War!

The Labour party is at war, according to this article in today's Daily Telegraph as bitter recriminations fly after David Miliband's Guardian article and yesterdays press conference (The BBC has this on the conference).

Well, if they are fighting like rats in a sack, all I can say is pass the popcorn, I am enjoying the spectacle!

Money grabbing Vultures circle over Methylene Blue wonder drug

According to a comment by greygeek77 (who alas does not allow viewing of his profile and so I can't find his blog to link to it) on a previous article on the subject:

A little Googleing will show that Methylene Blue, a coal tar dye, was first synthesized in 1875, and was used by the famous French scientist, Ehrlich, in 1861, to treat pain and neuropathy because he noticed it had an affinity for neural fibers. A typical dose is 100 mg per 100Kg of body weight as a pill, or 1 to 2 mg per 100Kg as an injection.

Bulk price for MB is $42/Kg but pharm grade is now going for $285 for 250mg!! The greed has begun.

A patent was filed in 2004 for a "new" way of making the compound because MB is too old to patent itself, and hence wouldn't be profitable enough. It appears that the prescription price will be about $5/day.

This is one "drug" that the US government should nationalize in order to HELP the elderly, most of whom are on limited incomes, and to prevent their exploitation by the pharmaceuticals for unearned profit.

So the bottom line is this:

Methylene Blue has been known for 127 years to be good for neurological problems, and is cheap.

Drug companies seem to have realised this and are rushing to shore up profits by applying for new patents on an old remedy.

The price has spiked, probably due to a sudden interest. I bet that as soon as things settle down generic drug producers will be producing this stuff like it is going out of fashion.

Gas bills taxed at 75%!

Just in case you were wondering why left wing Labour MP's were calling for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, consider this:

We now import 40% of our gas, which is why it costs so much, but crucially when British gas draws it off the North sea it pays 75% over in tax to Gordon Brown. This explains two things:

1. Why gas bills are so high.

2. Why
no one can be bothered to bring new capacity on in the North sea. After all it is hardly worth looking if you can't make any money out of it.

In fact this government, egged on by very ignorant left wing MP's and unions, has taxed the North Sea oilfields to the point where no matter what is down there it is hardly worth a look.

So the next time you look at your gas, or indeed electricity bill, and lament the VAT on it, please remember the hidden 75% tax.

The figure of 75% jumped out at me as I was listening to an interview with the MD of British Gas who pointed that out.

Methylene blue: The new wonder drug?

After having published this article on Methylene blue and its affects on Alzheimer's I have been doing a bit of reading about this blue dye.

It seems that according to this article on a research paper it also repairs defective memory.

The great thing is that it is already administered as a medicine and crucially is cheap.

The interesting thing about the memory repair is that it works in a different way to the way it cures Alzheimer's in that it deals with some problems in mitochondria. You do have to wonder what its affect would be on errant proteins in cancer mitochondria as well. I suspect no one has tried this though as there will not be any money in it.

This does lead to some serious questions about how medical research and drug research is funded and what results it produces. There is no money in finding out that the cure for some ailment is something that is cheap as chips already. More on that later.

Police use terrorism acts to cover up their own criminality

Police in Portsmouth have tried to use the 2000 Terrorism act to cover up their own criminal breach of motoring laws.

A passer by noticed a police car illegally parked (Motoring offences are a criminal offence) so took a picture.

They then questioned the passer by, David Gates, under the terrorism act, citing security concerns.

We have to get seriously concerned when police cite "security concerns" when people are gathering evidence of specific criminal offences, even if they are only road traffic offences.

Let us be clear: If you can see it from a public place, you can photograph it, and if it is the police breaking the law you certainly can.

The local Portsmouth paper has this, whilst the BBC, appearing to have lost its bottle, had a brief news report at 6 but has dropped it since, showing such post Hutton courage, has nothing at all.

Doha trade talks collapse in rubbish!

I do not intend on slinging mud at any one in particular, but more at everyone in general.

The Doha trade talks have collapsed because, it seems people want to argue over how much of the cake they will get rather than looking at the obvious solution, making the cake bigger, much much bigger.

We have the primary issue of agricultural subsidy and agricultural trade.

The current position is that all blocks try to maximise there output at the cost of their tax payer whilst reducing the output of others as much as possible then imposing tariffs of all sorts to suit which ever lobby they want.

The net result is that you and I subsidise people to reduce world food output and keep food prices up, which does not seem like a good idea to me.

Just to move the position on though, consider this: You are a jobbing TV maker in Wales, a jobbing banker in London, a jobbing consultant in IT or some other possibly exportable service.

How many Africans who's economy has been destroyed by your taxes and can't afford to eat are going to pay for your services?

It is a no brainer really. There is no fair trade other than free trade, and like charity it starts at home. If you want a job, you have to allow others to have one too.

The BBC has this.

Blue dye known to cure Alzheimer's cures Alzheimer's Shocker!

There is a blue dye, methylthioninium chloride, otherwise known as the common biological staining agent and chemical indicator Methylene blue which seems to kill Alzheimer's stone dead. Well perhaps that is over egging it a bit, but it tackles the root observation of Alzheimer's which is a tangle of the tau proteins in neurons.

Apparently a researcher looking at tau proteins tried to dye them with methylene blue and found they disappeared 20 years ago.

It has taken this long, that is 100 years from finding the root pathology, and 20 years from finding a clearing agent for some research to be done.

Whilst I hail this storming success, which not only promises to halt Alzheimer's but in part reverse it, you have to ask why this research has taken so long and why it has taken a drug company to fund it? Alzheimer's is already a very expensive disease economically.

Curiously though, if the "drug" is expensive and unavailable on the NHS there may well be some jobbing chemists quite prepared to make the stuff up.

It will be cheap as chips after all.

The BBC has this, whilst the Telegraph has this.

Incidentally the Telegraph nor the BBC broadcast reports mention that it is a common chemical that has been available for years, whilst the Telegraph suggest that it may cost as much as £2.50 a day, half the price of the current non prescription curative, a pack of cigarettes. I do not know what other stiff is in "Rember" but suspect we will not find out easily. If it is just Methylene Blue, then it can be make up as a solution for little and I suspect available to even the poorest in society.

Labour Ministers plot to oust Brown as polls show dire news!

And all I have to say is:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

The latest polls indicate a remarkable defeat for Labour at the next general election, for example the Sunday Telegraph has this poll of key marginals which shows Labour behind the Liberal democrats whilst Comres for Saturday's Independent shows Labour 22% behind nationally. (As I write this their website is down so you can read about the poll on politicalbetting.com)

The Sunday Telegraph also carries this news on the plots to oust Gordon Brown in September!

The problem with all the plotting stories is this:

It can't happen.

The rules of the Labour party say that they can only actually get rid of a sitting leader if 70 MP's decide they want to, and place a motion for conference sometime in April.

They haven't so they need to get Gordon to resign and that isn't going to happen because no one has got the Balls.

In short, Labour are going to be fighting like rats in a sack for a while to come, egged on by the media, with no real result.

What is more laughable is that some Labour insiders (Not all I hasten to add) seriously think that Gordon Brown is the problem. Well he is, but not as Prime minister, but more so as chancellor for the first 10 years.

The fact is that people have been sold a lie by Labour, and now they have found them out.

Labour are in for a drubbing no matter who they have as PM going into the next election.

SNP win Glasgow East!

Well there you have it, Labour have lost Glasgow East to the SNP, and the Liberal Democrats have been pushed into 4th place behind the Conservatives.

This is a fantastic result!

The question is what does this do for Gordon Brown?

The answer is of course, nothing, as no one in Labour has any balls, not even Yvette Cooper.

Glasgow East, and the winner is: Me!

I am sorry, but I could not resist at 50 to 1 odds on, I had to lay some SNP, so took 40 pence worth!

Then I backed Labour at 7 to 1 and after a while someone took up that bet and so win whoever wins the vote!

That is all about being fast and clever :)

SNP sure favourites to win Glasgow East say punters!

I have just had a look at the Betfair prices and the SNP are sure fire fifty to one odds on favourites.

Spectacular!

Glasgow East: Will Labour lose?

It has to be said that Glasgow East is Labour's 3rd safest seat in Scotland. Some polls have placed Labour 17% ahead of the SNP.

So what happens if Labour lose?

Well the by election has been carefully timed so that MP's are away on holiday until September so we will not know for a while.

Max Mosley wins, but fails to get punitive damages.

Max Mosley has won his High Court case against the News of the World, being awarded £60,000 in damages. Alas he has failed to get punitive or exemplary damages which is a shame.

The reason why I say it is a shame is that large media organisations can make money out of trashing peoples reputations even where they get sued for libel and lose.

Take Robert Murat. His name was resoundingly trashed with no shred of evidence whatsoever. The papers who did that settled out of court for £50,000 each plus costs, presumably similar in number. Does anyone seriously think they did not make much more than that trashing his reputation?

The BBC has this and there is a copy of the judgement here, whilst the BBC has this on Robert Murat.

Radovan Karadzic, You're Nicked!

The good news is that Radovan Karadzic has been arrested. He should meet the charges against him and is one of many war criminals involved in the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The BBC has this.

The bad news is that for several hours all BBC News 24 did was report on that, so whatever other news there was went unreported, including a review of the news papers.

This is appalling. Whilst this story is very big, it is not so important that there can be no other news.

Education: I despair! A Tale of Two Essays.

On the front page of today's Telegraph is a story about a tale of two essays, about someone called Pip Davenport, one which got 8 out of 12 and one which got 7. The former is littered with spelling and grammatical errors, the latter not. The former is less coherent than the latter. The Latter is, needless to say more comprehensible. You can read both here.

The head teacher of the children's school was shocked.

Alas I am not. The reason why exams results are going up is not because children are any better but that the exams are getting so much easier. Well, at least for those not capable of coherent writing.

Before any one whinges at my comments, saying I am discriminating against people from certain backgrounds, I would point out that both universities and employers certainly will. They will do so my binning the CV's of the illiterate, interviews and increasingly there own exams.

Labour are simply letting down everyone in state schools by failing to ensure proper marking and a proper education. This will also destroy our economy.

Max Mosley's Hanky Spanky, and Punitive damages.

The News of The World likes a bit of sex, doubly so if there is spanking and trebly so if they can call it a sick and deprived Nazi sex orgy. It sells papers after all and the bottom line profit is what it is all about.

They got a lead on a "dirty old man" who liked to pay for kinky sex. Lets face it, on the face of what is admitted it was fairly kinky.

The News of the World contends that this was a sock and depraved act. The Editor claimed he would not have gone to press with the story had it not involved Nazi role play. (Does anyone including him believe that?)

The problem for the News of the World is that all those involved bar their "whistle blower" have said it was not, and the video seems to be inconclusive at best. Then of course their witness E failed to testify due to emotional issues. I have no doubt this was not due to intimidation on Max Mosley's part, so you have to wonder what she was so concerned about?

It is an interesting case. Max is upset according to the BBC, because:

Mr Mosley has told the court previously that the publicity has been "totally devastating" for his wife of 48 years, and he could think of "nothing more undignified or humiliating" for his two sons to experience.

Well that is a fair reason to be upset but you can't help but feeling that he could have avoided upsetting his wife by being faithful.



So what of privacy which is at the heart of the issue? Does Max Mosley have the right to do what he likes in his private life? Well having affairs is not illegal, nor is using prostitutes nor in fact sadomasochism. We may feel that cheating on his wife is wrong, but enjoying kinky sex you would not want to tell your kids about, well, I mean would you want to tell your kids and all their friends?

It seems to me that the News of the World have be in trouble having linked the publication to a Nazi fantasy after all Sir Oswald Mosley was a famous fascist, and would not have published otherwise, thus accepting the fact that Max cheated on his wife as not worthy of publication.

However there is one final interesting bit to this case, that of exemplary and punitive damages which are being asked for. In this BBC article they are described as "unprecedented" which is, of course precisely untrue, but then again what can you expect of journalists?

Punitive damages are available to English courts and perhaps always have been. It is just that lawyers seldom have the balls to ask for them nor do they present evidence that would justify them.

There is a clear precedent in English law as well as the common law of the United States of America. In English law there is the case of Rookes v. Barnard [1964] AC 1129, 1167 in which Lord Devlin said that punitive damages were available where:

1. Oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional actions by the servants of government.
2. Where the defendant's conduct was 'calculated' to make a profit for himself.
3. Where a statute expressly authorises the same.
   

Clearly the News of the Worlds actions would fall into the second category. There are too many instances where a party can get away with making a profit from committing a wrong because they know they will either get away with it, or that the costs of being called to account will be less than the profit of committing the wrong or more usually a combination of the two.

For that reason and that reason alone, I hope that cheating git Max Mosley wins his case and wins it well.

For a further discussion on gains based damages I recommend James Edelman's book, Gain-Based Damages published by Hart Publishing.

David Davis wins 42 day debate!

On the eve of the by election in Haltemprice and Howden, David Davis has clearly won the debate which Labour through sheer cowardice refused to have.

In an ICM poll conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust now 61% of people are against holding people for longer than 28 days without charge. Of those who support 42 detention without charge, when told that is equivalent to a jail term for something like burglary 36% then change their minds.

The survey also is a blow to people who want an ever expanding DNA database with 75% thinking that innocent people should bot be on the database permanently.

In that sense David Davis has clearly won the debate. It is just a shame that the BBC refuse to cover it.

Iain Dale has this, whilst the press release is here and the full data here.

The World has gone mad!

The man who is now in custody, suspected of murdering Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo tried to give himself up at Lewisham police station. He was told to wait at the back of the queue.

Amazing.

Needless to say that the police who are investigating the savage murder were none too pleased.

The Sun has this, Iain Dale has this, and the BBC has this.

Waste Not want not, oh, and pass the caviar!

Gordon Brown came up with a priceless comment at the G8 yesterday, along the lines of waste not want not.

If we threw away less food then we would buy less and so prices would not be quite so high, so we would save twice!

Fair enough, however this message was delivered at a summit costing something like $280 million (yes you read that right) and involved an 8 course lunch followed by a 10 course dinner.

You can't blame Gordon Brown for that, but you do have to wonder which 42 carat plonker thought up the idea of having such a lavish summit to discuss poverty and high food prices!

The Sun has this on "waste not want not", and this in its Sun says, whilst the BBC has this on the G8.

The Lunatics* have taken over the Asylum!

*To be fair I am being very harsh on lunatics, they can't be this mad!

Apparently under the junk food advertising ban, things like Marmite, honey and raisins can't be advertised to children on the grounds of their nutritional value per hundred grammes.

Have you ever ever seen any one open a jar of Marmite and seen them consume the lot wit a spoon? I thought not. In a sandwich, on Rivita or crackers maybe, with cheese (though you can't advertise that either) even which you also can't advertise to children apparently.

Nevertheless, McDonald's can still sponsor programs and promote their brand as long as they do not mention any products.

This is the utterly ridiculous result of government regulation. Despite pleas from the food industry OffCom are standing firm as a complete and utter bunch of loonies.

The Telegraph has this.

Criminal Justice, a bizarre twist

So there we have it, Ben Coulter didn't do it, and had the police investigated properly perhaps they would have found that out.

Great series.

Ray Lewis resignation

Ray Lewis has resigned as deputy Mayor to Boris Johnson over allegations of impropriety that date back 10 to 12 years. Some of the allegations are listed here.

We do not know what truth lies behind these allegations but what we do know is that they are coming thick and fast.

The lesson clearly is that if you stick your head above the parapet and get into politics your enemies will try to get you.

I do not know why we are in this position. Clearly any appointee needs to be vetted. Was this done? Is this just a case of bad blood?

Still, a mans reputation lies in tatters because he tried to do something, and all this without a trial.

The BBC has this on the resignation, Iain Dale has this on the affair.

Criminal Justice, a very compelling drama!

Criminal Justice is a very compelling drama. In fact I think it is fantastic.

We do not yet know the result but what we have seen is the way the investigation works and the way prisons work.

We already know the main character Ben Coulter did not murder Melanie. What we also know is that he looks guilty as sin by forensic evidence and the fact he ran away.

We also know how partial "expert" witnesses can be.

This is one of the most important dramas to be aired on the BBC since things like Cathy come home and justifies their licence fee.

The only problem is that no one else I know is watching it, which in my view is criminal.

Police hand Peter Hain's file to CPS

The police have been investigating Peter Hain's declarations of donations in his deputy leadership bid. They have now handed the file over to the CPS, who will decide whether to charge or not.

The problem here is that as I read the law, non declaration is a strict offence and lets face it, Peter did not come clean until he was exposed. If he does not get prosecuted for this, whether it is an "innocent mistake" or not, people are going to smell a rat.

The BBC has this.

Gotcha! Bribes on the 42 day vote!

Gordon Brown has tried to insist that the government did not buy the 42 day vote. The problem is that no one believes him at all, not even a little bit.

David Cameron skewered him at prime ministers questions today after getting confirmation no bribes were offered. He read out extracts of a letter to Keith Vaz from Geoff Hoon saying he hoped that there would be an appropriate reward for his support which the Telegraph had been given.

The problem for Gordon Brown is this: No one believes a word he says anymore.

The Telegraph has this, Guido has this and the BBC has this.

Criminal Justice

First of all, after two episodes, I have to say fantastic.

Has it changed my mind about anything?

No!

Do I hope it has changed yours?

Yes!

The plot is interesting (if inaccurate in some ways) in that the lead character arrives at his predicament in a very unusual way. Despite the fact that the viewer knows it to be true, if you told that story down the pub, you would be laughed at. That does not mean that it could not be true, weirder things have happened to me (though not involving sex), and that he can't remember the murder so does not know if he did it.

Now, moving on:

We have the situation where the police seem to take the line of least resistance. Crucially the lead investigator has doubts but not the man power to investigate what appears to be an open and shut case.

We have lawyers who encourage the defendant to be silent, and who weigh up the odds on the basis of odds alone.

The truth seems to be a lost irrelevance.

Then the other thing is prison.

I am all in favour of locking up criminals. I am even in favour of remand subject to many caveats.

What I am clear on is that prison does not work. It is entirely dysfunctional and needs urgent fixing.

For a start it needs to return to the Victorian ideal of a prisoner to a cell. Secondly shower or toilet facilities can not and should not be shared. Anything else allows the rule of the bully and prevents rehabilitation.

More thoughts will appear as the series goes on.

The BBC has this.

NHS at 60, A Conservative policy implemented!

It is often said by Labour that they are the founders of the NHS and so on and so forth. Some even allege that the Conservative party was against it.

Nothing could possibly be further from the truth.

The Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill was not only in favour of it but passed an NHS bill in 1943. The Labour leadership opposed the formation of the NHS initially until they realised they would be lynched by both the PLP, their wider membership and the country when they relented.

It was a proposal by a Liberal (Sir William Beveridge) to a Conservative (Winston Churchill) opposed by Labour initially.

There is no doubt that we would have done it differently but don't let Labour con you that the NHS was either there idea or we would not have it without them.

If you do not believe me see the end of this article by Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun or this article in the Telegraph.

Alas you don't read a lot of the real founding fathers of the NHS in the Guardian, because despite Alan Rusbridger's all star cast of public school boys and girls they appear ignorant of history.

F*ck Off!

Sorry, just practicing for GCSE English.

If you do not believe me, read this in the Times and weep, or this on the BBC.

They say exams are not being dumbed down.

Alas I remain to be convinced.

Housing and oil gloom

Not only has oil reached yet another record high, at over $143 a barrel but the crisis in the housing market looks set to get deeper as mortgage lending sets a new record low.

So no more boom and bust then Gordon?

The BBC has this on the housing market and this on oil.

Whats up in Zimbabwe? Can't they rig a ballot properly?

Well, we are still waiting for the results of the presidential election run off in Zimbabwe, not that anyone thinks it is either free or fair.

The vote took place on Friday. Apparently they were counted yesterday.

So why the hold up? Given the amount of beatings, murders and intimidation is the result still embarrassing?

After the result, all eyes will be on Africa and we will see if they recognise the nasty evil Robert Mugabe as president.

The BBC has this.

Is Sweden stark staring mad?

The Times carries this story today about a Swedish child's attempts to organise a birthday party in which not all his classmates were invited.

According to this article in the Times this has sparked a national debate. The child's invitations were even confiscated.

They must be mad.

Bonkers smoking ban in Holland!

I have to say that I am against the smoking ban in this country. If they want clean air then they can legislate for clean air and if someone can provide that without banning smoking that is a matter for them.

However in a surreal move Holland, famous for its "coffee houses" where people smoke marijuana legally there is to be a smoking ban also. The thing is that it only applies to tobacco and not to marijuana. So you can smoke a joint if it has no tobacco in it but not if it has.

Is this just mad or what?

The BBC has this.

The great gun control experiment!

The Supreme Court of the United States of America has ruled that a ban on hand guns in Washington DC is unconstitutional.

Washington DC has both the some of the highest gun crime rates in the USA as well as the strictest laws on gun control. You could argue therefore that gun control laws do not work. Those who favour gun control argue that is rubbish and that gun crime is so rampant because you can nip across to Virginia and buy what you want.

There is some merit in both arguments, though gun control laws here came in and then gun crime rocketed. That does not mean they are related of course.

However it occurs to me that whilst the USA is going down this route we may get an answer on how useful gun control laws really are.

The BBC has this.

Are Labour just a bunch of muppets?

Well, the Crown blog thinks so here.

Wendy Alexander resignation

Firstly this obviously throws Labour in general and Labour in Scotland into some disarray.

Iain Dale apparently is not crowing about it here on the grounds that she only committed a technical breach of the rules whilst Guido points out that it goes much deeper than that in that she received two donations for £950 from a foreign source.

Well, Iain laments a system that is unclear in its rules that will catch out the honest but unwary. Well it does and that is wrong, though to be fair many who have been found guilty of "technical breaches" have been let off.

There is an air of mutual mud slinging going on where political enemies are getting at each other by leaking damning stories about sleaze. As the SNP note a lot of these enemies are in the same party as the accused.

This is all very damaging to politics and the only answer is a simple clean and transparent system of both making donations and declaring them.

The BBC has this.

Babies with MRSA Shocker!

Apparently 5 babies in a specialist unit in Glasgow have MRSA on their skin.

It would actually be shocking if 5 babies did not have MRSA somewhere as it is actually a remarkably common bug, and no the babies are not in any danger at all. They probably have it up their noses as well, as do the rest of us.

The trick is not to treat an open wound just after you have picked your nose, unless you have washed your hands first. Likewise there is no point in assuming that anyone else has washed their hands so if you have touched anyone else, wash your hands before you do anything important.

Or in short, don't deep clean hospitals, or get visitors to wash their hands, sack staff who do not wash their hands properly.

Meanwhile the BBC has this non story here.

Zimbabwe Elections: Will it backfire?

My understanding is that the presidential election run off is still going ahead despite the fact that Morgan Tsvangirai has stood down as a candidate to avoid further bloodshed.

However, Robert Mugabe is not only going ahead with the vote, but it seems that the voters have been told that if they do not vote they will be beaten.

I have to say that is a very dangerous tactic. I have to wonder if people will vote out of fear but vote for Morgan Tsvangirai.

Needless to say Mugabe is also saying that African leaders should mind their own business. So they should.. except that Zimbabwe is flooding the place with refugees. That causes them pain.

The Law Lords and Anonymous witnesses

The Law Lords have, in a well argued judgement ruled that Ian Davis had not received a fair trial because there was too much anonymous witness evidence. (See the BBC here)

The Police have expressed great concern about the ruling because they have many cases which rely on anonymous witness evidence.

So why the problem?

Obviously criminals, particularly those who have committed serious crimes such as murder have no respect for other peoples lives, and will not think twice about intimidating witnesses. There friends, family or gang members may do the actual intimidation so the fact that the accused is locked up is not enough.

However the right to a fair trial is a common law right, now in the Human Rights act as is the right to see and confront your accuser. This is vital to a fair trial.

Imagine the situation where you (and yes, I do mean YOU) are accused of a crime, say murder, and the only evidence against you is that of 2 anonymous witnesses. Neither you nor your defence team know who they are. You do not know what if any axes they have to grind against you.

Is there a precedent for anonymous witnesses? Yes, though not a happy one, the Spanish inquisition used them were on the list of , though I have heard that you had to have 3 accusers and got to write down a list of enemies. If your enemiesaccusers they were struck off.

If you think about it having anonymous witnesses is a very bad thing. Someone who feels you have done them down, or who has some axe to grind could be a witness against you, and you would never know.

So what is the real problem here? What is the ill we seek to cure?

It is fear. Remove the fear and then there is no need to have anonymous witnesses.

To remove the fear of witnesses we need to do two things. Firstly there needs to be a fully funded witness protection program, secondly there needs to be a specialist unit to investigate witness intimidation of any sort. We need to make sure that anyone who intimidates a witness serves a long prison sentence, say 10 years as a minimum, or longer if the crime that the intimidation is over has a longer sentence.

If people can't get away with witness intimidation they will stop doing it.

The BBC also has this article by Professor Jon Silverman, of the University of Bedfordshire.

New house Building hits 70 year low!

According to this article in the Evening Standard new house building in London is at its lowest level since the great depression 70 years ago.

New building targets are flying out of the window, redundancies in house building are on the way.

Grim news indeed.

Zimbabwe: Is it time for the Colonels to seek promotion?

Much spleen has been vented by Zimbabwe's generals about how they will never accept an MDC government, they say on the basis that it would be selling out to the former colonial power.

It is clear that Zimbabwe is going a bit pear shaped and has been for a while. The ultimate loyalty of the lower ranks of both the army and police has been drawn into question.

We know hear that the UN Security Council has condemned the violence and said there can not be a free and fair election. Bear in mind that this includes Russia, China and South Africa. Robert Mugabe and the Generals must feel very lonely.

This is the time when ambitious colonels can snatch a promotion and rid Zimbabwe of Mugabe and his clique. Go on, you know it makes sense!

The BBC has this.

Boris Johnson, James McGrath and The Shrill Cry of Racist!

And so we have our first casualty of the Boris Johnson mayoralty.

James McGrath was a senior aide to Boris Johnson who gave an interview to Marc Wadsworth, who is a member of the Labour party, alleged journalist and race campaigner.

Alas before doing so he appears (according to Marc Wadsworths article here) not to have bothered looking the man up. As refreshing as this is, after all it is good to know that those in government don't spin, it was also a mistake, because those in "journalism" certainly do.

James McGrath has stood down, over this exchange:

McGrath was far from politically correct, David-Cameron-new- cuddly-Conservative Party, when I pointed out to him a critical comment of Voice columnist Darcus Howe that the election of "Boris Johnson, a right-wing Conservative, might just trigger off a mass exodus of older Caribbean migrants back to our homelands".

He retorted: "Well, let them go if they don’t like it here." McGrath dismissed influential race commentator Howe as ‘shrill’.

Now it is clear to me who is saying "blacks go home", it is Darcus Howe, though why is unclear as I can't find the article in the Voice online.

The problem we have is that whilst someone like Ken Livingstone can tell Jews to "go back to Iran" and get away with all sorts of other comments some might view as racist, (as indeed can Labour with their "British Jobs for British Workers" slogan) we can't. That sort of mud sticks to us far more than it does to Labour. We can't change that perception over night.

So was Boris right to ask for his resignation? I fear he was. I have not met James McGrath, but hear he is a decent, kind and honourable man.

The problem is that our opponents aren't.

They will use any means to smear our party.

We need to be much more careful about playing the game.

People like Marc Wadsworth and Darcus Howe will use what ever means they can to both get at the Conservative party and to divide the Afro Caribbean community from the rest of society. After all, how else could Darcus claim to speak for older Caribbean migrants?

Iain Dale has this, Conservative home has this and the BBC has this.

Morgan Tsvangirai quits race to avoid resounding beating

Morgan Tsvangirai quits race to avoid resounding beating according to sources close to Zanu PF.

This is of course entirely accurate, though would have been more so if they had also used adjectives such as brutal, murderous and possibly fatal.

There is no doubt that Robert Mugabe and his regieme are doing anything to hang on to power whilst South Africa's Thabo Mbeki bestrides the stage like a paralised streak of piss.

At least some of the SADC nations are beginning to speak out, like Zambia's president Levy Mwanawasa. The BBC has this on what he has said:

But Levy Mwanawasa, president of neighbouring Zambia, said the run-off should be postponed "to avert a catastrophe in the region".

He said Zimbabwe's economic collapse was affecting the whole region, and he called on SADC to take a similar stance.

"It's scandalous for SADC to remain silent on Zimbabwe," he said.

"What is happening in Zimbabwe is embarrassing to all of us."

The BBC has this.

Is this the NHS we are paying double for?

We are now paying roughly twice what we were paying for the NHS than we were 11 years ago, yet according to this article in the Mail on Sunday a pregnant woman had to give birth in a hospital corridor after being turned away from two closer hospitals.

Emma Johnson of Brighton went into Labour, so called her local hospital the Royal Sussex county, who said they did not have enough beds. She called the next nearest at Worthing and got the same story. Then she called my local hospital in Haywards Heath, the Princess Royal. After a 40 minute car journey she ended up giving birth in the corridor. It is unclear why it was in a corridor, though presumably it was because the baby had to be delivered before she could be got into a birthing suite rather than a lack of one.

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals trust said:

We do everything we can to ensure women are able to give birth in a hospital of their choice.

We are sorry that this was clearly not Miss Johnson's experience.

Occasionally if a site is very busy we have to ask mums to travel but we do this as infrequently as possible because we know it is not what mums want.

Well, the cutbacks in maternity services are due to the PCT structure more than the hospital trust so maybe they can be let off that one. That it is not what mums want is bizarre statement. I can't see anyone queuing up to be sent from pillar to post for an urgent visit to a hospital.

The sad thing about all this is that the maternity unit at the Princess Royal is still under threat with its services due to be downgraded to a maternity led unit. Had that been the case then what would have happened to Emma Johnson and her baby had she had complications? Just how far would she have had to have traveled? Could she have been half way through birth at the Princess Royal and then need an urgent surgical procedure like a cesarean?

All this of course despite the amount of money being spent on the NHS whilst there are over 10,000 less beds than 1997. Where has all the money gone.

You can support the Save the Princess Royal Hospital campaign here.

The Mail on Sunday has this.

Health and Safety madness!

Firstly when I first heard this story the other day I did not believe it.

Secondly it is not the Health and Safety executive who are behind the latest piece of lunacy but the private, and hopefully soon to be bankrupt, shutdown or laughed at so loudly that they disappear in shame, The British Standards Institute.

They are working on a new standard of tree inspection. That ought to raise some suspicion for a start. 6 people a year die due to falling trees or bits falling off them. I don't want to belittle those who have died but that is not a lot in the scale of things, 30 people die in a bath each year.

It seems that trees should be inspected once every 3 years.

Why? Which tress?

Do they include Bonsai trees, ones in parks or do they include ones on private land over which people have the right to roam.

At £70 per tree per inspection this is of course a good way for tree surgeons to make a killing but I can't see it saving lives. The number of trees that will be cut down will cause massive loss of carbon absorption, causing deaths and also there are the deaths caused in the process of cutting down a lot of trees.

The chilling quote I read was this one here in the Daily Mail:

'We are not suggesting that everyone goes out and buys the standard," he said. "But people who have a tree in their garden and want to understand what their duty of care is can at least get an idea of what the standard is.'

Just so that we understand what this means, they are trying to tie a standard that we as a country do not need to solve a problem we do not have to the term "duty of care".

The issue here is that if you owe someone a duty of care and your breach of that causes the death or injury of someone then you are liable under the laws of negligence.

In other words, if you have a tree, buy are standards to avoid being sued.

This is wrong, very wrong.

Catastrophic Slump for Gordon Brown in latest poll!

There is a poll in today's Mail on Sunday that carries some very bad news for Labour and Gordon Brown. It was carried out by BPIX.

Gordon Brown's personal ratings are so low that there seems to be no way back for him. On almost any measure David Cameron is held in much higher regard.

The main polling numbers are devastating as well. The Conservatives are on 49%, Labour on 26% and the Liberal Democrats on 14%.


The would give the Conservatives 455 seats to Labour's 150 seats and 17 for the Liberal Democrats according to Anthony Wells election calculator here.

BPIX are not currently a member of the British Polling Council so do not publish their data. This may change. Whilst that is the case though, polls like this need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

In reply to David Davis Critics

Much waffle has issued forth on this issue, so I will cut to the chase. A conversation on PoliticalBetting.com.

To this comment from Sea Shanty Irish here, I replied thus:

I could not agree less.

David Davis is so certain to retain his seat that the only question on the betting odds is whether you can beat the bank interest rates.

The real issue is how he changes the political weather on the issue.

Viscount Stansgate (My Lord Tony Benn for those not in the know) says there are two types of politician, the weathercock and the signpost.

What David Davis is trying to do is to change the weather so that he brings the weathercocks with him.

I think that is all that need be said on the matter.

Or at least I would, if Labour, led by Gordon "bottler" Brown could put up some kind of argument.

Cure for Cancer?

Some good news on a black day.

There is news of a new treatment for cancer. It seems that the body always has had a cure for cancer in its immune system but the problem is that the immune system does not see cancer as quite the threat that it is.

The treatment revolves around the idea of taking a blood sample, isolating the immune cells that attack the cancer that someone has then picking the most aggressive and cloning them until you have something like 5 billion of them. Then you inject them.

This therapy has been used on advanced skin cancer but there is no reason why it could not work on all cancers.

At the moment it looks expensive because of the large amount of work and expertise involved in each case but then things that needed that combination 20 years ago are so cheap now it is ridiculous.

There is hope!

The Telegraph has this.

Energy bills set to rise another 40% as economy is in the Brown stuff

Insiders in the energy business report that they expect to see 40% price rises before the winter.

That is going to hurt.

Meanwhile the economic outlook is very bad. Inflation is apparently 3.1%! That's a laugh. RPI is well over 4% and has been for ages. Peoples disposable income has been either static or going down for the past two years.

Its grim.

Quite a lot of this is not of the governments making, however the charge that they should have fixed the roof whilst the sun shone stands. The government built a healthy surplus in the years that it followed Conservative spending plans so that when the dot com bubble burst followed by September the 11th they had the cash to prevent a problem.

The problems were two fold. Firstly they over spent to prevent that crash, secondly they continued to spend to the point where they now have no room for maneuver at all.

It is too early to say how bad things will get, but it is clear that this government has squandered an opportunity to build in stability.

The BBC has this and the Telegraph has this.

Middle East Cease fire Number 9,994 Declared!

Diplomats hailed the declaration of a new ceasefire in the Israeli Arab conflict, between Israel and Hamas in Gaza brokered by the Egyptians.

This is potentially very good news as it lifts the overly harsh sanctions on Gaza that some regard as collective punishment whilst also lifting the rocket barrage on southern Israel, which whilst always ridiculous, almost always of no actual significance causes terror and death.

The question is, now it has just come into force, has it been broken yet.

The BBC has this.

Dead Lisbon Treaty Ratified in the Lords

The Lisbon treaty has been ratified in the House of Lords despite the fact that it is dead, after all Ireland voted no.

Fantastic. As David Cameron said at PMQ's, Gordon Brown has less spine than a bunch of jellyfish.

The BBC has this.

Gordon Brown bottles it again!

It seems Gordon Brown has bottled it again refusing to put up a candidate in the Haltemprice and Howden by election against David Davis. It seems Rupert Murdoch has bottled it as well.

So he does not want to defend this governments erosion of liberties?

Fantastic.

Bottler.

The BBC has this.

Government lose yet more information shocker!

Well, OK, it is not shock at all is it?

This time the missing information was on a computer stolen from Hazel Blears constituency office in Salford. Thing is though that the information on terrorism and extremists should never have been on that computer in the first place as it should not have left her ministry.

So this ridiculously lax attitude to sensitive data goes right to the top. Fantastic. ID cards anyone?

The BBC has this.

The Sun backs David Davis again!

The Sun is backing David Davis again as one of its columists, Fergus Shanahan also writes a column in support of David Davis' stand.

He points out things like the 3 pensioners harrased by police for wearing protest t-shirts,

In one telling passage he says:

Davis has hit the nail on the head. We HAVE allowed ourselves to be browbeaten by fears of Islamic terror attacks into abandoning too many of our freedoms something I have said for months. Many Sun readers agree with me.

They aren’t soft on terror any more than I am.

But like me they worry that this is ceasing to be a country we feel at ease in, or the country we once knew.

A country of ID cards and databases, secret cameras, tax snoopers who can barge into your house and council spies who can fine you £200 just for dropping a crisp.

A country where any minor official can intercept your emails.

A country where any NHS manager can access your private medical records.

A country where you can be forced to give your DNA to police even though you are guilty of no offence.

And then goes on to bust the anti Davis myths:

Three myths are peddled by Davis’s opponents.

The first is that if you are against 42 days, you are soft on terror.

Rubbish. I have backed capital punishment for terrorist murderers while many of those kicking Davis are against it. How am I soft on terror?

The second myth is that weary old chestnut: "If you’ve nothing to hide, why worry?" That’s what German civilians told each other as they looked the other way while the concentration camps were being built.

The third myth is that there is massive public support for 42 days.

Yet I can find only one recent poll giving a clear majority for Brown. The internet is full of opposition to 42 days.

It seems David Davis has indeed changed the debate and hit a nerve.

Well done!

David Davis campaign website is here.

University Degrees dumbed down?

Professor Geoffrey Alderman will be giving a lecture later in which he will argue that university degrees are becoming easier as the marking schemes are becoming more lenient.

This article in the Independent broke the story last night, whilst the BBC carries this.

The allegations fall into several categories. Firstly plagiarism is not punished, secondly badly written answers are not penalised and thirdly there is a wild growth in the number of first class degrees that are being awarded.

Having spoken to university and other higher education lecturers over many years I can tell you that the standard of the input to university and higher education has been in decline. That is that A level students and their equivalent are less well versed in their subjects than they used to be. This trend started in the late 1980's but has accelerated. That the input should be declining whilst the output is rising in simply untenable.

The reason for the selling short of degrees? League tables. Brilliant.

David Davis website goes live!

David Davis for freedom website goes live, here.

Meanwhile he has written some articles on Conservative Home here, for The Evening Standard here, and of course there is his Telegraph article here.

Then of course there is Frank Fisher on Comment is Free here, about the rowback of the media.

Murdoch bottles it! He will not take on David Davis!

According to this article on the Spectator Coffee house blog Rupert Murdoch has bottled the fight as well. As noted earlier the Sun seems to be turning.

Apparently whilst Rupert Murdoch does not like David Cameron, he is fairly sure that Gordon Brown will lose the next general election.

So Gordon Brown does not have the courage of Rupert Murdoch's convictions and neither does Rupert! Fantastic.

Is the Sun going to back David Davis?

Reports from Wapping yesterday indicate that there may have been a major traffic incident.

One bystander reported seeing a large re topped juggernaut driving at speed, saw it swerve and then all its wheels locked up, causing massive amounts of blue smoke as it did a complete U turn. The smoke from the tyres hung in the air for hours.

There was only one reported casualty, Kelvin Mackenzie, who appeared to be struck dumb. Not that anyone noticed.

Seriously there is this article in today's Sun by Trevor Kavanagh which says David Davis is right.

Choice quotes include:

Annoyingly, though, it is hard to disagree with the cause Davis has decided to embrace.

Britain IS now a nation of unaccountable snoopers with sweeping powers to pry into every nook and cranny of our daily lives.

Yet, thanks to their blundering incompetence, none of us feels safer in our bed, on the roads or walking the streets at night.

He goes on:

But along with many Sun readers, I don’t trust this Government, the police or the State bureaucracy to discriminate between keeping an eye out for our well-being and spying on us.

Information is power. And the authorities — national and local — have far too much of the stuff already.

The idea that thousands of anonymous, low-ranking town hall officials can use anti-terror laws to monitor our movements should make us sweat.

Good stuff. I wonder if this does signal a change of heart at Wapping. Not only does Gordon Brown have the courage of Rupert Murdoch's convictions, Rupert appears not to either and he may even be changing his mind!

Hat tip to Gin on Politicalbetting.com for the Sun article.

David Davis: In his own words

David Davis wrote an article for the Telegraph on Friday explaining his actions. You can read the here.

He was also interviewed by Andrew Marr on Sunday and That interview is here.

I can understand why so many people, especially in the Westminster village are horrified. To some extent I agree. When I heard the news it felt like a kick in the guts.

However what you need to understand is the drip drip erosion of our liberties that mean that a student was arrested, charged and tried for suggesting a police horse could be gay, a 15 year old was held for accusing Scientology of being a "cult" and three pensioners were seized by police over their t shirts. All in the name of "making a safer society".

Do you feel safer? I don't. That is the point. This has gone on for the last 11 years, has grabbed great headlines in the Murdoch press, and has (previously) kept Labour's position in polls. The problem is that this has got to stop. The debate needs to be changed, and it needs to be changed now.

The Conservative party can't go into the next election being painted as soft on terror, nor can it do so advocating un British laws that are counter productive. The boil needs to be lanced, the battle joined and Murdoch defeated. (Lets face facts here, Gordon Brown appears to have no principles or courage, so the argument is not with Brown who will do what ever he thinks will get Murdoch's endorsement but with the man himself. After all, why talk to the monkey when you can skewer the organ grinder).

David Davis: Cynics to the left of him, Cynics to the right of him

And into the valley of scorn rode David Davis.

Then they joined him from the left of him from the right of him and the fight against this hideous law!

It is amazing that the Westminster bubble has been caught totally off guard by a principled politician, then even further off guard by the public response.

Needless to say I support David Davis 100%.

Government lose more papers shocker!

Well, I suppose I am not shocked.

There is something entirely useless and moribund in this government and it clearly is infecting the civil service also.

Two sets of important papers lost in a week? (Actually on the same day)

They should not have been out of the office let alone left on a train!

You could not make it up!

The BBC has this.

Zimbabwe Judge cites Habeas Corpus

The deputy leader of the MDC, Tendai Biti was arrested at Harare airport on Thursday, and has been held without access to his lawyers since.

Now a high court judge in Harare has demanded that Tendai Biti be brought before him and that the police explain why he is being held.

This is the principle of Habeas Corpus that started with Magna Carta. Makes you proud to be British doesn't it? Bit of a shame that this government is trying to get rid of it though.

The BBC has this.

Lisbon Treaty falls, as the Irish vote no!

Ireland has voted no, by 53.4% to 46.6%.

Fantastic.

Full results here.

Gordon Brown does not have the courage of Rupert Murdoch's convictions!

It appears that Gordon Brown is not intending on fielding a candidate against David Davis. Clearly the man does not have the courage of Rupert Murdoch's convictions (for he has no convictions or indeed courage of his own).

It appears that Rupert Murdoch may have some courage and may put up Kelvin MacKenzie as a candidate instead, who has started off by calling Hull a shocking place! (See Iain Dale here)

The BBC has this.

Irish Vote No! to Lisbon Treaty!

According to Guido and Iain Dale sources at the count report the No's have it.

The question will be will this kill the constitution, or is there a plan C?

Oustanding.

The gut wrenchingly sad case of Kevin Tripp.

Today has been an emotional day for me.

I have been incandescent with rage over the current terrorism bill, both on the issue of secret inquests and 42 days. This deeply concerns me at the deepest level.

However i was smacked straight in the gut by the pointless murder of Kevin Tripp, aged 57.

It seems from reports that some 18 or 19 year old "yob" had insulted the other half of Tony Virsami so when she, Antoinette Richardson, pointed someone out in a queue he went and punched Kevin Tripp to the ground. he has now died.

There is now a 5 year old boy, who will have been waiting with much anticipation for his daddy to come home, and he will no longer. This young boy will never see his dad again.

I know how much my dad meant to me, and today I have shed many a tear for that 5 year old boy. I will pray for him.

The BBC has this.

Quentin Letts rips into Gordon Brown!

At Gordon Brown's press conference this morning Quentin Letts ripped into the prime minister!



Just look at the smirk on Gordon Brown's face!

Hat tip to the Crown Blog.

Guido also has this.

David Davis: A Man of serious courage!

David Davis has just resigned as an MP over the horrific erosion of our liberties that has gone on since this nasty Labour government got into power.

His aim is to force a by election in Haltemprice and Howden and return to the House of Commons with an increased mandate to fight against the 42 day detention without charge bill.

I must admit this came as a complete shock to me and many others in the Conservative party. David Davis is a man of serious courage.

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats has said that they will not be fielding a candidate. Well done him.

The BBC has this, Iain Dale has this, PoliticalBetting has this.

Outstanding Mr Lee McQueen wins the Apprentice

I have to say that there have been some very good candidates for the apprentice this time around. I thought that in many ways the last 5 were outstanding.

Lee McQueen won. Well done him.

I simply do not buy the cheat rubbish that the Telegraph has put on its front page.

I will write more later. After I have calmed down a bit over 42 days.

DUP save Gordon Brown on 42 day terror vote!

The DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) saved Gordon Brown's skin today by backing the 42 day terror detention vote, which the government only won by 315 votes to 306. Had the DUP had any integrity and voted against the government would have lost by 9 votes. There were 37 Labour rebels.

I wonder why they did that? Do they seriously think Gordon Brown will be PM after the next General Election?

The BBC has this.

Update, Iain Dale has this, and is not that complimentary about the DUP.

42 Day Terror Vote close!

The vote on the terrorism part of the terrorism bill allowing detention without charge will be held tonight. Apparently it will be close. The governments latest wheeze to convince their own side is to offer compensation at the rate of £3,000 per day for any one held for over 28 days who is not charged. In total that could amount to £42,000.

How odd is that? 42 seems to be the governments answer to Life, The Universe and Everything.

What is worse however is the precedent sent. There is, as yet no compensation for anyone lawfully held, and neither should there be. People who have been unlawfully detained can get compensation but only for their losses which (shockingly in my view) have prison food and accommodation costs deducted. We are not only now bringing that concept in, but removing the loss part of the equation and instead bringing in a very high day rate.

You can just see many people up and down the land trying to figure out how long they could get locked up for, even if it is only in jest.

It seems this odd scheme has just about swung it for the government, though I hope not. In any case the measure is likely to get struck down in the Lords and then the ping pong will begin.

The BBC has this, whilst Iain Dale has this.

A Perfect Economic Storm?

Well, no economic storm is perfect, certainly not for those who suffer from it.

Economic times are looking bleak, though the hysteria of the press does not help. We have a very slow and collapsing housing market, the slowest since records began in 1978, high factory gate inflation and horrific factory input inflation.

In short we are boxed in. The slowdown in the housing market will impact on the construction and retail sectors, causing an economic slowdown, but inflationary pressures are so high that we are far more likely to get interest rate rises than cuts.

The New Statesman has this, The Telegraph this and the Guardian has this.

Gordon Brown less popular than Ian Duncan Smith?

According to that poll in the Times, Gordon Brown is also less popular than Ian Duncan Smith was at his worst in February of 2003. Ian reached 4 out of 10, whereas Gordon is now down to 3.9.

All other numbers are in sharp decline for Labour including on the economy.

Ouch, that has got to hurt!

Labour in yet another poll low!

Not really much of a story these days, as it seems to happen all the time!

Tomorrow's Times carries news of a Populus poll which has Labour at their lowest for that polster and the Conservatives with their biggest lead.

Conservatives are on 45% (+5), Labour on 25% (-4) and the Liberal Democrats on 20% (+1).

According to Anthony Wells election calculator here, that would give the Conservatives 409 seats, Labour 177 and the Liberal Democrats 35.

The question is how much pressure will this place on Gordon Brown?

Hat tip to Mike Smithson on PoliticalBetting and Iain Dale also has this.

42 days: So who wants it?

Well, we heard the other day that Jacqui Smith admitted that MI5 had not asked for 42 days, and now several senior policemen have also come out and said they are against it, according to todays Guardian.

So, to recap, we have the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, the Director of Public prosecutions, the former Lord Chancellor, Cheerful Charlie Falconer and many other senior politicians who have actually dealt with a long term terror threat say this is a bad idea.

Yet Gordon ploughs on to the vote on Wednessday. Surely this is now holed below the water line, and crucially he seems to have made it an issue of confidence in private badgering.

Cool. Gordon to get another kicking!

100 dead in Afghanistan

We have now had 100 dead in Afghanistan. A grisly landmark.

Our soldiers are heroes.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon

Labour hit new low in poll Shocker!

The latest poll for the Sunday Telegraph conducted by ICM, puts Labour at their lowest share of the vote since the polster started and also gives the Conservatives their largest lead since 1987.

The Conservatives are on 42 %, Labour are on 26% and the Liberal Democrats are on 21%. That is enough to give us Conservatives a 100 seat majority.

The article points out that the 42 day detention policy is popular with the public but the Conservatives are still considered tougher on terrorism.

In short, what ever Gordon Brown does, he loses. Cool!

Are high food prices a problem?

In the short term yes, especially for the poor, however in the long term it means that there will be money to invest in agriculture. The UN has a plan as reported on the BBC here.

For far too long various governments have interfered with food prices, subsidising here, imposing import or export duties there and we have a mess. Vast areas of agricultural land lye idle or underutilised. African farmers can't make enough of a living so move to the cities.

Higher food prices make it worthwhile to bring areas of land back into production and jobs for the rural poor in places like Africa. With a bit of luck we can also stop subsidising our farmers to grow things to dump in other peoples markets as well. This is good.

Labour losing out amongst all voters!

There is a poll in today's Independent. It is by ComRes, and shows the Conservatives on its highest share of the vote for ComRes at 44% (+4) with Labour on 30% (+4) and the Liberal Democrats on 16 (-4).

However the devil is in the detail. If you read the article, us Conservatives lead in all social groups, all ages and all areas except Scotland.

Impressive.

Much done, much still to do.

Is there anyone more vacuous than Yasmin Alibhai-Brown?

Well, apart from Polly Toynbee, obviously.

Iain Dale wrote this earlier today, highlighting an article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown here.

Firstly I echo all of Iain's criticism of the article, its just that he does not go anything like far enough. For example, Yasmin Vacuous writes:

The sun now rises on the right and those of us on the other side are left despondent as we anticipate a prolonged winter of discontent.

Good. Your useless, and so for that matter is Labour.

We, who believe in fairness, equality, human rights and universal justice, are of no consequence.

What are you talking about? Us on the right believe in the same things, and the polls clearly do not show us Conservatives as of no consequence. We believe in those things, we just profoundly disagree about the lefts way of trying to bring them about.

Local election results show the country lurching right, in some parts even embracing the BNP. Instead of condemning the scum, Britons are instructed to "understand" why these voters are "driven" to vote for neo-Nazis. We are simultaneously warned to show no such understanding of young Muslims who are seduced by hate-filled Imams.

Sorry, is she saying that people who vote BNP are scum? I seldom find it helpful to call voters scum, besides which, most of those voters used to vote Labour. As for young Muslims being enticed my "hate preachers" and not "understanding them" I think Yasmin would be on a somewhat less sticky wicket if these hate preaching Imams were standing for election and all the young Muslims were voting for them, rather than being engaged in "other activities".

With regret however Yasmin does go on...

The coup was complete when Boris took over our London, world city, colourful home of mavericks, revolutionaries and monarchs, radicals and cultural conformists, money makers and penniless refugees, the hopeless and hopeful.

Coup? I thought it was an election, in which Ken Livingstone got more votes than he ever has in the past. Still, I stand corrected. When Conservatives win it's a coup and when Labour win its a democracy, at least on planet Yasmin.

And so power inexorably shifts towards authoritarianism, new imperial arrogance and design (bafflingly known as "liberal intervention"), fundamentalist Christian revivalism, enforced assimilation ("You WILL love and only ever praise this country"), racism and cultural protectionism, Anglo-Saxon privilege and unregulated capitalism which creates both appalling levels of wealth and poverty.

Authoritarianism? Where has Yasmin been these last 11 years? Has she not seen the constant erosion of our liberties in favour of the power of the state? What is this about a new imperial arrogance and fundamentalist Christian revival? Where is the problem with assimilation? We are not saying that we expect every immigrant family to start having Sunday roasts, but we and indeed the race relations industry have recognised that separate communities is bad for society.

And Yasmin goes on..

Banging up suspect terrorists for forty two days in detention without charge is exactly that kind of Big Boy gesture that reveals wobbly conviction, shaky commitment to those principles that make this nation a free and great democracy.

But is still incapable of working out who the authoritarians are!

Almost more depressing is the sight of black and Asian Britons following the wind blowing the Tories to victory. Boris has recruited Afro Caribbean "leaders" who believe in physical chastisement and smart young Asians who deny the existence of racism and want an end to political correctness. The more old-fashioned Uncle Toms and their female equivalents are now expediently making themselves known to the Tories and right-wing think tanks.

Anyone who disagrees with Yasmin the racist twit about politics and has colour in their skin is an uncle Tom? It is depressing to read such disgraceful nonsense.

To see such enthusiasm for a party whose members have always opposed our presence on these shores was a wake-up slap. All over now. The right has crushed the left.
By the time our time comes around again, I will be pushing up the daisies or dancing half naked in some home for sufferers of senile dementia, a blessing perhaps, to be lost in irreversible lunacy and never again to care about what happens to politics.

Well having read such rubbish as that, all I can say is fantastic.