Archive for April 2008

Naughty Guido

April 30, 2008 General 4 comments

Via Bob Piper, it appears that Guido has been a naughty boy.

According to the Ministry of Truth, Mr Fawkes has been caught drink driving for the second time in 5 years and apparently with no insurance as well.  For this offence he faces a mandatory driving ban, up to nine grand in fines and up to 6 months in prison.  A spell behind bars for Guido would make a lot of politicians very happy.
A piece of advice for Guido: when you make a hobby of ripping into the state and all its instruments, don’t get on the wrong side of the law!

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Blogging MP

April 30, 2008 General 5 comments

My MP, David Wright, has got a blog!

So far he’s managed to mention the fact he’s “a local lad” in every post I think – this seems to be the entire basis of his manifesto.

He’s getting a slating from the locals though, which is entertaining.

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Haulier Protests

April 30, 2008 Transport 2 comments

Haulage companies from Shrewsbury (my cousin is there – I saw him on BBC News!) have travelled to London today to protest against rising costs of running their trucks.
Fuel prices are at an all-time high and hauliers are asking for a cut in road tax for lorries.  If they get their way it won’t make road tax any cheaper for car drivers but it will cut the cost of transporting goods meaning (in theory) what you buy from the shops should be cheaper.

It also means that our own haulage companies will be able to compete better with foreign haulage companies that benefit from cheap fuel and don’t have to pay any taxes here.

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Oil companies make profit shock

April 29, 2008 General 8 comments

BP and Shell have made a combined profit of almost £9bn in the first quarter of 2008.

The oil companies have, of course, been criticised for making such large profits.  Most of them either don’t – or don’t want to – understand that oil companies have only one responsibility and that is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders.

Petrol is only a part of what the oil companies actually do to make money – most of their money is made between the ground and the refinery.  Suggestions that the oil companies should subsidise the cost of petrol is ridiculous, it is the 80-odd percent tax that the British government puts on it that keeps the costs so high.

The cost of fuel doesn’t just hit drivers – it makes everything more expensive.  Everything is getting more expensive, especially food thanks to both rising fuel prices and worldwide food shortages caused by farmers turning fields over to biofuels.

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Opposition unites against Mugabe

April 28, 2008 General 2 comments

The two factions of MDC have reunited to form a larger opposition to Robert Mugabe. Zanu-PF is now outnumbered in the Zimbabwean Parliament – even after the “re-count” of ballot boxes that had been in Zanu-PF’s control – by 109 seats to 97.

Mugabe has had over 200 MDC activists arrested and MDC says that 15 of their people have been killed since the election. A judge has ordered that the 200 arrested activists should either be charged or released.

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Mugabe will stop at nothing to stay in power

April 25, 2008 General 4 comments

Robert Mugabe has demonstrated his commitment to democracy by having the offices of the MDC and the independent election monitor, ZESN, raided.

In total about a hundred people have been arrested and ballot counting and computer equipment has been taken under a warrant issued for “subversive information likely to overthrow a constitutionally elected government”.  This would be the MDC-majority constitutionally elected government would it?  Or is it perhaps, the no mandate losers, ZanuPF who are clinging on to power as the illegitimate government of Zimbabwe thanks to their equally illegitimate, no mandate president.

The ballots have been in the possession of Mugabe’s ZanuPF party since the election weeks ago; opposition supporters are being intimidated and attacked by police, party officials and “veterans”; and now the independent election monitors have had their equipment stolen and their employees arrested on trumped up charges.  Mugabe will never give up power and as can be seen from this latest action, nothing is off limits in his quest to cling to power.

Zimbabwe’s neighbours can’t be relied on to sort their neighbour out – especially South Africa, the only country with any influence (other than China who’s been trying to send them lots more guns to shoot their opponents with) over Mugabe.  When will we see some action by the so-called “international community”?

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EDP candidate drops out of London election

April 25, 2008 EDP, UKIP 6 comments

The English Democrats’ candidate in the London Mayoral election, Matt O’Connor, has dropped out of the race.

O’Conner was the founder of Fathers 4 Justice and my brief encounter with him a while ago when I tried to talk to him about the dangers of forcing knee-jerk reactions around fathers rights without adding any protection for children left me less than impressed wih his attitude.  He had his agenda and whether that put children at risk (and from first hand experience, I know it did) was of no concern to him.

To be honest, the EDP are better off without him.  He was to EDP as Robert Kiljoy-Stink was to UKIP – an opportunist with an ego who saw an opportunity for self-promotion.  His dedication to the cause of equal rights for England is such that because he didn’t get enough publicity from the media over St Georges Day he’s thrown his teddy out of the pram and abandoned the people he claims to want to represent.

The EDP is a small party and they need to raise their profile.  Rather than relying on celebrity candidates to bring them the publicity they need, they need to promote the leaders of their party.  I’ve always found Robin Tilbrook to be a nice chap, even when he found out I’d joined UKIP.  But hardly anybody has heard of him.  Whatever your feelings about UKIP or Nigel Farage, there is no doubt that if you put Farage and No Mandate Brown on a stage together, Farage would dominate the stage and tear Gordo to shreds.  He has a big personality, he doesn’t need a script and a team of spin doctors telling him what to say and he’s both abrupt and funny.  I heard him give a speech last year to a room full of UKIP supporters, Tories and random guests in which he said “It’s often said that I dislike Europe … this is wrong, I love Europe, I just can’t stand the EU … I don’t particularly like the French though”.  What other politician would come out with something like that?

But this isn’t a post about why Farage makes a good leader … well it is a bit but for the benefit of the EDP.  The EDP are targetting UKIP voters and on a lot of policy areas they are identical but the difference is that UKIP have the media personality that EDP lack and celebrities aren’t the answer.  Rustie Lee and Earl Bradford – both household names – are UKIP supporters but they don’t use them for publicity because, at the end of the day, they’re not the ones that are going to be running the country are they?

EDP are better off without O’Conner, they just need to promote the good people they’ve got rather than looking for a quick fix.  If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

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Hamas formally offers truce

April 25, 2008 General 10 comments

Hamas has formally offered a truce in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has dismissed the offer saying that it’s just a ploy to let Hamas “rearm and regroup”.

Gosh, how nice it must be to know everything all the time.

Looks like my question has been answered.

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Question Time

April 24, 2008 BBC Bias 5 comments

Question Time has “the three men who want to be the next mayor of London” going head to head.

Three men? Last time I checked there were a number of candidates, not just three. And they can’t use the argument that they’re the only three in with a chance because the Illiberal Dipshit candidate stands about as much chance as a ghost’s fart in a force 10 gale.

Got to love that BBC impartiality promoting the two and a half party system.

Update:
In response to a black woman’s question as to why the BNP weren’t on the stage to defend themselves, Ken Livingstone said they shouldn’t be there because they aren’t a legitimate party and they’re associated with violence and back in the 90’s when the BNP opened their headquarters there were 6 racist murders nearby. What an anti-democratic twat.

Update 2:
Ken Livingstone admitted to having conned the government on the Olympics, knowing that the taxpayer would end up spending billions more than he said just so he could get extra money for London.  The man’s a fucking crook!

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Why do we need a specific NHS violence law?

April 24, 2008 England, Health, Political Correctness, Wales 3 comments

The Ministry of Justice has decided to include Wales in a new bill to introduce specific offences relating to mental and physical abuse in hospitals.  The Welsh government said they didn’t need the law but some Liebour MPs and a peer complained and the MoJ has changed its mind.

I’ve spent a lot more than average an amount of time in hospitals and I apreciate the work that doctors and nurses do, often putting themselves in dangerous situations for the public good.  The same goes for policemen, firemen, etc.  But do we need specific laws relating to individual groups of people?

It is already against the law to physically or mentally abuse someone.  Whether that someone is a nurse, a policeman, asian or white, it is still against the law.  The problem is not with the law as it stands, it is with the way that judges are guided by politicians.

Politicians impose minimum and maximum punishments for crimes so judges can’t decide to punish somebody who’s assaulted a nurse harsher than someone who’s assaulted a drug dealer.  So when people complain that hundreds of doctors and nurses a day are being assaulted and that they’re getting away with lenient sentences, their answer is to make a new law introducing a specific offence and a different punishment.  But the crime is still the same – an offence against the person contrary to common law.

With new offences being created at an alarming rate and people falling foul of daft, ill-thought out and politically-motivated laws, what we really need is for a major cull of these offences and for politicians to butt out and let judges get on with their jobs.  There is no need for specific offences relating to specific groups of people.  There is no need for specific offences relating to “motivation”.  Offences like racially aggravated assault are no different to any other assault other than the fact that it’s politically expedient to look like it’s being taken more seriously.  Physically assaulting a nurse is no different to assaulting a shop keeper but it makes the British government look like they’re caring for people who carry out a public service.

I’m not a nurse, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a fireman, I’m not a politician, I’m not black.  I’m white and I’m English and that means that if I got mugged whilst taking the dog out for a walk or walking across the car park or sat at my desk at work, the British government considers my pain and suffering to be less important than that of a nurse or a fireman or an immigrant.  Why?

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Where’s Mel Gibson when you need him?

April 23, 2008 Come the revolution, Police State 4 comments

Let’s face it, things are going seriously wrong in England right now. For the first time in my life I am actually worried about what the immediate future holds.

Fuel prices are through the roof and there’s no sign of them going back down again. Over 80% of the price of a litre of petrol or diesel goes to the Treasury in tax and the introduction of new “green taxes” is pushing up the price throughout the supply chain. The more expensive fuel is, the more everyday items cost – it costs more to produce and more to transport. A major oil distribution centre is set to close due to strike action any day now which normally pumps so much oil that we will run out in two days if it closes.

Food prices are rising at an alarming rate and food shortages are being predicted in the near future. Fields that normally provide food are being turned over to growing crops for biofuels. The booming Chinese economy means the average Chinese diet is becoming more protein-based and growing animals for food is far less efficient than growing crops for food. China is one of the world’s largest producers of cereal crops.

The bottom is falling out of the housing market with estimates of over 1 million people being in a negative equity situation after overextending themselves with huge mortgages to buy houses that aren’t worth the money they’ve paid for them.

One major bank has gone tits up in England and other banks are cutting back on spending and reporting a downturn in profits. The British government is responding by handing out £50bn of taxpayers money to shore up the financial markets. The US Federal Reserve has also bailed out a major bank and is pumping cash into the markets to keep them afloat. A global depression seems inevitable.

The British government is trying to force through a change to “anti-terrorism” laws that are already being systematically abused that would allow the state to lock up anyone they say is linked to terrorism for 42 days – almost a month and a half – without evidence and without charge. Not even Zimbabwean police are allowed to lock people up without charge for a month and a half. So far not a single terrorist has been found as a result of over 100,000 people being stopped and searched under anti-terrorism laws. There is not a single example where the current 30-day limit (already the highest in the civillised world) has been too short to charge a terrorist suspect. The police state marches on – George Orwell showed remarkable foresight (apart from the date), perhaps he was a modern day Nostradamus?

I could go on but I think I might be better off watching the Mad Max films again, only this time I’ll take notes.

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Tesco to invade Poland?

April 23, 2008 Funny No comments

A few weeks ago I asked what the apocalyptic non-event of the next decade would be.

It was a close race right up until a few days ago but there is now a clear winner:

apocalypse.png

The four “other” were:

  • An as yet unknown disease will sweep the world
  • New feudalism
  • English nationalism continues to rise, threating the existence of the Union.
  • Enviro-fascists cause Europe wide recession

Just one word of warning – Tesco invading Poland may sound unbelievable but they’ve set a precedent in Denmark!

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Twat of the Week: Gordon Brown

April 23, 2008 Twat of the Week No comments

The results of last weeks Twat of the Week Month so Far are in and the clear winner is No Mandate Brown with 65% of the vote.

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If you want to nominate somebody for this week’s Twat of the Week award, let me know.

Happy St Georges Day

April 23, 2008 St George 3 comments

I’d like to wish all my readers a Happy St Georges Day.

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UKIP gets its first MP

April 22, 2008 Tories, UKIP 10 comments

Dr Bob Spink MP, who resigned from the Conswervatives last month after his local Conswervative Association tried to deselect him, has joined UKIP.

conswervatives.pngUKIP now has one MP, nine MEPs, two Lords and about 30 councillors.

It might not seem like much but from little acorns grow mighty oaks.

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Things that piss me off … on the roads

April 22, 2008 Transport 9 comments

Three things that piss me off on the roads:

1. People driving 4×4’s or road versions of World Rally Championship winning cars driving down the middle of the road to avoid driving over speed bumps.

2. People driving tractors down a busy road at 8 o’clock in the morning.

3. People who drive round islands in the outside lane regardless of which exit they’re getting off.

Anyone got any better ones … ?

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Three years and this is the best they could come up with?

April 21, 2008 Tories, WTF? 6 comments

The Conswervatives have spent nearly three years “consulting” and debating the West Lothian Question and have finally come up with an “answer”.

The “answer” to the West Lothian Question, according to the Conswervatives, is “don’t answer it”.  A marginal improvement over “don’t ask it” but hardly a constructive use of three years and god knows how much money.
For the last few years, the Conswervatives have had a policy of English Votes on English Matters – an inadequate proposal that would have allowed any British MP to debate a bill that only affects England but only allow MPs elected in England to vote on it.

The latest “answer” to the West Lothian Question is … wait for it … to allow only MPs elected in England to debate an English-only bill but allow any British MP to vote on it.

The Conswervatives under David Camoron have refined the ability to piss off pretty much everybody, including their own members and supporters, almost to an art form and this is no exception.  If they can’t get support for this balls-up on a Conswervative fan-blog, it’s got to be a dud.

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Hamas offer peace, will Israel take it?

April 21, 2008 General 10 comments

Former US President, Jimmy Carter, has met with the exiled leader of Hamas in Syria.

Hamas (the political party) won free and fair elections last year but Israel, the US and the EU refuse to deal with them and are actively seeking to undermine their control of the Gaza Strip which they have controlled since winning the election.

Carter has, of course, been criticised by Israel and the US for meeting with Hamas.  Officially it’s because they consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation (they don’t see the irony in supporting and financing Sinn Féin as the political wing of the IRA but refusing to deal with the Hamas political party as the political wing of the Hamas militant group) but it’s more likely to be what Hamas said to Carter that the don’t like because it now puts the ball firmly in Israel’s court, leaving them with no excuse for continuing their occupation.

According to Carter, the leader of Hamas has reiterated its position to accept an Israeli state within its original borders before it invaded Palestine and Jerusalem.  Hamas says that it will leave in peace with Israel as a neighbour if the Palestinian people agree to it.  They said that if Israel agrees to a mutual ceasefire and renunciation of violence in Gaza and West Bank then they will accept it.  They have even offered to accept a ceasfire only in Gaza to get the ball rolling.

So Hamas, it appears, is offering an olive branch.  Most Palestinians will agree to a ceasefire if it means they get their country back and stops the indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli military.  They are giving Israel the opportunity to bring hostilities to an end without Israel having to make the first move and appear weak.  Whether Israel takes this opportunity or not will prove, once and for all, whether they really want peace or if they intend to continue occupying Palestine until everyone has either been bombed or starved off their land and they can take the lot with the minimum of fuss.

I don’t really have any doubts as to what the answer will be but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt one last time.

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New Laptop

April 20, 2008 Technology 2 comments

The insurance company finally paid out on my broken laptop so I’ve finally been able to get a replacement.

It’s a nice bit of kit but it came with Vista, Microsoft’s most controversial operating system so far.  I’ve read and heard good and bad reports of Vista but so far I quite like it.

After a couple of days playing with Vista, here are some pro’s and con’s:

Pro’s

  • It looks nice.  If you’re going to be staring at a computer you want it to look nice and with the Aero theme it’s the best looking version of Windows yet.
  • The sidebar.  I know these have been around for ages and I’ve tried one or two but they don’t compare to one that’s integrated with the operating system and the radio player gadget I found it the dogs danglies.
  • The Windows Switcher.  Pressing Win+Tab instead of Alt+Tab gives you the nice task switcher.  Again, it’s just eye candy but it’s something nice to look at.
  • The “Games” menu.  Vista recognises lots of games and instead of adding them to the start menu it adds them to a nice Games menu which gives you the performance rating for your own machine and the required and recommended ratings for the game.

Con’s

  • Age of Empires 3 doesn’t work.  It’s quite a recent game and a Microsoft game at that.  Is it too much to ask that a recent Microsoft game works with their latest operating system?
  • Start Menu.  The new start menu sucks ass.  It’s all so confined with scroll bars and if you choose the “classic” start menu you get some antiquated Windows 2000-esque affair.
  • Memory hungry.  Just displaying the Desktop needs about half a gig of RAM.

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Zimbabwe election recount

April 19, 2008 General One comment

After three weeks, votes are being recounted in 23 seats in Zimbabwe that Robert Mugabe’s ZanuPF lost.

The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission is a pro-Mugabe, ZanuPF-controlled quango and party officials are believed to have had free access to the ballot boxes for the duration.  The opposition MDC says that it will not support any recount because they believe that the ballot boxes will have been stuffed.

The election in Zimbabwe is a sham.  Mugabe will hold on to power for as long as he can, either by lying and cheating or just eliminating the opposition.  China has sent a ship with 3m rounds of ammunition, 1,500 rocket propelled grenades and 2,500 mortar rounds to South Africa for Zimbabwe.  South African dockers refused to unload the ship in protest at their government’s shameful support for Mugabe’s illegitimate regime but it’ll find somewhere to drop off its load and no doubt the weapons and ammunition will be used to keep Mugabe in power long after he should have been kicked out of his office and thrown into prison.

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