Archive for May 2008

Scottish government subsidises fishermen

The Scottish government intends to do more to help Scottish fishermen cope with rising prices and unfair advantages of Spanish and French fishermen who receive state aid.

Rising fuel prices, crippling EU regulations and reduced quotas are damaging commercial fishing so the Scottish government is giving up to £400,000 towards the annual costs of maintaining lifeboats on fishing boat and £300,000 towards the cost of warranties on satellite equipment which fishermen are required to have under EU rules.
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation aren’t satisfied though and want the Scottish government to go further and provide state aid like the French and Spanish government’s do.
Meanwhile, the British government is offering nothing towards the cost of maintaining lifeboats and nothing towards the warranties on satellite equipment for English fishermen.

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Blears wants to censor press

This is a step too far:

The government has set out new guidance calling on councils to monitor communities and do more to prevent local tensions.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears called on councils to keep track of who is living in their area and be aware of potential “hot spots”.

The guidance also says local authorities should be aware of what “triggers” local tensions and urges they work with the local press to ensure reporting “does not exacerbate tensions”.

It stressed the importance of working with a wide range of people to monitor trends, making better use of local intelligence where possible.

And it said that local officials should develop greater awareness of how international issues have the potential to threaten cohesion.

“The overwhelming majority of people in this country live successfully side by side but we cannot take this for granted,” Blears said.

“Challenges to cohesion do exist – this might be between different ethnic or faith groups or new migrants and longer-term residents – but things can be done to address problems at the earliest opportunity and stop things escalating.”

She announced £50m of funding to support local authorities in “responding to these specific challenges”. This would include focusing on integration and ending “automatic translation” services, putting “more emphasis on English language learning, a move away from the funding of single groups and strengthening of our shared values”.

We all know the “challenges to cohesion” – unfettered immigration has created massive “minority” groups who, thanks to the policies of New Liebour, are effectively a state within a state.  They have their own state-funded groups, their own “community leaders” and any attempt to speak out against this divisive state of affairs is met with hysterical screams of “RACIST!”

I agree that funding for ethnic and religious pressure groups should be cut.  In fact, it should be stopped completely – they only increase tensions and there’s no justification for state support for them.  I also agree that more emphasis should be put on learning to speak English.  If you don’t speak English you shouldn’t be here.

However, curbing freedom of the press is one step too far.  England is fast turning into a police state and people sit back and let it happen.  In other countries people would be taking to the streets to protest against this sort of thing but not in England – you can’t protest anyway, it’s illegal to protest outside Parliament and if you protest anywhere else the police will demand your personal details and photograph you.
Come the revolution, we’re going to need a very big wall.

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They don’t like it up ’em!

Ian Taylor, a builder from Gloucestershire, has cut his car in half with and angle grinder rather than let wheel clamping bandits, NCP, take his car away.

He bought a knackered old Fiesta for his son but it was beyond economical repair so he declared it off-road and parked it on his drive while he waited to scrap it.  However, part of the back wheel was on the pavement so a jobsworth clamper put a clamp on the car.

NCP are standing by their actions and trying to demonise Taylor by saying that he put others in danger by cutting his car in half after the angle grinder set fire to it.

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Eurovision – what a joke

Via the Secret Person, apparently we don’t take Eurovision seriously enough.

No shit Sherlock.  Bjorn Erichsen, the Danish producer of Eurovision, has been bitching about Terry Wogan, saying that he is part of the problem and that we should treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

What a fucking joke.  If it wasn’t for Terry Wogan, Eurovision would be consigned to BBC3 with an audience of a quarter of a million.  Actually, it wouldn’t be consigned to BBC3 because the BBC throws barrow loads of cash at Eurovision every year, that’s why we always get an entry even if we end up finishing last.  We bankroll Eurovision no matter wherever it’s held.

Eurovision is a demonstration of how united Europe will never work.  You could put a multi-platinum award winning singer on the stage singing a song that’s currently sitting at number 1 in every chart in every European country and still Denmark would vote for Sweden, Bosnia would vote for Croatia, Turkey will vote for Germany.

The only thing that makes this pointless waste of a television camera worth watching is Terry Wogan.  He knows what an utter farce it is, he knows who is going to vote for who even before it starts and the only thing that makes the “contest” bearable is Terry Wogan’s scathing sarcasm.

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Lying Hypocrites

Guido has a copy of a Liebour election leaflet for the Crewe & Nantwich by-election.

Mrs Sane and I occasionally spend a weekend at a nice hotel just outside Nantwich and there are a lot of nice big houses round there.  Of course there are some scutty houses as well but just because someone lives in a nice big house doesn’t mean they care any less about the people who don’t live in nice big houses.  In fact, they’re more likely to want to bring the quality of the surrounding area up because it’ll make their nice big house more valuable.  Does anyone have a picture of the recently deceased MP for Crewe & Nantwich, Gwyneth Dunwoody’s house?  The wife of a doctor and daughter of a peer is unlikely to have lived in a two-up, two-down in a council estate.

Crewe & Nantwich has had a Liebour MP for a long time so where is the regeneration money from the Liebour government?  Tory councillors can only try and spend what the Liebour government gives them.

Soft on crime and yobbish behaviour?  Isn’t that a pretty fair description of the Liebour government’s approach for the last 10 years?  Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime Traitor said – what a joke.  When judges can’t lock people up because the prisons are full and serial offending teenage louts have to be given a slapped wrist and maybe a tag if they’re particularly naughty, is it any wonder that gangs of marauding yobs are roaming the streets?

Nobody should have to carry an ID card.  Liebour has given away control of our borders and allowed virtually limitless numbers of immigrants to enter the country to the extent that they don’t even know how many people are in the country.  At the same time they’ve set about abolishing civil liberties and curtailing our historic, constitutional and fundamental rights to combat the threat posed by the people they’re letting into the country.

Cutting funding to schools?  Teachers spend more time filling out paperwork and manipulating statistics to try and meet arbitrary targets than ever.  Schools in England receive far less funding than schools in Scotland and Wales – something that is worth reminding the people of Crewe & Nantwich of.  Audlem is in Crewe & Nantwich and they certainly know about the differences in funding over the border.

Liebour are nothing but a bunch of lying hypocrites.  If the people of Crewe & Nantwich vote Liebour this month they deserve everything they get.  In fact, if they vote Liebour I’ll start a petition to get the whole of Crewe & Nantwich transferred to Wales!

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Sky HD

Good old Sky, you’ve gotta love ’em.
I introduced a friend to Sky and got a free Sky Plus box for the introduction. I phoned the number on the letter and gave them the details. A couple of months passes and the phone call to sort out the installation hasn’t materialised so I phoned them up.

“The account number you gave for your friend wasn’t correct, either you read it out wrong or someone typed it in wrong”. My friend was reading his account number to me as I was on the phone so it was right but that’s not a problem, mistakes happen. Phone calls don’t though – why did I have to phone them instead of them phoning me?
Anyway, they sent me a letter telling me to phone and order before the 14th so I phoned today and I’ll be Sky Plussed in a few days. The box is free but I’ve had to pay £60 for the installation. I had the option to pay £99 extra and get a HD box instead but there’s no way I’m paying £99 for the box, £60 for the installation and then £10 per month for a handful of HD channels. Not when I can get them for free.

On Monday the BBC and ITV jointly launched Freesat, a free to air digital satellite service. Not only does it have the free to air channels you can get through the aerial but it also has HD channels. Currently it has BBC HD and ITV HD (exclusively). When their exclusivity contract with Sky runs out they will also have Channel 4 and Channel 5 HD. That leaves only a couple of HD channels that you must pay Sky to watch. The only two that spring to mind are Sky One HD and National Geographic HD and I only watch Sky One for the Simpsons and Futurama and they certainly aren’t going to look any better in HD!

So no, I don’t think I’ll be paying £10 per month and £99 for a HD box from Sky for a few channels, most of which I can get for free by paying £120 for a Freesat box. I think Sky will be seeing subscriptions to HD dropping off significantly in the coming months, especially when you consider that the HD box normally costs £300 if you just decide to buy it on a whim rather that through a special offer.

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Campaign for a .ENG domain

I’ve just signed the petition for a .ENG domain courtesy of DotEng.

The rules on top-level domains are being relaxed and this will make a .ENG domain much easier to secure than previously. If the .SCO or .CYM campaigns for Scotland and Wales are successful that will set a precedent for all the home nations.
We have our own sports teams and our own flag. We don’t have our own government yet but that’s only a matter of time. Why not an English domain name?

Click here to sign the petition.

 

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Mugabe’s armed militia to police election

Zimbabwean police have been instructed to campaign for Robert Mugabe and the War Veterans – an armed ZanuPF militia group – will be inside polling stations wearing police uniforms if a run-off for the presidential election is held.

According to this BBC News article, it would appear that the War Veterans are being incorporated into the police force, at least for the purposes of the run-off.

Under Zimbabwean electoral law, the run-off must be held within 21 days of the election.  This deadline has already passed and the electoral commission has said that it might not take place for a year.

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Zimbabwe election challenge

ZanuPF and the MDC have both filed petitions with the Zimbabwean Electoral Court challenging the results of a total of 105 results from the recent elections.

MPs will still be sworn in and the government – such as it is – will continue whilst the Electoral Court rules on the results.

There is only one way that this is ever going to get resolved satisfactorily and that is by re-running the election with UN election monitors.

There is a suggestion that Morgan Tsvangirai might not stand in a presidential election re-run because MDC believe he won outright but I’m not sure what that would achieve.  He may believe he won outright – he probably did – but why not just go through the motions and win the run-off?  At least then Mugabe has no reason to cling on to power like he is now.

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Coat of Arms

parr_family_crest.jpgNourishing Obscurity has a post on bloggers’ coats of arms. Not sure if the College of Arms will approve of his choice of a badger and hamster.

Of course, being the terribly important person I am, my family already has a coat of arms which you should see to your right here.

It’s a bit basic but a new one costs five and a half grand just for the application to the College of Arms and there’s no guarantee they’ll even grant the arms then!

CherryPie has one too.  Aren’t we posh? :blush:

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Big Test for Gordo’s Crewe

No Mandate Brown will shortly be getting his first test since the battering at the local elections last week when the Crewe & Nantwich by-election takes place on the 22nd.

Gwyneth Dunwoody held the seat for for Liebour for 25 years until she passed away a couple of weeks ago.  She had held the seat since it was created in 1983.  This should be a safe seat for Liebour but the situation is identical to that of Telford – David Wright has been the (Liebour) MP since the seat was created and the council has been controlled by Liebour since it was demerged from Shropshire County Council right up until last year when the Conswervatives pulled off what was previously thought of as an impossible task and beat Liebour.  El Gordo is going to have a fight on his hands in Crewe & Nantwich.

The by-election will, naturally, see more candidates than is usual but that’s the nature of these unexpected by-elections.  The Illiberal Dipshit candidate pulled out, the Conswervatives are looking strong and is looks like Liebour will be fielding Gwyneth Dunwoody’s daughter.  Mike Nattrass MEP is standing for UKIP and Miss GB runner-up, Gemma Garrett, is standing for some new “Beautiful Britain” party or something like that.

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Come fly with me …

Mrs Sane and I need to go to the Netherlands in October for the christening of our godchild.

Contrary to popular belief, booking flights at the last minute doesn’t get you a cheap ticket.  In fact, it generally gets you a more expensive ticket because someone will pay through the nose if they absolutely have to get that flight at the last minute.

Anyway, with plenty of notice we should be able to get some cheap flights, right?  Well actually, yes, we can get cheap flights.  We can get two tickets for £9.99 each off Ryanair if we leave from Stanstead and fly to Eindhoven (bit of a way from here to Stanstead but Eindhoven is the closest the other end).

So I’m happy, yeah?  No, I’m not.  The airport taxes which El Gordo has hiked up in the name of the fucking global warming scam bring the total price up to the £75 mark.  Bastard.

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I’m jealous

We went up to Chester to Mrs Sane’s cousin’s house yesterday for their daughter’s first birthday and now I’m jealous.

No, they don’t live in a mansion – their house is lovely but it’s about half the size of ours.  No, it’s not nestled amongst million pound houses in a leafy suburb – it’s a nice quiet area but not the really expensive parts of Chester.  So why am I jealous?  They’ve got one of these in their garden …

I’ve so got to have one of these!

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London Tories hint at trouble for BNP

Richard Barnes, the Conswervative Leader in London, has told the BNP that they will have problems finding secretaries and support staff in the London Assembly and that they won’t be forcing admin staff to do their jobs.

Whilst I find the BNP quite reprehensible, I don’t see how the Conswervatives can claim any moral justification for over-ruling the wishes of the electorate.  The London Assembly employs admin staff, paid for by the electorate, to support the elected members of the Assembly.  Whether it’s a BNP member of a Conswervative or Liebour doesn’t matter – they’re employed to do a job and they should bloody well do it.

I work for a private sector company on a on a public service contract and even though I’m not a civil servant, I have to abide by the civil service code and that means doing my job regardless of my political leanings.  I could bring an entire government department to a grinding halt in minutes and probably lose at least one minister their job but I don’t.  If I can resist the temptation, I’m damn sure a bunch of glorified typists can do the same.
The BNP’s seat on the London Assembly is a protest vote – tens of thousands of them, in fact – but it’s no less legitimate for that fact.

Hat-tip: Arden Forester

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More trouble in Telford

Tonight’s Shropshire Star reports that a man has been badly beaten – so badly that he needed an emergency operation on his head – just round the corner from where the racist fight took place on Thursday night.

The police believe the man in his twenties was attacked by two 16 year olds and that it’s related to an earlier burglary at the man’s house.

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Exclusive: 10 year old victim of racial assault

A number of children, some as young as 9 or 10, were involved in a racial attack in Telford last night.

From what I am told, a group of black youths racially abused a group of white youths and a fight followed during which a 10 year old child had their head stamped on several times. None of the children were seriously injured but a knife was allegedly involved.

Apparently the Police didn’t attend but the school children involved were called out of their classes today at one school to talk about it.

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More fuel price protests

Some of the hauliers that protested in London earlier this week arranged a surprise blockade of the Stanlow oil refinery in Ellesmere Port yesterday in protest at fuel prices.

According to my local rag, the Shropshire Star, “Jim Jordan, of Shrewsbury-based Jordan’s Transport, said the surprise protest was aimed at building a momentum following an earlier protest in London on Tuesday.”

Jim is my cousin and I can exclusively reveal that (unless his wife was there to translate) what he actually said was “Mmmm mmmmmm mmmmm mmm nnnnn mmm. Mm”. I struggle to decipher his muttering, I think the journalist may have used some artistic licence!

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Mugabe … you’re fired!

The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission has released results of the Presidential elections and confirmed that Mugabe lost.

However, neither candidate officially reached that golden 50% mark which would have avoided a run-off election between the two candidates.  I say officially because Zanu-PF have had possession of the ballot boxes since the election.  It is an indication of the waning power of Mugabe that the ZEC didn’t make an outrageous declaration that Mugabe was the outright winner.

The reunified MDC will help Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe but even with Mugabe losing his authority, he and Zanu-PF still have a lot of loyal supporters – especially in the Police and military – that will do his dirty work for him.

Mugabe will lose the run-off by a sizable margin but a lot of Zimbabweans will lose their lives on the road to getting rid of the tyrant.

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Don’t mention the war constitution

Stuart Wheeler has been granted a judicial review at the High Court on the British government’s refusal to hold the referendum they promised on the EU not-a-constitution.

In all honesty it is highly unlikely that he’ll be successful but the important thing is that it now makes the matter of the Lisbon Treaty sub judice which means that, with the exception of what is necessary to debate legislation, it cannot be discussed in either the Commons or the Lords. The judicial review is listed for the 9th and 10th of June and the Lords are due to vote on the 11th of June – if they cannot discuss the EU not-a-constitution, how can they vote on it?

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Who’d want to be a Liebour councillor right now?

The results of yesterday’s elections are almost all in and it looks like being a brilliant result.

With 148 of 159 councils declared, Liebour have so far lost control of 8 councils and a spectacular in 293 councillors in what has been described as the worst result for Liebour since the 60’s. Research by the BBC now puts Liebour in third place nationally at 24% with the Illiberal Dipshits on 25% and the Conswervatives way out in front on 44%.

But it hasn’t all gone the Conswervatives’ way. Whilst they’ve gained control of 12 councils and an extra 234 councillors, the Illiberal Dipshits have taken a small but important slice of Liebour votes with a net gain of one council and 29 councillors so far. They have, however, lost control of Liverpool – the last Illiberal Dipshit-controlled council in the north of England.

The BNP have gained one seat somewhere down south and UKIP have gained two seats – one in Hartlepool taking it out of Liebour control and one in Dudley, of all places. UKIP missed out on unseating Liebour from a second seat in Hartlepool by only 2 votes with the Conswervatives, bizarrely, fielding spoiler candidates in seats they knew they couldn’t win to ensure Liebour councillors were re-elected.

Of course, the one election that the media are interested in and the one that will give an indication of how the next general election will pan out is the London Mayoral election and that looks like a convincing win for Boris. Indeed, Guido reports that the online betting website Paddy Power is already paying out on Boris bets after only 14 electoral wards have declared with Boris on 9 and Crooked Ken on 5.

So, what’s the verdict from the Liebour Party on the worst election results in almost half a century? Well, Gordo is “disappointed” and the party is blaming it entirely on the 10p tax fuck-up. Nothing to do with a disasterous decade of destroying the economy, turning England into a police state run by an unelected foreign politician.

I predict the next election will see Liebour lose by a massive majority, never to take power in England again.

Update:
All the results are now in and it’s a humiliating result for Liebour. They finished with a net loss of 331 councillors and 9 councils against a net increase of 256 councillors and 12 councils for the Conswervatives. The Illiberal Dipshits are 34 councillors and 1 council up whilst in Wales, Plaid Cymru are down one council but up 33 councillors. The BNP are up 10 councillors and UKIP are up 3 (they’re +3 in the West Midlands so presumably at least 1 loss elsewhere). Lots of councils have changed from no overall control to (mainly Conswervative) control and vice versa with an overall net gain of control over 3 councils. The London Mayor results are still outstanding but after 40% of the votes being counted, Boris is still leading Crooked Ken by 9 seats to 4 with the Illiberal Dipshit nowhere to be seen.

Update 2:
Boris romped home to victory in the London Mayoral elections beating Crooked Ken by nearly 140,000 votes in total. Boris was the only candidate to take over a million first preference votes, beating Crooked Ken by nearly 150,000 on first preference. YouGov was the only opinion pollster in the city to predict a Boris win. The BNP candidate came fifth after the Illiberal Dipshit and Green candidates. Christian Choice came sixth which I think will result in the formation of an Islamic Party before the next election. UKIP came seventh followed by Left List. Matt O’Conartist came ninth with over 10,600 votes despite pulling out of the race and the independent finished up last. The strong BNP vote means they now have a seat on the London Assembly.

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