Archive for wonkotsane

Value for money, isn’t it?

February 13, 2009 England, Wales, WTF? 2 comments

HM Court Service introduced the Libra computer system in December last year 7 years late and £260m over budget but it went live without the ability to issue a summons in Welsh, which has been a legal requirement since 1967.

The service says it intends to add the functionality in by September this year at a cost of around £4m and in the meantime it is having summonses translated by the Ministry of Justice.  So far the MoJ have spent £425 on translating summonses meaning it will take 1,569 years to recoup the £4m cost of automating the translations.

Talk about pissing money up the wall.

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In Sweaty-sock Land

February 11, 2009 Scotland 9 comments

Well, I made it to Scotland (just about) and I’ve not been detained for crimes against the promised land so far!

I nearly didn’t make it – I forgot to take my passport with me for photo ID but luckily the departures people accepted my work security pass as valid ID even though it’s not got a company name, address or phone number on it.  Lucky for me but worryingly easy to get on a flight without a valid form of ID.

The first thing I noticed on arrival at Edinburgh Airport was the Scottish flag – it’s everywhere.  The taxi marshall’s had St Andrews Cross beanie hats, the signs all had Scottish flags on, there were adverts for all things Scottish inside and outside the airport.  You’d never see a Cross of St George outside an English airport, that’s for sure.

The flight was ok, the plane was too hot though.  The FlyBe executive lounge at Birmingham Airport was disappointing – there were no staff other than the person checking you were allowed in there and there was no free WiFi which I would have expected for the price of the tickets.  We ended up sitting in Wetherspoons and waiting for the flight, at least there was a bit of activity.

The hotel – the Apex City – is nice.  Got a room with a view of Edinburgh Castle, nice big telly and free WiFi.  If you’ve got to go to Edinburgh I’d certainly recommend staying here.  Will be going down for breakfast shortly – I’ll let you know what the food is like later.

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Global Warming propagandists blame Australian fires on climate change

February 10, 2009 Climate Change, Propaganda 4 comments

The wildfires in Australia are a terrible disaster for the country with over a hundred people killed but why do the global warming propagandists have to seize on every natural disaster to try and scare people into believing in their scam?

The State of Victoria has assigned 100 police officers to investigate the fires which they believe were started deliberately and are treating it as a murder inquiry.  But in the next breath, the global warming propagandists at the state government are saying that the fires are down to climate change.

Australia is mostly desert and has been for centuries. It is the fact that most of the continent is hot and dry that causes fires to spread – which happens pretty much every year – not climate change which is causing a decrease in global temperatures.

Australians have been told by their government that the fires have been caused by climate change but if a police inquiry discovers that the fires were started deliberately, will the government publically announce that it was nothing to do with climate change after all?  No, because there is only one thing that’s incompatible with climate change theory and that is admitting when it’s wrong.

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Bank Bonuses

February 8, 2009 General 6 comments

RBS is getting a kicking for its billion pound bonus package at the same time as taking god knows how much money off the taxpayer.

Yes, RBS has been run into the ground, taken on too much high risk debt and over-extended itself buying ABN Amro, but the majority of RBS staff weren’t responsible for the bad decisions – they were just doing their jobs and have continued to do so in the face of mass redundancies and an uncertain future.

The people at the top – the chairman, the board and senior managers – shouldn’t get any bonus whatsoever until the bank has paid the taxpayer back every penny it’s had from the bailout.  But the ordinary staff aren’t responsible for the collapse of RBS and they shouldn’t be punished for it – if their individual performance merits a bonus then they should get it.

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Shropshire Star: England is denied EU aid benefit by Labour

February 8, 2009 Federal Europe, Letters No comments

This excellent letter appeared in the Shropshire Star on Saturday:

England is denied EU aid benefit by Labour

The Labour Government is denying England a windfall from the European Union yet it is making sure that Wales, Scotland and Ulster benefit.

The fall in the value of the pound has increased the value of euro-denominated EU grants by a fifth and the European Commission has offered a six-month extension to its December 2008 deadline to all countries for unused funds as part of a 200 billion euro (£178 billion) economic stimulus package.

Labour took up the option for Scotland, Wales and Ulster, but rejected it for England. Only recently Brown and his ministers held their cabinet meeting in Liverpool to demonstrate solidarity with the people of Merseyside in the midst of the recession.

However, in 1989 he signed the Scottish Claim of Right, in which he pledged “to make the interests of Scotland paramount” in everything he said and did.

As Prime Minister we rightly expect him to show and even-handed attitude towards all the nations of the UK.

Anyone who feels angry at this anti-English action might consider joining the Campaign for an English Parliament. Our number is 07071 220234, which is not a mobile number. Our website address is http://www.thecep.org.uk/wordpress/

While Wales and Ulster have their own assemblies and Scotland has its own parliament, England has no such parliament or assembly. Labour cares for the UK’s Celtic nations, while treating England with contempt.

Derek Armstrong
CEP Member
Shropshire Branch

Derek has set the bar high – not only did he get across a very valid point on the blatant discrimination the English suffer at the hands of the British government, he also got the CEP phone number and website address in the letter as well!

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Another Fucking Database

February 8, 2009 Police State One comment

The British government is making yet another database – this time with details of all overseas travel.

The database will store names, addresses, phone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details for every trip made.  And the reason?  Fighting crime, illegal immigration and terrorism of course!  How many travel itineraries are likely to say “Monday, visit Houses of Parliament; Tuesday, return with 300lbs of semtex”?  How many credit cards are likely to have been issued to Al Qaeda Enterprises?

It’s a fucking joke.  A sick joke, but a joke nonetheless.  This wil do nothing to combat crime or terrorism, it’s all about controlling the civillian population.  George Orwell must be turning in his grave to see the party he supported creating the surveillance state he warned us all about.

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Jeremy Clarkson Strikes Again

February 7, 2009 Funny 13 comments

Good old Jeremy Clarkson, he always manages to get himself into trouble.  He’s got a long way to go before he can challenge Boris Johnson or Prince Phillip for the top spot but he’s a solid contender.

This time he’s offended blind people, disabled people and Scottish people by calling El Gordo a one-eyed Scottish idiot.

It’s interesting to see the amount of people who claim to be offended by what Clarkson said and it’s unfortunate that he’s apologised (although he refused to apologise about calling him an idiot) because when you examine the facts – he’s Scottish, he’s blind in one eye and he’s an idiot – Clarkson was bang on the money.

If Clarkson’s comment was offensive to the sweaty socks, perhaps this advert I did for the CEP a while ago will get the Scots and the English worked up …

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BBC and ITV go metric

February 6, 2009 General 16 comments

Over the last few days the news on the BBC and ITV have, understandably, talked about virtually nothing but the snow.

There are plenty of other things going on in the world they could be talking about but the snow is a major event so fine.  But with the snow has come an apparent metrication of the BBC and ITV.  When they tell us how much snow has fallen it’s 10cm or 15cm.  They aren’t even giving it in inches as well for the majority of the population who don’t do metric.

Surely excluding most of the population by using only metric is a breach of the BBC charter.

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Snow in Jamaica wouldn’t be incompatible with global warming

February 6, 2009 Climate Change, Propaganda 3 comments

The Met Office’s chief advisor to the British government has just told the BBC that “severe snow storms aren’t incompatible with global warming”.

He said that years ago we had severe snow storms every 5 years and now it’s only every 18 years.  Extend that back through history and during the ice ages we had severe snow storms permanently and during the warm periods we went without them for decades.

The global warming scam is such big business now, nothing is incompatible with global warming according to the experts.  The earth is cooling in defiance of the predictions but that’s not incompatible with global warming.  The trend is towards global cooling but that’s not incompatible with global warming.  The micro-changes to our climate are nothing unusual but that’s not incompatible with global warming.

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Judge slaps down CPS and animal rights fascists

February 5, 2009 Police State 6 comments

It seems that there’s at least one judge in England with enough backbone to uphold the constitution and protect our fundamental rights.

A High Court judge has ruled that Liebour’s flagship class war weapon, the ban on hunting with dogs, does not include a ban on using dogs to search for and flush out animals and that the burden is on prosecutors to prove that someone didn’t have an exemption from the hunting ban, not on the accused to prove that they did.

The animal rights fascists have been getting a bit big for their boots lately.  They think the hunting ban was for their benefit when really it was part of the jealous class war being waged by the remaining socialists in the Liebour Party.  They have been getting away with a lot of criminality lately when “monitoring” hunts and the internment of Otis Ferry for hunting-related charges has made them think they’re above the law.  This judgement will hopefully slap them down and show them that the law applies equally to all men (and women) and that they cannot reasonably expect the fundamental concept of English law – that someone is innocent until proven guilty – to be set aside just because they don’t like to watch rich people hunting.

The fact that the CPS even tried to get the High Court to rule that someone can be guilty until they prove their innocence should serve as a warning to us all.

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Diplomatic gaffe, freudian slip or a cry for help?

February 3, 2009 General 4 comments

Amusingly, BBC viewers and the Flag Institute have picked up on a minor gaffe at the signing of new trade deals between El Gordo, Peter Mandelson and the Chinese Prime Minister.

On the desk they posed behind for photos, the tacky plastic union flag was flown upside down which is historically a symbol of distress.  In the case of the union flag which looks almost identical both ways up (the white diagonal lines are slightly thicker on one side of the red ones) it’s a subtle way of telling anyone who’s looking that you’re in a spot of bother that Johnny Foreigner is unlikely to notice.

The Flag Institute and the BBC both assume that it was a gaffe – that the flag was flown upside down in error – but was it?  Was it perhaps a freudian slip, the Trade Minister’s flunky responsible for putting out the flags subconsciously turning it into a distress signal?  Or was Mandy asking for help?  In the BBC’s picture (right), Gordo is standing menacingly behind him and Mandy doesn’t look like the cat that got the trade deal that’s going to save the economy.  Was there a Chinese midget under the desk with electrodes attached to Mandy’s scrotum?  Is there a Chinese SWAT team just out of shot?

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Whoever said local politics was boring?

February 2, 2009 Telford 5 comments

Last week I went to a residents meeting to hear the results of a survey the council carried out last year.  This might sound boring but actually it was quite entertaining.

This survey has been carried out every 4 years since 2000 and the results have been reviewed by a “consultation manager” at the council (that was her job title) who has no connection with the area or the regeneration portfolio.

Every measure of satisfaction was down, some of them by significant amounts.  The “consultation manager” was most concerned about the drop in satisfaction with education provision – something like a 55% drop since 2000 – and said she didn’t know how to explain it.  I did.

There were lots of promises from a council officer who got quite a hard time from a woman who said that she’d sat in the same room 10-15 years ago and been told the same things.  Then Councillor Eric Carter stood up and launched into his “I’m an honest Yorkshireman” routine.

Carter is the cabinet member for regeneration and utterly devoid of a sense of humour.  Part of his “honest Yorkshireman” routine was telling us he couldn’t apologise for things that the council had done before the Tories were elected and that they weren’t going to make promises they couldn’t keep.  So, when I sat next to my sparring partner (who happens to be Carter’s mortal enemy) and pointed out that 18 months ago the Leader of the council, Andrew Eade, said that he would personally drive a bulldozer through the community centre within 12 month – the community centre we were sat in – he wasn’t very happy.

His first answer was “He didn’t say that”.  So myself and Councillor Ashcroft disagreed and his answer then was “I’m not talking about that”!  Then when he went on to say that he’d been walking around the estate not long ago “with two officers” (meaning council officers) and the person sitting next to me asked if he meant security officers, he rather abruptly responded “I don’t need security”.  Naturally, we all laughed at him.
Come the end of the meeting he stormed out of the room without speaking to anyone, not even the council employees who were there.

And people think local politics is boring …

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Left winger doesn’t like being lumped in with BNP

February 1, 2009 General 16 comments

One thing that both irritates and humours me is people labelling the BNP as “far right”.

On more than one occasion I’ve opined that this is one of the most successful propaganda coups by the left who have associated the left wing BNP with the right.

The BNP are a left wing party.  They are into nationalisation, curtailing freedom of the press and other far-left loveliness.  They are not a right wing party but it suits the left if the electorate believes they are because that means they will associate the BNP with the Tories and not Liebour or the Lib Dums.

It’s good to see that I’m not the only one saying this though.  A left wing Plaid Cymru AM has objected to the Chairman of Conswervative Future labelling the BNP as left wing.  Iain Dale agrees that the BNP is left wing, as does AID.  It is absolutely vital that those of us on the political right challenge the accepted wisdom that the BNP is right wing.  The BNP is not right wing and the left cannot be allowed to continue to get away with peddling the myth that they are.

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Bloggers4UKIP: Total exposes Brown’s “British jobs” fraud

January 30, 2009 Federal Europe No comments

Total have exposed Gordon Brown’s “British jobs for British people” pledge for what it is – a big fat lie.

Gordon Brown can’t do a single thing to ensure that jobs in the UK are given to people from these isles because control of our borders was handed over to Federal Europe years ago.

Total has awarded a contract to an Italian company to put some new equipment into Lindsey Oil Refinery who are sending over 300 Italians to do the work instead of employing locals.  Workers at the refinery walked out on strike 3 days ago and thousands of other workers in the energy industry have walked out in support of them.

The British government can do nothing to stop this except abuse anti-terrorism laws to break the pickets.  They can’t give Total or their Italian contractor a bung to employ locals because that would be illegal under EU law.  They can’t stop the Italian workers from coming over to work here because that would be illegal under EU law.

The LibLabCon are all committed to keeping the UK in the EU, we have to leave and UKIP is the only major party committed to leaving the EU and running our country by ourselves, for ourselves.

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Croesco i England

January 29, 2009 Transport 10 comments

It’s my birthday on Saturday and I’m off work tomorrow so, as tradition dictates, I popped to a nearby Chavda to buy some cakes and biscuits.

As I was driving back through some roadworks I noticed the roadsigns were all written in bloody Welsh with English translations underneath.  Welsh.  In Telford, which is about 40 miles as the crow flies from the nearest point of the Welsh border.

I phoned the council and they said that as long as it’d got English on there and it was legible it’s fine.  I pointed out that if you’re reading a road sign and the first line is foreign it means you’ve got to scan the sign for the English which takes longer and hence makes the signs less safe.  The disinterest went off the disinterest-o-meter.

If I’m down that way again before they finish I’ll find out who it is and ring them up and explain the different between Shropshire and Wales.

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Welcome to Telford, heathen capital of England!

January 29, 2009 Telford 6 comments

Apparently, Telford is the most godless town in the UK.  Excellent!  Let’s keep it that way.
So godless are my fellow Telfordonians that the Church of England has seen fit to send a missionary to tame the savages redeem us.

According to the Church of England, Telford has the lowest per capita church attendance in the UK.  This really doesn’t surprise me, there aren’t many churches around for the people who want to go anyway.  Most of the housing estates in Telford have a single multi-faith church and the one by me is mostly used by the local Ghanaian immigrant population for a bit of happy clappy late night singing and praying.  I imagine most of them have been adopted by local immigrant groups who have a more zealous approach to religion.

I personally have no religion – I decided at a very young age that I didn’t believe and it was evidently such a revelation that I still remember it to this day.  However, I do respect the fact that not everybody is as well adjusted and able to cope with the realities of life, the universe and everything and feel the need to believe in a supernatural being.  Those people should be allowed to go about their god bothering if they want to whilst us right-thinking atheists go about our heathen business.  Missionaries prey on the vulnerable – the elderly, the young and the sick.  They may have good intentions but in reality they’re no better than pushy double glazing salesmen.

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Pan-EU “criminal” database

January 28, 2009 Federal Europe, Police State No comments

Via the Devils Kitchen, this from Raedwald:

Have you paid a parking fine recently? Got three points on your licence? Been formally warned by the council for your bin protruding on the footway? (yep, I have had the £1,000 fine threat on the last one) Been suspended from your Sunday football league for rough tackling? (yes, seriously) Congratulations! Your records could soon be added to a pan-European database of subversives.  This EU Council decision of 20th January on the establishment of a pan-EU ‘criminal’ database includes the following ‘offences’ :-

  • Offences related to waste
  • Unintentional environmental offences
  • Insult of the State, Nation or State symbols
  • Insult or resistance to a representative of public authority
  • Public order offences, breach of the public peace
  • Revealing a secret or breaching an obligation of secrecy
  • Unintentional damage or destruction of property
  • Offences against migration law – an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • Offences against military obligations – an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • Unauthorised entry or residence
  • Other offences an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • Other unintentional offences
  • Prohibition from frequenting some places
  • Prohibition from entry to a mass event
  • Placement under electronic surveillance (“fixed or mobile” – eg: home, car, mobile phone etc)
  • Withdrawal of a hunting / fishing license
  • Prohibition to play certain games/sports
  • Prohibition from national territory
  • Personal obligation – an “Open category” (offences undefined thus all encompassing)
  • “Fine” – all fines. inc minor non-criminal offences

All those of us who have ever accidentally spilled a cupful of diesel in the water when refuelling, dropped a piece of litter or called the EU circle of stars a fascist and totalitarian symbol are now, officially, criminals. Welcome to the club.

I am, quite literally, speechless.

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Israel pledges to defy the will of the international community

January 26, 2009 General 3 comments

Israel has pledged to give protection to any Israeli terrorist charged with war crimes.

The use of white phosphorus in civilian areas and rounding up civilians so they can be bombed are two examples of the war crimes committed by the Israeli terrorist organisation, the IDF.

How was Israel described by the terrorist sympathisers while they were committing these war crimes again?  “A beacon of democracy in the Middle East” wasn’t it?  They’re no better than the arab militants they claim to be fighting.

I wonder what the apologists will come up with to justify Israel pledging to ignore the will of the international community again.  Post your predictions in the comments.

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Liebour Lords offer money for amending bills

January 26, 2009 Corruption, Labour No comments

Four Liebour Lords have been caught out by undercover reporters apparently offering to change bills for money.

The 4 Lords – Lord Truscott, Lord Moonie, Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Snape – were all approached by undercover reporters for the Sunday Times and allegedly agreed to introduce amendments to bills going through the House of Lords in exchange for a fee of up to £120k.

It’s worth noting that all four of the Lords in question are Life Peers, appointed to the House of Lords rather than inheriting their seat and further evidence that the appointment of Peers, or even their election, would be bad for democracy.

These Life Peers have made a career out of politics and shown themselves not to have the best interests of the country in mind but their own career and that has led them to the monumentally bad decision of apparantly accepting bribes.  Would a hereditary peer have taken the bribe?  There’s always the chance that they might because even Lords and Ladies get short of cash but it’s far less likely – they tend not to make a career out of politics and there are easier ways of getting your hands on cash if you’ve got a title than taking a bung off a dodgy businessman.

The problem with appointing people to the Lords or with electing them to the House is that they are reliant on the job for their income.  You only have to look at the amount of fraud and corruption amongst MPs to see what happens when you put people of limited substance into a position of power.  Corrupt politics on the scale experienced now is a relatively recent phenomenon.  A century ago most MPs were wealthly landowners, Lords, doctors, etc. – people with money, a career and a reputation.  The job of an MP was a philanthropic choice of career rather than one with a hugely inflated salary, an effective immunity from prosecution and a retirement package that will keep you in luxury for the rest of your natural.

Those who seek power are not worthy of that power.
– Plato

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Ashley Mote: British Revisionist

January 24, 2009 General No comments

Ashley Mote, the former UKIP MEP for the South East (he was expelled from UKIP after admitting to benefit fraud and now sits as an independent), had a leaflet put in the latest edition of the Save Our Sovereignty newsletter calling for letter writing activists.

I couldn’t resist sending him an email after reading it, an English politician really should know the difference between England and Britain.

Dear Mr Mote,

I got a copy of your leaflet in with the Save Our Sovereignty newsletter and I’m afraid I didn’t read more than a few lines.  Nothing puts me off reading leaflets more than American-English and revisionism.

Could you please explain how you came to the conclusion that the 1689 Bill of Rights, passed into law by the English Parliament 18 years before the British Parliament came into existence with the 1707 Act of Union and not having legal effect in Scotland, is the “British” Bill of Rights?  You talk a lot about the “British” Constitution but there is, in reality, no such thing.  There is an English Constitution and a Scottish Constitution and depending on your interpretation of the Metric Martyrs ruling, there may even be a Welsh Constitution and a Northern Irish Constitution if you accept that the Acts of Parliament that created the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies were constitutional laws.

I see you even have a “British Constitution” section on your website.  Surely, as a politician elected in England, you should know the difference between England and Britain?

Stuart

It’s been a few days and I’ve still not heard back from him …

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