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!
Technorati Tags: Garden Bar
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?
Technorati Tags: EU Constitution
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.
Technorati Tags: Elections
The already discredited global warming propagandists will be reeling from the latest evidence that they’re a bunch of lying shits.
They’ve yet to offer a reasonable explanation for why, despite their claims that the earth is warming, it has in fact been cooling for the last few years and is lower than it has been several times in the last couple of milllenia. They haven’t even attempted to explain at all how the data that convinced scientists 30 years ago we were heading for an ice age has now convinced them we’re now getting global warming. Now it turns out that we’re headed for a decade of global cooling caused by “natural climate cycles”! Someone is seriously off message.
There is a lifeline for the global warming propagandists though. The scientists who’ve gone off message have predicted that we’ll see even harsher rises in temperatures from 2010 to 2020 so that it’ll catch up with the prediction made by the IPPC report that was headed up by an exposed liar.
Any bets what will happen when, in 10 years time, it turns out the global economy is fucked because of a load of bollocks? When the so-called experts who’ve driven us into recession and poverty admit it was all because of a big fucking lie will they be punished? They’ll claim that they’ve saved us, I know they will.
These bullshit propagandist scientists who sell their integrity to the highest bidder are a disgrace to their profession.
Technorati Tags: Climate Change, Propaganda
Having finished my daily dose of the Daily Mash I popped over to BBC News to get the serious news.
Or so I thought.
I thought perhaps the Daily Mash had managed to hijack my browser and spoof the BBC News website somehow when I saw this: Lesbos islanders dispute gay name. Apparently, the islanders of Lesbos are so outraged by the use of the word lesbian – derived from name of the island thanks to a muff diving poet from the 7th Century BC – that they’re taking a gay and lesbian society to court to try and force them to change their name, claiming that the appropriation of their adjective to refer to ladies who like doing rude things with other ladies is a breach of their human rights.
It’s reassuring to see that with all the problems going on round the world, the inhabitants of Lesbos can still find so much time and energy to devote to such a pointless activity (the legal action, not girl on girl action which is … I’ll stop now).
Technorati Tags: Lesbos
May the fire of socialism burn inside you as strong as the cars and shops your friends will be setting on fire today.
Technorati Tags: May Day
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!
Technorati Tags: Guido
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.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, MP, David Wright
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.
Technorati Tags: Protests
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.
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.
Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe
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”?
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.
Technorati Tags: EDP, Matt O’Conner, UKIP
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.
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!
Technorati Tags: Question Time, BBC Bias, London Mayor
