I don’t share Cranmer’s zeal for Christian fundamentalism but I do share his concern over the encroachment of alien religions into everyday life.

Earlier in the month he reproduced a letter from Sikh Awareness on the subject of Halal meat being served as a matter of course to non-muslims in schools:

Dear Sir

Re: Halal only meat served at a public north London primary school

We are requesting your much required help

It has come to our knowledge that the school which our 3 young children attend have been serving halal meat as part of their school meals without the knowledge of parents. We recently were given a form requesting if our children would like to have Christmas dinner. We opted for the traditional Christmas dinner and when we submitted this form to the school office, we by chance mentioned halal, and we were told that Christmas dinner – turkey will be halal. We explained that we are SIKHS and so halal consumption is FORBIDDEN, to which the response was that our children would have to have the vegetarian alternative. Therefore we have started a petition. The petition simply requests that SCHOOLS MUST GIVE ADVANCE NOTICE OF THEIR SCHOOL MEALS POLICY AND THAT IF HALAL MEAT IS PROVIDED, SO SHOULD NON HALAL MEAT. This is not only because Sikhs are forbidden to eat halal on religious grounds but many non-Sikhs do not wish their children to consume halal meat.

Please sign our petition

We will inform all Sikh Gurdwaras in the UK and also world wide.

Thank you

MR JORAWAR Singh

Animals killed for Halal meat suffer an inhumane death, being strung up by their back legs and bleeding to death from a slit throat.  A lot of people have a moral objection to Halal meat, Sikh’s have a religious objection.  Halal meat should, where appropriate, be an option for muslim or Jewish children, not an obligation for all.

Technorati Tags: Halal

Regular readers will know that I have a phobia of dentists so bad that I recently spent a week and a half in agony with a gum infection rather than go to the dentist.

Well, yesterday was my first trip to the hospital for some dental work.  I wasn’t in the best shape by the time I got into the dentists room but luckily Mrs Sane was there to hold my hand (literally).  I told the dentist about the gum infection the allergic reaction I had to penicillin the other day and the various tablets I’m taking half hoping she’d say she couldn’t do anything but she said it was fine.

The dentist had a look around by mouth and said I think we’d better just take these two teeth out, are you happy with that?  Erm … bit of a daft question but I told her to do it.  They pumped me full of vallium which did mellow me out enough to have the work done but didn’t supress my memory of it or anything like she said it would.

So, I’ve had two broken teeth out that have been causing me problems for ages – one on either side of my mouth – and I’m going back next year to have some fillings.  I can only eat using two back teeth on one side of my mouth because of the hole where my tooth has been taken out and the infection on the other side.  The infected gum is making its presence known – I’ve got one hamster cheek and my mouth still tastes of blood but it should be sorted in a day or two.

If anyone else has a phobia of dentists that they can’t get over then I really would recommend going to see a dentist, telling them about your phobia and asking for a referral to your local nervous patients service.  The dentist won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with and you’ll feel better once you’ve gone through with it.

Technorati Tags: Dentist, Phobia

I finally got round to going to the dentist yesterday to get some antibiotics to sort out the infection in my gum that I’ve had for weeks.  It doesn’t hurt any more unless I push on it but it needs sorting out.

So, I went to the dentist yesterday afternoon, she had a quick look and two minutes later I was out of the door.  It was free as well – apparently they aren’t allowed to charge NHS patients just to give them a prescription.

She said I just needed a course of antibiotics and had I ever had a problem taking penicillin.  I told her that I had once when I was a kid but I’d had it loads of times since so she gave me my prescription for penicillin.  You can guess what happened next can’t you?

Five minutes before I was due to go home from work last night the back of my head started itching.  Then my ears went really hot and prickly.  Then my forehead.  I drove home with the windows open, breathing steam and still my head was hot.  I got into the house, went straight into the bathroom and my face and neck were bright red.  The word “bollocks” sprang to mind.

I took my temperature which was normal but my face was burning up – just like I’d been badly sunburnt.  I popped a piriton (anti-histamine), phoned the out of hours doctor who agreed that I was probably having a reaction to the penicillin and to take pirition and phone 999 if my mouth or throat started to swell.  Just the sort of reassurance I needed, that.

Anyway, about three hours, a bag of smiley faces wrapped in a tea towel and a cold shower later and the redness and swelling had all but gone.  Back to normal this morning apart from an itchy rash on my arm and I’ve still not got rid of this bloody infection!

Technorati Tags: Allergic Reaction, Penicillin

Mrs Sane wants Professor Layton’s Curious Adventure on the Nintendo DS.  Only problem is it’s out of stock in all the shops, eBay is full of scams and Play are taking the piss charging £50+ for the game.

I’ve tried to convince her to have one of those cartridges where you can play … ahem … backup games but she won’t have one, she wants the real thing.

I’ve got a copy on pre-order at one interweb shop but they can’t guarantee delivery by Christmas so I’m appealing to my readers – if anyone can get me a copy of the UK version of Professor Layton for the DS for the RRP (+/- £5) I’ll be most grateful.  I’ve got an England flag here still in its packet as a reward for finding it – not much but it’s better than nothing.

Technorati Tags: Professor Layton

Telford & Wrekin Council has announced that it is going to increase the unconstitutional and illegal on-the-spot fines that it issues for dropping litter in the borough.

The Bill of Rights says:

any promise of fine or forfeiture before conviction is illegal and void

Magna Carta says:

No free man shall be captured, and or imprisoned, or disseised of his freehold, and or of his liberties, or of his free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against him by force or proceed against him by arms, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, and or by the law of the land.

Both these laws still stand today and form the core of the English constitution and English common law.  The laws that say someone can be fined without first being convicted have not repealed any part of the Bill of Rights or Magna Carta and so, in accordance with the judgement in the “Metric Martyrs” case, take precedence over these newer, non-constitutional laws.

I will be writing to the lawyers at Telford & Wrekin Council giving them notice that I believe the council is acting unlawfully and if they don’t stop issuing illegal fines I’ll report the cabinet to the Standards Board for England for bringing the council into disrepute.

Technorati Tags: Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, Summary Justice, Constitution, Telford

The Queen has regurgitated the Liebour propaganda piece more commonly known as the Queen’s Speech and a load of shit it is too.

Here’s a brief overview of all the draft bills in the Queens Speech:

Banking Reform Bill

Gives the Bank of England, the Treasury and the FSA more powers to intervene in failing banks like Northern Rock.  Doesn’t stop the Bank of England being forced to make public any offer of help to a bank whether it’s needed not which is what caused the run on Northern Rock.  The Market Abuse Directive (MAD) – issued by the EU and “gold plated” by the British civil service under El Gordo’s beady eye -prevents the Bank of England from giving a commitment to help a bank without making the offer public.

Business Rates Supplement Bill

Local authorities are going to be given the power to levy an extra business tax for “economic development”.  Basically, taxing local businesses to subsidise new competitors to try and put them out of business.  Expect harmonised “city region” business tax levies to be announced soon.  Proposed by the New Liebour think-tank, IPPR, in April this year and an ambition of the city region in the West Midlands as far back as 2006, as discovered by me with my West Midlands NO! hat on.

Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill

More regional government, more “partnerships” between local authorities (aka city regions) and more community consultations on local services.

Constitutional Renewal Bill

“Independent” commission to protect civil service impartiality (interesting use of the word “protect” as that implies there is an ounce of impartiality there in the first place), prevent Attorney General interefering in prosecutions, removing restrictions on protests in Westminster and stops the Prime Minister from appointing Supreme Court Judges (there’s no supreme court but never mind).  This bill is the only decent one in the whole speech and it’s being dropped from the draft legislative programme.

Citizenship, Immigration & Borders Bill

Creates the UK Borders Agency to ineffectually police our borders but won’t be able to stop Eastern European gangsters and criminals from exercising their “right” as EU citizens to roam around our country whenever they feel like it.

Communications Data Bill

More power for the state to obtain information about your internet and phone use in the name of preventing and investigating serious crime and terrorism.  Like every other “anti-terrorism” law it won’t catch any terrorists but will be abused by the British government, the police and the myriad public bodies that are allowed to gather “intelligence” for petty purposes like dog fouling and putting recycling in your wheelie bin. 

Coroners & Death Certification Bill

Creates a national coroners service to replace the existing, perfectly servicable county coroners.

Education & Skills Bill

“Fair access” to schools and improve performance of weak schools by stopping the top performing schools from picking out clever and able children and giving them the education they need to develop their natural ability in favour of dragging everyone down to the same level.  Also gives employees the right to ask for training from their employer.  Doesn’t mean they’ll get it but they’ll have the right to ask.

Equality Bill

Should be known as the Discrimination Bill – this is the piece of fucking awful, hypocritical and white man-hating discriminatory legislation that the evil man-hating bitch Harriet Harperson proposed in June.  The Equality Bill allows discrimination against white working men in favour of every other section of society.  The Equality Bill will also allow political parties to have all-women short-lists, undermining one of the most basic principles of democracy by effectively banning men from standing as MPs in some areas.  God I hate that fucking woman.

Geneva Conventions & UN Personnel Bill

Adopt a new “humanitarian emblem” and prmises more protection of UN personnel.

Heritage Protection Bill

Transparent and simplified management of heritage sites.  Why is this a priority?

Law Reform, Victims & Witnesses Bill

Creates new murder offences so some murders will be more serious than others, gives more “auditing powers” to the Information Commissioner for data protection purposes and more state interference in the legal system.

Marine & Coastal Access Bill

More seaside resorts and “simplifed management” of the coast.  Which is a priority, apparently.

NHS Reform Bill

More “reform” of the English NHS with new targets and financial penalties for the hospitals that don’t meet the targets, depriving them of the money they need to hit the next lot of targets.

Policing & Crime Reduction Bill

Cutting down on paperwork for police and clamping down on anti-social behaviour and binge drinking.  What the fuck has binge drinking got to do with policing or crime reduction?  It’s a social choice and fuck all to do with the police or the British government.

Saving Gateway Bill

A new savings scheme for low-paid people where the British government will top-up the savings from the Treasury.  Or, more accurately, from the billions of pounds they’ve borrowed from the banks that they borrowed billions of pounds to prop up.

Transport Security Bill

More “terrorist” offences relating to carrying weapons of mass destruction by sea and terrorism at sea.  A hastily-added clause after what happened in Mumbai no doubt.  Gives the Royal Navy more power to tackle piracy – already a capital crime in international waters so completely pointless.  The Royal Navy aleady has the power to scuttle pirate ships and execute the pirates.

Welfare Reform Bill

Force dole dossers to go on training courses so they can be skilled dole dossers instead of unskilled dole dossers.

The best quote out of all of this has got to be this line from the Citizenship, Immigration and Borders Bill which says that the citizenship process will be held up if:

migrants don’t make an effort to integrate or commit even minor crimes

Should we really be passing laws to encourage immigrants to commit crimes?

Technorati Tags: Queens Speech

Indian troops have killed the last of the terrorists holed up in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

The Taj Mahal Palace hotel was the last one to be cleared of terrorists earlier today.

It’s taken almost three days to clear a few terrorists out of a couple of hotels, what has actually been happening down there?

Technorati Tags: India, Mumbai, Terrorists

David Blunkett says that everyone between the age of 16 and 25 should do at least 6 months of intensive voluntary work.

An interesting proposition but not something I can see many 16 to 25 year olds going for it.  How about our MPs set an example by doing intensive volunteer work during the 6 months a year that they don’t do anything to earn their very generous salaries?  Blunkett claimed over £143k in allowances last year on top of his MPs salary of just over £63k.

Technorati Tags: David Blunkett, Hypocrites

Number 3 was diagnosed with dyspraxia a while ago and as he’s getting older he’s displaying all the classic symptoms, not to mention being incredibly frustrating.

Dyspraxia is a developmental disorder that affects someone for their whole life.  The symptoms include being fidgetty, a lack of concentration, having difficulty adapting to new situations, frustration (with the associated mood swings) and poor co-ordination.  Here’s an everyday example of dyspraxia in action with #3: send him to his room to get dressed, he starts to put his clothes on (eventually) and can’t find his socks.  Rather than carry on getting dressed and asking for socks afterwards he’ll sit on the floor and wait until someone comes to find him or he’ll wander off half dressed and do something else.  Once he’s figured out how he’s going to do something, if he can’t do it in that order he can’t get his head around the rest of it.

We were lucky because #3 was diagnosed early and because I’m the sort of person who makes sure that they get what I want whenever possible, we got help from the local authority.  Not too much help, mind, but they’ve made some effort.  They’ve been in to see #3 at school and done assessments and helped his teacher to come up with ways to help him.  The most simple thing was giving him a chunky, three sided pencil which is the difference between squashed spider and legible handwriting.

Like I said, the local authority have made an effort but there’s still more they could be doing.  We only know what the symptoms of dyspraxia are because we’ve been on the internet and found them out.  The realisation that we’d been punishing him or getting frustrated with him over things that aren’t his fault wasn’t a nice moment but nobody told us what to expect or how to deal with it and believe me, when a 6 year old child is standing in front of you laughing hysterically when you’re telling them off for something, it’s hard to stay calm!

Have any of my readers had to cope with a child with dyspraxia?  Got any tips?

Technorati Tags: Dyspraxia

Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel.

That’s it.

No punchline.

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson, Islam

Tory MP, Peter Luff, has criticised gas and electricity companies for putting up customers’ direct debits unnecessarily.

I can confirm this happens with Grittish Bass – I’ve had to tell them the last two or three times that they’ve sent a bill to reduce the direct debit because they’ve put it up for no reason.  On one occasion they actually put the direct debit up while we were in credit.

The reason why they do it is quite simple – they invest the credit balances on accounts and pocket the profit.  The direct debit amount is calculated by a computer which estimates how much gas and electric you’re going to use over the next quarter but of course, the computer will use whatever rules it’s been given to come up with a figure and the rules they’re using are coming up with artificially high figures.

There is a simple solution though – if your gas or electricity company sends you a bill with a revised direct debit that you think is unreasonable then tell them.  I’ve certainly had no problems telling them how much I’m prepared to pay, you just need to be firm when they try and persuade you to pay what they want.

Technorati Tags: Gas, Electricity, Peter Luff MP

About 10 years ago my mum was diagnosed Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.  Needless to say, it was a difficult time for the whole family and I got through it by pretending it wasn’t happening.  She spent a couple of months in isolation in a hospital in Birmingham and had to have her heart stopped twice to bring her heartbeat under control but I still managed to ignore it!  Isn’t the human mind a wonderful thing?

Anyway, she went into remission about 8 years ago and when she went for her annual check-up today they told her that if she goes next year and everything’s ok then they’ll give her the all-clear.  Which is a weight-off my mind, obviously.

And slightly less importantly, but good news nonetheless, is that #3 has developed a healthy taste for hard rock and death metal.  He quite likes a bit of Rammstein, which is nice (yes, I know Rammstein is industrial metal before any metal-geeks feel the need to tell me off!).  Next task it go hunting for some metal tracks that aren’t about sex and drugs or contain more anglo-saxon words than a viking’s dictionary.  Any suitable suggestions for a 6 year old?

Technorati Tags: Good News, Cancer, Rammstein, Music, Death Metal

One of the kids brought home another glossy newspaper-style magazine produced by my local council’s school meals people.

Regular readers will know that I’ve complained about school meals in the past specifically about the rewards schemes they run to get kids pressuring their parents for school meals and reward children that are entitled to free school meals even though they don’t need any incentive other than the meals being free.

At the bottom of the front page of this magazine it says:

FREE School Meals.  Are your kids getting theirs? – Imagine that, no bills, no time spent making packed lunches and the guarantee your child will have a tasty, nutritious meal every day.  See back page for more details.

Sounds great!  I could spend another half an hour in bed in the morning if I didn’t have 4 packed lunches to make.  What do I do to make sure my kids get their FREE, tasty, nutritious meal every day?  Is there a form to fill in?  A number to call?

Your child may qualify for Free School Meals if they are in full time education up to the age of 19 and you and your partner work fewer than 16 hours a week; or receive Income Support, Income Based Jobseekers Allowance or receive Child Taxes Credits and have an annual taxable income of less than £15,575

Ah yes, the same old rules then.  Those of us who work full time or earn more than minimum wage are discriminated against as per bloody usual.  Tell me who’s in a better position to pay for school meals – some scrounging layabout who gets their rent and council tax paid and extra benefits for every child they have or someone who works for a living, has to pay all their own bills and earns the same regardless of how many children they have?

Technorati Tags: School Meals, Discrimination

I’ve never resurrected a post from the depths of time but I was talking to a Belgian friend this morning and showed him this analogy I wrote back in February 2006 and thought it was worth giving another airing:

The Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourgish governments have today signed an Act of Union, uniting the three countries into the United Kingdom of Benelux.

The new federal government will be based in Amsterdam, the new capital of Benelux.

Belgium and Luxembourg will each have its own devolved government handling local affairs.

The Netherlands will be divided into 6 regions – North, South, West, East and Central Netherlands and the City Region of Amsterdam.

A devolved government for the Netherlands was mooted but was considered too great a risk to the union. The government of Benelux is drawing up plans for regional government in the Netherlands at some point in the future.

A Dutch campaign group raised the concern that Belgian and Luxembourgish politicians would be voting on legislation that only applied to the Netherlands. The Belgian-born president of Benelux gave the matter consideration but it was thought that preventing them from doing so would disenfranchise voters outside of the Netherlands and the concerns were dismissed.

As part of the terms of the Union of Benelux, the Netherlands will pay off the national debt of Belgium and Luxembourg and a new funding structure put in place which will see the Netherlands subsidise Belgium and Luxembourg whilst they work towards bringing their economy up to the same level as the Netherlands.

Technorati Tags: Belgium, Luxebourg, Netherlands, Analogy

I saw an advert on the BBC today for TV Licensing, the extortion arm of the BBC.

The advert started off all nice and friendly telling the viewer that thanks to their technology you can pay for your TV licence by yearly or monthly direct debit or even weekly by cash.

That’s very generous of them.  What piece of wonderous, customer friendly technology is this?

It’s all in the database

Ah, “the database”.  It’s all for our benefit you know?  All that business with keeping every address in the UK and harassing anyone in “the database” who hasn’t got a TV licence is to protect us, the customer.  Sending threatening letters to anyone who buys any type of TV equipment whether they have a TV licence or not is just a proactive way of reminding us of our responsibilities as good citizens.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Extortion

Technorati Tags: Remembrance Sunday

Hands up if you’re fed up of the bullshit propaganda about climate change.

Yep, thought so.  The left wing media is, of course, wholeheartedly behind the anthropogenic climate change cash cow, filling column inches with the latest story about retreating ice caps and rising temperatures and other such bullshit events that haven’t actually happened.

One island of sanity in the ocean of climate change madness is An Englishman’s Castle.  It’s one of the few blogs I read daily rather than cherry picking posts from the Witan syndicated feed and it’s such an excellent read that I’m awarding it the second ever WINO Award.

Technorati Tags: WINO

In the last three months I’ve twice scared off some of the local feral youth when they’ve been trying to break into my neighbours garden at night and today someone has had a go at the same house in broad daylight!

Mrs Sane called me to tell me that the police had been round asking if she’d seen anything and they’re all over the place taking footprints in the mud and other exciting CSI-type stuff.  I’m exaggerating slightly but there’s a few police kicking about this afternoon.

What’s the world coming to when your home isn’t even safe in broad daylight?

Time to bolster the defences I think.  Anyone know where I can get one of those laser devices they used in Over the Hedge?

Technorati Tags: Crime

Hazel Blears has attacked political bloggers for “fuel[ing] a culture of cynicism and pessimism” about politics.

Hazel love, you’re a fucking fruit loop.  It’s people like you, dear, that fuel a culture of cynicism and pessimism about politics.  People like you who not only ignore the people who elected you but actively work against their wishes and act all surprised when they don’t think you’re doing them a favour.  People like you who consistently and unswervingly vote with your party on every issue, regardless of what their constituents want.  People like you who have consistently voted against every proposal to make parliament transparent and in favour of every bill that curtails human rights and civil liberties.

Ms Blears, the wealthy middle class solicitor and MP on a ministers salary of nearly £139k, says that we need more working class MPs.  She said that we need more MPs earning almost £62k a year plus expenses that “know what it is to worry about the rent collector’s knock, or the fear of lay-off”.

She did betray the real reason for her attack on political bloggers though.

The most popular blogs are right-wing

Yes Hazel, they are.  It’s also because left wing politics is so incredibly dull and predictable.  Corruption, sleaze, spin, class jealousy and never-ending destructive “reform”.

Do us a favour Hazel, go and get your hair done or something and leave the savaging to people who know how to do it properly.

Technorati Tags: Hazel Blears

Been very busy this last few days, hence the light posting.  Anyhow, hope you all enjoyed your 5th of November and here’s a picture for you to enjoy …

Technorati Tags: Guy Fawkes, Gordon Brown, 5th November