More quiet reporting by the BBC

When Israel are accused of war crimes by some left-wing anti-Israel body, the BBC give the report all due publicity and use it as an excuse to insult Israeli spokesmen on The Today programme. However when the prominent human rights group Human Right Watch say that the firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas militants from theGaza Strip amounts to a war crime, the coverage is somewhat different. Just a short piece hidden away in the Middle East news section with no link from the news front pages and no radio reference that I have noticed.

Why the difference in coverage? Anyone would think the BBC had an agenda.

Someone liked Kraftwek and early electro pop

Arthur and Martha - "Autovia"

"...the liberal left has lost its way, lost its moral authority and become a threat to our freedom; the medicine has become the disease..."

The always challenging Pat Condell excoriates the liberal Left, of which he used to be a believer, for its abandonment of its own stated principles by embracing jihad. He explains why opposition to Islamic supremacism is not racism, exposes the truth about the manipulative, cynical, over-used term "Islamophobia". Pat Condell deserves to be listened to, but rarely is other than on the web.

Piss-up in a brewery time

Scheduling software is cheap and includes the facility to include weekends. It would seem that the Labour government didn't realise that Hariet Harman stops being "in charge" on Friday and Peter Mandelson is on holiday until Monday that people might wonder who was in charge over the weekend.

Maybe Harriet Harman thought that as a woman she didn't habe to work weekends and Peter Mandelson was too busy enjoying the hospitality of the wealthy to come home early once the problem had been discovered. So as of now any crisis would be handled by Peter Mandelson via his BlackBerry or over a non-secure telephone line.

Maybe Gordon Brown is "really in charge" anyway and the "Minister on Duty" is just a honorific; if so do the public deserve to be told that we are being scammed?

What's missing?

The BBC manage to report on David Norgrove's report that said rising life expectancy meant millions of people would "undoubtedly" have to wait longer in future to draw a state pension. The rise in the pension age to 68 that is due soon is mentioned, but not the discrepancy that is still likely to exist between private sector and public sector retirement ages. Now why would the BBC be interested in keeping that quiet?

The BBC and its belief in Fatah PLO despite the facts

The BBC report on Fatah's conference is intersting in what it doesn't say and what it hides. Only near the end of the report does the report manage to talk about the recognition for Israel and all we get told is:

"International interest in the conference has so far centred on whether Fatah will alter its charter, which calls for armed struggle to end the existence of Israel.

This dates back to Fatah's formation in the 1950s by Mr Arafat.

But by backing the Oslo peace process in the early 1990s, Fatah effectively renounced violence and recognised Israel.

On Tuesday Mr Abbas said Fatah was committed to peace, but maintained armed struggle as an option. "

So we learn that although Fatah's charter calls for armed struggle to end Israel's existence, this is a minor point as they don't really mean it. I'd rather deal in facts:
"Fatah does not recognize Israel's right to exist, nor have we ever asked others to do so... It's all media nonsense. We don't ask other factions to recognize Israel; we ourselves do not recognize Israel" - senior Fatah member Rafik Natsheh, a close associate of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - 2009

"Not only will Fatah never recognize Israel, but it will never end its call for armed struggle against Israel... Let those who are deluding themselves hear: this will never happen" - senior Fatah member Rafik Natsheh, a close associate of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - 2009

"The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Acco [Acre] ... There is no change in our position. Abbas recognizes Israel because of pressure that the Zionists and the Americans are exercising on him. We understand this is part of his obligations and political calculations." - Abu Ahmed, a senior Fatah member and leader in northern Gaza of its Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - 2006

"It is the PLO, which is a separate entity, that recognized Israel, and this was a step, a tactical step that had as its goal to bring the resistance and the revolution closer to the lands of Palestine ... There is an opportunistic class at the head of the Fatah leadership that for personal and political interests says it accepts the existence of Israel. There is no change in our official position. Fatah as a movement never recognized Israel. It is the PLO who did so for the reasons I mentioned." - Abu Ahmed, a senior Fatah member and leader in northern Gaza of its Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - 2006

The TV channel directly controlled by Abbas's office regularly runs educational programs to teach Palestinian adults and children alike that there is no state called Israel, and that all Israel's land is actually "occupied Palestine."

Palestinian children are taught that Israeli cities throughout the entire country - from Haifa in the North, to Jaffa (part of Tel Aviv), to Eilat in the south, are all actually Palestinian cities. Videos feature songs about a "Palestine" that erases Israel and a future when the Israeli cities Jaffa and Haifa will be "liberated."

"We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world - except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquillity under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew." - from a sermon delivered by Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris and broadcast on Palestinian Authority television shortly before Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.


Fatah/PLO have deo not want to live in peace with Israel, they like Hamas, Hezbollah and the rest of the Islamic terrorist organisations that infest the Middle East are just two sides of the same coin. They all want to see the complete destruction of Israel and differ only in that some are Islamist and want to kill all Jews whether inside or outside of Israel whilst at the moment Fatah will hold peace talks with Israel as a holding measure until they can destroy Israel.

For some odd reason, well not that odd really, the BBC are happy to persuade us that Fatah are moderates and ready to discuss peace with the real aggressor, Israel. And it seems to me that the BBC will continue this deceit right up until the time that Israel is no more.

The Telegraph seem not to care about accuracy any more

Michael Henderson in The Telegraph writes about Steve Harmison's shortcomings but also makes a horrendous mistake in his reporting.

"Bopara, Bell and Collingwood at Nos 3, 4 and 5 does not inspire the same confidence as, say, Cowdrey, Dexter, and Barrington. Or Vaughan, Hussain and Thorpe. Or Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb."

That is just so inaccurate, number 3,4 and 5 in the Trumpton Fire Brigade order are "Barney McGrew, Cuthbert and Dibble", Grubb was at best a number 6 and some would say lucky to even play there as his standard shot was somewhat wooden.

Here's "Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub" and Captain Flack, a more charismatic leader than Andrew Strauss.



And of course that does give me the excuse to once again post Half Man, Half Biscuit's "Trumpton Riots"




All together now:

"Unemployments rising
In the Chigley end of town.
And it's speading like pneumonia;
Doesn't look like going down.
There's trouble at the fire station;
Someone's had the sack.
And the lads are going to launch a scheme
To get rid of Captain Flack.

Tell PC McGarry
To get himself a mate.
And arm themselves with C. S. Gas
They're gonna be out late.
We've had calm conformers in since 1966.
And now subversions in the air
In the shape of flying bricks!

Chorus:
Someone get a message through
To Captain Snort
That they better start assembling
The boys from the fort.
Keep Mrs. Honeyman right out of sight,
'Cause there's gonna be riot
Down in Trumpton Tonight.

All this aristocracy
Has really got to stop.
We'll overthrow the surgery
And kidnap Doctor Mop
And Chicley Militant Socialists
Will storm the market square
And make plans to assasinate
Our autocratic mayor!

Windy Militant rages past
With Corn grinders to war
With windmill sails and bombs with nails
They smash the town hall door.
But Snorty and the boys arrive
With one big erstwhile (?) crew
Whereupon they bring about
A military coup.

Chorus x 2 "

The war on Islamic terror is over

Robert Spencer the renowned Islamic Historian and owner of the valuable resource that is Jihad Watch blog speaks about the Stealth Jihad – the growing Islamisation, creeping Sharia and over-indulgence of Muslims in the West. This speech was at the Young America’s Foundation annual conference in Washington DC earlier this week. DO listen to the whole speech you will learn something and sleep far less easily tonight.

The Muslim population of Europe and the BBC

The Telegraph has as one of its lead stories this morning the prediction from the US Migration Policy Institute that Muslims will make up 20% of the EU population by 2050. Beneath this headline are some even more worrying predictions such as Muslims could outnumber non-Muslims in France by 2050. Muslims already comprise 25% of the populations of Rotterdam and Marseilles , 20% of Malmo, 15% of Brussels and Birmingham and 10% of London, Paris and Copenhagen. This 20% prediction does of course exclude the possibility of Turkey becoming a member of the EU in which case all bets are off. In 2007 France already had a Muslim population of 9% which will come as no surprise to anyone who has visited Paris in recent years, areas of which now seem closer to Islamabad than the Paris of 30 years ago.

The story on language is also a great worry to me as it makes creating an educated society even harder than it would be after 12 years of a Labour anti-proper education government. In 2007 54% of children in London had at least one foreign born parent and in 2008 14.4% of children in primary schools had a language other than English as a first language.


This is a big news story so what do I find about it on the BBC? Nothing, not a word on the report; just this debunking of a YouTube video on what seems like a similar topic. According to the BBC the video is misinforming people and all is lovely in multicultural Europe. A nice selection of comments appear at the end of the BBC piece, the vast majority supportive of the BBC line and against the video. What is striking is that the BBC do not link to the video "Muslim Demographics". So I will... You can watch it here or below...

The BBC's "don't scare the children"/"don't rock the boat" outlook on multiculturalism scares me; this sort of refusal to engage with views different to their own may lead to more extremism rather than less as people fell that their views are not being represented.

Beyonce does the Birdy Song

Unreal!

"The Honourable Gentleman has been writing articles in the newspapers... that spread alarm, without substance, about the state of the economy..."

The Times have a list of "Gordon Brown's 10 worst financial gaffes" and it's an interesting read, I wonder if we could get a reaction from Gordon Brown to the list...

Here are the headings, read the article for the details:
1. Taxing dividend payments
2. Selling our gold
3. Tripartite financial regulation
4. Tax credits
5. The £10,000 corporation tax threshold
6. Abolition of the 10p tax rate
7. Failing to spot the housing bubble
8. 50 per cent tax rate
9. Cutting VAT
10. Public-sector borrowing


The title for this piece comes from the housing bubble section, here's an extended extract:

"In 2003 a mild-mannered Liberal Democrat MP by the name of Vince Cable dared to question the mantra of "the end of boom and bust". He asked Gordon Brown: "Is it not true that...the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?" Gordon replied: "The Honourable Gentleman has been writing articles in the newspapers, as reflected in his contribution, that spread alarm, without substance, about the state of the economy..." We all know what happened next."

Add up just these top 10 of Gordon Brown's financial gaffes and I wonder how much this idiot has cost the country; more than was lost on Black Wednesday I would estimate.

I note that not included in the list was Gordon Brown's quite deliberate decision to change the UK inflation measure from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index thus allowing rampant house price inflation to be excluded from "inflation" targets.

Maybe the British people are due an apology from Gordon Brown, the Labour Party and all the media who swallowed and regurgitated Gordon Brown's spin, half-truths and downright lies over the past decade and a half. An apology should surely be due for convincing us that this former political historian, teacher and journalist was in any way competent to run the UK economy.

The Guardian have a voting problem (update)

Further to this piece earlier in the week, The Guardian managed to avoid Top Gear winning their poll by The Wire getting even more multiple votes.

"Between the poll launching at about 4pm on Thursday 30 July and closing yesterday, it attracted just under 100,000 unique users, so in theory there should have been a similar number of votes cast.

As you can see from the final poll, there were slightly more than 100,000 votes cast – in total 2,316,575, by my calculation.

Two shows, The Wire and Top Gear, accounted for nearly 90% of the votes. The Wire (1,035,509/44.7%) finished ahead of Top Gear (1,001,096/43.3%) thanks to a late burst of sustained multiple voting between Tuesday and the poll closing at 2pm yesterday.

This after Top Gear had established a seemingly unassailable lead over the weekend with its own burst of multiple voting – by Monday the show had nearly 60% of the votes cast, with around 350,000.

QI (198,400/8.6%) ended up a distant third and the only other show to get more than 0.2% of the vote was The West Wing (33,860/1.5%)."

With multiple voting distorting the fair result, you can see why the Labour party are so keen on electronic voting.

Fun with dates

Today at 12:34 and 56 seconds the time and date will be - 12:34:56 07/08/09
that's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. I do not believe that will happen again in our lifetime.

The intolerance of the left

I have blogged previously (most recently here) about the intolerance of the left when faced with argument and two videos I have seen very recently brought this home to me.

The first is from America where the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) held a meeting in Dallas on 4 August and the facilitator says

"You'll notice on the agenda we've called it a "listening session", that's because we want to hear from you as well as tell us what we're working on."

As soon as people disagree with something she says out comes the leftist whining aggression:

"Excuse me but I would really appreciate it if everybody could keep their comments quiet until there is time for the public, we're going to have .. questions and answers and I would appreciate some courtesy. Really, I mean this might be fun for you but this is not what we're doing today."

Do keep watching as you see various AARP facilitators walk out of the meeting and take their microphone with them.


Listening to the lady facilitator have her rant it struck me that there was another piece of video of a leftist getting aggressive when someone dared to question them. It was some video from a while back of Sion Simon reacting very aggressively to some fair questioning from the Sky interviewer.

"Just let me finish. Let me finish. Let me explain.'ang on! Do you want me to, do you want me to explain or not?!... Do you want me to explain? Right then, be quiet then while I speak."

What a charmer and he's now in government with some responsibility for digital media...


In case you missed it at the time, here's the Sion Simon satirical piece on David Cameron... Witty isn't it? I'd say a cross between Wilde and Swift; maybe not.

Guido links to Sion Simon's blog piece for the New Statesman in September 2007 which explains that

"shortly there will be an election, in which Labour will increase its majority, and in so doing utterly shatter the glass paradigm of cyclical politics which has contained us for the century since 1906. This ought to herald another decade of strong, confident, consensual Labour government. Which will finally and irrevocably transform the nature of politics and civic life in Britain."

and that:

"The young princes who now stride the parade ground with the confidence born of aristocratic schooling can never be afraid. They never have been. Like latter day Pushkins drilled in the elite academy of Brownian blitzkrieg, they are bursting with their sense of destiny. It’s not the Milibands, the Ballses or the Burnhams who are unconsciously nervous. This is the moment for which they were created. They are ready."

For what "the people" think of his piece, do read the comments...


The left: proudly democratic and ready to listen, so long as nobody dares to question them.


Thanks to Calling England for the American video and Guido Fawkes for the Sion Simon video.

David "Boy" Miliband jumps on the bandwagon

David Miliband shows what an original thinker by declaring that he is in favour of US style primary elections. The ever loyal BBC faithfully report this news in awed tones. They do manage to mention further down the report that the Conservatives have already done this in Totnes very recently.

If a Conservative politician had followed a Labour lead then the article would be full of talk of bandwagons, but as it is the other way around and David "banana" Miliband might still become the next Labour leader, the BBC go into Pravda mode.

NotaSheep comes to the support of Bob Ainsworth

Private Eye have put Bob Ainsworth's slightly odd remark that "Let's not take our bridges before they've been erected." into Colemanballs. I can hardly believe that I am saying this but could it be that Bob Ainsworth was trying to recall an old REME saying that the army can't create a bridgehead until REME have built the bridge. I have jumped to the support of a Labour Minister, I feel somehow dirty.

No one is innocent?

And certainly not Ronnie Biggs who is being released from prison on compassionate grounds. How much compassion did Ronnie Biggs show Jack Mills? According to Ronnie Biggs son in a radio interview the other day, his father is dying and cannot speak and is all but immobile; time will tell. His lawyers have said that he has recently suffered two strokes and has facial paralysis, which means he cannot speak or eat.

But who is Jack Mills? Jack Mills was the driver of the Travelling Post Office that was robbed. Jack Mills was hit on the head with an iron bar (not by Ronnie Biggs), causing a black eye and facial bruising; he had constant trauma headaches the rest of his life. So how did Ronnie Biggs show his remorse for the beating of Jack Mills? He recorded a song or two with the post Johnny Rotten Sex Pistols; The delightfully entitled "Belsen Was a Gas" and the rather more pertinent "No One is Innocent" aka "The Biggest Blow (A Punk Prayer)". The original title of the song was to have been "Cosh the Driver" but that was too much even for Virgin Records.

So whilst the BBC have as their lead story the heart-warming tale that "Train robber Biggs wins freedom" accompanied by a photo of a frail and elderly Ronnie Biggs, I choose to remember him slightly differently, singing:

"Ronnie Biggs was doing time until he done a bunk
Now he says he's seen the light and he sold his soul to punk
...
God save Martin Boorman and nazis on the run
They wasn't being wicked God that was their idea of fun
God save Myra Hindley God save Ian Brady
Even though he's horrible and she ain't what you call a lady
...
God save politicians God save our friends the pigs
God save Idi Amin and god save Ronald Biggs
God save all us sinners God save your blackest sheep
God save the good samaritan and god save the worthless creep"

and posing for a cover photo thus:


"Do I regret anything that's happened? No not a single thing I've ever done"

"The holy month of Ramadan"

In the midst of the BBC 6pm Radio 4 news there was a long piece on swine flu with a rather odd emphasis on Iran and the Haj. The BBC report also referred to "The Holy Month of Ramadan". Excuse me it not my holy month, it is not a British hold month, it is the Muslim holy month. Just as with referring to the Muslim prophet as "the prophet Mohammed"; the BBC seem ever willing to take the Islamic line.

What happened to the good news stories

I glanced at the BBC news website this morning and it was full of positive stories on the economy; the IPPR report, house prices on the up etc. etc. This afternoon it seems that the green shoots narrative might be flawed as it emerged that The Bank of England's (for which we can read Gordon Brown) have decided to pump another £50bn of new money into the economy in an expansion of their quantitative easing programme. This takes the amount spent on this programme to £175bn, 16.67% over the Chancellor's initial budget of £150bn. The BBC do report that the Bank of England said that the UK recession "appears to have been deeper than previously thought".

Oddly in the whole BBC article there is not a word about the dangers of hyper-inflation resulting from QE or of the similarities with Zimbabwe or Weimar Germany.

Meanwhile, Alex Masterley has spotted something else in the figures:

"Before the banking crisis, banks left an average of under £20 billion on deposit with the Bank of England. Now, after £125 bilion of quantitative easing, the figure has jumped to £161 billion. In other words, the banks, not wishing to take a risk on lending the extra cash, are simply leaving it on deposit with the BoE."

Anti-virus software false positives

AV software houses are regularly criticised for their software not picking up all viruses so it was interest that I learnt that two had the opposite problem. AVG and CA have been had problems with detecting legitimate software as viruses recently. AVG detected iTunes a virus (some would say that it exhibits some of the same symptoms), here is AVG's response:

"Unfortunately, a recent virus database update resulted in iTunes being detected as a Trojan by AVG security products. We can confirm that it was a false alarm. AVG immediately released a new virus database update (definition file 270.13.29/2260) that corrected this issue. If you are having problems, please update your AVG and check your iTunes again."

Meanwhile a CA update reported certain Windows system files as viruses, here's their response:

"On July 8, 2009 at 11:00am EST, a CA DAT file release contained improperly formed malware detections that errantly detected clean files from Microsoft Windows Service Pack 3 and from the commercial Cygwin application. Affected files were detected as "Win32\Amalum" variants with extensions such as ZZNRA, ZZOFK, ZZNPB, and ZZNRA.

All files falsely detected as malware by these errant signatures were quarantined and renamed with the following text added to the file name "*.AVB". This prevented the affected files from running as the ".exe" file. It's important to note that the affected files remain fully intact, only the file extensions were modified.

On July 9, 2009 at 3:30am EST the file was corrected and released."

And now off to fight a client's virus infection...

This "stranger" must be found

This is London report the case of a "stranger" saving a child's life by rescuing him from underneath a stationary train.

"The parents of a boy who fell beneath a Tube train today praised the "angel" commuter who saved his life.

Benjamin Nelson-West, four, slipped into the gap between the train and platform at Acton Town station.

A man then threw himself on to the platform and hauled Benjamin out seconds before the train pulled away."

I have reason to believe that the authorities are also keen to find this stranger. First they want to prosecute him for wilful disregard for Health and Safety regulations in that he jumped down under a tube train without first filling out a risk assessment form.
Second they need to check whether he has been CRB to work with children. He was alone in a dark space under a train with an unaccompanied child and if he has not been CRB checked then a prosecution must follow.

Object Sexuality (update)

I have blogged about this condition four times before but saw this in The Telegraph today and had to pass on the joyous news. Apparently:

"Amy Wolfe, a US church organist who claims to have objectum sexuality, a condition that makes sufferers attracted to inanimate objects, plans to marry a magic carpet fairground ride.

This follows a "courtship" of 3,000 rides over ten years with the 80ft gondola ride called 1001 Nachts.

Miss Wolfe, 33, from Pennsylvania, will change her surname to Weber after the manufacturer of the ride she travels 160 miles to visit 10 times per year, according to reports

“I love him as much as women love their husbands and know we’ll be together forever,” she said.

Miss Wolfe first fell for the ride when she was 13: “I was instantly attracted to him sexually and mentally.

“I wasn’t freaked out, as it just felt so natural, but I didn’t tell anyone about it because I knew it wasn’t ‘normal’ to have feelings for a fairground ride.”

Ten years later, she decided to go back to Knoebels Amusement Park to declare her love. She now sleeps with a picture of the ride on her ceiling and carries its spare nuts and bolts around to feel closer to it.

She claims to believe they share a fulfilling physical and spiritual relationship and does not get jealous when other people ride it.

Although she faces discrimination from employers, most of her family and friends have been supportive. “I’m not hurting anyone and I can’t help it," she said. "It’s a part of who I am.” "

Hmmm, it takes all sorts...

The BBC not understanding their own systems

In response to my complaint re the BBC Newsnight's misrepresentation of a piece I wrote about Peter Mandelson's chances of becoming leader of the Labour party, Newsnight changed the page.

However the BBC complaints department don't seem to understand "stealth editing" as this email correspondence shows:

"2009/8/6

Dear Sir/Madam

Thanks for your e-mail regarding a 'Newsnight' blog.

I understand you posted a blog under the heading "Peter Madelson for Prime Minister?" and believe that this was presented inaccurately on the 'Newsnight' website.

I'm not sure where you have read the section which contains the word "laugh" as I have checked the site and it contains the following:

"Under the posting Peter Mandelson for PM, Not A Sheep concludes Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there but ability?"

This can be found at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8176099.stm

I can assure you that we would never deliberately distort a blog post by one of our users.

Thanks again for taking the time to e-mail us.

Regards

Ross Montgomery
BBC Complaints
____________________________
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

-----Original Message-----

Newsnight's The Buzz seems to be incapable of understanding a simple blog article. They report under the title "PETER MANDELSON FOR PRIME MINISTER?" the following:
>
> "Peter Mandelson admitted on Newsnight that it will be very tough for Labour to win the next General Election.
>
> Dr Peter Slowe, chairman of Labour's finance and industry group, this week called for MPs to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown and replace him with Lord Mandelson, saying he is "the only one with the clout, intellect and charisma who could realistically take on the Tories and win".
>
> Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.
>
> However, Not A Sheep laughs at the suggestion saying Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there...."
>
>
>So Newsnight say that I laugh at the suggestion that Peter Mandelson could ever become Prime Minister, read my original post and you will note that I say exactly the opposite:
>
> "How could Peter Mandelson become Prime Minister when there is no provision for a Life Peer, as opposed to an Hereditary Peer, to resign his peerage? This was the shout whenever anyone expressed the view that Peter Mandelson had his eyes on the big prize, becoming Prime Minister, even if it was for only a short time. As I have blogged before there are several Labour "big beasts" who would be only too delighted to be PM for a few months and thus get their hands on the special PM pension that they would then be entitled to. So it was hardly a surprise that I read in the Financial Times that:
>
> "Labour is to change the law to allow life peers to quit the upper house, raising the prospect that Peter Mandelson could stage yet another unlikely comeback and return to the political fray in the House of Commons."
>
>
> Then we get an interesting aside:
>
> "Asked last month by the Financial Times whether he might renounce his peerage and stand again as an MP, Lord Mandelson said: "It's not legally possible to do that. I am trapped. I believe it is for life."
>
> He then added: "Of course, you could always change the law." Although Lord Mandelson insisted he was "teasing", the first secretary apparently only has to muse aloud and his wishes are fulfilled."
>
>
> And then the kicker:
>
> "Tackled on the subject, Lord Mandelson said: "The legislation has to get on to the statute book. I'm not anticipating any change for myself. Goodbye.""
>
>
>
> Who better to ensure that the UK is forever bound into the EU than Peter Mandelson, the man with the EU pension and thus the possible question mark regarding his loyalty to the UK relative to the EU?
>
> Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... A downward slope of honesty and probity there but ability? Taking a maths exam stance for a moment; how would you continue such a series?"
>
>
>Typically inaccurate reporting by the BBC, just 100% wrong which is I suppose par for the course. However I would request that you publish a correction to your original piece, assuming that facts matter to Newsnight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this."

My emailed response was:

"I am sorry to inform you that you are quite incorrect in your assertion. The Newsnight web page was been "stealth edited" as I reported here. If you check the Newsnight Buzz website update record, assuming that good practice is followed and such records are kept, you will see that the original wording was replaced by the new wording sometime between 3pm on Sunday 2 August and 11pm on Sunday 2 August.

I look forward to your confirmation of this fact.

Kind regards

NotaSheep"

I await their reply with interest...

What have this Labour government got against the British army?

Actually the answer to that is obvious and one that I will return to in the near future. However today I will simply point to two articles. The first relates to the Merlin helicopters that are to be delivered the theatre

"even though it is yet to be decided whether to fit armour-plating for extra protection." In fact "Fitting the Merlin Mark 3 with a layer of armour to protect the crew and troop-passengers from ground fire is not part of the basic modifications. An option has been submitted by the RAF to consider fitting extra armour to the Merlins at a cost exceeding half a million pounds. This would be a separate modification and the request would be sent to the Treasury as an “urgent operational requirement” (UOR), funded from contingency reserves. An RAF source said: “This proposal now has to go through the chains [of command]. But it has not reached maturity.”

RAF sources confirmed that the Merlins would be sent to Afghanistan by December without the extra armour. “But they will be used for the whole range of operations, including flying in combat areas,” one RAF source said. "

What sort of scum would send helicopters into a war zone without adequate protection? Maybe the sort of person that wants to be able to say that he has increased the number of helicopters in Afghanistan. Maybe the sort of person who cares more for money than the lives of servicemen.


The second story concerns the story in The Sun that:

"EIGHT Britons have died in Afghanistan while armoured trucks that might have saved them were stranded 1,000 miles away in Dubai.

The latest in a string of equipment blunders was branded "inexcusable" last night.

The eighth soldier was killed yesterday while on patrol in Babaji, Helmand.

He was in a CVRT - a 30-year-old tracked mini tank that is vulnerable to Taliban roadside bombs.

Meanwhile, a fleet of new mine-proof Ridgback trucks had been sitting on an airfield in the Middle East since July 16.

Nine of the vehicles were shipped to Dubai by sea, destined for Afghanistan.

All but one got no further, because the RAF's four C17 heavy-lift jets have been too overworked to collect them.

Eight Brits died during the three-week delay - among 22 killed in July.

One officer fumed: "It's incredibly frustrating seeing these vehicles gathering dust on a runway when guys are dying in Helmand."

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth told MPs in April that 157 Ridgbacks - urgently ordered 20 months ago - would start arriving in Afghanistan that month.

Four months later, 20 of the £1.5million 4x4s are there. "

This is a disgrace and Bob Ainsworth should be sacked, not even allowed to resign, but sacked over this betrayal of our servicemen. If the MOD cannot organise to get the right equipment to the servicemen who need them then the man in nominal charge should pay the price.


I am really fed-up with listening to the excuses of labour ministers for the equipment shortages. There are solutions to each of the problems, what there is not is the will to deviate from the agreed path.

"Ceasefire" or "hudna"?

The news that:

"Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could erupt again — this time with the militant group better armed than ever.

According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is stronger than it was in 2006 when it took on the Israeli army in a war that killed 1,191 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah has up to 40,000 rockets and is training its forces to use ground-to-ground missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, and anti-aircraft missiles that could challenge Israel’s dominance of the skies over Lebanon.

Brigadier-General Alon Friedman, the deputy head of the Israeli Northern Command, told The Times from his headquarters overlooking the Israeli-Lebanese border that the peace of the past three years could “explode at any minute”. "

does not surprise me. When will people learn that usually when an Islamic country or terrorist body agrees to a "ceasefire" they actually agree to a "hudna"? Ah but what is a "hudna"? It's a tactical ceasefire to allow the Islamic forces time to regroup and prepare to wage war again. Time after time, Israel and the eager fools in the Western media fall for the trick and time after time it's Israelis who will pay the price.

As I have said before I think Israel's days are numbered, not since 1967 has the Country looked more surrounded by enemies, and now it has no ally in the White House but rather someone keen to sacrifice Israel to his new friends in the "Muslim World".

Gordon Brown stole our pensions

I have long banged on about Gordon Brown's Treasury theft of money from every private sector pension by the elimination of tax credits for dividends received by pension funds. So it was with interest that I read today that:

"Britain's biggest pension schemes are almost £100bn short of the funds they need to meet their liabilities, according to a leading actuarial consultant. This would be the biggest such shortfall ever recorded.

Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), which conducts annual audits of the health of the final-salary pension schemes of the UK's 100 largest public companies, said their collective deficit as at the middle of July was £96bn – more than double the £41bn reported in 2008. "

£96bn, that's a lot but how much of that is down to the markets and how much to our grasping ex-Chancellor? Alex Masterley has done the maths:

"At the time of the measure the cost was estimated at £5 billion per year, but clearly the figure will have grown with the economy as the relative value of business cash flows, and thus profits, will increase with inflation. For the purposes of this argument, let us ignore all the other factors such as that actually impacted corporate profits and assume look merely at a steady state 1997 economy would have produced in dividends if it had simply grown at a hypothetical constant inflation rate of 2.5%.

Then we need to take into account the loss of investment income from the cumulative shortfall over the last 12 years. I shall assume a reinvestment rate of 6%, which is somewhat on the low side. Lo and behold, we come up with a cumulative deficit, with inflation adjusted tax grabs and lost investment income factored in, of £95 billion.

So 99% (plus or minus 15%) of the deficit in your pension fund is down to the man who will walk away from his job next year with a guaranteed unfunded pension equal to 50% of his salary and to which he has contributed not one jot."

Now do you see why I, and others, hate Gordon Brown quite as much as we do? He may have fooled the "teenage scribblers" with his budget trickery and talk of "prudence" but some of us knew he was a fake and a fraud from day one, and we have been proved correct.

Weird Google searches

google.jp (Japan) - tube real manns pov tori black - And this blog is at Number 3 for my piece about free tube travel!

google.ca (Canada) - racism st barths - This blog is number 6 for a piece about crash landing on St Barths/St Barts.

"forced to tell the public "lies" about the war in Iraq."

EU Referendum reports that:

"The story of John Salisbury-Baker, the MoD press officer who is suing the ministry for being forced to tell the public "lies" about the war in Iraq.

He is claiming that the trauma of having to "defend the morally indefensible" – such as "telling the media that army vehicles such as Snatch Land Rovers were equipped to withstand roadside bombs" has given him post-traumatic stress disorder.

What comes over from the detail is the way press officers were used to "hold the line" and to keep embarrassing comments away from the media.

Salisbury-Baker was employed at York's Imphal Barracks and it was his job was to visit bereaved families immediately after they had been told that "their loved ones were dead."

Ostensibly there to provide the families with "a shield" to help them deal with media interest after the deaths had been made public, his real job was to act as a minder, to "steer them away from sharper questions from reporters about equipment."

His partner Christine Brooke has made a statement on his behalf, saying that said: "John is an honest, sensitive and moral person and having to peddle Government lies that soldiers in vehicles such as the Snatch Land Rovers were safe from roadside bombs has made him stressed."

She adds that, "He was particularly plagued by the thought that some of the bereaved families he was visiting might have previously believed their loved ones were safe because of what he himself had said to the media ... He felt responsible. He felt he was having to defend the morally indefensible. The vehicles clearly did not give adequate protection from bombs.""

Read the whole story and be grateful that at least someone at the MOD wants to tell the truth.

Thank heavens for the BBC

The BBC report that private sector final salary pension schemes are in trouble, thankfully that won't affect the generously "funded" public sector pensions! What caught my eye was this:

"BBC business reporter Brian Milligan said the main reason for the fall in value was a drop in share prices. "

Worth every penny of the licence fee just for that level of expertise.

Why so secretive?

Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit has been having problems getting data out of the met Office. The Met Office seem to think that weather records are in some way sensitive. Oddly it now seems that the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at The University of East Anglia (UEA) has just started deleting data. Steve McIntyre points out, quite correctly:

"Under U.K. Freedom of Information Act, once FOI requests have been made for information, public authorities are not permitted to "alter, deface, block, erase, destroy or conceal any record held by the public authority, with the intention of preventing the disclosure by that authority of all, or any part, of the information to the communication of which the applicant would have been entitled." As fordprefect observed the other day, the Computer Misuse Act also prescribes various offences, one of which is the unauthorized modification of the contents of a computer with the intent "to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer"."

Anyone might think they had something to hide...

It's not your money, it's ours!

Speaker Bercow is showing that he has as much idea about the feelings of the people who pay his salaries as his predecessor. Admittedly Michael Martin spent £724,600 on refurbishing the residence between 2000 and early 2008, plus a further £992,000 on the garden and improved security, whilst John Bercow has only ordered redecorations costing £20,659.36, but that is so far. The Telegraph reports that:

"£3,600 has been spent on fitting locks to the windows and having workmen check that access ducts in the wall panelling are lockable or childproof. A further £3,880 has been spent on planters to provide additional child safety on the terrace. One of the two studies is to become a playroom, with £1,087 spent on redecorating it. The note suggests putting washable paint over existing paper. For the drawing room, a £6,764.30 sofa suite has been ordered, together with window seat cushions costing £760. In the kitchen, a new large clock is being provided at a cost of £80, together with a noticeboard and blackboard, costing £86.73, a hob guard at £47.88 and an additional high-level pulley clothes airer. The utility room is being remodelled at a cost of £497 in order to provide more hanging space. The floor in the room, and in the bathroom, is being replaced. A double bed is being bought from Ikea for the housekeeper’s apartment for £479. It is understood that a further £20,000 has been allocated to cover general maintenance."

The new chief trougher, or rather a spokesman justified the expense with the inevitable "will nobody think of the children?" type statement:

"The Speaker believes that these are reasonable costs and they reflect the fact that he has a young family to accommodate. He believes people can see that it is not extravagance and that the money has been spent wisely, for example the bed that he has brought in is from Ikea".

In fact what it really shows is that he can be frugal but only where his family housekeeper is concerned.

The part of the report that really pissed me off though is when John Bercow is reported to have

"told Commons staff that he will personally pay for other items such as a children’s Wendy house that will go on the terrace, and a climbing frame for Speaker’s Green, adjacent to the apartment."

I'm sorry, of course he should pay for those items, he's not doing the taxpayer a favour by paying for them. Has he still not got it? His children are his, not ours. We will, reluctantly, pay for essentials but Wendy houses and climbing frames are not essentials. Mind you neither are large clocks, window seat cushions etc. etc. etc. What does he think his huge salary is for? Does he think that his salary is all to go into savings whilst the taxpayer pays for all his living expenses?

I did also enjoy(!) this piece of self-justification:

"While the new Speaker’s spending is certain to attract criticism, he will argue he has spent far less than his predecessor, Mr Martin, and point out that the changes had to be made because of his children."

"He has spent far less than his predecessor"; is that a valid excuse? First, Bercow has only be in position a few months, so give him time. Second is he promising that this will be the end of the expenditure? Third would a murdering doctor get off because he has killed less people than Dr Harold Shipman? As for the children explanation; maybe that was another reason to elect Ann Widecombe rather than John Bercow.

I do hope that the rumours of a credible candidate being prepared to stand against John Bercow come the next general election are true. I wonder if I can move my vote from my current constituency to Buckingham as I actually think I would enjoy seeing John Bercow unseated almost more than my current Labour MP.

The UK in 2009

Two more stories that illustrate what a mess the UK is in after 12 long years of Labour misrule. The first story comes via Fox News and tells us that

"A grieving mother in Britain was fined $173 for spending too long at her son's coffin before it was taken away for cremation.

Terrie Rouse, 32, said her grief turned to shock when officials told her she had taken too long to say goodbye, The Daily Mail reported.

"The vicar had asked if I would like to spend a bit more time saying goodbye," she said. "I sat by the coffin for 10 minutes, telling my son how much we loved him and begging him not to be scared."

Officials at the crematorium, run by a local English council, impose an extra charge if any funeral runs over its 30-minute slot."

Is there much lower a council could stoop? Could there be a better example of jobsworthism?

The second story concerns the nine year boy over here on his holidays from Germany who was given was

"left 'terrified' after a PCSO gave him a stern warning for climbing a tree, leaving him standing in the park with paperwork to fill out."

2009 UK, what a place to live.

Stephen Pound at it again

Rent-a-quote Ealing North MP, Stephen Pound< has been at it again. This time he was spouting rubbish in The Mirror. Apparently The Mirror has discovered that

"The Tory leader, an outspoken critic of "waste and inefficiency", also has four speech writers among the 28 staff working for him in Parliament."

Stephen Pound, who should know quite a bit about waste is quoted as saying

"Not even the President of the United States needs 12 secretaries... This must be the biggest job creation scheme in the country."

First of all that is factually incorrect, here is a list of the 487 people working for the "WHITE HOUSE OFFICE and OFFICE OF POLICY DEVELOPMENT". Of these over 50 seem to be working in the areas of press and diary work. As an aside I blogged last week about the 22 staff on Michelle Obama's staff; 11 of which seem to be concerned with her diary and press matters.
I wonder if Stephen Pound could tell us how many "secretaries" Gordon Brown has working for him. Maybe Stephen Pound could also tell us how many of Gordon Brown's are being paid for by the taxpayer and how many by the Labour Party. Maybe he could then tell us how many of David Cameron's staff are being paid for by the taxpayer. So where's the waste?

Are we so flush with cash?

I see that our Prime Minister

"has offered to help some of the world's poorest countries to make healthcare free – starting with pregnant women and children – in a push to widen access to doctors across Africa and Asia.

The Department for International Development (DfID) is among the largest donors to many developing countries, and has pledged to spend £6bn on health by 2015. Brown hopes to use an expanding aid budget to influence the way public services are delivered on the ground.

The prime minister has written to several governments, including those of Kenya, Nepal and Liberia, urging them to consider making healthcare free, and offering Britain's help with the transition. DfID said that could mean help with technical assistance, drugs and ensuring that doctors and nurses receive fair pay deals."

Meanwhile British taxpayers are being denied pain killing injections for back pain:

"The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.

Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment.

The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million. "

It is odd how the government says it can't afford £33 million a year for pain relieving injections for British citizens but can easily afford around £1 billion for citizens of foreign countries.

All on one day?

I have just taken a look at what "written answers" were laid before parliament on the last working day of the last session. Take a look there seem to be well over a thousand, were none of them ready until the last day of the session or were at least some released on this day so as to minimise attention to the news contained?

Upcoming at a cinema near you?

"Title Come Alive!

Synopsis God decides to grant evangelical preacher Will Ferrell the power to heal the sick with his fingertips. But the almighty's lightning bolt misses its target, hitting Will's penis instead. Now Will is cursed with the miraculous ability to cure any disease or fix any injury – but only if he has full sexual intercourse with the patient. Since Will is also a 45-year-old unmarried virgin with strong views on sex outside marriage, it won't be an easy ride!

Review What starts as a regulation gross-out comedy soon takes an unsettling turn as Will faces an agonising ­ decision at his father's deathbed, before building to a frankly unbelievable conclusion in which a terrorist cell releases the Ebola virus in the local donkey sanctuary . . . and only one man can save the day."

Maybe not as it is currently just a gag in a Charlie Brooker column in The Guardian, but you never know...

Harriet Harman misinformed as usual

The ever excellent Alex Masterley has a great spot today:

"Harriet Harman thought she had a catchy little bon mot when she told the world that the financial crisis probably wouldn't have happened if Lehman Brothers had been called Lehman Sisters. In Ms. Harman's reassuring world view, it is those arrogant and assertive Y-chromosomes that cause all the trouble and the ever-suffering females who clean up the mess the men leave behind. Which just goes to show that there is no finer feeling than speaking volubly from a position of ignorance.

If Ms. Harman had done her research, she would have discovered that the systemic disaster that is the credit default swap originated from the derivatives team run by the ever so definitely female Blythe Masters (great name for a senior swaps dealer: you couldn't make it up, sheer nominative determinism). Indeed, during the boom years, the lefty feminist press made a great song and dance about the fact that her team booked $4 trillion of the things every year.

We could have said the credit crunch was started by a woman, but we didn't want to make it a gender issue."

Harriet Harman misinformed, who would have thought it. Is there a rule that Labour deputy leaders have to be irritating and incompetent or is it just coincidence? The last six people to hold this post were going backwards (like their thought processes) Harriet Harman, John Prescott, Margaret Beckett, Roy Hattersley, Dennis Healey and Michael Foot. What a glittering cavalcade of the mediocre (at best) and the incompetent; some of them falling into both camps.

More helicopter news (update)

Further to this the MOD have issued a statement, faithfully reported by the BBC that

""The Merlin is one of our best protected helicopters and we are absolutely satisfied that it will be well protected against threats in Afghanistan.

"The fleet has already successfully flown thousands of missions over Iraq, often in the face of significant danger.

"Notwithstanding Merlin's success in Iraq, we are now spending an additional £45m improving its protection.

"When deployed to Afghanistan the Merlins will be ready to perform the full range of military tasks required, including combat missions and ferrying troops into battle.""

Can you spot what's missing? Yes they don't actually address the question of whether the Merlin helicopters will have Kevlar armour.

The Guardian have a voting problem

The Guardian are running a poll to discover "the best TV show of the decade 2000-09?" and there are 40 programmes to choose from, these having been nominated by readers of the Guardian website. The Guardian's problem is that rather than 24 or The Wire or West Wing (good liberal programmes) looking like winners, there appears to be some sort of conspiracy because as of now only four programmes have more than 1% of the votes:
The West Wing - 4.1%
The Wire - 19.5%
QI - 24.6%
Top Gear - 47.5%

You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh at the fear and despondency at Guardian HQ at the thought of practically the only non right-on programme winning their poll. The results are meant to be announced on Thursday but The Guardian are now saying

"Monday 2pm: we are aware that there has been some *ahem* multiple voting and we are investigating how to eliminate this. In the meantime, please keep voting - legitimately"

So go and vote ONCE ONLY for Top Gear, I have and if enough people vote JUST ONCE it can still win. The thought of the look on the face of George Monbiot if his precious ecologically correct, climate change obsessed newspaper has to give an award to Top Gear may keep me chuckling all afternoon.

Do you want an iPhone but don't like O2?

Do you want an iPhone but don't like O2? Maybe you experienced their recent system downtime abroad or have had the misfortune to use their dire "customer service". There seems to be a solution for O2 phobic iPhone users; rumours abound that T-Mobile will offer iPhones to high spending customers who threaten to leave for another network. Allegedly there are 150 iPhones per week available, I presume the iPhones have been purchased outside of the UK for resale.

As an O2 user I am not sure if I would swap to T-Mobile, a network whose building penetration sometimes seems to be measurable in inches rather than feet.

More helicopter news

The news that the six Merlin helicopters due to go to Helmand in December do not have Kevlar armour does not surprise me. The political imperative is to provide helicopters, so helicopters will be provided. So what if the helicopters are inadequately protected and could be the flying equivalent of snatch Land Rovers, why should the government care? It is enough that Gordon Brown will be able to get up and report that even more helicopters have been sent to Afghanistan and if some soldiers die or are horribly maimed, well that's too bad. When will people understand the priorities of this Labour government?

The BBC do the decent thing

My complaints to the BBC re their misrepresentation of my views re Peter Mandelson becoming PM have borne fruit. I have not received an email (other than an automated acknowledgement) from the BBC but the Newsnight article has now been corrected to read:

"Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.

Under the posting Peter Mandelson for PM, Not A Sheep concludes Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there but ability?"

Of course being the BBC it has been a stealth edit as the page still claims "Page last updated at 17:38 GMT, Friday, 31 July 2009 18:38 UK" which is of course somewhat misleading/untrue. However credit where credit is due, the BBC have reacted to my complaint fairly swiftly. I await their email of explanation with interest.


To paraphrase Bobby Fuller and indeed the Clash - "I fought the Beeb and I won"; well maybe.

That Iranian plane crash

Do you remember the story about the Caspian Airlines plane that crashed in Northern Iran killing 168 people? The BBC tried to blame the crash on the West:

"The BBC's Jon Leyne says Iran's civil and military air fleets are made up of elderly aircraft, in poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance.

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, trade embargoes by Western nations have forced Iran to buy mainly Russian-built planes to supplement an existing fleet of Boeings and other American and European models."

I wonder how the BBC will report the news that the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports that:

"(the) plane crash north of Tehran which left 168 people dead was caused by explosion of fuses slated to be delivered to Lebanese organization. According to report, members of Revolutionary Guards among casualties.... According to the sources, the aircraft was carrying a large number of modern fuses composed of 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives and electrical instrumentation. The report is in line with testimonies on explosion sounds heard before the crash. According to the sources, the plane was meant to transfer the fuses from Iran to Armenia, and from there to Syria through Turkey, and then on the ground to Lebanon. This route was chosen, according to exiled opposition sources, so as not to draw attention.
According to the report, the transfer of arms was a special operation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and some of its members were among the crash victims. It was also reported that the presence of security forces at the site of the crash was not a coincidence. "

Actually I don't wonder how the BBC will cover this story because it is obvious, they won't cover it.

Dumbing down the English education system - the fightback

It is common knowledge that this most disingenuous Labour government has conspired to "improve" exam results as a way of showing that education standards are improving, when they are not. Anybody who has had the misfortune to interview a school-leaver who has 8, 9, 10 or more top grade GCSEs and 3, 4 or more really excellent A'levels will know the problem. The results speak of the person being a genius or at least an excellently educated individual but you discover they have no mathematical aptitude, can hardly string a sentence together and have little idea of the practicalities of work. The school leaver with their fantastic grades this decade seem to be educationally about the level of a poor A'level student 20+ years ago.

So it was with some interest that I learned that the Conservatives plan to put a range of GCSE and A-level exam papers online, so that standards can be tracked over time. A great idea and one that would show how seriously devalued GCSE and A'levels have become.

Have a look at newspaper articles relating to the dumbing down of GCSEs and A'levels, especially those for mathematics and science, and wonder how anyone could think otherwise. You might also wonder what has happened to Lord Drayson and his personal review of GCSE and A-level science exam papers to satisfy himself they are not being "dumbed down". In December 2008 he said that:

"In coming into this job one of the things I asked my private office to do was to get me a set of last year's GCSE papers. They are also in the process of getting last year's A-level papers."

He had also "dusted down" the A-level and O-level papers that he took in the 1970s.

He said it was important to "make absolutely sure that the educational process to develop the brightest and the best... provides them with what they need too.

"As a science minister I'm determined to make sure that happens."

He added: "No dumbing down on my watch."

How did the review go then Lord Drayson?

Gordon Brown, Tony Blair before him, and other Labour ministers are fond of telling us how the UK's future is as a knowledge based economy. Well we have highly qualified students, but their qualifications are all but worthless.


I challenge you to look at a 1970s or early 1980s O'Level maths paper and a Physics or Chemistry A'level paper from the same period and tell me that standards have not dropped. You may carry out the exercise for English or History instead if you wish.

Spying on us everywhere (part 2)

The Labour government that seems to have taken 1984 as a template rather than a warning is now apparently looking at spending

"£400million... to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals."

We already knew of the plans for television screens in the streets to cover the 2012 Olympics, initially to play news and sport but who knows for what purpose after that. Now we have the first two way screens in people's homes that will allow the "Thought Police" to monitor the actions of citizens 24 hours a day. I wonder if like the "telescreens" in 1984 they will always be on and if they will be spouting government messages all day long. This Labour government really does scare me and Ed Balls scares me more than most.

Spying on us everywhere (part 1)

I see that we can at least be told where Oxford's ANPR cameras are. There cameras are initially there to provide the data to calculate local journey times however I wonder how long it will be before mission-creep means that the same data will be used to issue speeding tickets.

An odd Google query

On Google.com - sir bobby robson adolf hitler - and my blog is number one. Why on earth would anybody search for that?

The BBC a difference in coverage

The BBC are reporting widely the shooting of three people at a gay community centre in Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister has condemned the murders and Israel is the most gay friendly country in the Middle East. Meanwhile hidden away in its South Asia pages is the story of eight Christians killed by a Muslim mob who believed (incorrectly) that the Christians had defaced a Koran, six of the Christians (four women, a man and a child) died as the Muslims militants set fire to Christian houses in the town of Gojra.

SO why the disparity in the levels of coverage? Normally the BBC explain the relatively large amount of coverage of Indian and especially Pakistani news by the number of people with sub-continental roots. However in this case the coverage has been paltry. However, as we all know, the BBC do like to cover in detail any news that reflects badly on Israel despite the links between the UK and Israel and Palestine being somewhat weaker.

There is a BBC narrative to be spread and it is not one that will ever reflect well on Israel. As I said Israel is the only gay friendly country in the Middle East and yet this story includes tis "Gay rights activist Mike Hamel criticised religiously-driven hatred of homosexuals." Oddly I do not remember the BBC giving anywhere near as much prominence to the regular state sanctioned hangings in Iran of homosexuals.

To the BBC a one-off killing by a lone gunman in Jewish Israel is a far more serious matter than the state sanctioned hanging of homosexuals in Muslim Iran or the murder of Christians in Islamic Pakistan; why?

The results of dumbing down the UK's education system

Two little pieces of news on the same page in The Sunday Telegraph caught my eye as examples of how dumbed down the UK's education system has become. The first piece related to the student who has received a PhD in English for a 80,000 thesis on the study of text messaging language. The second referred to the vandal who was caught because he wrote his own name on a gravestone alongside the wrong date.

Gordon Brown = Stalin

"I take full responsibility for what happened. That's why the person who was responsible went immediately."

Thanks to The Final Redoubt for the spot.

PM for PM

Despite what BBC's Newsnight claim, I do think that Peter Mandelson could become the next Labour leader and maybe sooner than many think possible. So the news that there is a "Secret plan for Lord Mandelson to 'return to Commons' in Labour safe seat" does not surprise me at all.

Newsnight - a complaint

Following my posting about Newsnight's The Buzz misrepresenting my views about the likelihood of Peter Mandelson becoming leader of the Labour party, I have decided to complain to the BBC and see how responsive our BBC is.

Here's the email I sent newsnightwebteam@bbc.co.uk and NewsnightInvestigations@bbc.co.uk

"I am rather upset at The Buzz for 31 July. It includes a reference to a piece on my blog that completely misrepresents what I said. The Buzz's piece states that "Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.

However, Not A Sheep laughs at the suggestion saying Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there."

To the contrary my blog entry that The Buzz refers to actually argues the opposite point, that Peter Mandelson could well become the next leader of the Labour Party and concludes that "Who better to ensure that the UK is forever bound into the EU than Peter Mandelson, the man with the EU pension and thus the possible question mark regarding his loyalty to the UK relative to the EU?".

I would request that you publish a correction to your original piece, assuming that facts matter to Newsnight.


Kind regards

NotaSheep"

I have also made a complaint through the BBC's complaint department; I wonder what will transpire...

Why is the UK more and more coming to resemble a Soviet bloc country?

I have blogged previously about the Olympic vehicles only traffic lanes that will be instituted across London in 2012 and why I believe that this Labour government would happily keep them after the Olympics as lanes for state authorised transport. So I was unsurprised to learn that the politicised police have been given powers to enter private homes and seize political posters during the London 2012 Olympics. I was even less surprised to learn that the legislation had been so loosely drafted that they could be used to clamp down on almost any forms of legitimate protest.

This Labour government apparent determination to crush any dissent and to accumulate power and privilege for itself reminds me more and more of the former Soviet bloc regimes. Maybe the Marxist/Trotskyite backgrounds of so many senior Labour politicians has had another effect...

One rule for Israel another for Iran

The BBC are "going big" on the story that "a gunman... killed two people and wounded at least 10 at a gay support centre in the city of Tel Aviv." A terrible crime and one that deserves publicity but this crime took place in Israel the most/only gay friendly country in the middle wast. I do not remember the BBC giving anywhere near as much prominence to the regular hangings in Iran of homosexuals for being homosexual. To the BBC a one-off killing by a lone gunman in Jewish Israel is a far more serious matter than the state sanctioned hanging of homsexuals in Muslim Iran; why?

The Bible, why always the Bible?

I was pleased to learn that the planned desecration by scribbling of the Bible in Glasgow's Museum of Modern Art has been cancelled. The defaced Bible is now displayed in a glass case whilst people are invited to scribble their graffiti on sheets of paper. The reprehensible stunt, sponsored by the publicly funded charity Culture and Sport Glasgow, was a calculated insult to the taxpayers whose money is being squandered. I wonder if the brave artists and their funders would have considered defacing a Koran in a similar manner; somehow I think their artistic bravery would not have extended that far.

Have the BBC no shame?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that Britain will by next year have the biggest debt of any major economy at £191billion and yet the BBC seem not to have reported the story at all. The IMF has previously warned that the UK is "testing the limit of the market's confidence" by increasing national debt towards 100% of GDP. The organisation has also previously called on Gordon Brown to do to more to tackle public spending if Britain is to avoid a collapse in sterling and fiscal meltdown.

Meanwhile one of the ratings agencies, Fitch, has warned that the UK's AAA credit rating was "under threat" unless the public finances are brought under control. Fitch warns that "The pace of consolidation set out in the latest Budget is not sufficient to put debt on a firmly downward path within five years."

Why is the BBC ignoring this story? Is the prospect of the UK's economic collapse unimportant compared to ensuring the survival of a Labour government?

Harriet Harman sexist?

I see that Harriet Harman has done it again, she's opened her mouth and poured out a stream of rubbish. Apparently she has demanded that one of Labour’s two top posts should always be held by a woman — because "Men cannot be left to run things on their own. I think it’s a thoroughly bad thing to have a men-only leadership." It is claimed that Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, secretly tried to change Labour party rules two years ago to ensure that it could never again be led by an all-male team, but she was foiled by the party hierarchy. Harriet Harman added "I don’t agree with all-male leaderships".

Some questions for the doughty feminist? Do you believe in all female leaderships? Do you believe that women can be left to run things on their own? Is your opposition to an all male leadership anything to do with you feeling threatened by Peter Mandelson's position at the right hand of Gordon Brown? Jacqui Straw, Ruth Kelly, Margaret Beckett, Patricia Hewitt, Yvette Cooper, Patricia Hodge, Tessa Jowell? Which of those female Labour ministers do you think was held back from high office by virtue of her sex? Which of them became ministers at least partially because of their sex?

A Marxist as Secretary of State for Defence

I have blogged previously about the Trotskyist background of Alistair Darling. Yesterday I read Peter Hitchens claim that:

"Mr Ainsworth attended meetings of the revolutionary International Marxist Group in his 30s"

It is interesting how so many members of Marxist/Trotskyite organisations in their youth are members (or former members) of this Labour government. According to research that I have seen: Alan Milburn was a one-time Trotskyist, John Reid was a member of the Communist Party, Stephen Byers (as well as Alistair Darling) was a Trotskyist. Looking at recent Labour leaders: Tony Blair was a member of CND (an organisation that many believe was partly funded by the Soviet Union), Gordon Brown was a student leftist with some beliefs now airbrushed from such as his Wikipedia entry whilst the probable next Labour leader, Peter Mandelson, was a member of the Young Communist League. It is odd how all these "ex"-communists deny any affiliation with these organisations once they have a foot on the gravy train and a snout in the trough. I wonder how many "ex" communists are also embedded within local government, the police, the BBC etc. Have the Marxists and Trotskyists taken by stealth what they could not take by force?

Another angle to this is that if a politician or opinion former is discovered to have been a supporter of a "far right" party during their youth then they are forever tarred with the brush of "racist" or "fascist" and yet those who dallied with the equally vile politics of the extreme left during their formative years are allowed to pretend this dalliance is of no concern. Either mistakes made in one's youth are unforgivable or they are not, but let us at least be consistent. In my mind allying ones self with racists and fascists is wrong, but no worse than allying oneself with the murderous creed that killed more people than fascism, kept on killing them after the Second World War and enslaved & killed many millions after the war had ended. The Marxist creed was responsible for around 20 million deaths in Stalin's Russia, 40 million in Mao's China, and millions more in Cambodia and elsewhere that Marxists decided they could improve their countries by imposing the will of the collective good.

I wonder if the latitude given by the BBC to the "ex"-Communists of the Labour party has any connection with the number of people of a similar background within the BBC; now that would be interesting to find out.

Newsnight fail to report me accurately, what a shock

Newsnight's The Buzz seems to be incapable of understanding a simple blog article. They report under the title "PETER MANDELSON FOR PRIME MINISTER?" the following (my emphasis):

"Peter Mandelson admitted on Newsnight that it will be very tough for Labour to win the next General Election.

Dr Peter Slowe, chairman of Labour's finance and industry group, this week called for MPs to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown and replace him with Lord Mandelson, saying he is "the only one with the clout, intellect and charisma who could realistically take on the Tories and win".

Could Lord Mandelson ever oust Mr Brown and become the next PM? News Junction thinks it's certainly possible.

However, Not A Sheep laughs at the suggestion saying Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... a downward slope of honesty and probity there.

Of course there is the small matter of Lord Mandelson's life peerage - though the government is tabling a proposal that would give life peers the right to resign from the House of Lords - something hereditary peers have been able to do since 1963.
"

So Newsnight say that I laugh at the suggestion that Peter Mandelson could ever become Prime Minister, read my original post and you will note that I say exactly the opposite:

"How could Peter Mandelson become Prime Minister when there is no provision for a Life Peer, as opposed to an Hereditary Peer, to resign his peerage? This was the shout whenever anyone expressed the view that Peter Mandelson had his eyes on the big prize, becoming Prime Minister, even if it was for only a short time. As I have blogged before there are several Labour "big beasts" who would be only too delighted to be PM for a few months and thus get their hands on the special PM pension that they would then be entitled to. So it was hardly a surprise that I read in the Financial Times that:

"Labour is to change the law to allow life peers to quit the upper house, raising the prospect that Peter Mandelson could stage yet another unlikely comeback and return to the political fray in the House of Commons."

Then we get an interesting aside:

"Asked last month by the Financial Times whether he might renounce his peerage and stand again as an MP, Lord Mandelson said: “It’s not legally possible to do that. I am trapped. I believe it is for life.”

He then added: “Of course, you could always change the law.” Although Lord Mandelson insisted he was “teasing”, the first secretary apparently only has to muse aloud and his wishes are fulfilled."

And then the kicker:

"Tackled on the subject, Lord Mandelson said: “The legislation has to get on to the statute book. I’m not anticipating any change for myself. Goodbye.”"

Who better to ensure that the UK is forever bound into the EU than Peter Mandelson, the man with the EU pension and thus the possible question mark regarding his loyalty to the UK relative to the EU?

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson... A downward slope of honesty and probity there but ability? Taking a maths exam stance for a moment; how would you continue such a series?"

Typically reporting by the BBC, just 100% wrong which is I suppose par for the course.

"I Got You Babe" - A very odd cover version

David Bowie and Marianne Faithful cover "I Got You Babe" in a very odd 1980 performance.

Another piece of "Health and Safety" idiocy

The Mail reports that:

"Police, firemen and paramedics refused to go to the aid of an accident victim who was drowning in just 18 inches of water... because they believed it was too dangerous.

A senior fire officer banned his men from using ropes and ladders to climb down a 15ft bank to the victim after carrying out a ‘risk assessment’.

Acting on advice, ten police officers who attended the emergency also failed to rescue father-of-three Karl Malton, 32, as he lay face down in the shallow water.

His body lay there for three hours after a decision was made to send for a ‘water rescue team’ based more than 50 miles away.

When relatives arrived at the scene, they found emergency workers standing around drinking tea.

An inquest into Mr Malton’s death yesterday heard that officers no longer have to swim or receive life-saving training."

For heaven sake these are "emergency services" and they now cannot go down a 15 foot bank with an 18 inch body of water at the bottom. So t appears that the emergency services stood and drank tea as a man lay in water, possibly dying; how reassuring, how modern, how Labour Britain. 12 years of Labour rule and this country has lost track of its basic values. This is madness, absolute madness; this country has to get its collective sanity back and soon or we are totally finished.

An interesting piece of archive audio

The Rolling Stones first studio demo recording from 1962 - a very crackly "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover". The recording is presented by Mick's brother Chris Jagger on radio.

NotaSheep is Frank N. Furter

I have just discovered why Frank N. Furter has the number 4711 on his thigh, it is a reference to the same brand of cologne that I use; a brand that was apparently "very popular with Gays in the 70's".

Well there you go.

Airbus A380 - big plane but still good in a breeze

Not all men are equal

I note that Den Xiaoping's third wife, Zhuo Lin, died this week. They had five children together, somewhat more than the usual state allowance of one child per family. You see in a communist dictatorship the rules that apply to the people do not apply to the Party leaders.

Michael Jackson eat your heart out

Michael Jackson was pilloried for his dangling of his youngest child over the edge of a balcony. Oddly the world's media seem less concerned by the news from India that at a Mosque in Western India hundreds of infants are dropped from the roof of a mosque in the belief that the fall — which ends when the babies are caught in a bedsheet — would ensure good health and prosperity for their families. The infants, mostly under two years old, are dangled from the roof of the shrine near Sholapur, about 280 miles south of Mumbai, before being dropped around 50 feet onto a bedsheet held aloft by parents and other believers. Television channels showed the babies screaming as they were shaken in the air before being dropped. You can see more at the Intoday India website but here is a clip from Fox News...

The war on motorists via taxation

Mike Rutherford in The Telegraph explains why and how the Labour government over tax the motorist and mislead us over how much motoring costs have risen recently.

So who thought Mugabe could be trusted?

I learn from my Zimbabwean sources that Robert Mugabe is not happy with power sharing. His latest ploy is to have some of Morgan Tsvangirai's MPs arrested. So far 17 MDC MPs have been arrested and four have been convicted by the courts. The latest MDC politician to be arrested is deputy minister for youth, Tamsanqa Mahlangu, who has been arrested for allegedly stealing a mobile phone from a Mugabe "war veteran" at a conference a few weeks ago.

As I have said over and over again, Robert Mugabe will not relinquish his hold on power in Zimbabwe voluntarily and it is South Africa that holds the key to the solution. So long as the ANC led government in South Africa treat Robert Mugabe as a hero of the revolution, the longer the people of Zimbabwe will have to live under tyranny, fear and starvation. Unfortunately I do not expect Jacob Zuma to be any more intellectually or morally capable of dealing properly with Robert Mugabe than Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela were. I hate to break it to you but the ANC leaders of South Africa are no more moral and laudable than their predecessors from the National Party, they are just blacker.

The Mallorca bomb

I just don't understand, how did the bombers strike in Mallorca when the Spanish have an id card system? It just doesn't make any sense...

The Welsh are more passionate about rugby

That is the alleged reason why the BBC have said that only international games featuring Wales should be given the protected status that ensures they are shown live on terrestrial TV. Have the BBC ever been to Twickenham or The Stoop? I suppose English rugby union is too hideously white and middle class for the BBC to want to cover.

The Financial Times can't count to six

The Financial Times ran a piece yesterday on Smartphones (page 12 Business Life). In a breakout box are three questions and answers one of which runs:

"How many different smartphone operating systems are there? Most devices run one of six main smartphone operating systems - Symbian, which is used mainly by Nokia, Research in Motion's operating system found on BlackBerries, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Google's Android amd Apple's Mac OS used on the iPhone."

Hmm, Symian, RIM, WinMo, Android & Apple; that makes five. Maybe the FT forgot Palm's new WebOS to be found on the Palm Pre, let's hope so otherwise I can only conclude that they can't count to six.