Friday night is Gil Scott Heron night

First November's Newsnight piece in two parts...





Now my favourite song of 1981/1982 thanks to its appearance on a free New Musical Express cassette that I must have played over and over again for months. This cassette disappeared years ago, anyone got a copy?

"51% of the registered voters had voted for nobody and so as far as they were concerned that indicated that nobody should be the President"


I think this is that NME version...



For more Gil Scott Heron take a look at this earlier post of mine.


And this was the poster above my bed, an odd choice for a right-of-centre teenager but I liked the imagery - and also I had a lefty girlfriend to impress!

BBC pin-up Hugo Chavez shows his grasp on reality

So that's the BBC's dictator of choice, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accusing the United States of causing the earthquake in Haiti. It seems that Chavez believes the U.S. was testing a tectonic weapon to produce eco-type devastation. Last week it was reported that Chavez had accused the United States of using Haiti’s earthquake as a pretext to occupy the Caribbean country. It seems that Chavez has said that these "weapon earthquakes" would eventually be used against Iran and that these weapons can alter the climate and set off earthquakes and volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

Hmmm, I say "wibble", what say the BBC who seem not have reported the latest ravings of their number two favourite dictator - number one is of course Fidel Castro.

Billy Bragg 'pwned'

Billy Bragg's typically self-righteous threat to not pay his taxes in protest against the bonuses being paid out by Royal Bank of Scotland because he felt frustrated and powerless to stop the bonus culture has received a deserved comment on The Daily Mash:

"A spokesman for the Inland Revenue said: "I've actually got a copy of Talking With the Taxman About Poetry. Maybe he should do a new album called Talking With the Taxman About Spending 18 Months in Jail for Being a Marxist Twat."

Meanwhile Bragg demanded that all banks should be run like the Co-operative with its green investment policy, fair trade mortgage refusals and the ethical way it charges you thirty quid whenever you go 1p over your limit."

Still "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards" Billy whilst your friends have "changed from red to blue"?


For more on Billy Bragg take a read of this earlier post of mine.

Pressure mounts on Gordon Brown

I read that:

"A Conservative MP has threatened to report Gordon Brown to a sleaze watchdog over claims he had a "secret" fund to pay for private polling.

Greg Hands wants claims by Labour's former general secretary that £50,000 a year in party donations were kept in a "fund with no name" investigated.

Peter Watts said he suspected it had been used by Mr Brown in his campaign to oust Tony Blair as prime minister. "

This story has received very little press, apart from in The Mail, and deserves more. For more of Gordon Brown's alleged slush funds I suggest a trip to Guido Fawkes.

Some realism on the 'science' of Global Warming from Godfrey Bloom UKIP MEP

The dangerous blindness of the politically correct

James Corum in The Telegraph reports that: "Pentagon report on Fort Hood is a travesty that doesn't even mention Islam "

Here's an extract from James' sadly unsurprising piece on the investigation into the Jihadi attack on Fort Hood :

"For decades, the military fostered “diversity” and “affirmative action” policies that established lower recruitment, promotion, and performance standards for politically favoured ethnic groups. Despite the negative effects on morale and efficiency these policies have had, they could not be criticised by anyone who valued his or her career.

Unfortunately, my prediction that the Obama administration report on Fort Hood would be a whitewash has proven spot-on correct. The Defence Department just released the official report called “Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood.” The document is worse than nonsense; it is a travesty and an insult to US armed forces.

In an 86-page report dealing with a mass murder that has clearly been linked to radical Islam, the authors failed to mention Islam once! The most fundamental questions about the shootings were studiously ignored. Not only was there no mention of the role Islam and Islamic radical teaching played in the killings, the question of how an officer as incompetent and troubled as Major Nidal Hassan could make it through personnel reviews and even be promoted was never directly asked. If it had been, West and Clark would have had to question the policies they had established – and that would never do.

The report failed to note some of the central facts of the case. For example, the perpetrator, Major Hassan, was never refereed to by name but as “the alleged perpetrator.” The report concentrated its efforts on issues such as base emergency response plans. In a way, this is a good idea because the politically correct policies of the Obama administration will do nothing to prevent future Islamist-inspired attacks and so we’d better have a good casualty response system ready for the next mass killing."

Read it all and realise that our leaders don't really care about the war on terror. In their overview we the public are expendable.

"Downing Street is turning the invitation... into a political issue."

The news reported by The Times that members of the Chilcot inquiry "were absolutely furious that the information was released by No 10 before its planned announcement today. They complain that Downing Street is turning the invitation, which was extended by the inquiry in a letter last night, into a political issue. " should surprise nobody. Gordon Brown is nothing if not political, he uses everything he can for his political advantage and damn everyone else. My hatred for this piece of human excrement grows by the day and the sooner he has no say in the running of the UK or indeed anything more than a Hornby train set, the happier I will be.

Labour cuts the UK's anti-terrorism defences

The Times explains: "how a government decision over Foreign Office funding led to the slashing of millions of pounds from programmes to counter the growth of terrorism overseas." Do read the whole article but to get a flavour of the incompetence and stupidity of this Labour government, here's an extract:

"A political storm erupted after Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead’s admission before the House of Lords on Wednesday that the Foreign Office had been forced to cut back counter-terrorism programmes in Pakistan because of a budget shortfall created by the decline in the value of sterling.

The shortfall is the direct consequence of a 2007 Treasury decision to abandon the overseas price mechanism set up to ensure that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) budget was shielded from the vagaries of currency fluctuation.

Lady Kinnock caused outrage with her announcement that the Pakistan counter-terrorism programme would be cut to make up a £110 million shortfall, only hours after the Prime Minister told the Commons of the “No 1 security threat” emanating from the “crucible of terrorism” on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

...

Counter-terrorism projects outside Pakistan have also fallen prey to the cuts. One counter-terrorism contractor whose programme was axed told The Times that the budget cuts would leave Britain open to potential attacks from abroad.

“The project that was cancelled would in time have restricted the ability of terrorists in that region to move freely and threaten Western interests,” the contractor said. "

When will people realise that this Labour government is not fit for purpose and must be removed from office, soon. As David Cameron's Conservatives seem to be scared of taking power as they dither and dally, do we need to look elsewhere for firm leadership?

Trouble in North Korea

Mick Hartley reports of North Korea that "The Current Situation is Unspeakably Terrible".

"As predicted by experts on North Korea’s economy, since the authorities have yet to officially release state prices, the North Korean people are now surviving by bartering.

A defector, who spoke with his family in North Hamkyung Province on Tuesday, reported the news to the Daily NK, “I called my family to send some money to them as I had heard they were in trouble, and they told me that the current situation is unspeakably terrible. They live only by bartering with others.”"

Meanwhile the Korean Central News Agency report that:

"A fierce struggle should be waged against the class enemies within the socialist society.

All those who try to destabilize the socialist society are the enemies of socialism. They include remnants of the exploiting classes who harbor antipathy towards the socialist system, those who work hard overtly and covertly to bring down the socialist system after being greased by imperialists, those who have degenerated ideologically and morally, taken in by the imperialists' ideological and cultural poisoning and those who are introducing corrupt bourgeois way of life into society. Only when a fierce struggle is waged against them is it possible to protect and reinforce the position of socialism."

Chilling for anyone who remembers what happened in Russia in the war against the kulaks, when millions perished in the famines and the gulag, in Mao's Cultural Revolution and of course in Pol Pot's Year Zero.

Suddenly I fancy a nibble of chocolate

German model Alena Gerber poses wearing a solid chocolate dress designed by the German bakery group Lambertz.

A novel bed-warming service

Sky report:

"Holiday Inn, operator of over 4,000 hotels worldwide, will begin to offer a free five-minute "human bed warming service" at it's London Kensington hotel throughout next week.

If requested, a willing member of hotel staff will jump in your bed, dressed head to foot in an all-in-one sleeper suit, until your nightly chamber warms up.

"Like having a giant hot water bottle in your bed" is how Holiday Inn spokeswoman Jane Bednall described the idea."

Hmmm and the picture of 'Bed Warmers' Jacqui Barry and Nick Woods helping Laurence Lancashire to beat the big freeze at the Holiday Inn Kingston-South in Surbiton, Surrey makes me feel oddly uneasy...

The 10 most used internet passwords

According to data security firm, Imperva, the ten most commonly used passwords exposed by the hacking of the 32 million passwords used on the RockYou website were:

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. Password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123


I must admit I have seen most of these over and over again in my travels.

Hamas recognise Israel's right to exist!

Fantastic news for the Middle east peace process:

" Hamas has accepted Israel’s right to exist and would be prepared to nullify its charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, Aziz Dwaik, Hamas’s most senior representative in the West Bank, said on Wednesday.

Dwaik’s remarks are seen in the context of Hamas’s attempts to win recognition from the international community.

Dwaik is the elected speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He was released a few months ago after spending nearly three years in an Israeli prison.
…
His latest remarks were made during a meeting he held in Hebron with British millionaire David Martin Abrahams, who maintains close ties with senior Israeli and British government officials.

Abrahams is scheduled to brief British Foreign Secretary David Milliband this weekend on the outcome of his meeting with Dwaik and other top Hamas officials in the West Bank.
…
During the meeting in Hebron, Dwaik stressed that other Hamas leaders, including Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, have voiced support for the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 boundaries.

“The [Hamas] charter was drafted more than 20 years ago,” Dwaik noted, adding that his movement would even be prepared to “nullify” the document.

“No one wants to throw anyone into the sea,” he said.

Dwaik also expressed Hamas’s desire to engage in dialogue with the international community, first and foremost the European Union. He confirmed that Hamas was receiving financial aid from Iran, but said that this was the direct result of the boycott and sanctions against the movement.
…
“The fact that there is a possibility for recognition of Israel is a symbolic gesture,” Abrahams added. “We can all look for good in people and we can all look for bad in people. I always look for the good.”

Asked whether he might be condemned as naïve for believing Hamas, Abrahams said, “People might say that I’m naïve, so let them. But I’m prepared to give them [Hamas] a chance because I’ve got faith and confidence in Dwaik and Haniyeh. We can’t allow 1.5 million to be festering in the Gaza Strip while the majority of them are good and well-educated.”"

Hold on what's that?

Oh, apparently:

" Hamas on Thursday denied a report in an Israeli newspaper that the Resistance Movement is ready to accept Israel’s right to exist. The JPost added that Dr. Aziz Dwaik, Hamas’ senior representative in the West Bank and speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated also that Hamas is ready to nullify its charter calling for the destruction of Israel.

According to the report, Dwaik made the comments during a meeting Wednesday with British tycoon David Abrahams in Hebron.

Dwaik told Hamas website on Thursday that the report was “inaccurate”. According to him, Hamas will never recognize the occupation on Palestinian lands. Dr. Dwaik stated he told Abrahams that the PLO abolished its charter following the agreements with Israel but the Palestinian people didn’t benefit from this move.

On his part, Salah Al-Bardawil, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza Strip, also dismissed the Israeli report on Dwaik’s comments. “The quotes are not true. Hamas’ stand regarding the Zionist entity’s recognition is clear”, stressed Al-Bardawil."

Now that that Hamas's position re Israel is clear maybe the BBC could pay heed.



Thanks to Hurry Up Harry for the spot.

An unforseen danger of bobsleighing

Poor Gillian Cooke of the UK female bobsleigh team as she splits her outfit live on television.

Geert Wilders opening speech at his trial

Air New Zealand's "The Cougar" advertisement; offensive or witty?

It seems that rape prevention charities and women's rights groups in Bew Zealand have branded the campaign offensive, sexist, appalling, disgusting and degrading. I thought it was quite funny myself...

Some people will complain about anything that Israel does

"The Israeli Defence Force... really really show-boating... It is good that they're there... the IDF has participated in the past in stealing organ transplants of Palestinians and others so there is little monitoring in such a tragedy as this so the Haitian people must watch out for their citizens... be aware... be cautious of International groups... who are out for money... off of your tragedy"

T. West of AfriSynergy with a re-run of a recent baseless 'blood libel'.



Thanks to Isreally Cool for the spot.

Poll Tracker update - a successful outcome

This morning I complained to the BBC about the Com Res poll not appearing in their Poll Tracker. One hour later I received this email:

"Dear Sir,

Regrettably this poll was missed, but it has now been added to the
polltracker.
Thank you for drawing this to our attention.

Regards,

BBC News website"

I can confirm that the ComRes poll is now on the database and indeed as the provider of the latest poll, ComRes is the default data set.

Let's see how the BBC deal with the next set of opinion polls...

Not as impressive as it sounds

The BBC are really excited by the news that "Web founder Tim Berners-Lee unveils a UK government website that aims to make public sector data freely available. "

I have visited the site a few times and the most common message that I see is "Your search returned no records". I get this if I look for individual data and even if I just click on List all data sets"... Impressive? Not really, no.

Bang goes racial profiling as a partial weapon against Islamic plane bombers

World Tribune reports that:

"Muslim terrorists in the Balkans have established a terrorist training camp in northeast Bosnia-Herzegovina, according to a report in the newspaper Dnevni List.

The Mostar-based Croatian newspaper reported Jan. 6, quoting security sources that the special training camp is located near Gornja Moaca in the northeastern part of the country.

U.S. intelligence agencies have been closely monitoring Muslims in the Balkans amid concerns that fundamentalist Muslims have been recruiting there.

Intelligence reports continued to surface that Al Qaida and other Islamist groups have been aggressively recruiting Europeans and others who do not appear to be from the Middle East or South Asia as part of plans to thwart western counterterrorism security measures.

The report stated that residents near Gornja Maoca, a village between Tuzla and Brcko, are concerned because “a large number of the Wahhabis have arrived in the area over the last few months.”

The report quoted Bosnia-Herzegovina Ministry of Security sources as saying a large number of Wahhabis moved to the region under the pretext of helping to build a mosque. "

It's a war and they are not going to play clean

"Noone except the Israeli hospital has taken any of our patients"

News that I have yet to see reflected on the BBC.

BBC reporting of economic news depends on the news

When the dreadful inflation figures were released on Tuesday the coverage was skimpy and by the end of the afternoon the news story was the last item on the 5Live news, just before the humorous item. By way of contrast, today when the better than expected unemployment figures came out today it was headline news from the moment of announcement and was still the lead story in the 6pm Radio 4 news.

Do note how the BBC adjust their coverage of news stories to push a pro-Labour message. It's sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious, but almost always there.

Soemthing doesn't sound right in this story about Haiti and an iPhone

The Mail reports that:

"Trapped under six storeys of rubble after the Haiti earthquake levelled his hotel, Dan Woolley believed he was going to die.

But rather than surrender to despair, the film-maker spent 65 hours beneath the earth looking up ways to treat his injuries on his iPhone."

The story of his survival is incredible but even more incredible is that the battery on his iPhone lasted 65 hours; I think not.

The sixty eighth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's winner goes to "A website close to Fatah" which is reported to have claimed that:

"Hamas militias are placing powerful IEDs near densely populated buildings in Gaza in regions far from the border with Israel, as part of preparations for war with Israel."

Hamas hiding weaponry amongst civilians, "No shit, Sherlock".

As an aside I wonder if the BBC will investigate these reports? I think we know the answer to that question.

What now for Obamacare?

As I predicted the Republican Scott Brown has won Ted 'IRA' Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat. As I pointed out a few days ago this means that Barack Obama is one vote short of being able to curtail debate on Obamacare, this could get very interesting.

Meanwhile, the BBC's report seems to have been written in a daze by someone whose heart has been broken.


As for Scott 'Senator Beefcake' Brown, the photos were taken quite a while ago but here's a then and now comparison...






Jon Stewart riffs well on this story.

Another of Gordon Brown's promises evaporate like the UK economy

On 1 Jan the BBC reported in another Gordon Brown world statesman article that

'Gordon Brown has called a summit in London to discuss radicalisation in Yemen, after the alleged failed bomb attack on a US plane over Detroit.

No 10 said the 28 January event had support from Washington and the European Union, and Mr Brown aimed to attract Saudi Arabia and Gulf states.

...

The prime minister said the meeting would involve key international partners and be held alongside the conference on the future of Afghanistan, due to be held in London on the same day.'

Today I read on Iain Dale of this exchange in the House of Commons yesterday:

"Sir Patrick Cormack: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what arrangements have been made for the conference on Yemen which he recently announced. [310932]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The meeting on Yemen which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced will take place on 27 January 2010, and is likely to last for around two hours. It will be principally at Foreign Minister level. We are in the process of discussing participation and the agenda with key international partners."

So the 'summit' has become a two hour meeting... I wonder if Gordon Brown's fellow international leaders have recognised that Gordon Brown and indeed the UK are a busted flush and not worth taking seriously? Never mind Gordon I am sure the BBC will find another way to 'big you up' before the end of the week.

Did I dream the BBC report on Gordon Brown and Cadburys (update)

Further to this piece from yesterday, I now note that the lead BBC article on the Kraft takeover of Cadburys is headedlined "Cadbury says job cuts inevitable after Kraft takeover". The old article about Gordon Brown protecting jobs has not reappeared in the list of old stories about this subject although the BBC have put a watered down Gordeon Brown quote into their latest piece, the all but meaningless

"Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government was "determined" to ensure that Cadbury jobs were secure.

"We are determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadbury in the United Kingdom are maintained and we are determined that, at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure," he said. "

It seems that just like Rover pre the 2005 election, Labour have found a British company that they can pretend to care about only to forget about in a few months time.

The real scandal here is the rewriting (by omission) of news history by the BBC. I know that '1984' parallels are a cheap shot, but this really does smack of the work if the Ministry of Truth (minitruth) in George Orwells's '1984'. As with the other Ministries in George Orwell's novel, the Ministry of Truth was a misnomer and in reality served an opposing purpose to that which its name implied, being responsible for the falsification of historical events; and yet was aptly named in a deeper sense, in that it created "truth" in the newspeak sense of the word... Falsifying news history, the BBC should be so proud; but then George Orwell did work at the BBC for a while...

Odd Google searches - Avatar based and another

Neytiri porn - This blog is number 7 after just one mention of the Avatar film

Avatar Neytiri porn - This blog is number 3 after just one mention of the Avatar film

nudity in Marriage ceremony in lebanon - This blog in number 9 and people really need to be more careful when they search

Did I dream the BBC report on Gordon Brown and job cuts at Cadburys?

Earlier today I could have sworn I saw an approving BBC headline that Gordon Brown had warned Cadburys that there should be no job losses in the UK if they were taken over by Kraft. This afternoon as I read on the BBC that: "Cadbury's chairman has confirmed to the BBC that job losses are an "inevitability" at the company after its takeover by US giant Kraft Foods." the earlier article seems to have disappeared... Old articles on a subject normally appear in a list at the top right of the latest article page in date order, latest at the top; in this case the Gordon Brown standing up for British jobs article has just disappeared.

Has anyone a note of what the earlier article said? It would be instructive to ask the BBC why it has disappeared...

Israel's disproportionate response

"Many countries and world leaders have accused Israel of responding disproportionately to aggression from Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

However, it is time that the world press and media speak of another disproportionate response from Israel.

The terrible disastrous earthquake in Haiti has generated responses from many nations. The US has sent supplies and personnel, Britain sent 64 firemen and 8 volunteers, France sent troops for Search and Rescue. Many large and wealthy nations of the world sent money. The Arab and Moslem world nothing.

Israel, a nation of 7.5 million people has sent a team of 220 people that include Medical personnel and will establish the largest field hospital in Haiti, treating up to 5000 people a day, an experienced Search and Rescue team and medical supplies. As in previous earthquake disasters, such as in Gujarat India in 2001 and in Turkey, in the bombings in Kenya, Israel has been one of the most generous givers of aid and assistance

Turkey seems to have forgotten this help as its extreme Moslem Government is cozying up to Iran.

Judge Goldstone, where are you now? Eating your heart out and hanging your head down in shame I hope.

The favorite occupation in the UN is Israel bashing. More resolutions have been passed condemning Israel than all the so called democratic nations such as Sudan, China, Russia and others for their crimes against their minorities.

I think it is time that the world should know about Israel's disproportionate response."

The above is quoted from an email that is 'doing the rounds'

Horrendous economic news excused by the BBC

The BBC have excelled themselves this lunchtime. They report that "Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose 0.6% last month, taking the annual rate up to 2.9% from 1.9% in November." but it's not one of the main headline stories and although the article contains such information as, the very scary, "That was the biggest monthly rise in the annual index since records began and exceeded the City's expectations for an increase to 2.6%." and "This was a rise from 0.3% in November, and also constitutes the biggest monthly rise in the annual rate of RPI inflation since 1979." The BBC are quick to list the reasons why we should not worry and so provide their Labour government with excuses:

"The annual increase in CPI mainly came about because of a number of unusual factors that had depressed prices a year earlier."

I would suggest that such terrible economic news under a Conservative government would have received somewhat more complete coverage, more wailing and bemoaning the economic disaster and interviews with the opposition. However under a Labour government all is peace and quiet, don't scare the population especially this close to an election.

In fact this news means that we are just starting on the path to traditional Labour high inflation, in fact stagflation which I and others have been predicting for quite some time now. Don't expect to see or hear Robert Peston or Nick Robinson discussing Stagflation any time soon, after all there is a general election to be secured for Labour first. As I have said before, there is still time to buy gold (and silver).

Gerry Adams the story that may bring him down

The BBC are giving almost no coverage to the story of how Gerry Adams protected his paedophile brother for 22 years until the girl his brother abused told her story. For some rather better coverage of this distasteful story about a very distasteful man I suggest you read The Mail. For details of more allegations about Gerry Adams I suggest you read The Irish Tribune.

The Mail also reports that:

"In a damning new book to be published about the secret life of Gerry Adams, there will be revelations about his role in the case of The Disappeared - an infamous case involving the IRA murder of a dozen civilians.

This will finally nail the lie of Adams's denial of his involvement with the IRA, not to mention revealing the existence of secret tapes about his involvement in the killing of Jean McConville, a mother of ten suspected of being an informer."

I was going to write a pithy ending to this piece but The Mail seems to have done it for me:

"With his brother facing arrest and his niece pouring scorn on him, the past is at last coming back to haunt Adams.

The question is now whether his lies and special pleading will be enough to save him from political destruction."

Let's hope they are not enough to save him.

Poll Tracker update

The BBC have solved their dilemma over recent opinion polls, they have added the more favourable to Labour You Gov poll to Poll Tracker and ignored the better for the Conservatives Com Res poll that came out on the same day.

Would any passing BBC apologist care to explain why?

Manipulated Datasets at NASA and NCDC - This is a must read post

Jo Nova reports some news that if true is staggering:

"There were around 6000 thermometers 20 or 30 years ago in the global data set, but in 1989-1990, the number of thermometers were reduced to around 1,500. A new study shows a dramatic pattern of artificial adjustments in the way these thermometers were included or deleted. Jonathon Coleman announced the study results tonight on his blog and also in his broadcast (see below).

Apparently officials systematically left out colder thermometer recordings and kept in hotter data, and where there were empty points on the map, they “filled them in” with calculations instead of measurements. The data was homogenized, and the adjustments always increased the warming. This is the telltale sign of chicanery. This is how we know there were artificial adjustments. Normal scientific corrections are random, not all tending in one direction."

Just read that again, maybe a couple of times...

"officials systematically left out colder thermometer recordings and kept in hotter data, and where there were empty points on the map, they “filled them in” with calculations instead of measurements. The data was homogenized, and the adjustments always increased the warming."

Here's more from the aforementioned broadcast:

"E.Michael Smith notes “When doing a benchmark test of the program, I found patterns in the input data from NCDC that looked like dramatic and selective deletions of thermometers from cold locations.” Smith says after awhile, it became clear this was not a random strange pattern he was finding, but a well designed and orchestrated manipulation process. “The more I looked, the more I found patterns of deletion that could not be accidental. Thermometers moved from cold mountains to warm beaches; from Siberian Arctic to more southerly locations, and from pristine rural locations to jet airport tarmacs. The last remaining Arctic thermometer in Canada is in a place called ‘The Garden Spot of the Arctic,’ always moving away from the cold and toward the heat. I could not believe it was so blatant and it clearly looked like it was in support of an agenda,” Smith says. [Source: IceCap ]"

'Incredible', 'staggering'; I think we can all agree to those descriptions. How about 'criminal'?



You might want to take a look at US weatherman John Coleman’s magisterial demolition of the Great AGW Scam, if nothing else watch Segment 4, it left me open-mouthed.

Poll Tracker - What a dilemma for the BBC (update)

Further to this post it seems that the BBC are dealing with the dilemma by not reporting the polls at all. If Political Betting can have the polls up on their site within minutes of the figures being released and I can have them on my site the same evening, how come the BBC have still not updated their website almost 48 hours later?

"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country..."

"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the holy mosque [in Makka] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'."

Just thought it worth reminding people of the aims of Al Qaeda. The above are the words issued on February 23, 1998 by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, along with three other Islamist leaders. This is their fatwa (binding religious edict) calling on Muslims to kill Americans and their allies where they can, when they can.

Let nobody say that we weren't warned...

Confused by 'Climategate'?

Do you find 'Climategate' confusing? All those emails, all thos acronyms, all that science? Well here is a useful analysis and explanation by John P. Costella. Take a read and so be able to counter the 'warmist' agenda.

What happens if the Republicans win in Massachusetts?

Further to may recent piece about the chances of Scott Brown winning Ted "IRA supporter" Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat this week, I note that this is raising some interesting matters. I suggest that you read this from the Weekly Standard for enlightenment:

"Appointed Senator Paul Kirk will lose his vote in the Senate after Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts of a new senator and cannot be the 60th vote for Democratic health care legislation, according to Republican attorneys.

Kirk has vowed to vote for the Democratic bill even if Republican Scott Brown is elected but not yet certified by state officials and officially seated in the Senate. Kirk’s vote is crucial because without the 60 votes necessary to stop a Republican filibuster, the bill will be defeated.

This would be a devastating loss for President Obama and congressional Democrats. The bill, dubbed ObamaCare, is the centerpiece of the president’s agenda. Brown has campaigned on becoming the 41st vote against ObamaCare."

Transgression Taxes - an update

The Telegraph reports that:

"Fines for minor middle class crimes such as speeding, dropping litter and putting bins out on the wrong day are netting the police and town halls more than £400 million a year, new figures suggest.

...

Parking offences have helped rake in more than £330 million, while speeding fines have topped £100 million and on the spot fines for minor offences such as overfilling a dustbin has pulled in almost £12 million. "

Over a year ago I blogged that:

"These trangression taxes are easy to collect if middle-class, law-abiding peope are the transgressors and that is why it is them rather than the violent or dangerous that are targetted. A "street warden" will be more likely to issue a fine to a 50 year-old householder whose bin is overfull because they had a party or who has managed to include a piece of plastic wrapping in the paper recycling bin, that he/she would be to try and fine six youths who are throwing empty beer cans at a bin on the High Street, and missing. The householder is easier to identify, more likely to pay and much less likely to give the "street warden" a good kicking.

A side benefit of fining the law-abiding for minor transgressions is that it keeps them cowed and not inclined to protest in case they transgress some other law and end up in the Police Station. The consequences for a middle-class "criminal" are serious whilst for the aforementioned youths, it is just "an occupational liability". "

The Himalayan glaciers are melting, really?

Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim in this report was that the world's glaciers were melting so fast that even those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.

Now the scientists who were behind this warning have admitted that it was based only on a news story in the New Scientist published eight years before the IPCC's report.

It has also emerged that the New Scientist report itself was based simply on a telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, an Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Syed Hasnain has since admitted that his claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research.

It seems that the claim about the melting glaciers is soon to be retracted by the IPCC. I wonder how much publicity the warmist BBC will give this retraction and what else that the IPCC have reported is also based on faulty or insubstantial evidence?

In June the BBC reported that (my emphasis):

"Glacier melting in the Himalayas is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8142048.stm to disrupt water supplies within the next 20 to 30 years. Floods and rock avalanches are http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8142048.stm to increase. Heavily-populated coastal regions, including the deltas of rivers such as the Ganges and Mekong, are likely to be at risk of increased flooding."

I await their corrections...

For an interesting outlook on Himalayan glaciers, I recommend this article which includes the claim that (my emphasis):

"According to Prof Graham Cogley (Trent University, Ontario), a short article on the future of glaciers by a Russian scientist (Kotlyakov, V.M., 1996, The future of glaciers under the expected climate warming, 61-66, in Kotlyakov, V.M., ed., 1996, Variations of Snow and Ice in the Past and at Present on a Global and Regional Scale, Technical Documents in Hydrology, 1. UNESCO, Paris (IHP-IV Project H-4.1). 78p estimates 2350 as the year for disappearance of glaciers, but the IPCC authors misread 2350 as 2035 in the Official IPCC documents, WGII 2007 p. 493!

So we have a raging debate about impending glacier melt-down because of sloppiness of some IPCC authors! Further, according to Kotlyakov, the present glacier area of some 500,000 km2 could shrink to 100,000 km2 and this could happen NOT in 2035 but in 2350, if the current rate of warming continues. "

Douglas Carswell has blogged about this too.

47% still believe that a Labour government would keep its manifesto pledges; who are these people?

Politics Home reports that:

"A sample of 1,193 UK voters were asked how likely they believed each of the three main political parties were to fulfil their manifesto promises.

In a sign of erosion of trust after twelve years of government, under half of natural Labour supporters believe that a Labour government would deliver on a new manifesto. Around three quarters of Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters would have confidence in their parties' manifestos."

77% of natural Conservative supporters believe that their party would keep to their manifesto, 75% of natural Lib Dem supporters and just 47% of natural Labour supporters. Politics Home seem shocked that the figure is as low as 47%, I am shocked that it is that high. Just as with opinion polls showing 30% of the electorate will vote Labour, after all the havoc they have wreaked, I am amazed.


"Voters were also asked to rate Labour’s performance in fulfilling the six key promises that featured on its pledge card at the 2005 election.


Here are the average scores


Not bad between 6.0 and 5.1 out of 6.0, odd figure to rate out of though, what is this ice-skating? In fact the scores are out of 10. Here's the actual polling question:

"Looking back at a real life pledge card, the Labour party made the following promises before the 2005 election. Please rate how successful you believe the government has been in fulfilling them (on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is could not have been less successful and 10 is could not have been more successful)"

Haiti destroyed but what about the Dominican Republic

The earthquake that has devastated Port au Prince was centred around 25 miles from the border with the Dominican Republic, what damage did it do there? I just wondered... Looking at a map of the earthquake zone it seems that it barely touches the Dominican Republic, so that answers my question.

Massachusetts Senate seat election

The death of Edward "IRA Supporter" Kennedy has necessitated an election for his rock solid, safely Democrat seat. However recent opinion polls have shown that the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, has seen a recent surge in voting intentions with leads in four of the last six polls. It seems possible that a Republican could win this safe Democrat seat. Meanwhile I can find nothing about this election on the BBC news website, nothing at all. I wonder how they will cover a Republican win without reflecting badly on Barack Obama's uncriticisable record as President. The trouble with publishing only adulatory articles about Barack Obama's Presidency is that when the voters turn against him, the British people just won't understand why; I wonder if that is the BBC's intention...

Elliot from Scrubs

I always did like watching Scrubs, maybe the above is why...


Plenty more photos of Sarah Chalke/Elliot here.

But I think these may not be entirely real...

And that lead me to finding a whole internet subculture of fake celebrity nude photos, these (not) of Calista Flockhart are particularly disturbing... although the first on this page of Courtney Cox is oddly convincing but who on earth would want to see Victoria Beckham nude?

Number 10 summed up

“What comes out of No 10 is lots of barmy ideas. It’s the worst possible kind of policy making, which is ‘here is a problem, let’s have a kneejerk reaction to it tomorrow on what we’re going to announce’ and quite frankly the less contact with No 10 the better.”

“All the worst bits of policy making come from the centre. It’s these people who think you change the world by publishing a strategy. And you don’t change a thing by publishing a strategy, it makes no difference whatsoever.”

“It’s no great secret that Gordon is not strategic...a cacophony of silence and confusion... The centre [No 10] is certainly dysfunctional and the Cabinet Office is fragmented.”

“It’s worse than under previous prime ministers. With Blair they did invite you to meetings, but not with Brown. They contracted into a little bunker. I had a very good working relationship with Downing Street under Blair but that changed when Brown came in and it contracted to a very small circle of people. You just got orders from Downing Street, not consultation, and that is still continuing today.”

These quotations form an alarming account of the void at the heart of this Labour government from a group of 60 senior civil servants from across Whitehall. They've contributed to a study by the Institute for Government, and the above are some of their comments.

I wonder if the BBC's ace political expert Nick Robinson will deign to cover this story or will he wait for something for favourable to the Labour party?


Thanks to Burning Our Money for the spot.

Do you have trouble remembering the Periodic Table?

Well this chap always has the Periodic Table to hand (or arm).

There are some more seriously ill-advised tattoos on Ugliest Tattoos.

XH558 needs £230,000 by January 31st

Please contribute.

Idiot dhimmi award

The award goes to Ed Balls for his decision as reported in The Mail that:

"Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been accused of refusing to ban Islamic schools from smacking children for fear of upsetting Muslim 'sensitivities'.

Mr Balls was last week urged to close a legal loophole which gives teachers in Britain's estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques the right to smack children - even though it is banned in other schools.

He refused, prompting claims that he is allowing an alleged 'culture of physical abuse' in some of the mosque schools - or madrasahs - go unchecked."

This Labour government seems completely unaware of the realities of life in the UK.

The price of sarcasm is $1.99

Are you, like me, prone to sarcasm in your emailing and/or blogging? If so then you may be interested in the SarcMark, it looks a really useful punctuation mark... (there for example!).

Peter Watt on Andrew Marr

Wow, that was one heck of an interview; even Andrew Marr couldn't hide his amazement at some of Peter Watt's revelations. Odd how the interview wasn't pre-publicised on the BBC website.

Poll Tracker - what a dilemma for the BBC

Two opinion polls have been released tonight: You Gov show the Conservatives down 2% at 40%, Labour up 1% at 31%, the Lib Dems up 2% at 18% and others down 1% at 11% whilst Com Res show the Conservatives up 4% at 42%, Labour unchanged at 29%, the Lib Dems unchanged at 19% and others down 4% at 10%.

I wonder which of the polls the BBC will choose as their 'latest' and thus the one that Poll Tracker will default to once updates? I think I can guess... I will let you know.

Kraftwerk meets BBC incomprehension

Kraftwek - "Autobahn" on Tomorrows World?

Shh don't mention the J word

Biased BBC report that: "In next week's Radio Times (16-22 Jan 2010) there is an interview with Dermot O'Leary. A quote from the interview is printed over his photo. The quote says:

"I've probably got more in common with a liberal Muslim than a conservative Catholic"

In the interview he actually says:

"I don't like evangelism and I've probably got more in common with a liberal Jew or a liberal Muslim than someone who'd consider themselves a conservative Catholic."

So why drop the reference to "liberal Jew" which came first but keep "liberal Muslim"? I really would be interested to know the thought process behind that editing.

It's Vicki Butler Henderson time

I was always a fan of Vicki Butler Henderson on the old Top Gear and even on the sub-standard 5th Gear, performances like this by a TVR caught many people's attention...


Her cleavage became more and more prominent...



She made some great verbal oops...



However it seems that VBH has been given some other television programmes to 'front', I am not sure what the programmes were as I was a little distracted...

Those 'endangered' polar bears

Examiner.com reports that:

"Harry Flaherty, chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in the capital of Iqaluit, says the polar bear population in the region, along the Davis Strait, has doubled during the past 10 years. He questions the official figures, which are based to a large extent on helicopter surveys.

“Scientists do a quick study one to two weeks in a helicopter, and don’t see all the polar bears. We’re getting totally different stories [about the bear numbers] on a daily basis from hunters and harvesters on the ground,” he says."

Do read the whole piece and understand that 'the polar bears are dying' is just another piece of warmist lying.

Scott Ritter caught in online sex sting

The Mail report that:

"The former top United Nations weapons inspector has been caught in a sex sting.

Scott Ritter, who served as chief weapons inspector in Iraq, told a 15-year-old girl he wanted to have sex with her and also filmed himself carrying out a sex act on a webcam.

But instead of talking to a teenage girl, he was in contact with an undercover police officer in an online chatroom seeking out child predators.

Ritter, 44, is facing up to ten years in jail and a lifetime on the sex offenders register after being charged with child endangerment."

More detail, quite unpleasant detail, can be found on The Smoking Gun who have the Police complaint sheet available to view.


Scott Ritter was the chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 and became famous for his criticism of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. I note that the BBC have just this tiny piece on Scott Ritter's arrest, somehow I think that if it was a prominent 'neo-con' the report would be longer and rather more prominent.

Reporting Global Warming in the USA

Business Media have some interesting analysis of how the major US broadcasting networks - ABC, CBS and NBC - cover Global Warming and the bias they present.

"Global warming crusader Al Gore repeatedly claims the climate change “debate’s over.” It isn’t, but the news media clearly agree with him. Global warming skeptics rarely get any say on the networks, and when their opinions are mentioned it is often with barbs like “cynics” or “deniers” thrown in to undermine them.

Consistently viewers are being sent only one message from ABC, CBS and NBC: global warming is an environmental catastrophe and it’s mankind’s fault. Skepticism is all but shut out of reports through several tactics – omission, name-calling, the hype of frightening images like polar bears scavenging for food near towns and a barrage of terrifying predictions.

The Business & Media Institute analyzed 205 network news stories about “global warming” or “climate change” between July 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2007. BMI found a meager 20 percent of stories even mentioned there were any alternative opinions to the so-called “consensus” on the issue."

An interesting article and I wonder how the BBC would fare if their output was similarly analysed?

"As far as we are aware, Mr Pankhurst is not currently a member of an illegal extremist group."

The Times reports that:

"A senior figure in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a hardline Islamist group that the Government keeps “under continuous review” and the Conservatives want to ban, is teaching and preaching at a top university.

The Times has learnt that Reza Pankhurst, who was imprisoned in Egypt for membership of the group, is a teacher at the London School of Economics and regularly preaches to students at Friday prayers.

The group is supposedly barred from organising and speaking on campuses under the National Union of Students’ policy of “no platform” for racist or fascist views. The presence of one of its prominent members as a university teacher raises new concerns about Islamist radicalisation on campus.

A new review of campus extremism began last month after it was discovered that the alleged Detroit airline bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London."

But fear not as (my emphasis):

"The students’ union said that Mr Pankhurst was a member of its Islamic Society. Aled Dilwyn Fisher, general secretary of the union, said: “As far as we are aware, Mr Pankhurst is not currently a member of an illegal extremist group.”"

Hizb ut-Tahir is anti-Semitic and dangerous but to the useful idiots on the left of politics this is of no importance as 'we are all Hamas/Hezbollah now'.

The "BRIBO Laptop" - "This Bribo laptop is an aspiration, not a pledge. We aspire to send it to you, but if you win it, you may not receive it."

I see that brillo211 (Andrew Neill?) has a sense of humour... They are advertising for sale of Ebay UK 27,000 BRIBO laptops, described thus:

"Here we have a spanking new, gleaming Bribo laptop, complete with instruction sheet showing you where to place your X when the time comes.

The government has declared that it will soon issue 270,000 of these Bribos to their core voters so that they may keep up with their children's school progress on the internet, rather than get up off their sofas and walk down to the parent-teacher meetings and ask. In order to exchange them for tax-free CASH, (to allow access to the things that REALLY matter), the inevitable result will be thousands of Bribos listed on eBay shortly after issue, so I am taking this opportunity to list mine now, before the rush.

Bribo is the latest offering in the "class war" series and will be issued exclusively to "low income" families, (i.e. not much money BEFORE benefits are freely distributed to you), so here is a great opportunity for middle-class, rich buyers, (i.e.anyone with initiative or a bit of cash after having paid swingeing tax and NI and not central within Labour's core vote buyers), to get one as well. Yes, yes, we know that you've already paid for these Bribos out of your hard-earned, heavily-taxed income, but that's not the point - after all, who doesn't want the warm glow of satisfaction that comes from paying for a Bribo, ensuring that the money gets to where it's needed - into the pockets of "low income" families, just in time for the general election.

With the Bribo's browser set to the Labour party home page, this machine is ready to go from the box. Full filters and software included to protect the user from harmful on-line experiences, including landing on any page that we consider to be contrary to Labour party targets and anything that doesn't toe the party line. Any deviation of use from the true purpose of the Bribo will be met with an "off-message".

If you've been happy to let the state control your life for the last twelve years and currently have trouble living without nannying, this is the machine for you.

This whole listing is costing us £300 million, (yes, a great value £1111 per Bribo laptop[*], and about £288 million more than was spent nationally on salt for roads this year but, hey, what's the priority here - getting ever-fewer people to work or getting these Bribos to the people who really matter?), but this listing starts at 99p, no reserve start - possible only because we managed to keep it "off book" through the machinations of a very expensive, very badly negotiated PFI deal.

IMPORTANT NOTE - Terms of this auction:

1) In addition to winner paying final price and postage, a promise has to be made in writing that the winner, (and family), will use their postal vote for Labour at the forthcoming general election. Failure to adhere to this condition will render the listing null and void. (Please refer to the included instruction sheet for guidance on how to comply.)

2) This Bribo laptop is an aspiration, not a pledge. We aspire to send it to you, but if you win it, you may not receive it. Stocks are limited and there's currently a rush to get them to as many "low income" families as possible before the next election is announced. In the case that we are unable to adhere to this aspiration, any moneys that you have paid will not be returned, they will be hosed over poor families or bankers.

3) The first edition Bribo is initially available ONLY to addresses in marginal Labour constituencies where the election result is looking a bit dodgy. If you don't live in such a constituency, then you'll have to wait for the toughened, hard-shell, 2nd version which would be issued to more "low income" families when it appears that things really are getting bad. And we'll just keep dishing out Bribos further and further up the food chain until we see the swing that we deserve.

4) By buying the Bribo, you agree to pay the government an extra 50p a month on your phone bill, ostensibly to allow private telecoms companies to upgrade their infrastructure without recourse to their shareholders and dreadful bankers, but really it's another unavoidable stealth tax, to transfer more money from your pocket to ours.

5) We reserve the right to change policy at any time, especially if polls show us to be pulling well ahead before the next election.

If you're not happy with these terms, please do not bid.

Postage terms:

1) The winning bidder is liable to pay ALL taxes and stealth taxes applicable to their residency - at least 50p in the £, although cash-back on taxes will be made available to "low income" families in the form of a non-means-tested benefit cheque.

2) Where our aspiration can be realised, the Bribo will be despatched in a brown envelope.


For more information on the Bribo, please go to:

http://dailyreferendum.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-look-labours-new-free-laptop.html

[*] = If you're a taxpayer who is more concerned about value for money than we are, you cannot bid on this item - it's not for you. However ... the same model under a different branding can be bought at PC World for just £179. The price quoted to us by the preferred supplier was the "John Lewis list" price, which we are more used to dealing with and which we always use as the benchmark when we negotiate such complex PFI deals."

Satire of the highest order... I think from Steve Green of Daily Referendum.

"Unprecedented warming did not occur in central England during the first decade of the 21st century"

"Summary: Unprecedented warming did not occur in central England during the first decade of the 21st century, nor during the last decade of the 20th century. As the CET dataset is considered a decent proxy for Northern Hemisphere temperatures, and since global temperature trends follow a similar pattern to Northern Hemisphere temps, then the same conclusion about recent warming can potentially be inferred globally. Based on the CET dataset, the global warming scare has been totally blown out of proportion by those who can benefit from the fear."

Now go and read the full article as a welcome antidote to the 'warmist' propaganda that masquerades as science in so much of the media.

Here's a short extract to whet your appetite :

"The first characteristic of the graph to note is the green trend line. That line indicates an overall warming of 0.26°C per century rate since 1659. So, for some 350 years central England, and the world, have been warming. No big surprise there since Earth has been continuously warming since the end of the Little Ice Age; and, at the end of that 350 year trend line of warming is the first decade of the 21st century. Based on some 350 years of warming, it should be of no surprise that this last decade is the 'warmest' since...well...it's been warming for a very long time (ya' know, when you keep warming something slowly it just happens to keep getting warmer over time).

By the way, the temperature trend from 1659 to the end of 1945 was 0.19°C per century. That means there was a 0.07°C per century increase from 1946 through 2009 (from 0.19°C to 0.26°C). Is that the human CO2 "signal" that alarmists claim threatens the world? Or, is it the "solar" signal from the grand maxima that was reached in the late 20th century? Or, is it the "land-use" signal from tropical rain forest deforestation and paving over farmland with asphalt? Or, is it the "black soot" or other aerosol signal from burning of biomass from the billions without modern electricity generation? Or, was it just part of the natural variation that occurs?"

Norman Tebbit update

I see that Norman Tebbit is today covering the threat of the BNP and putting the BNP firmly where it belongs, on the left not the right of the political spectrum. I have been saying for many years that the BNP are a left wing organisation but that the BBC and others describe them as right wing as that way they can taint all right wing parties with the stigma of racism.

As Norman Tebbit writes:

"So what about the BNP? The trouble is that it is a national socialist party. Take a look at its 2005 election manifesto. You won’t find much about reducing the power of the state and increasing that of the individual. It has a curiously dated air of the 1960s and 1970s, with talk of controlling the commanding heights of the economy and building barriers to trade. To be kind to the BNP, one might call it a corporatist party. To put it more roughly, one might say that it is a fascist party, a Left-wing authoritarian party. One thing is certain. As a socialist party, the BNP can only be part of the problem, not part of the solution."

And as I have also pointed out before:

"across the world, the greatest butchers have been socialists: Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Hitler – not a free market capitalist, low tax, small government man among them."

Israel or Egypt - which is the 'apartheid state'

All those useful idiots if the left who shriek that Israel is an 'apartheid state' might want to ponder this from the Seattle Times/AP:

"The coach of Egypt's national soccer team says he only wants players who observe Islam and the selection of his squad is based equally on religious piety and skill.

...

He was quoted by several Cairo newspapers as saying skill alone won't guarantee anyone a place on the national team, which is currently defending its African continental title in Angola.

He said "pious behavior" was the main category for selection.

"Without it, we will never select any player regardless of his potential. I always strive to make sure that those who wear the Egypt jersey are on good terms with God."

One newspaper, the independent al-Shorouk, quoted Shehata as saying that striker Ahmed "Mido," on loan from England's Middlesborough to Cairo's Zamalek, was cut after his initial selection because he did not fit the manager's prerequisite for piety."

Can you imagine the fuss if the Israeli national football coach was to say that he would only pick religiously observant Jews for the national team? The BBC would be up in arms for a start, but for Egypt and Muslims, not a word of criticism - why?

Art imitating life, and/or vice versa

Yesterday morning I read about the poor Swedish teenager who was struck down by a "one-in-a-million" allergic reaction to household paracetamol. Eva Uhlin was 15 when she contracted Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, a rare skin condition that is potentially fatal and meant that over a few days she lost most of the surface of her face as her skin blistered and then turned into scabs. The skin on parts of her chest, arms, back and stomach also fell away. At one point the damage to her face was so bad her lips grew together as skin formed a scab over her mouth.

Yesterday evening I watched "House" Series 5 Episode 23 "Under My Skin" in which bizarrely the patient contracts Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis as a result of being given antibiotics; what are the odds of seeing that incredibly rare condition in the media twice in a day?

Predictions for the 2010 Local Council Elections

Interesting, very interesting...

BBC busted over U2 promotion

The BBC report that:

"The BBC has admitted coverage of the launch of U2 album No Line On The Horizon last February, went too far - giving "undue prominence" to the band.

Critics said the BBC had given U2 "the sort of publicity money can't buy".

The corporation acknowledged that radio coverage of the event, which included a rooftop concert at Broadcasting House, breached BBC editorial guidelines.

It said the use of the slogan U2=BBC "gave an inappropriate impression of endorsement". "

The BBC's promotion of a Coldplay tour was also described as "not in keeping with the BBC's guidelines on links to external websites".

I have remarked on the BBC's love affair with all things U2 and Coldplay before, so it is good to see the BBC having to recognise this...

Was Brazil that far-sighted

Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" is a great film so I was interested to read this review that struck a chord with me:

"Terry Gilliam's future, unsurprisingly, is an organisational catastrophe of bureaucracy gone mad, where a monolithic government gets away with torture and murder simply because complaining about them is such an incredible faff."

Is anyone else reminded of life in Labour Britain?

The BBC and Haiti

The BBC's wall to wall coverage of the horror unfolding in Haiti has usefully taken attention away from Gordon Brown's troubles but a minor matter struck me yesterday. There was much coverage of the various foreign countries and agencies sending experts to help in the rescue work and I wondered why Israel was not sending experts this time as they usually do, their IDF teams being unfortunately very expert in locating and recovering people from underneath destroyed buildings. Today I learn that an IDF team is indeed en-route to Haiti; I wonder why the BBC want to keep the UK population ignorant of Israel's humanitarian mission?

BBC Poll Tracker at it again (update)

Further to this I see that Poll Tracker has now been updated (sort of). The latest poll now is Populus's from 12 Jan showing 41% Conservatives and 28% LAbour. Still no sign of the You Gov poll that showed the Conservatives unchanged on 42% and Labour unchanged on 30%.

Is it possible that rather than bias this is just a sign of BBC incompetence?

How to cheer yourself up every morning

1. Create a new file in your computer
2. Name it 'Gordon Brown'
3. Delete it and so send it to the Recycle Bin
4. Empty the Recycle Bin
5. Your PC will ask you: "Are you sure you want to delete 'Gordon Brown'?
6. Click 'Yes'
7. Doesn't that feel good?

For variety you might want to try this with 'Peter Mandelson' or 'Harriet Harman'

Quote of the day

"It seems to me that our masters these days are willing to use a carrot and stick approach, but they almost always use the stick on the poor old donkey’s nose and inflict a terrible indignity on the beast with the carrot at its other end."

Norman Tebbit in his new blog. The Chigford skinhead always did have a way with words...

Riots in Italy?

I read in The Telegraph that:

"Police reinforcements were urgently sent to southern Italy after African migrant workers armed with rocks and metal poles fought pitch battles with locals in a protest over appalling living conditions and alleged racism. "

I can find nothing on the BBC about this subject although there is an Italian news story featuring in the headlines "Italy is to open one of the world's first prisons for the exclusive use of transgender inmates.".

In fact the main Europe story is that "Turkey calls for Israeli apology", apparently "Turkey seeks an apology from Israel over the "discourteous" treatment of its ambassador in a row over a Turkish TV series. " A minor story and one that concerns two countries that I would suggest are not really European. But this is the BBC and they are in favour of Turkey joining the EU and of course it's an excuse to run another anti-Israel story...

Another clever goat

Darren the waving goat seems just the sort of clever chap I should befriend.

The inequality of the UK's electoral system

I have blogged before about the unfairness of the UK's electoral system that is incredibly biased in favour of the Labour party. So I was interested to read this piece on Conservative Home:

"ConservativeHome Contributing Editor Paul Goodman considers the need to redraw constituency boundaries to level a playing field which is currently weighted in Labour's favour.

Let’s start with a simple comparison. Imagine that at the coming election we win 40% of the vote, Labour 30%, the Liberals 18% and others 12% [The results in the overnight ICM poll]. All else being equal, we’d have a Commons majority of eight.

Now reverse those first two figures. Imagine that Labour gain 40%, we take 30%, and the other two figures stay the same. Labour would have a majority of 138 – an 130 seat difference on the same share of the vote, according to UK Polling Report.

...

Take Liverpool Wavertree, on its 2009 boundaries. These were drawn up from data obtained as long ago as 2000 – almost a decade ago. In 2000, it had 72,256 voters on these boundaries, and was thus roughly the Boundary Commission for England’s preferred size. This year, it will have 62, 952 – some 10,000 below that ideal.

On the other hand, consider South Northants. In 2000, it had 68,773 voters. At the next election, it will have 79,563 – a growth of some 15 per cent in nine years – and will be well over the Commission’s norm.
I’m told by an academic who cited these examples to me that, unlike some others, they’re illustrative of a general trend. Voters are moving out of Labour-dominated city areas into Conservative-leaning suburbs and shires, especially in a wide belt that stretches north-east across England from Devon to Lincolnshire.
And under present rules, the Boundary Commissions are always several years behind change. As we’ve seen, the Commission for England’s latest review is based on findings ten years or so out of date. The only-just-abolished boundaries – under which Sheffield Brightside, for example, had only 50,801 electors – were drawn from data gathered as long ago as 1992.

Furthermore, our four Commissions don’t work from the premise that equal constituency size trumps everything else. New Zealand allows a deviation of 5% from either side of the preferred size, or quota. America permits less than 1%. Our Commissions balk only at variations of more than 20%.

...

Fortunately, we’re already committed to the separate proposal of reducing the number of seats by some10% – thereby cutting the cost of politics. This is reasonable in its own terms: in a Commons in which some legislators double up as Ministers, there’s no reason why MPs shouldn’t take another 10,000 or so voters. The measure should be in the first Queen’s Speech of a Conservative Government.

As part of that reduction, the Boundary Commissions should work from the principle that constituencies must be roughly the same size, with a much smaller variation from the quota, of New Zealand margins or thereabouts. County and ward boundaries should be adapted to meet this norm, rather than the reverse, as is often the case at present. Reviews should be more frequent – perhaps taking place every five years rather than ten, or being, in effect, continuous rolling assessments. The appeals procedure must remain independent, but be speeded up. In particular, the present rights of objection must be scrutinised closely."

The Chilcot Iraq Enquiry - two views of Alastair Campbell's evidence

The BBC are conflicted when reporting this enquiry; they are deeply anti the invasion of Iraq but are also very concerned that no damage accrues to Gordon Brown or his Labour government, there is also the collective memory of what happened when the BBC crossed Alastair Campbell in the not too distant past. Thus the BBC's report of today's evidence is a masterpiece of subtle reporting. If you want an idea of what questions should have been asked of Alastair Campbell then a read of Andrew Gilligan's piece in The Telegraph should prove most instructive.

Of course it matters little what questions are asked of Alastair Campbell or indeed Tony Blair, for they are neither giving evidence under oath. Mind you to paraphrase what I blogged back in July:

'The news that Sir John Chilcot has said that Tony Blair would be among those asked to give evidence and that he did not expect anyone to refuse does not fill me with great confidence. Unless Tony Blair and others are under oath, wired to a polygraph and given a sodium pentothal injection first; I will find it hard to be sure that they are telling 'the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'.'

BBC Poll Tracker at it again

I have reported before how the BBC's Poll Tracker seems to update only after the most favourable of a group of opinion polls. It seems that the BBC are at it again as the last poll shown on Poll Tracker is the ICM poll from 9 January which showed the Conservatives unchanged on 40% with Labour down 1% at 30%. Oddly the more recent You Gov poll that showed the Conservatives unchanged on 42% and Labour unchanged on 30% has still not been updated and neither has the latest Populus poll that shows the Conservatives up 3% at 41% and Labour down 2% at 28%.

I would complain about this lack of updating but no doubt I would just get a reply from the BBC telling me, like last time, that: "We have had some minor technical problems with the polltracker which are being rectified this morning. Both polls will shortly appear. Please be assured there is no intent to distort the data in favour of any of the main parties.".

Another story about a senior Labour politician that the BBC have seen fit to ignore

Herald Scotland reports the fascinating news that:

"Alistair Darling has resigned from Scotland’s most prestigious legal body after it started an inquiry into his conduct surrounding his expenses as an MP, the Sunday Herald has learned.

The Chancellor ended his 25-year membership of the Faculty of Advocates a week before Christmas.

Mr Darling, a respected lawyer prior to entering politics, gave no public explanation. However, the Sunday Herald can reveal that the Chancellor’s exit followed a complaint to the Faculty by a member of the public about his House of Commons expenses for a second home."

Now I think that's an interesting story, a very interesting story and if it had concerned a senior Conservative Minister in the late 1980s it would have been a lead story on the BBC but not a word on the BBC about this labour Minister; WHY? Maybe the BBC learned that:

"Mr Darling’s spokeswoman said: “There was absolutely nothing wrong in what he did about his houses.

“The disciplinary proceedings would not have been awkward and it is ridiculous to suggest he resigned because of this.”"

and decided that was good enough for them.


Thanks to Subrosa for the spot.

The sixty-seventh weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award goes to Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, as reported in The Mail who has "accused the makers of flu drugs and vaccines of influencing the World Health Organisation's decision to declare a pandemic."

What do you mean? Follow the money! "No shit, Sherlock!"


Remember that "The Department of Health warned of 65,000 deaths, set up a special advice line and website, suspended normal rules so anti-flu drugs could be given out without prescription and told health and local authorities to prepare for a major pandemic.

Planners were told to get morgues ready for the sheer scale of deaths and there were warnings that the Army could be called in to prevent riots as people fought to obtain drugs.

But there were "just 251 deaths overall"


"Dr Wodarg has branded the H1N1 outbreak as 'one of the greatest medical scandals of the century'." A second "No shit, Sherlock"

David Beckham's body art

I read that:

"David Beckham seems a tad confused about his religion as he shows off his new Jesus tattoo

...

It's the third tattoo depiciting Christian iconography that Beckham, 34, has had etched into his body - despite the midfielder saying he has a strong link to Judaism."

Strong links to Judaism? Well Jesus was a nice Jewish boy, as were his disciples! Anyway David Beckham is not Jewish, he just has Jewish links in his background; leave the poor man alone...

Is the UK now an 'unfriendly power'?

I read that:

"The United States was accused last night of refusing to share with Britain the latest technology it uses against roadside bombs which have killed scores of Allied troops in Afghanistan.

US Army Lieutenant-General Thomas Metz, who retired last week as the chief officer specialising in counter-measures against the attacks, claims the UK and other coalition forces have been denied information which could save lives."

Why would the US be reluctant to share information with the UK, information that could save lives? Could it be because

"Pentagon chiefs have refused, arguing that if the information falls into the hands of the Taliban, new ways will be found to beat the technology."

Labour's policy of creating first Londonistan and the UKistan looks like it might be reaping its reward: the unnecessary deaths of UK soldiers.

Someone else has spotted the naked BBC bias this weekend

Steven Adams also spotted the importance of the Peter Watt story and how the BBC sidelined the story whilst attacking David Cameron. Have a read of his article.