http://afuturefairforall.blogspot.com/

MutleyTheDog has a new blog registered; could be one to keep an eye on...

How the BBC treat Conservative party policy announcements

Magnificent work by "Stoatman"; satire of the highest order.

The 'Gordon Brown is a bully' story might just be about to get VERY interesting

I thought that Peter Mandelson and the Labour Party by skilfully using the tame BBC had won the battle over Christine Pratt's allegations but now I read that:

"Publicist Max Clifford is to represent the anti-bullying charity boss who said Downing Street staff contacted her organisation's helpline.

Mr Clifford told the BBC that Christine Pratt, chief executive of the National Bullying Helpline, had told him she had e-mail evidence to back up her claims. "

Mandelson v Clifford - this could be a seriously heavyweight bout and I am not sure who the winner will be. The only fly in the ointment may be that the BBC quote Max Clifford as saying that 'he was a "very big fan" of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.'

"The Labour party has been warned by the Electoral Commission over its handling of postal vote applications "

The Guardian reports that:

"The Labour party has been warned by the Electoral Commission over its handling of postal vote applications after it investigated alleged irregularities in last year's Glasgow North East byelection.

The commission said an unusually high number of last minute postal vote applications were made in Glasgow North East, with 1,800 forms submitted less than three days before the registration deadline – more than a quarter of the total number received.

A spot check of 300 of those forms by the returning officer's staff found that in at least 100 cases these applications had been dated more than a week and in some cases over a month earlier.

Nearly half of the last-minute registrations came from Labour supporters, sparking allegations from the Scottish National party – first reported by The Guardian – that Labour had been deliberately hoarding postal votes to help its campaign.

In the event, Labour won by a landslide 8,111 votes, securing a 60% share of the vote and demolishing SNP hopes of a second victory in Labour's Glasgow heartland.

The commission said Labour "did not comply" with a code of conduct that requires political parties to hand in every postal vote application within two days of receiving them, and had been asked to honour those rules in future."

As I have said time and time again, some Labour party campaigners will be using the postal vote system to maximise the Labour vote; a very close eye will need to be kept on some Labour seats or the Florida 'hanging chads' will be as nothing...

PIGS become PIIGS, will this affect STUPID?

Italy has joined the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece & Spain) in the list of EU countries that the Markets think most at risk of defaulting on their sovereign debt. The STUPID countries (Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy and Dubai) are the countries not just including the EU. It has just struck me that the original I in PIGS was Ireland but the original I in STUPID was Italy. Either way I suppose it is PIIGS & STUPIID; not so memorable but oh so much scarier...

Gordon Brown's temper tantrums as envisaged by Taiwanese television

Gordon Brown in CGI looks a lot slimmer and less sulky than he does in real life.

I have said before that the way to destroy Gordon Brown is make him a figure of fun. Just as Alastair Campbell invented the John Major tucks his shirt into his underpants story, so Conservative Central Office need to have a team dedicated to turning Gordon Brown into a laughing stock. In fact this could be even more effective against Brown than against most politicians as whilst most politicians have a sense of humour about their failing, I dont't believe Gordon Brown has.



Thanks to Dizzy Thinks for the spot.

Is the US in technical default

Zero Hedge has an interesting article:

"A new proposal by House Republicans, lead by Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.), is seeking to address changes to Fannie and Freddie accounting, along the lines of what has been previously proposed by Zero Hedge, and to not only include the GSE's losses as part of the Federal budget, but to also count the debt from the two mortgage zombies toward the nation's total statutory debt limit. As we stated previously, it is only semantics at this point which distinguish the GSE obligations from other Treasury obligations. Yet it is not just us, but the administration's very own Peter Orzsag who was pushing for consolidated GSE accounting two years ago. Yet with GSE debt most recently at $6.3 trillion, or about half of the existing Treasury debt, this would mean total US debt would not only explode by 50% overnight, but the recently increased debt ceiling would be immediately breached and America would find itself in technical default (where it really is right now for all technical purposes). "

As I have said before, it is tough to tell which economy is more screwed: the US, EU or UK. Maybe we will all go phut together.

The masters of spin have done it again

The Labour spinmeisters have done it again. The majority of evidence is that Gordon Brown is a bully but somehow after less than 48 hours of this round of stories the BBC feel able to report with a straight face that "Brown 'very upset' by bully claims, says Ed Balls". Apparently

"Gordon Brown has been "very upset" by allegations about his behaviour towards staff, his ally Ed Balls told the BBC.

The schools secretary said there was "no truth" in claims that the cabinet secretary was so concerned he had to have a private word with the PM.

"I don't think it damages him, it hurts him personally," Mr Balls said. "

Having watched the way the Labour/BBC spin machine dealt with the damaging claims of Andrew Rawnsley and then Christine Pratt it seems to me that the Labour spin and smear machine is in tip-top working order and that the coming general election campaign will run at an intensity that the UK has never experienced before. I fear that the Conservative team are not up to the task of fighting this Labour/BBC nexus and that consequently the result of the general election will be another Labour government with all that that entails for the economy and social stability of the United Kingdom.

One way to make your point

"Don't brink laptops and work on them in class, have I made myself clear?"

An Oxford University professor, allegedly, using liquid nitrogen on a laptop.


Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot.

The BBC happy to spread slurs about Jews

According to Double Tapper

"On Sunday BBC Radio 4’s PM program interviewed Gordon Thomas, author of Gideon’s Spies, a book about the Mossad.

In explaining the Mossad’s operating methods outside Israel, Thomas told PM host Eddie Mair, “They have a whole backup system called ‘asylum.’ These are people, local residents, Jewish people, who help the Mossad. It is estimated to be in the world about half a million; some people say a million; I tend to say it’s about half a million, all of them Mossad people.”

The BBC press office in London said, “This interview was part of a wider piece about the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh which involved contributions from a number of people including Gordon Thomas, an author of a book about [the] Mossad.


So let me get this straight. Roughly 10% of the Jews in the world work for the Mossad and assist in assassinations. This is from the same Gordon Thomas that wrote that the Mossad was responsible for Princess Dianna's death."

Can you imagine the BBC allowing anyone air time to allege that all Muslims supported the Iranian secret service or Hamas? Not a chance as they would not want to 'provoke an anti-Islam backlash' but they seem happy to allow air time to someone to claim that most Jews are active supporters of the hated Mossad thus risking provoking an anti-Semitic backlash.

Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama

No Sheeples Here reports that Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama but didn't want too much publicity as he didn't want to upset his Chinese financiers. Thus this report:

"There was no customary welcome fanfare for this dignitary and the President made no public comments, only issuing a brief statement through his spokesman. The White House banned reporters and TV cameras, distributing a single photo of the two leaders.

However, the White House efforts to keep the meeting on the “down low” weren’t entirely successful. Cameras were able to capture the moment the Dalai Lama was shown the way out through the back door where garbage was piled up outside."

and even more damningly the photo at the top of this post of the Dalai Lama having to leave the White House via a back or side entrance and walk past some trash; that Barack Obama he's got real class hasn't he?

Now you see it, now you don't

LFAT has a fantastic spot that Number 10's spite is in full flow ans they remove the National Bullying Helpline from BIS's website - more specifically their list of 'useful organisations'. Hell hath no fury like a PM accused of bullying; what pathetic people.

Today Malmo, tomorrow Manchester?

The Telegraph report that:

"Jews leave Swedish city after sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes

Sweden's reputation as a tolerant, liberal nation is being threatened by a steep rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city of Malmo.

...

In 2009, a chapel serving the city's 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused on their way home from prayer, and "Hitler" was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.

"I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway," Mrs Popinski told The Sunday Telegraph.

"This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now."

Malmo's Jews, however, do not just point the finger at bigoted Muslims and their fellow racists in the country's Neo-Nazi fringe. They also accuse Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor who has been in power for 15 years, of failing to protect them.

Mr Reepalu, who is blamed for lax policing, is at the centre of a growing controversy for saying that what the Jews perceive as naked anti-Semitism is in fact just a sad, but understandable consequence of Israeli policy in the Middle East.

While his views are far from unusual on the European liberal-left, which is often accused of a pro-Palestinian bias, his Jewish critics say they encourage young Muslim hotheads to abuse and harass them.

The future looks so bleak that by one estimate, around 30 Jewish families have already left for Stockholm, England or Israel, and more are preparing to go.

With its young people planning new lives elsewhere, the remaining Jewish households, many of whom are made up of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, fear they will soon be gone altogether. Mrs Popinski, an 86-year-old widow, said she has even encountered hostility when invited to talk about the Holocaust in schools.

"Muslim schoolchildren often ignore me now when I talk about my experiences in the camps," she said. "It is because of what their parents tell them about Jews. The hatreds of the Middle East have come to Malmo. Schools in Muslim areas of the city simply won't invite Holocaust survivors to speak any more." "

About five years ago I started warning Jewish friends and colleagues that our time as welcome citizens of the UK would not last for ever and that we should all start planning our exit strategies; I gave it 10 years before we would need to take action, nothing that I see around me leads me to believe that I was wrong then. And with the economy in free-fall, civil unrest will increase and the usual scapegoats will be attacked - blame the bankers had unfortunate connotations for Jews in Europe in the 1930s and will again in the 2010s.

“dark forces” inside the BBC and further afield were subjecting Israel to a wholly biased, discriminatory and distorted campaign of vilification.

I have mentioned Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, before. Then it was in connection with his speech to the UNHRC, but today I read that

"A rare voice of sanity in the British establishment, Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, has mounted another devastating defence of Israel. In a speech at the annual dinner (which I attended) of the UK’s Zionist Federation in London last night, Kemp even revealed that prior to his deployment in Afghanistan a four hour briefing by a top Israeli general had been instrumental in formulating British tactics and strategy on how to deal with Taliban suicide bombers.

...

Kemp’s counter-orthodoxy views on Israel rose to global prominence in October last year when, against the background of the Goldstone Report, he appeared before the UN Human Rights Council to say of Operation Cast Lead: “..Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.”

In the course of his speech last night, Kemp reiterated the substance of those remarks, adding that “dark forces” inside the BBC and further afield were subjecting Israel to a wholly biased, discriminatory and distorted campaign of vilification.

Speaking from personal experience, he contrasted the media response to the immense difficulties faced by British and American troops in facing down terrorists with the response to Israeli troops facing the same problems:

“When we go into battle we do not get the same knee-jerk, almost Pavlovian response from many, many elements of the international media and international groups, humanitarian groups and other international groups such as the United Nations which should know better,” he told the 400 strong audience."

To the BBC's credit they are reporting this story however I can not find a link to this story on either the UK news page which is the section it appears under or the Middle East news page. I have noticed the BBC do this before; report a story that they feel they cannot ignore but have no noticeable links to it.

The seventy-second weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

My first video award and it goes to Peter Kay for only just realising at the Brits last week that Liam Gallagher is "a knobhead", I think most of us realised that years ago...




Liam Gallagher a knobhead; "no shit Sherlock"

Jack Straw met with anti-Brown plotters

I am so shocked at The Mail story that

"Jack Straw was forced yesterday to admit having met MPs plotting to oust Gordon Brown amid damaging claims that he told colleagues the Prime Minister 'had to go'.

The Justice Secretary, who ran Mr Brown's leadership campaign in 2007, was accused of giving up on him by the middle of 2008 and of sounding out MPs about his own chances of seizing the top job.

According to Andrew Rawnsley's book, the veteran Cabinet minister held a series of talks with rebels planning a putsch against Mr Brown.

In a statement, 63-year- old Mr Straw said he was surprised that the claims had not been put to him in advance, given their seriousness, but admitted holding meetings with colleagues trying to force Mr Brown out."

Claims that Jack Straw has been devious and plotting; I am shocked. However I was also amused that Jack Straw claimed that

"In this period, unsurprisingly, a number of people came to me to talk about their concerns for the party... Some of these people wished to see a change of leadership. They have not made a secret of this, then or now. But it is untrue that I was " plotting to oust Gordon Brown" as The Observer has alleged.

So Jack Straw met Charles Clarke and Frank Field but wasn't canvassing for votes; well it's a possibility I suppose. However Andrew Rawnsley claims that

"over lunch with Charles Clarke, a long-standing critic of the Prime Minister, Mr Straw is alleged to have declared that Mr Brown 'had to go' and promised that 'something will be done'.

The Justice Secretary also gave a strong indication to former welfare minister Frank Field, another thorn in Mr Brown's side, that the Cabinet was preparing a coup.

The book adds that, in one private meeting, Mr Straw spent much of the time 'trying to find out whether Field would back him for the top job'."

Who to believe; Jack Straw or Andrew Rawnsley?

Attack, attack, attack

The BBC are doing their best to move the 'Gordon Brown is a bully' story along this morning with the 08:10 BBC Radio 4 Today interview trying to turn the story into a negative one about the National Bullying Helpline. Take a listen to the interviews, and it was interviews because Anne Snelgrove seemed to have refused to appear with Christine Pratt and aren't the BBC doing well at muddying the waters and attacking Christine Pratt for breaching confidentiality. "Commercial gain" is one of the new angles and "angling for business" was the line of attack.

Why do I sense the malign influence of Peter Mandelson at work here? Throwing mud to obscure the original story and seeing what dirt sticks to the people who dare to attack the 'Dear Leader'.

Nick Robinson who summed up the matter went a little off-message though, I'll post his exact words when Listen Again is a available and I have some free time; it's going to be a long work day today...

Moving the story along

The contrast between how the BBC report a story detrimental to Gordon Brown and one detrimental to a leading Conservative is starkly illustrated this morning. Whereas evil Tory stories are reported from the point of view of the accusers and kept running for days, the 'Gordon Brown is a bully' story was very quickly turned into a 'Labour goes on the offensive' story, and this morning's BBC Radio 4 07:30 news bulletin contained the unanswered challenge from Gordon Brown's PPS,Anne Snelgrove, asking why Christine Pratt had gone public now. Anyone who has followed this story will know that Christine Pratt explained why yesterday; Christine Pratt decided she had to come forward because 'Mandelson' had been so categorical in stating that no bullying had taken place in Number 10.

Of course this was a Sunday afternoon/evening news story and so for many (maybe most) people the first they will have heard of this story are the Labour party responses and that's just the way the Labour government and the BBC want it.

So who is the liar (update)

This morning I blogged:

"Andrew Rawnsley claims that staff at Number 10 were intimidated by outbursts from Gordon Brown. From today's Observer -

"..Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, became so alarmed by the prime minister’s behaviour that he launched his own investigations when he received reports of Brown’s bullying of staff. O’Donnell then gave the prime minister a stern “pep talk” and ordered him to change his behaviour. “This is no way to get things done,” he told Brown. The revelation that the prime minister’s behaviour was so extreme that it triggered a warning from Whitehall’s most powerful official will shock the political world and is bound to lead to claims from his opponents that he is not fit for another five years in office as a general election draws near."

The PM's spokesman said the claim in a book by the Observer's chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley were "without foundation" and "malicious".

Labour MP Stephen Pound confirms that Gus O'Donnell warned Gordon Brown about his behaviour.


Not all of these people can be telling the truth, at least one must be lying; but who?"

Tonight I heard on BBC 5Live and you can read on the website that Christine Pratt of the National Bullying Helpline has reported that several people in Gordon Brown's office have contacted their anti-bullying charity. Christine Pratt decided she had to come forward because 'Mandelson' had been so certain that no bullying had taken place.

So once again I say not all of these people can be telling the truth, at least one must be lying; but which?


Dizzy Thinks has some fascinating Hansard sourced information.

Was this the greatest Super Group?

The Travelling Wilburys - "Handle With Care"

That's George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne & Tom Petty; has there ever been a greater selection of serious musical talent in one group?.


Not the best quality video, this is better but not embeddable.


I really liked The Travelling Wilburys, it's odd that they are not more widely known.

Manchester declared a Police State

Red Rag alerts us to the news that on Friday

"in what they described as a twenty four hour crackdown on weapons and drink fuelled violence, Greater Manchester Police have set up checkpoints throughout the city forcing people through airport style metal detectors.

They must not be allowed to get away with this or twenty four hours will turn into permanent checkpoints. They make no claim of any terrorist threat or of any specific concerns at all, this is just a normal day in the city. Who would have believed that just thirteen years of Labour Government would have delivered a police state in one of our biggest cities? The police checkpoints have arrived even before the compulsory ID cards!"

If you vote Labour then what else can you expect but authoritarian police and the supression of freedom.

"I Helped Disappear People. My Orders Came From Gerry Adams."

Those are the words of Dolours Price, the first woman to become a member of the Provisional IRA, the leader of the unit that bombed London in March 1973 and the hunger-striker who endured months of force-feeding in British prisons before eventually being released on grounds of ill-health. The words are from an interview with The Irish News in which she makes several claims but the one that stands out for me is her claim that Gerry Adams was her Officer Commanding from whom she took orders in person.

Gerry Adams denies the allegations, but then he would.

Not a whisper of coverage on the BBC to whom allegiance to the sainted Gerry is of great importance.

Three months to live?

The Telegraph reports the unsurprising news that

"The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is living with his family in a luxury villa in Libya six months after he was released from jail on compassionate grounds because he had less than three months to live."

Apparently :

"Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, no longer receives hospital treatment after ending the course of chemotherapy that he had been given after returning to his homeland last August. "

The Telegraph also remind us that:

"The Sunday Telegraph revealed last September that the Libyan government had paid for the medical evidence which helped Megrahi, 57, to be released. The Libyans had encouraged doctors to say he had only three months to live.

The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, ruled last August that Megrahi should be freed. Megrahi's release came after Libyan leaders warned that lucrative oil and trade deals with Britain would be cancelled if the bomber died in jail.

One leading prostate cancer specialist cast serious doubt yesterday on the wisdom of predicting that Megrahi had only three months to live – when a patient still had to undergo chemotherapy. Dr Chris Parker said it was extremely difficult to give an accurate prognosis for individual patients. "Studies show experts are very poor at trying to predict how long an individual patient will live for," he warned. "

Of course "

Prof Sikora, one of the examining doctors who was paid a consultancy fee last July to examine Megrahi, told The Sunday Telegraph this weekend: "My information from Tripoli is that it's not going to be long [before Megrahi dies].

"They stopped any active treatment in December and he has just been going downhill very slowly at home. He is on high doses of morphine [a painkiller] and it's any day now."

Meanwhile on the BBC not a word about Al Megrahi's inconvenient improvement in health.

Sunday news catchup

1. Two articles in The Mail on "the envy of the world" the NHS. The first records how:

"Sick children at a leading hospital were forced to wash in buckets for almost a month after bosses failed to fix the hot water supply.

More than 100 youngsters, some of them seriously ill, were left without hot running water.

Parents were forced to carry hot water in buckets from a single working tap in a sluice room so their children could wash. Youngsters suffering from brain tumours and cystic fibrosis were among those affected."

The second reports how a journalist spent a year undercover in the NHS and what they discovered, here's one:

"In the year I spent visiting hospitals, I met only one person who was doing what a good manager in the NHS should be doing - questioning activity and redesigning processes to get the best care and the most efficient use of taxpayers' money.

Even finance directors didn't see that as their role. I asked one what he was doing to save money and increase efficiency. He looked at me as if I were mad. He had no time for that. His time was spent reacting to the 'hell of a lot of indicators' pouring out of Whitehall.

He told me he was working out the implications 'of a whole new agenda about the way funds flow around the system'. This meant he had little time to look at the finances of his own hospital, let alone work out how to save money.

In fact, what went on in his own hospital was a bit of a mystery to him. He admitted this meant he spent most of his time fire-fighting - rushing from one crisis to another. He was ten minutes late for our interview because his budget deficit had shot up that month. Was it a one-off or a trend? He had no idea."

2. The BBC manage to report the imminent closure of the Corus Teesside Cast Products factory, putting 1,700 people out of work, without mentioning carbon offsetting or Tata moving production to a plant in India. Instead the Labour party supporting broadcaster reports the twice disgraced Peter Mandelson's claim that "The steel industry overall has suffered an unprecedented fall in demand in the global recession."


3. The Times report on the ongoing scandal that is the Labour ruined English education system. Here are some extracts:

"A report out on Friday points out that a fifth of firms and a quarter of employers in the state sector are still hiring — despite the recession. Except they are taking on migrant workers — not our home-grown “discouraged” variety.

...

The managing director of a medium-sized IT company explained why. High-flyers — Oxford and Cambridge graduates — are still as good as any in the world. His problems come when he tries to recruit middle management. Last year he interviewed 52 graduates — all educated in state schools. On paper they looked “brilliant students”. Each had three As at A-level and a 2:1 degree. He shook his head. “There’s a big difference between people passing exams and being ready for work.”

This was obvious even before the interview began. Of the 52 applicants, half arrived late. Only three of the 52 walked up to the managing director, looked him in the eye, shook his hand and said, “Good morning.” The rest “just ambled in”. When he asked them to solve a problem, only 12 had come equipped with a notebook and pencil.

The three who had greeted him proved the strongest candidates and he hired them. Within a year they were out because of their “lackadaisical” attitude. They did not turn up on time; for the first six months a manager had to check all their emails for spelling and grammar; they did not know how to learn. It was the first time they had ever been asked to learn on their own. Their ability to “engage in business” was “incredibly” disappointing and “at 5.30 on the dot they left the office”.

This year the managing director has joined the 20% of companies recruiting overseas. “We are an English company but we have no English staff. It’s just too much trouble,” he said."

I've experienced this myself, candidates with excellent GCSE results but no real ability in English or Mathematics.


4. Burning Our Money on some more similarities between Gordon Brown and Stalin.


5. The Mail reports the good news that: "Scientists create low-fat water-based chocolate that tastes as good as a normal bar".

What an appropriate surname

From Saturday's Telegraph letters page comes this missive:

"SIR – Falklands fever is apparently gripping oil and gas exploration companies. Should we not remind ourselves that the purpose of our Armed Forces and diplomatic service is to protect our territory and our homeland – not the interests of commercial organisations solely out to make profit?

If such companies want to explore remote places and expect protection from neighbouring countries, let them contribute to the cost."

The author's name? The very appropriate "Chris Thrift" of Buckingham.

UPDATE: To avoid any confusion; I do not in any way endorse the views of Mr Thrift.

William Hague 'grows a pair' - what a shame that David Cameron seems unwilling to

The BBC are forced to report that:

"Gordon Brown's government is driving up UK debt in order to cause difficulty for an incoming administration, the Conservatives' William Hague has said.

Labour was "like a retreating army, poisoning the wells as the other army advances", Mr Hague said.

If elected, the Tories would inherit a "chalice... as poisoned as it can get". "

This 'scorched earth' policy has been something I have been blogging about for a while. It's good to see that the Conservative party have finally cottoned on to what this vile Labour government are up to.

So who is the liar?

Andrew Rawnsley claims that staff at Number 10 were intimidated by outbursts from Gordon Brown. From today's Observer -

"..Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, became so alarmed by the prime minister’s behaviour that he launched his own investigations when he received reports of Brown’s bullying of staff. O’Donnell then gave the prime minister a stern “pep talk” and ordered him to change his behaviour. “This is no way to get things done,” he told Brown. The revelation that the prime minister’s behaviour was so extreme that it triggered a warning from Whitehall’s most powerful official will shock the political world and is bound to lead to claims from his opponents that he is not fit for another five years in office as a general election draws near."

The PM's spokesman said the claim in a book by the Observer's chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley were "without foundation" and "malicious".

Labour MP Stephen Pound confirms that Gus O'Donnell warned Gordon Brown about his behaviour.


Not all of these people can be telling the truth, at least one must be lying; but who?


I see that Iain Dale has a handy list of 14 alleged examples of Gordon Brown temper tantrums. As Iain Dale asks

"Can they all be wrong? And if they're not, how on earth did the Labour Party allow this man to become PM?"

Just how academically challenged is Gordon Brown?

We already know by his own admission that Gordon Brown

"did maths at school and for one year at university but I don't think I was ever very good at it."

In addition Gordon Brown's lack of expertise in the area of economics (certainly macro-economics) should be clear to all by now.

Yesterday I found two articles that show that he is also a failure in two more academic subjects. The first is History as The Telegraph reported yesterday that "an attempt by Gordon Brown to display his historical knowledge while criticising the Conservatives ran into trouble as he appeared to confuse two great European dynasties." Yes the great historian confused the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons, forgetting his Tallyrand in the process. The second is Geography as is apparent from the Mandrake column in The Telegraph and records that whilst appearing on a phone-in on Real Radio North-East, and discussing congestion on the roads of Northumberland, he assured a listener that he knew the area very well "I was in the Lake District for my holidays this summer and so I saw a great deal of it and my children and my wife enjoyed being in the Lake District very much". Excellent news, Prime Minister, although spoken more like a backward 10 year old writing an essay on "What I did in my summer holidays" than the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but leaving that aside doesn't Gordon Brown realise that the Lake District is on the west coast of the north of England whilst Northumberland is on the east coast? Maybe Gordon Brown should learn the difference between Cumbria and Northumberland or do all these English counties look and sound the same to this blinkered Scot?

An unusual 'extra'

The Telegraph reports that:

"Swiss prostitutes are being trained to use defibrillators to prevent clients with heart problems from dying on them, it has emerged.

Brothel owners in the Lugano area say electric shock treatment to restart customer's hearts is needed because so many elderly customers are using their services.

The most recent victim was a pensioner, thought to be having fun with the help of anti-impotence medication.

His death followed a series of other incidents, some fatal, in which heart attacks have claimed brothel customers in the area.

The owner of one sex club said: "Having customers die on us isn't exactly good publicity".

...

Local health experts are said to have backed the plans to stock defibrillators in sex clubs and brothels.

Defibrillators work by delivering a controlled electric shock to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat, after it has stopped.

According to the British Heart Foundation: "Modern defibrillators are becoming increasingly quick and easy for the lay person to use, which can mean the difference between life and death". "

NCF

Public sector public works versus private sector public works

The World Trade Center rebuilding debacle explained.



Thanks to Theo Spark and of course Steven Crowder.

Was that it?

It looks as though the Great Bottler has bottled it again, even the Labour Party's loyal broadcaster (the BBC) can't muster much enthusiasm for the speech as it barely enthuses that

"Gordon Brown has urged voters to take a second look at Labour as he unveiled his election campaign themes."

Poor Gordon, he thought about an early election but in the end his true bottling nature won out and he's put off making a decision. With decisiveness like this it's a wonder he can even get dressed in the morning.

James Deligpole's secret lives of married men

James Delingpole lifts the lid on the secret lives of married men; I couldn't possibly comment.

The Bible: A History

Channel 4 have chosen Gerry Adams to present an episode of their series "The Bible: A History", the program about Jesus Christ. Words failed me when I heard about this a week or so ago and I failed to post anything about it as I just couldn't put my disgust into words. Fortunately Stephen Glover in The Mail has managed this task, so please read his article, here's a few extracts:

"Who would be the most unsuitable person in the whole world to introduce a television programme about Jesus Christ? One would be hard pushed to come up with someone worse than Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, and former member of the Provisional IRA.

Yet, believe it or not, on Sunday evening this man with blood trickling from his hands will present an hour-long Channel 4 programme about Jesus, part of a series called The Bible: A History.

A former terrorist personally implicated in at least one murder, and associated with many more, has been invited to make a documentary about a man described by his followers as the Prince of Peace, who lived a life that celebrated non-violence.


How on earth could this happen? You may suspect Gerry Adams was chosen to discourse on Jesus because he has freely admitted his sins, and apologised for his past. Christianity, after all, is a religion that extols forgiveness, and puts a high value on repentance. But Mr Adams is not sorry for what he did - not, of course, that he admits to having ever killed anyone. He says at least twice that violence was the only course open to people like himself.

I have seen a preview of the programme and it begins with a shot of the former terrorist at prayer. He informs us that he went to Mass while in prison. Then, with his vulpine features, and a sinister smile revealing shining, remodelled teeth, he tells us that 'along with others' he 'helped to bring peace to Ireland'. While stressing that he doesn't feel he has any blood on his hands, he says he wants 'to explore Jesus's message of forgiveness'.

...

I repeat: how could a respectable television channel dream of allowing an unrepentant terrorist to explain Christ's life, and give viewers the impression that he has tried to live by it? There is even a preposterous, not to say sacrilegious, subtext implying a parallel between Christ, who according to Adams was persecuted by the Roman authorities, and Adams himself, who presents himself as a victim of British power.

In the interests of balance and fairness, Channel 4 should tell viewers something about the life of this former terrorist, since Adams himself certainly does not. Though he has refused to admit it, he was a member of the Provisional IRA as far back as 1972, when he represented the organisation in secret talks with the British government. A former IRA prisoner, Dolours Price, has referred to Adams as 'my commanding officer' in 1973.

The most damning information about Adams and his life as a terrorist was published in a book called A Secret History Of The IRA by Ed Moloney, a Dublin-based investigative journalist. According to Moloney's account, which has never been contested in the courts, Adams was at various times commander of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA and the IRA's chief of staff, as well as a long-time member of the IRA Army Council.

Moloney says that Adams was chief of staff when the IRA committed one of its most appalling atrocities - the murder of 12 Protestant civilians in the La Mon hotel on the outskirts of Belfast in February 1978. Moloney also contends that in 1972 Adams may have personally ordered, or at the very least approved, the killing of Jean McConville, allegedly an informer to the security services.

The closest we come - and it is not very close - to an admission of any involvement in such atrocities is Adams's musing about war towards the end of the programme: 'You have to harden yourself because it is not a natural thing to go out and harm other human beings.' Knowing what I do about Adams's past, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I imagined him stealing down some dank Belfast street with murder in his heart.

...

He cannot plausibly claim to have lived a virtuous Christian life, which is why he is the last person on earth who should have been asked by Channel 4 to present a programme about Christ. He does not seem to have been much more decent in his personal life. For many years Gerry Adams covered up for his paedophile brother, and even helped him to work with children.

This seems to have been done not so much out of brotherly affection as to protect Adams's own reputation. When the scandal was revealed last December, Adams tried to win sympathy by claiming that his family were victims of sexual and physical abuse by his father, also called Gerry, who was buried with full IRA military honours six years ago.

As a Christian I am appalled that a man who once said he would 'wade up to my knees in Protestant blood' to achieve a united Ireland should have been asked by Channel 4 to introduce a programme about Jesus. I can see that it is a stunt, designed to attract maximum publicity to what has been a pretty undistinguished series. If Channel 4 had really wanted to make an enlightening programme about the life of Christ, there are hundreds of people far better qualified to do so than Gerry Adams.

Adams now presents himself as a democratic politician, and he has a right to be heard on that basis. But it betrays an almost unbelievable moral imbecility on the part of Channel 4 bosses to enable this unrepentant former terrorist to yoke himself to Jesus Christ, not to throw light on the noblest life ever lived but as a crude piece of self-serving IRA propaganda."

A nice piece about Gordon Brown's latest smears

Read Denverthen and spread the word about the smearing of our 'beloved' Prime Minister.

Here's a couple of extracts, but do read the whole piece:

"But Brown. My God, this man is a piece of work. Let's just have a quick look at some of the latest, increasingly desperate claptrap coming out of his gawping piehole today. His claim, first of all, that this crisis was caused by the banks, suggests that he's retreated into the kind of cowardly, "bunker" mentality that caused people to realise how unsalvageably flawed he was, and totally unsuited to the office he took by default, in the first place. For the record, it was his policies and his light-touch, hopelessly inadequate system of regulation that allowed the banks to behave with such recklessness in the first place. It was his actual encouragement of the property bubble and the massive personal debt bubble that left people so exposed when the bust came. His behaviour, and blinkered, hateful arrogance in suggesting that he had 'abolished boom and bust', virtually guaranteed that when the bubble burst, Britain would be the most exposed major economy in the world and the British people would be the biggest losers. The point is, his ridiculous claim that this was 'all the banks' fault' is palpably ridiculous - and was proved as such long ago.

...

We're used to the Tory-hating smears - they go with the Brown territory. But combined - and total - confusion over the economy and the difference between government and state is something fairly new, at least to me. I can understand the economic incoherence. Given the state of the British economy after a decade of Chancellor Brown and three further years of him as First Lord of the Treasury, it's not hard to see where that comes from. But this government/state thing: I feel that he really, genuinely, doesn't see a difference; he thinks they are one and the same. Government is the State; people are merely units of that State whose sole purpose is to service it in order that it can provide for them.

Oh my God! Brown really is a socialist! So that's what's been bugging me all this time...

New Labour might have fooled some of the people some of the time, but Brown is fooling no one. His brand of state socialism, masquerading as some kind of government altruism, is not what Britain needs just now, thanks very much (did it ever?). Bring on the election so we can have done with it. "

The future of Internet browsing choice

Microsoft reveal that:

"Over the next few weeks, Microsoft will begin offering a “Web browser choice screen” to Internet Explorer users in Europe, as required by the European Commission. Internal testing of the choice screen is underway now. We’ll begin a limited roll-out externally next week, and expect that a full scale roll-out will begin around March 1, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule."

Read the whole article to see how it will work and how happy Microsoft are!

To summarise, Windows 7 users will have Internet Explorer automatically "unpinned" from their task bars as part of the choice process and users will get a screen warning that they have "an important choice to make", before getting the list of what Microsoft describes as "leading browsers".

Of course the web savvy will already be using alternative browsers and those that don't will not really understand that there is an alternative to Internet Explorer or what that means, they just want to access the Internet.

Theresa May calls Harriet Harman a liar and the general election looks like it will be March/April

Iain Dale has the letter from Theresa May to Harriet Harman and also some the news that

"Labour Ministers have pulled out of attending this weekend's BAFTA ceremony... it is the day the Prime Minister will call a March election. We know already that he is making a speech tomorrow announcing the four themes of the election, together with Labour's election slogan."

Much as I predicted this morning. Iain Dale also reveals that:

"(an) email has just gone out to senior Labour election planners, candidates and agents. It gives them a deadline of next Wednesday for them to order their election literature.... This weekend's events are clearly of huge importance to the Labour campaign, hence the extended print deadline. I cannot think why they would be doing all this now if an election announcement wasn't imminent.

Surely Gordon can't march his troops up to the top of the hill again? "

So it looks as though Gordon Brown, maybe advised by the vile duo of Mandelson and Campbell, has weighed up his fear of fighting an early election (indeed any election) with the knowledge that in two months time the true extent of the economic crisis that his policies have wrought upon the country will become too clear to too many for him to win a May election. Thus I am afraid we have to look forward to a month or so of lies and spin from the Labour party, and its willing allies in the BBC, in what will be the most vicious and spiteful election campaign ever in the UK. It is not going to be a pretty campaign; the Labour party is a wounded beast that will spit venom, spread smears, lie and in certain cases cheat their way to the election date.

The most 1980 pop video ever?

US school controls pupils' laptop webcams to spy on the pupils at home!

This article from Boing Boing is quite staggering. It seems that:

"According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines."

This is staggering, the laptops issued to high-school students have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators theoretically to spy on students and their families.


A comment to the Boing Boing article left me even more shocked:

"Digital Nation, the documentary/project that Douglas Ruskoff was/is a big part of, explored a similar issue. They showed a school (middle or high school) that really embraced laptops and new media as part of the learning process. It was the job of a staff member to spend a couple hours each day monitoring what the students were doing - working, surfing, etc. The staff member who was monitoring showed how he could remotely snap a photo when a student was using Photobooth during class, and how this usually caused them to get back to work.

But that was at school with laptops presumably provided by the school, so while it still feels a bit odd to me, I think there's a good argument for the practice in that environment.

But to extend that to the students' homes? That's terrible. And really creepy.

I hope it wasn't the same school that they showed in Digital Nation, because I kinda liked their style. "

That Nick Cosgrove interview...

This morning I asked

"Did you hear it? Could you believe the standard of questioning? Is embarrassment the reason that this interview is still not available on the Today Programme website, I think every other item is. I will wait for the whole programme to appear on Listen Again and post a transcript; it'll be well worth the wait! "

Well the interview is on Listen Again and here's that question posed by Nick Cosgrove to the AA's President, Edmund King:

"The union say that AA staff have worked flat out through the worst winter conditions in 30 years only to be told by their gluttonous private equity fat cats that they want to squeeze more blood out of the stone to line their own pockets, what do you say to that?"

I know that he prefaced the question to make it seem that the question was not his but the union's but is that really appropriate language for an interview with an industrial leader? I suppose that at the socialist BBC, it is.

The Taxman changing the rules to get more tax

The Times reveals a worrying story of how the HMRC has changed some tax rules retrospectively and has been supported in this by the Court of Appeal:

"Thousands of entrepreneurs and celebrities face huge tax bills after a British businessman based in the Seychelles lost a long-running court battle over his residency yesterday.

The Court of Appeal ruled that Robert Gaines-Cooper was liable to pay UK tax despite spending less than 91 days a year in the country because England had remained “the centre of gravity of his life and interests”.

The ruling is a serious blow for wealthy men and women who are based overseas but visit Britain frequently. After the court’s decision, Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said that it would increase its efforts to catch people who owed tax.

Although the three Court of Appeal judges expressed “some sympathy” for Mr Gaines-Cooper, they ruled that he had never qualified for exemption from British taxes as a non-resident. Now he may be pursued for tax bills dating back to 1993, estimated at about £30 million. "

So there we go, judges have kowtowed to the HMRC and thrown out the well understood 91 day rule and replaced it with an entirely subjective and arbitrary "centre of gravity" rule.

Retrospective changes in the law, whether tax or otherwise, cannot be right. However 13 years of Labour misrule have left the UK needing every last penny of taxation, hence all the short-term "tax amnesties" to be followed by many in-depth tax investigations.

The other realisation that many are coming to is that there is a now a presumption in the UK that all the money 'earned' by individuals really belongs to the state and that citizens should feel privileged to be allowed to retain some of these 'earnings'. Of course the socialists who believe this don't realise that taxing the rich until 'the pips squeak' gives the rich a great incentive to move themselves, their wealth and their tax elsewhere thus eventually impoverishing everyone.

That reminds me of the story that I have told before about how the Tax System works, do read it:

"Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1
The sixth would pay £3
The seventh would pay £7
The eighth would pay £12
The ninth would pay £18
The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just £80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they subtracted that from everyone's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay £5 instead of £7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a pound out of the £20,' declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got £10!'

'Yes, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a pound, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I did'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get £10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up any more. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier and weather is nicer. "

"Either he dithered unforgivably..."

You can guess who that was said about... Yes Gordon 'great dithering twit' Brown; as described by the Lib Dem's Ed Davey today. You can read more here but Ed Davey is right about one thing, Gordon Brown is one of the great ditherers - will he manage to make a decision and call a general election before May 5 or will he wait for just one more opinion poll, just one more piece of good news. Mind you if he does call the election for March or early April it will clearly be so that he can hold it before even worse economic news is released and to avoid appearing at the Chilcot Inquiry.

So is Gordon Brown is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't? Yes and ain't that a shame!

It's war

I am afraid that I have to inform you that war has broken out in the blogosphere; 'boob war'. Initial hostilities seem to have been commenced by American Power albeit after much provocation by Theo Spark, The Daley Gator has joined in and Wy Blog has too.

This could be a long campaign, there may be bust-ups along the way but you owe it to yourself to follow the tit for tat exchanges...


So far I would say it was a battle between Gemma Atkinson and Salma Hayek; but I could be swayed another way...

Do the Conservatives want to win the general election

It has been on my mind recently that this election might be one to lose as whoever wins it is going to have to take urgent and unpopular action very quickly if the UK is not to have its credit rating downgraded with all that that would entail for the economy.

"Boys From County Hell" made an excellent comment on Guido's blog today:

"I am starting to hope Labour wins the next election by the slimmest of margins and with no percentile vote difference to the Tories and with 50% of the electorate refusing to vote, I hope Griffin wins Barking and they get another seat up North just to see the panel on BBC election nights faces, I hope the Tories miss the marginals they need due to leaking votes to UKIP thanks to genuflecting to Brussels, and that the new Govt then only lasts 12 months of hell and economic/social collapse before another election is forced with a new Tory leader, only then will the people who have destroyed the country be forced to accept responsibility for their actions. Sometimes you need to burn the moor to ensure new growth."

An interesting FOI revelation

Paul Waugh in The Standard reveals that:

"Harriet Harman gagged the independent auditor of MPs' expenses to prevent further embarrassment over rejected claims, it emerged today.

The Commons Leader persuaded Sir Thomas Legg not to publish any references to expenses claims that were turned down by the Commons Fees Office.

Sir Thomas, whose damning report this month ordered more than 300 MPs to repay a total of £1.3 million, even wanted to publicise claims that were rejected by the discredited system of allowances.

But Freedom of Information documents show that Ms Harman, who is also Labour's deputy leader, queried whether such a move would be “appropriate” and suggested only claims that were wrongly approved should be made public.

The exchange happened when Ms Harman met Sir Thomas for a private meeting last July soon after he was appointed by Gordon Brown to probe the expenses scandal."

Read the whole piece and wonder at the audacity and lack of respect for the public that is so often exhibited by this Labour government. Then revel in the final line:

"Ms Harman's spokesman said: “She fully supports the review of past expenses to ensure that any sums overclaimed are identified and paid back.”"

Once again a spokesman seemingly deliberately misunderstands the proble.

Don't put the economic recovery at risk

So Gordon Brown will exclaim tomorrow, but rather than look forward through his red-tinted glasses, let's look at where we are after 13 years of Gordon 'Prudence' Brown at the Treasury and/or Number 10.

According the OECD, Britain has one of the worst deficits as a percentage of GDP in the world. Only Iceland and Greece have higher deficits and experts fear it could overtake Greece before too long.

So do we trust the man who brought us to this situation, the man who stoked a bubble so as to ensure re-election for his party and a boom for taxes to pay for his party's social experiments and massive expansion of the public sector, or do we vote him out for being either incompetent or evil?

Another terrorist attack on the US Army in the USA?

CBN News are reporting that:

"CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas. It is unclear whether the men are still in custody. The five were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base.

Patrick Jones, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer for Fort Jackson, confirmed for CBN News Thursday afternoon that an investigation was ongoing.

Prior to this posting, CBN News learned that these details were also confirmed by a government official with knowledge of the investigation.

The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.

A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the "Fort Jackson Five" may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, D.C., area Muslims that traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops in December. That group was arrested by Pakistani authorities, also just before Christmas.

Coming as it does on the heels of November's Fort Hood jihadist massacre, this news could have major implications. "

Interestingly Sean Linnane reports on the other recent Islamic Jihadi attacks on US soil that apart from the Fort Hood murders have hot been at all widely reported. It is almost as though the MSM want to keep news of these Jihadi attacks from the attention of the populace; why?

"We don't need no education"

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear; poor Liberal Conspiracy's Sam Bumby who has written a piece entitled "Get your Eton hands of my school". I think he might mean "off" but then I had a decent education, although not at Eton.

Apparently

"Sam Bumby is 16 years old with a big interest in politics. He has just started blogging and is on Twitter @sBumby"

A big interest in politics but not in spelling; you can't just trust your spell-checker Sam, it won't differentiate between "of" and "off" or "their", "there" and "they're".




Thanks to Tory Bear for the spot.

Inconvenient consequences of the Car Scrappage scheme

Their Joking Aren't They identifies the problems and unintended consequences of the Car Scrappage scheme. Here's a few:

"which groups might have slipped on Gordon’s banana skin in this one.


# Below average wage couples and singles who need cheapish and reliable transport to find and hold down jobs not on bus routes.


# Formerly unemployed individuals who are offered jobs contingent on their having a car such as: many sales staff; fast food industry employees; everyone who works beyond three miles from a town or city, and public and private care and health workers.

Such as nurses.


# Single mothers with enough integrity and grit to seek work long before the benefits gravy train leaves the station.


#Newly qualified teachers without rich parents but in possession of large student debts who need to live away from the Escape From New York schools they find work in.


# Young men straight from school or sixth-form college with the gumption to seek and find work but whose bosses lack the foresight and central planning wisdom of Gordon Brown to build their premises within walking distance of said lads’ homes.


So that’s social mobility - as well as the other kind - on the scrap heap along with the Northwester Porsche and many chances of a bottom-up economic recovery.


Let’s hope that regional Nissan dealers’ wives hire a lot of domestic staff, eh, Mister Brown?"

He's right, it hurt me to scrap a perfectly good, reliable and fun to drive second car but the deal made sense.

Sex for sale

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It's a March election; probably

I have been leaning towards an early general election, March or early April for a while now, as it becomes clear that Gordon Brown cannot afford to wait for the next big sets of economic data to come out in early April nor hold a budget that will not steady The City. So Iain Dales revelation that: "Gordon Brown will appear before the Chilcot Inquiry on either Thursday 4th or Friday 5th March" leads me to believe that Gordon Brown will call an election soon, maybe even at this weekend's election themes unveiling, for Late March or early April thus putting off the Budget and his appearance before the Chilcot Inquiry.

Can an election be far off?

The BBC are in full pro-Labour propaganda mode this morning. As well as the Backing spending cuts story (still the lead story) there is now at number two :

"Tories to boycott care talks - A consensus on the future of care for the elderly seems more unlikely with the Tories refusing to attend talks."

Those evil Tories, when will the public realise that voting Labour is the only option?

The BBC maximising a good story for the Labour narrative

What a contrast, the headline on the BBC news website is

"Backing for spending cuts delay -
More than 60 economists sign two open letters backing the chancellor's decision to delay spending cuts until 2011."

and to ensure you get the message the next link is entitled "Cuts may cripple key services". Read the article and you will see that the article starts thus:

"More than 60 senior economists have signed two open letters that back the chancellor's decision to delay government spending cuts until 2011.

The letters in the Financial Times say that any measures to trim the budget deficit this year could risk dragging the country back into recession.

They are a riposte to the 20 economists who on Sunday, backed the Conservatives' call for cuts this year.

Those economists said cuts were needed in 2010 to reassure the markets. "

So it's 60 to 20 and a choice between avoiding "dragging the country back into recession" and "reassur(ing) the markets"

Read today's piece and compare it with Sunday's, I think you will find the contrast in emphasis interesting.

Here's how the two pieces end (my emphasis):
Sunday:

"Both Labour and the Conservatives have yet to provide full details on how they plan to cut public expenditure.

Last summer, Mr Osborne declined to rule out increasing VAT.

On Sunday, shadow business secretary Ken Clarke said a Conservative government would not rule out raising taxes in order to shrink the UK's deficit.

In December's pre-Budget report, Labour announced belt-tightening measures including a 1% cap on public sector pay rises and an increase in National Insurance from 2011. "

Today:

"a spokesman for Mr Darling said that the latest letters showed that shadow chancellor George Osborne had "jumped on the wrong bandwagon".

"His judgment is wrong and his approach would risk derailing the recovery," the spokesman said. "

I think we can see where the BBC stand on the matter under discussion.


What is also interesting is the prominence given to the articles; today's is the lead story and headline news, whilst on Sunday as I wrote at the time:

"However by mid-afternoon today the story was the last piece on the BBC 5Live news and on the website it appears as a minor link from the front page under Business News with the deliberately dull headline "Economists push for deficit cut".

I am prepared to believe that the current lead story will be similarly knocked down the news hierachy by this afternoon, but I wouldn't put any money on it...

Nick Cosgrove's AA interview this morning

Did you hear it? Could you believe the standard of questioning? Is embarrassment the reason that this interview is still not available on the Today Programme website, I think every other item is. I will wait for the whole programme to appear on Listen Again and post a transcript; it'll be well worth the wait!

Crime and the internet

I am often staggered by the amount of personal information people willingly divulge on the Internet and it seems that the people behind Please Rob Me are too. The Dutch team behind this site have produced a site that monitors the Twitter feeds of people playing the online game Foursquare, which is based on a person's location in the real world and reports those which include a location update.

Thus entries like:

"#
@johnlowerytn left home and checked in 3 minutes ago:

I'm at Pilot Travel Centers Corporate Office (5508 Lonas Drive, Knoxville). http://4sq.com/cHyX9L


@jboxt1 left home and checked in 3 minutes ago:

I'm at Glover Park Group w/ @lazarmichael. http://4sq.com/9L4KYm"

Would people stand in the street outside their office and announce that they weren't at their home and that their home address is xxxx? Of course not, so why do it online?


"Please Rob Me" are keen to explain that "Our intention is not, and never has been, to have people burglarized." and that goes for me too in publicising this site, but people need to be made aware that the information they publish on the web is available far and wide. As "Please Rob Me" explain:

" The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home. So here we are; on one end we're leaving lights on when we're going on a holiday, and on the other we're telling everybody on the internet we're not home. It gets even worse if you have "friends" who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That's right, slap them across the face.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information. "

BBC in full hide the bad news mode

For the first time since records began in 1993, the government had to borrow money in January, a month that usually sees huge Corporation Tax income. Economists were said to have been expecting a small surplus of around £2bn in January's budget, allowing a small start to repaying the UK's huge debts. However tax receipts dropped 11.8% compared with January last year, when the government was able to repay £5.3bn.

Appalling news, really dreadful and so the BBC have been leading news bulletins today with the claims that Israel were behind the 'execution' of a terrorist (oops sorry militant) leader in Dubai and on Radio London behind the Nicholas Winterton story. Meanwhile on the BBC News website the parlous state of the UK economy doesn't even merit a place in the top three stories but currently sits at number 2 in the "OTHER TOP STORIES" section. Somehow I doubt that the BBC would have been so quick to minimise coverage of such "pretty ghastly" figures had they emerged under a Conservative government, indeed I seem to remember coverage of bad economic news being lengthy, in-depth and repeated ad-nauseum during the 1980s.

The BBC are moving towards full election mode at present and are concentrating on setting "the narrative" to be as pro-Labour and anti-Tory as possible. Unfortunately it seems that 5Live is to be the flag-bearer for this campaign and with broadcasters like Stephen Nolan on-board the bias will be heavy and hard to avoid.

"The continued growth in the number of long term unemployed shows that Labour is failing to support the people who need their help the most..."

Not my words but those of the Labour Work and Pensions Secretary and unfortunate wife of Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper. The full quote as found at the top of page 13 in today's Metro online is:

"The continued growth in the number of long term unemployed shows that Labour is failing to support the people who need their help the most. Unless ministers wake up and stop treating these people like a statistic we risk losing a generation to a culture of worklessness."

Well said Yvette, good of you to realise that your Labour government are "treating these people like a statistic", are you preparing to cross the floor of the House and join a party that is taking unemployment seriously or are you just positioning yourself and hubby for the fight with the Milibands and Harriet Harman in the post election leadership battle?

Meaningless words

The news that Gordon Brown is to unveil Labour's election themes at the weekend, but that they are known now, leads me to believe that Gordon Brown will be calling an early general election, presumably because the economic news coming down the tracks is even worse than many believe possible.

The slogans are the sort of meaningless crap that we have come to expect from Labour politicians:
ensuring the economic recovery
protecting frontline public services
standing up for the many
protecting future jobs

When I hear a slogan I always try and see if proposing the opposite was a possibility and deduce that if the answer is no then the slogan is meaningless. So in that spirit:
endanger the economic recovery - well nobody would propose that, the question is whose policies best ensure the economic recovery

harm frontline public services - again nobody would propose that and the question is what policies would best protect public services

stamping down on the many - again nobody would propose that. Of course here Gordon Brown is trying to keep pushing one of his favourite diving lines that the Conservatives are for the few and Labour fort the many; it's rubbish but since when has that stopped Gordon?

attacking future jobs - again nobody would propose that and the question is what policies would best protect future jobs


This launch is all about creating dividing lines, giving the BBC some headlines to use rather than covering the dreadful economic figures that seem to come out day after day and trying to steal back the initiative from the Conservative party.

So with the possibility of the 0.1% rise in GDP in the fourth quarter of 2009 being revised down at the beginning of April and Alistair Darling saying that he was planning to deliver a March Budget, who would say that Gordon Brown is not preparing to cut and run with a March election?



Meanwhile here's some "Meaningless songs in very high voices"

Barack Obama in 1980/1981

Breitbart has a fascinating interview with John C. Drew who knew Barack Obama in 1980/81 and describes his views at the time and calls on him to explain why he stopped being a Marxist, not that he thinks that he has.

BBC 5Live on the attack

Take a listen to the Stephen Nolan show this morning. It would seem that the show invited Sir Nicholas Winterton on to discuss Argentina's sabre rattling over the Falklands but instead was used as a way of portraying the Conservative party as out of touch. Stephen Nolan tried and occasionally succeeded in getting Sir Nicholas to make unwise statements which then became the lead story on the news ahead of that of the UK economy suffering another appalling set of figures.

The Labour party are very short of money but the taxpayer can always be used to subsidise them

I note that whilst the Labour party are running short of money they are not running out of ways to spend taxpayers money on supporting Labour's pre-election campaign. Whilst The Times reports that:

"Labour’s Cabinet tour of the country was engulfed in controversy last night after it emerged that ministers were using the regional visits to stage party events before an election campaign.

As Gordon Brown takes his Government on the road to the North East, it was revealed that Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, used a publicly funded trip to Exeter to hold an election meeting with activists.

In a leaked letter from Ms Harman seen by The Times, she made plans to meet candidates, officials and trade unionists from across the South West region to discuss campaign strategy.

The letter, sent 12 days before the February 5 visit, said: “This will be a chance for me to hear directly from you as party members in a private meeting to talk about the issues and campaigning activity in the South West. It will be particularly helpful for me to hear from you in the run-up to the general election about the activities taking place in the area.”

...

The Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: “Gordon Brown has been caught red-handed using government money to fund political activity. It is clear that these meetings are simply designed to ship the Cabinet into marginal seats to secure good PR for Labour’s election campaign at taxpayers’ expense.”

Mr Carswell has written to Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, asking him to consider blocking further regional Cabinet meetings and to investigate whether the meeting breached ministerial rules, which say that public money must not be used for political or electioneering events. "

Harriet Harman's defence is frankly beyond satire:

"Ms Harman denied breaking the ministerial code. Her office said that the taxpayer would have paid for her to travel to Exeter but that the party would have picked up costs to and from the event at Exeter Labour Hall."

Maybe us poor taxpayers could be allowed to compare the two figures; something tells me that the cost of transporting Ms Harman from London, whether via first class train, chauffeured car or plane (along with officials and aides) will somewhat exceed the cost of travelling across Exeter and hiring a hall. Let's see the figures...

However the key passage was this:

"Mr Brown held two regional Cabinets in 2008 and five last year. There will be two this month alone. All were close to or in key marginal seats. "

I wonder what might account for this increase in such regional Cabinet meetings if not being in the run-up to an election?


The other thing that I have noticed is that the Government's advertising campaign is running full blast; not only are there posters everywhere and radio ads extolling the virtues of direct.gov.uk but some ITV ad breaks are solely filled by Labour Government advisories.

Labour are near insolvency and have nearly bankrupted the Country; well done to all the fools who fell for Tony 'pretty straight guy' Blair and Gordon 'Prudence' Brown in 1997, some of us did warn you!

This looks like fun

For more of these pastiches take a trip to My Labour Posters.

What's sauce for John Redwood should be sauce for Gordon Brown

Beeb Bias Craig reminds me that the BBC do like to bring up John Redwoods failure to know the Welsh National (Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau). Oddly they seem less keen to show the video of Gordon Brown picking his nose in the Chanmber of the House of Commons, I am not so reticent...

Poll Tracker (update 2)

As of 18:40 tonight Poll Tracker has been updated. I have not had a reply to my complaint.

"The EAW (European Arrest Warrant) is destroying innocent people's lives"

Watch the video and realise that the EU is not your friend or protector, it is a totalitarian organisation that will brook no opposition and soon you will be unable to voice your opposition to it.


Thanks to Voice of the Resistance for the spot.

"Are we fucked?"

The answer is of course, "yes".

The elephant in the room has been ignored by Labour so often since 1997.

Too invasive?

Chat Roulette seems a little too random and weird for me but then I am a 40-something introvert.

The 'point' of the website is to logon, switch on your webcam and be connected to a random other user of the website. WHY is that fun?

As Subrosa says:

"Once they are logged in together, chatters can do anything they like: talk to each other, type messages, entertain each other - or just say goodbye, hit the 'next' button and move on in an attempt to find somebody more interesting. A large contingent of people seem intent on using the service's string of random connections as the basis for some sort of sex game."

Ah, now I see the point!

Perfect for the next icy spell in London

Looks like a vehicle that could even get up Hampstead Hill!

Democratic deficit

I see that the EU has taken its first step towards replacing member countries sovereignty:

"The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state. "

It's a power thing, if the EU can remove, albeit fleetingly, sovereignty from a member country then it sets a precedent.