Is the government expecting rampant inflation?

For some years now I have predicting high inflation coming to the UK. For most of that time I have been ridiculed by friends and colleagues. Now they are less certain that I am an absolute fool!
One interesting fact is that the ultimate protection from rising prices that has been available for most of the past 30 years has been National Savings & Investments' (NS&I) tax-free, index-linked savings certificates.

These certificates have guaranteed to beat inflation, and your entire deposit was protected by the Government. Oddly (or not) the state-owned savings bank has withdrawn these products twice in the past few years and they're currently not on sale at all. There is plenty of demand, the latest issue sold out after just a few months in 2011.

NS&I recently stated that it is unlikely to bring the savings certificates back before April 2013. That doesn't mean that they will return in 2013, it's just that NS&I don't plan that far ahead.

It would seem that the Government, which decides how much savings NS&I is allowed to accept in any given financial year, doesn't want any more of our money to finance its massive borrowing needs.
Now why might that be? Is it because it's currently cheaper for the Government to borrow from elsewhere than for it to pay us more than inflation? Does that not point to higher inflation coming?

No 21st century Muslims are not victims like 1930's German Jews

As Christopher Hitchens wrote about the mega-mosque at Ground Zero:

'"Some of what people are saying in this mosque controversy is very similar to what German media was saying about Jews in the 1920s and 1930s" Imam Abdullah Antepli, Muslim chaplain at Duke University, told the New York Times. Yes, we all recall the Jewish suicide bombers of that period, as we recall the Jewish yells for holy war, the Jewish demands for the veiling of women and the stoning of homosexuals, and the Jewish burning of newspapers that published cartoons they did not like.'

Don't anyone else dare to tell me that Muslims in Europe or America are persecuted in a similar way to the way Jews were in Nazi Germany. It's not true and it's frankly offensive.

Is David Cameron the second Ted Heath? If so, who is the second Margaret Thatcher and does that make Ed Miliband or Ed Balls the second Harold Wilson?

“you have to go through Heath to get to Thatcher” is apparently a saying in circulation in Westminster, in other words a tinkering Conservative Prime Minister has to have a go, and fail, before the Conservative Party reaches for radicalism. In the early 1970s Ted Heath spoke about the changes needed to save Britain but was unable to implement them when Prime Minister. It took Margaret Thatcher to rescue the country from its long post war decline under both labour and wet Conservative governments. David Cameron has long been compared to Ted Heath and he hates it, he apparently believes that Lady Thatcher was cautious at first, biding her time before implementing radical policies. I believe that we have less time now than we did in 1979/80, the debt will destroy us if radical solutions are not found.

If David Cameron is the second Ted Heath then who is the second Margaret Thatcher? I can see nobody with the balls to do the necessary job. As for which of the two Eds is Harold Wilson, it's probably Ed Balls: nasty and paranoid.

Thanks to Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph for finding the opening quotation and inspiring this piece.

Where was Barack Obama born?

I know you're probably tired of these stories but here's an interesting wrinkle. Breitbart reports the following...

'Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii."
The booklet, which was distributed to "business colleagues" in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel.
It also promotes Obama's anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White--which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead.
Obama’s biography in the booklet is as follows (image and text below):

Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.  The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation.   He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago’s South Side. His commitment to social and racial issues will be evident in his first book, Journeys in Black and White.'

Was Barack Obama born in Kenya or Hawaii? Very probably Hawaii but it is fascinating how many oddities and inconsistencies there are in the reporting of the life of Barack Hussein Obama.

It's all Thatcher's fault... (Post saved as draft this morning, so reposted now)

The Guardian's 'Comment is Free' section is always predictable and this article  is no exception. The article by Zoe Williams tries to absolve the general public from taking out mortgages that they couldn't afford and generally borrowing like there was no tomorrow. Apparently people have no choice but to take banks up on their offers. I think that much of the banks' lending was reckless and that much of the blame for this should be laid at the feet of Blair, Brown and Balls for stoking the economy so recklessly in order to engineer a boom so as to pay for the ridiculous expansion of the public sector and garner votes for their New Labour project.

However at Comment is Free, the only people really to blame include, as always, Margaret Thatcher, here's  one comment that does bear repeating here:

greatdivide

16 May 2012 8:44PM

Response to grumpyoldman, 16 May 2012 8:41PM

Thatcher and Reagan did this on purpose - inflated housing stock, made everyone take out loans to replace wages so banks could increase profits in the face of booming productivity so profits at businesses could go through the roof without the employers having to raise wages.
All this shit right now is thanks to them.

It is incredible how some people seem to be able to forget that Labour were in power during the biggest expansion of credit, but that's the joy of being a Labour supporter and/or a Socialist...

How odd the BBC aren't interested in a Councillor who used to be a Nazi

How odd, the BBC are usually very interested in any MP or councillor who has any Nazi links, however tenuous. Remember the furore the BBC generated when Aiden Burley dressed as a Nazi at a stag party. Strangely they seem to have completely ignored the news that a Labour councillor in Milton Keynes Margaret Burke was formerly a co-leader of the city’s November 9th Society. Then she was called Margaret Flynn, and apparently she and her former husband Terry recruited a 50-strong army of skinheads to daub buildings with swastikas and hand out racist literature.

Why the double standards at the BBC?

Has anyone asked Ed Balls for his comments?

Thanks to Guido Fawkes we can see that apparently doughty anti-racism campaigner Diane Abbott has campaigned with ex-Nazi Margaret Burke, what has Diane Abbott had to say re this matter?

Mark Steyn on anti-Semitism in UK education and Holland

'According to one survey, 20 percent of history teachers have abandoned certain, ah, problematic aspects of the Second World War because, in classes of a particular, ahem, demographic disposition, pupils don’t believe the Holocaust happened, and, if it did, the Germans should have finished the job and we wouldn’t have all these problems today. More inventive instructors artfully woo their Jew-despising students by comparing the Holocaust to “Islamophobia” — we all remember those Jewish terrorists hijacking Fokkers and flying them into the Reichstag, right? What about gangs of young Jews preying on the elderly, as Muslim youth do in Wilders’ old neighborhood of Kanaleneiland?

As for “Islamophobia,” it’s so bad that it’s, er, the Jews who are leaving. “Sixty per cent of Amsterdam’s orthodox community intends to emigrate from Holland,” says Benzion Evers, the son of the city’s chief rabbi, five of whose children had already left by 2010. Frommer’s bestselling travel guide to “Europe’s most tolerant city” acknowledges that “Jewish visitors who dress in a way that clearly identifies them as Jewish” are at risk of attack, but discreetly attributes it to “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” “Jews with a conscience should leave Holland, where they and their children have no future,” advised Frits Bolkestein, former Dutch Liberal leader. “Anti-Semitism will continue to exist, because the Moroccan and Turkish youngsters don’t care about efforts for reconciliation.”

If you’re wondering what else those “youngsters” don’t care for, ask Chris Crain, editor of The Washington Blade, the gay newspaper of America’s capital. Seeking a break from the Christian fundamentalist redneck theocrats of the Republican party, he and his boyfriend decided to treat themselves to a vacation in Amsterdam, “arguably the ‘gay-friendliest’ place on the planet.” Strolling through the streets of the city center, they were set upon by a gang of seven “youngsters,” punched, beaten, and kicked to the ground. Perplexed by the increasing violence, Amsterdam officials commissioned a study to determine, as Der Spiegel put it, “why Moroccan men are targeting the city’s gays.”'

From this comment on Jihad Watch.

David Cameron is 'out of touch'

Ed Miliband has been pushing the phrase 'out of touch' to describe David Cameron and the BBC have been very willing to repeat the claim and spread the word. The Leveson Inquiry's 'revelation' that David Cameron signed off text messages 'LOL' meaning 'Lots of Love' when in fact it means 'Laugh Out Loud' seemed to add fuel to this fire. I must admit that I thought - oh come on David what sort of pillock doesn't know that LOL stands for Laugh Out Loud but then I looked around...

From Wikipedia's article on SMS language: 'There are many examples of words or phrases that share the same abbreviations (e.g., lol could mean laugh out loud or lots of love...'

From Netlingo: 'Laughing Out Loud -or- Lots Of Love'

From Webopedia:
LOL - Laughing out loud
LOL - Laugh out loud
LOL - Lots of love


Even The Guardian admits that

'Rebekah Brooks has revealed that David Cameron signs off some of his texts with LOL, in the belief the acronym means "Lots Of Love". She told the Leveson Inquiry that she explained to him it actually means "Laughing Out Loud". In fact, they're both right and they're both wrong, as it means both. '

However at the BBC the line being pushed is still that

'the PM had signed off text messages to her in this way, apparently believing it to be an acronym for "lots of love".'

The BBC will push the Labour line, heaping ridicule on the Prime Minister, for as long as it takes to ensure a return to a Labour government. The BBC's bias is ever more obvious but the weak and cowardly David Cameron will do nothing to reign the BBC in. David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative party partly because of the BBC's preference for an easy Eton-educated, rich target rather than a harder to attack working class Tory like David Davies. I worry that David Cameron still believes that he can make the BBC like him by pushing the Conservative party to the left and adopting as many trendy metrosexual, liberal lines as possible. I hate to beak it to him but the BBC will never love you David, you are a rich, an old-Etonian but worst of all you are a Tory and thus hated by the BBC. Be a man for once and take on the BBC before it's too late. Will he? What do you think? personally... LOL.

Shhh the BBC don't like to report Barack Obama's problems

Yesterday the US Senate (with a Democrat majority) defeated Barack Obama's budget by 99 votes to 0. This story does not appear on the world news page or the US news page and I can't find it by searching the BBC news site for 'senate budget' or even just '99'. Have the BBC even reported the story or are they awaiting the approved Obama line to take?

The BBC don't even pretend to be impartial

Imagine that you had not watched or listened to yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions. Imagine that your first knowledge of what happened came from this heavily promoted BBC News article, what would your conclusion be as to the tone of the exchanges between Ed Miliband and David Cameron?

The article is headlined 'PMQs: Cameron faces Brooks LOL text jibe' and runs thus:

'The Labour leader Ed Miliband has joked in the Commons about the prime minister's text correspondence with former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.

He suggested that after failing to meet with the new French president Francois Hollande last month, Mr Cameron should simply text him the message "LOL".

It comes after Mrs Brooks revealed during her evidence to the Leveson Inquiry last week that the PM had signed off text messages to her in this way, apparently believing it to be an acronym for "lots of love".

However, David Cameron reminded the House that former PM Gordon Brown had his own mobile phone issues, which some newspapers suggested he threw his at staff.'

Listening to 5-Live after PMQs, even the presenter (Shelagh Fogarty?) and John Pienaar agreed that David Cameron had won that exchange of pre-scripted jokes. However the BBC line must always be of Labour success and Tory disaster.

Watch the video and see what you think...


Mind you I don't think that PMQs should be reduced to a Britain's Got Talent type contest to see which party leader can make the best 'joke'. One other thing I noticed on the 5 Live coverage was that the Prime Minister was usually referred to  as 'Cameron' whilst the leader of the opposition was referred to as 'Ed'. I seem to remember that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were not generally referred to by just their surnames, but as Prime Minister or by forename and surname. Is this indicative of the difference in the BBC's feelings towards politicians they approve of and those that they don't?

A return to 1967 borders is not what the Palestinian Authority want

I know, I've said it before and no doubt I will have to say it again, but the Palestinian Authority do not want to live in peace with an Israel reduced to its pre-1967 borders, they want Israel gone. Here's a quotation from a PA TV programme lats year:

"We're now at the Golan Heights border (inside Israel). We are at the exact border between Palestine and Syria."

There are more examples on this website and also in this Jihad Watch article.

Rising unemployment?

The BBC push the idea that unemployment is the fault of the coalition government, the facts are at variance though...

Data from here.

The BBC's relentless pushing of pro-Labour propaganda is relentless and should be a matter for a Conservative government to oppose, the trouble this is in no way a Conservative government.

What does this selection say about the state of English football?

The announcement of the England squad for the European Championships is interesting in the forwards section.
Wayne Rooney (Man United) - suspended for first few games of Championships which means England will rely on two of the following:
Danny Welbeck (Man United) - only recently second striker at club, started 25 games (plus 7 as sub), scored 10 goals
Andy Carroll (Liverpool) - until last few weeks horrendously out of form, started 25 games (plus 16 as sub) and scored 8 goals
Jermain Defoe (Tottenham) - third choice strike, started 15 games this season (plus 16 as sub) and scored 14 goals

Not exactly awe-inspiring is it?

Is Barack Obama 'incompetent'?

I read that:

'Bill Clinton thought so little of President Obama — mocking him as an “amateur” — that he pressed his wife last summer to quit her job as secretary of state and challenge him in the primaries, a new book claims,
……
The title of [Ed] Klein’s explosive, unauthorized bio of Obama, “The Amateur” (Regnery Publishing), was taken directly from Bill Clinton’s bombshell criticism of the president, the author said.

“Barack Obama,” Bill Clinton said, according to book excerpts, “is an amateur.”

The withering criticism is incredible, given the fact that Bill Clinton is actively campaigning for Obama’s re-election.

But according to the book, Bill Clinton unloaded on Obama and pressed Hillary to run against her boss during a gathering in the ex-president’s home office in Chappaqua last August that included longtime friends, Klein said.

“The economy’s a mess, it’s dead flat. America has lost its Triple-A rating . . . You know better than Obama does,” Bill said.
……
Obama, Bill Clinton said, “doesn’t know how to be president” and is “incompetent.”'

I believe that Bill Clinton is disputing that he ever said what he is quoted as having said. Odd, it would be one of the few times he's been so on target for years.

The one hundred and fifty-ninth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award is presented to Boris Johnson for this comment:

"The BBC is unlike any other media organisation in the free world, in that it levies billions from British households whether they want to watch it or not. No wonder its employees have an innocent belief that everything in life should be “free”. No wonder – and I speak as one who has just fought a campaign in which I sometimes felt that my chief opponent was the local BBC news – the prevailing view of Beeb newsrooms is, with honourable exceptions, statist, corporatist, defeatist, anti-business, Europhile and, above all, overwhelmingly biased to the Left."

The BBC biased to the left - "No shit, Sherlock"

The BBC are beyond belief

The imprisonment of nine men of Pakistani/Afghani extraction for paedophile sex-crimes against a multitude of young girls has already disappeared from the BBC news website front pages. I can find no mention of the story on the main nes page, the England news page or even the Yorkshire & Lincolnshire news page. By way of comparison, the latest update in the Stephen Lawrence case is currently deemed to be the second most important news story in England.

The way that the BBC initially failed to report the Rochdale case, then minimised any coverage and now hide the story away again having had to report it, is nothing short of disgusting. The BBC's desire to push a multicultural agenda at all times has led them to connive with paedophiles and supporters of paedophiles just because these particular paedophiles are Muslims. The BBC have called these men 'Asians' as though they might be Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or any religion other than the one that they belong to. They eagerly quote police chiefs who are so scared of being called racist that they will say almost anything rather than have to face facts. The BBC have minimised coverage of the comments made by Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of The Ramadhan Foundation, who profiled the offenders as Asian men, predominantly Pakistani, who want easy sex and are prepared to pay to abuse girls as young as 13.

“They have a respectable life in the community and then they have their night life.

“Asian girls are not available to them and so they look to Western girls. They think they’re easy. They see them as tarts who are there to be used.”

Mr Shafiq was appalled that the oldest defendant in the Liverpool trial was set free by police soon after one of his victims came forward.

“He was released and they just carried on,” said Mr Shafiq. “They got more girls and they thought `The police can’t touch us`. That’s a scandal.

“If there’s even a suspicion of child abuse it’s not good enough to say she’s not a credible witness.

“This gang was the talk of the town among the taxi drivers. People were appalled because it’s nothing to do with faith, nothing to do with Islam.

“For all that people like the BNP might want to stir things up, it’s a fact that the vast majority of British Pakistanis find these crimes disgusting. They will be as pleased as everyone else in society to have seen these men convicted.”

'
The BBC have given airtime to those who have said that this is not exclusively a Pakistani Muslim problem and indeed they are correct it is not exclusively a problem for that community; however Of 68 recent convictions for on-street grooming, 59 were of British Pakistani men. Sunny Hundal, for one, seems incapable of addressing this fact in his pontificating on Twitter.

Some people are bravely telling the truth but the BBC will not give them any coverage. Martin Narey, the former chief executive of the leading children’s charity Barnardo’s, has said that there is a ‘real problem’ which had to be confronted.

"There is very troubling evidence that Asians are overwhelmingly represented in prosecutions for such offences,’ he said. Mr Narey added that ‘vulnerable girls on the street at night are generally white rather than more strictly-parented Asian girls".

Former Yorkshire Labour MP, Ann Cryer, said:

"This is an absolute scandal... They (the police and CPS) were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness. They had a greater fear of being perceived in that light than in dealing with the issues in front of them."

Indeed Greater Manchester Police investigated a complaint by a 15-year-old victim that she had been raped in 2008, but prosecutors opted not to press charges and the abuse continued.

Rather than publicising the fact that the police are still looking for a number of more men to prosecute in an extensoin of this case, some of whom are thought to have fled to... yes, Pakistan, the BBC seem to believe that hiding the truth is the correct role to take, presumably to prevent an anti-Muslim backlash. Have the BBC reported these words of the judge in the case?

"I believe one of the factors which led to that (treating their victims "as though they were worthless and beyond all respect") is that they were not of your community or religion."

May the force be with him...

No, not that Obi Wan Kenobi!

One rule for Barack Obama in 2008 and another Mitt Romney in 2012

The Washington Post has a long investigation into Mitt Romney's past, including some 'troubling incidents'. Perhaps you could point me at any similar article from 2008 examining the seriously troubling incidents from Barack Obama's past. If there wasn't one, then might I enquire why?

Alien: Prometheus trailer is out - A Friday Night Rule 5 post

Spot the almost unbelievable use of 'whom' rather than 'who' at 1:00 or am I hearing things? Hollywood scriptwriters not being renowned for their punctilious grammar. I also like at 2:09 the homage to Sigourney Weaver's underwear scene in the original Alien, you know the one...

It's just your dirty mind!

I think I may have posted this little video before but it is worth a re-post. It's all in your dirty mind!

Cool car!

Engadget have more about this intriguing vehicle as featured on tonight's Gadget Show Live.

Felicity Kendal on the One Show - Slightly NSFW

The delightful Felicity Kendal is on the One Show, normally I would avoid this programme like the plague but for Felicity.... Actually I just can't do it even for Felicity...


Instead of watching that watch this...

And now the video...

The bit you want is at about 2:57

Literally nothing to play for (update)

Further to my recent post re Chelsea I note that there are two other teams with 'nothing to play for' on sunday in the last Premier League match of their season: Blackburn & Wolves. Chelsea, Blackburn & Wolves can win, lose or draw their last match and it will not affect their final league position. Chelsea will finish 6th, Blackburn 19th and Wolves 20th. On Sunday Chelsea play Blackburn and with the Champions League final coming up could they put out a team of reserves so as to ensure no injuries or do they need a practice game for the team that will play in the final? Mind you Blackburn Rovers are not really comparable with Bayern Munich, especially when their season is over, they are relegated.

Is the famous White House 'Situation Room' photo all that it seems?

American Thinker asks some interesting questions.

Could 2012 be a re-run of 1932?

Nigel Farage fears that might be the case.

Less is later?

Yesterday the BBC finally got around to reporting the latest Northern England sex grooming and child sex case. It was a fairly lengthy article that managed to report that 'The case, involving Asian defendants and white victims' but also added this odd line 'police insist the grooming was not "racially motivated".' Of course 'Asian' in this case, as in so many others before it, is code for Muslim and as for the police insistence... The perpetrators are all Muslims (of Pakistani or Afghanistani heritage). This case is a vile one:

'Some of the girls were beaten and forced to have sex with "several men in a day, several times a week", the jury was told.

One teenager told the jury she was forced to have sex with 20 men in one night.
Another recalled being raped by two men while she was "so drunk she was vomiting over the side of the bed".'

Yet the BBC and the police seem more concerned with trying to snuff out the idea that this case is anything to do with Islam. The BBC do manage to quote Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of of the Ramadhan Foundation, who  accused Pakistani community elders of "burying their heads in the sand" on the issue of on-street grooming. and said:

"There is a significant problem for the British Pakistani community...There should be no silence in addressing the issue of race as this is central to the actions of these criminals.... They think that white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused without a second thought; it is this sort of behaviour that is bringing shame on our community."

Why does Mohammed Shafiq understand what Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) does not. He denied that the ethnicity of either the defendants or the victims was a factor:
"It is not a racial issue," he said. "This is about adults preying on vulnerable young children.
"It just happens that in this particular area and time the demographics were that these were Asian men."

Strange how in the North of England this is so often the case.


Today the NEW article the BBC  have on their site is a far shorter one. No mention of religion, no quotation from Mohammed Shafiq or Steve Heywood, just the plain facts of the case with no emotive details. It's almost as though the BBC want to hide the facts; why?


As an aside it is odd how when a Catholic priest is accused of paedophilia the BBC are up in arms and denigrate the catholic church  but when nine Muslim men are convicted of paedophilic crimes, shhh...

Literally nothing to play for?

Looking at the Premier League table would it be fair to say that after last night's defeat by Liverpool, Chelsea have nothing to play for on Sunday? They are four points behind Newcastle so they cannot catch them and are eight points ahead of Everton and so cannot be caught. With the Champions League final coming up could they put out a team of reserves so as to ensure no injuries or do they need a practice game for the team that will play in the final? Mind you Blackburn Rovers are not really comparable with Bayern Munich.

The one hundred and fifty-eigth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award is presented to Alasdair Palmer for this Telegraph article which tells us that

'Our border staff must be allowed to discriminate over which travellers they check

Blanket checks of pensioners and school children only result in long queues and bored officials.'

"No shit, Sherlock"

In 2010 I reported that

'the government are to consider allowing the security services to use racial profiling in the fight against terrorists getting onto a plane, exploding a device and killing a couple of hundred or more people. Apparently

'Passenger profiling would see selected travellers given tougher security checks before a flight.

Those behaving suspiciously or having an unusual travel pattern could be picked out

I presume that fears of upsetting the 'Muslim community' prevented the introduction of such profiling in 2010 and will prevent it in 2012.

As I said in 2010:

'"This has sparked concern Muslims will be disproportionately targeted." - Disproportionate to what? Disproportionate to the number of Muslims in the UK population? Probably. Disproportionate to the number of Muslims flying out of the UK on any particular day? Probably. Disproportionate to the proportion of terrorists who are members of the 'religion of peace'? Probably not.

Racial profiling is not racist, it simply recognises who are likely to pose the greatest threat to the population in general. Racial profiling does not mean only searching Muslims, it does not mean ignoring the threat posed by such as Richard Read. It does mean concentrating more resources on the six young nervous looking Muslims sitting together with one way tickets to Detroit, Chicago and New York and less on the family of four flying to Alicante for a week's package holiday. Yes it also means not concentrating on searching the two eighty year old nuns flying to Rome but maybe giving the two Imams flying to Washington DC a second look.

Yes this may mean that totally innocent Muslims get searched more often and/or more thoroughly than totally innocent non-Muslims. It may mean that totally innocent Muslims find travelling by air more onerous than do totally innocent non-Muslims. But I am afraid that whilst a sizable proportion of Muslims both within and without this country are fixated on killing as many Westerners, including Muslims, as they can; security needs must be prioritised.

I presume that totally innocent Muslims would rather be subjected to stricter security checks than risk dying in an Islamic terrorist attack.

There is one country that uses racial profiling to great effect; Israel. As I quoted in late 2010

'The first layer of actual security that greets travellers at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport is a roadside check. All drivers are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from? 

"Two benign questions. The questions aren't important. The way people act when they answer them is," Sela said. 

Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of "distress" — behavioural profiling. Sela rejects the argument that profiling is discriminatory. 

"The word 'profiling' is a political invention by people who don't want to do security," he said. "To us, it doesn't matter if he's black, white, young or old. It's just his behaviour. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I'm doing this?" 

Once you've parked your car or gotten off your bus, you pass through the second and third security perimeters. 

Armed guards outside the terminal are trained to observe passengers as they move toward the doors, again looking for odd behaviour. At Ben Gurion's half-dozen entrances, another layer of security are watching. At this point, some travellers will be randomly taken aside, and their person and their luggage run through a magnometer. 

"This is to see that you don't have heavy metals on you or something that looks suspicious," said Sela.

You are now in the terminal. As you approach your airline check-in desk, a trained interviewer takes your passport and ticket. They ask a series of questions: Who packed your luggage? Has it left your side? 

"The whole time, they are looking into your eyes — which is very embarrassing. But this is one of the ways they figure out if you are suspicious or not. It takes 20, 25 seconds," said Sela. 

Lines are staggered. People are not allowed to bunch up into inviting targets for a bomber who has gotten this far. 

At the check-in desk, your luggage is scanned immediately in a purpose-built area. Sela plays devil's advocate — what if you have escaped the attention of the first four layers of security, and now try to pass a bag with a bomb in it? 

"I once put this question to Jacques Duchesneau (the former head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority): say there is a bag with play-doh in it and two pens stuck in the play-doh. That is 'Bombs 101' to a screener. I asked Ducheneau, 'What would you do?' And he said, 'Evacuate the terminal.' And I said, 'Oh. My. God.' 

"Take Pearson. Do you know how many people are in the terminal at all times? Many thousands. Let's say I'm (doing an evacuation) without panic — which will never happen. But let's say this is the case. How long will it take? Nobody thought about it. I said, 'Two days.'" 

A screener at Ben-Gurion has a pair of better options.

First, the screening area is surrounded by contoured, blast-proof glass that can contain the detonation of up to 100 kilos of plastic explosive. Only the few dozen people within the screening area need be removed, and only to a point a few metres away. 

Second, all the screening areas contain 'bomb boxes'. If a screener
"This is a very small simple example of how we can simply stop a problem that would cripple one of your airports," Sela said. 

Five security layers down: you now finally arrive at the only one which Ben-Gurion Airport shares with Pearson — the body and hand-luggage check. 

"But here it is done completely, absolutely 180 degrees differently than it is done in North America," Sela said. 

"First, it's fast — there's almost no line. That's because they're not looking for liquids, they're not looking at your shoes. They're not looking for everything they look for in North America. They just look at you," said Sela. "Even today with the heightened security in North America, they will check your items to death. But they will never look at you, at how you behave. They will never look into your eyes ... and that's how you figure out the bad guys from the good guys." 

That's the process — six layers, four hard, two soft. The goal at Ben-Gurion is to move fliers from the parking lot to the airport lounge in a maximum of 25 minutes.'

"Sex robots are absolutely inevitable. In fact, they already exist,"

AOL bring us the vital news that:

'Human prostitutes could be a thing of the past by 2050, as more and more robots get pimped into prostitution.

That's the future envisioned by Michelle Mars and Ian Yeoman at Victoria University of Wellington, who have released a report suggesting that lifelike robots will be coming to a brothel near you.

Mars and Yeoman see lots of advantages to having "hoe-bots" doing the dirty work instead of humans, such as "commercial sex robots would be free of disease and would reduce the trafficking of real people," they told The Week.

Despite the fact that these hard-wired whores will suck up electricity as opposed to, er, never mind, the raunchy robot researchers say the idea isn't that shocking.

"Sex robots are absolutely inevitable. In fact, they already exist," Mars told Business Insider. "Society has had relationships with machines and we continue to have increasingly intimate relationships with more and more sophisticated technologies."

For instance, there is "Roxxxy," an interactive doll costing between $7,000 to $9,000 that was unveiled at an adult entertainment expo in 2010, and, according to MSNBC.com, can be programmed with different personalities such as frigid Farrah and wild Wendy.'

There's more at the afore-mentioned link.

I will never complain about the size of London pot holes ever again!

This Russian taxi-driver has bigger problems than we do in London.

Thanks to Old Holborn on Twitter for the spot.

The unasked question

I see that Peter Mandelson has been spouting his usual pro-EU line. You can listen to his BBC interview here if you have the stomach for it. I note that line of enquiry regarding Peter Mandelson and the EU was not followed. Here, as I have asked many times before, are four questions for Peter 'Prince of Darkness' Mandelson:

1. If Peter Mandelson has to "uphold the interests of the European Communities" in order to receive his enormous EU pension then is he liable to act against the interests of the UK in order to safeguard his financial future?

2. When will Peter Mandelson start to be in receipt of his EU pension?


3. Is Peter Mandelson's pension at risk in the unlikely event of him standing up to the EU?

4. If his pension does not start paying out until he is 60 then is his pension at risk if he defies the EU between now and then?


Four simple questions that the pro-EU, pro-Labour BBC will never ask Peter Mandelson.

Surprises

After all these years together I have just discovered that Mrs NotaSheep likes to watch snooker. Shame I don't any more!

Are you revising for your history A-level? This could be useful.

The First World War explained as a pub fight...

Germany, Austria and Italy are stood together in the middle of the pub, when Serbia bumps into Austria, and spills Austria's pint.

Austria demands Serbia buy it a complete new suit, because there are splashes on its trouser leg.

Germany expresses its support for Austria's point of view

Britain recommends that everyone calm down a bit.

Serbia points out that it can't afford a whole suit, but offers to pay for cleaning Austria's trousers.

Russia and Serbia look at Austria.

Austria asks Serbia who it's looking at.

Russia suggests that Austria should leave its little brother alone.

Austria inquires as to whose army will assist Russia in compelling it to do so.

Germany appeals to Britain that France has been looking at it, and that this is sufficiently out of order that Britain should not intervene.

Britain replies that France can look at who it wants to, that Britain is looking at Germany too, and what is Germany going to do about it?

Germany tells Russia to stop looking at Austria, or Germany will render Russia incapable of such action.

Britain and France ask Germany whether it's looking at Belgium.

Turkey and Germany go off into a corner and whisper. When they come back, Turkey makes a show of not looking at anyone.

Germany rolls up its sleeves, looks at France, and punches Belgium.

France and Britain punch Germany. Austria punches Russia. Germany punches Britain and France with one hand and Russia with the other.

Russia throws a punch at Germany, but misses and nearly falls over. Japan calls over from the other side of the room that it's on Britain's side, but stays there. Italy surprises everyone by punching Austria.

Australia punches Turkey, and gets punched back. There are no hard feelings, because Britain made Australia do it.

France gets thrown through a plate glass window, but gets back up and carries on fighting. Russia gets thrown through another one, gets knocked out, suffers brain damage, and wakes up with a complete personality change.

Italy throws a punch at Austria and misses, but Austria falls over anyway. Italy raises both fists in the air and runs round the room chanting.

America waits till Germany is about to fall over from sustained punching from Britain and France, then walks over and smashes it with a barstool, then pretends it won the fight all by itself.

By now all the chairs are broken, and the big mirror over the bar is shattered. Britain, France and America agree that Germany threw the first punch, so the whole thing is Germany's fault . While Germany is still unconscious, they go through its pockets, steal its wallet, and buy drinks for all their friends.


Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot.

An awkward local election fact

'Awkward Local election stats: WHaigue 38% before 2001 election defeat: Michael Howard 38% before 2005 defeat: Labour 2012 38% and Milliband?'

As tweeted by Channel 4's Jon Snow last night, and as the BBC will not report.

The song of 1979?

Squeeze - 'Cool for Cats'

I so remember that appearance on Top Of The Pops so I was shocked to read this comment on You Tube:

'Those girls had no underwear on. I should know... I was there. I was roadie and back stage they cheekily showed me. I thought it was cool for cats.'

This comment has sparked a lively debate about its veracity and so on, take a read or just watch the video again.

Worrying, very worrying re London Mayoral election - could Ken still win?

The London Mayoral election results look worrying. Latest figurees that I have seen show the following:

Constituency	Registered	Scanned	Verified	Adjudication status
Barnet & Camden	100%	92%	87%	In Progress
Bexley & Bromley	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Brent & Harrow	92%	68%	61%	In Progress
City & East	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Croydon & Sutton	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Ealing & Hillingdon	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Enfield & Haringey	99%	79%	71%	In Progress
Greenwich & Lewisham	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Havering & Redbridge	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Lambeth & Southwark	100%	100%	100%	Complete
Merton & Wandsworth	100%	100%	100%	Complete
North East	98%	87%	87%	In Progress
South West	100%	100%	99%	In Progress
West Central	100%	100%	100%	Complete

The boroughs who have completed counting are mostly pro-Boris and those still with part to count are mostly pro-Ken. This could get very tight and a cynic might wonder if some boroughs are holding back to see what number of votes Ken needs in order to win. The turnout and postal ballot figures could be very interesting in the aftermath of this election.

"Israel must always protect the future of the Jewish people"

Star Wars - Fan style

For Star Wars Day, if you have to ask then you really are not a fan!  Here's the more than two hour hour long 100% fan sourced "Star Wars: A New Hope" fan film...

'In 2009, Casey Pugh asked thousands of Internet users to remake "Star Wars: A New Hope" into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.

SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010 we won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.

Finally, the crowd-sourced project has been stitched together and put online for your streaming pleasure. The "Director's Cut" is a feature-length film that contains hand-picked scenes from the entire StarWarsUncut.com collection.

Many thanks to Aaron Valdez (video editor - http://www.aaronvaldez.com) and Bryan Pugh (sound design/mixing - http://www.pughtube.com) for the countless hours they put into this masterpiece.

We can't thank everyone enough for making this such a special project.

Follow SWU!
http://twitter.com/starwarsuncut
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Star-Wars-Uncut/174910934747
http://starwarsuncut.tumblr.com'

Oh okay, Today is Star Wars Day because; well what's the date? 4th of May, or May the 4th.... "May the Forth be with you"...

Play School presenters were doing what? And as for Katy Manning... (NSFW)

This MSN article reports two all but unbelievable stories.

First that:

'Play School presenters went in front of the camera stoned after smoking "the biggest joint you've ever seen", according to a new BBC documentary.

Presenter Johnny Ball told a film crew that two of his co-stars filmed a nativity scene for long-running children's TV series Play School while stoned.

Speaking on a BBC4 documentary, Lights! Camera! Action! Tales of Television Centre, Johnny said: "There was Rick Jones, Lionel Morton and myself. They got stoned on the biggest joint you've ever seen - in the studio.'

I am lost for words, smoking weed on Play School!


The second story is more intriguing to me:

'The programme also lifts the lid on what went on behind the closed doors of the stars' dressing rooms, with former Doctor Who actress Katy Manning, who played Jo Grant, saying: "People were bonking all over the BBC. Everybody was doing it on the premises."'

If you don't know who Katy Manning aka Jo Grant is then you obviously didn't watch Doctor Who in the 1970s. Here's a picture or four to bring you up to speed and a link to a previous article of mine.

 In case you're wondering the shots of the naked Katy Manning are not from Doctor Who!

More voting problems in London's East End

The London Evening Standardreports this:

'Police outside a Tower Hamlets polling station called reinforcements today after a candidate alleged  that he had been threatened by activists from rival parties.

Chris Smith, standing for the Greens in the London Assembly elections, claimed that one activist threatened to “punch his lights out” when he complained about the crowd handing out Respect and Labour leaflets outside St Matthias Primary, off Brick Lane.

Officers were today guarding polling stations across Tower Hamlets after the Met launched a formal investigation into allegations of electoral fraud in the borough. Police were called in after reports of voter intimidation outside polling stations at previous elections.

It was feared today that activists were “harassing” potential voters. Mr Smith said: “I came down here at about 10am and there were at least 20 Labour and Respect activists handing out leaflets just outside. Election rules state very clearly that each party is only allowed one teller outside each polling station, the rest must be a safe distance away.

“I complained to the official inside and when I came back out the Respect guy started mouthing off to me. When I told him what they were doing is not allowed, he threatened to punch my lights out.

“It’s amazing that this is still going on around here. The groups that gather outside are very intimidating. With all the problems we’ve had in Tower Hamlets this is the last thing we need.”'

Of course it's really not 'amazing', it's actually predictable and the futire of much of British politics in this fragmented land.

The article also contains this:

'It came as the chair of the Electoral Commission today called for photo ID to be demanded at all polling stations in a bid to stop voter fraud. Jenny Watson urged the Government to change the law to “help us all be sure our voting system is safe”.

She said: “There is more the Government can do to help us all be sure our voting system is safe. The Electoral Commission wants to see our registration system tightened up and it’s good that the Government plans to introduce new laws to do this which will apply to any of us who want to vote by post before the 2015 General Election.

We think it is also time to have a proper debate about whether we all need to show photo ID at polling stations.”'

Anyone who opposes the use of photo ID at polling stations has a dodgy agenda to push.

The Standard article finishes thus:

'There were fears that voter fraud in Tower Hamlets could influence the result of today’s mayoral election.

The Met is investigating claims that a by-election earlier this month in the Banglatown and Spitalfields ward was  rigged — giving victory to Gulam Robbani, an independent candidate backed by the borough’s mayor Lutfur Rahman. Turnout in the by-election was nearly double that of the previous election in the ward — 31 per cent to 17 per cent.

Residents said campaigners had been knocking on doors and collecting ballot papers, offering to post the vote. Mr Robbani won the election by just 43 votes. There is no suggestion he was involved in fraud.

Voters today expressed shock at the presence of police outside stations. Jason Caffrey, 41, said: “I was surprised when I came out to see a van full of officers outside. Corrupt practice in elections damages trust and while there’s no smoke without fire it’s hard to know exactly how high the flames are.”'

Isn't it great to live in London in 2012?

'Does Ken Livingstone pass a fit and proper person test?'

The Commentator raises the questions about the suitability of Ken Livingstone to be London Mayor.

'Ken Livingstone has been accused of tax avoidance hypocrisy, a worrying relationship with the Jewish community and a grave lack of judgment over his work for Press TV. On all three counts, he fails the fit and proper person test'

There's plenty to read in the article and three good questions that point in only one direction.

Voting fraud in East London - 2 articles that are worth reading

1. 'Independent' reporter Jerome Taylor relives his bloody experience on the trail of voting fraud in east London , a shocking story from 2010.

2. Andrew Gilligan in The Telegraph reports on 'Tower Hamlets: dead and incarcerated people vote'.

East London and democracy don't seem happy bedfellows.

"If I were the devil"

An address by Paul Harvey from 1965 which is somewhat prescient.


Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot.

The one hundred and fifty-seventh weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's winners are OFQUAL, the exams 'watchdog' for the incredible insight that (as reported by the BBC) 'GCSEs and A-levels in geography and science are easier than they were 10 years ago'

Exams getting easier under last Labour government? "No shit, Sherlock"
 

I suppose working for the BBC you need to be 'special'

Guido Fawkes reports that the BBC's Stephanie Flanders, the BBC economics editor, tweeted yesterday:

'Just tried to vote. My polling station, in Hammersmith, had closed two hours early. Has anyone else had same problem?'

Fortunately that St Paul's Girls' School, Balliol College, Oxford and Harvard University education was not entirely wasted as she soon corrected herself:

'My democratic outrage is now in abeyance. Apparently all stations closed because, er, today isn't Thursday. Clearly I need an early night.'

Should we expect any better from a senior BBC journalist? How about from one who has the unenviable history of having dated both Ed Balls and Ed Miliband?

If a conservative politician or right-wing commentator had made such a mistake the BBC would be all over this story but as it shows one of their own up, I predict somewhat less coverage.

Thought for the day - 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'

That is a quotation usually attributed to Edmund Burke although those words in that exact sequence are elusive in his works.


On local election day in parts of England and Wales, think on that quotation as you go to the polls...

For myself Ken Livingstone holds views and has associated with people that are evil and thus I will be voting for Boris Johnson as London Mayor.

I will also, albeit reluctantly, be voting Conservative in the local council elections. Our council swings between Labour and Conservative and just seems better run, and certainly less wasteful, when the Conservatives are in power.

What is Ken Livingstone's apparent problem with Judaism?

This article is incredible, here's the transcript of the video of Ken Livingstone speaking on a Press TV broadcast:

'Is not the problem here that when Zionism was conceived of back in the 1880s, the world was one that accepted racial division… The Germans talked about anyone of German blood, even if it had been a thousand years since they left, able to come back. The world broadly accepted this racism at all levels, and that was the origin of Zionism – ‘every other group is racially selective, we will do it’. We see that today in this ridiculous situation that that whereas Christianity and Islam massively goes out there to convert people to its [sic] faith, it’s very difficult to convert into Judaism. I think it’s a real problem, there’s this racial exclusiveness that has its origins in that dreadful time… 1880s, when all nations suffered from it.'

 Here's Alodya's explanation of where Ken Livingstone is WRONG:

'As ignorantly wrong about the history he claims to be drawing on as he is about the teachings of Christianity and Judaism, Livingstone targets Judaism as a different religion that is racist and intolerant, unlike Christianity and Islam. His “history” of the conversion rules of Judaism being based on nineteenth century German racial exclusivism is a total and malign fantasy calculated to represent Judaism and Nazism as having the same roots. Equating zionism and Nazism are central features of anti-semitic anti-zionism.

Making Judaism difficult to convert to goes back to Talmudic times,  not long after the period of Rabbi Hillel and Jesus of Nazareth and although the Rabbis made it more difficult in the centuries following the Jewish Diaspora, has nothing to do with the rise of political zionism in the mid to late nineteenth century.

Judaism is not interested in race. A child is Jewish if he or she is the child of a Jewish mother, whether he or she is black, like the Jews of India, Ethiopia and many parts of the Maghreb, or pale skinned, blond haired and  blue eyed, like some of the Jews of Poland  and Russia, frizzily dark haired and curved-nosed like many of the Jews of Germany, or has the characteristic skin colour and eyes of the children of Jewish converts who came from Japan and China. Anyone can convert to Judaism, provided they are not the children of a sexual union ruled illicit in the Torah, such as an incestuous union. All shades of zionist movement (of which there are many, both secular and religious, socialist and economically conservative), have always accepted that anyone born or converted according to Orthodox Jewish rules is eligible for citizenship of the Jewish state, wherever they live in the world.

Religious zionism however goes back to the first Psalms of the first period of Jewish exile to Babylon, which yearn for the return by the entire people to the homeland, both the land of Israel, and Zion-- the City of Jerusalem. They have been sung and chanted by religious Jews everywhere in the world as part of the prayers which accompany every meal they ate for almost two thousand years and continue to this day. Every  orthodox Jewish wedding going back to the earliest exile days has begun with an invocation to "Let us go up to Jerusalem" taken from the Song of Solomon and other Hebrew Bible texts'

 What is Ken's problem? Whatever it is, let's amke sure he doesn't get elected tomorrow.

Another reason not to vote for Ken Livingstone

'But by far the biggest row was over fares. Ken had signed off an above-inflation increase that was due to come into effect the year after the mayoral election, and TfL had started to brief the credit-rating agencies to that effect. This was significant, because any change to that rating would have a big impact on TfL’s borrowing. Then, one morning, Ken popped up at his weekly press conference and, off the cuff, announced that he would freeze fares if re-elected.

Over the next few days, things got silly. Ken’s aides tried to get us to sign off a statement saying the freeze had been in the budget all along. I couldn’t see how that was possible, as we’d already briefed the agencies. Then one of my press officers told me that if he was forced to put out the press release drafted by the mayor’s office, he’d resign. It was at that point, mercifully, that I managed to get myself sacked. It all became irrelevant, of course, when Boris won. But I’d got a good look at Ken being Ken.

Which is why there will be no more turning of blind eyes from me, or resigned shrugs. We need someone speaking for all of London, not just the Balkanised segments whose votes he craves. We’ve held our noses before, but not this time. I’ve seen Ken being Ken up close; it’s why I’m voting for Boris Johnson.'

That's Dan Hodges a former Ken Livingstone team member writing in The Telegraph.

I keep finding good reasons not to vote for Ken Livingstone, I've  yet to find one to push me the other way; I wonder why?

Water shortages in London and the South East - are there any demand side factors?

We are told that we are in a state of drought due to the reduced rainfall over the last two winters but are there other factors that could affect the shortage of water. Shortage of water is a supply issue, how about demand and storage issues? How much has the population of London and the South East increased over the last 15 years? What effect does that population increase have on water consumption? Have any new reservoirs been built or other supply-side measures been built to cater for the increase in demand?

The BBC and others are happy to parrot the line that weather/climate change is to blame but are there not other factors?

Earth temperature over the years (part 2)

Further to yesterday's post, have a look at this single graph from New Scientist magazine...

It makes the same point rtaher neatly I think.

Once again when will the BBC show such a graph to put 'man made global warming' into context?

The accuracy of warmist climate predictions

The UK Met Office's three month weather outlook issued on 23 March ran thus (my emphasis):

'The forecast presented here is for April and the average of the April-May-June
period for the United Kingdom as a whole.

This forecast is based on information from observations, several numerical models and expert judgement.

SUMMARY - PRECIPITATION:
The forecast for average UK rainfall slightly favours drier than average conditions for April-May-June as a whole, and also slightly favours April being the driest of the 3 months.

With this forecast, the water resources situation in southern, eastern and central England is likely to deteriorate further during the April-May-June period.

The probability that UK precipitation for April-May-June will fall into the driest of our five categories is 20-25% whilst the probability that it will fall into the wettest of our five categories is 10-15% (the 1971-2000 climatological probability for each of these categories is 20%).'

So the experts at the Met Office predict a drier than normal April and we get the wettest April in a century? This is not a one-off, as I have reported before, the Met Office regularly mess-up their weather predictions. The odd thing is that the errors always seem to be towards backing up the warmist agenda, now why would that be?

Actually maybe the oddest thing is why anyone believes the met Office's predictions of impending Climate Change when they get so much else wrong.

Earth temperature over the years

The following are six graphs of earth temperature from JP Attitude. Look at each graph and see how why the warmists like to start their temperature records from 1850. JP Attitude have some excellent descriptions for each of these graphs.

Is there any chance of the BBC showing graphs such as these to put 'man made global warming' into context? I think we all know the answer to that question.