House price crash

I see that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has reported that:

"Almost four out of five chartered surveyors saw a fall in values in March, research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has found.

RICS disclosed that they were the worst figures since it started compiling such data 30 years ago.

The widespread nature of the decline has eclipsed the house price crash of the early 1990s, when two thirds of surveyors registered drops, it said."

Gordon Brown promised us an end to boom and bust, looks like he may have to pluck up some "courage" and apologise for that...

Global Jihad?

There are many who believe that Hamas do not really want to destroy Israel, but can be persuaded to live in a Palestinian state that is at peace with Israel. These people are wrong, you can find the proof of this for yourself on the internet - there is more than enough of it. More people believe that is only Israel didn't exist, then the problem of Islamic terrorism would disappear. This belief is usually accompanied by the belief that withdrawal from Iraq and maybe Afghanistan would certainly assure peace between "the West" and "Islam". I am sorry to inform these people that they too are wrong. Again, search the Internet, the information is out there.

Here is the transcript of one speech that was broadcast on official Hamas television (Al Aqsa TV) on 11 April by Hamas member of Parliament Yunis Al-Astal. This gentleman explains that the destruction of the Jews is just a precursor to Islam’s conquest of the entire world. (the transcript is courtesy of Courtesy of MEMRI TV.)

"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion, so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security, and consolidation of power, and even to conquests thorough da’wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world. Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.

I believe that our children or our grandchildren will inherit our Jihad and our sacrifices, and Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them. Today, we instil these good tidings in their souls, and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire on the brink of which they stand."

I will publish more such speeches here and I know that each time I will be told that these people are not representative of all Muslims or even of all Muslim politicians. I agree, they are probably not; but they are representative of a significant percentage of Muslims and that scares me.

Listen to the people? Not if we can avoid it.

I read on Politics.ie that the Irish Daily Mail is reporting that the Irish Government are looking into ways of finagling the upcoming referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. As ever, the project must continue unimpeded by what the European public think or want.

In a very strange way, you almost have to admire the way that a relatively number of politicians and bureaucrats have managed to take control of almost an entire continent without a popular vote.

Skins do The Bourne Identity

Skins do The Bourne Identity Mini car chase scene... and so beautifully. Series 2, Episode 10 - the final one with this cast.

Risk Assessment

Two contrasting stories, both in the Sunday Times.

First that a full risk assessment for the proposed Third Runway at Heathrow Airport has not been carried out.

"Under the plans for Heathrow’s expansion, Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary, intends to sandwich one of the busiest runways in the world between the elevated M25/M4 junction to the west and the residential area of Harlington to the east.

It emerged last week that the motorway junction, 650 yards from the end of the proposed runway, will be in the crash landing zone or “public safety zone” where there is an accepted higher risk of an accident.

Kelly’s department failed to include maps showing this zone in the consultation documents, which critics say would have caused uproar.

Department for Transport (DfT) officials have already been accused of fixing the evidence in favour of a third runway.

“It’s ridiculous to put a runway so close to a major motorway junction and residential areas,” said Geraldine Nicholson, who lives adjacent to the junction and chairs the No Third Runway Action Group.

“They are wanting to put this runway in one of the most built-up areas in Britain and we’re being told they haven’t even yet carried out a detailed risk assessment. It’s crazy.”

Second that, a risk assessment for lighting a 3 inch birthday candle was required at St Pancras Station.

"The station, which was opened as the Eurostar terminus last year, said the champagne bar was right to have demanded a risk assessment because of the potential danger from a naked flame. If permission had been granted, a spokesman said, a fire extinguisher would have had to be on stand-by in case the candle burnt out of control."

Priorities?

Gordon Brown = Neville Chamberlain?

The Telegraph report that:

"Gordon Brown's personal support among voters has fallen faster and further than that of any Prime Minister since political polling began... His personal rating is now minus 37, down from plus 48 in August, a plunge even more severe than that suffered by Neville Chamberlain in 1940 after Germany's invasion of Norway."

Couldn't happen to a nastier piece of work.

To make matters even worse for Mr Brown, the poll shows that voters would be more likely to support Labour if his predecessor Tony Blair was still in office.

Six out of 10 complain the Prime Minister has a tendency to "dither" and only 26 per cent believe he has shown decisive leadership.

Just 14 per cent agree he is "in control of events," while 57 per cent say he is "floundering".

Worse still for the man who built his reputation as the steward of the economy as chancellor, 61 per cent of those poll said they blamed Mr Brown for the current financial crisis and two-thirds said they did not trust the Prime Minister and the current Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to steer the country out of it.

I am beside myself with schadenfreude.

Policing the roads

The news that

"More than two million rogue drivers escaped prosecution last year as an underclass of untaxed and uninsured drivers grows at an alarming rate, figures reveal today.

They show that there are 63 per cent more road tax evaders than eight years ago - yet only half the number of successful prosecutions.

Today, a driver who does not pay road tax has a one in 20 chance of being prosecuted against a one in six chance in 1999."

This is absolutely no surprise to me, the full force of the law is applied to errant taxed drivers, however small the transgression because they will generally pay the fine - collection of the fine being the whole point of most traffic law enforcement, whereas the untaxed driver will be hard to locate and will not be so bothered at the thought of losing their driving license or car. Labour have to pay for their monumental waste somehow and taxing drivers seems a good way to get at at least some of the money from the public.

Zimbabwe election update

The news that the Zimbabwe Election Commission has ordered a recount of votes in more than a tenth of constituencies yesterday leads me to believe that as I predicted here and here and here, Robert Mugabe would appear to be readying his Zanu-PF thugs to steal the election. The extra ballot boxes are now in place for the "recount" and amazingly Robert Mugabe will win this recount. Morgan Tsvangirai has left Zimbabwe fearing bloodshed and I am afraid he is probably right.

As Welshman Ncube, an opposition activist and a co-author of Zimbabwe's electoral law, said: "ZEC is acting in collusion with Zanu-PF, and if they think any of us believe them when they are a gang of fraudsters they can go to hell. "They have custody of the ballot boxes and so what guarantee have we got they didn't go back and tamper with the ballots? Clearly they have opened these boxes and put ballots in there. So the outcome of the recount is a foregone conclusion."

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.




Thanks to Last of the Few for the spot.

"Toothtunes"

Is this for real?

"GETTING KIDS TO BRUSH WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!

We know…getting your kids to brush their teeth can be a daily battle. Not any more! TOOTH TUNES is a revolutionary toothbrush for kids that makes brushing their teeth fun and entertaining.

Your kids will love brushing their teeth to hit songs from some of their favourite artists. As sound vibrations stream from the bristles through their teeth, they hear the music in their heads. But, when they take the bristles off their teeth, the music stops playing in their head. So they'll actually want to keep brushing for a full two minutes!"

I fear it is...


For some reason I would like this song to play whilst brushing my teeth



Dentist by Steve Martin (as Orin) and others (Chiffon, Crystal & Ronnette) from Little Shop of Horrors.

Delusional

John Rentoul in the "Independent" advises David Miliband thus:

"David Miliband: this is it. You have the qualities that could put Labour back in contention. You have the poise, the communication skills and just enough experience at the highest level. But you require courage and a campaign of self-promotion to a general public that still has only the haziest idea who the Foreign Secretary is."

David Miliband has "poise" and "communication skills"?
There must be two David Milibands: the one John Rentoul writes about and the one that is the second weakest Foreign Secretary I can remember, the weakest being Margaret Beckett.

I am shocked

Well in fact I have rarely been less shocked that when I read this headline in The Sunday Times - "Des Browne misled MPs on Nimrod".

Wow, what a shock - go read the article but here is the meat:

"DES BROWNE, the defence secretary, appears to have misled MPs when he told them an independent report had ruled that the RAF's Nimrod aircraft were safe to fly...

Briefing MPs on the results of the board of inquiry into the loss of the aircraft, Browne insisted the RAF's fleet of Nimrod aircraft were now safe.

"QinetiQ has conducted an independent investigation into the fuel system and confirmed that, in light of the measures taken since the crash, the fuel system is safe to operate," said Browne.

Under the MoD's own rules, for an aircraft to be safe the risk must have been "reduced to a level that is Alarp [as low as reasonably practicable] and broadly acceptable or tolerable".

The QinetiQ report said that only half this condition was in place — while the risk associated with the aircraft was tolerable, "the level of risk present to the fuel system is not Alarp"."

Rory Bremner savages Gordon Brown's evasiveness

Well worth a watch of Bremner, Bird & Fortune tonight; I think Rory might have fallen out of love with Labour.

Ed Balls - a total pillock?

Dizzy Thinks has the details of Ed Balls' website's Terms and Conditions - hysterical and somewhat scary coming from a Cabinet Secretary of State and putative leader of the Labour party.

Peter Brookes is a great cartoonist, Alistair Darling is beyond parody

Take a look at his Gordon Brown as "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" here.


Mind you Alistair Darling is beyond parody...

Words almost fail me

The Sunday Times has an article about the troubled Gordon Brown and whether there might be a race to replace him. I have discussed this before and probably will again but it was something else that caught my eye. The article also contains this nugget of information:

"“I know of many MPs in marginal seats who have quietly been in touch to find out how much their retirement income would be if they stepped down at the next election,” one backbencher said.

“Others are thinking about retraining to go back into the careers they left when they came into the Commons, such as teaching and social work.”

MPs who retire on grounds of sickness are given special dispensation to claim their full pension before they reach the age of 65. Several have made inquiries about whether it would be possible for them to quit the Commons on grounds of ill health — before voters eject them via the ballot box."

Yes, even as they face losing their seats on the gravy train, Labour scum are looking into the best ways of screwing the taxpayer for even more money as a goodbye present. Since most of these free loaders have simply "followed orders" and acted as lobby fodder for the last 11 years, I don't think that they deserve a state-funded pension before the age of 60. They should just fuck off and find a proper job and not one that is reliant upon them having done favours for their new employers whilst they were MPs.

Peter Hitchens wants his Country back

Take a read of this and see how much you can agree with. Is it my imagination or has a tipping point been reached and the silent majority are starting to speak out - for the avoidance of doubt, I would not describe either Peter Hitchens or myself as ever "silent".

Transmitting the call to prayer

I have blogged before my objections to Mosques using an amplified adhan. Now I see that there is a technological way out of this stalemate. The use of a radio broadcast, that can be picked up by all who want to hear it seems a good idea to me, so long as thos who pick up the signal don't put set their receivers to play at an obtrusively loud volume.

I find common ground with Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe and I would not make good friends and I disagree with most of his policies, however I read this morning that he has got our Prime Minister sussed. Apparently he called Gordon Brown "a little tiny dot on this world".

Can a "tiny dot" also be a "vacuum"?

Whither Edland

Does anyone know what has happened to Edland, Ed Clarke's formerly excellent political blog that lost its political aspects and now seems to have disappeared completely?