Tony Blair President of Europe?

There has been a lot of fuss recently over the prospect of Tony Blair becoming the first President of Europe. A building to house the President and his team is nearing completion and rumours abound of Peter Mandelson's dark role in propping Gordon Brown up for just long enough to allow the Lisbon Treaty to be implemented. The prospect of any President of Europe is vile enough but the thought of Tony Blair in that role is almost too much to bear. So here's something more humorous...

Pakistan and nuclear proliferation

The Times of India has a very interesting story about Pakistan's A.Q.Khan and his story.

"An angry, humiliated, and wounded A.Q.Khan has finally made public and official what has long been suspected: his nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya was done at the behest of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take the rap for it.

''The bastards first used us and are now playing dirty games with us,'' Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership in a December 2003 letter to his wife Henny that has finally been made public by an interlocutor. ''Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand,'' he tells his wife, adding, ''They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.''

...

Describing the four-page letter as ''extraordinary,'' Henderson says in numbered paragraphs, it outlines Pakistan’s nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. Some of the disclosures are stunning , and in one para that is bound to embarrass Beijing, besides implicating it, Khan writes about how Pakistan helped China in enrichment technology in return for bomb blueprints.

''We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian),� Khan writes. “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%).'' UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plan.

On Iran, the letter says: ''Probably with the blessings of BB [Benazir Bhutto]...General Imtiaz [Benazir’s defence adviser, now dead] asked me to give a set of drawings and some components to the Iranians. The names and addresses of suppliers were also given to the Iranians.''

On North Korea: ''[A now-retired general] took $3million through me from the N. Koreans and asked me to give some drawings and machines.''"

Why do Western governments trust the Pakistani government?

Freedom of Information?

Liberal Democrat Voice is having problems getting an answer out of the Cabinet Office.

A Labour minister is fined

A £5,000 fine for Baroness Scotland but don't expect a resignation or sacking, neither she nor Gordon Brown have the necessary courage or decency.

Labour lies

The Guardian report that:

"An overwhelming majority of voters think Labour is failing to tell the truth about the state of the public finances, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll. The result suggests the government has come off worst from a week of squabbling between the parties over the deficit, and Gordon Brown’s admission that spending cuts will be needed.

Only 14% of voters think Labour is telling the truth about the country’s financial situation. More than twice as many believe what the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say."

14% of voters still believe the Labour party on anything; staggering. Surely they can't all be on the Labour payroll, or could they.

A "weak currency"

Last December I blogged: "

"A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy,which is the sign of a weak government"
Gordon Brown, 1995

Would Gordon Brown care to comment on his reported remarks bearing in mind the standing of Sterling or will he persist in his claims that the UK economy is much better placed compared to other countries? Maybe the BBC could question Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling on this matter and not let them get away with the line that they do not conduct a day-to-day commentary on the exchange rate.

I was reminded of this as the Pound falls to a five month low against the Euro and has dropped against the dollar as well. The reason, warnings that UK public debt levels may not be sustainable. Any comments from "Prudence"?

Who's a racist Jimmy?

Jimmy Carter was accusing some opponents of Barack Obama as being motivated by racism, so I was interested to read at Donal Blaney's blog this from The National Review:

"When former president Jimmy Carter accuses the opponents of Barack Obama’s policy of nationalizing broad aspects of our economy and spending us into bankruptcy of being “racists,” perhaps he should look in the mirror. In his 1982 book, Keeping Faith, Carter disingenuously said he “was not directly involved in the early struggles to end racial discrimination.” No kidding — in fact, he directly and unambiguously supported segregation. When Carter returned to Plains, Georgia, to become a peanut farmer after serving in the Navy, he became a member of the Sumter County School Board, which did not implement the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision handed down by the Supreme Court. Instead, the board continued to segregate school children on the streets of Carter’s hometown.

As Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU’s Voting Project, relates in his book A Voting Rights Odyssey: Black Enfranchisement in Georgia, Carter’s board tried to stop the construction of a new “Elementary Negro School” in 1956. Local white citizens had complained that the school would be “too close” to a white school. As a result, “the children, both colored and white, would have to travel the same streets and roads in order to reach their respective schools.” The prospect of black and white children commingling on the streets on their way to school was apparently so horrible to Carter that he requested that the state school board stop construction of the black school until a new site could be found. The state board turned down Carter’s request because of “the staggering cost.” Carter and the rest of the Sumter County School Board then reassured parents at a meeting on October 5, 1956, that the board “would do everything in its power to minimize simultaneous traffic between white and colored students in route to and from school.”

I am not aware that Rep. Joe Wilson has ever supported segregation or engaged in the same type of reprehensible, racist behavior. The idea that opposition to Obama’s policies reflects “racism” is absurd; even the White House has rejected it. All of this raises a larger issue about Carter’s remarks. When he makes such a claim, is he projecting his own inner racial beliefs? Is he so guilt-ridden over his past racist behavior that he wants to make amends to the race-baiters that today populate the Left? Or is he just cynically helping them score political points?"

Who's a racist? Who was a racist?

It's the Czechs again

It was the Czechs that Neville Chamberlain sold out at Munich in 1938 and the Czechs (along with the Poles) that Barack Obama has hugely upset with his breaking of the Bush era promise to site anti-ballistic missile systems in Eastern Europe.

Now the Czech President, Václav Klaus, is apparently planning to have a group of loyal senators in the Czech Upper House refer the Lisbon treaty back to the Czech constitutional court for a second time; this could delay ratification of the Treaty for between three and six months. A six month delay would not be quite long enough for a David Cameron government to be elected and promise to hold the referendum that the UK Labour government promised but failed to deliver on, but seven months would be. Of course the UK have already signed the treaty, you remember Gordon Brown's courageous separate signing (lack of) ceremony, so with a referendum to organise maybe the Czechs could delay by say nine months.

Of course the EU is furious and worried that the Czechs are delaying matters, Nicolas Sarkozy, who helped to draw up the treaty after the French and Dutch voted against its, almost identical in effect, predecessor, the EU Constitution, has warned Prague that it faces "consequences" if it does not swiftly follow an Irish "yes" with its own ratification. The EU powers fear that an incoming Conservative government might derail the Lisbon Treaty with a referendum. The fact that 70% of Brits questioned want a referendum and intend to vote "NO" is reason enough for the EU and their placemen around the EU governments to ensure that their voice is not heard; the EU is not interested in democracy after all. Just think of all that hard work by such as Peter Mandelson, the man of whom Adam Boulton apparently said:

"By propping up Mr Brown, Lord Mandelson has delayed the Election - and quite possibly facilitated the ratification of the treaty. This will doubtless endear him to EU leaders, who in turn might look all the more favourably on choosing Mr Blair as their president.'"

Oddly the only other country that has yet to ratify the Treaty, assuming the population of Ireland fall into line,will be Poland. In 1938 Czechoslovakia was abandoned to the Nazis by a West who saw it as a "far away country about which we know little". In 1939 Poland was invaded by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Maybe that history helps to explain why these countries are more than a little wary of huge superstates looking to subsume them.

UK Political Parties and the Trade Descriptions Act

Something struck me this morning, if the Trade Descriptions Act could be applied to the UK's political parties, would any of them be immune from prosecution? Today I will deal with the main political parties, tomorrow the minor parties and on Wednesday the regional parties.

The Labour Party:
In theory the party of the working man (and woman), a party devoted to looking after the interests of the working class against the bullying of big business, a party in favour of the redistribution of wealth from rich to poor.
In reality the party of the non-working man (or woman), a party prepared to throw money at the work-shy, the feckless and unproductive public sector employees in return for votes, a party in favour of the redistribution of wealth from the middle-class to the poor and the super-rich.

The Conservative Party:
In theory the party of stability and tradition.
In reality (or at least claimed reality) the party of "change".

The Liberal Democratic Party:
In theory the party of the middle way, of liberal economic and social policy and democracy in politics.
In reality a party with very socialist tendencies and often (from the members if not the leadership) a hatred of capitalism. A party whose blind devotion to the profoundly undemocratic EU and the religion of global warming means that democracy and free speech on these (and other subjects) are verbotten.

UK Independence Party:
In theory a party devoted to standing up for British interests rather than subsuming them in the name of EU integration.
In practice a party devoted to standing up for British interests rather than subsuming them in the name of EU integration.


Draw your own conclusions.... Tomorrow the minor parties...

The BBC is part of a "conspiracy"

Not my words but those of Greg Dyke as reported by the BBC. Greg Dyke said some very interesting things at the Lib Dem conference that should be of interest to all readers of this blog, take a read.

A levy on properties worth over £1 million

Some questions and comments spring to mind about this Lib Dem policy:
How will property values be assessed? At the last rating valuation, at the top of the market, at last purchase, at estate agents valuation (if so which agent), at average for the road, at highest value in the area, at lowest value in the area? Not as easy as it sounds is it oh economic genius Vince Cable?

This policy will unduly penalise Londoners over the rest of the Country. Whilst a nice house almost anywhere in the Country can be purchased for less than £1 million, in London it is not quite that clear-cut; but then a bit of class war rhetoric by the Lib Dems may help shore up their vote against a Labour party also trying to shore up its core vote.

Vince Cable appears to be assuming that everyone that owns an expensive house has high income, what about retired people in large old family homes, say around Richmond Green? Will they be forced to sell their houses as they may not be able to afford the 0.5% "levy"?

The levy is set to start at 0.5%, £5,000 on a £1 million house, will there be a set upper limit on the rate of the levy or will it like stamp duty be hiked ever upwards as an extra "wealth" tax?

"Racist", Global Warming "denier" etc.

The screams of the left in the face of criticism are so often the same: You are a "racist" for opposing Barack Obama, you are a "denier" for daring to question the fact of Man Made Climate Change.

Whilst I have experienced just a mild outbreak of this name calling, being called a denier for my postings on the false reporting and poor statistics that are used to justify the faith of the religion of global warming, others have fared far worse. Daniel Hannan "proved" himself evil by not paying homage to the NHS so it seems that the New Statesman's James Macintyre thought it entirely reasonable to call Dan Hannan a racist for his comments about Barack Obama. Of course James Macintyre had to go a step further and state that

"I believe the Conservative Party is institutionally racist. I always have done."

The New Statesman have dropped the article but you can read it here along with his readers' comments.

Calling someone a "racist" is seen as an easy way of ending debate, no comeback is normally allowed. Calling someone a climate change "denier" is fast becoming the same discussion stopper; it must not be allowed to be.

Odd Google search

Why would someone Google kevin mccloud penis and why is my blog number 7? Neither my blog nor I have any interest in Kevin McCloud's penis?

Natural justice?

Apparently:

"MINISTERS are considering making motorists legally responsible for accidents involving cyclists or pedestrians, even if they are not at fault.

Government advisers are pushing for changes in the civil law that will make the most powerful vehicle involved in a collision automatically liable for insurance and compensation purposes.

The move, intended to encourage greater take-up of environmentally friendly modes of transport..."

Have this Labour government any idea at all about natural justice, fairness or is their intention to piss off as many people as possible? Have this Labour government any idea how some cyclists drive and surely drivers of more powerful cars are likely to drive more carefully so as not to risk damaging their cars than drivers of smaller, cheaper cars...

The Cloward-Piven Strategy

This article may help you understand some of what is going on in the US.

"Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would "the rest of society" accept their demands.

The key to sparking this rebellion would be to expose the inadequacy of the welfare state. Cloward-Piven's early promoters cited radical organizer Saul Alinsky as their inspiration. "Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules," Alinsky wrote in his 1972 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judaeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system's failure to "live up" to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist "rule book" with a socialist one.

The authors noted that the number of Americans subsisting on welfare -- about 8 million, at the time -- probably represented less than half the number who were technically eligible for full benefits. They proposed a "massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls." Cloward and Piven calculated that persuading even a fraction of potential welfare recipients to demand their entitlements would bankrupt the system. The result, they predicted, would be "a profound financial and political crisis" that would unleash "powerful forces … for major economic reform at the national level.""

Now who do we know who is in a position of some power in the US who was/is a disciple of Saul Alinsky? That's right, Barack Obama.

Two pieces of seriously unsurprising news

The Mail reports the unsurprising news that Sky News political editor Adam Boulton says Mr Blair has a near contemptuous view of his successor's ability to bounce back and that Mr Blair believes Mr Brown may find an excuse to 'duck out' of the Election - which must take place by next June - possibly on health grounds.

I have rarely been so surprised by a piece of political news. But then came this from the same article; apparently

"Mr Boulton says: 'By propping up Mr Brown, Lord Mandelson has delayed the Election - and quite possibly facilitated the ratification of the treaty. This will doubtless endear him to EU leaders, who in turn might look all the more favourably on choosing Mr Blair as their president.'"

I am flabbergasted.

So Adam Boulton's years of political nous tell us that Tony Blair thinks that Gordon Brown is a political coward and that Peter Mandelson is more loyal to the EU than the UK; gosh!

Bookended by surprises, is the endgame in sight?

I have the terrible feeling that the Labour government of 1997-2010 will be bookended by two "surprise" economic decisions. The first days of this Labour government were marked by the surprise freeing from political control (yes I know it wasn't really freed) of the Bank of England. Will the dying days of this same Labour government be marked by the surprise joining of the Euro?

BNP Paribas are reported to have predicted that the Pound Sterling's recent collapse on the foreign exchange markets, as traders realise quite how badly screwed the UK economy is, will continue and that Sterling will reach parity with the Euro within about six months.

Around six months to currency parity which would make the job of selling a 1:1 conversion of Sterling to Euros, to a mostly economically illiterate population, that much easier.

Entry into the Euro, the Lisbon Treaty ratified by all member governments (with or without their population's approval) and then who cares if the Conservatives win the General Election, for they will only have the power of a local authority not a national government.

Maybe those people who chant "Gordon is a Moron" misjudge the man, maybe the game is all but won...

"But it's my birthday!"

The Best Birthday Present Ever - Watch more Funny Videos
Better ask for an iPhone then.

Lib Dem inconsistencies of policy get no coverage on the BBC

The BBC are endlessly looking for dividing lines within the Conservative Party: on the EU, the NHS, public spending etc.

Meanwhile a newspaper spots a Lib Dem dividing line that the BBC will ignore. Sam Coates reports that:

"Vince Cable on the Today programme: "One has to look at everything, it isn’t sensible as I think the Conservatives are doing, to say that you know, there are certain areas we cant go anywhere near which of course means that the pain everywhere else is much greater. I think we have to look at everything."

Nick Clegg in the TES (in an article headlined "Lib Dems will ringfence education cash, claims Clegg") the party leader responds to a question about education spending: “We won’t cut. Absolutely nothing could be more important. We’ve got this ballooning structural deficit, which means we will not be able to pay for things in the way we did before. That is a fact and we need to learn to abandon some policies and funding pledges we’ve made in the past. That will be painful for us and painful for all the parties. But one of the things I’m absolutely adamant about is that it would be madness to cut support for schools in order to deal with the poisonous legacy of this recession.”

Other parties would be taken apart if they made this kind of mistake..."

Almost right, although I would argue that in reality only (of the three main parties) the Conservative Party would be taken apart for such differences of policy. Indeed if you look at the coverage of Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown's recent attitude to cuts and the way the BBC have reported it you will see coverage based upon nods and winks and genial good humour as Gordon Brown is carefully lead to his new position.

Nick Clegg on shaky ground

The BBC (in anyone but the Conservatives mode) Faithfully report that:

"Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is to turn his fire on David Cameron by labelling him the "conman of British politics".

Speaking at the start of his party's conference in Bournemouth, Mr Clegg will accuse the Tory leader of saying anything to win the next election. "

A Lib Dem accusing a politician from another party of saying anything to win an election? Now that takes balls.

I wonder if Nick Clegg will revive the hoary old chestnut "they will put the con back into conservatives". If so maybe someone could ask if that means that the Lib Dems put the "li into Lib Dem"...