Happy New Year

Mrs Beaman thought it time that Misha (left) and Sasha (above) made their debuts so here they are.

As 2007 draws to a close a few ramblings on where we find ourselves. The establishment of a police state continues apace but let's not be too alarmist about it, we are probably now living in a 'special constable' state.

Brown signed away our independence by signing the EU Reform Treaty, or constitution. But our day will come and, in some form or other, we will once again live in a free and independent nation beyond the grasping, corrupt rule of Brussels.

Motorists will soon face two years in clink for using mobiles while driving and the beady eye of the state is now looking towards motorists who smoke, or twiddle with the knobs on their radios whilst driving. Bus lanes should be abolished as should traffic lights which are currently set, in many cities, to cause congestion in order to justify the introduction of charges. Let's scrap speed limits on motorways too.

Of course the monstrous smoking ban came in this summer which should be immediately lifted, as should the hunting ban.

The CBI now admits that industry, in some areas, is recruiting staff from abroad because of the poor quality of our home grown graduates. Let's face it what use is a degree in ferret breeding, window cleaning or golf course management?

Political parties are mired in sleaze and accusations of dodgy donations and loans. Is it all a big ploy to soften a gullible public up to accept, probably without a whimper, taxpayer funding of political parties?

The NHS accepts that it is groaning under the strain of treating over 150,000 foreigners per year. But the government thinks that talking about a few controls on immigrants from outside the EU will pacify the populace. Sorry but the problem is caused by limitless immigration from within the EU.

Despite the ban on handguns gun crime, as well as stabbings, continue to increase. The only people with guns now are criminals and cities like London, Manchester, Liverpool and others become scarier by the day. But slap a hooligan for 'playing' on a war memorial, after the police repeatedly fail to repond, and you get nicked.

The government is now turning to drinkers, after all it has driven most of us to drink and now it wants to control that too. For the first time today I heard the phrase "passive drinker". It does not refer to people getting drunk by sitting next to a drinker but somebody who becomes the victim of a drink fuelled offence. So a wife battered by a drinking husband, or a youth attacked by a drunk on a night out are now referred to as "passive drinkers". Crap! The people of Manchester were investigated by the county authorities in Lancaster over 250 years ago because the people of that fine city seemed to do little but drink and party. Binge drinking is a historical pastime in this country and in this I agree with Jeremy Clarkson, binge drinkers do stop, if they didn't they would be alcoholics, so leave off them.

So enjoy a good drink this New Year and if going out be careful not to become a "passive drinker". I wish you much health and wealth in 2008.

Scargill and the NUM

It's that time of year when government files are released by the National Archives and there is a drip drip of recent history in the media. Up to now we have been told that Tony Benn tried to scupper the Queen's silver jubilee by refusing to floodlight public buildings, yawn. But what interested me today was news of Arthur Scargill, memories flooded back.

In about 1987/88 I was in a lift with a colleague in a London hotel near Euston that was frequented by union people and rail staff. We were joined in the lift by Mick McGahey, Scargill's number 2, a raging Marxist. As we headed towards the ground floor my colleague turned to 'Red' Mick and asked to shake his hand. Mick beamed and held out his hand, which my colleague took and, while shaking heartily, said: "Many thanks Mick, if it wasn't for you and your ilk Mrs Thatcher probably wouldn't be Prime Minister today". That took the smile off his fat, socialist mug. The joke at that time about Scargill himself was that he had started with a small house and a big union and ended with a big house and a small union, thank God!

But what got me onto this post was the news, just released, that Scargill had been monitored by MI5, I should think so, and that James Callaghan tried to get him "warned off" after flying pickets from the NUM turned up at the Grunwick dispute.

In 1984 when the miners were on strike I worked in an inner city housing office in Manchester. I had already been 'sent to Coventry' by my colleagues for refusing to strike 2 years earlier, so I again refused to strike, this time they walked out in sympathy with the miners. This led to death threats to my family and flying pickets arriving from the soon to close Agecroft Colliery in nearby Salford. Knowing the pickets were a bit on the lazy side 3 of us beat them by getting into the office at 6-30am before they arrived, dropped off by friends as leaving our cars outside would have ended with them being vandalised. The real sign that the comrades meant business though was when they threw me out of the tea fund, true revolutionary fervour that one! Happy days.

I left Manchester City Council in Jan 1985. I had the last laugh though, despite being a 'closed shop' the incompetents at the union had never taken my union dues from my salary, a little careless of the workers' revolutionaries I thought. I have since discovered, to my immense pride, that I come from a long line of strike breakers, or 'scabs' depending on your political hue, going back at least three generations. It's in the blood!

If anybody thinks that those days are gone just remember political correctness, a bit more subtle but at least as deadly.

The Boxing Day Hunt

The Vale of Lune Harriers, and the Three Counties Bloodhounds, left the Longlands in Carnforth at 11-30 this Boxing Day morning. The photo on the right is as they arrived at Borwick, around 12-30, for mulled wine and a breather.

The Master of the Hunt set them off well at Longlands by wishing us all a Merry Christmas and telling us that, after 5 years of 'bollocks to Blair', it was now time for 'bollocks to Brown'. Hundreds of hunt supporters then joined him in a rousing chorus of: "Bollocks to Brown". The hunt then set off into the Lancashire countryside.

Stuffing the Nanny State

Driving home last night listening to the radio, independent commercial radio, I heard what I thought to be a rather poor satire which led to me pondering on the lack of really good, hard hitting comedy at the moment. This comedy, as I thought, was a take on the government being so overbearing and oppressive that Stalinist style public service announcements were now telling us how to wash our Christmas turkey and how to cook it so we weren't all dead of food poisoning by Boxing Day.

I have since heard the ads several times and they are actually made, and funded, by you and me, the taxpayers, on behalf of the nanny state. Not content with such patronising pap they have also employed, no doubt at ridiculous expense, so-called celebrity chefs to add some gravitas, or at least popular appeal. Yes the ads were actually serious government warnings.

Now do the government really think we are all stupid? Do they really think that we only ever cook at Christmas time because the rest of the year we use the chip shop, or McDonalds if dining out on special occasions? Perhaps the government thinks we will all wake up on 27th December and say: "Thank God for those announcements about preparing turkey, I'm still alive, in gratitude I'll vote Labour next time".

Mrs Beaman and I are having goose and the government hasn't told us what to do with goose, so we will probably poison ourselves eating it raw. But then we could join the parasitic, no pun intended, compensation culture and go to law for a few bob! Or perhaps we could forget the bird and stuff the government!

Which reminds me of an old joke that always really angers the green, veggie types:

Did you hear about the Korean car sticker? It says: "A dog isn't just for Christmas-there should be enough for Boxing Day too".

Sluts and Faggots

The words 'slut' and 'faggot' are to be beeped out of a song if played by BBC Radio 1, the song is Fairytale of New York City by the Pogues and Kirsty McColl. The song has been played, especially at this time of year, for years and years but suddenly the BBC thinks that sluts and faggots might be offended.

Now forgive me but you could only take offence if you identified yourself as one or the other. And, if you did identify yourself as a slut or a faggot, I suggest you would be thick skinned enough to not be offended by a song of this nature.

I suspect the reality is that the sluts and faggots at the BBC are the ones offended, apart from those at BBC Radio 2 who will continue to play the full version, they must be broadminded sluts and faggots.

For those who have had a sheltered upbringing slut is slang for a woman of loose morals, and faggot is slang for a homosexual.

In a rapid u-turn BBC Radio 1 last night overturned this decision. Was it because of the general reaction to this nonsense or was it all just a cheap publicity stunt by a failing radio station?

Brown The Bottler

Looking back on this week's events most of us are unsure whether to laugh or cry. Brown sends his little errand boy, Milliband Senior, to join the massed ranks of EU leaders being photographed in Lisbon and then flies out to sign the constitution on his own, as if we wouldn't notice.

But New Labour have a habit of this kind of thing. Remember when the King of Saudi visited? Well Milliband Senior did a similar half-hearted boycott claiming he was on 'paternity leave' after adopting a child.

Then Brown boycotted the EU/Africa summit because Mugabe was there. Except it wasn't really a boycott because he sent some black baroness along instead.

If anybody still needed convincing that this is a government with neither backbone nor principle then this week has surely done it. Is it any wonder our troops, probably more abused by this government than any other single group, are increasingly turning to cocaine?

UKIP MEPs Lead the Fight

From the UKIP website:

The European Parliament decided to censor its own television coverage to avoid showing a serious protest in the debating chamber in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
A group of about 80 Eurosceptic MEPs protested loudly as the Charter of Fundamental Rights was signed, with the result that a huge section of UK sovereignty has been swallowed up by the EU.
As the demonstration started, TV cameras immediately killed all sound so that none of the protest could be heard and the cameras stayed away resolutely from the large block of protesters.
At one stage, The President of the Parliament, Hans Gert Pottering, asked them to leave the chamber. They refused.
The protest continued during a speech by Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. However as he talked of "greater democracy for Europe" the TV pictures told a different story.
Mr Pottering shouted at the protesters accusing them of being "anti-democratic because they will not let our guests speak." He was met with cries of "Let the people speak."
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, one of the prime movers of the protest, said: "This is the new EU in action, showing the world a united face as they steamroll towards their own superstate while totally refusing to allow anyone to see a different point of view."
Furious at the protests, some MEPs resorted to rough tactics and one member of the European People's Party dragged a female observer from the Independence and Democracy Group out of the chamber and demanded her camera, which showed footage of the protest.
"The high point of this hypocrisy surely came at the end, when MEPs were invited to stand to listen to 'The European Anthem'," said Mr Farage.
"This, of course, is the anthem which is supposed to have disappeared. To their everlasting shame, British MEPs from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties stood ramrod-straight to grant this piece of music national anthem status."
Mr Farage added: "Fortunately, cameras from the BBC and ITV were there, so at least there is a chance that people in Britain can actually see for themselves how this European Union stifles debate and refuses to allow legitimate political protest."

Sign the Pledge

No, not the one about giving up drink, that would not be useful. NO2ID are urging supporters, and others, to sign the pledge, link on the left hand side. By refusing to register for an ID card, no matter what devious methods the government employs to compel you, you will be partaking in an honourable act of defiance, and sticking two fingers up to the state.

I do not intend to rattle on as the link takes you to where you will find all you need to know.

New Fuel Protests

It seems there will be new fuel protests this weekend. Details from the link below:

http://www.transaction-2007.com/

Libertarian Alliance Press Release

LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE DENOUNCES CURBS ON "MURDER MUSIC"

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties policy institute, today condemns the "murder music" ban in Brighton as a naked attack on freedom of speech.

Press release below:

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr057.htm

Some of Life's Mysteries

I have noticed that the older people get the more the smaller things in life anger them. I am very rapidly ageing. Here are some of the things that I find at best mysterious, at worst downright anger inducing.

Why are so many people unable to walk anywhere, or even move, without a plastic bottle of water or a paper cup full of coffee? Could it be that they are really telling the rest of us that they are so important, and therefore busy, that they only get the time for a brew when on the move? For God's sake sit down, have a breather and a proper drink. I promise you that the world will not come to an end, no matter how important you think you are.

In this country we used to drive on the left. Not any more. It now seems that a sizeable proportion of motorists on our motorways regard the inside lane, the one on the left, as unusable . Perhaps they think a confused Pole may be whizzing the wrong way down it. Or perhaps they are just too lazy to change lanes. Either way they cause jams and seriously anger most of us who do many thousands of miles each year. For God's sake move over you clowns!

And while I'm on motorists what is it with bloody fog lights? I can imagine some prat tootling along thinking: "Err, there may be fog one day." And zap, on go the fog lights. Why? In rain these stupid lights are refracted all over your windscreen and, from the rear, look like brake lights have come on. From head on they invariably dazzle you. Switch them off for God's sake unless there's fog!

Then there are really annoying shop assistants, there are either too many or too few. I'm no DIY fan, I despise DIY and usually have to ask for help when in a DIY shop. Can you find an assistant? Never. If paranoid you would think they were all hiding in the CCTV room watching you wandering aimlessly around becoming angrier and angrier while they laugh louder and louder. Then you go looking for clothes, you know exactly what you want but pesky, mithering assistants just won't let you get on with it." Do you need any help sir?" For God's sake I'm not a cretin, I know how to buy a sweater you patronsing git! There must be a happy medium surely.

Libertarian Or Not?

Try this quiz on The Advocates website to see where your political leanings lie:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

FC United of Manchester Given the Red Card

FC United of Manchester is a football club formed as a protest when the Glazers took over Manchester United. To many of us football, at the highest level, had been corrupted for many years by corporate greed and the Glazers were the final straw.

When FC was formed there was a clear left-wing political element to it. But, in the excitement of the fight, that could be overlooked for the cause, let's reclaim football.

The left-wing element surfaced, primarily, in a schoolboy/student style obsession with racism with anti-BNP chants at games. Fair enough, juvenile, but while far from supportive of the BNP I do not see them, or racism, around every corner.And the main reason the BNP seem to 'punch above their weight' is because their opponents constantly overreact and publicise them mercilessly. The juvenile element included banners of Che 'Ernie' Guevara, the bloodthirsty Latino terrorist so loved by certain weirdos that they wear images of him on t-shirts. It was getting tedious, especially when Guevara appeared on official FCUM DVDs. It became clear that some of these armchair revolutionaries, throwbacks to the 1960s, actually thought they were the vanguard of the workers' revolution.

Then there is the annual anti-racism jamboree they call 'People United Day'. On this day an assortment of minority groups parade around the ground before the game with banners. Of course if you question this you are immediately branded a racist. I questioned it with the club and was told, effectively, to bugger off if I didn't like it. My view is that constantly harping on about race is divisive, left to get on with it most people would just get on with it. Racism and anti-racism are two sides of the same coin, divide and rule.

Now the club are working with a group called CAFRASS who work with refugees and asylum seekers. While sympathising with genuine refugees I have severe doubts when 'asylum seekers' are mentioned. This invariably refers to people who are just not keen on their country of origin, quite a different thing to a genuine refugee. And why should a football club be involved with groups like that? Community involvement yes, but please no politically correct posturing.

FC United are wondering why their support has at best levelled off and at worst shrunk. Well I think I know the answer to that one. Here's one person who won't be renewing his season ticket or membership because, as mentioned earlier, I'm buggering off.

Police Cars and Hedgehogs

Enough has been said in the media about Meredydd (possibly misspelt) Hughes so I am not going to ramble on. But just in case you have been in solitary all week and missed the news below is a link to the BBC's coverage:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7128548.stm

Now I'm not a one to call for the resignation or sacking of plod for speeding, I much prefer to wallow in the irony of it, especially as Hughes was caught in the jurisdiction of Brunstrom, the nutter-in-chief of the North Wales Constabulary. You remember him, the prat who investigated Anne Robinson for racism when she took the mick out of the Welsh.

Brunstrom was quoted some time ago as saying: "I've been told that I drive like an undertaker...." Well in that case I suggest a career change would be in order Mr Brunstrom!

Rather than constantly hammering motorists, even nitwits like Hughes, it would be much more appropriate to remove all speed limits, beginning with speed limits on motorways. It is bad driving, not speed, that causes accidents and the act of speeding itself is not intrinsically bad. Our limits were set when most of us drove around in clapped out Vauxhall Vivas, or worse, so let's have no more nonsense.

All this reminds me of the old joke:

What's the difference between a hedgehog and a police Range Rover?
The hedgehog has the pricks on the outside!