The Politics of the Madman in Norway

As ever in the mainstream media there has been a knee jerk reaction to the terrible events in Norway, just label him a right wing christian and have done with it.It's much more complex than that. I suspected the Libertarian Alliance would offer much more useful analysis than most, and I wasn't disappointed.

Here is their blog post about the politics of Anders Behring Breivik.

Back from Rehab

Left is the famous painting by Edward Munch, The Scream. I'm convinced it is actually a painting of an English tourist looking at the prices on a Norwegian restaurant menu.

Having experienced Norway this weekend I can only liken it to some kind of huge rehabilitation centre, a picturesque one but not for the weak, unless you are terribly rich.

We went through the ritual humiliation that is airport security and a few hours later trundled into Oslo, not quite as picturesque as the countryside en route, but still, a new city to explore. The rehab. feeling hits you when you look at the menu in the first 'reasonably priced' restaurant that you have been recommended. Hunger pangs tend to disappear when you see that starters cost £12 or more, and the cheapest wine is over £20 per bottle. So you check that you are converting the currency correctly. And you are. You check that this is actually the 'reasonably priced' restaurant that was recommended. And it is. And so the weekend progressed, with minimal alcohol consumption and massive calorie intake reduction, the driest weekend I've had in decades, rehabilitation!

Apart from the cost, oh yes beer around £7 per pint, Oslo is well worth a weekend, especially the Munch Museum, a touch of irony there, and the Resistance Museum. But I came back with the distinct feeling that airport security confiscating a 125cl bottle of deodorant, because the limit is 100cl, is not going to stop a repeat of 9/11. Afraid airport security is now so oppressive that I no longer wish to go by plane , it's ferries and trains in future.

Police State

Until the Glazers took over at Old Trafford in 2005 I used to travel with my Dad, who was also a season ticket holder, to watch United in Europe on average about 2 or 3 times a season. Good fun and we spent a day or two in some great cities sightseeing and watching football with friends who were also on the trips. Since then we have had one foreign jaunt watching FC United of Manchester in Leipzig in 2006. Withdrawal symptoms have set in.

This week we were mulling over possibility of a sporting away trip when a weekend in the USA to watch our first ever baseball game came up as a possibility. But, considering the oppressive security measures now operating at US airports, that thought was knocked on the head, if I behave criminally then treat me like a criminal, until then no thank you.

So instead we are off to Oslo to watch a Norwegian championship game between Lyn Oslo and the quaintly named HamKam, otherwise known as Hamerkameratane, not a name that lends itself easily to pithy chants from the terrace songsters of Hamer, the club's hometown. At least going from Liverpool to Oslo we only have to show passports, and will be outside the EU for a few days which is a nice bonus.

However, this article by Nigel Rumfitt QC highlights a worrying development at Heathrow's Terminal 5. Here the Spanish owned British Airports Authority, and British Airways, are fingerprinting all passengers on domestic flights claiming it to be a government requirement. When challenged on this, as ever, the standard response is that by agreeing to use the facility you are "consenting" to being fingerprinted therefore there is no compulsion. How long before our airport security, for domestic and foreign flights, becomes as oppressive as US security currently is?

Yet another step in the direction of a full blown police state. Support for No2ID is now more vital than ever.