Greater Manchester PCC-Another Publicly Funded Parasite

Tony Lloyd, not Shirley Williams

Last November the electorate showed what they think of our rulers' wonderful idea of Police and Crime Commissioners by not bothering to turn out to vote for them. That huge rejection was seen as a ringing  endorsement by our idiotic Prime Minister. That made him officially the biggest prat in the country.

But now, step forward Pillock Cynic and Clown  Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester, former labour MP Tony Lloyd. Within eight months of garnering a pitiful percentage of the votes of the austerity hit electorate, he has decided he is so important that he needs a deputy on £55,000 a year.

In these austere times it's funny how our rulers always manage to find extra cash to splash while the rest of the country, living in the real world, have to tighten our belts.

If those holding public office in this country want our respect they'd better start bloody well earning it!

Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall and Barbara Hewson

Barbara Hewson has been pilloried this week for an article she wrote for Spiked Online.

The gist of her well reasoned argument was that accusations of relatively mild sexual misbehaviour by stars years ago, stars who are now elderly, are being used in a wave of puritanical vengeance by police forces and pressure groups.

She quite reasonably argues that certain investigations in this climate of moral outrage go against the most fundamental principles of our judicial system. The complainant automatically becomes the victim and the presumption of innocence, in cases of alleged paedophilia and other cases of sexual assault, is being abandoned.

The point she makes that caused wild headlines and huge media interest was at the very end when she suggested lowering the age of consent to 13. I recommend reading the article in full and have provided a link below.

The full article can be read here.

Foreign Police Chiefs

Allo, Allo......Allo

I'm as critical of the police as anybody but please, foreign police chiefs and chief constables coming in from industry? I don't think so. This government seems determined to piss as many groups off in this country as possible, at the same time ensuring Ed Miliband becomes the next Prime Minister.

I don't want a citizen of the US, Canada, New Zealand or anywhere else as Chief Constable of Lancashire. I want an Englishman and ideally a Lancastrian, certainly somebody who has spent many years in the North West and has some understanding of the culture and outlook of the region. The government, well the Tory part of it, constantly claims we have the best police in the world so why the need to recruit from outside the police, let alone outside the country?

This is not, before some nobhead starts, xenophobia. I would expect the authorities in the US, Canada etc. to recruit from within too for the same reasons.

Roll on 2015 and we can be rid of this nauseating government. But what about a foreign Prime Minister? Anybody got Robert Mugabe's number?

Andrew Mitchell and Class War

I always had doubts about the sacking of Andrew Mitchell and it looks increasingly like he has been the victim of a conspiracy. Even if he had used the word 'pleb' big deal! If everybody who lost his temper at work was sacked the dole queues would be even bigger than they are now. The hysteria around name calling, be it 'pleb', 'black bastard' or whatever shows just how infantilised we have become as a society. Grow up and get on with it.

But with Andrew Mitchell it looks increasingly like the actions of the police involved came down to politics and sheer spitefulness. The Police Association are becoming ever more hysterical about the cuts, which in my opinion are nowhere enough, and they seem to be increasingly obsessed with political correctness rather than good old fashioned policing. Public trust in the police is at an all time low which should worry everybody. But I suppose it is inevitable as so many years of Labour in power has corrupted and weakened just about every British institution. It is increasingly like living in a banana republic, and Cameron hasn't got the balls to do what is needed-shrink the state and cut taxes.

The backdrop to all this is a nasty vindictiveness towards people seen as from a class above, or seen as a having a bit more money than most, stoked up as ever by the hate filled hypocrites in the Labour Party. It seems that we have to treat everybody with dignity and respect, even convicts, but God help you if you are seen as successful or wealthy, then it's open season in the most hateful and unpleasant manner. So Cameron is from a wealthy background and went to a public school. A similar background to Blair then. If people want to knock him, as I frequently do, then do it for sound political reasons, not because you're an envious, bitter and hate filled socialist who begrudges success.

How long before the morons from UK Uncut start attacking individuals who earn more than minimum wage because they're bored of whining about Starbucks?

Police State

If anybody thought that this bastard son of Blair government, aka The Coalition, would improve anything in the UK then think again. The public have told the government that they don't want the police commissars (PCCs), foisted on us by Cameron, by not bothering to vote yesterday.

This morning on TV Damian Green MP, Minister for Police and Criminal Justice, claimed that even though less than 20% of the electorate voted, the new commissars had a mandate from the public because we had the chance to vote for them. How very North Korean.

No Mr Green, we didn't vote because we don't want them. In plain English, we don't give a shit about your poxy commissars. They do not have a mandate any more than this poxy government that nobody actually voted for has a mandate.

Then this morning I read about a man in Glasgow who is to appear in court charged with behaving "in a threatening or abusive" manner. He fed a sausage roll to a police horse who he felt looked hungry. It may have been a daft thing to do, but arrested and charged? Nice to know the Glasgow police have no real crime to take up their time.

Recently there has also been a case where a drunken student was arrested and spent a night in the cells for behaving in a "homophobic manner". His crime? He asked a police horse if it was gay. Yes, I know. It seems that the police put the poor delicate flowers among their ranks, the ones who are easily offended and emotionally delicate, out of the way up there on horseback.

It is easy to laugh at these and other ludicrous examples of the state losing all sense of proportion, but that is a very dangerous trap to fall into. What these things show, the commissars and the humourless prats on horseback, is actually how far down the authoritarian road to a police state we have moved in the last couple of decades.

So, the next time you pass a bobby, especially one on a horse, make sure you smile and greet him with a cheery "good morning officer". Anything less may be interpreted as threatening behaviour, and may find yourself cuffed, horsewhipped and dragged into cell for a night.

And bear in mind that the annual police terror will soon be upon us as the police try to catch us for drink driving on the way to work of a morning after the previous night's Christmas party. Be warned!

Full story of the sausage roll here.

Nadine Dorries and the PPC Elections

The Police and Crime Commissioners are just another gravy train,  so I've spoilt my postal ballot paper already for tomorrow's election. I did intend abstaining completely but felt the urge to leave a message on the ballot paper, it may not do much good, but it made me feel better.

A friend of mine has a good idea. At the bottom of each ballot paper there should be a 'Non of the Above' box and if 51% vote NOTA then the election is declared void and nobody is elected. I would also count abstentions because, let's face it, if the candidates can't muster 51% between them then none of them deserve to be elected. I'd rather have no MP at the moment than the insipid little clown who currently 'represents' Morecambe and Lunesdale.

Then we have Nadine Dorries waltzing off to the jungle. She claims that it will give her access to 16m viewers who will then see politicians in a different light. What her entering actually shows is how out of touch our politicians really are. Did she not realise that people like her are only invited on to have the piss taken out of them? Did you not see George Galloway Nadine? And is she not the one who accused Sally Bercow of bringing her husband's position as Speaker of the House when she went on Celebrity Big Brother?

But I have mixed feelings about Nadine buggering off during term time like that. Part of me wishes every Member of Parliament had buggered off with her, preferably until the next election. At least then they couldn't keep mithering and badgering us with new laws and taxes.

Police and Crime Commissioner Elections-November 15th

In the run up to the last few elections I've pledged to boycott, abstain, spoil my ballot paper or whatever. But when push came to shove I always caved in, held my nose and voted for the least scary option.

This time though I have followed through and spoilt my ballot paper for the PCC elections on November 15th. I have a postal vote you see. I wrote 'just another gravy train' at the top of the ballot paper and 'muppet' next to the name of each candidate. If nothing else it may give the poor counters a giggle when they have the boring job of counting. Mind you, they won't be too bored this time as turnout is likely to be an all-time low, so they'll probably be done in half an hour.

However, just because I've told them what I think doesn't mean I shouldn't hlp those who may wish to join in this charade of democracy. So here is a useful link to a website that links, when you enter your postcode, to details of your candidates.

I only found it today but it made me even more convinced that abstaining is the only way. My candidates look like a right bunch of oddballs, loonies and fruitcakes.

Time For A Real Conservative Party?

Cameron is looking increasingly isolated on the question of the European Union. More and more politicians seem to be waking up the nightmare that is the European Union. Except Cameron, who seems to be doing a great impression of a lemming. The only real chance the Tories have of winning the next election is to bin him. But who could replace him?

At the last election I made the mistake of voting Tory as the best of a pitiful bunch of misfit candidates. Sadly David Morris was elected who seems to have a backbone of jelly. I contacted him for his views on gay marriage and he didn't have a view. He informed me that there was a public consultation process and he would await the outcome of that before forming an opinion. What a prize prat. If he had said that he was in favour I would hgave disgreed with him, but would have respected his opinion. But to effecrtively say that he would wait to see which bandwagon to jump on proves to me that he is a man with no principles or genuinely held political beliefs, a waste of space.

This sorry state leaves me unable to vote Tory at the next election. Even if they bin Cameron I could never again vote for a political tart like David Morris. So, in the absence of a serious conservative/right of centre political party that isn't full of sundry loonies, headbangers and galloping egomaniacs it looks like I'll be abstaining at the next election, as I will be on November 15 when the elections to Cameron's latest gravy train take place.

Police and Crime Commissioner Elections

I really don't see the point of elected police chiefs, it's just another ConDem gimmick. Sadly Cameron seems to have learnt a little too well from Blair and his Tory Party is just a smoothish facade with no substance.

For many years we have had police authorities consisting of the great and the good, and elected representatives. I fail to see how one elected, highly paid police chief is going to make the police more accountable, especially if that chief is John Prescott or some other failed politico.

The only argument anybody has put to me in favour was that being elected will make them accountable to us. Oh yes, just like the elected government?

To date we have had no information from the state about this mammoth breakthrough in democracy, so it is highly unlikely that I will be voting in November to put whatever nitwit stands onto yet another highly paid gravy train.

Maybe somebody could persuade me otherwise.

Police Plebs?

A few years ago Halford's supplied the police in Lancashire with mountain bikes. One particular bobby, in Preston, refused to use his bike as although he was perfectly capable of riding it, he hadn't had specific training in riding a police bike. Health and safety and all that.

Today I read about a blind man in Chorley, not far from Preston, who was tasered by a bobby hunting a man with a Samurai sword. Apparently the bobby mistook the blind man's white stick for a Samurai sword. I can't help wondering if it was the same bobby who refused to ride his bike, but have found no reports that said taser happy cop was on a Halford's mountain bike.

Alternatively maybe the bike bobby had gone for health and safety instruction/training and they'd found that his eyesight was too poor to ride a bike on the open road, hence he managed to mistake a white stick for a Samurai sword.

On a slightly more serious note I can't help wondering why the bobby felt so threatened by the blind man that he felt the need to taser him. After all, if he was too far away to differentiate between a white stick and a Samurai sword then the officer could hardly have been in immediate danger.

So my advice if you visit our beautiful county of Lancashire is to be very careful what you carry, just in case it could be mistaken for a lethal weapon. And if you don't heed that advice I only hope it's a taser toting rather than a gun toting cop that bags you.

And finally will people in the media, the Police Federation and Ed Miliband, now be big enough to admit that the police do actually have a fair proportion of plebs among their ranks?

Andrew Mitchell MP

There are serious issues facing the country, indeed the world, but the media and political classes are obsessing about a government minister having a go at a bobby. Fair enough Mitchell sounds like a prat but please, let's get a sense of proportion and forget about it.

As for the Police Federation banging on about an enquiry well they need to grow up. To use the fact that two police women were murdered in the same week is a cynical and emotive ploy by them and is far worse than anything Mitchell did. The Police Federation might also like to remember  that the incident occurred just after we found out about the police lies and cover-up over Hillsborough. But that wouldn't suit the bobbies' union agenda would it?

Wimp Nation and the Police State

What a shambles this country really is. Yesterday hundreds of thousands of pounds was wasted on a full scale anti-terror raid on a bus on the M6 motorway. It turns out somebody was smoking an artificial cigarette. Thank God it wasn't a real one or some macho, anti-terror robocop would have probably slotted the poor bastard. Full story here.

Sadly the more the state arms it's operatives, the more danger the rest of us are in. Personally I'd rather take my chances than have my head blown off in my local because somebody's having a sneaky fag in the bog.

Police State-Olympic Torch!

This country gets scarier by the minute. When I studied politics and history at school we used to be aghast at how authoritarian other European states were, and to what level the state interfered in peoples' daily lives. Now we seem to have caught up and left behind many countries in the mithering, interfering state stakes.

The latest example is a chap in Scotland, yet again, who has been visited by two Gestapo, oops sorry, CID officers, after he wrote to his local newspaper announcing his intention to hold a one man protest when the Olympic torch passes through his neighbourhood:

Mr Coull said: ''It (the torch relay) was invented by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, to please his boss Adolf. Hitler loved the idea of the relay, and the connection with pagan mythology in ancient Greece, emphasising the Aryan nature of the games.''

The pensioner, who completed a history degree at Dundee University in his late 50s, said in his letter that he would be ''there to protest this fascist display'' on the Angus leg of the relay.

Eccentric? Maybe. But we used to celebrate eccentricity. Now we send round the politzei. God help us.

Full story from The Courier newspaper.

Police-The Final Insult

South Yorkshire Police have shown their utter contempt for the public by threatening to take bobbies off the beat and replace them with PCSOs. Let's be honest, these ideas are always approved at the top of government before 'being floated' and show what contempt the police and government hold the populace in. If it happens in South Yorkshire it will soon be happening elsewhere, that's how our masters work things.

The public have been demanding more bobbies on the beat for years and years. So now our masters want to withdraw beat bobbies completely. If that isn't showing contempt I don't know what is. As for PCSOs I wouldn't ask one for directions to a car park let alone trust one on the beat. What next, replace the riot police with PCSOs?

And I don't accept all this bull about spending cuts when £50,000 of lottery money is being wasted in Burnley on:

A PROJECT looking at the history of the LGBT movement in Burnley....

From the Lancashire Telegraph.

Police State-Banning Protest

Councillor Kieran Quinn

I've been involved in politics long enough to know that most political groups or parties attract more than their fair share of nutters and outright lunatics, some harmless others not so. Bloody hell, we had the two biggest nutters in the world as Prime Ministers from 1997 to 2010, bombing countries they took a dislike to and wrecking our economy, so we have an idea about lunatics.

On Saturday the English Defence League are planning a demonstration in Hyde, Greater  Manchester after two white youths were attacked by a gang of Asian youths. I don't know enough about the EDL to support or oppose them, what I do know is that we are supposed to live in a democracy where there is freedom of speech and expression, and that includes groups or individuals whose views we may find abhorrent. Not in Hyde it seems, where the council and the Greater Manchester Police, yet again, are doing everything they can to ban the demo.

Tameside council leader Kieran Quinn is quoted as saying:

"Hyde is a diverse and peaceful community and we don't welcome outsiders coming in whose only intention is to incite hatred. We are not against peaceful protest, but people need to understand this is about a hate-filled group wishing to come to Hyde to share that hate and try and incite hatred, and we will not support that regardless of what group that comes from."

I have to say I haven't seen the EDL close up but what I have seen on TV is that whenever the EDL demonstrate against Muslim extremism, which they claim is their purpose, the violence has invariably been caused by their opponents, the Unite Against Fascism rent-a-mob of assorted hate filled Trots, Marxists and Che Guevara lovers. I have seen UAF and Occupy close up, and both are pretty hate filled and potentiually violent.

Now if demos and marches are to be banned because some jumped up councillor doesn't like the sound of the group, then we are in deep doodies. Remember Quinn represents a party whose government was responsible for bombing the crap out of Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone and God knows where else. I'd call the actions of Blair and Brown a darn sight more hateful than waving a placard in Hyde against Al Quaeda and their pals.

Then when demos and marches are banned as a threat to public order, as happens, I can't help thinking that the door is wide open for any group to cause violence when their oppponents are on the streets and hey presto, you get your opponents banned. It is only a small jump from that to imagine the state using agent provocateurs for the same purpose.

If a perfectly legal organisation, be that the EDL the Socialist Workers Party or any other group wants to march or demonstrate, it is up to the powers that be, whether that is jumped up councillors like Quinn or Greater Manchester Police, to do all they can to ensure they can do it safely. They should not try to ban them because they don't agree with them. This is not yet a totalitarian state.

British Police State

Police stop a motorist for using his mobile phone.

This weekend we remember those who gave their lives for our freedoms. But what kind of state do we live in in the twenty first century?

In Greece, and it looks like Italy too, elected prime ministers are being replaced by former EU bureaucrats.

I have detailed elsewhere, as have many others, how the EU, our real bosses, ignore referenda that go against them and carry on regardless.

Here we have recently been refused a referendum that gained over 100,000 signatures by a coalition government that not a single person actually voted for.

Yesterday 170 members of the English Defence League were arrested in Whitehall just in case there might be a breach of the peace. Be careful, if a copper thinks your eyes are too close together he might nick you just in case!

Meanwhile a bunch of sad old hippies seeking their five minutes of fame turn St Paul's into a squalid canvas squat and nothing is done.

Yesterday I found the following letter in the Daily Telegraph particularly poignant:

SIR – I was kettled on Wednesday. I am a pensioner. I was on my way to a charity meeting near St Paul’s when I inadvertently walked into the route of the student march.


Every side road was blocked with barriers and manned by fully dressed riot police, some wearing balaclavas. They were aggressive and intimidating. I eventually escaped the cordon with some difficulty.


I had a full career in the Army, serving all over the world, but my impression on Wednesday was that I was in one of the worst police states I had seen, with police almost daring students to take them on.


How much better it would have been to see a few friendly policemen on the route, with the riot police discreetly out of sight.


C. C. Galloway
Enstone, Oxfordshire

Paranoia: The Census 2011, the Police State and Big Brother

"Comrades, fill in your census forms, or it's off to Siberia!"

For the first time in donkeys years I'm not a member of a political party, and I find it very liberating. It has given me an opportunity to reassess things, membership of any party inevitably involves compromise and a responsibility to reluctantly toe the line on some issues. Having said that I will still vote for the Libertarian Party if I have a candidate, apart from the May elections which I am boycotting because of the latest foreign adventure into Libya.

What has disappointed me in recent weeks is the attitude of certain groups I have supported for a long time to the 2011 Census. I think it's a waste of time and money, especially as various parts of the state already have more information about us on numerous databases and I've blogged about this before. To be honest I found the census questionnaire less intrusive than the average job application.

But two organisations have especially disappointed me, NO2ID and Big Brother Watch. I believe both organisations have a valuable role to play as the state becomes ever more intrusive and authoritarian but, as with any campaign, you have to pick your fights. In the last few days they have both banged on about how census data would/could be accessed by MI5. That signals a level of paranoia that I find disconcerting and would make the average member of the public question their campaigns on other, more serious issues.

Via Twitter I have challenged both outfits to point out what on the census form could be of any possible interest to MI5. They have not responded. If you are reading this in the UK you will either have your form ready to complete, or will have already done it. Please, if you agree with NO2ID and Big Brother Watch, let me know, via comments, what you think on the form you would prefer MI5 not to know about you. Obviously I wouldn't expect you to divulge personal info, just mention the question or page number that you find horrendously intrusive.

Rather than asking us if we would like to violently overthrow the government, or even if we think that the policing of demos is excessive it merely asks how we get to work and if we are employed or self employed. There you go Miss Moneypenny, no need to get 007 on to me. I'm self employed and drive to work when I work in Manchester. I bet GCHQ are now going through my blog with a fine tooth comb!

At the same time I had a disagreement with Big Brother Watch on Twitter about today's demo in London against the government's half hearted attempt to clear up Labour's financial mess. They had retweeted a comment that somebody knew lots of people who were not going to the demo today because they are terrified of the police. My response, although more polite, was bollocks! More paranoia I'm afraid.

I accept that the police are not perfect, far from it, but anybody who is too scared of the police to go on a demo should really seek help. I suspect my sister and her hubbie will be on the march today. I don't agree with them and wouldn't go on the march myself, but I know they are not a pair of wimps who are easily scared and would certainly not be intimidated from making a stand for what they believe in by a British Bobby.

I found that nonsense especially disagreeable, verging on the obscene, when you look at what is happening in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Zimababwe, Bahrein and elsewhere. I wouldn't like to be depending on a bunch of pansies who are scared of the British police if our backs were really up against the wall, would you?

They make the loony wing of the Eurosceptic movement who refer to the EUSSR sound almost sane.

Wasting Police Time

Thousands of pounds in police and court time has been wasted prosecuting a motorist who flashed his lights at oncoming motorists to warn them of a mobile speed camera ahead. Yet another sign of what a nasty, vindictive and authoritarian bunch of misfits we have lording it over us.

Michael Thomson should be given a medal not dragged through the courts. Surely we have a duty to try and discourage each other from breaking the law. That's what Mr Thomson was doing. Surely speed cameras are there to try and stop people speeding. That's all Mr Thomson was doing.

Of course we all know that speed cameras are actually tax machines, there to squeeze even more money from already ripped off motorists, that's why this nasty prosecution was pursued by the authorities.

So if you ever find yourself in the company of somebody planning a crime, don't try and persuade them it's a bad idea. If you do that and the police don't get the chance to nick a gang of armed robbers, you'll likely find yourself up on a charge of obstructing the police, just like Mr Thomson.

Full story from This Is Grimsby.

Signs of the Times

Something is wrong and we all know it. Sometimes things happen that should cause outrage and anger, but they get a little coverage and then are gone, forgotten.

One such instance was the policeman in Wiltshire who was imprisoned for assaulting an innocent women as he threw her, for no obvious reason, into a police cell. He was released after a few weeks on appeal. However, the police still weren't happy with him and he was sacked. I must admit to feeling a sense of relief for the innocent people of Wiltshire when I heard he had been sacked, just a shame he's on the streets as a civilian.

On a similarly serious note a Scottish 'ambulance technician' has kept his job despite a woman dying when he refused to treat her because he was on a tea break 800 yards away. That really does take the biscuit. He should not only have been sacked but also put behind bars the bastard!

According to the NHS careers website this is what 'ambulance technicians' are supposed to do, so long as they are not having a brew:

Where they are still employed, ambulance technicians are members of the accident and emergency crew, answering 999 calls. Working alongside a paramedic, they give patients potentially lifesaving care at the scene and then get them to hospital as soon as possible. They are often on call - in the middle of the night and in all weathers - and will deal with a wide range of different people and situations.

Just to prove that we are being crushed by an ever more oppressive and authoritarian state that cares little for the innocent citizenry on numerous levels, here is another example of high handedness from Bedford council.

A man was threatened with a £1,000 fine for displaying posters of his missing cat on trees and lampposts in Bedford. Mike Harding put up a series of A4-sized posters of Wookie, who went missing in late November. He said the borough council warned him of the offence of flyposting and said he had to remove the posters within 48 hours or face a fine.

We used to be a nation of animal lovers, it seems that those in charge of us now loathe animals and humans in equal measure.

State Oppression

Today I read a cracking article by Rod Liddle about the barrister, Mark Saunders, who was murdered in London by the Met Police. But the investigation has found that 79 armed officers, and a helicopter, turning up to deal with a drunken depressive, albeit with a gun, is fine and not an over reaction. To then shoot him dead is not unlawful.

I'm instinctively against euthanasia because, as the anti war campaigners don't want war waged in their name, I don't want the state approving of putting people down in my name. Neither do I approve of suicide as a practising Roman Catholic, but suicide, or helping somebody to take their life, should be a private thing, don't ask or expect my approval.

But I now see a way around it. If you want to end it all pop down to London, get drunk, wave a gun about and hey presto, the Met will blow your brains out and it won't be anybody's fault. Well, the state won't blame you or anybody else, you may have to face up to some tough interrogation at the Pearly Gates though.

Then I went shopping and we went out down the back garden and out into the alley to the rear of our property. For ten years we, and our neighbours, have parked our wheelie bins in the alley against our garden walls. Our neighbours have made nice little platforms to rest our wheelie bins on. It really saves clogging up our garden and the alley is a dead end. It is also unadopted, in other words nobody owns the land.

But now, today, we went out the back and found that the council has slapped stickers on all our bins warning us to store them in our gardens or face a £100 fine. Try it you bureaucratic deviants, just you try it. Not as dramatic as poor old Mr Saunders admittedly, but state oppression works on numerous levels. The smaller measures can be the ones that drive you over the edge.

Then Mrs B has forced me to have diet coke with my Bacardi tonight. She reckons the calories I save will offset the calories in my bottle of wine. I refused point blank to go caffeine free too, that would be too much.

So let's drink before the state stops us doing it, for our own good.