After the Papal Visit

What a few days we've just witnessed. Attending the Beatification Mass in Birmingham was my personal highlight of a fantastic four days. For millions who couldn't attend any of the events, the TV coverage was excellent, and gave millions of people outside the church an insight into what being a Roman Catholic really means.

But now the Pope has returned to the Vatican and we must carry on, inspired and heartened by his presence and his words. There are many ways we can live our faith and we have a duty to try hard to do that. Faith is more than thoughts and words, although they are important, it is about how we live our lives day to day.

The modern media gives even the busiest person the chance to pray. Before Easter I went on a retreat to Pantasaph Friary in Wales. The few days there were so rewarding and, among other things, I decided to continue with my morning and evening prayers after the retreat, especially as Fr Louis Maggiore had been kind enough to give me a fine prayer book.

But many people are so busy they find making time for prayers difficult. Step forward Universalis. This gives you the chance to spend a few minutes at the start and end of your day to pray at your desk.

We must work hard to be guided in our everyday lives by our faith, and to defend our faith even when that may be difficult. If we ignore the guidance of our faith when we take positions of responsiblity, what is the purpose of our faith? We must all try hard to do what we know is right, even if that is difficult at the time and may make our lives less comfortable as a consequence.

The Pope inspired us all on his visit and there are things I intend to do differently as a consequence of his wisdom. We all have a duty to question what we do and why we do things, and to continue learning and trying hard to improve as human beings. We owe that not just to God, but to each other.

An interesting article on the Papal Visit from the Telegraph Online.

From the Mail Online.

An account of yesterday's Beatification Mass from the Telegraph Online.

The Joy of Pope Benedict's Visit

What has been so heartening about the Papal Visit has been the response of the public at large. Many people have commented on the negativity of the media towards the Pope, and the Roman Catholic Church, in the weeks leading up to his visit. Now, having seen him live, without the negative spin of the media and the anti-Catholic bigots, they have been extremely impressed.

During my working day I meet the public constantly and have spoken to many, the vast majority of whom know nothing about my faith, and I have been amazed at the positive comments from people I meet. Many comment, quite unprovoked by me, about the contrast between the the mean spiritedness of the anti-Catholic bigots, and the generosity and wisdom of Pope Benedict XVI. The intensity of the modern media can be a curse, but remove the spin and bias, show people live on TV uncensored, and you really see the reality.

The generous response to the Pope has renewed my faith in the basic decency and courtesy of the overwhelming majority of people in this country. So many people, especially yesterday when the Pope spoke in Westminster Hall, have said how relieved they are that at last somebody has spoken what so many of them believe or feel. There is a mean spirited and nastiness among 'aggressive atheists' who, judging by the public response these last few days, have a massively disproportionate amount of influence in public life, especially within the media. But the public have seen through that.

The Pope has truly struck a chord with people. Many feel that there is a vaccuum in public life, be it in politics or business, and they are not happy. Something is missing and the Pope, on this visit, told us all what is missing, and people have accepted that.

Tomorrow I will be in Birmingham for the Mass and Beatification of Cardinal Newman. The more this visit has progressed the more priveleged I feel to be a part of it in a very small way. Maybe there won't be a huge resurgence in Catholicism in this country, but I am convinced that we will see more people turning to our church and more people, believers and non-believers, learning from this visit and starting to question the world around them and what is wrong with it.

Haagen Dazs TV Commercial Music

Who is that haunting music from the Haagen Dazs TV commercial? Richard Hawley:

Poor Ian Paisley

Great quote from Ian Paisley yesterday about the Papal Visit:

"I don't want his blessing and I will be keeping as far away from him as possible..."

Mr Paisley speaking in Edinburgh, the day the Pope arrived, in Edinburgh.

Book Review: David Nicholls-One Day

I've just done a quick book review on my new blog Gregg's Library.

Feel free to pop in and have a browse.

The Pope in Britain

The first day of the Pope's state visit to the UK has surpassed all expectations. Huge crowds greeted the Holy Father and the Mass in Glasgow was a wonderful experience, even for us watching on TV.

I really can't wait until Sunday when I'll be at the Mass and Beatification of Cardinal Newman in Birmingham.

To keep up to date please go to Papal Visit.

Nikki Sinclaire MEP

I'll be joining Nikki in Manchester later this month for a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference. The meeting's about her EU referendum petition that is going down a storm. But more of that anon.

She's now writing a new blog Thoughts of an independently minded MEP. It's worth a read, but you have to also tolerate her rambling on about Liverpool FC. Amazingly she never once stole my hubcaps when I was working with her in Meriden in the general election. Then again, she's not actually a Scouser!

More Bull from Aggressive Atheists!

You know when a bandwagon is building up, media whores like Stephen Fry jump onboard, which he did today via the Grauniad. Yes, he doesn't see why British taxpayers should foot the bill for the Pope's visit.

Poor Stephen, maybe he's skint! But please remember, we Roman Catholics pay tax too. Shame these 'not from my taxes' imbeciles don't shoot their mouths off so vindictively when assorted third world despots come on state visits, entertained and protected with our taxes.

Talking about third world it's been fun today seeing the media and 'aggressive atheists' twist the words of Cardinal Kasper. He told an interviewer that Terminal 3, or maybe 5, at Heathrow was like landing at a third world airport. Of course it's being reported by the BBC as shock, horror, 'Cardinal calls Britain third world'.

I haven't used Heathrow in 20 years or more. But people I know who use it regularly have also likened it to a third world airport. But eh, the Pope arrives tomorrow so let's say what the hell we want if it means slagging him and the Catholics off.

Then Cardinal Kasper is attacked for mentioning the 'aggressive atheism' that is rife in the UK. Only for aggressive atheists to attack him. You know, those who have been ranting in the media for days snow, led by aggressive atheists like Dawkins, Tatchell and now Fry.

And these people call us Catholics illogical.

But, as the Holy Father arrives in Blighty tomorrow, let's end on a high note:

The Papal Visit

I accept that plenty of people have criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church, and they have every right to voice their concerns and the Church has to defend itself. But what we are witnessing today in the UK is an outpouring of bigotry, lies and half truths about the Church and, more especially, Pope Benedict XVI.

For the first time in my life today, after looking on the internet and listening to a BBC phone-in, I was ashamed to be British. There is a sick level of hatred directed at Catholics as the Pope's visit draws nearer that should shame all who regard themselves as tolerant and, dare I say, liberal? It was so refreshing then to find the following article in the Telegraph Online:

This week will witness the historic spectacle of the Pope delivering an address in Westminster Hall to the leaders of British society. Later on Friday, Benedict XVI will visit Westminster Abbey – but it is his speech in the Palace of Westminster that carries the greater symbolic weight. No building in Britain reveals more of the foundations of our constitution. Medieval kings were feasted and deposed in the 900-year-old hall. Guy Fawkes and King Charles I were tried there. So, too, was Sir Thomas More, for refusing to accept the right of the monarch to exercise papal powers.

The last fact underlines the sensitivity of the visit of Pope Benedict, which begins on Thursday; for, unlike John Paul II, he will be here as the guest of the Queen. Matters are made even more delicate by scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, for which Benedict XVI has been put on trial by the British media. As this newspaper has argued, that is the wrong spirit in which to approach this remarkable state visit. The attempts to implicate this Pope in paedophile abuse have fallen apart under scrutiny – and, in any case, he will be here as our guest, not as a defendant. In the past, Westminster Hall may have served as a courtroom; but it is also a setting for hospitality, and that will be its function this week.

The role of host is an opportunity for people to show off – in a good way – all that is best about themselves. At the Palace of Westminster, the former Joseph Ratzinger will breathe the air of an institution that, in contrast to Continental legislatures, has resisted tyranny. He is expected to recognise this by referring to the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, a gesture rendered all the more poignant by the fact that as a very young man he served, briefly and unwillingly, in Hitler's armed forces.

In 1940, the British people fought not only to resist conquest but also to preserve their tolerant values. Today, this country permits and even celebrates many things of which the Catholic Church disapproves. But it should be stressed that this Pope, perhaps more than any other, is an admirer of British democracy. As a devotee of Cardinal Newman who speaks our language fluently, he appreciates our tradition of civilised discourse with people whose views we do not share.

In recent months, that tradition has been threatened by the anti-religious rhetoric of "defenders of the Enlightenment", who display an intellectual intolerance almost worthy of the Inquisition. That is a shame. By all means, let critics challenge the Pope's teachings while he is here. But this four-day visit is not an invitation to drown out the voice of the leader of a billion Christians with sneering and mockery. Visitors to these shores as well as British citizens have the right of free speech. Our distinguished guest must be allowed to exercise it.

Peter Tatchell, The Pope and Hypocrisy

It is interesting to see the anti-religious bigotry being ratcheted up as the Pope's visit gets closer. Facebook is especially entertaining at the moment with those proclaiming their hatred of the Pope and all things Roman Catholic screaming that we Catholics are 'homophobes', 'child torturers', 'paedophiles', when they can actually spell it correctly. Oh yes, and it seems, we 'still burn people at the stake' in one particularly amusingly irrational diatribe.

Of course these people, represented by the likes of Dawkins and Tatchell, proclaim to oppose Catholicism because they are open minded, liberal and tolerant. Course they are, until you disagree with them, then they spit bile and venom in a quite irrational way. Peter Tatchell, talking about irrationality, is a fine one to talk. Following is an article about Tatchell from The Christain Institute:

‘Homosexual rights’ campaigner Peter Tatchell has repeated his call for the age of consent to be lowered to just 14.
His position has been strongly rebuffed in the past, with one commentator saying that sex is for people who can cope with the consequences, “In a word, adults.”

Mr Tatchell’s latest comments echo those made by him last year as well as in a controversial letter he sent to The Guardian in 1997, in which he talked about the “positive nature of some child-adult sexual relationships” and even said he knew cases of nine-year-olds for whom sex with adults “gave them great joy”.

Choice

Mr Tatchell’s recent remarks feature on an American forum website, Big Think, during a month in which the site published debate articles about “dangerous ideas”.

The ‘gay rights’ activist claimed that: “Despite what the puritans and sex-haters say, underage sex is mostly consenting, safe, and fun”.

He believes that laws which put the age of consent at 16 are harmful to teenagers. “They signal that a young person is not capable of making a rational, moral choice about when to have sex”, he said.

Experiment

In an online article in 2009, Mr Tatchell wrote: “An age of consent of 14 might be more realistic and reasonable than 16.

“If sex at 14 is consensual, and no one is hurt or complains, is criminalisation in the public interest?”

He added: “Some teens, and even young children, innocently and spontaneously explore and experiment at an early age. In most cases this causes them no harm at all.”

But commentator David Lindsay, writing on The Daily Telegraph’s website, slammed these remarks saying “sex is for people who can cope with the consequences, physical and otherwise. In a word, adults”.

Condone

In an outspoken letter to The Guardian in 1997 Mr Tatchell went even further, saying several of his friends had had sex with adults when they were aged between nine and 13.

“None feel they were abused. All say it was their conscious choice and gave them great joy”, he said.

Mr Tatchell went on to say that while “it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful”.

The letter, dated 26 June 1997, is reproduced in full below:

ROS Coward (Why Dares to Speak says nothing useful, June 23) thinks it is “shocking” that Gay Men’s Press has published a book, Dares To Speak, which challenges the assumption that all sex involving children and adults is abusive. I think it is courageous.

The distinguished psychologists and anthropologists cited in this book deserve to be heard. Offering a rational, informed perspective on sexual relations between younger and older people, they document examples of societies where consenting inter-generational sex is considered normal, beneficial and enjoyable by old and young alike.

Prof Gilbert Herdt points to the Sambia tribe of Papua New Guinea, where all young boys have sex with older warriors as part of their initiation into manhood. Far from being harmed, Prof Herdt says the boys grow up to be happy, well-adjusted husbands and fathers.

The positive nature of some child-adult sexual relationships is not confined to non-Western cultures. Several of my friends – gay and straight, male and female – had sex with adults from the ages of nine to 13. None feel they were abused. All say it was their conscious choice and gave them great joy.

While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.
Peter Tatchell

But then again Tatchell has always been a self-obsessed publicity seeker, a self made man who is in love with his creator. When the best that opponents can do is trundle out a loony like Tatchell, you know they are on a sticky wicket.

Of course one thing the Pope's visit has done is to highlight the number of small minded, mean spirited puritans we still have in this country. The next Oliver Cromwell is just around the corner sadly.

I remember the first Ulster Protestant I discussed politics with claiming that I couldn't be a patriot because I owed my allegiance to a foreign state, the Vatican. I found it quite laughable at the time. But in 2010 I think I would prefer to owe my allegiance to the Vatican than to the United Kingdom.

Papal Visit Radio Station

If you would like to follow the Papal visit, other than on the BBC, there is a dedicated Papal Visit Radio Station.

As the Project Director says below, it may not be as polished as the BBC, but I'll certainly be giving it a try other than next Sunday when I'll be at the Beatification Mass in Birmingham.

Here is the introduction from the HGUH website:

The radio station is another part of my ‘crusade’ to give Catholic young people, who have creative talent, an outlet for their gifts within the Church. HeartGivesUntoHeart (HGUH), our own Catholic community internet radio, would not exist without them. We took the decision in February to go ‘live’ for the Pope’s Visit (a full 15 months before the original schedule). Life has been manic ever since with a very steep learning curve!

I would like to dedicate the project to Pope Benedict and all the many people (some young and some not so young) who have contributed to the gigantic task of going live within a 5 month timeframe – they’ve all been fantastic. There have been so many people giving freely of their time and gifts and I would like to say "thank you" to you all.

Many of the programmes were made by young Catholics who had never done anything like it before – without their hard work and dedication this radio would not have been possible.

We may not have the polish of the BBC, but I think you’ll agree it's more than compensated by their enthusiasm, fresh thinking and vibrancy!

Thank you all

God Bless


Gerry Coates

Project Director

Burning the Koran Threatens World Peace!

There's nothing like a sense of perspective is there? A loony Christian in a church in a Florida swamp threatens to burn the koran and a loony on the other side of the world claims, or maybe threatens, that it could finish world peace if it happens. So who is the loony who made the claim? Not some semi-educated tribesman in the Hindu Kush, or a loony Imam in Iran. No, it was the President of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. There's nothing like proving your detractors, otherwise known as Islamophobes right is there?

I regard myself as a pretty tolerant person and was instinctively appalled at the church in the USA when it was announced that it intended to burn the koran on September 11th. But then I saw the reaction, yet again by, muslims throughout the world and began, yet again, to wonder whether christianity and islam will ever be able to live side by side. Do we want to see people ripping each other apart in acts of religious terrorism while we sit back in the warm glow of self righteousness at our nice liberal tolerance? It seems ever more apparent to me that that scenario is a distinct possibility.

Those in the west who are full of politically correct self-loathing of our culture love to attack christianity, especialy the likes of Dawkins as the Pope's visit approaches. But I can't bring easily to mind a christian state that forbids women to drive. Or a christian state that chops off the right hand of thieves. Or a christian state that stones to death an adulterer, then kindly changes the sentence to ninety lashes.

The best the strident atheists in this country can do is to criticise Ireland for not allowing abortion and the Catholic church for failing to approve and encourage homosexual activity. In many islamic countries homosexuality is punishable by death. I wonder when the likes of Dawkins and Tatchell will be demonstrating outside mosques and trying a citizens arrest of an imam? No, a bit too risky that for them I suspect, or perhaps it is about not having the courage of their convictions.

Throughout the muslim world christians are oppressed and many are murdered. I know of no christian country that systematically oppresses people of other faiths. Saudi Arabia doesn't even allow people to take the bible into that country, or crucifixes or any religious texts other than those of islam. What is worse, banning a bible or burning a koran? What is worse, a tiny church of 50 people burning a koran or a state banning the bible?

Liverpool's a Shithole-Official!

Something Mancunians have known for decades has been confirmed in the Independent and elsewhere after a government survey:

Liverpool's a Shithole-The Independent.

And if you wonder what they use their allotments for in Liverpool there's the following from the BBC:

A woman has told of her shock after she found firearms three times at her Liverpool allotment.

Librarian Joanne Radley said she found shotgun barrels, cyanide and a silencer at the plot in Greenbank Lane.

A man has been arrested over the firearms find and is being held in custody.

The discovery is being linked to a chemicals find at a flat in Ullet Road on Saturday, resulting in the evacuation of 30 residents.

Ms Radley, who works at Garston library, said despite showing police her discoveries it took them over a month to act.

She said: "My daughter Fawn was helping me dig the allotment up in July when we made our initial discovery.

"She found what she thought was a pipe, but it turned out to be a flask containing the barrels of a shotgun.

'Took firearms'

"We were pretty shocked - it's not what you expect to find when you're digging up your veg - so we immediately contacted the police.

"They took the firearms and told us to get back to them if we found anything else.


Joanne Radley said she was told the white powder was cyanide "A few days later we did - two boxes of ammunition and white powder - and told the police again. They did a surface search and cordoned off the area.

"Twenty-four hours later we were allowed back and we found more ammunition and a silencer. This time I took it to the police station because I was so fed up of no action."

Merseyside Police said that part of their investigation was "under review". Det Supt Ritchie Davies said the suitability of officers' allotment searches would be looked at

Those loveable Scousers eh!

Tony Blair Cancels Book Launch!

I can just imagine Blair looking across the breakfast table and telling Cherie he's scared about his book launch party after those nasty people were horrible to him in Dublin.

After looking across the breakfast table at her ugly mug for all those years I'd have thought he could face anything. But no, Cherie looks at her very own cash cow and tells him not to worry, if it's a bit dangerous they'll cancel it.

Good job Cherie wasn't Sergeant Major B'Stard listening to Private Blair telling him why he would prefer not to have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan if Sergeant Major doesn't mind awfully.

Two faced, cowardly, hypocritical, war mongering, lying piece of shit!

I was considering advertising Blair's book for sale at £500, on the grounds that anybody stupid enough to buy it would be stupid enough to pay it. But I can't bring myself to buy a copy, even at 50% discount.

Sign the Petition to Support Our Soldiers

Like many I oppose our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq but applaud the professionalism and courage of our armed forces. What a contrast they are to our politicians. Please follow the link at the end of this post to sign the petition:

Early Day Motion [EDM 1053]
Rank and Pension of Soldiers Killed on Active Service

‘That this House, convinced that the courage and devotion to duty of members of the British Armed Forces who are killed while on active service for their country should be recognised and rewarded in every possible way, particularly by the pensions and help given to the families they leave behind , recommends that the Ministry of Defence’s rule providing that pensions on promotion are payable only after the role for the new rank has been held for a year should be revoked for those killed in the service of their country so that their families are paid the rate appropriate to the rank held at the time of death; and considers that the family of Sergeant Matthew Telford of Grimsby, promoted to the rank in June 2009 but killed by an assassin in Afghanistan in November of that year, along with Guardsman Jimmy Major of Cleethorpes and three other soldiers, should be paid the full pension appropriate to the rank he was proud to honour at the time of his death’.

Please click here to go to the petition.

Sandwell Councillor Elaine Costigan

At a Libertarian Party meeting at weekend we were having a chat about the qualities needed to be a local councillor. Most of us agreed that some councillors were genuinely in it to help their local communities, some just to push their parties forward regardless of the impact on local people and some were just in it because they craved status. Elaine Costigan, a Sandwell councillor who defected last week to Labour over the school rebuilding programme, falls into the third category.

I've just seen Councilor Costigan on BBC news, and she doesn't strike me as being very bright. Because the government cocked up its announcement about the schools rebuilding programme, she has defected from the Tories to Labour. The rest of the piece showed kids in Sandwell who claimed their schools were so cold that they could hardly hold their pens in classes and had trouble concentrating. As the Coalition only seized power in May I assume that cold hasn't been a problem in the last four months.

So Councillor Costigan leaves the Tories to join Labour, the Party that has been in power since 1997 and, in that time, allowed the schools of Sandwell, which also has a solid Labour majority on its council, to deteriorate to such an extent that kids are too cold to hold a pen in the classroom. Thank God I was educated in the 1970s, in a good old fashioned school built by the Victorians. Even with power cuts and fuel shortages we were never so cold we couldn't hold a pen!

I'm even more grateful that it was a direct grant school so that idiot councillors like Councillor Costigan couldn't cock up my education.

History, Idiots and the Blitz!

The problem with radio phone-ins is that it gives us a chance to hear what a bunch of half wits and idiots inhabit these islands. No wonder we are in the shit. Let's not forget, before I get attacked for unfair generalising, that this is the country that inflicted Blair and New Labour on itself repeatedly from 1997 onwards.

Today has been the commemoration of the London Blitz, when the Germans, yes GERMANS not just a handful of Nazis but thousands of Germans, dropped bombs on London then other cities. My parents lived through the bombing of Manchester and survived, obviously and thankfully.

But no, idiots with an evident lack of historical or moral awareness had to whine on about what happened to Dresden and Leipzig. Sad yes, but today was about London and our cities. Anybody who campares Churchill with Hitler, or our forces with the German forces, is obviously clueless about history, morality and warfare.

Stalin, being a totalitarian despot and protected from public opinion, could send millions of men to their deaths fighting in the traditional way. Our government, on the other hand, knew that 'excessive' British casualties would turn public opinion against the war, and lead to a loss for us and victory for Hitler. We focussed then, on mechanised or total war. We had to do that to stop Hitler.

My pet theory is that Dresden and Leipzig, so late in the war, may have hastened the inevitable end, but there was another reason. The British people had had enough of war and wanted an end. They, unlike Churchill, had no stomach for a fight against Uncle Joe Stalin and a regime that was just as murderous, if not more so, than Hitler's. So we left half of Europe under the Soviet rather than the Nazi jackboot. My theory is that we used Leipzig and Dresden not only to hasten the end of war, but to warn Stalin that we still had the firepower to stop him if he was considering marching any further West towards us.

So if today's moral and historical retards had been around then, we would probably all be speaking German or Russian now and asking what elections are and why we don't have any. There probably wouldn't be any gays, gypsies or Jews around either, let alone Asians, Africans and countless other groups in this country. Not only would there be none here, but millions more would have been slaughtered by Nazi or Soviet death squads.

So well done Bomber Harris and Bomber Command, not to mention those who lived through the Blitz in London and elsewhere. Heroes all.

Now don't get me started on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The NHS-Let's Cut the Crap!

I get tired of people drooling over anybody associated with the NHS. Referring to nurses as 'angels' is puke inducing and should stop. Yes, there are many great doctors and nurses in the NHS, inevitably as it is a state controlled near monopoly, but there are also a lot of idiots and skivers, as you find in any walk of life.

My beloved recently blogged about the appalling treatment her mother continues to receive at the hands of the health service. They turned a pretty lively older lady into a housebound shell of what she was before they got their hands on her. You can read it at Rosie's Forum.

Last week I heard a self obsessed bag on the radio informing the presenter that she needed a holiday "probably more than most people because I work in the NHS" she said. Oh really? Of course the rest of us laze around all day picking our noses don't we?

When I spent a night in hospital about three years back it was so grim it prompted me to stop smoking to minimise the chances of having to go in again. In the morning I found a great pool of clotted blood under the bed from a previous occupant. It took me three hours to summon somebody for a glass of water, then when I needed the loo it was an hour before I could get somebody to help me get there.

Recently somebody I know was suffering terribly from depression. She is manic depressive, euphemistically called 'bi-polar disorder' these days, doesn't sound quite as much like a form of madness I suppose. Well we eventually persuaded her to see her GP who claimed to have a special interest in depression. She had a chat and he sent her away with a telephone number to ring if she got any worse. She did, and she rang the number. It was an Age Concern day centre! Useless.

Returning from one of her many visits to see her mother in Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, my beloved showed me a photo she had taken on her phone. It was a particularly filthy and unhygienic lavatory with 'these bogs are filthy' daubed on the wall in felt tip. They weren't public toilets on the local housing estate, they were the toilets in the hospital.

Today I read about a complete bastard called Edward Ruddick, a nurse found guilty of stamping on a dementia sufferer. Thankfully he's in chokey now, but for only 6 months.

I always used to warn people that countries with 'democratic' in their name were usually anything but. Similarly anybody with 'care', 'carer' or 'caring' in the name of their job title, or their employer's name, needs keeping a very close eye on.

Sunday Drivers

They really do piss me off, not just Sunday drivers but weekend drivers on the whole. This weekend was particularly bad as I had to drive to Clitheroe on Saturday and Manchester on Sunday, and it's the back end of the holidays so the M6 in Lancashire was full of them.

Why do the prats sit, mile after mile in the middle lane? Or lane two if you prefer, or the second lane. They really do piss me off, so much so that I can feel my blood pressure rising and end up screaming words of abuse that I didnt even know I knew when I see one ahead.

Then, as if that's not bad enough when you try and pass them they start to accelerate, so you start passing them at 70mph but reach 80mph by the time you succeed. As soon as you pass them they then return, still in the middle lane, to a serene 65mph and drop right back. Bastards!

But when you glance to your left as you pass them you see some silly bleeder, nose an inch from the windscreen, gripping the steering wheel so tight their knuckles are pure white with veins bulging. They stare ahead with a look of concentration that makes them look like they're desperately trying to break wind because their lives depend on it. If they are that scared when driving on the motorways piss off and use the 'A' roads.

I can just imagine Cecil turning smugly to his beloved Celia as he hogs the middle lane and saying: "Oh look behind my dear, three lanes of the motorway all jammed up and the road ahead is perfectly clear. Think we timed our departure just right". No you moron, it's jammed because you are sat in the middle lane doing 69mph, while the inside lane is empty, thus causing a tailback from Lancaster to the Scottish border! You are screwing up the bloody motorway network you tit.

Then you get to J32 of the M6 and there are four lanes. Yes four lanes for them to screw up. So Cecil the nobhead stays in what was the middle lane, but has now become lane three for a few miles and hey presto, he's fucked up the whole motorway network, quite possibly causing traffic jams as far back as Inverness, or at least Aberdeen now.

Thanks to these prats we effectively have a two lane motorway network. What the pillocks do is effectively close the inside lane, unless you want to be highly dodgy and overtake on the inside. So if you are one of those tits who sits in the middle lane mile after mile when the inside is empty please leave a comment explaining why you are such a selfish, useless, moronic prick of a motorist.

I think we should be allowed to force them off the road. Preferably at the top of the Thelwall Viaduct or the Dartford Bridge. What a satisfying splash that would make.

Are You Racist? Take the Test!

Following my earlier post today, here is a test to check if you are racist or not.

The original puritans ducked women in the village pond. If they drowned they were not witches. If they didn't they were.

Today's puritans like to see racists everywhere. Are you one? Take the test and find out.

Q. Do you have any black friends?

A. No. Then you are obviously racist.
A. Yes. All racists say that. You are obviously racist.

At least a dead 'witch' had cleared her name.

Morrissey and the Chinese

Morrissey's done it again, and the Guardian reading pinko liberal misfits are spitting feathers and accusing him of racism.

If you don't know Morrissey is a musical genius and dedicated vegan and animal welfare campaigner. Personally I have no problem with eating meat, indeed foie gras is one of my favourites, and I enjoy the odd bullfight. But in a free world we are all entitled to our likes and dislikes and are free to criticise those we disapprove of.

Morrissey's mistake has been to take free speech literally, how very naive. In a magazine interview he described the Chinese, because of their appalling treatment of animals generally, in circuses especially, as 'almost a subspecies'. Fair comment in my view. Even as a dedicated meat eater there are limits and I think the Chinese, as with their human rights record, are a pretty vile mob. Their treatment of humans is what really angers me, and the fact that the pinko liberals prefer to ignore it and instead slam the USA for the odd execution just highlights the left's stinking hypocrisy.

It's worth Googling Morrissey to have a laugh at the bleeding heart liberals' response to his commonsense. Here is a good starter, The Guardian's coverage.

Here is a clip of Morrissey on meat:

Poor Old Hare Krishnas in Leicester

We have a Buddhist temple up the road in Cumbria where monks and other Buddhists head to for retreats and things. Our local train from Lancaster often has Buddhist monks in their saffron robes heading up there. I still get a shock when I pass through the carriage to find, when I reach them, that they are not Tibetans but often Mancunians, Scousers or Cockneys. I find it quite eccentric, but admit to liking it, as far as I know Buddhists don't tend to hurt people.

So I was saddened today to hear that a Hare Krishna temple in Leicester has burnt down. Thankfully nobody seems to have been seriously hurt.

But it does remind me of a wonderful verse from Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before by The Smiths:

I was delayed, I was way-laid
An emergency stop, I smelt the last ten seconds of life
I crashed down on the crossbar
And the pain was enough to make
A shy, bald, Buddhist reflect
And plan a mass murder
Who said lied I'd to her?
Oh, who said I'd lied because I never? I never!
Who said I'd lied because I never?

Tell you what, why not listen to the whole wonderful song?



I hope the Hare Krishnas in Leicester soon recover.

Paloma Faith

I have had a great day, working with somebody who is a bit of a hero of mine, so here's a bit of music to ease in a relaxing Friday evening:

Tony Blair: The Turd That Won't Flush Away

I was roused from my slumber this morning to find myself back in a living nightmare that I thought we'd left behind, Tony Blair talking bollocks on the radio. Shit, I must have dreamt his departure and he is still in charge, talking about how perfect he and the 'New Labour Project' were.

Then I thanked God that I heard the word 'were', he must be in the past. I was just in a nightmare after all. Except I wasn't, he was pushing his autobiography on the BBC, the presenter cooing over him in typical sycophantic, arse licking BBC style.

If you buy his book you deserve to have a white hot poker inserted up your Khyber Pass. He will need little encouragement to write the sequel and then we'll have to endure the slimey turd beaming and talking shit over the airwaves yet again, so don't be a prick, don't buy it!

Interesting that his autobiography A Journey translates into Eine Fahrt in German. Quite apt for Blair, the turd we just can't seem to flush away.

Nikki Sinclaire MEP: Let the People Decide

Nikki Sinclaire seems to be the only MEP actually doing anything worthwhile, indeed actually doing anything other than creaming in the cash! As well as actually fighting on behalf of her West Midlands constituents she is also running a high profile campaign calling for a referendum on our membership of the EU. You can visit the website at Have Your Say.

As the party conference season approaches she will be taking her campaign to the conference fringe of the serious parties, Labour in Manchester and the Tories in Birmingham. She will also be at the UKIP conference and the Lib Dems.

I think I'll be joining her team for some fun in Manchester!

Fat Fighters on the NHS

Last week I had an exchange of banter with my old mate Steve Allison. He believed in the abolition of the seatbelt law, but advocated the charging of costs to resulting accident victims if they ended up in hospital. I disagreed with making them pay for treatment and we agreed to disagree.

Steve has now been elected to UKIP's National Executive Committee. I'm sure some much needed commonsense will make a difference. But I can't help wondering what happens if, as is highly likely, the experience drives him to some kind of mental breakdown. As it's self inflicted would he be happy to pay for treatment I wonder? Only kidding, congratulations Steve and good luck.

There are various areas where I completely agree with the principle of not providing free treatment on the NHS. One such area was highlighted in the media this week, fat people. I'm no skinny beanpole by any stretch of the imagination, but I paid good money on great food and wine to get the size I am, not obese but definitely over weight. If I now decide I need to lose weight I will lose the weight, as I gained the weight, by my own effort and not expect you, the taxpayer, to foot the bill. Fatties should get a grip and find some willpower, the NHS wasn't founded to pander to your weakness but to help people in genuine medical need.

I am, even as an ex smoker, sick of the way that smokers continue to be oppressed and bullied. However, why the hell should the NHS spend money on 'smoking cessation services' as they call them? If somebody wants to give up smoking then use your willpower and stop, as you will if you really want to. I don't see why our taxes should be squandered on people too weak to do what I presume they must want to do if they contact their local 'NHS cessation service'. Wimps!

Then there is your 'gender realignment' treatment. Of course they use these euphemisms to mask what is really involved. If Arthur one day wakes up, and decides he wants to be Martha instead, then fine, that's his/her prerogative. But don't expect to have your widget lopped off out of my taxes, go private, or privates! And before anybody, usually with a vested interest, whines about not having treatment leading to psychiatric problems that cost the NHS much needed resources, that argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny considering the years and years of physical and mental treatment of transexuals as they change sex.

Any cosmetic treatment should be only available privately and not on the NHS. Of the two other issues that concern me specifically, abortion as a contraception and the very existence of the NHS itself, I will be gassing off about both in the coming days and weeks.

Gammer and His Familiars

There used to be a great old Victorian pub in Openshaw, Manchester called the Gransmoor. It is now no more, another victim of exorbitant taxes, the smoking ban and cheap supermarket booze. But in the late 70s, like so many pubs in Manchester and elsewhere, the place was a venue for local bands. It was here, around 1977, slightly underage, I discovered Gammer, later incarnated as Gammer and His Familiars. I last saw him at the Band on the Wall in about 1980.

Here he is in 1982:

David Cameron's Big Society

Any authoritarian regime depends on the populace bullying itself. Look at the old DDR where, after the collapse of communism, some people discovered from the Stasi files that their spouses had only married them to spy on them for the state.

Things aren't that bad here yet, but in Consett, Co Durham locals are copping speeding drivers themselves and reporting them to the police. The police then send them a nasty letter.

I've always believed that Cameron's Big Society will just pass power to the small minded, local busybodies, rather than abolishing much of our ridiculous legisation. This proves the point.

Full story.

Manchester Jewish Museum

We were in Manchester today wondering what to do in the afternoon. Some time ago I visited the Manchester Jewish Museum , I was doing some research on the British Union of Fascists, who were very well supported in the Cheetham Hill and the Salford areas. The Jewish Museum has some wonderful audio work with interviews of Jewish people who arrived, or whose parents arrived, at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. So we went to visit.

Admission is less than a fiver and we expected to pass an hour wandering around the former synagogue. In the end we were there nearer three hours and enjoyed every minute. The volunteer guides were extremely helpful and well informed, and the exhibitions and displays vividly portray the life of Jewish migrants in one of Manchester's poorest areas. The stories of many of the immigrants and their rags to riches stories were inspiring and in many cases humbling. Anybody with even a passing interest in history must visit this museum, it really is inspiring.

Financing a museum is a constant struggle and the Manchester Jewish Museum is no exception, they need all the help they can get so visits by paying customers are crucial. If you can't visit I'm sure they would appreciate donations.

Legalising Drugs

Like armed forces personnel who open up about underfunding as they retire, Sir Ian Gilmour waited until retiring as President of the Royal College of Physicians to suggest that prohibition of drugs isn't working. He also suggested that an element of legalisation may prove more effective on a range of levels. But at least he's done it.

Now the government prove, once again, how stupid they are by threatening to refuse benefits for junkies who refuse treatment. So, are they more likely to say "oh, go on then I'll go cold turkey"? Or are they more likely to go and hold up the local corner shop to finance their next fix?

It doesn't take a genius to answer that one does it?

Education

It's that time of year when we see what a mess successive governments have made of our education system. The only reason there is such competition for university places is because necessary qualifications are being given away.

Last year I remember seeing a lad who had got four top grades at 'A' Level. After his exams he had gone to India for a few months helping in a school in his father's birthplace. They were still doing the internationally recognised GCEs rather than GCSEs. He was amazed at the difference in standards and admitted that he would have struggled to even pass his exams if he had taken them in India, let alone get top grades. That said it all really.

Years ago, when they got rid of selective education, the politicians laid the foundation for today's educational mess. I've never yet been convinced by a supporter of comprehensivre education that it is good or successful, it is based on the most small minded and spiteful class warfare of socialism. 'We are all equal, we are all the same and we will impose that belief when educating the young' sums up comprehensive education.

I went to grammar school, my wife went to a comprehensive. I was given a good start, my wife has got on in life despite her education. I was fortunate being a Catholic in that our schools in Manchester became comprehensive years after the others and we still had the 11+ untl 1976. There was a great social mix at my grammar school, probably as near representative of the populace at large as you could find. At my wife's comprehensive they were virtually all kids from the surrounding council estate with a high level of unemployed parents and an atmosphere of failure and despair.

At my wife's comprehensive only a handful of children went into the sixth form. At my grammar only a handful didn't go on to sixth form and only a handful didn't go on to higher education. Having said that those few places were filled by lads from secondary moderns who had achieved academically at 'O' Level despite having failed their 11+. The system didn't confine 11+ failures to the bin, it nurtured them in a way that suited their particular talents. I know plenty of lads who failed the 11+ but went on to develop hugely successful businesses or developed academically later in life and then went on to university or college as mature students.

What we now see is university being 'comprehensivised'. Even our radical coalition government wants to stop so many people from 'better backgrounds' getting into unversity to make places free for people from 'poorer backgrounds'. Why not just have them selected on merit, whatever the social make-up that produces?

What comprehensive education has done is ensured that the middle clsses have a better chance than those in poorer areas. On sink estates the parents don't care, the councillors are often ill educated and don't care which is why so many parents are desperate to move to 'better' areas so that their kids have the chance of a decent education.

What next? Manchester United forced to take kids into their academy who can barely kick a ball in the interests of fairness? The Halle Orchestra having to take me on as a saxophonist to prove they are not elitist? No, that's stupid. So why do it in education?

Robert Palmer

A classic from the 1980s:



Go on then, one more:

100 Days of Coalition Crap

So we've had a new government for 100 days. Big deal!

Clegg's authoritarian attitude to the smoking ban illustrates what a bunch of statist, patronising pinko liberals minced into government when the Coalition was cobbled together to satisfy the egos of Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and company. OK the smoking ban isn't the most important single issue, but Clegg inviting the public to suggest laws that are to be scrapped, but qualifying it with a refusal to even consider reforming the smoking ban, shows what stinking hypocrites those in government really are. And mugs are falling for it.

What really has struck me in the last 100 days is the demise of the Liberal Democrats. They are losing members at an alarming rate and are getting hammered in council by-elections such as Bilston North Ward in Wolverhampton, where they even came in behind UKIP and their vote dropped over 10% on the last electon.

But Simon Hughes is now obviously jockeying for the post of post-coalition leader with his call for Lib Dem backbenchers to have a veto over govenment policy. Hughes isn't daft and can see the end of Nick Clegg in the not too distant future. When the Coalition collapses the Liberal Democrats will be left with a rump and Hughes will be the ideal leader for the type of activist that will be still milling around come that time.

In May I gave the coalition two years before it collapsed. I would now say that it is more likely to collapse around May 2011, if not earlier.

Taking the Piss out of the President

This really is a good one:

Mumps Bridge, Oldham

Today is a sad day. In the interests of 'urban regeneration' Mumps Bridge is being demolished. The name of the bridge and nearby station produce a wry smile in many, but the message on the bridge is the best thing about it.

For years when I was a lot younger I used to cycle in the Pennines, and often used to cycle into Oldham under Mumps Bridge. It just won't be the same after today not being welcomed by Seaton to 'Oldham, home of the tubular bandage'.

Idiots and Nitwits!

This country looks increasingly beyond help. It is full of nobheads and titheads. Yet again Jeremy Clarkson is being used as a scapegoat.

It seems that Clarkson overturned a Reliant Robin a couple of times on Top Gear. Then some bloke had his Reliant Robin turned over a couple of times on his driveway. Immediately the bloke is in the press blaming Clarkson for his beloved three wheeler being turned over. Bollocks!!

Did Clarkson turn the three wheeler over? An easy thing to do by the way. No he didn't. Did Clarkson tell them to do it? To the best of my knowledge, no he didn't. Blame the jokers who did it, not poor old Clarkson.

What next? If I go out and slaughter a load of old people do I expect Harold Shipman to be blamed because I saw a programme about his activities? Do I blame watching The Sweeney for robbing a bank or kicking a villain in the nuts? No, course not, and Clarkson isn't to blame for a gang of jokers turning over a Reliant Robin.

Then I heard a complete prick on Radio 2 blaming us, the populace, for the latest tour company going bust. Obvious really, if we didn't want cheap holidays they wouldn't cut costs and end up broke. Twisted sodding logic that.

So if enough of us demand cheap Rolls Royces will they cut the prices, then a bit more, then a bit more until they go bust. No you dickhead, they won't. Instead we buy Reliant Robins. If you can't afford a month on Mustique you go to sodding Pontins in Filey for a week.

I'm sure a high proportioon of people in this country have their brains surgically removed at birth.

Have a Great Really Free Weekend

Here's a bit of John Otway and Wild Willy Barratt from Whistle Test about 33 years ago:



Pure class!

Mission Statements, Straplines and Similar Bollocks

For years I have found the idea of mission statements and straplines a waste of time, often bizarre and frequently downright corny and stupid.

Take Lancashire County Council for example. As you drive into the county you are greeted with signs proclaiming 'Lancashire-A Place Where Everybody Matters'. Oh aye. Does that include the wife beater, the rapist, the paedophile, the mugger, the murderer, the bank robber and all the other undesirables? Thought not. So you see, the welcome sign is pure bollocks.

Schools are great at this waste of time, effort and money. Signs proclaiming 'Most Improved School' merely tell me that you were crap last year, and maybe all the other schools were so good that any improvement you managed would have been more than the better schools' improvement, so you are probably still a shite school.

Take this bullshit mission statement from Easyjet:

“To provide our customers with safe, good value, point-to-point air services. To effect and to offer a consistent and reliable product and fares appealing to leisure and business markets on a range of European routes. To achieve this we will develop our people and establish lasting relationships with our suppliers.”

However much you fill your mission statement with impenetrable jargon and buzzwords it should still read: "We want to make as much money as possible". Yes even in schools and hospitals because ultimately they are all in it to pay the bills.

But one of the most unusual developments in bullshit in recent years has to be the overuse of the word 'solutions'. I'm tired of the number of businesses I see nowadays that include that word in their title. Computer solutions, logistics solutions and so on. If I contact somebody to sell me a computer it isn't a problem for which I need a 'solution', I'm just buying a computer. If I want to send a parcel to China, it's not a logistics problem needing a 'solution', it's a wish to send a parcel.

The daftest one I've seen recently was Fred Smith: 'Plumbing Solutions'. Whatever happened to Fred Smith: Fixin' 'Effin' Leaks'?

Smokers? Evil Bastards!

I used to have a friend who had a bit of an interest in conspiracy theories, not the completely loony David Icke style, slightly more credible, but still conspiracy theories. One of his more interesting ones was about the venemous assault on smokers, this was in the 1980s before the smoking ban.

His theory was that the increased incidence of cancer had been concerning governments for a long time, they were desperate to find the cause. Eventually they found a link, so his theory went, and the evil cause of many forms of cancer were petro-chemicals. That was that then.

But no, the governmnent then looked at what it could do. The petro-chemical industry, as well as being crucial to our existence, was extremely powerful. The government was scared it couldn't win a battle to clean that particular industry up. So what could they do?

Eventually they had the idea of creating a scapegoat in order to placate the population at large, who were increasingly concerned at cancer levels. Hey presto, the government decided to hammer the tobacco industry instead.

The second strand to his theory was that the government, in attacking smoking and the tobacco industry, would use it to assess the power of propaganda in a free and democratic society. Which is what got me onto this post today.

As for the first part of his theory I doubt it very much, although I do think there has been exaggeration of the effects of smoking, especially passive smoking. Wherever you have a new ideology you get the zealots who go to the far extremes.

What got me mulling this over again was seeing this week, for the first time, the government's latest propaganda attack on Britain's last, legally oppressed and officially villified minority, the smokers. If you haven't seen it the goverment commissars are not happy with just banning smoking and forcing people outside buildings for a drag, oh no, that isn't nearly enough. They are now ordering you to smoke seven miles (or was it seven paces?) from the building you have just been kicked out of. You see, the smoke may just seep through the bricks, or waft through an open window thus killing the occupants.

The propaganda element of this theory has worked incredibly well. In fact that element could have seen off smoking but Blair, the great dictator, just had to prove he was boss and brought in the ban. But what effect has the propaganda had?

Two personal examples prove the success of the propaganda. We have friends who still smoke, I gave up about three years ago as did my beloved. But when our friends come for a meal they insist on going out onto our balcony for a fag. We insist that we are not the tedious ex-smokers who claim to need the smell of smoke surgically removing and have to burn the curtains and redecorate the house when they've gone. But they have been conditioned not to smoke indoors any more. Although the power of numerous bottles of Cahors often reverses the effect of the propaganda by about 2-00am!

The second example is a chap a few doors down who, even in the blizzards last winter, could be seen shivering on his doorstep, less than seven yards from his home admittedy, no longer allowed by himself or whoever, to smoke in the comfort of his own home. I can't help wishing he would find some backbone and sit in the comfort of his armchair, with a nice glass of single malt, drawing on a Marlboro or Benson and Hedges.

So I finish with the view that not only has the propaganda about tobacco worked wonderfully well, but it has also shown what a nation of intolerant, self-obsessed wimps we have become, ready to ask how high when the state tells us to jump rather than sticking two fingers up in the great old English tradition.

Speeding Motorists all Middle Class!

Yesterday I blogged about an article claiming that all the English are prejudiced, today it's an article claiming that speeding motorists are all middle class. Who could be making such a ridiculous statement I hear you ask? Well, it's none other than the outgoing, thankfully, chief constable of Cambridgeshire police, a certain Julie Spence. I must say she does look like a right old battleaxe in the photograph with this article.

She claims that it is speeding motorists, and parents parking badly outside schools, that are of most concern to the populace of Cambridgeshire. Well, in that case, Cambridgeshire is the place to live. No murders it seems, unless you live in Soham of course, but that doesn't count in her pea-sized mind obviously as a speeding Ford Mondeo wasn't involved, just a homicidal maniac.

Just to prove her complete idiocy the following quote is from the article:

“Speeding is middle-class anti-social behaviour,” she says. “People think we should be able to get away with it. They wouldn’t tolerate lawbreaking by somebody else but they do it themselves without thinking.

“It all seems OK until something tragic happens, like their child dies because of a road traffic accident.”

Well then here's a thought Julie. A true deterrent would be warning motorists that if they speed, and get caught, their first born will be thrown under a speeding car as punishment. I'm sure that would work you pathetic old hag!

Most people who drive, I would say well over 95%, have been guilty of speeding, probably on a regular basis, but have never been involved in an accident as a result, let alone killed a child. Emotive language such as that does absolutely nothing to deter the rational human who often does 80mph on the motorway or 35mph in a 30mph zone.It is bad driving that causes accidents usually, rather than speed, or even the child running out into the road. But the anti-motorist obsessives could never accept the child being guilty of causing the accident, it must have been the motorist. That emotive 'child killer' argument is now verging on immoral.

What drew me to this wretched woman's interview, is her blanket swipe at the middle class, as if good working class people never speed. What absolute nonsense. These blanket attacks on the middle class wouldn' be tolerated if they were about other groups, such as ethnic minorities, gays, religious groups. Well certain religious groups, and unles your name is Dawkins. If you made a statement such as, 'black people have big nostrils' (see my post yesterday) the self-righteous liberals would be down on you like a ton of bricks. But it's OK to attack the whole of a particular class it seems, at least if they are middle or upper. Then the police wonder why we are losing faith in them and we increasingly see them as the enemy.By the way, I think I am probably working class, so it is not self-interest that is driving me.

This mad woman should visit any inner city area, especially after dark, and see the number of working class kids speeding and doing handbrake turns, often in other peoples' cars, yes thieves as well as speeders. Where I grew up in Manchester it is almost a spectator sport, and not a middle class person about.

So, good riddance to Julie and let's hope the nutter in North Wales, Richard Brunstrom follows her soon.

We, the English, are Racists!

I read the Sunday Times, but don't know for how much longer; it's fast becoming yet another of the things that makes me very angry. Today it was the turn of patronising pinko liberal nerd David James Smith in an article entitled 'England's Green and Prejudiced Land'. The biggest pile of self-obsessed politically correct bollocks I've read in a very long time.

You see Mr Smith is maried to a black woman, and sees racism in everything, especially when he moves from Fulham to Lewes in Sussex. The fact that two women in Lewes told his wife there was no racism in Lewes was evidence of their truly remarkable ignorance, according to Smith, because racism is obviously everywhere in England.

According to Smith the fact that there are are so few other black people in Lewes is evidence that the place is racist. As is the fact that his wife was greeted in the street by people she didn't know, proof that she stood out because she was black. Well, she would stick out, as I probably would on the streets of Nairobi. Whereas I would see that as the locals being friendly, Smith wants it to be racist, because he decided that England,especially Lewes it seems, is racist, and went out to prove himself right.

But the worst act of vile, evil racism was a young child saying that his son, of mixed race, had big nostrils. What an evil racist child he must be to say that. Actually I think the child was just being a child, honest to the point of brutality. You see children tell it as it is, absolutely straight. When a 'grown up' can misconstrue that as 'racist' I think it says more about Smith and his ilk than it does about the child or the level of racism in England.

But the most evil thing about his time in Lewes was having to live next door to a 'neo-Nazi'. Some time after he had moved he found that the first next door neighbour he had in Lewes was a BNP member. Did the man do wicked things to Smith and his family? Did he send them threats or throw bricks through their windows? No, he was a bit quiet and surly. Smith only found out he was BNP when their membership list was leaked on the internet, a long, long time after he and his family had moved.

But what really pissed me off was this line:

Lewes is a genteel town for liberals and libertarians on the edge of the South Downs.......

I am Chairman of the Libertarian Party, have many libertarian friends, and have yet to find a single libertarian to be racist. So why does Smith use that line in his ignorant and bigoted article smearing us all, you, me and every other Englishman, as prejudiced I wonder?

Of course racism exists, but articles such as this one merely anger those of us who oppose racists as well as opposing those who see racism around every corner, where it doesn't actually exist. Sadly, Mr Smith and his kind fuel the BNP.

Mr Smith is the true bigot, riddled with prejudice and self-obsession.

Sack the Bastards!

The Co-op claim that the staff in this story, who refused to serve a squaddie in their Croydon store, were acting on their own and that it wasn't company policy. So the cashier, and the store manager were, presumably still are, clueless morons.

I've never liked the Co-op and will not be using their stores in future, until I read that the two morons in Croydon have been sacked.

This World Really Is Mad!

I hate DIY with a vengeance but, every now and then, my excuse to my beloved that I don't want to deprive a skilled worker of his livelihood doesn't pass muster and I just have to get on with it. This weekend was one such occasion, so I bought an electric screw driver.

All you have to do is stick one of two bits into it, like a drill, charge it up for six hours and off you go. Hours of fun. But no, this one came with three pages of instructions, a bit excessive I thought. But then I saw the seven pages of health and safety warnings. Yes, seven pages. But I suppose there are people out there who may decide to use it on their teeth or for scratching their testicles.

Coincidentally, nothing to do with incorrect use of electric screw driver on any part of my anatomy, I had to call into the doctor's surgery today. In the waiting room I saw a notice asking anybody wanting a chaperone when they see the doctor to speak to the receptionist. A sodding chaperone!

I can only conclude that it is for people who are terrified that they are going to be 'tampered with' if the doctor has to lay a finger on them, especially on their intimate parts. What a nation of mard arses we've become. Pretty soon we will need to have a third party present at every consultation, to protect the doctor against claims of sexual abuse, or just plain physical abuse.

What a mad, mad world.

Lloyd Cole

Been working in Clitheroe most of the weekend, but for some reason kept thinking about times gone by, like seeing Lloyd Cole at the Apollo, Ardwick in about 1982. He is so underrated:

European Investigation Order

If you doubted that we no longer have control of our government, and therefore our lives and our destinies, then this latest handover of power to the EU may convince you. No great statements to the media, just a sneaky mention in Parliament, then reported on the Parliament website. Theresa May (pictured) is the minister responsible.

Home Secretary, Theresa May MP, made a statement to the House of Commons on 27 July 2010 on the Government's decision to opt into the draft European directive on the European Investigation Order. The European Investigation Order has been designed to help law enforcement agencies in EU states share information.

From Parliament UK.

So much for the government handing power 'back to the people'. They didn't tell us they meant people in Brussels, Strasbourg and every police officer in the EU!

Watch the Video.

European Investigation Order in Hansard.

And when Dave achieves his ambition of speeding Turkey into the European Union, just remember Midnight Express.

The Coalition's Big Society

There are two words that seem to be used in every political statement at the moment, and they fill me with dread. They are 'society' and 'community'. They are used, especially by politicians and interfering busybodies, to justify a very dangerous trend, namely passing power down from government.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that power should be as locally devolved as possible, a large part of the reason I see no point in European Union membershhip for example. But before any power is devolved they should look at what powers can be scrapped completely first. After all, dodgy forms of devolution produce disasters like the Scottish government.

The politically correct will attack you if you make generalisations, especially those such as all French people smell of garlic and all Chinamen wear flipflops, and rightly so, they obviously don't. But when they want to impose their wishes on us they justify their interfering ways by claiming that 'society' would be better for it or that 'communities' would benefit from it. Well I mustn't be part of either because this week I heard a harridan from the anti-motorist group Brake which, incidentally, enjoys the benefits of charitable status while hectoring you and me about how our cars kill children, and her views on improving 'communities' scared me. I do not believe that speed cameras make for 'more liveable communities'. If they did estate agents would pretty soon start putting speed camera locations on property details to attract buyers. No, she was talking bollocks frankly.

The whole problem with Cameron's 'Big Society' is that the state has far too much power and is far too intrusive. Cameron's plans sound to me like they will merely be delegating that power to other, more local people. The problem with that is that local goverment is crammed full of interfering busybodies just wanting to dabble and interfere in their 'communities', and believe me they are extremely dangerous, I saw them when I was a councillor for four years. Yes, there are many good people involved in local politics, but the mad, or plain insane, have an energy that drives them on to more and more activity when the sane are happy to leave people alone.

Like most people, I suspect, I just want to live my life without being constantly mithered by either civil servants or local commissars. Stick your 'Big Society'.

David Cameron-What a Turkey!

David Cameron must be really, really stupid. Since sneaking into Downing Street he seems to have decided to play some kind of a student prank on us all by saying exactly the opposite of popular opinion. Bear in mind he couldn't win an election and is only in power because of a coalition with a party of misfits that managed to lose seats at the May election.

He is suddenly fighting for Turkey to join the European Union because, he claims, they are in NATO so therefore should be in the EU too. Maybe he also believes, using that logic, that the USA should be in the EU too. Then he really goes to town on those of us who don't want Turkey in the EU by tarring us all as Islamophobes. Prat!

To be honest if we were outside the EU, which we should be and one day will be, I wouldn't give a damn whether Turkey was in or not. But as long as we are in, and have open borders with the EU, I do not particularly want a border with Iraq and Iran, which is what we will effectively have if Turkey joins.

Furthermore, the larger the EU becomes the bigger a minority we become, and the more remote from government when decisions are being made. So when Cameron claims he wants to give power back to the people, how does giving more and more power to an ever expanding EU achieve that particular aim? In a word it doesn't, it's more bull from Cameron the turkey.

Britain is Finished

I've been away on a course for most of this week and it has felt a bit like living in a bubble, or a parallel universe. But sometimes the real world comes crashing in like a nightmare.

Another participant on the course told us the tale of his 18 year old niece on election day, May 6th. He saw her in the evening and she was really angry about the cock up at her polling station. He assumed they had run out of ballot papers or something, as had begun being reported from elsewhere. But no, she was angry and had refused to vote because Nick Clegg, who she had liked in the TV debates, had been left off her ballot paper.

Like other participants I wondered what the had happened to our education system. Maybe, if I had children of school age, I would have to send them to private schools. I've never rated the compreensive system and this just proved my point, yet again.

Then I came blinking back into the daylight of the real world and lo, our glorious leader, Eton and Oxford educated, had opened his mouth and proved himself to be as thick as the girl above. We were junior partners to the Yanks in 1940? God help us.

So my conclusion is that if I had children of school age I would have emigrated by now. In fact with a useless prat like Cameron in charge, and a colourless gimp like Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister, emigration is probably adviseable anyway.

Councils and Consultants

I rarely read our local paper, it's the Lancaster Guardian and is about as shite as the proper Guardian, but I just happened to peep at a copy this morning and I was shocked.

My local council, Lancaster City Council, spent over £1m last year on consultants. Over £1m! That is an absolutely scandalous waste of taxpayers' money. A proportion of that went on consultants paid for legal advice, despite having their own Legal Services Department.

I won't bore you with all the detail, but it is on the Lancaster Guardian website if you would like to see the article.

I recently came across a media consultancy that charges a reported £1,500 a day plus VAT to tell councillors and council officials how to work with the media. That despite most of the councils they work with actually employing media/PR people already.

I do not accept that any reasonably sized local authority in this day and age needs to employ ridiculously expensive consultants, they must have all the expertise they could need on their payroll already. If they don't they are doing something wrong.

Consultants are the obvious place to start cutting and millions and millions of pounds could be saved in local government at a stroke, without affecting essential services.

White Christians Persecuted in Britain (The New Inquisition)

There has been, rightly or wrongly, a growing perception in Britain that so-called equality legislation works against the majority population and in favour of minorities. This perception is not just about ethnicity but about religious freedom too.

This view is supported in a report by the think tank Civitas reported in today's Daily Telegraph.

The fanatical politicaly correct interference in attempting to make us all the same has created an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion. I do not believe that there is a determined effort to crush the white Christian population, although the Labour governmnent had a good try, I think it is more cock up than conspiracy. A climate has been created by the equality legslation whereby people go so far to prove they are not guilty of an 'ism' that they unintentionally piss off some unsuspecting section of the populace.

Wherever the state interferes there is confusion at best, at worst confontation and pain. The abolition of all equality legislation, be it gender, race, sexuality or anything else, is the first step to people living together in peace.

Government Cuts, Propaganda and Charities

It's absolutely crucial that the government cuts, cuts and cuts even deeper. There are several reasons but firstly the government squanders money and in the process grabs more and more power over us, the innocent populace. Also the govenment doesn't actually have any money to spend, it thieves from the likes of you and me so it is actually squandering our money. Forgive me, but I think we know best how to spend our money.

Today the NCVO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations) is whining that government cuts to local authority funding could seriously damage some charities. Good, that's life. I've spent most of my life as a volunteer and over 20 years working in the charity sector and in that time I have seen the voluntary sector go from a healthy, independent, largely self-financing sector to an overstaffed, bloated, taxpayer funded bureaucracy. Many charities and voluntary organisations have been nationalised.

Of course when charities take the easy route, and accept taxpayers' money, they immediately lose their independence, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Their campaigning edge, especially in the world of medical chrities which is my background, has been blunted. They've sold their souls and the last government were experts at buying them off.

And voluntary means just that, voluntary. If I support the Citizen's Advice Bureau I will choose to support it financially. If I don't support that charity I do not want my money being forcibly taken from me and given to them through taxation. I don't accept the bleeding heart liberal cry that charities will die if they don't get government funding. If they are worthwhile people will happily cough up the cash. If they don't survive, it's because they don't deserve to survive because people don't support them. It's quite simple.

So don't listen to the pinko liberal self-serving propoganda from the vested interests in the voluntary sector. Cuts are a good thing and the more and deeper the better.

Which brings me nicely to a classic song from the eighties that reminds me of life in Glossop, Derbyshire, the wild days!

Ladies and gentlemen I give you Propaganda with The First Cut:



Now I'm off to watch Le Tour de France on ITV4.

More Bullshit from the European Union

The European Union is at it again, indeed when does it ever stop? Its authoritarian march towards supreme power and total control of our lives carries on relentlessly. I am only really concerened about UK withdrawal from the monster, it's up to other countries what they do, but I sense an ever growing scepticism throughout Europe to the EU. So what has caused my anger today?

For starters it's their lack of acceptance that the private sector is just that, private, and should be interfered with by the state as little as possible, ideally not at all. But no, where the EU see human interaction they want to control, regulate and legislate against it.

The leviathan is now concerened that there are not enough wimmin in the boardrooms of private companies. So what? Most of my working experience has been in the charity world where, I would guess, women are at least as well represented in senior management positions as men, maybe even disroportionately better represented. Do I care? Not a jot as long as they can do the job. By the way, I wonder what the EU think about the proportion of male/female primary school teachers throughout Europe, not just here?

Of course the EU is only 'flagging up the issue' at this stage, confident that the private sector will change the perceived imbalance. But as with every dictatorship behind that 'flagging up' is the threat that under the Lisbon Treaty, they have the power to enforce 'equality' if it doesn't happen voluntarily, or naturally.

Then there is the prospect of EU police forces having access to all your records: DNA, bank accounts, telephone and email records, everything that the British state has access to. This proposal is being floated under the European Investigation Order. Then it's only a hop, skip and a jump to Inspector Cutabollockoff kicking your door down at 4-00am to drag you off to Bucharest Central for interrogation. The British police and the British state scare me, this really brought me out in a cold sweat when I read about it.

The hat-trick today was the EU announcing, in true Mussolini style, that they will get the trains running on time! How? By forcing member states (or vassel states if you prefer) to adopt their new railway timetabling software. Bollocks! The last time I had a train cancelled was because the driver was in bed with a hangover, or at least he hadn't turned up for work. We all know about the wrong type of leaves on the line, the old signal failure excuse and the engineering works that have been screwing up the West Coast Mainline since about 1880. Typical EU delusional bollocks.

So what's the answer? Well pressure groups are all very well but too often preach to the converted. We all know that a majority of people in the country today would be happy to see us withdraw from the EU, but they are unaware of a credible political party advocating that. Also, while 50%+ would probably like to see us out of the EU, only about 8%, if that, will vote in a general election on that single issue, they vote on a whole range of issues from health and education to tax, law and order and all the others.

Furthermore, and I know from experience, that politicians who, rightly or wrongly, bang on, and on, and on about nothing but the EU turn the electorate off. Withdrawal has to be part of a cohesive manifesto including the whole range of government activities, preferably hacking away at the activity of government, and freeing people from the current invasive, authoritarian state that is crippling freedom and liberty. That is the only way to get into Westminster where real change can become possible.

If you think that no such party exists then I suggest you visit the Libertarian Party website. You will be pleasantly surprised.