"Thong's not the thing to do!" teacher told

A teacher is in hot water after pictures of her in a range of "completely inappropriate" poses appeared on a modelling website. Natasha Gray was shown wearing a thong and lying on her front on a bed. Ben Slade, who is the head teacher of Manor Community College in Cambridge where she is the head of PE, said she should not have posed for these pictures.

"They were completely inappropriate for somebody who is a teacher," he said. "They were absolutely not pornographic but do you want to see your teacher in that way? Probably not."

He then went on, "Neither the school nor the governing body will tolerate anything - from staff or pupils - which may bring the school's name into disrepute. I'm in consultation with our personnel department and with the local authority in relation to further action."

Talk about shouting about it from the roof tops. Did he get on his school roof with a loud hailer to let everyone know? No, that was far too simple. He told the whole world via the internet and the BBC. What a plonker! If he hadn't opened his mouth we'd be none the wiser.

And the answer to his daft question is, YES!!, most normal schoolboys would want to see their teacher in such a pose. It's just basic teenage testosterone stuff. Anyway, if it's not pornographic what's he so bothered about? We've been let down far more seriously by those purporting to govern us, most of whom spend their waking hours checking on what the gravy train has delivered!

Obama not to give Queen DVD gift!

Barack Obama is getting lessons in royal etiquette and gift giving. Much time is now being spent on whether the First Lady sits or stands and whether a gold-encrusted boxed collection of DVDs would trump the Wal-Mart bargain that Gordon Brown received! Apparently they were NTSC format and can't be used in the UK. So Brown never got to watch these movies!

It's all a load of rubbish, this business of not trying to put a foot wrong. The harder you try the more likely you are to fall. If I were Obama I'd tell the flunkies in the White House to take a break. Let him just talk naturally to the Queen. She likes normal people not fakes. She will be in 30 minuters of animated conversation with this charming (literally) man and his wife. He doesn't need a prep talk from them.

And as for a gift, well, give him ideas, but don't make a meal of it!

I am a mole and I live in a Westminster hole!

Sir Stuart Bell, member of the Speaker's Commons Estimates Committee as well as being the parliamentary spokesman for all matters relating to the Church of England, is out trying to hunt down the mole who is allegedly selling details of the receipts of MPs' expenses for up to £300,000. Sir Suart is now the head mole-catcher. He's temporarily leaving the church mice alone!

Sir Stuart tells us, "All the receipts of 650-odd MPs, redacted and un-redacted, are for sale at a price of £300,000, so I am told. The price is going up because of the interest in the subject. We have a pretty good idea of not the person, but the source, and that is a subject of a House of Commons investigation. It may be a theft, but we will get to the bottom of it. In the public interest, by the way."

Public interest? Surely he's had 12 years to sort this out. Tony Blair sounded like a charismatic preacher in a brand new glass-windowed temple when he denounced sleaze and all is menaces in 1997. The truth is Sir Stuart is wasting his time going after moles. These creatures are notoriously short-sighted and couldn't tell a porno film from computer disk. No, he needs to be going after a totally different animal. A RAT!!!!

It's the rats in this sinking ship that are running around grabbing at any free lunch or free movie or free house that's going. A rat catcher is needed desperately. Especially one that can bait and trap in seconds. The sooner this government is put out of its miserable existence the better it will be for all of us.

EUkipping the fudge factory!

UKIP's got £100,000 coming it's way care of Stuart Wheeler, who in turn has just been kicked out of the Conservative Party. In a way Wheeler has a good name for one who is caught between a rock and and a hard place. He's wheeling himself between the two, or he was.

I'd have more sympathy for him if he came clean about his intentions. He has a go at the Tories for fudging but seems less than enthusiastic all round for UKIP. He doesn't want out of the EU, just reform, although failure to reform would mean out. Not a ringing endorsement for UKIP, exactly. He told the BBC this -

"Their (UKIP's) position is far nearer to what I would like to happen than anybody else's. I do want the Conservatives, if they are in power, to try very hard to get the European Union to accept a much looser relationship and to put us back into a position more or less where we were when we first joined - a wonderful trading relationship but not much else. I think they should try to do that, but more than likely they will fail and then we would have to get out."

It's this deluded view that people like Wheeler have of the European Union. "A wonderful trading relationship but not much else". When was this ever on the table apart from being a figment of the Great Grocer's imagination when he fobbed off the Tory Party with this canard. Ted Heath's EU dissembling was on a par with Nye Bevan's treacherous spin in his suggestion that National Insurance had everything to do with a funded insurance policy.

Wheeler must be living in a fool's paradise if he thought that the "Common Market" was anything other than an economic and political entity.

I voted against this political empire in Wilson's referendum. Not because I'm anti-Europe as the so called pro-Europeans would have it, but because I read the Treaty of Rome and found it to be fundamentally against British interests. It is also fundamentally against the interests now of every other EU country, but they were not involved in that referendum.

Personally, I would like to see a Commonwealth of Europe which would be a trading bloc of loosely tied nation states. Pan-European issues, like climate change, could well be covered but the hours that we work and the whole detail of internal governance should be without the control of an external "commission". Stuart Wheeler won't get his looser relationship by supporting UKIP's unilateral stance. It will only come when a concerted effort across the whole EU is made to change the meddling of this monster.

The Taxpayers' Alliance has a YouTube presentation on the Common Agricultural Policy which costs us all £398 per year. They call it a fudge. That's being generous. It's more like something cooked up in one of those Hell's Kitchens that Gordon Ramsey visits. "I've eaten that *!@!"!!* for *******'s sake!"

Britain's oldest man ever to become teenager again!

Henry Allingham has become a living competition for the Guiness Book of Records. His new record is that of becoming the oldest ever British man, after clocking up 112 years and 296 days. In June he starts life as a teenager again, this time with a 100 year added on.

113 versus 13. When he was 13 in June 1909 life was considerably different. For one thing, an Englishman's home really was his castle. No meddling laws to tell you what you could or could not do. The only thing restricted was castellation, the desire to turn your house into some form of mock castle. Only Royalty was allowed to castellate with impugnity!

In 1909 Irving Berlin had a tune going called Wild Cherries. It was very politically incorrect but he didn't know that. It's first verse goes -

Talk of yo' looney coons
Talk of yo' spoony coons
Lover of coony tunes
Jackson was the leader of a big brass band
Understand
While at a ball one night
Miss Lucinda Morgan White
Yelled out with all her might
When he started playing some familiar tune
She just cried with delight

With songs like that ringing in his ears, it's no wonder Henry's lived so long!

Apologising outside the family house!

I was struck by how similar the apology of Richard Timney, Jacqui Smith's husband, was with that of the fictional Sir Norman Fry in Little Britain. I'm not sure now which is supposed to be the comedy and which is the tragedy!

Media find out that there's no Virgin on Jacqui Smith's TV!

Jacqui Smith has been caught out again. I wonder what it is with this woman that she can't fill in an expense form properly. She's in hot water again because her husband has been caught out watching "adult" movies on TV at home whilst she was out trying to count up illegal immigrants and check on absconding rapists. Now I'm not bothered about what hubby gets up to whilst she's out of the house. That's not the point. The point is that she is already up her neck in trouble over a second home scam. You'd think she'd have the wit to tell whoever was filling in these forms to read the wretched details first. Yes, she can claim for an internet connection - No, she can't claim for the movies that 'Im in Doors is watching.

Virgin Media is quite open about what you pay for. If you rent two films, then two films come up on the statement. Didn't it occur to the form filler to check if watching these films was covered by expenses? Or to query it, at least?

We can't keep on with this "Oh, I was tired!", Oh, I forgot!" or "Oh, I overlooked it!" rubbish. The "I've done nothing wrong" bit does not wash anymore. Everyone is clamouring for change. Cloth-eared Brown is moving like an intoxicated snail towards some sort of "inquiry". We need it sorted - NOW!

All that has happened because of Jacqui Smith's incompetence is that she and her husband find themselves in an embarrassing fix. If she'd bothered to shape up, we'd never know her husband watches porno flicks!

Gordon Brown's convert to the cause!

There's always one, isn't there? Whilst most of Britain is despairing at the financial antics of Gordon Brown (a bit of a dysfunctional Robin Hood!) a Conservative local government leader ups sticks in a paddy and goes over to Labour. Is he a cretin or what?

Councillor Terry Hipsey, leader of the Conservatives on Thurrock Borough Council, told a stunned full council meeting that he was resigning as leader and joining the opposition. He claimed this - "I have resigned as leader of Thurrock Council, and have left the Conservative party to become a Labour councillor. This last week has shown some of the worst examples of David Cameron’s attempt to respond to the recession. I’ve spent the last two-and-a-half years trying to keep this dysfunctional Tory group together. Having some time to reflect, it has become clear this group and the Conservative Party are incapable of making the changes necessary to take Thurrock forward. I’ve been increasingly impressed with the group of Labour councillors locally and the Labour government’s response to the recession nationally." David Cameron has been highlighting all the slow and dilatory responses of this hapless government. Perhaps this new convert to a lost cause just wants to get his hands on some of the make believe money?

So one dysfunctional leader goes to genuflect to another dysfunctional leader! Where has Councillor Hipsey been in the last 18 months? If he's increasingly impressed with taking this country to the brink of ruin he needs quick remedial treatment in a pyschiatric establishment. The man has taken leave of his senses.

Impressed, indeed!!!

Gay days and depressing nights

A hotel owning couple who are Christians are in trouble from a gay couple who wanted to stay at the hotel. The owners, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, have had a policy in place ever since they took over the business in 1986, and is founded on their strong Christian beliefs. Basically nobody gets in unless they are married - staying the night that is. In 1986 no-one would have batted an eyelid at this, but times change, as they say.

So a gay couple, Martyn Hall and his civil partner Steven Preddy, decided that this was just the hotel for them. However, they were shocked to hear that their lifestyle was incompatible with the hotel's policy. So a lawsuit is being lodged. They are claiming £5,000 in damages, alleging 'direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation'.

New Labour was keen to get the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 into law. However, it is one which has all the hallmarks of a "winner takes all" approach. When the act was being discussed it was claimed that homosexuals had a very wide choice of hotels where no such policy would be maintained. A single hotel run by Christians had very little choice other than to say yes or no.

I think that this act has encouraged homosexuals to target Christian establishments in order to "prove" the law. And I think that both sides have rights, as they say. However, if I were in Mr & Mrs Bull's shoes, I wouldn't bother too much. After all, they are not sinning by letting rooms to unmarried couples, for they don't know if such couples spend a night of chaste quietness or rampant indulgence. It was Basil Fawlty who had such a terrible time stamping out illicit goings on in Fawlty Towers!

Mrs.Bull is quite clear where she stands. "I have had people clearly involved in affairs and under-age people who have tried to book in here for sex, and I have refused them the same as I refused these gentlemen because I won't be a party to anything which is an affront to my faith under my roof." Well, well. I've had quite a lot that's been an "affront to my faith" and it's come from within the Church as well as without, but I don't think I should be getting too upset by it all. It's not as though Mr and Mrs Bull are involved in any sexual misconduct themselves, so they should have no problems with their consciences.

Mrs.Bull would be better off considering the "judge not lest ye be judged" text. I feel she can still have her faith, practice it and let out rooms to all and sundry.

Keeping the Daniel Hannan message alive!

I know this is on other blogs but I'm just doing my bit to keep the Daniel Hannan message up and running. I do hope Gordon Brown's getting it that he's a busted flush. We can't have every new born baby getting a feed, a rattle and a devastating mortgage all at once!

Catholic kings and protestant people?

The English are neither protestant or catholic. What suits the average Englishman is a very fluid relationship with God. Some have it so fluid as to forget He's there! Most would not like to talk about religion, be questioned about it or to give any in depth interview about it. It's a private matter and that's that.

Currently most English people give the Established Church a wide berth. Even the latest innovations like female clergy, tambourine-type services and a revised liturgy have failed to attract the unchurched in their masses. In essence, the English are in a state of secular serenity tolerating the eccentricities of the Anglican hierachy and are bemused by constitutional niceties.

So, as the Prime minister galivants around the globe, getting lessons in white blue-eyed banking from the Brazilian president (has he any cure for cloth-eared syndrome?), we are given a parliamentary debate on the successon of the monarchy.

Now we all know that Roman Catholics can't marry the monarch. But it isn't as sweetly simple as all that. If Evan Harris succeeds with his bill, does it just stop at marriage. How about raising the children of such a marriage as Roman Catholics? Can a Roman Catholic swear to uphold the "Protestant Religion" which is what the Coronation Oath requires? The answer is probably no. This is just about marriage. So the monarch is not allowed to be a Roman Catholic. It is perfectly lawful to be an Anglican Papalist professing catholic doctrine and attending mass regularly, although it would need to be a particularly Anglican approach to defending "protestantism" at the coronation. Prince Charles has professed a few varied understandings of the Faith, from use of the Prayer Book to being defender of faith. That could mean his own version. I have heard he is not opposed to incense, rather like his aunt Margaret. His mother is not taken with it. Would he be censured for having catholic tendencies rather than papal obedience? It is a problematic minefield, for sure.

So this bill does not end discrimination for the monarch, just the spouse. Odd kind of logic!

Evan Harris is all about equality. His bill talks about "gender" when he actually means sex. The sex of the person in line matters. Females cannot queue jump at the moment. But is this a matter of the system being hereditary as it is or being that the first born gets the title? It could be that those who were born second or third may feel they could be a better heir to the throne.

Personally, I think it best to leave well alone. There is no public clamouring for this change, and even if it were changed according to this bill, the monarch still ends up as a protestant and the younger siblings still get the booby prizes!

Daniel Hannan's internet victory!

Following on from the great success of Daniel Hannan's YouTube presentation (over a million viewings!) the TV media is beginning to recognise that they were caught out. Not from getting the story, because they knew all about it and chose to suppress it from their bulletins. No, what's getting them is the sudden realisation that they are no longer the arbiters of news presentation. That has passed them by. It is bloggers like Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale who are getting the news out there.

So what we have is the internet allowing us to see a piece of political oratory which is a fair assessment of the Prime Minister's economic legacy. You may disagree with it but it was put forward cogently and with passion. The fact that Brown had to sit and listen without engaging in a response seems to be what irks the TV broadcasters. They would like to have seen a "balanced debate". This was not balanced but it was not unfair either.

Christine Hamilton on MPs' expenses

Here's Christine Hamilton with a few comments about the expenses that MPs' claim. I can't gainsay a word she says. Why they can't just get on and put the House in order I do not know!

Gordon Brown gets a roasting! Devalued all round!

This is great! Daniel Hannan MEP tells Gordon Brown he's a devalued prime minister. What a speech. See it on the internet, because this speech was withheld by the BBC. It was censored! But I would have thought such a dressing down was top political news. Not at the BBC, Sky or elsewhere.



Nigel Farage MEP has also given Gordon Brown a few home truths. This You Tube presentation is a UKIP one and I'm not necessarily promoting UKIP, but Farage tells Brown exactly what's what. Nice how the schoolboy grinning of Brown shows up.

'Hello America, I'm a British Muslim'

Here's a story to gladden your hearts. Whilst the Afghan plains are being bombed and battered, and much of the world is wary of Muslims - most of it imaginery - a British Muslim has gone over to the USA to talk to groups about Islam, peace and Muslim moderateness. He wasn't sure of the reaction he would get.

Well, he's been very touched by it all. He says, "Upon my arrival at Chicago O'Hare airport, I wasn't detained for secondary screening. The immigration officer, a pretty Hispanic woman, looked at my passport ("Cute picture!"), stamped it and wished me well. I was relieved and surprised. Now, I'm eight dates into my tour. It is tiring, but the audiences are giving me the energy to keep going. They have been, without exception, warm and receptive. Even people I meet outside the events (generally hotel and restaurant staff) have been delighted to hear I am a writer from England on a speaking tour around America on the subject of relations with the Muslim world."

What a great guy! And it only goes to show that ordinary Americans are the salt of the earth. It's the leaders of business and government that let them down!

Another attack on God's handiwork!

Quite rightly some of the US medical fraternity are being called "obsessed" with their desire to mutilate baby boys in the name of supposed hygiene and disease control. Americans have been fed the line that circumcision is good for their newborns. The very fact that the notion was introduced to Victorian society by a medic of dubious qualities goes by the board. John Harvey Kellogg gave us cornflakes and his beliefs in circumcision. Like a lot of stiff-necked sorts he had a penchant for meddling in other peoples' lives.

He reckoned there were "excesses" in sexual behaviour, so taking a knife to a newborn's genitals was his way of stopping the "insanity of masturbation" in later life. The logic of this devilment is lost on me. Pity the man is not around to do a survey on circumcised masturbators! Of course, the whole thing is utter hogwash.

Now the quackery of the US medical establishment is rearing its ugly head again. Dr Judith Wasserheit of University of Washington demures and says, "All providers who care for pregnant women and infants have a responsibility to assure that mothers and fathers know that circumcision could help protect their sons". And provide a lucrative source of income to the scalpel weilders!

What this medical meddler does not say is that promiscuity causes sexually transmitted diseases. And if you told her that she and her pro-cutting friends could make not a dime from the operation, she'd shut up like a clam!

David Jason in "racist" joke problem!

Last week there was a hullabaloo about a postmaster telling customers who could not speak English either to get an interpreter or to leave the post office. He claimed they took too long in the queue whilst he tried to decipher what they were saying. The fact that he was of Sri Lankan background only helped to fuel the spontaneous fury, mainly from non-integrated Muslims. Deva Kumarasiri had a very valid point. He said, "People should learn the language. It doesn't have to be perfect, mine isn't perfect. To integrate into society you have to learn English. You don't have to change your cultural values, but at least learn the language." Now who, apart from nauseating Taliban supporters and New Labour culturalists, could gainsay that!

The old saying of "When in Rome do as the Romans" is lost on a lot of people. All that goes by the board, especially for the clipboard-hugging, box-ticking PC lot at the BBC.

Now we have a situation where Sir David Jason is brought up short, by the BBC's great arbiters of proper humour, for telling a "racist" joke. This is the offending joke -

"What do you call a Pakistani cloakroom attendant?" Answer - "Me hat, me coat."

Now if you put any other nationality in there it may be acceptable. Try Russian with a different tag line. David Jason hardly knew what hit him. He had been "horrified" when hearing he had "given offence". I'm more horrified at the comedic cleansing going on at the BBC. The corporation is so rectally challenged it hardly knows what to do. An unnamed spokeswoman prissilly says - "The comments made by David Jason were unacceptable and Christian O'Connell (the radio presenter) distanced himself from them live on air. We consider the views of our listeners to be very important and have received no complaints about these comments. We will continue to monitor any complaints and Christian O'Connell will issue an on-air apology in tomorrow's breakfast show."

What a garbled statement! Monitoring non-existent complaints. Get a life, woman!

Blog wanderings

I've seen that Wonko has a posting on Tesco's "English" sales. It never ceases to amaze how these "corporates" think that the English flag is racist or in any way likely to cause offence. Wonko spotted the honey so I suppose it is a sweet success! Woops....

It is on Rowse honey and not on own labels. That's the proving point...own labels! Well done Wonko. Keep RIGHT on!

60ft penis on parents' roof for over a year!

I did a few things to shock my dad when I was a teenager but I never thought of putting a 60ft penis painting on the roof. An 18-year old from Berkshire did just that. It has been on the roof for over a year. The lad is travelling abroad so this was something for them to remember him by, I suppose.

The odd thing is he didn't paint the thing to the end of the roof. Maybe he will become the new reality TV star? I wonder if it was spotted by Google's new snooping device? It's all a bit of light relief from the dismal happenings in the world of finance.

Maybe there's some statement in it all? Who knows!

Obama ticks off "My Cousin Cheney"!

Who'd have thought it? Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are kin! At least that's what Lynne Cheney thinks. She delved into the ancestral past of hubby Dick only to find that he and Barack share the same French Huguenot forebear. According to Lynne, Obama is a descendent of Mareen Duvall. This French Huguenot’s son married the granddaughter of a Richard Cheney, who arrived in Maryland in the late 1650s from England. However she hasn't given references so it isn't gospel proof.

My Cousin Cheney! I think there should be a film about it all. Including the up to date stuff. Dick Cheney has been sounding off about letting "terrorists" out of Quantanamo. In Dick's world it matters not whether one is innocent or guilty, beaten, framed or tortured, so long as the "War on Terror" makes America safe.

Obama is right to confront such nonsense. As he asks, "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by vice president Cheney?" None at all! "It hasn't made us safer," Obama says. "What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment." And what is the point of that?

Dick Cheney had a fairly simple view of the world's problems when he was Vice-President. That simplicity led to disaster abroad. His boss, the verbally challenged Dubya presided over a complete spiral into financial decay for the American people.

"No more foreclosures!" are the hand-written signs going up all over. The people know reality. Dick Cheney is still in his own land of make-believe!

Top AIG bosses 'to repay bonuses'

Nine of the 10 executives who received top bonuses from US insurance giant AIG have agreed to return them, New York's attorney general says. Well done. To the nine and the attorney, Andrew Cuomo. He's about to get $80 million back into the AIG coffers.

But what about the tenth? Where is he? Keeping his head down, in a huge treasure chest no doubt. Mr.Cuomo says, "A number of them have risen to the occasion and I applaud them." But after Congress went through hoops, the president went on TV to denounce the debacle and every TV pundit had his/her ten cents worth.

At least the tide appears to be turning. Any chance of Sir Fred Goodwin get twinges of a similar nature?

Deathbed confession? More like a death row profession!

James Brewer has a few things muddled up. First he thought he was dying because he'd had a stroke. Then he felt confession was good for the soul so he confessed to a murder, after which his stroke symptoms miraculously vanished. However he had not died but remained firmly on Earth to await his fate. That fate could now be death row as an inmate.

The whole story is bizarre. Mr.Brewer is now 58 and apparently shot dead 20-year-old Jimmy Carroll who he thought had been trying to seduce his wife. That was in 1977 when Brewer would have been about 21/22. Two things occur to me. First, guns and hot-headed neighbourly disputes do not mix. Any short period of viewing Jerry Springer re-runs will immediately alert one to the level of aggression that "country folk" can engender. The second is that Brewer and his wife are now involved with church activity and Mrs.Brewer's Bible classes have undoubtedly rubbed off on him.

The irony of all this is that even if the stroke didn't kill him, the state is keen to have its go. Police detective Tony Grasso said, "He wanted to cleanse his soul, because he thought he was going to the great beyond." That in itself is no bad thing. It was good that he confessed. However, it's what happens next that is the issue.

Brewer will probably be charged and then put on trial. Will he be convicted on his confession alone? Maybe. A decent lawyer would probably plead that his client was temporarily insane at the time. Who knows? The thing is he is now in the system. If he is convicted he may end up on death row.

Death row inmate or a dying stroke victim in hospital? Brewer thought he was the latter, now he may the former. The American penal system holds much store in Old Testament style vengeance. Going on death row is a grim reality of this. If he does end up there he may be praying for another stroke. Sounds terrible, I know, but his future is probably better in the hands of the Lord rather than the hands of the warden of a correctional facility. And what a euphemism that is!

Tata for that!

Tata has finally launched the world's cheapest car. A vehicle in its basic model has no airbags, no air conditioning, no radio, or power steering. So I hope nobody sitting in an Indian call centre buys one of those. We can't have them arriving at work even more hassled and harried than they already are. However, Tata have more luxurious versions available for future purchases. These will be much more suited to an Indian call centre worker.

"Hello, my name's George. I am speaking to you today about a government scheme to insulate your house. Are you the owner of the house?" "Did you come to work in a top of the range Tata Nano Car?" "What?" "Did you?" "No!" "Sorry can't speak to you then, as you may be hot and bothered and I don't wish to become hot and bothered either!".

Could be the end of Indian call centres as we know them or a brand new beginning!

Ron Paul on the AIG bonuses

Here's Ron Paul talking to CNN about the AIG bonuses. What gets me is the way these presenters keep asking him questions as if he's a bit odd and the system is just having a temporary blip. Why don't they get to grill some of these quacks in Congress that seem to think money grows on trees?



What we have now is legalised crooks being bailed out and the illegal crooks (some kind of oxymoron, I know!) get to go to jail. What's the difference between Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and the ponzi crook, Bernie Madoff? Not a lot, I say.

How come it's OK to bundle up cash into so-called "investment vehicles" and get these vehicles to run around town on a heady high octane gas, crash them into a wall and then find out the vehicle is made of recycled toilet paper. There never was proper money in some cases. However, we are constantly being told we can't let the banks go bust. Why ever not? They are bust now. We are just pouring money into old coffers.

The Bible tells us you can't put new wine into old skins. So why are most Western governments doing just that?

FedEx plane crash in Tokyo

These are the dramatic scenes from a FedEx plane crashing onto the runway at Tokyo during high winds.

Wind is very much a factor in plane landings. As I type this, the wind is blowing outside causing light damage to gardens. How much stronger it musthave been to blow a plane off course.

This is an example of coming out of a winding landing safely.

How ever many safety measures are put in place, none can anticipate or counter Mother Nature.

Obama's special olympic remark

Barack Obama has been praised for responding so quickly to the supposed upset he caused by alluding to his ten-pin bowling prowess. He said to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show that it was like a special olympics entrant's efforts. Whilst he said the comment he realised his "gaffe". Quick as a flash the pundits were out to sound pompously pious. They wouldn't say anything so ghastly, would they? Butter wouldn't melt there!

I doubt if there is a person on the planet who hasn't said something that he or she regrets. Obama had the good grace to telephone, as soon as he could, the chief executive of the US Special Olympics organisation. It was a heartfelt apology. It was made before the show aired.

Saying sorry isn't easy, but not saying sorry is the mark of the arrogant. Obama is not an arrogant man, so his regret is sincerely made. So it is with some sadness that I hear that Sarah Palin is sitting in judgement over the president. She claims to be a born again Christian, a woman of integrity and American values at her heart. She's also a bit of bitch!

Harsh words? What gets me about these squeaky clean arm-waving proselytisers is that they often rush to judgement. She says she was "shocked" by the "degrading remark about our world's most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world". I saw the show. It was not degrading in any way. She is the mother of a young son with Down's syndrome and a comment would be expected. But not one that puts the boot in.

He said sorry. Will Palin have the good grace to say sorry too?

Tony McNulty in the "second homes" home for the bewildered!

Tony McNulty is the type of politician that drives those with opposing views to distraction. He is a very good dissembler, a weaver of truth and misinformaton, making a verbal cloth of believable rhetoric that eventually leaves the listener thinking that it was all a load of hogwash.

As with the Home Secretary, McNulty is in a second homes expenses row. He has been using his parents home in Harrow to kip at whilst doing constituency work. He lives in Hammersmith. Rather than get home, he had been claiming expenses for the use of the Harrow "home". Apparently he pocketed £60,000 until in January, when he got all funny about it and claimed it was not quite right, so he stopped taking the cash. My guess is that he realised he was pulling the same fast trick that Jacqui Smith was doing, so he thought he could just drop it and it would all fade away.

He says there are "anomalies" in the expenses system and they do need to be looked at. Not in so much detail that he hands back the £60,000! It's all very shoddy. MPs need to have proper expenses for doing a proper job. The trouble is that they all get to vote on their own expense limits and conditions.

They have proved to be incapable of probity, integrity or any sense of decency in this regard. There are some honourable exceptions, but most are playing the system.

I resent this, because the perpetual seediness of it all is just like having a big fat recruiting sergeant sitting in Westminster handing out gullible voters to the BNP. That is the party of protest now. Have a look at their website. All about sleaze and the shoddiness of MPs, councillors, bankers and others. You can't have pert little prigs like Hazel Blears rabitting on about the dangers of having BNP MEPs in June when they are feeding them with this sort of fodder.

It's an own goal in the self-destruction stakes. Every day we get some withering remark, some reasoning of the insane to say that it is all OK. Well, it's not!

McNulty is just one more in a long line of greedy self-servers whose actions cause a devastating reaction. We need this nonsense to stop. Let someone take charge of giving these parliamentarians a proper expense programme. We need change - NOW!

Jade Goody dies

Reality is not what it was. Once upon a time it was knowing about life and growing up to appreciate it, in all its forms. Now, it seems, it means quite the opposite, especially to TV bosses. Reality to them is taking normal life and turning it upside down.

Jade Goody became rich and famous, vilified and valued, talked about, and generally discussed by all and sundry. A young woman catapulted into the limelight. The only person not to know of her in much detail was Gordon Brown. The PM referred to her as "Jane Goody" but that did not matter. We all knew who he was talking about.

Although she could be described as a "normal" person at one time, she came to live in the spotlight, much of it self-promoted. However, her death has been extraordinarily public. Many have criticised her. I would think they may not know why.

First of all she was ridiculed for "being thick" and then got at for "being a racist". She obviously believed she was neither and set out to prove them wrong. Her legacy will be that she is remembered for bravery and courage. For who would like cancer ravaging their liver, groin and bowel? The pain must have been excruciating at times, even with the drugs.

Then she will be remembered for her vitality. Her ability to stand up for herself. I'd say she didn't come across as thick at all. Maybe some were jealous of her?

The cervical cancer awareness barometer has shot up the scale. Cancer Research UK chief executive Harpal Kumar said of Jade Goody, "Her brave battle with an aggressive form of cervical cancer has received widespread public attention and encouraged thousands of women to seek advice on how to prevent the disease. She has done a great public service by raising awareness of the importance of screening during her last few months of life."

If she helps to save lives, even in death, that is some legacy. She has been a creature of her time. Limelight and fame. Like all of us, she has been a mixture of moods and personality traits. Unlike most of us, Jade Goody has been famous. She is now firmly embedded in the internet's maze and can be accessed at any time.

That seems to me to be the reality of it all.

Merseyside police get the BNP hump!

I thought it would end in a sacking. As soon as the Merseyside Police found out that one of their officers was on the leaked BNP membership list they went into a salivating overdrive to get the guy dismissed. It's all very hypocritical, because the police only target the BNP. They don't go after any other legal political party.

Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson loftily declares "We have an overriding legal duty to promote race equality and retain public confidence." Quite! But you don't do that by setting yourself up as the arbiter of political correctness. Mr. Lawson should get a grip. Either the police can join legal political parties or they should not - any of them.

It could be that Mr. Lawson declares, "We have an overriding legal duty to promote gender equality and retain public confidence." The Merseyside Police could be accused of promoting gay issues. They could promote any issue, but is it their duty to do so? I would have thought fighting crime and upholding the law irrespective of creed or colour was their prime duty.

Mr. Lawson is some sort of quasi politician it would seem. That's not good enough. He puts himself in a position where the BNP may find police officers reluctant to investigate crimes against BNP members, such as hammer attacks. This would be invidious and the whole sorry saga makes the police out to be politically motivated.

I would suggest that police officers should not be members of any political party. That way we would have a police service untainted by such party political meddling. Mr. Lawson will find the BNP making hay with this, and he will be just another fodder feeder for their publicity machine.

Stand in the corner, Mr.Lawson!

Gremlins in the gigabytes!

One of the problems of blogging is not having a computer that works. It's a bit like having a car break down on you. When I see a screen with something that vaguely looks like a repetitive series of Eqyptian hieroglyphics I sense trouble. I often hear people say, "My computer crashed!" with a hopeful sense that the machine will right itself. Once mine crashed and there was no restorative action. The man who knows had a look at my computer and helpfully said, "That's not meant to be there!", meaning the hieroglyphics. Thankfully it was restored to full working order.

My recent crashing has something to do with having too much trash on the system, so I'm reliably informed. Knowing about computers is a bit like having your say on politics. Facts can be lost in the verbiage. Anyway, I'm confident everything is back to being OK.

So here I am blogging away again!

Chris Tarrant arrested on suspicion of assault

The Daily Mail is reporting that Chris Tarrant was taken to Staines police station for allegedly assaulting a woman. He has been released without charge. Which woman he is supposed to have assaulted is unknown, but it isn't a matter we need to know I think. What is something we should know is if Chris Tarrant thinks it is all a storm in a teacup or something of a character trait.

He is known for his quick temper and he can be quite demeaning of people. However, he is a hugely talented quiz show host and TV presenter. Talented people can have flaws as much as anyone else. Gryff Rhys Jones was exceptionally brave when he confronted his own anger in a recent TV documentary, especially when he was told his actions affected others. He had not thought this was the case.

I am not sitting in judgement of anyone. I'm prone to the odd bout of anger when I get frustrated but I've not thumped anyone. Got near it, I must admit, but a sneaking doubt always lingers that I may come off worst in any ensuing struggle. I think this must be from the days at my prep school when Mr.Miller the gym teacher put me in a boxing match. My nose seemed to go into my skull and I was acting like a cartoon character for at least five minutes. Needless to say, I was not seen as "boxing material" after that!

I hope Chris Tarrant is able to resume a domestic life that is more geared to bliss than bluster. We live in a far more agressive society, which is a crying shame. Perhaps this year, as we strive to get out of the recession, we can be a little less so.

Ten political parties that make this country what it is!

1. The Grumpy Old Men Political Party
2. The Alternative Party
3. Animals Count
4. The Borders Party
5. The Community Action Party
6. The Idle Toad
7. Individual Capitalist Party
8. The Miss Great Britain Party
9. Women 4 The World
10. Social Democratic Party

Small but perfectly opinionated! They may not be going very far but they show that democratic opinion is wide and varied. Some keep going despite the odds, such as the SDP. Some get members elected despite the name, such as The Idle Toad.

These ten are just my pick, but there are plenty of others.

Jailbird Ahmed let out in Monopoly type release!

Well, well. Lord Ahmed's barrister, Jeremy Baker QC, has succesfully argued that the jail sentence Lord Ahmed received could "irreparably and permanently" damage his ability to carry out community work in the future. You don't say!

Lady Justice Hallett seems to have come over all funny. Bring on the smelling salts! Because of the "exceptional" personal mitigation in his case, she said the court was able to take the step of suspending the sentence for 12 months. So he's still technically a criminal, then.

Seems a pretty poor excuse to let someone out of jail for. Why couldn't he just carry on with his "community work" after six weeks? Jeremy Baker will be the most sought after advocate in the world for that grovelling mitigation.

Ponzi Madoff admits $50bn fraud scheme!

Madoff's going to jail. Just how long is not certain, but Methuselah would be taken aback by the potential porridge he's about to do.

I like this quote from one of Madoff''s victims. Burt Ross is a former mayor of the New Jersey town Fort Lee. He told the BBC he did not expect to recover a single cent of the $5m he invested. "Bernard Madoff is a genius," said Mr Ross. "You're dealing with the greatest con artist probably in the history of the world. He created a mystique and associated with extraordinarily well respected and revered people, and so he was given the benefit of the doubt by financial regulators who blew it badly."

Blew it badly is an understatement. Most of these legalised cowboys (no offence to the real thing!) are still trying to make ends meet with other peoples' money.

One thing is certain, I think. Madoff will be in great demand in the jail for master classes for those who screwed up and failed to make a bean! The authorities should keep a beady eye on him. We don't want a group of well trained ponzi artists coming out all keen as mustard to do Wall Street over again.

27 years banged up for nowt!

DNA is a very fine thing. It can more or less prove with certainty that bodily fluids found somewhere can be matched with the person who left them there. It can also prove that there is no match. So for those people in jail for something they didn't do it must be a godsend. However, for Sean Hodgson, who is 57, it has come a bit late. He's been 27 years in jail because he confessed to a murder. His solicitor says he was a pathological liar at the time. Not a good thing to be in a police station.

Hodgson's case has now been sent to appeal over claims tests on semen found at the scene prove it was not his DNA. That's probably all it will prove for the moment. Of course, DNA has it's timebomb technique. The real killer will be hoping, assuming he's still alive, that his DNA won't show up. All a matter of time. Which is exactly what Mr.Hodgson has been spending.

He is only a year or so younger than me. What was I doing 27 years ago? Wow! The Falklands War was just about to start. Channel 4 too. He will need some adjusting to live in the credit crunching world. Julian Young, his lawyer, says, "He is anxious because he is going to be facing the outside world for the first time in a large number of years. He will have to make a life and reorganise his life for the future". I'd say he's anxious.

I hope the various agencies are preparing to help him. After all, that length of time will not have helped him to come to terms with the prospects of living in a society which is dealing with an imploding economy. Getting a job will be hard. Just surviving will be a challenge. He will need his wits about him. It's sod's law when it comes to proving your innocence and he's had the misfortune to be let out when all this is going on.

Now there will be one place going free in the prison system. There's a whole gaggle of corporate miscreants who should be offered the place, but I doubt that will happen. It must be the worst nightmare to be in jail for something you didn't do. These miscarriages of justice carry on. I only hope that the criminal justice system is learning from it all.

Libertas is let out of the stable!

Libertas, the pro-European anti-EU centralising party started by Irish political maverick Declan Ganley, is out of the stable and running around the EU paddock. They hope to have candidates across the EU, so that every citizen can vote en masse against the constitution of the elite.

It is going to be some kind of electoral fisticuffs this time round. In the right corner is the BNP talking tough on any subject passing them by. Then in the middle to muddled ground there are the Ukippers, still fighting the cause but with folding tents to contend with in several constituencies. They've even got this United Kingdom First Party sniping at them. It is a bit of a pompous title considering that there are plenty of us who want to put the country first but may not necessarily agree with them! The English Democrats are giving it a whirl again, plus all manner of disparate groups, who whilst not being in the contest will be adding their ten pence worth.

Libertas may well do well. I will look at their manifesto. The LibDems have gone all prissy and EU protectionist. A spokesman said "anti-European voters in Europe were spoilt for choice" in the upcoming election. Cheeky sod! He thinks every person who is not brown-nosing in Brussels is anti-European. Well, chummy, they are not! Those of us opposed to the corruptions and vices of the European Elite are very pro Europe. It's just that we want a democratic, open and free Europe devoid of these pointy penpushers and legalised layabouts.

Roll on the voting!

A postscript! I've just seen this from the cravenly slavish EU fan by the name of Graham Watson, a LibDem MEP. Rather takes the biscuit. Watson is as undemocratic as they come when he wants his own way. Fancy that. He thinks that Ireland could be chucked out of the EU for voting no. Well, he may not last past June, so that won't be a bad thing. Democracy? Not in Graham Watson's mind!

"Can I help you, ATOL?"

The answer, if you are a customer with the failed travel group XL, is no. That is, if you paid by credit card. The ATOL protection scheme only protects up to a point. The get out clause for the CAA is that credit card companies have an obligation to pay out to customers under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. So that gets them off the hook. Customers who paid this way are not happy. However, they should get a refund from the card issuer.

My concern is that there are going to be quite a few crashes and collapses this year. We've had all manner of mixed messages coming from administrators about who will or will not be paid as creditors. As the government lurches from one fantasy to the next, perhaps a touch of reality should hit them. There needs to be a firm set of rules and regulations covering the position of creditors so that people know exactly where they stand. For example, it is no good one set of adminstrators paying up on gift vouchers and another not. Tightening the rules won't solve everything but it will give a bit more confidence back to a shattered public.

Gay Days in the Forest

Waltham Forest is another council promoting homosexuality. Well, that's what some people think. The trouble with the PC brigade is that they tend to be sneaky with their agenda. I'm all for tolerance and understanding. Teasing in the playground can be very horrible at times. However, if the educational bigwigs down at the council want to "promote tolerance in our schools" then they should be equally concerned about the feelings of those who do not see everything their way.

The current indocrination policy seems to be to denigrate any belief or viewpoint that sees homosexual practice as wrong. This then causes friction and a view that councils are trying to foist their beliefs onto others in underhand ways. Now there are some who can be very nasty about gay and lesbian people and such intolerance should be countered. But that is not the same as suggesting those who take a moral view that the gay lifestyle is wrong should be silenced.

Live and let live is a good way to behave. The trouble is some don't want that and it appears to be a winner takes all attitude or nothing.

Mandelson takes it on the chin - with a smile!

I think Lord Mandelson reacted very well. She's lucky it wasn't Prescott lammimg into her. A lot of hair pulling and screaming would have ensued. On both sides no doubt!

Mandelson in green custard attack!

Whatever one may think of Lord Mandelson he is a government minister and he is trying to work things out. As a member of the Cabinet I do think he is entitled to some dignity and a bit of respect. I disagree fundamentally with an awful lot of what he says, but he deserves to be spoken to in a civilised manner. The young woman who decided to splatter his face with green custard is no respecter of civilised debate and certainly no respecter of the law. How did we know it was only custard? And what of those with Lord Mandelson? They allowed the woman to walk off. Have they not heard of a citizen's arrest? Common assault was the least of her wrongdoing.

Politics in general and differences of opinion are best dealt with by discussion. This woman, Leila Deen, shows only petty anger and childish stunt abilities. If she is so concerned about airport expansion let her tell us about it. All we now know is that she is a competent custard thrower.

Plane Stupid is one of those "cause" outfits, rather like the anti-hunting mob. They are more concerned about being in a tribal cause group that they are bothered by the thing they are supposedly campaigning against. It's rather like football crowds going week after week because not to is seen as being disloyal to the tribe.

The picture above shows the pompous little tit, Leila Deen that is, standing over Lord Mandelson. She says, "That such a clearly corrupt human being is still in government, despite being unelected, is an affront to democracy and a threat to any hope we have of stopping the impact that climate change is already beginning to have on our lives. We have a tiny window left to stop climate change. I want to tell my children that I did not stand back and applaud as Mandelson ruined our last chance."

So she takes the law into her own hands. Her high-minded zealotry is itself an attack on democrcy. This small collection of 'affinity groups' (as they say!) are running around in a gaggle of ill disciplined cells. They have no place in a democratic country, for they would be the first to sit in judgement over others, rather like a dictator.

I am against the Heathrow Expansion for the simple reason that we do not need it. Mandelson may have been cosying up to the BAA bosses, but that will all come out in debate. This action helps neither the science of climate change nor the decisions concerning the airport industry.

Blockbuster in blockbustering news!

Blockbuster, the video rental business, has instructed lawyers with a view to possible bankruptcy. It seems this is the kind of news we expect on a daily basis. It would be nice to hear from companies that had good news to report, but the news stations seem more keen on the failures and the folding tents.

"Je ne regrette rien", Gordon Brown tells Americans!

Gordon Brown is going against the advice of fellow ministers. He regrets nothing, except maybe the 10p tax fiasco. But that was only a slight problem. Brown blames the bankers for the mess we're all in. The same bankers he cosied up to all these years. He seems to have been in their company with cloth ears. See no evil, that sort of thing.

Whilst he goes around like some kind of amateur pied piper looking for followers, others are beginning to give him grief. One such is John Kingman, the chief executive of UKFI, which manages the taxpayer interest in the part-nationalised banks. He hinted that he believed the tripartite system of regulation had not been a great success. Kingman got a verbal bashing from John McFall, the treasury select committe chairman. I think McFall is beginning to set these polecats against each other with significant flair. The truth is being weedled out of them.

And whilst Brown is swanning around chatting to anyone who will listen to him, it is said that Fred Goodwin's pension has gone up by another ten grand! It's a whole new meaning to the concept of inflation, isn't it.

Ron Paul out of the wilderness!

Yesterday I was posting about horses bolting. Today it's about the fact that a lot of folks in America think they bet on the wrong horse. All those GOP primary votes wasted on the likes of Giuliani, Huckabee and Romney. Ron Paul is the horse now favoured by the punters. Everyone is coming up to pat him saying they always knew he had fine ideas. Blah, blah! Where were they when they were needed most. Even Fox News is all over Dr.Paul like a rash. And they did their level best to keep him in the margins as a quack doctor peddling some herbal remedy. Now they can't get enough of his tonic!

So, guess what? Ron Paul supporters, from the Campaign for Liberty, turn up at the CPAC 2009 shindig and find that everyone is talking his language. Ron Paul went down very well so we are told. David Weigel, writing in the Guardian, a paper not known for its sympathies with the right, says of Paul's surge in admirers - "What's changed in two years? It's not only that Republicans have lost an election – it's that Republicans do not yet understand why they lost. They are not willing to consider that they lost votes because Americans wanted more social democratic policies. The official explanation for their loss is that Republicans spent too much money and lost touch with their values. It only makes sense that Paul, who has been arguing for years that the GOP needs to get back to the values of pre-New Deal America, should be winning over young hearts and minds."

Winning over young hearts and minds. It will be these who will be paying off the trillion dollars going everywhere and who do not want anymore financial nonsense to carry on.

Wrong horse bolts out of No.10 stables!

If I was heavily involved in horse betting I wouldn't pop round to Downing Street to ask the Celtic Clowns for any tips. Or any of their chums, either. Harriet Harman is getting very flaky these days. She thinks she can pass a new law specifically aimed at Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. What crazy notions did she wake up with yesterday morning. It was St.David's Day, when all good Welsh people display either leeks or daffodils. This government seems to have only one choice on offer and those are very different leaks. There seems to be a leakage of talent, leakage of ideas and a generally leakage of authority and basic honesty.

Sir Fred Goodwin may be a lot of things, but I think he is probably telling the gospel truth when he says that the government knew all along about his pension arrangements. Whether he is morally entitled to this whacking great treasure chest is one thing. That he is legally entitled to it is quite another.

How much is it going to cost for these treasury legal eagles to spend time sifting through this pension detail? We are not told, but it is bound to be more money wasted on a pointless gesture.

Gordon Brown is just grandstanding. Sir Fred's horse has passed the winning post! Another nag is running round Whitehall with all the equine grace of a knackered mule!

PC police frighten Muriel in Brum!

This is a very strange story. The West Midlands police are still operating under some misapprehension that they know best over matters of political thought and expression. On certain days they get politically corrected and go a bit barmy. One such occurrence was recently when officers turned up at the premises of an elderly Asian shopkeeper. They had objected to a mural on the side wall of her shop. This mural depicted the damage and suffering in Gaza. The police had seen the mural, though it was a "risk" to community goodwill and suggested to the woman that she could be the object of a fire bomb. This scared the 79-year old woman witless. Ploughing on, they informed her that a "risk assessment" had been carried out (by them!) and asked her to rescind perbasis-mission for the mural and sign a form authorising its removal. Obviously in the circumstances she did just that.

Now has anyone complained to the police. NO! Even the Jewish community had seen nothing wrong with the painting. Ruth Jacobs, of the Israel Information Centre in Birmingham, a public relations office set up to promote Israel and Jewish culture and working in conjunction with the Israeli embassy, said, 'I would not complain about these images because I see them as part of the right to free speech in this country. They are actually quite good pieces of art. If the building owners are happy for them to be there, that's all that matters.' So no joy for the PC brigade there, then.

In fact all this is some braindead idea from the Force itself. They should really keep to proper policing and not go around initiating such stuff themselves. Of course, they deny this risk assessment, but do I believe them? Not really, because the guy who painted this mural is an award-winning graffiti artist, praised by South Bank Show judges for 'creating messages of peace, unity and hope'. It beggars belief that this was not known locally.

I remember Hilda Ogden being absolutely proud of her internal mural. "Stanley, what do you think of it? My, muriel you great lump!". Stan was not impressed and had similar scheming thoughts as the West Midlands Police. It's a crying shame Hilda Ogden isn't fit enough to go round to the Chief Constable with her handbag!