UKIP and the new leader

Lord Pearson of Rannoch has been elected the new leader of UK Independence Party. This is interesting for two points. First, he is the first leader of a political party to sit in the Lords since the Earl of Home become leader of the Conservative Party in 1963 (although that was for a very short period). Second, he is the first leader of a political party with elected politicians not to have been elected to any office himself.

So his election paves the way for Nigel Farage to try to oust Speaker Bercow at Buckingham. If Farage succeeds, will he want his job back?

Iraq War nonsense - today's ramblings!

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK's ambassador to the UN in 2003, said the invasion of Iraq did not have the backing of most UN members or even the UK public. It was of "questionable legitimacy" even though it is unlikely to be ever proved illegal. He said he believed the US and UK had "established" its legality in that it had never been challenged in court.

So that's alright, then?

It's a bit like saying an inveterate thief, one who habitually steals things willy-nilly, is doing nothing illegal because his activities have never been challenged in court. Lots of people do some very bad things. Some MPs have been up to no good. What about the banks selling each other dodgy "financial instruments"? It's OK folks, none of it is illegal because it has never been challenged in court.

It's all very legally-challenged, of that there's no doubt!

Peter Cook, or should I say E.L.Wisty, had something to say about judges in this sketch about whether to be a miner or a judge.

Recession? The penny hasn't dropped yet!

Yesterday most financial commentators were beside themselves because Britain is still in recession. I don't give much credence to all their computer calculating and number crunching excercises. I prefer a more simple method of comprehending whether we are out of recession.

When Gordon Brown was over-gulping on the air and telling us that he had abolished boom and bust I regularly spotted coins dropped on paths and pavements as I walked about. Outside the post office, in car parks, by the telephone kiosk, outside the boozer and so on. I once picked up a pound! Then we had the start of the credit crunch and the pennies stopped dropping from heaven or wherever. I still peer at the ground. Once in a blue moon I spot a coin. But it's a rare occurrence.

When those coins start being dropped again with gay abandon and caution being thrown to some economic growth wind I will believe that we are out of recession. Until then, it's just a hard slog and a determination not to say too many rude things about bankers and Brown!

Gatecrashers at White House

Well, well! what was that about getting on the A-list? It seems a couple gatecrashed their way in to the dinner that President Obama was laying on for the Indian Prime Minister. Tareq and Michaele Salahi were reportedly not invited but later posted photos of themselves on Facebook. Much to the chagrin of the Secret Service. Now they should be a service for uncovering other people's secrets, but all the gismos and gadgets failed to uncover this dining duo.

Apparently it was all about getting on reality TV. Really? What people will do to get noticed, eh?

Obama gathers his A list for first state dinner

Heard the expression "jockeying for position"? That's a mild expression for what's going on in Washington right now. It seems the race to be invited to President Obama's first state dinner is becoming something akin to the Gaderene Swine rushing for the clifftops. India's prime minister is being honoured. Possibly feted and fauned over in equal measure too. The Americans are very keen to make sure that the Indian government is made to feel very welcome and secure in its worldwide ascendency. It will be all posh poppadoms and rose-scented finger bowls!

In a departure from the traditional venue, the elegant State Dining Room, the Obamas will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn. I doubt though that Manmohan Singh is the man the tented diners will be there to see, though. No, they want to be seen there at the dinner by the TV and the loser B-Listers. To show that they are the pukka lot. It's the hottest ticket item in town. Dee Dee Myers, who served as President Clinton's press secretary, said the lobbying by people seeking an invite had probably been relentless. "The first [state dinner] is always the most dramatic," she said. "First impressions are important. That's your A list, that's your top game right there. By the time you get to the eighth state dinner, it'll be a lot less important." Those left off the shindig's list will be venting on the airwaves the very next day!

So, there we have it. Whoever gets to be at the eighth state dinner, either as guest or C-list attendee, it will be a very lowkey affair. The Indians must be wondering if being first has all the advantages. Hope the tent doesn't overheat. Might as well be back in Bombay!

The Baroness and The Clown

Much has been said in today's papers about Baroness Ashton of Upholland and the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy. I tend to agree with lots about the undemocratic nature of the EU decision-making process. In 48 hours as much has been written about them as in the last 48 years!

Baroness Ashton is keen on the Daleks of Doctor Who fame. So much so that she has a full-sized one at home. Mr Van Rompuy has been likened by his sister, a rival politician, to a clown. Perhaps the Dalek may have ways of exterminating the EU or maybe loads of clowns can descend on the Commission to out gag the new clown!

Either way, Daleks or Clowns - it's still an organisation that likes to exterminate democratic choice and make clowns out of us all. For example, what organisation in the world that purports to be for the people can hide their financial activity behind years of unaudited accounts?

Archbishop of Canterbury in goalpost moving exercise

The Archbishop of Canterbury has gone to Rome. Not over to Rome. Just a short visit to speak his mind. However, it seems to me his mind is tortuously flexible these days. He spoke at length when giving an address in Rome, as the guest of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The address was part of a symposium being held at the Gregorian University, to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Cardinal Willebrands, the first president of the Council. Much of the address contained reference to women's ordination in relation to traditional catholic understanding.

The Archbishop's prose is sometimes heaving going on the reader, but the gist of his argument is that local churches without the whole catholic church can makes "local decisions" without deviating in any mammoth way from core beliefs. This is a bit like stretching rubber to see when it will break. He also suggests now that female ministry is based on baptism and on vocation, as a measure of equality. It all smacks a bit of changing the ingredients in a well-established recipe because some people think the recipe makes a bad cake.

He says this, "All ordained ministers are ordained into the shared richness of the apostolic ministerial order – or perhaps we could say ministerial 'communion' yet again. None ministers as a solitary individual. Thus if the ministerial collective is understood strictly in terms of the ecclesiology we have been considering, as serving the goal of filial and communal holiness as the character of restored humanity, how much is that undermined if individuals within the ministerial communion are of different genders? Even if there remains uncertainty in the minds of some about the rightness of ordaining women, is there a way of recognising that somehow the corporate exercise of a Catholic and evangelical ministry remains intact even when there is dispute about the standing of female individuals?" (Use of the word gender instead of sex is telling). The implication is that only a few have uncertainty over ordaining women whereas the opposite is crystal clear. He also seeks to find a way of incorporating female ministers into some kind of nebulous collegiality without really addressing what he calls a "dispute about the standing of female individuals".

The goalposts are being moved and the players are being given to think that the new rules will have no affect on the play in the field. The Archbishop also asked that the Roman Catholic Church give an answer as to what exactly is wrong with what some "local churches" are doing. I'd say if he doesn't know now he never will.

In a nutshell, this address was a convoluted way of asking whether there was a possibility of putting the current impaired communion of Christians together in a quick-fix solution ignoring disputes and disagreements. We all know we have to heed the Dominical request that we "all be one". Rowan Williams' suggestions sound laudable but it would surely be at the expense of conscience and catholic (universal) tradition.

Obama's poll rating falls below 50%

It's shock news to one and all apparently. President Obama is only reckoned to be turning in a good performance by 49% of the American people. He should worry. This news follows hard on the heels of Rush Limbaugh's ridiculous assertion that Gallup were oversampling blacks in order to boost the ratings. Gallup called this tosh "a complete and inexplicable fabrication". Limbaugh must be coming to the end of the road, surely? I used to listen to his rants on the radio whilst I drove around metro Atlanta. He always appeared harmless but with a limited ratio of intellect. It always bothered me that the Republican Party attracted people with only two beans for brains. The intelligent ones were in the background goading the likes of Limbaugh on. All very peculiar.

So inexplicable fabrications are par for the course. I do hope people realise that most of these radio jocks are just on-air businesses trying to crank up the dollar revenues at the expense of truth and decency. And what of this oversampling of blacks? Is Gallup being accused of stuffing focus groups with only African Americans or is it some kind of graveyard voting experience (like the good old days in Northern Ireland!)? It's a preposterous allegation. But being preposterous is what the American neocons are all about.

I sincerely hope all right-minded American conservatives will see the light and come to the aid of the party.

Secular world wants control of the Church

It isn't enough for the secular world to distance itself from the Church. It wants to control it through a mixture of legalisms and diatribes. St Mary The Virgin Parish Church in St Mary’s Road, Swanley, Kent is a well-known Anglo-Catholic church. It professes the unchanged Faith in a changing and changeable world. A rumpus has erupted in the town because the local branch of the Royal British Legion, having appointed a female cleric as their chaplain, were miffed that they could not hold a service within the church. St.Mary's does not recognise the validity of women in priest's orders. This, as the diocese confirms, is "the legal position and is well-documented".

Looking for an alternative venue, the local town council stepped in to allow the Legion to hold their service in a banqueting suite. Mutterings were heard. The council leader Councillor Robert Woodbridge said, “My view is we now live in the 21st century and things have changed. But they will point out there are things in the bible which says women should not be priests, but it’s a matter for the church.” It is this detached view of Christendom that allows such people as Harriet Harman to pursue her so-called Equalities Bill. Councillor Woodbridge may feel times change, and they do. But the Christian Faith does not change. What was heard and understood by the Disciples is heard and understood today and will be in centuries to come.

People may want to use the church as some kind of social club and take precious little interest in the doctrines. Fair do's. But they must surely see that they do themselves no good by being rude, condescending or simply dismissive in an ignorant fashion.

Democracy in England - LibDems £2.4M Donation!

Here's a quango at work in the political arena. The Electoral Commission in fact. In a toss of coins they come down in favour of the Liberal Democrats retaining a dodgy loan of £2.4 million and get quite exercised over a UKIP donation of £363,697. The LibDems keep their cash because they could not be held to have realised that the money came from a convicted fraudster. UKIP on the other hand failed to realise that their donor was not on the electoral register at the time of the donation. Even though a district judge ruled that UKIP should only repay £14,481 after ruling the breach had been accidental, the Commission appealed to the High Court and won.

If they had dug a bit deeper with the LibDems one wonders what they might have found out. In any event it hardly seems evenhanded.

Harriet Harman to be prosecuted for careless driving!

Careless driving, eh? Following on from careless expense calculating and careless politicking. She is alleged to have been driving without due care and attention and driving while using a mobile phone. She "strongly refutes the allegations and will deny the charges". Umm! Does she now.

If she has been falsely accused, then I'd be the first to back her to the hilt. There are many who have had to endure falsehoods without the ability or resources to establish the truth. If she is found guilty, then it is a very bad example indeed of arrogance and an above-the-law attitude.

Every day I see mobile phones being used. There is an exceptance by quite a few that it doesn't matter and that they won't get caught. Good examples of perpetual law breakers are delivery van drivers. I see them most mornings. It is quite outrageous that household name businesses should be letting their employees loose on the roads without a hands-free kit.

Harriet Harman knows the law. The Crown Prosecution Service has said there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute. Yes, they should prosecute. Not because it's her, but because this activity (alleged in this case) is both anti-social and potentially life threatening. And it will be a lesson to all arrogant drivers who abuse other road users through attitude and high-mindedness that their minority actions are actually not tolerated.

Gordon Brown's gratuitous comments!

Gordon Brown, whilst sidestepping the anti-democratic nature of the appointements of two EU functionaries, suggested tonight in a very gratuitous way that the selection of a female "Foreign Minister of Europe" was a signal that discrimination was defeated and that equality was supported.

Where has this obsession got him? Are we now so politically correct that every time a woman is appointed to any position, gratuitous remarks about slaying some mythical discrimination dragon need amplifying. This is not a breaking down of a barrier. It is just an appointment. Sexism was only in his mind. He must be the only one in the world who thought that one up! Lack of democracy - YES! Sex discrimination - NO!

Shame on you, Mr. Brown.

Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun

You couldn't make it up, could you? In fact, why would anyone do so? The world can be crazy, but this story just shows how bad our legislators have become in making good law. The Surrey Mirror reports that a former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty". Judge Christopher Critchlow said, "This is an unusual case, but in law there is no dispute that Mr Clarke has no defence to this charge. The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant." So with that we all now know madness is at large.

The judge goes along with it, the police go along with it, the prosecutors go along with it. All defending madness. Just let them think what would happen if a child under ten (the age of criminal responsibility!) got hold of the weapon and started brandishing it around, letting the thing go off and blasting someone's face away! Would these jobsworths think the law was such a fine thing then?

We need this changing and we need it changing now. The Surrey Mirror says on their site "Comments on this story have been disabled for legal reasons". Well, stuff those legal reasons! They are only smokescreens for the inept, the befuddled and the bewildered.

This is a monstrous outrage. Very shameful indeed.

Sarah Palin's radar picks up no signals

Sarah Palin has told Oprah Winfrey that a run for the presidency in 2012 is not on her radar. The thing about radars is that they can pick up extraordinary things. In some cases, the operator thinks there's an extraterrestrial object out there. In any case, it's no good looking at the radar today. Palin needs to keep checking the equipment. I bet she'll find at least a few blips on the screen. One or two neocons popping up, a couple of Alaskan oil workers, fundamentalist Bible-bashers, all kinds. Even detractors blowing her a few raspberries!

The first maxim of politics is "Never say never". She didn't say never, but she implied the radar would and that her radar is working well. "It's not on my radar screen right now", she told Oprah, as if to say it might flicker across the screen at a later date. She'll need to keep the electricity flowing through it as much as she has a growing band of eager-beaver nominators. There could come a time when they all ask "is this the time, Sarah?" and she replies, "Radar Says NO!"

Who is Kevin Hoeffer?

A while back I posted on the fact that a get-rich-quick scheme had enter my computer with the nasal tones of Kevin Hoeffer piping up each time I logged on. Now I find that his name is the most used in Google searches that find this blog. So who is Kevin Hoeffer? And why do so many people (2,500,000 according to Google) what to know too?

I have no clue who this person is apart from the fact that he is an American. Maybe that isn't so, though? Some think he's dead, a make-believe person, or just a scam merchant. The internet has an amazing ability to advise, teach, distribute information, etc. But it also is a playground for human piranahs!

Kevin eventually decided to leave me alone. But I got the same kind of maddening question enter my head as those dumb cowboys who watched as the Lone Ranger and Tonto rode out of town.

"Who exactly is Kevin Hoeffer?"

Key to Anglican distress

The Revision Committee of the Church of England (overseeing the introduction of women bishops) has just given a snub to traditionalists by not giving any safeguards to protect their beliefs. Maybe this was a change of mind due to the Pope's recent intervention in the matter. It pleases the zealots of the winner-takes-all variety. They want a church without compromise to their heady mixture of secular notions and equality measures. One such person at the forefront of this bandwagon with bullbars on it is Christina Rees. She is a long-time proponent of browbeating her opponents into eventual submission. A lot of what she says is tempered with un-Christian sentiment and a desire to promote wordly ideas over the sacred.

She is chair of a group called Women and the Church and she says that the plans show the Church is committed to equal treatment. "This is wonderful news. It's a major breakthrough as it expresses the view that men and women are equal in the sight of God. I'm glad that we have not ended up with a political compromise and the committee has instead ceded to the will of the people." The implied barb is that those who do not agree with her do not see that men and women are equal in the sight of God. Of course, that is baloney, but her insidious detractions hold sway in the prevailing world. What is lost on her is that orthodox Christianity has never understood that men and women are "equal" in this world. They have complementary states of being for living out God's purpose. One without the other diminishes humanity. However, a crude equalisation of human beings is something traditional Christians cannot accept as being part of the Catholic Faith.

Many Anglican catholics are viewed at best as a mildly eccentric group and at worst as a unsavoury cuckoo in a very precise and politically correct nest. In my own family, my catholic beliefs within Anglicanism are seen as difficult to comprehend. Most prefer a religious adherence that never questions, never sets boundaries, but has the glow of a feelgood factor. Low on the doctrine, high on the octane. And please believe me when I say I don't mean this in a nasty way. They have said as much themselves.

Robert Key is a Conservative MP. In matters of religion, though, he is anything but conservative. More like a radical with a rapier. He is a man with little sympathy for pain of the consciences of dedicated priests. He wants no truck with safeguards or episcopal oversight. It's a love it or lump it arrangement. When this measure gets to the House of Commons, some odd alliances will come to the fore. Key has no desire for compromise or compassion. Pity!

With the Pope's provision for an Anglican enclave in the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Anglicans are caught between going or staying. If we go, we may find the journey longer than we thought. If one reads Damian Thompson's blog or Ruth Gledhill's it is full of Catholics (RC's that is) deriding Anglican orders, verbally abusing the concept of "Anglo-Catholics" (they put the inverted commas round anything catholic to highlight differences). There are those, like Damian, who see this new Anglican Rite as a great thing. If we stay, we may get our PEV's removed and a female prelate demanding the legal right to officiate at a service. This happened in the USA when women bishops, Jane Dixon in particular, tried to enter churches where they were not accepted as sacramentally valid.

The answer to the distress is really simple. Anglicanism has always been a via media. Now it's turning into via one way. I'm not about to say women cannot be bishops if that's their belief. The position currently is that we have impaired communion. Anglicans are either in or out of communion with each other. Some have left the Anglican Communion altogether. It is far better to be together with mutual respect than not.

I suspect many will stay. If we get to the stage where a woman bishop is determined to enter a church formerly under the oversight of a PEV, then life will be hard. Maybe she might call the police in. Who knows? We've been here before when priests were put in jail for contravening a law that impinged on catholic practices and belief. It may happen again. But not if faith, hope and charity have a deciding part in future developments.

Gay days in the African bush

"There will come a time when they who kill you think they do God's Will". Sometimes this is killing the heart, sometimes its killing the body. It never results in killing the soul. How we lead our lives is complex indeed. The traditional Christian teaching on matters sexual is that sexual activity takes place within the Sacrament of Matrimony. The complementary state is Celibacy. These two are the ways of being for Christians. However, this is the goal. It is certainly not the right of Christians to impose it on others should they wish to live by other standards or norms.

In Uganda there is proposed legislation which would introduce the death penalty for certain consensual homosexual acts. In itself it is bad enough. This is more than just two wrongs not making a right. It is a devilish attitude of moral superiority. I doubt if any of the legislators in Uganda have the capability to stand in downtown Kampala regailing the crowds with their saintly histories.

One can be against the concept of a homosexual lifestyle as being part of the Christian Faith, but the Christian Faith is surely against substituting God's Judgement for the transient moral judgements of those who cannot say they are without sin. The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement says that “A deafening silence comes from the Anglican Church in Britain towards the proposed draconian private members Bill currently before the Ugandan Parliament regarding homosexuality”. That shouldn't surprise them. Deafening silences are ways to let the matter rest through sheer boredom. The same could be said of several other issues facing the C of E.

"Let all grow until the harvest". The trouble is too many people want to do unnecessary weeding beforehand.

Condoleezza Rice for President of the European Union!

Sometimes politicians get a fan base ranging from the young turks in a party to the virtually senile who dote on the every move that the politician makes.

The Democracy Forum has thrown up an interesting thread. "Condoleezza Rice for President of the European Union!". It's still a bit one sided in her favour. But why not, or someone else who is not European. There are some in the USA who have publicly expressed the opinion that Tony Blair would make a jolly good president. We've had kings and queens from other countries. In fact, about ten of them!

So I look to see how the Draft Condi movement gets along. Seems Angela Merkel has a touchy-feely relationship with her from those YouTube offerings. Who knows? Stranger things have happened. However if we do get to know, it won't be from Katie Couric's probing questions!

Thatcher the cat passes away!

John Major had trouble with the Downing Street cat Humphrey in those last episodes of Spitting Image. The cat had a fairly low opinion of the prime minister's abilities as he struggled to keep his cabinet in place. Now it appears that Margaret Thatcher's namesake, a beloved cat belonging to the Canadian transport minister John Baird, has popped its paws and gone to cat heaven. Lady T is still around.

The internet grapevine can move faster than a cat chasing a mouse but without the same purpose sometimes. Canada's transport minister was bereft by the demise of his cat so he sent a text message reading, "Thatcher has died". Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was soon informed that 84-year-old former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had passed away.

This is not the first time famous people have been deemed dead before their time. Mark Twain famously wrote "The report of my death was an exaggeration". Indeed! I well remember the late Sandy Powell, who was reintroduced to the general public after a period away from the limelight. He'd come onto the stage and say, "I know what you're thinking! You're thinking 'I thought he was dead!' " and proceed with a rusty routine. Maybe Margaret Thatcher could say something similar at future events.

Sarah Palin's comeback experience on Oprah's show

Matthew Continetti is the associate editor of The Weekly Standard and the author of "The Persecution of Sarah Palin which is out this week. He thinks Sarah Palin is at the start of a rehabilitation. I never thought she was that poorly, but hey what do I know. There are some who seriously think that Palin will be serving up moose burgers in the White House in 2013. Mr.Continetti is one of them.

He says -

"Ms. Palin has two problems. The first is that she's become one of the most polarizing figures in the country. The second is that voters continue to worry about her qualifications for the presidency, a concern that her abrupt resignation from office last July intensified.

Lucky for her, both problems are solvable. Since Ms. Palin appeared on the national stage, the left has unfairly demonized her. Blockbuster interviews and book tours will humanize her.
More important than these public appearances is Ms. Palin's message. She needs to adopt a market-friendly populist agenda to strengthen her policy credentials and make her seem less partisan to independent voters. A bipartisan, center-right approach should come easily to her. That's how she won her race for governor in 2006."

He is backing her, if rather cautiously, by suggesting she adopts the kind of campaign that did for Reagan against Carter. It could work. Somehow, though, I feel the American public will be looking around for a classier act and she will have a tough time getting the GOP nomination, assuming she wants it.

Her rehabilitation make go forward with Oprah's help or it may go several paces back. Pity I won't be able to see it!

The Oprah Winfrey Show - A World Exclusive: Oprah and Sarah Palin Meet for the First Time

Police in Preston neighbourhood carol watch

As if the state of British society wasn't bad enough, with people being scared witless by the idea that a terrorist, paedophile, bandit or burglar is about to pounce. We live with the constant reminder that things are not safe or not suitable or whatever. Now Lancashire Police have decided to issue postcards for people to put in their doors and windows warning festive revellers not to bother calling because doors won't be opened to them. The idea is that some people are alarmed by seeing other people after dark. Forget the joy of Christmas!

This just reinforces the idea that society does not exist on any meaningful level. It's more sad than shameful.

Government's "homophobic law" is no gay thing

Going out at night seeking to cause physical harm to someone just because you have a hatred of their sexual behaviour is something that should rightly be outlawed in a civilised society. Shouting abuse at someone is equally disgusting as is encouraging others to cause injury or mayhem. Public order should have public decency as it core.

However, discussing the issue of sexuality or professing a distate or disagreement with the behaviour or lifestyle of homosexuals should not be a criminal matter. Free speech allows for vigorous debate so long as that is all it is. My concern with the government's Coroners and Justice Bill is that it seems to outlaw criticism of lifestyle and allows the police to be initial arbiters of the content of debate.

Currently, the police are happy to arrest people who have written or said things stridently, either for publication or in a public place. It is apparent that the driving force of New Labour in this respect is to make the public understand that homosexuality and heterosexuality are of an equal nature and therefore must be held by everyone as such. This approach is a kind of thought police 1984 reasoning. It will backfire on them.

I am totally opposed to snide remarks about anyone. It hardly merits reasoned agreement. Being distasteful and hurtful is always wrong. But to suggest that a sincerely held view must be witheld from discussion because it is likely to offend is to deny free speech and to enter the realms of the censored society.

Death Row gets another death to add to the others!

John Allen Muhammad was put to death yesterday. He was the so-called Washington Sniper. Apparently he was a schizophrenic. Plus he was paranoid and psychotic and delusional. Just the type to bung in the Death Chamber. There's a lot of death around at the moment. By that, I mean not by natural causes. There was the Brit gunned down by a trigger-happy guy in Amarillo. Then the Muslim soldier went on the rampage killing as he went in the army compound. Death in Afghanistan, now too much for many to bear. And a young footballer in Germany sends himself to the next world by getting hit by a train.

Death all around us. Many Americans think death is something of a punishment. In that they've got some kind of religious schizophrenia. The victims of Muhammad's gunfire were encouraged to visit the execution. All grist to the vengeance mill, quite out of keeping with Dominical Teaching. "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. I will repay". Not a message that the Correctional Centers like put to them. One visitor welcomed the death. "He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," she told the Associated Press news agency. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?" No reason, but is that going to be repeated at the Last Judgement?

This execution will do not one jot of difference to the safety and wellbeing of Americans and visitors to the United States. I take it as read that if I set foot in the country I may not leave as I arrived. The answer to the justice question is to keep schizophrenics off the streets and to curtail their ability to buy guns. One wonders where the madmen actually are. My guess is that quite a few are sitting in Washington cleaning out their porkbarrels!

Bad managers beset the British workers

I'm no commie, but as an uncle of mine once said, there are times when you want to.... Now it has been revealed that almost half of UK workers say they have left a job because of bad management. Half of them? That's a hell of a lot of disgruntled people who feel they have been held captive by foolish people who have no rhyme or reason to be in a management position other than that their face fits. The findings come in a survey from the Chartered Institute of Management, which says it is launching a campaign to improve standards among bosses.

I've had occasion to listen to the woes of redundant junior managers, bank workers desperate to leave and tales of incompetent bosses. Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good energetic bosses doing their utmost for their businesses. But they are let down by the ones who are incapable of or unwilling to change.

The survey also found unhappiness among managers themselves. Sixty-eight per cent said they had fallen into the role by chance. Chance would not be a fine thing, I think, in these cases. Politicians talk of merit and opportunity and self-reliance. Seems we are getting more of buggins' turn and deadmen's shoes!

I thought the Terry-Thomas boss types had gone. Perhaps they have, but they've been replaced by a bunch that has little in the way of respect given and of whom sniggering into a cupped hand is more than they deserve.

It's a mad world out there!

I've just been having a wander around the political websites and have been looking at a BNP one. It carries Google Ads. Quite incongruously one popped up and caught my eye.

Because You are an Indian
You can get a loan for a home in India. While you are in UK. Enquire

Well, I never!

Parliamentary interns exploited?

The House of Commons has been doing everything on the cheap it seems. By that I mean it seems to want to get the maximum benefit out of a very small purse. We must be the only country in the world where foreigners get to have a good laugh at our expense. That's the British way - make do and mend. Currently, we're trying to mend a ridiculous system of expenses. Now another problem may have arisen.

MPs have been used to having young graduates work in their offices for nothing. Or virtually nothing. Pete Barden spent the past summer working as an intern for a Liberal Democrat MP, dealing with duties ranging from opening mail to campaign work and engaging with constituents. He says, "I was exploited but everyone's exploited. It's the way it works." Not all interns agree with the exploitation bit, but nearly all think they should be treated better financially. Maybe travel expenses would be a start, they think.

This is just another element of the crazy way MPs are scared of allowing a proper payments system to be implemented. It is also a real problem in that these interns are mainly apprenticed MPs, hoping to move onto the green benches in a dead men's shoes routine. We need proper researchers on proper pay.

I am still convinced that the next general election will be about the way MPs are paid as much as it is about their approach to the monumental debt crisis. Most voters will be so enraged come next June that votes will go all over the place. What was once a two-horse race will now be a political version of the Grand National. Pity there won't be a political version of Mrs Topham to oversee events!

Sir Jock stirs it up over Afghan mission

Only this last week, the hapless Gordon Brown was telling us all about that nasty Alky Ada he keeps on about. Well, today Sir Jock Stirrup rode into town to appear on the Andrew Marr Show.
He said, amongst other things, this -

"It is true that al-Queda are not operating in Afghanistan at the moment. It is also true that over the last couple of years in particular the al-Queda core has suffered significant damage".

Not in Afghanistan? Where are they, then? Oh, don't tell me, it's Pakistan. But we aren't going after them there are we? Not a chance! We don't want uprisings in Britain do we?

What a shower! Brown waffles on about his wretched Afghan campaign. He has about as much clue as those hopeless First World War generals. As with most British people, I have a relative laid to rest in that battlefield. Have we learnt anything?

Safe in our beds with Pauline?

Shadow security minister Baroness Pauline Neville Jones was on the Today Programme this morning. She was with the chairman of the Royal United Services Institute, Sir Paul Lever. I got the impression that Pauline was a tad muddled up. She got all muddled over the idea that Islamic terrorists are "home grown". It seem to her like an awkward question. Her claim to be in Afghanistan is apparently based on terrorist training camps. But Gordon Brown is claiming it is about democracy as much as training up the Afghan police. Nobody in political circles has clarity.

Personally I'd feel a lot safer with Sir Paul Lever in charge, but then he's not where Pauline is. Pity!

School racist hunters go OTT in barmy episode

You have to hand it to the politically correct. In bucketloads! They are so keen to root out what they consider racist behaviour that they associate harmless remarks with the vilist Nazi propaganda. Teachers have signed up to a morons charter, designed by this ludicrous government, to jot down every word, phrase or remark with a scintilla of assumed racist content.

So it was that a six-year-old girl has been branded a racist for telling a black girl she had chocolate on her face. Innocence turned into a gestapo-style report. When the girl's mother went to collect her she was told the incident was "racist" and that a complaint had been logged.

The school claims it was blown out of all proportion. I hardly think so. Not if it was put in the book! These people are supposed to be running a Church school. They'd be far better off binning this ridiculous book and just taking children's remarks as they come.

All that the school has done is unnecessarily causing the girl to feel guilty about an innocent remark just because they put their political correctness in front of common sense. They do themselves no merit and they are a cancer in society that needs eradicating.

Gordon Brown's Afghan egg displeases curate's congregation

The curate's egg was good in parts. He was implying that something which is partly good can be ruined by the bad bit.

Right Reverend Host. "I’m afraid you’ve got a bad Egg, Mr. Jones!"
The Curate. "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellect!"

We could say the same about Gordon Brown's speech this morning. He is still trying to persuade us that his nemesis, Alky Ada, is about to strike out in London on a savage rampage all due to the problems starting in Kabul. Cut off the Afghan terrorists and Britain is a safer place. It's all poppycock. He ruins a basically good premise by including untruths and speculation. Al Queda are in Pakistan giving grief to that benighted country. If they ever were in Afghanistan they have long since fled. Terrorists are not insurgents. Fine point, maybe, but the aims are different. It is the Taliban, a group of warlords and displaced poppy farmers, that are the anti-social scourge of the Afghans. We don't wish to seize the moment in Pakistan to go after Al Queda. Probably because we would get an uprising in Britain as well as in Pakistan.

So the Afghan war is about telling us we are fighting terrorism to make Britain a safer place. The Taliban are enemies of the democratising process of Afghan society. We are telling Karzai about corruption. Gordon Brown lectures him on good governance, suggesting that a government must not stand back and let corruption take place. Excuse me! What has Brown beeen doing in Westminster? Trying to hide MPs expenses, his own cleaning bills and Sky Sports subscriptions, by invoking parliamentary privilege, stifling freedom of information and redacting documents. Nice one.

The country is not behind this war because the premise is false. We are behind our soldiers and each and every one of them has put themselves where virtually none of us would go. But the government needs to do far better than come up with this travesty of the truth.

There are four countries in the world that the "West" has difficulty with. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Not one is a fully functioning democracy. All have despots waiting to take over. All have simmering grievances. The peoples of each country want peace and prosperity. They don't care if it is with democracy or with a benign overlord. They just want peace. In that, Gordon Brown is right to say that the first duty of a government is the security of the nation. But he negates his good reasons by including fancifully bad ones.

Until the truth is out, this war will go nowhere. Until our objectives are crystal clear, we have only the curate's opinion to guide us.

Democracy? Did we ever have it?

I'm of the opinion that democracy doesn't really exist in the so-called "western countries". Free speech is a far greater asset and one which the authorities allow and support. But they are woefully scared of true democracy. Witness the antics of the EU hierachy, all hellbent on getting YES votes in referendums, the very polls they fought hard deny most voters in the 27 countries. Witness also the ridiculous way in which a candidate in the USA has to get vast numbers of voters to support his/her candidature just to get ballot access. All manner of hoops and hurdles are placed in the way of parties which dissent from the agreed two-party arrangement.

I think it was summed up for me when something remarkable happened in East Devon in 1989. Stuart Hughes, now a Conservative councillor, although a maverick one, was a candidate for his Raving Loony Green Giant Party. Having fallen out with David Sutch of the OMLRP, he ploughed his own furrow. He stood against a matriarchal Conservative and beat her. She waspishly queried the result, saying "What have they done?" and then rounded on Mr.Hughes by stating he better not lark around in the council chamber. She took defeat very badly. Many have done so in the past and no doubt will in the future.

Democracy is not that welcome in the corridors of power. Free speech doesn't bother them. I'm entitled, allowed, or whatever, to sound off on this blog. That's not going to twitch an eyebrow. But if I mobilised an army of voters to unseat MPs, then I would be in trouble. It's a form of poking my nose in where I'm not welcome.

Daniel Hannan has a good line in his blog entry yesterday. He says -

"It’s not chiefly about Europe – it’s about democracy. Regular readers will know that I have always seen the repatriation of jurisdiction from Brussels as a means to an end. Having got the powers back, we should pass them down to local authorities or, better yet, to individual citizens. I want decisions to be decentralised, diffused, democratised. I want open primaries, popular initiative procedures, elected sheriffs, self-financing councils, an end to quangos, recall mechanisms and, yes, referendums – lots and lots of referendums."

An end to quangos? I seem to remember a lot of us campaigned hard for that when Margaret Thatcher came to office. Democracy is yet to be accomplished in full, but it will be achieved because of the free speech of people like Daniel Hannan.

Bouncing Czech puts Cameron's current account in the red!

So the Czech's have signed, ratified and sealed the Lisbon Treaty. Democracy is the poorer, weasel wordsmiths are having a field day. David Cameron and the higher echelons of the Conservative Party are u-turning as I type. All manner of reasons as to why a referendum is now out of the question. Cast iron guarantees are being melting down tonight. EU alchemy is trying to make gold ingots out of this cast iron. Well, let them! They know no better.

My fear is that come the general election the two largest parties in Britain will be defending political records of scheming, subterfuge, u-turning, deception, and a wilful acceptance of the greed of mates and pals and the dismissal of those MPs of lesser worth and political value.

David Cameron's current account has suddenly gone into the red. UKIP must be sensing a real victory in that those who thought Cameron would deliver now find a man whose word is as worthless as the fictitious money transactions that the conniving banks were doing when they turned toxic sub-prime loans into the grandchild of the South Sea Bubble. Many Conservative supporters will drift away, others will run enthusiastically into the UKIP fold.

Politics needs a new start. No good lecturing the likes of Afghanistan's President Kazi, when the EU variety has far more corrosive arrangements for denying true democracy.

I sincerely hope David Cameron knows what has befallen him. Gordon Brown barged into Tony Blair's No 10 bunker to declare that he didn't believe a ****ing the then PM said. The people may well say the same next year about Cameron's referendum guarantee melting like a chocolate soldier in the desert.