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.

Ahmadinejad is a Jewish cloth weaver!

Well, well, old Dinner Jacket isn't what he claims to be. He portrays himself (other than as a scruffy tax driver) as the leader of the Iranian people, safeguarder of Islamic truth and comfort. However, all is not as it seems. According to the Daily Telegraph, his real name is Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver. Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, says it reveals a lot. "This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him. Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith." In Dinner Jacket's case this is done with liberal doses of fantasy and fiction.

No wonder the electorate felt he stole the election. Not because he's Jewish, but because he's an inveterate liar. Porky pies comes to mind, but they're not kosher or halal. But I'll stick with porky pies as the guy is good at lies.

Gordon Brown, Humpty Dumpty and Alky Ada

Truth is something that is an elusive thing to many human beings. Some are totally devoid of ever speaking it. Most have at one time or another twisted it or been somewhat economical with it. Pontius Pilate was at a loss to understand what it actually was. He peversely asked aloud "What is truth?".

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. He told Alice that he made words mean what he wanted them to mean. This, in essence, allowed him to be either a truthful person if he felt like it or one who felt untruths were perfectly acceptable. Lewis Carrol was very wise to make Humpty Dumpty a large eggshell. Truth is sometimes as fragile as the dry brittle shell of an egg.

I don't know if Gordon Brown has read the stories of Alice, but he surely must realise that all this blatant dissembling each week at the dispatch box does us no good at all. We are not fools. We know that the army does not have enough helicopters. So why dress it up as if it has? What is the cost of maintaining an army at war? We have been constantly given false information, or half-truths, about banks, the economy, the police, the schools, you name it, the answers are always given with iffy content.

Let the nonsense stop. If we need to cut our cloth to find the cash for more helicopters, tell us! Let's get real and stop the fudging. Who are we fighting and for what reason? The Taliban are not Al Queda. Are we trying to stop the drugs trade, or create a democratic state, or what?

Far from being a children's tale, this is a lesson in semantics for us all.

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.
"Of course you don't – till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master – that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper, some of them – particularly verbs, they're the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"

Gordon Brown must get off his fencesitter's seat and decide if he is man enough to lead this country rather than to deceive it.

"Not me Gov!" Brown tells reporter

Gordon Brown is taking two prizes at once. Not that the prize giving is very worthy. His latest wheeze is to tell all reporters and commentators that "everyone knows that this crisis started in America and..." and he goes on to explain how well he and his Chancellor have done in clearing up the mess. That is porky number one. He tries to come across as a genial janitor who has to contend with sorting out the rubbish left after others have been enjoying themselves recklessly.

I mentioned Brown's body language in a previous post. His new habit of engratiating himself with a two-second grin in the middle of a serious discussion fools nobody, I think. We all know he was Chancellor for ten years. Unless he stuffed cotton wool in his ears, he must have heard noises about the level of indebtedness, the peculiar mortgage models being peddled by the likes of Northern Rock, and the obscenely large bonuses paid to rough and ready gamblers. If he didn't, then we must assume he was utterly derelict in his duty to enquire and to lead with honour.

The second prize is for political amnesia. What possessed him to bring back the odious Mandelson beggars belief. Mandelson is a creep with a very dubious disposition. He appears to be a man who can charm and cajole at the same time. Brown was probably convincing himself that Mandelson would save him from doom. As it happens, Mandelson is up to his neck in controversy (nothing new there!) and Brown is ploughing his own furrow through the financial field. So it all begs the question, "Why bring him back anyway?".

Gordon Brown should have have come clean from the start. His FSA, Bank of England and Treasury tripartite arrangement failed to keep abreast of things. By suggesting that he has solved problems as they happened is fanciful. We have a recession on our hands. All he has got now is a loose cannon and a very bad scriptwriter. He must get rid of the loose cannon and replace his "everyone knows" routine with his own words based on...............

HONESTY AND TRUTH!!