Thin end of the political wedge

A judge has seen fit to throw out the BNP's new constitutional rules. This is on the basis that they are still discriminatory on the basis of race. Maybe they are, but what these liberal minded baters, who are trying to use legal methods to implode or explode the BNP, forget is that such tactics backfire. For much of the past 25 years they have had a prissy policy of holding to a "no platform" approach. They hoped the BNP would drift away. However, as many of these libertine types are responsible for passing bad laws, defending immorality or just brushing unpleasant facts under the carpet, there is plenty of stuff for the BNP to say "I told you so".

Today we have had the conclusion of a review on whether teachers can be members of the BNP. The teaching unions are up in arms over the decision which says they can. Ms Chris Keates, of the NASUWT, is in a lather. She says, "The idea that a person who signs up to membership of the BNP can simply leave these beliefs at the school gate and behave as a 'professional' when they walk into school is risible." That is taking the typical leftie approach. What is definitely risible is that it seems OK to be a left-wing union activist but not be a member of a legal political party. I am all in favour of making sure political parties obey the law but attempting to outlaw personal beliefs, however odious one may find them, smacks of undemocratic actions. Ms Keane just plays into the hands of those in the BNP.

Personal politics have no place in the classroom, BNP or any other party. However, Ms Keates and her chums have infected schools with left-wing propaganda for decades. I know of many members of the Conservative Party, who are teachers, being held as suspect by the likes of Ms Keates. She seems to want a political-cleansing that suits her own propaganda.

I fear that the BNP are going to do well in the general election. They are parading themselves as white knights (literally) in the face of political ineptitude, bonus bagging bankers and corruption in high places. It shouldn't be that way. If the politicians had not seen fit to feather their own nests and the New Labour regime had not interfered on almost every level by imposing crazed ideas on social experimentation, we would have no rise in far-right politics.

The likes of Ms Keates are the cause of Nick Griffin's advancement. She needs a long hard look at herself in a mirror!

General Election or General Selection?

The general election is nearly upon us. The British people will have their say in whether the Prime Minister gets the bum's rush or gets the cherry on the cake. Personally I'm hoping for the former. However, there may be a nasty sting in the tail, or will it be tale?

The simple truth is that Britain is a democracy in a muddle. Most people think they are voting for a party to be in government. This will be enhanced even more by the three leaders going live with their "presidential" debates. But Britain doesn't have a proportional representation system. It has a simply majority system based on individual constituencies. And currently there is a multi-party scramble to elect MPs. The British people have a dog's dinner of a system, inherited from the grand old days when people were either little Liberals or little Conservatives of Gilbert and Sullivan style. When there were two parties it all made sense. Now its not quite senseless, more a bit sensitive when adding up the democratic benefits.

There is talk of a hung parliament. There are mutterings from the right that David Cameron may just not get enough seats. There are mutterings from the left that Gordon Brown will have to do a deal with the LibDems. But it's also said that Nick Clegg doesn't want to be with Brown, he'd prefer Cameron. The trouble here is that Clegg's backbenchers won't sit with the Tories. It has all the makings of 1974, except that there are now far more parties vying for votes, so we could end up having elections just giving us hung parliaments.

In my own case of Solihull, I am completely divorced from the Labour Government and its antics. No Labour candidate will ever win here. This is a battle between the LibDems and the Tories. Whoever wins will not have any effect on the Labour benches in the House of Commons. And that is the point. We elect MPs in individual consituencies. Some could win by getting less that a third of the vote. So a skewed result at Westminster is perfectly possible. In technical terms the pundits call this a hung parliament. Opinion polls mean very little, except that they provide an income to pollsters.

Gordon Brown could be defeated in the popular vote but get enough MPs for him to do a deal. How far will he stretch his honour? It is up to the Prime Minister to continue or to resign. Mere voting does not necessarily push him out of office. It is perfectly possible for him to convince the Queen that he can indeed "command a majority of his peers". Those MPs may well be a rag-bag of assorted parties or form the basis of a nod-and-a-wink agreement, but Gordon Brown's political arithmatic is not connected at all to the adult suffrage of the people.

So in the scheme of things winners can be losers and losers can get a second chance. General elections may have a tortoise and hare aspect, but this particular election could well ressemble a farmload of animals suddenly let loose. Who ends up where is impossible to guess!

Frau Merkel's Greek island real deal

The Greeks are in difficulty. Not only are they up to their eyeballs in debt, but they are getting further into the clutches of the EU mandarins. Nigel Farage was not wrong when he said Greece had become a subservient statelet of the European Union. Now the German Chancellor has come up with a good wheeze on the financial front. She's had a look at the map and spotted that there are plenty of Greek islands so why not flog off a few for extra cash?

Frau Merkel reckons the Greeks should sell uninhabited islands of which there are 227. I'm not sure if such real estate is worth much. Who would buy such an island? Richard Branson? The latest lottery winner? Or maybe Lord Ashcroft, to keep up his non-dom credentials? Definitely no doms on those islands.

Personally I think this crazy idea just about sums up the arrogant thinking of the EU machine politicians. It's gone past the absurd into the realms of fantasy. If implemented this could set a very bad precedence, leading to all manner of dodgy deals. Gordon Brown could be flogging off our islands including the inhabited ones. It's got an Ealing comedy flavour about it. Passport to Pimlico? Frau Merkel wants to see your visa!

Fake pilots and child air traffic controllers

Much money, time and effort is put into deterring would-be suicide bombers from getting onto planes but little is done to check up on ordinary workers who have regular access to sensitive arears in airports. Probably because money comes first in the minds of those in the aviation business, not a lot is done to maintain regular checks on the workers. By all means strip the passengers bare, lead them through electronic devices that have bells and whistles on them, and charge them extra for such delights, but don't get too rigorous with the staff. One check and they're in.

A Swedish pilot has been arrested at Amsterdam Airport as he was about to fly a jet with 101 passengers to Turkey. He has been without a valid licence to fly for 13 years, but that hasn't stopped him. The pilot said he had been flying for European airlines and had logged 10,000 hours. Dutch police said he once had a licence to fly small planes but it had expired and it did not allow him to fly large jets. Good detective work there. It just goes to show how many people can be so convincing. Then there is the child who was apparently allowed to direct planes at New York's JFK airport. Admittedly he had his father, a qualified air traffic controller, giving him a lead, and the authorities are taking a dim view, not unnaturally. One wonders what the other staff in the control tower were doing and thinking. It didn't faze the pilots either.

There are many occasions where people have decided to pose as pilots, doctors, teachers, nurses, etc. For many there appears to be an uncontrollable desire to pose as somebody else. Perhaps the authorities should have an amnesty and see how many fakers come out of disguise. My guess is there are far more than we realise.

Tabloid press incite the masses

Well, I wasn't far wrong. The tabloid press is gathering pace in inciting the population to get the hot oil vats out. The Daily Mail is in pure pompous mode. They've stoked the fires up. 471 comments on this article. A lot of bile and hatred. I can understand why, but, boy, aren't people easy to get steamed up. A lot of ingenious ways for normal people to think of inflicting more horror.

Tabloid journalists love a good pander to the lowest common denominator!

Killer Venables 'where he belongs', says Bulger mother

John Venables was a ten-year old murderer of a two-year-old little boy. The outrage caused public anger. As with all cases like this it left more scars on the human pysche and people began to vent all manner of diatribes and platitudes in equal measure. Such an event always triggers revenge and feelings of retribution it seems. Sometimes these feelings are directed mindlessly at those who are charged with dealing with the consequences.

I'm not surprised there are still children beating up children in Britain today. Unless a child is mentally ill, all behaviour is from nurturing the nature of the child. I'm sure I could have turned my children into knife-wielding little thugs if I'd been of a mind. In turn, I could have been the evil result of debauched parents. Thankfully neither has happened or will ever happen. But my honest opinion of the human condition is that hatred of others comes about far more easily than love and understanding. It seems that most news items on television pander to the disasters and brutality in the world, rather than the triumph over adversity or the love of one to another.

So when it comes to dealing with a 27-year old man who was a ten-year old child killer what do we do? The vast majority appear to want everything from hot oil vats to a return to hanging (plus drawing and quartering for good measure!). Any half-trained television reporter could stir up such feelings. Seeing as Britain does not have cruel and inhumane punishment as an option, the authorities have deemed it fit to give John Venables a new identity. Since his release he has been out on licence. Now he is back inside for breaching his parole terms.

The questions I have been pondering are these? As he has a new name, is he currently in prison for a parole violation regarding a crime his former self committed or is he just there because he is a parole violator? Surely the fellow inmates will get round to asking what he was inside for. Does he have a made up crime to subsitute for the original one? We are not going to be told what condition he violated. According to a legal expert on BBC News he could just be in prison because he became mentally unstable. This could be one reason. Which suggests prison is not an ideal place for a mentally unstable man trying to remember who he is.

Then I have issue with this new identity business. What if he had keep to the straight and narrow according to the parole rules and had got married and started a family? Does his wife have a right to know that the man she is with is not who she thinks he is? And it could go throughout society. Could he rise to be a successful businessman or is keeping a low profile part of the deal? The trouble with secrecy is that secrets have a way of coming out. The authorities want to keep his identity secret because they fear the actions of the wider society. So a person like John Venables goes through the rest of his life like a lone rat in a sewer. Such a creature needs all the mental agility to plot a course to avoid being deluged with excrement and foul concoctions.

The real conundrum here is that no-one really knows what to do for the best, because the life Venables is leading is one that would cause anyone to go barmy. Fifteen odd years of living a lie must be a strain, particularly if those around you are more than likely to be distant and aloof.

How we treat the likes of John Venables does matter. Society has not changing one iota over the centuries. We like to think we are somehow 21st century superior, but the revenge, petty jealousies, selfishness and greed continue. Looting eathquake hit shops in Chile, excuses trotted out at the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, suicide bombings, the list goes on. Getting steamed up about John Venables just helps to keep the kettle boiling.

I have no easy answers. But I do know that shouting epithets and venting hatred from an armchair says more about the venter than those trying to makes things better.

Are you Nick Griffin?

A most unfortunate episode happened at the Conservative conference. A councillor was stopped by a policewoman who wanted to be sure he was not Nick Griffin. The poor man apparently gets this a lot. Being mistaken for the BNP leader, that is. Now two things strike me as being odd about this story that I found in the Guardian. Firstly Lynden Stowe, who is the leader of Cotswold district council, was "made to produce identification and explain that any similarity between him and Griffin was merely superficial" before being allowed in. So if one looks like a severely politically-incorrect politician, is it the job of the British police to inquire whether thoughts go with the looks? Secondly, is Nick Griffin being tailed by the police during this election? If he is, I'd suggest the police keep well out of it. Let the electorate decide. We don't wan't prissy chief constables telling us who is or is not worthy of voting for. Any unnecessary involvement in the democratic process is bound to backfire. Illegal thuggery is one thing. Trying to prevent democratic discourse is quite another.

I was watching a video of the late great Arthur Worsley with his Charley Brown character. I've just had visions of Mr. Stowe being questioned by the dummy. "Go on!!!! ARE YOU NICK GRIFFIN??? Look at me when I'm talking - ARE YOU NICK GRIFFIN???" Well, it's one way to get an answer.